renke_

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• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Trying to remember names/titles, but not much coming to mind because I have a hard time remembering non-Euro names. should you ever awake at 4 am, suddenly remembering names and titles: don't hesitate to sleepwalk to your internet device and...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  and I'm grateful to both of you, never heard of this book before and looking forward to read it...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Space colonization from the other side may be interesting, with earth as target and humanity seen by the benevolent conquistadores as noble savages. Not sure if it can be pulled off without hitting all the cliches but when it does...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  but I doubt the supermarkets will stop screwing over their suppliers any time soon to develop more local stocks. screwing over local suppliers is always a way to go (here it's mainly dairy farming, with unsustainable pocket money paid...
• Commented on Fuck the Monarchy
  The situation in the UK is that, since the Prohibitions of Nuclear Explosions Act was passed, it's a criminal offense to procure a nuclear explosion, carrying a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. cheaper in Germany, only at least 5...
• Commented on Strong and Stable!
  as long as you know enough to check CPAN for a library with the same security implications you used above to discourage using the video downloader written in python :) be it cpan, pip or some git-hosted project: no...
• Commented on Bad news day
  afaict renewables don't and are not on track to produce enough energy to replace themselves when they wear out whut? the energy payback time for PV even in northern Europe is less than two years (see p 35 for...
• Commented on Bad news day
  'SCH' and used all the time, German would be much more compact if we would borrow the Cyrillic Ш. Geшriebenes Deutш ohne 'sch' ist шrecklich-шön und шneller. (written German w/o 'sch' is horrible-pretty and faster)...
• Commented on Bad news day
  more ideas: Russia does not send bombers because it's still defined as "peace-keeping"/"liberation" mission - I guess they are less precise than the US counterparts and we all know the civilian bodycount of the latters surgical strikes. I am more...
• Commented on Bad news day
  fast-tracking Ukraines entry into the EU I hope this does not happen, and when as the end of a well-defined process. The EU is a rule-based org, imo one of the more important features. Membership shouldn't be handed out...
• Commented on Bad news day
  AIUI the current Russian set-up has no equivalent for relieving the Commander-in-Chief of duty if he's too impaired to work. Article 92 of the Russian constitution is, I think, the most fitting. Though it does not really define what...
• Commented on Bad news day
  If the future non-expansion of NATO was such a big issue, why didn't Gorbachev insist on it being in the treaty? Most of the known discussions and more or less earnest (verbal) commitments to not increase the NATO area...
• Commented on Bad news day
  and reintroducing dual-key nuclear weapons The nukes were never gone, but the current aircraft (Tornado) is end-of-life and needs to be replaced. Until Scholz' speech it was an open political discussion, with a few possible outcomes (from 'declare Germany...
• Commented on Bad news day
  Will he lose with grace or try to break the game board for everyone? (Not long ago I would have bet on the first, but his speech with the drug-abusing neonazis in Kyiv was .. bizarre. I cannot read him...
• Commented on Bad news day
  Did they just tell Russia where to shove their gas pipeline? Alas no. Yes but. Nord Stream 2 was red-taped to death (the needed certification is on hold since Tuesday) but Nord Stream 1 is unaffected (see also this...
• Commented on Quantum of Nightmares: spoiler time!
  he might also consider more widespread toxin use Putin is a competent, if ruthless, politician/autocrat and not suicidal. I don't think his endgame is world war 3 but more along the lines of a Russian Monroe Doctrine, accepted by...
• Commented on Invisible Sun: Themes and Nightmares
  Where's here? Other than somewhere in Germany. of course! The numbers are for all first-time voters in Germany ;) the LibDems aren't a 'small-state' party Oh, good to know. Sorry for the mix-up, after a little bit of reading...
• Commented on Invisible Sun: Themes and Nightmares
  argh, forgot 10 % CDU/CSU (conservative ~ Tories)...
• Commented on Invisible Sun: Themes and Nightmares
  not sure if the German federal elections yesterday are a valid data point, but here(tm) first time voters chose 23 % FDP (liberals ~ LibDems), 22 % Greens, 15 % SPD (social democrats ~ Labour), 8 % Left (uh, ~...
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  I forgot if it was introduced with a disclaimer - but I hope so, the teacher was a good one and tried his best to teach science in an interesting and still correct way....
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  Other courses (eg. business) teach 'absolute truth' ha, yes. The spherical cow in vacuum seemed to be the theoretical foundation of the introductory economics lectures I had to survive....
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  But isn't calculating orbits using Newton's laws of motion also a lie? I don't have a problem with the wrongness of the results, they are more often than not good enough and open a way to the more correct (but...
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  @gasdive #1156 You're full of shit. That's a gross oversimplification, you forgot the other waste products of the four humours. @Elderly Cynic #1160 [an] expert will describe roughly what it depends ON 'Roughly' is important here, the explanation will start...
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  I have the feeling that some (over-)simplifications are needed. As an example: My first contact in school (aged 10 or 11 or so) with atoms was the horribly wrong 'solar system' model with the core as sun and electrons as...
• Commented on A death in the Firm
  only a certain proportion of people can deal with the notion that we usually teach simplifications and outcomes that are not strictly true the fine print of lies-to-children, in my experience most often misunderstood by adult persons......
• Commented on Submarine coming through!
  He doesn't understand his value to Putin is rapidly diminishing and will reach ZERO on Jan 20, 2021. I am not sure. It feels as if Russia's foreign policy is in large parts based on wreaking havoc* - when...
• Commented on Submarine coming through!
  The UK also did pretty well without an elected government for centuries Touche, you got me there :) we have all the pomp and ceremony we can handle but none of the upkeep Dunno, stuff like flag waving, military...
• Commented on Submarine coming through!
  woops, Greg already covered Belgium as example....
• Commented on Submarine coming through!
  If all the politicians died, how well would the country keep running? You could take a look at Belgium - the country is all the time without an elected government. iirc the records so far are 550 days or...
• Commented on Roll the dice
  Graham's comment sounds right But in the short term, fantasy RPGs will be trapped in Uncanny Valley as too close to reality but not properly accurate. Not sure if escapsism is the main driver of RPG players, but a certain...