The writing was awesome in Sea of course but the gameplay itself lacked IMO; it felt very grindy. Skies fixes that completely for me, and it’s also beautiful visually, it’s a pleasure to wander in the world with your locomotive.
The same team - Failbetter - is also currently developing a new game in a new universe. The game looks like a combination of Stardew Valley and their particular brand of high-quality writing, which sounds incredible on paper: Mandrake. No release date yet.
This looks like stuff I might really like, thank you !
If you’re into (really) good writing and you haven’t tried it yet, give Sunless Skies a go (it’s a lot more well-rounded than its predecessor - Sunless Sea - and in the same awesome Fallen London universe).
That game itself was, in my head, “planescape tormenting it up”.
I still consider Planescape the superior game in terms of narrative depth / how much it makes you feel, but not by much.
I have no idea what “Infrared” is but contextually and based on your comment I imagine some sort of antizionist youtuber. Not so with Dieudonné; he is antisemitic, it’s not even a debate.
He did shows with Faurisson, an actual holocaust denier that pretends that gas chambers didn’t exist. He had, in one of his shows, the same Faurisson receiving an “insolence award” given out by Dieudonné’s assistant dressed as a death camp inmate. And that’s only the top of the rotten iceberg.
From The National (UAE state media): Donald Trump says the Strait of Hormuz could remain closed until September and beyond
The world economy is gonna be destroyed, isn’t it. Full tweet:
Donald Trump says the Strait of Hormuz could remain closed until September and beyond.
His comments to the New York Post mark a more dire assessment than many - including the global stock markets - had predicted. But he said it was only a worst-case scenario. ‘I think it could be [closed through Labor Day, Monday Sept, 7], but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly’.
He further said that oil at $98 per barrel was ‘not a big price to pay if you look at the possibility of them having a nuclear weapon’. Trump stuck largely to optimistic framing and said talks with Iran are ‘rapidly evolving’.
The global economy would likely suffer a severe slump if Hormuz remained closed for another four months. Economists warn oil shortages will eventually lead to a recession
Found on Middle East Spectator
Found a link to this on 
Each and every picture is its own little nightmare - and a familiar nightmare. It’s really well done.
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Do you remember that military-dolphins-in-the-strait story, the one that was even addressed in a press conference by Hegseth ?
Well here is a very funny follow-up. This is apparently the level of competence one can expect from Iran’s “experts” in the US media:
Remember the “Iran Expert” on WSJ Claiming Iran Is Using DOLPHINS with Mines in the Hormuz?
🇮🇷 WSJ’s “Iran Expert” Thought Iranian Submarines Nicknamed Dolphins Were Real Dolphins
The Iranian Navy has MINI SUBMARINES nicknamed “Persian Gulf Dolphins” by their own officers. Admiral Shahram Irani confirmed they sit on the seabed in the Strait of Hormuz and track hostile vessels.
That is a documented submarine program with a nickname. A metaphor. Basic military terminology.
WSJ put this story out warning America about actual dolphins with explosives because they saw one word and stopped reading.
The people who cannot read a military dispatch are the same ones explaining this war to 300 million Americans.
That Tocqueville quote comes to mind.
Not sure at all but the video on the first one that hits looks fuzzy enough to be a radio drone, too, not an optic fiber one; and it doesn’t look like there are any countermeasures against it, either - that’s a clean video feed right up until the end.
A few days ago, Kim Jong Un (who is currently hosting Xi Jinping) inspected a recently-completed new uranium enrichment plant at Yongbyon:
North Korea’s Kim calls for ‘exponential’ nuclear expansion after inspecting new plant, KCNA says
Such a plant was spotted while under construction by the IAEA about a year ago; here is a good article from back then about it.
And here are images from the recent visit. Both the images and the analysis are interesting; the former because it gives an idea of the modern dimensions and layout of such a plant, the latter because it suggests the DPRK’s HEU production might have been doubled since this new facility came online. Which, no shit, talk about being vindicated.
In other recent DPRK news, even western media has been forced to admit they’re doing splendidly economically.