Gorth

Similar in most European countries I think. Power split and re-split continuously, no party or bloc of parties staying in power indefinitely. The head of state being either a president or a monarch. The alternative would be either single party state (China) or two party state (USA) which I just can't imagine being on any Europeans wishlist.

I'm not sure what is so hard.... The (now ex) centre-right government lost the snap election which they called themselves and the socialist party won an outright majority in the election? A bit confused about what could be confusing Edit: Ah, I get it. The word "ruling" Edit2: What do you expect from a news organisation that puts this under art and entertainment Edit3: It means they went from being a minority government ruling with the help of other parties to have absolute majority. I get it now. Edit4: Not the worlds best written article, I would agree on that.

Bruce... put on your darn reading glasses Edit: To save you the reading, the former ruling party was called the Social Democratic Party (despite it's name, it is a centre-right party)

I honestly don't know much about Portuguese politics... maybe @Pidesco knows more about the background, but in a snap election, the ruling party managed to hand over a majority victory to the opposition. The socialist party now have a majority government and the far right party became the third largest party (the ex-ruling party being a center right party). Looks like they shot themselves in the foot with a sawed off shotgun??? https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-60194375 (no, don't ask me why the heck the BBC stuck that under entertainment and arts)

That didn't stop Turkey from joining when it was convenient... I'm sure that Putin and Ukraine could've worked something out before western interference. Ukraine renounces their (illegal anyway) claims on Crimea and guarantees the civil rights (the removal of which was the trigger of the unrest) of the people of the Donbas region and Russia provides Ukraine with an agreed amount of LPG per year the next 100 years or so (or until Ukraine finds other alternative/eco friendlier energy sources)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60185733 Boris Johnson desperately needs a war too to distract from trouble at home... "I have ordered our armed forces to prepare to deploy across Europe next week, ensuring we are able to support our Nato allies on land, at sea and in the air." On a more serious note, the BBC did some detective work and a bit of investigative journalism. Turns out Djokovic not only lied about his whereabouts, it also looks like his covid test results are forgeries, made by the Serbian state to enable him to play.... https://www.bbc.com/news/59999541 Mr Djokovic was tested in Serbia, and received his results from the Institute of Public Health of Serbia. All these test results have a unique confirmation code. We wanted to check whether these numbers are generated in strict chronological order in a single national database at the time of processing. If so, it would bring into question why the earlier test had a higher serial number. So we collected data from as many Serbian test certificates as we could to plot these confirmation codes on a timeline. For those who don't want to read all the graphs and texts, the conclusion by the researchers investigations was, Djokovic's positive result was from the time between 25th to 28th of December, not the claimed 16th of December (i.e. his positive test was after his negative test, which was supposed to prove he was no longer infected at least two weeks before traveling to Australia). All nicely forged by the Serbian Health Institute. Nothing new I guess, politics and sports do seem to have trouble staying away from each other.

It may be different now, but last time I was there, it was the English “packaged tour” tourists you had to kick your way through. Easily recognisable too. The day they arrive, they’ll be pasty white. The first night, they’ll drink themselves senseless and the second day they’ll sleep it off on the beach. Usually turning red and outright blackish purple in the sun because of their firm belief, that a sufficiently high alcohol content in their blood makes them immune to UV rays. At least they acted that way. You didn’t really see them again until they catch the bus back to the airport, then all wrapped up in alufoil like bandages and boxes of painkillers in their hands…

My, are we curious... I think I may have covered it in the what you did today thread, but short recap, she's an old friend that I got to know online originally, while playing Star Wars the Old Republic. It turned into a real life friendship. This time around, she came and stayed at my place for a full month. Working from home some of the time, which meant she would work from home at my place and I would work in the office here in Brisbane (we work for competing products). When not working, she would split her time with me and her family up here. Her brother, in-law and a little niece that was born while borders were closed and nobody could visit each other. When not with her family, she and I would go to the theater and watch stage productions, try out Halal Snack Packs (https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g255068-d12435083-i299586287-Eat_Fresh_Takeaway_House-Brisbane_Brisbane_Region_Queensland.html), cook our own stuff (hence my previous post, a lot of the new things we tried out, get drunk, fool around, go for long walks, whatever two people do living under the same roof for a while. And no, it's not a "romantic relationship". She's 27 years younger than me We are very close friends however.

Before I started on JoJo, I got sidetracked by one of those short (12 episodes) animes, which I just couldn’t put aside once started, so I guess by the end of today I’ll have finished Goblin Slayer. Like watching a live action D&D session with added blood, gore and brutality. Who cares, I was entertained, good enough for my low brow needs

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/1/28/ukraine-accuses-us-of-hurting-economy-by-stoking-panic-over-war Tl;dr; Ukraine blames the US for the current mess and it’s hurting Ukraines economy

Make sure you get football tickets!

My kitchen got subjected to a number of strange things over the Christmas and New Years period. Not at least because of that female friend I had staying at my place for a month. Rum Balls, Feta and Ham Filos, Pizzas (New York style), pan cakes. Egg Fried rice (with ham, green onions, carrots and some interesting sauces), various curried. Now in pondering if I should have a go at Kimchi Stew Got a lot of leftover Kimchi that needs to be used soon

Two years of lockdowns and restrictions. People are getting restless and need tangible enemies...

I'm sure those people in Ukrainian uniforms attacking the Russian radio station were just media critics, wanting to deprive the Russian people of their freedom of speech! (what I'm talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident)

I'm not so sure about that. The global chip shortage is *already* hurting the US economy and causing stocks to nose dive on Wall Street. Edit: This is with Taiwan producing at 100% capacity https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60135905 A survey of more than 150 firms found supplies had fallen from an average of 40 days' worth in 2019 to just five days in late 2021. Note, this is not to be confused with the other world wide chip shortage, lack of potatoes leading to a shortage in french fries and chips supplies https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/08/potato-shortage-french-fries-japan-kenya-south-africa-pandemic-supply-chains/ In Japan, McDonald’s locations stopped offering large and medium-size french fry orders late last month, after pandemic-related supply chain issues and floods in the Port of Vancouver delayed potato shipments. Days later, South Africa’s leading makers of potato chips warned that potatoes were in disturbingly short supply after a bad frost and excessive rains led to low local yields, on top of global sourcing shortages.

SSD's, when they work, are for me the preferred boot drive. However, I don't keep much important stuff on it. Every now and then, the documents and settings folder gets copied both to an external USB HDD as well as an FTP server (a habit of mine that predates stuff like OneDrive, I-Cloud and Google Drive by decades) as a precaution. I have a repair disk on a USB stick too, if I need to rebuild it on a new drive.

I don't have that much of a history... my first two movies were (IIRC) Akira and Ghost in the Shell and the first show was Macross. Not that I knew they were "Anime" mind you (it would be another 20 years before I heard that term, as well as "Manga"). The latter showed on TV back when European countries first started getting access to satellite TV (mid to late 80's I think) and for me it was just another cartoon, with space travel and giant robots involved. I think I'm going to check out JoJo's bizarre stuff next (no release dates for Mieruko-chan s2 nor Fire Force s3)....

I wonder how many here remember the "good old days" of 8 bit computing, when the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum 48 were competing for the customers attention (and money)? In the early 80's, there were a number of one man armies (Jeff Minter, Andrew Braybrook, Sid Meier, Bruce Carver and Mike Singleton) which produced a disproportional part of the "good" games of that decade. Eventually it turned into another Hollywood, with publishers becoming larger and larger and developers becoming less and less independent, as the budgets and financing costs sky rocketed. There's a difference between providing cash flow for a 1-3 man company and a 100-1000 man company. The tested and tried (and sequels and imitations) were in and innovation was out The last games that truly excited me were probably games like the Master of Orion, Fallout, Baldur Gate, X-Com and Tomb Raider. Since that time, good games have been released intermittently, but expectations and excitement for upcoming releases has been in constant decline. Doesn't mean a game gives me a pleasant surprise and I've played fun games since, but expectations?... nah. Edit: I'll shamefully admit, I don't remember the name of the guy at Cosmi, who did such classics like Caverns of Khafka, Aztec Challenge and Forbidden Forest (the later is to this day the only video game that genuinely gave me goosebumps and cold sweat). He did game design, game development, the graphics and coded the effin music. One man army indeed. Edit2: Google is my friend, his name is Paul Norman.

Sorry, what were you saying? Wasn't really listening... Edit: Still trying to make up my mind, what to look out for next

Nostalgia time... this music was brought to you by The Department for Teutonic Affairs

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-60120997 It might sort of belong in the politics thread, but it doesn't quite fit the doom and gloom there... The Australian government has bought the Aboriginal flag's copyright in a bid to "free" the symbol of identity from bitter fights over who can use it. Indigenous artist Harold Thomas created the flag in 1971 as a protest image but it is now the dominant Aboriginal emblem and an official national flag. Despite this, many Aboriginal people say the flag has been "held hostage" by copyright deals that limit its display. The flag can now be reproduced by anyone without fear of legal threats. "Over the last 50 years we made Harold Thomas' artwork our own - we marched under the Aboriginal flag, stood behind it, and flew it high as a point of pride," said Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt. "Now that the Commonwealth holds the copyright, it belongs to everyone, and no-one can take it away." The government paid more than A$20m (£11m; $14m) in total to secure the copyright from Mr Thomas and to terminate lease agreements, media reports said. The flag can be used either together with or in lieu of the Australian national flag It has followed pressure from Aboriginal groups and controversies in sports such as the Australian Football League (AFL), which began refusing to pay leaseholders to display the flag. "The flag belongs to all Aboriginal people. Why do they have to pay for it?" one petition organiser, Laura Thompson, told the BBC in 2020. "It's a symbol of our people's survival. Many of us don't identify with the Australian flag because for us it represents colonisation and invasion." Now they can use it without constant looking over their shoulders out of fear for the collectors wanting their share of the copyright revenue...

Not sure what you mean by "overall"? Military strength? Other, wiser heads knows more about hardware specs and capabilities than I do. Politically? I think Trump weakened the US so much during his 4 years, that the rest of the world might actually (erroneously and possibly to their own regret) disregard the US as a player in international politics these days. Russia never really had a tradition for being an "extrovert". Their interests (and manipulations) are usually in countries bordering Russia (and previously the USSR). Most of their military doctrine in the past for projecting power was throw ICBM's at it. Then throw more at it. Then add MIRV's to the ICBM's and trow even more at it. Eventually the target breaks. They didn't have specialized units for operating outside their (and their "vassal countries") borders. Afghanistan was a good example of how disastrous it ended up when they tried to deploy troops outside their comfort zone. Putin changed that however. Cutting down on the millions strong conscript army of pedestrians led by corrupt, incompetent polit bureau members. The Russian units deployed in Syria, Libya, CAR etc. *seems* to be at least on par with their western counter parts and they have had a lot of practice the last 10 years in operating outside Russia proper's borders. The doctrine seems to favour lesser numbers of higher quality compared to say 20-25 years ago. Mentally? I think the west tends to forget that Russia has throughout the last 500 years been surrounded by enemies wanting to partition it. Poland would know what it feels like, being surrounded by Sweden, Germany and Russia. Russia is used to western powers invading them in significant numbers whether they be Sweden, France, Germany (twice), The British etc. The point being, the constant encroaching by NATO has reached a point, where Ukraine is the trigger because it's too close to Moscow and industrial centers geographically. If Biden really wants war, inviting Ukraine into NATO is the 100% guarantee that he will get what he wants in that regard. Remember, the west has shown a blatant disregard for international law the last 20 years, chopping up sovereign countries like Serbia when it was expedient to do so (yet, crying wolf if the people of Crimea dare to invoke democracy), applauding Ukraine's invasion and occupation of Crimea at the same time etc. No reason whatsoever for Russia to trust anything said by western leaders. Too much hypocrisy. Hence why negotiations have to take place from a perceived position of strength. i.e. what is the purpose of putting 100000 man on a border if you don't also have the logistics in place to deploy them anywhere other than where they sit on their butts right now? Not to mention, what a surprise it would be if they attacked. Show me a general that would show an enemy his entire hand rather than benefit from a surprise. It's more than anything a warning to the west, hands off or else. I mentioned once in the past, it's the Cuba crisis in reverse. Ukraine is too close for Russian comfort to tolerate NATO troops and it will be seen as a declaration of war as certain as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. Economically? We're talking about a people where most of them lived as serfs up until 1917, eating grass and roots while being abused and mistreated by nobility. About a century or two longer than most other countries. Starvation and hardship is almost a source a national pride. Sanctions wont work. It will just force Russia, Turkey, China and possibly India to closer cooperation and harden any resentment towards western countries, adding decades to any chance of a normalization of relations

I'm still a bit surprised by not even having had the common cold for 2 years now. I used to get it at least twice a year throughout living memory... until 2020 and people starting the distancing, mask wearing and hand sanitizer thing. I remember talking to my GP about it about a year ago (the seemingly vanished common cold) and he told me even the normal flu shots were not in demand, as nobody got the flu anymore either. Maybe it shows how much of a strain on our bodies the modern society has become, with everyone living lumped together in large mobs?

The way Hurl explains it, the parents weren't really worried about their kids education, they were worried about being stuck with their offspring all day at home Edit: Note the proper use of 'their'

Bear in mind, the in the 44 years preceding 1991, Hungary and Bulgaria were the enemy. A very existential threat. I grew up and spent my whole childhood and young years knowing my biggest enemies in this world were Poland, DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik aka "East Germany") and The USSR. Implacable foes that could not be reasoned with and not be bargained with, their only goal and reason d'etre was kill me and destroy my way of life. It takes a while to shrug off such deep seated resentment. Bogeymen have a tendency to take on a life of their own and get things attributed to them, that might not be based on anything real. Little surprise really, if people from Eastern Europe were met with resentment at best and outright hostility at worst in that time period. I'm sure nobody in Austria or Germany would have been surprised if your otherwise beautiful woman suddenly grew tentacles and yelled "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn". Heck, it was probably even expected.