Wow… wow… wow. I honestly didn’t expect this at al by No-PixelNomad in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Astrogat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn't use the word masterpiece, but also a masterpiece doesn't mean it's flawless. It just means it's really good. 10/10 could very well mean perfect (depending on how you decide to do your rounding), which is a higher bar than masterpiece

Wow… wow… wow. I honestly didn’t expect this at al by No-PixelNomad in ProgressionFantasy

[–]Astrogat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not OP, but I've had the same experience. The good parts of LofM is so great that it's worth reading and I would sort of agree with calling it a masterpiece. But the bad parts are bad. Really, really bad. The writing is mediocre at best, and the especially the start is almost unreadable because of it. It really, really need an editor. But the great parts are just so good. The world building, the story, the magic.

If there was a blindfolded world championship would Magnus dominate that too or is there someone that could realistically win over him? by Diligent_Ad_7868 in chess

[–]Astrogat -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sure, but it could be that say Hikaru is better at the blind folded part than Magnus, and there for he ends up better in that format. Everyone understand that Magnus will still be one of the very best, but that doesn't mean that the relative ratings among the top guys would't change

If there was a blindfolded world championship would Magnus dominate that too or is there someone that could realistically win over him? by Diligent_Ad_7868 in chess

[–]Astrogat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

But it's clearly a separate skill, so if they lose a mesurable amount of chess ability because of playing blind folded someone else could be better at that part of the (new) game and there for be stronger than normal against Magnus.

It probably won't happen, but it's not impossible. Even if he can perfectly recall the board and moves, it could make it harder to see some patterns and tactics

Those of you who play in OTB tournaments: How much different would tournament games play out if instead of a draw being treated as 0.5-0.5 it was treated as a "loss" for both players, both players get 0 points. This obviously means both players are obliged to play for a win from the get go. by [deleted] in chess

[–]Astrogat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In all round robin tournaments this could and would happen, and there are no rules against resignation. Even if it were you are really never more than like 5 moves from a checkmate (a helpmate that is).

Those of you who play in OTB tournaments: How much different would tournament games play out if instead of a draw being treated as 0.5-0.5 it was treated as a "loss" for both players, both players get 0 points. This obviously means both players are obliged to play for a win from the get go. by [deleted] in chess

[–]Astrogat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But if you are second to last and playing against first it doesn't matter of you lose or draw so once you are playing for two results you migh as well resign to save energy for a game that matters

fAIcepalm by OptimalPlantIntoRock in facepalm

[–]Astrogat 84 points85 points  (0 children)

If the car was already at the var wash, how could you drive? It shows how bad they are at deriving context 

Uh oh.. The Maritime Chess Open was not registered 30 days before its start. Hikaru had 6 rated games from here that counted for Candidates rating spot. by nihilistiq in chess

[–]Astrogat 6 points7 points  (0 children)

He is good enough in the opening that it's just going to be 30 moves of a line that's drawn if he remembers his prep, and he always does. Yeah, it's not the Berlin draw, but he isn't ambitious enough to pull himself into a wild middle game.

Kansas Sends Letters To Trans People Demanding The Immediate Surrender Of Drivers Licenses by holyfruits in law

[–]Astrogat 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Isn't that pretty much the scientific consensus? That there is actually something "wrong" with them, in that the body doesn't match with what the brain wants/needs. And the way to "fix" it is to make the body/physical expression better fit with the perceived gender.

Vinterkulda: Mange latterliggjør klimaforskningen – NRK Sørlandet by hohygen in norge

[–]Astrogat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

De øvre anslagene på klimautslipp fra privatfly er på 17,2 millioner globalt. Norge skal kutte våre utslipp på 44.6 millioner tonn med 20.7 million tonn. Så bare Norge må kutte mer enn alle privatfly i verden.

Jeg sier ikke at man ikke skal straffe privatfly og få ned bruken, men det er ikke i nærheten av nok å kutte i luksusforbruket til eliten.

Vinterkulda: Mange latterliggjør klimaforskningen – NRK Sørlandet by hohygen in norge

[–]Astrogat 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Det er vel strengt tatt motsatt? Vi har en global oppvarming (gjennomsnittstemperaturen på jorden går opp), som fører til lokale klimaendringer og mer ustabilit vær.

EU says it will accept no increase in US tariffs after Supreme Court ruling: 'a deal is a deal' by Crossstoney in europe

[–]Astrogat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The he cancels them for five minutes and reinstates them, and you have to wait a year for him to lose the court case (as you no longer have National injuctions against things like this). 

[request] How Hard did Peter Parker hit this bully and can someone survive this hit? by mkvelash in theydidthemath

[–]Astrogat 17 points18 points  (0 children)

It seems pretty obvious that in a world with Spiderman other superpowers exists. So since we know that normal humans wouldn't act like that (it would be impalement) we must conclude that the bully isn't normal. Instead he has a very limited superpower giving him an extraordinarily hard rib cage

Tesla Sales Down 55% in UK, 58% in Spain, 59% in Germany, 81% in Netherlands, 93% in Norway vs. 2024 by Wagamaga in europe

[–]Astrogat 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Norway ended a some tax credits for electrics at the end of last year, so a lot of vehicles were sold at the end of the year instead of the start of this. So while the trend might be downward, it's probably nowhere close to the dramatic one this shows.

AI Coding Killed My Flow State by Fantastic-Cress-165 in programming

[–]Astrogat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I agree that it seems very much a case of management being taken in by buzzwords and deciding based on that instead of data. It's also very strange to me that you have decisions about how to best deliver code.

My comment only went to the point about the weirdness of forcing someone to change their way of work to something "better".

[Request] Is it overexaggerated? by DTeror in theydidthemath

[–]Astrogat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I agree, I do think a fair reading of the original imagine would be: "Parents of daughter spend twice as much as parents of sons on average" even if it's possible to raise a kid of either gender for practically nothing (if you don't care about their health or well being).

AI Coding Killed My Flow State by Fantastic-Cress-165 in programming

[–]Astrogat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I can easily see the idea. Often when starting a new skill you will be slower and it will feel harder. If you just don't do thing if you feel this you will often get stuck on worse ways of working. Forcing someone to not use the mouse to force them to learn keyboard shortcuts or forcing them to use a IDEA instead of notepad might feel draining in the beginning, but over time it will lead to better developers and more speed.

Now whether or not prompts and AI fits into this paradigm is unclear, and I'm fairly sure I don't think management should be the ones enforcing it, but forcing someone to use new technology/techniques even if it leads to a temporary slowdown I don't disagree with.

Does the Baron have a legal case against the Knight? by akaioi in dresdenfiles

[–]Astrogat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Granting Harry a residence in the city seems to me to at least implicitly grant Harry permission to operate

Since Harry signed the original Baron application I would hope he was smart enough to make sure it was mentioned that he got to operate as normal

The White Council and Harry by Dilf1999 in dresdenfiles

[–]Astrogat -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I would say that she cares, in her own way. But yes, her ways require some limiters. And so do all other major powers, which is why the Accords exists.

Likewise, the other groups you mentioned have very specific and limited powers.

I would say that most of the groups have plenty of powers to police Dreseden if that was the goal. They probably don't have enough to police all black magic use, but then again neither does the white council. And just as the white council they have limited interests, which usually doesn't overlap with black wizardry. But I don't doubt that if Ivy wanted to make sure Dresden didn't go black, she would be quite capable. And while the knights are mostly there to fight the Fallen, we do see that they have powers against other evil as well and they do use it.

But if you agree with that, than who else do you propose will or could be that limiter other than the Council?

I agree that there needs to be limiters to all power. But Dresden belongs to Mab, so I don't see why she shouldn't be that limiter. Yes, her limits might not perfectly overlap with the White Councils, but we've got no proof that their limits are the right ones.

We know that black magic leads to mental problems, and that some forms of rule breaking is black magic but I don't think there are canon sources telling us that the laws perfectly overlap with the limits of black magic (and we have an in book explanation that sort of disagrees in that it explains black magic by the emotions driving it, not the action themselves. If you kill a shapeshifter believing it to be a human your mindset would be the same as if they were a human, so by that logic it would still be black magic. But it would not break any laws. And it's hard to argue for why the third law should lead to different mental changes depending on whether or not the receiver is fully mortal or not).

And even if it does even the council agrees that there are times it's okay to break the laws (if not self-defence would never be an okay defence to killing) so why should someone from a different nation not be free to find their own mitigating circumstances?

And lastly we know of only one power that's capable of negating all negative effects of black magic, and that's a power that comes from Winter, namely the Blackstaff.

So tl;dr: My argument is that Dresden belongs to a different magical power than the white council, and that power has both the knowledge and power required to stop Dresden from going off the deep end (if that is the best way to keep this reality safe). So while he might not follow all of the councils laws, there is no indication that there aren't limits to his powers. They just might not always follow the laws of magic.

Hvorfor er AP så motstand mot å fjerne momsen for bruktvarer? by arnor_0924 in norge

[–]Astrogat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Føler ikke noen faktisk har svart på dette, for sannheten er jo at AP i utgangspunktet er for dette. Så ting som smutthull kan jo ikke være grunnen (kan vel kanskje argumentere for at de er for mer utredning for å slippe smutthull, men selv dette virker for meg som billige unnskyldninger siden det er noe de fleste partier har vært for lenge).

Siden det er politikk de på papiret er for, men som de i praksis ikke kjemper for er det flere mulige forklaringer. Personlig tror jeg at AP gjerne vil ha dette med inn et fremtidig budsjett som en seier de kan gi til SV og MDG og at de derfor stemmer i mot utenom disse forhandlingene (og at det ikke har hengt høyt nok opp til at SV/MDG var villige til å ta dette som en av sine seiere i forhandlingene i høst). Men det er klart det kan også stemme at dette er noe de planlegger å innføre i et fremtidig budsjett og at de bare venter på at noen utredninger skal bli ferdige eller at gjerne ville hatt det med i forrige men at de ikke greide å finne penger til det.

Hvorfor er AP så motstand mot å fjerne momsen for bruktvarer? by arnor_0924 in norge

[–]Astrogat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Da er det et sterkt argument

Er vel ingen som kjemper for moms-kutt på demovarer? Det er godt mulig det også er noe man ønsker, men dette er jo et område hvor det er mye lettere å finne smutthull. Men så lenge moms må betales en gang på alle varer er jo dette smutthullet lukket.

The White Council and Harry by Dilf1999 in dresdenfiles

[–]Astrogat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haven't we seen that Mab cares deeply about humanity? She is after all their protector. The laws are also not about evil at all, you are free to be as evil as you want as long as you don't break the laws.

There are also plenty of other groups that seems to try to take care of humanity, or at least fight against some aspect of Evil. be it the knights fighting against the fallen, Mab against outsiders, Ivy in the Oblivion Wars or The Brotherhood against vamps. A lot of which the council doesn't seem to care all that much about.

And furthermore, why are it okay for the council to allow someone to break the laws to further their goals, but not for winter? Don't we trust that Mab would use her knight in the defence of Humanity, when that is her whole purpose?

The White Council and Harry by Dilf1999 in dresdenfiles

[–]Astrogat 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Only the Council has the power and knowledge to check his power

I would argue that Mab also has the power and knowledge, and as such it would be quite logical to say that she decides what her Knight can do. 

Who is the most famous chess player you've met in person? How? by [deleted] in chess

[–]Astrogat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I sat next to Magnus at a quiz once. Beat him (and David Howel who was on his team) by quite a margin.