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  1. These two are not compatible with each other, and is probably the biggest component of why nothing changes with our policing institution - if the good ones (and DAs and judges) held the bad ones accountable, the institution would have already necessarily reformed simply as a result of that. Alas, we are where we are today for a reason.
    4 points
  2. I'm going to do something that I find rather distasteful, but honestly, I see no other way around that. I have had it with this particular user and the entire branch he's working at for a long while now. I've just received an e-mail demanding billing support (not asking for, demanding) because there are apparently one hundred unrated orders and "ain't nobody got time to check that", therefore we should do their work for them. For fun I've done a cursory glance at a solid sample size and noticed that some of them were confirmed as zero (i.e. someone manually checked the order and confirmed it to be unbillable for whatever reason) and the vast majority were orders from last month that are still open or became billable in April. This is going to be fun. I'm generally really accomodating and often don't bill special support requests to the branches even though we technically should, because I don't see the point of shuffling money around between branches. In this case however, I'll make an exception. I'm taking bets on how quickly he'll find someone who "got" time for that.
    3 points
  3. Reported for bad taste and heresy.
    3 points
  4. Played through the updated Solasta early access. Definitely has an indie feel to it, and from what I have seen so far story is basic, wouldn't say there is a lot of emotional depth but does have lots of heroics Playing a Paladin seemed right in this game. Interesting I thought the game started really well, its just a very straightforward plot, I don't think they built the game to incorporate consequence and choices, it is more a tactical RPG game with exploration and DnD rules. And it is 100 percent a DnD game with all of what that entails - dice rolls, per rest magic, etc. but the nice surprise is the devs gave a lot of options to turn that stuff on and off, it is pretty customizable, for instance I turned off the option that only allows you to try to unlock or remove a trap just once, so if you fail the dice roll no opening the chest (yep turned that off, hate that). On its core rules game is pretty easy, didn't mess too much with the difficulty of the game, and found myself a little over leveled pretty quick, but there is a ton of difficulty options too, was hesitant to mess with them as they mostly involve tweaking the stats of the enemy upwards - more hit points, higher attack rolls, etc. Also I liked the idea of playing on the core DnD rules though so probably won't mess with them too much. I did turn on the Deadlier AI option though I think they could put some more powerful monsters with added magic and skills early on, and they still might it seems like they are constantly tweaking the AI and encounters through the early access. Lots of magic weapons and some cool gear, maybe too much for my taste - only thing missing was a Holly Avenger and a Vorpal sword. The crafting feature is good in the sense that you can craft cool stuff, but crafting material is really rare so far and you need to make choices between what you craft with what you get, which kept it interesting. I really got into crafting poison arrows started to obsess on it. Side quests are pretty straightforward - go here, do this for a reward, not much to them in early access will be curious if they build them out more. At the moment they are mostly setups for a unique encounter or a tough battle with tougher enemies. Graphics are passable, though when I was in wide open spaces with lighting effects or water I needed to drop the detail as it was having frame rate issues. I think the graphic cut scenes feel like a French puppet show. Interesting that they kept all context in-scene, no subtitles or written descriptions outside of the occasional scroll or book you find on the way. So good for those who hate to read, but it can be kind of like watching a French puppet show. I enjoyed the game, and about halfway through really started to get into the game systems and the exploring, and also wanted to see how the story ends. Will definitely finish it when it comes out. If expectations aren't too high and you like DnD it is alright all in all. They created a pretty good High Fantasy world, it feels more Dragonlance than Forgotten Realms, what with the Cataclysm and all, the main enemies / antagonists are very Draconic, the only things its missing is the Knights of Solasta If I would compare it to BG1/2 for all you BG fans, it is definitely more BG1 - it feels like they have been focused on creating the game systems and the story came second. Will have to wait and see how the story holds up and plays out when it releases - I remember BG1 had some fun twists, so hopefully Solasta will too.
    3 points
  5. There's a Wikipedia article on how it works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_square_puzzle Well that was entertaining.
    3 points
  6. Yeah, that really just goes hand in hand with it being an institutional brokenness. If literally just about an entire precinct is composed of provably terrible cops, and there are precincts all around the country just like it, then the question must be asked - how is this institution selecting or creating ONLY bad cops? That's not normal, that's not just random chance - in other institutions that are not similarly broken, you would at the very least get a roughly equal number of good and bad members. If it's not, well, your institution is broken - and it is. It really literally is, in multiple ways.
    2 points
  7. I'm recalling the story of Adrian Schoolcraft, an officer with the NYPD. He was a whistle-blower who made some tapes (called the NYPD tapes) uncovering corruption in a precinct. The response to either this or previous internal complaints was harassment that culminated in a(n illegal) SWAT raid and week-long imprisonment of Schoolcraft in a psychiatric facility. The NYPD issued a challenge coin featuring a cassette labeled "NYPD Tapes" on the front while the back features an image of a rat in a straight jacket with the quote of the order to send Schoolcraft to the hospital. Maybe not all the officers at the 81st precinct are bad people, but the system that produces something like that is ****ed.
    2 points
  8. our grandma (maternal side) made something she called pittsburgh lasagna. grandma said it were s'posed to include sausage but she used cooked chicken (diced) 'cause that were what she typical had available. remaining ingredients: mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta, 1 egg, a package o' frozen spinach, lasagna noodles, milk and a couple cans o' cream of mushroom soup. the egg, thawed and drained (extreme drained... dry as possible w/o using oven) spinach and ricotta got combined, milk and soup were combined. take a casserole dish and layer some o' the soup+ milk, then noodles, then half o' the spinach and ricotta mixture, then chicken (or sausage), then mozzarella. repeat layers leaving last o' the soup and the parmesan for last layer. have no idea what were the measurements. we got a ridiculous good memory, but grandma didn't measure, so... has been many years since we had that casserole. the (not) lasagna were delicious. HA! Good Fun!
    2 points
  9. My wife requires a enzyme to help her pancreas continue working. She takes them with every meal. When she first started taking them, it was $90 a month to buy them at our pharmacy. Without insurance, it would be about $300. After a few months of that, I called the insurance company to complain about the cost. They told me to use a different pharmacy that they have a better rate with. Now we pay $15 a month. That is great, but this is still a stupid system.
    2 points
  10. Have you ever accidentally stumbled into a build that just works? Relevant details: I completed Pillars of Eternity with a roleplay build; a Death Godlike who was a priest of Berath. I used a dwarf body, because, Berath. Imported save file into Deadfire. Path of the Damned. Scaling difficulty, all upward. The usual. And then, on a whim, I decided to multiclass. Priest of Barath with an Ancient Druid. Just for funsies. Little did I know. First fight on the ship, I accidentally killed Eder and Irena. Immediately, I reload. Killed Eder a second time. Whoops. Friendly fire is mean. It took a few tries, but I kept Eder alive. And then I got to work on the starting island. I started to notice a pattern after a while, and I keep killing Eder and Xoti. Switch them both to ranged weapons and let my summons tank. Much to my surprise, I absolutely obliterate the first island. Managed to beat the drake and recruit Aloth before going into the ruins. I am a virulent spreader of disease and the plague. After the first island, things got out of hand. At some point, I noticed that some of my dots were critting for over 100 damage. Nobody can fight me because everybody is sick. I constantly kill my own party members, who get in the way and take friendly fire. I don't kill fast, but death is certain. My character has become the Ravager of Berath and without intending to do so, I created a power build. I'm still trying to sort out why the character is so strong. She has high perception, so she crits often. When things hit the Near Death status, some of those crits get ridiculous. I just go from place to place, spreading disease and the plague, and giving pirates a lethal case of crotch rot, from which they do not recover. It's gross. I've never seen Path of the Damned so trivialised and I have almost 800 hours sunk into the game. If you like having fun, I suggest you give it a try. Empowered Touch of Rot is something else. If I was a dedicated powergamer, I'd do an in-depth analysis.
    2 points
  11. Castlevania S2 and S3 episodes 1 and 2:
    2 points
  12. 10 in a row for Oakland. Riding the wave.
    2 points
  13. I am almost done with my Psion/Troubadour playthrough and it's a fun multiclass. The bread and butter for me early on was spamming the Killers Froze Stiff and then hitting enemies with Soul Shock. A lot of enemies are vulnerable to lightning damage it feels like so the combo of crowd control + damage felt very nice early on. Later I also took the Ogre Summon and some charm spells and got good mileage out of those as well. Recently now that I am higher level I still spam the paralyze invocation a lot but now after doing so my go-to tends to be to either cast Ancestor's Memory on my casters (to let them spam high PL things like Missile Salvo etc) or I buff myself with Borrowed Instinct and then spam Disintegration onto enemies. Having party members that can apply the morningstar fort debuff or club modal will debuff can be very nice to help you land your offensive spells as well. A wizard who hits enemies with miasma and arkemyrs torment and such things can be really nice to help you with that as well. As far as chants go I pretty much just spammed the skeleton summon chant once I got it because popping out a skeleton every 3 seconds is really strong. I did also pick up the resistance chants and made a song that just casts those because sometimes that can be really clutch against enemies that like to hit you with debilitating afflictions. Having each resistance chant go off every 3 seconds means I can clear my party of hostile effects rapidly. All in all it has been one of the stronger characters I've played. It's so versatile. The offense is actually quite strong once you get Pl6 Cipher spells because Disintegrate is one of the best offensive spells in the game. But even before that Paralyze invocation + Soul Shock will get you through a lot of the earlier content, and you can use charms and summons and things too. This character could truly do it all too depending on how you want to build it. Heal? Take Ancestor's Memory and the + heal effectiveness chant. Take the Cipher spells that heal. Summon? You got all kinds of summon invocations to choose from. I like the Ogres because they hit hard and have lots of health. Charm? Both Chanters and Ciphers can do that. Dps? Disintegrate, Soulshock, Soul Ignition, etc. Crowd control? Paralyze, charm, etc. I dunno. It's fun
    2 points
  14. I'm not sure. I guess it is like porn, you know it when you see it.
    2 points
  15. STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC Remake Is Reportedly In Active Development According To Insider (comicbookmovie.com) KoTOR remake is supposedly in the making. Let's hope maybe KoTOR 2 will get similar treatment.
    2 points
  16. Lambs chops with mash potato, man I love Lamb. I fry these chops on very high heat for maybe 2 minutes on each side and make sure the fat is crispy Oh I also add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce to the chops at the end I just wish Lamb wasnt so expensive
    2 points
  17. I have problems translating my enjoyment to a ratio. I can talk about how I enjoyed something but quantifying it like 90% is beyond me. Maybe I'm just a weirdo. S1 of SU. Power outages, giant hands, and joyrides. It is a very silly and fun show that manages to feel sweet. Of the main group I'd say Garnet is the most consistently funny but Pearl's insane moments are the best. Favorite supporting character is Ronaldo.
    2 points
  18. Cops have been allowed to get away with a lot of deaths in this country. I remember there was a case I was following very closely. I believe it was in Iowa. A cop passing by sees a man and a woman arguing in the front yard. He decided to involve himself in it. Opened the gate went into the yard and the family dog came up to the police officer. He pulled out his weapon and fired at the dog and missed. Instead he hit the woman in the chest and killed her. he said in his report the dog bit him in that justified the shooting and he never faced manslaughter charges. Later on in a federal lawsuit the plaintiffs finally got the body cam footage of the shooting released. The cop lied he had never been bit. The city had to pay a huge settlement. As far as I know the cop is still on the job.
    2 points
  19. For second-degree manslaughter the jury had to answer this question: did he cause the death of George Floyd through action or inaction. Manslaughter does not require intention. If you kill someone without intending to do it it’s manslaughter. In this case the jury said yes. third-degree murder means the jury had to answer this question: did he kill George Floyd while committing an act that was in and of it’s self illegal or an act that the perpetrator might reasonably expect a death to occur. In this case putting a handcuffed man on the ground on his chest and then kneeling on his neck. The jury said yes. Now as an aside I am a little unclear what the element of intent means in relation to a3degree murder charge. I don’t know if it is required for third-degree murder or not. The best example I could give is if you fired a weapon into a crowd of people whoever you hit you may not have intended to hit that person but you did do some thing that you might reasonably expect a death to occur. Second-degree murder means the jury had to answer this question: did the perpetrator intend the death of the victim. Or did the perpetrator not care if the victim died during the commission of the crime. It’s the second part that they got him on second-degree murder. I believe that’s called hard minded or hard hearted indifference. But the biggest difference between a second-degree and third-degree murder I believe is the intention to harm a specific individual. since the jury convicted him on all three counts and they did not have to do that. They could have convicted on third degree but not second. They could’ve convicted on manslaughter but not third degree or second. But since they convicted on all three I believe he will be sentenced on all three but the sentences will be concurrent. Meaning if he does 20 years for second- degree murder for example, 10 years for thirddegree murder, and five years for a second-degree manslaughter he will still only do 20 years. Think of it like this. Suppose were talking about a man that weighs 300 pounds. So you ask the jury does the man weigh more than 100 pounds? Yes. Does the man weigh more than 200 pounds? Yes. Does the man weigh 300 pounds?. Yes.
    2 points
  20. https://www.fig.co/campaigns/homeworld3/updates/1394
    2 points
  21. It's good to have fun. I'd say that's just discovering the Ancient though. The spore summons are very good in the early game and Wild Growth is great, too (has no/unlimited duration, so very long summon durations are great for tanking). I don't see any special synergy between Berath and Ancient that would explain any exceptional power growth. No speed bonuses, no spectacular ACC bonuses, not vastly increased MIG or INT for the DoTs without having to cast lengthy buffs first. You'll have multiple sources of certain spells like Touch of Rot etc. though. And thematically it's nice of course. I'd argue that something like Helwalker/Ancient (+MIG and +INT for your DoTs, longer summoning duration, more ACC) , Bellower/Ancient (Wild Growth on empowered beast and primordial chanter summons) or Stalker/Ancient (ACC++) would be even better? Even Barbarians/Ancient maybe (Blooded + Bloody Slaughter complementing the Death Godlike's passives and giving casting Speed and MIG and also an additional raw DoT on any crit with Blood Frenzy or lowering fortitude with Spirit Frenzy kind of passively). But maybe I'm missing something. Like "abusing" Barring Death's Door + Salvation of Time in order to stay at +3 PL at all times or so. That is of course very good. Especially when combined with Spine of Thicket Green's +3 PL for Beast DoTs like Plague of Insects etc.
    2 points
  22. I'm currently playing a Berserker/Soul Blade witch with Whispers of the Endless Paths. I upgraded it to mythic right away (using the Berath's Blessings gem) and it hits like a truck. You can hit multiple foes with barbaric blow, and then finish them off with soul annihilation. It's a really powerful combo IMO.
    2 points
  23. I don't like comparing shows tbh. Too often it reminds me of comicbook fanbois arguing over which fictional character could beat the other, instead of just enjoying them for what they are. I also hate rankings and ratings, like what the **** does 84% actually mean? 16% of the show is garbage? In terms of anime the ones that had the biggest impact (not necessarily because of quality or present enjoyment) on me are Digimon s3, Berserk (90s), Evangelion, JoJo, Devilman Crybaby, and now Sailor Moon. They're all very different in all respects and comparing them wouldn't get me anywhere, like maybe you could compare Digimon to Sailor Moon as children's anime....but they're too different and go completely different places to be a real comparison. Even along genres you get significantly different beats and styles that makes comparison really get in the way of enjoyment imo. I watched a lot of SU. I still prefer Garnet, but Amethyst's background story really made me like her more. And Lil' Butler is really dumb so it should fit in with most real sitcoms.
    2 points
  24. I'm telling y'all, I'm going to buy some raw land somewhere in the boonies and dig myself an underground, concrete, hobbit-hole and that's what I'll die in. My tomb. No one will even know my corpse is there unless a tax man comes calling.
    2 points
  25. Well ofcourse, the car has a brown coat of paint.
    2 points
  26. I was feeling like playing Deadfire again. But since I won't use one of my PoE1 characters, I decided to replay the first game and do the whole journey for my new character, a Templar of Woedica.
    2 points
  27. Replaying PoE1 to set up my Deadfire Woedica Templar. For now he is an Aedyran Mercenary with the appropriate dispositions. At the end of the game he will side with the Burned Queen and become her follower in Deadfire. I only care for Aloth because I'll not have Eder and Pallegina in my party in Deadfire and the other companions won't be available.
    1 point
  28. I've watched the first 3 episodes of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace thanks to @Chilloutman It's hilarious
    1 point
  29. Yeah, let me be clear: I do believe it's absolutely an institutional issue. I'm not trying to say there are no good cops - not at all, we're talking about humans after all, so there's bound to be a wide range of types even if the particular profession in question does unfortunately necessarily attract more of the power-tripping authoritarian types. However, if the institution itself makes it so that every member at every level of the institution is conditioned to never hold each other accountable for genuine wrongdoing (whether through its own internal culture and systems or through the rest of the related legal system that is supposed to have at least some ability to oversee it), then the institution as a whole is broken, and it starts making sense why an increasingly large number of people start to see what should otherwise be good cops as being exactly the same as bad cops when all members of the institution are equally working to enable the bad to continue to occur...and yeah, that's exactly what's happened. And I...and I think pretty much everyone else, have literally no good, realistic ideas on how to really fix that: it's a broken institution. How much easier it would be to change or replace a few individuals - and so I guess the system persists with neither good ideas nor political will to implement them.
    1 point
  30. Cambell's Cream of Mushroom - that classic staple of most mothers from a certain generation or three. My mother always seemed to have at least four or five cans of it in the pantry at all times.
    1 point
  31. hmmm. most o' us have worked in a profession or occupation where discrimination 'gainst minorities and/or women happens and where such discrimination has been a problem for a considerable period o' time. am not gonna suggest they is all bad. is the nonsense gd does with politicians. they are all complicit, yes? the growing tendency to call every white male a racist and a bigot is one o' the reasons we ended up with trump as President. even if you believe every white male is a racist and every male a bigot, such accusations is not helpful. dismiss every cop similar? same mistake. am hardly suggesting there is no responsibility for the other cops who witness or know and do nothing. contrary. however, am thinking is not appropriate to make it a stark +/- thing. brings up why am actual more interested in what happens to the other cops present when floyd died. their trial will take place in the near future and will be more meaningful in our mind than were chauvin. asian cop. mixed-race cop. white cop. none helped floyd and only the white guy protested 'bout what were happening to floyd. am thinking all the cops bear some responsibility for what happened to floyd, but am not thinking is +/-, and am not willing to go so far as to suggest every cop everywhere is responsible in a +/- kinda way. HA! Good Fun!
    1 point
  32. Monthly upkeep of any medicines can also be a huge factor for uninsured in some cases, relative to income. I think the insulin I'm taking would be around $150-$200 per month retail which for many would be a not unsizable annual burden. And that's not some uber expensive or rare drug. And those blood test strips can be $1 a strip, and considering one is "supposed" to use one at least once a day, maybe thrice - altho at this point I mostly just check it once or twice a week. We currently have an insurance plan that pretty much covers everything - we weren't billed a dime for my multiple-day hospital stay last year and all the tests/scans they ran on me, or when they want to rerun the standard checkup tests, for example. But we also don't get any true personalized care. It's the typical US hospital factory. And we didn't always have such a policy. Most people don't. Most employers can't afford the really pricey/comprehensive plans and even if they did, it also means more taken out of your paycheck if you accept it. Still, better health insurance is definitely one factor that can motivate people to switch jobs.
    1 point
  33. Deadfire is a vast improvement, but I'm still fond of the first game, so I'll replay it once more to set the story of my new character properly. The moment I get tired of it I'll skip the side quests and rush to the end. I really like the White March expansions, so I enjoy the later part of the game. Yes, specially with that book in PoE1 (Monsters of the Deadfire Archipelago) that made me look forward to such encounters.
    1 point
  34. Well @abotwon The Ultimate with this multiclass after all .
    1 point
  35. Consider using a Morningstar to use its modal to debuff Fortitude and take advantage of Brute Force. Good synergy with fighter Mule Kick and Clear Out. For a little more DPS - but less durability, you could go with Trickster rogue. His illusion buffs provide decent boost to Defences (Repulsive Visage even Terrifies nearby enemies).
    1 point
  36. I think rifles are just more scary, or easily sold as being scary - "Weapons of war" and all that - and politicians want to be seen as doing something. Don't think it's anything more nefarious than that, really. I think you found yourself a career
    1 point
  37. Theres probably a Reddit thread about it, but one thing you absolutely do not want to happen to you in the US, and I cannot stress this enough, is to get bitten by a venomous snake. The price of anti-venom is so astronomical they will just come over, put your house on jacks, and tow that thing right off the foundation.
    1 point
  38. The people who make gun laws don’t know **** **** about guns. Just listen to them talk about banning silencers. Put a silencer on a 45 and you’ll still hear it from four blocks away. You just won’t hear it from eight
    1 point
  39. 'ccording to fbi, numbers o' homicide victims in 2017: total firearms-10,982 rifles-403 (which included the vegas shooter, explaining the small but noticeable increase in rifle death totals from immediate preceding years) knives-1,591 blunt objects (not fists)-467 personal weapons (hands, feet)-696 403 is not a good number. not suggesting we should ignore 403. however, if you believe we got a firearms problem, overwhelming focus on 403 is perplexing to us. HA! Good Fun!
    1 point
  40. It actually doesn't make much difference. The firing mechanism and general operation is exactly the same E: Barrel length will actually make a difference but more in a target shooting way than in a mass shooting
    1 point
  41. I wonder if that has anything to do with the manga only having 10 issues instead of the 13 or 14 that Naoko Takeuchi usually did. Maybe they thought they'd be getting more episodes, because it's strange that only Minako got an episode where she is the clear focus that also deals with her ongoing problems of being a school girl, wanting to be an idol and having to save the world. Ami spending time with the professor who found a comet wasn't a very good focus piece (and not a great episode either - not bad, just not great). It's also possible that the writers didn't really know what to do with the girls and therefore only gave Minako a S-Style episode. I'm almost glad they just made Makoto be nervous on TV, which makes sense for her, and didn't use her as punching bag or have her yell at people that have done nothing wrong. The last handful of episodes... KP hated them for reasons I don't entirely understand yet, because I'm like six episodes into NGE now, and while Shinji is a little whingy at times, so far he hasn't really been grating or problematic. The largest issue is pacing. There's only enough content in the final six episodes for maybe three. So there's some downtime in between the action, and then everything is crammed into the final episode. It would really have been nice to have an episode or two after the final confrontation, like in S. And finally the animation, well, there are bits and pieces that look pretty good, and others are consistently bad. Haruka for instance, I don't think there's any shot of her where she doesn't look like a bug eyed alien. I think almost the entire animation team left Toei after SuperS (Ikuko Ito certianly did, as well as any animators that left to do Revolutionary Girl Utena), so they probably hastily slapped a team together. I'd have to go back and check the comments, but it's possible. It's just that there's a lot of animated TV on air here that's anime without looking like modern era anime. There's the obvious stuff, of course, like Naruto, Pokemon, Dragonball or the two football shows that I never really liked. One of the biggest staples of German children's TV ever since the 70ies is Maya the Bee. It's so ubiquitous you could easily claim that anyone who grew up with German TV watched that show in one form or the other. Long before Sailor Moon. I was more thinking that they don't know any better because anime equals funny Japanese names and big eyes. I'm pretty sure The Flying House ran here too, but I've never seen much of it. I got lucky and was left alone to watch what I wanted. Within reason, of course, I didn't see Nightmare on Elm Street befor 13 or so. Utena... the character designs really do take some getting used to. Concerning Cardcaptor Sakura, I understand that. It does look the way it does and the English dub is terrible.
    1 point
  42. A lot of "assault weapon" bans do focus a lot on the look of the guns as opposed to the function which is something I've always had a hard time with. For me it's a lot like breed specific legislation for dogs, typically "pit bulls" being defined by physical characteristics as opposed to genetics, and they both have a tendency for the worst people to gravitate towards them.
    1 point
  43. it is difficult to write a meaningful law which prohibits scary looking guns which will appeal to the worst instincts o' people who might eventual consider a mass shooting. perhaps require all firearms to be painted pink and adorned with a care bears motif? HA! Good Fun!
    1 point
  44. I would do it the other way round: soften them up with Soul Annihilation and then finish them off with Barbaric Smash. For keeping the Rage.
    1 point
  45. Regarding 1) you have a point. Mule Kick certainly is a far more reliable (and cheaper) single-target Interrupt. But having aoe capability can be kinda cool sometimes - even moreso with a reach weapon.
    1 point
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