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Dikiyoba

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  1. Hmmm. Certain measles outbreaks had a much higher death rate, usually because it was reaching an unexposed population for the first time. For example, when it first reached the Fiji Islands in 1875, it killed 20-25% of the total population. --- It's weird how the list separates out the different forms of smallpox and plague, and the different ebola viruses, but then lump all kinds of malaria together. They're totally different organisms with separable symptoms, and one form is significantly more lethal than the other three. Dikiyoba's main source is Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence. Interesting, but with the worst organization possible, so it's hard to use. Dikiyoba also relies on Wikipedia and squinting.
  2. I thought it was from infected wounds and old age/impaired immune systems? It turns out one of the first thing people do when an epidemic hits and the body count climbs is to run away. And running away is a good way to spread disease to new areas. ---
  3. Given a large enough population and a contagious enough virus, it seems like there wouldn't be selective pressure on the virus to reduce lethality, so long as there are always more hosts available. Who cares if you kill half the city so long as you can make it to the next city? Viruses can only infect a host once before the host gains immunity, so there's not an overwhelming reason for the virus to keep the old host around. I mean, smallpox. An estimated 300 million and 500 million deaths just in the 20th century*, and it's had thousands of years to work with, while plague has only had hundreds. Also, there's the whole "basically wiping out the indigenous people of North and South America" thing. *Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131122956.htm (Not the best, perhaps, but any numbers are hard to find, let alone good ones.) Dikiyoba doesn't know how many people malaria has killed historically, but it's got to be up there as one of the worst killers. It kills approxmiately half a million to a million people a year presently, and it's had thousands of years to rack up the death count. But it's not a virus nor a bacteria.
  4. Update to fun fact: There was, in fact, one incident of smallpox vaccines that were contaminated with syphilis, which resulted in at least 44 cases of syphilis and several immediate deaths. However, consider that in just one decade (1900-1910), Britain had 5,000 smallpox deaths. Italy--which also had a strong anti-vaccine movement and no mandatory vaccination requirements--had 19,000 deaths. Meanwhile, Germany, which did have a good vaccination program, had only 386 deaths (mainly of Italians visiting Germany? Such was the case for most smallpox cases reported in Germany during 1920-1921). Dikiyoba is glad that we eliminated smallpox, so at least modern anti-vaxxers can't mess that up.
  5. Fun fact: There was an anti-vaccination movement in Britain for the entire 1800s after the development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796. You know, the disease that had a thirty percent mortality rate, if you were lucky. There were at least two smallpox epidemics in Britain during this time. The arguments even sounded similar: vaccinations weren't safe (technically true, since the process wasn't totally sterile and vaccination could and did cause infections of different diseases, but risk was low compared to, you know, smallpox), against God, keep the government out of my business (smallpox vaccination was mandatory), vaccinations would give you syphilis... Dikiyoba.
  6. Clinton, of course, identified two baskets of Trump supporters. The fact that people only remember the deplorable basket and entirely forget about the second one is hardly Clinton's fault. (Link to Clinton's full speech here, for anyone who hasn't seen it before.) Dikiyoba.
  7. Dikiyoba

    Pickles

    It's on the ground around the farm areas. It's the little green things that look a bit like pears. Use the inventory button or press i to find them whenever you are around big green bushes. Dikiyoba is not entirely sure about pickled fruit. It sounds like an acquired taste.
  8. Perhaps it would be a good idea to move the Avadon forum up above the Avernum: Subtitled forum now that Avadon 3 is out so that the Avadon forum is a bit more prominent? Dikiyoba is surprised that Avadon 3 isn't getting its own forum.
  9. Unfortunately, the only ones left are the really hard ones. Plus, no Triumph to help us out. Did you ban him or something? Dikiyoba.
  10. One good guess, and three wild guesses. 457. Lost Properly - Fair and true counterpart to a materialistic PDN The PDN "Lost Property" is this PDN's counterpart and references material goods. 475. Tempestuous Winds and Gusts - In which Cloud is restrained, and takes damage -- until he has reached his limit... Cloud is a Final Fantasy VII reference, and tempestuous might indicate a Shakespeare's The Tempest reference, but really all I have to put these two together is a storm theme: clouds and winds. 479. Safety in Numbers - Duke Ellington's prescription for everybody Duke Ellington was a jazz composer who liked working with large numbers of musicians, so maybe? 494. Identification with the Romantic Irony - In which the broken fourth wall starts talking to the audience Romantic irony involves the author speaking directly to the audience (ie, breaking the fourth wall) about their work. Dikiyoba.
  11. 452. Bestial Oblivion - Princely counterpart to a craven scruple Another Hamlet reference. Prince Hamlet: "Now, whether it be / Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple / Of thinking too precisely on the event" 456. Lost Property - The Malachite Brooch, maybe The Malachite Brooch from Exile/Avernum is lost until the party finds it, so it might qualify as lost property. 459. Brits Enact Exile Plan - A May update to an old Scorpius creation? This is a reference to the very old thread "Bush Enacts Exile Plan" or BEEP, which was apparently started by Scorpius, and of course the recent Brexit referendum. Dikiyoba.
  12. 459. Brits Enact Exile Plan - Fair and true counterpart to a materialistic PDN This sounds like a reference to the very old SW thread "News at Eleven" in which real-life political figures were banished to Exile (if I remember my lore right), and to conservative news sites (like Fox News) claiming to be "fair" and "unbiased" compared to mainstream liberal media. 464. StatueHuge StatueBroken StatueateEmpire - Fragmentary fantasy of an Exile town planner, maybe Statues are an important feature in Exile/Avernum, including ones that are alive that can talk to or attack the party. Looking at them would give you a description similar to those found in the PDN. One can imagine an architect laying out the pattern of statues in Silvar momentarily wishing they had the power to raise an army of living statues to take on the Empire. 487. Unexpurgatory - Place where questionable books go to be preserved Expurgation is the censorship of offensive material from art and literature. The original version would be unexpurgated. Purgatory is a temporary state in the afterlife for purification until the dead are free to move on. Unexpurgatory would be where books hang out until they've been adequately censored or changing mores allow them to be published in their uncensored form. 491. Mortality Play - Last Rites, maybe Morality plays occurred in the Middle Ages, and educated people about the importance of being virtuous. A mortality play would educate people on some facet of death. Last Rites are (typically) Catholic prayers given to someone who is dying or dead. They might be the topic of a Mortality Play. Dikiyoba.
  13. Shotgun! 478. Ms. Ann Thrope - Discontent contestant on _But Who's Counting?_ Misanthropes really don't like people, and as such are likely to be discontented. 472. Overbooked Eumenides - When injustices continue to accrue Eumenides is a name for the furies, which are the goddesses of vengeance. Too many cases of injustice would result in them being overbooked. 501. Sub Roma - Roman Restoration offers a Trojan allusion Roma is Latin for Rome. Beneath Rome are extensive catacombs, which were abandoned and forgotten about, then rediscovered as an important historical and archaeological site, kind of the same way the location of the city of Troy was lost, then rediscovered as an archaeological site. 465. Ten Million Pounds of Sludge - Something I have remarkably little experience with 1. Because it's funny. 2. Hopefully it's also true. Dikiyoba.
  14. 492. Phlegmolplex - One kleenex followed by a hundred blows Googol is a number so large it's a one followed by a hundred zeroes. Phlegm is the mucus that blocks up your airways when you're sick. 502. Amelia Bedelia Changes Her PDN - Likely precursor to a publicly displayed pie Amelia Bedelia is the title character from a series of children's books. She makes frequent mistakes, but makes up for it with delicious pie. PDN stands for publicly displayed name, so a mistaken PDN requires a publicly displayed pie. Dikiyoba.
  15. 454. Plastiche - A synthetic imitation Plastic + pastiche. A pastiche is an artistic work that deliberately imitates the style of another work. A ket feature of plastic is that it is made of synthetic polymers. 468. Black Shades and Policemen - Your skin color was seen! Black Shades are invisible entities from Exile/original trilogy Avernum, often located in bedrooms. Also in the games are the ability to steal items that aren't yours, but doing so in view of NPCs (including black shades) brings up a "Your theft was seen" message, and eventually causes the entire city to attack you. Policemen in the US are notorious for targeting and killing black people for petty offenses and "suspicious" behavior. Dikiyoba.
  16. Darth Ernie: The correct PDN/clues are: 412. Imaginary Solutions – Living, and ceasing to live 444. Abriel - Divine magic at the heart of an underground storm Someone just has to get the references for them. Dikiyoba.
  17. 437. Heal-thy? - Got a nice ring to it! Ring of Health from SW games? 414. Ungraspable Offensive Nature - What you get when an alien baby is forced to attack distant, psychic relatives of its foster mother It is late, and Dikiyoba is le tired.
  18. 438. Dilemming - Canonical form of a problematic behavior A canonical form sounds like the math/computer science equivalent of a lemma. Lemmings tend to die in predictable and avoidable ways, which is less-than-ideal behavior. Dikiyoba.
  19. 438. Dilemming - Got a nice ring to it! It sounds like "dilemma" and "die, lemming" Dikiyoba.
  20. (Another new day) 423. Whirlwind deliver them! - Divine magic at the heart of an underground storm 436. Grill of Chattering Thwomps - Super Flava Flav, maybe Grill can refer to teeth, and Flava Flav has a notable golden grill. Thwomps are rectangular stone monsters from Super Mario. This is where Dikiyoba feels the pressure of limited guesses. Is it better to take unreferenced guesses now that there are so few clues left, or to save the guesses for later?
  21. Guess six of six: 434. Gynting Hall - Royal, lonely, underground place of procrastination and avoidance A hall for Peer Gynt from the play Peer Gynt (from which the music "In the Hall of the Mountain King" comes from). The PDN combines the Mountain Hall with Peer Gynt's avoidant behavior. (Assuming this guess is correct, give one of the points to Excalibur for tipping Dikiyoba off to the name of the play.)
  22. So... when do we get to turn Slarty into a rug? --- 422. Boba Spray! - Overpowered recipe for a mercurial chef Boba Fett of Star Wars + Bobby Flay the celebrity chef ( + plus a spell name that ends in spray that I'm missing. Let's go with lightning spray.) 444. Abriel - Got a nice ring to it! Sabriel the Abhorsen (and all Abhorsen), of the Old Kingdom/Abhorsen series, uses the tolling of seven bells to control the dead. 443. Wallhouse - Practice of librarians beyond the stone wall? Another Abhorsen reference? There's the Wall that divides the Old Kingdom (where magic exists) from Ancelstierre (where it doesn't), the Great Library of the Clayr (in the Old Kingdom), and the Abhorsen's House. Dikiyoba.
  23. It's a new day! 424. To make a long story short-- - The butler did it The butler always does it. End of story. 439. Digger Lemma - Lexicographer who doesn't want to see the light Diggers are a class of lemmings from the game Lemmings (which dig down, as their name suggests). A lemma (among other things) is the form of a word that the definition is under in a dictionary. A lexicographer works on dictionaries, and one who doesn't want to see the light would want a digger lemma. Dikiyoba.
  24. 432. Epigene Genie - Lives on his back, loves chimney stacks, rises up from his point of origin The song Jean Genie by David Bowie (the first bit of the clue is lyrics from the song) + epigean, maybe, the way a plant germinates and thrusts the first leaves up out of the soil. (It's a bit of a stretch, but better than nothing.) This is Dikiyoba's sixth guess of the day, until the new day starts in 3 hours.
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