unclevlad

Yeah, a pretty stock trope is that using one's powers requires concentration, and what pain can do is make it hard to concentrate through the pain. That's the motivation. Look at the example major transforms on 6E1 304. --impose a limitation (up to -1) --CV penalties --giving a Complication...unluck. Several of these would work pretty well with Partial Transform. A suggested, nasty complication is Requires 11- roll, that's -1. There's lesser levels for Partial Transform. Here, the pain's just the SFX, the goal is to just make it HARD to do something. And it's not cheap, as Partial Transform makes it 15 points per die. EDIT: oh, and note the key is concentration disruption. Pain's not the only way to do that. In Drew Hayes' Super Powereds series, the tech kid incorporates an itching attack into his weapon. Massive itching might be a better way to disrupt concentration; people are used to fighting through pain, but man, SEVERE itching? An attack I often like is to swap the defenses on a Flash attack from Flash Def to Ego Def...a flash bang targeting the sensory centers of the brain directly. That could be done here...instead of shutting down, overload.

So Mr. P, never a doubt, right? for those who didn't watch...

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Mmm...maybe, but that's a fairly bright orange. IMO that limits your options. I like the navy, myself.

With prejudice, no less. That bars refiling, at least on materially similar grounds, IIRC. They'd need to come up with something quite different, and "with prejudice" is a major warning that it'd darn well be BETTER grounds. None of this lame, bitter, Starbucks-like grounds.... Meanwhile back in New York...from NYT:

You hate the uniforms of the last few years by association.

It's also pretty common. Republicans want to minimize employee benefits as much as they possibly can.

One of the local supermarkets has pre-cooked, shredded chicken...kinda pricey...and dark meat turkey, which they sell for $5/pound. It's got more fat hanging around, and it might need some hand shredding or chopping, but hey, it's still a lot easier than roasting/shredding. I will sometimes look, after Thanksgiving, for a rolled turkey breast...you can get those dirt cheap. I don't do a whole turkey, that's just way too much for just me. Or another path would be to use pulled beef or pulled pork. Pulled beef...red sauce. Pulled pork can go red or green. Light meat chicken or turkey, I prefer green; dark can go either way. Medium green works nicely.

I'm supremely lazy these days. I just cut my tortillas into chip-sized chunks. Everything gets tossed together into a mixing bowl...meat, chiles, sauce, cheese. Cover and bake. This doesn't have to be all that mild. 505 Southwestern comes in different heat levels. Not familiar with El Pato, but it looks like it's mostly in mild...so, yeah, that won't be all that hot. That said, Hatch Chile Company (NOT the same as 505 Southwestern) makes mild, medium, and hot red and green enchilada sauces. That said, I prefer mild, or sometimes medium. I like rich flavor...not scorching heat. Another addition, especially using chicken...bacon. Of course. Because bacon makes everything better. I dice mine in advance, then render.

Davis and LeBron played 86 minutes, scored 59, grabbed 20 boards, dished 13 assists, and blocked 5 shots. And the Lakers still lost. On the upside, Russell shot 1-9 from 3. It's reasonable to expect that to improve, but...it's also likely Davis and LeBron will slip a bit. Particularly LeBron. Not sure the Nuggets will sweep, but I would lean to winning in 5.

I'll go a step further. I'm strongly with The Athletic's article that trading up is a VERY, VERY bad strategy. Particularly when there's still plenty of holes to patch. When you have excess draft capital, well, maybe...but Denver doesn't. You're bashing Denver for their QB drafts, which have been...less than successful. However, how many of those were Elway picks? Most draft watchers think there are no true first round quality QBs after the top 3 go off the board, which dovetails with what you say. WAIT, get someone in the 3rd and see what you can make out of him. We both know, tho, that fans won't be happy with that approach. The good news, as far as I'm concerned, there's 3 playoff games on Thursday night. PLENTY of distraction to avoid the incessant on-air bloviations, given that they have to fill so much time with nothing going on.

There's no argument that when Joel Embiid is on the court and engaged, he's one of the best players in the NBA. The key there, mostly, is on the court. Second quarter, kinda trapped in the lane. Tosses the ball off the backboard, grabs it for a one-handed slam. And lands awkwardly on his left knee. And when you're 7 foot something and around 280-300 pounds, that's a lotta force. Taken straight back to the locker room.

It also includes a condition that TikTok be sold. That's something I'm a lot less sanguine about, unless they can prove the personal/national security threats exist. No doubt this will go to court, tho, and here, the high First Amendment bar is front and center. The story points out that TikTok's already won in court on a few occasions. And now we'll see if the hard right faction tries to force Johnson out. I didn't look at all the votes, but it looked like the usual group consistently voted against all the bills.

Scurrilous, clearly malicious rumor from haters. There's no way those conferences would push for something like that. Their egos say they could go the other way...with one less player on the field...and still kick butt. They think They're Just That Good.

The Great Social Media Circus returns this week. The NFL draft starts Thursday, along with the maelstrom of comments about the idiocy of particular teams and draft picks. And the hype generated by the well-received picks. And the trades.

New rules announced. --wireless communications, finally. 1 designated player on each team will have it. Comms cut off at the 15 second mark, or at the snap. --use of tablets to watch replays from the game broadcast. --two minute warning like the NFL. They're still stopping the clock after first downs inbounds, so protecting a lead will, if anything, get a smidge tougher. It'll be a media timeout, but it won't add another. The total number won't change. Hopefully, the case where there's a score...timeout...kickoff...another timeout...are expected to be reduced. YAY! EDIT: oh yeah, and onfield...ESPN is saying that horse collar tackles inside the tackle box will now result in a 15 yard penalty. I don't recall seeing one, but...horse collar tackles are bad news, so I'm good with it.

On a side note, the man who set himself on fire died from his injuries.

Pelicans get a much-needed win tonight, IMO, to make the playoff field. Miami also gets in by goring the Bulls. Bigger loser there, IMO...the Hawks. Routed by the #9 team...who in turn got routed by the #8 team. Translation? The Hawks are still miles away from serious contention. Richard Jefferson, on the ESPN broadcast, basically eviscerated their defense. He noted that the Bulls were getting good shots after one action...say, a draw and dish...against the Hawks, but decent defensive teams, you need to go to a second or third action/pass to do so. The individual loser may be Trae Young, as the Hawks were 22-42 with him...and 14-14 without, including 12-9 to get the 10th seed. And he's due about $90M over the next 2 years. It may well be that he's not the real problem, but he still comes across as undisciplined.

I think we generally agree with you, but the First Amendment says they're protected speech...for the most part. The "COVID is a hoax" may be actionable...if said by a doctor, as a violation of professional ethics. Even that, tho, probably requires quite a bit more to it before any punishment will get handed down. And how far do you want to take that? Because you KNOW the Paxtons and DeSantises would weaponize this as fast as they could, and THEIR definition of "demonstrable lies" or "harmful speech" might well include anything counter to their manipulation of Biblical text.

That is one CRAZY sport!!!

7 teams have more wins than the Rockies, Marlins, and White Sox *combined*. 6 others have the same number, but 3 of those are barely over .500...they've just played 20+ games each. 14 teams, as of right now with the Friday night schedule just kicking in, are within 2 games of .500. Everyone but the Braves (17 games) has at least 18 games played.

City Connect unis are being used in MLB this evening. LOTS of cases where the City Connect colors are totally dissociated with the team's regular colors. It's all about selling more jerseys...so right now? They think there's no limit. The more, the merrier. Team identity be damned, they want a 2% increase in sales!!!!

OK, so when does it stop being protected speech? And who decides? How about statements like: --"Slavery is immoral"...in 1850 --"Women aren't competent to vote"...in 1905 --"Civil rights is human rights"...in the early 50s South This isn't the same thing as QAnon's conspiracy theories, as these statements are in the realm of ethics, rather than facts. The law can't readily distinguish between the two. That's even before considering that most hate speech is still protected by the First Amendment.

<sigh> Well, this one is really more on the pilots, not Meulens. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39976154/rockies-coach-posts-video-cockpit-prompting-faa-probe Meulens *should* realize he can't go onto the flight deck during a flight, but, well, it's possible he didn't. OTOH, the pilots *absolutely must know* it's not allowed. Meulens is likely to be fined, perhaps suspended by MLB for a few games, but the pilots are probably getting fired.

That was the proper term...altho I didn't realize it went back that far, or just forgot. "Ice milk" went out of favor because it slapped the consumer in the face with "THIS IS NOT ICE *CREAM*!" A lot of ice milk was also super-cheap...by volume. Because they'd beat it more to get more air in. So that half gallon container of Wal Mart junk had 20, 30% less mass. It also, IIRC, suffered freezer burn more easily, and the texture was terrible. So now they just call it "low fat." HUMBUG! If you can't handle the fat, buy a sherbet!