Gorth

Russia seems happy to accept "collateral damage" when it's convenient It would make life for the his successor a bit easier if Putin became a "glowing" example of Russian leadership (Fallout reference) Edit: You may not have noticed, but the decision making process in Moscow isn't always rational by western standards

They could nuke SA from a distance without ever setting foot there...

Does JA3 have a "sci fi option" too? While a bit silly, it was quite fun exploring the mines in JA2 with it enabled. Probably no chance of seeing poor Elliot again. Loved the little sequences in the palace with the interactions between Deidranna and Elliot

I got myself brutally mauled to the point of reload because of my own silliness. That place where you loot a trivial object that spawns some angry wraiths (unless you put it back again)? Yeah, I forgot I had vendorized that for a few pennies and went back later to pursue another side quest on the same map. The welcoming committee was overjoyed to see me again... to the point where they wouldn't let me leave Need to prepare a bit better, go back and spank them for their effort.

Not sure if new in any way, but from various sources (including satellite images), Wagner forces are now congregating around 100km south of Minsk. Lukashenko has already offered them "work", defending Belarus against hostile neighbors (a veiled threat against Poland?)

The only spiders I didn't like were the huntsmen, that sometimes visited my place, running over the living room floor, when I first moved to Brisbane. About 12cm-15cm leg span (4.5"-6" for the metrically challenged). The smaller Redback spiders hanging out in my shower cabin didn't bother me so much. Persistent little buggers though, every time I removed them, a new one would move in, at the exact same corner. Something about that particular spot just seems to make it look ideal for that particular breed...

Warning, everything on that page is in Icelandic

And answer a few questions too... like how many cricket games did Donald Bradman win during his career and what is the ideal BBQ temperature for lamb sausages (thank you)

Passed my citizenship test today. Still need to do some ceremony where you swear loyalty or allegiance or some such to Australia

One thing this casual player miss, is a "macro" function to store a sequence of always used buffs for party members. Didn't BG1 or BG2 have something to that effect, where you could store several spells in a kind of trigger? Simply because it gets tedious when you have to cast the same 25 spells at the beginning of every (they are frequent) encounter.... (slightly exaggerated for effect)

Not familiar with Aliens: Dark Descent... I'll have to look it up

Completed Xenonauts a few times. Loved it. Looking forward to where Xenonauts 2 is headed In the end, I'll probably get JA3 from GOG in a few days time. Just need some real life stuff out of the way first

I’m so tempted to get JA3. Wish there was a playable demo as the disappointment that was the x-com remake still stings

Nanowar of Steel takes on the FIFA World Cup final in 1994.... Sounds very Sabaton like

Yeah. Interesting movie. The article does (the part I quoted) point out the reason the rounded up Germans weren't classified as POW's, because then they didn't qualify for the protections offered to POW's according to whatever laws governs that. This was of course complete BS, but the Danes didn't care what they got sent, because in 1945 German lives were not only considered expendable, they were very enthusiastic about expending them, regardless of the pretext. Edit: Duh, it doesn't specify the reason, that was my assumption. It just mentions that they were reclassified to not be considered POW's

https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2817&context=cisr-journal Mind you, the Danes were no better, thinking it awesome getting all those "volunteers" at gunpoint. This was an opportunity for a bit a vengeance after 5 years of occupation after all... "To better allow for the provisions of the 1929 Geneva Convention, the Germans were officially categorized as Surrendered Enemy Personnel rather than POWs. The other 200,000 odd German troops in Denmark returned to Germany in the weeks following the surrender. Clearance started quickly and proceeded quickly. On 11 May 1945, within one week of the unconditional surrender, the first clearance tasks had begun. 4 This arrangement was formalized on 18 June 1945 with the founding of Minekommando Dänemark by order of General Dewing, commander of the British forces in Denmark. " Tl;dr; they were supposed to send pioneers, but rounded up any young man/boy they could get and sent 2600 back to Denmark, to clear the mines on the beaches. Over a million mines were removed this way. I mostly knew of this because I watched a movie ("Land of Mine"), which revealed a less glorious part of Danish history and a cause of a bit of self reflection for the sometimes holier than thou Danish attitude. It made me curious and I started digging (no pun intended) into the underlying real events the movie is based on. Edit: Can recommend watching the movie btw... it's a good movie

They could learn something about mine clearing from the English army in 1945... German "soldiers" (young teenage boys, rounded up in Germany), were sent to Denmark as "POW's". Clearing the beaches at gunpoint, they were forced to walk abreast across the beach afterwards. Needless to say, many of them never made it back to Germany.

Not car keys, but door keys. Did that a while ago I can't "beat" your four folded pair of socks. I'll have to settle for just vacuuming a single, perfectly good sock leaving it's spouse a young widow(er) Yes, I thought I had pushed the laundry pile on the floor sufficiently far away from the spot of carpet I was vacuuming. Turned out the laundry pile wasn't far enough away

FInished Hell's Paradise. It started promising and ended forgettable. Ah well, live and learn... Now focusing instead on Heavenly Delusion. No opinion on it yet, as I only just started re-watching it from episode 1. As mentioned previously, I sort of watched the first 3 episodes, but it required a level of attention that made it go whoosh over my head, but was intriguing enough, that I suspect I'll like it, if I pay attention to what is going on.

John Barry has a lot of good soundtracks to his name. Henry Mancini is no slouch either (IMHO of course). That's besides the iconic Pink Panther theme...

Heh, so the scream originates from private Wilhelm... whose career in the army ended when he took an arrow to the knee (which is the specific scene the scream is from)

BBC is airing the possibility that Wagner is moving 8000 troops to Belarus. Possibly near the Polish border. A case of plausible deniability if they move over the border and help Polish "Freedom Fighters" take the fight to the Nazi government in Warsaw? Lukashenko on the other hand claims Prigozhin is back in Russia. Not that I trust either (BBC emphasizing it's unconfirmed) and Lukashenko I wouldn't trust further than the distance could be pushed out of a third floor window... Neither is likely yet both could be true if Lukashenko "appropriated" Wagner and sent Prigozhin to Moscow as a birthday present to Putin.

It's not exactly Berlin 1936, but sometimes politicians just have to make sport part of politics https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66094186 Australia won the match after the English batsman left his position in the second test, apparently thinking the over had ended. British PM Rishi Sunak agreed with the England captain's claim that Australia "broke the spirit of cricket" in taking the contentious wicket. But Mr Albanese said the country stands "right behind" its team. "Same old Aussies - always winning!" the prime minister tweeted, referring to the Australian side's two consecutive Test wins so far. His phrase also appeared to be a jibe at English fans who chanted "same old Aussies always cheating" after Bairstow was dismissed. Some of Australia's best-known politicians were also at Lord's Cricket Ground in London that match, including the nation's second longest-serving Prime Minister John Howard. ... It's an amusing incident, but it also reminds me of how few scandals we've had since the old Prime Minister got the kicked out...

The brass section of the second video gave me Star Trek TOS vibes for some reason... I could almost see the tag line in front of me: Space, the final frontier