Derfel Cadarn

20 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

Finally watching Star Trek: Deep Space 9, after hearing friends rave about it for years and years. It is pleasant so far. Only ten episodes in and oh lordy, Wallace Shawn is already Wallace Shawning about wonderfully! 

Seasons 1 and 2 aren’t great (tho donhave some great episodes), but from season 3 it really ups its game.

I’ve just bought The Will of the Many, by James Islington. Mainly because Dark Academia is pooular with publishers, so I’ve just started planning a gothic Dark Academia fantasy, to start once my WIP is finished this summer (ok, autumn).

So I shoukd read something recent in the genre. It’s first person present tense, which will take some getting used to, but the reviews seem good.

12 hours ago, Werthead said:

Excellent video on the OG Dune.

I forgot this was never released on GoG. I still have my old CD-ROM and, bizarrely, it still works fine.

 

I loved Dune 2 (a RTS) on the Amiga. I played Harkonnen and woukd send a mass of tanks to flank the enemy base, sacrificing them to breach the enemy base defences. Then a second wave, once ready, woukd finish them off

17 hours ago, Spockydog said:

I thought Fawlty Towers was over-rated shite ever since the 70s.

Same with Monty Python.

I’ve never been a massive fan of it.

27 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

Didn’t he threaten that as a way to twist Ukraine’s arm into “finding” dirt on Biden? Weren’t there 2 charges, abuse of power and something else?

If I remember, Trump wanted Zelenskyy to announce they were investigating Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine. Not sure if he cared whether any investigation took llace, just wanted thr ‘smoke’

So NanoWrimo is in meltdown.

There have been issues for years, conplaints that they were affiliating with predatory vanity presses.

Last year things came to a head when there were complaints of grooming in Junior Nano forums, and of no action being taken. Thise in charge of Nano shut the forums.

Now they’ve released new rules, including a new agreement for thr ML’s (municipal liaisons). The ML’s arent hally because this new agreement leaves then potentially liable for all sorts of stuff. I’ll paste some examples below:

• “Mandated ID verification and background checks, but only with one US-based company with many accusations of a bad track record with data protection.
• Taking on all legal liability for anything that happens at any point anywhere associated with our region.
• Age-verifying every member ourselves to ensure no minors take part in our activities.
• Filing a report for every instance of profanity???
• Getting permission each time we want to talk to another ML.
• Communicating with the region solely through the site (which means no Discord).
• Following HQ’s decisions on public health policies, rather than the government’s.“

So the upshot is, Nano regions all around the world are breaking away from nano and acting as their own communities via discord etc, including the many of the Scotland ones.

I’m not sure how Nano as an organisation can survive this shitshow

55 minutes ago, karaddin said:

Yeah, it was really more of a "this is a demonstration of things not being good" than anything I thought was particularly revelatory.

Even police budgets have been pretty cut to the bone right? It's a one year delay for the court case, but just taking a year to decide whether to even push ahead with charges seems really slow and I would have thought not wholly dependent on the courts?

For a ‘simple’ case, the cops will have sent a case to the CPS within days (I’d imagine). It’s not like they sat on it for months, or that it required lots of investigation. Unless of course they had to retrieve CCTV or body-worn footage, but even that should be fairly quick.

The delay (I assume) will be at the XOS end, waiting for the case to reach whoever reviewed and made the final call.

6 minutes ago, karaddin said:

No I wouldn't because, funnily enough, context actually matters and the societal and power dynamics of white and black people aren't the same in our countries.

Also half the point of my criticism is that taking 2 years to handle minor shit like that is indicative of significant issues with the system - either too much minor shit being charged or inadequate police/court resourcing and *that* should be fixed. I'm going to roll my eyes at this charge but she did bring it on herself, but it should go to trial and be resolved far faster than this.

The courts being overwhelmed is a separate issue but one definitely needing looked at. Not helped by the Tories fucking over Legal Aid.

1 minute ago, karaddin said:

Only if there's intent if the keyboard lawyers I saw yesterday are correct about the relevant British law, although I'm blanking on the specifics of what needs to be intended - I don't think it matched up with the Aus ones I'm familiar with and seemed a high bar to meet for that particular phrase.

Not to mention no one even gets an opportunity to know and claim double standard if the officer in question had just ignored it.

The criteria is basically if someone perceived it as racist. It’s then up to CPS (in England/Wales, or Procurator Fiscal if in Scotland) to decide whether to prosecute. Might be further aggravating factors if they’re going ahead with it

3 minutes ago, karaddin said:

Sam Kerr facing a 4 day trial in 2025 for calling a cop "white bastard" seems like a questionable investment of resources if your court system is sufficiently overburdened it takes 2 years to handle something that minor.

Problem is, it’s a racially aggravated offence. So if no action osntaken against him, there is an outcry when someone is charged for callong someone a ‘black bastard’. Far right racists would have a field day calling out double standard

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

Yes, that was also my reading, but perhaps the novelization says otherwise?

Would thr novelisation have any canonicity or was it just something dreamed up by the author

11 hours ago, Maithanet said:

In both movies corporate power has expanded dramatically, although it isn't always discussed much in the film.  In Alien, the crew doesn't get money, they get paid in shares.  If the company has a bad couple of years while the crew is asleep in their pods, they could get a huge pay cut without even knowing it.  It just shows the power the company has over the rank and file.  Their contracts are written in such a way that they cannot refuse the additional mission to investigate an alien signal.  In spite of the fact that this crew is in no way trained or equipped to do this, and it is clearly dangerous (even aside from the actual alien encounter, just landing their old craft on LB-426 is dangerous and causes extensive damage). When Parker complains about this, Ash says that they will forfeit all shares if they do not go along with the company wishes.  They were diverted from their regular course and were described as "only halfway home", but still 10 months from Earth.  So we're talking about ~3-4 years away from your family, held by the company for continuing good behavior.  There are worse working situations on Earth today (slave ships peeling shrimp, migrant workers doing construction in Qatar, etc), but not a lot of them, and not for skilled, educated positions like ship captains and engineers. 

This is touched on in Aliens as well, where Company man Burke has free access to Ripley's medical records (WTF?!)

When they talked about shares, I assumed it to mean shares of the cargo they’re hauling rather than actual shares in the company.

Laurence Fox has dropped a libel case and has to pay legal costs.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/laurence-fox-abandons-libel-case-32269716.amp
 

Dan Wootton ‘is no longer employed’ by GB News after Ofcom ruling. No idea if he’s been sacked or quit; probably a ‘mutual decision’, as GB News probably don’t want Fox wrc banging on about freedom of speech and how GBN is suppressing it.

edit: oh and TalkTV is going off thr air, and will be online only

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68481606

I completed Final Fantasy Crisis Core Reunion and immediately started thr ‘sequel’, Final Fantasy VII Remake thereafter.

Crisis Core was ok, bit of a chore. My copy of FFVII Rebirth arrived but god knows when I’ll complete Remake.

Also just started Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition, and impatient to get through it to play thr sequel.

All of this on PS5; my PC is almost 10 years old

What’s weird is, Friends started onky two years before A Game of Thrones came out…

5 hours ago, KingAerys_II said:

RoP writers never did too, I don't expect good things in the next seasons, the mithril as source of elves immortality makes impossible to fix the plot and to portray the fall of Numenor due to the King's desire to achieve immortality. 

The Silmarillion influenced fantasy writers including GRRM, and they created this low quality stuff about the rings, that's degrading 

It’s irrelevant if they read it or not, since they’d get sued for using material from it not explicitly in thr LotR appendices (or otherwise authorised by the estate).

1 hour ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Ross. Always Ross.  Ted may have been more deliberate in his telling of his tale, an idea that presents his character as possibly being more than he truly was.  I can, usually, forgive him (but don't get me started on the finale...) as he alternates from making himself be too good to be true, and also too pathetic. But Ross was just the worst. 

Agree to diasgree. HIMYM is (except for the last 30 minutes of the show) entirely more re-watchable than Friends.  HIMYM's ability to maintain its internal timeline and consistency is remarkable. It's use of running gags was a highlight. One of it's est gags was it's piss take on Friends during the second season.  Ultimately, it's a personal choice for everyone, but I'll always take HIMYM over Friends.

Hard to disagree here, but I think Perry doesn't get enough respect. It's a travesty he never quite was able to find a vehicle to showcase his talents post Friends.  But he was an absolute favorite of mine as one of the guest cast on The Good Wife.

 

As for rankings, it's hard, as has been mentioned, none of the Friends are actually great people:

1. Chandler

2. Joey

3. Monica

4. Rachel

5. Phoebe

6. Ross

Perry was in a few West Wing episodes as a White House lawyer

1 hour ago, Isis said:

Excuse me, but has someone made a series version of the Guy Ritchie film, The Gentleman?

???

Apparently so

38 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

No.  They are not.

I know, Inwas being ironic. If Putin claims that, theb no reason why Zelenskyy coukdnt succeed him, by that logic

7 minutes ago, KingAerys_II said:

Tirion , the city of the Noldor, Daeron the best singer , Aegnor, Maglor, even the names....

He has read the Silmarillion

No one said he hadn’t???

You were grossly exaggerating its impact onASoI&F

Tirion/Tyrion is a stretch!

1 hour ago, kissdbyfire said:

Acting president of Russia? There might be a few issues w this… novel idea.

I thought Russia and Ukraine were same thing?

58 minutes ago, KingAerys_II said:

Kinslayer refers to parricide in Ancient Greece , it's a different concept 

If you’re going to nitpick, the kinslaying in Tolkein’s work barely qualifies. It basically refers to elf killing elf (Alqualonde, Doriath, and Sirion).

Under that criteria, bwsically every killing in ASoI&F is ‘kinslaying’.

The closest, from memory, we get to propery kinslaying in ASoI&F (apart from Tyrion) is The Atark/Karstark execution, and how many generations separate them?

In ASoI&F a much bigger deal is made of violating guest right.

Speaking of Galloway, remember that time he interviewed Saddam Hussein, and praised him.

20 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

What the hell was that?

Larry the Downing Street cat is denying rumours thst his replacement has been found

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

 

Ancient Greek kinslayers shake their heads sadly

The sack of Troy was clearly a homage to the Fall of Gondolin