No Excuses

37 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

 

The storytelling/gameplay was on another level. Incredible. Some of the toughest fights ever (like the "Legendary" sawtooth 😭).

Did you play the Frozen Wild DLC. The fireclaw and the scorchers, holy **** lol. 
 

I can’t wait for what they put in Forbidden West. Plus, it seems like they’re adding a lot of quality life upgrades for grappling and sky diving that the game badly needs. 

I finished Horizon Zero Dawn on PC and now I’m going to desperately try to score a PS5 so I can play Forbidden West when it comes out later this year. 
 

Awesome game; finally an open world game that excels at story telling, with challenging gameplay to match. The ultra-hard difficulty really, really kicks your ass and forces you to learn how to surgically destroy the robos.

52 minutes ago, tshile said:

It’s not just a waste of time, it’s counter productive. Let nature takes it course and try to keep schools functioning as well as possible in the meantime. 

Pretty much. If vaccines were a scarce commodity, I would understand. But they’re not so who cares honestly if some dude on a ventilator feels regret. They finally get to test out “the cure can’t be worse than the disease” mantra in the real world. 🤷🏽‍♂️

25 minutes ago, TryTheBeal! said:

Remember when the GOP had a COVID “press conference” that was 10 random chiropractors in lab coats telling us about Hydroxychloroquine and zinc regimens?

 

Good times!

They still haven’t given up on HCQ, and have even added another useless drug called Ivermecticn to the mix. 
 

It’s honestly a waste of time and money at this point trying to get the GOP-adjacent country vaccinated. Institute vaccine passports in cities and let the rural and exurban communities engage in their self-determined Darwinian experiment.

Even for a 15-minute presser about encouraging socially beneficial behavior, they can’t make themselves just say the right thing and move on. 
 

Anyways, I honestly don’t care what sob stories come out of these communities when Delta is hammering them. I talked to my grandparents in India when delta was ripping the country apart and people were helplessly trying to access vaccines and medications. People in the developing world with access to 1/10th of our education and resources understand the value of life saving medicines. 
 

The spoiled, entitled brats in this county who think medical information is more reliable from their favorite talk show pundit rather than healthcare workers deserve everything that happens to them.

4 minutes ago, Llevron said:

 

I want to know if yall think im at an above normal level of risk or not. I know I can still get sick even being vaccinated (Pfizer) and I know if I do, it shouldn't be as bad. But I dont want this virus, man. I really really dont.  

You are young and I’m assuming not immuno-comprised due to an existing health condition so the vaccine will protect you even if you catch it. But always trust your gut instinct on this stuff. Can you request permanent telework, or do you have to be on-site?

They know it’s about to get bad, the sane part of the country will rightly blame them and that the Dems will use this as an opportunity to pass even more spending and popular public welfare legislation. 

Lmao

25 minutes ago, tshile said:

Also if this new surge gets a lot worst right now is probably the last bailout point for the antivaxers 

We’re headed for 100% population wide seroconversion, either through infection or vaccination. It’ll be interesting to see how what the pace of the outbreak is with some % of the population vaccinated and cutting transmission chains. But everyone who isn’t vaccinated is catching COVID at some point.

It may not be a bad idea for lib pundits and talk shows to start telling conservatives to not get vaccinated. Openly mock them and encourage anti vaxx behavior. Guaranteed they get the vaccine the next day. 

The GOP must have seen some dreadful projections about the outbreaks about to happen in their represented communities to start sending out a highly coordinated, increasingly pro-vaccine message.

1 hour ago, Darrell Green Fan said:

 

Al Capone says hi.  

This is like tickling Al Capone. Maybe they’ll get Trump et al for larger tax evasion and financial fraud but not paying taxes on a company car ain’t it. 

Surviving Mars is taking up more of my time than it should. It’s been so long since I played a city builder and this one just checks so many boxes. Really fun gameplay loop and strategies for building out an expansive Martian colony.

These charges will get him a solid 6 months of probation and a fine. No ones flipping or going to jail over some unpaid taxes on “employee bonuses”.

I mean reveal trailers are always hype and don't tell you anything, but a good Battlefield game is sorely needed after years of wasting time in the World War era.

1 hour ago, Sticksboi05 said:

The Delta variant looks to be about as immune evasive as South African variant (B.1.351) but still cannot escape the protection of full mRNA vaccination. However once it arrives in the U.S., folks who aren't vaccinated are going to be at much higher risk than with current variants. Tell folks to get vaccinated ASAP.

Telling folks isn't enough. The federal government should do a daily lottery. $365M is a tiny amount of money to spend over a year to get our vaccination rate into the 75-85% range.

10/10 meme

Coinbase is down presumably from people nervous checking charts. Can’t buy ETH as a result 🤡🤡🤡

The whole “decentralized” narrative really goes out the window when a single billionaire can ****post his way into crashing the entire asset class. 
 

I’m going to keep buying ETH since there are enough interesting use cases for it already and an actively engaged developer community , and continue to ignore Buttcoin and the rest.

13 minutes ago, Destino said:

Regardless of their footing today, what they’re doing creates political opposition.  That opposition may not be winning, urgently, but political winds are subject to change and so this constant heavy handed oppression comes with risk.  However small it may seem, it’s can grow at any moment, and I’m sure they’re aware of that.  It’s why they work so hard at lobbying governments that matter.  

For what it’s worth, political winds have changed. The Bush administration used to condemn Israel’s bombing of Palestinian houses and openly rejected the “Hamas human shield” argument for it. Compare that to what Biden et al are doing right now. 
 

I think the Israeli government has made a pretty solid calculation that they have nothing to worry about when it comes to losing support, and that full annexation of Palestinian territory is a policy goal that they are well on their way to achieving with little resistance. 

3 hours ago, Destino said:

I can’t figure out just what the hell it is that Israel wants.  They can’t really want to continue with this apartheid state forever right?  Their leaders can play stupid all they want, but they know the current state of things invites violence.  A people oppressed this badly will only ever lash out.  Plus, the state of things costs them much and constantly risks their alliances in the west.  They claim to support a two state solution but their settlements suggest that they’re more interested in expanding territory.  
 

What does winning look like realistically for Israel in this madness?  Is the plan just to lie about wanting peace while they slowly expand their borders until Gaza and Palestine are no more? 

The Israeli right wing's current stance of expanding settlements and using Gaza as an open air prison has been rewarded with complete bipartisan backing in the US, and increasing support from the oligarchs of the Arab oil states + Egypt. What is their incentive for a two-state solution? Really nothing. They can expand territory, annex land Palestinian land and where the Palestinian's end up eventually (if at all) is apparently not their problem.  They aren't getting sanctioned, they aren't losing defense aid, they have normalized relationships with surrounding Arab states, and Egypt fully backs the blockade of Gaza.

In a different world with competent management, the Wizards would be a prime destination for a big 3 and another star player wanting to team with Brad/Russ.

56 minutes ago, Larry said:

Let's not rush to make Israel the only villain, here,  though.  

 

For example, I've read (and believe) that Hamas knows that they are a frequent Israeli target.  And so they have a deliberate policy of placing all of their ioffices on the ground floor of multi-story apartment buildings.  So that any Israeli attack against Hamas will cause the collapse of a building full of civilians.  

 

Yes, Israel has been systematically committing war crimes, pretty much since the day they were founded.  They're just not the only villain in the fight.  

 

It’s a war between a nuclear power backed by the US military and a defenseless population with barely an army, no navy and no Air Force. 
 

Drawing any kind of equivalencies here is pretty ridiculous. Hamas gains legitimacy in Gaza because its people are pretty much living in an open air prison.
 

People who are afforded zero dignity and barely any international support turning to an extremist group offering protection is sadly not surprising. 

New Gojira album is a 10/10. 
 

A single album with this many bangers should not be allowed. 
 

Amazonia -> The Sphinx -> Hold On 

The opening riff for the Sphinx is just *chefs kiss* amazing.

55 minutes ago, PeterMP said:

Attacking the person is ALWAYS a weak argument.  Attack the argument, and if you can't, then you probably shouldn't really say anything

You can look at data from Israel which pretty clearly shows that even the mutant strains are not spreading in a population with ~55% vaccination rate. Even the UK data shows this, and they have lower rate of fully vaccinated people.
 

Spare me the “don’t say anything”. Around this time last year, you were arguing with me that masks don’t work (and in fact may actually cause disease LOL) and data isn’t there to support masking (both points were wrong, but that didn’t stop you). 

10 minutes ago, Ball Security said:

I’m learning something here.  He is an epidemiologist, but not an expert in the field of infectious disease.  I did not know that distinction honestly.

Understandable, and that’s his MO. He fudges his credentials and over-exaggerates his expertise. 
 

Ultimately, the problem with him is that he’s mostly interested in making things go viral, with little regard for the accuracy or truthfulness of what he’s saying. His ongoing social media efforts are basically a sad attempt at keeping vaccinated people scared of COVID. My cynical take is that he knows that the end of the pandemic through mass vaccinations is also the end for what brought him social media clout.