Search found 6999 matches

by Big Orange
2023-03-12 08:54pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: UKRAINE WAR - 1 YEAR AND GOING.
Replies: 1780
Views: 137329

Re: UKRAINE WAR - 1 YEAR AND GOING.

IIRC the Austro-Hungarian empire didn't so much fragment as it was split by the winners of WWI. Yeah, but like the Russian Federation, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was 30-50+ years past its prime as a Eurasian great power and its military was somewhat outdated, with corrupt and inept officers, etc, ...
by Big Orange
2023-03-12 08:16pm
Forum: News and Politics
Topic: UKRAINE WAR - 1 YEAR AND GOING.
Replies: 1780
Views: 137329

Re: UKRAINE WAR - 1 YEAR AND GOING.

If Russia is lucky, it'll just be an even weaker and much more decentralized Federation, with regional oblasts, republics, and cities given more autonomy (maybe after a series of brushfire wars and a Moscow coup) or (if even the nukes got too rundown by corruption/neglect and regional Chechen style ...
by Big Orange
2023-03-12 07:07am
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: The Board Members You Miss Thread
Replies: 125
Views: 49299

Re: The Board Members You Miss Thread

I miss some posters, very smart people in their own ways, but their ego/anger got the better of them.
by Big Orange
2023-03-12 07:00am
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: My Father Has Passed...
Replies: 5
Views: 1668

My Father Has Passed...

In the small hours of the 11th of March, my father died in his sleep from complications stemming from a stroke he suffered nearly two years ago. He was a ripe, but disappointing 71 years old, suffering from over a decade of poor health and serious hospitalizations.
by Big Orange
2021-06-11 06:15am
Forum: Pure Star Wars
Topic: The Mandalorian Discussion Thread (spoilers and such)
Replies: 602
Views: 240376

Re: The Mandalorian Discussion Thread (spoilers and such)

Early in the Mandalorian the stormtroopers definately looked worse for wear. Gideon's forces appeared to be shiny clean, though. Though Gideon's quasi-private army of Stormtroopers are still mostly about keeping up appearances and he's still working with relatively limited resources, when the Empir...
by Big Orange
2021-06-11 05:42am
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Where is Darth Wong?
Replies: 9
Views: 12978

Re: Where is Darth Wong?

Yeah, he should pick and judge his fights more carefully against US rightwingers.
by Big Orange
2021-06-11 05:40am
Forum: Artwork, Music and Photos
Topic: Stargate Command Croydon
Replies: 121
Views: 161272

Re: Stargate Command Croydon

He'll have more spare time for his passion project now...
by Big Orange
2021-06-11 05:40am
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: My Dad Suffered A Stroke
Replies: 8
Views: 7889

Re: My Dad Suffered A Stroke

Thank you for your kind words of support. And here's an update: my father is now past the worst of his stroke complications and now able to hold proper conversations over the phone (for many days he had bouts of incoherence and in his first week he was having hallucinations).
by Big Orange
2021-05-26 08:14pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: My Dad Suffered A Stroke
Replies: 8
Views: 7889

My Dad Suffered A Stroke

About a week ago I had to call paramedics round our house because my father suffered a severe stroke, and he has been sent to the Bristol Royal Infirmary (which is the best place for him). The bad news is that he's battling a lung infection (most likely complications from the stroke, maybe partially...
by Big Orange
2021-02-24 04:52pm
Forum: Artwork, Music and Photos
Topic: Stargate Command Croydon
Replies: 121
Views: 161272

Re: Stargate Command Croydon

Nice to see you about after so long, Starglider, and your underground home puts many evil lairs in fiction to shame.
by Big Orange
2021-02-24 04:49pm
Forum: Pure Star Wars
Topic: The Mandalorian Discussion Thread (spoilers and such)
Replies: 602
Views: 240376

Re: The Mandalorian Discussion Thread (spoilers and such)

So Operation Cinder gets name dropped (alongside Grand Admiral Thrawn) and we get more insight into how the New Republic, despite winning the wider galaxy, was still in a comparatively weak military state decades later against the First Order and Sith Eternal from their redoubts in the Unknown Terri...
by Big Orange
2021-02-07 05:17pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Stuart Slade has died
Replies: 26
Views: 24685

Re: Stuart Slade has died

So sad to hear this, he was a charismatic and smart man, despite his faults.
by Big Orange
2021-02-07 04:08pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: RIP Mira Furlan (B5, Lost)
Replies: 7
Views: 8526

Re: RIP Mira Furlan (B5, Lost)

RIP When you look at one of those "where are they now" videos on Youtube, all of the B5 cast are old :( The remaining cast are starting to get up there, but on the contrary a huge chunk of the core cast and regulars are already dead, dying only in their late 50s and early 60s. And Richard...
by Big Orange
2021-02-07 04:06pm
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Christopher Plummer dead at 91
Replies: 4
Views: 6437

Re: Christopher Plummer dead at 91

Sad, but he led an exceptionally long and sucfessful career (with Knives Out having one of his better final roles).
by Big Orange
2020-09-10 04:55am
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Havok / Havokeff has died.
Replies: 17
Views: 17775

Re: Havok / Havokeff has died.

It's been a very long time since I posted here, but Havok's untimely passing has hit me pretty hard, and I want to express my condolences. :(

He was a talented comic book artist who posted his drawing here back in the day.
by Big Orange
2019-05-16 01:18pm
Forum: Fantasy
Topic: Avengers: Endgame release thread (spoilers)
Replies: 349
Views: 184377

Re: Avengers: Endgame release thread (spoilers)

Yeah and what does he do with his frozen self, hm? That's a hiccup, but in his mind it's better to screw over another version of himself than others. He felt deeply hurt and guilty about what happened to his best friend, and was profoundly grief stricken over Natasha dying (when he had a passing cr...
by Big Orange
2019-05-16 10:05am
Forum: Fantasy
Topic: Avengers: Endgame release thread (spoilers)
Replies: 349
Views: 184377

Re: Avengers: Endgame release thread (spoilers)

I got the impression that Steve was in an alternative timeline, with "another" Peggy Carter (the next best thing in the whole wide Multiverse) and I like to think, knowing about the mayhem from his native TL, he'd dismantle HYDRA before it spread too far through SHIELD and many other insti...
by Big Orange
2019-05-08 06:34pm
Forum: Fantasy
Topic: Avengers: Endgame release thread (spoilers)
Replies: 349
Views: 184377

Re: Avengers: Endgame release thread (spoilers)

I think the point is that Gamora does have the same experiences as the first Gamora up until the Time Heist set her on a different path. She is the same Gamora up until that point, but her experiences after that turn her into a different Gamora. The 2nd Gamora had the same set of experiences as the...
by Big Orange
2019-05-07 01:01pm
Forum: Fantasy
Topic: Avengers: Endgame release thread (spoilers)
Replies: 349
Views: 184377

Re: Avengers: Endgame release thread (spoilers)

I'm not sure why anyone wants any characters coming back. If characters die and come back, it destroys any meaning their death may carry. Gamora and Romanoff both had deaths with meaning. Bad enough that Gamora came back, even if it is an earlier version. Also, about how Gamora and everyone else fr...
by Big Orange
2015-09-03 01:03pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Ultraviolet
Replies: 4
Views: 1772

Ultraviolet

No, not the deeply mediocre  Matrix  crossed with  Blade  rip off from 2006, I'm of course talking of the cult UK series from 1998. It is about UK special agents that deal with hunting down vampires with high tech gadgets and science. It's main lead, a young Jack Davenport, went on to a respectable ...
by Big Orange
2013-07-25 07:49am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: World's End (Spoilers)
Replies: 10
Views: 3030

Re: World's End (Spoilers)

Sorry, double post.
by Big Orange
2013-07-25 07:49am
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: World's End (Spoilers)
Replies: 10
Views: 3030

Re: World's End (Spoilers)

This movie had a pretty strong late 80s/early 90s retro soundtrack as well (but it could've included Go West's "The King of Wishful Thinking", which fits snugly into the late 80s/early 90s time period and Gary King's mindset). the conformist, invasive nature of mobile phones, pub restauran...
by Big Orange
2013-07-24 05:13pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: World's End (Spoilers)
Replies: 10
Views: 3030

Re: World's End (Spoilers)

I enjoyed The World's End but it felt like a blend of the last two "Cornetto" movies. And what was it trying to say? An early middle aged bloke partying hard will bring about the collapse of modern civilisation? It had a surprisingly unexpected and downbeat ending though, and it also had s...
by Big Orange
2013-06-14 08:36pm
Forum: Artwork, Music and Photos
Topic: Peter Connolly's memorial event
Replies: 1
Views: 3765

Re: Peter Connolly's memorial event

Oh dear, I didn't know he died recently.

I hope he's now having a nice time with that other popular Late Antiquity/Medieval illustrator Angus McBride...
by Big Orange
2013-06-09 07:49pm
Forum: Science Fiction
Topic: Iain Banks diagnosed with terminal cancer (Died 6/9/13)
Replies: 23
Views: 5038

Re: Iain Banks diagnosed with terminal cancer (Died 6/9/13)

What's unavoidably sad is that he was still banging out solid sci-fi novels in recent years ( Matter , Surface Detail and The Hydrogen Sonata ), he was still quite young really, and a lot of creative potential was unfairly robbed by his cunting cancer. I'm particularly rattled by his death on a pers...