Gorth

I thought the holy dollar was the state religion of the US Australia is horrible when it comes to religion. The church is very powerful and influential in society, which is why the systemic child rape in the churches managed to go on for almost a century, as they had both the politicians and the judiciary doing their bidding when covering up or actively ignoring it (one of those things everyone knew about, but you were going to burn in hell if you spoke out against "your betters"). 30% if the population today is catholic or some variation of it (about half the population is consider themselves followers of the christian faith). That was a culture shock when you come from Scandinavia. Denmark is something like 50% atheist, 20% agnostic and 30% believing in some god (lumping the Abrahamic religions together, protestant, islam, judaism, catholicism etc. as @Lexx pointed out, not too dissimilar to each other at times).

Didn't know there was a Rogue Trader (singular) novel.... I know of the Rogue Trader Omnibus from 2018, is that it? (I haven't read it)

A Ukrainian band/woman with a very interesting singing style... styles? First a bit of reggae and then a clip from Wacken

Mike Oldfield is someone I remember playing a lot during the 80's. In particular his collaboration with Maggie Reilly stands out in my memory... he made several albums before that, but they were probably a bit, not sure, too "artsy" for young Gorth? I since learnt to appreciate them and bought them all on cd, even if it took a few decades to appreciate them. Anyway, small cavalcade from my youth And a slightly "newer" song, live from London (only 25 years ago )

I already told people here, it wasn't a Russian job, it was disgruntled Danish oyster farmers from Bornholm that sabotaged that oil pipeline between Russia and Germany

I would be surprised if this isn't going to be "the movie to beat" at various award events

I don't know how many Jews still live in Russia (assuming they haven't all migrated to Israel yet), but I expect their lives just got more complicated by an order of magnitude. Like open hunting season being announced?

I'll have my chicken vindaloo between mild and medium, thank you very much No, never understood the desire for self inflicted pain either. Not even as some kind of macho or hazing ritual. I love spicy food. I like "hot" food within reason. But I insist on being able to taste the food too, which is hard when your tongue has lost all feeling (and you are constantly hovering around the kitchen roll because your eyes and nose is constantly running, while trying lessen the pain by drinking copious amounts of milk).

I've bought a few games twice... mostly when they were first on Steam and later became available on GOG. One thing I learned about Steam reviews is to actually *read* the negative reviews. If there is a pattern to the complaints, i.e. not just the usual this dev sucks and is greedy or overpriced stuff, but this game constantly crashes in max resolution, sound stutters constantly or this game has buggy save game feature etc. then I take that into account when I look at the price asked vs. whatever fun I expect(ed) to get out of it. Edit: ...and I stay clear of "early access" games in general (no absolutes), as my life is too short to be a paying beta tester. I'm happy to pay more for the final product instead.

Love them or hate them, the BBC fact finders seems to lean towards the PIJ based on intercepted Hamas communications (sadly the only source of that is Israeli, so no good for unbiased fact finding) and a rocket that broke up mid air... hence a lot of fire ball happening but leaving no large impact/explosion craters (as documented by the BBC reporters on site afterwards). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67144061 Edit: Tl;dr; it looks mostly like a large fuel explosion

Ouch South Africa... https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/67140802 It was a famous 38-run victory over World Cup contenders South Africa that sparked chaotic celebrations from the Netherlands underdogs as Logan van Beek took the winning wicket. The eruption was certainly justified: their first win of this year's tournament, the country's first win over a Test-playing nation in a 50-over World Cup and just their third win of all time in the competition. "It is the most iconic and memorable win for Dutch cricket," their former all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate told BBC Test Match Special in the post-match delirium. Not the sport I know the most about. Quite popular down here, but ranks about equal with Australian Football on my list of interests (i.e. I know it exists). I also know it's usually a more popular participation sport in South Africa than in the Netherlands

That sounds a bit like the annual competition between the Australian states of QLD and NSW ('The State of Origin') https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Origin_series The rivalry is real. "Players are selected to represent the Australian state in which they played their first senior rugby league game (either high school or local senior club)" may be part of why it's called origin?

My retirement situation is a bit complicated... part superannuation earned while living in Australia, part pension earned while living in Denmark. No idea how it's going to work out in the end exactly, as both major sources are pro-rata adjusted for how long I live(d) in each place. Probably 50/50 Danish pension, Australian superannuation Edit: I wonder if Mauritius would be a nice place to settle down and enjoy a pension some day

It wasn't a particular state... https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-stop-coronavirus-testing-right-now-have-very-few-cases-2020-6

Brazilian style or more traditional style?

Just an interesting local article on the current situation in Haiti and the lead up to it… https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-14/the-plot-to-assassinate-haitis-president/102953056

Yes Luckily modders released a fix at some point, which made them visible again. Iirc, there was also a version of Carmageddon released where the blood was coloured green But luckily that was only those sold on the German market, the version I bought in Denmark was perfectly fine, pedestrians getting all splattered and spraying red blood and gore everywhere when running them over.

I split the bulk of the recent Gaza/Hamas/Israel posts to a new thread Not all posts, but several of the recent ones, not including split subject posts. Just to allow for non Gaza conversations too without getting drowned out

Breville is a "big name" here in Australia. I think most of my small appliances are that particular brand (because it's what the departments stores seems to all have in stock)

I'm fairly sure they knew something was coming. Maybe they didn't know how to respond or prepare for it. I'm sure someone will suggest it was deliberately ignored because it provided a convenient distraction from home affairs, but personally I lean towards the just not taking the warnings seriously option. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67082047 Israel was warned by Egypt of potential violence three days before Hamas' deadly cross-border raid, a US congressional panel chairman has said. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee head Michael McCaul told reporters of the alleged warning. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu described the reports as "absolutely false".

Crossing fingers, hoping it's a fast and uncomplicated thing My young visitor is continuing her journey up north after the weekend. Probably just as well, as I'm not sure I could get used to have her around for prolonged periods of time. That flowery, fruity scent trail she leaves behind wherever she walks makes me constantly hungry

Not only would, but several of them I do on a regular basis. Emulator ftw! edit: emulators of choice are VICE for the c64 games and WinUAE for the Amiga games

I think that was the part that made me drop FO3 for good and never return to it. Those *^^$@#$ brats were so annoying and I couldn't kill them. Not even with the mini nuke

@BruceVC just a tl;dr; about each game on my little list.. First game was fast, furious and beat the crap out of anything you play at the arcade (without having to insert coin after coin after coin...) It was made by a guy named Jeff Minter and his one man company Llamasoft. Specializing in surreal and psychedelic stuff with Llama, Sheep and UFO's Second game was made by a guy named Mike Singleton. A bloody genious who created this game. Open world strategy game/role playing game hybrid with procedurally generated graphics and many ways to win (and lose the game). And this was in 1984. Third game was made by Ian Bell and David Braben. Elite is the grandfather of all space sims. Get new space ships, fight off pirates, do mercenary work and deal in goods (sometimes as a smuggler, but then you had to fight the space cops too). Always remembered those dread moments when your hyperdrive malfunctioned and you were stranded in empty space surrounded by Thargoids Fourth game was made by Richard Garriott AKA "Lord British". I played Ultima III too, but nothing came even close the feeling of being immersed in a working world with internally consistent laws and physics like Ultima IV. Again, this was 1985, not a lot of giant shoulders to stand on. Sensible Soccer was particularly awesome in multiplayer mode. The cursing, swearing, threats to players health's (and death wishes on the referees). it was fast, fun and the players had noticeable different stats and personalities (passing, tackling, shooting etc.). Sixth game was a product of it's time. Who doesn't like a nice game of total nuclear war. A pun on the times, the politicians and the movie War Games (the only way to win is not to play). The different predefined leaders had different personalities. Ghandi would never attack you, but relied entirely on propaganda, stealing your population etc. Last game was the best Battlemech game I've ever played. It was originally going to be a commercial, licensed product developed by a guy named Ralph Reed (iirc). But things turned sour between him and FASA who held the license at the time, so it became a shareware/freeware product. The video doesn't really do it justice as you could have anything from single mech vs. single mech to large squadrons fighting each other. Destructible landscape, environment factors etc. (like forest fires heating up your mech to water cooling them down).

By no means a comprehensive list, but a few favourites that actual had youtube vids (Between them, the two platforms probably boast tens of thousands of titles). I could create a personal top 100 and struggle trying to decide what to leave out But just some games that were memorable for me because of what they offered for their time... (all of them before PC was a viable gaming platform)