Rant 791 / Omega Male

E3 Nintendo. Not too exciting. Wii U looks nice but I'm not sure if it's going to be a success.

It might if this becomes reality:

I remember a few occasions when I talked about crumbling empires and how they collapse, that they don't die overnight but slowly decay. What would be visible is that they might get hit hard by some issue and they would have difficulty recovering from it before the next one hits.

I believe there is something else too and that something is similar to our flood issue. Usually, things are peaceful. Shit sometimes happen but never anything particularly newsworthy. Therefore people get complacent and decide it's not worth the money and effort to keep watching out for the big one.

So they stop and they laugh and they think nothing will ever happen.

Then it happens, and strains the overall system. Just one problem, true, but it only takes a single final straw to break a camel's back.

Singapore's flood case isn't as simple as that though. Not only does the monsoon come every year, but according to some experts, our urban development has caused our island to be less efficient at draining away stormwater.

Sounds logical. More road, less grass, less natural drainage. Due to space constraints, drains can only be so big, and is expensive to upgrade after construction. Moreover, some suspect our Marine Barrage is keeping water back on the island.

No linked source because I'm too lazy to google.

I'm not saying this is anything that would cause the downfall of the country. I'm just using this as an example (since it's fresh) for something I'd said before. It's just a heavy storm.

It's similar to the uselessly beautiful castles in Europe. No defensive value but look gorgeous. I'm pretty sure a few kingdoms had been conquered more easily because of that.

And the current economic issues in the EU.









This is so full of shit. This news report warns that whatever they implement to deal with the floods will be expensive.

Why?

In an email response, Mr Martin P Li, a past president of the Singapore Chapter of the Institution of Engineers of Australia ...said the government needs to consider whether it is prudent to construct a drainage system to mitigate the effects of a once-in-25-years occurrence by raising the design parameters to accommodate a 50 or 100 years flood, or accept the consequences of the event once every 25 years.

In general, the less likelihood of the event occurring, the higher the costs of the system, he said.

But didn't our Minister say that he does not expect the weather to improve in the future?

"Personally, I think our weather has changed. I'm actually psychologically prepared for it to get worse."

Did the "authorities" get the hint?










Completed Dead Money. Never found out why the reason behind the Cloud's existence. Apparently it doesn't exist.

Strange. Something like poison gas don't get ignored during the construction process. Too bad they didn't develop that part of the story further, so that's one loose end they never tied up.

And the Vault's full of gold bars. Weighs 35 units each and has a value of over 10k. That gives it a value of over 200 per unit weight, making it one of the most valuable item in the whole expansion.

Unfortunately I only managed to carry 2 out. My max capacity is only 230 and there are weapons and items that are more valuable than that. Furthermore, they are not easy to sell. With only about 45 points in Barter, most merchants have to pay me over 8k caps per bar. Few NPCs have this kind of money.

Worst of all, I can't go back to Sierra Madre after I complete it unless I use console commands. Oh well. 16k caps is still a lot of money. Splurged most of my money after that on an Anti-Materiel Rifle and 2 upgrades on my stats at the Clinic.

...

Now to move on to Honest Hearts.