BruceVC

Absolutely, Duck l'Orange and similar dishes are delicious I always love to find how certain ingredients compliment a main meal like orange and duck But you must have lots of excellent Chinese restaurants where you live in Oz? I assume you have tried Peking Duck ?

https://en.thebell.io/the-hidden-reasons-behind-russias-mega-tax-rises/ Yes I see that, another consequence of Western sanctions on the Russian economy and the cost of the war The tax changes reflect a wholesale change in Russia’s philosophy when it comes to fiscal policy, said Buklemishev. For the last 20 years, the financial orthodoxy and core ideology was that Russia saved in the good years and then spent what it accumulated during rainy days or on grand investment projects. But this approach no longer holds up, because it is impossible to rely on being able to quickly raise funds to cover shortfalls without access to the Western financial market and convertible currencies. That means Russia can only fund planned new expenses by raising taxes. Buklemishev is skeptical of whether the Chinese yuan, which has become a vital part of the Russian financial system since the invasion of Ukraine, can fill the gap. “First, this is not a convertible currency. Second, it's hard work placing yuan in liquid instruments that generate normal returns. Third, we don’t know what will happen with the yuan as a currency over any longer-term perspective, because it is managed slightly differently from any other currency in which we have invested,” he said.

What? You have never eaten famous duck dishes like Peking Duck? Please do me a favour, take your wife out this weekend to a local Chinese restaurant and order Peking Duck to share. Its a great experience with pancakes and hoisin sauce and you make your own little pancake meals. Its a fantastic social meal like a Cheese Fondue Here are 5 restaurants in Chicago that serve Peking Duck (hopefully they still open ) https://stevedolinsky.com/top-5-peking-ducks-in-chicago

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-tv-drops-new-tucker-carlson-show I found this hilarious, only in Russia would you find the state controlled propaganda machinery creating a " Tucker Carlon show " without Carlson being part of it "It’s all fake obviously, like most stories in American news media. Of course I have no partnership with Russia. The first I'd heard anything about this was (this) morning,” he said. The CEO of Tucker Carlson Network, Neil Patel, said no deals had been done with Russia. "

What about NWN2? Didnt you enjoy that

Wow, that looks excellent. Definitely very interested

Sorry Zora but no ones ever heard of Diego Garcia, I always thought it was someone's name but I looked it up and it is real. Its an island @Gorth do you agree if we have never heard of a development then it cant be counted in the list

Absolutely, Cyb2077 is another example that games can survive terrible launches It just takes commitment from the development studio and mods can also address certain problems

But what other countries or examples would that apply to because Im missing the point you making?

I like to read posts like this because it confirms what I was hoping and expecting for Starfield The game had its predicated but still disappointing bad launch but now official updates and mods will change that initial bad experience and Starfield will start becoming a much better game I wont touch it for another 24 months

Wormie !!! No need for racism, this is a forum of tolerance and acceptance But there is a legitimate debate around playing the vanilla game first to understand " what was intended " and I agree with that sentiment But that typically doesn't apply to Bethesda games for several reasons or rather why I mod there games to change . And this includes the following HD textures and graphic mods dont change the narrative or mechanics except for improving on something that didnt exist at the time of development. So they become " must have mods " in the interests of enhancing the visual experience A game like Oblivion had some incredibly bad designs like level scaling, the idea that a rat can challenge you when you level 20 makes no sense and there should always be monsters that can defeat you on early levels like in Gothic games. So loading mods that change this is about the immersive experience and that for me is very important I dont load mods that change the fundamental narrative and all my mods are lore friendly And of course loading chainmail bikini mods is all about gender equality. I am a feminist and I always support a liberated and confident women and we must never tell any women what they can or cant wear. Even @HoonDingwill agree on this But in summary the mods I use improve bad designs and development shortfalls but they dont really change the vanilla experience because the vanilla experience isnt suppose to be a bad or a lazy design Of course there are exceptions to this, when I play Skyrim for the first time I am going to play Requiem but thats more the exception because thats a major overhaul mod but its the type of game I want to experience from the beginning

Yes but the Council of Europe, European Commission, the European Council are just 3 examples of the 78 who signed it Its easier to understand when you see the list and its definitely not mostly EU countries. There are African and South American and Asian countries "Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chile, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Council of Europe, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, European Commission, European Council, European Parliament, Fiji, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Palau, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Sao Tomé and Principe, Serbia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Somalia, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Timor Leste, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay" But I do find it interesting how Russia's EU " allies " that include Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia signed it I would have assumed they wouldnt have signed it?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/80-countries-at-swiss-summit-agree-ukraines-territorial-integrity-required-for-peace Not really, the EU consists of 27 countries and 100 countries attended. And 78 countries signed it So the outcome definitely wasnt just an " expected " EU response. And its based on the UN view around respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty That hasnt changed and never will, you cant just invade a country and create your borders and the support for this document is more or less the same as how UN votes go around the war where Russia gets very little support but countries abstain But it wont stop the war, Putins committed to his warmongering and the invasion. Its more symbolic

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-passes-defense-bill-automatically-registering-men-draft Great idea and one I support but its unlikely it will pass the Senate vote Lots of young people in the US nowadays are despondent, populist and entitled and this type of law should go a long way to changing that bad attitude It doesnt mean you will be sent to war, you could do civil service work or something like national guard work

The outcome of our national elections and the coalition parties that have now been created have worked out really well, its exceeded my expectations on numerous levels We have now a GNU (government of national unity ) which is technically different to a coalition government but it has some similarities But first important outcome was the ANC has been absolutely magnanimous and accepting of its loss from 57% to 40%. I am not anti-ANC, I am generally opposed to there foreign policy decisions and Im opposed to ANC dominance because it has created a culture of impunity around dealing with corruption and public sector inefficiencies But the ANC supports and respects the Constitution and legal outcomes and this election is another example of this. And the concern from some, which I didnt share, was that the ANC being a liberation party wouldnt accept its loss of majority like we have seen in other African countries And that didnt happen So the GNU that now exists is parties that I support and the so called socialist, anti-white, racist,pro-Russian EFF not only lost seats in Parliament but they have been shutout of the GNU and this was primarily because of there populist and unrealistic demands and thats the best news ever Going forward the GNU has lots of work to do around our numerous domestic problems but at least we now have a stable political foundation after the election and thats necessary before you see any real changes...the government has to be stable But in summary, great election results and more important a great outcome around the GNU and which parties are in it

It depends what you mean by online? I generally dont take anything seriously I read on SM around topics like economics or politics. And economic predictions are often notoriously proven to be untrue because of the different ways you can measure an economy But BBC is a good source of information and I consider them generally credible The article seems accurate but there are few considerations, most Russian economic data is classified and then growth is relative to GDP size The UK for example is the 6th strongest economy in the world with nominal GDP of $3.5 trillion and Russia is the 12th strongest with nominal GDP of $2.1 trillion. https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/top-10-largest-economies-in-the-world/86159/1 So growth matters but other metrics are equally important to understand overall economic strength. The entire African economy is a $3 trillion economy, I find this type of data in the link below really interesting when you looking at economic strength and growth. For example if South Africa somehow gets a 20% growth thats $80 billion, which means our economy would become $480 billion. So its possible to think "South Africa is doing better than the UK because of its 20% growth "but the UK is a $3.5 trillion economy " https://www.visualcapitalist.com/breaking-down-african-economy-by-country/ So GDP growth matters but its relevant to the size of the economy

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-pledges-a-cease-fire-in-ukraine-if-kyiv-withdraws-from-occupied-regions-and-drops-nato-bid/ar-BB1odPGs I am not sure how updated this is or accurate but it seems to be? Putin is prepared to end the invasion of Ukraine and has a list of demands that include giving up the Donbas and NATO aspirations and then " demands for peace that the Russian leader listed included Ukraine's non-nuclear status, restrictions on its military force and protecting the interests of the Russian-speaking population in the country. All of these should become part of “fundamental international agreements,” and all Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted, Putin said "

This is something I have been advocating for since the invasion in 2022 when the Russian assets were originally frozen, use the Russian sanctioned resources to fund Ukraine in its defence against the invasion Russia has nationalized Western investments so its not like there isnt precedent The legitimate concern was always " but this might create uncertainty in investing in the West " but thats going to happen or not happen irrespective of this decision and thats fine. Investors will always decide for themselves who offers the lowest risk and best return on investments And Im not concerned its going to have make a major difference if you think the Russian assets were frozen over 2 years ago and the US stock markets still see new records being broken for investment appetite https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/dow-jones-hits-record-high-40000-points

Wouldnt killable children mod give you similar satisfaction " This mod enables you to kill any or all of the children in Fallout 3. Along with adding consequences for such actions. Please see full description inside for full details " https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/376

I am about to start playing Fallout 3 again and I modded it using Vortex , I have never used Mod Organizer 2 ( MO2 )as my main mod manager but last night I decided to start using MO2 so I configured MO2 and started reinstalling all my mods using MO2 And...its amazing. Its definitely the best mod manager I have ever used. I like how it uses a virtual file system and doesnt change the default files but the way it handles conflicts and allows you to troubleshoot is indisputably superior to any other mod manager You can easily see and fix any conflicts and you can even hide specific meshes and files. Its makes the analysis of troubleshooting much more logical Vortex works but the troubleshooting is not as easy to understand or change when things go wrong I watched some good MO2 troubleshooting videos and I will continue to research how to do advanced things like using xEdit and the most effective way to clean mod files But I will only do this if its necessary but I have now become an instant fan for life of MO2, Im just disappointed it took me so long to use it

I just finished Ravenloft Strahds Possession after 45 hours, it was fun and I love the whole Ravenloft setting. The last 5 games I have played are all Gold Box games that include EOB1-3, Dungeon Hack and Ravenloft so Im going to have a break from these types of games now I preferred the EOB games to Ravenloft or rather EOB 1 is still my favourite game of the 5 I have played. But Ravenloft had a better narrative and a good " open world design" around navigating maps , I did find it had some frustrating design mechanics like no way to restore level draining and then Treants that spawn in one map so you end up using lots of save scumming But its still worth playing, 58/100 on the " BruceVC game rating system" I have now decided Im going to play Fallout 3 again but this time Im going to use mods and I have installed numerous performance fixes, gameplay and graphic mods. But Im using Vortex as my mod manager but I also have Mod Organizer 2, I just have never used MO2 before So if FO3 starts to crash or is unreasonably unstable then Im going to switch to MO2. I will have to reinstall all my mods again but thats fine because at least I will learn how MO2 works

Sure thats true but nothing like the exaggerated and fake news around the collapse of the US economy, thats been going on for much longer than views on the imminent collapse of the Russian or Chinese economies There is basically trenchant and well established weekly examples of "de-dollarization " and " BRICS Currency " and its driven by anti-Capitalist\West institutions and Russian propaganda troll farms. I met someone on Codex who works for a Russian troll farm and its fascinating how the datamining works and how they propagate Russian propaganda. Its very crude but still interesting But all this interpretation of any economy data is more or less the same, some of it is true and some of it is misrepresented or not relevant compared to something else Russia does classify much economic data so its almost impossible to get the accurate economic picture

I assume he is talking about imperialism tied to a particular leader and not the hundreds of years of European Colonialism or Imperialism Which is why he used WW2 Germany and Japan as an example And Russians imperialism is inextricably tied to Putins aspirations to recreate the old Soviet borders and Russian empire and under Putin specifically Russia has become more undemocratic and authoritarian Would it be the same if Putin died tomorrow, we dont know because there are other Russian nationalists but Russia now is definitely a reality of Putins political and geopolitical views He is huge factor in the political direction Russia is taking

Its an interesting question " what does it take for a nation with imperialist ambitions to give them up" And as you mentioned its very hard because its also tied into political survival and the legacy of the person and government , its very seldom about whats best for country in the long-term so they will continue to the bitter end in many cases like WW2 Germany and Japan Its similar to Netanyahu and what matters the most to him, his own political survival is more important to him than what is in the best interests of Israel and how people think of Israel around the globe

But also a major difference between any Western country and Russia is Putin has the advantage of no political consequence in elections for a war objective that has failed to reach its primary objectives after 2 years and body bags piling up and being sent home If this was a Western country I can guarantee you the anti-war candidate would have gained huge support in any normal free and fair election Autocratic governments dont have to worry about public sentiment in any election. Putin will never lose any election so the meatgrinder and cannon fodder Russian strategy is considered fine and has seen success on the battlefield