Joe Walsh

Between uBlock Origin and Adblock Plus I often forget what a cesspool the internet really is.

Well, we know that Michael Keaton's Batman is training his replacement, Batgirl, in Flashpoint; sort of a riff on Batman Beyond. And we also know that a Latino Supergirl has been cast, though I'm not sure where she is supposed to first appear. After all, we're not going to see Cavill or Affleck in their roles ever again, so they have to fill the "Supes" and "Bats" roles with other actors in any event. Mat Reeve's Batman isn't part of any cinematic universe, and Gadot's Wonder Woman is on the verge of irrelevance. That leaves Aquaman and the Flash barely holding what remains of the so-called DCEU together, so I'm not even sure there is a cinematic universe left to decanonize.

Got word: Champions Begins is greenlit for a 1st quarter 2022 release!  I'll get more info to you as I learn more.

It’s the end of 2021. Whatever happened with the IHA book? I read back through the thread and didn’t see any recent updates. Maybe I missed it?
 
Will there be a 2022 announcement thread next week/month?

I watched the finale of Hawkeye today. I found it the entire series quite satisfying.
 
And the mid-credits scene? Brilliant. Seriously, I could watch this all day.

And...just tested positive (home test, so no info on variant).

Mild symptoms -- mostly a minor head cold so far (low grade headache, congested sinuses, and fatigue).  Maybe shortness of breath, but not really noticeable.  Hoping it stays this way.

Restaurants Opting into Proof-of-Vax Policies Find Happy Guests, Angry Commenters

There are about 696,000-697,000 police in the US.  There are about 336,000-337,000 National Guard members (including support units) in the US. There are about 1.3 to 1.4 million active duty military personnel in the US armed forces (including support units and those deployed around the world.)
 
A single million people acting up at once is a catastrophe of unheard of scale. Just 1% of the population is 3.3 million people . . . we'd be in deep doo-doo if that many people started acting up all at once.
 
Could they actually overthrow the government? Probably not, but not for lack of bodies, even at those numbers.
 
 

I have to thank all of the above-mentioned people for giving us Herophiles a Golden Age of Hero Games. DOJ Inc. came in when the game appeared all but dead, and produced more and more diverse Hero material than ever before, most of it of high quality. It's a tragedy that many of the company's plans for further publications were unable to be realized, and that new production slowed so dramatically over the second decade compared to the first. But I for one will always be deeply grateful for the many great hours of gaming, and heck, just reading, that DOJ provided me. You all should be very proud of what you accomplished.    
 

Believe it or not, it was 20 years ago today that Darren Watts, Jason Walters, the Secret Masters, and myself bought the HERO System (and its related IPs)!
 
It's been a wonderful, amazing journey ever since -- one with its ups and downs, like any journey -- but still an awesome one. My deepest thanks to all the HERO fans out there who have made it possible!

What It’s Like to Be a Restaurant’s ‘Vaccine Bouncer’

Stripped of power, Missouri health depts abandon COVID health measures

WHOA!!!!  Time out here.
 
This site also has these stories:
 
 
 
And another story about election fraud in Arizona;  those stories are from July.  Another echoes a Newsmax story that Pope Francis is dying...which has zero corroboration or even supporting information.  
 
So this alleged story has a HIGH probability of being nothing but disinformation and lies in my book.  

From the article above:
 
 
People really need to learn that emotional hijacking* is a real, tangible phenomena, and that even otherwise intelligent people are ripe for manipulation of their lower-level thought processes.  Most people calm down and start reasoning even after a strong stimulus, but the social media, easy internet access, and smart phones make a constant, unhealthy level of negative stimulation possible.
 
Trump supporters, conspiracy theorists, etc. are not all idiots. This makes them all the more terrifying, IMO.
 
 
 
 
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack
 

George Perez has posted that his cancer has reached critical mass
 

 
This really hit me hard because I'm going through the end of this story right now. 
 
I'm watching my step-father go through the same. He suffered a few minor strokes a few weeks ago. He's been dealing with prostate cancer for a decade and the last round of radiation treatments did f' all and so the plan was to comfort him and start hospice when it looked like it was time. We (the kids) all gathered for Thanksgiving this year, and dad, unable to talk well was vibrant and laughing taking part in the telling of tales where he could and miming when he couldn't find the words. He seemed to be getting better...at least his speech.
 
A week later he's had another stroke and is now confined to a wheelchair and the planned party for his 85th birthday on the 11th might not happen. 
 
I'm sad.  Sorry to show up only to  whine. 

I had a look over at my Taming of Tascora module for Western Hero and discovered that it had some errors and a bad map in it.  Apparently I'd sent Jason the work version of the file instead of the completed finished version
 
So that's been straightened out and you can get the correct version either here or at DriveThru RPG.  If you already got it, you can just download the updated version free.

Kevin Feige confirms Charlie Cox will return as Daredevil within Marvel Studios MCU, at some stage. 

I've been meaning to post this since I heard it, but I hate typing in long URLs. It might be of interest given the recent discussion, since it's about how American gun culture turned so weird -- told by Ryan Busse, a gun company insider who turned against the industry because of said cultural changes. (Though he stresses he still hunts and shoots for sport, and teaches his children likewise.) It was the Nov. 22, 2021 episode of the public radio program Fresh Air. Mr. Busse has written a book about it, called "Gunfight."
 
https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2021/11/22/1057244756/fresh-air-for-nov-22-2021-gunfight-author-ryan-busse?showDate=2021-11-22
 
In brief: The change was engineered by the NRA and some rather strange fanatics in the gun industry.
 
Dean Shomshak

They're very strongly connected. You can't really deal with present violence without understanding its roots.

Should be getting my booster shot tomorrow

This trend was well underway prior to the MCU, however.  Of the 20 highest grossing films this century, only one was not a franchise or remake--Avatar.  And it could be argued that that one is merely the first installment in a franchise.