unclevlad

I saw it and didn't make the connection. What Logan's talking about is a FAKE TWEET where someone using a fake, "VERIFIED" by Musk's 'standards', posted that insulin was going to be free. I'm a type 2, so I don't have to worry about insulin, but in our support group meetings, the cost of insulin or its analogs came up fairly often. The stuff is NOT cheap, especially some of the better (more stable, less chance of an overreaction) analogs. I don't think a lawsuit can hold Musk liable legally, but what this will do, IMO, is push for people to create a Twitter replacement ASAP. Maybe use Instagram for the interim? https://fortune.com/2022/11/11/no-free-insulin-eli-lilly-casualty-of-elon-musk-twitter-blue-verification-mess/ OK, lemme rephrase. I don't think Musk can be held liable for *this wave* of fake accounts and fake posts. However, if he doesn't clean up that act and this kind of disruption continues, he may be held liable for enabling it, when it's clear it is happening. Problem is, any lawsuit may simply accelerate sending Twitter into bankruptcy. It might seem odd to say that, but that DARN sure looks like it's an acceptable endgame for him. It could also be that he thinks he'll pull this out, no matter what.

The World Cup of Hockey was scheduled for February 2024. Today, that date has been scrubbed; they're shooting for '25. Several major issues...TV rights, player participation (it'd be middle of the NHL season), and not surprisingly, the role any Russian players might have. But to me...asking the NHL and its players to totally disrupt their schedule more than for the Olympics, feels like a hard sell. Same for the NHL's media partners.

Nah, someone read to him from my joke book....

True, but there's the ACC as well. Or the AAC, they're South-heavy (New Orleans, 2 Florida, Houston, Tulsa...semi-southern, and SMU and East Carolina.) And even more, the Sun Belt. They're almost entirely Deep South.

Besides, it's un-American to die before you complete ALL your Christmas shopping. Oh...wait.......ummmmmmm...never mind.............

The software's valuable, but he's gutting the software...and the hardware...and the security. SO FAR, he's cut half the workforce. When you lose that, you lose institutional memory...the people who know the tricks it takes to keep things running smoothly. He's lost his top marketing people...people with Fortune 500 contacts. Twitter has lost GM, Audi, Pfizer, United Airlines, and Carlsberg Brewing...the third-largest brewery group in the world. What remains to be seen is how many users abandon it, and how quickly. It'll be accelerated if the service has problems staying up...gut the internal tech support, what do you think is gonna happen? How fast will existing employees jump ship? With the loss of ad revenues, how is Twitter going to pay the MASSIVE interest on the debt it now has? Just before and after election night, disinformation levels exploded. Story a couple days ago that fake celebrity accounts were getting the "blue check mark thumbs up" all over the place. How fast will the mega-players say, hey, I'll take my account somewhere else! And how fast will these factors drain the user base? And the software nowadays isn't worth much at all. Twitter isn't that important; it's only #15 among the social media platforms...and if you take out the Chinese apps, where there's ongoing security concerns...I still think it's not that big. Instagram is like 5x Twitter's size. Hey, others have fired up their own Twitclones. It's not that hard. It might survive in name only, I'll grant. I think it won't; it's possible that it'll go through bankruptcy (and that might make Musk's creditors want his scalp), get sold as you say, and rebranded, but rebuilding will take a long time. EDIT: from NYT headline today: Musk threatens permanent bans but...so what? The damage will already be done, and it probably won't take hackers long to bypass the security and sign in with new, fake IDs. EDIT: ESPECIALLY if the security staff's been gutted.

So what's going on at Twitter? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/technology/elon-musk-twitter-takeover.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20221111&instance_id=77325&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=101745266&segment_id=112913&te=1&user_id=618f95a4931087ea799b0e9f4a9d3344 If it's paywalled for you...I'll keep the quote short, since it is. And for Musk's attitude??? Draconian doesn't even start to express it. Those who simply can't afford to leave will be worked like dogs, and it's a practical certainty, IMO, that they'll get no appreciation for it whatsoever. EDIT: after reading the whole story, if Twitter survives to next summer, I'll be surprised. It really is that bad.

Now there's an unexpected juxtaposition for ya......

Subject line for The Athletic's newsletter: Relegate the NFC South.

How bout them Panthers? I say we adopt them as the forum's choice to win their division. Why not? Come back after a complete debacle 4 days ago? Gotta love it. And no one expects *anything* from them. Besides, the division and the league both deserve it. And it's not like anyone else in the division is worth rooting for.

That's assuming it's actually from who it's purported to be from. Elon's new Blue Check Mark has been faked and exploited rather mercilessly. And unfortunately, she's winning in a landslide.

Fluorescent green biscuits? LOL Nice piece of parody.

And actually, report is, Smiley conceded some time Wednesday night. On the big fear...widespread election fraud claims appear to be limited to Trump's macabre, private reality. CNN reports some small issues, but nothing that interfered and certainly nothing systemic. That's hopeful. Push comes to shove, it looks like the *loud* fraud claimants lost much more often than they won. It does seem to open the door for someone to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination, altho all the presumptive, plausible candidates are different types of horrific.

Well, to give Smiley a *bit of* benefit of the doubt, report is only 2/3 of the votes are in. But AP called it, and reversing a large gap at this point isn't likely. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-washington-us-senate.html Note that Smiley's leading in the rural counties, while Murray's crushing it in the big ones. And judging by the totals and percentages...King County has another 300,000 votes or so to come in. That's +49...or basically 75-25, or 3 to 1 in Murray's favor right now. I also find the map interesting, showing how sharp the geographic divide is. I haven't looked exhaustively, but there are at least 3 Republicans coming from the media...Kari Lake was a TV anchor, Tudor Dixon was a streaming anchor, and Mark Ronchetti a TV meteorologist...that ran to be their state's governor. All 3 lost.

2000? That's a big margin! In Colorado, Lauren Boebert is in a near dead heat against her Dem challenger. As in, with 300,000+ votes in, the margin's 64 votes. Obviously going to have to go to a recount there. Locally, Yvette Herrell has conceded to her challenger, Democrat Gabe Vasquez. She blames redistricting...which one can never discount. Both sides do it. Margin with 98+% of the votes in is about 1300 votes.

Kyrie's moved past Rodgers to be atop my list of loathsome athletes. Not sure he'd hold a candle to the political list, mind, but he's #1 among athletes. I'm still not sure what exactly is going on with the Nets, but as an organization they're moving up the list fast. NOT near Cleveland Browns levels...yet...but climbing. Griner...my fear is no. She's a form of reprisal, I think, for opposition to their action in the Ukraine, at this point.

SpaghettiOs and hot dogs...from the nightmare era of convenience foods. And the ultimate 50's nightmare to me...because I had this...had canned tuna front and center. Tuna casserole...condensed cream of mushroom soup, potato chips, Durkee fried onion chips. Processed EVERYTHING. That was the 50s and early 60s. Frozen veggies, boiled to mush...another lowlight, but quick and easy! Really, really bad...

I was gonna say one thing, but that just changed...well, in part. Why? The Nets took Kyrie off the suspended list after 2 games. WHAT? Are they trying to say he's completed the steps they said were required? I don't buy that. I'm hearing they caved. Completely, utterly, cravenly caved. Once they thought they had a chance to maybe, MAYBE salvage things due to 2 wins, they tossed any thought of having principles, and threw a couple thermite grenades onto them. The other aspect of this...reports are, Kyrie was ignoring Steve Nash's play calls. Repeatedly...10+ times in one game, reportedly. That would be a pure Kyrie issue again...but other comments suggested this wasn't Kyrie, it was pretty much the whole team. The summary comment was the team's dysfunctional...which sounds about right. But, it also says Nash *had to be fired* if he'd lost the team so utterly.

An action order for the entire turn? Not sure that's easier.

If they do...and if it's because they're out-coached...can you say "back to back weeks with coaches fired?" I knew you could.... Here, I have a cardigan sweater just for you........

Locally, I'm happy to see that Lujan-Grisham won. The Republican, Mark Ronchetti, ran for Senate in 2020. I thought he was a brainless clown back then...the fact that his 'qualifications' appear to consist of being a local TV meteorologist might possibly be a teeeeny tiny factor there...and I still do. That one shouldn't go to a recount; it's about 52%-46% for Grisham. The local House seat is not called at this point, and may well have to go to a recount. The Pub incumbent, Yvette Herrell, is on the wrong side right now. Good, there; my opinion of her can't be stated here. The nasty aspect is, I rather suspect she'll cry fraud if the final numbers go against her.

Quote from the Pulse newsletter this morning, about the Colts. Their playcaller is...less than experienced as well.

That's going to be far more convoluted...and by the time you're done? Probably MORE expensive. You'd have to buy a whole separate "normal hearing, IAF, ......" and the rules don't *like* that. It's what Clairvoyance is for. Then the radio side. The Standard Visual Bug (HS6 EG, p. 304) hand-waves the radio aspect (affected as radio group) and assumes someone has the receiver. No need to make it explicit, it's SFX. It's a limitation because it can be jammed and detected.

So, had a notion for a character. Powers include desolid for slipping in and out discreetly, which makes Bugging and Concealment a natural option. Per 6E1, when you buy bugging, you get a small supply of average-quality bugs. You can pay points for better stuff (it's supers). Well, 1. What's average quality? (There's various bugs in the Equipment Guide, but 8x range is arguably Not Average, at least to me.) 2. Why have to re-invent the wheel? Perfectly happy to buy Electronics and Inventor. Given that, I'd rather translate the "average quality" into a free power, and just work from there for "good" bugs. So... 18 Standard Bug (sight and sound): Clairsentience (Hearing Group And Normal Sight) (44 Active Points); IAF (-1/2), No Range (Must be placed at PP; -1/2), One Sense Only (Normal Hearing; -1/4), Sense Affected As More Than One Sense [any other Sense] (Radio Sense Group; -1/4), 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Week (+3/4) This is adjusted from the EG's. No extended range, it's dropped down to normal hearing and sight. Range would be 250 meters. From here, I built what would be 'naked adders' for various things. As such: they must automatically inherit the standard bug's advantages and limitations. I shorthanded them. The basis is a Custom Power in HD. 3 Well Concealed : -4 Modifier to searcher's Concealment roll (-4 Sight PER), Base Bug advantages (+3/4) (7 Active Points); Base Bug Limitations (-1 1/2) 4 Discreet Transmitter: -6 Modifier to PER with Detect Bugs, Base Bug advantages (+3/4) (10 Active Points); Base Bug Limitations (-1 1/2) 4 Increased Range: 2x Range, Base Bug advantages (+3/4) (9 Active Points); Base Bug Limitations (-1 1/2) And you can go on from there. These fit into a gadget pool nicely, and I feel I'm getting value for points spent, which I don't feel is the case if I have to pay for the base bug in my gadget pool...that's a lot of active points. Plus, I can establish I've get X standard bugs, and can tune each one to task separately, if I want.

Ebb and flow. Some teams have grossly underperformed, like Denver and especially Green Bay. Numerous cases of Rose-Colored Glasses Syndrome...Rams lost so much, but that Super Bowl win, man. Bucs. Packers, to a point. Some of it is scheduling. NFC East is playing the NFC North...1 good team, 3 awful ones...and AFC South, which is about the same, but worse. Philly has wins over Detroit, Jacksonville, and Houston; those teams have a combined 6 wins in 25 games. They also beat the Vikes...not pushovers. But a good team should go 6-2 against that group. AFC East is playing AFC North...Ravens started slow, so if you caught them early you got a break. Bengals are WAY down. Browns and Steelers are pretty bad, and IMO that should not be surprising. They're also playing the NFC North. There's always some years where the divisional crossovers work out to strongly favor some divisions.