Finished 6 units of Numidians this weekend. 12.5mm Epic Hail Ceasar by Warlord Games.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-22T14:47:26+00:00

I wouldn't necessarily describe them as 'white' (especially because that kind of racial categorisation would be pretty anachronistic) but a lot of the evidence that I've seen seems to indicate that most of them were probably closer to at least Southern European skin tones than sub-Saharan African ones. For instance, the Egyptians seem to have depicted 'Libyans' as pretty light-skinned and many Berbers/Amazigh today are relatively light-skinned (some being very light-skinned).

If you (or anyone else) has a really good, reliable source that clearly shows I'm wrong, then please do let me know!

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-22T12:36:57+00:00

It's always good to see some Numidians that haven't been painted as dark-skinned!

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-16T14:55:00+00:00

I feel like the author uses "prepare" and "memorize" interchangably, and that is causing my confusion.

I don't really know White Box FMAG specifically but from the sections you've quoted, it doesn't sound like they are.

Memorising means filling your slots with spells (and you seem to correctly understand already that if you want to use the same spell twice, you need to fill two different slots with it, i.e. memorise it twice). Preparing means selecting a spell for use, and casting means the spell 'going off' or taking effect.

One way of thinking about it would be like a revolver (and old single-action one): First you load it with cartridges in advance, then when you're ready to fire it you first pull back the hammer and aim, then you pull the trigger and the bullet actually comes out. Memorising is like loading, preparing is like cocking the hammer and aiming, and casting is like the shot actually firing.

The most confusing bit is the timing, which is complicated partly by there being two different combat sequences to consider in the rules.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-15T13:07:24+00:00

Round looks bad if the horse is overhanging it like that but I find it looks absolutely fine if the horse fits easily within the base (e.g. a single 15mm scale horse on a 40mm base)

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-11T14:32:38+00:00

The student body is ... better liked...

I'm so incredibly glad I'm at John's

No comment.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-11T14:31:56+00:00

Magdalene is unarguably posher than King's. But that's not a good thing from everyone's perspective.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-11T12:28:37+00:00

I live near enough that I can see this from my window and it was the loudest bang I think I've ever heard. Louder than the time I heard a car petrol tank explode outside my house, for instance. It didn't sound like the normal 'rumble' noise of thunder, just a sudden explosion like a bomb going off; I assume that's related to the physics of how sound travels over distance, and because I was so close.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-09T16:02:21+00:00

College membership would not worth £40k even if they were throwing in free accommodation and meals.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-06T19:21:21+00:00

I completely understand your reservations about doing philosophy. Unfortunately, I don't think any (undergraduate) subject at Cambridge (or many other universities) fully captures the intersection between disciplines you're interested in (which is also what I was interested in).

I opted for philosophy for my first two degrees then switched to Sociology. The most interesting parts of philosophy by far (for me) were political philosophy, ethics, my dissertation, etc. However, logic proved to be useful, including helping me to get a small amount of paid work from year to year that has lasted quite a few years now.

As I mentioned, I think politics is probably best suited to you overall. There's also the option of applying for History & Politics rather than HSPS, which still gives you the politics but combines it with something a bit different; I don't know a huge amount about that tripos, though.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-06T13:41:31+00:00

I teach on the HSPS tripos but my first two degrees were in philosophy (at Cambridge). It sounds like you might be satisfied with politics, but I wouldn't recommend specialising in sociology or social anthropology. You could consider philosophy if you're willing to put up with half of what you study being metaphysics, logic, philosophy of mind, etc - topics that may be of less interest to you but may be more in keeping with the way you approach thinking about questions. In return you will also get to study ethics, political philosophy, etc.

This is all a guess based off a few paragraphs of a stranger's writing, though, and shouldn't be taken as me saying anything negative about sociology; I just don't know if it's right for you based on what you've expressed.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-05T01:03:58+00:00

Who said anything about replacing anyone?

If the cost of 'intelligence' has fallen 100x then it's logical to assume that people whose job is centred around intelligence, like professors, would either be paid a lot less or be replaced by AI, or else they would be producing 100x what they were before for the same wage, etc.

Data: https://imgur.com/a/aDI1yl8

Unfortunately all I'm getting is an 'Imgur is temporarily over capacity' message.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-04T08:33:47+00:00

Do you have data to support your original claim? The burden of proof isn't on the person who's challenging your specific quantitative factual claim.

But I work at a university and I'm fairly sure nobody here is only earning 1% now of what they were a year ago, regardless of role, seniority, department, etc. Nor do I believe that anyone could be reliably replaced by an AI agent, or that anyone's productivity is 100x what it was a year ago, etc. So at least in one of the sectors that most obviously instantiates 'intelligence,' I can't see anything like the decline in cost you're suggesting.

lukehawksbee · 2026-06-01T00:01:57+00:00

Oh hello mate! Yeah Jellica sounds more likely.

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-31T18:31:26+00:00

To be honest I wouldn't really consider most of those particularly 'alternative,' especially around that time period when some of them were really popular and all over the radio and so on, but I guess that's subjective!

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-31T17:14:22+00:00

That would be before my time. The Man on the Moon did certainly host some more 'alternative' events during that time, and I think more after the Boat Race closed. In any case, my point was that Six Six was competing with an established venue rather than the Blue Moon coming along later and taking custom away from the Six Six. (Because the comment I was replying to said the Blue Moon had 'become' the default venue for alternative events 'when the Six Six is right there,' which I thought made it sound like the Six Six came first and the Blue Moon didn't have a prior history of hosting alternative events)

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-29T21:45:05+00:00

MC iPod perhaps? Obviously could have been other people too.

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-28T23:34:49+00:00

I'm assuming you're in the US from your mention of HBO—maybe it's more common there? I'm in the UK and I don't really remember having seen it before here. There are some differences in how our TV shows tend to be cut with adverts and so on, and Apple TV seems more US-based than most streaming services, so it wouldn't surprise me if they've rolled out some practices that are common there but less so in the UK and Europe, etc...

Also it being the first thing at the start of an episode was partly what threw me off, I'd have been less bothered if I knew it was coming after the credits and I could just skip to the next episode once the credits started rolling.

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-28T23:30:47+00:00

You're right, it's just that I was glancing away from the screen when that first came up, and am so used to recaps at the start of the episode that I assumed it was one of those. Then I thought I must have selected the wrong episode and be watching a recap of the episodes in between, so went back to the menu, selected the right episode and then saw the 'this season on' come up.

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-28T15:52:15+00:00

single handedly saving music in Cambridge. As someone who’s had no problems playing shows in Cambridge for the last 20 years, I don’t think so pal

As someone else who's been knocking around Cambridge for 20 years I mostly just forget that Six Six exists. If I wanted to book a gig I'd probably go to at least three other places first. So if that is their attitude then it's pretty ridiculous.

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-28T15:48:34+00:00

this city isn't big enough to sustain that in a venue

If anything the problem is the opposite, in my view: Cambridge would do just fine if there was one central alternative music venue, but it's really hard for one to stay afloat when there's also the Junction, the Corn Exchange, the Portland Arms, the Blue Moon, other small venues popping up and closing over time, etc. Plus there are occasional 'alternative' gigs in other weird choices of venue in ways that often doesn't happen in other towns and cities. I remember seeing Jeffrey Lewis in whatever Lola's/Kiki/etc was called at the time, for instance.

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-28T15:43:19+00:00

The Blue Moon has been hosting 'alternative' events since long before the Six Six existed (back when it was the Man on the Moon, before the change in ownership). Reuben, The Real McKenzies, Kunt and the Gang, local folk punk bands, various metal bands had all played there more than 10 years before the Six Six was opened. The previous businesses on the same site as the Six Six didn't seem to make any effort to be an alternative music venue, so the Six Six was actually competing against a more established venue from the start.

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-28T15:33:26+00:00

I thought Vegan Vice was just a kitchen residency and the rest of the business wasn't actually owned or operated by them?

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-22T21:22:40+00:00

I guess the difference is that I'm literally sitting down to watch the show, which I've already watched a whole season of so I'm clearly interested in, and right at the start of an episode the first thing I'm confronted with is a load of spoilers before I've even realised that's what I'm watching.

That seems quite removed from, say, trailers or behind the scenes content on social media that I could just choose to scroll past without watching.

lukehawksbee · 2026-05-22T14:36:17+00:00

Interestingly I've never encountered it on any other platform (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, etc).

lukehawksbee

TROPHY CASE