unclevlad

I missed this. MLB has finally reached a decision in the Trevor Bauer case. Prosecutors refused to file charges, but there's quite a bit of ground between criminal (and provable beyond a reasonable doubt) and acceptable under MLB's domestic violence and personal conduct policy. Friday, MLB suspended Bauer...which means, without pay...for 2 years. While he was on administrative leave since this started, he got paid. Writing in the NY Post, Jon Heyman, who's an old school baseball writer, offered up the severity may in part be due to Bauer's rejection of wrongdoing in any form. This is going to arbitration. If Bauer loses there (and I suspect Heyman's right...MLB probably has an avalanche of evidence to levy a punishment like this)...he'll probably sue MLB. Probably not to overturn the arbitration results; courts VERY, VERY rarely interfere there. But for something like defamation. Heck, he'll probably sue, regardless. He's got what I think is a meritless lawsuit against The Athletic, filed at the end of March, for defamation by omission. One can never be 100% certain...DeShaun Watson and the Browns have proven that owners with no scruples and less judgment exist, after all...but it seems difficult to envision Bauer pitching again. Unlike Watson, Bauer's age will be an issue. He'll be 33, and out of pitching for close to 3 years. There's much less mid- to long-term upside to the risk.

And if you were one of those homeowners, wouldn't that be YOUR main concern?

Yeah, by this point, they're usually black and blue.

Clayton Kershaw just tied the Dodger franchise record for career strikeouts. Granted, the strikeout numbers are grossly inflated in the current game, but that's still impressive.

OTOH, according to the Fox Sports crawl, Georgia set a new high water mark for players drafted from one team in one draft, at 15, passing 2020 LSU (Joe Burrow, undefeated SEC, national champs) and 2004 Ohio State. Each had 14. (Note: this was for a 7 round draft. Used to be longer, but the success rate of 6th and 7th round picks is pretty darn low in the first place...give the marginal players more options.) Also, Georgia had 5 defensive players drafted in the first round...also a record. I'll probably spend some time tomorrow reading the draft snark and seeing who made themselves a laughingstock. I'm easily amused, I know.

The issues of public perception are not irrelevant, tho. Also, your case *might* happen...with these rents, it *was* happening. So it's a potential vs. an actual. How would you feel if the houses on both sides of you, suddenly held a half dozen people each? I'm not saying its socially just, but social justice is something most want to see happen Somewhere Else.

It isn't a student area. The issues are --perceived damage to the property values in the area...will those properties be maintained? What would a few of these do to the perception of the neighborhood? --increased traffic, noise, and trash --potentially increased crime The roots here may well be both racist and classist...the latter would seem to be a given. Not that they'd be admitted openly, most likely, but they're there. There is a flip side here. One of the stories cites an example of a 4 bedroom house getting reconfigured as a 7 bedroom house. That would bother me, too. I think the ordinance is likely to be overly broad...but I'm not sure it's completely out of line here. Not in existing neighborhoods.

Depends on your goals, and whether you're prepared to suffer the consequences. It's likely to be a lot better than an entangle, for sure...even in a non-lethal variant "I plant them neck deep in the ground". If you have to plant into stone, it'd get kinda expensive. Lessee...2 meters tunneling, +4 PD, fill in, UAA...49 points. Not too bad. UAA XDM is, what, 45. UAA Teleport...in principle, this could be cheaper. BUT, if you want range, you'll invoke the extra phase. With UAA...that gets complicated. For combat teleport, that'll be a high base cost.

Wouldn't that depend on the victim? That wouldn't work all that well on a brick. Clearly, any specific power will have a counter, but raw STR is a lot more common than XDM. Secondary: someone buried in that tunnel...who can't break out, and who doesn't have LS: self contained breathing...is on a countdown clock. This is a killing form. Sure, some UAA teleports are, but this one is implicitly killing, and I don't readily see a version that wouldn't be. That's not a black mark, but it's something that should be considered. FIlling in is a 10 point adder, too, I note...so I'm not sure it'll be terribly cheap.

But one thing you can do, with a power armor style build, is buy up the REC in the END reserve something crazy. This looks like it's very similar to buying 0 END...but there's a huge difference. You're not impacting the active points on the expensive powers...your 10d6 blast goes into a 50 point (control cost) VPP, not 62 points for 1/2 END or 75 for 0 END. You can apply that to other things, like your Flight. I think it takes some consideration, but I think you can use the fact that you *don't* have to buy Reduced END in a manner very similar to a Power skill. Buying one doesn't save you much, if you're just buying it for a single power. But if it's applied to multiple powers...the savings get to be considerable. The END Reserve REC is the "power skill"; the cost savings comes from not increasing the active point cost with an advantage, rather than applying a limitation. I'll grant that this might dictate buying an arguably abusively high REC.... Another point may be that...well, if it's going onto power armor, it's OIF anyway, so there's a substantial cost break. Figure: 9 REC in an OIF END Reserve only costs 4 points. From a character design standpoint: when you buy REC, are you buying to deal with END costs per turn, or for purposes of recovering STUN? If your REC for STUN purposes would be about the same as for END...well, the END Reserve is gonna ba a hard sell.......

In case you haven't noticed, yes, I'm completely disgusted with the *absurd* level of attention paid to ANYTHING related to the NFL.

Ohhh....the postgame interview, for once, became a foreshadowing. After the game last night, Gus Johnson and Greg Anthony, the game broadcasters, had a short interview with Joel Embiid. The parting comment from...Johnson, I think, was a "how's the eye feel?" Cuz Embiid caught a high elbow earlier. Embiid's response was simple and honest..."it hurts." So today the report is... a) concussion b) fractured orbital bone. No word yet on whether it'll need surgery. At the least, tho, he has to sit 5 days per the concussion protocol. Worse: --Philly slopped its way through game 5, getting blown out at home. --The game was not in doubt...the lead was almost 30 with 4 minutes left when Embiid caught the elbow. I don't think it was intentional in any way; Siakam was driving into the lane, jump-stepping; he's lifting the ball to a degree, prior to release, and that brought his elbow up. Just a very unfortunate event. But there was no reason to risk it. Line against Miami has changed sharply: was Miami -4.5, now it's Miami -8.5. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if it continues to move Miami's direction tomorrow. Looks like the T'wolves are at it again. 10 point lead going into the 4th...blown. Down 4 with 24 seconds left. Breem's comment upon coming back from commercial..."another 4th quarter nightmare for Minnesota." Barkley's been laying full broadsides against the coaches for terrible decisions and/or not instilling smart play, as the Wolves have given up major leads, or allowed major runs, FAR too often. (Breem just said...they've blown double digit leads in the 4th quarter, 3 times...twice at home. THAT is on the coaching staff.) Yeah, this one's over. Wolves miss a 3, down 6; Memphis gets the board, get fouled of course. 16 seconds...they hit the free throws. It's just random nothing at this point. It's interesting that ESPN's gamecast is about 15 seconds ahead of the broadcast. Seen that a fair bit recently.

Well, but Agassi had one of the best service returns ever. He might've read it, but most mortals didn't. Or, not very well. Can't say I really remember him very well; tennis didn't get a lot of coverage back then.

Rather unhappy judge, too. I always feel a bit sorry for people who've found the golden egg, then scrambled it for breakfast...but that covers the 2002 bankruptcy. This sounds like he was scamming (and skimming)...a 3 million pound luxury estate? After the 2002 bankruptcy? Yeah....I can see where the judge comes from, with the "you've learned nothing, repented nothing." He can kiss any formal connection with Wimbledon good-bye.

A small, almost side story from NYT: the actual case counts are now probably under-reported...not from political motivation. At-home testing is growing. Positive tests from such, are NOT gonna get reported all the time, it's pretty safe to say.

Same thing, from different sides. You have to give the airbags their time to squeal. The illusionist is there to distract you from the fact that the whole thing is nothing BUT squealing airbags, and actually *watching* the draft is sheer masochism. It's fine to be interested in what your team does...but you can check that the next morning, and not be completely drowned by the drivel they spew.

No. None of them are invisibility. They're all variations of translucent, as Duke noted...partially transparent. Still means you can see the entire shape. Fringe effect means something else. But I agree with Duke. I got my opinions on page 1 on the rules question, and I thank those who understood the issue. Just drop any further comments. Simon, feel free to lock this thread. I'm cool with it.

I figured that was likely, particularly for the hellbomb, but it also applies to the banish to a prison realm. That gives a sense of wanting to be more broadly used.

6E1, page 131, under Using Powers. First subhead is Full Powers. However, that's not useful. ARE there intermittent steps with invisibility? To a point, yes...if you have invis to sight and sound, you can select to only be invisible to sound. You can disable No Fringe. But that doesn't address whether you can selectively make specific parts visible.

UAA is a bloody damn mess. Yes, I think it's legal, but LW is correct that, as an attack, sending to a random destination is meaningless. While I think it's legal, I'm gonna advise against it. Note that XDM is a stop sign power. UAA is a stop sign power. This power hoses a character. Very, very badly...in many, if not most, cases, it's a "turn in your character sheet" power. Note that the escape clause to get out of Hell is...XDM. But if you can do that? The bomb doesn't work.

Heh. I wonder here. That was season 1, episode 4. Yeah...THAT early. When I saw that, I was wondering when shuttles were first used. It's possible that it simply didn't exist at that point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttlecraft_(Star_Trek)#:~:text=The shuttlecraft%2C named for Galileo,carries a crew of seven. So...maybe, for once, the writers weren't the blithering idiots.

True, I needed a good laugh today. Speaking of good laughs, tonight is the first round of the draft. So tomorrow is all the pundits posting their first-round draft grades. Those are ALWAYS good for a laugh.

GOD, I hope not!!! I doubt this would seriously increase poaching, but anything that encourages it, is something I'll violently oppose. I get that it's cultivated; that'll turn off a WHOLE lotta people in the first place, but when it's an endangered species? No. Wanna cultivate? Gimme a good tuna alternative. Not lion, or rhino, or anything along those lines.

Not nearly as much as they need a decent coffee bar. It's overrun by Starbucks, man!!!!

True for incremental powers, not always true for unit-purchase powers. This is a unit purchase. For purposes of Drain, for example...say my Invis is sight group, no fringe, 1/2 END. 37 active. You roll a 9d6 Drain...get 30. Nothing appears to happen. If you drain my 9d6, 1/2 END blast...same 30 points of drain knocks it down to, what, about a 4d6 tickle attack. Flip side: standard Desolid is completely all-or-nothing without a MAJOR!!! advantage. In the middle is Shape Shift, where it specifically allows partial shifts. The rules are silent. That doesn't imply it's denied; it doesn't imply it's permitted. I'm *particularly* opposed to the "anything not expressly forbidden is permitted" school; I'll grant that the converse is also not optimal, but it's far better starting point. I'd much rather make specific rules to extend things. MUCH easier for the players to accept, in my experience. BTW, narrow, specific examples don't mean anything, as the comic writers are just doing whatever they want to do. There is no systemic underpinning, no accounting. IF!!! there's a predominant treatment, then that can be informative, but it's rarely definitive. Especially in the broader Hero context, as it covers different genres.