KubeRoot

I will point out, I don’t think “peer review” means repeating the test, it means more generally pointing out issues with the science, right? By that definition, sounds like that’s what they’re doing. That doesn’t make the criticisms inherently valid, but to dismiss it as “they’re free to do their own tests” because “that is how science works” seems dishonest.

That’s cool, I didn’t realize that - according to Wikipedia, it was “adapted to the IBM PC” and spread throughout Moscow and then to eastern Europe, so I wonder how many people actually played that. I guess the NES version was the first commercial one

Virtually endlessly. What they’re talking about is, AFAIK, the actual original (not actually original, but NES) Tetris. It was meant to be infinite, but at some point the numbers get too big to store, and the programming starts breaking down. Some games might be able to keep going indefinitely, just resetting/looping some numbers, and in modern games it might take years, centuries, or even universal lifetimes to reach that point, but almost all “infinite” games will break down at some point.

Funnily enough, I’ve seen opinions that Windows has awful HDR handling and Plasma is much better, but I don’t have a proper HDR display to check. I’ve also had some success with VR, though I haven’t played much on Linux. That said, support from software for those things for Linux is still widely lacking, so it’s not much consolation.

So like telling people to ride a bike, or use public transport, with the obstacle being that the city is built with car-friendly infrastructure that’s hostile to pedestrians and bikes? Yeah, sounds like an analogy alright ;D

I think it might still be EU-only? That said, it’s still a lot of work to get their engine working and hooked up on iOS, so no idea if and when that might happen.

Hey, speak for me too

If it’s that vital, surely you would do it to yourself?

You can’t really do the kind of experiments being done genetically modifying growing infants on yourself, I imagine. Not that that should be an excuse, of course.

A three years old apparently male child was referred to Anhui Provincial hospital with a complaint of undifferentiated external genitalia.

It might just be that that’s what they’re registered as, or how parents referred to them, I guess?

I think that’s what they’re saying, when the light passes through Earth’s atmosphere before hitting the moon, the blue is filtered out and the result is red.

That said, I do also believe it doesn’t show up immediately on full eclipse, so there is some red light before, and indeed it’s just overwhelmed by the much brighter direct illumination.

big words from the DSM

Ah yes, the big word derived from the mythical Narcissus, who we learned about in school… If anything, the issue seems to be the opposite, where the word is too widely known and used without knowing the overlapping medical term.

I wonder if actual gold might be too soft to scratch your device, but if you did gold-plated titanium you might be able to scratch both your device and the logo at the same time!

Don’t use G2A even if you wish harm on the company making the game, it’s still supporting scammers and thieves, just pirate the game.

I can tell you that the attitude in Poland is along the lines of “we had a defensive pact, but when we actually got attacked, France just refused to come and help, then promptly surrendered”.

Magic in general is just a plot device that can do whatever the author needs it to do.

Sounds like that’s just where we disagree. I would instead say that magic is part of the world being shown in the story, and it should have an explanation, just like laws of physics. The hints come not from the narrator knowing things and dropping clues, but from the underlying logic of how magic works and the behaviors of people shaped by the magic of the world. And of course the reader can’t anticipate everything - but I also want there to be a sense of what’s possible and what’s not, and for the cases where the reader’s understanding is broken to be impactful and bring new understanding.

So yeah, in the end it’s just a matter of preference. I can look at HP and think “man, the magic just does whatever the fuck the author needs”, and other people can look at it and enjoy the whimsical adventure for what it is. Or, in a way, I guess it’s both - I can still appreciate the story, but it’s underlined with a sense of shallowness.

The issue is that the wands being made from the same core doesn’t have any explained effect before this event, when an explanation conveniently appears, now being a known event that has happened before. The issue is that, to my knowledge, things just happen that have no prior explanation, which sugests they’re just being made up on the fly to fit the narrative, which in turn means the reader/viewer has no way to anticipate them.

In what I’d consider a “good” magic system, things fit together. They don’t have to be revealed immediately, but often there will be hints, and when the reveal is made it’s gonna at least fit into the void in prior knowledge. This is, of course, my subjective preference, but I think HP goes so far into the opposite that it’s just random stuff made up to justify whatever the author wanted to happen with no reasonable explanation.

I don’t think so, I believe the reasoning only showed up shortly after the event, though it’s been a really long time since I’ve read HP, I’d be interested in knowing if I’m wrong

I looked it up and found the name - pretty sure it was explained shortly after the event as “Priori Incantatem”, showing it’s a known phenomenon in the world.

I’m sorry, no Deus ex machina? Am I misremembering the bit where suddenly two wizards casting a spell at each other at the same time for a prolonged duration reverses cause and effect and makes dead people come back as ghosts to give the protagonist advice?

I can agree that stories don’t need a “good” magic system, but I also feel like HP has glaring holes in places that negatively affect the experience. It’s still a fun story, but I definitely think it could be better if the magic made more sense.

I imagine some instances might ban users for upvoting certain things, you know…