Gorth

@BruceVC To continue the conversation about governments... what do you expect from a government? Are they hired to lead you or are they hired to do the administrative work of running a country on your behalf? Different cultures have different expectations. A government at odds with its people usually either doesn't last or resort to the use of force to get things the way it want it to. The Swiss put a lot of stuff up for referendums and let people decide, reducing the governments role in decision making. Scandinavian governments are there on their best behaviour, always under close scrutiny by the press and the people. Other countries have traditions of following leaders, some of them elected, some of them not.

Moved the last two posts by Bruce and me from the Ukraine thread, as it was more about general politics than the war in Ukraine

I mentioned it previously. It's too generic a question. I can mention many Americans I like and admire, many Americans I view in a very unfavourable way. Their governments (edit: the last 40 years) are somewhere between deadly disasters and entertaining circus shows. Rarely ever a "role model" for others to follow. Seriously think they would benefit from splitting up in smaller chunks. But that's just one outsiders opinion. Dips on those part with the Americans I like...

Trump would probably have sent Stingers and Javelins to Putin, to help him in his war against the "evil Ukrainians". After all, the Biden family are all in cahoots with the "regime" in Kiev, doing shady business deals.

My favourite slime... episode 16 to 19 (I think, may be 20, I'll need to double check, but it was a "mini arc", introducing Milim Nava and the world of Demons to Rimuru and his growing society (The Jura Tempest Federation or some such) Short version, Milim observed the events and the death of the Ord Lord Geld through a scrying ball, while at some demon lords place. What a great opportunity to relieve some of her perpetual boredom She ends up in the city of Tempest, looking for Rimuru and of course all his loyal subjects sense the threat she poses and attacks her. Not that the combined force of his most powerful subjects is anything Milim can't fix with a flick of a finger. Rimuru shows up and... plays dirty. He had correctly assessed her to be part immensely (and immeasurably) powerful, but also childish. Not only in looks, but in temper and disposition. Challenging her to a duel, he dares her to let him hit her first... which he does with a lump of bee honey which he shoves into her mouth. Suddenly she's willing to call it a draw in return for more of that sweet honey... (she didn't really come to fight anyway, she was bored out of her mind and this place and Rimuru looked like an interesting distraction) Milim decides to move in (Rimuru's slime form can show some nicely shockeded looking animations) and not only that, Rimuru is not only her friend, but her bestie! (I "cheated" a bit and checked out some of the background lore and character bios from the manga fandom wikis, especially checking what was cut in the anime adaptation, and Milim is probably the second most powerful demon in existence, rivaled only by another demon lord named 'Guy Crimson', one of three original demon lords, 'Ramiris' being the third, but she plays a significant role a bit later) A number of small side plots, like his followers refining the process of synthetically created healing potions (rather than relying on Rimuru to do the healing all the time) and the minion of another demon lord making the mistake of trying to move as the new "boss" on behalf of his master... until Milim sees it and decides nobody does that to her bestie and proceeds to smash him to a pulp, only stopping short of completely annihilating him because Rimuru interferes (was in one of the previous clips I posted). Rimuru interrogates the minion ('Phobio') a bit and gets information about his master, the demon lord 'Carrion'. But for now, the biggest threat comes from yet another Demon Lord, 'Clayman'. He has the allegiance (for reasons unknown) of 'The Moderate Harlequin Alliance', which he engages to gather information. A powerful being 'Charybdis' is re-awakening and he wants to know if it can be controlled. The two harlequins take it one step further and tricks Phobio into finding Charybdis under the pretext of it granting him power etc.... and gets literally consumed by it (Charybdis is a kind of spirit only creature, needing a physical body to take over and resculpt to its needs). A dryad shows up in Rimuru's city and warns Rimuru, that something big and nasty is coming their way and everybody is asked to help, except Milim (Rimuru is part scared of what would happen if Milim really lets loose and part worried about relying on someone a bit unreliable). She really wanted to impress her bestie... Long fight short, it ends in a complete disaster. Rimuru does find out that part of Charybdis' mind is filled with so much hatred of Milim it shines through. Rimuru asks Milim to help... and she's very enthusiastic Next up is episode 20 and onwards, but that is another little story arc. Rimuru promised Shizu on her death bed, he would look after the human children she had been teaching at a school for otherworld summons....

I would've guessed Finland based on the name, but Estonia is somewhat related to their northern neighbors (edit: iirc that is, help me out here you Finns and Estonians)

New official video from Rammstein from the new album... Dicke Titten ("Big ****"). About... yeah. Edit: It's Rammstein. Watch at your own risk

The first mass extinction on Earth, which wiped out almost all life was when oxygen started building up everywhere, aka the 'The Great Oxidation Event' (caused by the "invention" of photosynthesis by primitive organisms). Happened about 2.5 billion years ago. Ironically, because life survived, species adapted to live in oxygen rich atmospheres to the point where humans can't survive today without the very stuff that is killing us /nerd

Does the second amendment say anything about the right to possess ammunition?

My favourite slime series apparently has a spin off series "Slime Diaries", which is placed chronologically in the middle of season 1. A number of episodes featuring the cast, but events being independent from the main season (and episodes also being "stand alone"). I might have to get that one too and watch when I finish season 1. Having a lot of fun watching it so far. The skin on my face feeling a bit tight from the constant smiling Edit: Currently at episode 20 in season 1, will write a summary a bit later

I'll just point you towards my edit in the post you quoted. It all comes back to living in fear. Fear of being feeling inferior, fear of feeling inadequate, fear of abandonment, fear of the future, fear of being left behind, etc. It's in my experience always what it boils down to when people "lose it". Society dictates some norms and expectations and lots of people struggle to meet those expectations. I know from friends that fear of getting sick is a real thing, because the US healthcare is a "for profit" system, so things we consider trivial can be life changing (in a devastating way). Constant fear creates a disproportionate number of mental health issues (which doesn't get addressed adequately whether individually or collectively). An estimated 1 in 5 Americans live with mental health issues. Wanna bet, only a fraction of those gets treated? https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness

They all have a few things in common. Feeling ostracized from society and feeling like they have nothing to lose, thinking 5 minutes of infamy is better than die unnoticed. Edit: Hate (caused by living in constant fear if you want)

You may or may not notice a pattern in my list, they're items that contribute to creating a society living in fear. You could ask yourself, who benefits from a society living in fear and why does it benefit them? Some obscure mastermind worthy of conspiracy theories, is it small groups or individuals (or even an individual) possessed by a hunger for power, encouraging collective fear? I'm sure it's not just Murdoch getting an erection out of stirring up violence and a crackdown on progress...

Yeah, like the January 6th insurrection... Otherwise I fail to see how your points would have helped prevent 14 kids and a teacher from being murdered in Texas

It might not be fixable on a Federal level, but maybe some day, some state or community might decide it needs fixing. No, guns are not the main problem (even if they exacerbate the problem significantly), society is the problem and needs changing. Edit: You know, like somebody starts making a checklist of things to fix... - Poverty/Wealth inequality -Racism/Unfairness -Hopelessness/Despair -Mental health issues being taboo/Macho culture/Socially dysfunctional environments -Lack of education (not talking about reading, writing, math etc., but life lessons and wisdom being passed on and disseminated) -... -... (add to list)

I wouldn't underestimate the Israeli intelligence services. There may be a few blemishes here and there, but they've "generally" assassinated a large number of people successfully in recent years. They don't seem to care much about the fallout or consequences either, as long as they get their target, whether they be politicians, military people or scientists/academics

Russian agents are just as bad as their army... most assassination attempts are high profile failures.

That time etc. etc. slime (too long title) After having more or less genocided the Ogres, the Orc horde enters the swamp lands of the Lizardmen. Fortunately, the one of them with a bit of brain is their king and he orders his son, Gabiru (who has no brain), to leave their village with a Lizardman army and recruit allies amongst the neighbouring people, mostly Goblins, to help with the fight against the Orc horde. He does that for a while, straining his intellect to the bursting point in doing so. His warriors are no less intellectually challenge and start goading him into seizing power, because... he's such a great warrior, a hero and a genius, much better at everything than his dad, the king. If anyone has see The Fifth Element, it was like a throwback to Ruby Rhod and the way his sycophants were fawning all over him. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but he really is smarter, stronger and faster than his warriors, because he got a name bestowed upon him by Lord Gelmud (who we know nothing about at this point except he also has a master whose bidding he's doing). Some particularly hilarious scenes has Gabiru basking in sunlight beams, reflected off the shields of his warriors (who points the light towards their hero), looking like a movie star posing for the cameras... Eventually believing his own delusions, he deposes of his father the king and decides to round up Rimuru's village as "cannon fodder", in addition to the 7000 goblins he already conscripted for the glorious nation of the Lizardmen. Tl;dr; it didn't go to plan and his unconscious form gets carried off by his warriors. However, Rimuru has come to the conclusion (well, not really by himself, but a visit of a Dryad, the caretaker of the forest convinced him) that the Orc Lord and his horde (200000 strong) needs to be dealt with. Gathering his villages and the 6 Kijin (ex-Ogres), he and his army squares off against the Orc army. Rimuru doesn't even get to flex any of his magic muscles as between them, the 6 Kijin annihilates a quarter of the Orc army and forces a confrontation between the Orc Lord and Rimuru. To make a long and epic battle short, Rimuru is victorious and the Orc Lord is mortally wounded. From the dying Orc Lord, Rimuru learns a bit of exposition, who the Orc Lord was before he was given a name and why he was found dying in a wasteland by Lord Gelmud. A long and devastating famine had threatened to wipe out of the Orcs, dying a slow and painful death from starvation. Gelmud used this by bestowing a new ability on the Orc Lord, who could pass it on to his people. Similar to Rimuru, Orcs can (or could, the ability got consumed by Rimuru when defeating the Orc Lord) eat not only dead enemies, but their own dead and so sustain themselves, even growing stronger and absorbing the strength of the fallen they eat. Basically turning them into an almost mindless horde of ravenous, all consuming swarm of land sharks.... but, Rimuru offers the surviving Orcs, that they can join his village. They get food and shelter in return for providing muscle and labour to they growing community. Some time during the battle with the Ord Lord (named 'Geld'), Lord Gelmud had stressful experience where his head got separated permanently from his body.... Last thing to do, Rimuru frees the Lizardman king from captivity and they enter an alliance. At a gathering, they all declare Rimuru "Grand Chancellor of The Great Forest of Jura" (with the Dryad's blessing). A few hints and about what was going on before, including Lord Gelmud's master, but not much info yet. Gabiru gets sentence exile (much to his surprise, as he was convinced he was going to die) by his father, the king. Three of his closest syco... followers are overjoyed, knowing that he'll survive, and decides to follow him into exile.

Like the previous Rammstein video, questionable quality phone recordings It will have to do until some pro-shot quality/official videos get out...

Bitcoin and The Internet!!!

ABC news has predicted Greens to win Griffith (leading with 69%)

I suspect the design choice is very deliberate. It is made by humans after all

Isn't Florida full of sinkholes? I seem to remember reading something about it just being a big sponge with a bit of vegetation on top

To be honest, the opposition party is not my cup of tea either. It was either that or the lying, walking Chlamydia for too many years (as if it hadn't been too many years already). But the Labour Party also has a rather spotty reputation for doing away with peoples votes and doing leadership replacements and nocturnal backstabbing, meaning you tend to end up with another leader than the one that got the majority of peoples votes, some real bait and switch action... If I had been able to vote, I would probably have voted for either the green party or independents (unlike the US, independents in other countries can be very powerful and be the proverbial tip on the scale of hung parliaments)

Looking to pick up a new sport? The Beer Mile run may be your thing... https://www.beermile.com/