unclevlad

Bloody hell, it's blatant beyond belief. The freakin' principal walks into the view RIGHT as the kid says "after I came out as queer" and fiddles...then the mic dies. Geeeeee.... PG, that's not 'harassment' it's discrimination, severe abuse of authority, and IMO a COMPLETE failure to recognize that any points about mental health or the difficulty of fitting in, would resonate with a LOT of the students. I think that school will have a new principal when classes return in the fall.

Philles fans feel the same. Midweek game last week vs. the Nats. Philly is up 5-0 after 4. They give up 5 in the top of the 5th. They score 4 more in the bottom of the 5th. They give up 6 in the top of the 6th. They score 1 in the 7th, 2 in the 8th to get the lead back, 12-11, going into the 9th. And give up 2 more in the top of the 9th. Altho their bullpen hasn't been as bad as some overall. But what we see so often is, when the pitching is bad, it is VERY bad. And in a stunning turn of events, both the D'backs and Orioles have won a road game over the weekend. (Friday night counts, you know it does.)

Update on the NC State situation: it went from one positive test Thursday to multiple positive tests after testing late Friday or early Saturday...the game was delayed by rain and ended late. That was apparently the trigger, the explosive growth in the # of positive tests. The crypto story is interesting because one of the problems is apparently jurisdiction, so on the assumption that we're ALL making, that this was TRULY GRAND embezzlement, the perps have a rather nice lead.

Elsewhere... An unfortunate story from the College World Series. NC State was ruled out of the Series due to Covid-19 restrictions today. They couldn't play...turns out, they had only 13 active players for their game Friday night, due to testing and contact tracing. From Fox News: I haven't seen the protocols, but the clear suggestion would seem to be, quite a few players didn't get vaccinated. So perhaps avoidable, but still regrettable. And, I wonder...why were they allowed to play Friday but not today? Altho that could be a pitching issue. The Wolfpack used 8 position players, plus a DH; that's 9, so there's 4 slots left. They used 2 pitchers who threw 87 and 70 pitches, so they're out for the next day. Had NC State won, they would've advanced to the finals, and maybe gotten some players back. But back to back days...probably not feasible. And if the protocols went more than a few days, the CWS Finals start Monday, and run 2 or 3 consecutive days. If the players identified in the contact tracing wouldn't be allowed back, then asking a TINY number of NC State pitchers to handle the entire burden for multiple days in a row, is putting them at excessive risk.

I lost that ability a long time ago, when the track record shows it's a massive long shot especially. Or when, like here, you're offering up that hope as a form of damnation by faint praise. At least if you ask me to pony up $9 and an afternoon of my time. Maybe if it shows up on Prime Video. It's a little easier to find a time slot to watch a movie, and obviously, I get to do it from home.

Ice sheet...if it's creating a Dex roll penalty anyway, then it's hurting the Breakfall. You would tend to slide further on ice; the ice itself generally gives you the hard, slick surface conducive to that. But increasing the KB, implicitly increases the speed at which the person being knocked back travels, because when said person hits an obstacle, "inches" KB == dice of damage. Plus, visually, when someone is knocked back several inches, it's presented that their feet leave the ground. In order for an ice sheet to matter, the poor sucker would have to be sliding along the ice. Well, then...imagine the situation when the ice wasn't there. The poor guy is scraping across 10 meters...oh, let's say, rough concrete??? ROAD RASH FROM HECK!!! Even if he doesn't hit anything at the end. The ice sheet/oil slick obviously scream for a penalty to Dex checks/skills while on it, and possibly safe movement over it. The Dex penalty impacts the Breakfall roll, so it's harder to remain upright on that slick surface...that's good, that's natural. RIght now, I don't see a Change Environment that's limited to increasing the KB in the area.

Can I set all the water in my backyard pool to boiling? How about an Olympic-sized swimming pool? Of course not, but you get the idea...limits need to be expressed. Also, how narrow is each effect? Lighting a fire == raising the temperature of the material to its flash point, basically...so could it also be used to boil water or melt ice? Mind you, I LIKE stuff like this a great deal; the trick is figuring out how to do it in a reasonable manner. Monte Cook, in one of his Arcana Unearther/Evolved books, write a sidebar using the voice of his "commenter", Malhavoc, to the effect that a caster who only uses his magic in combat, and never for his personal comfort, Does Not Get It. I've felt that way for ages. (Which was why I was ecstatic when it was pointed out that APG II had Create Object and extradimensional space powers. YES!!! They've been added into my personal HD, along with the APG alternate desolid.) I wouldn't allow Change Environment to increase the KB. I could see an adder, Increase KB, 2 points for +1" KB. Then it's tied to a particular attack. As a CE, it could be tied to anything in a form of Combined Attack. And note that it could be applied as an adder to a +0d6 HTH Attack. This would tend to work better than Double KB on an HTH attack as it doesn't distort the base damage.

Stories are now coming out of numerous flags, and I wonder about a disconnect. This is a sentence from the inspection report from 2019: Does that sound urgent to you? If you say Yes, you're probably an engineer yourself. Cuz I think, much of the time, that's a step below "this sucker is unsafe and continued occupancy is unwise until remediation is complete" to an engineer. But the managers clearly didn't read "timely" as particularly imperative. Given that the liability here runs into the hundreds of millions to the tenants, much less the value of the building itself, and so that this does not happen again...this event is going to be dissected in ultra-fine detail.

So is simply misery loves company? D'backs are at 23 straight road losses; they've had a couple series at home. Joy of joys, tho, now they head to San Diego, then St. Louis. But they have company. The Orioles lost their 20th straight road game tonight. Rangers lost 16 in a row earlier. If you take out the 4 *awful* road teams...Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Baltimore...the rest of the league is, if I worked this out right, around 460-490...so cumulatively pretty close to .500. Those 4 tho, are 11-26, 10-27, 9-31, and 6-28. That rather distorts the overall picture.... And the last thing left...a perfect game. Cubs throw the rare combined no-hitter tonight, for #7 officially, so that box gets checked. It's only the 15th in history...but the 6th since 2012.

Not if you're Matter Eater Lad. Or if your teeth qualify as an HKA, without any focus or real weapon-type limitations...at that point they wouldn't take damage. Or probably if you have, oh...4-5 rPD or so, that represents it's your body. Or PD Damage Negation, same way. (2d6 physical and energy damage negation would have saved me SO MUCH pain over the years.....) OMFG................................. No one's brought this up? This is HORRIBLE!!!!!! https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/24/us/building-collapse-miami-thursday/index.html It's totally terrifying to me because the entire wing of the complex literally SLOUGHS OFF!!!!! There is NO trigger or anything in the video from one of the nearby buildings, it just acts like a Jenga pile that gets its base pulled out. The death toll right now is low...but there's almost 100 people unaccounted for. It happened very early in the morning. Town mayor said the floors have practically accordioned...much less, of course, the fully collapsed rubble pile is going to take a great deal of time. It's clear there will be many deaths, and many others who lost everything. Man.... USA Today cites a study showing the building had been determined to be sinking in the 1990's but no one's calling that the cause...yet. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2021/06/24/building-collapse-miami-structure-had-been-sinking-into-earth/7778631002/ But subsidence is definitely what I was thinking of as the cause.

Damage over time, defenses only apply once, should be *extremely* rare. I'm actually in favor of returning to some kind of minimum number of points in the extended base (base + adders) power, because these cases where the power intensity is nerfed but the advantages moot this (megascale teleport with Usable Simultaneously or UAA...especially UAA's mass enhancement... is another example) should ALWAYS be viewed with a jaundiced eye by the GM. Everyone will be different here; I *loathe* DoT, defenses only apply once unless there's sound reasoning to say the effect is, in fact, ongoing. (And even then, the defenses only applying once is a separate point...why?) That said, the point's of concern because there are other ways to pull this off. For example: Blast, 3d6, NND (Mental Def, say), Autofire 5 shots (still only +1 1/2). 45 points so far; only goes to 52 with 1/2 END (+1/2 due to Autofire). Sure, the number of hits is variable, so the impact on the target will rarely match the potential 15d6. But that can be tweaked with 2 point CSLs, or perhaps 3 point CSLs at worst, much of the time. But hey, if you get this to routinely hit 2-3 times, the net impact is either none or fairly significant...notably more than 45 active would suggest.

Slate rather gleefully (to no one's surprise) dissects the ruling in great detail: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/rudy-giuliani-law-license-suspended-hilarious.html

Yah, it's the guy who started McAfee. Story I saw says he flat-out said, he didn't pay income tax for 8 years for "ideological reasons." Yeah, well, if so? Tough noogies. I don't remember the details, but there was a fair bit of other dirt on this guy. Sense I got was this guy wanted to paint himself as a martyr when his own words make him out to be pretty much a dirtbag. EDIT: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/john-mcafee-found-dead-prison-after-spanish-court-allows-extradition-2021-06-23/

Suspect is unarmed. He's not being threatening...uncooperative, ok, but not threatening. Cop has several feet of separation, and repositions to make it that much harder to be rushed. Kid has his hands full. I don't know the rules either but from any sensible rules of engagement have to be that firing was NOT warranted. Then shooting a second time when the kid's on the ground, strikes me as criminal battery. The first one, perhaps not, but the second tasing justifies charges no matter what. More background here: https://floridanewstimes.com/did-the-state-police-violate-the-policy/291423/ The omissions from the arrest reports are...unfortunately...nothing new. But...if any more reasons are even needed...the blatantly false reports darn sure look like a deliberate coverup. No new updates that I can find, but the surveillance video hasn't been out for very long yet. That said, the kid's apparently still in detention, which also strikes me as total BS, but perhaps getting a hearing to order the kid's release can't be scheduled at the drop of a hat. As was noted in at least one report, and archer saw too...the kid hit those bricks HARD, and the mother's concerned that x-rays are needed. If he's being held and NOT getting that, this could make recovery much trickier. And if it does, I hope they REAM the state cops in the lawsuit. (But I'd rather the kid doesn't suffer long-term injury.)

Too often these stories read like a cop on a power trip. To be sure, that's the ones we *hear* about. Nothing says this was normal in any way. THAT story has a pointer to THIS video. If you have ANY doubt that the cop is *totally* out of line, you can watch this. BUT LET ME WARN YOU...IT WILL ANGER YOU. It is BAD!!! https://www.cbsnews.com/video/outrage-after-florida-trooper-uses-taser-on-teen/ I suspect that the video will force action. The cop's actions are utterly egregious.

Green Lantern

"Armed conflict" is rather nebulous. Demonstrations and counter-demonstrations that turn violent? Probably. Anything resembling a civil war? I hope not. Another incident like the Capitol Insurrection? Possible. Individual-on-individual shootings, arson, etc.? Yes. And the time frame is also "not tomorrow and probably not particularly soon." Its taken, what, 30 or so years for things to sink to this point...which is another reason why I'm a pessimist...so the rot doesn't spread *that* quickly. Nor can it be reversed quickly; perhaps the best lesson would be to teach people to think for themselves, but good luck with that. And that will still take decades. Plus, honestly, I don't think we have the conditions to do so. The cost of this pandemic is going to be coming back to bite us HARD. I think climate change is starting to show significant negative impacts on food production, therefore cost, which will add to it. We're only starting to see major, disruptive hacking to toss in further disruptions. What all of this does, is make sure that we can't readily come together, even if we were inclined to do so.

Whose common good? In order to even begin to work towards a goal, that goal needs to be identified...and the major blocs' definitions of "common good" have virtually no intersection. There is some truth there; but substitute "national Party leaders on both sides of the aisle" for "Americans." I think the Republicans are the more intransigent; their tactics have been to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct anything by the Dems. But the Dems aren't immune to that. And, it's not hard to read the election-law manipulation as an attempt to subvert democracy and hand them continuing power...and that it is probably working. So...in a sense, no. Too large a power bloc is NOT willing to work for the common good. Too much of the media is more than willing to feather their own nests, and stoke divisiveness because they profit from it. Whatever the rank and file may want...whatever they may try to do...they don't have the voice, reach, or influence. You're trying to use an umbrella to keep you dry in a hurricane.

Not lost the will. Multiple factors in play: --any change is in a zero-sum game...so if you win, I lose. --"If you're not first, you're last." Ricky Bobby. Or I suspect, the inspiration: Dale Earnhardt and "Second place is first loser." How about "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." That's Vince Lombardi...still THE Coaching God, with all due respect to Belichick or even Wooden. NOT a good combination. It devolves to "I'm for any change that helps me!" But it's impossible to have a meaningful change that doesn't have some downsides. So, real change is extremely difficult to manifest until it's clear that without that change, EVERYONE loses. Even then, there will be objectors...c.f. the current pandemic...where some view a greater opportunity by denying the situation. It's particularly ugly in that Fox has proven just how successful that approach can be.

Good news... Number of active cases in the US is just about to drop below 5 million...which is the lowest number since the end of November, 2020.

I think the minimum innings pitched is just for the ERA title...like minimum number of plate appearances is for the batting title. That's all, tho; there are no formal requirements for the Cy Young or MVP awards. It wasn't that uncommon for a reliever to win the Cy Young; Eckersley won both Cy Young and MVP in '92, actually (with a total of 80 innings pitched...but 51 saves.) Now, it's very unlikely that a reliever will do it again; Eric Gagne was the last, in 2003. And I think we've largely segregated the awards...there's a reliever of the year. so I think that works against then for the Cy Young. Craig Kimbrel finished 4th and 5th early in his career, when he led the majors in saves for 4 straight years. deGrom is on pace for ~27 starts and he's averaging 6 innings per start. Today wasn't being yanked early; recognize, it was 1-0 Mets in the bottom of the 5th. But in a 7 inning game, that's the same as the bottom of the 7th. Runner on 1st, 1 out, you really want to get the run in. Your best relievers should be set up to go too; you only need 2 innings out of em. That workload won't be considered low...especially this season, when most teams are being even more conservative. It's also clear that expectations are different now. In 2019, only 15 pitchers threw 200+ innings. Also notable...only 75 threw 150+ innings. Because only 50 pitchers started 30 games. 44 started 10-15 games. OK, some would be injury, but that's still suggesting a LOT of part-time starters. The rules changes probably won't impact starting pitchers' innings that much...not individually. It might mean 1 or 2 fewer starts per year, as there are more "emergency" starters used. So far this season, near the halfway mark...there have been 277 different pitchers to start a game. That is 9 per team. 74 started 1 game. 26 started 2 games. 16 started 3 games. Yeah, LOTS of these have been openers, but still, it points out that a WHOLE lot of games don't have a conventional "major league" starter.

The other fun issue is whether deGrom could win the MVP. The NL Cy Young, his lead mimics Tiger's at the '97 US Open, where he won by *12* strokes. deGrom's WAR is already at 4.2, and we haven't reached July. (And I doubt that reflects today's performance where his ERA dropped AGAIN after 5 innings of 1-hit pitching. (He got lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 5th, of a 7 inning game.) One of Trout's problems is that the Angels have been consistently mediocre. That may impact Shohei too, altho what he's doing is unique in our lifetimes...and close to unique throughout baseball's history. So it's certainly not being ignored.

The comments thread shows this country is a lost cause.

Aren't they both on Social Security now tho?

That sounds *intensely* painful. (Reminds me...one time my sister took a pin and drilled a hole in a toenail. Don't ask me why. It was...most unpleasant, I understand.) Senility sucks, for sure...