Gorth

I would love to see more info on those mid 1800's camps, because the only source I could find documenting something earlier than the British, were the Spanish in Cuba in 1890 (i.e. 10 years before). We are not talking about reservations or small plots of land, but fenced in areas with barbed wires and guards, neutralizing a captured civilian population. In the South African case, over 40000 women and children killed over a 2 year period (the men were deported off shore to remote islands in the Atlantic and elsewhere, to pacify them).

Poor Pluto...

Guild Wars 2 is still my main time sink, but when playing single player games, I'm sort of all over the place at the moment. Sometimes playing Tyranny, sometimes Nier: Automata, sometimes Code Vein and sometimes Conan: Exiles. (and Microsofts Solitaire and Mahjong games, as well as Master of Orion 2 quickies)

I suspect Bruce is a bit biased (as in completely), because we're talking about the RAF and England here I think the Americans best summed up their strategic objective, the city was full of factory workers, making it a strategic target. The goal, to kill as many people as possible and reduce the industrial output. Maximizing civilian casualties being the primary goal to accomplish this (the latter paraphrased by me). The English did the same thing in Hamburg (aptly named Operation Gormorra), even refining the technique, the "Firestorm" burning for days. The aim being to maximize civilian casualties. Between the two raids, estimated casualties varies, ranging from 75000 to twice the number (and that's the dead, countless more injured, maimed, dying later from their burns) Yes. that's from the country who was the first to systematically use concentration camps for ethnic cleansing (trying to systematically wipe out the Boer population)? War is dirty business and being on the winning side is always preferably when history is written. As for Churchill, I haven't watched the movie, but Anzac troops generally doesn't seem to remember Gallipoli favourably.

Moved to the stories section. Less problematic with any spoiler images. At least for now. Once the game has aged a bit, it's more likely to be less of an issue.

😂 Sorry Bruce, not aimed at you. Some day we'll all miss the antics of the British Commons. I already posted a scene from "Yes Prime Minister" at some earlier point, not going to repeat it. Weird to think I left the UK because of the referendum result and now, 3 years later they are still arguing instead of just grabbing some handkerchiefs to slap each others faces with and duel it out.

Nooooo! I guess I would nominate Planescape Torment main theme and Guild Wars Two "Fear not this night" as my two current favourites. edit: Links

Met up with a friend yesterday, had Japanese food. Excellent Sashimi 😋 Then we went and saw The Joker. Wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. A Gotham City movie with no explosions, cape wearing super heroes or any of the usual trademarks. A very interesting movie about a naive guy, who gets gradually worn down by society, his mother, himself and eventually cracks after enough having taken enough abuse, both physically and psychologically. The trailer for Pavarotti looked like it could be an interesting movie too.

Not saying the people in the picture are Trump voters... but the similarity in the underlying mindset is worrying.

No statistics, just wondering, maybe there is a correlation between suicide rates, demographics and whatever stigmas exists in the local communities around such outrageous and alien ideas as "mental healthcare" and "seeking help", rather than always do the acceptable thing and "suck up adversity like a man!"?

Looks like the direct clashes between Syria and Turkey have been inevitable for a long time, especially with Turkey trying to do the land grabs around Aleppo. Russia and Iran will likely support Syria to a degree (probably limit overt support from Russia). Turkey seems to want to free the IS fighters, guessing on my part entirely, to re-arm them and sic them on the Kurds. Question is, will Trump aid Turkey militarily against Syria/Russia in such a conflict, especially if the conflict spills over the border into the Turkish side of it? Of course, Trump being the moron he is, I do not doubt that he would happily support Turkey, Saudi Arabia and their IS allies, and claim it was his plan all along for a better and brighter middle-east (regardless of how many billions of dollars he has now wasted trying to suppress IS).

Not quite as bad as when I played Swtor (but then, I played that for 6+ years before putting it aside). My Guild Wars 2 level characters just keep popping up, getting played for a long time, put aside and then new ideas manifest themselves in my brain, I just desperately have to try out how it looks and works. So many alts.... I'm sure Arenanet loves the money I spend in the cash shop for character slots! A rather sinister dude, the Deadeye sniper, lurking in the shadows, hitting hard with a long range barrage of damage and fading back to stealth. Edit: I almost finished the pre-cursor for the legendary weapon "The Predator", which is a fancy rifle, no doubt introduced with this class in mind And the other new guy (girl) on the block, a "Weaver", which is an elementalist that unlike other elementalists can combine and use two elements at the same time.

London has some excellent Fish & Chips! Just kidding, one of the few things I miss from the greater London area is the variety of restaurants and take-aways.

My much anticipated Metallica concert at the end of this month got cancelled. James Hetfield sent to rehab. Now torn between getting a refund or hang on to the tickets and wait for a replacement date to be announced at some distant future time.

I can't believe it took me this long to recognize an obvious Easter egg. I've been walking past this trio several times over the last year (A meerkat, a warthog and a lion cub, cue Disney music)

There, fixed it for you. The guy is only a year younger than Sanders though, so just as likely to keel over from a heart attack before the final vote is counted. Elizabeth Warren might surprise you. She's the bookmakers favourite too... at least at the time of writing. No, not going to post link to gambling sites, but lets just say Aussies give her 1.91 times money back, Biden 4.33 (and Sanders 11.0)

😂 It's not like Trump ever tried to abide by the law or any rules. Why should anyone dealing with him be expected to do so? 🤔 (Biblical quote) "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do ye even so to them" I still think it was a stroke of genius on Putin's part putting him in the white house. It was the most damaging thing, short of nuclear war, he could do to the US. Sad thing is, when the US becomes the fifth major bankruptcy in Trumps "career" as a business man, he's going to drag the world economy down with him. Ah well, the world was getting too overpopulated anyway. Time to place bets on when world wide social unrest becomes unmanageable on a large scale.

It's been quite a few years since I read something that wasn't either Warhammer/WH40k fiction or technical documentation, so it was nice for once getting started on a "real" book Currently reading "The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science". Not quite fiction, not quite science, more the journey of a writer. It doesn't try to prove science wrong or alien abductees wrong, it tries to work out the mindset and psychology behind the positions that people take on both sides of the fence. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/9887992/The-Heretics-by-Will-Storr-review.html

Being a fan of turn based goodness, I gave Battlestar Galactica Deadlock a try. Not bad, even if I got my butt handed to me by the AI. I need to play tutorials for a bit I think

Ah, Spy vs. Spy. I already put up a list of the most nostalgic ones, so just some honourable mentions (I mentioned some of my favourite publishers of the age). From Electronic Arts: Archon I+II - chess was never the same again for me, although the second game was a bit different Skyfox - It was like a cold war thriller/war movie/simulation, oozing atmosphere. Alternate Reality - First crpg where I didn't care that it had almost no story and no discernable plot. Exploring was fun! Heart of Africa + Seven Cities of Gold - Similar type games in different settings. Again, exploration was a large part of the fun. My little brother at some point got Mail Order Monsters and I bought Racing Destruction set - Just endless hours of fun. Realm of Impossibility - Take that "Wistrik"!!! From Activision: H.E.R.O. - Something about going underground and rescuing trapped people was never more fun than this. Watch out for the lava! Pitfall - What is says on the tin Trailblazer - A "surreal", futuristic ball game. Fast and furious Hacker - Play it in a dark room. Pull a blanket over your head and monitor. Creates the right atmosphere for this gem of a game. Little Computer People - I didn't have it, but my brother got it as a Christmas present. This was The Sims more than a decade before The Sims. No idea how many years "Alfred" lived in that Commodore 64 Rescue on Fractalus - Early attempts at real, 3d landscape and exploration on 8bit machines. Fractals were a thing back then. Alter Ego - A game that somehow managed to weird me out. Really, really well done for it's time. Several floppies big and that's for a text only game! US Gold: Zaxxon - Side scrolling done right! Chop Lifter - Sort of the opposite of H.E.R.O. open air rescue of people on the surface Beach Head - mentioned in previous post in this thread Fort Apocalypse - Don't want to remember the obscene number of hours trying to penetrate the fortress, shooting your way through enemies and destructible terrain. Impossible Mission - After a few years of trying, it was a relief to finally hear the "Noooo!" (game had digitized speech) Solo Flight - A flight simulator that was FUN to play. Just strolling around in your little plane, taking off, landing etc. Advanced for its time. Nato Commander - Probably saw regular play for almost 10 years. This was during the cold war after all. Silent Service - I still remember dreading the engine sound of destroyers! I could probably list scores of additional games, but those sprang to mind when jogging down memory lane.

That sounds like the government 🤔

Ummm, about that *cough* About a year? gw2efficiency says I've played about 2600 hours (and died 2020 times, giving approx 0.8 death per 1 hour played 😂) Bear in mind, the ingredients on the base ingredient list are the easy things to get. The not so base ingredients are the tough ones to get. But, my Charr warrior is happy to carry his new friend along ☺️

Checked up a few reviews for BL3. Not that I was going to install the Epic launcher anyway, just to satisfy my curiosity. Mechanically similar to BL2, but without the story and Handsome Jack as the main antagonist. The latter is going to be a tough act to follow in any case, Handsome Jack being my favourite villain in any game so far 😈 Oh, and buggy as hell was something people seemed to agree on. So, still having a lot of fun playing Guild Wars 2. I finally managed to complete my first legendary weapon My very own Quaggan in a bowl https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shooshadoo When not playing GW2, I have a go at the old EU III (I have IV too, but never really got into it). Cheated outrageously, editing the original saved game and gave Byzantium a larger starting pool of manpower, gold and spies. Spies in particular are helpful, causing Cyprus, Rhodos, Kreta and what's their name the islands east of Athens to defect from the despicable Venetians to me. Building up mercenary forces, naval superiority too, meant I could fight the Ottomans in Europe while their army was in eastern Anatolia fighting the Timurids (and cutting off their ability to reinforce their position in Greece). I've managed to change my technology to 'Western'. Trying to reach a point where I can also change unit types to 'Western' Also trying out Monster Hunter World. I find it boring and uninteresting as a single player game, but the team missions with friends are fun

Keeping an eye on the news the last few days. Got friends living in the affected areas in Queensland (Australia has broken all the old records for start of and severity of bushfires and it's not even summer yet). Not sure if this link works outside Australia, but it looks impressive... from a distance that is. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-09/ember-attack-during-bushfire-on-the-sunshine-coast/11494188

I like unusual stuff.... unusual enough for me to like it