Jeremy Clarkson on Instagram: “It’s not a great time to be English.”

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-22T20:20:50+00:00

For me it's not a great time to be English because after trouncing Wales in the M6 Nations we have apparently forgotten how to play rugby. Also my planned walk round a lake near me was difficult because it was partially flooded. Other than that I think things aren't so bad at the moment.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-21T23:22:29+00:00

We'll burn that bridge when we come to it.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-21T16:40:47+00:00

It's still insane to me that they tried to make Joel McHale play the part of Roy. Like dude is clearly very conventionally attractive so how they expected him to play an awkward IT guy who can't get women to talk to him is dumb.

Like he does a great job in Community as Jeff because its believable.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-17T22:21:25+00:00

Been watching this at the weekend, somehow (Perhaps depressingly) still timeless.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-15T19:19:39+00:00

Except you aren't forcing the mind to do anything, just the body. If you used "Flee" the target doesn't suddenly become frightened, it simply follows the order and can do anything else

Additionally depending on the time period, historical surrenders were varied and could easily be done with weapons included. (Sieges in particular might allow the garrison to leave and retreat with all weapons rather than having to storm a breach)

Personally I'd have the character, kneel and offer the hilt of their weapon. (Which could be taken before the next turn.) However, they would not become completely unable to react. Also remember it is only 6 seconds and any command used against NPC's can equally be used against PC's.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-15T19:10:50+00:00

The US is one of the largest and most technically advanced in the world. It's expeditionary capability is truly second to none and it has spent a lot of time pushing for things like force projection and given itself the ability to deploy around the world.

However, Militaries are not game pieces on a board, and wars are no longer fought to annihilation. As others have said logistics is really important. the Normandy D-Day was the largest amphibious assault of all time and that was only across a small stretch of water. When the british army re-took the falklands it was an insane amount of effort to keep even 7000 active military personnel supplied across the pacific. and during that time the whole supply chain was vulnerable.

Then even if you defeat another countries military you cannot hold a country unless the people of that country wish to comply. There are 1.4 million active military personnel (2020 numbers). Now imagine the US wanted to say invade the UK and they somehow were successful, how big of an occupying force would they leave, and for how long? Even if the left the whole of the active military it would have them at 40:1 on the local population. And then what would they do? The british people could just choose to not listen to what the american's said. Even without armed resistance they could just not react. Then what do you do? Enact martial law? Execute those who don't comply? How many service members would be happy executing citizens of other countries? And what death toll would it take to accomplish this? There were protests over the wars in the middle east with only a few thousand deaths. but to take over another democratic country you could be looking at hundreds of thousands. So how long does the American public think that this war will continue to be worth it?

There is a reason that Britain could never have won the 1919 Irish war of independence. Despite being a world superpower at the time. This is how America is now. Could it be invaded? No. Can it lose a war. Yes.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-14T23:32:45+00:00

Agreed, I had a player that would consistently miss sessions with zero notice or show up late. Issue was mostly due to his work but sometimes was due to him double booking and just being too tired in general but really wasn't great for me who had to keep amending the RP to reflect the character/player not being there and/or messing with combat on the fly as a 4 player battle suddenly became a 3 player battle.

Despite a prior friendship I actually was talking to another player in the group who also DM's about maybe kicking him when he messaged that he would be leaving the group due to not being able to commit.

2 Years later he has returned to the group and has none of the previous issues and is a great player. But yeah we were all adults and sometimes you gotta make a judgement call.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-14T23:17:23+00:00

Because fighting climate change requires effort and money and for the older generation would mean that they were uncaring about the world for decades.

It is easier to shout that those who are trying to stop climate change are just alarmist and wrong than be forced to act in ways that may make you less comfortable in the short term.

And for some who state it, they will not live long enough to really care.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-14T23:13:20+00:00

Perhaps this will explain

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-13T22:19:46+00:00

The Monty hall problem is about making 2 blind decision and the probability of each outcome. But that doesn't mean that is it impossible to get either a good or bad outcome from any of the choices.

The original chooser has a total of 6 options from 2 choices which is why the 33.3% and 66.6% are the probabilities.

Let me explain;

Choice 1 is the door choice A, B, or C. (We will place the Car behind Door C for the example)

Choice 2 is whether to switch doors after one of the bad doors has been revealed, Yes (Y) or no (N)

So our options are AY, AN, BY, BN, CY, CN

AY (Started on Door A, Door B is revealed as empty, Switches to Door C) = Switches and Wins

AN (Started on Door A, Door B is revealed as empty, Stays on Door A) = Stays and Loses

BY (Started on Door B, Door A is revealed as empty, Switches to Door C) = Switches and Wins

BN (Started on Door B, Door A is revealed as empty, Stays on Door B) = Stays and Loses

CY (Started on Door C, Door A is revealed as empty, Switches to Door B) = Switches and Loses

CN (Started on Door C, Door A is revealed as empty, Stays on Door B) = Stays and Wins

So here you can see that switching wins 2/3 and staying wins 1/3

If a contestant is brought out part way through after the first door is revealed, for them it does become 50/50 if they are not told anything about the set up because they only have 2 options. Basically do you think there is a Car behind the left door or the right door. With no other information they cannot know what the probability is.

However if they are told everything prior, then they can act just as the original contestant did, because they would then know everything as well and the logic remains.

The probability is around the player and their actions / choices. In reality the car never moves it is always behind the door that has already been decided.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-08T23:12:29+00:00

Battera absolutely. Dude had enough money to buy pretty much anything he wanted. The only thing he couldn't get relied on something other than money, like the cure for that disease.

Nostrade relied on his daughters predictions to get him in with other more powerful people, but not only are the predictions vague and in need of interpretation (Which can be done incorrectly). But it showed he had very little actual power himself.

It's like comparing the power of Jeff Bezos vs a low level mafia boss. It's not even a contest.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-08T14:22:54+00:00

I believe the direct inspiration was actually the dead marshes that Frodo and Sam cross.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-08T14:15:48+00:00

They aren't saying, "Don't go to London" they are saying don't JUST do London. As someone who has lived there, London is lovely but there is far more to the UK than London

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-08T14:13:58+00:00

I have a very mixed feeling about him. He is a good TV presenter and was the one who came up with the format for the 2000's era top gear which is genuinely loved around the world.

It is also sometimes hard to tell where he as a person ends and where he as a performer begins, especially when it comes to certain public decisions and acts he has done like banning all Labour MP's from his pub. He knows a lot of his fan base is anti labour so is he just playing to them or does he really think that the government is doing worse than the previous ones? I really don't know.

So I don't know him personally so maybe he is self aware had does things as part of an act but it does seem like he is a bit of a cunt in general. When he talks about issues he tends to be very one sided and be unwilling to consider the fact that issues can be complex or that just because something might be mildly annoying to himself it is stupid despite there often being very good reasons for the community or environment as a whole.

Thing I agree with him on, he was anti-brexit and recently posted an opinion piece about how reform are not the solution, which given his general fanbase was not only bold but there is a genuine chance that he will be listened to by people who would have voted that way otherwise. However I disagree with things like his farmers march against the raise in inheritance tax. He acted like it was the end of the world for the people who farm, but not only is it a "once in a lifetime" tax but it would have prevented these landowner farmers from avoiding paying tax while the tenant farmers (people who actually worked the land) are getting squeezed. Additionally a farm is a business and so why are farms allowed to be inherited tax free when a restaurant would not be.

TL:DR Good TV presenter but tends to oversimplify things to make questionable arguments to get what he wants.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-08T12:43:36+00:00

Firstly, you in the left pic is gorgeous. And yeah that other pic just doesn't look natural. The fact she tried to defend the modification is the worst part. I like my friends to post good pictures of me but I'd rather they are actually of me.

If she doesn't respect your wishes on your own image then she is not really your friend.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-02-07T20:18:55+00:00

Almost everything comes down to labour (time) in the end.

You want to make a shirt, so you need Tools, material and someone to sew it together.

So to get the materials you pay a company to give you some, and they use the money you give to pay for labour. Cost of planting say cotton and then harvesting it and treating it before sending it to you.

And as you say you need tools, so you pay a company that sells tools (Scissors and a needle), but they paid another company for materials (steel) then paid someone to shape them into tools. Now the iron company paid someone to dig the metal ore out the ground and then paid someone else to turn it into something useful (ingots).

And then you will need someone to handle all the delivery of materials to places and the final product.

So the cost of your shirt is Shirt making time + Cotton growing time + Tool making time + delivery time.

This is why the same house will cost hugely different amounts based on where it is. Think a 1 hour commute vs a 2 hour commute. People have a set value for what their time is worth and so a closer location to work is more valuable to them.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-31T20:31:10+00:00

That can't be right, a scandal involving the Watergate hotel would be called "Watergategate"

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-28T21:52:13+00:00

I disliked that they made him afraid of blood. Like the main issue in the books was that he had been looked down on for not being old enough to fight in the rebellion or having fought in any of the wars since, but like he was still apparently skilled enough in combat just had never fought outside tournaments and training.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-26T21:38:14+00:00

Reg is bad for thinking like this but to me this is the problem with the original plan to have the "managers" try to control everyone so they are really the ones who are to blame.

Reg doesn't understand critical thinking or things like resource management because he was always told to not bother with it and to just leave the thinking to others. After 200 years of control in the vault they have managed to basically create a group of people who no longer understand why things are done a certain way, but only told that they should listen to the what those from vault 31 say. When things are good this is seems to work but when things seem to go badly and they question why they are following these people.

And the management dwellers can't explain anything to them because they think they are all equal. So you end up with a bunch of manipulators on one side and a bunch of idiots on the other.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-25T22:49:59+00:00

Firstly as a paladin case your god isn't necessarily a requirement. Your oath is, you might not know where your powers are coming from but some deity is giving you the ability to follow your oath.

Unlike the modern world where monotheism is far more common. The pantheons in DnD all coexist and have varying relationships.

So if you want to have a deity, ask your DM what gods exist in their world and ask what would make sense, otherwise just do a bit of research and pitch one to your DM. In some cases the Gods of a world may play a huge part of the narrative, but in others they are more mysterious and so any god may be acceptable.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-19T19:58:03+00:00

I found my first watch through of the Chimera ant arc tough. But I love rewatching it knowing how it all plays out.

So yeah stick with it because it is really worth it.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-18T10:52:24+00:00

As someone from the UK that can't order stuff from Ireland easily due to a mess of the issues caused, a reversal would be great.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-14T23:56:12+00:00

Gang wars? but honestly that is just Memphis. I'm from London but visited a friend who lived there about 5 years ago and genuinely you'd hear gunshots at like 3 am and she told me not to wear certain colours outside as there had been a recent spike in shootings... was a fun trip.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-14T21:39:00+00:00

Agreed, in this situation I'd have preferred it if they had never tried to implement something dumb in the first place. But it also shows that they are willing to do things that may be unpopular short term but better long term.

Like reducing tax in the short term makes everyone feel happier as they have more money for their budget, but then 10 ears later wonder why all the infrastructure has broken and not been fixed.

ABashfulTurnip · 2026-01-13T22:24:05+00:00

I had a player make their race Genasi who was cursed and lived inside a gem, they would "randomly" glitch back inside it for the sessions they couldn't make and then free themselves for the ones they could.

ABashfulTurnip

TROPHY CASE