The Gaming Den

...is that really a fetish? If even a tenth of the things I've heard about how messed-up the dating and relationship scene are in Japan, yes, it's now a fetish. Men are unable to find partners and are swearing off sexuality, staying at home and baking cupcakes. No, really. from The Guardian: Why ha...

If you go back to the science fiction of the past, you can get more interesting worlds that aren't so limited by our modern knowledge.

If you're Athletic, you're likely good at a lot of physical things. You can be good at Baseball and Football and Golf because being coordinated and physically conditioned apply to all of those situations. That's only true at a fairly low level of casual play. Professional players often develop phys...

Well, Venus doesn't rotate and has no magnetic field. So even if you could somehow strip off the hyperdense carbon dioxide atmosphere, it still wouldn't be convertible to something Earthlike. They recently made metallic hydrogen, although no one can tell if it's stable or has any useful properties. ...

Part of the matter is that we know just enough about our solar system to know that there's no place really attractive for human beings. Not even for terraforming - neither Mars nor Venus is suitable.

Read anything by Jack Vance. Here: Green Magic

The magicians spend most of their time jockeying for status in endless arguments over minutiae, and indulging their basic desires. They're not actually working to recover lost magics or try to save the world. In fairness, it's canonical that the world has already been saved as many times as it can b...

It's been a while since I read this book, but IIRC the authors argue that there's little if any growth to Dying Earth characters, so XP has little role. In fairness, Cugel never gets any stronger, smarter, or better. And neither does anyone else, really. 'Improvement' isn't the point of the Dying Ea...

Seems silly, since the aspects of Erfworld that make it unique (Fate) can't really be mechanically represented, and the world without those features is a very generic hex-based system. The parts that they can do, have almost certainly been done better than they can, and the parts they can't do - well.

I had been 'arguing' off-and-on with this guy online - a real libertarian douchenozzle. I then find out his name isn't a coincidence, he actually is the author of the Dresden Files. Thanks internet, for tarnishing the image (previously near blank) of the author of one of my more enjoyed book series...

Now if Podesta had a copy of the famous 'Alien' stele...

As an alternative to centrally planned city design, that should probably be.

Ah, one of the many problems with Wikipedia.

virgil wrote:I have been submitting applications for five years (when I started at this company), both similar and dissimilar positions, averaging less than one interview per year.

Sounds like you aren't in demand. I suggest you be grateful for what you have.

Except they didn't choose 'stats', they choose ultimate fates. Elrond's attributes didn't change any more than Arwen's did when they made their choices. It was whether they would be immortal within the world, or die and leave the world. They didn't get any smarter or dumber, stronger or weaker, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviancy_ ... ion_spiral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanic_ritual_abuse

Also, by all means read works by Steven Gould. Impulse was particularly good, I thought.

I also recommend the Principia Discordia, although I don't think many here will get the joke.

To return to the topic of book recommendations, here's one:
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Gould lied about so many things it's tedious to narrow them down. If you make dubious assertions, then you must back them up. I'll remember that if I ever feel like making dubious assertions. In the meantime, the various controversies surrounding Gould are so well-documented and easily accessed that...

What, you're too lazy to search out your own data?

Try starting here.

Gould lied about the data and its implications. I suggest finding a more honest author to learn about biology.

I don't believe the CIA is competent enough to manage blowing up the WTC.

Unfortunately, all of the information about Putin's assistance to Trump was filed alongside Obama's real birth certificate. And both were entombed beneath the radioactive waste material disposal site.

Sorry!