Gorth

/Ron Pearlman voice: War, war never ends... (badly misquoted)

Information is as good as ammunition and food in a war... if (big if) Ukraine downplayed their losses considerably, it may negatively impact the morale of the defenders when revealed to be misleading. Deflated numbers may also hide, that they struggle to launch the much advertised counter offensive in any meaningful manner. Something Russia would appreciate knowing, as that could definitely affect their planning (such as it is) and strategy for conclusion of the war, which needs a new objective now that the original operation didn't quite meet its targets and is very unlikely to.

My first "real life" encounter with drugs was rather personal. Two relatives I grew up with (technically my mothers half-uncles, don't ask, complicated) who were 2-4 years older than me were for years my de facto older brothers. One died from a heroin overdose and the other got killed in a drug deal gone bad. My first encounter with drama/media on the subject was an old German movie (an auto-biography) called "Christiane F - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo". It may not be shocking today, as viewers are likely desensitized by todays entertainment, but as a drama-documentary it sure was in 1981. It was mandatory viewing in one of the classes in highschool. I'm (or was, it's 40 years ago) unfortunately quite familiar with the seedier side of society, as a result never really felt any desire to read up more on the subject....

Not a lot. Just enough to know that, if you want to compare results, you need something to compare it to. I found very little information from the US other than than the opposite, most communities invested more in their police than in alternatives and crime prevention (October 16, 2022). Because having more para-military forces around just sells better on election day it seems. https://abcnews.go.com/US/defunding-claims-police-funding-increased-us-cities/story?id=91511971 "Overwhelmingly, cities, counties, police departments across the country are not being defunded in any way," Ray said. "In fact, many of them have increased their budgets. Part of the reason why the 'defund the police' narrative has stayed around is because police officers say it and elected officials say it." I.e. it never happened, so you can't really prove if it had or would have any effect... I checked some Canadian results, but not a single noteworthy community even attempted alternatives (i.e. prevention, counseling, community projects etc.). Don't get me started on my own little corner of the world, where it's hard to shake the feeling, that the federal police are the Sturmtruppen of the conservative party (the Australian Liberal Party). There is a decade of other, more pressing mess(es) that needs cleaning up before getting anywhere even near some much needed police reforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_into_Aboriginal_Deaths_in_Custody (yes, that's almost 500 people dying in their cells) Edit: It's not really a surprise, that one of the last two conservative state PM's got kicked out of NSW in the last election. Some gratifying humiliations too in some local NSW by-elections, flipping colours in areas that had been staunchly conservative for like half a century. Only one conservative state PM left in Tasmania. Let's see if it lasts.

"Defund the police"... all the myths and urban legends around it https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/05/19/7-myths-about-defunding-the-police-debunked/ Edit: For those who wants more pictures and less text, the paragraph headers. If you believe in any of these, find the matching paragraph in the site linked to Myth #1: Defund Means Abolish Myth #2: Defunding Will Lead to Disorder Myth #3: Police Protect the Public From Violence Myth #4: Community Programs Won’t Work Myth #5: Most Police Work is Focused on Crime Prevention Myth #6: Police Officers Do Not Need College Degrees Myth #7: Defunding the Police is a Knee-Jerk Reaction With No Research

Since book burning was fashionable in the 20th century... is internet burning going to be a thing in the 21th century?

A slightly older Rammstein piece. As usual, the band never gives any "official" interpretation of their songs, but there seems to be a fan consensus, that it's about the building of the Berlin wall (Rammstein are from the former DDR). It has English subtitles if clicking the subtitle button

Does games of Horus Heresy and Kill team count? I know, it's more tabletop wargaming than roleplaying, but if you play story based missions and narrative campaigns, the differences are easy to overlook...

Moved to the correct forum

This. I really enjoyed Trine 1&2. Trine 3 was so bad I didn’t bother even trying to finish it. Gave 4 a miss because of the bad aftertaste of 3 Btw. Those games are more fun in coop

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-65259342 "Winds in Ilsa's "very destructive core" could gust up to 275 km/h (170 mph) on Thursday night into Friday morning local time, before the storm moves inland, according to Australia's Bureau Of Meteorology (BOM). The BOM also warned of up to 400mm (15.7") of rain and abnormally high tides, with the storm's impact felt across a 600km region from Port Hedland to just south of Broome." Odds are, the world will hear very little (i.e. effectively nothing) about the damages and suffering caused by this cyclone once it lands, as there are no million+ cities in it's path. People may still be killed and thousands be affected, but... nobody is going to know, much less care because it wont sell clicks on the media pages.

'JUICE'... Only 1 year delay, not bad for a project of that scope I guess

I'm guilty of some confirmation bias on that one... because he pretty much predicts Russia after Putin the way I predicted Russia before Putin. I.e. breaking up in a number of states run by warlords and oligarchs, all armed with medium and long range nukes and always warring with each other and their neighbours. Which is why I was for a long time generally sympathetic towards Putin and his iron hand rule, presumably leaving one hand on the red destroy all life button rather than 30 pairs with each their own button, motives, grudges and grievances. At least it looked like that's where it was headed back then, as Yeltzin steered Russia towards total disintegration in his perma-drunk state.

Not the video I was looking for, but an interesting take on Putin, economy and possible futures for those involved Edit: Also not the video I was looking for and it's possible it has been posted in this thread before, but I thought it a good insight into the true state of Russian gear Edit2: Found the video I was originally looking for

I wonder if RoP won't be out on DVD or similar some day, like GoT did (that's how I got to watch the latter). I saw two episodes of RoP (5+6 iirc) while staying at a friends place in Melbourne a few months ago and she had all the streaming services. Not something I would buy on DVD to be honest. An Ok action series if you can accept it got nothing to do with the books other than a bit of name dropping here and there and otherwise being a mostly unrelated story. But the dialogue and conversations... argh!

Before the war special military operation in Ukraine, when doing concerts in Russia was still a cool thing to do... Rammstein said: "Let there be fire!"... and fuel prices jumped as a result

Made a bit more progress in Mass Effect (the legendary edition version). Currently exploring The Citadel (The Presidium and The Ward areas). In many ways this just feels like a better "game", because it feels less claustrophobic (not sure how to explain the feeling otherwise). More perceived freedom and openness, the only blocker being having to go see the council before other areas become accessible and then off to explore... and backtrack and retrack and backtrack again etc., as the missions and assignments keep piling up

Ooh… a Bohemian Rhapsody fan

Meh, I'm more likely to buy a motorcycle again than a car. Too many wheels and too much space required to get around

Translation: Trump absolutely adored autocratic rulers (Kim, Modi, MbS, Putin etc.) and was much easier to get to dance to the Saudi tune. A country which hates the US and support their enemies like AQ materially and financially, even if the money is not in the official books (because having the support of US against Iran is always a nice bonus, especially if the support is free, bar a few scratches behind Trumps ear and a few encouraging words, not followed by action). If the new puppet doesn't want to dance properly, time to put on the spiked gloves and hurt the world economy until a new and more pliable leader is elected, because that's what democracies do, picking the paths of least resistance (no absolutes without exceptions of course).

Continued from previous thread:

Game over man... game over! More gaming experiences this way

It's my staple virgin oil I sometimes get the less strongly flavoured variant, but mostly I get the one below

Is there something you're not telling us?

There is only one person in the world, that can mangle and distort the Kanadian language to that degree...