The Off Topic Topic

[Eddie Teach]

I'd like to see that survey done of Russians.

[Razgovory]

Professional snake hunters, like in India do pretty well grabbing them by the tail.

That's vague.  They only have two parts: head and tail.

What kind of dipshit thinks they can fight a elephant?

[Tamas]

How quick would the snake's venom work?
It seems it might be possible to technically 'win' there, even if you die afterwards.
Terrain matters too. Is there a handy cliff to throw it off- potentially possible with survival there, or do you need to try and tear it/squash it?

You have teeth, use them.

Indeed. I remember many years ago I read some story that somebody got attacked by a wolf but when the animal jumped on them they bit its leg/paw. The wolf totally did not expect an actual fight and fled the scene after that.

[Jacob]

I think if you're fighting a snake you'll want to pick it up and dash it against some rocks or a tree or something. Alternately stick its head under water until it drowns. Or maybe stomp on it.

Of course, they're pretty quick so you might not be able to catch itch.

[Razgovory]

For fighting a snake can you wear heavy gloves?

[Josquius]

Looking at the Afghanistan thread I got to thinking of an ongoing problem in strategy game design.
That is the "MORE LAND= MORE POWER" factor which is ahistorical, encourages blobbing, and makes playing minors (and staying small) difficult and not fun.

Rather than provinces having a revolt risk, how about they have a revolt % representing bandits, ongoing insurgencies, etc.... This strikes me as a more realistic representation of most unrest than the rebels sending out a regular army to fight yours.
Generally this revolt % will have a impact on the income you can extract from it, and unless you have troops in the area in neighbouring provinces too (representing both natural spread of unrest and your trade through the badlands being set upon by bandits).
If we're looking at a more modern based game and/or you're playing as a democracy these revolts should cause constant niggling manpower drains which in turn is connected to happiness- less war exhaustion as such, but a negative to the government in elections or whatever you have. Getting very abstract here and talking about something too undefined

[celedhring]

My brother bought me a 3D printer for my birthday. Spent the entire evening setting it up, and now I started printing stuff for my DND games. This is going to be so much fun.

[Josquius]

Yesterday I noticed on the BBC news website that Tower Bridge was stuck open.
Just seen on YouTube - Tom Scott uploaded a new video 17 hours ago... He pushed the button

[Savonarola]

Question for Spanish speakers (or anyone else who knows), why is Havana "La Habana" in Spanish?  (That is why does it take the definite article, not why is it spelled with a b rather than with a v.)

[Syt]

My brother bought me a 3D printer for my birthday. Spent the entire evening setting it up, and now I started printing stuff for my DND games. This is going to be so much fun.

Belated(?) happy birthday?

[Liep]

Yesterday I noticed on the BBC news website that Tower Bridge was stuck open.
Just seen on YouTube - Tom Scott uploaded a new video 17 hours ago... He pushed the button

His next video is about viral marketing.

[alfred russel]

Professional snake hunters, like in India do pretty well grabbing them by the tail.

Spending some time thinking about this (no more than 6 or 7 hours), I saw lots of people wrestle alligators as a kid (I'm from Florida) and the alligator never won. Crocodiles aren't alligators but for someone that knows what they are doing, it may not be that difficult.

[Eddie Teach]

Question for Spanish speakers (or anyone else who knows), why is Havana "La Habana" in Spanish?  (That is why does it take the definite article, not why is it spelled with a b rather than with a v.)

Same could be asked for the Ukraine, the Gambia, or the OSU.

[celedhring]

Question for Spanish speakers (or anyone else who knows), why is Havana "La Habana" in Spanish?  (That is why does it take the definite article, not why is it spelled with a b rather than with a v.)

In general, the use of article in the name of a place denotes a common noun that's treated as a proper noun - it probably referred to a local feature (one theory traces it to "savanna") that was used to denote the whole place. However, given that the origin of the name is lost to time (there are many theories) it's difficult to say.

[garbon]

Question for Spanish speakers (or anyone else who knows), why is Havana "La Habana" in Spanish?  (That is why does it take the definite article, not why is it spelled with a b rather than with a v.)

Same could be asked for the Ukraine, the Gambia, or the OSU.

'The' was dropped from Ukraine as preferred form in the 90s.