unclevlad

No. No, you can't. Insufficient caffeination, however, may be a defensible position. Even for a kid like you.

<opens a fresh case of Kleenex passes a box over to Cyg, and keeping one for self> Anyone else need a box?

Just saw that one myself. For a lawyer, I believe this constitutes a prima facie ethics code violation. It punctures ANY defense that the suits were believed to be legit. The problem may be proving who beyond a few campaign staffers knew about it...so it may not have any real significance. And hey, it doesn't surprise anyone here in the slightest, right?

Yeah, he was talking about the one he'd put out earlier, which we'd discussed...and the point that a CNA gets paid better at the gas station.... Also, there's some clarification about how bad things are: https://idahocapitalsun.com/2021/09/18/no-idaho-is-not-under-a-universal-dnr-hospitals-wont-just-let-everyone-die/ Mind, while this doesn't paint as dire a picture, geeze, it's still REALLY BAD. Idaho's new case numbers are only slightly lower than most of the wintertime surge, and deaths are close...but there's a major spike of 40 deaths in one day, that's a severe outlier, that might be skewing that data. (And the numbers are low enough to be more noisy.) A sickening fact from the data...since August 1st, the death rate in Florida has been about 1 person per 2000. ~21.5M people, a bit over 11,000 deaths. I checked a few other states manually, but that was the worst. South Carolina was 1 in 3000. That's not cases, that's deaths. So you can figure hospitalization rates have to be several times higher. Pick an adjective to describe how this makes you feel. Angry. Sad. Frustrated. Irate. Flabbergasted. Helpless. They're like Lay's potato chips...no one can pick just one.

Pac-12 football is always good for a laugh.

Well it was on the road, so that's moderately impressive. Flip side? It was the NFC East they were playing, the division nobody wants. Did I say NFC East? Silly me....they're both afterthoughts, so I blame that for my brain fart....52 games under .500 as of right now, which is the worst overall division-combined record out there. AL Central is -21. A little diving into the records...outside their division, Colorado is .500...41-41. Outside their division, Atlanta is 37-40, and Philly is 36-43.

Maybe, but probably not. Hacker groups makes a lot more sense. Or similar, actively hostile agents. The anti-vaxers are the targets, and the media types are the enablers. At least on the larger scale. On a smaller scale, yeah, the picture you're painting is quite plausible.

THAT is the point at which I practice my Spock Brows.

One would hope that even his supporters would prefer Trump STFU about any hypothetical fraud almost a year ago now. What comes after beating a dead horse? Beating it up after it's been rendered into dog food? I doubt most of his supporters would ever see this in a negative light but this just proves he's completely disconnected from reality. Beau may be right but I think he's phrasing the point poorly. The question isn't how many are not in favor of banning virtually all abortions, including cases which the vast majority would allow. The issue is: how many of those who support at least the rape and incest exceptions, find NOT including them to be a deal-buster...first about this bill, then even more...about the officials voting for them? THAT is likely a much smaller percentage, I'm afraid. And I'm still less worried about the abortion ban than the bounty hunting aspects.

Chargers have to be kicking themselves for this one. They had 2 TDs called back due to penalties. Got FGs on each but that's still 12 points left on the table...and the second one was just bone-headed...2 players moving at the snap. 12 penalties in total, too. And after the 2nd TD that was called back, Herbert still had 2nd and goal inside the 10, when he makes the bad mistake of turning around and running back. Got hit and called for a sack which even Steratore thought was questionable...me, his bailout throw *should* be called intentional grounding as it didn't get back to the line of scrimmage. Maybe he got hit but he was falling backward too. The mistake was not throwing it away; trying to make a miracle play turned something neutral into something very bad...3rd and goal at the 25. They did more good things than the Cowboys, but negated things with the ill-timed mistakes.

Hey, your team's leading as the 3rd comes to a close. Be happy!!!! No, I'm not asking the impossible, merely the improbable.

Heck of a thermal engine, perhaps. Hadn't heard of Mosou Black, that's pretty neat stuff. Vantablack is insane. I rather enjoy nice watches. Moser's made a few models using Vantablack dials....way, way, WAY out of my budget, as Moser makes very high-end watches. (We're talking $27K here.) It's pretty awesome. One of my (pipe) dream watches would have a clear sapphire dial, with the entire interior of the case in Vantablack. The structural pieces would be blackened too. The whole gear train would seem to be floating. (There's an even more exotic form of this dream, but I'd lose all of you....)

But would this *increase* the need for heating in winter? Granted, that would likely be a lesser factor down here where summer cooling is the much greater concern. (Barring freak weather, anyway.) Mr. P: turns out it isn't that surprising. From Wikipedia So the paint is just taking this up a notch. Or 6. 98% reflective is pretty amazing. Side by side, you can see the differences between lower-end (or especially, recycled) laser printer paper, and the high-brightness, premium stuff.

The standing professional armies also have to be kept from becoming a plague on your people. What do they do with themselves? Garrison duty is BORING. Plus, you need to maintain the support elements...smiths, leather and woodworkers, cooks, what passed for physicians, etc. I suspect that standing armies require higher-efficiency food production, too. The troops represent a significant drain there.

A trick for simplifying this. Create lists and put things into lists. Copy and paste the list and all the items in the list copy over as well. Also works with the variations...the skill enhancers, MPs, VPPs, ECs. Lists are often convenient too, because common modifiers can be applied onto a list, which can help clean things up. (I wish I could do it on a compound power, but HD doesn't support that.)

Speaking of the ACC...they took another egg to the face today. Michigan State over #24 (har har) Miami, 38-17. The game in 2003 was Rockford vs. Trinity Bible. They were both Div III at the time...but probably Trinity Bible was overreaching. They've moved to the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Assoc...and dropped football in 2019. Which probably makes sense...their web site shows less than 30 faculty members, so....they're SMALL.

And I try so hard to be subtle..... Much of this is, this isn't an isolated, low-impact change. It's a significant change to basic powers definition, so it's as broad as it can get. Now...we can connect this to the discussion that, in non-combat time, few limitations are meaningful at all. That might be the notion you're trying to get to...Gestures is meaningless when you have no one to observe them. But, so are longer Duration limits. 6 hour duration is -1/2; that's a long time. Odds are you can do it when it's trivial to do so. Requires a (Skill) Roll is absolutely that way. Power didn't work? Do it again. This is a core, fundamental system issue; the basic instruction is, it's the GM's job to approve these things, so something like this defensive power: Personal Shield: 8 PD, 8 ED resistant and hardened (30 active) plus 12 PD, 12 ED. 54 active total. Requires a Skill Roll, Concentration 1/2 DCV, full phase to activate. Total -1 in limits, so 27 final. Technically never goes down once activated...you could swap the full phase for Nonpersistent...or at that point, spend a few more points and drop the Concentration too. So just RSR and Nonpersistent, so if you get knocked out? You generally bring it right back. (I always assume that RSR is going to be applied in multiple places, not just one spot.) So...what does the GM do? Reject the power in its entirety? Or build a house rule to cover situations like this? Reduce the overall value of the limitation? That just begs adding more limits like gestures and incants, or going to DCV 0. Plus: with that 54 point power, a -1 limitation drops it to 27, but a -1/2 (reduce the value of the limitation by 50%) takes it from 54 to 36, so MUCH of the savings is intact. It can be a mess very easily. Especially when building a character with a VPP....

We don't need to make power building any more complicated, and/or make the GM's job more complicated.

Q: What is this....tapioca pudding???????? A: To die...to sleep, perchance to dream...

Q: Why *can't* I wear white after Labor Day???? A: The birds and the bees, the flowers and the trees.

Q: Wasn't the professor investigating the solar wind? A: Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

It's been legal to bet on college for ages. The only difference is, only in the last 5 years or so has it become acceptable to *talk* about it. Since Georgia's only 2-1, "anyone other than Bama" will be a bit less than that...so probably 3-2 or thereabouts, or less.

Q: Why is there gravel in this flour? A: You can't handle the truth!!!

That isn't the issue. Abbott specifically signed an order barring local authorities to require masks. A school district is a subsidiary local authority. Plus, the examples you give include some very different cases. And, no...the state's authority in a public health emergency definitely extends to private property. Also, a place of business isn't the same as a private home. Both are private property, but governments give considerable leeway to actions performed in a home. The store is a communal space, so the actions of individuals can impact others. There is absolutely nothing unconstitutional about mask mandates.

So which would you want to be...sorcerer, saint, or shaman? (We already know Cancer is secretly the Saint of Idau...)