Gorth

Yeah, lets forget past atrocities, "sovereign borders" and rule of law. It's really only convenient sometimes and should be reserved for when it suits *my* purposes

Hey, you can always complain to the fully automated customer service! Some of my most frustrating experiences ever are those "chat robots" that the local telecom company "Telstra" uses. Contact support, one of our consultants will be with you shortly and this most unhelpful bot shows up and can't help you with anything, keeps going in circles and when you tell it to **** off, it suggests I should try customer support, which leads to this chat bot. You just feel like punching something. Then again for good measure. (no, I am not a Telstra customer anymore, happy to be rid of it, using a telco with human support now)

I did like the multi-language aspect of the series. People trying to communicate without everybody speaking the same language, having to rely on bilingual individuals to pass messages along, between the different language groups. The Danes understanding German and speaking a bit of English, the English lady also speaking whatever language (Mandarin?) the two girls from China speaks, the French adamantly refusing to speak anything other than French. One of the Spanish guys translating between his countryman and the other groups etc. Poor Olek can't really communicate with anyone. Edit: The Scandinavians just speak each their language, Danish, Swedish or Norwegian, having no problem understanding each other.

They didn't really make a secret of it not being "real" around episode 4 or 5 and if there was any doubt left, it disappeared with the ending scene of season 6, where Captain Eyk suddenly gets archived. Looking at the nice collection of ships from previous failed attempts to get back to reality... Episode 7 is being all explicit about what is going on and episode 8 is about how to get back to reality. Trying to avoid too obvious spoilers if anyone else wants to have a go at it.

I remember buying Murder Ballads in the late 90's on CD. Something about the song "Henry Lee", just kept me captivated and coming back to play it again. It could also have been P.J. Harvey's vocals Edit:

Maybe he didn't feel comfortable sitting on top of a large fuel tank while things were not under his control and sparks and smoke was everywhere? I've done enough firefighting in the civil defense to have developed a deep seated aversion towards huge quantities of burning fuel near me

Finished episode 8 (last episode) of 1899... of course no ending, no closure and nothing resolved There darn well be a season 2 or I'm going to get very angry

...and the next 100k-300k might indeed make some gains. The next 500k+ would make it a war of attrition that few countries can keep up with. Russia can take 3/1 casualty rates and still bleed Ukraine dry. A year ago I would have thought it a stupid approach. But I would also have thought invading Ukraine a stupid idea about a year ago. Some things and situations just defy logic. Edit: Unconfirmed rumours have it that close to a million conscripts are being whipped into obedience. Sounds like Putin is going to repeat the English and their brilliant strategy at the Somme offensive.

What did you expect with a nationwide beer ban?

Expectation.... as far as their initial push against Kiev from the north? During WWII the Soviet army needed enough conscripts to survive for long enough to eventually build a core of semi competent troops - like the kind that spend more time firing bullets at the enemy than pillaging and raping the local population wherever they went. They still did that of course, but they got better at the fighting part of over the years.

That sounds just as bizarre as that cannibal case Rammstein based one of their songs ("Mein Teil") on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes aka "The Rotenburg Cannibal"

Good question... they have a thing with the French (not forgiving France for winning the 100 year war), but they also hold a grudge against Argentina (not because of the Falklands, but because of Maradona's "Hand of God")

Finished episode 7 of 1899. You sort of get what is going on by now, but not the full story. Lots of hints at why's, wherefores and who's who in this episode, but not an actual to the point "why?" I did laugh out loud at the ending scene of episode 6 btw. Showing Eyk in the archive

OMG that "description" was a painful read I get so many scam calls, my phone is configured to automatically redirect unknown numbers to my voice mail. If I get two calls from the same number with no message, the number gets permanently blocked. Most common scams in my voice mail is the tax man threatening me with jail time and some Chinese pre-recorded message which i have no idea what is trying to tell me. Could be spam, could be coercion of some kind. Lots of spam sms too from forged sender ID's. Often pretending to be delivery companies or Australia Post that can't verify my details

Oh come on, blue cheese on toast, covered with maple syrup is divine! Is also good as a snack or a dessert

I grew up in Denmark. A country that has more blue cheese variants (and cheeses in general whether Bries, sliced cheese or Feta variants) than you can shake a stick at Very tasty and all natural. Stacking up quite well to the foreign competition, including those snobby French wannabe cheese makers. As it was said in Life of Brian: Blessed are the Cheese makers They have nothing like the nutty flavours of Gruyère though Edit: I remember our school class went and visited a cheese maker. It was the first time I tasted a 12 month "vintage" cheese, that crumbled between your fingers. A bit too salty for my liking as a child. Later I grew to appreciate it.

I'm more of a Gruyère fan (nope, no Haute Couture cheese tastes here) I checked the news and saw Argentina being one finalist. Is France the other? (I really didn't follow the WC this time around)

because if feels like ages since I last posted a Rammstein video (Rammstein from 1998AD I think)...

That's what happened in Crimea and the reason they decided they would rather be a part of Russia instead of Ukraine (keep in mind that even though Zelensky is a "modern" and progressive Ukrainian leader that it's hard not to sympathize with, his predecessors weren't all like that)

We held a monthly Lan party night at my old workplace back in Denmark. It was fun. Usually games like Delta Force (it could handle up to 32 players), Re-volt (a hilarious little RC controlled car racing game) or Unreal (the original Unreal, not to be confused with Unreal Tournament). When playing Delta Force, we would sometimes invite the IT department of the local city council to join and we would team up against each other (city council vs. my company). Delta Force had both LAN and Online Multiplayer mode and my company had the oversized servers to host it

Dang it, now I need to go start my VPN again to watch Youtube videos Edit: So, CBS doesn't like Australia. Luckily I'm now suddenly in LA, California

I think the largest Aussie note I've ever seen (once) was a $100 AUD. Normally the ATM's give you $20 or $50 bills. A quick wiki check tells me there used to be a $1 note until 1966 (which replaced the 10 shilling note) The $1 note got replaced by a $1 coin in 1984 With the current inflation, I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with new $200 and $500 notes some day 2025 prediction... going shopping after payday

Wut? Cookies abusing the samesite property? Send for Marie Antoinette immediately!

Waiting for the day where the unmanned planes controlled by Alexa decides to slug out with the unmanned planes controlled by Siri.... who needs Skynet?

It wasn't just the FIFA World Cup that Qatar bought through bribes... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63952993 "Greek MEP Eva Kaili has denied involvement in an alleged bribery scandal involving World Cup host Qatar at the European Parliament. She is one of four suspects charged, after Belgian investigators found large sums in cash in homes and a suitcase. MEPs have voted - by 625 to one - to strip Ms Kaili of her role as one of its 14 vice-presidents. Parliament leader Roberta Metsola has spoken of "difficult days for European democracy" --- "Qatar has denied any wrongdoing." --- Part of the generous "gifts" offered by Qatar to members of the European Parliament seized by police