unclevlad

Atom has Shrinking and DI. I can't remember if his DI is 'limited' to no more than his normal mass or not, but I'm pretty sure one of his tricks was the Neutronium Flea move...1" tall doing a move-through cuz he weighed 200 pounds. Shrinking + Growth is pointless because the 2 are in direct opposition to each other. In APG,, alternate desolid (which is density decrease) and DI are the same. Diffuse Body isn't in direct opposition with anything, altho it conceptually parallels standard Desolid. It makes little sense to pay for full Desolid *and* Diffuse Body...but, it would mean that the damage negation from Diffuse Body would apply to attacks that have Affects Desolid, if you really wanted to do that. And I might not have said this, but Diffuse Body would replace Alt Desolid. 1 level of Alt Desolid, as I read it, fundamentally means you *always* make a Contortionist roll to pass through rubble piles, bars, screens, etc. That's a LOT for 5 points, IMO, and it shows the power scales badly. And Diffuse Body + Growth...could probably think of it in some other ways than expanding, but so what? Where's the problem? Mass conservation as an element of shifts is almost non-existent, sure...but again, so what? That's writers' choice. The vast majority of characters with DI or Growth are bricks. Who wants a foot-tall brick? Or a 12' tall giant where the bullets just slide through without really doing anything, rather than bounce off? So, I just can't see a problem with Diffuse Body...and, in fact, it makes much more sense as a staggered form of Desolid/complement to DI than alternate desolid. Not in any rules sense. A constant-mass shifter sounds like a nifty power theme to me, actually. Besides...it's also very easy to deconstruct the powers...Shrinking --> levels of DCV and the PER penalty (that has to be a custom power but that's no big); DI --> STR and defenses. In Growth + Diffuse, the only adjustment is actually saying the mass issue is lessened. In some cases, getting the END costs to behave is a bit of a trip, but that's usually manageable. It all works just fine. Diffuse Body + DI is actually pretty cool; think, say, the metal powders used in 3D printing with metals. To me, your objection is only that "I've never seen a comics character that worked that way." And that's a non-starter for me.

It was graded by Rudy Giuliani? EDIT: note that this is also fundamentally throwing the vast majority of Trump's supporters under the bus, essentially calling them idiots by implication...because they DID (and some continue to) believe it. So they're obviously naive, clueless gits for buying her spewage. Hey, I might think that's true...but I'm not on her/their side. She's supposed to be. But, hey, the #1 most practiced Trumpian maneuver is throwing others under buses, so this shouldn't be surprising in the slightest.

Almost every bracket is a mess. And quite a few of the better ones in the ESPN standings, will fall off the radar soon...the teams they've picked to win, have already lost. One aspect seems rather solid: the teams that had recent Covid disruptions couldn't overcome the loss of practice/prep time or the loss of a significant player. Georgia Tech lost their ACC player of the year, and lost to Loyola-Chicago...in an 8-9 matchup to be sure, but still. Kansas won vs a 14, but lost to USC, a 6. Virginia never had it together against Ohio. Oklahoma did win their 8-9 game...and then met Gonzaga. Yeah, that wasn't gonna go well no matter what. So we get a few days off. Sweet 16 is Saturday and Sunday...which means they're scheduled consecutively through the day and night, rather than staggered, all-evening starts. The downside looks to be that the talking heads will have excessive pontification time, with no other game active to switch to.

Yeah. I don't recall hearing much about incidents like this last year...and I was concerned we would...but Covid Rage might've been swallowed up and channeled into other things. Cuz the crazies are coming out now. Another story: a man tackled a 12 year old kid at a Micky D's, and inflicted a critical wound. The kid is listed in stable condition now, thankfully, but geeze. Story from a local station makes me think the attacker's rather NOT right in the head, but that to me just suggests he's probably easier to send over the edge...it doesn't consider what sent him over the edge...and whether similar factors are just starting to create a sick trend.

Man...I don't think that's quite fair. Their vaccine doesn't reduce case numbers as much as the others but it does a VERY good job at mitigating infections so hospitalization (and obviously dying) isn't happening. I mean, Schlitz isn't bottom of the barrel, it's barrel scrapings. And they did it to themselves, way back when. (for the curious, an interesting story about How to Destroy a Brand is here: https://beerconnoisseur.com/articles/how-milwaukees-famous-beer-became-infamous)

Some whackjob just walked into the Table Mesa King Soopers and shot up the place. At least 6 dead, IIRC. Including one police officer. They have a suspect in custody. It's even a little more freaky cuz...it's less than 2 miles south of the CU campus, and I graduated from CU. So, while it's been a long time, I've been there. I just hope with all my heart that this isn't the start of another Really Bad Year for shootings.

Yeah, you could. And...? OK, you lose the mass aspect of the complication, but you're still too big for many spaces, and you're still having to deal with the fact that you're obvious and easy to hit. Also: the way I defined it, it's 1/2 mass per 2 levels...that was for the 3 point version, to be sure. Hadn't decided whether it'd be 1/2 mass per level or per 2 levels, for the version giving damage negation. I could go either way; the first concept build I did last night was 1/2 mass per 2 levels. But even at 1/2 mass per level, you need 3 levels to counter the Growth mass increase. That's another 24 points, that costs END. And all you've bought off, from the Growth, is the high-mass issue, NOT the full negative impact. I think some of the problem you might be having is that the mass from Growth is NOT penalized appropriately by the book; if you think it should be more severe, then ok, perhaps combos like this are more of a problem for you. But then, the core problem isn't the combo, it's Growth itself.

Now this would be worth doing! And a nice promotion. Looks like there are a couple I could gleefully quaff...

Besides, the push to get the QB when you lack the parts around him is still, IMO, foolish, even perhaps pandering to the fan base. Sure, you can't win consistently with a bad QB...but the bad team is gonna wreck the young QB too. And by the time you get the pieces around the QB...the rookie contract expires and now you're looking at being forced into $25M/year. Or more. And: --how many high-draft QBs fail to play up to their draft position, if not outright fail to produce? --while, sure, the probability that a high pick will pan out is higher than for a lower pick...Russell Wilson. That guy down in Tampa. Later first round includes Aaron Rodgers. I think the mantra in the NFL is a variation on the old aphorism "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" back in the day. Expensive, sure, but you're never gonna get blamed if things break. Whereas you do risk serious blame if you go a different direction and it doesn't work out. That's the MASSIVELY conservative mentality throughout most of the NFL: draft the QB when you have the shot at a good one because NOT doing so will get you reamed online and in the media.

So you trade Covid in for obesity and diabetes......

OK, the brackets have now all been hacked to bits then fed to a garden chipper... 8 beat 1 to start the day; by the end of the day, add in 11 over 3, 15 over 7 (not *that* great an impact on brackets, the major impact was the 15 over the 2), and the night wraps with 12 over 4. I gotta tell ya, I'm going to be massively lost in terms of day of the week tomorrow. There's NEVER March Madness games on Monday!!! Much less at 10 AM. The schedule looks to be basically the same as today.

That isn't *quite* true; there are some things missing from Champions Complete, altho I think this is nitpicking. For example: Mental Entangle. The rules say the defense is Mental Defense, yes, but fail to mention the cost for buying additional defense. In 6E, too, the cost is different, so the text in Champs Complete conflating mental defense with the usual PD/ED, would suggest a cost that's not what's in 6E....as it needs to be, because the + 2 1/4 Advantage still applies, so the 3 points per 2 Def for Mental Def is actually almost *10*...or, the same as +2 PD and +2 ED....

Defenestration...almost a trope to have this word to be misunderstood to be something males would greatly fear...

A sword slash could be viewed as still mostly just parting the substance without really doing damage. Try cutting egg white with a knife. Electrical attacks...yeah, ok, but electricity doesn't get special status in most cases. If it's defined as damage negation, then the usual Reduced Negation adder applies. Which means no special rules...and even Affects Desolid is really kind of a special rule, as standard Desolid is a fairly rare, specialized power. Not that this would be common. So I don't see a need anything else. And hey, it's not like this is a LOT cheaper than Damage Negation...in fact, it's very slightly higher than Negation alone...or that Damage Negation is that cost-effective to begin with. And if someone wants to enhance the escape aspect, it'd be easy to buy more Contortionist levels, linked to Diffuse Body...or for that matter, buy the whole skill (if the GM would let you...I might, for this) linked to Diffuse Body. Not ike it'd be saving a lot of points, and it does make sense.

Diffuse Body Base cost: 3 per level Costs END: yes Benefit: +1 PD/ED; +1 to Contortionist rolls Side Effect: for every 2 levels of Diffuse Body, the character's mass is reduced 50%. (1 level would basically be 70%, so the net mass progression in percent would be 70, 50, 35, 25, 18, 13, 9, 6,....) No increased KB; the diffuse form absorbs the impact. Also, this form can never pass through solid objects. The costing is largely based on applying Costs END Every Phase to the base costs of the benefit. Not sure if the defense should be normal or resistant; if normal is the default, then Resistant would be a legal option. Another possibility is, it's normal defense but treated as Hardened; an AP attack is generally *less* effective against a soft target, as the round slides through and takes the energy with out, rather than depositing it on target. Costing...the skill level is 2 points always. +1 PD/ED normal is 2 points, so 4 points per level. 3 levels would be 12; with the -1/2 limit, it'd be 8. (This works out better, IMO, than trying to examine level by level costing because the rounding becomes an issue.) Whereas this power costs 9...but has no underlying Limitations applied to it, si any -1/4 or -1/2 Limitation applied to this Diffuse Body will have full benefit, and not be damped by others. So I think it works out; it's also simple and consistent with DI. Also, unlike a 'density decrease' notion, it DOES make sense to allow DI and Diffuse Body together. Could make for a nasty combo; haven't spent a lot of time considering it yet... EDIT: another plausible construction is that the power costs 8 per level; the benefit now is 1 die each of phys and energy Damage Negation, along with the +1 Contortionist. Obviously, this favors the defensive aspect over the escape/movement aspect.

Xerious: derogatory; describes a person who can't take *anything* seriously, even things any normal person would.

But recognize that all the businesses have the money from everyone staying there. Had they said "no we can't allow this" in advance, that money would've never arrived. And the cost burden for these new cases is largely going to be borne elsewhere, because they won't express until AFTER they return from whence they came. So the economic argument is, what's a few hundred additional local cases compared to, what, $50M or whatever in tourism revenues? Or am I being too cynical here?

You have plenty of company.

And yes indeed, 1 game into the round of 32 and the tournament theme is known: CHAOS! #8 Loyola-Chicago beat #1 Illinois. Many brackets are now pulped.

And what a way to finish off the first round... Abilene Christian slays BIG GIANT brother Texas in a 14 over 3 upset. The brackets are almost certainly WELL smashed; in ESPN's (usually HUGE) public brackets, no one has a perfect bracket...after one day, that's rather rare. Big upsets: 2, 3, pair of 4, 5, and pair of 6 seeds all fell. Buffs took Hoyas to the woodshed; UCLA solidly pulled off the upset; Longhorns lost; Big 10 took a big gut-punch to the ego (the 2 and 3 to lose...were both Big 10). Excellent start... Kind of a funky schedule for tomorrow...back-to-back single games to start, then 3 games staggered...long stagger this time, an hour between starts...and last 3 games that likely are starting a half hour after the first 3 finish. And then MONDAY games, whee!! Fun, fun, fun........... EDIT: can't forget the one piece of bad news...VCU had to withdraw due to multiple positive tests. Gotta feel for them; this only came out a few hours before they were scheduled to play. Has to be tremendously disappointing.

I tend to loathe damage over time...at least as it tends to be presented here. 1 pip attacks where the defense only applies once, so you buy a ton of increments at a high speed, with delayed return. Perhaps the big offender is more the aspect that defenses only apply once; the other is, of course, when the base power costs next to nothing, the size of the advantage becomes largely irrelevant.

Not the first time, not the last time, but still... https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/20/us/ohio-state-ej-liddell-basketball-death-threat-trnd/index.html I hope they bust the poster who threatened to find and kill the kid. Jail time? Perhaps not; a criminal conviction alone will be something the poster will regret quite a bit.

OT: my favorite Z woulda broken the rules, so I figured I'd pass...azidoazide azide. That's the most common name for it. How often do you see names with the same basic thing repeated 3 times, even in chemistry? What is it? NASTY!!!!!!! Considered to be quite literally the most powerful and least stable explosive ever found. Look at it wrong and it blows up. DON'T look at it, and it may just blow up anyway. You really need to read this: https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2013/01/09/things_i_wont_work_with_azidoazide_azides_more_or_less Fun stuff, huh?

Naproxen sodium

Ehh...it's a metallic element, are we really calling that a chemical?