DShomshak

But sane Americans are outnumbered by simple folk who only care about their pocketbooks, exemplified by the woman interviewed on ATC who said Democrats were wasting time with the Jan. 6 commission hearings instead of doing something to lower food and gas prices.
 
So, the midterms will be a landslide for Republicans. At which point, expect a blizzard of highly publicized "investigations" of the Biden administration, and likely a few impeachments. And an interview with a co-founder of the Lincoln Project offered an even more horrific possibility: House Speaker Donald Trump. Because nothing in the Constitution says the Speaker must be a member of the House.
 
Dean Shomshak

I'm getting Feng Shui vibes here.

Ran across this article on NPR: The creator of the FBI mass shooting protocol is 'shocked' by Uvalde police response
 
Fairly short read. The interviewee, Katherine Schweit, is frustrated, and with good reason: There are two very simple things that still aren't being done according to protocols that have been in place for quite some time.
 
The first, is that the police need to immediately head toward the sound of gunfire and attempt to neutralize the threat.  It doesn't matter if there's only one officer. (My opinion: If schools are going to use resource officers, they need to find those with the intestinal fortitude to do so.)
 
The second, is that the protocol in schools should be to run, not shelter in place. Yet students are always taught and told to shelter in place first.
 
These really are very, very basic tactical considerations that become obvious when your objective becomes "protect the victim" rather than "my family needs me, I have to go home tonight."
 
I have no issue with the ethics of prioritizing one's own survival so they can go on to take care of their family or continue helping a greater number of people in the long run. That's fair. It's not an unethical position. But I'll say that soldiers, police, and other emergency personnel should not be in those positions if that's their ethos. They'll have to get used to their life insurance policy being their family's solace should they fall in duty. Or seek other work.
 
I'm not sure when "run, hide, fight" became "hide, hide, hide" in schools, or why. Running has issues. But it beats being fish in a barrel.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61708452
 
The Congo basin holds an enormous area of peatland that stores an enormous amount of carbon. Government ministers say that sure, they know developing the region would be disastrous for the planet but their people are so very poor and what else can they do? They don't quite say, "Give us lots of money, and stop complaining about corruption, or we destroy the world," but I suspect the implication.
 
I grant you, making poor people not be poor is a Good Thing, and in Africa is likely vital to preventing further environmental degradation.  But as Acemoglu and Robinson argue (convincingly, I think) in Why Nations Fail, the chief cause of extreme poverty is bad government. So I am not entirely convinced by African government ministers saying that rich countries should just fork over the money and trust them to spend it well.
 
Dean Shomshak

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61708452
 
The Congo basin holds an enormous area of peatland that stores an enormous amount of carbon. Government ministers say that sure, they know developing the region would be disastrous for the planet but their people are so very poor and what else can they do? They don't quite say, "Give us lots of money, and stop complaining about corruption, or we destroy the world," but I suspect the implication.
 
I grant you, making poor people not be poor is a Good Thing, and in Africa is likely vital to preventing further environmental degradation.  But as Acemoglu and Robinson argue (convincingly, I think) in Why Nations Fail, the chief cause of extreme poverty is bad government. So I am not entirely convinced by African government ministers saying that rich countries should just fork over the money and trust them to spend it well.
 
Dean Shomshak

Economics will destroy the market for fossil fuels in short order.  The cost of renewable energy is already significantly less than any fossil or nuclear source (despite government subsidies for fossils), and doesn't come with the same regulatory, capital, or environmental hurdles.  Of course it can't happen soon enough for purposes of climate change...
 

 
 
 
 

Chariots are just cool

Off hand, I can't think of a single instance of conservatism where maintaining the status quo *didn't* involve different rules for different people... though the intent might be disguised Fiscal conservatism is a prime example. Fiscal conservatives present themselves as merely concerned with governments digging themselves into financial holes they can't get out of. But what expenditures must be avoided or cut for this prudence? Why, the welfare state. I don't remember ever hearing a self-described fiscal conservative ever saying, "We shall simply have to slash our military budget and hope for the best." Much less, "Corporations will simply have to pay more for the benefits they gain from government," or "We can still afford pensions and health care if we raise taxes on rich people." No, the pain of austerity must be borne by the less affluent. So in practice, different rules for rich and poor.
 
The current Republican obsession with "election security" similarly tries to present itself as a hard-headed, prudent concern for accuracy and reliability (against those wild-eyed liberals who'd hand a ballot to anyone willy-nilly), but is rather unsubtly code for "Keep Black people from voting."
 
I will grant that some conservatives have become fairly slick at presenting liberal innovations as creating new privileged groups or new oppressions -- opponents of affirmative action were quite brilliant at selling this -- but it's usually not hard to spot the defense of an old unfairness hiding behind the accusation of a new unfairness. So I think my formulation stands.
 
Dean Shomshak

Off hand, I can't think of a single instance of conservatism where maintaining the status quo *didn't* involve different rules for different people... though the intent might be disguised Fiscal conservatism is a prime example. Fiscal conservatives present themselves as merely concerned with governments digging themselves into financial holes they can't get out of. But what expenditures must be avoided or cut for this prudence? Why, the welfare state. I don't remember ever hearing a self-described fiscal conservative ever saying, "We shall simply have to slash our military budget and hope for the best." Much less, "Corporations will simply have to pay more for the benefits they gain from government," or "We can still afford pensions and health care if we raise taxes on rich people." No, the pain of austerity must be borne by the less affluent. So in practice, different rules for rich and poor.
 
The current Republican obsession with "election security" similarly tries to present itself as a hard-headed, prudent concern for accuracy and reliability (against those wild-eyed liberals who'd hand a ballot to anyone willy-nilly), but is rather unsubtly code for "Keep Black people from voting."
 
I will grant that some conservatives have become fairly slick at presenting liberal innovations as creating new privileged groups or new oppressions -- opponents of affirmative action were quite brilliant at selling this -- but it's usually not hard to spot the defense of an old unfairness hiding behind the accusation of a new unfairness. So I think my formulation stands.
 
Dean Shomshak

Part Two:
 
Main Deck: The rear third of the deck is a helipad where the team can park its flitter, a repaired MONAD transbot. A small helicopter could also park on the pad, though it would be a tight fit. The fore quarter holds deck chairs and a hot tub for outdoor relaxation. Narrow aisles connect the fore and aft areas, flanking the main cabin.
 
A crane dominates the rear of the cabin, flanked by two stairs to the upper deck.
 
Inside, the fore of the cabin consists of a wide briefing room. Windows fill most of the curving fore wall. There’s a table, chairs, podium, large television screen for videoconferencing, and side-table with coffee maker.
 
Stairs behind the briefing room lead to the upper deck and first lower deck. Next come a small dining hall and rec room with sofa, comfy chairs and wide-screen TV with entertainment center and video game controllers. The rear is divided into a library and office. In between are a compact galley and pantry, a head (just a toilet and washbasin), a laundry room, and a sealed shaft running between decks. Stairs from the library and office lead down to the first lower deck.
 
Dean Shomshak

The thread about buildings that could make cool hero bases reminded me of an earlier thread in which I offered and solicited ideas for buildings and other places that villains could easily convert into secret bases. That in turn led to the HQ the PCs acquired in my Champions campaign, Avant Guard: a refurbished derelict ship. Our forum colleague Lord Liaden suggested the idea, so I named the ship the RV Liaden. The Champions forum has been a bit slow lately, so I thought some people might be amused by seeing what I eventually devised -- with maps. (Hex mapped, because we still play 5e.)
 
Here's the first section:
 
AVANT GUARD BASE: THE RV LIADEN
 
Background: The Liaden was an oceanography research vessel about 30 feet wide and 160 feet long. The Landlady bought it and reconditioned it as Avant Guard’s headquarters. It no longer has engines; it’s permanently docked among other semi-derelict ships so that attacks on the base will not endanger many other people. Concrete props under the ship mean that hull breaches won’t sink the ship.
 
Much of the base’s cost came from reinforcing the hull with advanced composite materials, making it much stronger but not much thicker. The Landlady also gutted and replaced much of the interior: The Liaden still has four decks, but bulkheads were moved to create completely different rooms. The stairs are still steep and narrow, though.
 
The hull is painted white with “Avant Guard” painted on both sides of the bow. There are rows of portholes on the main deck and first lower deck, and wider windows in the forecastle.
 
Security: Dozens of tiny cameras are hidden throughout the ship, inside and out. It is flat-out impossible to approach the ship or go anywhere on it or in it without being on camera. (It is up for the team to decide how assiduously they watch the monitors. The team’s bedrooms also have hidden switches to turn off the cameras within them. The cameras are represented as Area Effect Clairsentience.) Exterior doors have keypad locks and alarms in case they are forced open; fine wires in the windows and portholes similarly guard against breakage; and motion sensors turn on lights inside and out, showing the general location of any intruder. (These off-the-shelf security systems are represented simply as a Security Systems rating for the entire base.)
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 
 

Well... While they are plans for a ship, they are not ship plans. I found a ship online called the RV Barens that seemed perfect, just the right size, but the deck plan image was so small it printed out as a blur from shich I could extract little information. The loading/unloading crane and shaft are taken from the Barens, but much of the plan for the Liaden is my own imagination. Which is why the description says the Landlady gutted and rebuilt the ship.
 
Dean Shomshak, ever punctilious

Off hand, I can't think of a single instance of conservatism where maintaining the status quo *didn't* involve different rules for different people... though the intent might be disguised Fiscal conservatism is a prime example. Fiscal conservatives present themselves as merely concerned with governments digging themselves into financial holes they can't get out of. But what expenditures must be avoided or cut for this prudence? Why, the welfare state. I don't remember ever hearing a self-described fiscal conservative ever saying, "We shall simply have to slash our military budget and hope for the best." Much less, "Corporations will simply have to pay more for the benefits they gain from government," or "We can still afford pensions and health care if we raise taxes on rich people." No, the pain of austerity must be borne by the less affluent. So in practice, different rules for rich and poor.
 
The current Republican obsession with "election security" similarly tries to present itself as a hard-headed, prudent concern for accuracy and reliability (against those wild-eyed liberals who'd hand a ballot to anyone willy-nilly), but is rather unsubtly code for "Keep Black people from voting."
 
I will grant that some conservatives have become fairly slick at presenting liberal innovations as creating new privileged groups or new oppressions -- opponents of affirmative action were quite brilliant at selling this -- but it's usually not hard to spot the defense of an old unfairness hiding behind the accusation of a new unfairness. So I think my formulation stands.
 
Dean Shomshak

The thread about buildings that could make cool hero bases reminded me of an earlier thread in which I offered and solicited ideas for buildings and other places that villains could easily convert into secret bases. That in turn led to the HQ the PCs acquired in my Champions campaign, Avant Guard: a refurbished derelict ship. Our forum colleague Lord Liaden suggested the idea, so I named the ship the RV Liaden. The Champions forum has been a bit slow lately, so I thought some people might be amused by seeing what I eventually devised -- with maps. (Hex mapped, because we still play 5e.)
 
Here's the first section:
 
AVANT GUARD BASE: THE RV LIADEN
 
Background: The Liaden was an oceanography research vessel about 30 feet wide and 160 feet long. The Landlady bought it and reconditioned it as Avant Guard’s headquarters. It no longer has engines; it’s permanently docked among other semi-derelict ships so that attacks on the base will not endanger many other people. Concrete props under the ship mean that hull breaches won’t sink the ship.
 
Much of the base’s cost came from reinforcing the hull with advanced composite materials, making it much stronger but not much thicker. The Landlady also gutted and replaced much of the interior: The Liaden still has four decks, but bulkheads were moved to create completely different rooms. The stairs are still steep and narrow, though.
 
The hull is painted white with “Avant Guard” painted on both sides of the bow. There are rows of portholes on the main deck and first lower deck, and wider windows in the forecastle.
 
Security: Dozens of tiny cameras are hidden throughout the ship, inside and out. It is flat-out impossible to approach the ship or go anywhere on it or in it without being on camera. (It is up for the team to decide how assiduously they watch the monitors. The team’s bedrooms also have hidden switches to turn off the cameras within them. The cameras are represented as Area Effect Clairsentience.) Exterior doors have keypad locks and alarms in case they are forced open; fine wires in the windows and portholes similarly guard against breakage; and motion sensors turn on lights inside and out, showing the general location of any intruder. (These off-the-shelf security systems are represented simply as a Security Systems rating for the entire base.)
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 
 

The thread about buildings that could make cool hero bases reminded me of an earlier thread in which I offered and solicited ideas for buildings and other places that villains could easily convert into secret bases. That in turn led to the HQ the PCs acquired in my Champions campaign, Avant Guard: a refurbished derelict ship. Our forum colleague Lord Liaden suggested the idea, so I named the ship the RV Liaden. The Champions forum has been a bit slow lately, so I thought some people might be amused by seeing what I eventually devised -- with maps. (Hex mapped, because we still play 5e.)
 
Here's the first section:
 
AVANT GUARD BASE: THE RV LIADEN
 
Background: The Liaden was an oceanography research vessel about 30 feet wide and 160 feet long. The Landlady bought it and reconditioned it as Avant Guard’s headquarters. It no longer has engines; it’s permanently docked among other semi-derelict ships so that attacks on the base will not endanger many other people. Concrete props under the ship mean that hull breaches won’t sink the ship.
 
Much of the base’s cost came from reinforcing the hull with advanced composite materials, making it much stronger but not much thicker. The Landlady also gutted and replaced much of the interior: The Liaden still has four decks, but bulkheads were moved to create completely different rooms. The stairs are still steep and narrow, though.
 
The hull is painted white with “Avant Guard” painted on both sides of the bow. There are rows of portholes on the main deck and first lower deck, and wider windows in the forecastle.
 
Security: Dozens of tiny cameras are hidden throughout the ship, inside and out. It is flat-out impossible to approach the ship or go anywhere on it or in it without being on camera. (It is up for the team to decide how assiduously they watch the monitors. The team’s bedrooms also have hidden switches to turn off the cameras within them. The cameras are represented as Area Effect Clairsentience.) Exterior doors have keypad locks and alarms in case they are forced open; fine wires in the windows and portholes similarly guard against breakage; and motion sensors turn on lights inside and out, showing the general location of any intruder. (These off-the-shelf security systems are represented simply as a Security Systems rating for the entire base.)
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 
 

Part Five:
 
Upper Deck: About two-thirds of this deck is also open as a sun deck. There’s enough room to park the flitter if the main deck helipad is needed for guests. A large hatch leads to a shaft down to the lower decks.
 
The rest holds a forecastle that used to hold the ship’s bridge. That room is now the communications center and main security office with monitors for all the hidden cameras about the ship.
 
Another stair leads up to the roof of the forecastle. This holds a satellite dish and communications antennae. There is also a meter-wide polished steel ball on a gimballed pedestal. Controls in the comm center activate this device: The sphere splits and unfolds into petals framing a mechanism with a large plasma ball in the center and a barrel wrapped in a spiralling fluorescent tube. The tube pulses on and off while what is very obviously a powerful energy weapon makes a loud wom wom wom hum. The pedestal extends and swivels as the comm center controller directs.
 
As the representative from the Landlady explains, their service usually builds villain bases, and villains usually want at least one location wired for a superweapon. The Liaden is similarly equipped. The “weapon,” however, is merely an impressive-looking fraud.
 
 

Part Four:
 
2nd Lower Deck: The bottom deck is divided into a series of rooms. The narrow triangular room at the fore holds miscellaneous stores. Furthest aft is the generator room with diesel fuel tanks and banks of batteries.
 
A corridor leads from the gymnasium to a narrow triangular storerrom at the fore of the ship. On one side is a small sickbay (at this point little more than a couple beds and some first aid gear). On the other is a lab. Well, it has a workbench, plumbing and power connections for a lab; the team hasn't decided what to do with it yet.
 
Aft of the gymnasium, a trophy room bends around a vault. Avant Guard didn't keep trophies and mementoes from its adventures. No problem: The Landlady pre-equipped the trophy room with odds and ends cleaned out from the bases of villain clients who were captured or killed, and which could not be sold to other villains. Only a few are identifiable. Here's what Avant Guard received:
 
• A giant credit card (non-functioning).
• The scepter and lion-man costume of the deceased animal-controlling villain called the King of Beasts. The scepter is just a club with a flashlight and some flashbulbs in the head. The costume has ballistic cloth lining, but no special powers.
• Costumes of Rhinestone Cowboy and his minions. The laser jewels were removed, but they still look ridiculously gaudy.
• Several hooded cultist robes, dark blue, blazoned with the I Ching hexagram #23 ("Breaking Apart").
• The Coach of Crime's whiteboard showing the "game plan" for his gang's last robbery.
• A fake marble bust of Marcus Aurelius with a hidden compartment for a canister of knockout gas (now removed), formerly owned by the Rome-obsessed criminal who called himself Caesar.
• A bell jar full of swirling green smoke.
• A metal canister labeled "Q-Matter Containment Unit — Do not let power reserves drop below 10%." The indicator is at 9%. There is no obvious way to recharge the unit.
• A mini-fridge holding a can of Diet Sprite and a half-eaten hot dog (mustard only). If you remove them and shut the door, a new can and half hot dog appear five minutes later.
• The infamous Gay Ray Gun of Alternative Person, allegedly a variation on the Professor Pain/Doctor Bliss technology.
• A large black slab, framed like a work of art but apparently featureless.
• Arm of a battlesuit with fried circuitry.
• A fire extinguisher stenciled with a silver cross and Bible verses.
• An oversize blue ring octopus in ajar of formaldehyde.
[UPDATES: The security system recorded Helix taking the blue ring octopus, apparently an early creation to which he feels sentimental attachment. "Who's a genetic abomination? You're a genetic abomination, yes you are!" Also, the King of Beasts' son recently contacted Avant Guard and asked them to destroy his father's costume and scepter: He saw it in the YouTube tour the team posted of their new base, and he found the sight of his father's criminal gear upsetting. Avant Guard did as he asked.]
 
Aft of the trophy room, two stairs descend to a well-equipped machine shop with tools for both electronics and mechanical engineering.
 
Finally, the rearmost room holds a diesel generator, drums offbel and racks of batteries.
 
 

 
 

Part Three:
 
1st Lower Deck: This deck consists of rooms fore and aft, a corridor between them, and matching rooms to either side. Two pairs of stairs come down from the main deck, and continue down to the second lower deck. A wider central area holds the foundation for the crane and a small guest bathroom. Steel pillars connecting the decks help strengthen the ship’s structure. A shaft in the ceiling leads to the upper deck, while a steel hatch in the floor below leads to the lower deck.
 
The forward triangular room holds the base’s water pump and heater; the underside of the hot tub sticks down through the ceiling. The curved rear of the deck is a home theater with a projector in one corner. A wet bar in the other corner lets this double as a party room.
 
In between, the larger rooms are bedrooms for Anunit, Csongor, Huntsman, Night Train, Thing Fantastic and (if he returns to active duty) Nomad. Each bedroom has its own closet and a compact bathroom with toilet, sink and shower. Interspersed among them are six smaller guest rooms, each with a small closet.
 
One small room wedged between a stairway and the hull is actually a getaway capsule (another villain base-inspired feature). A small console lets the people inside seal the door, blow the hull and eject the capsule, which can speed away underwater for several minutes. The capsule can also tap into the security cameras.
 
The other small room is left for the team to develop for themselves.
(ADDENDUM: New teammate Huntsman turned it into a "panic room" against demonic attack by painting warding pentacles on the floor, walls and ceiling. Not represented as a Power; it takes advantage of demons' Physical Complication that they can't enter or leave a correctly drawn pentacle.)
 

Part Two:
 
Main Deck: The rear third of the deck is a helipad where the team can park its flitter, a repaired MONAD transbot. A small helicopter could also park on the pad, though it would be a tight fit. The fore quarter holds deck chairs and a hot tub for outdoor relaxation. Narrow aisles connect the fore and aft areas, flanking the main cabin.
 
A crane dominates the rear of the cabin, flanked by two stairs to the upper deck.
 
Inside, the fore of the cabin consists of a wide briefing room. Windows fill most of the curving fore wall. There’s a table, chairs, podium, large television screen for videoconferencing, and side-table with coffee maker.
 
Stairs behind the briefing room lead to the upper deck and first lower deck. Next come a small dining hall and rec room with sofa, comfy chairs and wide-screen TV with entertainment center and video game controllers. The rear is divided into a library and office. In between are a compact galley and pantry, a head (just a toilet and washbasin), a laundry room, and a sealed shaft running between decks. Stairs from the library and office lead down to the first lower deck.
 
Dean Shomshak

The thread about buildings that could make cool hero bases reminded me of an earlier thread in which I offered and solicited ideas for buildings and other places that villains could easily convert into secret bases. That in turn led to the HQ the PCs acquired in my Champions campaign, Avant Guard: a refurbished derelict ship. Our forum colleague Lord Liaden suggested the idea, so I named the ship the RV Liaden. The Champions forum has been a bit slow lately, so I thought some people might be amused by seeing what I eventually devised -- with maps. (Hex mapped, because we still play 5e.)
 
Here's the first section:
 
AVANT GUARD BASE: THE RV LIADEN
 
Background: The Liaden was an oceanography research vessel about 30 feet wide and 160 feet long. The Landlady bought it and reconditioned it as Avant Guard’s headquarters. It no longer has engines; it’s permanently docked among other semi-derelict ships so that attacks on the base will not endanger many other people. Concrete props under the ship mean that hull breaches won’t sink the ship.
 
Much of the base’s cost came from reinforcing the hull with advanced composite materials, making it much stronger but not much thicker. The Landlady also gutted and replaced much of the interior: The Liaden still has four decks, but bulkheads were moved to create completely different rooms. The stairs are still steep and narrow, though.
 
The hull is painted white with “Avant Guard” painted on both sides of the bow. There are rows of portholes on the main deck and first lower deck, and wider windows in the forecastle.
 
Security: Dozens of tiny cameras are hidden throughout the ship, inside and out. It is flat-out impossible to approach the ship or go anywhere on it or in it without being on camera. (It is up for the team to decide how assiduously they watch the monitors. The team’s bedrooms also have hidden switches to turn off the cameras within them. The cameras are represented as Area Effect Clairsentience.) Exterior doors have keypad locks and alarms in case they are forced open; fine wires in the windows and portholes similarly guard against breakage; and motion sensors turn on lights inside and out, showing the general location of any intruder. (These off-the-shelf security systems are represented simply as a Security Systems rating for the entire base.)
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 
 

Keep in mind, "insane" is just my one-word summary of The Economist's summary reporting the Russian ambassador's statement. He may have expressed himself at greater length and more forcefully.
 
Dean Shomshak

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. First of a series. A jolly romp about acqyiring rare books for an interdimensional library. Alternate histories, faeries, a Great Detective, steampunk London, vampires, dragons, and more fun. Not a serious bone in it, unless you count the suggestions of poisonous office politics among senior librarians, which suggests to me that Ms. Cogman once worked in the Tacoma Library System. (As my sister did for many years and I did... briefly.) The style is arch to just the right degree, in that way Brits do so well.
 
Possibly of interest to some readers that Ms. Cogman once wrote a fair bit of material for the Exalted RPG and ported a fair bit into the series. Her Fae, as creatures of primal Chaos, are ported directly from Exalted (OK by me since it's a view of Fae she had a large role in creating in the first place). I shall see if her version of dragons intersects with Exalted as well. Could be: In Exalted, dragons are powerful elemental spirits, and at one point a dragon wields elemental power.
 
We game writers are all frustrated novelists. It's nice to see that one of our crew made the transition so well.
 
Dean Shomshak

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. First of a series. A jolly romp about acqyiring rare books for an interdimensional library. Alternate histories, faeries, a Great Detective, steampunk London, vampires, dragons, and more fun. Not a serious bone in it, unless you count the suggestions of poisonous office politics among senior librarians, which suggests to me that Ms. Cogman once worked in the Tacoma Library System. (As my sister did for many years and I did... briefly.) The style is arch to just the right degree, in that way Brits do so well.
 
Possibly of interest to some readers that Ms. Cogman once wrote a fair bit of material for the Exalted RPG and ported a fair bit into the series. Her Fae, as creatures of primal Chaos, are ported directly from Exalted (OK by me since it's a view of Fae she had a large role in creating in the first place). I shall see if her version of dragons intersects with Exalted as well. Could be: In Exalted, dragons are powerful elemental spirits, and at one point a dragon wields elemental power.
 
We game writers are all frustrated novelists. It's nice to see that one of our crew made the transition so well.
 
Dean Shomshak