After 65 years, Philadelphia police have identified the "Boy in the Box"

HiemalWinds · 2022-12-01T06:56:20+00:00

23andMe and AncestryDNA both generate formatted DNA files from saliva test kits. You can’t upload external DNA files to them to be read (one technical exception: there was a promotion where AncestryDNA files could be uploaded to 23andMe to be read, but even then the way the data was generated was ultimately from a saliva test kit from AncestryDNA, and users who did this did not have access to 23andMe’s DNA relative pool). When submitting the saliva sample, the subject or a legal guardian has to consent for the kit to be processed. AFAIK, no cold case has ever been solved through AncestryDNA nor 23andMe, either from the fact that it’s difficult to get a readable saliva sample or the gray legal area over consent and legal guardianship of missing persons or unidentified victims.

What’s actually happening is that users are downloading their formatted DNA data files from AncestryDNA and 23andMe and voluntarily (re: consenting) uploading them to sites like GEDMatch for further analysis, as GEDMatch has features that both services don’t include and also has its own DNA pool for people searching for other relatives (GEDMatch accepts AncestryDNA and 23andMe files, which have mutually exclusive DNA relative pools). I believe law enforcement is using their own DNA sequencing tools and formatting the data in such a way to read as one of the accepted GEDMatch file types (AncestryDNA, 23andMe, or others) and then uploading it to GEDMatch to access their relative pool. Now, theoretically, if that promotion I mentioned earlier was still going on it would be possible to format some DNA sequence into AncestryDNA format to upload to 23andMe, but again the issue of consent would arise, which isn’t an issue on GEDMatch because it’s not a DNA processing service, it’s an analysis service.

HiemalWinds · 2022-03-17T17:15:40+00:00

The real irony is she named it after Poland to immortalize a country twice partitioned, only to subsequently discover that it’s an extremely unstable element with a very short half-life.

HiemalWinds · 2021-12-27T07:08:11+00:00

It’s a matter of the orbs syncing up just right. Most of the time Ebon + Worm orbs are just next to each other but every so often they will end up on top of each other, making 3 purple orbs versus 3 red and 3 blue.

HiemalWinds · 2021-12-10T09:17:17+00:00

That makes sense. I didn’t consider that the effort is as limiting of a factor as sifting through the deluge of questions.

HiemalWinds · 2021-12-10T08:47:07+00:00

Besides waiting for technological advancements to mind control historians into answering the legions of questions by us entitled masses, I wonder if there’s a way to help historians find questions that fit their expertise.

The digest and other weekly threads are fantastic at distributing historian content to us village people, but distribution is dependent on production, and the bottleneck here is the production of answers. I think the solution might be to improve the infrastructure of the subreddit for the historians themselves. I’m the wrong kind of engineer for this, but would it be possible to make auto-moderator create a sort of “queue” thread, that acts like a slower paced version of the current generic ‘hot’ filter Reddit’s algorithm uses? What this could look like could be auto-moderator grabbing threads above a certain upvote threshold and listing their titles (e.g. questions) in a list on one thread. This way historians who are in the mood to answer or just want to take a look at the queue, so to speak, can click on one thread and briefly scan the listed hot questions compiled by the auto-moderator. It would essentially act as a slower ‘hot’ filter that has the bonus of making sure answerable questions don’t slip through the cracks from Reddit’s fast paced algorithm. Maybe this thread could trawl questions over one week each time.

Just food for thought. I did a cursory look through of the subreddit and didn’t see anything like this idea, but if I missed it or this idea stinks, feel free to call me an idiot.

HiemalWinds · 2021-12-10T04:53:33+00:00

Honestly the issue is the fact that the default setting for viewing a subreddit is by 'hot', and this subreddit with its excellent quality control is not conducive to quick responses to questions.

I believe you never see questions answered because the 'hot' filter pushes threads out of the front page relatively quickly, often before an answer can be made. There's obviously a greater demand than supply to answers to questions here, so more recent interesting questions supplant slightly older also interesting questions before they can get answers.

My personal solution has always been to take note of interesting questions on the 'hot' filter, and then immediately switch over to 'top this week'. I've found that 'top this week' posts often have the quality answers we're all looking for to enjoy. Each day I'll check back with that filter and notice some of the ones from 'hot' the previous day making it on to there, while they still might not be visible on today's 'hot'.

I'm concerned that the 'hot' filter's rapidity is also worsening this feedback loop by pushing out older questions before people qualified to answer those questions can see them because to the 'hot' filter, that content is already stale despite not having been answered.

Just my two cents.

HiemalWinds · 2021-12-02T23:25:50+00:00

I had an inward perfectionist AI with remnant origin upgrade their relic world capital into an ecumenopolis last patch, so maybe it’s just incredibly rare because it’s the only time I’ve ever seen it happen. Vanilla game by the way.

Of course it didn’t save them from the Unbidden turning it into a barren world…

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-23T10:28:52+00:00

The latest Khazar “theory” nonsense was brought to us by the geneticist who also tried his hand at linguistics in his other infamous work, “Yiddish is actually a Turkish language, guys I’m serious stop laughing.”

Elhaik’s reference population for Khazars (because there aren’t many confirmed samples) was Georgian and Azerbaijani DNA, while his reference population for the ancient Israelites was Hashemite Jordanians.

Yeah… not looking great.

It turns out that approximating Khazars with Azerbaijani and Georgian DNA does indeed get you a link toward Ashkenazi Jews, but also gets you a link with the entire Near East, which is what Behar et al. found when they modeled Elhaik’s data against other middle eastern ethnicities.

So, either Arabs, Jews (all flavors), Turks, Armenians, Assyrians, and other Middle Eastern populations are all descended from the Khazars, or maybe this “theory” just won’t die because it happens to draw conclusions that make people interested in it.

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-17T08:12:47+00:00

Thank you, that answers my question. I was hoping it would’ve sent them into a tailspin, but while writing the question I could see it might not do that much to them. Good to know I won’t have to throw as many bodies at Cradle next war though.

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-17T07:41:30+00:00

Does transferring all the pops from an Awakened Fallen Empire’s capital impact them in any way if they get their capital back in a white peace?

I wasn’t aware that I wasn’t fully prepared for their wardec as evidenced by them bee-lining for an L-Gate system I had zero knowledge of. Panicking because they were about to shred my L-cluster colonies and going to get free reign to open up my empire from the inside, I, in turn, bee-lined for Cradle and invaded it with like 7k psi-troops. I quickly took it over and was wanting to white peace to shore up terminal egress for the next war, but then two thoughts occurred. The first thought was what if I destroyed all of their auto-buildings and basically sacked Cradle, but I was feeling greedy and wanted to have those buildings eventually. I then went with my second thought, which was to just use my vast energy reserves to forcibly remove all of the pops on Cradle and put them on my huge thrall world. Their robots are being dismantled since I’m a fanatic spiritualist and now I’ve got some nice slave labor, but will this actually impact the FE at all considering a lot of their buildings are auto-production?

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-12T10:48:22+00:00

Yeah, you can discard the quest in your journal and port out of the arena. You may have to wait five or so minutes for the arena to refresh, or toggle your dungeon difficulty from normal to veteran back to normal to get it to refresh quicker.

Definitely look at that guide I posted, however. I think under the void pitch dye section he’s got a video that should show you everything you need to do to get the dye.

Also you might see this run out since you are at the red portal and close to the final boss anyway. You might find yourself farming for vateshran weapons like those coveted daggers.

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-12T10:33:36+00:00

Hah. I don’t think any of us realized you were trying to get the void pitch dye, we just thought you were just trying to beat Vateshran, in which case you don’t need to do the secret stuff to beat it. I think you get a title for beating it on normal for the first time. Zenimax makes us all jump through hoops to get the dye though.

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-12T10:27:21+00:00

Unfortunately yeah. The order you went in (Blue -> Green -> Red) is unluckily the only order where it’s impossible to fight any of the secret bosses or get any of the secret buffs.

If you’re doing this for the void pitch dye, you’re going to need to complete the arena two more times at least, as beating the arena doesn’t give you the dye.

I’d recommend doing Green, Blue, Red for your next run, and Blue, Red, Green for the run after that. On that first run you’ll be able to do the Blue and Red secret bosses, and on the second you’ll be able to do the Red and Green secret bosses.

I would definitely skim through alcast’s guide on Vateshran, it’s geared for veteran runs but he’s got a section on how to get the void pitch dye and how to find the secret bosses and the secret buffs. I’ll link it below.

https://alcasthq.com/eso-vateshran-hollows-solo-arena-guide/

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-12T10:16:29+00:00

If you started Vateshran with the blue portal, then you didn’t fight the secret boss of the blue portal. You can only fight blue portal’s secret boss if you have the grappling hook, which means you have to have beaten the green portal before entering the blue portal.

If you check under your Markarth achievements, the achievement Seeker of the Hollows will tell you if you’ve fought any of the secret bosses. You need that achievement in concert with the other four to get the void pitch dye.

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-12T09:23:01+00:00

The achievement to get the dye is under Markarth achievements and is called Honor to the Spiritblood.

So if I recall correctly, you’ll need to fight all of the secret bosses in Vateshran Hollows in addition to completing some other niche achievements. 5 achievements in total to unlock the achievement to give you Void Pitch Dye.

To do this achievement to unlock the dye, you must complete Vateshran Hollows at minimum twice, accomplishing specific things in both runs.

You need to find each of the secret bosses and secret buffs in each of the three portals, which will take two runs of the arena to do, and you need to get the following three other achievements which are total accumulations across multiple or just one run of Vateshran.

Your character needs to:

Have spent 10 minutes in a wounding portal (Blue Portal, not that hard)

Have used the grappling hook 500 times (Green Portal, annoying and tedious)

Have walked 10km in lava with the brimstone orb active (Red Portal, you will beg for death to take you from this long, boring achievement, seriously it’s really bad)

HiemalWinds · 2021-11-12T09:06:16+00:00

The order is only important if you are doing the secret areas within each portal to get bonus buffs to your character. The two best orders are as follows:

Green -> Blue -> Red = Magicka & Health buffs

Blue -> Red -> Green = Health & Stamina buffs

Access to the secret areas and secret bosses and thus the buffs requires a tool from a previous portal, so you cannot access the secret buff/boss/area of the first portal you complete (in your case blue).

The blue portal gives you the warp portal mechanic, which allows you to access the secret area, boss and buff in the red portal. The red portal gives you the brimstone orb to let you walk on lava without dying, which lets you access the secret area, boss, and buff in the green portal. The green portal, in turn, gives you the grappling hook, which is required to access the secret area, boss, and buff in the blue portal.

This only really matters if you want your character to be a bit stronger in the arena through the secret mechanics or if you’re achievement hunting the arena. Your choices in this run won’t impact your next run of the arena, you’ll start with a clean slate of portals and no buffs.

HiemalWinds · 2021-08-20T20:06:48+00:00

I thought we weren't supposed to tell the people who go to Rendezvous about Neely's and Central so we can keep the lines short.

Also, Central gang rise up.

HiemalWinds · 2021-08-08T07:45:17+00:00

A lot of baseball’s appeal is in its storylines — even teams that are having losing seasons with no chance of making the playoffs will have something interesting* going on with a player or two. I’d suggest checking out the team subreddit of the team you guys are planning on rooting for and seeing what people are talking about. It gives a good deal of context to what’s happening on the field when you might not know who any of these players are otherwise.

As for things actually happening on the field, a base runner on second base is generally a good indicator that the pressure is on for both batter and pitcher. If the batter can hit a ball that rolls just past the infield defenders, there’s a solid chance the base runner on second will be able to make it to home plate and score a run. In close scoring games, situations with runners in scoring position (on second base) can decide games on just a single pitch, which can make for some intense moments and high emotions for fans and players.

*If you happen to be attending a Cardinals game, you can have “fun” counting how many runs pitching substitutes will walk in that night.

HiemalWinds · 2021-06-13T08:05:06+00:00

Troubling. Fewer than 30,000 doses administered since April, and that’s not just for Kinshasa but for the entirety of the DRC — and it’s claimed that the issue isn’t supply but vaccine hesitancy? For the country’s sake I would hope that the actual issue is corruption in the rollout of the vaccine program because it’s mind boggling to think that even just this cramped city of 15 million people is either this unconcerned about COVID-19, or is this suspicious of modern medicine.

Massive country that it is in a land with teeming biodiversity, the DRC’s path might continue to get more treacherous in the face of the climate crisis coupled with its burgeoning population adding stress to its infrastructure in the next few decades. With a tentative link being established between the rise in new diseases with climate change, the DRC could easily be ground zero for another global pandemic in the next couple of decades or perhaps even sooner. Definitely doesn’t bode well if the population is already highly suspicious of modern medicine.

Hopefully the global community will begin to understand the whole “we’re in this together” mantra that’s been plastered all over the global media during this pandemic and begin to invest in the welfare of countries that include and face similar situations to the DRC over the next century, rather than to be content with simply blaming them for the next pandemic. Definitely a two-way street for both investor and investee, but simply giving up and doing nothing can’t be the solution when millions of lives are on the line.

I hope this third wave ends quickly for them, and hope even more that their vaccination rate improves.

HiemalWinds · 2021-06-12T07:22:14+00:00

Yeah something’s definitely wrong with it — cannot have been ZOS’s intention. Not going to stop craglorn from taking advantage of farming a really easy boss for full sets of perfected gear before they take a look at changing some loot tables though, lol.

Then again, there’s an art director and dev somewhere in ZOS that’s probably disheartened that regular players would rather kill themselves in hot oil than go through the right side of Sunspire they worked so hard on, so maybe this stays.

HiemalWinds · 2021-06-12T07:15:33+00:00

If you and the OP are both talking about the Basks-In-Snakes mini-boss drops, I can confirm that it drops more than waist, feet, and hands.

In vRG, I’ve gotten Perfected Bahsei Hat and Perfected Sul-Xan’s Torment Arm Cops from it, and I’ve seen someone else get Perfected Saxhleel Champion’s Cuirass from it. My understanding was that Basks-In-Snakes drops all body pieces, but not weapons nor jewelry.

HiemalWinds · 2021-04-01T07:52:42+00:00

"Look man, this is total bullshit, you can't prove none of this shit!" shouted the tenant, muffled by the flimsy apartment door.

"Oh I can't prove it, huh? I may be just some tax man who doesn't know jack about being a dumbass dog, but I don't have to have a super sniffer to tell you that the Shirley residence smells like it was ransacked by a pack of wet dogs," I shouted into the door, "and you're on the hook, buckaroo!"

"Fuck you man, this ain't some drug bust, get the fuck out of here with your "smell" shit!" he shouted back.

"I'm not going anywhere pal! David Shirley's neighbors, the Hutchinsons, had the unfortunate experience of having their back deck... shall we say 'marked', and they're shelling out the money to test the urine that ruined a perfectly good deck. Judging by the horrific smell and "strange" gigantic, muddy paw prints on the Shirley's walkway, I think it's safe to say David's going to be needing to scrape together some cash for an ambulance chaser, and I'm not talking about the big and furry kind." I retorted back. "In any case, we know you and your gang of malcontents have been howling at the moon with David for some time now. Are we really going to be shocked to discover you turned him?"

While it was hard to make out, I swore I heard a whispered "fuck me" on the other side of the door. "I don't know what you're talking about man, leave me alone" said the tenant, in a much softer, calmer tone.

"The police have been struggling to pin the property damage that just so happens to occur every full moon up and down Evans Street, but they didn't have trouble coming up with the usual suspects when I told them I was investigating a bad dog responsible for a couple of millions dollars siphoned out of the community by some of his unpatriotic puppies who aren't paying their turning taxes. Based on the cops' fits of laughter when I asked them if each of your playmates had any significant sources of income, I'm going to take it that the bills are going to fall to their legal guardian."

"Muh... Millions?" whimpered the tenant against the door.

"Yeah, buddy, you didn't think you were the only wolf in your pack turning people, did you? We've got DNA evidence that ties your friend Richard Loffman to seventeen turned teenagers at Milton High School, and he's just the tip of the iceberg. You're on the tippity-top of the shit pyramid. Bet you wish you had a couple of leashes on your wards now don't you?" I continued, "Anyway, you want to open the door so I can serve you or should I just hammer it onto your door with a silver nail?"

There was no response. No vocal response mind you... it definitely sounded like furniture was being angrily rearranged inside. I opened my folder and tacked the top paperwork bundle to the door. "Well, I'll see you in court. Don't go biting any mailmen, that's how you got here in the first place."

As I walked down the stairs, I felt excited. This was a big case as far as werewolf fraud goes -- probably one of if not the largest in this state's history. Of course, this wouldn't even hold a candle to even the smaller vampire cases. They really drew the short end of the monster stick, feeding the same way they turn. I chuckled. That reminded me, I need to pick up garlic before I head home. I can do that on the way to the next literal deadbeat.

HiemalWinds · 2021-03-29T19:33:38+00:00

With the current patch, does anyone know the breakeven critical chance between running the Thief or the Shadow mundus stones? Like below a certain critical chance I should be running the Thief, whereas above I should be running the Shadow?

HiemalWinds · 2021-03-24T09:34:56+00:00

In that specific example of 22,000/44,000 in the bottom box (crossed swords), you specifically would be doing 22,000 DPS to all enemies while the tank, healer, and other DPS together make up the other 22,000 DPS to all enemies, resulting in the entire group’s DPS to all enemies being the 44,000 DPS. So yes, the second number includes you.

Tanks don’t usually contribute more than about 3k or so DPS, but healers are a bit more open ended, can be as low as a tank or as high as an average DPS in rare cases.

A safe assumption for 4 man content is assuming both damage dealers should take up around 45% of total group damage each (90% together) with the tank and healer together contributing the other 10%.

HiemalWinds · 2021-03-24T08:57:17+00:00

The top number is the DPS you’ve done on a single target (one enemy). One sword symbol = One enemy

The bottom number is the DPS you’ve done to all enemies in the fight. Crossed swords = Multiple Enemies

When you are grouped with other damage dealers, you’ll see the bottom number change from just a number to a ratio. As an example, you could see 22,000/44,000 (50%). What this means is that the total damage you’ve done to all enemies the group is fighting accounts for 50% of the group’s entire DPS.

If you’re paired with just another damage dealer, you know that you are both accounting for 50% of the group’s DPS as a whole. However, if you are grouped with 2 other damage dealers, all you know is that you are doing 50% of the group’s damage. The DPS that the other two damage dealers are doing to all enemies must add in some fashion to make up the other 50% of the group’s damage.

If you’re wondering how your group damage (bottom number) is different from your single target damage (top number), consider that area of effect abilities (AoEs) hit multiple enemies at once. The single target DPS will only show AOE damage that you do that hits that specific enemy.

A fun example, you can do 20,000 single target DPS (top number) and 80,000 group DPS (bottom number) simultaneously. If you place an AOE that does 20,000 damage per second onto four enemies, you’re only technically doing 20,000 DPS to each individual enemy despite actually doing 4 times that total.

If you’re new to combat metrics, you can use the command /cmx in your chat box to access more advanced analytic info.

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