Tali'Thread vas Clan Zorah nar BSN 6.0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyQCGweLCRQ

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VFxUwNUQsI

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qzje_vFlac

[Dragaros]

[[ "Overwatch's fan-favourite cowboy character Jesse McCree finally has a new name after Activision Blizzard committed to changing it in the wake of California's ongoing lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and a "frat boy" culture at the company. Henceforth, Jesse McCree will be known as Cole Cassidy.

McCree is just one of many characters across Blizzard's portfolio to have taken his name from a developer at the company. However, back in August, Blizzard announced it would be renaming the cowboy after the real-life Jesse McCree, who had been named in several accounts of the studio's toxic work culture, was confirmed to have departed the company amid the fallout from the lawsuit - although no reason for his exit was given.

Two months on, the official Overwatch Twitter feed has now revealed Cole Cassidy to be the new name for the sharp shooter formerly known as Jesse McCree, with the change set to occur in an update next Tuesday, 26th October.

"The first thing a renegade loses is their name, and this one gave up his long ago," Blizzard writes in the blurb accompanying the news. "Running from his past meant running from himself, and each passing year only widened the divide between who he had been and what he had become. But in every cowboy's life, there comes a time when he has to stop and make a stand."

"To make this new Overwatch better - to make things right - he had to be honest with his team and himself," Blizzard continues. "The cowboy he was rode into the sunset, and Cole Cassidy face the world at dawn".

Cassidy isn't the only Blizzard character to be renamed in light of the ongoing California lawsuit, of course. Blizzard previously confirmed it would be removing references to other former Blizzard employees from its titles, including nods to former Diablo 4 game director Luis Barriga and former World of Warcraft designer Jonathan LeCraft.

World of Warcraft fans recently also launched a protest demanding the removal of a quest-giver in Stormwind City named Field Marshal Afrasiabi - named after former senior creative director of World of Warcraft Alex Afrasiabi, who was fired from Blizzard in 2020 "for his misconduct in his treatment of other employees" following an internal investigation." ]]

[SciFlyBoy]

My mom (a Nurse Epidemiologist) sent me a post about the current salmonella outbreak in certain onions in the U.S.

https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-food ... tober-2021

They've known about this for a little while by now, but onions store for months so throw out any unmarked onions and clean anything they might have touched. The article lists different brands they were sold under.

[Vol]

...Onions store for months? How!? I can't keep those fuckers from going soft and moldy more than a few weeks.

[Vol]

Taking a glance at the ole' furry community, in lighter news. Apparently there was a convention and some (maybe a large group) of guys got together a bukkaked a pizza, then left it in a box in the hallway. Compared to other conventions, or my expectation that every inch of every hotel has been soaked in bodily filth already, this doesn't register as particularly worse than what I would imagine most cleaning staff find in any given bathroom.

The waste of pizza is what bothers me most, really, but the seriousness in which "jizz pizza" is being used as a symbol for larger discussions is so absurd, you gotta love it. Real party animals, these guys.

@Alien: I've started playing Cyberpunk, so my thinking is a bit primed, but assuming humans and our biosphere still exist in a million years, I can't imagine there is any notable natural evolution occurring outside of preserves, because we'd be so deep into the process.

[Alienmorph]

@Alien: I've started playing Cyberpunk, so my thinking is a bit primed, but assuming humans and our biosphere still exist in a million years, I can't imagine there is any notable natural evolution occurring outside of preserves, because we'd be so deep into the process.

True. A lot of spec. evo projects are stuff like After Man, where mankind leavs Earth or go extinct, and it's about what might grow there in our absence. A fun one is Serina, that is about post-humans leaving an handful of Earth species on a terraformed planet far away from the solar system and watch them evolve and diversify. And then there's the really freaky stuff that is about imagining possible future evolutions of humankind, like All Tomorrows.

There tho were a few examples of spec evo projects just trying to imagine a future where humans do stick around and the remaining plants and animals have to adapt to US, too... however I tend to enjoy the more outlandish and fantastical stuff.

[Vol]

True. A lot of spec. evo projects are stuff like After Man, where mankind leavs Earth or go extinct, and it's about what might grow there in our absence. A fun one is Serina, that is about post-humans leaving an handful of Earth species on a terraformed planet far away from the solar system and watch them evolve and diversify. And then there's the really freaky stuff that is about imagining possible future evolutions of humankind, like All Tomorrows.

There tho were a few examples of spec evo projects just trying to imagine a future where humans do stick around and the remaining plants and animals have to adapt to US, too... however I tend to enjoy the more outlandish and fantastical stuff.

Assuming what few fossils we have accurately reflect a sample of what life was like from the time they were in, it seems like Earth life is pretty well set into some standard forms (crabs, for one), and that the really weird stuff got sifted out early on. So if humans disappeared, or we confined ourselves to walled gardens and let nature retake everything else, I would think we would still end up something that looks like birds, something that looks like fish, something that looks like apes, something that looks like cows, etc.

[Alienmorph]

Assuming what few fossils we have accurately reflect a sample of what life was like from the time they were in, it seems like Earth life is pretty well set into some standard forms (crabs, for one), and that the really weird stuff got sifted out early on. So if humans disappeared, or we confined ourselves to walled gardens and let nature retake everything else, I would think we would still end up something that looks like birds, something that looks like fish, something that looks like apes, something that looks like cows, etc.

There are body shapes that natural selection tends to favor, on Earth, because thei're very functional. However, it seems like whenever there's been a mass extinction, the surviving species tend to multiply and diversify in all kinds of strange and unexpected forms.

Also, the "life tends to evolve into crab-like beings" is indeed a bit a trueism, to the point is has been given a name: carcinization. Apparently there's been at least 5 or 6 non-closely related families of animals that have evolved into crab-looking things over the eons. Another example is the "return to fish" thing, aka where land animals re-evolve into marine organisms, reptiles have done it 2-3 times (at least) during the Mesozoic, mammals did it right after it, and there's a good argument to make about penguins being the beginning of a lineage of fully marine birds, if left the space and time to keep evolving.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMgGDBUHMQY

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eybqgk5-w4I

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjlfZtJwu-o

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1zw62FnQI8

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU8nACs6jpI

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydQNKzl7In4

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zx-LS7Luds

[Dragaros]

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/who-is-ka ... rhammer-3/

[Dragaros]

"Fatal Frame Could Get More Remasters in the Future, Series Director Suggests; Fatal Frame's series director Makoto Shibata has hinted at the possibility of more remasters of previous entries in the franchise."

"CD Projekt Has Acquired The Molasses Flood Indie studio The Molasses Flood, known for The Flame in the Flood and Drake Hollow, has been acquired by CD Projekt."

"A New Killer Instinct Game is “in Active Development” – Rumour; An Xbox insider claims that a new Killer Instinct game is currently "in active development" at Xbox, though there's no word on who might be working on it."

"Bloodborne sequel, PC port, and PS5 upgrade reportedly in development at Bluepoint; The Demon's Souls team could be heading to Yharnam"

"Crazy Rumor Says NetherRealm is Making 'Multiversus' Game Inspired By Super Smash Bros; A leaker shares the alleged concept and details behind NetherRealm's next title, which would be a full departure from its previous games."

[Vol]

There are body shapes that natural selection tends to favor, on Earth, because thei're very functional. However, it seems like whenever there's been a mass extinction, the surviving species tend to multiply and diversify in all kinds of strange and unexpected forms.

Also, the "life tends to evolve into crab-like beings" is indeed a bit a trueism, to the point is has been given a name: carcinization. Apparently there's been at least 5 or 6 non-closely related families of animals that have evolved into crab-looking things over the eons. Another example is the "return to fish" thing, aka where land animals re-evolve into marine organisms, reptiles have done it 2-3 times (at least) during the Mesozoic, mammals did it right after it, and there's a good argument to make about penguins being the beginning of a lineage of fully marine birds, if left the space and time to keep evolving.

The coelacanth is fascinating, because assuming we haven't fucked up the fossil dating, that fish has been more or less stable as is for at least 400,000,000+ years. It seems incredible to structurally change so relatively little for 200m years before the dinosaurs, through their entire reign, then until today, despite the entire planet being in completely different configuration, atmospheres, temperatures, all the possible mutations and selection pressures, all the extinction events, etc. On the genetic level, probably quite different, but we're talking a long time even on the geologic scale, from within the ballpark of complex life on land (That's right before the Denovian, right?).

Seems like a combination of living down far enough that very little ever changes and some sturdy genetics, so that even when populations split apart, the basic form reasserts itself despite other changes. A stinky, oily fish, puttering around mindlessly for a couple hundred million years. Romantic!

So I would suspect that if we all went into cryo-sleep for 100,000,000 years, and assuming the new atmosphere and microscopic life doesn't immediately kill us, it wouldn't be as alien as we'd think.

[Dragaros]

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/10/25 ... abilities/

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCbMVbeKlCg

[Alienmorph]

The coelacanth is fascinating, because assuming we haven't fucked up the fossil dating, that fish has been more or less stable as is for at least 400,000,000+ years. It seems incredible to structurally change so relatively little for 200m years before the dinosaurs, through their entire reign, then until today, despite the entire planet being in completely different configuration, atmospheres, temperatures, all the possible mutations and selection pressures, all the extinction events, etc. On the genetic level, probably quite different, but we're talking a long time even on the geologic scale, from within the ballpark of complex life on land (That's right before the Denovian, right?). Seems like a combination of living down far enough that very little ever changes and some sturdy genetics, so that even when populations split apart, the basic form reasserts itself despite other changes. A stinky, oily fish, puttering around mindlessly for a couple hundred million years. Romantic!

The coelacanth is a bit of a red herring, most "living fossils" are. There ARE types of animals that endure the passage of the ages better than other but it's usually either because they're generalists with very good body plans, like sharks and crocodiles, or because they live in extremely stable environments, like the deep sea coelachanths or the horshoe crabs. Even so tho, are usually parts of much bigger family trees that diversify and spread around as much if not more than other types of creatures. Crocodiles for example during the mesozoic were so diversified that they went from full on land-only species, including ones with armadillo-like armor, to fully acquatic, almost cetacean-like ones, and a lot more inbetween. And coelacanths included several completely extinct variants too, including giant fresh water ones.

So I would suspect that if we all went into cryo-sleep for 100,000,000 years, and assuming the new atmosphere and microscopic life doesn't immediately kill us, it wouldn't be as alien as we'd think.

Yes and no... the planet would change considerably, as the sun slowly gets warmer as it ages. Predictions are that in the future, not couting human intervention, the Earth is gonna go through a long "hothouse era", then progressively get more arid and eventually become unable to support complex life. Estimates for this range between only a few hundred million years to another whole billion before the planet becomes barren.

Keeping that in mind, a lot of familiar niches and environment would still stick around and need to be filled for quite a while. By what exactly tho, is the fun part where a spec evo project can get nuts. We can predict fairly plausibly the general direction Earth's gonna change toward, but how life adapts to it could both be very familiar yet very different.

[Ragabul]

Restarted Pathfinder: Kingmaker this last weekend after doing my obligatory play half the game and stop thing I always do about 3 months ago. I just got up to the beginning of Act 2 last night. Using the exact same character other than tweaking her to have the grease spell from the beginning of the game and holy mother of god the amount of difference that one thing makes is just ridiculous. That and not putting feats on the stupid barbarian that increases her speed because she used to run right in the middle of everyone and get murdered because her AC is crap.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Svx4h73n_A

I disagree with the result, but I'm a fan of both characters, so it balances out.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysxs_oErmWo

The coin is still turning, Raziel!

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-2-h3Yjfao

[Vol]

Cyberpunk2077 was on sale, and I heard it was patched enough to play. Game does a great job of making you immersed in a horrible, horrible world. The concept of the milieu that cybernetic parts is completely normal and blase is hard to accept, because it's so innately repulsive to me, in a way something like the bad guys in ME:A weren't.

► Show Spoiler

The gold-skinned hotel workers are the worst so far. Adam Smasher is a sick parody of humanity, but at least his cyborg body _looks_ robotic. The Maelstorm freaks are brutal and mutilated, but I can understand why they are that why, and how their lifestyle can compound on itself to this kind of grotesque necessity. But the hotel workers? They were flayed ailve and coated in gold-plated synthskin for the sake of looking fancy. That's the kind of casual body horror that I can't shake off as easily as a guy with half his skull hollowed out for a sensor array.

The coelacanth is a bit of a red herring, most "living fossils" are. There ARE types of animals that endure the passage of the ages better than other but it's usually either because they're generalists with very good body plans, like sharks and crocodiles, or because they live in extremely stable environments, like the deep sea coelachanths or the horshoe crabs. Even so tho, are usually parts of much bigger family trees that diversify and spread around as much if not more than other types of creatures. Crocodiles for example during the mesozoic were so diversified that they went from full on land-only species, including ones with armadillo-like armor, to fully acquatic, almost cetacean-like ones, and a lot more inbetween. And coelacanths included several completely extinct variants too, including giant fresh water ones.

What helped me grasp the theory better was, comically enough, the geology courses I took in college. That evolution is taught fairly poorly doesn't help, when someone runs into the inevitable contradictions in the simplistic version, or the limits of knowledge in an area, there's going to be that sense of having been lied to. So yeah, coelacanths look about the same, and we were wrong to think them extinct 80m years ago, and none of that is entirely unexpected. We should think some animals get to a stable form, while isolated populations might branch off, and through sheer cosmic chance, a "living fossil" deep sea fish can end up extant today.

[Alienmorph]

I disagree with the result, but I'm a fan of both characters, so it balances out.

Yeah, I call b.s. all that Alucard needed to do was to eat Dio, like he done with some many other powerful vampires. But they always tend to go for the more popular fighter and then make up some b.s. to justify it, like when they had Optimus Prime defeating a Gundam mobile suit by blasting it with the Matrix of Leadership.

Oh well... it's always nice to ear Takahata101 voicing Alucard, at least.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXrMkGXtk0c

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpPbeWsLsEU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5N8pbXyBQI

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDqoe6_WnOY

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6iaw4SAJAM

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovt7d34_hRA

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw6wLiq9jBo

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1WTdQiwERo

[Dragaros]

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war ... mechanics/

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heDOif5_VdM

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiCS5mf2AFE

[Dragaros]

"Reimagining BlizzCon - BlizzConline 2022 Event Cancelled"

"Activision Blizzard's attempt to halt lawsuit rejected"

"Halo 3's Original Servers Shutting Down Along With the Rest Of the Series On Xbox 360;
An end of an era is approaching."

"Nintendo 64 Switch Online Has a Few Problems"

[Vol]

It's not going to be fun to watch what happens to Blizzard in the next few years. They were a big part of my life, WC2/Diablo 2 especially, and then WoW unfortunately.

Nor'easter is busy sitting on the Tristate area, but we're in the outer band it seems, so the basement pump is staying ahead of the rainfall. But I assume NYC is getting flooded again, because concrete is a poor drainage material. Supposed to be some high winds (45+ mph) tomorrow, but I think we're still in the outer bands.

[magnuskn]

Well, I'm kinda glad all this went down with Blizzard when I already had decided to quit WoW for good some months before. Makes it so much easier to keep committed to that.

[Mazder]

Well, I'm kinda glad all this went down with Blizzard when I already had decided to quit WoW for good some months before. Makes it so much easier to keep committed to that.

Same for me, but I quit overwatch, like, a year before then, lol

[Alienmorph]

I'm just glad the wrapped up StarCraft years ago. I cant' say that enough times.