rjshae

Finished Persephone Station by Stina Leight. It was mostly okay; a space opera with an LGBTQ+ cast. Checked most of the usual SJW boxes. Still kind of weird getting used to a character using a 'them' pronoun. The most relatable character was actually the cyborg. Here's a review: 'Persephone Station' Aims For The Stars — And Almost Makes It

There's evidence that the war is starting to push back into Russia now. As one sows... Fire at Russian military site near Ukraine injures one

They do seem to have some good drafts... then go on the field, trip, and fall on their face. Their last playoff appearance was 2010.

My cynical side makes me wonder if we should be supplying RU-486 for the rape victims. I know it's a horrible thought.

The first round had the lowest TV viewership rating since 2016. The main reason being that eight teams had traded away their first round picks, and most of those were in large markets. I only glanced at a team fan web site a few times and didn't bother watching the TV show.

NASA's Webb telescope is now in full focus, ready for instrument commissioning

All of the bases in DNA and RNA have now been found in meteorites Which pretty much suggests that life can form anywhere that the conditions are right. Now if we could just find some elsewhere...

After playing turn-based games for a while, I'd forgotten how uninspiring FPS combat can be. Ah well. At least the character interactions in this game are interesting.

Even taking into account enemy surprise, starting combat completely surrounded and in contact with the enemy is kind of a brain fart design decision. At least to me. It nearly eliminates most most tactics and makes the battle less interesting. I'd rather be facing more enemies with some gaps for maneuver.

New modeling shows that 'shielding' strategies instead of lockdowns would have led to tens of thousands more deaths I remember speculation about this approach early in the pandemic, so this is an interesting finding. It's all computer modelling, of course, but still a plausible outcome.

I'm not so sure that racism isn't a factor in certain immigration situations, but I do think it's more of an exacerbating factor that is easily conflated.

Welcome to our world. -- The USA

Some of the OM encounters can be brutal, but I'm okay with that. Even with a good survival skill though, we ended up surprised far too often for my taste.

Yes, there's a lot of conflation of issues happening there, to some degree because racism is a trigger issue for the left in the US. However, if you look back at the history of the US, strong anti-immigration sentiment was, in may cases, caused by cultural differences, such as occurred with white Irish and Italian immigrants. People usually prefer their own culture and tend to be intolerant of outsiders who behave differently.

There does appear to be a link between immigration and the growth of right-wing populism in Europe and the US. I doubt this is going away any time soon. Migration and the rise of populism: how closely related are they?

Been there, done that.

As in the US, it sounds like many people turned up just to vote against the other guy. Another strike against plurality voting. Not that the victorious parties care.

I started playing The Outer Worlds, having picked it up on sale. It's been decent fun thus far; the commercialism message is completely over the top though, much as 50's-style conservatism was in the Fallout series. It's not a setting I can take seriously, which is a drawback for me. Still, it has its moments.

Just for some perspective here, the estimated number of casualties at the Battle of Waterloo was ~67,000.