Agiel

My firm belief that efforts to curb the "counterculture" du jour typically begets an even greater hostile reaction, from the satanic panic and Evangelical Revolution of the 80's came the satanic Norwegian black metal and Swedish and American death metal of the 90's.

There is an incoming module for the F-15E Strike Eagle coming for DCS (bringing back warm and fuzzy memories of Jane's F-15), and the same F/A-18 stick is largely identical to that of the F-15, both having been designed by McDonnell-Douglas (now part of Boeing Defence, Space & Security in the aftermath of Les Aspin's "Last Supper"). Try literally shredded, as after its retirement from the Navy the only operator remaining (and indeed the only other operator ever) for the F-14 was the IRIAF. The measure was arguably well-warranted as there have been a few cases of Iran attempting to purchase spare parts from the retired American fleet.

While we're on the topic of peripherals what my tax return has gone to: Retiring my old Logitech X52 I've upgraded to a Winwing Orion 2 HOTAS with finger-lift idle and afterburner detents, with the stick and throttle handles modeled after that from the F/A-18 series (though still rocking Saitek rudder pedals and TrackIR 4 head-tracking).

Regular reminder that at their genuine worst the most extreme elements of BLM and Antifa (such as it is) aren't even in the same solar system in terms of danger as far-left movements of the 60s through the 80s. They aren't coming back from well-financed PLO training camps in Lebanon as the Baader–Meinhof Gang did to rob banks, kidnap business executives, hijack airlines, or bomb NATO airbases. They have not engaged in a decades long period of violence so insensate that it earned the moniker "Anni di piombo" (in this instance far-right groups were also involved), climaxing with the kidnapping and execution of a head of government. Even the American brand of left-wing terrorism, launched during the depths of American involvement in Vietnam, was extremely tame compared to the above examples; such actions were more akin to pranks that when after reporting them news anchors would smoothly follow with "Here's Tom with sports". The most high-profile example being the kidnapping of an heiress, who later joined the cause of the SLA and helped them rob banks, and was famously parodied in the film <<Network>>:

Metro 2033 author put on Russian government 'wanted' list for condemning invasion of Ukraine There was always an anti-authoritarian bent to the writing in both the novel and game series for <<Metro>>, and in <<Metro 2035>> and <<Exodus>> a major plot point was...

The Ciaphas Cain books are at the top of my recommended list for 40K lists, by far and away leaving the Space Marine bolter porn in the dust in my mind. The series is best described as <<Flashman>> to <<Gaunt's Ghosts>> <<Sharpe's Rifles>>.

Will of course be attempting my best Queen Emeraldas impression (Have yet to assemble the Eldar Corsairs for my Captain Harlock-themed project, let alone put paint to model). Promotional materials suggest one of the possible companions is an Eldar Ranger. I had theorised that there would be immediate speculation on whether or not she would have her own romance questline and upon visiting the Owlcat Discord this hypothesis turned out to be correct. I do hope that there is an option for her to prestige level into a Harlequin or something.

As correctly speculated by @Azdeusand mentioned in the news thread Owlcat's next joint that looked sci-fi oriented will be an adaptation of <<Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader>>.

<<You have devised a new light and your eyes will see no further You have risen towers for a one long fall downwards You made a desert and called it peace So, rest assured – your claim will be processed justly And the greatness of your deeds bestowed upon you!>>

So far as I can remember the two major scenes retained between the <<Redux>> and Coppola's <<Final Cut>> was Willard stealing Kilgore's surfboard (which helps with continuity and provides a good transition between the air cav assault and PBR Street Gang proceeding up the river) and the plantation. As beautifully shot and in my opinion thematically necessary the plantation segment was it did have the unfortunate effect of majorly messing with the film's pacing, and I imagine if this was someone's first time watching <<Apocalypse Now>> in any form they will have mentally checked out of the movie half-way through their time in Kurtz's compound.

Hitman47101 delivering the good once again: Could kill to see Lucas "The Rifleman" McCain firing animations for lever-actions:

I believe in the <<Gameplay>> tab in the options you can disable ranged units defaulting to "Skirmish" mode. I turn it off even playing as factions that rely heavily on dedicated ranged units (i.e. Wood Elves) as often I find that results in the AI causing them to retreat at less-than-ideal times and in un-optimal direction.

I suppose in that instance Thomas Friedman's "McPeace" theory of international relations holds true.

With Elon Musk being South African and a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” I’m curious if he’s familiar with Polish artist Krzysztof Wodiczko. Projection of a swastika on the South African embassy in London during Apartheid. Projection was taken down two hours later for being a “public nuisance.”

In the words of the late, great Norm MacDonald, "Say what you will about Elon Musk. But with his new plan to bring people to Mars, nobody is a more creative serial killer."

In solidarity with the metal siblinghood of Ukraine some gems from our Kvlt brothers and sisters there: This last one an incredible one-woman act who released an album last month:

I guess the Norwegians got the last laugh when the Russian MFA threw shade at them for the loss of that Fridtjof Nansen frigate a while back.

Images aren't showing. And the ones you posted earlier are broken now too. *EDIT* Never mind. See them now. <<Giants ahead>>.

On level design there is a catacomb dungeon under the capital a friend and I were crawling around in that does gaslight the player, as there is an identical corridor to one the player went through earlier with another flame-spewing trap at the end, and a room with a layout and textures identical to the boss rooms of other dungeons of the type is found in between those corridors but merely holds two normal enemies. Makes me shudder to think what a tabletop RPG campaign being DMed by Miyazaki for his friends must be like.

A German pal sent this to me. A piece on the one General who has as much to do with the Ukrainian armed forces' success as Zelenskyy. Machine translation as follows, with emphases mine:

On the other side I was thankfully forewarned to refuse a quest from Lann as a female character, as otherwise it was very easy to inadvertently stumble into his romance path.

I'm routinely astounded the US Men's Team keeps qualifying considering how its reputation for mediocrity has reached memetic levels.

While I'm heartened beyond belief that Ukrainians have done sterling work in humbling a certain fascistic Patek Philippe wearer in the Kremlin and made all the pessimists and naysayers eat crow a thousand times over, these feelings have been overridden by plenty of other reasons to be downcast, chief of which is the fact that I'm hardly optimistic that the voting public of western democracies' enthusiasm for supplying the much needed arms and supplies to the Ukrainian defenders will carry over into the much harder and more expensive task of rebuilding the homes and livelihoods of Ukrainians once the shooting stops. I've held that as soon as he started asking for it that if Zelenskyy is even half as smart as he appears to be then he knows perfectly well that a NATO no-fly zone is a non-starter, but the implicit message of the ask is "Okay, so instead of that what else is the west going to help Ukraine out in terms of arms and material? And more importantly what kind of reconstruction aid and security guarantees can Ukraine look forward to once the war is over?" It's fantastic to read stories of Britons, Germans, Poles, Romanians, and even Moldovans going out of their way to help out Ukrainian refugees, but I dearly hope this generosity carries over into allowing Ukraine into the EU (I'm sure there will be loads of German, Dutch, and French farmers who won't appreciate a sudden flood of cheap agricultural goods in the common market), providing Marshall Plan-levels of financial aid, and rebuilding their economy to pre-war levels. I'd go further and say that to do less would be the greatest geopolitical betrayal this side of the Yalta agreement. Ukraine isn't post-Soviet invasion Afghanistan by a long shot, nor do I think that Mr Hilter and his dicky old chums Heimlich Bimmler and Ron Ribbentrop will arise in Kyiv, but the character of the Russian Armed Forces' attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure is that of making sure that rebuilding the country will be as expensive and difficult as possible, perhaps beyond what the west will be willing to pony up for (reminder that the last American administration argued convincingly to voters that billions in foreign aid would be better spent domestically). And if resentment that their tax dollars are spent in Ukraine festers then the Kremlin might well use the opening to rebuild their foreign influence operations in the west.

"We only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."