#non local variable

[viragfold]

Actual exchange

[prokopetz]

Standard fantasy RPG pantheon, except:

each god is also the patron of one of the setting's local city-states, and each city-state espouses their own version of the pantheon's org chart that positions their patron as King or Queen of the Gods. The gods themselves decline to weigh in on who's correct.

the god of war died in a bizarre trebuchet accident several decades previously; a coalition of other gods have been playing Weekend at Bernie's with their priesthood ever since, doing their best to answer their prayers with variable plausibility and success.

there are two separate gods of knowledge with two separate, non-overlapping cults. Each god's cult is apparently unaware of the other's existence. There's nothing obviously supernatural about this separation; they just never seem to bump into each other.

the supreme god of the Nice Pantheon of Goodness and Light and the supreme god of the Icky Pantheon of Evil and Darkness are clearly the same guy wearing two different hats. Most NPCs react to having this pointed out as though it's obviously absurd.

the obligatory Squiddy Alien Gods From Beyond The Stars are treated as just another branch of the pantheon alongside the usual faux-Greek deities. Nobody thinks it's at all odd that the god of thunder's sworn blood-sibling is a shapeless cloud of blazing eyes.

[askagamedev]

What makes code “hard coded” compared to other code, why is it so difficult to change, and why would developers hard code something rather than use normal code?

In order to understand how something is "hard coded", you need to understand what we do to the code in order to make it run on your device. Code is written in a human-readable format, but there is a lot of optimization and changes that get done to the code before the device can run it. This process is called compiling and linking. The result of compiling and linking code is an executable file that the device can understand, but humans cannot. The executable that has been compiled and linked is a snapshot of the code at the time that was compiled and linked. Any changes to the code require compiling and linking again in order for the executable to reflect it.

The program often needs to make choices based on internal values while the game is running. Most of the time these values are data-driven, meaning they are read from files outside of the code (e.g. read in the information from this config file and store it as whether to run the game in windowed mode). When the game needs to decide whether to run in windowed mode, it checks the file, grabs the relevant data, and uses that to decide. Because it's pulling this information from that config file, the same executable can handle both windowed and non-windowed mode. We don't need to compile and link the executable again.

If running windowed mode were hard coded, somewhere in the code itself there would be a variable like "Windowed = true". Then, after compiling and linking the executable, that executable would always run in windowed mode and never be able to run in full-screen mode. The only way to change this would be to change the code, then compile and link the executable again. Hard coding is fast and easy to do as a first pass of things, it's a quick way to test stuff locally if you can compile and link the executable yourself.

We can't give out the code because it's copyrighted and our intellectual property. We can only give out the executables after compiling and linking because they can't be read by humans. This means that any changes made to code are fairly difficult to distribute - this is what patches are. Hard coded values can only be changed when we distribute a new executable, while data-driven values like settings in a config file are much easier to change because they don't require compiling and linking, they only require somebody to modify the file being read and not the executable itself.

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Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[peoplesgraves]

Hi can I request yandere Korra as a mom?

Platonic Yandere Korra Headcanons

•She is the cool mom. Not in a Regina George’s mom kind of way but in an actual cool way. Korra always has time to listen to your problems or newest accomplishments, so what if some town is handling a threat only the avatar can take down, she’d listening to her kid! That always takes precedent. She never leaves things ambiguous, there’s no doubt that no matter what you did she’d still love you or that you’d always be her favorite person.

•Any of your friends (once properly vetted by the avatar of course) are almost always welcome for sleepovers or small parties, they probably end up liking yoir place more than than their own because Korra seems so lax. Never mind the only reason she’s ever so lax at the time is because of her ridiculously extreme vetting before hand of every little variable. As your mother she believes it’s her duty to worry about everything so you never need to worry about anything.

•Loves going on ‘dates’ with you. Whether it’s a trip to the local park, an avatar event or a trip out of republic city, Korra loves them all. She likes how happy you are around your friends of course but she loves when you’re happy around just her the most. No matter how old you get you’d always be small to her, back when she was your best (only) friend too and in these moments she can pretend it’s still true.

•Korra would insist you have a pet. She knows how important having Naga has been for her, not just for the emotional support that sometimes you can only get from an animal but also for all the protection over the years. While she’d prefer you get all of that from her only, she knows that’s not always realistic. So rather than relying on some other person to fill that role, why not a pet that can be trained properly!

•Korra would love if you were a bender. Whether a waterbender like her people or whatever your other parent may have been. As the avatar she is uniquely connected to bending and she’d love to be able to share that with as best she can through your own bending education. That’s not to say if you happened to be a non bender she’d love you any less or be any less happy to share as much as she can with you, it’d just be different.

[terkmc]

HACS, the Harrison Armory Combat System

The Harrison Armory Combat System, HACS for short, is a relatively new system of martial art developed by Harrison Armory. Designed to integrate with standard Armory doctrine, HACS is a modernized and modified version of traditional weapon-based martial art, mathematically optimized with aggregate combat data harvesting and extensive simulations in order to best suit the Armory’s propensity for energy and plasma based weapons.

The non-physical nature of an energy blade allows it to be able to pass through another physical blade, thus making strikes with an energy weapon almost impossible to block or parry; but also conversely makes it unable to block an attack from another weapon from simply passing through it. Thus, HACS is defined by its aggressive structure based on the principles of seizing the initiative and staying on the offense, direct footwork and economy of action, range control, and violence of action.

HACS fighters will typically stay out of range to formulate a plan of attack and maneuver into advantageous positioning, then explode into a short series of decisive strikes to force the enemy to defend. If the initial series of strikes do not kill or incapacitate, HACS fighters will then try to establish distance once again and return to neutral, preferably with follow up unarmed strike to push the enemy back and maintain initiative, though simply back-stepping is also an option if further aggression is ill-advised. HACS footwork is characteristically direct, moving back and forth in a straight line from the user to their opponent and eschewing complex footwork often seen in more traditional arts.

HACS encompass most forms of traditional melee weapons such as swords, axes, halberds and more, but befitting of a modern constructed martial art systems, HACS also accounts for modern modification and new designs, such variable emission setting allowing user to change the length of a blade mid-fight or even mid swing. HACS official training and certification requires a demonstration of mastery of the system's two basic disciplines, Energy on Blade (EB), the use of energy weapons against physical weapons, and Energy on Energy (EE), the use of energy weapons against each other. For most standard users and legionnaires, these two are enough, though further advanced disciplines are available for training, such as Energy and Shield (ES), incorporating the usage of personal shielding system into the martial art, both in conjunction with and against energy weapons.

Designed for vertical integration, HACS-M (Harrison Armory Combat System – Mechanized) is a sub-discipline of HACS for usage with mech combat. Formulated for ease of transition between systems, HACS-M employs much of the same principles and moves as HACS, maintaining its core direct aggression. The added durability of a mech and its comparatively lesser agility means HACS-M incorporate “Double Strike” in place of some defensive maneuver. “Double Strike” is an umbrella term for techniques where the user intentionally takes an attack in order to counter attack the opponent, using computer-mapped positioning to maximize armor placement and avoid damage to critical systems. Though designed for chassis class 1 to 3 and obviously ill-advised to unarmored personal combat, HACS-M has also been adapted for personal combat by heavily armored fighters, typically hard suit or power armor users.

As with most theories when put into practice, HACS and HACS-M has also splintered into countless variations over the years. While a centralized system still exists within the Armory’s standard armed force training, various other subsystems have popped up either through further independent modification, local adaptation, or syncretism with other martial arts. Of note are:

Valkyrie, an adaptation for aerial combat

Stinging Blade, a highly unorthodox and controversial syncretism with Jager Kunst pioneered by Sparri diaspora on Ras Sharma

DeSys, a school that emphasizes the destruction of enemy weapons instead.

[proton-wobbler]

Great Backyard Bird Off - Cosmopolitan Birds (poll 6)

Bird Info & Submission Reasons

Canada goose (Branta canadensis)

Continents: North America, Europe, New Zealand

"They’re really a Canadian thing IMO (it’s in the name). Also, I grew up around them, and they’re really not as violent as you’d think: despite Canadian children making a game out of chasing them around, I’ve never met anybody who’s been bitten."

A large brown goose with a black neck and white chinstrap. Overall size, bill size, and brown coloration variable across subspecies. Occurs in any open or wetland habitat, from city parks and golf courses to pristine marshes and Arctic tundra. Typically in flocks or family groups. Often seen in mixed flocks with Cackling Goose, especially in central and western North America. Abundant and widespread throughout the U.S. and Canada; rare in Mexico. Introduced and widely established in Europe. Listen for loud honking calls, especially as flocks migrate overhead in the classic V formation. (eBird)

Grey Wagtail (Motacilla Cinerea)

Continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania

"There's one that I sometimes see near the local Greggs, they're very cute"

Handsome long-tailed bird. Breeding male has a black throat, mostly yellow underparts. Breeding female often has some dark on the throat, paler yellow underparts. All plumages have gray head and back, with whitish eyebrow, bright yellow belly and vent. Often near flowing water with nearby rocks or surrogate rocky habitat, from mountain streams to weirs in suburban parklands. Walks quietly along shorelines or in nearby open areas, pumping its very long, white-sided tail up and down. Song is a repetitive series of high-pitched notes; calls include short, high “pseet” and buzzier flight calls. (eBird)

Image Sources: Goose (Andy Wilson); Wagtail (Santiago Caballero Carrera)

Continents which are italicized represent the non-native range of the species. Whether introduced on purpose on or accident, these species may have become invasive in this range. Despite their potential impact on native wildlife, please do not leave disparaging comments on these polls. Their purpose is to celebrate people's love of these species.

[tomatosamla]

Sooooo.... this is my SCP OC, I don't know if anyone would be interested, but 🫠

I have ✨️anxiety✨️, so I won't post it to the wiki (yet... maybe, IDK), but like... enjoy!

------------------------

Item #: SCP-9070

Object Class: Thaumiel (Conditional) / Keter (Contingency)

Special Containment Procedures:

Due to SCP-9070's critical relevance to multiple SK-Class End-of-the-World scenarios, containment procedures are divided into two operational levels:

Operational Status (Dormant):

SCP-9070 is to be maintained in Secure Humanoid Containment Suite-04 at Site-17 under care of Containment Liaison Dr. Amelia Barker. Psychological stabilization efforts are to prioritize cooperative maintenance of SCP-9070’s emotional well-being.

Direct access to SCP-9070 is restricted to Level 4/9070 personnel, with provisional access granted to O5 Command under unanimous consensus.

Operational Status (Active Deployment Authorization):

Deployment of SCP-9070 under the Keystone Protocol requires approval from no fewer than 8 O5 Council members and Ethics Committee Executive Council oversight.

Deployment is authorized exclusively in the event of confirmed irreversible SK-Class Dominance Shift, Reality Collapse, or existential destabilization events where no alternative containment protocols remain viable.

Any attempt to replicate, modify, or genetically analyze SCP-9070 outside of authorized protocols is to be considered a containment breach of the highest order.

Description:

SCP-9070 is a biologically-engineered human female (chronological age: 10; physical development consistent with baseline parameters), designed through experimental recombinant processes conducted under former Project KEYSTONE directive.

At baseline observation, SCP-9070 exhibits no overt anomalous properties or detectable extranormal emissions. However, SCP-9070 possesses an unprecedented, active form of universal anomaly suppression, herein designated "Reality Synchronization Field" (RSF-9070). Within a localized spherical radius (variable, typically ranging 5–20 meters under resting conditions), SCP-9070 actively negates, disables, or outright nullifies the functioning of extranormal phenomena, including but not limited to:

• High Hume fluctuations (Type Green, Type Black anomalies)

• Non-Euclidean geometry

• Dimensional instability

• Entity-based anomalous aggression triggers (ex. SCP-096 visual triggers, SCP-106 localized corruption fields)

• Biological augmentation agents

• Memetic/antimemetic alterations

• Reality-bending effects produced by both artificial and biological anomalous objects

The Reality Synchronization Field is not consciously controlled by SCP-9070, but responds autonomously to perceived threats or environmental instability. Prolonged exposure to overwhelming extranormal stimuli can forcibly expand or intensify the RSF, sometimes resulting in uncontrolled area-wide anomaly suppression events (see Incident 9070-Delta-03: West Coast Event).

Repeated exposure to complex anomaly interaction suggests SCP-9070’s abilities may not solely operate through neutralization, but through an unknown form of structural “reassertion” of baseline reality. Genetic analysis has failed to identify any one factor responsible for SCP-9070’s properties; attempts to extract or reproduce RSF capacity in vitro have universally failed.

Origin:

SCP-9070 originated from now-defunct Project KEYSTONE, a black-level experimental contingency program operated under direct supervision of O5-6 between 1996 and 2016. Original program objectives, as authorized by O5-6, were intended to create a biological countermeasure against uncontrolled anomalous escalation, specifically tailored to mitigate projected SK-Class scenarios.

Genetic sampling utilized unauthorized genomic material extracted from multiple Foundation researchers and field operatives. Among primary contributing sources was Dr. Alto Clef (designated “Donor Alpha”), whose recovered genetic material displayed increased resilience to reality-affecting anomalies. However, genomic contributions from no fewer than 11 additional personnel have been identified in SCP-9070’s structure, with extensive artificial modification applied via early-stage embryonic genome engineering.

Project KEYSTONE was terminated prematurely following internal investigation by the Ethics Committee in 2015. However, SCP-9070’s biological development had already reached critical stabilization phase at the time of project dissolution. Unauthorized extraction of SCP-9070 was carried out shortly after by Agent Amelia Barker (Alpha-1), in conjunction with Project KEYSTONE lead Dr. Elija Marquez.

SCP-9070 remained outside Foundation custody for approximately five years prior to eventual rediscovery and recontainment.

Operational Application: "Keystone Protocol"

SCP-9070 was designed for singular use as a last-resort failsafe. Projections indicated that in the event of SK-Class global collapse events, existing containment measures may no longer be viable. In such circumstances, SCP-9070 would serve as a mobile stabilization anchor, deployed to nullify high-risk anomalies or zones experiencing destabilization cascades.

Due to SCP-9070’s metabolic strain and neurological feedback during active suppression, full-scale deployment has not been tested outside controlled conditions. Ethical ramifications regarding deployment remain under active review.

Current Status:

Active containment continues. Deployment remains unauthorized.

SCP-9070 remains under psychological care, maintained within familiar care structure to prevent destabilization of baseline affect. Ongoing supervision by Dr. Amelia Barker, Dr. Alto Clef, and Dr. Elija Marquez continues under provisional family-based containment directive approved by O5 Council (6-5 vote).

[streamglimpse]

14 items, choose 2

A rubber band that while you wear it, water expands within everyone's bladders. It takes on average two hours of continuous use before people have to go, but with wide variability. You can also pluck it, and cause shudders of pressure in everyone nearby, easily able to cause leaks.

A belt that gives you rough telekinesis with strength and range proportional to the fullness of your bladder. When you’re about to wet yourself, you can break open stone walls, when you can barely feel it, you have the strength of a light wind.

A pen that when you click it at someone, they immediately let go of their bladder. They don’t consciously remember deciding to pee, and it happens immediately, before they can react. You can only use it once every few days though.

A cup which you can hold out and a nearby person of an age and gender you're attracted to who's peeing has it directed into your cup. The pee is healthy and nutritious, and each person's tastes a unique flavor to you. You can choose the person if you know they’re peeing. 

A heart pendant that makes non-strangers completely comfortable with you when it comes to nudity and urination, and they'll ask you for favors sometimes, like to hold their bladder shut with your hand. They won’t mind changing in front of you or carrying on conversation while they use the bathroom. 

A keyring, which, whenever you attach a key to it, you can choose a person you can see or that you know, to be unable to pee when trying to use a toilet or urinal, until you take the key off. You may when putting the key on, choose to allow use of opposite-gender facilities or stop all peeing while underwear is not worn.

A mirror that lets you scry into any toilet, and can be adjusted to see from any direction. It starts out showing the view up from the surface of the toilet bowl water. To other people it just looks like a normal mirror.

A bag of seeds of a magical tree that sprouts up immediately, and bears delicious fruit. If tasted, the person has the compulsion to start peeing ASAP. This doesn’t make them wet themselves, but rather pull down their pants and squat or whatever they would do if conscious of it. They don't remember doing any of this, and nobody besides you notices.

A necklace that attracts all attention away from your body. You can strip naked and nobody will notice unless you point it out to them, and you can even pee on someone without them seeing the wetness they feel comes from you.

A watch that makes it so people near you don't think to use the bathroom until they're about to burst. Nothing stops them from leaving for other reasons though, and then they might rush to the bathroom immediately.

A pair of underwear. It lets you shape your bodily sex permanently within normal human bounds (decided locally - you can have breasts and a penis, but not a 10-inch penis or both a penis and a clitoris). Additionally, while you wear it your fresh pee becomes a cure to many diseases.

A water bottle that when you drink from it, it fills someone else's bladder that you choose. You’re still going to need to drink from elsewhere to assuage your own thirst, but there’s no danger in refilling every few minutes and downing gallons to force someone to pee.

A mechanical fly that appears in front of random people (of gender and age you’re attracted to) peeing and streams the video online. Its buzz gets gradually louder until it's noticed, it teleports to its next target as soon as the peeing stops.

An amber ring that gives you high skill at pee-bending. You can’t exert much force unless you have access to a lot of pee, but it’s very flexible.

[mbta-unofficial]

If your city is a Brand, it’s already too late

Long post time. What is it that drives gentrification? Also, what is gentrification? Is it when a city gets blue hair and pronouns? No, it probably already had those.

Gentrification is the result of concentration of wealth in the hands of business owners, including landlords, over and above the hands of residents.

Let’s start with rent. Rent, like any good, is priced according to the laws of supply and demand. Supply of available rental housing is primarily determined by construction costs and estimated return on investment for new construction, and property management costs and estimated return on investment for existing units.

Breaking that down a bit, the higher construction costs get the higher the rent needs to be to break even on new construction. Construction costs include labor (which can always go down but you want it high for moral and practical reasons), materials (highly variable depending on the project) and bureaucratic costs. A bureaucratic cost is a cost that is based on how projects fit into the legal and practical environment, and are usually non-negotiable. Dig Safe, a program which requires three days of surveying local records before breaking ground, is an example where the function is to prevent crews from flattening a neighborhood by puncturing a gas main. Environmental Impact Statements, Fire Codes, Habitability Guidelines, and other regulations increase costs to projects. These programs are good and need to exist, but do stop smaller projects from happening at all because the capital investment required just to actually break ground on a new house might cost as much as the land and materials put together at which point you might as well build another 120$/sqft luxury midrise.

Property management costs for existing units are largely dependent on age and wear. A unit with no occupant is going to depreciate little, and may also appreciate in value. Depreciation and appreciation here are sort of unintuitive because they can happen at the same time. Imagine an old luxury sports car with a high resale price. Driving depreciates the value because it’s literal condition is poorer, even as the resale value goes up over time. The appreciation needs to beat both inflation and the value of depreciation for it to go up in real value. For companies with large capital holdings however, losses such as through the upkeep of empty apartment buildings are useful to a point because they reduce these organizations’s tax burdens. A company that makes a killing on the stock market only has to pay taxes if they keep it: if they buy houses they then don’t rent, they can claim they “lost” their stock market earnings with “bad investments” and then pay no tax while saving the real estate to rent later. Again, this favors the largest possible projects and the largest possible operators because small companies can be killed by an unprofitable quarter or 4 while large ones explicitly benefit from unprofitability in reducing their tax burden.

Expected ROI is the final piece of this, which affects both new and existing units. Every private developer and landlord wants to make as much money as they can, unless they are explicitly are renting as a service. An example of renting as a service would be families, who will rent to each other at favorable rates or for free, privileging people with large and/or wealthy families that are friendly with each other. Now, ROI is also subject to supply and demand. Everyone wants to build 120$/sqft luxury apartments but once everybody does nobody can sell/rent for those prices without setting a price floor and waiting for buyers to catch up. If you are a small developer, you can’t afford to do this. Your expenses will eat you alive. If you are a big developer, though, those expenses are offsetting the gains you make and serving to reduce you tax bill. Units at prices nobody can pay are effectively furloughed, meaning off the market, and, so long as they remain cheap to maintain, will remain that way, artificially restricting supply. It doesn’t matter if it’s for sale or not when it’s at a price you can’t afford. (Sidebar, anyone who tells you that the minimum wage depresses hiring because it artificially restricts demand is lying to you. It’s not strictly false, but like the above it’s a multi-variable equation and blanket statements about cost of labor are aimed at killing wages.)

What this alludes to also is a need for greater income equality. In order for rental to be a competitive option with furlough, not only does the price of furlough have to be increased, the real value of wages have to be increased in order to create opportunities for people to splurge. This is a twofold strategy, of both increasing the rewards of putting units on the market and increasing the costs of keeping them off. If real wages barely cover cost of living, or don’t cover cost of living, nobody can realistically spend more real wages on rent regardless of the percentage of their income it is. (Real wages here refers to the political power implied by dollar wages. A dollar is really worth whatever it can be exchanged for, whether that is a candy bar or a square inch of a 144$/sqft condo) The real value of everything except time and land are also constantly going down because of constant improvements in manufacturing. The cost in acres of land and hours of labor of a pound of beef, a bolt of cloth, or a pint of beer have dropped dramatically in the last century. Unfortunately, land is one of the few things that remains in marxist terms uncommodifiable, because it cannot be fully abstracted from the physical properties that make it valuable and we can’t make more of it just by making a better machine. This means that as the real value of things goes down because of supply and demand, the value of land only goes up because the supply is hard capped. If the value of everything under capitalism must go down because of increased production, while the value of capitalist assets must go up, or the system collapses, it makes sense that land would become a fixed point in that equation, the marxist speed of light observable from all reference points. The best approximation of land as commodity is, what else, apartments, which make available as living space the empty air above us. Because production never stops, the value of everything but land must go down. Therefore, as time passes, the price of land, and hence the price of housing, must tend upwards. Therefore, in order for housing to remain affordable, real wages must grow. This is the opposite of what is currently happening, as real wages have gone down for decades.

This income inequality which is one facet of capitalism is not new. For as long as people have lived in urban areas there have been issues between the abject class, the working class, the ruling class, and the professional class, a four part distinction I will seriously argue for in opposition to a lot of marxist theorists. The ruling and working classes ought to be familiar, or at least self explanatory. However, the other two classes I identify, the professionals and the abject, are useful to this analysis because they fill both a racial gap in the primarily marxist analysis I put forward and identify the two most likely groups to rent, which is to say the worker who works to produce but owns without governing and the professional who works to govern but does not own. The ruling class both governs and owns, but its court is full of courtiers who are there to push various agendas from within the rule of law without per se producing. Likewise, the working class pensioner exists in opposition to the abject who is denied the opportunity or the resources to be productive explicitly as a means to manufacture a threat against which inter-class solidarity between the workers and the rulers is developed. The textbook nazi conspiracy theory about “elites” doing a great racial replacement picks out perfectly what I mean by both the racial character of the professional and the abject and their utilization to foster solidarity between your plumber uncle and Elon Musk. This is relevant to both the broad theme of gentrification and the narrow theme of rent because gentrification is a wedge issue that divides the working class and the professional class far more than its impact on any other. The working class’ disidentification with doctors, lawyers, PMCs and other yuppie types, as well as the professional class’ disidentification with union politics, illegalism, and radicalism in general is brought to firecrackers in virtually any conversation about gentrification which seems in passing to be more about tapas bars than about real politics. Likewise, these groups shared distrust of and disdain for the abject, who are explicitly labeled by the state as constitutionally guilty, is the basis for the very broken windows policing strategy that empties neighborhoods of minorities regardless of class. The Rent is Too Damn High, and excluding homeless people from the “working” working class is a big part of how we got here specifically because the interests of small time owners and small time government functionaries, carried to their conclusions, are necessarily self defeating. These two groups eliminate the presence of the abject from their spaces at their own financial peril.

In addition to class, there is also a specific historical movement that is crucial to the understanding of gentrification as it exists, which is the movement of factories in search of cheap labor. The United States is not a good place to find cheap urban labor. You build a factory and suddenly everyone complains about air quality and labor violations and you can’t just kill them because everyone has lawyers. You kill one (us citizen) organizer and the NLRB is trying to get you in court for intimidation. What’s the country come to? But a shipping container costs a quarter cent per mile and the goods aren’t perishable so you go to Guangzhou or Cape Town where you can kill union bosses in peace. But for the American city, that’s a loss of what once made land prime real estate. What jobs can replace the insatiable demand for labor that a 24 hour paper mill once produced? Service labor, which crucially is site specific and therefore not outsourceable, is what the US has predominantly turned to. (and arms manufacturing which is not outsourced for very different reasons) However, service labor is only in demand if there is already a stable population that can be served, which requires a constant influx of capital holders in demand of service. This is why Airbnb exists and is hollowing out rental availability, why Boston as a college town is the way it is, and why there are in fact so many damn tapas bars. Fred Salveucci talked about being able to go north of the expressway in the 70s and being able to get a plate of mac and beans for half a buck. I went looking for a 5$ slice of pizza on my lunch break today around Government Center and found two places that were boarded up and ended up spending 20$ at Chilacates. Cities are being slowly turned into Cancun, complete with the fences to keep out the homeless.

What can be done about this? Obviously the factors we’ve discussed that favor consolidation of housing are mostly either contained within a gordion’s knot of tax policy or intrinsic to capitalism/goods as commodities. But, given that we narrow our objectives to making the rent lower, some obvious weaknesses jump out: increasing the cost of vacancy forces units out of furlough, because companies are no longer able to justify the losses, and increasing real wages increases the availability of capital for workers to spend on rent. These are the prongs I talked about earlier.

Legal means to pursue each prong exist. Both a minimum wage and a maximum wage, depending on their implementation, can potentially increase real wages, and vacancy taxes directly increase the costs of vacancy. The government can also ignore the market and directly mandate maximum rents within certain parameters. This tends to decrease the long term supply of housing for the reasons discussed at the outset, given that if the revenues from house building don’t cover the costs of building, less gets built. However, any political movement that exists exclusively within the white lines of the law fails to genuinely threaten change. Landlords, like bosses, break the law constantly with the impunity that a lawyer provides them against consequence. This is why a healthy dose of illegalism is an important part of any effective political movement. The most direct action one can take is property occupation, or squatting. Squatter’s rights are nearly non-existent in the United States. The most leeway that any state grants to any unknown persons occupying a dwelling is 60 days notice to vacate the property, and there are states that allow no notice evictions or lack statutes governing squatting at all. Every single state regards the occupation of owned property as trespassing, meaning most kinds of squatting are prosecutable offenses. However, squatting, even temporarily in ways that don’t expose the squatter to liability provided they don’t get caught, can seriously impact the value of properties. You have heard of rent lowering gunshots. This is the serious version of that. At the same time, illegal action needs legal defense, both in terms of non-compliance with police to protect those willing to take illegal actions from arrest and in terms of legal, 1st amendment protected disruption to keep focus on the issue. The most effective movements have a radical wing and a institutionalist wing who do not acknowledge each other but share the same tactics and objectives.

If you are housed, you need to be willing to protect and support homeless people because they are your front line. Start or join an Occupy movement, where they are your peers in occupying a public space illegally in a way that is too public to prosecute. Give to people on the street, and smash anti-homeless architecture if nobody is watching. Be willing to distract cops if you see someone doing something dodgy so they can get away. Remember that following the law is a tactic, and so is breaking it.

The case for this being on my transit blog is arguably weak, but I felt compelled after a particularly hateful experience looking at facebook memes about homeless people on the T. You should want those people there. You should want those people breaking down the doors of luxury apartments and setting up shop. You should want them keeping your city safe because the cops you hire to separate you from them will train their guns on you next.

And for gods sake, don’t let your city become a brand. Branding is marketing. Branding is clean, and bloodless, and a gloved hand around your throat that leaves no fingerprints.

[catenary-chad]

Some sources I get my train info from (mostly US-focused)

-Clive Lamming is all in French but can be machine translated. Outside of that he is my favorite rail writer and covers many of the themes/topics relevant to Stex. Fanciful, beginner friendly style that's fun just to browse random stuff on. Writes about electric trains in a romanticized way no English-language author does.

-Wikipedia is a decent starting place for most topics and will have a list of sources for fact-checking and even more info

-Historical societies for specific regions/railroads can be GREAT for more specific info

-Train museums/tourist railroads usually have decent websites with historical info on their equipment and you find some… interesting things at them.  Not always the biggest and coolest, but lots of weird stuff even at smaller ones (Chinese steam engines built in the late 80s, the tiniest diesel switcher I’ve ever seen, and a wild array of redneck retrofits of old circus trains are things I’ve seen).  They’ll often have more info on niche local industries for fun freight characters.  

-You’ll probably have a LOT of success finding physical books about trains at libraries, The Internet Archive, and antique stores (or anywhere with used books). 

https://www.cruiselinehistory.com/

^this site has a TON of articles and photos of 30s-60s era high-end US trains, which most of the replica coaches are based on.  Absolute gem for finding historical context for them and refs/ideas for OCs.

The Railway Series and first few seasons of Thomas The Tank Engine are unironically good at explaining British steam train mechanics circa the early-mid 20th century in a more whimsical way.  They’re very specific to their time and place though.  

r/railroading on reddit is for actual railroad workers to discuss their jobs and problems. Here there be discussions about whose employer sucks the least and which lines/engines have the worst toilets. It’s an interesting look at a very different side of things…

Electric-specific sources because they're a pain to find:

My youtube playlist with some favorite videos

ocs4rail.com - free, modern, English-language book with more than any non-professional would want to know about rail electrification. First few chapters have a great summary of the politics and history of it in the UK, the chapter on electric traction has great info on how the actual trains work. it gets technically intense fast outside of that and you might get lost if not mechanically/electrically inclined.

William C. Middleton- When the Steam Railroads Electrified- considered one of the definitive books on earlier US electric heavy rail, BEAUTIFUL photos and encyclopedic scope. Not cheap and probably a pain to get outside the US. Unfortunately most other books on pre-70s US electric trains are this way.

-Central Electric Railfans Association has put out a lot of stuff mostly on Chicago-area lines

-If you are ever in Boston, The Wardmaps/MBTA store is an awesome spot for books on this topic (and old passenger rails schedules, maps, and tokens)

-trolley museums often have very high quality presentations on random topics. Searching for Frank Sprague on various platforms will dig up something, he's a very important inventor in the train and elevator sphere many don't know about.

-Substation, elevator, and general heavy industrial tech and maintenance videos can be helpful since they share basic tech (various types of motors, variable frequency drives, big transformers).

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Hyce777 (steam and diesel train mechanics, run by a guy who actually works on them. Gets very technically detailed in some videos) 

Railnatter (British podcast, discussion about political, technical, and cultural aspects of trains, host works in the industry and guests often do too)

Banks Rail (Modern US train politics, some international issues. VERY thorough and specific but beginner friendly.)

Charles Smiley Presents (20th century US trains, lots of nice video and very chill and beginner friendly without ignoring deeper problems)

V12 Productions (mostly modern US freight operations but very approachable style and shows a wide variety of stuff)

PAN UP (newer on the scene, one of the few with coverage of old US electric trains, very calm and chill)

Trek Trendy (very detailed reviews/vlogs of modern luxury trains)

Amtrakguy365 (aimed at railfans, histories of specific Amtrak equipment and lines)

Alan Fisher (focused on modern US transit/train issues, Philadelphia-focused and VERY leftist, aimed at non-railfans)

How We Get Around (even more Philadelphia focused but less political, lots of nitty gritty on the specific area’s network but also assumes you’re stupid and explains the basics very bluntly)

Specific references I use for Electra:

Electra is real and can take you for a ride if you ever go to France

CC 6500 info from an organization who restored and runs one today

AEM-7 Manual (Dense and technical but very detailed. The Swedish Rc class locomotives, AEM-7s, and similar derivatives are a pretty popular fanon basis for Electra and relatively well documented in English due to being used by Amtrak for nearly 40 years and in Sweden from the 60s-80s to now. Those models are my main source of Electra Extended Lore.)

Head-End Power info (sales website with detailed technical info on modern US-style HEP)

[viragfold]

Actual exchange

[kabillieu]

More about homeschooling after the break.

Obviously I'm bothered and disturbed by ongoing current events, but I also want to record that life goes on, and other things are going well.

We've now been officially homeschooling my big kid for about a month. It's been rocky, and I've questioned my sanity regarding it many times. I've lowered almost all demands on my kid in order to meet him where he's at, so that if you just casually glance at how we're parenting him you would think that we're insane or maybe even neglectful (by which I mean neglecting his education, not his physical or emotional safety).

But instead of getting hung up on what's not happening, I've been trying to pay attention to how the new normal is affecting him. He's sillier and goofier. He's much more physically affectionate. This is most noticeable with how he interacts with Dominic, but he's also being more physically affectionate with me too. Meltdowns still happen, but they are no longer happening daily. He's more compliant about non-educational things. His social life is 100% better than it was before. He's in an online D&D group that meets on Mondays, and he has a great time during it. He has a standing meetup with N on Thursday afternoons. He plays Roblox with his friend B many weekday afternoons and most weekends. This friendship has made the most difference, with both boys benefitting from it immensely.

The difference in our family life is also immense. I don't wake up every morning feeling a thick dread about how I'm going to get my kid out of the bed. I get more sleep because I wake up at 7 instead of 6. Big kid is also getting more sleep, which his growing adolescent body needs. There are no more power struggles over going to school in the morning or doing homework in the evenings or over weekends. There's less yelling and disfunction in our family. There's less crying. There's more patience and radical empathy and understanding.

(I'm not perfect, and because I've taken on the brunt of homeschooling I have probably yelled at my kid a little more the past few weeks, which I regret, but I'm working on it and I always apologize.)

And most importantly, my kid has finally started to take some interest in and ownership over his own learning. Up until very recently he's treated the (very little) schoolwork I've asked him to do as an inconvenience of massive proportions, but today he wanted to talk to me about ideas he has for different kinds of learning. He also wanted me to help him go through his books to pick out a book to read in addition to his schoolwork. I have not been able to convince this child to read a book for fun in probably two years, so I was shocked by that.

So, these are all very positive developments. I'm beginning to add in more variable things too: future museum visits, graphic novels about Civil Rights History, plans to see local plays, movies and documentaries to help him learn about history, etc.

I can't do everything! And I'm doing this all imperfectly, blundering along because that's all I can do, but we're going in the right direction. And I'm documenting everything. And I'm really, really trying, and it's getting better.

[wcshedup]

aroyaltailor asked: Do you have any lore for some of the drugs in Hell? We know about H8 for example. How is that specific drug nastier than the rest?

holy SHIT this is a great question and I'm so glad you asked !! i have a ton of lore regarding h8 and I've never had an opportunity to yell about it one place so i hope you're ready to never hear me SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT THIS.

disclaimer !! everything below the cut is 100% fanon lore to this blog in collaboration with @fizzarollitm and @madefate ( a lot of this lore is the brainchild of our group chat over the last year or so )

h8 is a drug exclusively cultivated and sourced in the WRATH ring, where it is sold in very small qualities over the counter in capsules as a type of form of performance-enhancing drug. its desired effects include increased motor function, heightened sense, a decreased physical refractory period, and reduced inhibition. basically, it makes you feel fucking invincible for 6-12 hours.

utilization is typically reserved for older adults who struggle with energy levels and maintaining a personal level of wrath or physical prowess around times like harvest, pain games-like festivals, or holidays like sinsmas. however, because there are several cultural hang-ups regarding its use (notably implications of impotence or being 'past one's prime') among the citizens of wrath, abuse of h8 is generally only found OUTSIDE of wrath.

due to its low demand in its home ring, and the local knowledge that it isn't a substance to fuck around with, h8 is absurdly cheap and easy to obtain and traffic to other rings for the entrepreneurial hellborn.

it has a red, crystalized appearance that comes in a capsulated form over the counter, and in its street form (which comes in a larger crystal) it can be crushed and snorted OR melted to a liquid state and injected. it takes between 2 and 3 times MORE than the recommended dose for the average adult to achieve the high that h8 users -- often labeled as rageheads or h8ers -- are going for.

the effects from consuming h8 in qualities qualifying of abuse include euphoria, increased physical prowess, increased heart rate, paranoia, and jaw tension/stiffness (due to grinding) once a physical dependency is established, a user will begin to experience withdrawal effects 8-12 hours after their last fix, with that window decreasing the further into addiction the individual spirals. withdrawal symptoms begin with irritation and nausea and will progress into violent outbursts and high levels of physical pain quickly thereafter.

once a non-immortal being develops a physical dependence on h8, the likelihood of recovery is EXTREMELY low to none, and this is for several reasons.

the further from wrath the substance travels, so too does the likelihood of the crystal being cut with something non-consumable, such as a look-alike rock sugar or bathroom cleaner. this makes h8's quality variable between dealers and days and makes accurate dosing extremely difficult. as h8 is also an incredibly easy drug to overdose on when taken in off-label qualities, this raises the mortality of its user base considerably.

h8 was never intended for chronic use NOR for use in the qualities that addicts need to achieve and maintain their high. while its effects are intense, so is the physical toll on the body. even a ONE-TIME use will leave an immortal with a raging migraine and an aching jaw the next day, but a non-immortal chronic user can find themselves experiencing muscle wasting, psychotic episodes, and organ failure (specifically the heart, kidneys, and liver.)

h8 is not a substance that you can quit cold turkey. once dependency is established, the user's body will REQUIRE monitored intake of h8 in small qualities until they can be weaned off in a controlled setting, such as a rehab facility or hospital. half of the deaths related to h8 addiction are born out of an inability to obtain the next fix, or failure to procure placement in a treatment facility; at this stage of addiction, the stress of withdrawal on a body already under the stress of such a harsh drug, cardiac arrest is common.

many users also find the sheer pain of withdrawal too great to tolerate, making recovery nearly impossible, and self-unaliving is common among late-stage users.

[squeakadeeks]

Perhaps this is a silly question: What IS a Laplace Equation?

in layman's terms a laplace equation is: "set up something such that if you add all the the rates of change of the rates of change for a function, it will give you zero". So if i just look at how rates of change in the variable "x" differ as i move around (maybe variations in x are faster or slower depending on where I am), that guy can be decisively non-zero, but when i do that for all my space coordinates, say x, y, and z together, they will sum to give me zero in this condition. this gets written like this :∇²f = 0 (so the second derivative of all the spatial coordinates summed gives me zero)

which practically means (remember, physicist, not mathematician) that when we look at a system, when all the "changes in how a system changes" (again, a second derivative) sum to zero, that that function is not going to have any local minima or maxima. theres no huge peaks or valleys if i impose that condition, which is important because that condition comes up a lot in nature especially if the thing is stable/in equilibrium

[luna-wing-cns274]

< L3 Hachiko: Alright. Nonlethal active memetics stockpile [Bagofwoe.omf.secure.zip], AKA the Styxie Stash, full inventory.

...With some of my own additions. :) >

1.) fuckbadperiodcramps.omf - visual vector, variable duration/intensity, nociceptive/aversive. The classic.

2.) Memory_Hole.omf - visual vector, variable duration. Short-term memory attack: prevents recall within a thirty second window of time exactly thirty seconds prior to present for duration of effect. Scary :(

3.) Vacuum_Exposure.sim - NI vector, variable duration, nociceptive/aversive. A force-executed simulacrum created from experiential capture. Namely, the experience of being Styx, in vacuum. This one sucks.

4.) Manual_Breathing.omf - visual/graphemic/auditory vector, variable duration, annoying. Ugh.

5.) Breathing_Manual.omf - visual vector, vaccine. Neuroplastic antigen designed to prevent effects of previously-listed memetic. Also provides broad-spectrum protection from attacks which interfere with respiration.

6.) Eyesore.omf - visual vector, variable duration/intensity, nociceptive/aversive, permanent damage potential. Induces sensation of itching, localized inside the retinas. Has tactical utility.

7.) Heartbreaker.omf - auditory vector, fixed playback duration, subjectivity interference. Audio induces emotions of intense heartache. Active memetic embedded within what internal documentation describes as an "upbeat, happy-go-lucky pop song."

8.) Peter_Pipers_Paracausal_Peppers.txt - graphemic vector, preset termination condition, extreme self-propagation risk, potential permanent damage. A tongue-twister poem, encoded with exotic graphemes, which compels spoken repetition until uttered correctly.

9.) the_JPEG_that_makes_you_puke.jpeg - self-explanatory. Open with caution.

10.) WASPZONE.omf - visual/NI vector, variable duration, subjectivity interference. A little ditty from yours truly. There's a wasp in the room with you. You know it's there, you're sure of it. Where's the wasp? Where's the wasp?

11.) Lallation.omf - auditory vector, variable duration, sensorium interference. Your tongue can't fit comfortably in your mouth. Makes speaking really, really hard.

12.) casket_desync.omf - anti-NHP, visual/NI vector, fixed duration, variable intensity, ontologistic disruption. No effect on exposed humans or other organic subjectivities. Induces a state of desynchronization between casket and blinkspace corpus, with...interesting results. Modern casket firmware is capable of identifying and excising this memetic agent within sixty seconds of exposure, or more quickly for milspec casket architecture. Potential tactical utility.

13.) forlorn.omf - olfactory vector, non-set duration, subjectivity interference. This one is odd, and requires a printer to synthesize. It's a chemical compound which, when aerosolized and smelled, induces feelings of intense longing, nostalgia, and homesickness. Effects can last from a few minutes following exposure, up to an hour.

14.) zax.omf - visual/auditory vector, variable duration, subjectivity interference. Whatever direction you happen to be facing when you're exposed, that's the only direction you can move for the duration. Tends to result in repeat exposure.

15.) styxclean.omf - visual vector, variable duration, subjectivity interference. You need to lick your own eyeball, and you won't stop trying. Good luck.

16.) hyperformal.omf - visual vector, fixed duration, neurolinguistic alteration. This one is simple. For one hour, you cannot use any contractions. This is applicable to both spoken and written language.

17.) burn.sim - Non-anthropocentric qualic vector, non-set duration, non-harmful ontologistic alteration. Ontologic bridge required—NHP USE ONLY, LETHAL HAZARD TO HUMAN PERSONNEL. An attempt at inducing an altered cognitive state in NHPs matching the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol consumption in humans. Effects are…temperamental.

18.) calm_down.omf - auditory vector, fixed playback duration, non-harmful subjectivity alteration. I, uh…so, this one feels like being comfy. Wrapped up in blankets, warm, drowsy. Active memetics are embedded within an audio track of a cat purring. It’s just designed to take your mind off things for a bit. Might help a human sleep. If anybody wants a copy, I’ll hand this one out on request.

[clatterbane]

Being the person I am, I went ahead last night and got another batch of redneck sake going in the jar that the first batch just came out of.

This time, I'm trying a two-step approach, starting with a thick rice porridge made from non-glutinous rice like Makgeolli Guy tried here. Only instead of Japanese/Korean type rice (which we do actually have), I decided to try some of the cheap and readily available local pudding rice which is also medium grain and basically risotto rice. I have used the same stuff sold in the UK for sushi before too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So far:

A multistage method, adding more rice in different steps, is supposed to give a more complex flavor. So is using a mix of types of rice. So, we'll see.

Planning to add the other 500g from that bag of white glutenous rice (which ferments particularly well) in a few days. Just the same as before, pressure "rice" cooker steamed and put in with more of the koji rice rehydrated in a little more water.

Also being the person I am, I couldn't resist playing around with a couple more variables at the same time when planning this second batch. Taking a cue from this guy (with English subtitles available), I decided to try adding a little cultured dairy as additional lactofermentation starter. Unlike nuruk or jiuqu, koji doesn't have any in there naturally. That will hopefully help give it some pleasant tartness, instead of just tasting weird.

I also followed his lead here and used a little more water, because the last did turn out just so strong with the alcohol. Sort of split the difference, and decided to try a slightly higher proportion of water but not as much as Homebrew Sake Guy seems to be using for his recipes.