Gorth

Damn Dwarves!

Cut and pasted from old thread... only real change is the Gfx card, because I'm a cheapskate. Originally it was just the onboard intel "gfx", then a ti-1050 with (4gb) Casing Corsair Carbide Quiet 600Q Inverse ATX Full Tower Case PSU Dark Power Pro 11 1000W Power Supply Motherboard Asus ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming LGA 1151 ATX Motherboard CPU/CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 8700K Six Core LGA 1151 3.7 GHz Dark Rock Pro 3 RAM Corsair 64GB (4 x 16GB) CMK32GX4M2B3000C15 DDR4 3000MHz Vengeance LPX HDD (boot) Intel 760p Series M.2 NVMe SSD 512GB HDD (other) (x2 for 12TB total) Western Digital Black WD6002FZWX 6TB Optical Drive (does dvd, blu-ray and m-disc writing) LG BH16NS55 GFX Asus ROG-STRIX-RTX2070S (8gb) I like how relatively low noise the gfx card is even when under duress. And if I feel like getting it more quiet, the accompanying Asus software allows me to use "silent" mode where it sacrifices speed for low temperatures (and less fan activity)

In Soviet Russia, cows either meet dairy quotas or become movie extras edit: makes you wonder how long the cast list was before they started shooting the movie (pun unintended)

So many supermarkets can't be wrong, frozen pizza is good for you! I've been eating enough antibiotics lately to keep an entire meadow full of dairy cows healthy Another 5 days says the doctor. Ah well. Nom nom nom... At least the ugly red and purple stripes leading from my foot up to my hip has receded, barely visible anymore

Yeah, I mentioned that one a while ago. Funny trivia, for added realism (or lack of blanks), the director insisted on all scenes using live ammo for shooting, artillery and explosions in the movie. So when you see grenades impacting or bullets doing a bit of deforestation, it's all real. That should teach those actors to keep their heads down

I think Cuba got a rotten deal, because they never were off to to a good start. Not sure how you would remove a general from power other than revolution? Unfortunately he was owned and paid by the US tobacco industry, so the only ones who wanted to help were the Soviets. Fast forward half a century and between Cubans in exile and half a century old US dogma, there is no way the Cuban story can be allowed to be a success story, so it has to be crushed in any which way possible, humanitarian costs being acceptable collateral. They could have fair and free elections between multiple parties tomorrow and Cuba would still be screwed. Scandinavian countries were somewhat better off. At least we only lived next door to Germany. When they aren't busy invading us (us as in Denmark), they are happy to trade with us. We usually sell stuff to them at outrageous overprices too while laughing behind their backs. I mentioned in the past, that I'm more than anything an "anarchist". I believe any institution that becomes too big is a danger to us. Whether it's a bank, a corporation, a church or a government. They serve their own inhuman ideals first and foremost and individuals will inevitable become crushed by the grinding gears of such institutions. I say, break them up, tear them down, bring power and decision making closer to the individual. Unregulated capitalist systems inevitably leads to monopolies where you get to pay everything you have for nothing, given enough time. It's probably not a coincidence that eh EU Commissioner for Competition (basically a watchdog keeping large monopolies in check) is from Denmark. You need governments by the people for the people and a transparency that would make many governments shiver in fear for people to feel as happy about their governments as the Scandinavians.

Do you have medical insurance? If so, time to let them pay for something Besides, bowel cancer is a major killer of old males world wide. Wouldn't hurt starting on the annual screening process.

Too late mate, too late

@Elerond I remember this from my Danish history classes. In the 19th century, Denmark had 4 political parties "Right" (later renamed to The Conservatives), "Left", "Social Democrats" and a tiny party that is politically centrist, but got seats allocated to the left of the social democrats, so they got name "Radical Left" (having the left most seats) Ironically the conservative party were the only ones to change their name the last 150 years. Edit: But agreed, typically communism and anarchy are "left wing" ideologies and fascism and nationalism are "right wing" ideologies.

if you saw the lengths bots and their developers go to... no, it's not overkill at all. Yes, bots do verify their accounts in fully automated ways, including breaking just about any captcha you can think of. Edit: Spam bots are the single largest drain on human resources on these forums at least.

I hurt my big toe a few weeks ago... nothing broken, but very painful. It split the tissue as well as dislodged the nail. Yeah, ouch But, it eventually grew a little less painful and I could walk around again, even if limping badly on my right leg. Then about a week ago, my toe suddenly started hurting again. As did the rest of my body. Then came the fever and completely knocked me out last weekend. Could do nothing, just lying on top of my bed, shivering like a puppy, unable to get warm. First I though, crap, Covid? Now? They ain't no covid near where I live Since I didn't sleep at all for 48 hours, I eventually crashed completely Monday, slept until evening. Noticed a faint red rash on my lower leg, but fell asleep again and woke up Tuesday around 11am. Now the rash was gone. Instead my foot had swollen up and my leg had turned an unhealthy red and purple from the knee down. Besides the ugly scenery, the pain was excruciating, like someone hammering nails into the thing flesh on your lower leg and the skin feeling waaaay too tight for my leg. Yeah, time to call the doctor and see if I could get an appointment. He was out of town though, so couldn't get him to check if before Thursday. He spent a lot of time telling me off for not going to hospital straight away And then he sent me off to the hospital. Currently eating some 500mg whatever antibiotics 4 times a day. Apparently I cut it a bit close before it turned septic and lethal. The stuff seems to work now, pain is less excruciating today and some of the purple at least seems to have receded. All because of a stupid little toe injury.

Pretty much, yes. I also know it only works because society as a whole agrees it's worth keeping. It also helps a LOT that few governments are more under scrutiny and gets called out by free, independent press than the Scandinavian governments. They **** up, they're out. Of course the opposition parties usually wins the next election anyway, regardless of left/right affiliation. 4 years and enough dirt will have accumulated that people want "the other option". Some call it the Scandinavian Model. I think of it as a hybrid model. The socialism part is financed through high taxes and no, corporate taxes are low enough to make Danish companies very competitive internationally, ask Maersk

If you like Trump, you may like it here... but some of us prefer functional democracies with a free press. Not sure where to start, as it's a comprehensive subject. Let's introduce the current ruling party, the ALP (Australian Liberal Party, colloquially known as "The Liberals"). The PM is a failed marketing employee whose greatest contribution to provide leadership during the worst bush fire season on record was... to jump on a plane to Hawaii with his family for some well deserved leave! (not kidding, **** was hitting the fan and he decided it was getting too hot here, so better leave now). The only thing he did right in the handling of the Covid19 outbreak was, to not do anything and let the state PM's deal with it. Between them, those PM's did a better job than he could have ever dreamt of. Ok, that was the introduction of the federal PM. Scott Morrison, also known as ScoMo from Marketing in popular speech. The party (ALP) is owned by the a combination of the 4 major banks, the mining industry and the church ("owned" as in they are the ones bank rolling the party), giving all 3 interest groups the real power in the country. Corruption is becoming an increasing problem: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/corruption-in-australia-has-worsened-over-the-past-eight-years-international-watchdog https://www.governmentnews.com.au/global-index-shows-australia-seen-as-increasingly-corrupt/ Examples... Before the last election, billions of dollars were provided for and approved in the budget by both sides of parliament to be used to stimulate and grow youth sport and grass root sports. Leveling a field here and there to make a playable pitch, provide dressing rooms in sports clubs in remote areas, the kind of stuff. The government sat on those money throughout there election period until just before the last election. Then they spent it all on luxury swimming pools in affluent suburbs etc. to entice the rich and wealthy to get the lazy butts to the voting ballots. When called out in it, the PM found an expendable nobody in the government to sacrifice, like the good little pawn she was. Cardinal Pell, convicted child molester and rapist of young boys... went through two appeal instances and got his conviction upheld. Unfortunately, the third appeal instance was a buddy of the PM's and so he had to be let off the hook. Even if scum like him is one of those rare instances where I think the death penalty would have been appropriate. But, the church is VERY powerful in Australia. I'm surprised they don't have weekly witch burning events. And, they are also a sponsor of the government. So, don't rely on the justice system at all if involves a church, that got taken apart by a Royal Commission and revealed a culture of systemic rape and sexual abuse. We're talking about 1000's of confirmed cases over just the last 50 years. But the priests, being all powerful, simply rotates the priests between the parishes or whatever those things are called whenever they get too much attention. When a Royal Commission tore the banks apart and revealed a system that was rotten to the core, no prosecutions worth noticing followed, the government held their protective hands over the banks. I'm talking about charging a percent too much here or there, but driving families from their homes because they can't pay money owed by dead relatives... and the money owed by those relatives? The banks simply decided to charge dead people a lot of money for financial advice and consultation rendered (well knowing those people had been long dead). Hey, if it goes and they pay, good, right? Oh, and the mining industry? They recently got in the spotlight when the government gave Rio Tinto permission to blow up a 46000 old archeological site, despite promises to the local people of consulting with them before doing anything drastic to important heritage sites. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-52869502 And then, how can The Liberals get away with all this? Because of Australia's biggest problem, Rupert Murdoch (yes, the same Aussie guy that owns and runs Fox News in the US). He owns 80% of the media nationwide and here in the state where I live (QLD) he owns literally 100% of the media. Guess how much room that leaves for healthy debate and questioning? Murdoch loves playing politics, both at home and in the US. Here, his control is almost absolute though, leaving no room for independent thinking and opinion building. The thought police will make sure you think the right way, vote Liberal, support the mining industry, the banks and the church. When the ABC (a national news tv channel) uncovered war crimes committed by Australian forces (I don't remember if it was Iraq of Afghanistan), the PM sic'ed the federal police on them, raiding their offices, detaining staff, seizing equipment and shutting down their operation for as long as he could, because that should teach them not to offer dissenting voices. Welcome to Australia. The part they don't mention in the tourist brochures. Besides, it's easy to slip under the radar, because the only country doing any real business with Australia is China, who buys cheap iron and uranium and in return gets to take over some of the best farmland (but Rio Tinto says it's ok, because nobody else is buying iron ore these days).

If you would like to try it the other way around, then you should visit Australia some day.

There is more to it... apparently nobody does their homework Stalin knew war was coming with Germany, but he had some "house keeping" to do first before he was ready to start a war (hence he would do anything and sign anything to appease Hitler until he was ready. Mass execution of the senior officers and anyone who could possible threaten his position (I'll leave it to people to look up "The Great Purge" and it's effects) left The Red army completely shattered and without leadership in 1941. Even such small things as lessons learnt from fighting against the Germans in the Spanish Civil war was lost because the Soviets who had fought in that war were show-trialled and executed. If it hadn't been for the winter 1941-1942, they would probably have had Swastika on the spires of the Kremlin today.

in Soviet Russia, firefighters use nukes to extinguish fires... (no kidding)

Some old school Rammstein (from a 1997 concert I *think*)

Tell me about it. Young people these days... On a more serious note: "I know you quoted this from somewhere else but there is a massive difference between your 4 points, which indeed should concern anyone if we experience it like the rise of the Nazis, and wanting to curtail the harmful and insidious influence of well meaning but deeply unsustainable socialist policies " That just rubbed me the wrong way, because I was familiar with the (original, German) version of the quote as well as its context. I think you were barking up the wrong tree, unapologetically at that. As for socialism, your mileage may vary. I grew up in a hybrid system with strong trade unions. The unions eventually made themselves obsolete (today they nothing more than footnotes in politics) because they achieved their goals. Decent pay, maximum work hours, generally humane conditions. Danes may rant every now and then against the taxes, but you can still become wealthy and I don't think they feel particularly oppressed by the political system. Now if you ask them how they feel about banks on the other hand... Edit: As for the quote... basically if you don't stand up for other peoples rights, don't expect them to stand up for yours.

How about doing a little research... The quote is from Martin Niemöller, a German priest and diehard opponent of Hitler. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists Edit: And also, yeah, I remember that quote from history lessons way back in basic school (I would have been 12-13 at the time)

Tesla is getting competition in the electric car market...

The US already has the death penalty, time to introduce pay per view for networks to show live executions, gladiatorial games in the arenas, prisoner inmates vs. lions... you name it. Keeps the populace calm and increases the government revenue. It worked for a while for the Romans https://sites.middlebury.edu/circusmaximus/files/2013/09/intro-conclusion-activity.pdf

Have you hugged a cow today? If not, you should. Cow cuddling is apparently good for humans http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20201008-is-cow-hugging-the-worlds-new-wellness-trend

I got a bit of tax money back the other day, so decided to upgrade my old gfx card. Out went the old ti1050 and in went a slightly larger rdx2070. Some noticeable performance improvements (of course it sounds much simpler than it was actually getting it to fit inside the case)

My current game of "War in Russia" is going well. Actually, a bit too well. As the Soviet side, I got weather patterns I've never seen before in 15 years of playing the game. A statistical oddity that I couldn't have planned better if I had somehow cheated and bribed the weather gods. It also means, the match became way, way to uneven as I'm only in the summer if 1942 and I've already taken Romania and subjecting the cities and towns in eastern Poland to sustained artillery bombardments. I'll probably be in Berlin before the end of the year. As for the weather, a bit of explanation: The game starts with Axis forces have a bonus to supply and readiness for the first 6 weeks of the campaign to simulate the preparations and stockpiling taking place before operation Barbarossa. However, once winter sets in, Axis forces lose a lot more readiness than Soviet forces and every once in a blue moon, the weather is supposed to change from snow to blizzard. During blizzard conditions in the winter 1941, Axis forces (except Finland, which is counted among Axis forces for this campaign) lose so much readiness that a single sneeze from Stalin sends even elite SS troops fleeing for St. Tropez, having much better things to do than fighting a war. Basically, any Axis unit you attack during blizzard conditions crumbles and shatters. It's supposed to be an exception. I got it 9 weeks in a row, then a single week of snow and back to another 12 weeks of blizzard (after which it turned to rain and mud, which makes movement almost impossible) I completely destroyed the Wehrmacht, the Hungarians, Italians, Slovakians and Romanians. It freed up troops I could redeploy and overwhelm Finland, which surrendered after Red Army units marched into Helsinki. Now I have a staggering surplus of men, material and resources and am facing an enemy that is completely annihilated already. I guess I'll I finish the campaign just for trying out the unusual circumstances. Edit: Slovakians, not Slovenians

This... so much this! Also, some of the companions in Jagged Alliance 2 with some of their personality quirks. Just deciding they don't like the company, packing up and leaving. Where is the professional pride of mercenaries??? Edit: Honorable mention to Kai Leng, even if as mentioned above he wasn't a companion, the entire concept just felt "stupid" (and yes, just like the Malak fight on board the Leviathan in Kotor, it feels stupid beating the **** out of your enemy and wiping the floor with their bloody carcass, just for the game suddenly deciding that you have been overruled and declared the loser of the fight after trashing Kai Leng/Malak)