Eh, that's a bit different. The Russian state does carry out assassinations of critics.

I wonder how many of them would complain in the manner this infamous Republican did a few years ago: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida

Did my first comment in this thread cause any problems? Did I express anything problematic?

"If you want to test a man’s character, give him power." - (not) Abraham Lincoln

Pretentious quote out of the way, I'm both disappointed and not disappointed. Exactly the answer I was expecting from you, especially this:

but i’m being generous [...] please do not make me regret

I know, it's a serious and in many ways sad topic, but there is some unintentional humor to be found in a queen of her little domain playing the merciful ruler, because otherwise, the comparison I made between you and Cornell's leadership would have become impossible to ignore. If you're feeling that announced regret while reading this tame banter, then I apologize - but I would loved to have seen you in some of the larger forums I've moderated in the past - and they weren't even about politics. The users there would have eaten you alive on the first day.

The sad thing is, our opinions on the West Bank aren't even that far apart (relative to each of our views on Gaza and Lebanon at least). We could have talked about this like human beings, but I get the distinct feeling that you're more interested in uncompromising grandstanding and cleaning your little domain of anyone who isn't covering their face with a keffiyeh than anything resembling nuance or civilized discourse. It's either 100% your way or no way, which is a problem I've noticed with many self-proclaimed pro-Palestinians and much of the movement as a whole. The funny thing is that this isn't even close the main reason why this movement is so ineffective. No amount of conviction and catchy slogans, no campus protests and sit-ins can overcome the maddening complexity of a conflict that has been stumping minds far smarter than that of anyone on this forum for many decades.

I know you don't like me and my opinions on this topic, but here's the thing: I support this student's right to express his opinion, despite the fact that I disagree with him. In an ideal world, he should be able to freely exercise his freedom of speech whenever and wherever he so chooses, but this world clearly isn't close to ideal. Once again, I'm not supporting what the university his trying to do to him, I'm merely stating that he's not smart about his activism, because like many other idealists, he fails to realize that he can only make this world the way he wants to a relatively limited degree at once. I don't think he's picking his battles all that wisely.

especially for unambiguously morally correct causes

Here's where we disagree, but you are a moderator who unironically likes to do what this university is doing without even a hint of self-awareness, by temporarily banning me from one of your other communities, because I was a bit too disruptive for your taste on this highly political and contentious topic, one that very much isn't as unambiguous as you're trying to portray it as or have been led to believe through your little filter bubble (at least according to my little filter bubble - opinions, opinions, opinions). Like I said in my annoying message to you, I'm just as guest here though, just like this student is at Cornell, so we are both at the mercy of those in charge. The main difference is that my career doesn't depend on you, of course. The other is that the appeal process here is even worse than Cornell's... ;)

Quite a few people appear to be playing this game and its sequel for the photo mode, which isn't surprising, given that the gameplay is nothing special, contrary to the visuals.

Much better article: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/cornell-protest-palestine-immigration-1235112444/

Seems like his heart is in the right place, but his brain isn't.

In other words (and please excuse my French): Don't shit where you eat. Given his past history as an activist on campus and the reprimands he has received for this, it was extremely risky of him to attend this kind of highly disruptive protest. In the end, he's merely a guest, at both the university and in the US. It would have been much wiser of him to support his cause elsewhere instead of at and against the institution that he relies on for his degree and visa.

The fact that he's relatively well-known locally as an activist might actually harm his prospects: While he can briefly leverage this to mobilize his supporters (which appear to be mainly students and relatively few sympathetic academics, which isn't ideal), this will only further antagonize the administration that seems to be hell-bent on getting rid of a trouble-maker, while at the same time discouraging others, no matter their cause, to protest in the same manner or perhaps even violently, like at other self-proclaimed pro-Palestinian protests at American universities. From a purely Machiavellian perspective - and I do not support this, despite the fact that I disagree with the student, his methods and his cause - Cornell would likely gain more from muffling him and by extension others than by allowing him to continue for at least two more years.

Even if he somehow manages to survive this, it would likely only be temporary: Given his past and present behavior, he would feel emboldened, which in turn would result in him doing something similar or worse again soon, which in turn would finally exhaust any remaining goodwill he's enjoying with the administration.

In order for Sony to sell the game again and a PS5 (or PS5 Pro) to you - or at least, in a couple of years, the remaster to those who bought the original PC port. There are still about twice as many PS4 than PS5 consoles due to a lack of both exclusives and actual reasons to switch over to the newer system. It doesn't help that more and more people are realizing that one should replace any mention of "the economy" in the media with "rich people's yacht money", given how little average people are benefiting from it anymore, which means disposable income is down. The PS4, despite being almost 11 years old now and still relying on a mechanical HDD (unless you upgrade it), is simply "good enough" in the eyes of many. Microsoft has the same issue, of course, except from a much weaker position in the market. The law of diminishing returns makes newer consoles a hard sell.

At the same time, PC gaming is highly accessible, PC hardware is lasting longer for gaming than ever before (in large part due to the longevity of the previous console generation keeping hardware requirements of most multiplatform games in check) and now that former exclusives are finding their way over at a reliable pace, there are fewer reasons for those that are primarily playing on PC to get a console just for the exclusives. As fantastic as Astrobot looks and as much as I appreciate the return of the classic 3D platformer with physics and shiny new graphics, it won't make me purchase a PS5 any time soon or ever.

Sony is still producing both PS4 and PS4 Pro (whereas Microsoft discontinued both Xbox One consoles four years ago; they are still supporting the previous gen though), games are still being developed for them, despite first party studios having switched over to PS5 by now. Third party developers who were once happy about the low number of hardware variations they had to deal with now have to handle up to nine different systems if they want to release a game on all currently supported games consoles (ten when Switch 2 comes out) - plus PC and Steam Deck, which might just as well be another console as far as developers are concerned. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I've ever seen cross-gen games that aren't just yearly sports titles being made for this long into a new generation at such a large scale. We certainly haven't had such a wide variety of systems since the early home computer era, even if their architectures and capabilities are much more similar now than they were back then.

I wouldn't call €1300 (cheapest 8K TV where I'm living) outrageously expensive. You can easily spend this much on a 4K TV without straying into true high-end territory.

I remember when the first "mass market" flat screen TVs came about around in the late '90s. The earliest one I saw with my own eyes was still years away from HD, hardly even flat by modern standards (I think it was a plasma TV), but cost a cool 20 grand. The store had it behind a small fence so that people wouldn't accidentally damage it. I was not impressed by the image quality and it was actually smaller than the largest CRT TVs I had seen. Maybe 30" at best.

Either way, even with a handful of games now supporting real or upscaled 8K, the issue of a lack of content remains. Streaming services rarely support it beyond the odd demo video on YouTube and even if they did, they are hardly what you go for if you want good image quality, given how mercilessly they compress their content to save on bandwidth costs. There's no 8K Blu-Ray yet and there might not ever be one. By the time there is a decent amount of 8K content available, the current lineup of 8K TVs will be hopelessly outdated and likely not even support future standards.

Really the most useful application for these I can think of right now is showing photos in all of their glory to bored relatives and friends. 8K is slightly more than 33 megapixels, after all, whereas 4K is just over 8 megapixels. Landscape photography in particular benefits a lot from being seen at higher resolutions.

Eh, Nintendo in particular has no issue with going after projects nobody has heard of.

Low bar - and you should look into the many faults and issues Chinese cars are having.

The difference with Atomic Heart is that it wasn't just made by a Russian developer, but that it also promoted a questionable outlook on the Soviet Union that closely mirrors the one the current Russian government is promoting.