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tkdguy

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23 minutes ago, Pariah said:

 

Because if you fail to do it properly, there's gonna be a heartache tonight.


This is the last resort: They called it paradise; I don't know why I’m stuck like a new kid in town in the hotel California until Hell freezes over like a desperado to a witchy woman, which one of the nights, I’m gonna live life in the fast lane in the long run. Phew. 

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2 hours ago, Pariah said:

I've got no problem with algebra.

I can do a little trigonometry when necessary.

I can even figure out matrices, given sufficient time and motivation.

But calculus is where I reach my limit.

 

I can do some calculus. It's statistics where I'm hopeless.

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15 hours ago, assault said:

Statistics and probability is where roleplayers should shine.

 

How likely is it that your character will be Stunned by a 12DC attack?

 

The two are QUITE different.  You're talking basic probability.  Something of a grind to actually set up *accurately*...not too bad to estimate.  The standard deviation for NdS, where N == number of dice, S == number of sides, is

 

SQRT( N * (S^2 -1) / 12 )

 

So for 6 siders, this is basically SQRT (N * 3), or here, 6.  Now you just go, how many StdDevs is it from the mean of 42?  

 

Or you just quickly write up some code that'll create the entire sample space...6^12 isn't big for a computer, only a couple billion...and reference that.

 

That said...offhand, I'd say that there was *1* other person in my old RP group...who were college students...that could do either.  I'll grant, this was some time ago, but while simple programming is likely to be much more common today, math skills to this point...probably aren't.    

 

Stats is much trickier.  We had upper division prob and stats...the prob course was easy enough.  The stats course kicked most math majors' backside.  Stats is when you start asking, ok, are these fair dice, or are they biased?  Is this process truly random or not?  That's not necessarily the same point...it's not enough to examine the overall collection of trial events, but also whether there are internal patterns.  When those patterns are there consistently?  Not random.  HTHTHTHTHTHT looks like a fair toss, right?  Same number of heads as tails.  BUT statistics says, that constant flipping is NOT likely...1 in 2048.  

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Doesn't count as 'news' per se, but just got a shipment from Amazon.  Mid-size box, roughly size of a loaf of bread.  The interesting thing was the shipping box was pressed out around the product box...to size, basically.  First time I've seen this.  Has to afford some material reduction overall;  with fast 3D scanning to get dimensions, smacking out the raw cardboard should be fast.  No waste.  Everything's folded and glued...so no tape either.  

 

Kinda cool.  I'm all for reducing product waste whenever possible.

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On 5/21/2022 at 7:33 AM, assault said:

Statistics and probability is where roleplayers should shine.

 

How likely is it that your character will be Stunned by a 12DC attack?

1 DC (District of Columbia) is bad enough. 12 ?

Think of all the wretched lobbyists......

 

 

In other news the guy who designed starships for Star Wars has died.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61547986

 

And on a personal not the headmaster at my old school died aged 92 the local paper has said. He was married for over 65 years

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Science That Could Cause Origins Dept.:

 

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/23/1100828758/study-finds-microscopic-life-in-830-million-year-old-crystal-and-it-might-be-ali

 

Though reviving microbes sealed in a salt crystal for 830 million years could only result in a Lovecraftian monster. The scientists say they'll be careful, and anyway after 830 million years of missed coevolution the microbes would be so maladapted they couldn't possibly infect humans, that's just the sort of cocksure statements that scientists always make before The Horror Begins. (Though they also try to preempt fate by saying that yes, the situation sounds like something from a B movie. Not enough, I tell you!)

 

Dean Shomshak

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2 hours ago, Old Man said:

Hadn’t heard of a mass shooting in America in days. Guess we can count on Texas to pick up the slack. 

 

Unfortunately they did...so this wasn't in the best of taste.  19 dead at an elementary school shooting, if I read the last update from NYT right...

 

18 KIDS.

 

 

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39 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

 

Unfortunately they did...so this wasn't in the best of taste.  19 dead at an elementary school shooting, if I read the last update from NYT right...

 

18 KIDS.

 

 


This is the incident my post was referring to. 

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1 hour ago, Pariah said:

Wait, a mass shooting in Texas? The same Texas where everyone has guns? Isn't everyone having guns supposed to prevent mass shootings? I'm pretty sure I heard that somewhere.

 

At least two good guys with guns tried to stop this particular bad guy with gun.  It's almost as though good-guy-with-gun is just a fantasy.

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54 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I'm pretty sure what you heard from gun rights fanatics is that the answer is to have MORE guns. Armed guards at schools. And armed teachers.

 

I expect their next suggestion will be to arm the children.

 

Look, I grew up in rural America and learned how to shoot long before I learned how to drive. I took the hunter safety course, even though I've never actually been hunting. I've got no problem with responsible gun use.

 

But arming teachers, as a matter of policy, is a bad idea. Teachers aren't cops and shouldn't be expected to function as such. And honestly, there are several of my coworkers who have no business being with a hundred meters of a firearm.

 

So put me in the Hawkeye Pierce camp where that's concerned.

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