Israel attacked Iran, because Iran launched a missile rocket volley at them, because Israel was attacking Iranian proxy forces in Lebanon (Hezbollah), because Hezbollah was firing rockets into north Israeli settlements, because Israel was decimating the Gaza Strip, because Hamas launched an attack last October, because Israel… because Hamas… because… because… because…
In the end, this ‘an eye for an eye’ will leave the world blind.
It’s not xenophobia, it’s a matter of national security for every single western nation. Without Intel, x86 processor manufacturing would be limited to TSMC in Taiwan, and would only serve to further incentivise Chinese aggression over the island.
So yes, paranoia - but sometimes that can be a good thing.
Ever since watching the latest season of Clarkson’s Farm, I can’t help but hear him say ‘space penises’ any time I read the word mishrooms..
Can’t spend money on actual human, you absolute lunatic!
Stonks need line go up, why use man when AI smarts do trick be best?
(above comment powered by whatever flavour of LLM CBS is using to shit out this drivel)
..or it’s available on the service you subscribe to, but not in your region.
C-suite compensation is already largely handled by share offers - which get further pumped/paid for by share buyback schemes.
This would just further exacerbate it, unless we first re-ban buybacks.
Honestly, we should just ban them regardless.
I doing think it was an one thing, but more-so a build-up over time - a death of a thousand cuts, if you will:
It was a cultural moment generally, just think back to all of those celebrity commercials (“I’m Mr. T and I’m a Night Elf Mohawk”). All cultural moments pass eventually.
The third expansion (Cataclysm) was quite weak to begin with; coupled with a lack of content in the tail-end of the second (Wrath of the Lich King), which itself was incredible - narratively wrapped up the story that began all the way back in Warcraft 3.
So a lot of people chose that time to bow out of the game, as it required a fair bit of time dedication and seemed like an appropriate time to do so - given the narrative pay-off.
Lastly, the introduction of a number of game tools to automate the group composition process meant that the impact of player reputation on servers was severely diminished. Before then, there players who were toxic (stealing items, intentionally killing the group, failing quests) were infamous on a server.
Once this tool was further opened up to allow for groups to form across multiple servers - the sense of community was shattered as you would have no way to know if the person from another server was good/bad etc. it stopped being about bringing in the individual player, and just getting a body in to fill a role.
As someone who was lucky enough to get to experience those first ~6 years; it truly was lightning in a bottle.
20 years on, I am still friends with a number of those I met in WOW - and an in contact with a few more beyond that!
Unfortunately, it does feel like that sense of community those early years fostered are long gone, save perhaps a blip when Classic first launched.
Who knows when the next game will come along, which will be able to foster such relationships.
If it’s within your budget, grab a Steam Deck and use it in docked Desktop mode. It’s a pretty great introduction into Linux IMO, especially due to the fact that Valve themselves are maintaining the OS, and since it’s running on a fixed hardware platform - most online solutions should be applicable to any problems you may encounter.
Worst case, you don’t like it you can always eBay it off to recoup most of your costs?
Don’t try to explain public roads, bridges, dams, water & sewerage, police, fire brigades or the military to her.. she might just have an aneurysm.
IMO: Pirate it guilt-free without a second thought. If you enjoy it, and deem it worthy of a rewatch - then buy the DVD/Blu-Ray.
Then rip a quality copy of it, and delete the previously downloaded one.
That’s how you know what Freedom^TM^ tastes like!