pkirkner

Yeah, that was clearly hyperbolic, and the automation of motor vehicle transportation will undoubtedly be a boon to everyone who doesn't work in that industry, but I don't see how removing drivers from the equation will create much in the way of new jobs. The infrastructure you describe already exists, and just needs to be modified slightly, not replaced. Meanwhile, a little under 4 million jobs will go the way of the buggy whip salesman. I also prefer Lyft to Uber for that reason, and I prefer both to taxis because they're more likely to show up if my destination isn't in the wealthy part of town.

And the worst thing to happen to the labor market, at least in the short term. That's millions of jobs in the US alone.

The taxi business is a mess, at least in my experience on the East Coast. I'm mostly aware the regulations in Philly and New York. Essentially, in response to a high volume of unsafe cabs, a system was established in the 1930's that required operators to undergo vehicle inspections and purchase medallions from the city in exchange for the exclusive right to operate. Over time, the ownership of those medallions concentrated into the hands of a small number of people. Drivers no longer purchase medallions directly from the city, but lease them from middlemen, the most famous of which is Gene Friedman, who's one of the largest medallion holders in both cities I'm familiar with. These medallion holders wield a great deal of power over their drivers and political influence over local regulators, and have largely been successful at keeping cities regulating taxi services with their interests in mind rather than the broader interests of the city.

Yeah, he was standing in today as part of Brad Shoemaker's Daily Dota team. They just wrapped up their first match, which they streamed on Giant Bomb / twitch.

I listen to Friends At The Table, which has a bunch of folks from the Streamfriends twitch channel and is DM'd by Austin Walker. They just wrapped up their first campaign a few weeks ago and are about to start a new one, for which they've released an audio trailer.

Yup, a huge part of the early game any time I solo queue is trying to evaluate the other 9 players strengths and weaknesses on the fly. It reminds me more of pickup basketball than any other video game I've played.

Austin's also great as the dungeon master on the Streamfriends spin-off role playing podcast Friends at the Table. http://friendsatthetable.podbean.com/

I guess I should pay attention to Giantbomb now. Really glad Austin Walker's going to have a bigger platform. His stuff at Paste and on his blog has been great.

Did we settle on a date for the next 5E session?

And then take another moment to listen to the William Shatner / Joe Jackson / Ben Folds cover.

Sounds good.

The Firewatch wallpaper was a nice find, but I think you buried the lede:

Last year you also got compendium points fairly frequently as drops when playing matches. I imagine that will be the case this year, though I've only seen coins drop so far.

What's the verdict on the next session?

Yeah, I agree. I find Dota much more demanding on my quick-decision-making skills than my reflexes. It may be that at the professional level reflexes matter more, but I'm not convinced of that. I think that's more of a case of the lifestyle, at least along the path to becoming a pro, appealing to a younger demographic.

With as broad a definition of "belligerent" as possible.

May 1st works for me.

It's also the only part of Monáe's Metropolis series that came out in 2014.

For those of you who still aren't sold, it closes with an argument that Janelle Monáe should have received a Hugo nomination for the Electric Lady video. Cosign 100000000000000%

Also, a and Nick playing soccer.

It's actually the same specific group of about half a dozen women MRA's.

GQ interviewed a few of them last year at an MRA conference and I'm confident the answer to that question is yes. And the Sage Gerard guy that interrupted the panel? He's quite a peach.

It looks like there's a fan-made table of contents for the main player manual. Hope that helps a bit.

Yeah, it's just a trailer and it's fine on those terms. The trailer for Wolfenstein: The New Order actively turned me off to that game (which turned out to be my favorite shooter since HR despite the lousy marketing). This one just doesn't move the needle either way.

There's a trailer out: Not sure what to make of the cyborg Magneto antagonist.