Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 5:44 pm

While we're on the topic. There was a book I read in second grade lo these...jeez, twenty years and more ago.

It was fantasy, and well above a second-grade level (I drove teachers crazy with that). It had a male-and-female pair of protagonists. The guy was introduced when he was walking down the woods or something and a bird flies right by him and he doesn't turn to look because he'd resolved to only look back once a mile or something. There was a wicked queen, a dragon got turned to stone, possibly by a woodcutter that she'd given powers to (who somehow gets skewered on a claw), and I remember an old woman waxing a floor of a cabin and when it was done, she says something like 'There. Now evil can't come in the house for a month'.

The hero ends up riding through the darkness on some thing or another that owed him a favor. A specific line I remember was it being so quiet he could hear the blood in his ears.

I've had these details in my head for twenty years now. And I read this when I was in the second grade. Maybe someone else remembers it, too.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 6:10 pm

While we're on the topic - growing up in Australia, there was some sort of fantasy/sci-fi serial periodical which included audio cassettes. I have extremely vague (and I am sure, rose-colored) memories of it; but not being able to find or even name it has bothered me out of all proportion for years.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 7:05 pm

New thread incoming...

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 8:17 pm

Cynic wrote:
Meikle641 wrote:Back in elementary school there was a book on Norse myths I found, and proceeded to read the shit out of repeatedly over the next year or so.

Going by the illustrations, looked like it was printed in the 70s, early 80s at latest. It was at least 12 inches in height, possibly as much as 18. Blue cover and spine with weird creatures made of knots and myth related imagery.

I've been trying to hunt this book down for fucking ages and have no idea what it would be called, and who made it.
D'aulaire's book of norse myths.

It's done by a husband-wife team of french writer/illustrators. They also did a great one on Greek myth and a pretty good book on Troll myths.

Thank you! You're a hero.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 3:54 pm

Does anyone know how to use anydice.com to calculate the odds that e.g. the single highest die of 3d6 will be equal to or greater than the single highest die of 2d6?

John Magnum · Post by **John Magnum** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 4:22 pm

I don't, but I believe (if I've done my counting correctly) that the odds are about 71.9%. Which at the very least is plausible.

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 4:24 pm

John Magnum wrote:I don't, but I believe (if I've done my counting correctly) that the odds are about 71.9%. Which at the very least is plausible.

Yeah, but that was just an example. What's the procedure?

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:51 pm

Code: Select all

output &#91;highest of &#91;highest of d6 and d6&#93; and d6&#93; >= &#91;highest of d6 and d6&#93;

which says 71.93% and confirms John Magnum's answer

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:57 pm

radthemad4 wrote:
Code: Select all
output &#91;highest of &#91;highest of d6 and d6&#93; and d6&#93; >= &#91;highest of d6 and d6&#93;
which says 71.93% and confirms John Magnum's answer

Thanks and double thanks.

John Magnum · Post by **John Magnum** » Fri Feb 21, 2014 7:09 pm

If you're interested in how I did the combinatorics:

I figured there's 6^5 possibilities, so we have to figure out which of them have the 3d6 beating or tying the 2d6.

The easiest way for me to partition them was to look at when the 2d6 has its highest value exactly equal to n. This happens in (n² - (n-1)²) ways--the 2d6 can only take values from 1-n, so n², but (n-1)² of them don't actually have an n at all.

So, given that n is the highest value of the 2d6, how many ways are there for the 3d6 to beat that? As long as the 3d6's highest value isn't less than n, it wins. So that's (6³ - (n-1)³).

Then we add these up, (n² - (n-1)²)(6³ - (n-1)³), for n = 1..6, to get the total number of configurations where 3d6 ties or wins, and divide by 6^5 to get the probability that this occurs.

It generalizes to other pools pretty easily, just change the exponents and the range of n.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:58 am

Would Adam and Steve be a good name for a progressive Christian Metal Band?

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 6:55 am

Would someone who isn't crazy tell me what the deal is with the secret Trans-Pacific Partnetship deal? Pretty much the only info I found is from unreliable sources, or reliably bad sources (such as the friend who believes every conspiracy theory ever uttered).

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 7:15 am

Koumei wrote:Would someone who isn't crazy tell me what the deal is with the secret Trans-Pacific Partnetship deal? Pretty much the only info I found is from unreliable sources, or reliably bad sources (such as the friend who believes every conspiracy theory ever uttered).

Mostly, you won't notice the TPP one way or the other. While people like to quote very large sounding numbers at you and claim it's the biggest trade deal evar, the reality is that the countries involved already trade with each other quite a bit and the legal barriers to trade are fairly minimal. People in Saint Louis don't buy fresh cut flowers from Xinjiang because there's a fuck tonne of land and water in the way - not because taxes are too high. The economies involved are very big, but the actual difference in trade that's going to happen is very small.

Now, here's the bad part: industry lobbyists are being allowed to propose sections of treaty that are relevant to their interests, but the overall negotiations are secret so people with more general concerns like environmental activists and labor unions can't mount effective opposition to potential provisions that they find noxious. Or rather, to provisions that they will find noxious when they finally find out about them after they've cleared most or all hurdles for inclusion into the final treaty.

Since industry lawyers are one of the lowest forms of life on Earth, some of the proposals they have apparently submitted are batshit crazy. According to some of the leaks we've had, some of the industry proposals have included such wishlist items as the ability to apply Chinese environmental law (such as it is) in the United States or the ability to extend intellectual property rights over genetic sequences to new and more insane heights. These are bad things, and due to the head-in-ass manner the treaty is being negotiated, some of the crazy shit may well make it to the final draft.

Opposing the TPP makes sense. You should probably oppose it. But if it passes it probably won't make a lot of difference. The increase in trade is going to be extremely minimal, and I don't think a lot of judges are going to be super impressed with arguments about secret treaty provisions overriding local laws.

-Username17

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 7:32 am

Thanks. That's the main problem - "according to a leak, a SUPER SECRET TREATY says any corporation can now sue our government if it doesn't like our laws!" "And we all know about this super secret how?"

Now I kind of assumed it would be bad because our government is all for it (and they would put their support behind sickle-cell anaemia, such is their alignment), and the bit where they're too chickenshit to actually let us know what's going on - but that's actually been their way since getting in. Ignorance is bliss, after all!

So I'll oppose it where I can and not lose too much sleep over it.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 7:42 am

Yeah, the secrecy involved in the process is bullshit for the usual reasons. The secrecy exists only so massive corporate interests can push for blatantly evil and abusive things without having to worry about things like the public realizing they are evil and abusive institutions.

But there are two big changes that are worth noting:
1) Intellectual property law. Big pharmacy is trying very hard to push United States IP law (which is at least slightly more draconic than the IP law of other treaty members) on everyone else in this treaty, because they want to prevent the use of generics. This will kill real people and generally raise healthcare costs in certain member countries. Undoubtably, entertainment industry lobbyists will take advantage of these provisions to make the internet a shittier place while they're at it. You should oppose the TPP because killing people is bad and a free internet is good.

2) It will provide a mechanism for resolving disputes between businesses and foreign states. This isn't that unusual, because that is a thing trade agreements pretty much have to do. But again, because this whole fucking thing is secret, industry lobbyists are without doubt scheming for a method of arbitration that is as favorable to them as it possibly can be and their proposals likely look like something out of a Shadowrun book. This is where your crazy friend is getting his rant from. It's exaggerated, but the concern itself isn't completely imaginary.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 12:11 pm

A draft of the TPP is on wikileaks, if you're interested. Several interesting legal changes for all countries would be ...

1: Patents will be gained on "new" things which do not have functional differences to extant products. So the life-saving pill which is green instead of white gets another 14 years of monopoly rents. And then it's blue. And then a different shape white. So patents are forever.

2: Patents will apply on genes, and the methods of testing for them. So if someone finds a gene that has to do with some type of cancer, they own every method of checking to see if you have it so it can be treated, and can charge what they like for that. The supreme court could overrule that again, but it's in a trade treaty, so they really can't.

3: Drug companies will be able to seek judicial private trade court redress over the purchase of medicines by health boards and hospitals and such.

4: All companies of all types will be able to sue governments in private trade courts over any legislation. So if you ban the sale of eye-gougers to under-14 year olds, the makers of eye-gougers can sue you in front of their pet not-actually-a-judge for lost sales in perpetuity. At the same time, companies cannot be held responsible for things which are not yet legislated, so the social costs of eye-gougers being legal don't count in the court case.

5: All data is copyright and owned by important people, and so they have a right to search all of your data streams at their whim to check that you aren't stealing any of it. Countries are required to reconfigure their internet to let media companies search everything (and also the NSA, duh).

NZ is leading the way in #5. Our ISPs are already required to vet all staff and equipment with the local data-spy agency, the GCSB. They are, in part, doing this to enforce copyright law. Yay. Guess who's also reading this post: fuck the GCSB. http://thepiratebay.org/

And it basically just gets crazier and crazier from there. The US is generally opposed by all the other countries, so most of this corporate wet dream simply won't pass, but these are signs, like many others, that corporate bodies think Cyberpunk was just a bit soft.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Tue Feb 25, 2014 5:07 pm

Something I've noticed with the creator of the Goblins webcomic; the guy has terrible time management skills. Is there a reason why he's gotten so invested into the shading? It's obviously slowing him down and taking up time. The investment the comic takes up for him has been elaborated on very thoroughly. I doubt that many people would even complain (more than usual) if he reverted to B&W or simple colouring. Doing that should lighten his workload overwhelmingly and permit him to not only release on a timely schedule, but have a backlog for once.

Eikre · Post by **Eikre** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 3:00 am

You read goblins, and the first deficiency you notice in the author is his time management skills?

I totally agree that he shouldn't keep hyperpolishing all his work, but mostly because all his coloring and inking skills are hot rancid fucking garbage. If he can't at least be fucked to go back to his palette and find a different color gray to shade the armor on one of his dwarves when he decides to illustrate an incomprehensible wrestling match between them, then what is even the point in not leaving it in greyscale? He's trying to make incremental refinements to step 6 when he doesn't even have a basic proficiency in step 3.

If anything, he should leave all his stuff in the sketchy form just so that his addiction to ~MOVEMENT LINES~ doesn't keep cutting atrocious opaque bolts of solid color through all his action scenes.

erik · Post by **erik** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 3:40 am

STOP LIKING WHAT I dONT

Aw fuck it.

Anywho. Weirder is that he usually keeps to his update schedule (ie always the day after it is said to be posted). Dropping off the radar without warning is a sin in internet world. You don't do that just because you want to focus on shading more.

I'm sure we'll learn what drama caused his new hiatus eventually since he doesn't seem to suppress things much.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 6:32 am

I'm looking for first hand accounts from the civil war or pre civil war era where white northerners call white southerners lazy. I've already got some academic papers on the topic of southern laziness and even the explanation of "Southerners are lazy because they have hookworms, the 'germ of laziness'!"

Especially newspaper/magazine cartoons if there are any.

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 6:03 pm

@virgil and Eikre: You read goblins, and the first deficiency you notice in the author is his artistic skills?

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:03 pm

nockermensch wrote:@virgil and Eikre: You read goblins, and the first deficiency you notice in the author is his artistic skills?

Insofar as his ability manage his time with the skills he has, yes?

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:20 pm

virgil wrote:
nockermensch wrote:@virgil and Eikre: You read goblins, and the first deficiency you notice in the author is his artistic skills?
Insofar as his ability manage his time with the skills he has, yes?

I'll read it again to see if the writing got any better. I read goblins years ago and it was such a dramatic shitfest that the art was seriously the lesser concern.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 1:03 am

Marketplace money (npr show) changed its host a couple weeks ago. I really can't find out why they changed the host. Does anyone know why they did?

The wife laid down the gauntlet that my net-fu was weak and that's why I ouldn't find out the reason. I say that the my use of the Den as a net-resource shows that my net-fu is not at all weak but over 9000.

I think I just dated myself with that reference...

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 1:11 am

OgreBattle wrote:I'm looking for first hand accounts from the civil war or pre civil war era where white northerners call white southerners lazy. I've already got some academic papers on the topic of southern laziness and even the explanation of "Southerners are lazy because they have hookworms, the 'germ of laziness'!"

Especially newspaper/magazine cartoons if there are any.

http://www.teachamericanhistory.org/Fil ... il_War.pdf