Cordeos

I was recently in Morocco and took a ton of photos. Here are a few of my favorites: In case you're interested in seeing the rest: Casablanca, Rabat and Meknes https://goo.gl/photos/17poPmSprqZ63Nny7 Roman Ruins and Fez https://goo.gl/photos/ZQTLZM4jvEKqN24C7 The Atlas Mountains and Sahara https://goo.gl/photos/VUSyDTANCv3V6sHWA Gorge Village https://goo.gl/photos/TfNGDL4QNWL7xnQB9 Atlas Mountains Part 2 and Marrakesh https://goo.gl/photos/6CWvMdoUBoX7ZesN6

The new expansion is everything I was hoping for, more national focuses, more system complexity, more nations to liberate. Super excited about it. I hope the next several expansions just go more in depth for different regions/groups like this. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/hoi4-dev-diary-south-africa-together-for-victory.979679/&sdpDevPosts=1

I was wrong about this, I forgot that I had them as my smuggled item. I did find out how to get the universal unlock key though. Its pretty tricky without the hack devices however. Got to mastery 20 and the rifle isn't in a suitcase Perhaps in season 2.....

I really liked this article https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/11/01/hitman-review-season-one/ I for one am very excited for the prospect of a second season. I do hope they remake some old levels eventually, would be fun to see some classic levels redone with opportunities and fancier graphics.

I think its specific for this mission, you don't get to start with a pistol and two pieces of equipment in this one. before you get to mastery 4 or 5 you don't even get a smuggled item. I actually used to play previous games like this, it requires a lot more improvisation which can be quite fun. My first play through of Hokkaido involved a lot of bumbling around, killing non-targets, hiding bodies and generally just exploring the map as much as possible. I killed 8 extra people and had a few close calls where I started melee just in time to stop someone shooting.

I got to master level 15 last night. Hoping to get to 20 tonight. I really want the W2000 sniper rifle, even if they renamed it and don't have the suitcase version yet. Also master 20 unlocks your equipment slots which will make the level a lot easier/more fun to mess around in

holy crap thats amazing, anyone know why this would be in there?

Its on sale right now on Steam

I either found Idle Thumbs in a list of podcasts about video games in a podcasting app or a friend recommended it to me. I went on a big spree of trying out podcasts 3 years ago and can't remember where they all came from, but mostly those two ways.

Its the same as before [ spoiler ] and [ /spoiler ] without the spaces

Companies have tons of influence over our foreign policy and our government has made decisions on supporting or opposing governments based on their positions on nationalization of industry. Big reasons behind the coup in Iran and the support for rebels in Nicaragua were because of business interests. We are always far more willing to back a business friendly dictator over an elected left winger. My point is that there is never any discussion of all the problems we have created internationally and we are about to elect another president who wants to keep using all the failed tactics. We simply do not have a foreign policy establishment that considers the consequences of their actions. I think its extremely important that we consider the long term resentments and terrible prescient our drone war is creating. We are losing the war in Afghanistan after being there for 15 years and it is barely ever mentioned. The US doesn't seem to be learning from its mistakes and no one in power seems to care at all. Women being able to go to school in Iraq is great (even if we don't care about this happening in any of our Gulf Allies), but how many women and children are dead because of our unnecessary war there? How many are now refugees because we laid the ground work for ISIS? What will the long term consequences of the US backing corrupt, violent governments in Iraq and Saudi Arabia? How long will we support the proto-apartheid state Israel is becoming? P.S. Our NATO ally Turkey is currently the biggest jailer of journalists and has been for some time. Iraq also ranks as #2 for journalists getting murdered with no one punished so yeah, press freedom is going great there. Afghanistan is #6. https://www.cpj.org/reports/2016/10/impunity-index-getting-away-with-murder-killed-justice.php#index

First off what China is doing is what a lot of western companies have been doing for years. Many of the conflicts revolving around nationalization of companies stems from exploitative trade deals set up during the cold war. Secondly since World War II the US has been destabilizing many countries through direct invasions as in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Somalia, Lebanon and The Dominican Republic. We also have backed rebel groups in places like Nicaragua, Syria, Afghanistan and Cuba. As well as backing coups in Iran, Chile and Venezuela among others. This doesn't even cover all the repressive dictatorships we are still supporting. The US is currently bombing Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan with no real end in sight for any of those campaigns. At some point we have to accept that we are meddling all over the world and are not producing the desired results, my concern is that the next president is probably going to be someone who backed several operations that have gone extremely poorly and doesn't seem to have learned any lessons from them.

I made mini pot pies! I used this recipe except I used puff pastry instead of pie dough, replaced the chicken with a pound of the other ingredients, and used veggie broth. Super tasty and one of the best gravies I have ever made. http://www.thebakerchick.com/2012/01/muffin-tin-chicken-pot-pies-part-2/

I don't think the US should be in control of everything obviously. I know every one of these situations was not 100% our fault, but we do not consider the long term consequences of our actions in the foreign policy realm. The Iraq war was 100% a war of choice and it has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and spawned a new international terrorist group. We are about to elect someone who voted for it and is advocating a no fly zone in Syria. This would put us in direct conflict with the Syrian government and/or Russia.

Part of the problem is that the west only really cares about human values in the west. No one in Europe or the US really cares about it in Africa, Asia, the Middle East or South America. As bad as Russia is acting internationally the Iraq invasion and Libya intervention had far more destabilizing effects and these are rarely even discussed or debated. Almost all of the currently foreign policy crises America faces are to a large extent results of our own policies, we helped fund the mujaheddin in Afghanistan that became the Taliban who are currently re-conquering the country, we invaded and destabilized Iraq setting up the ground work for ISIS, we overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran and put in a brutal dictator leading to the Iranian Revolution, we recommended economic shock therapy to Russia which allowed oligarchs like Putin to gain inordinate amounts of power as well as treating the country like a defeated enemy rather than a brother nation after the fall of the USSR.

The Japan level is taking place in a hospital so I think it will be more like the standard Hitman levels. I appear to be part of a minority that enjoyed Colorado. I like that they changed up the formula and made a more dangerous level. Once you get an initial disguise it acts mostly like every other level and has a lot of well done opportunities. There is also a bonkers easter egg that was a lot of fun to find and do.

Excited for this one, especially since I noticed the W-2000 sniper rifle in the trailer, maybe the suitcase rifle is finally going to be added!

You are a god among men

A friend is big into infusions and they are all so delicious.

Man that picture makes me uncomfortable. I don't think I could stomach an entire film of that.

The recent examples of Ghost in the Shell and the Bruce Lee movie show how bad Hollywood still is on this and the backlash against Ghostbusters shows the problems with the viewing public. We have come a ways since the 70's but its painfully clear that we haven't gone nearly as far as we should.

On a totally different topic, I have been watching WestWorld. I can't decide how I fell about it. They are playing with interesting concepts of humanity and drawing the line between machine intelligence and real intelligence. I just hope the hinted at deeper mysteries don't suck. The cast is stellar, I really like Jeffrey Wright

You have to decide how much racism/sexism/bad plot/janky film making etc you are willing to tolerate. Its also a lot easier to spot these problems in older films since you are already outside the cultural context in which they were made. I do feel like there are a lot of those 'must watch' lists that gloss over some of the serious problems with older films. I would have liked to know how unsatisfying the plot of Citizen Kane was before watching the whole ponderous thing. I also think it matters if the director is still alive and benefits from you seeing it. I am kind of glad the new Birth of a Nation is getting bad reviews since I am much less conflicted about seeing it now. I think some of my issues stem from the film industry giving people like Woody Allen and Roman Polanski a pass. Their films are considered important, but they are bad people that I don't think we should be venerating. I think it gets easier to separate the work from the issues after some time and important figures have passed.

I always thought Classic means an old movie that holds up. Being important in the history of film feels like it should have a different term. I would never call Triumph of Will or Birth of a Nation classic, but they are historically important.