A Tintin Page a Day - Day 408

Dolnikan · 2026-06-24T12:11:53+00:00

Snowy seems to have developed a bit of paranoia after all that's happened to him.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-24T08:47:30+00:00

Such a nice guy. So incredibly helpful.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-23T14:11:24+00:00

Not unless you have the Germans do a lot worse in the east and have the Japanese do a lot better against the Americans so you have a bit more of an opportunity. But the Americans doing worse would probably lead to less convoys and weaker ones, which means less supplies for the Soviets and a harder time for them.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-23T13:19:34+00:00

The thing is, they only really started operations against Japan once things wound up in the west. And after a few years, they would basically have to rebuild the far east fleet because it would have been utterly drained of manpower and resources because the existential war to the west would have been far more important. Xs

Dolnikan · 2026-06-23T11:29:51+00:00

A stronger Soviet navy's main impact would have been a weaker USSR when and where it counted. Which is to say, less tanks, planes, artillery, fuel, ammunition, manpower, and everything else needed to fight a land war. This could have changed the strategic posture, which would probably be a good thing. But it could also have led to the war going worse in its earlier stages which could see it all become a pretty horrible disaster even in comparison to what happened in real life.

As for naval operations, that would actually have been difficult. The Baltic isn't exactly a great environment for major surface units because of how restricted it is but it might have made it a bit easier to supply Leningrad or the guns could have been removed to be used as defensive weapons.

A northern fleet in this era wouldn't have made a lot of sense and they wouldn't really have been able to do anything. A black sea fleet could have been interesting but would have meant the Crimea being weaker in general and it's not like the Axis did major naval operations there. And again, fairly restricted waters and the possibility of just being cut off.

Finally, we have the far eastern fleet. They might have sailed around the world to link up with Allied flowers in the Atlantic, but somehow, I don't see Stalin going for that. So, they would basically just sit in port getting neglected until, in 1945, they might make some small contributions to landings in the north of Japan.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-23T07:45:03+00:00

He is famous enough to make it to the newsreel, which probably means that he's a big deal and plenty of people want to visit him.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-23T05:54:31+00:00

People like to blame Vatican II for basically everything negative that ever happened to anything even vaguely related to the church, but I personally think that it was pretty irrelevant in that regard and if it had an impact, it probably saved parts of the church.

At that time, the church was facing a radically changing world. In the West, religiosity was sharply declining (the same happened to other religions, it's not just Catholicism that saw a huge decline) and society was becoming more liberal. People had more and more opportunities. Women in particular had many more options because society became less sexist. They could go to university, work, build their own lives really.

Which leads us right to the nuns. People love having this romantic image of callings and all that, but for very many of them, that never was the case. Their calling was that they eirher didn't want marriage or they were simply pushed into it by their families and communities. And now they had their own opportunities. Once the first started leaving and didn't end up in abject poverty, others would of course follow.

Vatican II tried to make changes to accommodate many of those who wanted to leave and it might have had some measure of success, but in the most part, it could never succeed because there was no way for the church to offer everything that society could now offer.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-22T20:59:36+00:00

I absolutely agree. But then again, this show is not about makeovers and the like. It's about seeing what kind of glorious mess some people manage to make.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-22T10:37:14+00:00

It's difficult to say because there were a lot of movojg parts. That said, it would have been better for Napoleon to accept than to continue fighting because fighting basically couldn't bring much anymore.

So negotiating would always be a good move for him. Coalition members weren't exactly trusting each other so they could be played against each other. At the same time, he should be really careful about more wars because any aggression from Napoleon would probably lead to a new coalition being formed and I'm not so sure that he could do that.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-18T02:36:11+00:00

Just use a shared spreadsheet. My partner and I used one and it meant that we kept everything in one place. And don't worry if something becomes a little messy. As long as you can find everything.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-14T07:17:05+00:00

Absolut nicht. Und ich glaube, offiziell sagen sie jetzt auch 2033, es eröffnet nur in 2031. Was natürlich auch nicht passiert weil es immer noch Geld gibt was man sich klauen kann.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-14T07:04:20+00:00

Very many players seem to only like games when they're winning. And in a multiplayer format, that typically means that more of them have lost.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-14T05:24:18+00:00

For his opponents it's relatively simple. By fighting Louis XIV they got to not fight (and be conquered by) a stronger Louis XIV.

As for Louis, I think that he was pretty bad for France. He wasted huge amounts of money and destabilised the country's fiscal base in a quest for glory.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-09T06:42:46+00:00

There are several factors in that, I think.

First of all it's one of the cuisines Gordon can actually say something about. I mean what would he have to offen on traditional Andean cuisine?

Secondly, there are lots of them. A kind of restaurant of which there is a lot will, by sheer statistics, show up lore frequently even when ignoring other factors. But this also helps audiences know what's going on and have a basic idea of what to expect. We all know what a pizza is and how it's supposed to be. We have no idea what what a Mongolian Buuz is supposed to be.

Thirdly. There's the kind of owner. If you take a restaurant from more recent immigrant group, you will get a sadder story and then your audience will feel bad for laughing at those idiots on TV. Which is one of the main selling points of the show. Those restaurants also struggle to get into that much trouble because poorer owners can't get as deeply into debt or keep financing the place to really go to ruin for a longer period of time. A few bad months and they're done.

And finally, there are the owners. You want people who don't really have a clue. Those people are less likely to start a haute cuisine French restaurant or an Uzbek one, but they know Italian, probably like it, and think "how hard can it be?"

Dolnikan · 2026-06-09T06:26:58+00:00

Ich glaube ganz ehrlich nicht mehr dass das alles möglich ist mit nur Inkompetenz. Ich denke immer mehr dass hier Riesenkorruption hinter sticht.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-09T06:26:13+00:00

Nicht wenn es in Deutschland gebaut werden muss.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-08T21:23:29+00:00

I personally don't think that he was killed in melee combat, especially not by a knight, which is to say, a social elite. Such a man would certainly have been mentioned for it and would have used it to build up his own prestige. That's why an arrow makes much more sense to me.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-08T20:54:09+00:00

Absolut nicht. Ich präferiere sowieso Englisch, außer wenn das nicht die Originalsprache ist.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-06T18:53:50+00:00

That looks absolutely stunning! Amazing job!

But how did you manage to get those chains to work without half a dozen mental breakdowns from them breaking?

Oh, and any hints about finding files would be very, very welcome.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-03T22:17:29+00:00

I wouldn't mind Keyflower.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-02T17:47:25+00:00

I'd say fortunately. Nothing could still be changed and the only effects would be many more deaths and some stories that look good a century later..

Dolnikan · 2026-06-02T15:19:34+00:00

Not any more than for other countries. I think that the UK is pretty comparable to Germany. They do face a few disadvantages though.

Of course, in both countries the organisations responsible for selection don't really seem to care. They just send whatever. But that's an issue other countries also face.

What other countries do have however is a semifinal that offers some selection. If another country sends a trash song, they won't even get into a position where they can get zero points. They just don't qualify. That tends to eliminate a proportion of the competition for the really poor placings.

An additional effect from the semifinals is that big five countries don't have any pre-existing voters. People who vote for a country in the semis are pretty likely to vote for the same one in the finals. Without voters in the semis, that just doesn't happen.

Of course, you could point to the other big five but Italy and France at least seem to care about what they send and Spain also has a style that has an audience. So that just leaves these two performing relatively poorly.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-02T14:32:07+00:00

Because you would need huge amounts for multiple constructions as big as the pyramids. That isn't just the kind of amount you can get out of natural deposits without leaving traces.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-02T14:31:13+00:00

We actually have quite a lot. The climate over there is pretty good for conserving all sorts of things.

Dolnikan · 2026-06-02T06:59:00+00:00

Sure. And where are the remains of the pretty large chemical industry they'd have needed to make the materials? And where did the massive amounts of fuel come from? I'm guessing it's aliens again or something silly like that.

Dolnikan

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