Sternhammer

Thank you!

Did it help the sandfly situation? I’m curious.

Gorgeously weird birds. Love ‘em.

Iain M Banks should definitely be on any list of leftie SF authors. There’s a reason The Culture is sometimes described (rather reductively) as luxury space communism.

The popular association of ‘anarchism’ with ‘chaos’ and that organisation is anathema to anarchists has long been a source of humour. It’s a convenient misdirection for the ruling class who are directly threatened by an idea that humans can live without, you know, rulers.

Disgusting overreach.

Excellent. We should play games on our own terms. I’ve hit skill barriers in many games, set them aside ‘for a short while’ and never returned to them. I bet I’ve missed so many great moments due to this so now my policy is to lower the difficulty if I’m getting too frustrated.

Also, difficulty levels can be quite arbitrary especially in games that have a particular play mechanic and then introduce something complete different for one level. (My pet hate is token platforming inserted into shooters.)

I remember one game (Indigo Prophecy I think) had a tiny segment that required subtle joystick control to get the player across a narrow beam. Nothing else in the game was like this. I couldn’t do it, countless fails. I asked my young nephew to have a go and he got it on the first try.

Good sir/madam, I read the whole thing thinking the very same and didn’t come to my senses until reading your comment. Thank you.

People forget that America was a penal colony before Australia.

I love great book covers and have great fondness for the covers of novels I love however I buy most books online and by reputation or review so rarely see a cover that arrests my attention.

This isn’t the same article but it’s relevant:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-02/kanye-west-denied-entry-to-australia-after-antisemitic-song/105487620

The first game is set in North America but mostly looks like Iceland. I don’t have high hopes that Kojima’s Australia will be recognisably Australia.