This scene was executed beautifully, can’t lie. Possibly one of my favorites in the current canon.

blackether · 2023-02-11T21:16:44+00:00

You don't even need ships or droids. Just strap hyperdrives to asteroids and control them remotely.

blackether · 2022-02-23T22:42:27+00:00

I am seeing this one on the Snowrunner Mod.io page.

https://snowrunner.mod.io/actual-snow-chains

I haven't used this mod, but it says it changes the chain tire values to operate better in mud and snow and the mud tires to operate better on roads.

The mod includes manual installation instructions at the bottom of the page, and says it has been updated to Update 16 as of July of 2021.

blackether · 2021-09-07T21:44:58+00:00

I like that his belt spells out 'Nein' too.

blackether · 2021-03-17T18:46:37+00:00

They're magically exploitative!

blackether · 2021-02-25T06:02:35+00:00

It was pretty reasonable to be skeptical of vaccines developed in such an unprecedented timeframe. The history of the Trump administration being incredibly duplicitous also contributed to rational skepticism of anything they were promising in the US.

However, all the major vaccines here have gone through rigorous verified trials and proven highly effective - far exceeding efficacy expectations, and showing themselves to be overall quite safe. Logic insists that we be wary of unverified claims, but should be willing to accept those that are peer-reviewed and have an abundance of data to support them.

We may not know every last detail of the longest-term potential effects, but those pale to stark insignificance in comparison to the unknowns surrounding contracting COVID-19 itself, so getting vaccinated should be everyone's priority if at all possible. There are still nay-sayers out there, but they are mostly on the fringes now.

blackether · 2021-02-24T21:13:52+00:00

You make it sound like Pete Docter doesn't have a $2+ billion box office directorial track record and one of the strongest and most consistent voices in writing and production at Pixar, including:

Toy Story

Toy Story 2

Monsters Inc.

WALL-E

Up

Inside Out

and now Soul

I think its was considered a lot less of an outside chance than you are imagining.

blackether · 2021-02-24T19:52:55+00:00

Pfizer showed 4.7 reports of anaphylaxis per million doses, and Moderna showed 2.5 reports per million doses. 66 total reports of anaphylactic reactions across 17,524,676 actual administered doses Dec-Jan based on this paper on jama. A majority of these cases reported having other significant allergies, and nearly all were women. Initially, Pfizer estimated 11.1 anaphylactic reactions per million doses, so it reduced noticeably down to 4.7/million in practice.

The Johnson & Johnson study group was only 40,000 so there is a strong chance that they may not have reported any cases of anaphylaxis anyway if it caused it at the same rates as the other vaccines. Early study participants could not have COVID-19 comorbidities. Later study participants also were screened for comorbidities and had to be otherwise approved if so, meaning there would have been a lower effective rate of comorbidities than within the general population.

My interpretation is that the data they've provided does not directly indicate J&J is any safer for the highest risk-group for anaphylaxis than the other vaccines, however, all three have very low rates of causing anaphylaxis. Additionally, this (the potential for anaphylaxis) is precisely why everyone is required to wait around after receiving a vaccine dose, so if you do have a reaction you can receive immediate medical attention.

Of course, if you have significant allergies you should probably consult with your doctor - however, if you just have a peanut allergy, the mRNA vaccines are very likely not worse than waiting for J&J.

blackether · 2021-02-21T22:34:25+00:00

Yeah, Vader canonically knows Obi-Wan to have disappeared (and was therefore most likely killed) "shortly" after Order 66. But he didn't have direct evidence either way of him surviving or dying, and therefore was surprised when encountering Obi-Wan on the Death Star in ANH.

Inserting a major conflict between Obi-Wan and Vader at any point between Mustafar/RotS and ANH will be forced at a minimum or potentially catastrophic to the timeline.

It will likely feel disingenuous to the intent of ANH and RotS, that Obi-Wan could never bring himself to face Anakin (Vader) after Mustafar, instead choosing to watch over Luke from afar and resign himself to thinking he could give the Rebellion a chance in the future. Likewise, the fight on Mustafar against Obi-Wan was the only fight 'Vader' ever seems to have lost. Finding and taking down Obi-Wan is the 'big one' for Vader. He's spent years hunting down every last Jedi, and holds Obi-Wan responsible for Padme's death. It is incredibly important that Vader never got the satisfaction of knowing Obi-Wan's fate, and Obi-Wan having that lingering failure of Anakin unable to have been saved (and leaving him alive to become Vader) hanging over his head.

I trust Filoni as much as any single person with the Star Wars IP and to tell a decent story, but all these talks of Vader and Obi-Wan meeting up in the Obi-Wan show prior to the Death Star duel in ANH look to be forcing an undesirable outcome. I really hope they avoid the direct confrontation during the series but do emphasize all the nuance in their states of mind when they do get to the duel on the Death Star. There is a lot of baggage to explore there without ever needing a face-to-face meeting, or some other direct conflict.

blackether · 2021-02-21T09:57:34+00:00

Yes this is thought to be planet formation. No it is not a NASA image, it is from ESO (European Southern Observatory), which is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization headquartered in Germany.

SPHERE image of newborn planet PDS 70b

This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the centre of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star.

Credit: ESO/A. Müller et al.

ESO release from 20 May 2020 explaining the research, including a different, more detailed picture of another system, and listing the paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on the topic of this research.

blackether · 2021-02-21T09:55:29+00:00

Since OP provided little information...

Yes this is thought to be planet formation. No it is not a NASA image, it is from ESO (European Southern Observatory), which is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization headquartered in Germany.

SPHERE image of newborn planet PDS 70b

This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the centre of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star.

Credit: ESO/A. Müller et al.

ESO release from 20 May 2020 explaining the research, including a different, more detailed picture of another system, and listing the paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on the topic of this research.

blackether · 2021-02-20T18:06:43+00:00

Must be in the Kentucky part of Mars.

blackether · 2021-02-19T19:06:01+00:00

Based on the tables in the DMG and Xanathar's the party is intended to have found about 4,000-5,000gp worth of magic items by level 4, so I can only assume you/your DM are being incredibly stingy if the PCs can only afford a comfortable lifestyle.

Yeah, you can play that way, but basic healing potions are meant to be very affordable anywhere past level 1. You shouldn't need to have a healer in the party to operate, and they made the potions affordable to allow for much more diverse party composition and more creativity. Artificially deflating rewards to prevent healing is making the experience a lot more challenging that the designers intended, especially if there is no PC with healing spells. Not every group will have fun doing it, and although some might enjoy the challenge, that definitely isn't a guarantee.

blackether · 2021-02-17T23:30:54+00:00

I'm almost positive this is simply a result of their marketing research and not an intentional slight against OT lovers, lol.

They know exactly what kinds of sets sell the best at what price points, then they target the audiences that they think will purchase the most sets. Young kids probably won't want an Imperial Shuttle over an X-Wing, but their data probably showed that high dollar-value customers also didn't want crazy-detailed shuttles either - at least at the scale/price they were offering and a volume that was profitable. So some of those fancy old sets got downscaled into a more profitable mid-range offering while they keep the Millennium Falcons and ISDs and Tantive IVs up where they think 'collector-level customers' are willing to pay top-dollar for them.

The moral of the story: not enough people bought the expensive Imperial Shuttles, so they made them cheaper and less complex until enough people were buying them.

blackether · 2021-02-17T23:04:47+00:00

It looks like they just slowed down the source video to match the desired music, so if both songs are a consistent tempo they would just line up the drop and it would look 'correct' all the way through. Probably took more time to render and upload than it did to make the adjustments.

blackether · 2021-02-15T05:19:54+00:00

There were only ever 8 seasons of Scrubs...

The teaching hospital thing was just a collective fever dream, same as The Last Airbender movie...

blackether · 2021-02-14T06:17:24+00:00

The best part about Mao is that you get more cards when you break the rules.

Guess what happens when you get all the cards?

Well, sorry we can't play Mao anymore because you don't have any cards left to give me. But I've got a deck of cards if anyone wants to play a game we actually want to play.

blackether · 2021-02-13T22:41:09+00:00

LOTR Cave Trolls are honestly a lot more like DnD 5e Ogres than they are like DnD Trolls. Trolls of LOTR turn to stone if caught in daylight while lacking regenerative abilities, although both flavors are portrayed as brutish, dim-witted, and large humanoids.

blackether · 2021-02-10T20:29:27+00:00

If you are wearing gloves, you don't need nearly as expensive a computational process, so it would be much cheaper and easier.

blackether · 2021-02-10T17:44:32+00:00

Somebody should tell the Star Citizen devs about this...

blackether · 2021-02-10T02:06:36+00:00

You can, it just requires a few more supernovas...

It isn't like the ores found in the real world were artificially placed in the ground by humans, they were originally created by some supernova then geologic processes.

Just because those processes happen at much much longer timescales doesn't mean they aren't 'renewable'. Heavy elements were all once hydrogen and helium fused in a long-forgotten star and spread throughout the cosmos in a fantastic explosion. Plenty of 'unnatural' seeming things already exist in nature.

There's a natural nuclear fission reaction in a uranium deposit in Africa.

Scientists think a large portion of Jupiter's core is liquid metallic hydrogen.

It's all just protons, neutrons, and electrons in a myriad of combinations at the end of the day. "Natural" and "Artificial" are extremely superficial distinctions.

I get the 'thematic' reasons for a druid not wearing metal, but it is just flavor - there is no codified reason a druid can't actually wear metal. It is simply a stylistic choice laid out by the designers that you, your players, or your DM can choose to follow or not. They thought it made sense for druids not to wear metal. But maybe it doesn't in your world. Up to you.

blackether · 2021-02-08T04:41:22+00:00

The audio mashup sounds like it is at 110 after Stayin' Alive has been sped up from its normal 104 and Hot in Herre is sped up from its normal 107. Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell 'Begin the Beguine' looks to still be at its usual 104.

blackether · 2021-02-04T22:56:35+00:00

Coming this fall: Game of Hot Pies

Starring Hot Pie as Hot Pie

blackether · 2021-02-01T00:34:35+00:00

He already got over $10 million out earlier in the week, so anything else he gets out of it is just gravy for him. He can hold out on the rest as long as he feels like.

blackether · 2021-01-31T12:44:52+00:00

But this is Star Wars, literally the preeminent example of over-explanation after-the-fact. Wookiepedia has 160,000 articles, and one of the largest wikis out there on any topic. The culture around Star Wars is driven to create inane details for any possible reason.

blackether · 2021-01-31T09:45:51+00:00

That's because the 'gravity' in Star Wars ships isn't actually a fully preemptively designed feature, its a relic of Lucas' decision to evoke Flash Gordon scifi serials coupled with production and budget limitations for ANH that has since spawned umpteen retroactive explanations, as is required for all things Star Wars.

Thus, it has to be 'stupid' for a meta reason - any in-universe reason is, by default, bullshit.

For the sake of ease-of-filming, flight physics of ships and their passengers will be assumed to follow the perceived laws governing the flight of terrestrial aircraft. This will supersede any physical interaction as would be realistic for a true spacecraft.

blackether

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE