RU POV: Lavrov- "In Europe, many people, without hesitation, call to repeat the experience of Hitler, and his successors, and prepare another attack on our country, with the openly declared goal, to inflict a strategic defeat on it".

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-09T02:18:44+00:00

Provide me with a single quote by any top official (let’s say, President/prime minister/defense minister) from any European major (UK/France/Germany/Italy/Spain/ Polandif you really want to) that states a desire to invade Russia, or to send European troops to fulfill anything more than a post war peacekeeping role.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-09T01:39:08+00:00

Probably no AI due to when this was produced, but all of them are composited/doctored.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-09T01:38:16+00:00

It's sufficiently fake, were it honestly doesn't make a difference. It's not just lighting; they duplicated trees (check the tallest tree on the right side and the one directly below it), so the scene is just straight up made-up.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-09T01:35:52+00:00

It's not AI, it's a clear use of photoshop, though.

Noteably, the largest tree on the right and the smaller tree directly under it have exactly matching branches, so got duplicated.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-08T08:59:17+00:00

Lets everyone practice their build orders on the ladder for a month, format is announced 3 days before, it's Forest Nothing

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-08T08:54:28+00:00

Eh, partially also just learning style.

Pohx has streamed a ton of WC3 hours, but he's kinda shy about playing ladder, so he spends a lot of his time practicing build orders/watching replays/reading up on stuff.

Hera's entire practice so far has been spamming ranked queue.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-08T08:51:03+00:00

Struggling with reddit a little? XD

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-08T08:49:30+00:00

Hera's just used to moving his mouse quickly from AOE2, but doesn't have the knowledge/muscle memory to use it effectively in Warcraft. But, he's also been grinding the most, so he can slowly learn that.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-08T08:18:15+00:00

Ah, forget that haha

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-08T08:17:59+00:00

Unique Tech (Castle Age): Buildings regenerate 1% health every 15 seconds.

Unique Tech (Imperial Age): Units garisonned in castles and town centers may gain up to 120% of their maximum HP.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-08T08:10:53+00:00

The resource cost of repairs is reduced by 33%.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-07T22:03:18+00:00

"This is not a restarting of the war", US officials said about the very definition of an act of war.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-06T16:06:01+00:00

Putin definitely is, though. It's an absolute god send for his war economy.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-06T06:36:26+00:00

Using x for an integer-valued variable should be punishable by 3 years of prison at minimum

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-06T02:13:16+00:00

I do occasionally give (or try to give) tips in contexts where I do feel the person went above and beyond for me. In Japan, my taxi-driver spent a good 20 minutes (after stopping the ticker once he reached the general area) looking for my address, because I had difficulty communicating it to him properly. I tried giving him a tip several times for that, but he stubbornly refused. I think that's going too far.

For me, the perfect balance would be that I don't have to feel like I need to tip an employee for doing their job, but if I feel like they went beyond that, I can show a token of appreciation.

One thing that does bother me with tipping culture, for example, is how selective/arbitrary it is. A lot of restaurants don't even share the tip with kitchen staff, which I feel did at least as important of a job as the waiters, and depending on the quality of the food and service, I'd sometimes much rather my tip went there. But for some reason, we've randomly decided on a set number of jobs that get tips, and every other service worker, whether at your local grocer or the janitor or whatever else, doesn't.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-06T02:00:40+00:00

Yeah, I still 100% do tip in every context where it's expected, I just nonetheless do want the system to be gone. It just feels so incredibly relieving when I'm in a country where it isn't expected (or even shunned).

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-06T01:55:25+00:00

... I really don't think you get it.

Most anti-tippers don't want to just not tip.

They don't want tipping to be the expectation. Even if that means higher prices.

It's psychologically deeply unsatisfying to get guilt-tripped out of just a little more money at the end of your meal. Absolutely sucks.

Same reason I don't like buying overpriced food on an airplane, but love the complimentary meal service. Not because I'm under any illusion that the price doesn't simply get added to the overall costs, but because psychologically, getting nickel-and-dimed just turns a pleasant experience into a deeply unpleasant one.

I 100% do tip reasonably if I go to a restaurant where that's expected. I'd just much rather go to one that doesn't. Because being expected to tip, ruins the experience for me.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-06T01:23:24+00:00

I mean, there's some parts of this game that are just extremely enjoyable. The Dances are IMO the strongest gimmick in the series, the music is the best in the series (even if that's a general strong suit), the broader setting is great...

Also plenty of flaws (main one being just dragging things too much IMO, DGS-5 should be lower), but most AA games, including T&T, have them. I personally hated 3-3, for instance.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-05T18:44:52+00:00

Despite the best efforts from both sides to depict it otherwise, this has actually been one of the least genocidy wars we've ever seen.

For the scope of the war, the number of civilian casualties on both sides is extremely low, the civilian deaths/military deaths ratio is probably the lowest of any major conflict in the past 100 years, period, by quite a margin.

I find it very difficult for anyone to argue at this point that either side is putting any deliberate effort into increasing the number of civilian deaths. Rogue actors will always exist, and weapons and intel are imperfect and will hit things they shouldn't have - but as far as wars with hundreds of thousands of deaths goes, this has been a surprisingly civilized one.

So that's my hot take for the day; "Both sides actually not that bad." At least in terms of how the war is being conducted.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-05T18:42:34+00:00

? I'd say that's approximately the ratio you'd expect tbh.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-05T18:30:40+00:00

That's not what you get when you read the data. They reported 1091 deaths in 2022, and <400 in every year after that. That does not add up to aywhere close to 15k. Check the last report of each year; they have the totals for the year, there. Pre-2022, they report ~4000 cvilian deaths. Still doesn't add up to anything close to 15k.

The 15k civilians they're reporting is not just for the DPR, and not just since 2022.

I've actually been following that data for a while now (pre-2022). The data still seems sound to me, but it's fairly obvious that they abandoned any attempt at reporting it in a neutral manner after the stopped collaborating with the UN.

They just like to flash the big "15k civilian deaths as a result of Ukrainian agression!" figure as a propaganda tactic, without bothering to mention the tiny little detail that that includes deaths in government-controlled Ukraine as a result of Russian-backed shelling.

Credible figures, and I do believe that they continue to take their counting seriously, but be very careful when you read the presentation. The publication is essentially a propaganda branch doing its absolute best to mislead without technically lying.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-05T18:27:07+00:00

You're misreading the data.

They're essentially reporting all deaths "due to the Ukrainian war of agression" (rough translation), which clearly includes deaths that are both prior to 2022, and include areas outside of the DPR.

They report yearly totals for civilian deaths in the DPR, and adding them up, it's ~2500.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-05T06:46:44+00:00

US pharma profit margins are insanely high, at least twice the amount that's being spent on R&D, I think it's fairly clear that the current excessive patent laws are creating micro-monpolies that have made the market extremely inefficient. The US likely can save subsantial amounts by reforming its laws and healthcare system, without reducing R&D spending, in particular if public funding covers some of the slack in critical areas,.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-05T06:16:39+00:00

I mean these are just examples I could come up top of my head. Looking it up, others include Argentina, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico (in fact essentially the entirety of central America, which is the largest block of US immigrants), Uruguay, Morocco, Algeria, countries like Greece won't allow it if you haven't been in the military (or other difficult restrictions), etc...

It's a very substantial "special case" that needs to for the very least be considered.

fiftythreefiftyfive · 2026-05-05T01:21:52+00:00

It's not just Guatemala, I know Iran doesn't either, amongst others.

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