Posted by: J Greely at Wed Nov 11 21:50:52 2020 (ZlYZd)
2
They "fixed a bug" with environmental damage that turned fire from "completely ignorable" to "melts you faster than standing in front of a boss and setting down the controller". This was very bad for Klee, a character who causes fire -everywhere- in a world almost entirely covered by grass.
People hated it (it's no fun to die to your own abilities) and they toned it back down. Still more than it was but no longer a dire threat.
I did not draw Klee, not that I have the resources to work up new characters anyway.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sat Nov 14 17:57:35 2020 (v29Tn)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Nov 10 23:05:50 2020 (PiXy!)
2
There has been an absolute plague of Simulated voice reading reddit posts videos on youtube lately.
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Nov 11 22:07:09 2020 (Ix1l6)
3
...because turning a 30-second read into a 20-minute video is the easiest way to monetize content. As long as it doesn't contain any wrongthink, of course.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Thu Nov 12 12:20:06 2020 (ZlYZd)
If the election does not go my way, I will NOT Burn, Loot, or Murder as a result, for I am not a Democrat.
I say all this because of a particular tweet.
Nice life ya had there hick...too bad ya didn't just look the other way...
Obviously, that's good advice what with lists being made and all. If I keep my mouth shut and say nothing, then perhaps they'll ignore me if they come for the Jews, or the Catholics.
So really, the smart thing is to refrain from making waves, which I would urge people with children to seriously consider.
But I'd rather lick doorknobs in Wuhan.
This is not a political blog, but I will use my modest, Z-List platform to, from time to time, push back against the Biden/Harris administration which looks to be being staffed with creepy and destructive people.
To Wit
Heck, I might even, given some bizarre set of circumstances, defend the currently presumptive administration as I occasionally did Obama during Biden's tour in the Naval Observatory.
But I won't be taking Mr. Tapper's ever so 'considerate' advice.
I'm 50. I'm single. I'm not an imposing human being, but I believe in America, free speech and, fanboy that I am, I am nevertheless adult enough to understand that words are not violence, they are the best way to avoid it.
I also possess a history degree, and looking back on the 20th century I've gleaned that when they start coming for those who are different or express an unpopular view, silence is unlikely to guarantee one's safety, or produce any good result.
I do NOT condemn those in precarious position or whose jobs well and truly depend on their silence. We all have to eat. But those of us who do not have family to care for and are not required by our jobs to remain silent on social media probably should step it up a bit.
One other thing:
I am neither stunning, nor brave. I shout to the four winds as anonymously as I can, and I do that because I'm not on the book of Faces or the Twit roost.
No, I blog at Mee.nu.
Now, my only connection to my blog's hosting service was as an unpaid Beta tester years ago, but I do think that perhaps now would be an excellent time for people switch to a social media platform that believes in free speech and won't report you to the Marquises of Palo Alto (or the Gab junior puritan brigade).
1
I will defend people against accusations of being Nazis right up to the point where they march under a Nazi flag... Or start talking about putting the supporters of their political rivals on a list for retribution.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Nov 10 00:58:09 2020 (PiXy!)
Science! (Again)
One of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes has just run back into the blogs vast underground control room with an addendum to the last post.
"Sorry 'bout that. THIS is the kind of science you wanted right?"
I....OK. Wow.
It appears that during WW2, spies behind enemy lines in Europe were sometimes provided with carrier pigeons rather than, or supplemental to, radios as carrier pigeons were jam proof and did not emit RF radiation that could be detected and triangulated.
They had to deliver the poop producers somehow.....
Science!
One of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes has contacted us suggesting that she has some links of interest. It'll be good to avoid election news for a bit.
"Oh. No... I....uh...just was going to share some expository links on Benford's law...'cause I thought they'd be relevant. They're...here, here, and here. Also a paper applying Benford's Law to elections is here. Sorry, bye."
Oh. FFS.
Thank you imaginary 2-D assistant.
Well, let us discuss why they're well and truly relevant.
Someone posted this link on Facebook and had it taken down. It's gone strangely viral as various people post it and get their facebook pages censored with the link removed.
Whatever one thinks of Trump's increasingly slim chances of pulling this election out. These actions will do nothing to dissuade people of the legitimacy of his protests. Banning any discussion of analysis that does not comport with their worldview is not the act of a movement that is confidant in its position or without guilt. Likewise, the creation of lists, to render unemployable, and deny services to ones defeated political opponents is not the actions of a movement that thinks it is in the catbird seat...and certainly not the action of people who are fit to lead, let alone rule.
There is some discussion of this in the form of opinionated political disquisition rather than mathematical analysis here, here, here, and here. There is an amusingly relevant BBC article on the overall topic here.
That's because I blog on Mee.nu, part of a growing social network dedicated to free speech. You should check it out. Note that there are some upgrades in the works as well. Me 'n You won't fix the world, and is not arrogant enough to try, but it will let you communicate in good faith without fear of your social network enabling reprisal.
Also: A person named Jason Demoine Daniel voted in last night's election (In Michigan). He voted Absentee, which, I suppose is fine since, having been born in 1850, he's probably quite frail. He was 11 at the start of the Civil War, he saw the nation transition from agricultural, developing country to industrial powerhouse. What things this person might have seen; Passenger Pigeons, American Locusts, the first cars and planes, Hell, given his proximity to Illinois, he might have witnessed The Great Chicago Fire! There is no telling what knowledge he might be able to impart to us. We should have some historians go interview this amazing human resource.
Unless....his longevity is due to him being a Dracula or something. In that case send monster hunters.
1
dont know about the others links, but sharpies are actually the preferred method for az machines.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/nov/04/facebook-posts/voting-machines-dont-read-ballots-filled-sharpies-/
Posted by: punchy at Thu Nov 5 06:00:16 2020 (3Ihg2)
2
The sharpie is not the issue, VA ballots use sharpies too and because of Coronachan, they are giving every voter here a sharpie. The issue is that because either the ballot, or the sharpie were not within spec and the sharpie bled through, the ballot was discarded. Again, that is not an issue, it could, in fact be a PEBBABB issue in that she might have pressed too hard on the ballot with the sharpie. The issue is that they discarded the ballot and if the allegations are true they did not allow it to be replaced after being destroyed.
Of all the shenanigans I've heard about, this is either the least consequential, or deeply disturbing. It could be a miscommunication and a voter (not unreasonably IMHO) who's a bit paranoid and as a result unfairly jumped to conclusions, or it could be that the poll worker upon rendering assistance noted that the voter had voted for a particular candidate and decided that "No...this vote doesn't need to be counted". Most of the other shenanigans like stopping the vote count in areas that Trump is over-performing are clearly done by people very high up in the party apparatus who are either politically appointed or in explicitly partisan positions. The rank and file is not implicated. A poll worker would be troubling, but we don't know any details here to any degree of reliability beyond witness testimony.
(Oh right...Problem Exists Between Ballot And Ballot Box)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Nov 5 09:16:25 2020 (5iiQK)
3
I am personally more concerned about the fact that when I submitted my Sharpie(TM) filled ballot (Which at least for the optical readers in my county, was perfectly fine - as confirmed via messages with the local county party establishment.), I was told I could put the ballot into the machine with regardless of which side was facing up - and the poll worker was in a position to see what I had filled out on the ballot. When I saw that, I made sure that my ballot was facing down, because even with bleed through, it can be hard to tell which I filled. That being said, it was hardly a secret in the polling place that I was with the minority party in my municipality (When they were checking my registration, the person announced it - and the whole polling place was one big open area without any dividers.), so who knows.
Posted by: cxt217 at Thu Nov 5 17:46:25 2020 (4i7w0)
First They Came For The Oppai...Then They Came For The Rogue A.I.
A few months ago we noted that an American V-Tuber with the admittedly spicy name Oppai Pantsu was banned for a TOS violation. The violation was that Twitch retroactively decided that "Oppai" was a banned word on the platform. They had never mentioned this and had not given the girl the opportunity to change it. She had to re-launch her channel under the name Oppapan and lost her Partner status. Her channel has never really recovered its once impressive viewership (no one can search for her under her old name).
What's weird is that despite Projekt Melody's other channel, her Twitch stream was fairly inoffensive (double entendre's notwithstanding). Projekt Melody was an entertaining Twitch streamer. She was no pro-gamer, but she was enthusiastically learning video games and her streams were enjoyable in large part because of her enthusiasm and dry wit. She did a lot to help up-and coming streamers by leveraging her sudden celebrity. Despite her official backstory (She is a rogue A.I. damnit. That is her story and she is sticking to it!) there was a remarkable sense of sincerity and fun in in her show.
This is really bizarre, I'm not sure what Twitch is up to aside from drunkenly swinging the banhammer.
Hambly can't spell "extortion" which is unfortunate as that is the reason for Melody's absence. A DMCA notice was filed by her character designer, apparently in breach of contract.
1
He is wrong, although uncharacteristically. The looters know what to do now quite well: they are on standby and wait for a signal from their liberal controllers.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Nov 4 20:41:26 2020 (LZ7Bg)
1
Not only, or even primarily, a mobile game! I'm playing on my big gaming PC, which makes combat a lot easier. The mobile client is useful for party maintenance and some daily quests, and I did a lot of the early story quests on it, but the controls are a bit awkward. You can switch between clients at any time.
And I've spent exactly $4.99 on the game so far. And my latest free gacha pull included one of these... (which is really handy, because I needed someone with fast Geo attacks to unlock a few chests)
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Tue Nov 3 14:09:42 2020 (ZlYZd)
2
Honestly, it's a really good game up until the content runs out; if your gaming calendar isn't already thoroughly booked, go ahead and try it out. The actual gameplay is quite fun!
Once you HAVE finished the story that's there, it's not that great of a gacha game - very time-throttled as a way to keep you from maxing things out and discovering there's nothing left to do BUT to max things out. It also has a fairly nasty treadmill aspect in that the world will get stronger as you grind - so it's entirely possible that you can get a great character in the gacha and just bench them because the commitment to getting them leveled up to match your current characters is just too much.
So in a very real sense, it's not a bad idea to try it out, finish the current story content, and put it back down to wait for more areas to be developed (supposedly there's a new one coming in December).
I haven't spent any money, mostly because I get the feeling that it wouldn't really make any difference - what you run into isn't a wall to scale and get beyond, it's just a cliff, and even if you get higher up the cliff, you're still climbin' the cliff. It also helps that I kind of enjoy just doing the "hey, here's some free rolls" and working with what I get from that, rather than thinking "my life isn't complete unless I draw this one character at astronomically low rates!"
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Nov 3 14:29:09 2020 (v29Tn)
3
I have to say...I am intrigued by the game. But so far, the only gacha game I have played at all is Fate/Grand Order (Hi, Wonderduck! I see another person who has max leveled Rider Medusa!). I have Fire Emblem Heroes and Valkyrie Anatomia...But the latter was made by a Chinese studio, and I loathe touching anything from the PRC than I have to, and the former is at the 'dead man walking' stage, given Nintendo's discovery that mobile games that is not named Pokemon GO are not worth the cost.
Posted by: cxt217 at Tue Nov 3 20:00:36 2020 (4i7w0)
Someday...
...a woman named Arianna will comment on my blog, expressing praise for my hot take on some subject. She'll find my humor engaging, and want to get to know me better. She will be my soul mate.
And I'll delete her comment because I'll assume she's that damned bot.
Golly
Aside from two or three midterm elections and a similar number of primaries, I have missed zero elections since 1988. I don't think I've EVER seen a line quite as long as the one I stood in this morning, except possibly 2008.
The fellow behind me had had to leave and get additional clothing earlier in the morning (It was quite cold and windy) He noted that the line earlier had been longer still and gone completely around the school.
The line was so long that it extended far enough out that city council and school board candidates could legally pitch themselves to voters in line, which they did with much verve and enthusiasm. I found this welcome since it is terribly hard to find out anything about city council or school board candidates who are, by law, not allowed to express a political affiliation. This is he first time in years that I've voted for local offices and not felt that I was just throwing darts.
The line, for all its length moved quite fast and I was out in just over an hour.
In stark contrast to the acrimony we see on the news, everyone was civil, pleasant, and supportive of everyone else doing their civic duty, and it was a very diverse crowd, with people of all ethnicities in outfits ranging from suits to coveralls.
Now.....we wait.
(And wait and wait and wait, since, according to the radio just now, Governor Moloch McBlackface has said that the state will count ballots that come in by....Friday*. )
*A quick web search turned up nothing corroborating that, but it may be breaking as I type this.
1
It just occurred to me, but didn't the Bolsheviks of the Virginia state government change the law so that the state's electoral votes are given to the candidate that wins the national popular vote?
Posted by: cxt217 at Tue Nov 3 21:20:30 2020 (4i7w0)
Posted by: cxt217 at Mon Nov 2 21:07:19 2020 (4i7w0)
2
Very good question. One possibility is that long comments are more likely to trip the spam filter - if you split it in half you may find that both halves are accepted.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Nov 2 23:55:30 2020 (PiXy!)
1
Vehicles topped off with gas and a week's food at home in case "supply chain difficulties" start tomorrow night?
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Mon Nov 2 10:35:25 2020 (ug1Mc)
2
Shops in DC aren't boarding up their windows because they think Biden will win.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Nov 2 10:46:06 2020 (PiXy!)
3
What Pixy said. Voting with your mouth is one thing; at the polls another. With your time and money? Not at all coincidentally the MSM changed their tune when the boards started going up.
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Mon Nov 2 11:41:19 2020 (ug1Mc)
4
@Pixy, well that's the thing. If Biden wins, things are bad for a whole host of policy reasons.
If Trump wins there's at least some hope that we can stave off the deluge....but there is likely to be massive violence. I live in a Blue area that has already seen some unrest so It is very possible I'll have to leave.
The flip side of this is that having the leadership of the left and their cadre of extremist myrmidons so openly drop the mask as they have this year will certainly lead to some self reflection by quite a few people. The pain, if it comes to pass will, in the long term probably help the nation to heal, but lancing boils, like making omelets is a euphemism for dreadful suffering that ought not to happen.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Nov 2 12:43:15 2020 (5iiQK)
5
Yeah. Watching it from far afield, it looks like Trump will win (though I can't really speak about the congressional races) and the left's reaction will make 2016 look like a Mormon mathematics teacher's union annual picnic.
And I don't think they'll learn their lesson, and it will happen again at least in 2024.
Stay safe.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Nov 2 18:03:41 2020 (PiXy!)
6
I always miss Steve, but I really miss having him now, to talk about the 2020 elections.
Personal observations, and right off the bat, I have to be a bit vague about my descriptions because otherwise the info will pinpoint exactly where I am.
I have no idea who will win tomorrow, but I can tell you that, living in a very blue area (The bluest part of the state outside actual cities.), I have seen the usual lots and lots of Biden signs, and very few Trumps. But, I have also seen a few more Trump signs just in the last few days on my drives, right in the middle of neighborhoods festooned with Democrat signs...As well as a sizable number of signs for the GOP challenger taking on the Democrat incumbent in Congress. I have not noticed a lot of houses with the Stars and Stripes, but I can say there are a surprising number of houses with no signs in neighborhoods and streets otherwise lined with every Democrat signs under the sun (And you get the feeling that maybe the Democrats might have wanted to spend less money on signs and web ads than on, say, phone banks. The number and variety of signs for Biden-Harris on the average property is startling, to say the least.). I find it interesting.
The one thing I am willing to venture is that Biden probably will not do as well as Hillary did among the people in the blue county, due to the unpleasantness that occurred when spring was turning to summer.
Posted by: cxt217 at Mon Nov 2 20:28:11 2020 (4i7w0)
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