BruceVC

Sure but then we must very honest about things like the Atlantic slave trade and who was historically responsible for what . For many people they haven't studied the history so they think its all about white people\Europeans who were the only people involved in the African slave trade. Thats not historically accurate. There were black tribes who enslaved other black tribes and sold them to European slave traders and the Arabs were always prolific slave traders in Africa I watched an excellent true story mini-series about this, its called the Book of Negroes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Negroes_(miniseries) But the point Im making is I support historical education for kids but it must be accurate and not biased towards one race as if only " white people enslaved people from Africa"

I think both the radical left and far right hijack events like Florida to peddle their own fear mongering and hyperbole But the banning of woke material in Florida seems more about CRT and other similar types or revisionist education, here is link that discusses this and to quote 'The law restricts lessons and training on race and diversity in schools and in the workplace, particularly anything that discusses privilege or oppression based on race, or whether someone “bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress” due to U.S. racial history. "No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race," DeSantis said in a statement on the signing of the bill. "In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/desantis-asks-state-colleges-data-critical-race-theory/story?id=96189743 I think its perfectly reasonable to not teach kids they are responsible for something, that in some cases, occurred hundreds of years ago or they are assumed to have a indirect responsibility for because of their race. In other words just because you white that doesnt mean your ancestors had anything to do with the terrible practice of slavery. Everyone should recognize historical injustice but that doesnt mean you responsible or should feel guilty

Yes, I have been exploring all the maps and do all the quests and taking my time to read and enjoy the lore But its 40 hours to Skyhold

Im now about 45 hours into DA:I and I have reached Skyhold. I am enjoying this game, my experience has improved as the game progressed. I will raise the negative things I dont particularly like about it first map markers mean there is no real challenge or excitement around exploration. its console designed which limits the combat complexity and strategic choices in combat like in BG1&2 and D:OS2. I end up relying on AI for battles because its not really worth it managing each party member. Saying all that there are still fun and difficult battles like the Alexius quest with the mages and then I enjoy closing the Rifts and the various strategies around this I am using both DAI and Frosty mods and the overall stability is not great in the sense I have to constantly delete the Frosty mod data folder and do other minor troubleshooting every 5-6 times I play. I also had to troubleshoot a major mod bug when I got to Skyhold that caused a white screen when you cannot progress Now what I like about it I like the overall narrative and political machinations that exist in the game world between factions and people. I am enjoying the fact I am the Inquisitor and can encourage\force people to support my ideology to save the world. Any traitors or non-believers must be arrested,converted or killed Its a beautiful game, I have maxed the graphic settings with my video card and I like the aesthetics that Frostbite creates I enjoy the crafting and how you need to constantly find materials, like elfroot and iron, to improve items. It makes exploration worthwhile there are hot women in the game like Leliana and Josephine. I am avoiding any Romance arcs with Cassandra but she is an effective combat asset I do appreciate parts of the combat like Fire Mine to deal AOE damage I like the various party members and there side-quests So overall a good experience and I will provide another update after 40 hours or so

One of the funniest animal attack videos I have ever seen

Dark for me became too hard to believe and understand with all the time travel paradoxes, I watched it halfway through season 2 and then stopped But Im hooked on 1899 and season 2 ......sadly I see season 2 has been cancelled https://readysteadycut.com/2023/01/02/will-there-be-a-1899-season-2/

Im really enjoying Last of Us, I havent played the games so I dont know the lore or what happens in the narrative The last episode got some criticism, for me it was sincere and emotional but I am watching this series to see fungus creatures get killed and life in this post-apocalyptic world. I dont want to see 50 minutes of relationships when it can be condensed into 20 minutes

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/01/europe/ukraine-soldiers-fighting-wagner-intl-cmd/index.html Really informative and evocative article about fighting Wagner Group and how they use " cannon-fodder " tactics It sounds like hell, imagine being part of the Wagner Group

It wouldnt surprise me at all, we know the Ruskie airborne forces suffered huge casualties. There are several accounts of this from different sources The acknowledgement is a bit of a surprise but if there are not sufficient airborne forces on the ground it becomes hard to justify why if you not being honest because the obvious next question would be " why are we not deploying more of our special forces "

I love this story, I was reading how he ended up getting reunited in the comments because Belarus to Spain is a long way. But the QR code in his collar helped track his owners and kind people in Belarus also made it possible I like how they say " Russians kidnapped the cat " Dont they mean catnapped? Bad Russians, bad bad Russians

I did read Paradise Lost, I love those types of deep and evocative poems But that quote I remembered from the movie The Crow, its one of my best lines in a movie

https://newsunrolled.com/economy/170541.html The Ruskie economy is in a much worse state than I thought, they are now classifying Q4 economic data Go Putin, what a way to show confidence for investors

I do the same thing in DA:I, I am a mage and I use range combat and then let the AI mange 80-90% of the battles . But thats also a design problem because I find the battles too numerous and frenetic and the combat mechanics too limited to want to disable AI. Its not like BG1&2 or D:OS2 where you want to manage the battles because its interesting and you want to decide what each party member does and it creates strategic value

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-slams-german-tank-decision-escalation-conflict-betrayal-history-2023-01-25/ This is a little old but its still relevant around Germany doing the right thing sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine The Russian response was the normal cringe propaganda with an attempt to " shame " Germany's decision. To quote from the link " More than 80 years after their country invaded Soviet Russia and Ukraine in World War Two, some Germans recoil at the idea of sending tanks into a new conflagration there, out of a sense of historic guilt that the Russian embassy statement directly tapped into. "Berlin's choice means the final refusal of the Federal Republic of Germany to recognize its historical responsibility to our people for the terrible, timeless crimes of Nazism during the Great Patriotic War, and the consigning to oblivion of the difficult path of post-war reconciliation between Russians and Germans," Nechayev said" Lets be honest and clear, no country has done more to address and recognize its historical past than Germany since WW2. And I think its way overdue for Germany to become more militarized and involved in relevant conflicts if it decides its the right thing for Germany or the EU. They should have the same international military investments as the US, France and the UK And as far as what the Ruskies are saying, once again if Russia hadn't invaded Ukraine these developments wouldnt be happening so Russia has no one to blame but themselves

Transparency International ranked Ukraine as being the second most corrupt country in Europe with only Russia being more corrupt. This is well known. Any steps to reduce corruption in Ukraine I support and is good news for the country Here is another link about this https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/25/oleksandr-novikov-leading-ukraine-fightback-against-corruption Also more importantly the war in Yemen is a civil war not an invasion and its primarily a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. They need to end this conflict, the West cant change this. And you wont find either side in Yemen saying " this is a war against the US\West\NATO" like the Russian propaganda so apart from the obvious geographical proximity the Russians claim to be war with the West even though they not but the natural outcome of the invasion of Ukraine is the West will support Ukraine for the reasons I mentioned which is not the same as other wars or conflicts like Yemen, Syria or Ethiopia

Absolutely, its an example of the insidious control of our societies by two of the WORST f words..." fatcats and fascists " Its obvious and there is one thing we can, we must protest and protest hard

Wormie do you realize something, you and I are playing the same game at the same time....thats profound. Are you thinking what I am thinking, its destiny

Thats a good way of describing it, " repetitious meaningless combat" especially with creatures endlessly spawning in certain maps. The consolation is there is some fun and more engaging combat especially at more complex battles like closing rifts

" titanium-skinned lootless bears that would home in onto you from across the opposite corner of the map, stealth or not. " Yes, so thats sort of what I am referring to around ostensible flaws on the combat mechanics. But I want to give myself more time, maybe 20 hours or so, and then I comment more objectively and in more detail

I havent been able to post for a month due to my Chrome posts being eaten so I have updated gaming news I finished ELEX 2 and it was fun, its not as good as ELEX 1 but I enjoyed the noticeable crafting improvements and the faction interaction is always entertaining. The main narrative is a little meh until I learnt the origins of the Skyands and then it was more interesting. Its gets 65\100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system" And then I decided to finally play DA:I, Im 10 hours in and Im enjoying it. I have some reasonable criticisms around combat mechanics and exploration but I will make a detailed post later when I have played more. I am using both DAI and Frosty mods and getting them working together is also a story I will share later

It looks like I can post again on Chrome, yaaaay. No more posts getting eaten https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/26/gdp-q4-2022-us-gdp-rose-2point9percent-in-the-fourth-quarter-more-than-expected-even-as-recession-fears-loom.html Higher than expected US GDP numbers with 2.9% for last quarter of 2022 and other positive metrics like lower unemployment. Its really good news and its similar to the 2% GDP growth that Germany recorded for 2022 https://www.destatis.de/EN/Press/2023/01/PE23_020_811.html And this recovery of the economies of many Western countries means less chance of any technical recession because you seeing growth which automatically moves any country out of the definition of recession which is defined as 2 quarters of negative growth and more importantly its a sign of overall economic strength and growth. Why does this matter on this thread? Its another example that the vacuous and propaganda fueled Vatnik economic predictions that use to get posted regularly, they still are but much less, are not true, not accurate and dont reflect the data around economic activity across the West. Things like gold based currencies emerging, the $ being replaced as the worlds global reserve currency, BRICS replacing the influence of Western economic hegemony and Russia creating a new "world economic order " are once again demonstrably untrue and this GDP data confirms it But for me the most significant Vatnik propaganda that this rejects is how Western sanctions against Russia are going to cause Western economies to collapse and the old " EU citizens are going to freeze to death " card hyperbole

test

@GorthIm cant seem to give ratings anymore, it gives an error and says " sorry, problem relating to this content " I am using Chrome, is there a solution to this because I know there have been some forum problems?

Thanks, translator worked fine. Really good read and why I am not surprised to see ZH as one of the Russian propaganda sites

@Mamoulian War https://khpg.org/en/1608811138 Dont forget the Ruskies are also removing Ukrainian literature and language from occupied territory and yet its the Russian language that are the " victims " of the Ukrainians. Sure tell me another one