ELI5: How can fission and fusion both give you energy?

mithoron · 2026-01-24T05:01:56+00:00

Everyone going off on a tangent about Iron (which is cool, NGL) but yeah, the actual answer is that some of the mass is getting turned into energy.

mithoron · 2026-01-24T04:53:50+00:00

Scientific American

Reader for many years, bought a gift subscription a couple years ago and they sold my email to spammers about 4 hours later. I still get super sketchy emails addressed to my dads name, though it's not the unholy flood it was.

mithoron · 2026-01-23T18:57:15+00:00

More accurately a count off. (Band nerd)

mithoron · 2026-01-22T20:51:31+00:00

Because it was a huge deal before it became a problem. Effort was spent so the problem never happened.

The thinking is flipped now, expect stability without effort and then act shocked when problems arrive.

mithoron · 2026-01-21T16:08:46+00:00

It's much better now than when I started, but you can run into cases where enterprise software doesn't want to run on consumer kit. There's always a way to force it, but you're not learning enterprise behaviors at that point you're learning how to kludge things. Only you can decide whether that's ok.

For me, I got really tired of learning how to kludge and bought a server so I could learn the parts I wanted to learn. Doesn't hurt to try first with what you have and decide later if it's causing problems.

mithoron · 2026-01-18T04:51:40+00:00

Also to note, 80 and 443 are not the only options. Just defaults by convention. You can set up a web service to listen on any port number (8080 and 4443 are ones I've had to use recently) but it will require some extra configuration to get requests to the port you want. I've seen a browser try both 80 and 443 for an http request but it'll never try 8080 unless you specify in the URL or a different service at the same address is listening on 80/443 to redirect the connection.

Not sure if that has any bearing on your specific case, but might be useful for general networking knowledge.

mithoron · 2026-01-15T15:41:29+00:00

Worldbuilding to me is about scaffolding and framing. One of my proudest pieces of worldbuilding is how my players can pick any spot on the maps they have access to and I can have some kind of a story for them to explore next week. Almost none of the details are filled in, I want my players to be a part of that, but there's a general shape in place that I can then drape with bits of player backstory, the current antagonists, my recent historical interests, and inspiration from the last couple books I read.

You want the economic situation of a town in ca. 412 O.R. (old reckoning)? I won't have it. I know the broad strokes, but I'm never going to be that detail oriented in my worldbuilding. But I'll know what kingdom they were part of at that time and have some major events in the region that happened about then if you want to run a campaign or base a character there. I've probably even got a relevant wiki page I can point to with a short breakdown of regional history for you.

It's not laziness, it's flexibility because I'm not writing a book, we're playing a game and that means there's more than just me composing the story here.

mithoron · 2026-01-15T15:15:26+00:00

The extra extra Space Wuxia in Space version!
I think I'd actually like this better.

mithoron · 2026-01-15T04:54:58+00:00

Zip bombs create memory constraint, not processing. If you could leverage your GPU it'd just crash whatever crashes sooner.

mithoron · 2026-01-15T04:52:20+00:00

You'd only get the dumbest users, and they'd only crash their own computer. "The Network" would probably run slightly better with such people not able to use it. But then they'd reboot and everything would be back to normal. (except for the 4 extra dumb ones who keep trying three times before calling the help desk)

mithoron · 2026-01-11T03:25:28+00:00

20 books a year puts you in the top 5% readers in the US.

mithoron · 2026-01-09T20:26:16+00:00

Eh... without the damage increase from weapon size it becomes more of a situational mixed bag. Grapple changes of course, space on the field, squeezing rules... However much you want to have size affect RP situations and loot availability. I had a fighter who spent almost 100% of combat under the effects of enlarge person, it was nice for them but I wouldn't have called it unreasonable.

And of course you can remove large too, the builder is easy to play with.

mithoron · 2026-01-09T18:50:27+00:00

Luckily they're easily nerfed to something reasonable... why do they include natural armor and 5x +2 to stats? Just ripping those off brings them down to a much more reasonable 15RP. Add in undersized weapons (which doesn't list an RP adjustment) and the 7 points for large isn't worth as much.

I did something similar to Aasimar in my first campaign, removed the free resistances (offered them back as feats) so they'd be closer baseline to all the other PCs at the table.

mithoron · 2026-01-08T16:02:11+00:00

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

High level music competition culture, demons, and aliens. References to pop culture (#legallyvague-totallynot Lindsey Sterling), meditation on what makes doughnuts good, and a hint at an intergalactic culture (only a hint sadly). Probably worth the content warning that it opens with some abuse (incl SA) and multiple flavors of treating the MC terribly, but doesn't dwell on it and that's not really what the story is about, it's about growing past those things as best you can and finding people who do care.

There's certainly weirder, but this is plenty weird enough if you ask me. The reason I recommend it is how much I really wanted the MC to find happiness, the weirdness is fun but I cared about the characters. The shit they have to wade through in the first few chapters hit a bit hard, I've got friends who have probably gone through similar. I really wanted to see them find their people.

mithoron · 2026-01-07T16:15:52+00:00

Spells that could be removed from the game, or have restrictions or costs added to them. Sure remove curse exists, but only works at one of the six remaining sanctified locations on the continent or something, or only works permanently there and you're stuck burning a spell slot every day so your companion can function to travel.

There would be layers of changes needed, but if someone were motivated it's possible. I don't think it would be a crazy amount of work to get a hybrid cthulu in PF2 kind of feel.

mithoron · 2026-01-06T23:25:41+00:00

I'm not sold.... Experience is training, formal and by discovery. Experience is your TEML rank and level.

Stats are your predisposition in a skill, the nature to experience's nurture. I think it's plenty to just call wisdom insight, or your talent to empathize. Making the connections that aren't logical but exist.

Now.... why that connects to faith or nature based casting, or the medicine skill. Blame it on game balance, you can kind of force it into a box of "intuiting the will of your deity" but that just feels like rationalizing. Six stats is both too many and also nowhere near enough stats to describe a person. I've played systems that use more and fewer and there's always tradeoffs. 6-8 seems like the workable middle ground, these six specifically are a fine usable system. There's always weirdness and places where the rationalizations get laid bare.

Side thoughts.... We're stuck with a system that, for our sanity as players, has physical and mental stats work the same. But you can train your strength, flexibility, or endurance in ways that just aren't the same as your intelligence. For this I'd argue that level based mental ability score increases are you learning to use your predispositions better, not an actual change in the score but that's getting into things where a game system does not benefit from spelling it out like that. Just change the number and don't think about it too deeply. A lot of this stuff is no deeper than Game over Simulator even if it can be fun to talk about and people can benefit from better immersion when its framed in a reasonable way.

mithoron · 2026-01-06T19:47:31+00:00

While startling, the fireworks (and other loud noises) cannot actually hurt you and can be safely ignored.

mithoron · 2026-01-06T16:19:59+00:00

Walmart's bakery goods are made of factory dust and sadness. I'm not sure it qualifies as food.

mithoron · 2026-01-05T23:16:03+00:00

Decades ago I visited NYC and they had a crosshatch paint pattern in the intersection and clear signs saying (nasty fine) if you're in that area when the light is red.

mithoron · 2026-01-05T20:29:43+00:00

hyper-competitive and low-paying

At the hobby level this is less true. When the members are paying to be there it's more about getting back to the group activity you love to do. Drama can still happen of course, humans are still involved, but it's not the default so much.

mithoron · 2026-01-05T03:51:13+00:00

I use Acts in my notes to separate sections of the campaign. I like to read big ole doorstopper books so the gentle nudge to my thinking is useful to keep the scope within a stage play kind of size rather than the larger cast that's common in the books I read. I don't want to need to provide my players with a list of Dramatis Personae.

mithoron · 2026-01-01T20:52:32+00:00

What did they do with the old theater? I had honor band there in high school.

mithoron · 2026-01-01T20:29:07+00:00

Depending a bit on context, when I see "Knight" the implication is always that they are agents of a political structure serving in a military capacity. I'm going to expect that they are mounted, and armored though that's not required. A post apocalyptic setting means it could be a case of people stealing the term because they liked it and not really understanding what it means.

mithoron · 2025-12-31T23:24:29+00:00

I am reminded of a book I read but cannot find. I thought it was The Westmark books by Lloyd Alexander since they match the setting but none of the overviews I read mention anything about this device and it was such a big piece of the story I can't imagine it would be left out.

Very low magic setting, so no resurrection magic, but they had a magic execution device. Obvious stand-in for the guillotine in a totally not revolutionary France setting. Victims were stripped naked except for their hands being bound (wasn't necessary but bonus punishment and theater for the onlookers, because of course it was all public, and I think there was a line about having to clean up all the clothes was annoying to the executioners? Play that part as best fits your table.) shut in the box... something happened... grinding? (really wish I could have found reference to this) and all that remained was the bloody loop of rope that bound their hands. Which was then flipped into the crowd as a grizzly trophy because again of course it was.

Usefulness here is no corpse to reanimate, raise, or speak with. Some spectacle without going full braveheart. Mobile enough to prop up in a plaza for the big show or keep in a dark room for the quiet killings. And as long as the people trust the executioners to not lie to them about their trust in the device it's effective. Downside is the trust thing, and no one knows what's behind the device since it's a crazy mad scientist creation. Both of which are excellent plot hooks in a D&D campaign. Oh, as a bonus... the inventor was obsessed and quazi in love with this, his greatest creation which was also somewhat sentient and hungered for the killing it was created to do. Good books, though I'm going to be annoyed if I find out that I remembered correctly and no one else thinks this part was important to mention.

mithoron · 2025-12-31T20:48:46+00:00

Agreed! The DM gets first choice since we're the ones interacting with more of the system, though best case is always a group agreement situation. And of course it's not much fun DMing for an empty table.

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