unclevlad

Methinks da Lakers gon be blowed up Real Soon Now.  

Denver spots LA the first 8 and the last 6...and still wins by 7.

Neither team shoots the 3 ball worth a darn.  Lakers force 6 more TOs...but Nuggets win the boards by 13 (!)...that's an area where the Lakers should win.  

It's reasonably fair to say that the Nuggets didn't play a great game...and still won on the road, basically dooming the Lakers.  Again.  The James-Davis pairing simply is not working, barring the COVID season.  I'd even assert that their 2 round wins last year, were more the aberration...a short-term hot streak.  It happens;  look at the D'backs last year.

6 QBs, 7 WRs, 8 OTs and 1 center.  4 edge rushers, 1 DT, 1 DE, and 3 CBs.  And 1 TE...guess who did this one.  (Prisco gave it a C.)

The strangest single move to me...Atlanta.  Penix?  After signing Cousins to a megadeal that basically runs the entire period of Penix' rookie deal?

Yeah, it's only 1 draft, and factors exist like depth at some positions (CB in particular)...but it does suggest the broad priorities around the league.  QB of course...Prisco dinged Denver because he thought Nix might be available later.  WRs...never enough.  Pass blocking...never enough.  So I kinda get it, but yeah...it's a big shift to the offensive side of the ball.

Or maybe the thinking is, other than the impact rusher...good players can be had later, and they can be fit into a decent scheme.  

6 QBs, 4 OTs, 3 WRs...and a TE by the Raiders.  THEN the first defensive player...listed as an edge rusher.

Yeah, get your QB or get protection for the QB, or get him another target.

Talk about your lack of drama, at least so far.  Vikes and Jets swap picks, with Vikes sending a bit more along with it, but nothing real major.  Makes you think the Jets, who also need a QB badly, were perfectly happy to pass on both McCarthy and Nix...makes ya think they're in the "McCarthy didn't show much" category, at least.  

Just for grins...

Who's going to actually watch the coverage, versus checking in periodically through your outlet of choice?

I'll just check in.  Only need the results, but I'll admit to enough morbid curiosity that I'll look round, not just wait until tomorrow.  

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

and the Seahawks should do likewise in order to give Sam Howell a real shot.

Hey, if you want to give your QB a real shot, you DON'T improve your offensive line..........

I'll see myself out...

Talk about an amazing experience...

You're Darwin Blanch.  You're 16.  You're a pretty good tennis player...for 16, you're REALLY good.  Junior Davis Cup.  The Madrid Open, an ATP 1000 event, the top level just below the Slams, gives you a wild card, most likely at the behest of USA Tennis, cuz you're not in the top 1000.  (Just outside of it.)  Which means you couldn't get in ANY other way, cuz you'd need a wild card to get into qualifying.

Cool, right?  Even losing should double his total points, and move him inside the top 1000.  

And your opponent?

Rafa Nadal.  Oh lordy....oh my gosh.  Nadal had 3 Slams under his belt *before you were born*.  It's Madrid...Rafa's #2 tournament.  (Barcelona is his home event.)  It's Rafa's 20th Madrid, an event he's won 5 times.  It's likely Rafa's LAST Madrid, given his health.  Storyline has been that he chose to play Barcelona (lost 2nd round) and Madrid...when he said, he wouldn't have played Roland Garros.  And this is after not playing at all in '23 after the Aussie Open, and barely anything in '24.

The place is utterly packed, and Rafa owns it.

Still gonna be the coolest thing a 16 year old kid experiences for YEARS...possibly ever.  

EDIT:  unfortunately the kid was rattled and never got his game together.  15 unforced errors in the first set alone.  6-1, 6-0.

Holy incineration, Batman!

The Athletic has a story today on the Coyotes' failure in Arizona.  They basically attribute it to Alex Meruelo, the owner, almost entirely.

Quote

On the “Burns and Gambo” radio show, he corrected one of the show’s hosts, insisting he was still the owner of the team, which was now simply “inactive.” He said he merely sent “players and hockey operations to Utah.” In the meeting with staff the next day, he told employees, who were worried about their jobs, that he refused to go down as the guy who lost the Coyotes. In a news conference with Bettman on Friday, the commissioner interjected on multiple occasions, jumping in to “translate” when Meruelo blurted out “I don’t like the media.” At one point, Bettman grabbed Meruelo’s arm to stop him from talking.

Quote

In August 2020, reports surfaced that he failed to pay players signing bonuses. Gutierrez blamed it on their lack of experience owning a sports franchise. As more vendors and employees began cropping up with complaints about unpaid invoices and strongarm tactics, it became clear that it was a feature of Meruelo’s business practices, not a bug.

Gutierrez is Meruelo's right hand man.  They ran construction companies.  They have suppliers and employees there.  

Quote

At a company draft party in the summer of 2021, he unexpectedly took the microphone, telling the crowd the team would leave Glendale and build a new facility in Tempe. Executives in attendance, including Gutierrez, grew visibly uncomfortable at his bombastic speech given the team’s fragile relationship with Glendale and the corporate partners in the audience.

Sounds like the Oakland A's owner.

Lots of other bits and pieces.  He basically was better at burning bridges than trying to build them.

3 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

 

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the war room!"

The absolutely best black comedy ever made.  Probably the best Cold War era movie ever made.

And what's scary is, I think a LOT of it will sound terrifyingly familiar, albeit with slightly different spin in many cases.

Dr. Strangelove.  I suspect many of us have seen it, but it may have fallen through the cracks at this point.  If you haven't seen it, you really, really should.

3 Republicans joined with the Democrats in the Arizona House to repeal the 1864 abortion ban.  One down, one to go.

This might be interesting.  State Senate and House seats are all up for election.  The primaries are end of July.  In the Senate, there are 3 Republican incumbents with challengers.  The House is trickier, as it looks like they use the same districts...but there's 2 representatives for each district.  The vote on the ban here...for or against...may become material in the primaries.

16 minutes ago, Pariah said:

There's a Young Sheldon spin-off?

 

Isn't Young Sheldon a spin-off itself?

Of course it is.  Seems like 80% of shows on TV are spin-offs.  

The pain, most likely, but as I say, I only remember one very brief moment of it.  

Depleted Milwaukee is the first to lose a home game.  With Giannis out...not entirely surprising.  

EDIT:  and Dallas knocks off the Clips, making 2 straight for the road teams.  

Nature abhors a vacuum, therefore *someone* is going to pick up the pieces.  Many of the MAGA/Trumpist policies have been on the Republican agenda anyway.  If Trump goes, the tone changes, but they can still retain the entire pre-vetting for ideological purity, planning for '28.  What aspects of the principle Republican agenda disappear with Trump?  

EDIT:  note the "gains" they've made in several states, in moving to control the education system, the voting system at state levels.  They'll still have the Supreme Court.  They've largely stripped the legitimacy of several government agencies, when it was in their interest...the CDC being the obvious one.  They like the House being seen as a clown show;  there's been the argument made that the Supreme Court's loss of respect has led to state-level 'revolts' if you will, like Texas using state agents to enforce border laws...but rendering the House mostly pointless and paralyzed helps with that too.  

What we need to see is more pushback at the state levels.  Preferably, rolling back some of the recent moves like the abortion bans;  blocking the extreme moves by, say, Texas, isn't enough.  That's a holding action.  SOMEHOW breaking the wall of willful ignorance, behind which QAnon thrives.  

I think it's fair to say that Howie Schwab was the first celebrity sports stats/info type guy.  He was big on ESPN...even to the point of them trying a sports trivia show called Stump the Schwab.  He was part of the first of the big purges at ESPN back in 2013, but continued to be valuable behind the scenes in other ways (including being Fox's NCAA bracketologist for a couple years, which I hadn't known.)

He died, apparently of a heart attack, Monday.  Age 63.

And pain can absolutely keep you awake.

I'd also extend your statement, CRT, to include the (in)ability to focus on what's going on around you...disorientation.  That's what getting stunned is.  

And to a point...serious, sharp pain would do that too.  Even pass out.  Had THAT happen once.  LONG!!! time ago.  OLD fridge on the top, freezer on the bottom.  The doors had squared corners.  I was getting something from the freezer...didn't realize the fridge door was open...and stood up quickly.  Corner went *squarely* into my back.  I don't remember anything after that...even tho I believe a trip to the hospital was involved.  

But generally, yeah, they're not well-connected concepts.

On 4/22/2024 at 1:34 PM, Steve said:

I wonder if that could allow a further Limitation on Damage Negation (-1/4?) if it doesn’t affect knockback.

Part of the system bloat problem in 6E is having so many hair-splitting limitations.  I'm not sure this'd be worth -1/4 on its own...and by and large, I suspect people would take it just to take it.  My favorite limitation is Limited Range, because once you get to an 8d6 base...that's 40 points, so full range is 400 meters.  The range mod at 100m is -8;  there's targets that *can* be hit, sure...area attacks in particular...but for most single target attacks?  That's Fat Chance time, even with some PSLs to offset range.  It generally does not limit.  Is that a character flaw, so that the limit should be disallowed?  Not IMO, it's mis-structured rules.  Doesn't Reduce KB feels like it'd largely be the same.

Note that STUN Only eliminates this...and the protection against the drains, because they're not STUN damage.  That's a significant package of benefits that get removed...or, perhaps we're realizing that Negation's total package is better than we realized.  2 dice negation gives 3 CP of rDEF, 5 CP of STUN reduction...it's too easy to layer the defenses to mostly eliminate BODY, so this is not worth a limitation, IMO...and effectively 2m of KB resistance.  THEN there's however much you want to assign to the special defense aspects.  They're worth something, no question about that, but...how much?  Eliminating the KB aspect, 2 dice would still mean 8 points in the base defenses, AND the special defenses, for 8 points, and quite often, the KB resistance just isn't that big a deal.  Figure:  did we realize this?  I suspect...generally, no.  Did people buy a few meters of KB resistance?  I've done it for specific concepts, where the character's body just deforms to absorb the momentum, it doesn't go flying back...but how many of us take this routinely?

Some of this is, we're also realizing how *complicated* DN is, as it's written.  Which is not a good thing, IMO.

2 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

Oh you mean getting old... oh you meant in game terms.

 

I have always considered pain to be represented by the stun char.  So Stun Drain/Suppress/Transfer, Ego Attack, NND, etc.

Mmm...not really.  They're mostly separate, particularly in this context.  A paper cut doesn't do BODY most of the time, and you're no closer to losing consciousness, so it's nothing to do with STUN.  Or a minor burn...like you forgot that pan was just in the oven...and you tried to grab the handle without a pot holder?  Or the stupid things we did as kids?  Or spattering grease, that's no fun.  

Or what was going on in my mouth, *especially* the last couple days before I was able to get a root canal done *quickly*.  Or the even worse case...some years ago, I got some shampoo in my left eye.  We've all done that...but this was particularly nasty.  And within a few weeks?  That eye started suffering from corneal erosions.  Literally, the super-thin layer of cells over the eye...sloughed off.  Think a piece of grit or a hair, then turn it up.  And up.  And UP...when most of it sloughed off.  SHARPLY!!!!! painful, and tears?  Hey, tears are salt water!  Oh yeah.  Joy.  

None of these really felt like they were related to STUN;  they were something unto themselves.

9 hours ago, Steve said:

I like the idea of it affecting the Concentration Limitation or adding a roll to an existing ability to use it.

 

I suppose it could also act as a bonus to the Interrogation skill. I think the Cruciatus Curse from Harry Potter got used that way in the books, but I can’t remember for sure.

Pain is a stock, if not necessarily effective, element of torture, so a bonus to interrogation, or possibly intimidation-based PRE attacks, would work.

From The Athletic, through me, to Mr. P...don't say I never did anything nice for you.

 

Quote

The Lakers were rattled. As they should be after 10 straight losses to Denver, with each one seemingly more painful and deflating than the previous one. At this point, it seems as if the Nuggets are merely torturing the Lakers, inventing new ways to embarrass them in high-stakes moments. 

35 minutes ago, Old Man said:

Biden administration bans noncompete agreements for workers

 

Takes effect in six months.

If it holds up in court.  It might.  I wouldn't be surprised if, for example, non-competes are allowed...in restricted situations.  From NYT:

 

Quote

The move bars contracts known as noncompetes, which prevent workers from leaving for a competitor for a certain amount of time, in most circumstances. Noncompetes cover about 30 million U.S. workers, the trade commission said, in a variety of jobs that include TV news producers, hairdressers, corporate executives and computer engineers.

That seems like a LOT of people, and many who wouldn't seem to be privy to corporate privileged information.

1 minute ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I disagree. There is no heir apparent to Trump. If there was, with all the detrimental developments that have swollen around him, an heir would have appeared by now. And there's no MAGA hierarchical command structure for someone else to step into when Trump is gone, like Stalin after Lenin. The alliance between corporate elites, white supremacists, and evangelical Christians that Donald Trump forged is not natural. There was no such mass movement in America for him to have seized control of. He inspired it, and its disparate elements are invested in him and him alone. There are many other greedy, ambitious, evil people, who could do much harm, but they don't resemble Trump, and they can't replicate his brand of success. Donald Trump is a unique phenomenon. Thank God.

There is no heir apparent because Trump is still on the scene.  We're talking the person who would coalesce out of the rubble of the Party if Trump's out of the picture.

15 minutes ago, Old Man said:

 

Yes, but their attempts to co-opt the MAGA message have occurred while Trump was still directing it.  If Trump is convicted, and especially if he's in solitary confinement with no access to Xitter, the faithful will desperately cast about for someone else to tell them what to think.  Not that I think Trump will ever see the inside of a jail cell, but that's what it'd take to put an end to the cult of personality.

And that changes the game.  DeSantis still loses out, I think, because he's botched the Disney issue so badly.  He's the most exposed clown.

Even if Trump's not in jail...let's postulate he loses the election, and is convicted in Georgia, where we've got the biggest smoking gun, the phone call.  That's 3 separate, significant defeats...motivation to move on politically, and with the discredit from the Georgia convictions, it's likely his cult of personality will wither.  So the bashing will begin.  Those who have been TOO sycophantic...DeSantis is the obvious one...have another big strike.  I'm thinking the election steal just won't be discussed any more...it's too Trumpian.  That's a major strike against Carlson, but...Carlson would have to try following the Trump path, and he doesn't have the charisma for that.  

Abbott has policy points that align with the MAGA base, but I don't think he was so much tied to Trump personally.  He's co-royal on his own...the Emperor of Texas.  But he's anti-woke, he's anti-abortion, he's anti-immigration...he could pick up those pieces, if he wanted to.  A humiliated, completely discredited Trump *wrecks* the Party as it is now.  The shakeout might be the '26 mid term elections (including the Congressional primaries).  That's likely to be the first time we have a chance to have a broad look at the post-Trump Party. 

I think that shuts the door on anyone from the House...and the disastrously bad clown show of the last couple years will be hard to overcome.  The Senators?  Cruz is too tied to Trump.  Hawley is worse.  I'm not gonna strain my brain trying to think of one that might work, tho.  Feels like the best option might be a Republican governor.  Abbott's the most widely recognized nationally, except perhaps DeSantis.

5 hours ago, Asperion said:

Speculation: What will those who are being supported by Trump do on the extremely high possibility that he fails the upcoming election and is found guilty in this current criminal trial?

Bail on him, as he's clearly the flawed messiah.  They'll anoint someone who doesn't come with more baggage than Paris Hilton.  Abbott, perhaps?  They'll try hard to repudiate the person while embracing the MAGA message.

I don't buy that his sharpness, or lack thereof, is a factor.  In particular, I absolutely don't believe that he realizes he's not as sharp as he was...at ANY level, even subconsciously.  His narcissism won't allow critical self-analysis. You're basically postulating that Trump is rational.  I don't.  When I say "narcissistic"...I mean the clinical interpretation.  From Wikipedia:

 

Quote

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathize with other people's feelings. Narcissistic personality disorder is one of the sub-types of the broader category known as personality disorders. It is often comorbid with other mental disorders and associated with significant functional impairment and psychosocial disability.

And IIRC, it's right up there in seriousness with psychopathy and sociopathy.

I do buy that his lawyers would grill him with questions and force him to see that he won't be able to hold up, and thus get him to (reluctantly) agree.

.....................................................................

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your mistress's bed sheets.......

5 minutes ago, Steve said:

Examples of what caused my initial question: the Agony Box from Dune and the agonizer from Star Trek’s Mirror Universe. They caused pain but didn’t seem to cause any actual damage.

ahh...hm.  Those are a bit different.  I wouldn't try to describe how it does it myself, just what it does to them.  Nerve induction should, by and large, do what's suggested.  That's how the pain box is most commonly written up. The agonizer may have had a higher setting, right?  Where it disrupted nerve signals, and might've done more...induced seizures, even stop the heart?  Disrupting nerve signals could probably do either one.

I remember reading what I think was a legit experiment, wherein people were subjected to minor levels of shock, heat, and cold...all at the same time, say on different fingers...and their reaction was OMG WHAT!!!! because the 3 separate signals, from 3 separate sources, amplified each other.  People YANKED their hand out expecting to see notable damage...but there wasn't any.