unclevlad

Lawsuits

jokes....very bad ones

There are questions best left unasked....

hydrofluoric acid (ok, so I'm on an Evil Chemist kick)

Fluoroantimonic acid is a mixture of hydrogen fluoride and antimony pentafluoride, containing various cations and anions (the simplest being H2F+ and SbF− 6). This substance is a superacid that can be in excess of a quadrillion times stronger than 100% pure sulfuric acid, depending on the proportion of its ingredients. It has been shown to protonate even hydrocarbons to afford pentacoordinate carbocations (carbonium ions).[1] Extreme care must be taken when handling fluoroantimonic acid. It is exceptionally corrosive, but can be stored in containers lined with PTFE (Teflon).

Azidoazide azide (look it up if you've never heard of it...nasty, nasty, nasty, nasty!)

Nope, NM. So presumably then, at least 2.

Edmonton's goalie is gonna get ripped...less than halfway through the second, it's 6-3 Avs. BUT Colorado's got 25 shots on goal in 27 minutes. Last goal came after Colorado kept it in the offensive zone, pushing at the net 3, 4, 5 times until a screened shot from the top got through. Colorado offense is a step and a half ahead of the Edmonton defense. Not like Colorado's defense has been particularly sterling...

So, USPS Informed Delivery showed a few things arriving. One was the bill for the blood tests from my annual a few weeks ago. Knew that was likely coming, didn't know when. Another was a check from the state. Huh...did I mess up the state return and miss a deduction? That would be nice... Of course, advance expectation is that the second will be smaller than the first, right? Well...the check was a $250 tax rebate the state's sending to everyone due to the recent economic strains. How nice!! I never knew. Like I said, I suppose I should pay more attention to local news. And even better? The bill was much less. Mad money!!!

The other argument for -1/4 for "magic" might be that ALL powers take that as its SFX, so it can't trigger a vulnerability to e.g. fire, even if it's a fireball. Magical fire is not fire, it's magic. Note that I'd also probably limit some of the more exotic aspects like what can be targeted with an AVAD, if Magic Defense doesn't exist. SFX aspects are a lot less meaningful against AVADs.

I'd actually build it as a Hidden Life power. You'd have to target the seat of life; even mangling the body wouldn't necessarily be enough. There might be some limit to that, but even, say, doing enough damage to get to -2X BODY might not be lethal per se. (The character has to also have Resurrection regen to be meaningful.) Hidden life could mean that the body will reassemble itself in time...but that means at least the head and trunk have to be reconstructed. If parts are close by? Then they may reconstruct on their own. If not? Then it can't happen. So Lurker's carting her head around to avoid someone locking it away or tossing it into the Cracks of Doom. This is, by and large, a plot device power, so...points, schmoints. What matters is, what are the consequences? Effect on Perception...normal sight might be gone, but perhaps not stuff from the Unusual Senses group. I don't recall if Lurker had gestures/incants...been a LONG time since I read the Black Company...but you could substitute an activation roll like 13- instead...sometimes she messes up. It's all plot device at this point, so it's whatever fits the story. And here's a hint...characters from books, movies, and ESPECIALLY comics are often HARD!!!! to define. Plot device abounds. Maguffins multiply like tribbles. Writers never care about points, it's "whatever fits the story."

And EPIC it was. 6-2, 4-6 (in 88 minutes!!!), 6-2, 7-6 FOR RAFA!!!!! Didn't expect it. Rafa was up 6-2, 3-0, then lost 6 of 7. Figured...ok, that might be it...but came back and played brilliantly in the 3rd. 4th was a slugfest.

In case you're wondering how serious a crime this was? Very. http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0800-0899/0836/Sections/0836.10.html The sentencing guideline appears to be 15 years. The idiot is 18, too, so he'll be prosecuted as an adult. The law's wording doesn't appear to give the defense much room at all. The fact that they're airguns doesn't matter; many such look *quite* realistic, and that constitutes a believable threat. 20-odd years ago, maybe the "where's the nearest school" might've been taken as a joke...but rarely so now, and 3 days after Uvalde....HECK no.

If I may conflate the last 2 posts... Cygnia's article shows why Pariah's article is never going to work. Cygnia's article demonstrates the lack of rationality on the right; Mr. P's is an exercise in rationality. The Republicans and their propaganda engine disguised as news media, peddle a mix of fear, exaggeration, and dismissal. They play purely on emotion, and that's almost impossible to counter with rationality. Upside: the NRA's membership itself is declining. This may tie into LL's point from earlier...their complete refusal to ever even *consider* tightening gun laws is hard to support in the face of so many dead kids. This makes some sense to be the more convincing crack in the Republican armor, and getting some people to turn away from them. We can hope, but I'll believe it when the elections show it. Because they're still nominating the Vance types. Not all the time, it's by no means a lock-step, but still fairly often.

A French Open quarter final match for the ages. Djokovic vs. Nadal. First time ever where both players in a match have 20+ Slams, 1000+ Tour-level or Slam match wins, and 300+ Slam match wins. Federer has the most GS match wins at 363; Djokovic is at 325, and Nadal broke 300 earlier in the tournament. Among the men? The next best is Jimmy Connors, at 233. Some of this that tennis was acrimonious in Connors' day. He never played the French. And travel: he only played the Aussie twice. That wasn't that unusual back then. I'm not sure, tho, that anyone will pull off numbers like the big three. No one right now shows the consistency they've had.

Nope. But one can also argue, define mental competency. Show me a valid test or measure to prove mental competency...that's accepted as such. And always recognize that the Trumps and MTGs were elected. The indictment isn't on them, it's on the electorate.

When you skate on thin ice, sometimes it breaks. It's all over but the crying. Carolina's 7 game home win streak...paired with their 6 game road losing streak...made the ice pretty thin. 3-0 at the end of 2. RANGERS. 4-0 a few minutes in. Power play for Carolina made it 4-1 with 12 minutes left, and ignited *some* optimism..... Until 40 seconds later when the Rangers picked off another aggressive pass, and made it 5-1. With under 9 minutes...it's more likely, IMO, to get worse than get closer. Carolina has to try pulling the goalie SOON to have any chance, EDIT: and it's over. Carolina coach is likely to face questions; he didn't pull the goalie until almost the 3 minute mark. Yeah, Hurricane scratched out a goal at around the 5 minute mark but....so what? Of course, the more likely event with a pulled goalie is...an empty net goal. Yep. 6-2 Rangers. On to the conference finals.

Ecological disruptions (yes, this covers things climate change doesn't, like deforestation and oceanic acidification)

I don't have any peach tree dishes. I do, however, have a nice aspen tree dish. Nice, small tray, basically. I don't really think MTG is mentally ill; I think she's that willfully ignorant. Do like one line from that story...she's a walking, breathing SNL skit. Snowmaggedon...<sigh>. Too much like the most overused phrase of recent times...the "perfect storm." And of course, the puerile need to exaggerate/shock that seems to be endemic with the media. OK, I'm grumpy this morning. Not enough coffee yet....

https://www.livingin-canada.com/climate-calgary.html And note that you're down to 8 hours of sunlight in mid-winter. Edmonton is worse...for one thing, it's on the plains on its own. Alberta can get Chinook winds coming down the Rockies. December/January average high temps are about 10 degrees F colder in Edmonton than in Calgary. And thank you Mr. P, may I have another? If I was gonna do it, Vancouver area would be tempting, but...while it'll never be as cold, it'll ALWAYS be wetter. In some ways, I'd rather have 25 F and dry, rather than 40 and humid.

Sam Spade (Bogey's character in Maltese Falcon)

Peter Pan

That doesn't explain parting with your top players, tho, which devalues the franchise somewhat. Now, ok, if that's part of the reason...the other part being, they didn't think they could keep Wilson, for example...then clearing the deck makes more sense. But the sale's not expected to happen that quickly, from what I read. Not this year, possibly not even 2023. That's a long time in football limbo if you don't start the rebuild soonish.

Well, it's not like you follow an NFL team...

Being put on the IL means you have to sit out, I believe, 10 days at minimum. Used to be 15 but it was shortened a few years ago. Report is he may actually be available as a backup today, so IL is not likely. I suspect they may try a flapper as a neck guard, tho, at least for a couple weeks.