unclevlad

There were about a dozen HBP, yeah...I think it was 9 by NorCal, but not by one pitcher. Don't recall for sure, I don't pay attention that closely. And it was Little League ALL day...9 am to 9 pm. Things run together.

The Stolen Election faction probably figures they've never left that state...they were just biding their time. That said, one has to think that authorities in general are keeping a wary eye out...both for what Trumpists might try to do, and because they may well just protest at federal offices...and potentially trigger a counter-protest. And then....? It's a chain, so it might not fully play out anywhere, but it's a pretty reasonable chain. It could happen.

Trump's reaction is entirely predictable. Reading it is somewhat amusing, but I wish I coulda seen his face when he got the news, or got served the subpoena for the search. THAT would've been priceless. He of course says "never happened to a President"...when, in fact, he's not. I'll grant it's probably never happened to a former President either, but then, no former President has incited sedition.

Firing up...unless you've modified it, the default baseline height is 2 meters. 1 level, 1 meter; 2 levels, 0.5 meters. 3 levels, 0.25 meters. If you've adjusted the height? 1.8 meters --> 0.225 meters, which might get shown in some areas as 0.2. For the other character...check and see if you have the height entered in inches...but the units of measure is set to meters in the preferences?

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I gotta vent. Little League, regional play. Pitch gets away; batter gets hit in the ear flap. LEAST amount of force deflection/absorption. Kid takes 2 steps, then hands go to his head and he drops down to his knees. Then, clearly audible, some (*&#$(WEUR_(QY$T{IQWEP(*^#$U EUP(*@B $C:OIFH@#P(*Y$#*O%U(*&#$@#$#$ is screaming out "you're all right, shake it off!" AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! The kid is NOT!!!! all right. It's a freaking blow to the head...and the kid is clearly affected. Concussion is absolutely a serious concern...and a shot in the temple area, even moreso than usual. EDIT: AFAIK these are in the minority, but...this is worse. From a few weeks ago: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article263405153.html Coach of a 9-10 year old team is smacking the opposing team (who won) during the postgame handshake line. Removed as coach, of course. Better still...the guy's a sergeant in the police department, and has been relieved of duty pending the results of an Internal Affairs investigation. Hope he gets fired, and I suspect the Houston police department may well do it, if the rules allow them to, because smacking around young kids is something NO one will accept. Little League is crazy, cuz you never quite know what's gonna happen. Northern California vs. Hawaii was 3-3 going into the bottom of the 5th. NorCal pitchers had a bad start to the inning...a 3 run shot made it 8-3 at one point, and it's, well...NorCal batters are gonna have their work cut out. Little League only plays 6 innings. But it never got there. At 10-3, Hawaii got another 3 run homer. Which is a walk-off...due to the 10 run rule. Always gotta feel for the losing teams, especially in a game like that, where it came out of the blue. The good news was, it wasn't an elimination game.

That's been true for a couple decades, and a major issue for at least a decade. Not even sure I could pick a single poster boy leading the way...LBJ, Harden, Irving? At least those might be the recent ones.

And the Republicans would stonewall at least 4 nominations until they had control again....

I am extremely glad I'm type 2 and therefore not on insulin. Less about the cost, more about the basic aspect that monitoring is MUCH more of an issue, and swings are more severe. Insulin prices are...tricky, in that the amount a patient needs varies quite a bit. And in the last few years, there've been multiple synthetic, cheaper alternatives. Some brands offer essentially co-insurance, so the cost drops; my test strips had these. A box of 200 lists for $180; I think my net was $45. That said, anything related to drug prices can be a tipping-point issue for the people involved. Medical costs generally, and thus drug prices specifically, are huge for us older folk. A flat refusal will be grounds for voter pushback against the 'pubs...but those who vote that way, probably vote anti-'pub regardless. It's not that likely to change that many votes.

I wonder if some of these changes were encouraged by ESPN. They only need 2 crews for the regionals, and they don't need unique crews for the First Four games. It also makes for easier logistics, by and large, for the NCAA. Note...not necessarily the teams, but who cares about the teams? They're just the tools.

My blood sugar levels do not find certain of these recent videos amusing in the slightest...........

Warner Bros Discovery stock price cratered...CNBC's word. -16% yesterday alone. Yahoo! Finance headline: Warner Bros. Discovery results 'pretty awful' as growth plan 'looks bleak': Analyst

This is Fox News today. https://news.yahoo.com/fox-host-women-must-married-155244605.html Kari Lake might be the best shot the Democrats have to win in Arizona. She's a disaster waiting to happen.

Jury reached a number on the punitive damages in the Sandy Hook case. $45,000,000. Yes indeed. Victims asked for $146M, to make the whole thing $150M....but $50M total feels pretty good to me.

OK, fair enough. Flip side: when we know that any efforts to interfere with the pursuit of every last buck, are made as difficult as possible, why is it surprising that so much does get by for so long?

Not really. Far too often, it's all about the cost. Especially if the common culprit is that big square-box brown van we all recognize? That's sheet metal walls...painted a nice, heat-absorbing dark color? With NO windows? How many of those are on the road, and what would be the cost to retrofit each one? It is somewhat surprising this has gone on as long as it has; it's not new: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ups-drivers-heat-exhaustion-death/ But the managers' reactions are pretty typical. I remember issues with back injuries with, IIRC, the package companies and Wal-Mart, at different times. Quite similar. Managers are going to do everything possible to minimize the issue; workmen's comp claims look bad on their record, and probably tend to draw unwonted attention from OSHA. Not just one claim, but multiples. One also has to wonder...if it does come to OSHA's attention, how diligent are their people with their investigation? Especially in a situation like this. It's quite plausible to me that the legal demand for every i to be properly dotted, every t to be properly crossed, every one of the 217 blanks filled in properly, makes it exceptionally burdensome for the inspectors to actually DO anything...and that the companies KNOW this.

Interesting. Scrolling down the comments, someone asked "how many times each logo appears. The OP did the counting...he's got to have younger eyes than me. Since this doesn't cover pitchers, except for the #1 starter, it's a little off, but it does offer an indication about each team's long-term draft efficiency. Some teams will trade draft picks, so it's not completely accurate...but quite often, it's trading prospects, and here, it's legit to look at how many do make it. It's probably dead wrong to try to read too much into it, but when has that ever stopped fans?

Ah, now there's a laudable (?!?!?) pastime.... Assign the proper cartoon character to NFL teams.... Dallas: Foghorn Leghorn LV Raiders: Henery Hawk Washington: Pepe le Pew

Yeah, separate negations are nothing. I like stun-only damage negation (in a layered defense); you do the same thing. Segregate out the dice in some manner.

Well, a quintessential Modern Baseball game today. A's at Angels. Angels blast 7 homers...and lose. Because all of em were solo shots. Because they only managed 9 hits total. They scored 7...leaving only 4 runners on base. Because the starter imploded in the 3rd...single, force out, walk, walk, double, double, home run. 6 runs. Couple more the next inning, 8 runs total, and they hold on for an 8-7 win despite the bombardment. Someone on MLB Network was criticizing their pitching, after Ohtani...but it's been a bit below middle of the pack. Not terrible. But their team OPS is 26th...with Ohtani, sometimes with Trout. I believe they've been hammered with injuries, ok, and Trout's still out, but they have squat for depth, and according to MLB.com's rankings, probably not gonna get any. And not getting much in their trade moves. Which points a finger squarely at the front office...again.

And in Kentucky, 4 police officers are facing federal charges in the Breonna Taylor shooting. From NYT: It might not go as far as many want, but it's a DARN sight better than letting the officers skate, and letting the state authorities let them skate, on the false information claim.

So Goodell appointed someone else. Probably wise. But the power to appoint unilaterally is itself a biased process. Ms. Robinson was a jointly appointed individual. The person hearing the appeal is not; it's strictly Lord Roger's choice. And one can *readily* argue it's problematic. A federal prosecutor in the areas of violence and sexual assault? I concede the expertise...but how does his past as a former prosecutor influence his consideration? Prosecutors *tend* to lean to the side of More Punishment. It feels like this might well be grounds to take the whole process into court as unfair and prejudicial...which is the kind of grounds they need, to overturn a binding arbitration provision.

Yah, first verdict in: Jones loses, ordered to pay $4M. And the jury didn't take long to get there...deliberating less than a day according to NYT. That part is awesome. How much those parents will ever see...that remains to be seen, as I expect Jones to try more shenanigans to hide his assets. OR, of course, effectively getting handed money under the table. Another story in the NYT today. In light of Kansas' very convincing: 59-41 to keep the right to abortion in the state constitution. NOT terribly surprisingly, it galvanized turnout...very likely to voie against the ballot measure, which would've pulled it. NYT gave a map of other states that may well do the same thing. SOooooo...that got me thinking. The map shows, according to polling, 50-55% of Texans back the right to abortion. Well, now. It would be a SWEET, SWEET smackdown against Abbott if Texans could pass a constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, in order to get onto the ballot...it needs a 2/3 vote of the combined members of both houses of the state legislature. Yeah, that has no chance of happening....

I've certainly seen massive layoff rumors; whether these are really separate, independent suggestions or simply the Internet Echo Chamber at work, we don't know. But if he does cut 70%, then many HBO Max subscribers will flee; another big chunk will shift to a lower-cost, lower-access plan focusing on movie (especially older, movie library) access. I've been thinking that there would be some major shakeouts in the streaming marketplace, as we get major players moving heavily into the arena. I didn't expect that one of em would be due to necrotically toxic management.

Yeah, while I believe it got bad audience reviews, I do wonder if they were *as* bad as CRT reported. Because that's Warner pulling a CYA move, potentially, when really, it's about Max Hatred. https://www.ign.com/articles/warner-bros-discovery-quietly-cutting-other-movies-amid-shock-batgirl-cancellation The earnings call hasn't happened yet...it's already noon West Coast time, so even if they're California-based, they're taking their sweet time. I'm beginning to wonder if they're deliberately waiting for the market to close...which is NOT!!!! a good sign. Yahoo! Finance has a story; it expects I'd say that counts as news that will drive the stock price down substantially, personally...................... I also figure that many analysts may go to a solid SELL position on Warner generally, as I think few will expect their reliance on theatrical releases to work. And as we said over in the other thread...pushing reality shows is a massive turn-off for a LOT of people.

Is my brain turned on? That's the part you missed. The answer is...only sometimes. I do that, yes, but there are those days when my brain doesn't click as well as before. BTW, I personally always stay with DCs until the end. STR and MA DCs are straightforward DCs. The attack power is where the advantages lay, and where sometimes things get messy. HA, NND, Does BODY, versus Power Def...+ 1 1/2. If you're buying 3 dice...that's 7.5 DCs so far, and I'm the type to keep the half DC for now. Then figure, say, +60 DCs for STR and MA DC's. 13.5 / 2.5 == 27 / 5 == 5.4...I'll tend to chop to 5. I really prefer to avoid half dice with normal damage dice. BUT, with martial arts, the extra DCs commonly include 0, 2, or 4 from the maneuver. Or +3; I rather like a custom Power Strike that's +1 OCV, +0 DCV, and +3 DCs. When you're juggling 2 HAs (Does BODY or not) and perhaps 3-4 different net additional DCs, it's a little complex. But yeah, as you note...in the end, if they are that messy (and they're sometimes worse)...that's what Notes are for.