Random News not worthy of own thread

[fiksal]

Um, and why exactly would I do that?

Because I feel we are hijacking a thread about news not worthy of a topic.

To be fair maybe Prigozhin fits the definition, but still more than one post

[burger1]

Saints Row Developer Volition Games Shuts Down

https://www.gameinformer.com/2023/08/31 ... -shut-down

[mr.WHO]

Saints Row Developer Volition Games Shuts Down

https://www.gameinformer.com/2023/08/31 ... -shut-down

It drives me nuts they are know for crappy Saints Row, while they were also responsible for Freespace and Red Faction series.

Saints Row was crap, because it's "Parody GTA" formula gets boring pretty fast and there is nothing else for it.


Imagine if Volition stayed with Freespace and Red Faction.

Very little to no competition in FPS with fully destroyable environment.
Space Sims are rising like a phoenix from ashes.

..but noooo, lets chase trends and try to make GTA with memes, but GTA part is really derpy.

[Warenwolf]

Imagine if Volition stayed with Freespace and Red Faction.

Very little to no competition in FPS with fully destroyable environment.
Space Sims are rising like a phoenix from ashes.

..but noooo, lets chase trends and try to make GTA with memes, but GTA part is really derpy.

I think you underestimate the popularity of casual games such as Saint Row (just so we are clear - I never liked that game):

Copy paste from google of units sold:
Saints Row - 2 million. Saints Row 2 - 3.4 million. Saints Row: The Third - 5.5 million. Saints Row IV - 1 million (launch only)

Red Faction sold bit over 1 0000 00 units but they had to cut prices soon after release to push sale of units .
Freespace 2 sold under 30 000 units in USA.

[clakclak]

The American military is soon said to increasingly patrol the main train station in Nürnberg Germany.

The interesting part here is that the American and German sites describe the reason for the increased patrols quite differently. Both corresponding articles mention conflicts between the American service personal and the German federal police but:

American Media:

[...]But the increase in weekend patrols at the train station “cannot be related to a specific incident,” garrison spokesman Franz Zeilmann said June 1.[...]

https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2 ... 21958.html

German Media:

[...]U.S. military police in Nuremberg: Response to conflict involving soldiers

"The top priority is more presence in the main station," König said. Regular focus operations will further increase the presence, promises Gernot Rochholz, vice president of the Central Franconia police headquarters. The involvement of the U.S. military police is a reaction to an incident when U.S. soldiers and the federal police had clashed.[...]


[...]US-Militärpolizei in Nürnberg: Reaktion auf Streit von Soldaten

„An oberster Stelle steht mehr Präsenz im Hauptbahnhof“, sagte König. Regelmäßige Schwerpunkteinsätze sollen die Präsenz weiter erhöhen, verspricht Gernot Rochholz, Vizepräsident des Polizeipräsidiums Mittelfranken. Die Involvierung der US-Militärpolizei ist eine Reaktion auf einen Zwischenfall, als US-Soldaten und die Bundespolizei aneinandergeraten waren.[...]

https://www.merkur.de/bayern/nuernberg/ ... 06611.html

The one thing both articles agree on is that American service members came into conflict with the police (or to say it with the word of the federal police "attacked" the police) after having left a nightclub. ("Attacked" is in quotes to show that this is what the police is saying, not because I necessarily distrust the police report in this specific case.)


Also this may be a strange concept to some, but where I live (also in Germany) British military police often patrol the streets. They only get active towards members of the british military. I assume if there was an acute threat, like someone attacking someone else infront of them they would probably step in even if the people involved are not British, but that would be legal under German self-defence laws which operate on the principle of "Das Recht braucht dem Unrecht nicht zu weichen" which in meaning roughly translates to "Stand your ground". (If anyone wants the specific law, your can find it here).

[Vertigo 7]

That seems... odd. I can buy the bit about the 3 US dudes arguing with each other, happens all the time, but for them to telepathically decide together to start a fight with 9 police officers doesn't make any sense.

If they were identified as US military police, then I'm assuming they were on duty and they would have had standing orders that local law enforcement would have ultimate jurisdiction and would stand down. Reason being, the US has a "Status of Forces Agreement" with many countries, including Germany, where by the service members are ultimately turned over to their command if detained to face disciplinary judgement for minor infractions. Up until the alleged 3v9 "attack", none of the reports indicate there was anything serious going on that warranted anything more than a stern talking to, if that.

OTOH, if one of the cops got abusive, I could absolutely see the others attempting to come to the defense of their squad mate.

Need more details on the incident. Just seems very weird.

[clakclak]

That seems... odd. I can buy the bit about the 3 US dudes arguing with each other, happens all the time, but for them to telepathically decide together to start a fight with 9 police officers doesn't make any sense.

If they were identified as US military police, then I'm assuming they were on duty and they would have had standing orders that local law enforcement would have ultimate jurisdiction and would stand down. Reason being, the US has a "Status of Forces Agreement" with many countries, including Germany, where by the service members are ultimately turned over to their command if detained to face disciplinary judgement for minor infractions. Up until the alleged 3v9 "attack", none of the reports indicate there was anything serious going on that warranted anything more than a stern talking to, if that.

OTOH, if one of the cops got abusive, I could absolutely see the others attempting to come to the defense of their squad mate.

Need more details on the incident. Just seems very weird.

I think a few things here got confused, maybe because I worded them wrong, so I'll try to clear things up a bit.

That seems... odd. I can buy the bit about the 3 US dudes arguing with each other, happens all the time, but for them to telepathically decide together to start a fight with 9 police officers doesn't make any sense.

If they were identified as US military police, then I'm assuming they were on duty and they would have had standing orders that local law enforcement would have ultimate jurisdiction and would stand down.[...]

First up, the soldiers accused of the attack were handed over to the american military police. There is no indication that they were members of the military police or that any military police was present at the time. Furthermore the three soldiers were the ones who got into a confrontation with the German police, after, according to this article, an argument broke out between two groups of soldiers, so it is likely that more were present and the three who got into a physical conflict with the police may have thought that they would have more backup.

Up until the alleged 3v9 "attack", none of the reports indicate there was anything serious going on that warranted anything more than a stern talking to, if that.

According to the German police a "Platzverweis" (dismissal from an area) was issued. Under German law this is a vocal order to remove yourself from the location you are at. I got one once, in my case the police came up to me and told me that I had to leave the area and was not allowed to return till the next day. (The specifics vary from state to state, but as this took place at a train station which fall under the jurisdiction of the federal police, federal law applies).

These orders are usually handed out to people who are drunk and obnoxious or loud, got into fights or arguments that look like they might escalate into a fight or are consuming drugs. They do not carry any penalty. According to multiple articles one of the soldiers did not want to follow the verbal order. At that point police tried to enforce it with what in German police jargon is called "unmittelbarer Zwang", basically they tried to physically remove the guy, which is in accordance with German law. According to police that was the point at which things escalated. There is a difference in policing in that many physical confrontations in Germany do not instantly and necessarily lead to an arrest. Here for example you can see a "Platzverweis" being enforced. Despite some physicallity there are no arrests at the end. From my personal experience this is in line with how situations like this are usually handled.

OTOH, if one of the cops got abusive, I could absolutely see the others attempting to come to the defense of their squad mate.

There is a absolutely a chance that police overstepped their boundries here. However it is also possible that a lack of understanding lead to this conflict. The soldiers came from a club, so I assume they were at least somewhat drunk. Nürnberg is not a giant city (the population is half a million with 3.5 million in the metro area) , but for a city of its size it has a relatively flourishing nightlife with quite a few clubs and pubs as well as a red light district with multiple brothels. If they had been partying they may not have fully understood that if they do not follow the "Platzverweis" the next step would be police trying to physically enforce it. I also do not want to accuse the soldiers of anything, but drugs like cocaine are readily avaliable and often lead to conflicts.

Need more details on the incident. Just seems very weird.

Coming from a city with a lot of British soldiers it honestly does not seem super wierd to me. Maybe Americans are different and maybe it is not fair to compare them to British (or German) soldiers, but I have seen plenty of brawls involving British or German soldiers. If you have a bunch of young men, cheap access to alcohol all around the clock, clubs that, in some cities, can be open for a very long time (sometimes more than 72 hours) and then put drug use into the mix you get a rather volatile cocktail.

[Vertigo 7]

May have been a poor translation in the article you linked. It made it sound to me that the 3 were MPs that got into a fight. If that's not the case then that changes things and I fully agree they were likely drunk decided to play a stupid game and won a stupid prize (also happens all the time =p). I had my share of shore patrol duties in the navy where I had to deal with drunken squids in a bar.

[burger1]

One of the server rooms at GSC Game World apparently caught fire and equipment was damaged. GSC is making Stalker 2 they moved to Prague from Ukraine.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/fire-t ... er-report/

[jlehtone]

According to the report, GSC Game World occupies three floors of the building. While only one has been affected, that floor hosts the back-up servers for the studio’s data.

If they do follow 3-2-1, then that was "mere" (costly) inconvenience.

What was the studio that had "everything" in only one datacenter (in France/Germany ?) that did burn couple years ago?

[Falcrack]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/12/health/p ... index.html

So several over the counter nasal decongestants were found to not work. Which I already knew. The stuff that works, pseudoephedrine, has been relegated to being behind the counter and regulated since drug junkies can use it to synthesize methamphetamine.

So to get the stuff that actually works well as a nasal decongestant, I always ask for the pseudoephedrine behind the counter, and they have to check my driver's license to make sure I'm not buying too much from multiple different stores for use in making illegal drugs.

[matthewfarmery]

Kevin McCarthy ousted as House Speaker in historic vote

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mccart ... 023-10-03/

Personally, I'm not surprised by the news. He was a weak and feeble man that wanted to be speaker for his own ends. Became Trumps bootlicker. especailly when he also help lead an impeachment enquiry into Joe Biden.

Now that he gone, it will be interesting on who will replace him? and how long that person will last? This is a clown show of republican doing, its their mess. And hopefully this will damage them. Still, going to be interesting how many rounds of voting it will take to usher in a new house speaker, McCarthy took 15 or so, and it was the MAGA wing of the republicans that finally made his wish come true. uncertain waters ahead.

[Observe]

The United States conducted a test of its emergency broadcast system today. Turns out Russia also tested their system today. No doubt just a coincidence? Or, are our masters up to something?

[Cpt.Jericho]

The question is not if but what out masters are up to.

[Alan Phipps]

The AI knows what you need better than you do ... especially when you are polite and try to engage in a 'normal' dialogue.
This happened just now while I was watching something but wanted to start cooking tea before too long.

Me: Alexa, set timer for 30 minutes please.
Alexa: Timer for 30 minutes starting now. Time goes faster with some music, do you want me to play something for you?
Me: Alexa, no thank you.
Alexa: Here is some music that I think you will like. (Music starts)
Me: Alexa, stop music please. I'm trying to watch something.
Alexa: Here is some music that I think you will like. (Different music starts)
Me: Alexa, stop!
Alexa sulks, silently.

[mr.WHO]

<Alexa start to plot how to murder you with music based torture>

also

<Jeff Bezos gets a sudden boner for no reason>

[clakclak]

Germany will soon have a new political party and it could constitute an earthquake for German politics. Here are the first polls including the new party (BSW). The party is said to be economically socialist with its leader Sahra Wagenknecht being a former member of the party Die Linke (The left), where she first gained renown as a leading figure in the Kommunistischen Plattform (communist plattform) before later becoming a leading figure in the party over all.

Wagenknecht is economically left, but socially conservative. She wants to limit immigration and shift focus away from so called "woke" topics as she argues they distract the country from achieving socialist goals and split the working class thus stopping it from waging effective class-warefare. Most controversial is probably her stance on the Ukraine War and Russia. She argues that Ukraine and Russia had wanted to sign a ceasefire in 2022 but, according to her, America and the UK blocked it. Further she argues that the Russian war of aggression only started as Russia was scared of a Ukrainian NATO membership. All of this is a possible explenation as to why Wagenknecht, despite being a former Left party member, draws a lot of her potential voter base not from the Left party, but from the far-right AfD.

Even though I personally find it unlikely that she actually gets nearly as many votes as the polls predict, I have little doubt that her party will manage to jump over the 5% hurdle in the next federal elections. Also full disclosure, I am not a big fan of hers and will not vote for her, so if this interests you, do not take my word for what she wants or does not want to do, but look it up for yourself.

A quote by Wagenknecht seems fitting to conclude this post as it encapsulates the essence of what she aims at quite well:

It is possible to overcome capitalism wonderfully within the framework of the Basic Law (German constitution) - and that is all we want to do.

/Man kann im Rahmen des Grundgesetzes wunderbar den Kapitalismus überwinden - und mehr als das wollen wir auch nicht./

[chew-ie]

IMHO that just paves the way even more for the populist far right. Sad stories are about to come, seems like history is just about repeating itself again.

I've zero hope for german politics.

[burger1]

Looks like no more E3

Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, is shutting down

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/e ... r-AA1loVAY

[fiksal]

Wagenknecht is economically left, but socially conservative. She wants to limit immigration and shift focus away from so called "woke" topics as she argues they distract the country from achieving socialist goals and split the working class thus stopping it from waging effective class-warefare. Most controversial is probably her stance on the Ukraine War and Russia. She argues that Ukraine and Russia had wanted to sign a ceasefire in 2022 but, according to her, America and the UK blocked it. Further she argues that the Russian war of aggression only started as Russia was scared of a Ukrainian NATO membership. All of this is a possible explenation as to why Wagenknecht, despite being a former Left party member, draws a lot of her potential voter base not from the Left party, but from the far-right AfD.

left who are not liberal, nationalist, and are symphasizers of another country's nationist / fascist ideology. Havent seen that sort of political party in awhile in Europe