unclevlad

A "lab" can also be a type of practice/development area. I take OPs notion as basically a holodeck approach.

This is if you do still care... Butternut squash. Clean out the seeds, break down into a few manageable chunks (also makes it easier to seed), salt, seasonings, a bit of oil. Slow roast at 275 for 45-60 minutes. Let cool. The skin can be cut off easily at this point. Messy, what with the oil and all. After that? Measured amount of roasted squash, about 50% more liquid, by weight. I use unsweetened almond milk. Salt, sweetener (light touch to start), seasonings...tonight was five spice and cinnamon. Puree til smooth; I use my smoothie blender. Then just heat over low heat to avoid burning, and covered to prevent splatter (and evaporation...the squash makes a thick emulsion by trapping the free water, so you don't have much spare liquid.) Sooooo good. Works with acorn squash, altho that's even milder than butternut, and pumpkin, preferably pie pumpkin. I love fall. I wish I could get the array of fall seasonal beers that were around, 15-20 years ago, but...not available locally....

In the What the......... category Aroldis Chapman has been put onto the 15 day IL due to, apparently, a rather nasty infection in his leg. The WTF aspect? It was from getting a tattoo. Can't make this stuff up...

If you bar the direct route, then you should absolutely bar the indirect route...especially if it makes it cheaper. And this is just getting way too convoluted for my taste. Actually, I can see how this would work in that case...as long as one kept it highly specific. This is from a wiki article on a related practice: So it's a binary agent...the triggering agent, arsenic, is there to produce the reaction...THEN the second component reacts with the immune response, in whatever form, and *boom.* There's precedent for this. Parathion and malathion are both pesticides. In humans, malathion is generally the more lethal, because parathion is neutralized by the liver, IIRC. However, a tiny dose of malathion knocks this response out...and at that point, parathion is the more lethal. Believe that's correct, anyway...I'm going back, cuz I'm pretty sure this was in Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's seminal early work on environmental damage. I think some snake or spider venoms work that way too...some are exceptionally complex, and have components that disrupt the response to other components, so the whole is nastier than the parts. Alternately, the binary agent's secondary component reacts with the secondary metabolic byproducts of the body's response to the main toxin. But again, these are quite specific.

Guy needs to stop being so easily distracted... There's a lot to be said for starting a reset by cutting WAY back. I'm looking over what DC's got out now...and it is a jumbled mess. NINE different Batman series? One thing tho: being tied to mega corps means that suddenly paying living wage rates for pages seems unduly optimistic. It's not how they work. If the core talent isn't there, then the quality can't be, even if there's better editorial control.

Yeah, they weren't bad ideas, it's the way they were introduced, and the way the whole thing was such a massive retcon. Retcons BAD.

Anyone else see this? Braves are up big, 9th inning. Pitching isn't all that sharp...couple runs scoring, couple more on. Not worrisome by any means, but not what a manager wants to see. But then, the pitcher, Jackson Stephens, takes one *SQUARE* on the forehead...near the hairline, above the right eye. OOOF. He never drops down to the ground, but there was no question he *had* to come out of the game. Leaving him in would be reckless. News today, he was put on the 7 day concussion list, but there was no further word. Also saw: Adidas just dropped Tatis after his PED suspension. That's gonna sting; got to figure he had a *nice* sized deal with them. He may lose others, too; he's been one of the most prolific, high-profile pitchmen from MLB this year. Final note: we haven't hit September...and the Dodgers' number to clinch a playoff berth is 17.

What I saw, to the limited extent I paid any attention... --horrible art. First and foremost. SO bad that it completely disrupted any attempt to tell a story, at least for me. --Continuity disruptions. I think the big one for me was the death of Superman...only to bring him back in so many bizarre ways. --The storylines I saw got to be beyond ridiculous, MUCH of the time.

Went to school in Boulder back in the Big 8 days. HATED Nebraska. Partly because they beat us like a drum...we'd hang with Oklahoma some years before getting waxed, but Nebraska games were a disaster. But more...second worst fans I remember. LSU showed up freshman year; they were worse. Then Nebraska. So, yeah, they're not exactly on my favorites list. And it's been a source of continual amusement that they fire Frank Solich, who gets them into the final poll top-10 3 times...and never get close. 4 or more losses every year, only marginally relevant nationally one time. And then of course, they bail... And during Covid, Frost was a jerk. So...yeah, it's almost as good when they lose as when the Cowboys do. Utah State 31, NoConn(test) 20, 6 minutes left. In the words of your hero, Mr. P.... R e l a x <ducks the barrage and flees....>

What level of LS: poison? It's an extremely vague, horribly scaled power, and the examples in HD make no sense if you know anything about poisons. Ophidotoxins...? No such thing. I presume it means snake bites, but those are all over the board. Rattlesnake venom disrupts muscle tissue, IIRC; cobra venom's a neurotoxin. Generally, I'd discourage something like this. On the one hand, it won't come into play very often, unless it's any level of LS that's poison-related, and that becomes pretty weird to explain. In general, tho, I don't like attacks like this, where it feels like "oh I'm gonna hose you *because* you spent points on something to do you some good." NNDs should only be "when you don't have..." and never, IMO, "when you do have...."

I'd grant that one. Someone could pull a dagger, and the character's STR would still apply. Plus, of course, doing killing dice to the entangle. But just allowing some movement isn't enough in itself. Go with the Limited Power guideline...how often would this make the entangle less effective? A funky speedster-like spinning power isn't something I'd expect to see. That's not to say there might not be some other examples where it might apply, but it seems unlikely to me.

Nebraska coach Scott Frost's job couldn't have been very secure coming into this season. 4 years, combined 15-29; 10-25 in conference play. So today...Nebraska plays a good first half, but gives up a late drive; Northwestern has a 17-14 halftime lead. The second half starts out GREAT for the cornheads...force punt, TD, force fumble, TD. 28-17. Awesome. Then the roof caved in. A VERY questionable onside kick fails. NW slams it down the short field. Nebraska's possessions for the rest of the game: punt, punt, INT, punt, punt, INT that ended the game, as NW got the go-ahead TD, and ran a pretty good clock-burning drill. 9 plays, 4 minutes, forced Mini Red to burn 2 TOs. In those 6 drives, they ran only 23 plays total. One can expect mistakes, especially this week, but this is another close loss, and another blown lead. That's pattern and practice. It's hard to gauge Northwestern, in that they've been good and bad...10-3, 9-5, 3-9, 7-2, 3-9 the last 5 years. (One has to wonder about conference scheduling, due to the bloated size of the conference. There are years when a team can miss most of the better teams, and years when they get overwhelmed.) But this was a conference loss, and it's another one in the bad pattern that's been Frost's tenure. And with his record, one can't expect patience from the boosters. I note CBS Sports rates the heat at 5 for Frost...win or be fired. They call it the hottest seat in the country...only Herm Edwards also gets a 5, for various reasons they mention. Bleacher Report opines bowl or bust, as does Yahoo Sports. (They point out that Frost's buyout became much more school-friendly, not a good sign.)

He should've been shaved.......................

Who's bigger? Warner's owned by AT&T. They're the biggest on the block. There were anti-trust issues before this, and trying to combine with someone else would clearly draw regulators' eyes. Whether they could stop it might be a different question, of course. But half their problem is the massive debt load taken on to manage this merger...Disney has the same problem to, IIRC, a somewhat lesser degree. https://www.zippia.com/advice/largest-media-conglomerates/ I'm not pushing for Warner or DC to fail, but I'm also not in favor of keeping them on life support if they've so badly mangled their business affairs. It's plausible to me that the only way they survive is to be spun off, to re-think their entire product strategy assuming the numbers the guy cited were even vaguely correct, and to start over with material people want to read and see. And going back just a bit further, how many times did people go to see the first 3 Star Wars? But I think Ternaugh's right; delaying the streaming and video releases won't work consistently. There might be times when you can, but those windows are likely narrow...during summer, there's multiple blockbusters coming out, for example. As a side thought: people may not go as often because ticket prices are higher. To a point, it's partly the theaters...the 2 first-run ones here have gone to larger seats, but fewer, and often have high-end sound. Those seats run, IIRC, $11, which is about 50% more, after adjusting for inflation, than ET tickets. And the practice of no discounts is firmer, at least for the first couple weeks. I saw the 3 LOTRs mid-week, mid-afternoon...Christmas season, so it was pretty crowded still..and got discounts. The biggest ones now, don't do that. YMMV on that; Allen Theaters pretty much has a monopoly locally.

The alt-right doing what it does best...distort and demonize.

Look at The Batman. Started in 4400 theaters. 4th week, still over 4000. 2nd Friday, $4200 per location. 3rd Friday, $2500. 4th Friday, $1400. 5th Friday, 3700 locations, $825 per. 6th Friday, still at 3250 locations, but now it's down to $550 per. Those who wanted to see it...have seen it. And this roll-off is for the 4th highest grossing (domestic only) movie this year. Domestic take total: $370M. Of that, $300M came in the first 17 days...the 3rd weekend. That's 80% of the revenue in that period, and therefore...I'd guess, 65-70% of tickets. The initial part of the run is when the fewest discounts are given.

And on 216, Escaping From Entangles...one of the methods is Contortionist to get out of handcuffs. Contortionist implies movement of body parts. I generally dislike making too much of SFX vs. SFX, but this might be one of the cases where you may have to. I'll disagree on one thing: the rule you cite does say "typically" it renders a character fully immobile. Personally, I'd be very hard-pressed to allow a limitation when it doesn't, because the SFX might allow one type of escape, but not another. If you're going to use SFX issues in your adjudication process, some seeming mechanical limits have to disappear, IMO. A sphere completely surrounding someone, assuming it's basically solid (no holes), blocks Shrinking and Desolid that can't pass through solids, as well as alternate desolid below fully desolid.

Because for whatever combination of factors, I don't think it works that way. Assuming a Thursday or Friday intro, I'm pretty sure the first weekend is the largest weekend most of the time...and if not the first, then the 2nd. After that, I believe the drop-off is typically steady, perhaps even sharp. Here's one movie: Knives Out! Last theatrical I saw. Good fun, altho Daniel Craig's accent was less than convincing. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3204875777/ Note that about 25% of its box office was in the first 5 days. And while it lasted...note the decline in the # of theaters, as it likely moved from a prime spot, to secondary in the first-run theaters, and down to the budget theaters. Also note that it had a Thanksgiving release, got its good pub, then did another about $35M over Christmas. But also note: this was also the type of film...high-level ensemble cast, appealing to a broad audience as a mix of comedy, drama, and mystery. A superhero movie has a LOT harder time doing this. For a comparison, The Batman: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl67732993/ First weekend (Fri-Sun): $134M. Second weekend: $66M. Third weekend: $37M. Fourth weekend: $20M. Fifth weekend: $10M. I believe, by and large, this is the pattern for supers movies...typically to a rather smaller degree of course.

The only "conceptual" crowd funding effort I've backed was for Champions Now. IIRC, that ran long. Otherwise, it's been product-based...generally watches, one of my other hobbies. Even here: different projects have seemed to be at different levels of development when the campaign kicked off. Some have worked great; some, not so much. Sometimes I think it was inadequate development...one guy had a very interesting idea, but his first attempt at the special, central, unusual element *bombed* and he had to go back and get that redone. Then there were some serious logistical breakdowns, that likely were based on inexperience. Got the watch, but IIRC, about 15 months late. And lousy communication. The backers were not happy campers. Another one got metaphorically bitten by the snake in the box. Standard movement, that was fine...but he'd promised to make a small, standard enough tweak. The problem is...it required a part, that could only be obtained from someone OTHER than the movement supplier. (Don't ask. It's complicated.) They said no. SO he had to scramble to find enough of those parts...which took 3-4 months. I always felt the guy behind the campaign probably felt hosed, but there could've also been other issues. Either way...that brand has never released another watch. Oh wow, that's one I forgot...the Remix Mini. First KS I ever backed. It was supposed to be a micro-PC running Android. Got a refund on that one. And, yeah....the amount of front-end work on a product KS is insane. On a creative one, it might look to be more back-end but I'd bet that's a trap, big time, as CRT suggests. There's ALWAYS more work to be done to nail a creative project than you see at first glance.

It is said, go not to the Hasbros for answers, for they will say yes and no....

Is this practical? Yes, it might've worked with the later-stage MCU, but that level of success is HARD to achieve. That level of movie also comes along only a couple times a year. And, if the books have to be subsidized, they're eating up the HARD to obtain movie profits. Movies are an extremely expensive gamble to begin with...so suggesting they'd have to subsidize a possible secondary revenue stream seems like the accounting side is just going to *cringe.* And so will the stock market, if the profits aren't up to snuff. Secondary concern: this feels like a long-term strategy...years, even decades to pay off. THAT doesn't work; these days you've 1 or 2 quarters. I'd also say that DC *can't* try this...their debt load is simply too high. They need to funnel a major portion of their revenue streams into debt service; subsidizing is just not practical.

LW's point got me thinking... If you want to do this, how about penalty skill levels with improvised weapons? I'd be fine saying they're 1 point for HTH or Ranged, separately, 2 point levels for both. These would be penalties based on the improv weapon's deficiencies.

The upside? From the story: Specifically, the guy with the obscene and misogynistic sign...who we presume is there with his kid. Like the guy said...feel bad for the kid.

Going into the bottom of the 8th, the Dodgers are up 12-4 on the Brewers, in Dodger Stadium. Not surprisingly, then, the Brewers use a position player for the bottom of the 8th, and the Dodgers use one for the top of the 9th. That's the 90th and 91st time a position player's been used this year...setting a new record. With a) nearly 1/4 of the season left to go, and b) when the games just playing out the string...both teams eliminated or hopeless, and c) the September call-ups are MUCH more limited again this year, so you won't have the massive cadre of young pitchers you want to take a look at

Thanks. Interesting. It got introduced, it got sent to committee.......and that's the last anyone's heard of it. Both Houses, BTW. While it's possible something will happen, there isn't much time left. They don't reconvene until after Labor Day. https://ballotpedia.org/117th_Congress_legislative_calendar Scroll down a bit for the week-to-week calendar.