“Scotland” is very literal. It’s the land of the Scots
In Scottish Gaelic - never the language of the whole area of the modern day country and a very small minority nowadays, but nonetheless a language that is uniquely Scottish and very influential on our history - it’s Alba. This one is kind of interesting, because it originally meant the entire island of Great Britain. “Scotland” in Scottish Gaelic therefore sort of means “Scotland, England, and Wales”
I have a personal suspicion - while recognising that I am by no means an expert on the topic and have no real evidence - that that origin story is a reflection of the Proto-Indo-European migrations as viewed through a lens of contact with Rome. The PIE homeland was roughly modern day Ukraine. When Romans show up in Britain and talk to the locals, their empire would have been the first society to have some knowledge of that area that Britons or Gaels had met in… well, forever. If they successfully described the area of the PIE homeland, a Roman with a good knowledge of the geography of the empire and its surroundings during the period of Roman arrival in the isles would say that they were describing Scythia
They’re actually not bad for space! I’m about 1.9m / 6’3", and while I’m not that heavily-built I’m definitely not unusually slim. It wasn’t roomy for sure, but I fit just fine. The lack of a roof did at least mean that headroom wasn’t a concern
I did once have to back out of a purchase of a second gen Toyota MR2 because I was too tall. That was a deeply disappointing day
I’m in the UK where people do have an unfortunate obsession with SUVs but we mostly don’t have the really enormous American ones. Since our roads tend to be significantly narrower than American ones - especially in rural areas and older towns - when you do see one of those big trucks like a Hummer or something they just look like they got lost and are now stuck
Much as I do agree with everyone talking about public transport here on an actual sensible and rational level, I do still like cars and driving no matter how much I agree that the world would be a better place were they rendered irrelevant.
So in the spirit of the question: the Morgan Supersport. It looks magnificent, Morgans are supposed to be great to drive, it’s quite small and still fairly luxurious, it’s pretty fast but not so fast that it becomes functionally unusable on actual roads, and the company still describes itself as a coachbuilder so you can tweak every little detail to your pleasing
There’s a place near-ish me that offers them for hire for a day. They’re every bit as fun as you’d expect. Exhausting, but fun
Is it particularly more your fault that things don’t better in Souls games than in any other game in which you are meant to save the world? I think the only difference is that in the Souls ones and others like them, the world is already horrible and needs repaired in some way rather than on the verge of becoming horrible
Interestingly Elden Ring went for quite a different direction. The world is, unquestionably, still an enormous mess that would be horrendous to live in, but they’ve left in far more of the beauty. I particularly like how every so often you hear hostile NPCs playing music or singing if they haven’t spotted you yet, and how there’s a little puzzle side quest about a painter; people are still making art in this ongoing apocalypse. One important allied NPC even actually openly makes an argument that the world is worth preserving if it looks like you’re going for the “destroy everything” ending
Of course the atmosphere and gameplay are still heavy going, both in the Souls trilogy and Elden Ring. I get why that wouldn’t be for everyone. It’s like playable Cormac McCarthy stories, except you can punch your way out of most of the misery if you get it right
I’d be very surprised if “cartoony style” and “low-tech vibe” is not describing Wilds. I assume the bit about respecting of time is something to do with the various timed events in each loop like Ash Twin. I don’t agree with them in the slightest, but I assume that’s what it is
I’m not sure I’d count Outer Wilds as a space game (assuming you mean something in the vein of Elite Dangerous), despite it objectively including a lot of space travel. It’s a detective game, the point is to unravel a mystery
Could you talk a little more about the aesthetics thing? I have no intention to pick a fight with you or tell you that your opinion is wrong, I’m just curious because I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that about them before
Also yes the no pausing thing is very frustrating
The gear would not have saved you. The game gets substantially more difficult as you progress, even accounting for your character getting stronger, and if you don’t do a decent job of levelling up appropriate skills that will compound the issue. The starter gear for most of the classes is actually perfectly viable all the way to the end of the game for most players too, it’s not notably weak at all
I love Elden Ring, but I can absolutely respect why it wouldn’t be for everyone. No sense in playing it if you’re not enjoying it, the point is still to have a good and/or interesting time
I would argue it can be, even if it isn’t always. I don’t go for radio pop at all, but we can agree that it changes substantially over time right? Billie Eilish doesn’t sound like Imagine Dragons, who in turn didn’t sound like Britney Spears. New ideas are being brought to the genre and to popularity all the time, otherwise we’d still have Beatles soundalikes dominating the radio
I hope this can bring you some measure of joy and isn’t too silly for the context https://youtu.be/7JkrJUAg8aI
I’d guess pilot goggles rather than VR
No, not quite. Cargo cults didn’t worship the vehicles, rather the notion of the abundance that they brought. The famous Melanesian ones in WWII happened in societies in which gift-giving was already the key to social power; when WWII came along, both the Japanese and Allied forces brought unbelievable quantities of supplies to the islands and then also intentionally handed out a lot of stuff in order to play into that social practice. It was enough that some locals interpreted it as a sign that they could return to their old ways that had been suppressed under Christian colonial rule, the first signs of a coming new age of prosperity
Anyway all that is to say that no, uncontacted tribes can’t have cargo cults because part of the formation of a cargo cult involves contact
Seems like we’re not entirely sure, but the most widely-accepted theory is that Portuguese sailors heard a Sinhala name and got it a little muddled when telling others Europeans about it
One British guy who got captured there while working for the East India Company wrote that it was this, except for that Europeans intentionally named it after Christopher Columbus because it already sounded really similar
Is that not the suspended deputies describing the act as incompatible with Jewish values? I’m not sure whether “the act” here is the attack on Gaza or the suspensions, though. It’s a very poorly-written sentence on the part of the article’s author
Oh okay, I understand now. Thanks
I was greatly surprised when I learned that the country is named after the tree and not the other way around