Michael Hopcroft

I have to say The Conscience of the King. The entire episode is driven by human emotion and obsession - and the grand villain proves to be an old man, and rather sympathetic. As a study in humanity it's superb.

"What should we expect next? The dreaded bunnywolf? The ferocious penguinlion? Perhaps the terrible ducksnake?" - Vaarsuvius, the moment before they were fed to an owlbear by a ticked-off halfling.

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

The virus has claimed actor Nick Carduro after a battle that lasted nearly a hundred days.
 
Carduro was better known for his Broadway stage work than for TV or film, but he had just relocated with his family to LA last year. Then the virus took hold of him and never let go. I will not give you the details from the link here, but they are shocking.
 
And to think his story is one of a hundred thousand other stories of people who went through this ordeal and did not emerge.

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

Gundams and Veritechs are weapon systems. The typical Gundam just happens to be highly advanced, exotic, and frighteningly effective killing machines. There are other "Mobile Suits" in the various series, but Gundams are special. Veritechs, on the other hand, are assembly-line products made for a specific purpose in a specific war. Similarly, the Jaegers of Pacific Rim are weapon systems built for a specific task.
 
Now, civilian mecha are rare because producing even a run-of-the-mill cannon-fodder Mobile Suit is maddeningly expensive. But there some interesting examples of situations where mecha are efficient and common for civilian tasks. The Labors of Patlabor are very useful devices for things like large-scale construction projects. You still wouldn't go to your Nissan dealer and pick one up to take the kids to soccer practice -- that's what minivans are for -- a Labor is really great when you have a lot of stuff to move around. (They can also do a lot of damage in the wrong hands, so the Tokyo Police have their own force of specialized Labor drivers).
 
A Transformer, on the other hand, is a sapient being who happens to have metal and electrical wiring instead of flesh and blood. 

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

Gundams and Veritechs are weapon systems. The typical Gundam just happens to be highly advanced, exotic, and frighteningly effective killing machines. There are other "Mobile Suits" in the various series, but Gundams are special. Veritechs, on the other hand, are assembly-line products made for a specific purpose in a specific war. Similarly, the Jaegers of Pacific Rim are weapon systems built for a specific task.
 
Now, civilian mecha are rare because producing even a run-of-the-mill cannon-fodder Mobile Suit is maddeningly expensive. But there some interesting examples of situations where mecha are efficient and common for civilian tasks. The Labors of Patlabor are very useful devices for things like large-scale construction projects. You still wouldn't go to your Nissan dealer and pick one up to take the kids to soccer practice -- that's what minivans are for -- a Labor is really great when you have a lot of stuff to move around. (They can also do a lot of damage in the wrong hands, so the Tokyo Police have their own force of specialized Labor drivers).
 
A Transformer, on the other hand, is a sapient being who happens to have metal and electrical wiring instead of flesh and blood. 

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

I liked that blog post -- or, at the very least, I understood where they were coming from. Orcs do tend to be a cheap cop-out in many cases. I wonder why the Tolkein estate barred Gygax from using terms like "hobbit" but kept "ent", and "orc". Since so much fantasy gaming is built around the D&D concepts, we're always going to have orcs. But they seem to be a lazy way to write at times unless they are so thoroughly deconstructed that we might as well not call them Orcs anymore.
 
Yes, I knwo if wouldn't be D&D without orcs, but we're not playing D&D (at l;east not that often, and not here). We're playing Hero. We don't need Orcs, and they raise too many extremely troubling questions. Human history is bloody enough without Orcs, thank you very much.
 
If D&D does, in fact, still need Orcs, then that's a problem with the world-building of D&D.
 
(And I see no problem with being called an SJW. Were the term not so pejorative I would wear it as a badge of honor like Antifa. Who can rationally be opposed to justice?)

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

With the minor league season canceled, I suspect a massive die-off of teams and even leagues is imminent. I don't think very many teams will survive, and if we're lucky one or two leagues. Worst case scenario would me minor league baseball completely vanishing as just about every team folds, and the municipalities who subsidized newer minor league stadiums realizing they were probably pretty darn foolish.
 
All of the major league clubs will oprobably survive, because ownership has deep pockets and they have TV money. But the minors as we know them have probably ceased to exist.

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

And I got my test results, and they're negative. Now if only I could find my keys...
 

Gilead has already announced that they're letting it be produced royalty-free by generic manufacturers.  They've already taken steps to reduce the cost of the drug. This has been in the news for several weeks.

This is the entire game, minus commercials, but well worth watching. Team vs Team vs Nature.
 
 

I liked that blog post -- or, at the very least, I understood where they were coming from. Orcs do tend to be a cheap cop-out in many cases. I wonder why the Tolkein estate barred Gygax from using terms like "hobbit" but kept "ent", and "orc". Since so much fantasy gaming is built around the D&D concepts, we're always going to have orcs. But they seem to be a lazy way to write at times unless they are so thoroughly deconstructed that we might as well not call them Orcs anymore.
 
Yes, I knwo if wouldn't be D&D without orcs, but we're not playing D&D (at l;east not that often, and not here). We're playing Hero. We don't need Orcs, and they raise too many extremely troubling questions. Human history is bloody enough without Orcs, thank you very much.
 
If D&D does, in fact, still need Orcs, then that's a problem with the world-building of D&D.
 
(And I see no problem with being called an SJW. Were the term not so pejorative I would wear it as a badge of honor like Antifa. Who can rationally be opposed to justice?)

One of my more recent friends is likely sick with it, and has pneumonia.  Given his health was bad until recently, I have no idea where this will leave him.

I liked that blog post -- or, at the very least, I understood where they were coming from. Orcs do tend to be a cheap cop-out in many cases. I wonder why the Tolkein estate barred Gygax from using terms like "hobbit" but kept "ent", and "orc". Since so much fantasy gaming is built around the D&D concepts, we're always going to have orcs. But they seem to be a lazy way to write at times unless they are so thoroughly deconstructed that we might as well not call them Orcs anymore.
 
Yes, I knwo if wouldn't be D&D without orcs, but we're not playing D&D (at l;east not that often, and not here). We're playing Hero. We don't need Orcs, and they raise too many extremely troubling questions. Human history is bloody enough without Orcs, thank you very much.
 
If D&D does, in fact, still need Orcs, then that's a problem with the world-building of D&D.
 
(And I see no problem with being called an SJW. Were the term not so pejorative I would wear it as a badge of honor like Antifa. Who can rationally be opposed to justice?)

I liked that blog post -- or, at the very least, I understood where they were coming from. Orcs do tend to be a cheap cop-out in many cases. I wonder why the Tolkein estate barred Gygax from using terms like "hobbit" but kept "ent", and "orc". Since so much fantasy gaming is built around the D&D concepts, we're always going to have orcs. But they seem to be a lazy way to write at times unless they are so thoroughly deconstructed that we might as well not call them Orcs anymore.
 
Yes, I knwo if wouldn't be D&D without orcs, but we're not playing D&D (at l;east not that often, and not here). We're playing Hero. We don't need Orcs, and they raise too many extremely troubling questions. Human history is bloody enough without Orcs, thank you very much.
 
If D&D does, in fact, still need Orcs, then that's a problem with the world-building of D&D.
 
(And I see no problem with being called an SJW. Were the term not so pejorative I would wear it as a badge of honor like Antifa. Who can rationally be opposed to justice?)

I liked that blog post -- or, at the very least, I understood where they were coming from. Orcs do tend to be a cheap cop-out in many cases. I wonder why the Tolkein estate barred Gygax from using terms like "hobbit" but kept "ent", and "orc". Since so much fantasy gaming is built around the D&D concepts, we're always going to have orcs. But they seem to be a lazy way to write at times unless they are so thoroughly deconstructed that we might as well not call them Orcs anymore.
 
Yes, I knwo if wouldn't be D&D without orcs, but we're not playing D&D (at l;east not that often, and not here). We're playing Hero. We don't need Orcs, and they raise too many extremely troubling questions. Human history is bloody enough without Orcs, thank you very much.
 
If D&D does, in fact, still need Orcs, then that's a problem with the world-building of D&D.
 
(And I see no problem with being called an SJW. Were the term not so pejorative I would wear it as a badge of honor like Antifa. Who can rationally be opposed to justice?)