DShomshak

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

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

From The Economist: The bad news is that climate change is forecast to reduce the area where current favored coffee spe ies can grosw. The good news is that there are losts of other species of coffee, with other favored climate ranges. Agronomists are hard at work studying them, with an eye to replacing/supplementing coffea arabica and coffea robusta, or crossbreeding to create a hardier plant. Your morning cuppa joe can be saved -- BY SCIENCE! https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/01/23/can-scientists-save-your-morning-cup-of-coffee Dean Shomshak

The largest crime a villain ever attempted in play in any of my Champions campaigns was Doctor Thame's attempt to destroy the universe. There's a hypothesis in physics called the "decay of the false vacuum": in brief, that space itself has an intrinsic level of energy, but this could be lower; and if something happened to convert even the tiniest speck of the universe to this lower energy state, the rest of the universe would nigh-instantaneously drop to this lower energy level as well. This would of course destroy all matter in the current universe, as there would be entirely new laws of physics. Or none, if the new energy state was in fact zero, meaning no matter or energy at all. Thane wanted to test the hypothesis by inducing such a phase shift. He was highly confident his dimensional force field would keep him alive for at least several seconds, long enough to observe the result of the experiment if it succeeded. No, he did not have someplace else to go afterward: He fully expected success to kill him, but at least he would know. Anything for Science! The PCs of Avant Guard got their first clue what Doctor Thane was attempting when their precognitive leader, Doctor Future, made a routine look into the future and saw there wasn't one. So the universe was saved, apparently at cost of the life of Doctor Thane and Doctor Future. Both were time travelers, though, so either of them might reappear in the campaign. (I admit, LL's plan for Xarriel does top Doctor Thane's.) Dean Shomshak

I rewrote Nebula and Duress for one of my relatively recent Champions games. I made Nebula an Arcturan (alien race in our galaxy, notably advanced technology), who was transporting a criminal past Earth when a space-time kerflooey dragged in her spaceship and spit the criminal out of Earth. (The villain Nightfall, whose 5e character sheet I posted some time ago). Her chameleon implant was damaged in the kerflooey, so she managed human form but the colors were off. For my rewrite, I expanded her capabilities a bit -- including giving her some more Skills that would actually be useful for a cop. My version of the Duress gauntlets created a pocket dimension about 100 meyters wide, a separate dimension for each prisoner. The pocket dimension has no light, air, or other matter, so unless prisoners has suitable Life Support they will of course start dying immediately -- but the field pervading the dimension makes death impossible. Prisoners experience dying in the vacuum of space, all alone in darkness, until other machines are used to pull them out. Nebula herself could not do this, a hedge against Arcturan cops being forced to release prisoners. If the Proper Authorities deem a captive was not guilty of a crime, the memory of being in Duress is erased. Arcturans figure that if you don't remember the suffering, it didn't happen, so no real harm done. If the gauntlets that created each pocket universe are destroyed, well, oops, the prisoners can't be retrieved and suffer forever. Dean Shomshak

So a couple right-wingers finally suffered consequences for climate change denial with malice aforethought, but I admit the details of the verdict and judgment seem... odd. At least as this story reports them. Famed climate scientist wins million-dollar verdict against right-wing bloggers (msn.com) Dean Shomshak

Explosive outrage would be my guess. But it's important to remember -- this would not be hypocritical, given the axioms of conservatism. As political scientist Corey Robin says on the video that Pattern Ghost posted, one of the fundamental assumptions of conservatism is inequality. People are *not* morally equal, and those of greater worth should rule over those of lesser worth. For an Evangelical, burning LGBTQ-inclusive books defends the righteous order ordained by God; burning Bibles defies that order. And suggesting equivalence between the two cases also constitutes such defiance. It's pointless arguing with people about axioms. ADDENDUM: Reading the article, I also noticed that Ms Gomez appears to have no freaking clue what job she's running for. Unless the office of Secretary of State is *very* different in Missouri than in Washington, I'm pretty sure they don't decide what goes in school libraries. Dean Shomshak

I like Mr. Zahorulko's art very much. Excellent, clean style. Thank you for sharing. Dean Shomshak

A bit of big-picture analysis of the state of the world and likely future. Necessarily superficial, of course, but I may look for that RAND Corporation paper that's cited. Welcome to the “neomedieval era” (msn.com) Dean Shomshak

I have occasionally seen it spelled without the second A, presumably as a compromise (or confusion) between the Greek and Latin spellings. Anyway, it was the '90s. You had to misspell everything to be kewl. (And what do you expect from a group of raving nutter third-tier villains? (Though at ;east they drew the line at being the "Kriminal Alliance...") Dean Shomshak

My old change-of-pace, pick-up or fill-in) campaign had the heroes of UNICoRN, the United Nations International Criminology Resource Network -- a small back office in the U. N. with a phone and lists of heroes who were willing to work for cheap and a chance to travel, sending heroes to Third World locations that didn't have heroes of their own. These tended to be less-than-serious heroes such as Insectomorph (who activated different powersets by eating bugs), American Ninja (red, white and blue night-suit), or the Mad Piper of Inverness (sonic powers from a high-tech bagpipe). Their opponents tended to similar character. At one point, several villains they defeated teamed up to seek revenge as CAToBLEPS: Criminal Alliance To Beat Law Enforcement Personnel Soundly. In my current campaign... hm. there aren't many acronymic groups, though some put their names in all caps because they think it looks impressive. Notable example being the obligatory Hydra homage, CROWN ("Every man king by his own hand"). Agents sometimes try to think up cool acronyms. Heroes devise insulting ones such as Completely Ridiculous Organization of Wannabe Nazis. Dean Shomshak

"Houston, America" could be Texas or Mississippi. "Memphis, United States" could be Tennessee, Texas, or Missouri. Indeed, it matters to specify the state. I assume Canada has some doubled or tripled names as well. Dean Shomshak

True, dat. Though my mother tells stories about how her grandfather came from Norway as a teenager and crossed the country to Washington state, unattended, penniless and not speaking a word of English... Though her great-aunt came from Norway, on her own, when only nine. That or starve, doncha know. Yeah, during the pandemic I couldn't muster much sympathy for people who complained they couldn't go to a bar, a barbershop or the gym. History is a great supplier of perspective. Dean Shomshak

If Medieval art treasures are involved, the heroes might consult the art appraiser Jos Terhune, a.k.a. Tartarus of the Devil's Advocates (CV2). Or hey, bring Walker, Terhune, and Professor John Black together, none knowing who the others are! That should be good for a few laughs, as well as a brawl. Dean Shomshak

I've thought that many published villains don't deserve the 15 points from Secret Identity, because they don't show any sign of trying to maintain a life outside their villain activities. In some cases, this would even be impossible. For instance, Radium (CV1, in Project Sunburst) has Secret ID even though he lives in a bright red containment suit that keeps him from killing everyone near him thorough radiation exposure. Yes, his pasty is hidden: Finding that he used to be a soldier named Jason Matthews takes a Skill Roll at -10. But his entry doesn't say why this information would matter OK, so his connection to the military Project: Sunburst matters. It's an enormous secret waiting to explode (heh) into a scandal that might ruin people who are still alive and in government. But that is a different kind of Social Complication. Dean Shomshak

Apparently so, or they didn't pay attention the first time around. Today's episode of "The Daily" says the NYT polls show Trump's approval among Black voters has risen from 8& in 2020 to 22% today. And at least some of them base this approval on the economy, then and now. As one interviewee says, Trump's a business man so he should know how to bring down inflation. Huh? Pardon, but business people are the ones who decide to raise prices. Saying a business person knows how to curb inflation is like saying a pimp would know how to curb out-of-wedlock pregnancy. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/podcasts/the-daily/south-carolina-primary.html?action=click&module=audio-series-bar&region=header&pgtype=Article This is deeply disturbing, given the election will, most probably, be decided once again by tiny margins in a small number of battleground states. Trump can rely on his base; Biden must fear even small percentages of Democrats and independents defecting or just not voting, no matter how clueless the reasons. Dean Shomshak

Did Donald Trump's policies really produce a great economy? And if he got back in the White House, would he do it again? Answer to the first? Well... sorta...? For some people? Answer to the second: Many CEOs think, Dear God no, this would be a disaster. But they are currently afraid to say so in public. From today's Today, Explained: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYXJ0MTkuY29tL3RvZGF5LWV4cGxhaW5lZA/episode/NzRmOTVhYmMtNTZmNy0xMWVlLWEwMTktNGYyNDMyZTUwOTIw?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjwjeHMz4uEAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ (I also read the Economist articles on the subject. Another sizeable cohort of CEOs, however, not only think Trump's administration was hunky-dory, they want another one. Hey, they got tax cuts, deregulation, and a booming stock market, what else matters? The Economist editorial position is: A very great deal more, such as predictable policy, the rule of law, and all the things the US does to maintain global order. While they admit they overestimated the disruption of Trump's term, they still think a second term would be much worse for the US and the world.) Dean Shomshak

A bit about the loony Taylor Swift/Superbowl conspiracy theories. The key point, I think: The Masters of MAGA monetize the outrage. Outrage gets attention, and attention is the coin of the Internet. Especially when you can then hit up the faithful for donations or sell them merch. As we have noted here before: A grift. https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228373511/heres-why-conspiracy-theories-about-taylor-swift-and-the-super-bowl-are-spreadin Dean Shomshak

I will say, MAGA is so easily triggered, the Biden team should exploit this by copying Trump's own tactics: Keep tossing out shiny new outrages to chase, and so command the news cycle, pushing other subjects -- including their hero Trump -- off the front page. When they make everything a conspiracy tied to Biden, they implicitly declare that Biden is powerful, that he matters. While also reminding the non-insane portion of the electorate how crazy Trump and MAGA are. Now, what would be some good new shiny outrages...? Hm. Maybe have the Press Secretary mention Joe Biden's favorite vegetable. But really, they just need to throw out lots of random information and let MAGA invent its own connections. Dean Shomshak