Chittering Clawbug fractalnavel Posted April 25, 2018 Posted April 25, 2018 From a "big data" perspective, there are plenty of data points so far from which to make quite a few predictions. Assuming you had the data sets to work with. Probably enough for personal identification purposes too. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted April 25, 2018 Author Posted April 25, 2018 13 hours ago, fractalnavel said: From a "big data" perspective, there are plenty of data points so far from which to make quite a few predictions. Assuming you had the data sets to work with. Probably enough for personal identification purposes too. That's probably mostly true, but I'm not sure anyone has the data sets to work with. Basic demographic characteristics would not be hard to cull, for sure. As far as actual personal identification goes, I'm not sure the data sets you'd need to do that actually exist. This is a possibility that I thought about way back when I started this thread, and I'm OK with it (b/c of the lack of significance of anything I've done on these forums). However, I would ask that we not discuss the prospects of doing it (nor do we actually do it) in this thread -- it's still a little bit creepy, and that will get me to end this project faster than anything else will. Quote
Kyshakk Koan googoogjoob Posted April 26, 2018 Posted April 26, 2018 Your favorite fiction book Your favorite nonfiction author Your favorite and least favorite chemical elements. Quote
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted May 2, 2018 Posted May 2, 2018 David Bowie Your favorite Buffy episode Your least favorite video game boss Your favorite of Slarty's PDNs Your favorite flower Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted May 3, 2018 Author Posted May 3, 2018 Colonialism as an explicit theme in games like Archipelago Colonialism as an implicit theme in games like Puerto Rico Colonialism being omitted entirely in games like Settlers of Catan I'm not entirely sure what to do with these as I think the differences here are not very significant; I will however rate Colonialism's relevance in board games: As the degree of its relevance far outstrips the nuance with which it is ever approached or ignored. Lodges: Sorry, I just don't care about these at all really Your favorite fiction book: A very hard pick, but on the basis of it being a common enough choice that I won't feel the need to redact its identity, I'll go with _Fahrenheit 451_. Your favorite nonfiction author: Basically already represented in the redacted book, and would also be redacted, so there you go. Your favorite and least favorite chemical elements: Aluminium: "I own a tin foil suit, and I'm aluminum... it's extremely reflective, flashy and found in tacky products everywhere. It insulates itself from the external world using a layer of oxygen. And it tends to cause pointless linguistic flamewars." Ruthenium: I suppose Ruthenium, because I *think* it was the first to start the annoying trend of naming elements after their place of synthesis, even if said place was irrelevant to the element itself. David Bowie: There are some high highs and some low lows (and, of course, one very high Low), but in Bowie's case, it's very hard for the highs not to win out. The sheer quantity of output, and the consistent pace of it, for so many decades; the modulation and remodulation of so many styles. Your favorite Buffy episode: "The Gift" still makes me cry, and is an easy answer -- but there are so many runners-up. Your least favorite video game boss: Hmm.... great question! And choices: do I go with a painfully hard boss, or a painfully annoying/problematic boss? After considering many worthy contenders (Lashiec, Baramos, etc.) I think I'm going to go with Garuda from the NES version of FF3, for a cluster of reasons: - He's an incredibly difficult boss, far outclassing what came before - He is most easily defeated with a single "just do this!" strategy, but that strategy is RNG-reliant, still requires grinding, and is easily handicapped by a probably unintended elemental resistance interaction - His fight is immediately preceded by a long (especially for an NES game) scene you are forced to watch, which makes NO sense and involves both the PCs and NPCs doing obviously stupid things - The transformation into Garuda makes no sense - Garuda's sprite was lifted directly from a published resource which gives historical mythological information about Garuda, which seems to have been badly misunderstood by the designers - At the time you fight him, you have recently been locked into a small area of the world map, losing access to all of your old shops (and grinding options) right at a time when they might be needed Your favorite of Slarty's PDNs: Also a very tricky question. The first one that comes to mind is "Opaque Obake" but then there's also "Displacer Iguana" and I still sort of love "TUXEDO MASH EDGAR SLAAAASH" -- and there are probably others I am forgetting that might take the cake, but, hoom, hmm, I'll go with the first one for now. Your favorite flower: Let's go with Callistemon, which should please Callie at least. Dogs Square One Television Alphabets Fahrenheit 451 A nonfiction book (identity redacted) Subtle, tasteful symbolism Chrono Trigger Cyberpunk Bilbo Baggins Waving Hands Titus Andronicus Hamlet Lord of the Rings "Zombie" (Cranberries song) Pet Sounds "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" Spirited Away "The Gift" (Buffy episode) Cait Sith Exile II: Crystal Souls Nethergate Billie Holiday "Nephil's Gambit" Kierkegaard Gilgamesh Slartibartfast The Tarot Deck Madeline Kahn Hades Storm (X-Men) Hugs The deck of many things Seinfeld Egizia Coffee Public libraries Thai food Croissants "Opaque Obake" Les Misérables (novel) Text search functions David Bowie Bossa nova Disco Jiji (character) Mice Upton Sinclair History File compression Sliced bread Bagels Subways (transit) Sailor Moon (first anime) Marie Curie Medusa P-zombies Ducks Deontology Aluminium Willow Rosenberg Prossis-Bok Working out Russian literature Simon & Garfunkel Nina Simone Sea slugs Samuel Clemens Ninjas Circular saws Jiji (in Nikki's lap) Inanna Ziggurats Reality TV AD&D 2nd Edition Maggie Simpson Callistemon (flower) Shamhat Ghosts Frankenstein (novel) Tiki drinks Snakebird Ice cream Vancian magic Utnapishtim Juvenalian satire 70's cars Georg Cantor Shanti AD&D 1st Edition w/ UA —Alorael C++ Good grammar Macbeth Cor Blok's Tolkien art Bacon Falafel Fall Black Panther Party Henry Wallace OK Computer Catharism Cookie Monster Minotaur (Knossos) Zombies (necromantic) Romeo and Juliet The Northern Lights The Mary Tyler Moore Show Speedy Gonzales screenshot Saunas Vinyl records Trumpets Chainsaws Linux Sans serif fonts The aesthetic qualities of the Greek alphabet The Queen is Dead Schuyler Colfax Gargoyles Roguelikes Chess Geneforge 1 Lady Gaga Video games Super Mario series Lawsuits Wine A Midsummer Night's Dream Robert Heinlein Heracles Jeff Vogel Ravens Smartphones Whiskey Hydra (Lernaean) Heathers Xanth series Isaac Asimov The Evil Overlord List Arthur C. Clarke Match Game Liches Exile III: Ruined World The Cranberries (band) Bartenders Forum lurkers Black Panther (character) Sock puppets The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog Flamingos Cluny the Scourge The Chronicles of Narnia "Mr. Green Genes" Muppet Babies Paul Simon Penguins TLC Rhinos Civilization (human phenomenon) Beer Frodo Baggins Mexican food Bob Dylan Richard Garfield Ontology Chimera (Lycian) Science museums Achilles Ella Fitzgerald Pelicans BitTorrent Nevermind Tom Waits 70's prog Sliths Rats Avernum II: Crystal Souls Slarty Ranks Everything Ranking lists "...Gottfried Reads Fifty Shades..." Heavy-handed symbolism Princess Peach Elephants Donuts Cats Trombones The Muppets The Eiffel Tower Solidarność screenshot Civ II Helen of Troy Zorro Revolutions Casablanca Avadon series Goldfish (snack) Gilbert Gottfried Football (American) Nephils Star Wars original trilogy James Garfield Jury nullification Avernum 4 Batman Cinnamon rolls Hubble space telescope History museums Pegasus 2001: A Space Odyssey The Beatles Aretha Franklin Homestar Runner They Might Be Giants Sherlock Holmes Tennis Posting games Inspector Peanut Subinfeudation Solitaire Werewolves The Big Lebowski Nelson Rockefeller Goldfish (fish) Art museums King Arthur The aesthetic qualities of the Hebrew alphabet Zeus Windows 3.1 Summer Carmen McRae Richard Cheese Bark spider Spiders Mummies Dolphins Metahumor Nixon's foreign policy Sparkling water Grant Wood Paprika Spam (meat) Cabaret (film) Harry Potter series Peanuts The White Rabbit Standard playing cards Norman Rockwell The electoral college Nick Cave MMORPGs Table saws Horatian satire "This is a Trent Reznor Song" Google Odysseus Xian Skull (item) Spam (e-mails) Running Dead trees Puggsy Checkers Facebook Runtz Pineapple pizza The LP rendition of Slarty's voice Gilmore Girls Hockey Wheel of Time series George Clooney Film noir Abugidas Ruthenium Vitamin C supplements Twelfth Night Blazing Saddles Louis Armstrong Discarded chewing gum Art Garfunkel The Trojan Horse 70's movies New York City Abjads "Lackadaisical" The March Hare Dick van Dyke's accent as Bert "Mr. Tambourine Man" The Matrix GIFTs (Spiderweb) Godwin's Law Poseidon The aesthetic qualities of hierogylphics Russian Bimetallism Beowulf (character) Angry Birds Alf screenshot Colonialism's relevance in board games Jackalopes Pyramids with eyes on them Centaurs Moderate rain all day Korean food Microsoft Phantom stair step (bottom) Word Rescue Elvis Presley Minecraft Galactic Core Bumper stickers Novelty mugs Apple Ferris wheels Mechanical pencils Vultures John Wayne Amazon The post that asks me to rank itself Virtue ethics Roller skates Greek yogurt KISS (principle) Agamemnon Salty liquorice WesternsFriends Getting a triple word score in Scrabble Phantom stair step (top) Turkey/cat video Dieselpunk Life of Brian AOL ELIZA Zombies (infectious) 80's fashion KISS Hipgnosis Expensive wristwatches Salt lamps Cologne My Little Pony Whaling Rudyard Kipling The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom The War on Drugs (band) Queen (band) Fifty Shades of Grey Jane Austen books The Byzantine Empire The Let's Play series Stubbing your big toe Basketball Baseball "Acceptable in the 80's" (song) Halloween Garuda (FF3) Bertrand Russell Cats (musical) Stubbing your little toe Pirates Elfpunk Ennui Charles Dickens "Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros" (song) Hercule Poirot The Easter Bunny Ferrets Soccer Robin Hood (character) Star Wars prequel trilogy Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas the Tank Engine Freefall (webcomic) "2500 things Mr. Welch..." Fedoras Johnny Cash Deconstructivism The Microsoft Office Assistant Steampunk Cyclops (X-Men) Kitten/rat box Athena John Calhoun (politician) Mr. Toad of Toad Hall The Xavier Files BGG Top 10 Ethical intuitionism Sock puppets (fake accounts) Birthdays The Barber Paradox Turnips Anchovy pizza Wasps U2 Wings (band) Fictional names that use a lot of apostrophes Twilight Saga Deconstructionism Final Fantasy VIII "Stuff from the 90's!" (song) The Olympics The Big Bang Theory (TV show) Consequentialism The Crusades King Leopold Handlebar mustaches (i.e., thin and spindly ends) Quote
Kyshakk Koan googoogjoob Posted May 4, 2018 Posted May 4, 2018 4 hours ago, 'Probably' said: Ruthenium: I suppose Ruthenium, because I *think* it was the first to start the annoying trend of naming elements after their place of synthesis, even if said place was irrelevant to the element itself. On the one hand, this is true (Yttrium, Ytterbium, Erbium, Terbium)... on the other hand, is this actually worse than Samarium, named after samarskite, embarrassingly named after a minor Imperial Russian bureaucrat, Vassily Samarsky-Bykhovets? Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted May 4, 2018 Posted May 4, 2018 (edited) hey let's rank marvel events with "secret", "war", "infinity", or "vs" in the title Secret Wars / Secret Wars II Infinity Gauntlet / Infinity War / Infinity Crusade Civil War Secret Invasion Avengers vs. X-Men Secret Wars Civil War II Inhumans vs. X-Men Secret Empire dc's simpler, let's just do the ones with "crisis" in the title Crisis on Infinite Earths Zero Hour: Crisis in Time Identity Crisis Infinite Crisis Final Crisis (you could do the "countdown" ones as well, but then the lines get blurry) EDIT: i don't want to bias your scoring, so i'll save a rant for later EDIT 2: oh hey world war hulk qualifies let's throw that one on too don't feel obliged to rank all of these Edited May 4, 2018 by Dintiradan Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted May 4, 2018 Author Posted May 4, 2018 No no please share your rant. I assure you that I will be happy to agree, and equally happy to disagree. I just enjoy intelligent rants. (EDIT: Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Rants?) Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted May 4, 2018 Author Posted May 4, 2018 Also you've been a bit inconsistent about what does and doesn't count as an "event", so I may make a few additions as well as deletions (Kree-Skrull War, anybody?) Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted May 5, 2018 Posted May 5, 2018 Oh, yeah, make more work for yourself if you want. I'm less familiar with the Marvel storylines, especially earlier ones, but I know you lean more towards Marvel, so I put more Marvel stuff on it. I was re-reading/finishing Gotham Central a while back. Got the elements of a great procedural, very character-driven, all while being set in Gotham -- would recommend very highly (and it's what I was hoping the Gotham TV show would be based on, alas). Aaaand suddenly here's a Red Skies Crossover, because hey Day of Vengeance and Infinite Crisis is on and we gotta do something about that. So now Captain Marvel is fighting the Spectre, and the Rock of Eternity is blowing up over Gotham, and Gothamites are being possessed by the Seven Deadly Sins, and isn't this what you wanted from a series where the previous issue focused on when it's justified to compel a journalist to reveal their sources? No? Well, good news for you, the events of the crossover are never relevant again for the series. Next issue's all about fruit of the poisoned tree, you'll love it. I remember Starman being especially bad when it came to stuff like this. At the climax of an issue when -- whoops! -- Godwave just hit and everyone's depowered. Don't worry, we'll just deus ex machina things on the next page and forget this ever happened. At the end of an arc when... hey, didn't we deal with you already? Oh, Neron gave you a power-up. Don't know who Neron is? Too bad! Oh, and Blackest Night is happening, so we gotta have someone fight a Black Lantern. It's possible to do crossovers/references well, provided authors have time to integrate it with their own storylines. Sandman had an arc where a bunch of people throughout time and space had to wait out a "reality storm", and they passed time by telling stories Canterbury Tales-style. It's something that fits with the rest of Sandman, even if you know nothing of Zero Hour. But usually it's... well, read the TV Tropes link. As for the events themselves... it varies, but usually it's thumbs-down. Events usually come from corporate down, rather than authors up, and that's not a good recipe. And with one author writing scores of characters means you're going to be disappointed with at least one character's portrayal. I find that the "enormous ensemble cast dealing with Big Thing" itch is better scratched by turning to Elseworlds/What If stories (where the goal is telling an actual story) than main universe events (where the goal is usually changing up the lineup). Could do a event-by-event dissection, but I'll save that for Dintiradan Ranks Slarty Ranks Everything. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted May 6, 2018 Author Posted May 6, 2018 Yeah, I think that is mostly true today. But it wasn't always. Some of it is inevitable, as the role of "corporate" expands everywhere. And some of it I blame DC for. I mean, just look at the table of contents of this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_(DC_Comics) In fairness to DC, Marvel had alternate earths too, and Marvel probably did more nutty things with alternate timelines (#thanksxmen). But it was DC that became obsessed with constantly rebooting all of its characters, and using these pan-universe crossover events to do so. This forced them into every nook and cranny of every title. It took Marvel longer to go down that road. That said, Marvel's top heroes were much more likely to (a) be in a group, and (b) be strongly identified with that group rather than as their own title character. The sprawling X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four properties simply had more tendrils than Justice League ever did. Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted May 7, 2018 Posted May 7, 2018 I'm trying (and failing) to find the Bendis(?) quote where he says that a crossover with 616 would be the surest sign that the Ultimate universe writers had run out of ideas. Marvel's relative cohesiveness has always been its biggest strength, and it has its history to thank for that. I think that other than Namor and Cap (I dunno if the first Human Torch is still a thing) it was designed from the ground up to be a shared universe. Whereas DC's a bunch of different properties that merged together. I suppose DC started the shared universe thing with World's Finest and the JSA, but not to the same extent that Marvel did. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted May 7, 2018 Author Posted May 7, 2018 I don't think you can blame history; it wasn't an accident that things ended up this way. Marvel was designed from the 60's up to be a shared universe, but it wasn't because there weren't any golden age characters other than Namor and Cap (and the original Human Torch and Vision, etc.) -- those were just the only two they pulled forward. Whereas DC pulled a lot more forward, and their trappings too, like the fake cities that made it clear they were not part of our world. Two very different strategic approaches. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted May 7, 2018 Posted May 7, 2018 DC got worse because they acquired Fawcett which brought in the Marvel Family and other companies that they have tried to merge into the mainstream after years of alternate Earths. Now they do crossovers with Loony Tunes characters and Power Rangers that add to the mess. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted May 7, 2018 Author Posted May 7, 2018 DC did not acquire Fawcett. Rather they sued them and ruined them; then, years later, licensed the rights to "Shazam" (Fawcett's trademarkless Captain Marvel) and associated characters; then, eventually, they purchased those characters outright. However, nobody cares about Shazam one way or the other, so it's hard to see how that ruined DC. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted May 7, 2018 Posted May 7, 2018 It's not that people care as much as the editors at DC keep trying to force everything together whether it fits or not. You had the Zero Hour crossover to collapse the DC Multiverse into fewer worlds. Since then there have been several crossover events to rewrite history and merge worlds with the last being the Rebirth into 52 worlds and Earth X for the Nazis winning. I've pretty much given up on trying to follow the overall DC universe with all the changes and now using Alan Moore's Watchman as part of the revised history. I'm not sure that these changes will last long enough to even be worth following before the next revision. Quote
Burgeoning Battle Gamma Puksis Posted May 7, 2018 Posted May 7, 2018 (edited) Fiddlesticks M103 Heavy tank De Tomaso Pantera McDonalds Jesus Edited May 7, 2018 by Puksis Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted May 8, 2018 Posted May 8, 2018 6 hours ago, [ Multiverse Munchers ] said: I don't think you can blame history; it wasn't an accident that things ended up this way. Marvel was designed from the 60's up to be a shared universe, but it wasn't because there weren't any golden age characters other than Namor and Cap (and the original Human Torch and Vision, etc.) -- those were just the only two they pulled forward. Whereas DC pulled a lot more forward, and their trappings too, like the fake cities that made it clear they were not part of our world. Two very different strategic approaches. Point. Though the whole setting approach is very much a matter of taste. I've got zero attachment to New York -- in fact it's usually a point against Yet Another New York Cape in my books. Whereas Metropolis, Gotham, Opal, whatever can be anywhere. (On a side note, could we put "relevance of urban superheroes when violent crimes in urban areas have been dropping for several decades" on The List?) 5 hours ago, [ Multiverse Munchers ] said: However, nobody cares about Shazam one way or the other, so it's hard to see how that ruined DC. Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Triumph Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 On 5/5/2018 at 12:24 AM, Dintiradan said: Dintiradan Ranks Slarty Ranks Everything GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman 1 Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted May 14, 2018 Posted May 14, 2018 slarty it is really important that you rank this mashup. Quote
Seasoned Roamer Bender89 Posted May 15, 2018 Posted May 15, 2018 So, wanna rank all south american country's by most likeliness to visit? Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted May 16, 2018 Author Posted May 16, 2018 I have not forgotten this. I'm halfway through the current set. May be a few days before I get caught up though. Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted July 10, 2018 Posted July 10, 2018 While I am loathe to bump this topic, I find myself in the midst of a schism; only Slarty, the ultimate authority on all things everything, can mend it. Muffins with bits of fruit in them. Muffins with bits of nuts in them. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted July 10, 2018 Author Posted July 10, 2018 Yikes. TONIGHT I WILL GET TO THIS TONIGHT TONIIIIIIIGHT Quote
Curious Artila PerishedFraud Posted July 11, 2018 Posted July 11, 2018 (edited) Edited July 11, 2018 by Deadliar Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted July 12, 2018 Author Posted July 12, 2018 OK so by "TONIGHT" I clearly meant "probably Saturday" but it is going to happen then. Really. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted July 12, 2018 Posted July 12, 2018 10 minutes ago, Meriecury said: OK so by "TONIGHT" I clearly meant "probably Saturday" but it is going to happen then. Really. Just go to a supermarket and get the types from the same manufacture so you have some consistency from being made the same way. I'd do it, but I don't like nuts, so i'm biased against that type. Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted July 13, 2018 Posted July 13, 2018 2 hours ago, Meriecury said: OK so by "TONIGHT" I clearly meant "probably Saturday" but it is going to happen then. Really. Quote
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted July 30, 2018 Posted July 30, 2018 It's been over two weeks, Slarty. As punishment, you must also rank Wuberg, the MtG puppet. Quote
Hatchling Cockatrice Quiconque Posted July 31, 2018 Author Posted July 31, 2018 Crap. You have no idea how many browser windows I have sitting open of stuff I meant to do weeks ago. So many. Quote
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