@pre@boing.world
There's a woman I know who, when she was pregnant, was very keen to hear the opinions of crystal diviners and homeopath medics on what sex her new baby would be but wouldn't let the ultrasound-scan technician that actually knows tells her because Spoilers.
On that note, I'm happy to watch #doctorWho #badWolf #tv
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systemsPLpol, pseudoliberalism
Tell me, is a "liberal" the kind of person to claim that a woman must not become a president, as she'll get mad with power? Does a "liberal" declare their tolerance for specific people by using insulting names for them? Does a "liberal" call certain minorities "loafers"? Does a "liberal" support dismantling public services for "cost reduction"? Yet these are the views held by the voters of PO/KO, the Polish party often called "liberal".
It is not a liberal party, and it won't be one, because they have too much to lose. For years now, they exist only as an alternative to the "conservative" PiS party โ not as something truly opposite, but as a comfortable alternative that's not all that different. So the Polish can gladly focus their contrarian, hateful nature into voting against one or the other party, without having to worry too much that some immoral rainbow force will try to shatter the bubble of their worldview.
#PLpol
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialSo the basic idea is that we first compute a "level" for whatever interaction, by adding beneficial modifiers and subtracting harmful ones. Imagine most modifiers are smallish integers like 2 or -3 (though they can be non-integers too). Each level can be thought of as making things twice as good/bad, although this only applies directly when they're balanced. The actual formula starts with a 50/50 chance of "success" at level 0, and then each positive level halves the chance of failure, or if the levels are negative, each negative level halves the chance of success (note that halving the chance of failure is not the same as doubling the chance of success).
The intuitive explanation is that you start with a coin flip. Then if the level is positive, you flip that many additional coins and succeed if any single coin succeeds, but it the level is negative, you have to flip that many additional coins and succeed only if *all* flips succeed.
For example, if I have a dagger with 5 crit chance, and I attack an opponent with no armor modifiers, I'd have to win any 1 of 6 coin flips to score a crit (p = 1 - (1/(2^6)) = 63/64. Increasing my crit modifier by 1 ups my chances only slightly, to 127/128. This is obviously pretty poor return, indicating that the 5 I already have is very strong. If the opponent had armor with -3 to crits, the interaction is now level 2, so the crit chance is 7/8, which is still pretty good. We can see from these examples that the basic system
rewards a small level advantage a lot, but the rewards diminish rapidly. The system has a few avenues for tweaking how it works though, that can let us modify this. There's also a potential benefit (though sometimes drawback) that no matter what the level gap, there's an effective limit to how much the interaction swings.
@pre@boing.worldConfusing episode. Let me clear it all up.
The world is sinking into the doubt needed to rescue Omega, remember, and The Doctor is falling with a balcony that's separated from the building.
How does he get out of that?
Well, saved by a literal magic door that pops out of nowhere, leading back to the time hotel. ๐คจ
Anita, who he spent a year with once a couple of Christmases ago, has been popping around the Doctor's entire long life, peeping on him with the Daleks and stuff. Trying to find him on the Earth's last day. Today.
And now he's rescued, today turns into a groundhog day. Same day over and over again. ๐
There's another woman that's been stalking him through time lately, Mrs Flood. She was following him everywhere, but she had Xmas off she reckons, so didn't see the Time Hotel bit. Thus the element of surprise in the deus ex machina rescue. ๐
The Doctor is broken free of the wish spell now anyway, popped his conditioning, and can use the time hotel's door to recall Unit and break them all out of the wish too.
The Rani pops in to say hi and explain her plans. ๐
How did the Rani survive the end of the Timelords? She flipped her DNA to sidestep the genetic bomb apparently? Well that makes no sense, but nor does anything else so no time to ponder.
The end of the Time Lords made them all Barons... No, made them barren. There can be no more children of the time-lords.
She's popping Omega back out of the underworld for his DNA because the timelords are all barren and she wants to recreate Galifrey.
But wait a minute: Poppy is the Doctor's kid in wish world! So she should have Timelord DNA too! Maybe that could work?
No. The Rani is a nazi, don't like the kid's contaminated blood. She's got human all over her DNA. Eww.
Rani pops off back to her Bone Palace, and makes the bone beasts attack.
The Doctor explains that the Giant dinosaur skeletons are beasts that pop in to clean up the world when there's a reality flux, and the Rani has turned them on Unit HQ.
So the UNIT HQ turns into some kinda ship? Like the Crimson Permanent Insurance. Lol. It's blasting lasers at the bone beasts and turning around, and has a steering wheel like pirate ship now. ๐คฃ
During the battle, the Doctor pops out to take a ride on the sky-bike, looking like something from Flash Gordon, and crashes into the Bone Palace.
Too late though! Omega is pretty much here now. He's a giant boney CGI zombie, become his own legend. Looks great but doesn't really seem like Omega, who ought to be held together by pure will.
Omega eats the Rani! One of the Ranis anyway. Mrs Flood avoids being eaten. She pops off with the time bracelet. "So much for the Two Rani's. It's a goodnight from me!" as she disappears off into time. Great gag. ๐
The Doctor just shoots Omega to get him back into his box. Pops a rifle off the wall. The Vindicator has apparently also got a built in laser as well as locator beacons. So that's handy. The Doctor doesn't use guns but some of his devices work like one. ๐ซ
So all is well! The day is saved and the wish is over and baby Poppy survives in a time box! ๐ป
They're going to take the space baby off to do space adventures. Ruby is jealous of seeing The Doctor and Belinda vibing like that, as they plan a life in space with the space baby. Aww. Poor Ruby. ๐ญ
But then Poppy pops off! Disappears entirely, and everyone other than Ruby forgets. Ruby remembers because she's disappeared from time herself in the past they say.
Okay: to save his child and on Ruby's word alone, the Doctor will sacrifice himself to turn reality one degree.
He goes off to commit suicide by Regeneration, but Thirteen is here! She's popped out of her timeline to stop him! Or maybe to help, with a motivational chat instead. Gives him a pep talk then pops back off again.
The Doctor zaps reality with his Tardis, dying but holding off on the actual regeneration for a few moments to go check on the kid.
The kid is safe! But isn't his own kid any more. Poppy has popped all her Timelord DNA and is just all human now. Poppy's pop isn't the doc, it's someone called Richie.
And Belinda has been so keen to get home all this time in order to get back to her Baby! Who isn't a timelord, and definitely didn't exist until she was wished into being.
This may not be the most ethical action The Doctor has ever taken: To bend the whole universe in order to recreate a baby that was accidentally wished into being out of nothing. Twisting time to give a child to a nurse who didn't previously have a child, or even remember the wish. Then it's not even the same child that disappeared, coz this one is all human. ๐คท
But the doc is popping off to regenerate with Joy in the stars, and... Turns blonde: "oh. Hello?" ๐คฏ
It's Rose! Billie Piper is back? Fantastic!
Is Rose doing a David Tennant Impression there?
Billie playing the Doctor, doing a Tennant impression as Bad Wolf? Amazing. Can't wait.
#doctorWho
@pre@boing.worldSo, we have a song-contest blighted by a genocidal unethical corporate sponsor, with the remnants of the wiped-out race threatening a revenge genocide of their own.
Unusually political with the allegory there then.
Great looking scene when the roof was blown open, thousands of people all being sucked off! Looked great, but what a body count?! And the Doctor and his Tardis both sucked off too! He's frozen.
"The Mavity Shell is still open." Lol. Still doing that then.
Susan is here! His granddaughter. Just in visions though, not actually really there. She looks older now. Sixty years on. She's like 80 years old now. "Find me" she says. Not this season though I suspect.
I liked him using the Confetti Cannon to fly though space. Peter Davidson used a cricket ball to bounce off a space ship when he was stranded in outer space. And Peter never froze.
Also a great prat-fall after landing, pointing and gasping and then just toppling.
Silly muppets-aliens song was fab.
Anti-gambling fraud laws prevent calling for help. Brilliant.
Expected that hair to be hiding a set of horns, not that she'd have cut them off.
The Doctor has ice in his heart now, more angry than we've seen Nchuti's Doctor. Trillions gonna die, Belinda dead, Tardis lost. Almost genocidal himself. Certainly vengeful. Timelord victorious.
Belinda is scared too: "If he's angry, this whole world is going to shake", but it ain't a world is it? It's a space station. Much easier to shake ๐
Explosion breaking through the Tardis doors near the end is quite a cliff hanger, but not even actually the end.
Because Mrs Flood is the Rani, finally! Every mystery character has had the fans hoping it's the Rani for years. Like it never being Lupus for the other Doctor: Doctor House. Finally it is Lupus, I mean the Rani.
Not sure I like this bi-generation again though. It's supposed to be rare, but now it feels like it's every time. Still, at least it keeps Miss Flood there as Rani's lackey.
Who actually was the Rani again?
She's from the first McCoy episode: she tries to build a time control device by gathering geniuses from time and blowing up a planet. Pretends to be Mel, the Doctor's companion at the time, to fool McCoy into hhelping. So interesting that her new regeneration looks a little like Belinda. ๐คจ๐ค
I figured Mrs Flood was just Missy, the female Master. But then The Rani was always just a female version of The Master before Transsexual Regeneration was a thing anyway.
Well, just the double finale left then. Exciting.
#watching #tv #doctorWho #interstellarSongContest
@rasterweb@mastodon.socialSomeone mentioned the "awesome" web site for Milwaukee Critical Mass, but I think they may have been taking the piss...
But honestly, I'd rather see this than an overdone 'full of shit' web site with too much.
As it is, it gives the basic info. Sometimes that's all you need.
Although (sigh) it looks like it hasn't been updated since April.
โก๏ธ
@davidshq@hachyderm.ioOne of the most important lessons I've learned in life / continue to learn / managed to forget is the importance of "stopping." It is so easy for life to become overwhelming with all the things I must do. Work, family, friends, volunteering, community, finances, chores, taking care of my health, the list goes on...
"Life is a very simple thing. We make it more complex." - Anonymous
"When we are making our life more complex, that is precisely the time when we are totally incapable of seeing what we are doing. The more complex our lives are, the more we need to be present to them and, surprisingly, this is exactly the time when we are most distracted. When we are distracted, we tend to have poor judgment and make more mistakes . . . usually adding to the confusion . . . and so it goes."
"....We usually respond by trying to become even more controlling and, eventually (or immediately!), this just makes things worse."
"It's time to stop, take stock, take some deep breaths, rest, listen to others, and regroup...We may miss something. We may even miss something we think is important. That's okay. We're more important."
"Taking time to stop may be just what I need to move ahead."
-- Anne Wilson Schaef, Meditations for People Who (May) Worry Too Much, Ballantine Books, 1996, entry for May 6th.
#life #quotes #health #productivity