unclevlad

Charlie Chaplin

Side thought about ESPN.

It has seemed to me that they've shrunk their event broadcasters, in 2 ways...first, that I seemed to see a smaller collection of regular staff, and second...when they do need multiple people, like the CWS, quite often they're using what looked to be contract personnel...broadcasters with regular gigs outside ESPN.  Pay them a nice fee for the game, and done with em.  No overhead.  That is HIGHLY subjective, of course, and may be a messy, distorted perspective on my part..........

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/disney-stock-nabs-a-downgrade-we-have-our-doubts-about-espn-and-more-9c7863d8?mod=search_headline&mod=article_inline

And now this?  Yeah, Disney is destroying them.  

I'd expect many of these to show up elsewhere, of course.  Steve Young...Sunday Night Football?  Heck, that might pay him more.  

And we're going to have to live with the Court being like this for far too long.  If anything, while Thomas and Alito are the 2 oldest, and most extreme, members, what we've seen is that the Republicans have no reservation about ensuring the Court remains firmly in their grasp by manipulating the nomination/confirmation process to suit their goals.

Simon's plan to go ex-pat is gaining more appeal.

Going back to that...the Albertson's I was at today, not my usual, and often a bit of a step down from it...did have Angel's Envy Port Cask, in the locked cabinet.  I passed.  I'll be at the usual one Monday, I'll see what they have.

1 hour ago, FenrisUlf said:

Agreed, though elsewhere I've seen some people sniffing over 'five years just for writing a pair of names on some old stone wall nobody cares about anyway'. Some people.

The falsehood there is at the end of the statement.  Some people DO care...a very great deal.  

I get what you're saying, tho.  I try to avoid those people, but it's not always possible.

Just in my inbox, from NYT:  Fox News settles with Abby Grossberg over her hostile workplace suit.  $12 million. 

Well, can't say we didn't expect it, but still...

SCOTUS backs a business saying "go somewhere else" rather than back a message they disagree with, meaning laws barring discrimination against gay people are nullified.

It's nuanced...from NYT:

Quote

The 6-to-3 ruling handed down on Friday turned on the First Amendment. Because the designer, Lorie Smith, opposes same-sex marriage, the majority said, the state cannot compel her to make sites implicitly endorsing such unions’ legitimacy as a condition of getting into the general wedding website business.

 

But at an earlier stage of the litigation, both sides stipulated that the graphic and website design services Ms. Smith provides are “expressive,” according to the majority opinion, written by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.

 

The ruling leaves unanswered what other services related to marriages — like printing invitations, photographing a ceremony, providing flower arrangements, catering food, bartending or renting out space —  qualify as expressive enough to allow their providers to refuse to serve L.G.B.T.Q. couples under the First Amendment.

Even if it's narrowly applicable now, tho, we know the religious right will make every effort to expand it.  

Only if he wrote everything out in Latin, and used Roman numerals.

The git better HOPE he gets out of the country before they catch him.  I suspect the sentence will lean to the max;  the Italians take their monuments very, very seriously.

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

But ... but .. fútbol is the world's most popular sport! It's the Beautiful Game!

And high school baseball is baseball, it's America's Pastime!

Looks like Russell Wilson had another sterling performance, as the Chargers take down the Broncos 14-3 this evening.

Oh....this was a baseball game..........

Well, dissing the Rockies pitching staff is just playing Captain Obvious, so......move along, nothing to see......

Wow.   Threshold stat of the year.

Pirates beat Padres 5-4 today.  Puts the Padres at 37-44.

MLB Network crawl, during the Yankees-A's game, gives the score and points out....

47th time the Padres have scored 4 runs or less.

They're 7-40.

Which means scoring 5+, they're 30-4.

Got me to looking.

Padres are 37-44, but +19 run differential.

Cubs are 37-41, +25 run diff.

Twins are 40-42, +24 run diff.

I read that as those teams find ways to give up leads late, and thus lose too many close games.  And...yeah, there's a story on MLB.com from June 24th.  Padres blew out Nats in 2 straight games, scoring 10, then 13.  But the story notes they were 5-13 in 1 run games, and 0-6 in extra inning games, at that point.  5-14 now, which is also the worst record in 1 run games in the league.  The Rockies are 13-9.  The A's are 13-16.  The Royals are 11-10.  That's the 3 worst records in the league.

What, at best a 2nd-rate league with little or no TV exposure, and with lower net worths than a single year of Aaron Rodgers' salary?

No joke about the bonuses, as it can change the percentage of the cap, on a max deal contract.  65 games still allows some rest, and what we might see is simply "ok, start the game, then you're on the bench for the last 3 quarters."  

In-season tournament?  Why?  I think it's not merely a terrible idea, it's a self-defeating one.  My first take is, oh, our regular season isn't interesting enough to keep fan interest, so we'll invent this hokum and pray they like it.  Alternately, another plausible message is yeah, we know the season's way too long, so here's maybe a way to make it seem shorter...or to make some of those early games more interesting.  

And the rich will get richer.

Quote

The restrictions limiting veteran contract extensions have been loosened. Whereas most players were previously limited to 120% of their previous salary in the first year of an extension, now those players will be able to earn as much as 140% of their previous salary upon the start of a new deal.

And we can safely assume who's gonna get those.  There's a tension here, too, with this part:

 

Quote

There will now be a second salary cap apron -- $17.5 million over the current apron -- which will help curb spending among the league's most expensive teams. Any team that crosses that threshold will lose access to the taxpayer mid-level exception.

Will it cut spending by the big spenders...or just redirect that mid-level exception money to the max contract extensions?  Also, how will this interact with the 65 game requirement for awards?    

A secondary effect:  I think these terms will only exacerbate the alienation between the players and those parts of the fan base that think the NBA's filled with rich, spoiled brats.

https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/69911-combined-attack/#comment-1790437

That said, there's a LOT of Steve's writing on this subject, and wading through a lot of it is tricky.  It appears to be contradictory on the surface but that may be looking at partial answers, or answers to narrower questions.

Given this level of confusion, throwing out Combined Attack altogether, *except* when it's set up as a Combined Power, would likely make life much easier.  

Domingo German tosses a PERFECT GAME!  Just finished it. 

Even if he does pitch for the Yankees, those are always amazingly cool.  99 pitches.  72!!!! strikes.  Excellent breaking stuff.  Got to 3-1 against batter #24...4 straight breaking balls to get him in the end. 

Oh my.  For that touch of poignancy?  His uncle died 2 days ago........

3 hours ago, Cancer said:

Only U group that I can recall is Uriah Heep.

Selective memory at play?

Or can you still not find what you're looking for?

B sci fi races...
Betazoid, from ST:TNG

On a somber note

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/28/americas/titan-submersible-debris-st-johns/index.html

I'm glad.  Families can get some closure now, hopefully.  Pleasantly surprised, too;  that tech is GOOD.

And my vicious streak wants to find enough negligence on OceanGate's part to rip their liability waivers to pieces.  

Huh, I might look Friday, I'll be at Safeway, probably.  Just cuz yours has it, doesn't mean mine will;  supermarket liquor sections tend to be stocked by the area distributors, and thus stock the brands they have.  And size matters...how much space they want to allocate.  That Safeway has either NO cognac whatsoever, or maybe 1 or 2 VSOPs in the locked case.  Almost nothing in the way of single malt scotch, again, outside the locked case.

I have gone through some of the "50 best bourbons you can buy" lists...rather amusing.  Almost all of em are a) FAR more than I wanna spend too, and b) many count as Unobtainium.  Demand VASTLY outstrips supply.  If you want to know what truly, ridiculously INSANE booze can run....

https://vinepair.com/booze-news/25-most-expensive-bourbons/

Scotches?  They're worse.  There's a longer tradition of aging for a VERY long time.  

https://mybartender.com/brands/most-expensive-scotch/

Cognac also has an upper, upper tier.  I've had Louis XIII once...not a bottle, mind.  Most expensive bottle would be Remy XO...the liquor store had reversed the prices on the Napoleon (the step up from VSOP) and the XO (a step above that).  So I got it at a really nice price.  

But yeah, for the most part?  They're not enough better to justify the seriously high costs, as you say.  I've largely avoided scotch and cognac for several years, because the prices on both blew through the ceiling.  When I do get it, I bite the bullet and go for the middle levels of the good lines...Remy Nadurra, Laphroaig Quarter Cask.  I mean, if it's gonna be an indulgence *anyway*...get the stuff you really like.

I like the secondary transforms for objects, where there's no atomic change.  Physical/chemical yes...convert the carbon dioxide in the air into graphite powder (pure carbon) and O2.  Lots of similar stuff, but a lot of it could be covered by Create Object now, with an SFX limitation that the material has to be on hand...somehow.  (You'd be amazed at what hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon alone can make, and of those, only carbon is marginally scarce in the air.) Disguise stuff can be set up with UOO Shape Shift.

Yeah, I heard.  There was a comment that they imparted many, many lessons about the realities of the NBA.  Not many better sources out there...Duncan even moves into the social media era, at least to a degree.  Duncan retired after the '16 season.  Ginobili too...not perhaps the a star at the level of Robinson or Duncan (no height jokes intended) but one of Argentina's most popular, and he retired in '18.

And that really, REALLY brings out HOW FREAKING TALL!!!!! the kid is!!!  Cuz that's David Robinson standing on his left.  Robinson's 7' himself.  

No pressure on the kid, tho.  Just meet 2 legends...Duncan's arguably a Mount Rushmore level power forward, Robinson made the 75th anniversary all time NBA list, Ginobili is HOF...and Sean Elliott on the other end *only* has his number retired by the Spurs.  Slacker....  Way to keep the expectations down, having that group take you to dinner the night you arrive in town.

Imagine if the place they went to, had a dress code...and tried to turn away THAT group.............................  

My quibble would be that...yes, a severe Transform's priced at the same level as a killing attack, and each has to reach the same degree of effect...but resistant defense is rather more common than power defense.

I think it's a salient observation to put a severe Transform in the same class as killing attacks, for how frequent the GM should use one.  

I'm taking it a step further.  Duplication is a special power, so that's already covered, but nothing says you can't have Dup and Multiform...just not in an MP.  I'm trying to make a stronger statement.  Most special powers aren't that special;  they're just powers you don't want swapping around trivially.

Imagine:

Duplication, create 4, 500 point duplicates;  x2 rapid duplication.  Base 135 points.

Multiform 500 points;  Base 100 points.

Now:  Extra Time (delayed phase), Concentration (1/2 DCV) on both.  135 -> 90;  100 -> 67.  So, 157 of the *base form's* 500.  Emphasize defense for the rest.

The dups all get the multiform;  the base wants to dup first, then shift.  If caught out unduplicated...shift.  Normally?  Dup first, everyone shifts as they can.  

This'd be bad enough, as the multiform can be combat streamlined.  And of course, if one is going to consider maximal abuse...make that 600 point mulitforms, or 650.  Every 15 points above the base 500 costs the base 4, after the 1/2 limit...but having *5* 650 point builds at once, in a 500 point game?  

Of course the GM should probably just bar you from his game for even proposing it.........

2 hours ago, Grailknight said:

The only limit the rules place is that any Multiform bought this way shouldn't have a VPP or Multipower in any of the forms as those can't be nested. But that's a very strict and probably controversial interpretation of RAW.

 

I just move Multiform back into Special Powers but I've been in a discussion that argued it should be a variant of VPP. 

So...if the base is allowed to buy Multiform in his MP, the form can't have its own MP because it's nested?

I don't see that at all.  Multiform itself is a hard separation.  Nothing in any of the other forms is available unless it's defined for the specific form, so there's no conjoining frameworks.

I think Mutliform and Duplication should be made into their own class...call it Exclusive, maybe.  Can't be put into any framework, AND can't have both...which means no alternate form can buy Duplication as well.  The base form doesn't necessarily need real power...not if it can duplicate itself, then have the duplicate shift to the combat form.

Why does the chair have no SPD?  On what basis?  It can't *move*...and in most cases, it can't do anything, so it appears to have no SPD, but that's not the same thing.

I'll grant it has no sight, but if we're talking mental powers, which is the key here...that could be the targeting sense.

This is why I absolutely LOATHE Transform used like this.  Cuz you could be right too.  The rules are FAR, FAR too open-ended, ambiguous, and potentially even contradictory, as to what can or can't be done, and the potentially MASSIVE amount of indirect effects.  Shut down 200, 300 points worth of powers THAT easily?  Grossly ridiculous, IMO.  I'm looking at the recovery condition section...where it says Regen might help, oh, but the condition can be stated as "must be healed back at REC/Month."  WHAT???  And this is FREE, just because you say it's how it works?  YOU define the SFX and you can get a massive benefit?  

The rules WRT Transform aren't even half-baked, IMO.

2 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

A standard transformation changes you physically into something else.  If the form would lack one of your abilities you no longer have it.  It does not matter what the special effect is.  So, turning someone into a chair will usually cause them to lose their mental powers.  

 

6E1 305, last paragraph on the page:

Quote

A single Transform can only affect one of these three traits. For example, a Transform can affect a target’s Body (change a person into a chair), but cannot take away his Mind or Spirit (the chair will still be sentient, alive, and have a human spirit).

The "abilities" you refer to are abilities based on your body, by that statement.  Transform someone with wings into a chair, they can't fly any more.  They have really limited normal senses as a chair...but their mind's intact, and IMO that says they can use mental powers.