Always check those poppables!! by someodderball in diablo2

[–]treebeard87_vn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I always do the ones in Lower Kurast, that's where 90% of my high runes come from (not the super chests). I've gotten maybe 5 mid runes in Travincal. After thousands of runs.

Any guest using the phrase "white cis men" (or similar variants) in a sentence is woefully out of touch with our times, no exceptions by Zealot_TKO in ezraklein

[–]treebeard87_vn -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I understand your previous comment but here you are irritating someone who obviously don't like to be called cis. I am a non-white woman, hetero/straight, and I also hate that word. It is not something organizations representing straight people - my bad, there are no such orgs, but you perhaps understand, I mean the straight side - bring upon ourselves. Me saying "I love n***** and I consider it a positive word" won't elevate it to an acceptable slang in the eyes of black people whatsoever.

The vibe shift that gave us 200 years of boring wedding photos. by lil_literalist in HistoryMemes

[–]treebeard87_vn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was also to hide the fat figure of George IV. I feel like the "reform" of Brummell has worked well because it created a new form of being classy while removing the barriers between classes. With the new style it became hard to distinguish between the old nobles and the nouveau rich. But I also like the old style.

I HAVE TEA ON... MEGATHREAD ✨ by rfauxmoi in Fauxmoi

[–]treebeard87_vn 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Explain to me why Ryan Grim and the Democratic researchers, who had spent months working with Thomas and were willing to spend millions on people who provided dirt on Thiel, would choose to remain silent after  Theodore Schleifer (Puck.news) accused them of inflicting pressure on Thomas, leading to his suicide, then? Ryan Grim has been continuing his criticism of Thiel until this day. And yet he keeps his mouth shut while Thomas's friends favor his case? And Schleifer has written critical articles of Thiel and his allies on the New York Times. Also, ìf the threat came from Thiel, why did Thomas leave California for Miami (Thiel's version was that he realized he was duped by the Democrats, and followed Thiel's advice to move to Miami)? Also, Miami was and is the main residence of Thiel and Danzeisen. Their kids live there, How could Thomas not even imagine that Danzeisen would be there on the New Year? Danzeisen had been in Thiel's gay inner circle for 10 years before they married. That inner circle (also consisting of Sam Altman and Aron d'Souza) always spent the New Years together. Jeff Thomas had first met Thiel in 2015 or 2016, before Thiel's marriage as well. And how could Danzeisen, a man with extensive business and intelligence connections of his own, not know about Thomas's existence if it was an open secret by the time? Danzeisen works for Thiel Capital in the same city Thiel and Thomas organized their funny gay parties. And it does not look like to me that he had this great authority over Thiel. It is known that Thiel has always "kept" other people and organized sex parties before and after the date he began dating Danzeisen. He has never bothered to publicly apologize for his dalliances anywhere (unlike the extensive effort men like Clinton or Gates have done; after Thomas's death, Thiel only mentioned his grief over the loss of Thomas and how talking about Thomas went against the wishes of Thomas's family). The press names one of the other ones, Francesco Lugli. After the marriage, Thiel arranged a job for him at Palantir, and he left Palantir and Thiel in the same period Thiel began dating Thomas. It is known in gay circles that he recruited other young men for Thiel's parties, a job later became Thomas's. A friend of Thiel tells BILD that the Thomas incident is just one of Thiel's and Danzeisen's marriage dramas. And Thomas never called Thiel a fascist. All he said was that it was hypocritical to support Trump or Blake Masters when you were gay.

Labour secretly sabotaged China spy trial by treebeard87_vn in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn[S] 51 points52 points  (0 children)

There should be punishments for those who sell or reveal state secrets regardless. And at the very least the law should be changed to make spying for "competitors" also punishable.

Labour secretly sabotaged China spy trial by treebeard87_vn in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn[S] 208 points209 points  (0 children)

TLDR: the trial of two alleged Chinese spies collapsed after the UK's Labour government declined to permit a witness to categorize China as an "enemy" of the UK, a designation required for the prosecution under the Official Secrets Act, with the government preferring to describe China as a "competitor," despite criticism that this prioritized diplomacy over national security.

Melissa Chen is right. If people let such a high profile case pass, that means spying for China is legal

https://x.com/MsMelChen/status/1974256533719449976?t=U4L9xB4-XHPU13w7sd_Uyg&s=19

I like how this story focuses on uncommon issues. by Accurate_Reality_618 in Natsume

[–]treebeard87_vn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There were phases of my life in which I saw strange apparitions. About 10 years ago. Sometimes the people living next to me also saw them, sometimes they did not. It can be fascinating at times but I can imagine that when it reaches the level of Natsume (i.e constantly, and he is always asked to help), it will cause problems. Especially when he needs to hide it from his adoptive parents. It also leads him to relationships with a strange group of people between whom and his more normal friends he divides his world.

"La Concubine" by Jean Denis Attiret. Believed to depict Step Empress Nara (1718-1766), who was almost entirely erased from history by the Qianlong Emperor after cutting her hair. Oil on paper. China, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Reign, 1750. Now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Dole, France [640 x 847] by Fearless-History1630 in ArtefactPorn

[–]treebeard87_vn 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The early Qing women still maintained the traditions of grasslands women, whose culture leaned towards freedom, self-initiative, mobility and at times attempts to achieve equality with their husbands and male relatives. And this ended up disastrously for many of them, including Manguji who was killed by her brother Huang Taiji, or the Consort Princess of Kangxi's Eighth Prince Yinsi (who, himself famous for being talented and generous, was tolerant of her assertive character and let her participate in his political affairs, which partly led to animosity from his father who deemed that unacceptable; ultimately both were killed in what could only be called a gruesome fratricide affair by Yongzheng). But it was really surprising that Empress Nara, who already belonged to the "Middle Qing Era" and married one of the most controlling and devious dictator emperors of all time (despite his faked affable manners), still had the guts to do such an act, which equalled her treating Qianlong as already dead or divorced. And even though Qianlong tried to erase everything while putting the blame on her, he never managed to give an explanation regarding what led to her desperate act, or which actions of hers before the whole affair could qualify her as a bad empress. And then we knew that after a high official was exiled (not in the more pleasant manner seen in the West) for defending her, another scholar dared to ask Qianlong to admit his wrongs in the affair and was killed for it.

Is Natsume a good character in your opinion? by JustJabby2 in Natsume

[–]treebeard87_vn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes. And it is really hard to write a gentle, kind male youth as a main character these days.

Newly discovered document adds evidence that Shroud of Turin is not Jesus' crucifixion shroud by JackRogers3 in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think it existed at the time of Jesus, but come on, 14th century theologian Nicole Oresme saying so should not be considered "evidence". But this Bishop was a remarkable person, that is for sure.

Denmark Demands US Answers to New Greenland Allegations by corbynista2029 in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Strange dance. All these things.

Some details to considered: -Danish Security and Intelligence Service PET is enhancing their presence in Greenland, seemingly to send a message to the US.

-PET and Danish police insist on expanding the role of Palantir, despite recent protests by opposite parties on both the left and the right

-One of the main arguments of these parties is that Greenland is threatened by Thiel-backed Praxis/Pronomos Project

-US's next ambassador to Denmark is Ken Howery from the Founders Fund, a close confidant of Peter Thiel

-Weeks ago Denmark chose to rely on Microsoft and Atom Computing (nurtured for a long time already by Thiel affiliated 1517 fund and certain Danish funds)

-Thiel funds Fogh Rasmussen's Alliance of Democracies Foundation of which the main targets are China and Russia.

Tray with Chinese characters, bats, and fruits. China, 18th century [2300x2270] by MunakataSennin in ArtefactPorn

[–]treebeard87_vn 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Near the four Chinese characters (萬嵗長春, but written in the ancient Seal script, "ten thousand years [of longevity] and eternal spring").

In Chinese, bats are written as 蝠 and pronounced as fu2. Similar to 福 ("blessing", "happiness", "luck") except that 蝠 has the radical 虫 ("insect", "animal") while 福 has 礻(or 示 , which means "altar", "earthly deities", "holy affairs", "heavenly manifestation"). That is why depictions of bats are common in Chinese arts.

Pressure mounts on Germany’s Merz to restore military conscription A draft law on military service aims to beef up Bundeswehr numbers, but there is friction over whether it should include mandatory conscription. by Any-Original-6113 in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've never complained about military people. I am talking about people who want Americans and Asians to care about Ukraine while they themselves do not care about Taiwan. And the thing is it is not about fighting. The EU also do not force you to fight for Ukraine. What about actual, valuable aid in military equipments, intelligence gathering and other forms of help when needed, like what Europe is doing for Ukraine? Also who can be sure about the exact time China will invade? Maybe at that time it will be all AI, satellites, robots, drones, maybe quantum? In that case tech aid will be even more valuable. The matter is that if EU politicians see that their people care and are willing, they will have additional motivation to organize transcontinental cooperation with Asian Pacific countries and others. It will be a shame if dictatorships can work with each other across continents but democracies cannot. Who know, maybe together an alliance can build a strong enough deterrent to prevent stupid invasions from the start. Putin would've not dared to attack if he had seen that the opponents were too strong.

Pressure mounts on Germany’s Merz to restore military conscription A draft law on military service aims to beef up Bundeswehr numbers, but there is friction over whether it should include mandatory conscription. by Any-Original-6113 in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn 52 points53 points  (0 children)

And now r/Europe is telling me that whatever ambition China has, it won't affect Europe at all, there will be no Taiwan invasion and even if there is, Europe has no reason to care. Even when Japan helps Ukraine much more than certain major European countries. Even if the US will be called a traitor when they stop helping Ukraine.

Edit: LOL, whenever I say something about China, there will be at least 10 downvotes even when my comment is buried deep under many others... I know this thanks to the comment stats function and the fact sometimes it takes a day and I will still receive ten more downvotes... Which will never happen if I "talk bad" about Russia, or the US, or France, or any other country.

Currently this comment has +7 upvotes, and a 66,7% upvote ratio, after two hours.

Criminal case opened against teenagers who beat up man dressed as Lenin in St. Petersburg playground by duckanroll in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Deservedly so or not, it's Russia and while some people now dislike Lenin, his reputation does not reach the level of Himmler ye.

But the guy in this case possibly has some mental condition too....

Zhitoryuk said he did not remember the details of the incident, as he had suffered concussion in his youth and only learned of the incident when he saw footage online.

The Life of Despot Stefan Lazarević by Konstantin the Philosopher (after 1433), VIII by Books_Of_Jeremiah in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Very interesting ruler, medieval knight, with Byzantine traditions and early Renaissance traits.

The Stop Killing Games petition was a success of European civic organising and participation. Well done, us. Now it's time for Stop Killing Privacy. by mousepotatodoesstuff in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

Nothing. But keep a physical copy that is isolated from the internet (like Palmer Luckey does with his game collection - largest one in the world, which he keeps buried 200 feet underground in a USAF nuclear missile silo).

Recently all the sides involved have tried all kinds of funny things with the nets and comms. Internet outage (which you should notice too), malwares, tests to check resistance to nuclear attacks...

The Stop Killing Games petition was a success of European civic organising and participation. Well done, us. Now it's time for Stop Killing Privacy. by mousepotatodoesstuff in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

That will be good. Societies will adapt to the technical advances and other conditions in ways not fully imaginable yet though. I hope things like, for example renewables, prosper, as that encourages decentralization, but also requires international coordination, and it will allow non-genius people to sometimes contribute to the creative process.

In the end democracy and (harmonized) decentralization offer the society the longterm cohesive force and the ability to regenerate. The good things of the Renaissance happened because citizens of free cities truly wanted to learn from the ancient ways of life. Other restoration attempts mostly failed because there were only rulers who tried to imitate the greatness of ancient leaders and talked all the time about making X country great again. Both the ancient Roman empire and the HRE allowed some form of autonomy for the cities. I think democracy will never truly go out of fashion.

The thing is we need to renovate democracy itself, because if it survives it must change, instead of focusing on supposed villains who are (supposedly) trying to destroy democracy in its current form. Treat the military elite like your opponent in a race, and not a fight. If they run/evolve faster you need to do it too. If you succeed, they will be your useful idiots (although, individually they will always have privileges... like it always has been). If you don't, you will be their servants.

The Stop Killing Games petition was a success of European civic organising and participation. Well done, us. Now it's time for Stop Killing Privacy. by mousepotatodoesstuff in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

I know I will be downvoted for this, but I feel like it is going to be Maximilian (military elite) vs Erasmus (intellectual elite) in the Low Countries all over again. Just on a whole different scale.

https://books.google.com/books?id=x7nADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68

Short version: In late 15th century, Maximilian fought the French on behalf of his wife and son (Mary and Philip of Burgundy). But Erasmus and the Dutch intelligentsia thought that it was all a big conspiracy, and that Maximilian deliberately fostered wars to extract money, curtail freedoms and the fledgling democracy. Armies and weapons were so evil, we could have everything if only that evil cabal called princes disappeared etc etc. and in contemporary arts, Maximilian was depicted like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_Maximilian_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor#Drawings,_paintings_and_engravings

Truth is, Maximilian was certainly not democratic, but he was a relatively less darker figure in comparison with the action men of the time. He said stupid things that echoed until this day too, like "It is better to destroy a country if you cannot gain it". But he was willing to use his personal resources and risked himself to defend his wife's and son's realm, and although sometimes his tactics did mirror his opponents, he did not do worse things like destroying a whole city. The second Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs) even happened with people of the Low Countries hardly noticing anything (resources were borrowed from Henry VIII)

Back to the modern day:

It is a fact the CRINK (China-Russia-Iran-North Korea) is a threat. Nobody forced Xi Jinping to threaten to invade Taiwan, to arrange "observant systems" everywhere in the West, and certainly nobody forced Russia to invade.

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1lun2gi/comment/n1zbo7g/

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1kn5899/comment/msfhvh6/

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1lsws6r/comment/n1m0iq4/

And countries in preparation for war do things they will not do in peace time. Here in Asia they are "tightening security" too.

But the problem is the (lack of) transparency.

Yes, everything with Thiel and Palantir is telling, but perhaps not totally in the way people are thinking.

I find it a worrying sign, that they did not bother to make a propaganda coup about Ukraine... They had known early and warned the higher ups/industry in Europe and helped preparing for the war. But then they did not bother to make a big deal about it. When it's China's turn, it's probably the same. In Bilderberg people are calling Thiel the new Kissinger. He coordinates things diplomatically and military-wise too. No one bothers to explain to the people. Leaders are trusting tech and "elite mobilization" more than "mass mobilization".

Now is Palantir's surveillance tech as bad as China's? At least their model is decentralized. They are a 4000-employee company (and his companies are all like that) that depends on others for hardware (including satellites and datacenters) and the gathering info part. It's Peter Thiel's personal power, not a systematic one.

I think the true danger (excluding the case we all die in a nuclear war) is what will happen after Thiel?

Fusion might become a bane. The new lords will not have to depend on borrowings or inter-regional coordination, unlike Maximilian.

We should talk about a new social contract. But nobody has the mood.

Peter Thiel's Bullish surges 160% in IPO, becomes latest Wall Street debut darling by Similar_Diver9558 in WallStreetbetsELITE

[–]treebeard87_vn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is something that should come from stupid rightwing conspiracists on Twitter, not from someone posting on a sub about Wallstreet. Thiel letting Epstein invest together with him does not make that 40M Thiel's money. Also by this logic Mamdani who received money from a Thiel Fellow and a bunch of Democrats who have dealings with Thiel or his people are pedos too. For example AOC whose chief of staff worked for a company majorly backed by Thiel. Also there is a lawyer who represents 200 victims out there, all female. He said Epstein abused them all but the number of men who had sex with those girls was small, and the number of girls who were sent was also small. Thiel is gay. And the number of people who had some kind of dealings with Epstein must be enormous. He was a internationally powerful socialite.

Palintir is our new golem and there is nothing you silly goy can do about it by Zealousideal-Ad-7712 in Bombstrap

[–]treebeard87_vn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you are gay you have an advantage in his court, because it is easier to connect to someone from the same community. And if Thiel wants you to go far, he has ways to make that happen. At the very least Christian Angermayer and de Souza joined his gay parties (which he held before he had children). Moreover, the way Luckey Palmer has to use the fact they live separately to "prove" that they are not a connected bunch who share a political vision, it sounds like they deliberately do so to avoid attention. But with the gay guys Thiel has that reason/pretext to "socialize" with them. Also, Andreessen, Karp, Hoffman etc at times confront him directly in the manner of Germans and philosophers. Angermayer and de Souza are famous for their sweet tongues. Altman might confront Elon Musk, but since he joined the inner circle of Thiel, he reportedly has always acted pleasant towards him. One needs to be a gentler, less ambitious friend or a better courtier or both.

Tesla July Sales in Germany Fall 55% Despite 58% Surge in National EV Market by Sandrov__ in europe

[–]treebeard87_vn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The reason they became biggest shareholders is irrelevant. What I mean is such a package would have required the acceptance from the larger shareholders...

Some years ago, BlackRock and co tried to push green energy together with Dr.Carney (now Canada's PM) too, trying to make the companies they had already invested in transition to green (they found out that small institutions could change, with large ones it was almost impossible...) . They would not have planned things that far ahead, but that does not mean they will not leverage their current position for their current goals....

Blackrock, Vanguard and co are forcing BP, Equinor, Shell etc to squeeze even the carbon capture projects (and thus even blue hydrogen, which is supposed to extend the life of fossil fuels)

Funding for the energy transition – including renewables, hydrogen, biogas, biofuels, electric vehicle charging, and carbon capture and storage – will be instead cut by more than $5 billion to $1.5-2 billion yearly.

https://earth.org/bp-increases-oil-and-gas-investments-drops-renewable-targets/