Recent posts

#41

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Josquius - Today at 03:05:33 AM

The main difference I'd see is one of scale.
If Hamas started spreading indiscriminate death and destruction on the scale of the IDF then I'd be all for foreign intervention.
When within a few days of the IDF stopping their campaign there's been a few shootings.... Well it's just not equivalent is it.
The religion of the killers is irrelevant.

Give me a ball park figure on how many Palestinian have to die at Hamas hands before it becomes concerning.  If you want something well past the scale of the IDF you can look at Saudi Arabia in Yemen.  And now all the protesters for Gaza have nothing to do, I'm sure they'll move on to the atrocities in Yemen.  Your country and even CC's country can influence that.  So certainly everyone will march to stop those kids from being killed.  That is if they feel those kids are important.

My distaste for the Saudis long predates my coming off the fence against Israel.
But I'm sure you know my views better than me.

For people at large... It's true Palestine gets way more attention than equivalent shit elswhere.
Though the continued insinuation it's because of anti semitism -

More likely factors in my mind.

1: it's right next to Europe. Proximity makes things matter more.

2: Israel sort of presents as part of Europe, being in UEFA, Eurovision, etc... Being a western democracy latched onto the middle east, etc....
This applies from angles of both seeing more chance of getting change, there actually being easy actions European organisations can take, and seeing more responsibility from our side that one of ours is behaving so foul.

3: Palestine is under normal circumstances a urbanised middle income place where people live lives not very different at all to people in Greece or Italy for example. There's more relatability there.
Also arguably with some a racial element in them just looking more European.

4: Because Palestine is a richer and more urban place.... It also has more journalists and more cameras. There's more to see coming out of Palestine than Sudan or Yemen.

#42

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Syt - Today at 01:11:49 AM

So all news organizations except One American New Network (OANN) have now left the Pentagon. Good on them.

https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-press-access-hegseth-trump-restrictions-5d9c2a63e4e03b91fc1546bb09ffbf12

[...]

"What they're really doing, they want to spoon-feed information to the journalist, and that would be their story. That's not journalism," said Jack Keane, a retired U.S. Army general and Fox News analyst, said on Hegseth's former network.

When he served, Keane said he required new brigadier generals to take a class on the role of the media in a democracy so they wouldn't be intimidated and also see reporters as a conduit to the American public. "There were times when stories were done that made me flinch a little bit," he said. "But that's usually because we had done something that wasn't as good as we should have done it."

Youssef said it made no sense to sign on to rules that said reporters should not solicit military officials for information. "To agree to not solicit information is to agree to not be a journalist," she said. "Our whole goal is soliciting information."

[...]

#43

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Syt - Today at 01:09:11 AM

I'm sure RFK already made sure it's all placebo anyways. Or homeopathic stuff.



... or brain worms.

#44

Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...

Last post by Syt - Today at 01:04:37 AM

Apparently a Star Trek: Voyager game is coming out and there's a demo. Essentially it lets you make the big decisions and retrace the voyage home. Or, you know ...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2643390/Star_Trek_Voyager__Across_the_Unknown/

#45

Off the Record / Re: Dead Pool 2025

Last post by Syt - Today at 12:53:35 AM

For a while I was thinking I had missed two Indiana Jones flicks. 

I may have had the Fate of Atlantis one on my wall when I was in my late teens. (Together with Darklands, a Larry Elmore DnD poster that came with one of the Gold Box games, and a few others I can't recall.)

#46

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Valmy - Today at 12:49:12 AM

I got my "free" shots already. USA USA USA

I wonder how long that will be a thing 

#47

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Syt - Today at 12:45:11 AM

Saw a story on ORF today that flu an covid cases are going up again. Mostly it was a call of action to register for the city's free* annual vaccination program which starts Nov 4th. Took me all of 10 minutes to register and book my appointment for 6th November for a combi shot. Yay, technology.

*Yes, technically funded by taxes. Still, no extra cost.

#48

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by jimmy olsen - October 15, 2025, 10:55:25 PM

This is what I mean. They want an incident where they stop some Estonian car going through and there is an incident. Putin can announce rationing of fuel and mbolisiation or reserves in response to imminent nato attack.

Maybe

https://tvpworld.com/89463458/russian-war-losses-moscow-taps-reservists-for-ukraine

Russia has drafted a law that would allow reserve troops to be sent to conflict zones to carry out specialized missions without the need for general mobilization amid mounting Russian losses in the war in Ukraine.

https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-lost-more-soldiers-ukraine-2025-alone/

KYIV — Russia lost 281,550 soldiers in Ukraine in the first eight months of this year, according to a document that Ukrainian intelligence says contained leaked Russian data.

The list, published Oct. 6, shows an astonishing level of losses for minimal battlefield gains. It says that 86,744 Russians were killed, 33,966 are missing, 158,529 were wounded and 2,311 were captured.

Russian media website Mediazona was skeptical about some of the numbers. Together with the BBC, it is conducting a project of identifying Russians killed in action since the war started, and so far has named more than 134,000. The difficulty in naming lost soldiers means the numbers will be lower than a broad estimate of casualties.

#49

Off the Record / Re: Dead Pool 2025

Last post by jimmy olsen - October 15, 2025, 10:52:17 PM

Those posters are fantastic.

#50

Off the Record / Re: Baseball

Last post by crazy canuck - October 15, 2025, 10:24:58 PM

Meh, the Raptors and Jays don't have the Laughs taint.