Couldn’t even get the image right. Atlas bore not the earth, but the sky.

Norway has BankAxept I believe. Fully homegrown, works just like visa.

Dear Andrew. You need to fill your head with stuff cause you’re unable to sit in the silence of your own mind since it’s shouting what an utter failure you are at being a decent person. You’ve hurt so many people, and deep down you know that ain’t right. It’s called cognitive dissonance. I want to hope you can become a whole person someday, but frankly you don’t deserve that. Honestly I can’t see you as anything other than a drain on society.

Eh, the original from the 90s is a more solid game. The game is good is some ways, but flawed in many. First of all the dumbing down. In 90s version you recruit soldiers for money, then check their stats and make them snipers, grenadiers, shock troops or even suicide bombers depending on their skills. 2012 version, you get a bunch of gamified units that have set upgrade paths.

90s version you build and attack multiple bases, administrate a world wide war with great wins and painful losses. In 2012, you pretty much have to win each scenario or the game becomes unwinnable.

Old version, more units, lose one or two, the fight goes on. New version, two dead soldiers will make many fights unwinnable. Old, all aliens are on map at start. New, aliens spawn suddenly in illogical positions and often put your troops in impossible situations that you would never have wandered into if the enemy was on the field and not suddenly appeared out of thin air.

Old, no limits to equipment, give every man 2 grenades and 2 smoke grenades, no worries. New, only Carl can carry smoke grenades, because the game wants to force strategic choices.

I could go on, but long story short, yes new xcom was good, but it really was a dumber version of the original, which had small flaws, but is still an amazing game. New xcom I would just not want to play again.

Your knowledge in this field supersedes mine, I defer to you. I merely summarized the article in my simple understanding. Which, I feel is kinda the same as what you said, only simpler and less accurate. Thank you for the elaboration.

Also, grinds my gears is an expression, and so is gets my goat. Yet clichés make us all dumber so I decided to grab the readers attention with a mangled metaphor, hoping it would draw smiles and further attention.

Norway is wrong. Jon and even John (pronounced Yohn) are in common use and closer.

Skatusen?

1. That must be quite frustrating and difficult for your self esteem.

2. You may be right, but you might be putting your own insecurities on to the motivations of others. The world from other people’s perspective don’t always align with what we think. Could what you describe be as easily explained by something else, perhaps even your insecurity about it?

3. Have you discussed this issue with friends / family and gotten their honest thoughts? Do they agree that what you say could pose a problem?

4. Have you attempted to make yourself look older with makeup and such? Are the results the same with as without?

5. Do you have male friends you can ask if you are attractive?

6. Are there republican conventions nearby? If the men there show interest and say you’re mature for your age, you may want to A. Run B. Conclude that your features may be a challenge.

7. If men don’t approach and talk to you, try approaching and talking to them. Showing you’re interested and available is usually a turn on. Men are simple.

Best of luck.

Why would makeup need jewels…?

Thank you! You just gave me a new bbeg!

Compliance in the form of endless entertainment and distraction. Same shit happened in Rome with circuses, and fascist takeovers have happened many a time many a place. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and people got complacent, lazy and stupid. Of course, the corporate enshittification of media and labor basically ensured it.

Argh. As a Wikipedia supporter this grinds my goat, if I can maul two expressions at once. On the other hand, reading the article I see that AI is scrubbing Wikipedia already and it’s driving up costs. What wiki is doing is creating a model where AI companies will pay them for what they’re currently doing anyway.

I don’t like it, but until they can be blocked or otherwise prevented from access, at least wikimedia should get something out of it. However I fear that this will lead to dependency on AI money, and that, that’s not good.

What does it take for people to realize that the pooch is screwed, the frog is cooked, the tomato squashed, the cat’s out of the bag and dead in the box? The emperor is naked, and doing a nazi salute, the evidence has been lost in the noise, the law broken, the perpetrators have gotten away with it, the grand wizard revealed behind the curtain, the good guys lose, it’s really dark outside, the dragon ate the fucking hobbit AND STILL people are saying “You know this could be not cool” instead of “It’s general fucking strike time”.

The evil manifests physically.

Have you ever held public office? Do you understand the limitations and possibilities of such a position? Do you know that you could have done more in the same situation?

If you’re angry and disaffected, join the party and work from within, decisions are made by those who show up. Angry people on the sidelines are sidelined. I get that you wish you were listened to by your representatives more, but they’re listening to many and there’s only so much they can do.

Also, when being critical it sure helps knowing what you are talking about lest you reveal you know little and understand less. BTW, Ilhan Omar is a woman.

Other events have apparently booked them. No such thing as bad publicity.

Department of Juvenile Propaganda

-Free Stars on steam, used to be called Star Control 2. Old school space adventure. And it is literally free as well.

-Imperialism 2 on GOG, 4x game set in the age of exploration and industrialization.

-Civilization 4, the best of the series in my opinion, I’ve played them since the 90s.

-Beyond Good and Evil, comes to mind, don’t remember much about it, except that it’s good.

-To the Moon, indie adventure / puzzle game. Has great reviews by the developers aunt, among other things.

-Banner Saga 1-3, holy Nordic inspired epic tactical strategy, batman.

-Jagged Alliance 2, another tactical combat game, modern time, funny, realistic and really difficult.

Eh, realized that only the first one is free to play. But the other ones are old (or very old), so you can snatch them on sale on steam, GOG or Epic for less than a chocolate bar and get dozens of hours of enjoyment from them.

Fun fact, the Soviets were the real space pioneers. They pretty much were first at everything except the moon landing.

I can back this up with a list from one of Carl Sagan’s books if there are sceptics out there.

Sword of the stranger. oldish anime of a Ronin and a young boy who hires him. But the stakes go up and the climax and soundtrack at the end is in my opinion truly magnificent.