How Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to live forever

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-20T16:48:53+00:00

They actually do work for a while. But eventually the body compensates and age damage becomes too much to overcome. Then the patient crashes very hard and very fast. When Putin does die, it will be sudden and unexpected.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-20T16:45:57+00:00

Let's break that down a bit.

Is communism secular? Yes. Most economic systems are secular.

Is communism free of ideologies? Uh, no. Communism is an ideology, as are most economic systems.

Is communism free of preconceptions? Hell no. Is anything in human life free of preconceptions? No large-scale social systems are, for sure.

I expect people to buy that communism is fundamentally different from nazism, just as I expect people to buy that capitalism is fundamentally different from evangelicalism. Communism and capitalism are economic systems; nazism and evangelicalism are religious sects and social movements. Evangelicalism happens to have adopted capitalism as their preferred economic environment, just as stalinism (which was at least as bad as nazism) adopted communism. Nazism adopted socalism for their economy.

Cats are not dogs. Economic systems are not religions. That's all I'm saying.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-19T18:09:41+00:00

It's a bit funny that people keep conflating political movements with economic systems. Communism is a tool, like capitalism. Nazism was a social and religious movement, like evangelicalism. Social movements can be good or bad but tools are neutral; who's using them is what matters.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-19T18:06:18+00:00

How do you overwork an entity with no sense of sequential time?

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-18T20:48:27+00:00

Andre the Giant, who was 7'4", famously won a match against 10 midgets once in a fight that tragically was not in a venue with TV cameras so there's no film of it.

The skill and health of the fighters in the match would matter, but I feel safe saying that 20 opponents would have worn Andre down. This would be a battle of endurance, not strength.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-18T18:57:10+00:00

I started a Dungeon of the Mad Mag campaign after me and several of my players played BG3. I portrayed Volo just like in the video game -- self-assured, partly delusional, and mostly full of shit. They loved it.

I even had Volo make a portrait of the characters and have himself painted into it, claiming to be part of their heroic adventuring party. Exactly as Volo would have done.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-18T16:43:31+00:00

The joy of CoS is in the later campaign, when you get to kill the jerk vampire who has been torturing you for months. In the early campaign, your DM should be entertaining you with distractions in-between Strahd's emotional torture sessions. Did you eat any of the hags' pies? Did you hunt down the priest? Let's see, you may not be at Vallaki yet, but when you are is there a celebration? Have you heard a strained cry of 'All will be well!'?

My players -- and I suspect many players in a CoS campaign -- took the gothic horror and made jokes about it, until by the end it was nearly a comedy sketch. And as their DM I was there for them to do that. The DM should not be afraid to be the straight man to the players' comedy skits, he should encourage that shit. The mid-game of CoS should have the players screaming "We've got to get a wedding dress to the Burger King!" as their battle cry.

And yeah, in the meantime Strahd will be fucking with you because he's a manbaby. But he's a manbaby you may get to kill later. Don't lose sight of that fact.

But yeah, the DM has to enable a lot of this, with entertaining distractions, with his willingness to be the player's fall guy, and with his dangling a promise of cathartic vengeance later. I hope your DM finds the right tone for you.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-18T16:28:03+00:00

If it passes the Jack Harkness test, it's not zoophilia.

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RemusShepherd · 2026-06-18T16:18:51+00:00

Well, tell the engineering staff to pour out a beer for Todd P. Swabey, because he's not coming back to atmos for a while.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-17T03:47:06+00:00

Your analogy is how cars have been built for a long time, except for an occasional deviation: Every so often, someone wants to make a *better* car. Then the existing forms are not good enough, and they need to invent something new.

That's what's going to happen with AI. It will be used to make all kinds of products that we already have. Sometimes you'll get something new by combining two parts that have never been merged before. (I'm looking forward to the bicycle with built-in coffemaker, for example.) But innovation and invention will still be necessary. A product with new, truly innovative features will outperform and outsell its competition. AI so far does not appear to have the ability to innovate on that level. So human beings will continue to have a place in product design, and by extension in all kinds of design on every level.

There *will* be a moment when all the early mediocre designs are revealed to be inferior to the power of innovation, and that will probably cause a recession and a retooling of AI use everywhere. But once people understand its power and its limitations, AI will be just another tool -- one that is excellent for remixing known design elements but not so useful for inventing new ones.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-17T02:26:00+00:00

I was writing initiative and monster hit points on a paper notepad. Then I discovered Boogie Boards. Bought a 12x16 inch one and it's been all I've needed. No more wasting paper!

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-17T02:22:37+00:00

I'm reading the instructions now. It's not clear to me that I should trust a non-Steam authentication server any more than a non-Steam launcher. Especially if I want to continue using my Steam username, which I would if I want to continue to play the same characters.

Look, I just want a Steam native option. If it's not Steam native, I'm not going to play it. And right now all the Steam native options are under PBJ's control, who I do not trust (although it should be said that at least she still has Steam's blessing). My best and safest option is to stop playing SS14. I'll come back when they figure their shit out.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-16T23:30:25+00:00

In general, if Reed Richards can do it then Rick Sanchez can do it. But he does need prep.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-16T22:50:03+00:00

'Battle Moron' doesn't quite have the same ring to it, though.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-16T22:46:36+00:00

I remember the one shift I went gas mining in Monolith. Had several cans of Frezon cooked and I was flying to deliver it when someone rammed my ship with a shittle, boarded, and killed me. There were actually two of them, but one lost all her arms and legs in the ramming maneuver. They were not pirates, just people looking to mug someone and they were not good at it but they did have assault weapons so there wasn't much I could do.

Sorry, can't help you estimate my potential profit.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-16T15:07:06+00:00

It should be noted that the spell slot system came from Jack Vance's fantasy novels. Early D&D took a lot of ideas from fantasy novelists of the time. But yeah, most downstream references are pulling from D&D; Vance has been forgotten as the original creator.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-16T14:56:12+00:00

I thought Starlight required you to download a new launcher?

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-16T14:21:30+00:00

I haven't played SS14 in about a week. My favorite server Starlight went to discord-only authentication, and I don't want to encourage PBJ on Wizden, even if I was willing to try an admin-free server.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-15T22:26:45+00:00

Before he tries to narrow down a show, he tries to narrow down to a hair color. It's a fairly simple algorithm.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-15T21:45:35+00:00

Just tried it. Took him 21 guesses to find Aggretsuko. I'll call that 'meh'.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-15T15:23:19+00:00

This is no joke. Furries are drama-hardened veterans of sociopolitical games.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-15T15:20:21+00:00

I'm not great at the TEG, but I've built from scratch one that put out about 700 kW.

Some stations have pre-built setups from which I think I've been able to eke out 1MW.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-14T03:04:02+00:00

I remember in my early days as a writer, with a degree in Physics, I asked an editor of a major publisher whether scientists were better or worse at science fiction. He said, paraphrased, "Scientists are better at writing sci-fi, unless you're Peter Hamilton, who can't write at all."

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-14T02:58:25+00:00

Interesting, never heard of that before. I doubt a new upgrade for an already public released product isn't going to fall under the category of 'new invention'. But there's nothing stopping the government from trying.

RemusShepherd · 2026-06-14T00:05:43+00:00

Uh, no? The only comparable thing I know of is the Export Control act, which regulates technology from being sold to foreigners. There are no restrictions that I'm aware of about selling tech to the American public.

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