About six months ago I became interested in astronomy. First, I watched videos and photos, studied the map of the starry sky, read about the planets of the solar system and their satellites. But not so long ago I decided to move on to "practical exercises". I purchased the Orion Equatorial telescope to be able to look at the nearest celestial bodies. Of course, this opportunity doesn't happen every day due to cloudiness, but it's still a cool experience.

To be honest, I bet on England, but my predictions did not come true. The Italian national team played just fine!

Something tells me that Italy and England will play in the final. I don't even know who will be the winner. These teams are very strong. Although today Denmark may well surprise and win contrary to forecasts.

@Nobodyman:

So, as I said earlier, I've been watching reconstructions of all the missing Doctor Who episodes that I skipped on my first watchthrough of the Classic series and just finished up all the Hartnell stories. It's been interesting going back and watching these now I've watched, like, 95% of all Doctor Who episodes. And, for the most part, a lot of these episodes hold up pretty well.

! Marco Polo - A really strong historical episode. I've always been fascinated by Asian history and it's a shame it's a topic Doctor Who doesn't explore very often. At 7 episodes it is perhaps a touch too long, but…nah, I was never bored by it.
! The Crusade - Another strong historical, though not quite as good as Marco Polo, IMO. If anything, I think this story needed to be an episode or two longer as it ended just as it seemed things were picking up.
! Galaxy 4 - And here's our first stinker of the bunch. Easily one of worst Hartnell stories. Just four episodes of basically nothing happening over a very simple story. The Doctor, Steven, and Vicki meet encounter two alien races on a dying planet (one of which is all female for some reason) and it turns out the ugly aliens are the good ones, so don't judge by appearances, kids. Perhaps the producers were hoping that the Chumbleys would catch on? But no, they get pretty old pretty quick.
! Mission to the Unknown - Serves as a prelude to The Daleks' Master Plan and is completely Doctor and Companions-free. An interesting experiment that pays off pretty well. I think it would've been cool if they had done more stuff like this (not counting the Doctor-lite episodes). I actually watched the remake of this, which is free to watch on Youtube.
! The Mythmakers - Although the Trojan War is dubiously historical, this is still another strong "historical" episode. I really like how it builds up Vicki's departure and makes it quite believable. Katarina, however, just kinda comes out of nowhere in the last episode to become the replacement companion and then they just write her out four episodes later anyway. A shame. A girl from ancient Troy could've had some real potential as a companion, but I guess the Doctor Who audience just wasn't ready for that.
! The Daleks' Master Plan - And here it is. The epic 12-part Dalek serial that, to date, is still the longest Doctor Who story every filmed (unless you count Trial of a Time Lord as one story). And yeah, for the most part, this story really delivers. Despite being 12 episodes, it never feels padded out or overly long. Mavic Chen and, of course, the Daleks are suitably menacing villains. And of course this story is infamous for killing off two of the Doctor's companions, a first for the series. True, the producers never intended to have a Sara as a permanent companion, but she actually got more screen time than Katarina and traveled with the Doctor in the TARDIS, so I'd say she counts. Also, holy crap, this episode has Nicholas Courtney, which I didn't even know until I saw the episode. Suitably, this story ends on a very dour note with the Doctor and Steven remembering all the lives lost during the adventure. But after all that harshness I'm sure the writers will liven things up with a nice light-hearted story, right?
! The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve - Hmm…okay then. Well, it's not overly harsh, but yeah, this is still a pretty grim subject matter that the story doesn't shy away from. That said, my French history isn't the best, so some of it was kind of hard to follow. But even so, it's an overall great episode. And it's got a heck of a finale with Steven very nearly leaving the Doctor (which, after the last two adventures, I don't blame him one bit). And although Dodo's sudden appearance is pretty random, it's still built up pretty well and manages to work somehow. And at this point I have to say it really is a pity that the showrunners pretty much gave up on pure historicals once Hartnell left. Honestly, I think his historical episodes might be overall stronger than his sci-fi episodes. But yeah, I know, kids want to see space aliens, not boring historical stuff. Little bastards. But I guess that's what we have Big Finish for.
! The Celestial Toymaker - The Doctor goes up against a demigod who challenges him to a battle of wits? This sounds like it should be an instant classic. But no, ultimately this episode is kind of disappointing. For the most part, the Doctor doesn't even really do anything in this story. He just sits around solving a Hanoi Tower puzzle (apparently Hartnell was on holiday when this episode was made). Most of the story focuses on Steven and Dodo solving a bunch of different puzzles and, unfortunately, this is one episode that suffers a lot from the missing footage since a lot of what happens is action-based. Also, the Celestial Toymaker was played by Michael Gough who, many years later, would play Alfred in the 90's Batman movies. Anyway, if you want a Celestial Toymaker story done right, I highly recommend Solitaire from Big Finish's Companion Chronicles range (I've also heard good things about Magic Mousetrap).
! The Savages - A pretty good, if standard, upper-class vs. lower-class struggle story. Not really a whole lot to say about it. This is Steven's last story, but unlike Vicki I don't think his departure was built up all that well.
! The Smugglers - Ben and Polly's first full adventure and it's a good old-fashioned treasure-hunting adventure with pirates. I found this story a little hard to follow, but it's still serviceable fun. Also, this episode is friggin' brutal with people getting stabbed and knifed, so much so that the BBC cut some of the clips from the broadcast. Ironically, this is why a few clips of the episode survive since they saved those cut clips.
! And with that I've seen (or experienced) every Hartnell story. Onto Troughton!

This is because the plot is well thought out. It happens that they work on the first seasons, and then they sculpt scripts and at least something after that. And the audience is not stupid, they see that the quality is deteriorating, the depth of the plot is missing.

@Morris:

I'm certainly not a big fan of this Europe wide competition, or the expanded format, but hey while we have it, let the teams who benefit from it have some time to shine.

As for me, such competitions are an opportunity for athletes to prove themselves. In addition, this is a way of international communication, so such competitions will continue to exist for a long time until an alternative is created.

Seems like there's a decent possibility it once had life. Mars too, for that matter (probably even more likely in that case). Whether either of them still do have "extremophiles", as they're called, is hard to say. Even if they can survive extreme conditions, could they survive those particular extreme conditions? If there was once more life on either of those planets, was it around for enough time to extremophiles to evolve to adapt while other life died out, and continue adapting as conditions continued to change? Guess it's what we hope to learn. Mars seems to have a higher chance than Venus, but it sure would be interesting if either or both of them did.

It would be interesting to get real confirmation of the existence of life on neighboring planets. Indeed, even in the Mariana Trench there is life, and there the conditions of survival are really cruel. After all, during the big bang there was an exchange of substances during the formation of celestial bodies. So, it is likely that samples of some primitive organisms can await us in the solar system.

@Green_vs_Red:

When you look at all the games that came after this that have driving mechanics that range from dumb to "WTF how did someone not get fired for this". Jak 3 looks less stupid by comparison.

I don't like games with overly complex gameplay. I'm still a supporter of an interesting plot, and not the need to poke a million buttons. Since I ditched the old keyboard, I also bought a new Redragon complete with a mouse. Found this cool offer here https://homemakerguide.com/best-wireless-keyboard-and-mouse/. Returned to play Dota2, although without friends it is not so fun. It is a pity not to gather our former company.

@pariston_hill:

Iran probably, the rest of the middle eastern states gave up after the '73 OPEP oil crisis and after US bought Egypt out of the conflict.

Well, this is only a probability, but we have no direct evidence. It would be interesting to see some convincing arguments.

@Nolus:

Well, I got my second shot of Sputnik last Sunday, and I actually had a fairly uneventful night. Meaning I didn't have a fever like last time and slept through almost all of it. My head hurt like hell the next day though, and my arm is still sore, but I'm quite alright now.

Most of my colleagues have gotten their vaccines or are in the process of getting it, my grandparents are already inoculated, and my brother has an appointment for this Saturday.

Only my mom remains, who hasn't even registered yet, and I have no idea how to convince her. Hearing that my brother's getting it gave me hope that she'd come around by now, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It probably didn't help that she overhears a lot of anti-vaccine comments when she goes of bike tours (yes, even with the virus still very much present, she going on these). I feel like I can't do anything, yet fear that one day she'll get infected and end up in a hospital. One of my friends dad died recently of Covid, and it was truly heartbreaking seeing the hope steadily vanish till the very end. Especially after my friend shared with us that his dad asked to be brought home with probably some of his last words. They couldn't do anything though, because he was infectious and he wouldn't have lasted half an hour without the added oxygen-supply.

There are some things I don't miss from before it all started. Commuting hours to and from work, I don't mind skipping forever. Home-office is quite nice, if a tad bit lonely sometimes. I've had enough of fear and stupidity though.

Your story sounds a little hopeless. I am saddened by the fact that the 21st century is still full of people who do not believe in the effectiveness of vaccinations. This is upsetting and I don't even know how you can shut up all those who advocate vaccine refusal at every corner.

@Nilitch:

I actually thought about posting this a week ago too.

Anyway, is it really entirely news though ? I mean, didn't we know some of it years ago ? or at least suspected it.

It will be very interesting to see the result of all this, all these undercover intrigues.