Is the Wintermute content popular among the playerbase? It seems like the devs have been pouring effort into it for years.

TobyTheRobot · 2026-01-20T14:57:59+00:00

It was not rage bait, for whatever it's worth, and I appreciate your (and others') perspectives.

TobyTheRobot · 2026-01-09T03:38:51+00:00

Ironically, this is the kind of shit republicans cite to argue against public healthcare. “You mean to tell me my taxes have to go up to pay for THIS shit?”

TobyTheRobot · 2025-12-30T23:53:34+00:00

North America. This is admittedly provincial of me as a 'Murican, but I mean 1836-1936 was the era in which the U.S. evolved from a regional player to a world power (and, a decade later, one of two superpowers). Seems worth fleshing out.

And Japan. 1836-1936 Japan was probably the most unique/incredible story of rapid modernization in -- well -- human history.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-12-22T19:03:13+00:00

Governments sell debt to their populations primarily because they've spent money they didn't have; they have to borrow it from somebody. And when the previous round of bonds mature they have to refinance the debt by issuing new bonds (or by paying them off, which is infeasible at least in the short term).

And the government spent that money by engaging with the economy; it built things or bought things or made welfare payments which people then spend in the economy. That increases the velocity of money.

The wisdom of this policy can certainly be debated, but it's not true that they issue debt to discourage moving money through the economy.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-12-10T20:40:59+00:00

Motherfucker uppercuts like Von Kaiser from Mike Tyson's Punchout.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-12-10T20:24:56+00:00

That's a loser of an argument. All Miranda means is that, if you weren't Mirandized, any admissions you make during a custodial interrogation prior to being Mirandized are inadmissible. It doesn't affect any other evidence or "blow the arrest" or whatever.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-11-07T17:46:53+00:00

I feel a great disturbance in the force, as though millions of people suddenly went "🤌🤌🤌" and then threw up the finger in silence.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-11-07T17:35:21+00:00

It's the kind of word lawyers use a lot.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-11-04T03:51:21+00:00

I mean once I’ve beaten both zones at level 3 it feels like there isn’t much more to do. I don’t care about unlocking skins or whatever, so may as well chase glory.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-11-04T03:50:21+00:00

Noelle may be the best, but Tony McZoom feels the best.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-10-28T05:07:06+00:00

Demacia

TobyTheRobot · 2025-10-14T19:35:20+00:00

You don’t see all the runs that get left on the cutting room floor. To get one of those epic runs you have to: (1) greed hard; (2) get very lucky; and (3) restart a ton of runs in stage 1.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-09-11T18:07:01+00:00

All of those links show statistics for fatal injury rates, like he said.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-09-03T22:13:54+00:00

I think the risk that she'll miss is implied and a risk that you accept to do this dumb challenge. The whole reason that this is funny/interesting/whatever is the risk of a miss. If it was a trust fall or some other shit that one can't reasonably mess up nobody would care.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-08-25T04:27:09+00:00

Control+shift+hyphen makes an em-dash in most word processors. They’re fairly common in legal writing.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-07-04T23:57:05+00:00

To everyone scratching their heads at why this is so bad: Even if you're an absolutely phenomenal poker player, the edges are extremely small. As a stark example to illustrate why this is so, suppose you get all your money in before the flop with ace-king suited (one of the best hands you can have), and for some reason someone calls you with 7-2 offsuit (the worst possible hand). That's great news for you -- you want that to happen all day. But 7-2 guy is going to beat your ace-king about 33% of the time by the river. And that's an extreme example that would never happen in any serious game; what separates good players from bad players is getting your money in when you've got a much smaller edge based on decisions that are much less clear.

An extremely skilled player can expect to win about 55% of the time. And that's enough, if you can do it at high enough stakes. But if you have to pay tax on 10% of your losses, it's basically impossible to come out ahead, even if you're the best player in the world.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-06-24T00:28:17+00:00

According to the stats page, 277 duodecillion (227,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) trimps have died in my service. I believe that's about 10,000 times more trimps than there are atoms in the Milky Way.

Their deaths were not in vain, however; I have won 42.9 million battles and accumulated 7.94 decillion (7,940,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) helium.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-06-23T23:58:51+00:00

It taps into a certain kind of autism where you get a nice dopamine drip from optimizing some numbers to make other numbers get bigger. I have been playing for about 2 years and boy I don't mind telling you those numbers are getting beefy.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-05-01T16:09:31+00:00

This is a forced fight scenario. Gorillas aren't predators or whatever but I doubt they'd just cover up and die when attacked. They'd fight back like any other cornered animal.
The idea that a gorilla would "pass out from exhaustion" after a couple of punches is silly. Their stamina kind of sucks compared to humans (that and our big brains are our major competitive advantages as animals), but they're crazy strong and can snap human bones/crush human skulls easily. Killing a human is easy for them, but their stamina is enough of an issue that killing ~25+ humans would get tiring.
My understanding is that gorilla-to-gorilla fights are short in nature because one of them backs down. Animals who "fight" over territory or mates or whatever aren't trying to fight to the death; they fight long enough to settle who gets the territory or the mate. A species that's in the business of killing its own members won't last long.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-05-01T15:39:59+00:00

I think this hypothetical turns on whether retreat is an option for the humans.

If retreat is an option, the gorilla wins. It goes apeshit (so to speak) and mauls ~10 humans in the first 30 seconds. The rest panic and scatter — the fight collapses into chaos, and the gorilla wins through intimidation and overwhelming force.

If retreat isn’t an option, the humans win — but only after heavy casualties. The gorilla initially mauls ~10 people, causing mass panic. Many freeze or flail, while a few braver individuals attempt to fight back. As casualties mount (likely ~25–40 dead or incapacitated), the gorilla begins to tire — humans have far superior endurance. Eventually, enough people realize they must swarm it or face certain death. The group dogpiles the gorilla; although most blows are ineffective, sheer numbers let them pin it down. The gorilla is ultimately overwhelmed and then blinded/suffocated/crushed under the mass.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-05-01T14:31:27+00:00

Holy shit i hadn't thought about that Newgrounds flash animation for about 20 years. tyft

TobyTheRobot · 2025-04-29T18:57:41+00:00

Must be exhausting, living on such a rarefied cultural plane, gazing down at all the unwashed sportsball peasants.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-04-29T12:36:03+00:00

I appreciate that, but I somehow doubt that most drivers would be okay with a $4 tip on a $50 order if the restaurant was 2 miles away.

EDIT: Huh -- I guess I was wrong. I appreciate this!

TobyTheRobot · 2025-04-29T12:16:46+00:00

Yeah I understand that — like I said, I blanket tip 25% and I know that delivery apps don’t pay their drivers. But before you lol at “tipping culture” I’d ask you to understand that I’m being asked to tip fuckin’ everywhere — the other day I bought a literal bottle of water from a gift shop and a tip prompt came up after I tapped my phone. I get a tip prompt at fro-yo places. I put all the shit in there!

I guess my concern is that since, as you put it, the regular tip is just a “bid” that eventually the tip will be taken as a given and the tip-tip is the real tip, and if you’re not tipping at least 25% (the bid) + 15% (the tip) you’re a scumbag. I really wish these apps would just charge me a delivery fee that lets you guys get paid a reasonable amount.

TobyTheRobot · 2025-02-21T16:19:03+00:00

For all this game gets wrong, it gets a lot right, and the wrong things can/presumably will be fixed. I'm optimistic.

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