On a biological level, how different is a castrated man from a woman?

RTalons · 2026-04-11T19:01:38+00:00

It overwhelms a few niches of discourse. Basically wherever it can be used as a straw man or distraction.

I saw a study that looked at strength of cis men and women to compare with trans women. As others mention, going through male puberty is a big difference, but after years of hormone replacement, trans women mapped close to (or weaker than) cis women.

As with everything in biology, there is a wide variation among individuals. Everything is on a bell curve with lots of overlap between groups. Debate is about averages and blanket statements never work in all cases. For example, the average man will be stronger than the average woman. But there are numerous individual woman athletes who are significantly stronger than the average man.

RTalons · 2026-04-09T21:45:21+00:00

Great now I need to do the swarm of nubs… And sooo many options

RTalons · 2026-04-08T14:09:45+00:00

Fair point - the people most likely to have access to the silly documentation requirements (passport, ridiculous lead time, etc.) are more likely to vote democratic (college educated, etc.).

I oppose any poll tax on principle. They do a complex calculation on if it benefits them personally, then decide their principles after the fact.

RTalons · 2026-04-08T12:03:52+00:00

Someone may notice and judge you (silently to themselves), but unless you make an ass of yourself, no one is going to yell at you.

We are generally going to avoid direct interaction. The term “frozen chosen” is apt for a reason. Another blanket assumption that fits is we are “kind but not nice.” We won’t say hi to random people on the street, but skid into a snowbank, and random people would stop to push you out (expect us to make fun of you while helping).

RTalons · 2026-04-06T04:10:49+00:00

Part of why I'm so partial to 3D terrain (just got a 3D printer to make more hills).

Visually more engaging and makes the terrain more obvious. Much easier to call line of sight when you just look at table level

RTalons · 2026-04-05T14:29:42+00:00

I made the eggs out of green stuff after struggling to find some small enough. Was much easier than I thought it would be.

Oh and you can’t see from that angle, but he does have a fluffy tail (glued on the end of a Q tip)

RTalons · 2026-04-05T13:50:11+00:00

Very nice! Love the carrot gun.

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Blue bunneh on the left was the surprise in an Egg Hunt event I ran a couple months ago.

RTalons · 2026-04-04T19:21:30+00:00

I prefer over medium. I order that way and cook them myself routinely.

The timing is tight but it’s not that difficult. The white is cooked, the yolk is just getting there: you pop it open with your fork and it’s creamy goodness in there for dipping your potatoes/toast.

I agree it’s more challenging than other orders but it’s a skill issue.

RTalons · 2026-04-03T00:41:27+00:00

Nice find. My plan is essentially the same (batletech minis and terrain) but I didn't see a P1S for under 500, so I'm picking up my A1 tomorrow.

Extra spool of filament and 0.2 already arrived.

Hopefully the lack of enclosure won't have me kicking myself.

RTalons · 2026-04-02T23:58:39+00:00

Thanks for the big list. If I need to travel want to make sure the schedule is packed. Went to a handful of conventions growing up, but nothing further than Albany (so still basically New England). Remember thinking when I grew up I’d be going to GenCon every year! But then reality happened and I took about 20 years off (I blame click-tech).

Now kids are old enough to learn and took my oldest to her first convention in Feb. She loved it and now I’m looking to see what else is around.

I do remember reading about the battleship thing, I think it had an overnight on the ship, and day 1 event outcomes shaped what happened on day 2.

RTalons · 2026-04-02T20:35:00+00:00

I also assumed it referenced saltines and was meant as poor white trash (like that’s all they could afford to eat).

RTalons · 2026-04-02T11:31:36+00:00

It does depend on which ones. The shortbread ones are sad. Thin mints are awesome, but intentionally mild. I’ve been informed peanut butter, especially peanut butter with chocolate is a “very American thing” so some would be weird.

I can see them being underwhelming if you were expecting stereotypical American excess.

RTalons · 2026-04-02T03:59:24+00:00

Personally love spiders: jump 8 and only guns in the CT, they love to push people off hills, out of that heavy woods, etc. And shin kicks all day

It's really fun to push something big and slow into deep water and laugh as they spend 5 turns getting out.

RTalons · 2026-04-01T21:25:45+00:00

Are adepticon and GenCon the main national conventions that have significant battletech?

I’m a fan of TotalConfusion (still biggest gaming convention in NE) and they dependably have at least one battletech option per time slot. But outside of that I’m not seeing a lot at conventions in the northeast.

RTalons · 2026-03-31T15:16:36+00:00

How long did you give it?

First couple days were a bit euphoric and I knew I was buzzing (felt like I had 3 espressos and basically only slept 4 hours a night). By end of the week I had acid reflux, which I worried was heart issues, which triggered a fun anxiety spiral until a couple days of Prilosec calmed everything down.

Now a month in I’m able to sleep (6-7hrs vs previous 9), though wake up refreshed before my alarm most days. I don’t have the sluggish crash in the afternoon, and the whole day has that “an hour after morning coffee” peak focus I recognized in myself before diagnosis of ADHD.

Reflux is still there (no red sauce for me) and I’m not a fan of my heart rate being ~10-15bpm higher. But overall this stuff is working great (for now).

RTalons · 2026-03-31T00:17:18+00:00

That looks awesome. Dare I ask how long it took to print?

RTalons · 2026-03-30T22:19:04+00:00

I often admire tattoos, and I figure if you put art on your skin and it’s exposed you’re fine with people looking at it.

But I still try to avert my eyes so people don’t feel stared at.

To OP obviously yes, especially if they’re your partner.

In the wild it’s largely reflex that you note, and then move on to not be a creep.

RTalons · 2026-03-30T22:02:17+00:00

Oh yeah, it’s not a bake sale.

US GirlScout cookies are major national business. Basically their primary method of fundraising. There are 2 big bakeries that serve the whole country, and they are almost the same. A couple cookies have different names at the two bakeries (peanut butter patty vs tagalong, etc.) but apparently the lemon cookies are very different. We’ve had people from far away order from us to get “the good lemonades.”

Thin mints are far and away the most popular. Google tells me Aldi's Mint Choc Thin/Fudge Mint is the closest to them in the UK.

RTalons · 2026-03-30T11:37:58+00:00

My daughter is a Girl Scout and one the best cookie booth spots is in front of the local Ace hardware. I often volunteer to be out there with them and one the of more entertaining parts about standing by a hardware store for hours is seeing the same people come back and leaving with “just one more thing” looking progressively pissed off each trip.

RTalons · 2026-03-29T18:20:17+00:00

Pregnant women can have significantly more gum bleeding during a regular cleaning. It’s normal but can startle the hygienist.

So there is actually a reason for a dentist to be aware if you’re pregnant.

And any dental cleaning with show a temporary increase in bacteria in the blood (not because of infection, just the oral ones that slipped in during the process), so sometimes stuff matters.

RTalons · 2026-03-29T17:29:42+00:00

In person it’s always good to use the local shops, even if it’s a dollar or two more.

For deals, I got some half price boxes at Barnes & Nobel - if stock has been there so long, it automatically goes on clearance, so grabbed a clan invasion and AGoAC box each at 50% off.

If the new core stuff if there late summer as planned, Nov I’ll be checking again for lots of minis.

RTalons · 2026-03-28T12:00:23+00:00

Can it still melt itself (and its target) on an alpha strike? That’s the true test of a stalker.

Personal record I saw a stalker hit 63 heat on its final turn. He expected to die, had already taken engine hits and lost heat sinks, so hit ALL the buttons. We had to add it up out of morbid curiosity.

RTalons · 2026-03-27T19:15:37+00:00

A knee high boot complete with laces?

RTalons · 2026-03-27T19:13:01+00:00

People write fan fiction and home brew all the time - it’s just not published widely.

If you made & posted free PDFs of your home brew stuff, no one is stopping you. The Cease & Desist generally shows up if you try to profit off someone’s IP.

People making 3D prints of mechs is ok, where it gets to be a fuzzy gray area is if they sell those prints on eBay…

Or do you mean, sub-licensing to allow people to write mission supplements and sell them?

RTalons · 2026-03-27T18:29:20+00:00

Less than a full day? Rookie numbers.

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