DShomshak

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

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

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

well, it's nothing new. I forget whether it was Seneca or Cicero -- somebody Roman, anyway -- who said, more or less, "The philosophers think the gods are false. The common folk think the gods are true. The rulers think the gods are useful."

Dean Shomshak

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

https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234998832/the-space-missions-that-aim-to-explore-distant-moons

NASA plans probes to Europa and Titan.

Dean Shomshak

Does anyone, anywhere, still take seriously the rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition? Merriam-Webster officially declares it to be bunk.

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/01/1235354975/prepositions-are-permissible-now-will-english-language-be-ok

Plus, the wit of Winston Churchill, and host Ari Shapiro speed-recites all the English prepositions in alphabetical order.

Dean Shomshak

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

What. The. {BLEEP}?!

 

GOP bill would require teachers to register as sex offenders if they support trans students

 

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

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

All Things Considered tells me that in late February, Horsetail Falls in Yosemite Park sometimes catches the light of the setting sun to glow like golden fire: the Fire Fall. Here's the story:

https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234996308/the-fickle-golden-magic-of-the-yosemite-fire-fall

Here's an image:

It happens only a few minutes, weather conditions permitting.

What happens if you step into the Fire Fall? Gain super-powers? Transport to another world? Release a powerful spirit? Something beyond getting wet, as it is obviously an intensely magical event.

Dean Shomshak

On 2/26/2024 at 9:53 PM, Old Man said:

Meanwhile, people are finally starting to report on possible methods of overthrowing this fall's elections. One method goes like this:
 

1. Speaker Johnson refuses to swear in some number of Democratic winners of House elections on 3 Jan 2025, citing 'election irregularities'
2. Republicans therefore maintain control of the House
3. On 6 Jan 2025, the skewed House refuses to certify some number of electoral votes, citing 'election irregularities'
4. As a result neither candidate reaches 270 electoral votes and the Presidency defaults to a vote in... the House of Representatives
5. Trump wins.

Logically, therefore, we can expect some 'election irregularities' on Nov 6. This could be anything--complicit state SoSes making stuff up, Fox News making stuff up, actual attempts to sabotage or corrupt an election, or plain old terrorism with guns and bombs.

Other coup methods are also outlined, such as the House Speaker taking over as "acting president" in the event of a contested election outcome, or any number of Constitutional legal challenges that would go straight to the SCOTUS.

The article does mention a handful of potential solutions, but ultimately Americans are going to have to be ready. At minimum people need to get the word out so we all know what to watch for. Should the worst occur, it might take a general strike to get the usurpers to step down. Winning is the only way Trump stays out of jail. He will cheat. Again.

On the flip side, apparently some Democrats are trying to think of last-minute ways to prevent Trump from taking office:

How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t (msn.com)

Though the article title isn't very accurate. Mostly it quotes Congressional Democrats saying they really, *really* want to take the "insrrection question" off their hands, and off the table. Best, of course, would be SCOTUS ruling that, why yes, Donald Trump's actions on Jan. 6 constituted insurrection and he is disqualified. But that's not likely. Quoted Dems say that if SCOTUS rules the other way, that the 14th Amendment definitely does *not* apply, they'll accept it and move on. It's only if SCOTUS avoids any clear ruling that Congressional action (and constitutional crisis) even becomes possible.

I admit: I do think Dems should look into any sort of legal pettifoggery they can use to keep Trump out of office. But they also need to recognize that Republicans are much better at this sort of thing than Democrats. It's probably more important to anticipate the quasi-legal tricks Republicans will attempt, and find ways to forestall them.

Dean Shomshak

On 2/24/2024 at 1:53 PM, Cancer said:

 

I knew there were reasons I liked crocodiles.

Likewise. And crocodilians are real survivors, having been around since the Triassic (earlier than the dinosaurs, IIRC). Though I am glad the "drop croc" -- a crocodilian whose skeleton suggests it climbed trees -- probably went extinct more than 10,000 years ago.

BTW, I made alligator-men central to an unofficial project I did for White Wolf's game Exalted.

https://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/332532-dzibilchan-empire-of-the-alligator-dean-shomshak

Dean Shomshak

A description of the especially extreme Evangelical doctrine that shaped the Alabama Chief Justice's concurrent opinion. This has been going on a long time without mainstream media paying much attention, but it's a movement that makes no secret its explicitly antidemocratic plan is to seize the commanding heights of power and force their version of Christian dogma down everyone else's throat. To fight the demons, doncha know.

How the Alabama IVF Ruling Was Influenced by Christian Nationalism | On the Media | WNYC Studios

Incidentally, this is the doctrine of my character Rev Gil Purdue (from Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies). Except I thought I was pushing the real doctrine of "Dominion Theology" beyond reality to comic-book extremes. Turns out... I wasn't. Or at least not as far as I thought.

Dean Shomshak

OTOH the world is a big place, and infrastructures that took a century to build won't be replaced quickly. Stark Industries can be selling and installing arc reactors as fast as they can be built (and, yes, be swimming in money as a result), and replacing fossil fuels would still be the work of decades.

Unless, say, someone tries building really humongous arc reactors that can plug into the grid and power multi-state areas or medium-sized countries. Which is a bad idea from a systems engineering POV because it creates massive single points of failure. But a great idea from a comic book POV because it creates massive power sources villains can hold hostage, or hijack for their conquer-the-world superweapons. Massive single points of failure are bad engineering, but very good for stories!

(This incidentally illustrates why I think it's better to consider the *potential* economic effects of supers than to ask what the final result would be, as if it was already done. A changing situation works better for generating conflicts and plots than a done deal.)

Dean Shomshak

A week ago, I'd never even heard of Zyn, but apparently it's become a Big Thing in some subcultures. A bit of cultural/political analysuis from Vox, about nicotine pouches and attempts to puff up fragile masculine egos. I post it here because, if true, it's nuts.

Mascuzynity: How a nicotine pouch explains the new ethos of young conservative men (msn.com)

So glad that when I was growing up, I was told in no uncertain terms that I could never have any sort of social status or acceptance, and I believed it. It removed a lot of pressure and left me free in many ways.

Dean Shomshak

In the "Millennium Universe" setting for my campaign, I make super-powers and super-tech a new thing so it hasn't had time to change the world economy. People expect it to, though, and know it can because a few supers came back in time from various possible futures in which it did so.

Most notably, the time-traveling/precognitive hero Doctor Future recruited the PCs from futures in which one megavillains destroyed the world. Destroying the world is an economic change, yes?

The NPC hero Cyberman was accidentally sent back in time from a future in which maimed soldiers were routinely restored and upgraded through bionics. He's responsible for introducing bionic tech to the Millennium Universe. Prosthetics are better than IRL but still very expensive, and actual super-cyborging is only possible for governments and large corporations.

Alien tech has even greater potential. When the small starships piloted by the villainous Intruder and the lawman Officer Pax crashed on Earth, smart people realized the most important technology to be reverse-ingineered might be the proton reactors that powered them. Zetrian proton reactors are safe, reliable nuclear reactors that can be made small enough to power, say, a suit ob powered armor or big enough to power a city. However, Zetrian reactors are made using muonic matter, strange matter, and other substances for which it will take decades to build the requisite infrastructure to produce in quantity. Attempts to build proton reactors of mundane materials have had, well, mixed results. (Such as the megavillain Professor Proton.) But it's only a matter of time until proton reactors make fossil fuels as obsolete as horse-drawn buggies... which is why the villain called the Mahdi hijacked a time portal. In his future, the Middle East stuck with oil and gas to the very bitter end and squandered their sovereign wealth funds in wars, leaving the region geopolitically bankrupt and irrelevant. He is determined both the delay the development of proton reactors, and to conquer a new Caliphate that can use its oil wealth to dominate the world.

Contact with aliens also lets people know that contemporary economic and environmental problems are solvable because other species have solved them -- though it took clear thinking and good will as well as tech that to humans seems super.

"It could, but not yet," gives me maximum dramatic flexibility. Heroes can know they aren't just beating up one bad guy, who's trying to do one bad thing. (Or even trying to force the world into a worse mode.) They can hope that someday, their battles will lead to a better world overall.

Dean Shomshak

14 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Perhaps the most dangerous area of scientific research on Champs Earth is the long-standing and ongoing effort to discover a safe, reliable, economical method to create superhumans. Many parties have engaged in projects with that goal. The Soviet Union had its Directorate Black-12. The US military runs Department 17, only the latest in a long line of American "superhuman soldier" projects. Smaller "rogue states" like Awad and Chiquador actively pursue that line of research, as do supercriminal groups such as VIPER and ARGENT. Any party that succeeds would gain a game changing tactical advantage. Smaller players won't need the facilities and infrastructure for a modern mechanized military to threaten their neighbors, if they can field an army whose soldiers can fly, shoot lightning, and/or throw tanks.
 

I built my supplement, Shared Origins: the Dynatron (available through the Hero Store) around this premise. It's a not-uncommon trope in comics that someone invents a way to give themselves super-powers... but somehow, this never spreads very far. The supervillain Red Giant built a power-granting machine, the Dynatron, out of coomercially available tech, some scavenged from junkyards. Other people have successfully used "dynatrons" he built, though no one else seems able to build copies of their own.

After a brief and unimpressive career as a super-robber in a team with friends he also empowered, Red Giant realized he could make immensely more money just selling super-powers. If you've got the money, he's got the origin. Though this approach turns out to have problems of its own. As a business, it's still quite smal and hasn't slid over the edge to world-changing. If you want to know more, read the supplement.

Dean Shomshak

On 2/12/2024 at 10:46 AM, L. Marcus said:

  

 

But the tea? What about the tea?!

Since you ask...

https://www.npr.org/2024/02/19/1232527478/with-trade-in-the-red-sea-disrupted-tea-has-a-longer-journey-to-british-mugs

Dean Shomshak

Well, this is more than I ever thought I'd want to know about the economics of fast food. But thank you, one and all.

I am at least persuaded that making drastic changes in just one part of a complex, interconnected business environment is flipping insane.

Dean Shomhak

Season 3 of Star Trek: Lower Decks came in at the library. I've only just started watching (not a binger, me) but I'll note the first episode snarkily inverted one of the overused tropes of, well, many dramas with young protagonists: The People in Charge Are Idiots, So The Kids Must Save The Day. Mariner believes this, all the more because everyone tells her to "trust the system." And for once, she's wrong. Whaddaya know, the people running Starfleet turn out *not* to be idiots, they see as clearly as she does that her mother is being framed, and how (the Original Series episode "Courtmartial" had this), and deal with it competently. As they were supposed to.

Wow. Now that's satire.

Dean Shomshak

20 hours ago, unclevlad said:

In KC, 2 juveniles have been charged in the parade shooting.  How fast did this go?

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article285579522.html

 

What happens when tempers get a bit frayed, and guns are present?

 

~ 25 shots in 4 seconds.  

 

It's currently being processed through the juvenile system, but they may be certified to stand trial as adults.  

When I try reading the article, a subscription "offer" pops up with no apparent way out except close the tab or agree to subscribe, so I haven't read it.

But I'd lay good odds alcohol was involved, too.

Tempers fraying, alcohol reducing judgment and inhibitions, lethal force at hand... homicide used to be a lot more common. All those Norse sagas about murder in the mead-hall. As Stephen Pinker argued in Better Angels of Our Nature, the long "pacification project" to suppress mass violence has been supplemented in recent centuries by a "civilizing project" to train people that violence is unseemly and to seek alternate means of conflict resolution. But the civilizing project is still uneven, as shown by homicide rates in different countries, different parts of countries, and different subcultures. The US is more violent than most developed countries; but there are wide regional variations; and even in cities often deemed "violent"" the homicides are concentrated in certain neighborhoods where gangs are strong and the rule of law is weak.

Unfortunately, civilization remains a thin screen to hold back savagery -- and recent decades have seen concerted attempts, some with malice aforethought, to fray that screen. Knuckleheads pulling guns over petty disputes or perceived disrespect show humanity at its most natural. And it could get much worse.

Dean Shomshak

A recent The Daily episode dealt with Biden's supposed senility. The reporter noted that Biden has a very long history of mixing up names and sentences that wander off into unexpected territory. Also addressed the cognitive advantages of old age: less glib, but better judgment. Slower speed, but better aim, so to speak.

I am reminded here of the assessment of someone who knows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich well. In ten minutes the man can be relied on to come out with ten startling, original, and superficially brilliant ideas... half of which contradict the other half, and nine out of ten of which turn out to be batsh*t insane once you look at them closely. Really, not someone I would want with his hand on The Big Red Button.

As I grow older myself, I place greater value on temperament than cleverness. I trust Biden to at least try to do the right thing, even if I may disagree with him about what the right thing is.

Dean Shomshak

"Insidiously mundane" -- that's a good phrase I'll have to remember.

Dean Shomshak

I try to resist clickbait, but this was just too funny when it turned up in my front-page newsfeed.

You wanna talk reclaiming historic territories of your great, great empire? Mongolia has a comment or two.

Mongolia's former president mocks Putin with a map showing how big the Mongol empire used to be, and how small Russia was (msn.com)

Dean Shomshak

From the February 2024 issue of Scientific American: The world uses enormous quantities of sand, construction to silicon chips. This makes illegal sand mining one of the biggest rackets in the world, far exceeding other forms of illegal mining. Since this is Scientific American, much of the concern is about the resulting environmental damage -- but the big money in sand mining can corrupt governments at every level and fund other unsavory activities. Googling "sand mafia" turns up many other articles for further research.

Illegal sand mining might be difficult to work into the usual urban vigilante Dark Champions game, but you might fit it into an international espionage game. Imagine a James Bond-style mastermind who uses sand mining to fund his terrorist scheme, coup plot or diabolical weapon. The death trap for captured agents should be obvious.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sand-mafias-are-plundering-the-earth/

Dean Shomshak