Gorth

Remember the old jokes about dropping off your baby in the forest and if it survives, it's strong enough? Not quite as drastic... Danish forest kindergardens, home of feral Danes

Sounds a bit like the protein folding project people used to run instead of screensavers

All I see is that China owns a substantial amount of the US Debt (1 trillion) and about 4 trillion USD as currency reserve. They pretty much have the fingers on the trigger of the US economy too. If push comes to shove, they can make it crash and burn, because they might have more influence on the currency exchange rates of the USD than the US has... (yes, I did see the historical reasons for it, keeping the currency they get paid in high and the currency they pay workers domestically in at a lower rate to keep it cheap). But, I was referring to China (unlike some oil states I coul

I wouldn't trust anything coming out of Russia Today any more than the official Chinese propaganda garbage coming out of the Global Times... Did they celebrate because they thought Trump would be anything other than a loose cannon, bringing down a long time rival? Putin putting Trump in the White House would be akin to the German strategy in 1917 when they put Lenin on a train and sent him to Russia. The destabilizing effect led to Germany winning the war on the Eastern Front and Russia imploding. Besides, unless a tectonic plate suddenly and unexpectedly submerges and takes China with it

Southern California shall rise again! (Or should I say Colorado?)

Ah yes, the Mandarin classes. I've been a bad student. Too old and too lazy to learn new languages these days. If anything, I would probably start practicing my neglected French skills. Reciting a French menu card just sounds sexier than reading out loud from a Mandarin menu card

Define "many"? The Bush clan and Trump were utter failures in my book. Last one from top of my head would've been Reagan for his contribution towards reducing tensions with the USSR in the 1980's.

This. I do not doubt for a moment, that there will be a lot of public posturing for the benefit of the press and going through the old cliches of human rights blah blah Navalny blah blah (an ultra nationalist, like Putin on steroids who thinks all Muslims should be summarily killed) blah blah Ukraine blah blah etc. Once the doors to the public are closed (notice how the US press is whining about how limited the access of the press is at this summit?) and roll up the sleeves and discuss realpolitik. Like what is going to be the "price" for leaving eastern Ukraine alone and not support China in

NATO, suffering from a decades long existential crisis seems to have found a new enemy they can agree to disagree with… Nope, not Russia, but China https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57466210

Disclaimer: I only just started on the game, made it to level 3 (level cap is 10), so my impressions are what I got after a few days play. With the settings cranked up (3800x2100 or thereabouts and all effects, the game is visually pretty). Now art direction... yes, like humour, i suppose that is also a matter of taste. Not so much childrens cartoon style as old French and Belgian comic book style, which i grew up with (Danish translations) and loved very much and still do to this day. Very different from for example US comic art styles. Closest "style" I can think of would be Asterix.

A personal favourite of mine... the first Witcher game

And just fom the Bioware titles to the Black Isle titles...

I don't remember all the posts in a thread started 9 years ago, sorry if already posted... but the original Mass Effect had some pretty good music Shame on anyone who doesn't feel nostalgic when listening to any of these...

I'm not really much for giving games "ratings". My world view is a bit too binary sometimes. Either I like it or i don't (i.e. 100 or -5). I like this game. Very much so. East to learn mechanics, which can still involve some rather convoluted thinking and strategies for skill choices and party deployment. At a certain point, your party grows from 7 to 8 and you have to make a binding choice from 3 candidates, a bard, a paladin and a priest, which one you want to add permanently. I let my glorious party leader, the ranger, have the final word and went with the priestess. In his own words, she h

Playing Dungeon of Naheulbeuk… I just dispatched the cheese guarding chef and his henchmen (and henchrats) followed by a showdown with the cultists of Dlul, the god of boredom. Looks like my party may have been cursed by the latter, constantly yawning and suffering from lethargy

I suppose you can leave the helmet and seat belts... I mean, what would be the point?

The Arab Spring dates back to 2010, so it can't really have been a "root cause". Did it contribute to its manpower? Sure. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/timeline-the-rise-spread-and-fall-the-islamic-state But ISIS can trace its roots back to the creation of Al Qaeda in 2004. Major supporters of AQ being first and foremost Saudi Arabia and to a lesser degree Turkey. The latter because they have a religious nutcase in the form of Erdogan who came to power in 2003 Timeline from the link: 2004-2012 2004: Abu Musab al Zarqawi establishes al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). J

You could argue, that ISIS wasn't created by the CIA as much as the Bush administration and that only inadvertently due to the Iraq war and no plans for what to do after Saddam was removed. The sectarian violence that followed in the power vacuum led to the creation of ISIS and all it's spin offs from Africa to the Philippines. Killing heretic Shia Muslims is their priority. Killing heathen westerners wherever they find them is a bonus. Edit: Since the spin off and splinter groups have run all out of heretics to kill, they just make heathens their priority instead. Nothing like ram

I like the humour in Dungeon of Naheulbeuk. It's an acquired taste for sure, but luckily for me, I acquired it. Sadly, it doesn't have a built in screenshot action key, so I have to find something better. Maybe that built in feature in Windows 10 can do the job of taking shots during conversations and combat. As far as combat goes, it's quite well made. Easy to learn and hard to master. I think my next skill point investment in the party ogre is going to be 'Advanced Murderhoboing' "This spell was originally invented as a way to enforcing social distancing during pan

To be honest, the only thing I remember is what we were taught in history class as a young kid. Not the specifics of each paragraph, but just what in meant in a historical context, being the basis of a "constitutional monarchy" and explaining why the queen doesn't rule in an authoritarian way like her ancestors on the throne did in ages past. I.e. the elected parliament is responsible for the day to day running of the country and the royal council only assumes executive power in case of a state of emergency (which should encourage politicians to prevent it from happening as that would result i

No public holiday for you! Not even a partial one...

Constitutions... nothing but trouble Australia sort of has a constitution, but it mostly just outlines the balance of power between state and federal government, the role of the courts, parliament and government. Each state has it's own constitution. From the internet: Why don’t we have many Constitutional rights? The world has changed significantly since Federation. Rights are now at the forefront of many people’s mind. However, the Australian Constitution contains very few written rights. It was a deliberate decision of the writers of our Constitution to trust the democrati

It looks like my old country has adopted the immigration policy of my current country... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57343572 "Denmark has passed legislation allowing it to relocate asylum seekers to third countries outside the European Union while their cases are reviewed. The project, proposed by the Social Democrat-led government, would seek partner countries to run camps and fund agencies along migration routes" Just like Australia has an agreement with Papua New-Guinea, Denmark has made an agreement with Rwanda. In the future, asylum seekers will be se

Ironically, what does the most damage to human bodies is oxygen... and the first great mass extinction was when earth got polluted by an abundance of oxygen, which is/was a waste product from plant(like) organisms. Few life forms survived because they were able to adapt and survive the oxygen, even if it does put a constant strain on those organisms and those that descended and evolved from them. (which is why anti-oxidants are supposed to slow the aging process, you essentially "rust" at a slower pace ) Edit: I use the word 'ironically' because the same stuff that kills us i

Australian immigration authorities might decide to deny you any visitors visa