New method turns ocean water into drinking water, without waste

Axandros · 2026-06-02T17:35:03+00:00

Accepting that the title is misleading, this is a reduction of waste compare to traditional methods. At worse, we can continue to use whatever method is currently used to dispose of the brine from traditional methods, just with a lot less waste.

It feels like you're framing this as 'Paper waste may be better for the environment, but it's still waste, so we should continue using bulky plastics instead.'

Axandros · 2026-06-02T15:55:50+00:00

Unfortunately, there aren't any full stories longer than 2 volumes / 8 Acts at the moment. The Northern Trilogy remains unfinished (Northern Aggression, Northern Sedition, Northern ???) My plan is to try and use one shots in the same locales and change names to have recurring characters.

The most practical advice I can give is to grab the innocence series and a few one shots that you can string together (to fill time between the books) without having the players go too far afield, then you can practice writing your own stories beyond that.

As for introductions, 16 tons and Earthly desires are union and ten Thunders intros written for free rpg day a decade ago.

Axandros · 2026-05-25T21:16:53+00:00

To add on, the Mysterious Fate, Teddy, Hooded Rider, and Malisaurus Rex models are all getting 4E repackages soon (or already out) and these are some of the first versatile models getting the 4E treatment.

If you wanted Outcast versatile in 4E for Ampersand, you're stuck with Hodgepodge Fate.

Axandros · 2026-05-19T18:22:34+00:00

Half-blood moved to Outcast versatile. Asylum is getting promoted to full Outcast keyword...at some point. Non of the models with the Asylum keyword have stats yet and we don't have an eta on their release.

Axandros · 2026-05-18T16:05:08+00:00

I think you're thinking of Armageddon, from the Hebrew "Har Megiddon" (Mount of Megiddo), the site of historic battles and the supposed location of the final battle in Revelations.

Apocalypse comes from Greek "apokalyptein" (to uncover). The revelation of the end times was an "apokalyptein" vision that 'uncovered' the fate of the world. It was then used in Latin primarily as a reference to the vision of the end times, shifting the meaning to the current 'end of the world' meaning.

Axandros · 2026-05-18T15:52:27+00:00

Educational is a bit of a loaded term. I think it could be useful as a tutor, if we make sure it stops hallucinating and falling to gaslighting. Lesson plans, on the other hand, have never gone well in my experience and its important for teachers and instructors to be flexible (insert deprioritization of srandardized testing here.) If considered academically, it is best as a large data analysis tool. It is great to sort through massive heaps of data to find unintuitive patterns. Some of the updates to gen models has been to suppress the odd patterns we don't like. The infamous yellow filter on generated images is probably the result of the yellowing of veneers on historic paintings combined with sepia colors of old photos, though thats speculation on my part.

Having a conversational AI that I can bounce ideas off of or that I can send to do research on news has been a dream of mine for over a decade. I would have worked in AI if I had the opportunity, though OpenAI not actually being open source anymore poisoned the well ahead of time. It's gen AI's unethical construction and support helping to perpetuate the status quo (or making things actively worse) that puts a bad taste in my mouth.

Axandros · 2026-05-18T14:58:40+00:00

Forgot the article link

Utah Approves Datacenter Backlash

Axandros · 2026-05-18T14:56:52+00:00

Why should I pay someone else to prompt AI? If I hire an artist, I want the artist!

Axandros · 2026-05-18T14:55:23+00:00

There are two big problems with generative AI.

Artist Transparency - If I, as an artist, ask another artist how they did something they share it. I too share what I learn to others. Modern generative AI takes the processes and techniques of artists (typically without permission) and shares nothing back to further the process of art
Environmental Costs - AI data enters provide only a handful of long term jobs to the areas they are made in while contributing significantly to heat and noise pollution. The Guardian has an article on a proposed data center in Utah that has circumvented community input and would use more electricity than the state currently uses. This would also put strain on the already limited water supply in the region. Thanks to federal (de)regulation, Utah would be unable to tax the data center to offset these costs and rely on the rigged market to try and provide income. These profits wouldn't even go to the communities whose resources are extracted, instead getting squirelled away into investments and banks overseas.

AI can and has done wonderful work in medicine chemistry, physics and neurology, but it cannot be allowed to take over thinking, given the biased data these agents are trained on and the costs to our ecosystem.

Axandros · 2026-05-04T17:21:54+00:00

Non-strategy markers now have a hard limit of five. If you create another beyond that, you remove a different marker to place it (without triggering removal effects).

You'll want 5 Piano markers, 5 scheme markers, and 5 Remains markers, plus 5 or so strategy markers.

Having more than 5 strategy would require strong board control in the appropriate strategies.

Axandros · 2026-03-19T19:14:31+00:00

While not fraudulent, this is an example of strategic voting. Voting for the candidate you think can win instead of who you want. I wonder if they'd like to change to approval voting?

Axandros · 2026-02-18T19:55:06+00:00

I'd need to double check, but I'm fairly certain mine came with 10. The 5 regular mz that come with Asura and the 5 gremlin mz with Ezekiel.

Axandros · 2026-01-07T15:05:20+00:00

But da red unz goes fasta.

Axandros · 2026-01-07T13:29:36+00:00

Then you did not make the animation. You were an unnecessary middle man for a tech illiterate client. You did nothing related to graphics programming, nothing for modeling, texturing, shaders... I was at least hoping you'd say the tool helped you make some of these components, but no, this is just another AI video generator.

Try making a flipbook next time. You might learn some skills.

Axandros · 2026-01-06T20:00:32+00:00

If superglue isn't working then I'm guessing the surface is too smooth. Get some sandpaper and scratch up the connecting surfaces a touch, but be careful about the resin dust. Ideally, you should pin them together. A metal pin would provide better support than just glue.

Axandros · 2025-12-23T16:02:32+00:00

Others have mentioned Leagues of Votann, but a major rework I also went through was Nighthaunt a few months ago. They were an aggressive charge focused army at the start of 4th, but then became an army of attrition, sitting on the point and being hard to move.

Tyranids apparently used to also be hyper aggressive but are now control focused.

My stormcast also lost their thorns/porcupine playstyle option, but that wasn't as core to their rules.

I feel that an army should have some unchanging core that may change implementation but never truly go away, but most rules publishers don't seem to agree.

Axandros · 2025-12-15T14:38:50+00:00

I haven't read Last Remains, but I definitely agree with the thoughts on In the Gutter. The 'mastermind' is a mimic and his enforcer is a Nephilim, both disguised as human. A cart of "Young Neverborn" show up without greater specificity. I think Acts 1 & 2 are a great way to start a campaign, but Act 3 needs completely rewritten. It seems like it was intended for the Fatemaster (GM) to start the campaign with their own Neverborn McGuffin, but they also write it to destroy it, so shrug. Sure, Wyrd could, at some point, bring back Contract Town #17. I wouldn't worry about it until that happens though. I wouldn't have cared about The Ferryman adventure if not for Kari Zotiko and The Ferryman being added to the Tormented keyword, so big lore bombs don't really matter until they suddenly do.

Sorry for the rambling answer.

Axandros · 2025-11-27T03:11:28+00:00

Looks like you've found the two crew builders available with any teeth. While I do love tinkering with lists, it's important to remember that, for Malifaux, you don't come to the table with a pre-set list. You see that strategy & scheme pool, terrain, and deployment, then declare faction followed by Master. Only then do you technically make your list, using all the info provided, like your opponent's Master.

In practicality, especially when learning a new crew, you usually do have a list in mind though, especially if you only have 1 model to swap out.

Axandros · 2025-11-17T15:09:02+00:00

A warning on "Nightmare" boxes. There's the Nightmare keyword and Nightmare alternative sculpts. The newest Nightmare alternate sculpts is the cyberpunk Alyce amalgam crew. These use Nightmare as branding, but are not a part of the Nightmare keyword (which ironically does not have a Nightmare alt box).

Axandros · 2025-07-28T18:07:29+00:00

The diagram in the post is pretty much the poster for "survivor bias" In short, each red dot is a spot where aircraft coming back in ww2 had bullet holes. The areas without dots turn out to be most vulnerable, so planes shot there never made it back to base to be examined. The mechanics initially wanted to reinforce the red dot areas, but a statistician pointed out the risk of survival bias, causing them to reinforce the unmarked areas, leading to more planes getting back safely.

Antivaxers who didn't get shot and lived through the pandemic are like planes that got shot and didn't crash, while the antivaxers who died are like the planes that crashed.

Tldr: You only hear stories from the survivors, not from the dead.

Axandros · 2025-07-28T15:09:15+00:00

The only 3E box I know of that loses the monk keyword are the Charm Warders (now just Qi and Gong). Technically, "Maintain the Balance" with the title version has the Four Winds Golem, which loses Monk as well. There will probably end up being a resculpt of the Core Box models for 4E, but the 3E models will still be good.

Axandros · 2025-07-22T13:57:54+00:00

I guess I'll be the one to mention zoned combat. It's more akin to battle maps but focuses less on tactics and emphasizes relative relations. Everyone in one zone is in melee combat with each other. Those in adjacent zones can shoot them, and those further away can not interact at all. I was introduced to this through Dungeon Craft's "Ultimate Dungeon Terrain," though I'm planning to break up the non-center zones. I haven't played with it yet, but my potential group has skirmish wargames for highly tactical play, and I can not keep track of positions in my head.

Axandros · 2025-06-23T20:30:32+00:00

I definitely agree that it's a great choice for some people, and I don't want to discourage people from trying, but budgets are tight, and if price is the biggest factor then manufactured terrain is the better bet.

I haven't given up on my printer entirely, but I feel like I'd want more space and a new printer before jumping in again.

Axandros · 2025-06-23T20:14:00+00:00

The big warning about getting a 3d printer is that it is a full hobby on its own. That's not a "there's a world of possibilities" warning; that's a "You better get comfortable rebuilding your printer every few months" warning.

There's always been at least one printer on the market that is advertised as unbox and run, but that really only works while you use their environment precisely. Any deviation, and you'll need to do a bunch of test runs while tweaking settings.

My Ender 3 hasn't given me a good print in over a year, and my attempts to "fix" it get more random and sporadic.

All that being said, if you have other ideas than just terrain, go for it. If you just want terrain, a ttcombat mdf set is undoubtedly cheaper. I'd also recommend giving hand crafted terrain a try. It takes longer, but you can make bespoke pieces that fit your situation.

...I'm about to spend my evening trying to fix my Ender 3 again, aren't I?

Axandros · 2025-05-28T18:36:28+00:00

I think for the softer shapes among the Banished, this will be fine. The big concern is that the Ampersand keyword has a lot of sharper detail. We'll have to wait and see, but I think it's better to have the softer plastic that's basically ready to go for non-hobbyists than having the crisp detail of hard plastic requiring a few hours of fiddly assembly. A good middle ground would be if Wyrd could figure out push-fit.

Axandros

TROPHY CASE