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wrestler-smash-or-pass · 2 months

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Weekly Wrapup 3/3/24 (late!)

This Week's Rankings:

Hangman Adam Page (Mustache) - 70.7% smash

Drilla Moloney - 70.7%

Kagetsu - 66.7%

Randy Orton - 62.3%

Alex Coughlin - 61.3%

Amir Jordan - 60.2%

Shane Haste - 59.0%

Rocky Romero - 58.4%

Tetsuya Naito - 54.1%

Tony Nese - 51.4%

Al Snow - 47.3%

Eve Torres - 47.1%

Julius Creed - 27.9%

Kevin Sullivan - 13.1%

Average smash rating this week: 53.6%

More stats under the cut, along with my observations, commentary, and some of my favorite tags...

Most total votes this week (most enthusiasm)

Hangman Adam Page - 529 votes

Alex Coughlin - 279

Drilla Moloney - 246

Rocky Romero - 245

Randy Orton - 236

And least total votes this week (least enthusiasm)

Kevin Sullivan - 153 votes

Amir Jordan - 166

Eve Torres - 174

Julius Creed - 201

Tony Nese - 218

The closest poll was Tony Nese, who won 112-106

Top Ten Overall

Kris Statlander - 91% smash

Athena - 90.2% smash

Hikaru Shida - 89.7% smash

Minoru Suzuki (Young Variant) - 88.7% smash

Swerve Strickland - 88.3% smash

Toni Storm - 88.1% smash

Hiroshi Tanahashi - 87.7% smash

Hangman Adam Page - 86.4% smash

Bianca Belair - 86.4% smash

Hikuleo - 86.0% smash

Bottom Ten Overall

Vince McMahon - 3.9% smash

Ric Flair - 4.6% smash

Kane (Corporate variant) - 10.1% smash

Miracle Violence Connection - 11.8% smash

Gene Munny - 12.4% smash

Spike Trivet - 12.% smash

Kevin Sullivan - 13.1% smash

Triple H (Terra Ryzing variant) - 18.6% smash

Eric Bischoff (NWO) - 20.0% smash

Charlie Dempsey - 22.1% smash

Top Women Overall

Kris Statlander - 91% smash

Athena - 90.2% smash

Hikaru Shida - 89.7% smash

Toni Storm - 88.1% smash

Bianca Belair - 86.4% smash

Bottom Women Overall

Eve Torres - 47.1% smash

Carmella - 47.8% smash

Nikkita Lyons - 48.2% smash

Julia Hart (Cheerleader Variant) - 49.8% smash

Kelly Kelly - 50.3% smash

Top Men Overall

Minoru Suzuki (Young Variant) - 88.7% smash

Swerve Strickland - 88.3% smash

Hiroshi Tanahashi - 87.7% smash

Hangman Adam Page - 86.4% smash

Hikuleo - 86.0% smash

Top Tag Teams

The Golden Lovers - 80.4% smash

Best Friends - 66.7% smash

Motor City Machine Guns - 65.5% smash

Roppongi Vice - 62.7% smash

Young Bucks - 43.8% smash

Mustachioed Hangman took the No. 2 spot for most total votes, with 529 votes cast. However, there was a 13.6 point drop in his smashability when the mustache is taken into account. He scored 86.4% smash for his previous poll, with 386 smash votes. With the mustache, he scored 70.7% smash, with 374 smash votes. I thought he'd do better, given how popular mustaches seem to be overall, but maybe the mustache fans are just a small, vocal minority.

Eve Torres had the misfortune of being the least smashable woman overall. She was the fourth woman to score less than 50%.

We can now add Rocky Romero to the rankings for Best Friends and Friends:

Kris Statlander - 91.0% smash

Orange Cassidy - 77.1% smash

Danhausen - 68.8% smash

Chuck Taylor - 66.2% smash

Trent Beretta - 61.3% smash

Rocky Romero - 58.4% smash

And for their tag teams, we have

Best Friends (Chuck and Trent): 66.7% smash

Roppongi Vice (Trent and Rocky): 62.7% smash

In other news, I'm starting to add Cagematch rankings to the results spreadsheet (reminder, that exists here: Google Docs). I plan to eventually make some silly charts involving those ratings, like smashability vs. Cagematch rating.

And now for some of my favorite tags and comment

@tetsuya-taito on Julius Creed: #he looks like he rubs the inner thigh and asks if you like that

@mancewarner on Julius Creed: #he does unfortunately look like hed call me a slur though so id hit it and ghost

@mancewarner on Shane Haste: #just watched an insiderz stream where he was chugging coke and burping extremely loudly into the microphone. that being said yes id smash

@sanguinaryrot on Kagetsu: #uhhhhh yeah I stand for the troops (transgender professional wrestlers)

@dykecassidy on Hangman with a Mustache: #everyone stop clicking smash i wanna be the only one please let me be alone with this hangman

@theunprettier on Drilla Moloney: #i wanna get tangled up in his body hair and die like a fish caught in ocean debris

Honorable mention to the MANY people who tagged the Hangman poll with some variation on "save a horse ride a cowboy"

#weekly wrap up

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ariesgamesandminis · 7 months

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Restocks are up for BattleTech!

20-206 Huitzilopochtli Assault Tank "Huey" (Standard) 20-217 Crusader CDR-5K 20-236 Marauder IIC 2 20-298 Archer ARC-6W 20-324 Tundra Wolf 20-347 Galahad "Glass Spider" 3 20-350 Ghost GST-10 20-361 Thorn THE-N 20-367 Spider SDR-7K / SDR-7K2 20-385 Scarabus SCB-9A 20-398 Shrike SHK-VP-A 20-410 Malak C-MK-O Invictus 20-431 Ocelot 20-481 Maultier Hover Vehicle (2) 20-485 Balius Prime / B / C 20-5001 Eagle Fighter EGL-R6 20-5008 Flamberge Prime 20-5019 Kestrel VTOL 20-5040 Mad Cat MKII (Enhanced) 20-5049 Carnivore Assault Tank (Standard) (2) 20-5059 Septicemia E 20-5080 Vulture MK IV Prime 20-5088 Hollander III BZK-D1 20-5102 Eyrie (Standard) 20-5105 Cardinal Transport VTOL 20-5110 Carronade CRN-7M 20-5117 Kodiak II (Standard) 20-5122 Tenshi TN-10-O Prime 20-5126 Gun GN-2O Prime 20-5133 Gotterdammerung GTD-20S 20-5134 Juliano JLN-5A 20-5139 Roadrunner RD-1R 20-5140 Ostscout OTT-7J 20-5148 Flea FLE-14 20-5151 Avalanche AVL-1O 20-5153 Uziel UZL-2S 20-5183 Locust LCT-1V 20-5187 Dominator 20-5193 Hierofalcon Prime / A 20-5197 Wolverine WVR-6R / 6D 20-5204 Stormwolf Prime 20-623 SRM Carrier (2) 20-627 LRM Carrier (2) 20-634 Epona Pursuit Tank Prime (2) 20-638 Rakshasa MDG-1A 20-642 Berserker BRZ-A3 20-645 Ha Otoko (Standard) 20-702 Corsair Fighter CSR-V12 20-712 Shilone Fighter SL-17 20-722 Anhur Transport 20-725 Cavalry Attack Helicopter 20-727 Karnov UR Transport 20-741 J-27 Tow Vehicle, Thumper towed gun, trailer, and boxes 20-766 Lynx LNX-9Q 20-779 Manticore Heavy Tank (2) 20-780 Hussar HSR-200-D 20-786 Hachiman Fire Support (Standard) (2) 20-790 Salamander PPR-5S 20-800 Hex Bases (4) 20-822 Demolisher Tank 20-825 Bulldog Medium Tank (2) 20-912 Kingfisher 20-956 Tessen TSN-1C 20-990 Lightray LGH-4W 99-201 Large Flat Top Hex Base #1 99-202 Large Flat Top Hex Base #2 BT-004 Afreet Battle Armor BT-006 Phalanx Battle Armor BT-028 Cavalier Battle Armor BT-128 Tornado Battle Armor BT-129 Infiltrator Mk I Battle Armor BT-133 Corona Battle Armor BT-134 Gray Death Legion Battle Armor BT-178 Jade Hawk JHK-03 BT-187 Djinn Battle Armor BT-188 Nighthawk Battle Armor BT-189 Kobold Battle Armor BT-198 Tengu Battle Armor BT-199 Asura Md. Battle Armor BT-200 Shedu Assault Battle Armor BT-201 Nephilim Assault Battle Armor BT-208 Triton ProtoMech BT-209 Se'irim Medium Battle Armor BT-214 Deva Dominus BT-222 Tau Wraith BT-226 Fast Recon BT-230 Kopis Battle Armor BT-236 Ravager Battle Armor BT-244 Heavy Infantry - Standing BT-245 Heavy Infantry - Firing BT-250 Ignis Infantry Support Tank BT-269 Sling SL-1G BT-293 Hitotsume Kozo HKZ-1P BT-319 Wheeled APC BT-321 Hover APC BT-335 PWWKA S-PW-1LAM (Air Mech) BT-364 Gabriel Hovercraft BT-370 Kurita Infantry (3) BT-371 Davion Infantry (3) BT-372 Savannah Master Hovercraft BT-374 Roc Protomech BT-381 Basic Inner Sphere Battle Armor (3) BT-383 Longinus Battle Armor (3) BT-385 Grey Death Legion Battle Armor (3) BT-387 Gnome Battle Armor (3) BT-388 Salamander Battle Armor (3) BT-390 Fa-Shih Battle Armor (3) BT-391 Fenrir Battle Armor (1) BT-413 Marauder Battle Armor BT-414 Niso Attack WiGE (Standard & Support) BT-433 Warwolf H BT-476 Ares ARS-V1E Apollo FT-027 Gotha Mech Scale Fighter OP-080 Mad Cat E Left Arm OP-115 Heavy Lasers 20-203D Solitaire Main Gun 20-410F Malak Hatch Cover 20-917ARM Nova Cat (Omni) Arm Sprue BT-292G Shiro SH-2P Banner BT-294F Hatamoto-Suna HTM-30S Banner Sprue

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compneuropapers · 6 months

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Interesting Papers for Week 44, 2023

Rhythmic temporal coordination of neural activity prevents representational conflict during working memory. Abdalaziz, M., Redding, Z. V., & Fiebelkorn, I. C. (2023). Current Biology, 33(9), 1855-1863.e3.

Which processes dominate visual search: Bottom-up feature contrast, top-down tuning or trial history? Becker, S. I., Grubert, A., Horstmann, G., & Ansorge, U. (2023). Cognition, 236, 105420.

Neural dynamics underlying associative learning in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus. Biane, J. S., Ladow, M. A., Stefanini, F., Boddu, S. P., Fan, A., Hassan, S., … Kheirbek, M. A. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26(5), 798–809.

A reservoir of foraging decision variables in the mouse brain. Cazettes, F., Mazzucato, L., Murakami, M., Morais, J. P., Augusto, E., Renart, A., & Mainen, Z. F. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26(5), 840–849.

Spike-phase coupling patterns reveal laminar identity in primate cortex. Davis, Z. W., Dotson, N. M., Franken, T. P., Muller, L., & Reynolds, J. H. (2023). eLife, 12, e84512.

Is all mental effort equal? The role of cognitive demand-type on effort avoidance. Embrey, J. R., Donkin, C., & Newell, B. R. (2023). Cognition, 236, 105440.

Ventral striatum dopamine release encodes unique properties of visual stimuli in mice. Gonzalez, L. S., Fisher, A. A., D’Souza, S. P., Cotella, E. M., Lang, R. A., & Robinson, J. E. (2023). eLife, 12, e85064.

Computational complexity drives sustained deliberation. Hong, T., & Stauffer, W. R. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26(5), 850–857.

Mathematical Model of Synaptic Long-Term Potentiation as a Bistability in a Chain of Biochemical Reactions with a Positive Feedback. Katauskis, P., Ivanauskas, F., & Alaburda, A. (2023). Acta Biotheoretica, 71(3), 16.

Geometric determinants of the postrhinal egocentric spatial map. LaChance, P. A., & Taube, J. S. (2023). Current Biology, 33(9), 1728-1743.e7.

Learning at your brain’s rhythm: individualized entrainment boosts learning for perceptual decisions. Michael, E., Covarrubias, L. S., Leong, V., & Kourtzi, Z. (2023). Cerebral Cortex, 33(9), 5382–5394.

Retinal motion statistics during natural locomotion. Muller, K. S., Matthis, J., Bonnen, K., Cormack, L. K., Huk, A. C., & Hayhoe, M. (2023). eLife, 12, e82410.

Neural dynamics and architecture of the heading direction circuit in zebrafish. Petrucco, L., Lavian, H., Wu, Y. K., Svara, F., Štih, V., & Portugues, R. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26(5), 765–773.

Elucidating a locus coeruleus-dentate gyrus dopamine pathway for operant reinforcement. Petter, E. A., Fallon, I. P., Hughes, R. N., Watson, G. D., Meck, W. H., Ulloa Severino, F. P., & Yin, H. H. (2023). eLife, 12, e83600.

Principles for coding associative memories in a compact neural network. Pritz, C., Itskovits, E., Bokman, E., Ruach, R., Gritsenko, V., Nelken, T., … Zaslaver, A. (2023). eLife, 12, e74434.

Critical Drift in a Neuro-Inspired Adaptive Network. Sormunen, S., Gross, T., & Saramäki, J. (2023). Physical Review Letters, 130(18), 188401.

Dopaminergic prediction errors in the ventral tegmental area reflect a multithreaded predictive model. Takahashi, Y. K., Stalnaker, T. A., Mueller, L. E., Harootonian, S. K., Langdon, A. J., & Schoenbaum, G. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26(5), 830–839.

Inhibitory control of sharp-wave ripple duration during learning in hippocampal recurrent networks. Vancura, B., Geiller, T., Grosmark, A., Zhao, V., & Losonczy, A. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26(5), 788–797.

Optogenetics reveals paradoxical network stabilizations in hippocampal CA1 and CA3. Watkins de Jong, L., Nejad, M. M., Yoon, E., Cheng, S., & Diba, K. (2023). Current Biology, 33(9), 1689-1703.e5.

The cholinergic basal forebrain provides a parallel channel for state-dependent sensory signaling to auditory cortex. Zhu, F., Elnozahy, S., Lawlor, J., & Kuchibhotla, K. V. (2023). Nature Neuroscience, 26(5), 810–819.

#neuroscience #science #research #brain science #scientific publications #cognitive science #neurobiology #cognition #psychophysics #neurons #neural computation #neural networks #computational neuroscience

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anneapocalypse · 2 years

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You Miss, Then You Don't: On Sera's Archery Skills and the History of Red Jenny

The Sera Series: Exploring Sera's Character and Background

Sera is a skilled archer, and this comes up as a point of confusion both in the game and in supplementary materials. Multiple characters seem confused as to where she learned her archery skills. In early conversations in Haven, Sera tells the Inquisitor she had no teacher, that she just "picked it up here and there." She admits that it takes some work, but adds, "I mean, you miss, then you don't. Is it that hard to see when it's wrong?" When the Inquisitor asks if it's an "elf thing," Sera only laughs and replies, "Most I know couldn't find an arrow sitting on it."

In The World of Thedas, Volume 2, a note from the Antivan Crows poses a similar question:

I get it. They all wear the same mask. The rest is bullshit.

The elf, the voice says Denerim, a mutt. But she's got a trainer who must be somebody. You don't split flies like she does without someone teaching you how to nock an arrow. Who gets that at birth? No one the living are supposed to know. (p. 236)

Sera has annotated her usual answer in the margins. "Is it so hard for everyone? You miss, then you don't."

I think it's very easy to misread aspects of Sera's character if you take things she says early on in the game and in party banter literally and at face value. Initially, I accepted her answers as such myself. Later, as I got to know Sera, I realized that her early answers are really non-answers, which she gives specifically to deflect what she sees as nosy and invasive questions.

One thing I was sort of taken aback by, when I was just getting to know Sera, is how much she dislikes Maryden's song about her. Sera likes girls, Maryden seems to like Sera, Sera even comments that she thinks Maryden is "chatting her up." You'd think she'd be flattered Maryden wrote a song about her, right? Wrong. Big wrong. In her journal, she calls the song "creepy." Later, in Trespasser, after Sera offers the Inquisitor the chance to become a Red Jenny, Maryden can be heard starting up the song, abruptly interrupted by the sound of breaking wood, followed by Sera's final declaration, "Creepy song is creepy. Ugh!"

Sera has… let's say, a particular dislike for people being too nosy about her life.

Look at it this way: in Haven, Sera has just met the so-called Herald of Andraste. And she is taking a big chance on them. They're not the "Big Hat" yet, but they're already surrounded by nobs and Important People and Sera's whole thing is she wants to see if they're worth knowing before they get too big to bother with. That's what she says when she meets them: "Get in good before you're too big to like." So when she talks to them in Haven, she's not sure if she likes them yet. She's feeling them out.

So, when Sera's just met the Herald and is asked, "Who taught you to use a bow?" and she says, "No one" … that's not really an answer. It's like when Dorian asks the same, if she just picked it up one day and was a natural, and Sera's response is, "Not your business if I do or didn't. Like I don't ask if you 'naturally' shoot fireballs out your arse, or just opinions."

It's not an answer, at least not literally. It is an insight into Sera's character, but not in the sense that it's telling us she's a natural born archer who never had to work at it a day in her life. (I mean, she even walks it back two lines later after the Inquisitor prods her further, saying that it does take work.) But what's she's really saying is the same thing she's saying to Dorian: "None of your business."

It's not like it would even be so weird if Sera was a self-taught fighter. As I brought up in a previous Sera post, I think there's some in-universe prejudice in the incredulity characters have about a city elf being good at fighting. No one repeatedly interrogates Duncan about how he learned to stab people good with a dagger.

But that's all beside the point. Because once Sera likes the Inquisitor, she tells them something different.

After raising Sera's approval high enough to get the cookie cutscene—a scene in which she opens up about her painful childhood—the Inquisitor can ask her more about herself. Sera still expresses reticence but is now willing to answer more questions. Let's have a look at that conversation.

Inquisitor: I'd like to know more about you, now that you're comfortable. Sera: Suppose. It's embarrassing enough now, might as well. Inquisitor: Anything more to say about where you came from? Besides hating cookies there. Sera: Denerim, mostly. Before running into another Jenny. He was fun. Had weird friends, though. I think some of them were a lot more serious about being serious. Got some of them killed. I suppose they were like family. Better than Lady Emmald ever was. You know why? They didn't give two squirts about who or what you were. It was all what you did. Inquisitor: So where are the rest of them? Sera: All over. Or they stopped to let new people go all over. Some get rich and stop playing. They can do good things with it. One or two don't. Eventually, someone asks for a favor against them. So don't get like that, you hear? Inquisitor: Denerim is a long way from Orlais. How'd you get there. Sera: By stinky horse? Inquisitor: Sera... Sera: Denerim wasn't much fun after the Blight. Everyone trying to recover, you'd even feel bad for the nobles. But Val Royeaux... that's a fat city full of fat heads. They just don't know when to stop. You saw it. Orlais is rich and stupid. Ripe for the picking. Inquisitor: So is that who showed you how to fight? Gave you your skills? Sera: Nobody gave me anything except a chance. And maybe some lessons to start. But mostly just the chance. I took that and ran.

And maybe some lessons to start.

There it is.

She's not a natural born archer. Maybe she had a normal level of affinity for it, but she didn't magically know how to archery without ever being taught or practicing because of elfy reasons or magic reasons or whatever other tinfoil hat reasons. She had some lessons. And then she practiced. And then she got good. Simple, ordinary people reasons.

And if you read between the lines here I think it's implied who gave her those lessons to start.

You see, the Friends of Red Jenny seem to have originally been a minor assassins' guild. And by "originally" I might right up until the time of the Fifth Blight. Also from World of Thedas Volume 2:

The knives I found think the Friends of Red Jenny started in Ferelden, maybe a hundred years back. Could be longer—they're hard to track. Don't know if the name is a rank or what, but pretty sure it's older than they are. They were assassins back then, but I doubt they competed with true guilds. They were cheap, small, and made a habit of paying urchins to get information or plant weapons. They recruited that way, but that doesn't seem like a way to get skilled people. The Friends had some teeth, and they weren't shy about getting bloody if their people were threatened, but they were strictly local.

It's recent that the Friends have been more active. Since the Blight, mostly. A new Red Jenny at the head—or seems like—in Val Royeaux. And in Kirkwall. Maybe more. Thing is, they might be doing more, but they stepped back from being assassins. And there are a lot fewer of them. Could be Blight—it killed a bunch of everybody. But my gut says different. They didn't just move; they changed how they work.

I found Red Jenny herself, or one of them, I guess. Tall for an elf. I approached her plain, figured we'd talk guild to guild. Her answer was two fingers. She could move, she's proper skilled, but I don't think she's competition. What she and her friends do has nothing to do with us. (p. 236)

The first we hear of the Friends of Red Jenny is in Dragon Age: Origins, when the Warden finds a small painted box in the quarters of First Enchanter Irving, then a note on the body of one of the Crows who ambush the party. The note indicates where the box is to be taken, and is signed "Friends of Red Jenny.” To complete the quest, the box must be delivered to a house in Denerim, where the player can hear the sound of a young girl laughing. No further information is given in that game.

In Inquisition, in conversation with Sera, the Inquisitor may ask her about the Blight, to which Sera replies, "That was ages ago. I was playing with small painted boxes and burying stuff I stole." It's possible this is just meant to be an easter egg, but for the sake of the argument let's assume that Sera does in fact mean that small painted box—that she was working with the old Jennies in Denerim. That one of them gave her that box to play with. Maybe they only needed what was inside it.

I initially read that "more serious about being serious" line as Sera referring to some Jennies who were more actively revolutionary. But I now think I was missing the bigger picture there. Sera was referring to the earlier Red Jennies, the ones she met in childhood before the Blight—the Jennies who were not merely tricksters but assassins.

This dialogue also really frames meeting that other Jenny as a turning point in Sera's life, and from it a picture of her life after Lady Emmald's death emerges for me. Having refused the estate, and still a child, she returned to the streets of Denerim where she met an assassin—a man who was "fun" but had "weird friends." They were "like family," she supposes. "Better than Lady Emmald ever was."

Someone fun with weird friends who took a liking to this little street urchin, perhaps. Gave her tasks to perform for a coin or some food. Gave her some trinkets to play with. Gave her a few lessons with a bow. Never cared that she was an elf, didn't bring it up constantly or tell her it was why people hated her.

Why didn't she just say that from the start? By the time you make it to the end of the cookies friendship cutscene in Skyhold, you've probably figured out that Sera's whole childhood is a painful, difficult subject that she doesn't like to talk about. She's not avoiding the subject of Denerim and her past because she's trying to be difficult; she's avoiding the subject because it's traumatic and a period of her life that she's trying to leave behind. She didn't ride all the way to Val Royeaux by stinky horse because she just loves clopping through miles of wilderness and woods full of the elfiest elves. Denerim is full of painful history for Sera, and I think the old Red Jennies are a part of that painful history. Her voice softens, gets quieter, when she talks about how being "more serious about being series" got some of them killed. World of Thedas Volume 2, in speculating about how the Friends of Red Jenny shifted from assassins to pranksters, notes that the Blight may have played a role in their shift, as it "killed a lot of everyone," so perhaps that contributed. Either way, I think Sera lost friends in Denerim. People who were "like family." There are things there that hurt to remember, and to talk about.

Sera's initial insistence that she didn't have a teacher might not be strictly a lie, especially if she only had a few starter lessons and did the rest herself. If she was observant enough, she might have picked up certain skills simply from watching the assassins she was around all the time. But it's also worth remembering that Sera is very resistant to talking about things that make her uncomfortable or bring up bad memories. Before she knows the Inquisitor well, when they push her to talk about her past, she'll say, "It's complicated. I don't like complicated. Let's leave it at that." Her commentary in the margins of the notes on her life in World of Thedas are mostly flippant, sarcastic, but one of the few that sounds really angry is the note after the old Marcher tavern song "She of the Red," which certainly sounds like it's about assassins and not merely pranksters:

She of the Red, Oh, She of the Red, She's under a lake with no water, it's said. As friendly as any, and then you are dead. "Forgive me; I've killed you," lies She of the Red.

Which Sera has annotated: "Frigging. Piss. Off!"

We might take from this that Sera simply doesn't like having songs written about her (given how deeply unimpressed she is with Maryden's efforts), but I get the sense she also really dislikes people bringing up what the Red Jennies used to be. I wonder if she was even fully aware as a child what the guild was really doing. But she must have made a conscious decision to take the Friends in a certain direction when she took over.

And I do think she took them over after the Blight. World of Thedas notes that Sera "appears to hold seniority, earned at a very young age." She was very young, still a child, when Emmald died. She fell in with the Red Jennies, began to learn archery. Then the Blight tore through Denerim, and a lot of people died. I suspect that the assault on Denerim (whether the attack itself or the ensuing disease) wiped out most if not all of the old Red Jennies, leaving Sera and whatever other urchins the guild had taken under their wing. She'd lost yet another family.

So Sera decided she'd be Red frigging Jenny.

But she didn't want to get people killed. Whatever she knew of the old Red Jennies' line of work, she was aware that it was dangerous. She'd lost friends. And besides, assassins are beholden to people with the coin to hire them—most likely nobles. And there's no one Sera hates more than nobles.

So Sera remade the Friends of Red Jenny into something new. She remade them in her own image and took them to Val Royeaux. They spread north to the Free Marches. I wouldn't be surprised if they're all over Thedas by now. Probably for the best that they're no longer anything the Crows would see as a threat.

But if you're a noble stepping on little people, best look out for arrows. And mind your breeches.

#sera dragon age #dragon age sera #red jenny #friends of red jenny #dragon age inquisition #world of thedas #world of thedas volume 2 #dragon age meta #dragon age #blunders of thedas #sera series #sera

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wadbot · 5 months

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Demontia.wad: Demontia MAP31: Heil Hitler (688, -236, 0) Author: Jacob H. Orloff Date: 2009-09-24 Description: Story: The UAC was performing routine geological tests on some of Earth's subterranean caverns when they uncovered the remains of a temple complex of a long lost civilization. A few initial probes by recon teams showed no signs of life...until the accident. While chiseling away some rock from one of the main chambers of the temple, an archaeologist slipped and cracked his head upon the altar, spilling blood upon the sacrificial slab and sparking an aeon-dead ritual that awoke something wicked. Within moments the base was flooded with demons and the forces of Hell overpowered the marine defense. All that is standing between Earth and certain peril is you. Shoot your way down into Hell, knocking out each summoning gate and slaying its demon avatar before it's too late! Information: (Original Release Date: 09/24/09) I have been working on this WAD for nearly two years. Essentially, this is a thirteen level replacement WAD for Doom 2. There are nine regular levels, a finale, a transitional level, and two secret levels accessible through the campaign. Technical: *Added additional gore to the Former Human, Former Sergeant, and Imp sprites. *Replaced the music for several levels when appropriate, other times the default music fit perfectly. *Replaced the level title graphics as well as the opening scene graphic. *Replaced Boss Demon on-sight sound file. *Replaced Boss Demon sprite. *Added an additional texture. *Changed intermission text to perpetuate the story. Version 1.1 Notes: (Original Release Date: 05/19/12) *Updated for play with ZDoom 2.5.0. *Fixed minor texture errors. *Added weapons to MAP10. *Added platform to MAP10 to make targeting the final boss easier. Version 1.2 Notes: *Updated for play with ZDoom 2.7.1. *Added weapons to make every map playable from pistol start.

#doom #wadbot

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deadpresidents · 6 months

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Im a dork too lol and also find those lists like the presidents/vps age when they died to be interesting! Do you maybe have access to a list like that about how old presidents&veeps were when they took office?

I do have that info available, and I'm glad that people like these kinds of lists because it means I didn't waste my time keeping this data updated over the years!

Here are the Presidents and Vice Presidents by age at the time of their inauguration:

PRESIDENTS: Age at Inauguration (Oldest-to-Youngest) Biden: 78 years, 61 days Trump: 70 years, 220 days Reagan: 69 years, 349 days W.H. Harrison: 68 years, 23 days Buchanan: 65 years, 315 days G.H.W. Bush: 64 years, 222 days Taylor: 64 years, 100 days Eisenhower: 62 years, 98 days Jackson: 61 years, 354 days J. Adams: 61 years, 125 days Ford: 61 years, 26 days Truman: 60 years, 339 days Monroe: 58 years, 310 days Madison: 57 years, 353 days Jefferson: 57 years, 325 days J.Q. Adams: 57 years, 236 days Washington: 57 years, 67 days A. Johnson: 56 years, 107 days Wilson: 56 years, 65 days Nixon: 56 years, 11 days Cleveland: 55 years, 351 days (2nd non-consecutive term) B. Harrison: 55 years, 196 days Harding: 55 years, 122 days L. Johnson: 55 years, 87 days Hoover: 54 years, 206 days G.W. Bush: 54 years, 198 days Hayes: 54 years, 151 days Van Buren: 54 years, 89 days McKinley: 54 years, 34 days Carter: 52 years, 111 days Lincoln: 52 years, 20 days Arthur: 51 years, 349 days Taft: 51 years, 170 days F. Roosevelt: 51 years, 33 days Coolidge: 51 years, 29 days Tyler: 51 years, 6 days Fillmore: 50 years, 183 days Polk: 49 years, 122 days Garfield: 49 years, 105 days Pierce: 48 years, 101 days Cleveland: 47 years, 351 days (1st non-consecutive term) Obama: 47 years, 169 days Grant: 46 years, 311 days Clinton: 46 years, 154 days Kennedy: 43 years, 236 days T. Roosevelt: 42 years, 322 days

VICE PRESIDENTS: Age at Inauguration (Oldest-to-Youngest) Alben Barkley: 71 years, 57 days Charles Curtis: 69 years, 38 days Elbridge Gerry: 68 years, 230 days William R. King: 66 years, 331 days* *King's age on the day his VP term began: March 4, 1853. King was gravely ill and trying to improve his health in a warmer climate, so he received special permission from Congress to take the Vice Presidential oath on foreign soil while recuperating in Cuba, which he wasn't able to do until March 24, 1853. He died on April 18, 1853 after returning home to Alabama without ever setting foot in Washington, D.C. during his brief Vice Presidency. Nelson Rockefeller: 66 years, 164 days Joe Biden: 66 years, 61 days George Clinton: 65 years, 221 days Thomas A. Hendricks: 65 years, 178 days Levi P. Morton: 64 years, 292 days John Nance Garner: 64 years, 102 days Henry Wilson: 61 years, 16 days Harry S. Truman: 60 years, 257 days Gerald Ford: 60 years, 145 days Dick Cheney: 59 years, 356 days Charles G. Dawes: 59 years, 189 days Thomas R. Marshall: 58 years, 355 days William A. Wheeler: 57 years, 247 days Mike Pence: 57 years, 227 days Adlai E. Stevenson: 57 years, 132 days George H.W. Bush: 56 years, 222 days Richard M. Johnson: 56 years, 138 days Kamala Harris: 56 years, 92 days Andrew Johnson: 56 years, 65 days Thomas Jefferson: 53 years, 325 days Hubert H. Humphrey: 53 years, 238 days John Adams: 53 years, 173 days (Adams was sworn in as VP nine days before George Washington was sworn in as President in 1789.) James S. Sherman: 53 years, 131 days Charles W. Fairbanks: 52 years, 297 days Garret A. Hobart: 52 years, 274 days George M. Dallas: 52 years, 237 days Lyndon B. Johnson: 52 years, 146 days Henry A. Wallace: 52 years, 105 days Hannibal Hamlin: 51 years, 189 days Chester A. Arthur: 51 years, 150 days John Tyler: 50 years, 340 days Martin Van Buren: 50 years, 89 days Spiro Agnew: 50 years, 72 days Millard Fillmore: 49 years, 56 days Walter Mondale: 49 years, 15 days Calvin Coolidge: 48 years, 243 days Schuyler Colfax: 45 years, 346 days Aaron Burr: 45 years, 26 days Al Gore: 44 years, 295 days John C. Calhoun: 42 years, 351 days Daniel D. Tompkins: 42 years, 256 days Theodore Roosevelt: 42 years, 128 days Dan Quayle: 41 years, 351 days Richard Nixon: 40 years, 11 days John C. Breckinridge: 36 years, 47 days

#History #Presidents #Vice Presidents #Age at Inauguration #Presidential Inaugurations #Vice Presidential Inaugurations #Presidential Data #Presidential Statistics #POTUS Data #POTUS Stats

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strinak · 2 months

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*rolls up 3 months late*

236 books read in 2023, which is, like, fine? there's a couple big time gaps where I don't remember what I was reading but it wasn't books

biggest fixation was the Defiance of the Fall series, a litrpg/cultivation system thing that's not even great but the author, JF Brink, is a fucking IMMACULATE serial writer. always juuust enough of a hook to make you need that next update. I read 10 books in a row, then all the stuff on RR, AND then subbed his patreon for the 50 advance chapters! it was so many fucking words.

JM Clarke (also an RR author) got me finally, after I avoided forever, because oh this guy has a chosen-by-god mark that makes him not able to fight or do magic and he runs away to be a wizard with his hot childhood friend and his cute little sister? it sounded like some terrible light-novel-inspired nonsense but it was great. lot of magic academy stuff, lot of nitty gritty spellwork. whole chosen hero arc running back home that the protag wants as far from as possible but eventually intersects with in an off-kilter way. turns out god may be evil, nbd.

found Grae Bryan, loved the Hannibal expy the most lol

Amy Sumida, I liked one book, tried a second and bounced HARD off some nonsense

had a whole het mafia romance phase towards the end of the year. Cate C Wells's Run Posy Run is the only one I see myself re-reading.

Jesse H Reign had the bones of a good book but writes some of the worst purple prose sex I've ever read and so goes on the DNR list forever

full list below the cut

#books #my year in books #my reading year #reading log

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pinkipecac · 2 months

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365 Days of Drawing: Year 9

Day 236- Feb 21st, 2024

#pencil #graphite

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wheelsgoroundincircles · 1 year

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Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor

One of four ever manufactured

The Dodge M4S is an American high performance prototype sports coupe originally engineered, designed, and built by Dodge in 1981 as a technology demonstrator vehicle. It was designed by then chief designer of Dodge, Bob Ackerman. The designation M4S denotes "Midengine, 4 cylinder, Sport“. From its conception, the car was intended to be built as a fully engineered running prototype rather than as a display piece. Because it was intended to be used as a pace car, it was designed to reach a top speed of 200 mph (322 km/h).

Chrysler designed the body and conducted extensive wind tunnel testing to achieve a drag coefficient of .236. Although the car was designed by Chrysler, actual construction of the vehicle was handled by subcontractors. The semi monocoque race car chassis was ordered from Huffaker of California. 3-D Industries of Madison Heights, Michigan modeled the body and created molds. Special Projects, Inc. of Plymouth, Michigan cast the body panels, assembled the body and interior, and gave the car its signature “root beer brown” paint color by painting layers of pearl over a black base coat. Specialized Vehicles, Inc., of Troy, Michigan handled fabrication, final assembly, and maintenance of the completed car.

The car was made famous by its appearance in The Wraith, a 1986 supernatural film. The mid-engined car had a tested and confirmed top speed of 194.8 mph (313.5 km/h)[1] and could go from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 4.1 seconds, with more than 440 hp (328 kW) under the hood coming from its relatively small displacement of 2.2L 4 cylinder forced induction engine.

The car has since gained an enthusiast cult following, prompted by the fame it gained from appearing in The Wraith.

The Wraith

In the town of Brooks, Arizona, Packard Walsh, the leader of a gang of car thieves, coerces people with fast cars into racing with the winner of the race taking ownership of the loser's car. Packard controls everyone through intimidation including Keri Johnson, whom he views as his property. Keri's boyfriend, Jamie Hankins, was the victim of an unsolved murder and Keri, who was with him, has no memory of the traumatic event.

Jake Kesey arrives in Brooks riding a dirt bike. He befriends Billy Hankins (Jamie's brother) and Keri. While swimming at a river, Jake is shown to have knife scars on his neck and back.

Packard's control of the illegal races comes to an end when an all-black Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor supercar appears with a driver covered head-to-toe in black body armor and helmet, and metal braces resembling those worn by victims of physical trauma. The driver challenges Packard's gang to a race, ending in high-speed, explosive crashes in which two gang members are both killed. Their bodies appear unharmed afterwards except for burned-out eye sockets. The Turbo Interceptor then reconstructs itself and eludes the pursuing Sheriff Loomis in a cloud of glowing light.

Two more gang members, Skank and Gutterboy, are killed when the Turbo Interceptor races through the gang's warehouse, causing an explosion. With Packard's gang mostly gone, Rughead, the gang's tech-geek, figures out why the gang had been targeted. When Loomis arrives at the scene of the destruction, Rughead tells him Packard and his gang had murdered Jamie Hankins.

After Packard witnesses Keri kissing Jake, he kidnaps her and beats up Billy when he tries to intervene. When Packard tries driving to California, Keri resists. As he exits the car and pulls a knife on her, the Turbo Interceptor arrives and challenges Packard to a race. Packard accepts and is then killed in an explosive head-on collision with the Turbo Interceptor, like the rest of his gang were. Loomis calls off the hunt for the mysterious driver, believing it to be futile.

As Keri arrives home that night, the Turbo Interceptor pulls up and Jake emerges. Keri realizes that Jake is a revived form of her dead boyfriend Jamie, who had returned for a chance to rekindle their past relationship. He then asks her to wait for him because he has one last thing to do. Jake then gives his car to Billy. When Billy asks who he is Jake says that Billy already knows and as he rides off on his dirt bike, Billy realizes Jake is Jamie. Jake picks up Keri, whom Loomis is watching from a distance. Together they ride off along the desert highway into the moonlight.

The Walter Chrysler Museum's Amazing Cars Collection

#Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor #car #cars #muscle car #american muscle #mopar #moparperformance #moparnation #moparworld #dodge #M4S Turbo Interceptor

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mlembug · 10 months

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Random Numbers 101

(actually "pseudo-random number generators" but we'll get to that later)

Attempting to write for a general audience which is why I'm attempting to use simple explanations and focus on explanations rather than code.

How do they work

Step 1: prepare a bunch of bits (a seed), and from these bits, create the initial state of the generator

Step 2: modify current state

Step 3: given current state, produce a number from it

Example 1: MINSTD

Step 1: The state is a single 32-bit unsigned integral number variable. We don't know how to create a seed yet, so let's pick a number 23455264 as a seed.

state = 23455264

Step 2: Calculate the new state using the equation

(a*state + c) % m

MINSTD in particular uses a = 48271, c = 0, m = 2147483647

state = (48271 * state) % 2147483647

Step 3: use the new state directly as the output number

output = newstate output = 485166575

Done: this generator provides numbers in range from 0 to 2147483647 (exclusive, so it will generate every non-negative smaller than 2147483647). Want another number? Go through steps 2-3 again.

Example 2: Doom (1993) pseudo-random number generator

Step 1: prepare an array of 256 (hopefully) random numbers. The array is not part of the current state, as it is not modified during step 2.

rndtable = [ 0, 8, 109, 220, 222, 241, 149, 107, 75, 248, 254, 140, 16, 66, # the full table is too long, here is it if you're curious 120, 163, 236, 249 ]

Also prepare an integral number variable. This is the state of the generator.

state = 0

Step 2: Increase the number by 1. If the number goes beyond what is an acceptable range of indexing the array, set it to the index of the first element.

state = (state + 1) % 256

Step 3: use the state to index the array.

output = rndtable[state] output = 8

Done: this generator provides numbers in range from 0 to 255 (inclusive)

Tricks and Traps

Generating a number from range 0 to N*N (exclusive) when your generator only provides numbers from range 0 to N (exclusive)

Generate two numbers using your generator

high = gen() # let's say N = 10 low = gen()

Multiply one of the numbers by N and add the second number

x = high * N + low

Because "N" (10) is bigger than any possible value of "low" (0, 1, 2, ..., 9), no two different generations of "high" and "low" will result in same "x". The lowest possible value of x is 0 for high = 0 and low = 0, and highest is 99 for high = 9 and low = 9.

Generating a number from range 0 to H (exclusive) using a generator that provides numbers from range 0 to N (exclusive), and H is less than N

Let's say N = 10 and H = 4.

Step 1: find the biggest possible integral number divisible by H which is smaller than N. Let's call that number S.

Here S = 8 as 2*H = 8, but 3*H = 12, which is already bigger than 10.

Step 2: generate a number. If the number is not smaller than S, throw it away and generate another one until the generator will get you a number smaller than S

while True: x = gen() if x < S: break

Step 3: Put the generated number into one of H buckets by using the modulo operation. Let this will be the resulting number.

b = x % H

Generated number: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Resulting bucket: 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0 1

As you can see, if we were to not apply the step 2, before doing step 3, values 0 and 1 would be 50% more likely to be generated than values 2 and 3. Good thing we discarded 8s and 9s before doing that.

Pseudorandomness

We're calling these numbers pseudorandom because we used a fairly simple step-by-step procedure to generate them, but also it is fairly difficult to say what would true randomness be.

We will never know if the devil creature will say something else than nine.

The two examples listed above were very simple pseudo-random number generators (PRNGs), but we have PRNGs which are good enough to generate numbers which must be unpredictable enough to secure your connection to your online bank. We call these cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generators. Explaining on how to use them will come in another post.

Picking a seed

We deliberately avoided explaining how to pick a seed for step 1 in both of these examples. Doom (1993) always picks 0 at the start of the level, but we have to keep in mind that using the same seed will result in the same sequence, which is why if we want to have different sequences, we will have to pick different seeds.

Two most common ways are using the current time, which is extremely predictable (everyone knows the current time), but good enough for quite a lot of programs. The alternative is using a better generator to seed our generator.

Picking a specific seed

The flip side of the fact that using the same seed results in the same sequence is that we can deliberately pick a seed to create the same sequence every time.

If you have ever played Minecraft or Factorio and saved a specific world seed to share with your friends, you know what I'm talking about.

Because Doom (1993) always uses the same seed and also has two separate generator states, one specifically for game logic and other for everything else, it can record your playthrough by recording your inputs and then replay it by simulating a player that rather than taking inputs from your keyboard or mouse, it takes input from the replay file.

#mlem's computing stuff

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wrestler-smash-or-pass · 4 months

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Weekly Wrapup 12/17/23

Top five smashable wrestlers this week:

Hangman Adam Page - 86.4% smash

Hikuleo - 86.0% smash

Hiromu Takahashi - 77.0% smash

Sonny Kiss - 75.3% smash

Zack Sabre, Jr. - 72.7% smash

More stats under the cut, along with my observations, commentary, and some of my favorite tags...

Bottom five smashable wrestlers this week:

Undertaker (American Badass Variant) - 34.8% smash

Raven - 38.9% smash

Andrew Everett - 41.6% smash

Scott Hall (Diamond Studd Variant) - 43.7% smash

Drew McIntyre (Young Variant) - 57.0% smash

Most total votes this week (most enthusiasm)

CM Punk - 527 votes

Hook - 449 votes

Hangman Adam Page - 447 votes

Zack Sabre, Jr. - 363 votes

Sonny Kiss - 324 votes

And least total votes this week (least enthusiasm)

Andrew Everett - 173 votes

Scott Hall (Diamond Studd Variant) - 197 votes

Raven - 211 votes

Hiromu Takahashi - 230 votes

Hikuleo - 236 votes

The closest match was Scott Hall (Diamond Studd Variant), who lost 86-111.

Top Five Overall

Kris Statlander - 91% smash

Hangman Adam Page - 86.4% smash

Hikuleo - 86.0% smash

Rhea Ripley - 84.2% smash

Eddie Kingston - 82.8% smash

Bottom Five Overall

Vince McMahon - 3.9% smash

Kane (Corporate variant) - 10.1% smash

Triple H (Terra Ryzing variant) - 18.6% smash

The Boogeyman - 22.6% smash

Brock Lesnar - 23.2% smash

Top Women Overall

Kris Statlander - 91% smash

Rhea Ripley - 84.2% smash

Julia Hart (Spooky Variant) - 81.9% smash

Chyna - 78.2% smash

Penelope Ford - 72.9% smash

Top Men Overall

Hangman Adam Page - 86.4% smash

Hikuleo - 86.0% smash

Eddie Kingston - 82.8% smash

Kenny Omega - 82.1% smash

El Desperado - 80.3% smash

Top Tag Teams

The Golden Lovers - 80.4% smash

Best Friends - 66.7% smash

Motor City Machine Guns - 65.5% smash

Young Bucks - 43.8% smash

Average Smash Rating

Week 1: 52.7% Week 2: 57.7% Week 3: 54.4% Week 4: 62.9%

Thanks for being cool about the CM Punk poll. He's a very polarizing figure, so I really appreciate the fact that everyone was able to keep their tags civil. CM Punk received the third most smash votes to date (358 smash votes, compared to Adam Page's 386 and Eddie Kingston's 365). Punk Also received the 8th most pass votes. He just received a ton more votes than anyone else.

Onto other news, you guys massively prefer older Drew McIntyre (79.3% smash) to young Drew (57.0% smash). Tumblr maintains its reputation for being the "sexualize that old man" website!

I really struggled to find a good picture of Hook for his poll. He looks like my little brother, so it kinda felt like I was perusing my baby brother's thirst traps to show off to all the other horny weirdos on the horny weirdo website. It was easier than looking at all the Boogeyman worm photos, at least.

I'm thinking of running a few demographics polls in addition to the regularly scheduled smash or pass polls. Data on favorite wrestling promotion, sexual orientation, and age might make the poll results more interesting. Feel free to send in suggestions for other questions to ask. I can't promise I'll use all questions submitted by the community, but you guys will no doubt think of something I forget.

Some favorite tags this week

@discow1tch on Zach Sabre, Jr.: #you gotta see him twist a couple guys into pretzels before you fall for him

@samixayn on Hook: #if you love me you will bend this twink in half

@samixayn on Motor City Machine Guns: #is there not an eiffiel tower emoji or can i just not spell eiffeil.

@arthausen on Hook: #smash but he has to call me daddy and danhausen has to be there

@mancewarner on Hook: #passing bc he needs to be humbled

@pavlovean on Undertaker (American Badass Variant): #maybe if i knew where he was on january 6th and it wasn’t the capitol

@debbiechanclub on Hikuleo: #oh that's drilla in the first photo#and then he's holding a drill in the second#intentional op or not? lol (Answer: no it was not intentional. I am not that clever)

@daddywrasslin on Hangman Adam Page: #SMASH SO HARD MY NEIGHBORS NEED A CIGARETTE

@regalityandcoffee on Andrew Everett: #he looks like hed ramble to me about Pearl Jam for two hours (He looks more like a Tool fan to me, but yeah exactly)

#weekly wrap up

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