Watt’s Up With That brings us some interesting news:
The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming “incontrovertible.”
In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,”There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution.”
But the Goracle testified before congress that climate change due to anthropogenic global warming was the most certain scientific fact with the possible exception of gravity. Obviously the physicists are wrong.
While having dinner with some neighbors at Zeek’s Pizza, one of the neighbors was recounting an argument with their child. At the climax of the argument the youth used the most hurtful curse possible, “You don’t even believe in diversity!”. I couldn’t stop laughing, fortunately I hadn’t taken a drink or beer would have been frothing from my nose.
Woken up early because of lightning and thunder (though not at 2 AM like Alyssa) — unplugged a lot of equipment as the lightning was right on top of us. Then went back to bed — probably a bad idea because I woke up feeling worse.
Then this morning because it was raining and I was running behind I headed up to 75th and 15th to catch the 373 bus. While waiting, I noticed that the light was out and began alternating cringing and shaking my head because of drivers not paying attention (running the intersection, tailing, not yielding the right of way, etc). Then finally a woman in an SUV was t-boned by an elderly woman in an older Lexus. The SUV limped out of the intersection to park south of me (at the bus stop). The Lexus was left in the intersection. I called 911 and eventually summoned police, fire, and an ambulance. The woman in the Lexus was clearly disoriented — most likely because of the airbags (according to the first episode of Burn Notice the blow from an airbag will save your life but it’ll disorient you enough to have your hands cable tied to the steering wheel). A couple other witnesses came out — one a white woman driving West bound on 75, and two Latino men (not sure where they was during the accident, but they had a large truck for construction work). The primary Latino man was talking to the elderly woman trying to determine her condition and get her car out of the way — the last thing we needed was another accident.
By this time the SUV driver was out of her car on the phone (I believe to her insurance company, but possibly 911) asking if the Lexus driver needed an ambulance. When she got off the phone she came up to me got my info and started asking about fault. I indicated that to me the collision was entirely the fault of the Lexus.
The Latino men and I pushed the Lexus out of the intersection to the East side of the intersection on 75th — and the Lexus had to be told several times to apply the brakes to stop her car, and then several more times to put the car in park and turn the engine off. The female witness spoke with the Lexus driver some.
A fire truck showed up first and the crew dispersed to each vehicle. The lead firefighter spoke with the SUV woman, me, and the female witness — the Latino seems to have disappeared (probably had to get to work). Then the police officer arrived and started taking statements. After speaking with me and taking my info, he let me go.
Of course I missed both the 373 and 72, so I walked to work to the sound of thunder booming in the distance.
Lawless Metro bus drivers have been a constant problem in the University District. The most persistent example is at the intersection of 45th and 15th Ave NE — buses turning left to travel west on 45th regularly (many times a day) run a red turn-arrow light and block the intersection so that pedestrians and cars cannot pass. I and others have reported this issue regularly but no one at Metro cares. Today, I almost saw a couple people get killed by another lawless bus driver.
In the heart of the University District, University Way (”The Ave”) does not allow passing. It is fairly common for cars to try to pass a bus that is embarking/disembarking passengers — I always am extremely careful when exiting a bus and then passing in front of the bus to use a crosswalk. Today I saw a Metro bus try to pass an articulated bus that was embarking a passenger with limited mobility. The offending bus was a #30 — I wasn’t able to get a good look at the bus but the bus number was something like 3036 — but it was whichever one was at 45th and the Ave at 12:27PM today. As the #30 bus was accelerating by the parked bus, the driver of the parked bus had the presence of mind to lay on his horn to indicate to the rogue driver that he was about to run down some pedestrians in the intersection. The #30 stopped in time so that I (and all other King County tax payers) won’t have to pay for the wrongful death settlement.
Bus drivers have to put up with a lot of crap that they shouldn’t have to — particularly from passengers, but NOTHING justifies this kind of reckless behavior. This driver deserves to be fired immediately.
Page 280 of the PHB lists 15 different ways to gain combat advantage — and there are more. But there is no advantage to stacking these unfavorable conditions which makes the game a bit easier, but really doesn’t make any sense:
Senario 1: You are attacking a troll. The troll is unaware of you so you have Combat advantage — +2 to your attack roll.
Senario 2: You are going to attack a troll. Two of your companions have flanked the troll, and the troll is dazed from an attack by your warlock companion. You have remained hidden so the troll is unaware of you. You have combat advantage 2 ways (dazed, unaware), or 3 ways in my reckoning (flanked, dazed, unaware), but your bonus to your attack roll is still +2.
When fighting stronger opponents it is very helpful to be able to stack as many tactical advantages as possible to increase your chances of hitting and doing damage — in other words wolf pack tactics. But it doesn’t make sense to stack some of the conditions (like Surprised and Stunned). My rule:
Combat Advantage (Mental): The defender’s mental condition has been compromised such that it is less able to defend itself. The attacker gains a +2 Mental Combat Advantage bonus to attack if the defender is Dazed, Helpless, Stunned, Surprised, or Unconscious.
Combat Advantage (Physical): The defender’s physical situation limits its ability to defend itself. The attacker gains a +2 Physical Combat Advantage bonus to attack if the defender is Balancing, Climbing, Prone (melee only), Restrained, Running, Squeezing.
Combat Advantage (Tactical): The attacker (or his allies) has the defender in a advantageous tactical situation. The attacker gains a +2 Tactical Combat Advantage to attack if the defender is Flanked, Unable to see the attacker, or Unaware of the attacker.
Stacking: Combat Advantage bonuses do not stack within type, but an attacker can stack Combat Advantages of multiple types. For example, an attacker would have a +6 bonus against an unconscious opponent with a melee attack (Mental: Unconscious, Helpless; Physical: Prone; Tactical: Unaware of, Unable to see attacker).
This is more complicated but strongly rewards parties (and nasty DMs) when they think creatively to place and opponent in the worst possible situation.
From page 278 of the PHB:
Natural 20: If you roll a 20 on the die when making an attack roll, you score a critical hit if your total attack roll is high enough to hit your target’s defense. If your attack roll is too low to score a critical hit, you still hit automatically.
From a realism perspective, this rule is fine — even though the 1st level Fighter rolled a natural 20 to hit the Ancient Dragon (and thus scored a miraculous hit) she shouldn’t do critical damage because it was a fluke that she could even hit the dragon. But from a game perspective this is just an additional rule complication that shouldn’t be necessary. Just about any opponent you face should be able to be hit by a 20 + your attack bonuses (and the reverse). If not the encounter is not balanced properly. Why not just simplify matters and have a 20 always be critical?
Natural 20: If you roll a 20 on the die when making an attack roll, you score a critical hit.
The 4E rules on flanking are very similar to the 3.x rules that I didn’t like. The rules are quite clear (PHB 285): “Combat Advantage: You have combat advantage … against an enemy you flank.” [emphasis mine]. I hate this because it doesn’t make any sense that if a monster is flanked by two PCs that a third PC attacking the monster should not also have Combat Advantage over the monster. If you are distracted by two foes on opposite sides of you adding a third vector of attack should be harder not easier to defend against.
My rule change would be to add a new condition to the list of conditions on page 277 of the PHB:
Flanked
* You grant combat advantage
You would gain the Flanked condition under the same rules on page 285 of the PHB, but once flanked anyone attacking you would have combat advantage.
This rule change will help encourage parties (and nasty DMs) to use the tactical roles better. If two melee beaters maneuver to flank (perhaps with assistance from a leader), not only will they have an easier time hitting, but the fragile ranged specialists (e.g., bow wielding ranger, warlock, or wizard) will be able to take advantage of the opponents compromised position.
If I lost my job at the UW, maybe I’ll look into researching the untapped power of breast motion:
Then one day recently I had an idea. As I rode public transportation to the office, my messenger bag slung uncomfortably across my chest, I thought, “Why not put the girls to work?” Human-powered devices are showing up everywhere, from Rotterdam’s sustainable dance floor to human-powered gyms in Hong Kong. The time seemed perfect—perhaps even overdue!—for a bra that could harness the untapped power of breast motion…
I decided to run the question past some scientists. It turns out that the physics of breast motion have been studied closely for the last two decades by a gamut of researchers, most of them women. LaJean Lawson, a former professor of exercise science at Oregon State University, has studied breast motion since 1985 and now works as a consultant for companies like Nike to develop better sports bra designs. Lawson was enthusiastic about my idea but warned it would be tricky to pull off. You would need the right breast size and the right material, she explained, and the bra itself would have to be cleverly designed. “It’s just a matter of finding the sweet spot, between reducing motion to the point where it’s comfortable but still allowing enough motion to power your iPod,” she said.
I’m sure I’d be very dedicated to the research…
Dinged by a V-string:
Macrida Patterson, 52, alleges that she was hurt last May by a defective “low-rise v-string” from the Victoria’s Secret “Sexy Little Thing” line, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court. A copy of her June 9 complaint, which does not specify monetary damages, can be found below. Patterson’s lawyer, Jason Buccat, told TSG that a “design problem” caused the decorative piece to come loose and strike Patterson in the eye, causing damage to her cornea.
What was she doing to the panties to cause the “decorative piece” to shoot off of the panties and into her eye?
Today as a part of Dragon Magazine issue 364, Wizards released some new illusion based powers for the Wizard. It is nice to see some additional powers with specific flavor for the Wizard who is a bit fragmented in the Player’s Handbook — and since these powers attack an opponent’s Will defense they can be a critical part of a successful party since many tough creatures have deficient Will defenses. Additionally, while these powers don’t deal as much damage as others, they have some very useful additional effects — imposing attack penalties, slowing, knocking prone, immobilizing, and granting combat advantage. Having a party member that can degrade the capabilities of enemies at range thus allowing the melee beaters to do their job more easily will greatly improve your chances of accomplishing multiple milestones per “day”. I’ll probably draw up a wizard that uses some of these powers soon.
