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Might have been posted already but this is superb

It's destined to be

Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehen, daß er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.

@Dr. Gonzo Very interesting post above, you have a good understanding for me. I see similarities between the Caucasus and the Balkans though as you are aware the former is currently much more volatile.

If you've got the time this evening check out the Jurassic Express Vs Superkliq match that Meltzer gave 5 stars and tell me how many times you said wtf during the match afterwards.

You're rebuilding civilisation with a goat?

If questions nudge posted actually come true then I'm definitely moving to the mountains with the goat.

Not read the books so yea, probably won't ruin it for me.. I appreciate if you have read the books prior to seeing a film/series based on it then there is always a lot of potential for it not to be in line with the persons vision of how they felt it should have been portrayed..

@Tommy

If I remember rightly from the review you gave after the second episode I will need to prepare a sharp stick to poke into my eyes and a bucket to be sick in as I curse the day I ever laid eyes on a tv screen... Not that it had a lasting impression on me or anything but if you told me today I only had 2 weeks left to live it would not affect me as emotionally as that one single review did...

There will be some quite annoying moments in the few next episodes, but soldier on through it... It got much, much better after episode 5, and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of Season 1. The Empire storyline is particularly good.

Yeah, I can't say I'm shedding any tears about him leaving, either But as always, I'm shit scared of the new replacement.

I've got to say, that's probably the best thing that could have happened to Werder in the long term. Am I now glad that he had left us!

Watched the first episode of Foundation last night.... quite an opener

In terms of chaos and drama, you really surpassed Schalke and HSV these days.

The history is a bit complicated. At the heart of it is the ethnic tensions between Armenians and Azeris - but there's also some external political pressure from Turkey and Russia as you mention. I think the Armenian genocide started during WW1 - modern day Turkey and some of modern day Armenia were both part of the Ottoman empire I believe. It's why eastern Turkey, which used to be full of Armenians doesn't really have very many living there anymore - and during the genocide Armenians didn't just go to modern day Armenia... they went literally all over the world. It's why cities like Marseilles and Los Angeles have such massive Armenian populations. Azerbaijan and the rest of modern day Armenia were part of Qajar Iran, in a territory that used to be called Shirvan, but after the Russia-Persian wars & the Treaties of Gulistan & Turkmenchay... that territory became part of the Imperial Russia. And when Imperial Russia fell, it became part of the USSR. I don't actually know how Russia ended up with the rest of Armenia, though. And I wouldn't say Azeris are Turks (because... they're Azeris ) - but they're definitely a Turkic people. The Russians renamed Shirvan Azerbaijan (which I've always thought was weird, because it's also a province in Iran... that borders Azerbaijan) - perhaps it was to reflect that the territory was predominantly Azeri? I also don't really know all the details on how Russia promoted ethnic divisions - but that's something that definitely happened. And that's how descendants of people who lived amongst each other started hating each other and we see the beginning of pogroms and instances of ethnic cleansing as the Soviet Union started to crumble and eventually fell. Those Pogroms are how the chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov, an Armenian born in Baku, ended up in Moscow. If you look at the demographics of these countries over time, you see that largely these areas were historically full of both Armenians and Azeris for... well, centuries - but since 1989... you actually see the statistics as these place become more and more ethnically homogenous. These ethnic tensions are the crux of the conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Then we also have to consider the contested territory of Nagorno-Karabagh/the Republic of Artsakh and the two wars fought over that. The contested territory was largely populated by Armenians historically (the area's also known as the Armenian Highlands) - they declared independence when the Soviet Union fell, same as Armenia and Azerbaijan... I don't know why basically nobody recognised their independence though. The unrecognised state ended up on the lands of Azerbaijan's sovereign territory - but operated as it's own state. In the 90s, a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan was fought over the contested territory with Armenia winning. In the decades to come, Azerbaijan would use the wealth it acquired from selling its natural resources to really build up and modernise it's military with the goal of taking the land back. Armenia, for whatever reason, despite spending a significant portion of its GDP on it's military... simply does not have a military that can compete with Azerbaijan's in modern warfare. And that's why in last year's war, Armenia suffered a pretty decisive defeat despite having the better strategic position to defend Azerbaijan's attacks. I am not so sure that Turkey's influence over Azerbaijan and places like Turkmenistan are due to a historical influence the Ottoman empire had over those places (because I'm not sure how much influence the Ottomans had over Shirvan or modern day Turkmenistan tbh) - I think it has to do more with the ethnonationalism and specifically the Pan-Turk ideology. The more extremists of this ideology want to see the Turkic world fully united and flying under one flag. Less extreme views just want Turkic people and nations all working together for the benefit of their ethnicity. And there's a few viewpoints that fit somewhere between both of those. And for what it's worth, I think Turkey and Azerbaijan - who are both nations pushing ethnonationalism and Pan-Turk stuff - don't want to be united as one country (afterall, the Aliyev family loves to say: "one nation, two states") but they generally have the same foreign policy goals. But in any case, like you said - Azerbaijan and Turkey want the road connecting both Turkic nations running through Armenia. It was actually part of the terms of Armenia's surrender after their last war - but progress on the road's construction has stalled significantly due to political turbulence in Armenia following the breakout of the war and Armenia's military failures. Russia's interest is purely geo-political - Turkey is important to NATO because of it's location. Russia has a military base in Armenia as a counterweight to Turkey and NATO. Russia also has an interest in Azerbaijan & Turkey as a means of using their pipelines to get natural gas into Europe through Italy in a way that circumvents the gas passing through Ukraine. I suspect that's why Armenia's found Russia to sort of tiptoeing around their military alliance to avoid pissing off Turkey/Azerbaijan. Armenia also has to deal with the fact that the current government is run by Pashinyan, who's been big on trying to loosen Armenia's ties with Russia and establish more ties with the West - some see Putin's reluctance to fulfill treaty obligations as a way of punishing Pashinyan and trying to force the next Armenian government to fall in line with Russia as previous Armenian governments have done. And honestly, a part of me thinks these tensions escalating right now are a way of Turkey doing a favour for the EU and asking Azerbaijan to do this - with the Ukraine conflict heating up & the Belarus-migrant crisis, this serves as a way to spread Russia a bit thin. But also I think the message the OGSE Minsk group has sent to Azerbaijan is: waiting for diplomatic resolution does not work - the US, France and Russia are not motivated enough to resolve conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan. They failed to resolve the conflict in the 90s, they sat by for nearly 2 months while a war raged on and refused to get involved until a Russian helicopter was shut down. Meanwhile while diplomacy has failed, Azerbaijan's modern military has worked. And if Armenia won't build the road, I think they feel it's easier for them to just take the land themselves. I don't think this conflict is going away any time soon, even if tensions die down now... I suspect in a decade, or two, or three, or maybe even more... we'll see this conflict heat up again. There's been generations of ethnic hatred and demonisation/dehumanisation from both sides. They talk about each other the same way the Nazis spoke about the Jews. And there's little political appetite for Armenia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan to have normalised diplomatic relations in all 3 countries. Currently there's the brokered ceasefire between the two, while Pashinyan and Aliyev have agreed to meet with members of the EU on December 15. But Azerbaijani forces are still massing at the border with Armenia. I hope that tensions do not ignite before the two leaders meet.

The lockdown, at least in Austria, is because they are running out of ICU beds. I'm wondering what's the long-term strategy, in general, too. The virus isn't likely to go away. There are no sterilising vaccines and efficacy of the current ones wanes sharply in months, requiring boosters and then likely boosters of boosters for a foreseeable future. The virus will also keep on mutating, and since it can still infect vaccinated people, there's the danger of vaccine-resisting and immune system evading strain emerging due to selective pressure. So what's the plan here? Vaccine mandates, "green passes" allowing only fully vaccinated individuals to take part in society, and winter lockdowns forever? How is it all going to be implemented? QR codes and ID checks for entering any public space and transportation? How many shots will a person need to be considered fully vaccinated, and when will that status expire, requiring another booster? Will it even be possible to maintain vaccination levels of 90%+ of the population constantly for years?

I am a BF5 god. That is all.

Regarding Ivermectin: repurposed drugs are nothing new, and there were quite a few studies that suggested Ivermectin can be beneficial in both treatment and prophylaxis. Oxford University is currently running a huge trial called PRINCIPLE that includes ivermectin as one of the repurposed drugs for Covid treatment. Another big one called ACTIV-6 is being carried out in the US currently. So it's not just a baseless claim; it could be potentially useful, but it's definitely unwise to self-medicate with it at home and it's completely insane to use the animal version of it

Sometimes. i've walked away from a serious car crash with just a few scratches from the glass when some old guy drove into the side of me but Covid has a 99.99% survival rate for the vast majority of the population, why even get in the car when you don't need to make that journey? chances of dying with covid are very slim, sacked 100k+ doctors and 60k+ careworkers will result in more deaths from the 10 more serious illness that are killing more people daily right now ...why are they going crazy trying to force people to vaccinate?? kids definitely don't need this

Very sexist of you, John. Pudding is probably suffering from your white cis male harassment.

Puddin does not like the cold, flat out under a radiator switched on will do him

Ice cream

Yep, confirmed by the club now, too. His assistant manager as well