Zoraptor

Yes, I think everyone does have to have a tragic backstory in nutrek. Indeed, not only does everyone have a tragic backstory (or its close relative; dark secret) but of course Pike has tragic foreshadowing as well...

If it's the Ukraine/ Kosovo stuff it has been reported a decent amount. (There's definitely some funky things going on with the search though, Milanovic + Kosovo doesn't return the Reuters mothership article on DDG for some reason nor a bunch of articles based on the agency report. It does return the MSN reprint though...)

Fair to say that most people hated Enigma and either skip it or use a guide. Personally I thought it was OK. The puzzles aren't particularly hard, once you know what they want, but they're very badly (or barely) explained and there are far, far, far too many of them at once. Far too much combat too, though that's a general criticism of the game not just the specific area. Most of it is there at least trivial and easy to blow through in a few minutes at most, and the ones that aren't are better designed/ more interesting than most filler combats. And I actually liked the final fight despite it having what is usually a super annoying structure. Oh yeah, and their response was to ask if the 2nd tranche of dlc should have a dlc dedicated to puzzles. Pretty sure that was trolling. Pretty sure.

The actual writing in ME2 was pretty good, but story progress wise... dunno, it's kind of like going on a balanced diet and having one meal consist of chocolate cake. Of course everyone likes that meal. The problem comes when you have to design the next meal and find you have to stuff a load of nutrition in to it but a minimum of calories. Of course ME3 did manage to, uh, overcook the brussels sprouts so to speak anyway, but if ME2 had done its narrative job better they could have been deliciously pan fried in butter instead of boiled. Whether that's any reflection on Walters though, who knows. I'd suspect the decision to put just about the only piece of actual plot advancement in ME3 behind a dlc at least was a management decision to get people to buy dlc.

If you're only going to apply principles when they're local, to white people and- let's be frank, this is the kicker- to your geopolitical advantage then, well, they aren't actually principles, are they? They're just a way of making yourself feel like you're a good guy™. Of course, helps when you do some massive revisionism in the media to make yourselves the heroes all the time. Apart from the "EU never made it them or Russia" stuff which comes up regularly there's a real beauty in that article Gorth posted that illustrates things really well. Haha yes, impartial and well informed Beeb. Shall I quote the relevant OSCE report for the election prior to the 2014 coup (2010 elections)? Normally I might be a bit of a knob and wait for someone to dispute things, but this time... I particularly like this one: Oh dear, seems someone at the BBC has been guilty of massive revisionism and repeating unsubstantiated allegations like a conspiracy theorist. Strangely enough, massive revisionism and unsubstantiated rumours that turns the people they support into heroes. Could it be that thing you earthlings call... propaganda? I also rather like the quotes that make the process seem altogether more democratic than a lot of 'proper' democracies, like this one (and there are a lot of others too): Sounds more pluralist than a choice between, say, asses and pachyderms. Of course, Zelensky has democratically banned multiple opposition parties, in a show of freedom which can only enhance the diverse political views, eh BBC? In amongst all the positivity there was, inevitably, some complaints, eg That was... hmm, pro western candidate and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko using the PMs office to campaign. Wonder if the people fired/ resigned list includes Arestovich, who reigned for having the temerity to say that a Russian missile hit an apartment block having been shot down, not as a deliberate act. Probably, and that really isn't anything approaching corrupt, just counter narrative.

NATO doctrine also requires helicopters, and I'm fairly sure the four (4) helicopters pledged in the last lot of aid aren't enough either. Those aren't even enough to replace losses over the last month, and there weren't that many left to lose. And it requires an enormous logistical tail. Which is even worse for Ukraine, since they're getting a few units of literally dozens of different systems that almost all require specialised maintenance, and don't have any existing experience on those systems, and require those men at the front.

Metro Exodus SDK announced.

They'd only need to make 95 SPGs to match the donations, the other 96 are towed artillery. That's an artificial comparison anyway, since it's only SPG/Hs rather than self propelled artillery in general, which would include a bunch of other stuff like MLRS. None of which were donated this time around. Either way, not really important. I'd suspect that at least part of the problem Germany has with supplying Leopards is that there would be a lot donated- a lot more than the 12 (? or 14, or 10) Challengers- and they will get destroyed pretty regularly. It's one thing to see a Turkish Leopard getting blown up by an ISIS jihadi with a 1960s Malyutka when the same week you see a Saudi Abrams getting blown up by a qat chewing shoeless Houthi, with a 1960s Malyutka; it's another when it's only the Leopards getting blown up even if the military destroying them is a bit more advanced than a literal goatherd with gun. [they may well also want the inevitable chorus of complaints about how hard Abrams are to maintain. What was it? 40 out of 130 odd Iraqi Abrams able to used at any one time due to maintenance? Though on the positive side, even more impossible for ISIS to maintain the ones they captured]

It's all good. Just glad I didn't give my nephew the old 580 really, and slightly annoying timing since I'd be looking at ~6700/50 tier for a replacement and they're likely to be replaced themselves in the next few months. Then again, couple of months on a slow card vs buying just before new products come out is very much 1st world problems.

Wait, you mean it isn't due to AMD's drivers? That seemed so likely though, what with the problem being localised pretty much entirely to one store in Germany. Wish I could blame the drivers but my Vega has finally gasped its last as its failing RAM has become too unusable for any real use at all so I'm back onto the old 580 instead. Deciding that a 550W PSU was likely to be enough because surely Vega would be the most power intensive GPU available for ages and the days of 300W GPUs were over after it is a decision that hasn't aged particularly well.

Not designed for/ tailored to a specific system or entity. Probably used in this case as contrast to the WotC approach.

Nothing, of course. Only way to avoid it is to not say anything. And by far the best way to deal with being wrong is to just admit it. lol. Toodles then. Yeah, I got it wrong --> twisting in knots. Whereas blaming someone else for your mistake is... straight line thinking? Plus of course complaining about whataboutism while bringing up totally relevant things like, uh, Uvalde, Wisconsin and Jussie fricking Smollet. Who even is Jussie Smollet? Yeah man, no one really cares if you're pathetic or not on the internet. Fortunate for you, eh.

The numbers at Borodino were near perfectly balanced, it's just that Boneyboos leave out the 20k French who Napoleon never committed- while including the Russians who didn't fight, of course. And, of course, people tend to leave out the times when the Russians won well, like Kunersdorf. Do I need to quote your own posts to you, again? That would be, to quote the great philosopher Edmund Blackadder, like a broken pencil. After all I don't really care what people got wrong 11 months ago because everyone got things wrong. The only way to not do so was to, well, not post at all. Then you can safely swoop in and laugh at the Chilloutmans of the world who made bad predictions. Though, of course, Mark Milley made exactly the same prediction, reportedly, so he's in jolly good company in the manner of being wrong. And fricking lol at hiding behind a Harvard economist. Yeah, you didn't get it wrong, the person you quoted and defended (ad nauseum) did. If only I'd thought to, well, hide my opinion behind someone else's I could have escaped the ignominy of being wrong about the invasion. Sadly, I lack that particular kind of... sophistry. As I consider it, well, utterly pathetic and would be embarrassed by blaming someone else for something I got wrong. And that's reinforced by Milley getting something wrong, anyway, not countered.

Sheesh, that's basically the old 'do your own research' canard and staple of losing positions in internet discussions since fricking usenet. If you're going to claim something back it up with specifics, if you can't it's gaslighting, to whit: repeating something as so obviously true it needs no evidence. Make sure to include Mark Milley and the US intelligence apparatus as doozies and chuckleworthy though, their expertise is far greater than anyone's on this boards. Only way not to get things wrong is not to have an opinion, or lack the courage to state one. Haha lol. To remind you, since it's been all of 12 hours: Goalposts shifted to something far safer when you were asked to name names- and not, if you've already forgotten that too, by me. Classic Gromnir. So, did you indulge in a bit of classic re-imagining over the 2014 bankruptcy, or not? Don't blame me, you brought up gaslighting and reimagining posts.

Shrug. Not the only one who got that wrong. Only way not to be wrong occasionally is not to have an opinion on something. Guess you get to dine out on actually being right about something, for once. But then, also specifically not what you were talking about so nice goal post shift, as always. Can you find a post where I said Ukraine would lose in days? No, because my position was the complete reverse- and specifically that they'd likely need the entire invasion force to take Kiev alone. I don't doubt you've looked though, hence the goal post shift above. If you're going to claim that more than a few board pundits said something better be able to name names if challenged, otherwise that's gaslighting- to whit, repeating something as obviously true and so obvious no evidence is needed. Which is, of course, exactly what you accuse others of doing. But then, self awareness has never been your strong point. Russia will be bankrupt in 6 months in 2014 --> you just bringing it up for scholarly discussion, when it didn't happen. Can't get more of a reimagined position than that, eh. And now the forum software hates parentheses and quotes again. How will I cope when half the volume of my posts are ellipses?

The main source for things like Kiev falling inside a week was... well, that old chestnut "unnamed US official" and his close cousin "western intelligence officials" (including, apparently, Mark Milley). And why do I get the feeling the forum software is going to hate a line with parentheses and quote marks in it? Let's see shall we? um, handles it fine apparently, well done there and sorry for ever doubting you. Classic Gromnir though, throwing out accusations without naming names. Funnily enough (not really), he's also using one of the absolute classic gaslighting techniques there.

Vince McMahon has reportedly sold WWE to the Saudis.

Certainly propaganda, but the recent pictures of Prigozhin in the Salt Mines are pretty conclusive since they're west of Soledar. And since he's there they're likely to consider it to be relatively safe too. Even Zelensky implied it would fall imminently yesterday. lol at the tank in the background. On a more personal note, one of my best friends from primary school is missing there, though I would not have seen him for upwards of 30 years. Moral of the story: don't be best friends with me in primary school since my other best friend had a building fall on him in the Christchurch earthquake. On the positive side there has been almost no coverage here of it, which makes me think he may have been captured instead. Would mirror the case of the idiot influencers who went to Iran and photographed themselves outside a military base who had complete radio silence in the media. There is a Beeb article about it, but he's specifically described as British in that.

Watched the first episode of the final season of Happy Valley. After seeing dozens of proudly made in Vancouver/ Georgia type messages- or, for that matter, made in New Zealand- it's nice to see a series that really upsells its setting. Can't wait to visit disused quarry with mud, broken appliances and dumped car plus obligatory dead body in blue 40 gallon drum, or random pile of rubbish #8 by side of rural road next time I'm in the UK. Makes The Wire look like it was written by the Baltimore Tourist Board. Shame it's going to be 18 episodes over the course of basically ten years, but then I guess that's ultimately how it ends up being memorable.

Not Intel level confusing at least as their numbering seemed to have literally no bearing on how the chip performs last time I checked. That naming scheme makes general sense with higher being 'better'. Otherwise... yeah, a bit of a mess. How much cache does the 7940 have? Because AMD itself doesn't actually seem to know. It's either 16MB L3 or 24MB total per that link depending on whether you combine L2 and L3 or not or 20 per the slide above. Or 32MB per some media, though that is media rather than AMD of course. The 7030 has 12CU of (presumably) Vega, not 8. Indeed, the 7x30 models have 12, 6 or 4CU listed on the website, none has 8. The Extreme Gaming laptop having a princely 2CU of RDNA2 also looks funny, though I guess they'll be sold with discrete graphics cards rather than relying on the iGPU. I will laugh if someone (probably Acer) tries to sell them for gaming using just the integrated chip.

Wonder who actually made/ designed the reference card cooler this time around. Coolermaster used to make (may still make, though they're down to... the Stealth only now? bundled in a few SKUs) the CPU coolers and Sapphire the reference coolers for GPUs, but last time out it was someone else. Don't know what the situation is internationally but the price difference here between AIB and reference is so small the reference cards really ought to be ignored as an option anyway.

Ah, ok. We'd have done it at pretty much exactly the same time (think I was slightly behind you at that point, but only slightly), so unlikely there would be any difference. Most of the earlier information I saw said initially you could change your mind about the impromptu assault even after Galfrey had been summoned, for about a week, but at some point that got changed to what it is now.

You now only get the one option to preempt Galfrey's arrival. If you missed it then you can't talk to the Hand of the Inheritor later and choose to do it even if she is yet to turn up, you have to choose in the initial conversation about it. That is, I believe, a change from initial versions of how it worked.

No, I most definitely mean Gregorian. Not many people know this, but Julius Caesar was actually G. Iulius Caesar. With the G standing for... Gregorius, obviously. The Julian calendar was actually invented by catholics in the 16th century which is why Orthodox christians hated it (Pope Julius II, hence the name of the calendar. One of the more memorable characters in 'The Borgias' TV show and nicely played by Colm Feore too) Both the countries relevant to this thread, and the one actually specified, celebrate on January 7th though. Not really necessary to specify which branch of the Orthodox church in those circumstances unless you're really being picky about things. Yeah, Romania/ Bulgaria/ Greece and some others celebrate on Dec 25th, but then your argument is "but what about Greece, Romania or Bulgaria?" and, well, we all know what happens then.

hah, serves me right for being a smart arse while not checking. To be finicky, not much Ukrainian Orthodox presence at Christmas time, in Russia, though. Both the Ukrainian Orthodox churches still use Gregorian, at the moment. UOC allows services on Dec 25th though, as of this year.