A Yale source said the US state department deleted the evidence which would have been used as part of rescue efforts to get the children home to Ukraine. It would also have been used to prosecute those behind their abductions – including Russian president Vladimir Putin.

So in other words, the US state department is deleting evidence of Russian war crimes. Is this supposed to Make America Great Again?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/trump-ukraine-children-russia-war-kidnapping-evidence-b2717730.html

AT&T Long Lines "Oak Hill" Tower, San Jose, CA, 2021.

All the pixels, none of the per-minute toll charges, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/51261791084/

#photography

TV tie-in games usually suck. They’re rushed, low effort cash grabs riding on the coattails of a popular show. But every once in awhile they surprise you by giving birth to something totally unexpected – like Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm.

Seriously, how many crab fishing simulators do you know? And of those, how many had an actual budget? Go ahead, I’ll wait. Sure, it’s easy to dismiss this game as “reality TV in game form,” but this might be the closest you’ll ever get to being a crab fisherman without freezing your butt off in the Bering Sea.

The devs could have phoned it in with an arcade-style crabfest, but nope, they went deep. We’re talking a full-on fishing management sim: hire your crew, buy bait, drive your boat, keep the crew happy, navigate maps, and brave monster waves.

But let’s not pretend it’s all smooth sailing. The tutorial? A never-ending saga. I just want to fish, not sit through an Alaskan TED talk. And then there’s Sig Hansen, the show’s guy-in-charge, popping up so often he might as well move in. Dude, let me run my boat!

If you thought this was too realistic, buckle up. You actually have to wait for the season to start, which is as thrilling as watching crab pots rust. Yes, you can speed time up, but even then it feels like forever. Somehow, this game manages to be both exhilarating and boring – just like real fishing, I guess.

For 2008, the graphics were decent. Playing this at a 720p resolution was wonderful. Unfortunately, this resolution doesn’t work well with modern Windows – so I had to hunt down a fix, which was a matter of copying and pasting a config file in a Documents folder. That’s annoying but at least the game works.

On the bright side, the waves are so realistic they’ll make your stomach churn – they can cause you real seasickness. Thankfully, the game knows this, which is why there’s a “seasick” mode in the graphical options, making things more tolerable.

I also couldn’t help but notice a few glitches. They weren’t dealbreakers, but they were noticeable enough to affect the immersion. For example, when I’m dumping the crabs onto the sorting table, you’d expect them to tumble out of the pot. Instead, they look stiff and frozen. I don’t expect incredible physics, but at least something that looks a tiny more realistic.

Sound is pretty good. The soundtrack is great, and ties back to the show. A lot of the TV cast make an appearance here, giving this some authenticity. And hearing all those ambient sound effects like the splash of the waves and sea gulls off in the distance make you feel like you’re there.

Controls are quite complicated. As I said, there’s a lot to do. Thankfully, most of it is controllable with your mouse. And if you ever forget a keyboard command, <F1> give you a quick reference sheet to tell you what key does what.

Liquid Dragon Studios developed Deadliest Catch. They’re still an active company, but have only made four games between 2006-17. They made The Odyssey: Winds of Athena, which is a game I own on Steam.

Bottom line, this game is no masterpiece. Yet if you ever wanted to smell like brine, fight nausea, and yell at Sig Hansen without leaving your desk, Deadliest Storm: Alaskan Storm is the closest is the closest you’ll get. Just don’t forget to bring the Dramamine.

I'm heartbroken.

The first round of presidential elections in #Romania ended. First place: a pro-russian, fascist candidate, who has been peddling for strengthening our ties with Russia. A candidate who repeatedly said that the Iron Guard fascists of Romania, those who enacted pogroms, are heroes.

Second place - the candidate of the opposition to the establishment. A woman. Her discourse has become more progressive as the campaign went on.

(1/N)

A Day in the Life: The Global BGP Table

Link: https://articles.foletta.org/post/2024-01-08-a-day-in-the-life-the-bgp-table/
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42233565