The Old Hack

So, for all intents and purposes it was a defeat parade.

On a related note, the anti-war pro-Putin faction in Denmark has come up with an amazing new argument. One side effect of Denmark sending as much gear as possible to Ukraine is that when we replace it, it is generally with newer and better materiel. I mean yes it is not great that it is old stuff the Ukrainians are getting but at least they are getting it right away. But Denmark still needs vehicles and weapons of its own and replacements obviously tend to be more modern. The Putinists are referring to this as 'stealth mobilization' and is warning that this will lead... to Denmark taking a more aggressive stance against her neighbours. ... ...dafuq? Denmark is literally the smallest nation in all of northern Europe with the possible exception of Luxembourg. I don't think we've waged a war of expansion since the 17th Century, and the ones we fought in then did not end well. Well, yes, Luxembourg is smaller than Denmark but I do not quite see the Danish Army beat aside the Germans and the French on our way there. I swear to God, the Putinists have lost control of their single brain cell and it is desperately hiding from them now. (In my teens I did once formulate a plan for Denmark regaining control of southern Sweden, but it involved airdropping large amounts of Schnapps and beer over strategically important junctions and then moving in with truckloads of more booze we would hand over for free. I figured we would be greeted as liberators because of Sweden's near-Prohibition level control of alcohol sales. Sadly, my plan never gained much traction, though my military acquaintances did say it was a lot less likely to lead to mass casualties than conventional warfare.)

Given the way their 'special military operation' in Ukraine is going, I personally would suggest they make it a defeat parade instead.

Seems to me that Wizards and Hasbro themselves could benefit from a "how to not s*** ourselves in public advisor" class.

There's a lot of current discussion as to whether the drone attack on the Kremlin was actually Ukrainian or a Russian false flag operation. Right now we cannot determine which it is as we are missing critical information. It might be a Russian false flag op, but it is not possible to be sure it is as the Kremlin hasn't denied it as yet.

That sounds more than a little frightening. I am glad nothing bad happened. I am also glad you got some obviously badly needed sleep. Please take care.

So, anything made by James Cameron?

I liked him during the 90s. It deeply saddens me to see what he has become. It was bad enough when he went all in for Moldy Tangerine back in 2016.

I admit that I am impressed they even have a vaccine against shingles. I'd like one. I once almost got hit by a falling roofing tile during a storm and it scared the hell out of me.

Especially militaristic states and dictators tend to forget that. They think of the general populace as helpless sheep that will knuckle under after a few demonstrations of force. But in most cases this kind of behavior merely causes the resistance to grow ever more embittered and hardened. Police state terror can sometimes work, but it requires a population that is either mostly complacent or indifferent. It is much simpler to attack and terrorize a minority of the population, especially if/once it has been demonized and isolated from the rest. That way you can get lots of informers and stool pigeons to happily do your work for you. But once the vast majority of the population has been alienated, the equation shifts. Then you literally require an army to keep the population pacified, one that has been trained for the task and is constantly on guard. And any and all informers are suddenly taking their lives into their hands, for if they get found out, they are very likely to have some sort of fatal accident happen to them. This reduces their enthusiasm a great deal. Militarily conquering a nation is the easy part. Keeping it subdued is much harder and can consume many years. Once you have angered a population so much and it has grown embittered, you may be looking at constant guerilla warfare against you for a very long time. Even if Putin somehow successfully occupied Ukraine at this point, he would be up against a population that utterly despises all things Russian, with massive numbers of weaponry still loose in the general population and a sizeable remnant of battle hardened veterans. And the force he has down there at the moment isn't even big enough to lock down on this sort of guerilla opposition. This war was a profound mistake on his part and at this point it has failed on every level. Ukraine will break Putin if it hasn't already done so.

As the joke goes, Russia used to have the second best military in the world. Now they just have the second best military in Ukraine.

I absolutely respect that. Your reasons are valid. I am more fortunate in that I am less tied to game systems.

As it stands now WotC managed to drive a lot of customers off to competitors. I am certainly not going back to them after this demonstration. There is an interesting tumblr thread about large corporations burning customers one time too many. I recommend it. https://www.tumblr.com/anarchistmemecollective/708591879795736576/thymewayster-really-good-twitter-thread

I remember a game where we were more or less doing "CSI: Forgotten Realms" in one scenario. We were investigating some mysterious thefts and a possible murder. At one point my character, a guard sergeant, got asked if it was OK if they took the corpse away. The player group wanted to see if we could learn more from the corpse; due to me having the highest Healing skill I got picked to do the honours. I looked at the corpse -- a hapless beggar from the slums -- and crit failed. I said aloud, "Clearly dead from a drug overdose. Not of interest to our case. Go ahead and take the corpse away." My DM actually gave me bonus XP for creatively screwing myself over.

As I recall it their myth came into being due to the presence of cobalt in mines. Since cobalt at the time had no practical use, miners found its presence extremely annoying and created the myth of mine dwelling troublemakers who left cobalt around solely to make the life of miners harder. Hence 'kobolds'.

Crudmuffins. I hope they are done soon.

I saw someone who overreacted so much to the spy balloon that he called it "USA's new Sputnik moment". I mean honestly. This sort of thing was more or less a constant during the entire Cold War. Literally everyone who was anyone did it. Bollocking Denmark did it to East Germany and we are not exactly a world power. I mean what was the guy excited about? A balloon technology gap? I won't worry about it until I see examples of formation flying Chinese balloons shoot down F-16s and F-22s, presumably doing so with their superior speed and maneuverability.

A box is a cat's best friend.

My firm preference is to shelter in place. So much this. These things happen rarely in Copenhagen. When they do happen, the entire city becomes a bollocking skating rink.

Kitty loaves are good. Leave them to rise in the sunlight.

Absolutely seconded. Get better, Prof. Please do take care.

Why in the world do people never learn? Who thinks it is a good idea to release extremely classified material on a game internet forum? I just don't get it! You'd think the idiot leakers got slapped down so hard that eventually others tempted to do something so mind bogglingly imbecilic would realize that this was not their best idea. Or are they just not able to find them?

The Panzer III is sad now

...I have honestly never heard this expression before. It could be from one of the dialects. I'd offhand say you are both right, a goldfish looks shiny but kinda doesn't last as long as a diamond.