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https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/science/a-mysterious-radio-burst-is-sending-signals-to-earth-every-16-days/vi-BBZQWl5?ocid=spartanntp What would we do if we figured out there seemed to be some kind of intelligent pattern to the signals but we couldn't get close to figuring out the contents? Try signaling back? Or would there be a whole layer of discussion around what to do next?

Romney's vote puts a different cast on the whole proceeding. Romney, Jones and Manchin all showed courage in voting to convict.

Imagine how citizens of color felt about the government's attitude toward their interests for the period from 1619 to about the mid-60s(and beyond, in many cases).

My general preference is for a resumption of the expansion of the House, as was discontinued 100 years ago. Under the original constitutional formula, we'd have around 6000 congressmen right now. Imagine the difficulties in lobbying that many! I'd like there to be around 900 to 1000 members of the House.

It would likely take some new revelation regarding something even more serious for Trump's goose to be fully cooked.

Yeah, that could work.

We're going to need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to expose all the misdeeds of the current administration, even if it's only limited to one term. I will be furious if the next administration just quietly drops all pretense of holding them accountable.

That's what coalition politics is all about--make a deal with other groups, give a little to get a little, etc. My take: In practice, when you give a demographic minority not just disproportionate political power but strategically important political power, they will use it for "rent extraction"(i.e., to get stuff they want, including "extra stuff", if possible). They can also use it to "stuff" the majority, blocking anything that might be proposed, for naked partisan gain. I'm speaking specifically of the US Senate, where two facts obtain: 1) The 15 largest states, mostly blue and purple states, represent about 2/3 of the population but only have 30 seats in the Senate The 35 smallest states, a mix of red, blue and purple, represent about 1/3 of the population but have 70 seats in the Senate 2) The legislative filibuster amplifies the power of small state senators immensely, since you only need 41 votes to block legislation from going forward We have a situation where legislation of immense importance to majorities living in urban areas lies fallow in the Senate after passing through the House, because small state senators see little benefit in spending money on urban areas or doing things that primarily aid urban areas. This, to be blunt, is dysfunctional as hell. Dystopian, even. There's also the matter of "maker" and "taker" states: in practice, large and/or wealthy states wind up "sending" some of their federal tax revenues to smaller, more rural "taker" states. 70% of the US population live in communities of 50k+ population(i.e., urban or dense suburban), 10% live in communities between 2500 and 50k(suburban/exurban, dense rural), and 20% live in communities smaller than 2500(rural). Demographic trends point in the direction of this disparity getting more pronounced over time. I understand the argument about local vs state politics in big states with large urban areas and significant rural population, but, again, my advice would be to network with other "out" groups and form coalitions to get things they need.

Too soon?

Jeff Yang (Drifters Game Workshop)‏ @DrifterWorkshop Follow Follow @DrifterWorkshop More The perfect character backstory doesn't exi- 4:45 AM - 18 Jan 2020

No, but...I would like for a few things to be passed to the federal level, to be more centralized and more consistent...specifically, public education curricula and funding. An equal quality education everywhere in the country. It's frustrating to hear that, say, Mississippi ranks 48th or whatever in public education, and for people to be perfectly fine with that kind of disparity existing between states.

True. My suggestion was that it's far easier to just increase the number of representatives, diluting the distortive effect of the EC, rather than getting 2/3 of the House and Senate and 3/4 of the states to pass an amendment that would reduce the electoral power of small states(of which there are more than 12). All you have to do is overcome a filibuster.

The one major change I do support is passing a new Apportionment Act, substantially increasing the membership of the House of Representatives(and, by doing so, increasing the size of the electoral college and diluting the population distorting effect of adding two electors per state for the Senate). It reduces the likelihood of a "fluke" EC win and popular vote loss while making the House more representative of the diversity of the population. Third party candidates would also have a more meaningful chance of winning, running in smaller congressional districts. And I'd package it with provisions for non-partisan, independent redistricting commissions to cut way down on partisan gerrymandering.

The trial of an overwhelmingly guilty president who everyone expects to be acquitted anyway starts next week.

Tucker has basically transformed into "Richard Spencer with a primetime Fox show".

He thinks it takes away from fighting the invasion of brown people from the south. 👻* *not a ghost

I think they're going to withhold it just long enough to make their point about the fairness of the process in the Senate.

Trumpism is fairly unambiguously white identity politics. Or "white grievance politics", if you will.

Well, life support can protect one from temperature extremes, and environmental movement can negate penalties for being in water, it seems like one could suss out the net benefit of protection from precipitation. You could do it with a 1 PD Force Field, 0 END, 2 points active, only to keep precipitation off character, real cost 1 point.

We have Hero Designer. It does "the math" for you. But if I'm a new player, it's still 100 pages of character creation(4th edition) or 200-400 pages(5th/6th). The math is only a portion of what makes character creation complicated. There are dozens of powers, each with at least a half page writeup/explanation, some with a multipage explanation. There are dozens of power advantages and limitations. There's over 100 skills. Martial arts is replete with options. All of these have their own text descriptions and explanations. Ditto for perks, talents and so forth. Nobody looks at a 2 inch thick rulebook on character creation and thinks "oh that looks easy to learn".

Pre-gens are helpful. We still get to the question of "maybe the character creation section of our universal rpg system should clock in at less than, say, 400 pages". Like, 40-60 pages. Could we simplify the system to keep most of the flexibility while losing a lot of the verbiage and a layer or two of math? We might have to burn the whole thing down and start over using first principles.

In terms of the learning curve...the basics of combat, yes, you can pick up in one session. Character creation, you're not going to get all of it in one session, but enough to be able to read your sheet and make a very basic character. Building to concept without GM assistance? That's a matter of weeks or months. Character creation is the most complex part of the game--I mean, that part of 6th ed is like 400 pages long. Combat is relatively straightforward by comparison. "Simplifying" or "Streamlining" Hero is primarily about finding a way to streamline the character creation process, which is the one aspect of the game that can be intimidating or daunting for new players, especially if they come from a D&D type background, with a basic set of character classes, races, etc to choose from, stats to roll up, and a basic selection of equipment, skills, etc. that are basically handed to the player. In Hero you start from scratch. So, yeah, by comparison, it IS more complicated than a lot of traditional systems like D&D or simplified systems like Storyteller.

I started with Champions 2nd edition(the box set), then got Champions II and III fairly quickly thereafter(this would have been 1984, I guess). I got Espionage, Danger International, Justice Inc, Fantasy Hero 1st ed, and Robot Warriors before the Big Blue Book came out in 1988 or 89, at which point I was in college. So my first campaign I ran in HS was 2nd/3rd ed, I started running 4th edition in college, and when I joined a regular group in 1992, we played 4th, tried Fuzion for a while but the group was split on it(the long time Hero players preferred Hero System, but the newer players liked the speed and simplicity of Fuzion), played 5th for a little while. I moved to DC about 15 years ago and played one campaign with a 5th ed setup, and later ran one with 6th edition. My general sense is that if you gloss over the complexities of character creation and focus on them learning the mechanics of skill use and combat first, it's easier to bring someone on board. If you start out trying to create a character or recreate a comic book superhero things can get over your head pretty quickly. Figuring out how to keep a character "within budget" was my first big challenge as a new player. The second was figuring out how to model powers and abilities which weren't simply a 12d6 EB or 30m of flight. I think one somewhat valid complaint about Hero is that it's TOO generic. Even the campaign universe stuff can be a little bit on the bland side.

I did fine in calculus. But most game systems don't really require the player to do ANY math(or, at most, just basic addition and subtraction), and it adds a layer of complexity to the game. The whole system of advantages and limitations adds a layer of complexity to learning the rules. Once I learned the system I could write up a character in 10-20 minutes...unless I had some idea for a new power or a complicated way of writing up a power. Then it could take a couple hours.