Gorth

That's Ok, not feeling guilty about anything. Serbia's reaction is all about nationalism which I don't like anyway (1), because of an utter and complete **** which I don't like anyway (2) and if the collateral damage is a mining corporation I don't like anyway (3), it's a win-win-win situation as far as see. 3-0 if you want (1) - I'll spare you the long sermon about why I don't like nationalism. Tl;dr; it's a joke created around 1648 to get the gullible to accept he has to die for the benefit of the country's elite like he always has, except now he actually believes he has a stake in the outcome (2) - I'm not necessarily a stickler for rules, but I am in favour of them being applied equally. Some moron is so full of himself and believes himself important enough, that laws and rules are for suckers and not for him, only for "other people" doesn't qualify him in my book. If it had been for humanitarian reasons, come again and maybe we can talk (3) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55250137 a frigging shame CEO's and boards of directors never gets sentenced to the lengthy jail times they deserve

That's a post for tomorrow, frankly too tired today. I did find this little golden nugget though (fallout from the Djokovic thing) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60081853 Serbia has withdrawn the exploration licences of Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto following weeks of protests over plans for a lithium mine. "All permits were annulled... we put an end to Rio Tinto in Serbia," Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Thursday. The decision comes just weeks ahead of Serbia's general election in April. Apparently something good did come out of it after all. Anything that is bad for Rio Tinto is good for the world, so thank you Serbia! Sometimes things done for the wrong reasons are the right things to do anyway

Only thing from top of my head is not a game per se, but the third expansion (End of Dragons) coming out for Guild Wars 2 at the end of February. Game had already been updated a bit in time preparation with new faces and haircuts in the character generator for all races for the all Asian themed expansion

Apparently, Biden doesn't want press photos of Embassy Staff and their family hanging on the helicopters in a last minute evacuation effort from the US Embassy in Kiev (he's probably old enough to remember the Saigon evacuation photos when they were new) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60106416 The US has ordered the relatives of its embassy staff in Ukraine to leave amid rising tension in the region. The State Department has also given permission for non-essential staff to leave and urged US citizens in Ukraine to consider departing. In a statement, it said there were reports that Russia is planning significant military action against Ukraine. Edit: Dang you Putin, don't you go and make a liar of me, I was certain China would invade Taiwan before the Ukraine situation deteriorated. Edit2: Maybe Putin and Xi struck a deal, if striking simultaneously, who would the west consider more important, Ukraine (a corrupt through and through country) or Taiwan (the very important semi conductor manufacturer that makes so much of the west's industry run)?

I'm a bit lost too I know Jennifer Lawrence played in a movie called Hunger Games, but the rest?... Umm... help?

Oooh.... that was interesting You can almost imagine how the "pressure cooker" underneath the old collapsed crater is busy boiling water on the second picture

The problem is too much nationalism and too little democracy. They could try what Denmark and Germany did post WWII? Rather than claiming all historical Danish territories all the way down to Hamburg, it was agreed to create a number of "electoral areas" (it's been a long time since I read up on it, so I don't remember the correct term used at the time, sorry), where the population is actually asked whether they want to be part of Denmark or Germany. Also with the caveat, that no matter how hard you try, minorities will exist on the other side of the border. Their rights have to be ensured and protected. I.e. the Danish minority in Schleswig-Holstein is exempt from the 5% minimum threshold for seats in the regional parliament and both German and Danish are accepted as languages in education on both sides of the border (the way the border ended up after the 3 regional referendums, 1 area re-joined Denmark, 2 areas preferred to remain German). Of course, Germany had just lost WWII, so it was that or lose all the territory. But I could think of quite a few other places in the world, where a similar approach would be beneficial for long term peace. Ukraine and Russia are both horribly nationalist, so they might need to feel a bit of pain before such good ideas penetrates their skulls. Ukraine is sort of the opposite case, where after the change of government in 1994, the new right wing extremist government decided to go 100% Ukraine uber alles, cracking down on Russian minorities in both Crimea and eastern Ukraine, disallowing the use of the Russian language etc. The reaction was anything if not predictable (referendum in Crimea, which they were fully entitled to, having never been legitimately part of Ukraine post 1991) and violent uprisings in eastern Ukraine. The Kurds is another example (since I mentioned them originally), which is never going to happen with somebody like Erdogan in power, because his power base is entirely nationalist rhetoric. A place that is actually peaceful at the moment is the Swedish occupied parts of Denmark (Scania), where you have to search long and hard for any armed resistance groups. Guess what, the cultural and ethnic differences between Denmark and Sweden is not large enough today to stir up unrest (again, something I referred to in my original post). If you want to do the world a favour, stop thinking like it's 1648 and support democracy instead. Especially local democracy and the right of people for self determination.

Booked myself for a covid booster shot. Decided to try "Moderna" this time. Just to try a different flavour Besides, I've been told, mixing the shots is like a drinking at a bar. You get more bang for your buck

Bruce, you have to stop confusing "sovereign country" with homogeneous country. Lines on a map that ignores the ethnic realities on the ground aren't worth the paper the map makers used. You would have thought the UK of all things, learned that after the cluster**** that was the middle-east after WWI. The Kurds sends their regards btw. Unless you can unify the population culturally, forget about stability. Nationalism only exacerbates the problem. The increased kill count makes for good news coverage, but little else.

I finished Fire Force season 2. Not quite as good as season 1, but still entertaining. Will do a summary at some point (I sort of binge watched 24 episodes in 3 days, makes it a bit hard to remember the chronological order of events... Also watched a movie, Made in Abyss - Dawn of the Deep Soul. Depressing enough to make even Nordic people happy Sort of bridging the gap between what has gone on in Season 1 plus the movies and what is hopefully going to be season 2.

Biden shut down the keystone pipeline (the closure of the oil flow through which, is apparently the reason gas prices are up) As the professor points out, it isn't even built yet, so no oil ever flowed through it. Shows the level of intelligence employed by Murdoch.

Meh, too easy. France, England and Spain in that order. Next...

Because I love the voice of this fabulous Faeroese lady... A cover version of Leonard Cohen's Famous Blue Raincoat

Meat Loaf... No more bats out of hell for you Edit:...

The most ubiquitous of troop carriers was around already in antiquity. Behold, the humble shoe, transporting soldiers all over the Roman Empire!

Not quite as the Nicaean Council… close but not quite

Recycled a bunch of posts to start a new thread.... Previous thread variant: That reminds me, it's time to book a booster shot

Thread hit its expiry date... more sick stuff here

With our luck, we'll get an RTS in the Arcanum setting Edit: J/k, but I do think the big wigs are going to look at profitability of settings cross referenced with game types

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60034058 Despair all ye playstation fans... share the gnashing of teeth with Sony. Shares in Japanese technology giant Sony have slumped in Tokyo trade after Microsoft said it plans to buy mega games company Activision Blizzard. The deal worth $68.7bn (£50.5bn), would be Microsoft's biggest ever buyout and the largest deal in gaming history. It would see the US firm owning popular gaming franchises including Call of Duty, Warcraft and Overwatch. The deal would be a major step for Microsoft's Xbox gaming brand in its battle against Sony's PlayStation.

It's THERE dammit... If you ask the Chinese, they will tell you they have millions of immigrants, ethnic Tibetans, Uighurs etc. who have all been welcomed into the Chinese motherland. Russia has also welcomed a hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many of them even bringing their own land in Donbas and Crimea when they moved to Russia! Ok, that wasn't meant seriously. I do think (seriously), that while the US is barely out of legal racism (people of colour are now allowed to marry white people legally in the South, can even use the same public transport). It's still a brand new thing though, in a historical context. The racism is still embedded very deeply on a societal and cultural level, even if not on a legislative level anymore.

So, you’re saying it’s just like Darwin’s theory of evolution. It was also considered revisionist blasphemy for a long time. Banned, blocked, obstructed until only a few backwards places still argue that it had noting on it

That's what I was thinking too... creepy pervs that those politicians are at times After a few months of listening to how their kids behave in class, some parents might start to have misgivings about the whole thing?

It's not the size of you hard disk that matters, it's how you use it

My 2x6tb are almost full. Looking at options atm