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  New federal party leader in Canada
Posted by: robkelk - 10-04-2020, 08:29 AM - Forum: Politics and Other Fun - Replies (5)

Well, we had a political party choose a new leader in Canada this weekend - if folks in the USA think "party primaries", you won't be too far off the mark.

Since this particular party is one of the five parties that currently has seats in Parliament, this is reasonably important.

But, rather than announce the results right away, I think it's time for another round of "Who would you pick as national political party leader, based solely on appearance?" We did this before and the results were illuminating.

Here are the candidates:

[Image: green-party-leadership-candidates.jpg]

Who's your pick for a potential Prime Minister of Canada, based solely on the photos?

"Eight Green leadership candidates were on the final ballot: (top: L to R) Annamie Paul, David Merner, Amita Kuttner, Glen Murray, (bottom: L to R) Dimitri Lascaris, Meryam Haddad, Andrew West and Dr. Courtney Howard. (Collage/ Green Party of Canada)"


As to who won...

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  Log Horizon Season 3 Officially Announced
Posted by: Black Aeronaut - 10-03-2020, 05:48 PM - Forum: General Chatter - Replies (5)

That's right.

After all this time, it's finally back.

No English subs on the trailer, unfortunately, but it looks damn spiffy regardless.

Air date is set for January 13, 2021.

https://comicbook.com/anime/news/log-hor...ser-anime/

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  Pokemon Essentials returns in 2020
Posted by: classicdrogn - 09-30-2020, 01:38 PM - Forum: General Chatter - No Replies

If anyone here has an interest in Pokemon fan-games, you've probably heard of it before - a huge (relatively, as in double-diogit megabytes, but that's big for 2d sprite stuff and text scripting files) asset pack for making Pokemon games in RPGMaker ... um, I think specifically XP? No idea how hard it is to import the script and projects into newer versions. Well, after three years, v18 (and just Monday 18.1 with a few additions and fixes) has been released, covering up to gen 7 material. Link is to the announcement thread with a download link, no account necessary:

https://reliccastle.com/essentials/

It is of course entirely unofficial and at best dubiously legal in terms of copyright on the ripped game art and trademarks, but but unless you go making a big splash like Pokemon Uranium you're not likely to see anyone professing to care or make trouble for you in more than the abstract. If just playing new games on a low end PC is as far as your interest extends, obviously it'll take a bit longer for folks actually making them to convert or start new things, but as with many other can-do-it-in-lockdown things COVID has brought about a new surge in interest across the board.

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  Well played, Google, well played.
Posted by: Bob Schroeck - 09-29-2020, 08:42 AM - Forum: General Chatter - Replies (3)

So, for reasons related to having a senior moment during which my vocabulary was in the other room and refusing to come out, I made a quick Google search to find the word I was trying to think of:


.png   anagram.PNG (Size: 19.83 KB / Downloads: 82)

And my immediate reaction was, "Wait, that has nothing to do with...  ah, jeeze, Google."

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  Feel-good stories spotted in the news
Posted by: robkelk - 09-26-2020, 09:09 AM - Forum: General Chatter - Replies (56)

We have threads for oddities and for weird and interesting science, but not for good news? Especially now? Time to fix that.

First:

Ryan Reynolds to use part of his own salary to hire BIPOC crew members on upcoming film

(BIPOC: Black, Indigenous and people of colour )

Essentially, this is paid on-the-job training that can actually be put on a resume for a career in the film industry. And Ryan Reynolds is paying for it out of his own pocket - he's walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

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  Gundam robot takes its first steps
Posted by: SilverFang01 - 09-23-2020, 04:21 PM - Forum: General Chatter - Replies (5)

Big in Japan: giant Gundam robot makes its first moves in Yokohama

And video of the event:

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  Socialism
Posted by: robkelk - 09-21-2020, 09:16 PM - Forum: Politics and Other Fun - Replies (10)

As requested, spun off into its own thread.

So, exactly what is socialism?

Socialism in theory:

The dictionary definitions in Oxford and Merriam-Webster are remarkably similar (although M-W has a definition that OED doesn't), so I'll be lazy and just quote M-W's wording of the definitions that the two dictionaries have in common.

Quote:1. : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
3. : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

I think we can all agree that the Marxist definition simply does not work. Marxism fails to take into account the simple fact that people like to own things.


Socialism in practice:

"[A]dvocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods"... We already have collective ownership; we call it the stock market. But there are companies where "collective ownership" means the employees are the only ones who own any of the shares, and every employee owns at least one share. And those companies are just as successful as other companies, if not more so - the employees have a tangible benefit to working there. They're making themselves rich, not toiling away for the 1%. (The less said about "governmental ownership", the better - governments are not businesses, and cannot effectively operate the way that businesses operate.)

But that isn't what people think of when they hear the word "socialist". This is, or at least it's one example:

[Image: you-get-some-dignity-and-you-get-some-dignity.png]

The descriptive text goes on to say:

Quote:Finland explained himself in the comic, but in 2010 Denmark started giving heroine[sic] to drug addicts for free and it was such a huge success that it has continued until today. Because of this Norway has started experimenting with it too.

It’s a lot cheaper for society because the addicts commit less crime, they don’t have to spend money on drugs so instead they spend it on things that are more healthy for them so they don’t end up on the hospital as often, they have to take the drugs in special clinics so there’s no chance of them taking an overdose or using dirty needles and spreading diseases among each other, there’s always staff ready to help them if they want to get off the drugs, and it’s a lot more effective way to help more people because addicts come into contact with professionals who want to help them before they even think about getting help themselves.

Nobody wants to be homeless or an addict. Though they often end up getting involved in criminality because of their situation, the act of being homeless or an addict is not a crime in itself and the people deserve help like anyone else.

I happen to think that this particular example goes too far to the left. Not in providing homes to the homeless - multiple real-life case studies from both North America and Europe show that doing this gets people out of the recidivism cycle and the hospital emergency rooms, which saves tax money in the in the long run, and thus is not really left-wing at all... as long as the formerly-homeless actually find work (but they're more likely to find work once they can put home addresses on their resumes) and start paying rent on those apartments. What I'm not wild about is the giving drugs to addicts; I'd much rather see programs to help addicts break their addictions (and that's where my charitable donations go).

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  Plot hole in canon?
Posted by: robkelk - 09-21-2020, 02:18 PM - Forum: Drunkard's Walk VIII: Harry Potter and the Man from Otherearth - Replies (4)

Well, yeah - plot holes accumulate when a series is plotted out one book at a time, and it doesn't matter which series we're talking about.

Quoting from entry #5 in this list of plot holes:

cracked.com Wrote:We're picking on Harry Potter especially for this because after they use the time machine that one time, that was it. For the rest of the saga, the entire wizarding world is under siege from a magical Hitler, and they never again find the time travel useful? Despite all the people who die in the Harry Potter series (and post Azkaban, they start killing them off like it's a Friday the 13th movie) he never goes back and saves any of them?

Selfish prick.

I assume the easiest way to address this particular plot hole - "Why not simply use the Time Turner to assemble an army of Harrys, Dougs, etc. and take down Mouldyshorts once and for all?" is to paper over it - make sure Doug never finds out about the existence of time travel in the setting. But it might be fun to come up with a reason not to use it... or a reason to use it, and have it go wrong... or go horribly right.

("Mouldyshorts" is from the Sluggy Freelance parody of HP, BTW. It comes to mind because it's a setting where the Time Turner is used to short-circuit the entire plot.)

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  Ruth Bader Ginsburg passess
Posted by: RMH999 - 09-18-2020, 07:22 PM - Forum: Politics and Other Fun - Replies (27)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/politics/...index.html

How soon before McConnell says, "That rule about not appoint Supreme Court Justices in an Election Year?  Yeah, that only applies to Black Democrat Presidents."

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  waiting out the storm
Posted by: Rajvik - 09-17-2020, 04:24 PM - Forum: General Chatter - No Replies

No, i'm not making a political statement outside the political boards. for those of you who don't know me or where i live, (in general) i live in Northwest Florida, yes, i just endured Sally. Unlike a lot of folks, i stay prepared for Hurricanes because, having grown up here i know what they are like and how fast they can come on, not to mention how long it can take for the relevant people to get power up and running again. 

if anyone else on the board was or is in the path, here is a place to talk about it, even to vent when it seems like the powers that be are taking forever to get things done for cleanup. 

Remember, the first 72 are on you, (meaning it will take at least three whole days for FEMA to come into your area after the storm.

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