brews_hairy_cats's recent activity

  1. Comment on Israel and Hamas agree to first phase of peace plan to pause fighting and release hostages in ~society

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    U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the “first phase” of his peace plan to pause fighting and release at least some hostages and prisoners, in a major breakthrough in the two-year-old war.

    Hamas plans to release all 20 living hostages in the coming days, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press, while the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on House of South Carolina judge criticized by Donald Trump Administration burns down in ~society

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    Police are investigating the cause of a fire that burned down the home of South Carolina Circuit Court judge Diane Goodstein, who had reportedly received death threats for weeks related to her work.

    State law enforcement is investigating the house fire on Edisto Beach, which began at around 11:30 a.m. E.T. on Saturday, sources told local news outlet FITSNews. Goodstein was reportedly not at home at the time of the fire, but at least three members of her family, including her husband, former Democratic state senator Arnold Goodstein, and their son, have been hospitalized with serious injuries.

    In addition to Kirk’s murder last month, the murder of Democratic Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Melissa Hortman and her husband in June, and an arson attack at Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence in April, a number of judges who have ruled against Trump have also received attacks and threats from his supporters.

    23 votes

  5. Comment on First human transplant of kidney modified to have ‘universal’ type-O blood type in ~health

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    Researchers from Canada and China used an enzyme to remove type-A antigens from a donor kidney. The enzyme converts type-A blood into type-O, says study author Stephen Withers, a chemist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The type-O kidney was then transplanted into a 68-year-old brain-dead man in Chongqing, China. The organ remained healthy for two days before showing signs of rejection. It produced urine for six days. The results are published in Nature Biomedical Engineering today.

    10 votes

  7. Comment on Vladimir Putin has called up 135,000 men for routine military service, the country's biggest autumn conscription drive since 2016 in ~society

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    Conscripts are expected to serve for a year at a military base inside Russia, not to fight in Ukraine, although there have been reports of conscripted men being sent to the front line.

    Russia's annual conscription campaigns are unrelated to mobilisation, in which Russian men are drafted to fight during wartime.

    But conscripts who have completed military training are more likely to be called up to fight in the future.

    In September 2024, he ordered the expansion of the military to 1.5 million active soldiers - one of the largest in the world.

    18 votes

  9. Comment on Donald Trump says Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to US-sponsored Gaza peace proposal in ~society

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    Speaking alongside President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave cautious backing to the proposal — though added that Israel was still prepared to "finish the job by itself" if Hamas rejected or countered it.

    The 20-point plan, which Trump has also circulated to Arab leaders, calls for a ceasefire, release of hostages by Hamas, disarmament of Hamas and gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

    In a crucial change from Trump's earlier apparent goals, Palestinians will not be forced to leave Gaza and instead, the document said, "we will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza". It also forbade Israel to annex or occupy Gaza.

    The running of Gaza will also be overseen by an international 'Board of Peace' headed by Trump.

    7 votes

  11. Comment on Moldova’s pro-EU ruling party is leading polls in election fraught with Russian interference claims in ~society

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    With about 75% of polling station reports counted, official electoral data showed the pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity leading with 44.3% of the vote, while the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc has 27.7%. The Russia-friendly Alternativa Bloc stood at 8.5% and the populist Our Party — which wants “balanced foreign policy” between East and West — has 6.5%. The right-wing Democracy at Home party has 6%.

    The election day was marked by a string of incidents, ranging from bomb threats at multiple polling stations abroad to cyberattacks on electoral and government infrastructure, voters photographing their ballots and some being illegally transported to polling stations. Police also detained three people suspected of plotting to cause unrest after the vote.

    Moldova is landlocked between Ukraine and EU member Romania. The country of about 2.5 million people has spent recent years on a westward path and gained candidate status to the EU in 2022, shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Tensions between Russia and Moldova, a Soviet republic until 1991, skyrocketed.

    Days before Sunday’s vote, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned that Russia was spending “hundreds of millions” of euros as part of an alleged hybrid war to try to seize power, which he described as “the final battle for our country’s future.”

    The alleged Russian strategies include a large-scale vote-buying operation, cyberattacks, a plan to incite mass riots around the election and a sprawling disinformation campaign online to diminish support for the pro-European ruling party and sway voters toward Moscow-friendly ones.

    Just before the vote, police carried out hundreds of raids, detaining scores of people allegedly trained in Serbia to cause “mass riots” and destabilize the country around the critical election.

    5 votes

  13. Comment on Grape glut: Too much wine across the world leaves tons of US grapes rotting this crush season in ~food

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    Part of me is wondering, could they do something else with the grapes? Is there just not demand for grape juice and snacks, even with the right marketing push? Are wine grapes too different from...

    Washington is the second largest wine producing state in the country after California.

    “Today, the California wine industry is facing one of the most serious downturns that we’ve seen in decades,” said Natalie Collins, the president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers. “And it’s not really because of one singular issue, it is a combination of challenges all hitting at once.”

    She said the uncertainty of tariffs is causing uncertainty in the markets, for one. And retaliatory measures from other countries have hit exports hard.

    But also, over the past few years, she said global demand for wine has declined. In part that’s due to competition from other beverages – like beers, ciders, seltzers, cocktails, NA drinks and cannabis products. There are also increasing concerns about the health risks of drinking alcohol.

    “We’re seeing new generations not drinking as much alcohol as past generations have,” Collins said.

    She said that’s led to an oversupply of wine globally. In California, some growers are ripping out their vineyards – which is costly. It’s cheaper to burn a vineyard – but some areas don’t allow that.

    Part of me is wondering, could they do something else with the grapes? Is there just not demand for grape juice and snacks, even with the right marketing push? Are wine grapes too different from other grapes?

    10 votes

  15. Comment on Deus Ex Remastered | Announcement trailer in ~games

    brews_hairy_cats
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    I hear there's a free, community-made mod that's a full remaster, and even an option to play as a fully-voiced, female JC Denton. Friends have said they like it Deus Ex: Revision on Steam

    I hear there's a free, community-made mod that's a full remaster, and even an option to play as a fully-voiced, female JC Denton. Friends have said they like it

    Deus Ex: Revision on Steam

    3 votes

  16. Comment on The video-game industry has a problem: there are too many games in ~games

    brews_hairy_cats
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    You put that so beautifully! I agree, it's a mixed feeling for me as well. The fear of not being able to experience everything, balanced by the liberation I feel knowing I can drop a game at any...

    You put that so beautifully! I agree, it's a mixed feeling for me as well. The fear of not being able to experience everything, balanced by the liberation I feel knowing I can drop a game at any time, and there'll be so many others I can pick up, to suit my wants in that moment

    I struggle with being too much of a completionist and achievement chaser at times, playing games beyond the point where they're fun anymore, and thinking on the optimistic side of there being too many amazing games, can definitely help me with that bad habit

    7 votes

  17. Comment on The video-game industry has a problem: there are too many games in ~games

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    The gift link comes from the article author's Bluesky account I saw this over on Resetera, and in that thread, I see overwhelming agreement, thousands of games coming out every single year, it's...

    The gift link comes from the article author's Bluesky account

    I saw this over on Resetera, and in that thread, I see overwhelming agreement, thousands of games coming out every single year, it's well, overwhelming

    Over the past few years, the video-game industry has faced a difficult contraction period during which companies have laid off thousands of employees due to flattened growth. There have been many reasons for this shift, such as huge, Covid-era investments that didn’t pan out. But one problem stands above the rest — there are too many video games.

    In 2024, a staggering 18,626 games were released on Steam, according to SteamDB, a website that tracks data on the popular PC platform. That’s an increase of around 93% from 2020, when 9,656 games were released.

    Most of last year’s Steam games went undiscovered and unplayed by the majority of users. But a surprising number were received quite well. Of the 1,431 games released last year that garnered more than 500 reviews — an indication that they were played by at least a few thousand people — more than 260 were rated positively by 90% or more of the players. More than 800 scored 80% or better.

    In other words, this isn’t like the 1980s, when the US gaming market crashed due to a flood of poorly made products. Today, there are too many video games, and many of them are great.

    18 votes

  19. Comment on CGA-2025-09 🕹️🚂 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ The Last Express in ~games

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    I actually finished the game! With a guide, of course At first I thought it was a walking simulator, walking back and forth to see the different events pop up... how wrong I was! I liked it...

    I actually finished the game! With a guide, of course

    At first I thought it was a walking simulator, walking back and forth to see the different events pop up... how wrong I was! I liked it though, in spite of the few stressful moments

    The one part I never figured out, was how to get the train head conductor to leave his seat, it felt totally random to me, I kept rewinding until it happened.

    I feel like this game is okay for replayability, given how short enough it is, it has a convenient save and rewind system, and there are enough times I felt rushed when reading, if I wanted to dig into each character, I could go back and read their notes carefully

    I don't have anything interesting to add on top of the great comments here. There are too many games out there, so I'm lucky to have the gems like this picked out for me!

    4 votes