The Old Hack

The griffins have a lot more societal privilege and are less likely to face oppression from royalty. In effect the situation is like the different way police is viewed by rich white people as opposed to poor Black people living in ghettos. It is a little hard to view a group positively if a nonzero percentage of it considers you subhuman and useful only as target practice.

It depends a lot on the society as well. There was a time where diamonds were not as highly valued as other rare gems. A few centuries ago spices fetched REALLY high prices due to rarity. The word 'salary' stems from a time where you would issue pay in the form of salt. Also baseball trading cards can reach really impressive values, though I am less sure that the fame of players in other dimensions would carry over as readily. As to Magic: the Gathering, I wonder what that would be called on the other world. Technology: the Menacing? The one thing I am fairly sure they would not bother to bring is NFTs. With magic and illusions available they have simpler ways of scamming people.

The problem is that urban warfare is a rather different animal than urban law enforcement. I am very much afraid that the proliferation of automatic weaponry, hand grenades and more modern tactics has made it a bad time to be a horse in a place like Kherson or Bakhmut. This is not even mentioning open land. Horses might still be useful for transport, I admit, but the wise rider will keep his animal away from the front lines. This gives me an amazing mental image of a moon base where astronaut cavalry patrols its environs on spacesuited horses.

Nor are wizards. Which may be a large part of the reason that Rincewind is built for land speed.

After that it will be T-27s. After which it may be time for horse cavalry armed with sabers, I guess. I am not sure this progression is really that good of an idea.

I wish I had had your wisdom. Instead I read on, hypnotized by the continuing disaster. Oh good Lord what a train wreck.

I don't blame them if you can just casually unload for a quarter mill in gold all at once in these places.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

To be fair to Hitler, he at least did somewhat better during his initial invasion of Ukraine.

I dunno, I hear that in Ukraine you can find Russian tank parts just lying all over the landscape. Well, about a century ago -- I think it was in 1929 -- Winston Churchill was confronted with a mining strike. He was enthusiastically planning how to deal with it, a plan which included tanks, when he was informed that the negotiators had settled matters with strikers and that the miners were already returning to work. He got so mad that he threw his pen across the room. This was of course absolutely in character for the man. I don't think he acknowledged the existence of any sort of problem that could not ultimately be solved by throwing tanks at it. His conflict seeking mindset might be best explicated by his quote "There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at and missed."

The T-34 is still an excellent tank as long as the opposition doesn't have any of its own nor any weapons able to hurt one. I'm sure it does just fine against civilian demonstrators or striking workers.

Likewise. Also oh my Lord. I just read the background of the Sentry. I regret everything. There was so much stupid in that that I could feel my brain trying to hide.

I think part of Putler's problems is a serious shortage of experienced drivers and crew. I imagine the poor sod driving it was a recent conscript.

That's the part of the chain where they serve Beyonders.

I think it might be these guys. If they are new arrivals they might need to convert gold into local money.

Speaking of the defeat parade, apparently the T-34 caught wind of a rumour that it was to be sent to Ukraine after the parade and tried to injure itself to avoid going into the grinder. https://twitter.com/DarthPutinKGB/status/1655946975836262400?cxt=HHwWgMDS2YfAjfstAAAA

I'm rather curious. I've looked a bit at the Russian T-14 and people can't seem to agree on whether it is a superweapon or a huge waste of resources. Is anyone here knowledgeable about it and able to shed a little light on the topic?

This is actually a trend from them in some ways. This is NOT a defence of them and their business methods. However, one of their business methods is to make sure that their LGBTQ employees are healthy and as well taken care of as possible. They have offered queer employees health care since the 90s, which is a BIG thing because 1) even then right wingers were furious at anyone who dared treat us as if we were human beings and 2) this was the height of the AIDS epidemic which meant added financial risk. As far as this is concerned, I consider Disney at the very least situational allies and I am rooting for them against that fascist Santis and his loathsome policies and abuses of power. In this case the enemy of my enemy really is my friend -- at least until the battle is over. Which may still be quite a while.

It wasn't one of his best ides.

Did the Egyptian Gods do this with Kalaha?

In school I established a reputation for never lying because I told the truth even when it was inconvenient for myself. Then one day I told a blatant lie to protect a classmate from bullies and everybody believed it. A reputation can be a valuable tool when applied correctly.

The Moderator: I am sorry to say that I have not been able to get into contact with Thom Khatt for a long time now. I will make another attempt but I am afraid I cannot promise anything.

The Moderator: Is this a political foot? *scratches head*

He could always start drafting them. Forcibly drafted random students make ideal rocket scientists, right?

Apparently Putler is so mad that his hypersonic missiles have been intercepted by Patriot missile batteries that he has had one of his top rocket scientists arrested and placed under trial for treason, joining two others he had arrested last year just after a test firing of the same missile. I am not certain this is his best idea ever. It seems to me that you can run out of rocket scientists awful fast that way.