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DShomshak

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Posts posted by DShomshak

  1. On 3/25/2024 at 10:42 AM, LoneWolf said:

    When you have super science that can manipulate the molecular structure of an object at range there is no reason you cannot have something capable of doing a genetic analysis without having a sample.  I had a character with telekinesis that could alter things on an atomic level.  He was able to perceive and even alter molecules including the cells of a living being.   His molecular Analysis was 68 active points for a single enhanced sense.   

     

    A lot of science fiction has medical scanners that can do this.  The Tricorders of Star Trek from Star Trek can easily do this.  The ships senses of the enterprise can do this from orbit.   
     

    A very good point -- and it also leads to your "Decide what mutants really are" point. And also one of my Star Trek rants that what tricorders (and even ship's sensors) can detect seems to vary arbitrarily based on needs of the current story. "There's bogonic interference in the atmosphere that's blocking out sensors, captain..."

     

    We can accept a lot of rubber science, especially in comic books, but internal consistency helps.

     

    I will actually give Marvel some credit that in at least one story, a Sentinel (maybe the Master Mold, maybe Nimrod) cranked up its Mutant Scanner and found that everyone has at least a few "mutant" cells. It was a genetic potential in everyone. The robot, of course, freaked. But the point is, at least one writer seemed to be trying to think these things through.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  2. 2 hours ago, Asperion said:

    I have always disliked those "magic wand" detectors, like I described in the original post.  Instead,  I used a method similar to what Dean described where someone needs to obtain a DNA sample for a lab test. The suspect can refuse to give the sample,  there is no way to generally scan a room, along with more problems. The rationale used was that mutants possess a marker in their genes,  but to detect it one needed to obtain that sample and pull it out to find. No remote detection system can locate them. 

    The "magic wand" mutant detector exists for story reasons to cover gaps in the "anti-mutant prejudice" theme. If you're going to have giant robots hunting mutants, they need some way of telling who's a mutant. It would, after all, be politically awkward if they attacked people known to have powers for socially acceptable reasons, or people who just look a little odd. And mutants probably won't politely sit still for a DNA test. So to have that scene where the Sentinel robots tear open the shopping mall to get at the X-Men while they're in civvies, you need to give the robots mutant detection.

     

    Or y'know, one could postulate that a lot of people with powers who *aren't* mutants suffer prejudice because people think they are. Because prejudice is irrational and bigots don't demand precise definition and testing of the people they fear and hate. Marvel did at least one scene of such "false positive" bigotry back when I still read Marvel, but on the whole ordinary people seemed to have quite good "mutant detector sense" innately. Like gaydar, but accurate. <eyeroll>

     

    As I have said before, repeatedly, perhaps even tiresomely, I am not a fan of that particular storyline. At least not as Marvel did it back in the '80s and '90s, and I haven't looked since.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  3. I deal with questions of mutant detection technology by having it not exist. Even the existence of "mutant power genes" was debated in science until some aliens who are really good at genetics confirmed their existence (and would you mind if we enslaved you so we can exploit them? We promise you'll still get a higher standard of living, so rationally it's a good deal...) Mutant power genes still require slow, finicky lab tests to identify. Very often, saying someone has "mutant powers" really means, "We don't know why they have powers."

     

    But then, I also don't do the whole "anti-mutant prejudice" thing in my campaign, either. Most people think being a mutant is the ultimate in dumb luck. (Not so much for the occasional defective mutants, such as the guy who gets super-strong muscles but not super-strong bones, or the pyrokinetic who isn't immune to fire. But there are now treatments for Obstructed Mutation Syndrome, from biotech captured from the aforementioned aliens.)

     

    I don't feel obligated to copy Marvel in everything.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  4. Anyway, pfft, it's only the Constitution. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments explicitly ban slavery and guarantee civil and voting rights, and yet Jim Crow was the law of the land -- or at least large sections of it -- for decades. Like all laws, the Constitution has only as much power as the people charged with implementing it choose to grant.

     

    (Plus there's the old argument that Constitutional phrases that seem to demand religious neutrality only mean neutrality among Christian denominations. Also, early in the Republic's history states established specific denominations, on the grounds the Constitution spoke only to the Federal government. Two views the SCOTUS have never endorsed, but hey, a sufficiently radical and zealous SCOTUS could throw out 200+ years of precedent.)

     

    In other news, I am not sure this bit of wackiness from Tennessee is going anywhere, or is even real. Considering other Republican lunacy, though, a state bill to ban imaginary "chemtrails" does not seem implausible. At least there'll be no problem enforcing it.

     

    Tennessee is trying to ban 'chemtrails' from planes based on a wild conspiracy theory (msn.com)

     

    Dean Shomshak

  5. Two other points from the above article I'd like to comment upon:

    Quote

    Dismissing criticism of Christian nationalism as a sneaky liberal ploy to attack all right-of-center Christians is profoundly disingenuous. But I suppose when you’re combatting Beelzebub in the name of Jesus, the Ninth Commandment is not operative.

    Well, of course not. For comparison, God also commanded, "Thou shalt not kill" -- then promptly commanded the Israelites to exterminate entire cities in their conquest of Canaan. The commandments of morality are for within the sectarian tribe. They do not apply to the infidel.

     

    Quote

    Last year, the far-right Heritage Foundation published an article declaring that Christian nationalism is a term “mostly used as a smear against conservative Christians who defend the role of religion in American public life” and that the “lack of standard definition allows critics to bundle evils like white supremacy and racism with standard conservative views on marriage, family, and politics.”

    Conservatives don't use a standard definition of Critical Race Theory, either; it seems to be anything that might make conservative white people uncomfortable. So, hey, turnabout is fair play. This isn't an academic debate; it's raw political conflict against people who speak openly about jailing or even murdering their opponents. I'm not going to worry much about hairsplitting definitions.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  6. 1 hour ago, death tribble said:

    Setting the East Ablaze: on Secret Service in Bolshevik Asia by Peter Hopkirk

    How the Soviets tried to forment revolution in Asia and how it failed. There is the Civil War between White and Red Russians; how Russia tried to turn India communist; how a number of British agents took on the Russians and how several people became warlords. There is dashing and derring do on both sides but it shines a light on a neglected piece of history, Britain vs Soviet Russia for control of India. A fascinating read

    I remember at least one Fantasy novel that was basically the French Revolution with the serial numbers filed off. Just this brief description makes me think it could be turned into a whole Fantasy series. And a kick-ass one at that.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  7. Classic Enemies showed how Enemies books should be written. The addition of Plot Seeds in Conquerors, Killers and Crooks was the most useful innovation in format since then -- and for writers as well as GMs. Coming up with three stories for every group and character forces one to think harder about how characters can be used in play. That makes characters more useful to GMs, so the product gives better value for money.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  8. This weekend's episode of On the Media discussed the bill to ban TikTok: why it's ridiculous, and how it could backfire. More relevant to my interests, though, was the second segment on the surge in book ban attempts and how Moms for Liberty fits into a long history of attacks on public education. In brief, some conservatives hate public education on first principles, because it's public and therefore socialistic. Other conservatives simply want to control it as a tool of social engineering, to instill the particular forms of patriotism and piety they believe in. (As usual, conservatives accuse liberals of doing what they want to do -- just not in the direction they approve of.) Either way, the goal is to foster suspicion of public education so that it may eventually be abolished. And polls show it's working, at least for the suspicion part.

     

    https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media

     

    Dean Shomshak

  9. 16 hours ago, unclevlad said:

    Found an amusing poll over on Awful Announcing.

     

    "Would you vote for a presidential candidate whose VP candidate is Aaron Rodgers?"

     

    90% NO...and over 1500 votes.

    Who is Aaron Rodgers?

     

    <goes to Wikipedia>

     

    Egad. Actually rather frightening that 10% *would* support a ticket with Aaron Rodgers. Though the article did point me to the "Tartarian Architecture" conspiracy theory, which I'd never heard of before. And wow, it's a doozy. Positively baroque. Or maybe Gothic Revival <snerk>.

     

    To be fair, I wouldn't automatically discount a retired pro athlete for federal office. IIRC Sen. Bill Bradley also had a distinguished career with the NY Knicks. A friend told me that a local fellow called Marshawn Lynch has mad skills at money management, which the federal government could probably use, and I gather he also played football pretty wall.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  10. I'm sure the outlined plot can work, and probably work well. The only advice I'd offer, based on my experience and the other (and better) GMs in my group, is: Don't overplan. Develop the characters, locations, Bases, and other resources you think you'll need, but keep the actual storylines loose so the players can change them through the PCs' actions.

     

    Possibly have DEMON, Nimue, or other Big Bad attempting some other villainous plot that the PCs can thwart, but the villains accidentally set something bigger in motion that leads to the Progenitor-related endgame. It's as much a surprising plot twist to the bad guys as to the heroes.

     

    Players often miss the plot cues you dangle in front of them, especially when you think you've made them especially obvious. If the players won't proactively follow the leads you've given, or can't decide which villain to pursue first, prep a few villainous plans for the PCs to react to, and hope you can tie them in later.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  11. Gods being fickle is a prime reason to build temples.

     

    The article's mention of hundreds of miles of pipes reminds me of the NOVA episode about the ruined city of Petra in Jordan, perhaps best known to movie audiences as the setting for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. A poet called it the "rose-red city, half as old as time." Petra was a rich trading city on the frankincense trail from Yemen to the Mediterranean. Its greatest marvel, though, might have been its reservoir and urban pool, fed by an immense system of channels and cisterns built to catch every drop of rain that fell anywhere near the city. IIRC the city fell when a massive earthquake broke the dam of the main reservoir. Hm. More grim foreshadowings for Californians to consider. But it was a wonderful city while it lasted.

     

    ...And the dry stone no sound of water. Only

    There is shadow under this red rock,

    (Come in under the shadow of this red rock),

    And I will show you something different from either

    Your shadow at morning striding behind you

    Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;

    I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

    --T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land

     

    Though for a contrary view:

     

    On their own feet they came, or on shipboard,

    Camelback, horseback, ass-back, mule-back,

    Old civilizations put to the sword.

    They and their wisdom went to rack.

    No handiwork of Callimichaus,

    Who handled marble as if it were bronze,

    Made draperies that seemed to rise

    When sea-wind swept the corner, stands;

    His long lamp-chimney shaped like the stem

    Of a slender palm, stood but a day;

    All things fall and are built again,

    And those that build them again are gay.

    --William Butler Yeats, "Lapis Lazuli"

     

    (I drew on the water system of Petra when writing the revised and explanded description of the desert city of Gem, for White Wolf's game Exalted. It was a running gag through the game that Gem was always on the verge of being destroyed.)

     

    Dean Shomshak

  12. 15 hours ago, Old Man said:

    I spend time wondering how to fix capitalism.  How hard could it be?  The current system does nothing to discourage infinite accretion of wealth, and it places no value on truth, or health, or education, or the environment. 

     

    "Infinite accumulation of wealth" is not a problem unique to capitalism. As Acemoglu and Robinson note in How Nations Fail, there's evidence that from the moment human societies began generating surpluses, there've been ruling classes to expropriate that surplus and use it to entrench their position. Brutal extraction of wealth from the many for the benefit of a few has been the rule across ages and continents. The only exceptions are hunter/gatherer societies so small and/or poor as to have no significant division of labor.

     

    A contrary process is possible: Enough of the population has enough wealth (and therefore power) to resist the rulers' desire to extract ever-larger shares of the society's total wealth and power, and indeed share out more wealth and power more broadly, is possible. It's happened in modern centuries. At every step, though, the ruling class resists -- and sometimes succeeds in reversing the outward division of wealth and power, and restores the vicious cycle of wealth concentration, leading to greater concentration of power, which is used to extract and concentrate wealth still further.

     

    I'll argue that capitalism is in many ways a social and moral improvement on what came before, in that it requires a large population of customers. The ruling class of the super-rich need to grant the masses at least enough wealth to buy the products of their own labor, or the money machine stops spinning. It's possible that the super-rich decide they don't care, and they'd rather get bigger shares of a smaller pie, which is why the rest of us have to keep pushing for a more distributive, less extractive, ecponomy and political system.

     

    It may be that some other system can be devised that generates even more wealth than capitalism and spreads it more equitably. We don't have it yet.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  13. 9 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

    Unfortunately, not losing isn't the same as winning.  Here, the ground for objecting to the decision is self-interest...which is unreliable.

    Self-interest is a lot more reliabole than altruism, or at least it's more reliable at motivating people. Anyone who wants to change public policy should certainly work on crafting arguments on how the change will benefit you, yes, you, right now or very soon. Any talk of the common good is to help people feel good about their self-interest. (The common good can still be valid, but it isn't what clinches the deal.)

     

    The Alabama SC applied the principle of human life starting at conception. They correctly recognized that it was not relevant whether sperm meets egg in a womb or in a lab. To that extent, I laud their rationality. I can only hope that the Alabama legislature's carvingf out an exception for in vitro highlights the irrationality of the core assumption. But I am often disappointed in people's rationality.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  14. 6 hours ago, Iuz the Evil said:

    Voted, civic duty accomplished

    Likewise. (Though here in Washington, we vote by mail, so there's no "special day.") My 91-year-old mother, likewise.

     

    In other Washingtonian political news, three initiatives pushed by Republicans have cleared our Democrat-dominated legislature. Majorities thought they were good ideas, or at least popular ideas. While we have our right-wing wackadoodles, we do still have a few Republicans who still try to present a somewhat sane alternative to Seattle liberals.

     

    Dean Shomshak

     

     

  15. According to the ABC News article on my newsfeed, the 9 justices were unanimous in ruling that states can't decide who can appear on ballots for federal office because allowing it would lead to chaos. That's fair. Without a firm definition of insurrection, leaving the states to decide would lead to caprice.

     

    Five of the conservatives went further, though, in saying that only Congress can decide 14th Amendment applicability. The three liberals disagreed, saying that SCOTUS should keep its ruling as narrow as possible and leave the door open for other (federal) means of 14th Amendment application. Amy Coney Barret wrote her own concurring opinion similarly arguing for the narrowest possible ruling, but stressing how important it was that all 9 had agreed on the basic issue.

     

    Notably, SCOTUS did *not* exonerate Trump. Though the majority ruling would seem to forestall suing in the SCOTUS itself to keep Trump out on 14th Amendment grounds.

     

     

    Dean Shomshak

  16. 5 hours ago, Pariah said:

    Last night I watched the classic Star Trek episode "By Any Other Name". A quick internet search reveals that the shape into which the Kelvans transformed the Enterprise crew is called a cuboctahedron.

    This was one of many TOS episodes where I wished TNG and other series' in that time period had shown what happened later. What became of the Kelvans-turned-humans? They were still formidable and knew technology beyond that of the Federation.

     

    A few others:

     

    Balok (Corbomite Maneuver) and the crewman who went off on cultural exchange.

     

    The Iotians (A Piece of the Action). Did they ever demand a piece of the Federation's action?

    (I imagine an Iotian security officer encountering one of those annoying immune-to-phasers monsters. He slaps his comm badge and says, "Computer: Implement program, 'Chicago Way.'" A fedora beams onto his head and a tommygun into his waiting arms. BRATATATAT. Monster go down.)

     

    Eminiar and Vendikar (A Taste of Armageddon). Even if Kirk did in fact stop their simulated war (only the casualties were real), what did their people think of the Federation's means of doing so? (Leaders and common folk might have different views._

     

    The Horta! (Devil in the Dark) I would so love to have seen the reborn species join the Federation, just to have more non-humanoids (and on a fairly low budget). One of my friends tells me a Horta junior officer appeared in one of the ST novels.

     

    The Organians (Errand of Mercy). The Organian Peace Treaty was alluded to in Trouble with Tribbles, but I wonder what the effe de facto gods ng that there was a whole planet of de facto gods who could, if pushed hard enough, intervene. My guess is that the Organians would take their own "Prime Directive" approach and vanish, along with their whole planet, but I think it's a fair question.

     

    (No interest in the Metrons from Arena. They were powerful, sure, but they were just preachy @$$holes. Rewatched it recently, and noticed that Kirk was probably correct about the Gorns planning invasion. The Gorns *faked a signal* to lure in the Enterprise. I'm left with the impression that Kirk sussed what the Metrons wanted to hear and gave it to them. I suspect the creative team for Strange New Worlds thinks the same way.)

     

    And most of all, the Talosians (The Cage/The Menagerie). I/, told they reappeared in an ep of ST: Discovery, but I think TNG could have had a cool story arc about the Federation sending Picard to open negotiations with the Talosians, in hope of recruiting them and saving them from their addiction to illusion. The Federation would need some compelling reason to seek contact with such dangerous people (though holodecks show that the Keeper's fear of humans falling prey to living in illusion is, well, that ship has sailed.) I have a few thoughts, but I'll not derail the thread further.

     

    I did like Lower Decks making a brief visit to Brekka and Ornara, the junkie and supplier planets from one of TNG's better episodes. But, sorry, TNG didn't introduce many other planets where I wanted to learn "what happened next."

     

    Dean Shomshak

  17. Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas

     

    According to a recent episode of the "Today Explained" radio program, the latest fad in Romance fiction is "Romantasy," or as some fans call it, "Fairy Smut." Find Mister Right while saving the kingdom from the Dark Lord, that sort of thing. One of the top current authors in this, they said, is Sarah J. Maas (though her work started in YA and has stayed there apparently through publisher inertia). My library had her first book, Throne of Glass, on audiobook, so I listened to it.

     

    Late-teen heroine Celaena Sardothien was raised by an assassin after her parents were murdered and became the most feared assasin in the land before being captured and sent to the salt mines. She's pulled out to participate in a contest to become the champion of the king who has already brutally conquered much of the continent and wants to take the rest, too. The two men behind the plan are the young, hawt, and good-hearted (if irritating) Crown Prince, and the young, hawt, and good-hearted (if dour) Captain of the Guard, who are also best friends. Both are attracted to her, and she to both of them, because, duh. The contest becomes a bit more dangerous when other contestants turn up ripped to shreds, with suggestions of occult ritual. There's also a captive princess from one of the conquered countries, and the ghost of a long-dead queen who warns Celaena that someone is trying to unleash a great supernatural evil, and Celaena must win the contest so she'll be in a position to stop it. The immediate threat is dealt with, but this is the start of a series, so the great evil is yet to be revealed, let alone thwarted, and the love triangle is nowhere near resolved.

     

    It is perhaps unfair to judge a writer by her first novel, but I was not impelled to seek the rest of the series. The good guys and gals are blandly likeable. Celaena has some trauma, but a lot less than I'd expect given her past. The plot is fairly predictable. World-building is skimpy, though I assume later books go into why the conqueror king outlawed magic (and what that magic was), and why (and how) he encased the old stone castle of his capital with a bigger castle made of architecturally sound glass. But if I really want to know, I'll just read the summary on Wikipedia.

     

    Not recommended.

     

    Dean Shomshak

     

     

  18. 1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

    OK, so it's expected to die in committee. Probably just posturing for the base. The description of "contributing to social transition" is also so vague that it's hard to imagine it surviving legal challenge before a non-activist judge. (As we have seen, an activist judge could endorse anything.) I suspect the goal (besides virtue signaling) is to terrorize teachers: You might get in trouble even if you don't ostentatiously oppose a student's social transition... becauswe the next bill might pass.

     

    Totalitarian regimes always try to make everyone an informer. They demand active collaboration, not merely acquiescence.

     

    Dean Shomshak

  19. Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 3. Not as much pure silliness this time. Some episodes are actually quite dark. But still funny overall, still excellent and recognizable Trek, plus delving deeper into the characters. Rutherford's past explained, Mariner recognizes her commitment to Starfleet, Tendi gets her pirate on, and Boimler gets Bold.

     

    Subtler toss-off bit: Boimler and  Picard both come from families of vintners. But the Picards make wine in France, while the Boimlers make raisins in California. I wonder if they'll do anything more with this?

     

    Once again, though, the funniest "bit" was a toss-off call-back to a past series. "We've got *another* ancient mask situation..."

     

    I hope my library gets Season Four soon.

     

    Dean Shomshak

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