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[Hermit]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:50 AM, Lord Liaden said:

 

On behalf of Canada, sorry. 😔

 

On the plus side, you almost never get them that round. 😁

 

And it just HAPPENS to be the size of the White House eh?

 

Uh huh... *keeps an eye on Canada's secret sinkhole R&D*

 

 

[death tribble]

Last of the original Archers cast retires at the age of 103. The Archers is a BBC radio soap opera that started in 1950.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-62462139

[Ternaugh]

Olivia Newton-John has passed away. 

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/obituaries/olivia-newton-john-pop-singer-who-found-stardom-grease-dies-n1045376

[wcw43921]

Who effin' does this?  You don't have like his movies--you don't have to like him.  But bomb threats?

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Sadly, that's just business as usual in the modern age. 

[death tribble]

the illustrator Raymond Briggs who was famous for the Snowman has died aged 88

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-62490170

[Bazza]

That is a neat Christmas animated story. 

[unclevlad]

Oh man.  Really unfortunate mess.  MAJOR mess.

 

Oregon vs. Washington.  Tied in the bottom of the 7th, ergo extra innings.  Winner to LLWS...a lifetime dream.

 

Runner on 1st, batter pulls a ball down the 3rd base line.  VERY close, fair or foul.  Umpire raises both hands...which always means "foul ball"...but apparently is *saying* fair ball.  You can see Washington's 3rd base coach jumping up and down.  The ball goes down into the corner...and the runner from first has no opposition.

 

Thing is...did the defense *stop*?  The visual signal was Foul Ball. 

 

The ruling in the end?  Fair ball, the run's allowed to score.  No explanation, but it just happened.  It is possible that the runner would've scored anyway, but that's not a given at all.  And to lose like that was just....UGH.

 

I'm never gonna overly criticize Little League umps...seems reasonably clear the 3rd base ump messed up, but heck, the umps are volunteers too.  It is, as I led with, just quite unfortunate.  

[Bazza]

India man wins 22-year court battle over 25 cents

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/india-man-wins-22-year-court-battle-over-25-cents/ar-AA10xUXX?li=AAgfYrC

 

Man who built ISP instead of paying Comcast $50K expands to hundreds of homes

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/08/man-who-built-isp-instead-of-paying-comcast-50k-expands-to-hundreds-of-homes/

[tkdguy]

Anne Heche dies a week after car crash

 

CNN reports the actress is brain dead but remains on life support, although she is not expected to survive. Other news sources report that Anne Heche has indeed passed away.

[Lord Liaden]

"Brain dead" means brain functions have ceased. It's the legal definition of death, even if bodily functions are being maintained by life support. She's gone.

[Bazza]

Is it the pod, the phone or the pad? All three…

 

Apple Rules the S&P 500 With Highest Weighting for Any Company Since 1980
https://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-stock-price-sp500-weighting-51660238751

[Cygnia]

After 35 years missing, an Air Force captain mysteriously reappeared in the Bay Area

[Pariah]

19 hours ago, tkdguy said:

Anne Heche dies a week after car crash

 

CNN reports the actress is brain dead but remains on life support, although she is not expected to survive. Other news sources report that Anne Heche has indeed passed away.

 

It appears that she was kept on life support for a time in order to determine whether any of her organs were suitable for donation. She had made it known that she wished to be an organ donor.

 

RIP, Ms. Heche. May you find the peace and contentment that seemed to elude you in this world. 

[tkdguy]

LAPD no longer investigating Anne Heche car crash

 

It is important to note that another woman, who lives in the house the car crashed into, also suffered injuries. Her house is also badly damaged; neighbors have set up a Go Fund Me campaign to pay for the repairs.

[BoloOfEarth]

Apparently, an asteroid 2.3 times the size of a dinosaur is heading for Earth. 

 

These new measurement systems have me confused.  How many giraffes is that?

[Cancer]

Looks like it actually came rather closer in 2019.  (Link) 

 

Edit: on a related note, Decades of bolide data released ... things that actually have hit Earth.  Correlate birthdays and impacts and see who's got an origin story.

[Old Man]

There's no conversion; a dinosaur is a unit of length and a giraffe is a unit of height.

[Cancer]

Yea, the dinoraffe is a unit of area.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

18 minutes ago, Old Man said:

There's no conversion; a dinosaur is a unit of length and a giraffe is a unit of height.

 

I Googled average dinosaur size and there's an answer! (Didn't see that coming.) It seems a dinosaur is actually mass. 

 

Quote

The median mass of a dinosaur is determined to be 630 kg (1389 lb), or the size of an American bison

 

I think that settles it. 1 metric dinosaur = 1 American bison. 

 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. 

[Old Man]

Except that the article eventually uses a particular genus of dinosaur, Brontosaurus, without specifying age or species, as a unit of length.

 

edit: The article actually goes on to measure another asteroid, 2022 EB5, in giraffes!

[Cygnia]

Meta's chatbot says the company 'exploits people'

[Cancer]

After having a few drinks, I may have to engage that chatbot about the superiority of 3d6 over 1d20, and advocate a holy war to eliminate the infidels.

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Cancer said:

After having a few drinks, I may have to engage that chatbot about the superiority of 3d6 over 1d20, and advocate a holy war to eliminate the infidels.

 

Anything but rolling a ton of dice, needing X successes, a la Shadowrun and Storyteller, but particularly Shadowrun because of d6's.  A 1 point target number shift is big;  2 points, enormous.

 

Any linear-distribution roll has the advantage that any adjustments have consistent impact, until you get to the fringes.  Not true with 3d6.