Gorth

Saltwater freezes too. Ever tried running around on top of frozen sea water at the beach? Did that as a kid sometimes. It’s weirdly elastic to walk on compared to fresh water ice. tl;dr; salt only lowers the freezing point by seven degrees Celsius or so

I grew up with dd/mm/yy because year 2000 was a myth and years were double digits For data purposes yyyy/mm/de makes sense because of lexicographical sorting of the fields is more efficient

Yeah, the proverbial needle in the haystack They do risk a fine of up to $1000 for careless handling of highly radioactive Caesium 13something. Even littering can incur harsher penalties

Australian morning TV... not always for kids

Not so much done today as going to do the next few days. Flying to Melbourne Thursday morning to meet up with my friend and hang out for a few days. Meeting an old colleague Thursday evening for some movies and Chinese food (he's Taiwanese and knows all the good places). Watching Halestorm concert Friday night, watching Phantom of the Opera on Saturday night and hopefully getting time for a bit of shopping in between. As well as a lunch at some point in something called 'The Danish House'. No idea what it is, but curiosity got the better of me. We saw Halestorm in 2019. It was great. Had to wait for Covid to settle down and the concert scene to pick up down under though. Her suggestion... none of us have seen Phantom of the Opera before, but we were both keen to see it.

ME is weird... ME1 had the most fun combat, ME2 the most fun companions and ME3 the most fun DLC (I had a blast joining the party on the Citadel)

Heh, Project "Sweet Potato" No idea what these guys normally do/did, but those trailers looked like a fun game (I liked the humour)

I don't get 80% of those references and I'm sure the remaining 20% doesn't apply. I suck at being Gen X

Good thing we live in a capitalist world, where employee hard work and initiative is rewarded, so we get a constant supply of cheap, high quality games... /sarcasm

Is there such a thing as a will wallet saving throw?

"Mac Walters, lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and 3 as well as creative director on Mass Effect: Andromeda"... do you *really* want that on your resume (not as bad as having Anthem on it, I know)?

Just before the weekend, it was 34C (92F-93F) here.... and raining. Greenhouses got nothing on Queensland

Rio Tinto in the headlines again... this time not for blowing up 40000 year old sacred places, but for misplacing radioactive cargo. Oops?... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-28/radioactive-capsule-search-perth-to-pilbara-/101902914 It's only 6mmx8mm or so, but will give you burns on distances of a meter and acute radiation sickness if put in your pocket. Kids... don't pick up shiny rocks offered by uncle Tinto, it's not good for you

The French strike back... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64436973 The AP stylebook Twitter account had recommended writers avoid using "the" in phrases like "the disabled, the poor and the French". It said this could be dehumanising. The French embassy responded by briefly changing its name to the "Embassy of Frenchness in the United States". Way to go French Embassy

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64401190 I know, this was tempting to put in the Ukraine War thread... but it's about politics, not military engagements and events from the frontlines At the time of typing this, 11 officials have either resigned or been sacked as Kyiv tries to tackle government corruption. It's led to some politicians in the US calling for aid to Ukraine to be restricted. President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to quickly restore public faith, but the allegations are serious, and the timing is bad. Ever since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has had a problem rampant corruption in all layers of society. Mr Yurchyshyn believes there's no better time to expose ministerial wrongdoing, even with Western help being put at risk. "Western partners understand we have two wars," he says. "The first is against Russia, then there's our internal war for the future of Ukraine." Edit: I wonder how much that influenced Germany's hesitancy in providing aid? They are notoriously stingy when they suspect aid gets monetized and pocketed by corrupt middlemen

England...

It's quite possible it was the move that killed swtor for good, as any and all resources got shifted from the mmo to the Anthem project, putting all the proverbial eggs in the last basket (just before it hit the floor). Edit: Up to about end of 2021, swtor was still figuring on top ten mmo lists of most played games. The last 12 months it has shined with its complete absence from such lists.

Something you're not telling us?...

You're talking about people who eat surströmming (insert long list of health hazards and adverse effects to your sanity)

Ah... prices. I had a friend from the local Games Workshop store visiting me (to play some Kill Team). He took a few looks at my miniature collection, some of which dates back to the late 80's. I could see the drool building up Lets just say I have a rather comprehensive collection of things you can't even buy on ebay for thousands of dollars. Things that were common in the early 90's are suddenly worth $100+ per miniature (when I had it shipped over from Europe, I had my collection insured for $100k+). Sometimes it's fun to hang on to things for decades after everyone else got rid of their stuff. @Azdeus Mate, 40 is still young and green.... wait until you become a frail old (and grumpy) man like me

When I was in my early 20's I had a Marklin Miniclub model train and a landscape I had built for it. Loved those tiny Z scale models Edit: That flashback just reminded me, that this was a staggering 30+ years ago

Horse meat?

You’re a much more tolerant person than I am three failed attempts at getting through the games intro and now I just can’t be bothered. The most i uninteresting part of the first games was for me the church vs mages thing

Maybe that German guy is not a bad poker player?... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64391272 US President Joe Biden's administration is expected to announce plans to send at least 30 M1 Abrams tanks. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also reportedly decided to send at least 14 Leopard 2 tanks. Russia's ambassador to the US blasted the news as "another blatant provocation".

An interesting breakdown of the early events...