Luzifer's right hand

The carrier strike groups are there to deter attacks on Israel by those countries. Israel can escalate as much as it wants. I also believe that the support Palestinians have on the street in the US and Europe will not sway governments as people chant slogans that are seen as calling for the extermination of all Jews in Israel at many of those protests.

Well obviously you can't cast Jeffrey Coombs in another role because that would just confuse Star Trek fans!

This might seem random but bear with me. I feel a lot of people consider Hamas far more dangerous because they appar do not care at all who they harm. The number of Thais and Nepalis killed during the attacks kind of demonstrates that because nobody can confuse those groups with Jews. Palestinians and their supporters across the globe celebrated the killing and abuse of people from across the globe online and in public. Hamas is perceived as a threat to every person that does not belong to a very select group. They fall in the same category as Al-Qaeda or ISIS for a lot of people. People feel that they would kill far more people and not just Jews if they had the means. Israel is a threat to Palestinians and a number of countries in the middle east. In the eyes of a lot of people Israel has shown a lot of restrained in the recent past because it had the means to kill far more people of the groups it is a threat to for a long time now. Jews and their supporters have celebrated the violence against Gaza. Total number of people harmed is emotionally not very relevant to people that don't belong to a harmed group when it is not completely unreasonable to assume that one side of a conflict would harm you given the chance while the other side is not threat to you at all.

The BBC article only mentions that a soldier told the journalist that some of the dead had been beheaded. No confirmation of beheaded babies. Actually no mention of babies at all. The only uncovered corpses the journalist seems to have seen were Hamas fighters. The dead civilians and guards had already been covered with plastic or something else. A sleeping bag was mentioned in one case.

Population is growing really fast in Palestine. It has more than doubled since 1990.

It was in the media here but not for long just like most news about that decade long conflict. I actually believe that the international outrage would be far less if Hamas had not killed, abused and abducted citizens of multiple western countries. I mean there is very little on the media about the Thai workers and Nepali students that were also killed by Hamas during these attacks.

I never claimed that it was negative for Hamas. It is not about being a disincentive to attacks but an emotional response that undermines support for the Palestinians very effectively.

If that is the goal they succeed at least temporary. Austria has decided to freeze payments too(19 million €). But I don't see how not getting money for schools or hospitals is helping the average person in Gaza and the West Bank.

Next to nobody cares about the aim of the attacks. People care about the woman on the truck. People talk about the suffering of the Palestinians. They will suffer even more if aid payments are cut.

I'm active on some usually really left wing German language sites and the response to the public and online demonstrations of barbarism is massive. I feel people massively understimate how much this damaged the support of the Palestinians in Germany.

Watched a few more eps of the new Futurama season and I must say the heavy focus on current events is hurting it a lot.

According to German language sources a German citizen who was at a rave near Gaza was killed and they filmed and uploaded the desecration of her corpse. The German fiance minister has already talked about making a decision about aid payments asap(340 million € are currently promised). Palestinians in Berlin and Vienna celebrated the attacks publicly. Afaik the Palestinians depend on financial aid and this might hurt them a lot as Germany influences EU policy quite a bit.

I gave up on the series after reading a bit of Toll the Hounds too.

I just want to comment that Wheel of Time was somewhat popular in Germany and that it supposedly hit ~1 million total sales in 2003. German language article from 2003. https://www.abendblatt.de/vermischtes/journal/article108465049/Literatur-Verloren-im-Rad-der-Zeit.html#:~:text=wheeloftime.com ).,und das ohne teures Marketing. Same article mentions ~20 million sales across 22 countries(2003). It's still one of the book series that you can always find in the fantasy section of the big chains in German language countries in my experience. Not a fiction besteller list topper of course but only the usual fantasy suspects managed that in Germany(Rowling, King, Tolkien in 80 for some reason, Christopher Paolini... ). Rowling actually managed to top the fiction bestseller list in Germany 4 times with the original version of HP books. Afaik no other author has managed that even once.

Just finished Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey. I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the next book as it is the start of a new series. If you enjoyed his previous books I feel you will enjoy this one too.

I liked it that the space whales just noped out. A pretty boring episode though.

This thread makes me wonder what happened to Hammer.

Sorry to hear that you are still suffering from it. Hopefully the B12 treatment will work for you.

Learning German might be easier in Germany than in Austria. Although if you are moving to an area where they still speak Plattdeutsch that might not be the case. Have you considered watching stuff only dubbed in German to increase your vocabulary.

It was on prime here for a while too IIRC but only dubbed.

The witches of the Sabrina The Teenage Witch universe are far more powerful than I remember. Also masters of gaslighting. No real ethics whatsoever. Salem is the best though. The puppet is some kind of uncanny cat valley horror(still better than the Cats movie obviously).

Baylan is definitely the more interesting antagonist if you are neither into the old books or the animated series. I really like the design of the stormtroopers though.

The first season of Sabrina The Teenage Witch just showed up on Paramount+ here. Nostalgia mode activated!

"Nobody asked for this, but we made the ceremorphosis scene on the nautiloid more horrifying. You're welcome." Patching the important stuff.