So I’ve hit a VERY annoying wall in the game with this particular bonus stage. I’ve been trying to beat it for well over a week already wi you little progress. Do you all think I should just move on with the rest of the game and come back to this later? I know there are harder levels ahead. 😐😐😐

If you can't beat em, buy em.

For example: in the 19th century a staged production of an ocean voyage may have mechanics that operate painted waves and sea.

Context 1: Barely anything is known about the Dark Age of Technology (DaOT), and one of the biggest mysteries of the setting revolve around the mysterious Men of Materials: Gold, Stone, and Iron. While we know that the Men of Iron are true AI, such as UR-025, Tabula Myriad, etc, who could probably just download themselves into available chassises at any moment, not much is known about the Men of Stone or Gold.

Context 2: The descriptions of Kron in this short story confirm what we do know about the Men of Stone, and his existence has major ramifications regarding foundational aspects of the lore.

To begin this discussion, we need to clarify just what we actually know about the Men of Materials. While not explicitly stated in any novels or codex, Laurie Golding, an accredited BL author and editor of multiple publications, states that the original vision for the Men of Materials was to have them as three separate transhuman races. Specifically, Alan Meritt, one of the original authors of GW who was with them since the days of Rogue Trader, stated that the Men of Iron were the Machines, the Men of Gold were a genetically engineered master race that came about through selective breeding, while the Men of Stone were a cyborg intelligence. In particular, "the "Stone" part refers to silicon, and are likened to the Thirteenth Tribe from Battlestar Galactica, the original cyclons who left Kobol and began their own civilization". While a lot of this is old lore, just a couple years ago we have the first ever, explicitly confirmed existence of a Man of Iron, UR-025. And since the entire concept of the Men of Materials was introduced as a package deal in the 3rd edition rulebook, UR-025's existence hints that GW didn't softly retconn the entire concept, and the concept of all 3 transhuman races, namely Gold, Stone, and Iron, were still on the table for discussion and will be terms that define the DaOT.

While we have an explicit description of the Men of Iron in the lore, we really don't have such confirmation for the Men of Gold or Stone. However, the short story Ancient History, by Andy Chambers actually provides descriptions of a highly unusual individual that altogether, very strongly hints that he is a Man of Stone. To set the stage, Kron is officially a naval bondsman on the Imperial Battleship Retribution. While he is colloquially referred to as an "old h

I feel like ROC is completely going under the radar, so I thought I'll write this up (pls no delet). ​I guess it's partly because it's been 3 years since the last ROC (except the online one last year but we're not talking about that one) and partly because promotion seems to be basically non-existent. But it's here and it's already shaping to be one hell of an event.

We also have a bunch of new viewers who might be interested in this international, yet "weirdly" Europe-oriented event.

#What is Race of Champions?

In case you're not familiar with ROC, here's a quick rundown.

Race of Champions is an annual (well, when covid isn't messing things up) invitational friendly competition held in the winter when most racing series are on a break. It is held at a different place each year.

The concept is simple: great drivers from all kinds of racing series are invited to the event, where they just duke it out. See, simple. Equal machinery, equal opportunities, balls out racing.

Each round/race consists of 2 drivers. Whoever clocks the faster time, wins.

There are two categories, both categories consisting of a group stage and a BO3 knockout stage. Saturday is the day for Nation's Cup. In Nation's Cup, the drivers form groups of 2s and race for a joint victory. The groups are generally formed based on nationality (duuh), but "pairless" drivers team up regardless of nationality. Sunday is the day of Race of Champions, where everyone is racing for themselves to become the Champion of Champions. Also for bragging rights, obviously.

#Drivers

Well, it's called Race of Champions for a reason: lineup is packed as always. The current list is by no means complete, there will be a whole lot more drivers announced later, possibly some F1 drivers as well. But as of right now, the confirmed drivers are:

-Sebastian Vettel

-Mick Schumacher

-Valtteri Bottas

-Mika Häkkinen

-Sebastien Loeb

-Travis Pastrana

-Jimmie Johnson

-Mattias Ekström

-Johan Kristoffersson

-Benito Guerra

-Helio Castroneves

-Tom Kristensen

-Oliver Solberg

-Petter Solberg

#Cars

The car situation used to be... weird, to say the least, with WRCs, KTM X-Bows and buggys. It's a bit more conventional and "professional" this year.

-Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport: an all-out sportscar, with Porsche's trademark naturally aspirated flat-6 boxer engine, 425bhp, 425Nm, 4.2s to 100km/h, pure fun.

-RX Supercar Lites: based on the 2011 F

Hello stupidpol. One of your resident tankie USSR apologists here (or, as thefunhouseofideology calls it “Stalinists with Oedipus Complexes").

I would like to begin by discussing my sudden turn from banal shitposting to attempting to engage with Stupidpol more critically. Why is this? Why can this matter?

It is primarily due to the tenor of Stupidpol these days, particularly in regards to our usual pet issue of “Rightoid Creep.” What are the criticisms of this Rightoid Creep? That they derail discussion, exacerbate reactionary tendencies and degrade the Marxist character of this sub. Many claim that we are past the point of no return.

I disagree. The Rightoids are not a problem, but rather there must be a certain amount of “Rightoid Repellant” that functions in the same manner that our anti-IdPol stance acts as a “Libtard Repellant”.

How does one create a Rightoid repellant?

By posting theory. They don’t read this stuff and think we’re fucking stupid for trying to use it.

Further, I am hoping that my feeble attempts to create, repurpose and interpret theory will inspire more of you to do the same. Increasing our high effort posts will have the effect of reinvigorating our Marxist character, as well as signal to those who come here for the “dunking on liberals” that this sub allows for that this is a Marxist subreddit first and foremost.

Our disagreement with IdPol stems from several places; the chief criticism we have to level against it, is that it is Identity Essentialist and thus inherently counter-Revolutionary.

Our disagreement with IdPol is not that we want to be chauvinist misogynists, that we want to be virulent racists, that truly all we desire is an excuse to make fun of “minorities” and so on and so forth.

It is my hope that through these theory posts we can reaffirm our commitment to these ideological positions.

This does bring us, then, to the actual topic of this post.

What makes a class Revolutionary?

Further, what does it mean to be reactionary? What creates this social phenomenon?

Building off of these questions, how can we determine the Revolutionary or reactionary character of classes, and how can we use this in the project of building an actually existing socialist American state?

———————————————

Let us begin with the question of what makes a class Revolutionary. This is, in many ways, Marxism 101 but I believe it is important to discuss. First, I appreciate theory that addresses all of the claims it makes wi

- Comrades Yüt’ Üok, Laas’ Assun, and Milka’ Akk please enter the room. The First leader is awaiting. -

Said the Crab-like alien, they have four legs, two giant claws as any earth evolved Crab but with tentacles beneath the claw which made it possible to manipulate small objects and make them to the space stage. They were using a white and black tunic on the torso and some red straps on the legs, straps that carried medals and others honorably titles. They entered the room, it wasn’t underwater but instead had a very humid environment. The three entered the room, they weren’t apprehensive. No. The First leader is not a leader anymore, he had no real power and probably would just give some tips as they become members of the species council.

- First, congratulations. You deserved it, the people and the council have elected you three to this position.

Congratulated the First leader with “tics” leaving his mouth as this was their form of verbal communication. His shell is very thick and gray - a sign of his very old age.

- Now. I will tell why, why we operate in the way we do, why, besides all... Disadvantages we keep allied with the United Earth Government. You think that this is bullshit, that the old ones are too traditionalist, that it doesn’t make any sense, it’s always like this. An old trio leaves and a new one comes in, eager, wanting to change everything. Thinking that the only reason that we keep that is that we adopted a human government ideology. -

The three grew in size, a signal of anxiety and stress. An armed guard moved in their direction and the First leader dispensed the soldier.

- No need to feel that way, we are all friends, all comrades. -

- I was born a slave, as you all know in the history books. It says that we made a revolution because enough was enough. No. It was because humanity made an enemy, and they were our oppressors. -

“ATTENTION, ATTENTION, SHIP UNDER RAID, ALL SECURITY PERSONAL ON COMBAT POSITIONS!” Aüt’ Üaa - soon to be known as the First Leader was in a dark cell, cramped with his own kind. He heard loud explosions, but the hull seemed to be intact. He prayed in his mind to something, some god, some higher being to kill his slavers, even if he had to die. Some in his cell were in fear to die, but many wished to die before they go to another labor camp. More explosions, it was getting near his cell. He heard some laser weapon being fired, the noise of the batteries on full power, and then - light. A biped cre

Intro: When I decided to share some of my reviews on this sub, I knew the work would take several days, and, at the time, I also didn't have a precise idea about what the outcome should have been. Among the various possibilities, I opted to create a first, rough, draft which I would update multiple times until I felt satisfied. So, here we go! If you saw my previous post know that this one is updated and as complete as Reddit allows it to be.

FAQ:

• Why only web novels? Because of their nature, they are more accessible compare to books. You can more easily skim through them, discard what you don't like, and move on. At the same time, it's also harder to find proper reviews for web novels, in particular, I find scores on Royal Road to be useless in general. This doesn't mean that I don't read books, on the opposite, on my fantasy progression tier list there would almost be present only books;
• What novels ended up on this list? My initial plan was to have both good and bad ones, but Reddit doesn't support such long posts. I'm, therefore, forced to have only what I most care about sharing. If you don't see something that should be on the list, but it's not, leave a comment and I'll clarify if I either left it out or didn't read it. At the end of the post there should also be a brief list of not reviewed suggestions;
• What do I like? I'm an old reader. I'm past the time where I could read and enjoy anything available to me. You could find my tastes to be very needy in some ways and not so much in many others, I'm aware of it.
  I don't dislike many tags, the most notable are: novels with multiple POVs; a pure slice of life; when comedy is central; superheroes; but there are exceptions, ofc.
  On the other hand, immersion and suspension of disbelief go toe to toe for me, and I need to have both to enjoy a story. At the end of the day, a story has to remain true to its context. A System with numbers that don't make sense; a traumatic event that has no consequences; reincarnated adults that behave like teenagers; isekai where the protagonists never, ever, miss their previous happy, safe, life; characters that behave outside of their role; these are just some example of what ruins my immersion and usually leads to abandoning a novel, or at least to lower its score;
• How do you structure the reviews? I'm not a professional reviewer, I find it hard to stick to a precise and well-organized pattern. I'll try to point ou

I am talking about the reimagined Battlestar Galactica that began in 2003. This does contain some spoilers for the current three seasons of Westworld and all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica. I will try to keep things as vague as I can, though.

On the surface, the shows are very different. Westworld, of course, has this super high-def western-cyberpunk aesthetic in conjunction with a seemingly evergreen world in a not-so-distant future, increasingly framed as less of a straightforward plot and more of a nonlinear retelling of historical events. BSG is primarily set in the blackness of space and much more straightforward, dealing with the gritty and grainy military and socio-political elements of what seems to be a far-flung future in which a small enclave of devastated humans fight for survival against their technologically superior, almost ethereal AI enemies.

But having recently watched both shows again, I was astounded by the similarities. Many things that happen in Battlestar Galactica also happen in Westworld, just at a different pace and within a different context.

I feel that if you want an idea of where Westworld might be going with some of its themes and narrative choices, Battlestar Galactica would be the show to look at.

• First off, both shows are "reimagined" versions of well-known intellectual property, Michael Crichton's original Westworld movie and the original Battlestar Galactica TV series from the late '70s. However, the new versions strived to take the unique high concepts of the source material, strip away (most) of the campiness, and offer a grittier, more modern and nuanced takes on these franchises.
• Both stories are centered around a generation-spanning conflict between humans in a highly advanced future society and their machine creations who became self-aware and turned on their masters. The stakes are much higher from the start in BSG -- with the Cylons returning decades after the first war and decimating the human race -- while Westworld feels more like the slow-burn origin story of the world of BSG.
• Both shows are meant to be quite topical, and mix topical subject matter with philosophical commentary. With BSG and it being a post-9/11 series focused on an escalating war, there are a lot of bold allusions to the War on Terror among other pivotal events in human history. Westworld is a bit more psychological, focused instead on the increasing codification of mankind, to the point t

Do your worst!

Following up from my last post comparing Lewis and Max's first 7 seasons in the sport, I thought it would be fitting to compare the two Red Bull golden boys and find out how their stats stack up against one another. As before, all points have been adjusted to the 2021 scoring system.

I appreciate that there were a few comments on my last post suggesting that the comparisons are don't hold much weight because of different cars/eras/strategies, and I completely agree. These comparisons are meant as a bit of fun, they're from a very arbitrary perspective to compare how the greats of the sport compare in their first seasons. Enjoy!

I've opted to count Seb from the '08 season as this was his first full season in the sport. I appreciate that he has gained experience in the '07 season but view this as negligible in the grand scheme of things.

All averages have been calculated using the mean of the respective figures by year. For example, in the case of Win % for Lewis =AVERAGE(D3:D9) which comes out as 17.13 %.

I've written my thoughts as a short conclusion for each category. Feel free to ask any questions.

Due to the steadily increasing number of races per year Max has raced a total of 10 more at this stage in his career. An average of over 1 per year more than Seb, and that includes the hampered 2020 season.

Seb is just insane. Youngest WDC, Youngest 2x WDC, Youngest 3x WDC, Youngest 4x WDC. For these records alone he'll probably be a permanent mainstay as the best young driver in the history of the sport. Whilst Max didn't have the same machinery, he has still pulled out some wonderful results, coming in at an average placing of 4.86 across all seasons.

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

The Beginning | Seventh Part | Ninth Part

Several orcs and I were holed up behind a rock, some 100 feet from the water’s edge in a scouting mission before I put some plan into action tomorrow. I looked through my binoculars, seeing nothing of the snake-necked hydra turtle lurking the waters. The claims of its clairvoyance—striking the moment anyone drew near—kept me on edge. I didn’t see any ripples or bubbles to suggest a large creature, but I knew that meant very little. I ducked back down and stowed the binos before addressing the posse I had accumulated.

“Well I don’t see it, but the river is definitely wide enough for a shed-sized critter.” I tapped my chin. “Can it be baited out with meat?” I asked, doubting it would be so simple.

Elder Rutor answered me. “Frustratingly, no. We have left carcasses and placed livestock nearby, but it only ever strikes people. The head shoots out and snaps you in half at the waist before you can react.”

“That fast, huh? Might be hard, but… I’m thinking the best route here is a full dodongo.” I pulled a 2 pound brick of C4 from my bag.

The warrior scoffed. “One of our own died feeding it a barrel of poison, but it withstood the brew. What makes you think this substance will be different?”

“This isn’t poison, this is high explosives. You know how magic is when used here?” They nodded fearfully. “That’s what this thing does, but on-command.” I pulled the clacker and the detonator. “When I put this little metal bit in the explosive and flip this switch, it becomes armed and I just squeeze this clacker and boom. The hard part is finding some way to get this into the turdra.”

Some discussion ensued as I passed the brick of C4 to a blacksmith after presenting the idea of a metal shell for fragmentation. I moved on to planning how to bait out the turdra without getting anyone eaten, which was a long, circular, not-so-useful conversation. After going nowhere, I decided I would have to rely on the good ol’ gods’ chosen unnatural speed I had accumulated.

“Alright, smith, hand the C4 back please,” I requested casually.

“The elder has it!” he responded.

“Well, where’s the elder?”

Nobody spoke for a moment, then we all scrambled to our feet and looked over the rock in

NOTE: This is a speculation / thought exercise based on what little information we have from official sources. Do not take anything here as true lore! I wrote this drawing from the concept arts and Emil's Neon video. I had to make up some stuff like names completely from my imagination. Feel free to use whatever turns out not to be true for inspiration for future mod ideas though.))

THE BUILDING OF NEON

The Pleasure City Neon, 2330 CE

Pre Neon

The aquatic planet that the pleasure city of Neon would be eventually built on was described by the initial scout team as “nondescript”, meaning the planet lacked any interesting or distinguishing features. A water world that lacks any land masses, even islands, was considered interesting by only scientists wanting to study its hydrology and aquatic life, but not for future colonists.

So as other, more viable worlds like the one Akika City was founded on are surveyed and settled, the scientific work on the aquatic world continued and the findings were published. One of these discoveries, that the water world’s ocean is not only teaming with macro organic life, but most of which is edible by humans, and this catches the interest of the Xenofresh corporation.

Xenofresh, as indicated by its name, is a company that specializes in finding interesting extraterrestrial food sources to meet the demand of exotic foodstuffs for the wealthy and more cheaply produced, but still unique, foods for the masses. Upon evaluating the initial findings of the scientific teams, Xenofresh funds new science expeditions and surveys, to determine how valuable harvesting the ocean life would be.

A few years later the results are very promising. Not only is there abundance, but chefs sent on the expedition report being able to create new and unique flavor combinations. These reports are enough that Xenofresh makes a huge investment in a possibly risky endeavor. To harvest the water world's aquatic life and ship it across the stars in necessary quantities, the building of a city sized platform was necessary.

The Xenofresh platform (designated XFP-001 in internal company records) would not only build and maintain a fishing fleet and process the fish for transport, but also provide human resources for the fisher crews. Because FTL communications have yet to be developed, it was necessary to set up a com

#Introduction

With so many games releasing nowadays, I think it's easy for the good ones to get lost in the shuffle. I'm going to list 60 upcoming local multiplayer games releasing in the future. This is just a tiny fraction of what’s on the horizon, as Steam alone received 10,263 games in 2020. I’m going to order the games by release date. If the game does not have a tangible release date, I’ll place it in the list based on what I think is more likely to come out first, based on marketing material and communication from the developers.

Note that the platforms listed are just what’s confirmed, and a platform not being listed doesn’t necessarily mean a game won’t come to said platform. Sometimes it is difficult to find information on what platforms a game will be on, and sometimes the developer doesn’t even know until later down the line. In a lot of cases, indie games will release on Steam first and then come to consoles later. For example, Trash Sailors released on Steam yesterday, but it won’t be on Switch until February 17, 2022.

#Games Omitted from the List

O-1. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope [NOT CONFIRMED]

• Picture: Link

• Trailer: Link

• eShop Page: Link

• Release Date: 2022

• Platforms: NS

• Genre: Party Game

• Multiplayer: TBD

• Description: The original Mario + Rabbids had a separate local co-op mode – meaning the main campaign was single player, but there were separate levels designed for co-op. It is unknown if it will be returning with this new entry, but the fact that the eShop page didn’t just default to 1 player makes me think it will.

O-2. Redout 2 [NOT CONFIRMED]

• Picture: Link

• Trailer: Link

• Steam Page: Link

• Release Date: 2022

• Platforms: PC/PS4/XBO/NS

• Genre: Racing Game

• Multiplayer: 12 Player Online PvP - Local PvP is TBD

• Description: Redout draws inspiration from racing games like F-Zero and Wipeout. The first game released in 2016 and received an 81% critic rating and a 76% user rating for the PS4 version of the game, which also featured two player split-screen support. It’s worth noting that

I've been working on this for quite a while. I read and annotated the entirety of the hidden CD therapy tapes and gathered information to draw conclusions from it. I know this is extremely long, but I think it is very important to understand all these facts.

There are two sets of therapy sessions throughout the tapes, which are organized in chronological order in the game. Vanessa's are all labeled with 4 digit numbers beginning with 71 while the other patient's CDs are all labeled with 4 digit numbers beginning with 46. I will call this second client "Patient 4" to keep it simple.

For starters, here are a list of general facts I gathered, as well as the CD they originate from, when applicable.

The Therapy Office

• Provides therapy services to an office owned by Fazbear Entertainment but exists as a separate establishment, serving other clients.
• Far enough away from the pizzaplex that Vanessa would not be able to return after transferring to her new position at the pizzaplex.
• Far enough away from the pizzaplex that Patient 4 could reasonably not have heard of the pizzaplex before.
• Based on dialogue in CD 3, the same office is used even though therapists change, so it can be assumed the chair used in the room is the same.

Vanessa

(CDs labeled with 4 digits starting with 71)

• Has participated in therapy before these tapes, dealing with anxiety. (CD 1)
• Enjoys the outdoors, natural light, and scent of flowers. (CD 9, CD 11)
• Has a father named Bill (potentially William). (CD 3)
• Fits comfortably in seats at the therapy office. (CD 10)
• Had a mother who appears to have died after losing custody of Vanessa. (CD 3)
• Works in a job involving "just" typing on computers but is not tech oriented. (CD 5)
• Created a costume involving white fur (obviously the Vanny costume). (CD 11)
• Communicating with someone trying to manipulate her. (CD 5)
• Displays signs of someone inducing compliance into her. (CD 5)
• Was surprised by Therapist 1 being replaced. (CD 2)
• Does not enjoy candy. (CD 7)
• Does not enjoy confronting her own emotions or engaging in self dialogue. (CD 11)
• Eventually transferred, most likely to the pizzaplex. (CD 12)

"Patient 4"

(CDs labeled with 4 digits starting with 46)

• Sensory overloads easily. Does not enjoy harsh scents or bright lights. (CD 2, CD 4)
• Spoken to like a child. Not expected to understand words like “phenom”, “objective”, or “subjective.” (CD 4, CD 6)
• Not regarded as a physical t

They’re on standbi

W started as an axe evaluating homesteader, but turned into a bored millionaire with a bunch of expensive toys, clickbaiting and faking situations and staging problems with strange views on conspiracy BS, almost sect-ish behavior with reference to the bible and the constitution. He also was approved for a total of 44k PPP loans (forgiven in the meantime) which on my book smells like fraud and is a federal crime. PPP loans were for companies not able to make payroll... not for millionaires buying new trucks, campervans, useless heavy machinery, snow bikes, etc etc at that same time.

I met it… him… the husband, two years ago. I don't want to get sidetracked by the story of how I became (as the English call it) a mail-order bride. That story is harrowing and depressing enough in itself. The War left a lot of orphans on both sides of the new border. Many have similar stories to mine. I don't want to waste however long I've got by sharing experiences that differ little from any other girl whose childhood died in The War.

So many of us ended up press-ganged by hungry communities into going in the Russian men's vans. So many ended up here, or America, or Saudi Arabia, to share beds with disgusting men so families back home could keep coal in the furnace one more winter. A tale retold a thousand times over by every woman that's lived it.

Their stories have nothing mine does not. Where my story differs is the ending. None of those other daughters of The War ended up with someone like the husband. This I guarantee.

It called itself Mr. Danforth. The first thing it said to me when I arrived at Heathrow was "you are called Mrs. Danforth." It wasn't a question. It was a command. Despite what you're thinking, this didn't raise suspicion. I'd had very few conversations with men that didn't start with them barking orders. My first thoughts of the husband were that he would be a man like all those except Father. All I was thinking as he walked me to his SUV was "and so I go from the hands of one pig into the hands of another."

How wrong I was.

I didn't properly inspect the husband until I was in the back seat. I hadn't looked at him much in the airport. I'd kept my head down, staring at the floor, because that's what the Russian men told me to do. It took a few hours to reach the house. Plenty of time for me to stare at the husband in the rear-view mirror, to get a proper look at the man whose bed I'd been sold into. That was when alarm bells started ringing.

As the SUV trundled down increasingly less maintained roads, my mind was running through possible explanations for my new husband's face. It was rigid, stiff. None of the muscles of his wide brow or angular jaw twitched, clenched, or moved. At all. For three whole hours. His skin was off, too. Not literally, but something about it troubled me for reasons I couldn't place. I think it was the tone. The hues of his face were too uniform, too smooth. Almost the exact same shade of grey almost-peach all over. There was no ruddiness to his cheeks, no darkness under his eyes. For

Pilot on me!!

Relax I don't drive or operate any heavy machinery. Our boss and our manager have fucked off early for xmas and decided to leave 6 of us to run the place. Sooo anyway I took mine 2 hours ago and I'm starting to feel it, I also gave one to another guy I work with who then decided to give half to another guy who doesn't smoke. I would have told him not to if I knew he was gonna do that. Currently sitting in the toilet trying to ride out the early stages of my high mixed in with guilt for the poor bastard who thought he was just eating a normal cake. No particular reason for this post btw, just had to share it somewhere and this seemed the best place to do so. Also should I tell the guy he's just taken an edible or do you think that'll freak him out more? Excuse the rambling. 🤣

A couple weeks ago, this thread by u/Dirtyfaction asked about the Soviet's Cold War tank industry, including how the USSR's WW2 experience influenced its postwar tank building plans. I finally had time to type up a response focusing on the Soviet tank industry's transition from wartime to peace, how it applied (And had to unlearn) the lessons of war, and how the postwar situation created its own unique challenges for the tank industry.

Thought I'd post in here, as it raises some interesting points of discussion about the Soviet WW2/Cold War tank industry.

The Tank Industry at War

During WW2 the USSR's tank industry experienced a lot of teething problems. The introduction of an entirely new line of tanks starting in 1940, disruptions to industry and resources caused by evacuation, and the extreme strain mobilization placed on the home front all caused serious quality control issues in 1941-43.

Before the war, Soviet tank building had remained bifurcated between two production complexes. One was plants focused on military products which had specialized machine tools and experienced personnel but generally built vehicles in handcrafted (Though still large in comparison to other states) semi-standardized batches instead of truly continuous mass production consistent with principles of Fordism – there was a clear ceiling of how many vehicles they could be mobilized to produce at war.

The other was the civilian tractor and locomotive industry, which had the latest in assembly lines well-suited for mass production in large facilities but lacked specialized equipment and qualified personnel for tank production. Attempts were made to integrate civilian and military plants to modernize production, especially with the adoption of new tank models in 1940 (The T-34 and KV). But this process was incomplete when war began in June 1941. Of the three largest modernized plants (In Kharkov, Stalingrad, and Chelyabinsk), only Kharkov had mastered mass production by 1941.

Making matters worse, because the T-34 and KV were still in their infancy many problems remained in their design which needed to be improved in production, both basic imperfections as well as limited reliability in their engines and transmissions. While improvements were identified which corrected many deficiencies, the start of war meant that the imperfect models were instead rushed into mass

Humanity was not ready for them.

Sure, there were advancements. We managed to mass produce antimatter, through electroweak processes. We were certainly proud of it. But truthfully, our power output was meager, just short of a petawatt. Sure, it sounded impressive in the books, but it was insignificant.

Especially compared to them.

Their ship came faster than light, a colossus easily several kilometers long. This was first contact with an alien race, with a race that created FTL capable ships in the same way a child produces finger paintings. Almost certainly at the galactic level. They were so far ahead of us, it was practically a joke. And they were the ones laughing.

It all came down to an ultimatum, which they gave in every known language on Earth, and even a few that our linguists couldn’t identify. Join their empire as thralls, doomed to be second-class lifeforms for perpetuity, or be eliminated. Truthfully, they were itching for the latter, but politics was one of the few universal constants and as such, they were likely worried about the backlash of not attempting to civilize a primitive society as ours. They had us outgunned, of course. Their ceremonial ship produced more power as heat than our entire energy output, not to mention that the ship was more guarded than the world’s entire military.

However, their biggest mistake was a minor incident. While broadcasting a message on the television in ASL, because they really wanted us to know that we were to be thralls, the interpreter knocked over a small stage of classified papers. And in that moment, we knew that we could win.

When they demanded tribute to “show our dedication to their empire”, we explained to the overlords that our infrastructure was limited, and that it would take several months to create the first shipment of raw materials, about 1 megaton of rare earth metals. The ship gave us just one, before jumping out in the blink of an eye.

And so we built our first true warship. Although calling it a warship was generous. It was more of an airtight box of 300 meters. We had ships, even those with weapons. But they could not lose to conventional weapons, not bombs, nor lasers, nor particle beams. Even relativistic impactors generated nowhere near enough power to destroy their ships. So we packed this ship with the most power weapon we could muster.

Of course, such a ship would need to be constructed well. It contained the most fault-redundant system known to us at the

Hey team,

I manage most of my assets personally and, as a result, I feel an ongoing responsibility to understand the world around me, as this enables me to make the best investment decisions I can.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about how to best allocate my portfolio given the current state of asset valuations, government debt, and general investor sentiment.

Through studying the works of Ken Galbraith, Howard Marks, Ray Dalio and other great investors, I have learned that the single most important variable in determining whether I should be aggressive or defensive with my portfolio strategy is the debt cycle. The ability to understand where we are in the debt cycle, and adjust our portfolios accordingly, is one of the hallmarks of great investors.

I have decided to share my thoughts here in order to get your feedback.

Before diving in, I want to emphasize that these are my views, and that different people have different perspectives. I hope that by sharing my views, I will encourage debate and advance our understanding together.

TLDR: The debt & credit cycle are paramount in helping me understand how to think about my portfolio strategy.

Cycles

At its core investing is making good decisions about the future. To do this well, investors need to form probability distributions of different outcomes to guide their actions.

But it is important to remember that even if we know the probabilities, we don’t necessarily know the outcome.

Howard Marks has a helpful analogy: successful investing is like choosing a lottery winner. The winner is determined by one ticket (outcome) being pulled from a bowl of tickets (many possible outcomes).

Superior investors have a better sense of what tickets are in the bowl, and thus, whether it is worth participating in the lottery. Said another way, great investors don’t know exactly what the future holds, but they have an above-average understanding of future tendencies and probabilities.

This brings us to cycles.

Understanding cycles helps us form a view of future probabilities. It helps us understand how many winning lottery tickets there are in the bowl.

Analyzing cycles is not a precise science. The goal is not to time the market; rather, it provides a directional sense of what has happened, and what might happen. Marks explains this elegantly:

*The superior investor is attentive to cycles. He takes note of whether past patterns seem to be repeating, gains a sense for where we stand in the various c

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

Howdy folks!

Excited to be kicking off the journey through this incredible novel this week. Against the Day is honestly tied with Gravity's Rainbow as my favorite Pynchon novel, so I'm stoked to dive in again and read what others think. Next week, u/LordNovhe will take us through sections 7-10 (pages 57-118, Penguin edition). The full schedule is available here. Beyond a summary and analysis, I've addressed some broader themes that are just beginning to emerge in these early pages in the interest of laying a strong foundation for your read-through and giving you some sign-posts for an expansive story, but I am religiously against spoilers, so fear not.

Summary & Analysis

Section 1

"Now single up all lines!" Thus begins our adventure with the Chums of Chance, a plucky group of aeronauts and their ship, the Inconvenience, in the year 1893, as they head toward the Chicago World's Fair (a.k.a. the World's Columbian Exposition), and all the modern miracles it promised. The Chums are straight out of the boy's adventure novels of that era (in particular, see Tom Swift and His Airship, which I suspect was one of the sources of inspiration for Pynchon). "Single up all lines" is a sailing and aeronautical term for undoing the secondary mooring lines holding the Chums' balloon to the ground, in preparation for takeoff, leaving only single lines holding it down. We're one sentence in, and Pynchon has already laid the groundwork for recurring themes of the novel: doubling, and the reduction of potential lines of possibility down to single final outcomes. Seems fitting for a novel building up to World War 1, no? It's also noted that the ship is "decked out in patriotic bunting," emphasizing the all-American idealism of the Chums.

We also can't overlook the epigraph, by jazz great Thelonious Monk: "It's always night, or else we wouldn't need light." Here's another theme, not just of Against the Day, but of many of Pynchon's works: light vs dark (but often in an inverted manner from their traditional connotations).

The Chums include Randolph St. Cosmo, the commander; Lindsay Noseworth, Master-at-Arms and generally irritable stickler for the rules; Darby Suckling, the baby of the bunch; Miles Blundell, Handyman Appr

now ive been playing fortnite for almost 6 years now, and ive run across a horrendous amount of bugs/mechanics/glitches/other stuff, that id had figure would have been fixed and went entirely ignored (despite the reports ive filed for them)

so let me start from the top (these are all on an Xbox one S)

PROBLEMS:

• the main quest page frequently bugs out when trying to select anything from the events tab in the corner

• the game constantly wants to default back to mouse and keyboard even when neither are plugged in

• despite the quests to find Joels pub, and Karolinas portraits stating to find them in 40+ zones, they can easily be found in zones below 40 (found 6/10 portrait, and the pub in a single level 5 zone in Stonewood, though it seems to be a 50/50 chance that it will count towards the side quests)

• despite not having a slot in the collection book most "founders" blueprints can be broken down, never to be returned again

• smashers will just randomly be spawned inside structures, which normally isnt a big deal.... more of a problem on wave 5 of stone wood SSD 10, when they get spawned within a block or two of the defense target (almost lost because of that)

• when you go to set the wrap for a specific item, it just auto sets all your items to that wrap, so the "apply all" is set to both tap and hold, maybe set it to Y or X on Xbox controllers (and whatever the corresponding buttons on other platforms are)

• 'Sploders are just flat out annoying, they dont really add any difficulty to missions unless its specifically a defense mission, maybe have them not spawn on non-defense based missions, its cruel to have them on "build the relay", building the tower then suddenly its leveled and you have to start again, like seriously... thats unnecessarily cruel, especially to those of us that are in a state of Flow

• the last stage of Misfit toys keeps playing in every mission, im aware that the thing that causes it is someone who hasn't finished it is in the session, but its getting irritating having to hear poor ted have a sudden therapy session with Quinn, it was interesting the first few times, but like Frozen's "let it go, there's only so many times I can here it before I go clinically insane

• the Upgrades Menu gadgets Tab is constantly having a seizure... no idea what's causing it or how to fix it, but it may be a Seizure hazard, its certainly annoying to look at, weirdly enough the tools tab doesn't do it at all

Link to part 1.

Link to part 2.

Link to part 3.

8: AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

• Valdor begins by responding to Kandawire's questions of when the incident took place (twenty six years ago), and where (it's "classified"). He follows by revealing that Custodians have perfect recall from the point of their ascension, but if even if he did not, he could never forget the events of the day.
  • We as readers know that what he is about to describe is the Chaos incursion that led to the Scattering of the Primarchs. Valdor seems almost traumatized by the event:

>It is burned on my mind like a brand. I see the events of it in my sleep. Even when waking, the sensation is never far away.
>
>[What sensation?]
>
>Of falling. Falling through a hole in the universe, unable to catch at the edges. Now I see you smiling again. It is the truth. I have never considered myself an artful user of language.

• Even for one such as Valdor, events touched by Chaos have a profoundly unsettling effect. This is not the first time he has expressed such sentiment, as in his last interview with Kandawire, his description of the Maulland Sen campaign felt much the same.
• Valdor continues:

>I was with the Sigillite. The Lord Malcador. We were discussing the very thing you raised with me. You will recall my concerns about the Cataegis during the Maulland Sen campaign. Those concerns had not gone away during the following century of their many deployments. We had conquered much of the globe by then, with the Thunder Warriors bearing the brunt of the fighting, so do not think we were unmindful of their sacrifice. By then, it was widely believed that what could have been perfected, had been perfected. A Thunder Warrior was a truly fearsome proposition. They were armed and armoured nearly as well as the Legio Custodes. Their numbers had grown rapidly, following improvements in the gene-cultivating methods used here and at the other sites.
>
>But it was never enough. They remained unstable. From primarch to neophyte, they would break down suddenly, or lose their minds, or simply stop responding to orders. ***This was not simply a matter of dry

I won't be doing that today!

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "