CitizenVectron

How generous of him! "After taking 20% of your country and killing hundreds of thousands of people and kidnapping over a million children, I think it's only fair to stop the conflict on the terms we want at the current point. Oh, you've noticed that we've continued building up our forces on your border after the cease fire? Merely a coincidence as we are planning exercises."

Obviously any decision on a settlement should be left to Kyiv. There is a chance the Ukrainian people would prefer to give up what has been taken in exchange for avoiding a draft, and other defense considerations. If Ukraine were allowed entry into NATO, etc, etc. Obviously Putin wouldn't agree to that, and I am doubtful the Ukrainian population is quite there yet.

Edit - sensationalized by news source

Important KGB FSB guy killed in Ukraine:

The first class of Ukrainian F-16 pilots just graduated from a US Air Force base in Arizona, today. The first jets should be delivered to Ukraine from the Netherlands in the next 3-4 weeks, it sounds like.

US must have provided quite a few ATACMs to Ukraine, because there's video today of 10+ being launched at once towards Crimea. Crimea is being hit right now in a few places, multiple ground impacts at air force bases.

EDIT - Ukrainian drones now approaching Crimea as well. Ukraine has either stockpiled a bunch of stuff, or now has the capability to launch large strikes every few days using homemade drones. I know their goal was to get up to something like 40,000 new drones per year locally, including long-range drones.

I love to ignore games like this leading up to release, because they usually turn out to be a guilty pleasure that comes out of nowhere! I'm definitely most excited about the PVE part.

Air Canada recently had to take down its chatbot after it gave a bogus answer to someone (which resulted in them losing a ticket or something), and a court ruled that AI/chatbot results were legally binding statements by the company. Unless these "AI" results are 100% accurate, then you'd better believe someone is going to sue for bad advice that it gives, etc. Maybe that won't hold up in the US where the courts are less pro-consumer, but it has a better chance in Canada or (especially) the EU.

Russian channels are reporting that Ukraine utilized HIMARS to strike a grouping of Russian soldiers in occupied Kreminna front that were gathered for a speech by a regional commander. Reportedly over 100 soldiers were killed, with hundreds more wounded. They had been stationary for hours near the active border, waiting for the commander to appear for the speech.

The ultimate move would be an Arab-American person and try to swing the Gen Z vote over the Palestine massacre (even though we all know Trump wouldn't be any better than Biden).

12 hours ago, TheBladeRoden said:

What shit are they expecting to happen in the next half year to warrant a 10 point drop?

They are shit brains who only look worse the more time goes on.

What's hilarious about this is that many backbenchers knew they were going to lose their seats, but apparently hadn't yet started looking for new jobs. So their main complaint is that due to the surprise, they will be out of jobs unexpectedly. Yeah, eat shit considering the policies you've enacted and the people you've hurt.

A few things in the last couple of days:

• Russia has announced internally that they are going to unilaterally change their maritime borders/zones as they related to Finland, the Baltics, etc. Basically saying they are now claiming some waters that currently belong to those countries
• Last night Russia's border guard removed buoys on the Narva River denoting the border between Russia and Estonia
• Russia launched a major missile attack on Kharkiv, killing 7 civilians and destroying infrastructure
• Ukraine has used ATACMs in at least 2 strikes to take out S-400 air defense systems in different regions

1 minute ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

God I hope so

It'll be his daughter and he'll slip up and call her "what a beautiful first lady" a few times on the trail.

28 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Oh I'm SURE that THAT will help with public opinion. 

Now a proxy war between NATO and Russia AND China.

Labour will be a gigantic improvement, but it's a tragedy that Labour is also anti-trans, as the entirety of the UK seems to be.

2 minutes ago, Haya Dune said:

Cliffs for an ignorant American?

In a Constitutional Parliamentary democracy, the head of government (PM) can dissolve Parliament and call for an election at any time. The same thing can happen if the government is defeated on a matter of confidence in the house (more common if there is a minority government). Otherwise, most places (UK included) have to have an election within a 5-year period, but it can be called earlier if the government things they have a good chance of winning. Election campaign periods are much shorter, typically 30-45 days in total.

In this case, the Tories (conservatives) are already down 20% in the polls, and don't need to legally have an election until January. I guess Sunak thinks he has a better chance of a miracle at 20% under than if he waits and they are 30% under by winter? It's almost certain that Labour (centre-left liberal) will form government.

No links yet, just social media posts. Tories are furious and are scrambling to hold a non-confidence vote for Sunak before he can speak to the King. An election doesn't need to be held until January, and it's almost certain that Labour will win now (20% ahead in the polls). I guess he thinks that it's better to do it now than risk being 30% behind by winter?

39 minutes ago, ShreddieMercury said:

 

But see, that gif you posted rules.

 

To me it's more the unwavering conviction of George Lucas to tell this grand story of political erosion all wrapped up in this kind of hyper-populist fantasy world that he created.  It's an insane direction to take the saga, and I have nothing but respect.  When it comes to these kinds of movies, I am not particularly drawn to performances or acting as much as I am the arc of the story, music, and visuals, so while I can recognize that the performances are wooden, I don't mind and still find the films fascinating and fun to watch.  In fact, I find Lucas's complete disregard for acting in these movies borderline punk rock and incredible.  I also don't agree that it's boring.  I singled out the pod race because it's one of the most thrilling things in the entire series (same with the Darth Maul fight), but those scenes only work because the stakes are so well established by everything preceding them. 

 

I also think the pod race is emblematic of how visionary these movies are.  George Lucas imbued this universe with wildly interesting and unique ideas that make these films worth still watching and celebrating.  There is a tendency to overrate the OT (Return of the Jedi is by far the weakest of any of the GL movies) and underrate the prequels even though I'd say their highs are equally high.  I'd say Attack of the Clones is my least favorite, but it still has absolutely thrilling sequences, while Revenge of the Sith is my favorite Star Wars movie and is incredibly strong front to back.

I could perhaps get behind the idea that ROTJ is overrated...but it's still a far better movie than any of the PT. The emotional highs of the triple climax (especially the throne room scene) are unmatched in SW.

IGN Entertainment acquires Eurogamer, GI, VG247, Rock Paper Shotgun and more

WWW.GAMESINDUSTRY.BIZ

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IGN Entertainment has acquired the Gamer Network family of digital brands for an undisclosed sum.As a result of the acq…

IGN ruining even more gaming content.

Quote

As a result of the acquisition, some redundancies have been made across the UK-based organisation.

 

Gamer Network's publications are GamesIndustry.biz, Eurogamer (including six local language editions), Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247 and Dicebreaker. The business also holds shares in Outside Xbox, Digital Foundry and Hookshot (which operates Nintendolife, PushSquare, PureXbox and Time Extension).

I think IGN now owns something like 80%+ of gaming publications?

38 minutes ago, TyphoidHater said:

To me, it's crazy how the purchase was funded in part by something they didn't own until after the purchase.  

 

Guess that's why I'm not in finance.

Private equity is a scam to disassemble companies and transfer their value to rich people. Basically:

1. Offer to buy company using debt
2. That debt is assigned to the company purchased and must be paid by them
3. Profits (from operations or selling off) are given to rich people who did the sale
4. Company can't service debt used to purchase them, must declare bankruptcy and sell off parts to pay for it

It's crazy to me that the debt used to purchase a company can be serviced by the company purchased, and not be 100% attached to the people who did the buying. Obviously it's more complicated than the four points above, but that's the gist. It's the grift of our age.

Stolen from ERA:

I've got balls of plastic

Yeah, I'd agree that TPM is 70% of a good Star Wars film.

Pros:

• Great design and physical sets
• Fantastic music
• The Maul fight
• Overall story is interesting enough

Cons:

• Jar Jar and kid Anakin just aren't good
• Goes too far in demystifying stuff, as others have said (intention was good, but not handled well)
• Dialogue is bad

TPM is the best movie of the TPM on just the performances and design alone, but also have the worst parts (Jar Jar stuff). AOTC is the worst for the obvious reasons, and ROTS is okay but not good (better made than TPM in general, but missing any Star Wars magic).

I've warmed on TPM over the last 25 years, but I still wouldn't say it's good. I can watch it now and appreciate the good parts (which it has), but it's still not good. I have to wonder...will people in 25 years think Rise of Skywalker is redeemable? lol

Is there a reason why steel roofs aren't more popular in storm-prone regions? They are growing in popularity here, though asphalt shingles remain king.

Nvidia is supplying ai chips to Russia for their drones.