Gorth

More history in the making this way...

No sport in particular, just a video about sports fans...

Is Russian wheat export targeted by sanctions (asking because I don't know)? Just curious because you make it sound like Ukraine is the worlds only wheat producer. From Al Jazeera feb 2022 (pre-war info) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/17/infographic-russia-ukraine-and-the-global-wheat-supply-interactive Russia, not Ukraine was the biggest supplier of wheat for a number of African nations... whereas Ukraine was a major supplier for countries like Israel, South Korea, Spain, Philippines etc.

No idea if they are popular. Didn't know light novels existed. The graphics are nice. I've seen other anime with better graphics though. Maybe it's because it provides a convenient way of disposing of existing conventions and settings for a protagonist? I'm sure there are people out there who wished they could leave the dreariness of their everyday life behind and be a "somebody" in a different world with different rules. Maybe everybody else just has better taste than you But seriously, I think the need for escapism is a factor in why most people seek to immerse themselves for a while in stories.

Canada… her big disappointment

Tensura Nikki episode 23.5 & 24... (all hail our new slime overlord) The end of episode 23 is sort of foreshadowing something or rather someone, observing Rimuru from afar, careful not to be seen. She looks like some kind of knight. Judging by her facial expression, she's no fan of slimes... or maybe Rimuru in particular. Episode 24 is a flashback episode, showing an encounter Shizu had in the past with a mysterious stranger... It begins with a desperate woman performing a summoning, seeking vengeance (I presumed at whoever killed her companions aka the corpses strewn around her). How does the saying go, careful what you wish for?... sacrificing her life and her soul, she enters a contract with the summoned demon... A quick location change and we follow Shizu, who is headed towards the capital of Filtwood, a realm neighbouring The Great Jura Forest (I saw a map in one episode, the world looks like a single, giant continent with Jura in the middle and various mountain ranges, swamps, kingdoms etc. surrounding it. A call has gone out for heroes to fight a demon that has recently been revived. She joins a large gathering of local heroes, fighters, adventurers etc. who all answered the summons. Of course it was a trap and the local army blocks all exits from the great hall. Claiming (falsely) that one or more of them are demons in disguise after killing one of them and putting on a big light show, making it look like the deceased was possessed by a demon, the lords of the place tells them, nobody can leave until all demons are killed. What nobody knew was, there was a real demon among them. The one summoned at the beginning of the episode... Shizu confronts him, suspecting he plans to kill everyone, guards, adventurers, servants, the lot, and wont have none of it. The demon doesn't really want to talk about himself... And Shizu doesn't really want to let him leave... After a bit of fighting, the demon loses his right arm. Deciding to call it a draw (yeah, sounds familiar), he turns into a black cloud and evaporates away. A bit of exposition follows with further flashbacks, Shizu thinking about some details the Demon Lord 'Leon' told her about the nature of different types of demons, including "Primogenitors" , known by their signature colours rather than names (Noir, Blanc and Rouge) Yeah, not suspicious at all... the king is sitting to the right, his advisor to the left... and mysterious guy who appeared as a simple lackey until now in the middle. Smells fishy... The guy in the middle is an arch demon. He proceeds to knock the stuffing out of Shizu and starts choking her Darth Vader style while telling her, she's going to be a sacrifice in a ritual. Rescue arrives from an unexpected side when the one armed demon from before returns... He pulps the brain of the advisor (splattering it out over his seat), by jamming a metal rod through his skull, then proceeds to remove the kings head and finally turns his attention to the arch demon... adding "A lower demon like you can't..." to the list of last words. The arch demon now gets to occupy the position formerly held by Shizu... being choked to death (and that by one armed demon) All's good that ends good or something... at least for now. Off to watch something else for a while

Yes, they do cherry pick a bit, no fun watching the 99 other people who just show their passport and walk on through without any raised eyebrows But the cases shown are real indeed. The worst airport "incident" I watched up close and personal myself, was in Wellington Airport (returning home to Wellington after a trip back to Denmark). A group of (very young) South African boy scouts, can't have been more than 11-12 years old, got pulled over, called out, put on display in the middle of the hall and publicly humiliated, because one of them had a bag of jellybeans he hadn't declared on the form (all food items and items made of materials like wood, leather etc. has to be declared). I did feel a bit sorry for the kids, who probably didn't think of jellybeans as "food" Edit: Yeah, Kiwi customs can be brutal too... Edit2: You sort of have to envision it, a group of tiny, intimidated looking school boys surrounded by a ring of big burly (and frankly scary looking) customs agents, looking like the the local rugby team about to kick butt

It’s very hard to completely avoid, because it was apparently the second most important event in the world (after the war in Ukraine). More important than what the Taliban is doing to women or starvation again becoming a thing in Ethiopia. Ironically I remember the couple from Australian headlines some years ago (2015 iirc) them being the couple of self entitled, unmitigated **** trying to smuggle their flea bags through customs, because bio security laws only applied to normal humans, not us. We’re celebrities after all. Since then, I’ve wished a pox upon both of them. No sympathy for whatever misery befalls either of them

You might be surprised how much hatred can unite people. Often faster and tighter than the love of anything. In the actual case, the Ukrainians are doing the dying, but it's not just Ukraine fighting against Russia. The US, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, are all *active* participants in the war. Claiming otherwise would be dishonest. What I'm trying to say is, it's not a nation against a nation, but an autocrat and his tools against several groups of people who either volunteer or gather and provide resources for those fighting at the front lines. The two words nobody has mentioned yet is 'social contract' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract "In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Social contract arguments typically are that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority (of the ruler, or to the decision of a majority) in exchange for protection of their remaining rights or maintenance of the social order" This is for me a much more powerful thing than people telling me I have to go fight for some colours on a piece of cloth or a nation state (which for me is something akin to the pinnacle of human idiocy). If you feel your ruler or the 'majority' you identify with is worth putting your life on the line for, then by all means do so. Question is, can you force other people to do the same? I served my time back in Denmark after getting drafted and I didn't mind. As it turned out, I ended up in the Civil Defense rather than the military, but that was the RNG involved in picking a ballot out of the bowl to see where you end up (which is way past the point of no return), so I was never conscientious objector or draft dodger myself.

Kill them with extreme prejudice of course... Not blaming Ukrainians for defending their home. Blaming people for starting wars for "their country". Defending your home and your family isn't quite the same (I think). Edit: I.e. I would wage war against Russia because of my hatred of what Putin is doing to other people, not because of some flag I'm supposed to feel somehow represents me. I.e. tangible reasons over symbolic reasons.

That time I got reincarnated as a slime (I think I might just stick with its shorter nickname Tensura Nikki) episode 22 & 23 (a "dual episode") Rimuru and his class of doomed kids travel to the "Dwelling of Spirits". Turns out the dwelling is more of a labyrinth than any obvious dwelling. They get met by a pink (yes, pink!) golem, which wants to fight them. After a hard fight, they dismantle the golem and gets introduced to Ramiris... aka Ramiris of the Labyrinth, one of the ten Demon Lords and former Queen of Spirits (from the background lore, I found out she was killed many times over and reincarnated in order to prevent Guy and Millim from blowing up the world when the two of them had a fight, which lasted seven days. Ramiris kept absorbing the enormous quantities of magic released, died and came back, over and over. Her current physical form is that of a diminutive looking fairy) Luckily she can be bribed with cookies She is however still feeling somewhat peevish because Rimuru destroyed her golem. It took a lot of effort and energy to build! Ramiris shares a bit of background info too about herself (how she was once the Queen of Spirits, who fell from grace and became a Demon Lord) and a fellow Demon Lord, 'Leon' (who was once a hero also fell from grace). Another subtle poke at Rimuru, pointing out humans can become Demon Lords, like Milim mentioned previously, asking him why he didn't want to be one. Leon was the Demon Lord that summoned Shizu to this world iirc. She does feel sympathy for the plight of the children and agrees to help, doing the summoning. The children will have to do the convincing of the spirits to merge with them until their bodies mature themselves however. Each of the kids ends up merging with a spirit of various aspects, fire, wind, space etc. Except Chloe... she ends up with a mysterious spirit from the future before anyone can stop it. Rimuru ends up somewhat red faced when Chloe says she loves him... wishing she would say that in eight... no, make that ten years time, instead Everybody is saved for now and Rimuru makes his way back to his captital, leaving the education of the kids to the school for now, knowing they are not going to explode from excess magical energy any moment. After a moment of reflection with the mask of Shizu in his hands, knowing the kids will be alright, the end credits start (in the middle of episode 23!) and a new story arch starts in the second half of the episode.... I'll take that together with episode 24 in a follow up post. Edit: This was also the first time Rimuru revealed to the kids (because he needed to show Ramiris) that he is not a human, but a slime

Nationalism brought us WWI... nationalism brought us WWII... nationalism brought us the Russian invasion of Ukraine... nationalism is overrated. Why was it again you wanted to take up arms and kill your neighbor because some politician said so?

I remember my unit of jump pack equipped ratlings with fondness (that was when playing the original Rogue Trader)

If you mean this guy... Then nah... maybe a bit personality wise, but he has more wrinkles and less hair than I do Only recent picture I have of myself is not really for sharing, besides being half a year old, it's me doing some mock posing in front of the wall sized mirrors in an empty gym. I.e. exactly the kind of silly stuff you'd do when you're completely alone and nobody's looking I have other pictures of myself of course, but they have friends too on them, so not going to share those either.

I can't even get a Cappuccino for that But, as always, it needs to be held up against the average households purchasing power. When I first moved to New Zealand (almost 20 years ago), I used my own 'Beer Index' to compare prices in stores to how many beers it translated into and compared it with similar Danish cost in (Danish) beers for similar products. I only found out years later, that there was a similar, well known McDonald Burger index for price comparison.

A review of the latest expansion for The Universe...

The old English accountant who invented sports analytics after WWI was mocked for his teams playstyle at the beginning. Today, the most successful sports clubs, regardless of whether it's Football or NFL, use it. Don't underestimate the ability to see the patterns of this world... https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/61648608.amp Charles Reep: The military accountant who brought data analysis to English game

I spent 30 minutes thinking about it and came up blank. Can't think of a lookalike actor. Can't think of an actor (or even their characters) that would fit the personality. Maybe I have an identity crisis?

I was curious about Denmark, as they are mostly self sufficient with gas and oil (having a bit of both in the North Sea and relying more and more on renewable energy). Turns out they do (or did, old numbers) import some oil from Russia, but not crude oil. No idea what 'Oils Obtained from Bituminous Mineral' is edit: Sounds like something used for asphalt manufacturing...

Hey, what's the rush. Steam engines were old before someone made a working internal combustion engine

Cobra looks like it has a certain appeal... i really need to check it out some day As for Gleipnir, dang, they really left a lot out of the Anime, didn't they? From your post, about 3/4 of the story (and I still liked the anime a lot)

Same mate... same. Assumptions and generalizations are two of humanity's failures. Something about our brains wanting to reduce the workload and stop rethinking things over and over leading to shortcuts based on small sample sizes or some such (too many years since I read up on it). Still, it's such a limitation of the use of human intellect, it's criminal

As if the companies truly cares… the added cost of fines will be passed on to the consumers (or a few thousand employees let go, anything to avoid jeopardising they dividends)

Completely void of any logic (or truth), but funny indeed. He had me when he conflated Ukraine and LGBT rights Good satire of the way people think leftists think.

I do sometimes wonder if “The Great Sage” isn’t somewhat more than just a smug encyclopaedia