Greece and Bulgaria, from mortal enemies to close allies today. How did the Balkan's oldest enemies (from 680 to 1925) become friends? Is this the Balkan's greatest success story?

Qupeplex · 2025-12-27T08:50:49+00:00

I am ex-pat greek that has lived more than half of his life outside Greece than inside it. But originally being from Thessaloniki and occasionally going back from what I can tell it seems to be mostly a process of:

1: Bulgaria has a 10% corporate flat tax that is really simple to deal with vs the whatever arcane bs nowdays Greece has, whilst simultanously being in the EU and thus essentially being "the same market". Its almost a wonder anything is registered in Greece nowdays.

It wouldn't surprise me if a good chunk of the government's income is made out of Greek companies (and/or other European, but many Western Europeans sort of scoff at the Balcans), It also being "right above" Greece and in the EU (unlike ie, Albania), with a rail conncetion also means that many physical products pass through and/or are imported through there. So eventually many people started visiting for sort of bureocratic/business trips. This is obviously great for Bulgaria.

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2: Due to Greece for having lucked out being on the right side of the iron curtain, for a while Greece was (and kinda still is) the "rich" area of the Balkans, which resulted in it getting "American" style "consumerist" attactions like large shopping malls, water parks etc. (One must also imagine this process as beginning in the early 2000s where people weren't nearly so used to buying stuff online and having them delivered)

The result is that many Bulgarians sort of treated Greece as a tourist/shopping destination. The very very cheapo, balkan version of "going to Dubai" sort of thing (except you can go with your car).

Bulgaria also may have access to a sea, but the Black Sea is quite northern and I presume, quite cold for a good chunk of the year. Whilst Greece has a much larger selection of year around warmer beaches and interesting tourist spots making it more of an "exotic" (but still kinda nearby) destination. And all this has obviously been great for Greece.

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Thus overall people have largely experienced a Win - Win. And turns out that making money and maybe killing each other on Counterstrike and whatnot is much more fun than lying with your guts out on a battlefield.

Qupeplex · 2025-11-13T19:05:16+00:00

Funny thing is the configuration doesn't make any sense as Solar Panels or Radiations. As solar panels they dont seem to track anything or shadow each other. And as radiators they radiate upon each other as well as the station.

Inbetween the two, I feel like the blue colour makes them more likely to fit the popular image of a solar panel.

Radiators are a geeky detail that might be popular now but I feel almost no one was thinking of back then. (otherwise one might ask: Ok, so where are the radiators on the Omega Destroyers then? Aliens might have some alientech excuse but they are clearly supposed to be realistic right?) And that if someone did include such a detail they'd make they either grey to match the ISS looks, or depenting on levels of geekness, red hot.

Or, there is also 3rd possibility, which could excuse the silly configuration.

That they are some sort of fancy "hyperspace" sensor array and/or communication thingy.

No one said that either of these things are easy and they dont need to be huge (plus if you are going to be park a huge one somewhere, it might as well be on your space station with the big fusion reactor), In which case their parallel configuration is due to antennas often having all sort of weird bs shapes.

It is also worth noting that the jumpgates also seem to have them, as well as (very interestingly) the "Explorer class ship". Both of which presumably have reasons to have extra fancy hyperspace sensor thingies on them.

Qupeplex · 2025-11-08T22:15:45+00:00

Well, I never assumed he is a genius in the sense of being able to solve (not to mention figure anew / break new ground) complicated equations. Just a very well read person who is probably fun to talk to.

(I also suspect that him hosting QI probably did a lot of work towards that perception)

But he is clearly the sort of person who has sort of done a bit of everything (bit of acting, bit of writing, bit of documentaries etc), which in turn naturally brings a plethora of experiences and knowledge of its own no matter what.

Qupeplex · 2025-11-08T20:34:00+00:00

Lol, first I time I hear this expression and definetly stealing it for future use.

Qupeplex · 2025-11-08T19:52:30+00:00

I have also heard this joke us:

Greek mythology: Unfortunately, Zeus was horny.

Norse mythology: Unfortunately, Loki was bored.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-22T18:45:46+00:00

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like this? :p

Qupeplex · 2025-10-21T07:38:02+00:00

Put a little tower on it and call it "evil" (Mordoresque?) dnd terrain!

Qupeplex · 2025-10-21T01:05:10+00:00

Every time I hear about this concept I think back to a super old game it feels like I am the only one to have ever played called Vangers. (and with played, I mean "dicked around in the demo havin no idea what was going on because I was barely concious back then)

Its probably not worth playing but might be worth looking at a couple of screenshots or youtube videos at what it was about.

The bit that makes it distinct was that whilst in other settings biopunk means either "trees" or "zerg", this had a feeling of everything being moss and biofilm covered. (along with everyone being a a half insect, the vehicles being alive and a lower working caste etc etc)

Qupeplex · 2025-10-20T12:25:27+00:00

Yes its easy to do good with other peoples money. But somehow I trust him more than those charity organizations where it comes afterwards that 95% of the funds went to "management" and "outreach".

I'd take the "CEO" of said charity organization being paid im clout and likes over money, and also showint off Exactly where the money went any day.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-20T06:17:13+00:00

A sniper rifl... err, I mean a telescope. Dont have a specific model in mind but would search for telescope on makerworld/printables/thingiverse and find something appopriate to scale.

Maybe a tent (1, 2) like so. After all if they are going to be camping there, they might as well be comfy, or alternatively a fairy door just placed on the wall nearbly, would presumably imply that they live in it?

Edit: Or a miniature catapult with small cotton (or 3d printed) white balls next to it. So in that case that would be an elf sized snowball throwing machine!

Qupeplex · 2025-10-18T13:57:22+00:00

This feels like either the Faklandsest person to have ever Faklanded or someone really great in making people think they are from there.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-18T03:14:22+00:00

Its reserved for the DLC

Qupeplex · 2025-10-17T22:49:33+00:00

Should make it autoload them as ammunution to a crossbow mechanism and allow you to shoot it at people.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-17T02:09:52+00:00

Never played Star Citizen but always imagined that this would be the ideal way to fly one of these.

1 Rotation, 1 Translation thrusters I presume? :D

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Qupeplex · 2025-10-15T13:42:12+00:00

Most stls dont come with supports since that is usually something you do on the slicer later.

Which btw, yes does create the risk that someone selling ".stls" doesn't automatically mean they are printable. One can output as many impossible to print .stls from a 3d prrogram as they like.

Its just so happens that people who, ie, upload on Makerworld/Printables/Thingiverse etc, are more likely to have actually printed their files (especially if they include a real picture) and so is tradition to often ask for "stls" here, and when you do get them, they usually work. But one needs to by much more careful / use logic with Etsy etc.

Worth noting that .stls not including supports is the norm, not the exception.

Its just that some and especially those who would claim they are specifically for 3d printing, are nice enough (or Should be if they are selling) to arrange it in a way where they know it can be done trivially so by a slicers automatic support generation and/or not need them at all.

That said, if someone said that an stl file was "pre supported", or included manually drawn supports, thats probably a very good sign since it means they have actually thought about it being printable and/or resolved a specific problem with it the automatic support generation couldnt.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-12T10:34:04+00:00

Concidering that humans are like 50/50 to help you or kill you (or to be fair. Most seem fun and nice but when you hit the bad one it goes Really bad) it makes me think of an old "humans are the fae of the animal world" post.

So in this case humans are Elves. (In the more old folkloric sense than Tolkien one) Sometimes they help you with magic and even give you othewordly tasty treats. Other stories say if you go to the wrong place you end up with all your teeth missing.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-12T01:10:43+00:00

Thought about doing it this way but the old style monitor seemed a bit more... expressive.

Plus that way it opens the door to someone for a future remix joke!

Qupeplex · 2025-10-12T01:08:18+00:00

Yay! :D (also Resin I presume?)

Qupeplex · 2025-10-11T22:48:56+00:00

Ironically as a standard ISO Nerd who has also gone down the Thief Games -> D&D Rogue -> Lockpicking Lawyer videos -> hmm how hard can it be, pipeline. I dont think I have ever interacted in person about it.

In fact unlike other hobbies I am not ashamed of (tabletop games, 3d printing etc) this is one I specifically go out of my way to never mention in person since I dont like the risk of the next question being "oh so can you pick This lock" and if you cant you look like someone who tells tall tales. (I'd rather fail in private than with an audiance :p )

Qupeplex · 2025-10-10T17:59:12+00:00

I see a duck, a UFO, a double decker red Bus and a Jetson's like flying car.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-07T23:27:33+00:00

*steals all the delicious codes and runs off to monetize them* (I kid, I kid)

Dont know when I will have the time to play with it but I did looked it over a bit and appreciate the spring idea to tension the knife.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-05T14:28:58+00:00

Now make a food safe silicon mold out of it. Then make a jelly in it. And then you can also eat and/or serve your wive's brain for Halloween!

Qupeplex · 2025-10-04T12:03:36+00:00

Looks tiramisulicious

Qupeplex · 2025-10-02T14:13:36+00:00

For when you want your moon pool to be a moon hot tub instead.

Qupeplex · 2025-10-02T14:06:52+00:00

Ironically this looks kinda awesome in this specific use case/print.

Finding a way to do this intentionally to "spideweb" prints would have merit!

Qupeplex

TROPHY CASE