unclevlad

Galileo Galilei Giuseppe Garibaldi...Italian, helped unify Italy into a single country

(oops, missed the topic spillover to the next page...never mind...)

Utrecht, the Netherlands (curious factlet...there are only 41 cities/towns with 100K+ people whose names start with U)

Nacogdoches, Texas

Las Cruces, New Mexico

QB rankings are always questionable, but...Watson is top 5, while Stafford was 12 and Goff 19...which is getting perilously close to disastrous. 20 and 21...Lock and Trubisky. But that's a Herschel Walker trade waiting to happen, IMO. And if you're talking a bad team like the Jets, it's a HORRIBLE idea. You could put any HoF QB, in their prime, out there and with the Jets' roster, they'd be the second coming of Manning. Archie, that is.

IMO, anything OMCV vs. DMCV can't be dodged by anyone who doesn't have Mental Awareness. And even then I think I'd have to be talked into it. Dodge affects DCV anyway, so...how, in the rules does dodging help? The dive for cover might have the stronger argument, in terms of getting out of the area, but why is the target doing it? I need a reason. Mental Awareness...possible. Danger Sense...possible. Neither would automatically allow a DFC for me. I rarely let SFX play that much of a roll in overriding the rules, especially when the power's got no basis in reality. If the target: --still has actions --has Mental Awareness --and has Mental CSLs then I'd let him change those CSLs.

That was....wow. I remember seeing his name not very long ago, with the diagnosis. It must've been much further advanced than expected...but still...3 weeks later....

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/marjorie-taylor-greene-brings-the-gop-nothing-but-baggage It shouldn't be that surprising that some conservatives want to disavow her. She becomes the very low-hanging fruit, far too easily used to build the kinds of attacks the Republicans have used. "<X> is best buds/lapdog/lockstep with Pelosi" for example. Dems are also pushing McCarthy to get her yanked off her big committees.

You're just making sure my blood pressure rises, aren't you? And in LA County...where they've completely filled ICUs, where they've had over 16,000 deaths. WHO THE HOLY MOTHER OF MORONS ARE THESE PEOPLE? <sigh> The NYT Daily Briefing had some numbers I've tried to find without success:

So for a goof-off writeup... Powers: tough martial artist with flight...and duplication. Can make 2. Wasted much too much time hassling with a group name and individual call signs...plus one real, legal name and 2 private designators for the dupes. For the group name, just went with the Raptors...oh, ok, given exceptional sight too. There's a nice number of one-word, recognizable raptor species...Osprey, Gyrfalcon, and Goshawk. Yeah, I kinda like those. But then I was going for the trio's personal "names"...Larry, Moe, Curly? Mmmm...for reasons, doesn't really fit. <BOOM> Flashbulb The 'real' person is Ruben Luke Montoya Jr. AKA Luke, cuz his dad's Ruben. Then, of course, dup #1 is...R2. and dup #2 is Threepio. No, he doesn't take himself very seriously at all.

The draft picks, and the assumption that Goff is *not* expected to be a playoff-level QB (particularly in Detroit)...the Rams are in "win NOW" mode and the Lions are in full reset mode...which they'll never admit, of course. The one advantage is that *if* Stafford can be the answer...debatable...in the next 2 years, he's actually not that expensive. $20M, then $23M. Goff's salary is significantly higher. But Stafford's contract is up after 2022, and if he can win, well, we'll see. He turns 33 in a week, so he'll be 35 at the start of the next contract. He probably won't get a longer deal, but might get something closer to $30M if he and the Rams do well. So the Rams might have some maneuvering room in the next couple years. Downside...they don't get the cheap years of the good young players because, well...no first round draft picks. So the Rams seem one key injury away from the whole thing exploding in their faces. Perhaps Stafford gives them a path to a deep playoff run, but it feels like it's a very narrow one.

One place is here: https://www.nationalmemo.com/miller-disarmed-national-guard The National Guard commander is reported in several places...WaPo, TheHill for two...basically confirming his hands were tied by higher-ups. So...yeah, I'm not crazy about the sources I've seen per se, but I think the accusations feel substantively legit. And this *should* be something that can be subpoenaed if necessary.

artificial flavorings, period Natural flavorings...it's kinda funny, I love adding orange or lemon zest...but the citrus extracts don't work for me, or at most, need to be carefully included. It might be that you're getting the oils but not the acidity to balance and add depth. The ONLY canned veg I could stand was Green Giant corn. Somehow it didn't turn to mush. In general I don't do corn any more; corn's pretty empty carbs. How many people get into the winter squashes? For me for the most part, it's butternut or sometimes acorn (much more of a pain to process). When available, the small pie pumpkins are wonderful. Butternut is great because it's the easiest to peel, and has the smallest seed ball. Peel, seed, cube, add salt and drizzle with oil, roast in the oven, turning about every 15 minutes or so. You want some brown. (I think 45 minutes was about what I did.) Pumpkin and particularly acorn are more of pain to peel in advance, so I'll just halve or quarter them and roast with the peel on. It'll come off fairly easily after baking, and letting it cool. Messy, tho. After that, I just add a fair bit of (for me) unsweetened almond milk, and blend it until I get a puree. That'll get portioned out into 5-6 ounce servings. Final treatment: more almond milk (or chicken or veggie stock would probably be good) to thin it...it'll take a bunch. I've got a Ninja smoothie blender for that. Heat with a bit of chili powder (careful, it's easy to overdo), or garam masala or pumpkin pie spice with a bit of sweetener.

Dr. McCoy

I wish there was enough time to wait on this, to see if the anti-Trump faction can coalesce and possibly counterbalance the Trumpists. But overall, I do think this is best done now rather than some months from now.

<shakes head in amazement> Trump insisted that the defense strategy was simply regurgitate the whole "election was stolen" story. Yeah...on that basis, the surprise is if there's *any* attorneys left on his team. Other than Rudy, maybe. It probably won't matter. In a normal criminal trial...on that 'defense' it'd be a trivial conviction, as none of the prosecution's assertions would be challenged at all. But it's not a normal trial, and the 'jury' is about as anti-impartial as possible. Who knows, maybe details like that insane "stand down" order...from a total Trump lackey...will sway people. Probably not enough.

Watson has a no-trade clause. AND his contract extension is *huge* with $110M guaranteed. The combination means the potential destinations are getting very narrowly constrained. The Rams' front office comes out of this looking awful. This is now 2 *bungled* contracts that have cost the team enormously...the first was Gurley's. It did work out for a year, sure, but they've overpaid for non-production. This trade for Stafford has to lead to a Super Bowl, tho, or it's a bust IMO. They gave up too much otherwise, but they had no choice. Goff HAD to go, I think was their thinking...but that's just showing the moves a few years ago were bad. premature.

Rocket

Nothing major. She claims a childhood trauma, but one has to question the accuracy of that. Story says she's of the "masks are pointless" school, so nothing to see, no. Nope, probably not gonna end well.

HOLY cow.... Rams and Lions... Stafford to Rams Goff, 2 first rounders and a third rounder to the Lions Tells us how much Goff's value has fallen. I kinda think one of the 1st round picks was because Goff's contract is hard to swallow, considering his performance. Still a surprise. Lions might just be planning to spend the 2 years they're stuck with Goff to build around the QB, then try to draft the Next Instant Star QB. CBS Sports gives the Texans a D- for signing David Culley as their coach...much of it being because the visuals are bad, and it's going to do nothing to reassure Watkins. Rather the opposite, in fact.

Bad news...the US' 7 day average of daily deaths hit a new high on the 26th. BUT, it's actually slightly dropped in the last few days...and Wed/Thurs/Fri have had the highest daily totals. So that's *maybe* an indication it's going to start coming down, but it's too early. GOOD news...we're now about 3 weeks into a steady decline in the new-case 7 day average. The worst was Jan 11th; 254K. Now, it's down to 160K, so down 1/3.

I expect that link is to a scrolling news update page. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/politics/stephen-lynch-tests-positive-covid/index.html

We rely on you to step up to the plate to ensure it happens.

I'm extremely leery about cosmic VPPs, from both sides. As a GM, it's opening the door to abuse, and for bogging the game down. Paralysis by analysis...what *exactly* do I want to do? As a player, it's expensive, when it's on a fairly sizable pool. Particularly a true, do-anything cosmic pool. If nothing else, the Power skill for manipulating the pool, can be used with Requires A Roll...so add the common modifier Requires a Skill Roll. This becomes big when the VPP's designed to cover more than 1 power at a time. Some VPPs make this a dream. Blaster gives a good example: 40 base + 70 control cost; half phase to change. 92 active. Blasts, RKAs, and Flashes (-1/2); all slots Requires a Skill Roll at -1 per 20 points. 70 points total. Then you have an 11d6 Blast (or Flash) with 1/2 END for 69 points. With a -1/2 limit...take 2 of Beam, Red Pen, and Limited Range. You also have an 8d6 Blast with 1/2 END, where you can add another +1/2 advantage like, say, Double KB. "GET AWAY FROM MY FRIENDS!!!" Or against the DEX demon AoE 1 hex, Accurate. Beam's off the table, but not Limited Range and Red Pen. Yes, you still have to pay for the skill roll, but figure a 70 point multi, you'd have to cover the slot costs, and it wouldn't be anything NEAR as versatile. Thngs get particularly nasty the more open it's allowed to be, as has been noted. 8d6 NND vs. Power Def is within the scope of that VPP. As was pointed out, this probably shouldn't get the NND price break if it can be versus PowD or Flash Def or Mental. That's like the "only versus orcs"...it's not limiting much in a VPP. So...they're nice but as has been said, they need significant discussion and trust.