Gorth

And the IG Nobel prize goes to..:

Sorry, I accidentally messed up the thread title.... I hope it's recognizable

I'm just not a fan of big cities. Too many people, too many queues, too cramped, just generally too crowded everywhere (and the weather sucks) I need green stuff and wilderness within close range to feel comfortable. But, while I'm still here, a Serbian friend of mine asked me if I didn't want to join her for the Australian Open quarter finals tonight, since her country man Djokovich is playing. Not having been to a tennis match before, it's going to be fun to experience (I hope)

Besides the regular Guild Wars 2 gaming and the occasional Killing Floor 2 games, I've picked up Shadow of The Tomb Raider on a Steam sale. There *seemed* to be some consensus that it was trying to be a bit more about, well, tomb raiding. I hope that means more exploration and the odd puzzle solving rather than a crappy corridor shooter like the previous Crystal Dynamics offerings in the franchise. I only just started, so still too early for me to have an opinion on it.

Blender has a bit of a learning curve, but once mastered, it offers a Swiss Army knife of a tool box with more features than you can shake a stick at. It gives the commercial products (like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D etc.) a run for their money, offering some very competitive features for zero dollars. (edit: assuming you're a "hobbyist" and don't need the more powerful "pro features" of the commercial products) (edit2: Blender is not an image editing package, but a 3D modelling and rendering package) You do need to invest the time in learning it though. For image editing: Gimp was already mentioned. I remember using another one once upon a time called Paint.net. Nice features, doesn't scare the living daylights out of your wallet (it's free) and might be worth just to give a try at least.

There is never a wrong time to call out misogynists and rapists. Why do you suddenly feel so protective of a celebrity?

I wonder if your gallery includes O.J. Simpson? Speaking of which, wasn't it his lawyer that now defends Trump?

Not really sure if it should go here or the funny thread...

I guess I've been living more than a year in Melbourne now... too long. Time to cross borders again. Although only interstate. International relocation is even more expensive than interstate relocation, besides I'm busy getting through the citizenship application process. Would hate to see that wasted

Nothing new really, even the Roman emperors struggled to finance and pay their legions. (as there also had to be money on the budget to buy senate votes) Edit: The ever growing Roman army, which at some point was 80% of the government budget https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_the_Roman_army

Waiting for the Russians to introduce their own space corps

I'm surprised that the copyright/trademark lawyers aren't all over the US government. The similarity seems rather obvious Edit: In hindsight, equally surprised that the military would go for something that is a symbol of a utopian socialist society.

I really miss the 80's sometimes. Everything was better. The music, the cold war, the imminent end of the world, the weird hair cuts and the clothes...

Rest in peace Terry... and now the world has one less Python

Three is the perfect number indeed.... "And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it. "

It's really the only outcome of a two party system. Only thing worse than a two party system is a one party system.

You read it here first... Trump wins the next term and the shipwreck of a country he leaves behind is ripe for AOC to become president once she gets old enough. The GOP will ultimately be to thank for the hammer and sickle flag flying over the white house Edit:

Yeah, generalizing generally makes yourself look bad, not the stuff you're generalizing. Sometimes the devil is in the detail. Claiming 70% of kickstarters leads nowhere and linking to documentation for it is a fair go at the type of platform. Claiming they're all scams means, you lose the argument already at best, getting accused of libel at worst. My own, anecdotal experiences so far with kickstarter has been positive. The 3 games I supported all came out and delivered (and then some) what I expected. Pillars of Eternity, STASIS and Expeditions: Conquistador. https://store.steampowered.com/app/291650/Pillars_of_Eternity/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/380150/STASIS/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/237430/Expeditions_Conquistador/

Up until the last time I relocated from one state to another, I also had a dresser full of nuts, bolts, cords, cables (from old IDE to obsolete RGB, sata2,3, obscure USB formats etc.). I mean, it was perfectly good stuff, you can't just throw it away!!! (in the end, I did it anyway, keeping only a few 220V main power, some RJ45 and a handful USB cables)

Yeah, so much untapped potential in humanity

That might actually make me want to try the game (there is a free trial version on steam). The Tomb Raider anniversary edition was a huge disappointment, with plenty of boring combat and little to no exploration (which was what made me love the original Tomb Raider game). It was like a "running on rails" shooter with sub-par combat. I decided at the time, that Crystal Dynamics had had no f*** clue about what made the original game fun. Note to self, try out the trial version when getting home tonight.

Personally, I think anything that isn't fossil fuel based is an improvement.

Not so much world news, more like Australian news, but the dirty laundry of a superannuation/wealth management fund named AMP deserves a lot more exposure: A royal commission investigating the financial sector in Australia decided that AMP had to refund a few hundred million dollars that they had incorrectly charged people in fees (after the no service, no fee principle). To steal the money back, that they had been ordered to return to the rightful owners (after AMP had stolen them in the first place), they just created a bunch of new accounts without those peoples knowledge, put their money there (effectively in AMP accounts) and... yes, charged people hefty fees for looking after their money for them. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-21/amp-fees-for-no-service-scandal-cash-repaid-in-new-accounts/11883032 Those not familiar with Australian Royal Commissions, it's a commission with extrajudicial powers with a mandate to investigate and correct wrongs, usually with a very specific mandate, in this case the numerous banking scandals that needed to be gotten to the bottom of. A Royal Commission is effectively prosecutor, jury and judge, not bothering with all the usual red tape stuff, like needing warrants etc.

...and the storms came. Those who didn't succumb to fire storms are now at risk of drowning in the floods (or as seen, struck down by lightning). I think Canberra got hit worse by the hail than Melbourne though Not having a car, I wasn't too worried about the damage they did, but I ended up getting home several hours late form work because one of the train stations had been affected too badly from flooding. Golf ball-sized hail, a town engulfed by a giant dust storm, two people struck by lightning — and that's just 24 hours in Australia https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-20/australia-wild-weather-hail-rain-storms-lightning-dust/11883496

I wonder if their "going green" also includes their data centres, which hosts their cloud operations. Not surprised if those things consumes the output of a nuclear power plant