majestic

As far as I know (very much not an expert on patent law of any kind), is that it is possible to extend medical/drug patents in the US provided the drug itself is altered in some way, i.e. "incrementally improved" - which means jack sh*t because that just means changed a bit, not necessarily more effective. Which is why quasi-monopolies manufacturing high-demand medicine like Insulin can price fix to their heart's desire. And et voilà, you end up paying 200$ for an Insulin pen in the US and 8$ for the same dose everywhere else in the world. It also proves that it is not entirely about research costs. Insulin was discovered by a research team almost a century ago, the original patent belonging to the University of Toronto. Canadians being nice as they are licensed the manufacturing to a few US companies at little or no cost, and they went on to patent their incremental improvements. For, well, also almost a century now. Hands up, who thinks these sort of price increases just happened without, ahem, illicit dealings of the companies involved? Cuz I'm looking for a buyer, I have this here, uhm, bridge in NY to sell.

Played a bit of the Everspace 2 Alpha, noticed a distress beacon, went here. Two G&B freighters under attack by outlaws that quite clearly outgun my completely unupgraded ship fresh out of the tutorial. They're heavily armored and have a goodly bunch of hitpoints, so unless I'm missing something (the first game had support drones that could buff enemies) I most likely won't be saving the freighters. Or looting their remains for that matter. Heh.

Technically this belongs in the metal thread, but I'm not sure it would get the exposure it deserves there. Nanowar of Steel really outdid themselves with this video. So let us all join in making a joyful noise and praise Odin, Lord of Furniture:

Baron Strucker from Occupied Ireland seems like a legit, unbiased source of news, I'm not sure what you're getting at there.

I've been playing Dead Cells ever since it was discounted on GOG not that long ago. Finally managed to beat the secret boss (i.e. finish Hell mode, also known as "5 BSC"). The difficulty curve of the game is really weird. It starts out easy, stays that way until two boss stem cells, then becomes insanely hard, three and four stem cells is comparatively easy again and 5 BSC is... strange, because the only truly difficult part for me, apart from not paying attention and dying to something silly is the Hand of the King (final boss in 0 to 4 BSC). The first run I've managed to get past 5 BSC HotK was the one I beat the game at - I'll freely admit that I've watched a bunch of people kill the final boss on YouTube before ever seeing him so I knew what was going on, but still, killing him first try was weird. I've seen people on Steam and Reddit post that they can defeat Hand of the King with no issues but struggle on The Giant or the final boss. For me that's entirely the other way around. Both The Giant and the final boss have very well telegraphed attacks that seldom overlap into ridiculous stun lock insta-gibs. HotK can do that, his attack patterns are way too random, they can sometimes get stuck and heaven forbid if you whack his transition phase too quickly and he fist charges you into leftover Disgusting Worm bombs. It's also really frustrating when he summons exploding banners, follows this up with his super-souped up Telluric Shock and then forces you to eat the banners by dashing around. Anyway, fun game. Will probably play some more, there's this final, final ending left to see and all that. 140 hours so far out of a 10 € investment ain't half bad.

Hm, only our counter terrorism unit has APCs, and they're pretty much MAN trucks modified to be able to withstand assault rifle fire. They're no worse than regular trucks in terms of maintenance, well, perhaps a little, but they can be repaired and serviced at every regular MAN depot. Also very much not used to cruise around or appear tough.

Looks like he's trying to keep the mal aria away. Like old school plague doctors, just with less style.

Kane's subtle reminder that you should be playing Nod, not GDI. :nod:

Heh, this would be one for the unpopular gaming opionions thread but I never cared much for TA or any of its offshoots. The allure of early RTS games was never the gameplay for me, but everything else. Sadly the genre evolved into being all gameplay and no story, what with the success of MOBAs.

You could use Galaxy for that. It's all in one launcher, at least. It'll still start Origin, Steam, uPlay or Epic in the background but you'd have only one, neat library.

Every time I see Kane all I can think of is that he's actually the biblical Cain and an alien that just wants to leave earth.

I'm pretty sure Space Force is a hell lot more fun to watch if you aren't living in the US. I agree it is seldom something to laugh out loud, but it is really amusing.

So, hm, @Gorth, you're from Denmark, then went on to win Microsoft awards and are an ERP developer. You don't happen to have worked at Damgaard, Navision or the combined NavisionDamgaard at some point in your life, have you? Or... say, still work with their product(s)? (Pretty please just say no)

You should really look at Sexy Losers strip #016. Can't link (very much NSFW), rules and all, but way back when it first came out it had me snorting coke out of my nose.

As evidenced (not by a bear though) by Roy Horn being mauled by his white lion just because it felt like it. That's what wild animals do. Heck, happens with domesticated animals just as well. Cows are vicious killers.

In other words you whacked off to cartoons? xD

Caligula would be a more apt comparison, just substitute traitors with immigrants and deportations for executions. Champion of the people indeed. Plus I'm pretty sure that Trump suffered from brain fever as well, and if he actually manages to lose to Biden (which I doubt, but stranger things have happened) he'd also only have a four year reign, and any given character in his ridiculous entourage qualifies as a horse. Trump's not entirely wrong to claim there are issues with social media. It's just deliciously ironic coming from him. Great entertainment.

That one I really wanted to strangle J. K. Rowling for. Harry Potter sure sneaked a LOT with his invisibility cloak. I just looks... wrong. Wrong, I say. WRONG.

Nice save.

The truth about beer is thus: It is great in Central Europe with the exception of Germany. For some reason they managed to convince the entire world that the stuff they're selling is good. Anyway, should anyone of you find yourself in Vienna some day don't fall for some tourist trap and visit a small, off the beaten path pub called Kolar. Best beer in town, and a real contender for best beer anywhere. Just take care and don't get yourself the Starobrno just because it sounds Czech. I mean, sure, it is, but it's disguised Heineken swill. Heh. Although I have no idae why you would want to order anything but the Kolar beers. Unless you like wheat beer. In which case you're better off in Germany. Off you go.

So did you just assume BruceVC's domestic houseworker's gender, you sexist pig? You fit right in with PM Blackface. Disgusting!

Message from the King was a good movie indeed, except for one part very near the ending where King gets beaten up heavily but is mostly okay afterwards, while an earlier - less severe - beating has a more realistic effect on him. That was distracting.

Yeah, glad you're OK.

That reminds me I still need to watch S4. I also should finish watching Man in the High Castle. Oh, and Westworld.