unclevlad

OK. We'll just implant a receiver in your head that can only pick up AM talk radio.

So what's new on Beavis and Butthead?

NYT says 21 arrests, 1 stabbing. I'm not saying that's good but, good gosh, it could've been a WHOLE lot worse. And I'm still afraid one (or more) of these will be. Hearing more significant Republicans call for Trump to...if not concede, at least allow the transition process to start and let Biden get the briefings. Problem? NYT story says they're Bolton...Taylor...Scaramucci...and Kelly. Guess what they have in common? They're all former high-ranking officials in Trump's administration...so...you know....traitors. There's also the governor of Arkansas, but he's still far too much of a lonely voice.

On Old Man's pic... Story I saw yesterday about Jared and Ivanka. Big time wheels in NYC before they went to DC. Now? After all the anti-NYC rants, the story postulated they'd be completely shunned. It is constantly amazing that people hold to an absurd, consistently-rejected position. But it's also amazing that we're still amazed. I'm definitely not excluding myself there. And frightening in what that says for the future.

Could be, since Masters was on CBS. OK. If the Raiders and Dolphins win this afternoon (expected altho they're not big favorites), and the Ravens beat the Pats tonight (also expected), the gulf in the AFC between the contenders and the also-rans becomes a chasm. Colts, Browns, Titans, Raiders, and Dolphins would all be 6-3. Next would be the Broncos and Pats at 3-6...or possibly the Bengals at 3-5-1 but they'd need to beat the Steelers for that to be the case, and that's not likely. So for all practical purposes, the AFC would be down to 9 teams even if they're forced to 8 playoff slots. 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, no less.

There used to be stories basically about Criminals Too Stupid NOT To Be In Jail...like the bank robber...he says, "give me all your money!" Teller says, I need to see some ID. Robber shows his REAL id. Yes, well, in that vein, I present to you...the New Orleans Saints. (Spoken in my best Hans Gruber.) https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30320330/sources-new-orleans-saints-face-significant-discipline-videos-locker-room-celebration In game news, it appears that the lightning storm that delayed the Texans-Browns game, so terrified both offenses that they fled the area. Passing stats in particular looked woeful. 6 games in the afternoon slot. That's pretty rare.

Oh, I was gonna mention. Regen cost. I agree that pricing it is tricky. My problem is that the cost difference based on the time chart is poor. The notion of having self-healing is principally to obviate the need to be healed; reducing longer-term recovery time should be VERY minor. Well, even 1 BODY per hour is typically not fast enough for "I'll be fine"...and you're at 8 points. You've already sunk in so many points that there's little reason NOT to go faster. The other issue is, there is no point in taking 2 BODY per hour, for example; that's 16 points, whereas 1 BODY per 20 minutes is both strictly more effective and cheaper. Much of this is probably a legacy of the 5E definition, which is Healing with a package of advantages and limitations, and another instance of 6E's sometime rigidity in using (in this case) the time chart in a manner that isn't necessarily sensible. In 5E, you're starting with a fairly expensive baseline...20 points...then applying 2 significant limitations (self only, 1 turn) which fundamentally mean that slowing it down even more makes no sense...increasing the limitation is already well past the point of diminishing returns. The awkwardness of the 5E construction can be seen, I think, in that they mandated the full extra turn...because otherwise there'd be almost no reason not to go all the way to Extra Segment. Extra Segment would only be 10 points, and it'd still be your SPD in BODY recovered per turn. But Extra Turn is still 7......so you'd buy up. Much of the problem is that you're taking such a broad power and trying to narrow it...but the math of limitations is bad for that.

I'm with archer, and I'd go further. PRE helps you hide that you're more than you seem; bluffing can be treated as making a base PRE roll, at which you bite. And what does your gear look like? If you're openly carrying serious weaponry and armor, that's what draws my attention first, as a guard. And if you're acting all meek and miniionesque...that so does NOT fit. The other aspect here is, you're trying to actively turn something neutral, or even negative (selling back PRE), into a positive. Nope. The example you give is, for me, a good Acting roll.

-3/4 for now. The concept...well, it's not exactly new. Heck, in D&D there's Psionic Invis. There's the Star Wars "these aren't the droids you're looking for" taken metaphorically. David Eddings' Sparhawk books...Flute does this. "They see us, but their brain doesn't pay any attention to us." Comics would *rarely* be a source, as I've barely read them in the last 30 years.

Ehh...I'm good. I think I like defining it as Invis with a "Mental Power" limitation, which means the whole Class Of Minds matters, no cameras/mics/sensors unless you throw in the Machine class of minds of course, Mental Awareness senses it, and define how Mental Def helps. High EGO should NOT help if that's all you have, IMO. I prefer the fact that many things were decoupled in 6E, especially eliminating all the figured characteristics. STR is the #1 problem; the cost between 5E and 6E is the same but 5E gave about 1.85 points' worth of improvements for each point spent on STR. (0.2 PD, 0.2 REC, 0.5 STUN -> 0.25 points, 0.2 Leap). Dex is cost-neutral between the editions IF you always buy SPD up...but cost more than it was worth in 5E if you didn't. That's a bad coupling. CON was largely a wash; 5E CON gives, IIRC, 1.05 points' worth of benefit. Negligible. BODY was neutral, but only because STUN was priced VERY high. That's also true for REC in 5E...fairly expensive. So if you wanted someone without gaudy physical stats, you were gonna *pay* to actually have any kind of staying power. The cost structure should generally not do that...at least in that way. The other coupling I dislike in 5E is with VPPs; I love both 40 Real/60 Control Cost VPPs (everything is gonna take a half limit, or perhaps it's the "easy stuff is easy, the bigger powers can be tricky" sort of thing) and the 120 Active/60 Control Cost where the character can maintain multiple max-effect powers.at once. I like normalizing some things too; I don't need Force Field AND Armor AND Resistant Defenses. FF is just Armor, Costs END; Resistant Defenses doesn't need to be a standalone power, and most of the time, you just buy Resistant Defenses in 6E. 5E Regen is awkward....altho 6E Regen is priced nonsensically. IMO. But overall 6E is closer to showing the naked, underlying concepts to build with, rather than a collection of concepts and packages that don't make a lot of sense sometimes. That's my preference...but then again, that's also my fundamental way of thinking.

I saw today that Rick Pitino, the current Iona basketball coach and past coach at Kentucky and Louisville, advocated for a delay in the start of the college basketball season, due to the difficulties with the pandemic and the procedures it's imposed. I hope they take a long hard look: 15 games were impacted today; that's after 10 last week. And that doesn't consider games that were allowed to be played, but for which one or both teams were significantly affected. I heard Miami very nearly missed having enough players at one position today. So this college football season has been a massive joke...and it started when the case numbers were merely We Should Be Doing Better. Yes, well, in many places it's HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One out of every 300 Americans became a New Case *this week*. It's *still* not clear to me, even as far into the college football schedule as we are, that it will finish with something close to New Years' bowls or at least the CFP. Lesson: DON'T START the college basketball season in this utter MESS. Not that they're terribly likely to listen.

Oh...my. Jim Harbaugh's future kinda has to be very tenuous...Wisconsin just took them behind the woodshed, 49-11.

Another reason to loathe the toad.... https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/11/13/610eebcc-2539-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html It's perhaps a lesser crime than most of his, but I simply find it abhorrent.

Yeah, but invisibility is a power with at least 3 separate groups: bending light, being transparent, or simply being unnoticed. The latter could be done with a Mind Control, but that power's structured poorly to achieve that result. Or maybe Mental Images, but "important objects vanish if present" is a Major, so that's Ego +10. That is another candidate, tho, if I don't like the final build doing it this way. But...Invis as the basis lets you hand wave a lot mote...it basically works, you don't make rolls. Mental Illusions has mental attack rolls. Ehhh...... Hmm. For something like this, part of the implicit definition is that Mental Def should help. So...something like having Mental Def allows the possessor to make an EGO roll to ignore the effect. Every 5 points of MenD adds 1 to the target for the roll. OH, and I *would* say this Mental Invis counts as a mental power for Mental Awareness.

QB is the highest paid position, but the other major expense is the pass rushers...defensive end, edge linebackers. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/ And if you look at team salary structures, everyone pretty much has maybe 10 players making Big Bucks (for their positions), another 15-20 running around postional average, and a bunch making league minimum. MLB and the NBA follow similar patterns. QB is one of the big ones, tho, because the supply is minuscule, and the demand is off the charts. I agree Dak's overpaid, but 2 years from now? $30M will be normal. (Well, ok, maybe not 2 years. Pandemic and economic conditions will be a big factor.)

Mmm...then, probably. Essentially, it'd be whether the mind would be considered human or not. But I don't think this'd form a large enough class to make much difference.

It's also possible we'll hit 20 million cases by the end of the year, but I think MUCH tighter lockdowns will return in many places, and slow the pace down so we don't get there. (Because if we do, the health care systems will be overwhelmed in MANY places.) Plus, the death rates will almost certainly rise rapidly. If we postulate a 4 week lag between new cases and new deaths, then we're looking at deaths resulting from about 60,000 new cases a day....and we're looking at 3x that now. We might have 20,000 deaths between Christmas and New Years.

There wouldn't be hybrid animals, and the tech level is present-day. It doesn't work on animals because, yes, the class of minds thing.

Invis, sight and hearing groups. EDIT: added Normal Smell too. Figure it's appropriate. But the SFX is it's a mental power..."don't mind me, I'm really nothing significant, everything's fine, just keep doing what you're doing." So it wouldn't work against cameras or microphones, and his powers only affect people, so it wouldn't affect animals. So what do people think that limitation would be worth?

OK, then you explain it... (I saw it on a clip from his Rose Garden talk, where he was blaming Cuomo for delaying vaccine deployment. I'm going good GOSH, it makes him look radioactive...glowing white hair going with the glowing orange skin tone...)

I think...really...we should give Trump a break. I mean, look at how the shock of potentially losing turned his hair *white*. Like, ALL the way white, all at once. You have to feel for a man who's undergone that, right?

Good golly, Trump's team makes mockery sooooo easy.......

Over the last week (last Sat through today)...the US has surpassed 1 million new cases.

Law firms have to worry about their broader reputation; filing a bunch of hopeless lawsuits is not good for that. Pennsylvania is particularly hopeless; the margin is almost a full percentage point. Laws vary, but I think the Trump campaign can demand a recount...but with that margin, in many states, THEY would have to pay for it. Not the state. The vote fraud cases would have to work their way up, yes, and with a long, extensive string of dismissals based on groundless...which is saying "WTF are you doing wasting the court's time" really...the Supreme Court will, I suspect be very much disinclined to hear any of them. That said...if some states try to do an end-run on the electoral college, and select a slate in opposition to the popular vote in the state...THAT might go to the Supreme Court directly. CNN has finally called all the states, so the final margin is 306-232.

Yeah, particularly with QBs. OverTheCap's got a list of the 2020 salaries. Wentz and Ryan pretty much define the cheapest non-rookie starter's contracts; Joe Burrow has the best rookie contract. Well, yeah, because it's a 2020 rookie contract for the #1 pick. But prorated, it's still half of Ryan's, much less a Rivers or Garoppolo. Player Team Cap Number Cash Spent Dak Prescott Cowboys $31,409,000 $31,409,000 Russell Wilson Seahawks $31,000,000 $18,000,000 Jared Goff Rams $28,842,682 $31,042,682 Jimmy Garoppolo 49ers $26,600,000 $25,200,000 Philip Rivers Colts $25,000,000 $25,000,000 Tom Brady Buccaneers $25,000,000 $25,000,000 Ben Roethlisberger Steelers $23,750,000 $21,000,000 Drew Brees Saints $23,650,000 $25,000,000 Ryan Tannehill Titans $22,500,000 $37,500,000 Aaron Rodgers Packers $21,642,000 $7,290,000 Derek Carr Raiders $21,500,000 $19,000,000 Jacoby Brissett Colts $21,312,500 $15,000,000 Matt Stafford Lions $21,300,000 $21,500,000 Kirk Cousins Vikings $21,000,000 $40,000,000 Alex Smith Washington $20,300,000 $16,000,000 Matt Ryan Falcons $18,962,500 $20,500,000 Carson Wentz Eagles $18,656,536 $39,383,000 Teddy Bridgewater Panthers $14,000,000 $24,000,000 Deshaun Watson Texans $9,808,244 $29,354,247 Mitchell Trubisky Bears $9,237,593 $4,423,968 Marcus Mariota Raiders $9,125,000 $7,500,000 Baker Mayfield Browns $9,003,540 $3,541,180 Sam Darnold Jets $8,339,371 $3,319,790 Kyler Murray Cardinals $8,080,601 $2,183,120 Ryan Fitzpatrick Dolphins $8,000,000 $8,000,000 Tyrod Taylor Chargers $7,500,000 $5,000,000 Nick Foles Bears $6,666,666 $8,000,000 Joe Burrow Bengals $6,580,025 $24,490,100 Daniel Jones Giants $5,922,740 $1,751,548 Josh Allen Bills $5,867,191 $2,495,730 Tua Tagovailoa Dolphins $5,504,625 $20,188,500 Patrick Mahomes Chiefs $5,346,538 $10,825,000 Taysom Hill Saints $4,841,000 $8,841,000 Justin Herbert Chargers $4,832,501 $17,500,004 A.J. McCarron Texans $4,000,000 $4,000,000 Dwayne Haskins Washington $3,276,503 $1,150,301 Andy Dalton Cowboys $3,000,000 $3,000,000 Jameis Winston Saints $2,860,000 $1,100,000 Case Keenum Browns $2,833,333 $5,500,000 Lamar Jackson Ravens $2,583,178 $1,341,060 Robert Griffin III Ravens $2,500,000 $2,000,000 Matt Schaub Falcons $2,375,000 $2,000,000 Jordan Love Packers $2,251,540 $7,176,160 Colt McCoy Giants $2,250,000 $2,250,000 Matt Barkley Bills $2,025,000 $1,825,000 Chase Daniel Lions $2,000,000 $3,500,000 Jeff Driskel Broncos $1,750,000 $2,500,000 Nate Sudfeld Eagles $1,700,000 $1,700,000 Ryan Griffin Buccaneers $1,645,000 $1,645,000 Chad Henne Chiefs $1,625,000 $2,000,000