unclevlad
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Posts posted by unclevlad
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2 hours ago, tkdguy said:
One of my cats always looks at me like that.
What's wrong with the others?
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I fully expect the company to declare bankruptcy soon too. But, there should be assets...if nothing else, there's some IP that should have value.
And the wrongful death lawsuits are *guaranteed.* One of the passengers was a *billionaire*...and his 19 year old son was another. Oh my lordy, yes, that family is going to sue, and they may well not care if they actually get anything as a settlement. They're not gonna settle for a mere pound of flesh.
Also, there is a serious question of criminal liability. Yeah, the CEO is dead, but anyone who signed off on the engineering is probably even more directly guilty of criminal/gross negligence resulting in death.
I actually would not be surprised if significant legal action starts VERY quickly. Specifically: freeze all the assets of the company, to ensure no one can try to cut and run with whatever they can get.
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USCG is now holding a press conference, and saying debris analysis reflects a catastrophic failure of the pressure chamber. Everyone is now officially presumed dead.
More detail, from NYT reporters at the scene:
QuoteThe authorities found “five major pieces of debris” that indicated they were from the Titan, including a nose cone, the front end of the pressure hull and the back end of the pressure hull, said Paul Hankins, a salvage expert for the U.S. Navy. He said that finding these pieces of debris indicated there was a “catastrophic event.”
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Yeah, even if the ship's intact, which was debatable from the get-go, getting them to the surface would presumably take several hours. It seemed unlikely at best that there'd be some form of external hookup. Without that.....
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Today, I am sad...and angry beyond belief.
Sad, because it seems a foregone conclusion that the innocent people aboard the Titan will not be found alive. Even the best case was running out of air...early this morning, Eastern time. It's a good 6 hours later, and it hasn't been located.
And so, so, so angry that the passengers paid for the gross, criminal, greedy incompetence of the people who run the company. From NYT, echoed several other places:
QuoteIn January 2018, the company’s engineering team was about to hand over the craft — named Titan — to a new crew who would be responsible for ensuring the safety of its future passengers. But experts inside and outside the company were beginning to raise concerns.
OceanGate’s director of marine operations, David Lochridge, started working on a report around that time, according to court documents, ultimately producing a scathing document in which he said the craft needed more testing and stressed “the potential dangers to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths.”
Two months later, OceanGate faced similarly dire calls from more than three dozen people — industry leaders, deep-sea explorers and oceanographers — who warned in a letter to its chief executive, Stockton Rush, that the company’s “experimental” approach and its decision to forgo a traditional assessment could lead to potentially “catastrophic” problems with the Titanic mission.
CBS also is reporting this:
QuoteLochridge wrote that he learned the viewport on the sub was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, even though the Titan intended to go down to 4,000 meters in depth. He also urged OceanGate to use an agency such as the American Bureau of Shipping to inspect and certify the Titan.
"OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters," Lochridge's filing alleges.
He claims that rather than address his concerns or use "a standard classification agency to inspect the Titan," OceanGate immediately fired him.
OceanGate's lawsuit against Lochridge stresses that he wasn't an engineer, and that he refused to accept its lead engineer's "veracity of information," leading to his firing. In his legal response, Lochridge admitted he wasn't an engineer, but noted that "he was hired to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during submersible and surface operations."
So there's issues of fact when the lawsuits start flying...the passengers waived liability, including death, in case of an accident, but I'm pretty sure those clauses aren't enforceable in the event of gross negligence. OceanGate as a company is done, no matter what; the only question is how thoroughly they'll be incinerated. If the Titan is found, and if any of the allegations asserted in the past hold? That seems prima facie reckless disregard/gross negligence; goodbye waiver, and the fire's a nuclear furnace. And several people are going to jail for a long time.
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It's extremely annoying that every time I check notifications, I'm getting this "enable push notifications" popup that I have to close.
NO. I will NEVER enable push notifications. I don't want to have notifications come across when I'm not on this site. I get people do, so fine, sensible capability to include. But please stop interfering with me, and accept that I don't want them.
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The rule says object. It doesn't say focus. As Duke noted, it's absurd to say you can do this with a focus but not with an object NOT defined as a focus, and then by extension, saying you can't do it on innate powers is absurd.
The point isn't to push DOING it. The point is to advocate for re-writing those rules. Whether it's a focus or not is completely irrelevant to the issue of how extra copies purchased using the 5-point doubling rule can be used, which is the real bone of contention.
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A federal judge in Arkansas has blocked the state's ban on transgender care for minors.
From NYT:
QuoteIn his 80-page ruling, Judge James M. Moody Jr. of Federal District Court in Little Rock said the law both discriminated against transgender people and violated the constitutional rights of doctors. He also said that the state of Arkansas had failed to substantially prove a number of its claims, including that the care was experimental or carelessly prescribed to teenagers.
Related...New York passed a shield law for those who prescribe and send abortion medications to patients in states where it's banned. Again from NYT:
QuoteThe New York bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has indicated that she supports the idea of such a shield law. The bill stipulates that New York courts and officials will not cooperate if a state with an abortion ban tries to prosecute, sue or otherwise penalize a New York health care provider who offers abortion via telemedicine to a patient in that state, as long as the provider complies with New York law. It passed the State Assembly by a vote of 99 to 45 on Tuesday evening after clearing the Senate by a vote of 39 to 22 last month.
IF!! the abortion restrictions are upheld, which isn't a given, the shield laws would appear to set up a clear Supreme Court clash between the states.
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24 minutes ago, Pattern Ghost said:
The rationalization runs strong in MAGAland.
When does a word change to its opposite, when changing from an adjective to a verb....
"rational" to "rationalize".........
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7 hours ago, Old Man said:
The lack of emergency beacon signal and the apparent failure to jettison ballast means the sudden implosion scenario is much more likely.
If that's not enough to make you feel better, I have some Amontillado in the basement, I'm sure a couple glasses of that will cheer you right up...
Also found this from NYT:
QuoteIn 2018, more than three dozen people, including oceanographers, submersible company executives and deep-sea explorers, warned that they had “unanimous concern” about the craft’s design, and worried that the Titan had not followed standard certification procedures. In a 2019 blog post, the company said that “bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation.”
Still got that Amontillado?
Never mind, I've got a decent amount of Maker's left......
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OK, I was looking for it, but couldn't find it. Blew my search roll. My bad. (I was looking in 6E1. DOH! It's in the index, but under "5-point doubling rule"...not "Doubling Rule.")
But...yeah. I think the rules issue for this aspect is more along the lines of your point..."only with an object" is simply terrible writing. It creates meaningless special cases for no good reason. It's trivial to adapt a concept while it's under development to account for incorporating non-focus objects, and done right, no one's gonna even be able to say it's NOT in concept. Heck, I've developed mage-type concepts where part of it is "none of the spells are persistent." Fine...the persistent ones that are spells-based, have some physical, sustaining framework...an object or tattoo. They may not be defined as foci. They might require END to activate for 24 hours...but I'm not taking any kind of limitation, even if it was allowed. Those are SFX.
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Since pre-draft bloviation bores me beyond measure, we need to find other goodies.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/busting-4-major-myths-about-referees-in-the-nba-playoffs/
Not that this'll move the needle among the diehard conspiracy-mongers.
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Yeah, Trump's always had one of the worst cases of hoof and mouth disease in human history.
Yet too many still support, or at least excuse, him. Yeah, fine, given the polarization, they won't bail to a Democrat, but they're still not moving away from Trump. FiveThirtyEight suggests, this may be reflective of DeSantis' weakness; his numbers have fallen significantly. Graph from them:
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29 minutes ago, Old Man said:
The lack of emergency beacon signal and the apparent failure to jettison ballast means the sudden implosion scenario is much more likely.
If that's not enough to make you feel better, I have some Amontillado in the basement, I'm sure a couple glasses of that will cheer you right up...
Well, it puts it into the Stewart scenario, but...no, it doesn't help. I have too easy of a time imagining it the other way.
Is that a raven on your porch?
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21 hours ago, death tribble said:
Tourist sub looking at Titanic goes missing, search underway
I hope, hope, HOPE they're found. The air supply is the problem; it'll only last a few days.
This really sends chills down my spine...because it's my personal nightmare way to die. Long, slow, lingering, and inevitable with not a bloody darn thing you can do to stop it. It's also bringing back memories of Payne Stewart's death; the cabin failed to pressurize, everyone passed out from hypoxia...and the plane just continued on its way on autopilot. STILL makes me shiver.
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5 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:
The innate powers character cannot get double the powers for five points. The focus guy can. Effectively, the focus discount gets deeper and deeper.
I don't believe that's correct. There's nothing that says the innate powers guy can't do it. Take a Doc Ock notion...but now each limb has a transformable appendage. Normal hand, ionic blaster, venom injector with 2-3 different types (various Drains). Give him 6 limbs; each has them all. Each can be controlled separately. That sure sounds like 8x MPs to me. And they're not foci.
Another example: Quasar, from Marvel. The quantum bands are not removable, and thus are not foci. Any cyborg build would follow the same notion.
Power stones...perhaps at the chakra points, for an Eastern-mystic interpretation. D&D 3E Psionics had a Crystal Master class, embedded stones. There's a tattooed monk; tattoos would be another method. All of these can justify the 2x rule cleanly enough.
Foci make it generally *easier* to visualize/conceptualize. But they aren't implicit. With this many exceptions, well, it's pretty pointless to try to limit things.
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In other news...it may be mostly that soccer's the most played sport on the planet, but stories like this are just becoming almost endemic....
Key points:
QuoteNew Zealand abandoned their match with Qatar mid-game after allegations of racism against Michael Boxall
A match between Ireland U21s and Kuwait U22s was called off earlier after similar allegations
The abandonments came days after a match between Mexico and the US was called off due to homphobic chants -
Another example of Republicans using the tactics of a repressive autocracy....
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Yes, it's built in, but in many cases, it's for convenience. Try buying Mach 1 flight speed without non-coms, and without MegaScale. Let's assume a 6 SPD, as it's convenient. Then 1m per phase == 6m per turn, 30m per minute, 1.8 kph, or about 1.1 mph. Mach 1 is basically 770 mph...so you need 700m per phase.
Combat movement is tactical, but non-combat movement is a plot device for the most part. It shouldn't cost an arm and a leg. MegaScale's excessive for any continuous movement power...note that from the above, with 1m = 1 km MegaScale, 1m per phase is 1100 mph, or Mach 1.5. There *needs* to be something in between.
Similar argument applies to Mind Link. How much more utility is there, going from 1 to 2 links at once, from 2 to 4? Also, how else do you want to define it? This is basically how Mind Link scales.
In both cases, for the most part, most doublings like this have no combat impact. They're for a richer, more interesting character...I doubt I'm alone in saying I love high-speed fliers or cross-country teleporters. In RAW, it's a bit less complex to do this with NCMs; adders are optional, advantages aren't. You don't have to jerk the rules around with a multipower...one slot for the combat move, another for the NC...and it doesn't help that the rules only have the ridiculously over-the-top MegaScale, nothing lesser that could actually be *used* with Flight or Running without getting ludicrous. Combat impact...there, you want to be a lot more restrictive and a lot more specific. You *don't* want to give something for (almost) nothing...like the bigger defensive powers we've mentioned. Doubling 50, 60 points of defense for 5 points is clearly abusive, if they can both be used together. Sure, no argument: the rules are not merely abusable, they *invite* abuse. The entire premise of a points-based system SCREAMS "find ways to cut costs to Get More Power."
But that doesn't mean we need to make things TOO easy. Recognize that the rules have a goal: to be as flexible as possible. This is also why they're so easy to abuse, in part. 5E actually shows the mess you get with overly individual rules...I'm particularly thinking of HAs, HKAs, and the mess related to how adding damage works. ECs is another example...what can you do, what can't you do, what should be allowed, what should not be allowed. The rules are too long as is, tho. FAR too long, particularly for a print or PDF version. Even then, trying to do that creates its own problems...you'll never consistently get things right, and hey, with all the ways to tweak, some will be broken.
The doubling rule is fine for lots of things...with caveats. As we've explored at length.
EDIT:
<whaps self>
The point that so many places have a "5 points for x2" core rule *greatly* weakens Hugh's point that it's considered an optional rule. It's there in so many places, as a basic part of a power, that it's easy to forget that it isn't. Also: HD has x2 for +5 points on every power, and on VPPs and MPs, in 6E. It's not there one characteristics, skills, perks, or talents. That creates a *clear* presumption that it's an OK thing to consider. -
Looks like the band's breaking up after a rather long run...
Reports are that Draymond Green will decline his option for next season, making him an unrestricted free agent. It isn't a done deal that he's gone, but presumably he's thinking he can get more than the $27.6M signing the option would give him. That's gonna be problematic. For 23-24, Steph's at $52M, Klay's at $43M, Ender's at $24M, and Poole goes from $4M to $27M as his new contract kicks in.
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More controversy from the Open.
The USGA did have the final group teeing off over an hour earlier today. NOT surprising; the article says the round ended around 8 last night. Local sunset for LA tonight is...8:07. It would've been almost identical last night.
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Well yeah, of course. How do you want to be remembered...a stupid chunk of stone hardly anyone ever notices...or a cookie recipe? No brainer...
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OK, the paperwork won't be needed. I presume they're discussing terms, but report is that Huggins has already agreed to resign, and he's already told the team that.
EDIT: it's official.
College Football 2023
in Non-Gaming Discussion
Posted
Might as well start this now, it's not far off...scary as that sounds.
So, Deion Sanders isn't exactly on my Christmas card list, but still.... You might've seen him last year, where he was getting around on the sidelines, his left leg on a rolling cart...couldn't walk on it. Kinda weird. Never did hear...or maybe didn't remember...why.
Yes, well...
Turns out he had surgery to repair a dislocated toe. That...had issues. It led to blood clots. And more surgery. And the removal of 2 toes. (Ick.)
It's been getting worse. More surgery scheduled Friday to relieve clots...and here's the kicker. Or non-kicker, perhaps...because amputating his left foot was a possibility. They're not gonna do that right now, but apparently it's still a possibility.
Kinda repeats the aphorism....there's no such thing as minor surgery.