It is amazing how often I forgot the strike was even happening. It is that meaningless for them doing it.
I can hear Valliant laughing in the corner. He called this like a week ago because he does financial shit for a day job, so he was reading the tea leaves long before it became obvious.
The interesting one that could come out of this is Nelson Peltz may come back for Round 2. He has apparently been using the downturn in Disney stocks to buy up more shares, and one of his conditions of backing down last year was that Disney set about a solid effort to replace Iger. With Iger effectively sitting on his chair and saying "I! AM! Disney!" this breaks Peltz ceasefire, and he will likely come back swinging for a hostile takeover.
especially after seeing Velma getting a second season
There is a good chance the only reason it got a second season is because they already had it made and paid for, they just didnt release it. That is typically what happens with these sort of animated works, according to people I listen to who know the industry.
And it gets more "fun" for them because they are being forced by Comcast to either sell their stakes in Hulu or buy the remaining shares of it, and it is going to cost them billions of dollars. Billions they dont have, either in liquid cash or stock value, which means they will have to sell shit.
It is absolutely insane to me how much Iger has managed to screw up. And it is Iger, because Chapek wasnt even in charge long enough to make changes to the company, and was being undercut by Iger every step of the way.
Yep. If I was going to boycott B&J, I would have had to actually buy B&J. I never have because I have always considered them overhyped and overpriced, and I can get ice cream that taste better and is cheaper from store brands or local brands (where I live, the most popular being the stuff made by the university Dairy Science program).
When it comes to Top Gear, the "Three Stooges" are Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond.
Front Mission Remake
I would KILL to have the Front Mission games remade so they can be played on PC.
The game is realistic, except for cowboys and other weirdness.
People take on the aesthetics of cowboys when they are off exploring the wild frontier of space? What is so shocking about that (its Leftist, we already know the answer).
Top Gear Argues that women can be prize winning F1 drivers as well.
Me thinks Top Gear should be more worried about the fact that barely anyone cares about them anymore after they got rid of the Three Stooges.
As for the ones that are, you know, 3rd generation identity conflict ones; those are easy too. They are going to either go full one way, or full the other. They'll abandon the way of the old country, or decide that they should stay "true to their self" and "be with their people", and then proceed to fuck off.
I have seen that exact trend being cited as one of the reasons that the Hispanic population has been taking such a hard turn toward voting Republican in more recent elections. A lot of them are starting to identify not as their nation of origin (Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadorian, etc) beyond a cultural heritage like the Germans and Italians before them. Instead, they are identifying as American, and starting to act American in terms of their beliefs and attitudes. Which is then causing them to shift their political leanings to match the new identity.
Also true. One of the interesting ones to find out when you look at the stats was that the American-crewed Shermans were one of the most survivable tanks in the war, but British-crewed Shermans were running in line with most others (making them significantly less survivable than the American ones).
This is largely because the British classed them as "Cruisers" for the purpose of their army, which were tanks that took on an effective role on par with cavalry. And like the cavalry of old, British Cruiser tanks were crewed by the insane and the unhinged, who would do things like "Shove extra shells into every last nook and cranny" and "carry extra fuel tanks outside of the armored ones", which ends rather explosively as I am sure you can guess. But since the British were the first to get the Shermans into combat, and those issues existed then in Africa, it was the reputation they got even if they didnt deserve it.
Another interesting thing is that when Shermans and T-34's fought in Korea, the Shermans usually won. Because it turns out the T-34 also has an overly inflated reputation (being much more dangerous to crew and easier to destroy than the reputation says), and while both had similar guns and armor, the Shermans had significantly superior "intangibles" (things like crew ergonomics, optics, magazine placement, etc) that allowed it to usually be the one to get the first shot off and win the fight.
I have a better idea: The German arms industry has degraded to shit over the last decades, and they are desperate to make sure people dont know about it because it is one of their only industries that is still profitable. For instance, one of the reasons they were so against sending tanks earlier in the war was entire due to the fact that they were worried about other Eastern European nations getting rid of their Leopards and replacing them with Abrams (like the Polish did).
Of course, like is usual with these sort of articles though, I imagine there is some missing context or truth-twisting going on.
As for the Ukrainian losses, I don't know the details, but if they're going on the offensive, well, they're going to have to take some risks, aren't they?
They are. And so far, the hardest part has been pushing in through the south where the Russians are heavily dug in and have mines out the ass at every strongpoint. The infamous picture of the disabled Bradley's and Leopard that was getting shared around came from an attack where they got boxed in by mines and then Russian gunships came in and attacked them when they had limited movement options.
However, it is also worth pointing out that unlike Russian vehicles (on both sides of the war), the crews in the Western vehicles have been suffering significantly less losses than their counterparts. Which in the long run will allow crews to learn from their mistakes and avoid making them again. Similar to how in WW2, the US Navy initially suffered against Zero's because the Wildcat was slower and less maneuverable. But since it was tougher and had higher crew survivability, eventually American pilots developed tactics that let them get around their weaknesses that Zero pilots typically fell for because they were usually newer pilots (the old guys got shot down).
It is such a strange take to me. It is also completely against the actually available data, as the Israelis (to keep with his example) have extensive hard-kill systems on their tanks that have pushed the odds back in the favor of the tank because they could defend against all but the most advanced ATGM's.
It is the eternal dance. Someone makes a gun so powerful it defeats all armor, so people drop armor for guns. Then someone makes armor so tough no gun can get through it, so people drop guns for armor. And on and on until galactic peace is achieved.
It would probably be the safest bet, yes. Thrawn is probably one of the best villains/characters in all of Star Wars, so he would be able to be a very good draw for the movie. And like you said, his obsession with preparing the galaxy for the Vong invasion he knows is coming would be a great way to introduce them while making it out like Luke and the New Republic are just dealing the Imperial Remnant forces.
Actually getting the Vong done would probably be a lot harder. You have to show them as being even more evil than anything the Empire would have ever done, but they do plenty of things that would probably not fly with an audience who thinks Star Wars is a kid-friendly property. So you would need to ride a fine line of showing the Vong as evil as they were, while also making it passable. But you would probably need the Vong since their anti-Force abilities would be an interesting way of giving the Jedi a threat other than the Sith, so it would be healthy for it overall.
The problem is that there probably isnt anyone in Hollywood capable to puling this off who also wouldnt piss off the current ruling forces at Disney. So either Lucasfilm needs to be under new management, or Disney needs to be. It would probably be hard to get to that point, but it would be extremely rewarding. And I think if you did it well, you could see Star Wars bounce back and go right back to being the money printing machine it has always been.
They overreacted to the Prequels, period.
Did it have its moments of cringe? Yes, especially in Episode 1. But there was nothing I considered to be unwatchable, and I will die on my hill proclaiming that Revenge of the Sith is my favorite Star Wars movie.
But a lot of it seemed like spite over nothing. Like all of the people complaining about Anakin having strange dialogue. Yes, he did. My boy was raised in a cult that told him emotions were evil. How did you expect him to talk to people?
When it comes to the media, it is entirely cynical. It is now becoming acceptable to attack Kathleen Kennedy and declare her a failure, so now they are allowed to big up the old EU.
Although if you want a point of optimism, it is this: If Lucasfilm or Star Wars ever gets to a point where it is allowed to actually start making movies again, they have yet to actually touch the EU. Which means you can go ahead and make movies and games in that timeline.
And that may not be as remote of a chance as you might think, considering that Hollywood is seemingly finally starting to realize you have to actually make money somehow.
Implying I dont already own it and enjoy it.
Well, your options are pretty wide ranging. They are such an easy genre to make, they have pretty significant amounts of shovelware, much like the various "simulator" games.
Damn, I was wondering why I loved tycoon games so much. Guess it is because I am a true American.
If there are people talking about how evil the US is, they arent anywhere near me. It has sounded like a world war waging outside my house for the past 3 nights in a row now, with the entire neighborhood setting off all kinds of stuff. And if it is anything like last year, tonight will be the biggest one yet.
Probably going to be spending my day chilling out and swimming before going back to work tomorrow. Until then, keep the colors flying high you filthy animals!
They are saying that if you only have a gun but dont know anything else, it means that when the mugger gets the drop on you and kills you, your wallet and other items just become a loot drop for the mugger.
We are just going to ignore that, statistically speaking, most muggers run the second someone pulls a weapon on them (even if it is not fired), and that almost everyone who owns a gun is probably trained in things like first aid.
We also have a significant amount of maintained and/or restored equipment, since that was always an American thing. We have far more museum ships than anyone else in the world, there are many railroads that maintain old steam engines that still make runs (even if it is a special excursions instead of dedicated revenue service), restored cars are practically boring for how common they are, etc.
Sure, people got angry over destroyed statues. But if anyone ever tried to damage something like USS Missouri, it would have ended far worse for them.
More importantly, they are right that HEMA is indeed a coed sport. But HEMA doesnt simulate armor, all you have to do is get the hit. So you can indeed use technique to overcome strength differences that wouldnt apply IRL if armor was involved.
I didnt say every was great. Just that his ego makes him want to.
You can tell they thought that "You are a loot drop" was a sick burn, and like everything else they started with that and tried to make it work backward.
It wasnt directly on sale, but I snagged up Jagged Alliance 3 since it had a pretty hefty discount for preordering (and it comes out tomorrow). Looks like they are running that nice ground everyone has always wanted, where they are updating the old Jagged Alliance formula with modern graphics and strategy improvements, but they want to stay true to the old style for the story. To the point the studio who made it brought in the old writer for the original games.
Then the tail end of the year is going to be a very busy one for me, with Armored Core 6, Cities: Skylines 2, and Manor Lords coming out (maybe on Manor Lords, since it is still kind of up in the air).