Zoraptor

Yeah, they're definitely the same crowd and taken at similar times since you can see the people in white shirts in both pictures despite the second being taken on whatever the digital equivalent of a pinhole camera is. Best interpretation for CNN is that the picture was the best one they had and was meant to be illustrative rather than literal. Rule with such pictures is the same as with 'unnamed sources', if you don't have corroboration from something else you're right to be deeply sceptical because you can stage either very easily. Happens all the time with sporting events that you know didn't sell out but have apparently full crowds, they've just made sure the people who have turned up sit on one side and the other side has all the fixed cameras.

I'm very much meh on the announcement of console versions personally- no objection to them in principle but it's not a great look for a project that was pitched as PC and which has had issues during development. Problem is that we simply don't know if any of those development issues were caused by it actually being a multi platform title long term (even since inception) or were maybe caused by a decision to go console part way through development, or if the development issues were completely separate. If either of the former were true then there's no way that KS funds weren't used for console development at one point even if they later got it covered by the publishing deal. I tend towards it being as stated by InXile, with the addition that the publisher deal probably helps with some extra funding due to the extended development, but it doesn't really look good to anyone who is sceptical of them.

Eh, he definitely had a nationalist agenda and a lot of bad stuff went down during the wars. Problem was always that other people's (primarily Tudjman's, but to an extent Izetbegovic) nationalist agendas and bad stuff were conveniently ignored- to actively supported- by those who condemned Milosevic. In any case, after the Op Storm verdict the ICTY had lost what few scraps of credibility or impartiality it ever may have had. 250k Serbs spontaneously left Croatia during it but that was complete coincidence, honest guv! Kosovo being the 2nd largest source of refugees in Europe- just behind Syria- is simply the stinky brown dollop crowning the utter craptacular mess the international community has made of Yugoslavia.

At least they're not yet recycling actors within the same show (though the police captain on Flash comes close, since he was on Arrow beforehand and they're shared universe). When they shot Hercules and Xena here they'd regularly use the same actors for different characters even within the same season, though they'd often make a nudge-nudge joke/ reference about doing so. And occasionally jokes about roles they'd had on NZ TV that no one else could possibly get like marrying Gina and Leonard to each other. Vancouver is a bit more extreme though, there must be a dozen shows shooting there. If that happened here we'd have literal queues for filming locations.

The dead female russian crew member of the Mi8 was fake by the way. It's a stock/ demo photo/ id.

We've got some great forums here, haven't we people? Believe me, I know forums, and this one is great. Something something build a wall around the forums something something make Bioware EA pay for it. I wonder what happens to the NWN2 forums, would be ironic if they ended up here after being off site so long.

Trump's music should clearly be 'Voodoo Child' instead of 'Real American' as a sign that when elected he'll institute a new World order. The way things have gone with this campaign I was half expecting the joke suggestion of a Trump/ Bollea (Hogan) candidacy to actually happen. More insanity: we now have the once in a lifetime experience of George Soros and The Koch Brothers supporting the same candidate, who supposedly wants to get big money donations out of politics...

I mean, when the games that aren't immediately taken are just the ones that nobody around here has ever heard of, how can you blame us? The ones people have heard of (...and have heard of them for not being terrible) usually get taken in like less than 24 hours...I don't want to take a game I don't think I'm ever gonna at least try, so I don't. I'm sure others feel the same. Dunno, I would have thought the Star Wars games, the Sega pack and Tropico 5 at least would attract someone and fit the bill for being heard of, at very least. Some might even say they're good games. I suspect the problem there is that everyone who wants them already has them, or won't take them due to thinking gabe is the devil and steam his little hell on earth, or runs out of impetus before reaching the bottom of the list. If you want a suggestion for lesser known but good games I'd suggest Quadriga (roman charioteering simulator, here's a very good write up by Tim Stone, the one genuinely great bit of RPS who liked it so much he reviewed it twice) or Ultimate General Gettysburg for a sort of Total War approach to, well, Gettysburg. It's a little rough around the edges still but it's certainly worth free no money down.

The airbrushed 4/5 view Hillary poster is also reminiscent of nazi (specifically SS) propaganda posters too, such as those for the Nordic Legion. Normally I'd say that it's a common propaganda shot but a search for SS propaganda posters uses that particular angle extensively while the equivalent searches for US or British have almost none with the similar angle. Soviet propaganda posters on the other hand also use that angle extensively, though not as extensively. (Specifically the Hillary one made me think of Reinhardt Heydrich who had a penchant for publicity shots that look very similar to it just with things like a swastika as a 'halo' instead of US flag style stripes. Then again, if you can say nothing else positive about nazis at least they had a great PR department that made them look cool)

And if they work for NSA- whose purpose is to subvert others/ protect US communications/ internet etc- then you'd be right to since their technical security is very good, and has to be very good. If on the other hand they work for Hillary Rodham Clinton or the DNC chances are they're grossly incompetent (but not grossly negligent) rather than elite and their security is very very bad to the extent it barely exists for the former case. Technically, Bush withdrew from the ABM rather than outright abrogated it. Whether that has any effect on the legitimacy of a President doing it by fiat rather than via senate I have no idea, but he didn't simply tear the agreement up one day and tell the Russians to suck it. He activated the withdrawal clause, withdrew after its notice period, then told the Russians to suck it.

I've found the sterilisation process to be fine. When the costs of home brewing are less than a fifth of buying in I don't mind spending 10 minutes cleaning when it can usually be done in some dead time anyway. I'm lucky though, I have a laundry/ unused bathroom attached to the kitchen so there's plenty of space plus a nice big shower basin I can stick pretty much everything in and which makes clean up very easy- plus the temperature there is nearly constant all day and whatever the weather. I don't have a cider recipe at the moment, it will be the first time I've made it and it won't be for a few months since I'm southern hemisphere and it's mid winter here. The freezer is currently half full of seasonal apples and pears for doing some small batches/ test runs in probably October. We don't really get much in the way of proper cider apples or pears here so I'm relying on sourish commercial varieties like Granny Smith and Braeburn. I also have a couple of Bramley trees that will hopefully produce enough for both some apple sauce and some cider but that will be even later, probably February.

Yeah, it's not like the US revoked his travel documents or forced down the President of Bolivia's plane thinking he was on it or anything like that. Snowden's in Russia because he literally cannot go anywhere else. Please desist with the falsities and commence with the verities. SNOWDEN = HERO, FACT. (plus he was employed by the NSA and its subcontractors as a sysadmin, he knows plenty enough about security to be an expert. Irrelevant anyway, since you don't need to be an expert to know that the DNC/ Hillary's security was utter crap, by their own story at least two hacking groups were in the DNC server, for a year.) His girlfriend's a prima ballerina while yours needs inflation. So who's the real cuck? Answer: everyone who gets sucked in by Bruce's trolling. But especially those who say he's a troll then reply anyway.

Hillary: I have two heads Politifact: Hillary actually has one head, not the two claimed. One is half of two therefore we rate this statement half true. Hillary: I am a banana Politifact: Humans share 60% of their DNA with a banana. Therefore we rate this statement mostly true. Hillary: I was named after Edmund Hillary Politifact: Hillary was born after Edmund Hillary, so she was indeed named after Edmund Hillary was. We rate this true. Obama's speech was very good, easily the best of the political speeches I've seen at either convention. Albeit I've only watched a handful of them.

Here's where you lose me. It's not losing what he can achieve, it is in fact, the only way he can achieve anything. If they think they can win without changing; the DNC will never change. They will only change if they have absolutely no choice. If Bernie doesn't remove his endorsement, he won't have to worry about losing his influence, because he will have no influence to lose. Everything he has fought for will amount to nothing if he does anything less. Even if the dems lose this time, they'll go: DNC person 1: Hillary was a bad choice, next time we should go with some one more likable. DNC person 2: Should we clean house like the Bernie people want? DNC person 1: Do we HAVE to? DNC person 2: No. It's still possible to win without doing so. DNC person 1: Then no. We just need a more likable candidate. Oh, and we need to make sure more people like Bernie Sanders don't show up again to make a fuss. There are too many people in camp C). The dems NEED them to win an election now or ever again. Not cleaning up their act next election cycle will be a non-option. It is impossible for Dems to win if they don't reform. They will reform in such a scenario; out of necessity if nothing else. What do you think they would do, quietly go extinct? It's all about minimising the DNC1&2 types. If Bernie refuses to endorse/ runs against then that conversation is "(1) It's Bernie's Fault! (2) Yes it is!" and that's it. They have the person to blame, and it isn't them, and he won't be around next time, so no problem and they can run Tim Kaine or whoever the next establishment person is in 2020 with exactly the same power structures because it's all Bernie's fault. If they lose with a Bernie endorsement there will be a lot more questioning as they cannot automatically blame Bernie and have people follow them mindlessly on it. Some will try and blame the Bernie or Busters, but so what- they ignored Bernie and the more rational will know that they would literally never vote Hillary. And that endorsement allows pro Bernie people to run for the positions of power that will make the DNC1&2 types irrelevant or put them out of positions of power. In the end, the best revenge possible is getting rid of the Wasserman Schultz types who have entrenched the corruption, that can happen with an endorsement but without the wagons will circle and pro Bernie people will be labelled as those who cost them the election. The kamikaze approach is a short game one that expends everything Bernie has achieved in a big, showy, burst of flame and glory. And then, in 4 years after blaming Bernie for causing the loss nothing will have changed and they'll pick the next establishment guy or gal. Play the long game, don't throw it away in a fit of pique.

On the emotional level I'd probably agree with you, but I don't think it would achieve anything to do it that way except for make some people feel better about taking an overt stand. To address those two points, while Sanders has a lot of support it is broadly divided into three groups (1) people who are primarily Democrats and will happily vote Hillary despite thinking that Bernie is better (2) mixed Democrats and Independents who will vote for Hillary while holding their nose and (3) primarily Independents who are Never Hillary. Whatever Bernie says all of (1) and most of (2) will vote for Hillary, that is simply the practicalities of the electoral system. Point B is pretty much covered by needing to counter corruption with practical steps rather than just handwaving and rhetoric. If Bernie goes that route too overtly by refusing to endorse or running as an independent he is sacrificing whatever his movement can achieve within the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party does not want to reform itself, it wants to stay with its vested interests- that's why they are vested interests, after all. And while he and many others may wish that isn't the truth, it is. He cannot win, so his choice amounts to taking out Hillary in a political kamikaze attack that would hand the election to Trump or endorsing and preserving his influence for use in the future in projects like who is the new DNC chair or getting Wasserman Schultz rolled wholesale. If he doesn't endorse then neither of those are achievable. If Hillary loses then I agree with Shady, some will blame Bernie for it whatever he does. But as much as there are those three groups of Bernie supporters there are also 3 equivalent groups of Hillary supporters, and in these circumstances it would be the Never Bernie types alone that would blame him- whereas if he didn't endorse or ran against her he'd permanently alienate all her supporters plus many of his own.

I'd like to try brewing mead sometime but honey is ludicrously expensive here at the moment. The honey alone would cost ~5 times brewing straight beer would. And I even used to have a beehive. Once the weather warms up I'll be doing ginger beer, pear and apple cider, feijoa (pineapple guava; it's an NZ thing) wine plus beer.

It was tongue in cheek, since he also said that he didn't think the Russians are releasing stuff. His campaign is pretty memetastic, and there are a fair few 'Thanks for trying to keep our politicians honest, Russia, no one else will' type memes out there. I was really struck by how he looks more like a Bill Clinton doll than actual Bill Clinton now. I guess plastic surgery/ botox etc is a legit business expense for the Clinton Foundation, at least.

The problem is that if he lost he was supposed to lose fair and square. The DNC giving Clinton an advantage nullifies any obligation he had to support Clinton. I don't begrudge Sanders giving Clinton the endorsement. It's very easy to say he should have pulled a Cruz, but then if Cruz isn't a bona fide sociopath without an ounce of integrity in his body he does an excellent impression of one. Sanders pledged to support Clinton when/ if the time came and he followed through on that despite obviously being deeply unhappy about it. Thing is Sanders did lose; he might have lost in sketchy circumstances but lose he did. If Clinton wins he has to work with her, and if Clinton loses then her supporters and the entire Democratic Party structure will be looking to set blame and specifically set blame on anyone who isn't them. We only need to look back to 2000 to see them scapegoat Nader- which to an extent the Greens never recovered from- despite more democrats voting for Bush in Florida than Nader, and far more not voting at all. Sanders does not want to be Nader 2.0 and that is understandable if he wants to achieve anything. For better or (very much likely) worse the Democrat party is here to stay, if he wants to revolutionise politics- and actually do it rather than talk about it- he has to preserve his movement and reform from within. As it stands he, or his successor more likely, is in a good position should Hillary lose to get the nomination in 2020 and real reform in the interim.

There would be a fair bit of overlap. There are at the basic level two types of people who commit suicide; one group which is largely irrelevant to this question have a severe underlying mental condition (usually chronic capital D Depression of some sort) while the other group is more of an acute situational response to stress or or a severe feeling of disconnection/ worthlessness, and is relevant. The former probably does not increase chances of deliberately becoming a suicide bomber or similar but the latter certainly does as religion or any other belief system gives a sense of belonging and worth which can readily counter acute depression but is often self reinforcing verging on addictive and can be used for bad purposes as well as good. There's also a fair amount of statistical overlap between suicide bombers and suicides. You get more men becoming suicide bombers and fewer women (more men commit suicide, though more women attempt it they are a lot less likely to be successful and use low lethality methods), suicide bombers tend to be young and disaffected people with low self esteem or some sort of severe emotional trauma and many have mildly to severely obsessive personalities. It's just that if you get obsessed with most other things you tend to survive long enough to grow out of your obsessions- not so much if you've joined ISIS instead of becoming a goth or a missionary or are playing too many computer games or even developed a mild drug habit. The question of whether the 'acute' depression type is a Mental Illness in the absolute sense is an open one though, since opinions seem to be divided even amongst professionals with a tendency to use less absolute terms like 'temporary mental imbalance'.

Not really. Synagogues are protected more than mosques are, there are a lot more churches than either and there hasn't been a need to protect churches up until now since most 'attacks' on churches are just random vandalism.

The US does. It's either death by Trump or death by Hillary and you get to choose your poison. Pretty much sums up the DNC when their attempt at acclamation voting has a lot of loud 'noes', which are promptly ignored by both the chair and the media (well, CNN. I was just watching them for the lols, honest!). I think I'll try and catch at least some of Bill's speech too, he used to be absolute natural teflon but he's been going a bit Prince Philip lately and managing to effortlessly and randomly antagonise people. I must also find out when Hillary's accepting, so I can make sure to check Wikileaks' for simultaneous new releases. And Bernie is going back to being an independent senator, not a democrat one. Speaks volumes.

Guccifer (original) who hacked Hillary's emails was Romanian, Guccifer 2.0 is ??? though he claims not to be russian. They're separate people. Sweden and Finland have been 2 years from joining NATO since 1989. And Sweden is not even slightly neutral already, NATO membership would just formalise things. The big eastwards push was meant to be Georgia and Ukraine, and they both now have active territorial disputes.

There's no evidence beyond 'trust us'. Then again, short of conducting your own investigation there cannot be any actual evidence other than 'trust us'. Certainly there was no evidence that Guccifer 2.0 was Russian in how they wrote and wordpress is a slightly odd medium for the SVR (?, no idea which branch cyber stuff would be under) to use for initial leaks. Given that even the best case scenario has two hacker groups fossicking around in the servers for months additional hacks seem very likely even if the two identified groups were actually russian government. Won't automatically protect the Baltic States, not won't protect them at all. And since Estonia does spend more than 2% of GDP on defence it's presumably only the two Ls that need to worry. NATOs eastwards expansion is dead anyway, and good riddance to it.

Ahahaha. hahaha ha. I really don't know what you can sensibly say about that. I might have thought she'd get some kind of minor cabinet post or similar once the dust had settled but that completely undoes any small amount of good her resigning might have done towards reconciling wavering Bernie voters. She's simply not a positive with anyone who isn't already voting Hillary and it looks terrible. It's just so utterly tone deaf. If you wrote this election cycle as a TV drama it would get panned for being unrealistic; even if you wrote it as a black satire people would think you'd gone too far into the ridiculous.

ROK has conscription, can't really expect much more than that. Their main problem is what it is and cannot be changed; they will never be able to match DPRK's sheer numbers because DPRK is pretty much a military with attached country rather than the reverse. Seems Wasserman-Schultz is officially gone as of the end of the convention. No surprises there.