tberton

See, my quandary with Jessica Jones is that I just started reading the comic and really like it. So now I have to decide if I want to finish it before watching the show. But I also want to watch the show right now.

I imagine your talking about Jessica Jones, but you may want to actually say what you're talking about, Ben.

Agreed, as long as we recognize that "clumsy and unhelpful" is much different than "wrong and degrading." In fact, one mght say that using the latter to describe overuse of "literally" is engaging in the same hyperbole that is being criticized.

Yeah, I personally avoid using "literally" in that way, but it's more because I try to avoid using unnecessary intensifiers. I just bristle at the idea that using it's other meanings is somehow a degradation of the language.

Don't feel the need to read all the stories in order. The first couple are the weakest, in my opinion. The last four - the autobiographical ones - are my favourites.

Wait a second, what? "Literally" as "without exaggeration" is definitely older than five years. Dictionary.com states that this use of "literally" is actually older than the "misuse" of the word as a simple intensifier. And the supposed "misuse" is quite old as well. This blog post has plenty of examples of writers using "literally" as an intensifier for the past two centuries. If you want to complain about hyperbole, that's fine, but "literally" has meant more than just "non-figuratively" for a long, long time.

The only MaxFun show I listen to anymore is The Flop House, so I've never heard their ad, but I don't doubt that it's bad. The McElroy ads don't bother me much, but I'm not a fan of most of them - the "can you tell how much we didn't practice this" thing is kind of annoying. Also, most shows on MaxFun seem to be almost exactly the same thing - bunch of people ostensibly talk about a specific topic, but mostly just make jokes - so I can't imagine why you would listen to more than a couple of them.

Sorry you're not liking it. I really loved the Plague Knight DLC. Yes, it's still the same levels, but given how Plague Knight controls different and the items are placed differently, a lot of them feel significantly different - things that were challenging for Shovel Knight are straightforward for Plague. Likewise for the enemies: some are much easier, but I found that anything that Shovel could easily defeat with the downward thrust is much tougher for Plague. As for the movement controls, they definitely take a bit of getting used to, but once I got the hang of them I found it super fun. One tip: you should use the Bomb Blast as your second jump, not your third. That is, go Jump - Blast - Jump. You get better distance that way and more control. However, apparently they patched out the ability to have attack binded to two keys at once, which allowed you to constantly be charging a blast. I don't know why they did that, since the game is much easier to control if you're constantly charging.

Weapon upgrades, at least to Plasma, are essential, in my experience. I think going armor first makes sense, but get to Plasma as fast as possible, especially the Plasma Sniper, because makes your Snipers so much better.

Great cast folks! Data and Destiny is so awesome - feels like the best of the big boxes in terms of offering tons of interesting and powerful cards for both Runners and Corps. I do think that Quinns is vastly underestimating both Archangel and Assassin. Both pieces of ice are monstrously good. Archangel's strength is mostly about it's effects when it's installed; the fact that it triggers on access is icing. Consider this: it's 4 cost for 6 strength. Straight up, that's a good ratio. It's a trace, yes, but a trace 6, so unless they're linked up, the Runner's paying more for the trace than they would to break it. The effect is very powerful, too. Leigh is right that you can already trash Resources, but Archangel can get rid of Programs too. And other Ice trashes Programs, but Archangel can also get rid of Hardware. And other Ice can get rid of Hardware, but Archangel can get rid of Resources. It's the fact that it can do any of these that makes it so powerful. Rare is the runner who runs consistently without resources, programs or hardware. And yes, you're not trashing it outright, but in some cases that's a boon - it means the card can't be Clone Chipped or Scavenged or Test Run. Even if they reinstall, what's important is the effect during a run. You bounce their Corroder so they can't break Wraparound, or their Datasucker so they don't get tokens, or their R&D interface so they can't multiaccess. The card is incredibly versatile. Furthermore, it's typing is fantastic. It's not a Sentry, so Faerie does nothing; it's not a Destroyer, so Sharpshooter does nothing; it's not AP, so Deus X does nothing. There is no easy answer for Archangel, other than "don't have installed cards you care about" and the Corp is usually happy with that. Conversely, there are a ton of answers for Assassin, but they are all costly for the Runner. A use of Faerie, Sharpshooter or Deus X; two D4V1D tokens; numerous credits with Femme, Ninja, Garrote or Shrike; two tokens and two credits with Mimic; a big Parasite; four cards with Faust; two expensive traces. The Runner has options to deal with Assassin, but the Runner always has options to deal with any Ice. The value of Assassin is that the Runner always has to deal with it. At two credits more than Ichi and Komainu (which the Runner can ignore in many circumstances) and essentially the same cost as Tsurugi (if you want the net damage to fire) and zero influence, Assassin fills two roles for cheaper than the price of one. I think it's by far the best piece of neutral ice printed since Quandary.

Along with those ones, every Iron Man, every Spider-Man, X-Men 2, X-Men 3, X-Men: First Class, Thor, Thor 2, Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: the Winter Soldier and every Fantastic Four movie all have villains that have a personal connection to the heroes. That said, it might just be an easy way to add layers to the stakes of a conflict. After all, the original Kahn also had a personal connection to Kirk; Vader was Luke's father; Hans' brother enacts revenge on John McClain in Die Hard with a Vengeance; and comic book movies feature a lot of those dynamics because comic books have too.

You may be right here, but TNG still has several episodes about Worf struggles to fit into both human and Klingon society. There are also episodes about the how the Borg are an evil menace unworthy of anything but death, and there are episodes about reconsidering that position when confronted with the selfhood of individual Borg. There are also episodes about whether or not Data or other "artificial" beings are alive and sentient. Many of those have positive resolutions, but questions surrounding the Other are still very much present in all of them.

Not an expert, but my supposition is that Christianity is a religion that preaches deliverance. Thus, if you find yourself in a position where you have been systematically excluded from the powerful corners of society, it makes sense to find comfort in a faith that tells you the good will be rewarded and the evil will be punished and all worldly concerns are fleeting. Also, many of the branches of Christianity popular in the US (Baptism, Methodism, etc.) are based around the pulpit. This means that there are ready-made charismatic leaders inside the community who have the skill and the clout to make public demands. Lots of civil rights leaders have been clergy members, most famously Martin Luther King Jr.

I don't know, Star Trek still has plenty of feared Others: Klingons, Romulans, Borg and Cardassians all fit the bill at varying points.

I saw The Fifth Element for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. It's certainly weird, but the sets and costumes are amazing and Mila Jovovich, Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker all turn in fantastic performances. It's a really fun movie.

A blocker for podcast ads wouldn't even make sense. You can always skip past the ads anyway. And, unless I'm mistake, revenue from those ads is based on how many people use the code, not how many people listen to the ad, so a blocker would only indirectly hurt revenue.

It makes perfect sense if the attempt in question was precipitated by harassment from people on the Internet.

From what I've heard about that incident, it seems like it was initiated by a group of people who have been harassing this artist for quite some time, claiming to be part of whichever fandom she's currently drawing fanart from. So it seems more like using trumped-up charges of offense as a smokescreen for abuse, which then got picked up by others who didn't look into the issue carefully, rather than a case of "social justice gone awry." I think the Ian Jones-Quartey quote is perfect. "Bullying is not criticism." That's the essential point here. It should be shouted from the rooftops, put on billboards and played in front of every YouTube video.

Wow, I had no idea that having police officers in schools was so common in the States. I guess it makes sense, after Columbine, but I always thought of it as something extreme that you hear about on the news, not commonplace.

I mean, they did it with Philadelphia already. I'm in a sense glad that Quantic Dreams games exist, because the early ones proved that you could make modern, big budget games that were about stories and characters and didn't involve repeatable systems or overwhelming violence. But they also proved that for something like that to work you need good writing, directing and acting, which Heavy Rain, at least, didn't have.

I haven't read Uber, but I'm a huge fan of another Kieron Gillen-written comic, The Wicked & The Divine. It's sort of superhero-ish: it's about Gods who get reincarnated as pop stars. It's fantastic. If you like Gillen's writing, I highly recommend it.

I would totally listen to this. I should stop being such a snob and start listening to some history podcasts. Are these all of the one person talking and telling a story format? I think I'd prefer a history podcast that was two people, with one expert telling somebody unfamiliar with the topic what it's all about.

I'll probably get involved in this conversation more deeply tomorrow, despite myself, but I will point that the video games industries lobbying body is called the Entertainment Software Association. And the regulatory board in the States is the Entertainment Software Rating Board. So there's precedent for the term.

Yeah, the NDP have traditionally been the party of social democracy. Since they made big electoral gains in 2011, they've been drifting toward the centre, dropping "socialism" from their mandate and their rhetoric, because really the only way to govern in Canada is from the centre. But it didn't work out for them this time. They lost pretty much everything they had gained four years ago.

There's a free, ad-based version of Threes. There's actually a fair bit of game design ideas you can dig into with that game.