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It was a pretty good episode!

Step into the role of one of the night witches, members of an all female Soviet bombing regiment during World War 2 and fight the enemies in the skies while bombing targets on the ground.

This is a simple side scrolling shooter with an arcade feel that I and Crimson Wizard did for a MAGS, but it hasn't been added to the database until now because we wanted to polish the game some more.
I hope you'll enjoy it!

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2435-night-witch

I've spent a lot of time trying to perfect a model for a jointed doll to add clothes and acessories to once it's printed, I just thought I'd share this;

Nice work Sinitrena! Clever thinking with the B! 

Anyway, anyone else finding this video of a Russian guy walking his pet puma wearing a tracksuit to be weirdly fascinating?

Here's something that grinds my gears.
Very high-pitched devices, used for scaring away cats or sometimes used in shops to "detract" youths.
Because I can hear those things, and they're nauseating!

What do they sound like?

Have you ever heard the high pitched squealing of an old tube television?
Just make it twenty times louder and have it rapidly turn on and off.

How could these not violate noise laws? That's crazy. I hope I never live around anyone with such little consideration for others.

Exactly, plus that's gotta violate age-based discrimination laws.

**Children are dying alone in hospital without their mum / dad... it's beyond my comprehension and is insanity... And billions of people are sitting on their backsides allowing it to happen...

In a sad scene that is increasingly being played out across the country, in the early hours of Tuesday morning a patient with coronavirus was taken off a ventilator at a hospital in south-east London.

A matron told the Guardian (Newspaper): “It is heartbreaking that he died without his family being able to hold his hands or giving him a goodbye kiss but at least they saw him in his final moments via a video link.

What? That's insane! I fully understand isolating people who are at risk but otherwise have a chance to go back to their lives once there is a vaccine, but forcing people to die alone and prohibiting their family from seeing them one last time because of corona is madness.
If my choice was between maybe getting a virus that would give me flu symptoms and force me to isolate myself for two weeks, or letting a loved one die without anyone close to them by their side, I know what I would choose.

If you ever wanted to grow a mullet now you have an excuse! Originally when my hair started to get too long I suggested my mom take me to the barber, but she was worried about catching the CoronaVirus. Now that the whole state is locked down none of us could go out to get a haircut even if we wanted to.

As for haircuts, I've never got what's the deal with them. As my username implies, I just save a ton of time and money by just letting it grow, keeping it tied into a braid so it don't get in the way, and simply cut off a decimeter or two one every year when it gets so long I accidentally sit on it. Easiest haircut in the world, AND people keep praising you for having such great dedication to keeping your hair long because they don't realize it's literally the easiest hairstyle in the world.

That's hilarious Blondbraid.  Thanks for posting it.   

You're welcome! I highly recommend checking out the other videos by that channel.

The Shrek sequels keeps getting weirder.

The genetic variation between populations is an explanation people love to reach for, but I think we imagine much bigger genetic differences between nations/ethnicites/races than there actually are. Inherited predispositions to diseases do exist, but it takes us down a very dodgy road to start speculating that Italy and New York might suffering particularly badly because of "Italian genes".  Especially when there are much simpler, less eugenic, explanations.

Yeah, I think that with Italy especially, two big reasons are that they have a large percentage of older people in their population, plus many who smoke, both of which are risk factors,
but it also hit them at a time when many tourists were visiting the ski resorts in the alps, which would have contributed to the virus hitting Italy sooner than less popular tourist destinations.

At least in Sweden, some of the first confirmed cases of this virus came from people who'd been in ski resorts in Italy. Way too many people think it's OK to leave hygiene behind when they're being tourists.

Personally, I find the theme from when you have to battle Lovecraftian sea creatures in Darkest Dungeon to be pretty great:

I wonder if there is some genetic reason for some countries being affected more than others. Not that on the surface of things there would be that many common genetic similarities between (eg) italians and germans.

Well, as far as I know less percentage of the population died from the black plague in Sweden and Norway than in the parts of Europe further south,
but there has been lots of population shifts since the middle ages and there are a great deal of cultural and lifestyle differences to account for besides the genetic.

As for men being more vulnerable to the virus, I bet it's lots of the same reasons men live shorter lives in general, because statistically more men smoke, eat more meat, more overweight, are less likely to seek medical help
and less likely to maintain closer relationships to friends and relatives (which would mean that they are less likely to have someone looking out for their wellbeing if they show signs of declining health).

Don't know about that, but I've wondered why children seem to almost unaffected by this. My theory, which experts may prove or deny (since I can't possibly be the one one thinking this) is that maybe they are being "protected" by child vaccines, ones that the older you get the "weaker" their effect might be? But we do know that kids also test positive and few have died while infected (if they died of covid-19 or something else is another story). Did this kids had their vaccines? Are they the ones parents decided not to vaccine them?
I don't know, probably this is pure speculation on my part and there is absolutely no correlation with the two (but hope those experts that can check and are after a vaccine/treatment, explore this rute, even if only to dismiss it).

I think it's because children's immune systems are still developing, so it's more sensitive and reacts quicker and stronger on some diseases.

Long term lockdown is indeed probably not sustainable, but something for a few weeks? We've never it done on such a scale before, but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

A few weeks can be an infinitely long time for women and children trapped with their abusers (and there's been lots of news reports of an increase of domestic violence in the wake of the lockdown),
and for poor people with rent to pay who barely make ends meet in regular times and cannot work from home, nor afford to stay home from work. And what of the homeless who have no place to go?

I do the best I can to keep my hands to myself and keep them clean, and I avoid going near people in public, but you can't put all of human society on pause and expect said pause to outlast a virus.

It has recently been reported that one teenager in the UK has already committed suicide through the isolation period, though he was unstable even before the outbreak..

I'm not surprised, take someone already suffering, and then add the massive stress factor about hearing about the pandemic killing people everywhere
combined with being unable to keep most of your daily routines and what little social life you have left...

I know many have criticized the Swedish policy for not shutting everything down and having straight up curfews,
but being able to go outside and doing something as simple as buying a treat from the store have been one of the few things that's helped me stay sane.

There's a lot of room for a huge variety of measures between the almost-complete lockdown of Italy or Spain, and Sweden's "I dunno, just try, like, not to cough on anyone I guess?". Germany has imposed a series of restrictions but you can still go for a treat or a walk if you feel like it. And as someone with actual skin in this game (immunocompromised + chronic respiratory issues), I am far more terrifed of the restrictions being lifted too early (as they no doubt will) than of spending another month or two in this situation. It sucks to have to see my friends only on Skype, but if I die from this, then it's no more conversations, ever. People in my situation have every right in the world to criticize ableist policies that so blatantly disregard the lives of the vulnerable.

I can very much understand your feelings, while not in a risk group myself both my parents are, and my mom especially have worried greatly over getting infected.

Personally though, I don't feel a global lock down is a feasible or sustainable solution, and I feel that it would be better to focus entirely on protecting the risk groups rather than trying to make everyone isolate themselves,
especially since in Sweden at least, there's a shortage of proper masks, made worse by charlatans and otherwise healthy people hogging them all for themselves, when they should go to medical staff and people who
really are at risk. It just seems like a better strategy to try and give just the risk grops the most extensive protection possible rather than spreading it out to people who aren't at risk.

But this situation also highlights just how vulnerable a global society is, and there will always be risks for new pandemics, and there needs to be more solutions than just trying to put everything on pause like a Sims game.

I think the worst part of the whole situation is just who isolated one feels. I was already spending my days sitting at home by myself with my computer as company
for more than a year before this whole virus thing started, and I can tell you, you might do OK for a few weeks or months, but when it goes on for longer this sort of stuff really¨
does a number on your mental health, and your energy gets drained. I know many have criticized the Swedish policy for not shutting everything down and having straight up curfews,
but being able to go outside and doing something as simple as buying a treat from the store have been one of the few things that's helped me stay sane.

Anyone else worried we might see a spike in depression rates if this goes on for longer?

My favourite part of The King in Yellow is the collection of short prose "poems"/fragments titled The Prophets' Paradise. They are so creepy and evocative that the actual stories pale (hehe) in comparison. Actually, there is a small reference/homage to this section in If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers: https://twitter.com/deadidlegames/status/1204425833026347010

Indeed, and it's all the more impressive that most of the poems manage to do so while being very symmetrical in structure and repeating the same phrases in a way that really makes you ponder the meaning of the very words.

I'm not sure what it says bout me that I can see a video about a Mexican lizard
that looks like a worm with tiny front legs and the only thing that surprise me
is the fact that a creature that weird isn't extinct, it's not even endangered.

^I have read a couple of the King in Yellow stories. Including the main one (with the casket carrying car and the watchman of the graveyard).
I read those years ago and I recall that while the central idea (the book, the yellow sign etc) was cool, the actual story was imo rather underwhelming.

Yeah, while I can see the influence and similarities to Lovecraft's writing, I'd say the stories I've read so far feels more like poetic dramas
with supernatural elements to them rather than the cosmic horror the titular King in Yellow have been associated with in pop culture,
which would certainly be disappointing for a reader hoping for Lovecraftian horror.

I haven't found it in traditional printed form, but I've read most of the short stories that make up The King in Yellow via Wikisource, and hope to get around to read the last of them during Easter.

Quite atmospheric, and they have stood the test of time well. Anyone fond of the works of Edgar Allan Poe should read them.