unclevlad

Wow. I can never remember major league sports events being postponed or cancelled as part of a civil protest/movement. Part of this, IMO, has to be the basic fact that there are no fans. As of right now...all 3 NBA games that would've been tonight. They'll be rescheduled. Brewers - Reds cancellled, I believe...I think it's even easier in MLB given that games have been called for so many other reasons. Raptors are talking about a boycott for game 1 of their 2nd round series. Other baseball teams are still making up their minds.

Of all the impacts Trump has had, IMO the worst, most damaging, and most repulsive has been forcing the technical arms to serve political whims, rather than the facts.

If in many cases, the characters we build tend to reflect "things I really wish I could do!"....the PRE skills are some of my favorites.

Tjack's point was also, what is its use? Because a lot of what you're saying there is really fluff, if the intent is only to provide justifcation for them to go from Point A to Point B. is it anything more than a plot device? The rules say you're just paying for the Powers...Flight and Swimming with Expanded Scope, attacks, armor, Awareness. I'd probably give some things for free...especially the movement, as that's 99% plot device...and consider what I"d require them to pay for. Self-defense in flight? I'm not worried about that very much, as that feels like a plot device most of the time. EDIT: OP may have mistyped the page numbers, at least in my version; it's 158-160 in my (original) PDF.

Yeah, if the time window was extended back 20 years, then preventing or mitigating 9/11 would be the runaway choice, I suspect. If nothing else, the fallback could well be "don't let the planes slam into the WTC." That would be the easiest to accomplish, I suspect, as both are in the same basic area, and that's where the greatest overall loss of life occurred. Moving back a bit further...prevent the explosion at the Murrah building in OKC would be popular. Cool to go back through the big events. If I were to pick one of those, it'd be the Deepwater Horizon. The overall environmental damage from that is the most severe, and it seems like it's the one where a single hero might be able to prevent it completely. Granted that fewer lives were lost directly, the indirect effects are what would drive me. Lots of people suffered all around the Gulf from this.

Found it... Pendjepit- the pendjepit is a hand held pincer like device the mouth of the weapon is fitted with teeth to help rip off bits of flesh. This weapon is only affective against exposed or lightly covered flesh. I can't find a pic, so it's a little hard to say, but I'm not sure what the best approach would be in Hero. I'd actually lean to the older rule with an HKA; the max that STR can add is the weapon's damage rating. I'm actually leaning to HA, NND (resistant PD), Does Body.

That's my problem as well. Mr. Blake appears to be in the wrong for continuing to move to his car, but the cops aren't doing anything like enough to prevent this without shooting him. That's how it appears to me...it's wrong to impute that they want to shoot in preference to other means, but it is by no means a ridiculous inference either. It also brings up: is this a training issue, or the improper choices of one bad actor? Another aspect is, was Mr. Blake's action, in continuing to move to the car, motivated in some degree by fear of the cops? Because a clear problem is that every incident simply increases the polarization on each side. Doesn't matter where it happens. The general political gridlock is bad enough; the complications of the pandemic make things worse. The net result is that meaningful debate is limited at best, and progress appears to be non-existent...which magnifies the next event, and the one after that, and the one after that.

And it might not take 2 more weeks. https://uasystem.edu/covid-19-dashboard/?0=&campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20200825&instance_id=21584&nl=the-morning&regi_id=101745266&section_index=1&section_name=big_story&segment_id=36872&te=1&user_id=618f95a4931087ea799b0e9f4a9d3344 531 cases in less than a week. 20% of the isolation spaces required already.

Yah....Mr. Blake's actions were ill-considered, but to take it to shooting like that is untenable.

I think the only DC movie I've seen in 20-odd years, would be Dark Knight. None of the rest offered any appeal. I think a lot of it was, their "hyper-realism" came across as so much more forced; it didn't flow from the story, at least from the previews. Sha-zam of course went completely opposite; they overplayed the childishness in the previews. Which might be the executive summary: they never made it a story element, they made it the entire story. Of note: I don't mind altering origin stories per se. Anyone read Straczynski's Superman: Year One? The downside is, it's a LOT like Spidey's classic origin...not quite sure about being a hero, considering other options. But even middle America of 1990-2000, isn't middle America of the 1930's.

But if it's campaign world, then who will really connect to whatever event someone else picks? Doesn't help that time travel is the one power I personally never, ever allow, without major provisos...you're a ghost in the time stream and can't interact at all, or the action of moving back creates an alternate dimension and separate time stream so, again, your actions cannot impact YOUR present. C'mon archer, tho...offing? Don't need to off anyone. Embroil in a major scandal so his political aspirations can never gain ANY traction. Think Gary Hart. Trick would, of course, be finding the time and place...and have the right kind of power set, of course. But...yeah, I can't offhand think of a single event that feels like it should rise to this level, in the last 10 years or so, barring trying to keep Trump out of office. Mandalay Bay or Pulse or Parkland? They're all horrific and tragic, but it's hard to say, as has been noted, whether any one is notably worse than another...unless a specific one has more personal meaning to you/your character. Cuz there is one I'd consider, setting aside my objections and saying I *could* act. That would be the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash. Not more important, but definitely more personally impactful.

But if a non-duplicating character dies, ALL the character points are lost. Resurrection's not a terribly expensive adder, but the points you put into it have no value other than as insurance against this happening. If there's no real downside to a duplicate dying because you'll get the points back, then...sure, it's more points, but you're getting a LOT out of it. Also note: if you want to be strictly mechanical, it only costs 5 points for a new dupe...and even then, only sometimes. Now, granted, it tends to be concept abuse, and the kind of action taken because the rules simply scream to do it because NOT doing it is far more damaging. At the very least, the temptation is there, at least when you're talking someone with a very low number of duplicates, obviously with 1 dup being the extreme case.

It is nice to see that people are being less stupid, and case numbers trending down nicely. But, yes, I dread what we fear will happen. Might take another couple of weeks to show.

Celtics - Sixers, game 4. A very choppy game throughout...tons of fouls. Tobias Harris takes a NASTY fall and crash, onto the side of his face. Really takes the air out of the Sixers and they really can't mount any kind of rally, so the entire 4th is...ok, not a blowout, but a situation where no one expects the Sixers to come back. Then there were the usual ton of fouls, a few long, tedious reviews. Brad Stevens calls a timeout after a review with the Celtics having the ball, and enough of a lead with 7 seconds left to not worry. Doris Burke dropped one of the best comments ever. "The end of this game feels like a bad date." Nailed it!

Haven't watched any baseball the last several days, as the NBA playoffs have been 4 straight games running 10 or so hours total. But, yes, there were some of those I heard. Rather lame. The cutouts getting hit, and the broadcaster making some joke...I only heard that a few times but that was just idiotic. We KNOW the situation ye daft fools!! All those comments have always come off totally contrived.

That is unfortunately expected, tho. The good news may be that their curve's looking like it's flattening. Even if we assume they're missing cases, it should largely be true that the missed cases have mostly always been missed, so that may not invalidate that their curve is flattening...just the level at which it's flattening. Unless things change soon, the US per capita death rate will rise to probably #4, not counting Andorra and San Marino (each has well under 100K people). Within a couple of weeks, we look to pass Spain, the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Chile...and probably be passed by Brazil, where the response failure has been absolute. Their case statistics have been consistent since mid-June...and their death statistics since early June. And there's no real evidence of it changing.

aaaarrrrrggghhhhh...... Watching Bucks/Magic game 3. It's turning into a blowout...19 point lead for Bucks, mid 2nd period...when tempers blow. Looked like pretty normal push/shove under the basket on a rebound; player on the Bucks takes offense, pushes one of the Magic. Of course this leads to Yo Mama hissyfits...and the Magic player tries to throw a punch before they can be separated. The ridiculous aspect was Stan Van Gundy's whiny "I hate seeing players ejected" and "this is disproportionate" BS, as both players got tossed. (This meant the Magic are down their top 3 forwards.) Deserved, IMO; one pushed, the other tried to punch. There was no ambiguity in any of it. Van Gundy (well, ok, both of em) go soooo far over the top IMO with that "oh it's terrible, they're ejected in the playoffs!" GAG!!!! DON'T THROW THE PUNCH! The Bucks guy would've been the only one tossed. LEARN SOME SELF CONTROL. Had to vent; Jeff Van Gundy did the same thing when Porzyngis got tossed. I am utterly sick and tired of "analysts" saying "oh we should ignore the rules because the consequences are so bad for the competition!" rather than blaming the player for not following them.

Small Sample Size Theater, Pariah. They had a nice 15-game stretch; it just so happened to stand out because it wasn't diluted by other games. Of course, the entire season is going to be Small Sample Size Theater...less so, the short season, but more the fact that it'll be about the playoffs, with so many mediocre teams in play. Looking at the Rockies team stats...I'm seeing 2 good starters in Freeland and Senzatela. Marquez has been...ok, long as you recognize him as a #4 or #5 starter. Translation, don't expect that much. Castellani is kinda similar...but he's not giving enough length. The bullpen looks to be unsettled, with no clear roles.

There is some argument that the playoff pool is too small, sure, but that's secondary. There won't even be subjective ways to try to compare; it'd be 3 tiny, completely separate pools of games. Calling it a "national" championship would be a serious insult...and basically, that's what Dabo's words implied. Oh, well, someone from the SEC versus Clemson (since Clemson has no legit opposition to speak of) because we all know they'll beat everyone else. Hubris, much? And I say that even tho I'd say that was the most likely matchup...by a lot. It's still hubris to say they would have no shot at all, and thus assert it'd be a legit title.

And there's the aspect that schools have been de facto day care and food bank for many, for some time. Reopening the schools is easily the most complex issue related to the pandemic that we have, IMO.

Not something Chinese; he wouldn't get his cut.

I would be stunned if a judge chose to second-guess a decision to close. I *can* see a judge supporting an order to close, when the conditions to re-open haven't come close to being met. And if the school has chosen online classes only, there's no leg whatsoever. I completely agree that not holding in-person classes but trying to play football, is exceptionally hypocritical. Dabo asserted that a championship would be legit. Yeah, well, that's willful blindness, and it's in his interests to claim it. As for the bowls...the Tournament of Roses committee cancelled the parade. This is arguably the biggest annual, non-sports event in the country, considering its long history and cultural reach. Almost all the lesser bowls are nothing more than charity exhibition games, and sponsor advertising vehicles. There won't be enough teams to justify at least half of them, I suspect, and the rest would have to scramble for teams. I can MAYBE see the New Year's Six bowls. I can see ESPN trying to sell the title games, but I can also see them taking the New Year's Six as fun interconference games, and acknowledging that any championship is ludicrous.

Article today in NYT about a rise in case numbers in Europe that has them concerned. When rates are 1/10th that seen in Florida. Just slightly different priorities, eh? Numbers seem to be driven by a higher rate among younger folks. Head of the WHO in Europe offered this quote: Emphasis mine. I really do wonder how much penetration into our thinking the longer-term consequences have had...and how much, if any, the administration's downplaying the issues have directly or indirectly helped to suppress this? To be sure, some of it is, it just takes a while to build up the evidence. A rush to report has led to problems already; but one can also wonder if some of the researchers here are worried about reprisals.

First, are you sure you know which form of duplication was the most common when Champions was being written? Then, do you want the most popular, or a form that can be presented reasonably, or is more adaptable? How about cross-power considierations? Duplication can easily be considered as a special case of Summon; Summon works great for the kind of short-term, disruptable "instant minion" or "instant horde" forms...the massive replicators don't often have a whole lot of powers on their own, and they rely on overrunning by numbers, or creating too much of a distraction to ignore. Duplication gets the inherent advantage of full cooperation, to the point of self-sacrifice, for free...so it needs a downside when it can be included in an arbitrary build. One thing this discussion is pointing out...one could probably dedicate at least a chapter to duplication in all its intricacies.

Or, a classic is awe. An angel appears overhead as two sides are about to knock heads inside a church, let's say in Mexico...a strong Catholic country. The angel demands an explanation. Both sides stop, and many have to bend over to pick up their jaws....