Lurker > Thorn

Also, buried in a footnote, Roberts exempts military academies from this decision because he actually acknowledges it could be problematic if the officers are racially disproportionate to the rank-and-file so the military academies may continue to apply affirmative action.

Which sure seems "curious" when it kinda feels like you could make that exact same argument to the case at large given the importance of a college degree in employment.

Affirmative action decision was 6-3, no surprises on who voted where. (Technically two cases and KBJ wasn't on one of them so more like 6-2, 6-3 decisions)

Majority opinion has some twisted reasoning like, "We gave colleges 20 years to fix representation with affirmative action and they didn't completely fix a systemic issue completely in that time? It's gotta go."

And also embracing the zero-sum "reverse racism" shit with "They said race could only be a plus to someone's application but if you let more minorities in then that means less white people get in so actually it's a minus for them!"

Never really got the love for Death Note. The entire thing was soured for me when Misora is basically turned into an idiot to allow her to be killed off. It was such a clear and dumb plot armor moment that I just couldn't take basically anything about the cat-and-mouse chase seriously because Light lost at the very start and was only propped up by the plot's willingness to make everyone around him stupid to perpetuate it and yet still pretend he was some genius.

So I was the rare person all for Near's bullshit as karma lol.

Energy Cells I know there's a spot on the Tutorial Sky Island who does that. I think there's a spot just north of Lookout Landing that can too but not completely sure of the latter. Poes I know the statue in Josha's lab/house at Lookout Landing will take them.

I saw a bunch of people were getting restricted access and the throughline they seemed to have was blocking spam ads. Maybe the dumbest possible reaction to people blocking blue checks and bad ads?

But really the accessibility has gone to shit. No account here and it's damn near un-usuable now.

Pre-Elon I could use the search bar and check trends.

Shortly after Elon took over the ability to check trends and use the search for anything but going directly to someone's account was taken away and replaced with an unavoidable "register now" redirect.

As of... this week I want to say... the search bar is just completely fucking gone. On desktop at least. So if I know the exact account handle I want to go to I can get there by putting it in the URL but anything else I'm SOL.

feels undercut by the sound of rustling papers that is present the whole time in the audio and that trump references

I agree with your part in spoilers, yeah. I meant specifically Deku and what it meant for him/how it changed the tone.

Read a bit more and it seems to be what you'd expect.

Roberts/Libs/Kavanaugh/Barrett say "Uh, yeah state legislatures don't get to be immune from judicial review in elections" and Thomas/Gorsuch/Alito say, "But they should be!"

Well, to be more precise, Thomas's dissent can be divided into two parts - one (all 3 dissenters on) saying "This case is moot, we shouldn't be touching this and should let the lower court decision that said the legislature was right stand." and then a second part where he goes on to say, "But if we're going to talk about it anyway then absolutely they are." and Alito doesn't join the second part.

SCOTUS just released their opinion in Moore v Harper (the Independent State Legislature case)

I mean just released and I haven't had time to read it but it was 6-3, Roberts + 3 Liberals + Kavanaugh + Barrett in the majority and Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissenting so I can only assume they shot down the "actually we can outlaw democracy" part.

Fate/Zero good times. Rider overrated tho imhotbqh.

As for MHA, yeah I feel it's pretty up and down but more down than up. I actually liked the recent (anime recent) Punished Deku Arc but oh well. Don't think it's as good as - for another shounen comparison, and one I mentioned earlier - Bleach.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/26/politics/trump-classified-documents-audio/index.html

CNN obtained the audio of Trump discussing the classified documents (at the article). We knew most of this before because we had the transcript (well, the relevant parts) but I think this might be the first time we have the full audio.

"It is highly confidential, secret information. Look at this."
"As president, I could have declassified it. Now I can't, you know, but this is classified. Isn't it interesting? It's so cool."

lmao at the end too

"Hey, bring some, bring some Cokes in please."

More Zelda: Finished my exploration of the Akkala Region and am now wrapping up some sky islands I missed in previous regions since I now have Tulin's ability, a better stamina wheel, and a willingness to eat a bunch of food so I can just paraglide forever. The low gravity areas in certain sky zones is really fun.

Also I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say the Travel Medallion (from Robbie's quest) is a game changer but man it's incredible to be able to just drop warp points whereever you want on the map

Think my next area to explore will be north of Lookout Landing. Where the Lost Woods should be. I actually swung by Hyrule Castle (the part in the sky) but saw it was considered a legit dungeon so I turned around after I made it to the shrine I had marked on the map a looooong time ago.

~~~

Also since I need more ways to kill time until the gachapolcalypse in the first half of July (lots of big stuff in FGO from like July 3-July 17) I did something I rarely do because I always forget it's there and skimmed Netflix to see what anime they had. Decided to continue on with Demon Slayer since Toonami only got the first season and I was left behind after that. Watched the Mugen Train Arc, which I assume is just the movie divided into seven anime-sized episodes. This is still a very pretty anime.

impossible

he trained in judo and "no rules streetfighting"

F/GO ate into my game time for a while there (and will again in about two-and-a-half weeks when the final part of this story chapter is released) but back to TOTK. Made it to Tarrey Town (cut through to Akkala for Robbie's quest.) Son and done.

I doubt it too LOL. It's more of a guilty pleasure though when it's good it is good, IMO. But there's just so much filler.

HxH 2011 is definitely my favorite battle shounen as well.

Though Bleach will always hold a special place in my heart for all the memes.

Yeah, if Velvet were included she wins.

Akechi is just... not great. Royal improves him somewhat and his brief stint as navigator is incredible but this is an easy win for Trails Crow.

....And now it seems it's over. Well, sorta. It appears some deal was brokered between the two sides. Sounds like Wagner/Prigozhin is getting the leadership changes in the Ministry of Defense they wanted and in return are stopping their advance on Moscow and will return to invading Ukraine.

I'm... not sure how this really works for anyone involved really. Like kinda hard to believe Putin really just lets them get away with an an armed rebellion that has allegedly shot down Russian planes and was marching to Moscow. Meanwhile, he seems to have just caved to their demands hours after calling it a betrayal and there would be consequences.

Unfortunately, I think Wagner getting the leadership changes might be worse news for Ukraine because AFAIK they basically wanted more war crimes and shit.

I'm not always here to do write-ups!

But yeah, shit is wild.

Information is tough to confirm because, well, Russia. But the Wagner group (PMC that has basically acted as a deniable army for Russia and basically a war crime manufacturer, they've been a major component in the invasion of Ukraine too) has basically announced a rebellion. They've allegedly seized control of the Rostov region, which is the Russian Military's Southern HQ (which is the main HQ for the invasion of Ukraine) and has also allegedly told the military there that they intend to march on Moscow if they don't get significant leadership change at the Ministry of Defense.

Whole bunch of road closure announcements, "everything is fine", "oh btw don't travel to these regions", "Moscow is upping its defenses" in the aftermath. Wagner is claiming the Russian military has attacked them, Russia denies it. Putin did a short address where he basically declared that the organizers behind the rebellion will suffer "inevitable consequences." But doesn't name Prigozhin (the head of Wagner) directly. It sounds like some clashes may have begun to break out between the two sides but again insanely hard to verify what's coming out of there.

So, yeah, looks very much like we have a coup attempt of some sorts occurring. Again, it's hard to tell which news is real and which isn't coming out of there when a lot of it is just randoms from Twitter and the major news orgs need the time to verify what's real and what isn't but I've heard wild stuff like Wagner showing signs that they are in fact seemingly heading towards Moscow.

I used a single command seal on 16-4 (Solo Castoria v Tristan) because I could tell I needed two more turns to win but wasn't going to survive the next enemy phase so I used it for the heal. Could have done it with better timed skill/mystic code use but it was like 30 minutes from the seal refresh anyway.

Finished LB6.2.

Chaldea needs to nuke this place from orbit. Also probably my favorite story chapter now. But still, from orbit.

Ah, I stand corrected then.

might be harder than you think

As Gorsuch notes in his dissent, the Navajo Nation wasn't even asking the government to secure water rights yet, they were simply asking the federal government what their water rights even were under the treaty.

which i guess they don't have to do now? seems kinda fucked up.

So other than the rampant corruption by the conservatives on the Supreme Court, what are they up to?

Oh.

6-3 partisan vote declaring that if a court later finds that what you were convicted of wasn't actually a crime or that the sentence imposed on you was longer than the law allows to be imposed... well too fucking bad you're not allowed to file a writ of habeas corpus over it.

https://twitter.com/LeahLitman/status/1671885660540788739
https://twitter.com/MaxKennerly/status/1671903818424909825

Also a 5-4 (Gorsuch joining the liberals) that the federal government doesn't have to take steps to protect the Navajo Nation's water rights, holding that when the treaty said they did it only meant they had to do so in 1868 not now during a water crisis.

pjbasis posted...

Is Super Mario rpg a top 10 game on this site yet

#6

would have been top 5 but FFVIIR-2 having announced TWO DISKS shows the king is back

Xuxon posted...

They're already fucking us over on the rates for Barg/Bob with Oberon, they had better keep the overlap with Koyanskaya at least. If not they're just spitting in our faces.

Think they'd have to move Oberon's banner up (or have Anniversary later than anticipated) because as it stands it looks like Oberon will be 2 weeks after Koyanskaya aka literally the day after her banner ends. I was hoping they'd overlap here too so I could guarantee Oberon with the one pity I'll have by rolling him first but I'm resigned now.

Additionally, I wonder if they don't alter Oberon's banner to take off the Fairy Knights. That was a rotating SR banner with 4 SRs in Japan. Gawain, Tristan, FK Gawain, and FK Tristan. And the Morgan banner that's the part two of the campaign is her and just the FKs. Given that we seem to have gotten rid of rotating 4-stars already in line with how they eventually did I wonder if 4 of them is just too much.

We did see them run a 3 SR banner just before with the summer rerun (where the chances of getting a specific SR was worse than the SSR) but I dunno if they'll push it to 4. I could see them making it just regular Gawain/Tristan since the Fairy Knight versions are with Morgan's banner already. Would absolutely screw anyone hoping to get them with Oberon though so I dunno.

"Run the cover play!"

Looks like we've got the next month more or less scheduled out.

July 3 (probably): Anniversary/Koyanskaya
July 10: LB6.3
July 17 (unless they move up the Conclusion Campaign? But it was a week after 6.3 for Japan): Oberon
July 24: Morgan Rerun

Maybe Nerofest with Morgan? Guess they could drop it around Oberon if they're worried people not current with the story are suffering from what would be over a month with nothing but story (and an Interlude Campaign)

rip the dream of replicating the overlap of koyanskaya and oberon's banners here though. seems extremely unlikely now. please let 1200-1300 sq be enough for both for me it really should be =(

Yeah, it wasn't really until the courts started allowing more it more widely in the past few years that it exploded as part of sports coverage here. Before it would be playfully hinted at here and there but now it's nearly front and center.

Lopen posted...

Knowing history and understanding history aren't always the same.

convenient

Xeybozn posted...

Maine/Nebraska method is better than winner-take-all, but gerrymandering becomes an even bigger problem than it is now.

Splitting electoral votes proportionally is also better than the current system, but it completely destroys the "giving small states a voice" aspect of the EC. Small states can't be won by margins big enough to swing more than a vote or two. Why campaign in them at all when you could gain a lot more by running up the score in the big ones?

Well, with Congress putting a cap on the size of the House of Representatives at 435 in the 1900s it further distorts political power and magnifies it in smaller states at the expense of larger ones by making the vote of someone in a small state "count" several times more than one in a larger one as a share of EVs.

Lopen posted...

Just raw population vote is probably worse-- you just don't really understand why the system was designed that way to begin with

...to protect the political power of slave states because James Madison explicitly said that while a popular vote would have been ideal it would have opened up the issue of the Northern States having "a much more diffusive" right of suffrage compared to the Southern States and substituting an Electoral College would let them mostly avoid that issue. Except not really because they had to count black people as 3/5ths of a person because the slave states still wanted to seize political power within the system.

Also they thought it would prevent the "mischief of faction" when in reality the natural conclusion to the system was that it would lead directly to a two-party system because anything else is suboptimal for actually winning it.

And that they thought it would protect from electing someone unqualified but with a talent for "low intrigue and the little arts of popularity" attaining high office

so no i think i understand why it was designed that way but with the exception of magnifying the political power of what were the slave states it not only failed to achieve its purposes it actually did the exact opposite

that's no blood moon

TeamRocketElite posted...

I hope to find Hestu one day.

Oh. If you want his location then:

Bad Directions Warning
From Lookout Landing head towards the Rito heading for the first stable on your way. I want to say it's New Serenne. From there, basically point yourself at the region's tower and head straight for it. I think you should find Hestu on the way if that's your heading. You have to beat up some trees near him and then he'll head to Lookout Landing where he's been for me ever since.

Leonhart4 posted...

Unless Autobuild is what you get at the end of the quest where you have to follow all the statues

Yeah, it's this.

Leonhart4 posted...

I guess I haven't done enough to get Robbie to appear at the Tech Lab yet because it was empty for me.

For me I think the quest line went something like:

Do Josha's initial Depths investigation
Advance the main plot? Doing the Rito stuff did it for me
Do Josha's next Depths investigation (Autobuild) and report back to her
Go back and talk to Robbie and he wants to see autobuild and you fix his baloon and he flies to the Tech Lab

I too have arrived at Hateno but I still have questing to do around here. I mostly made a bee-line to Robbie and the Tech Lab. However. However. There's an issue that can not be ignored here. Did Zelda steal our house? Her journal clearly refers to it as *her* house and she even made secret additions. What the hell happened here? Does Hyrule have eminent domain or some shit? How did this happen? More seriously, it's cool that the picture of Link, Zelda, and the OG Champions you get from clearing the BOTW DLC is hanging up where it was in BOTW still.

My mom has drifted closer to my beliefs over the past decade to a decade-and-a-half but my dad lmfao. Not sure about my brother but I think we're similar.

honestly the dnc being a deciding factor strikes me as crazy even controlling for the fact that the election was so close that basically any factor you can think of was probably a "deciding" one

Also, re: turnout rate. 2016 was up from 2012 (54.8% to 53.8%, voting age only) and if you control for the segment of the population barred from voting (felons, non-citizens, etc.) the increase goes up (59.2% to 58.0%)

2020 is second on the all-time list by % going back to 1936 but still trails 1960. (JFK > Nixon)

Obviously if you go by absolute raw votes it basically becomes a list of elections in order by recency because population growth and 2016 had the highest raw turnout ever at the time, beating 2008 (one of the rare cases where an earlier year edged out the next one) by over 5 million votes.

KamikazePotato posted...

Didn't Trump 2020 get the 2nd-most votes out of any candidate in history? Absolute votes aren't a good metric to use when population naturally increases over time. And Trump has always been a stronger candidate than people want to admit, even back in 2016.

Yes. And Trump 2016 got the most votes of any Republican in history and only trailed Hillary and Obama (both) on the all-time list. (At the time, of course)

1. Biden 2020 - 81m
2. Trump 2020 - 74m
3. Obama 2008 - 69m
4. Obama 2012 - 66m.
5. Hillary 2016 - 66m (66,000ish votes behind Obama 2012)
6. Trump 2016 - 63m

LeonhartFour posted...

Found my way to Hateno Village in Tears of the Kingdom, and man, there's a lot to do here!

I should be following suit soon enough. I made it to Kakariko though. Not quite as much stuff to do there as I expected there would be. Though it added the wrinkle of a possible impostor Zelda. Because there was clearly something wrong with the Zelda that allegedly showed up there and banned everyone from approaching that one ruin. For one thing, this Zelda showed up *after* the Upheaval which doesn't track with how she's been missing ever *since* that point. The order also doesn't match up with Zelda either because she'd be 100% for investigating especially since it sounds like it has relevant info. Finally, Paya's diary states something was off and soulless about Zelda. Way I see it we've either got an impostor or Zelda *was* here but something happened to her in the past that messed her up (also explaining why she didn't just come back to Link/Purah/everyone and is instead like floating off in random places) and it will be revealed through her memories or something.

Almost finished my investigation of the region and then I too will be off to Hateno.

Se7en

Lightning Returns has to be up there simply for not just being XIII-3.

also she never really left

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

I think there's an argument to be made that Bernie losing to Trump may have put us in a better position.

No way. If that happens, the Democratic Party as a whole runs to the right and is scared away from even talking about progressive policies for another like 25+ years like their PTSD over Reagan and (Bill) Clinton's Third Way.

Instead, we have a Democratic Party that is more progressive than it has ever been - even if for many it's not nearly enough (and that's fair! Gotta keep pushing them, this isn't a thing where you reach a finish line and the job is over) with voices like AOC.

Yes.

foolm0r0n posted...

No one is arguing the DNC is weak

i might

MacArrowny posted...

You can't use Zonai device capsules in Shrines.

Oh, good to know. I assume this also applies to Autobuild making things from its stored history via zonaite?

MacArrowny posted...

Having them pre-attached to your weapons/shields can help sometimes, but probably not in this shrine. I just made a really long bridge, went to the other side, and pulled it across with Ultrahand...

lol, making a massive bridge is one of my go to moves but i didn't think i had enough material to make it plausible, plus I knew for a fact that couldn't be the intended solution and I wanted to find something that used the wheels.

MacArrowny posted...

Leon's solution is the intended solution.

Leonhart4 posted...

Oh hey, I did that one the other day, too! I got through both of them by attaching the boards to the wheels. I don't know if that was the intended solution, but it worked!

Well, I guess I got there in the end but that didn't even occur to me in the second puzzle LOL. Cool that it works there too!

Weird shrine in TotK not sure at all I did it the intended way. Forward Force, I think it was called?

Basically you have to transport one of those giant orbs through the shrine to get it to the thing that unlocks the door. Three main puzzles to it. The first is trivial though because you have to get it across a pool of lava but they give you a pre-built rover that will do it.

Second is where the games began: There's a platform on a diagonal slide with tiny ledges jutting out every so often to the side. You have a wheel, a board, and theoretically the rover you drove here. I quickly ruled out trying to use the board to create a road for the lide to travel on with the wheel. I was stumped here for a long time because the wheel doesn't seem to propel the sliding platform any. Eventually, and this felt like cheating, I activated the wheel, slid it up about halfway with ultrahand myself, and I guess the wheel gripped one of the ledges and held it there (it wasn't ultrahand attached or anything) so I could climb up to the end point and grab it from that side and pull it the rest of the way.

Then the third lmao: You have to get the ball across a river with the river's flow working against you. You have two rafts with two wheels each attached to them on the sides and some boards. Again, the wheels don't seem to propel the rafts, or at the least they're overpowered by the stream, even if you stick all four on one raft. Next I brought both rafts to me and tried to create a chain by going to the raft furthest upstream then taking the one behind and us and putting it in front but the stream pushed me back too fast to make any progress. Then I tried to create this nightmare of a device where the river is divided up into lanes like a swim meet and I thought I could use the boards to get the wheels to ride the tops of the dividers but I could never get the balance right and it kept tipping over during construction but I kinda wish I did just to see if the concept worked lol. Finally did it by Attaching the boards to the wheels on the side and creating like a... motor? paddles? and it awkwardly crossed the river. Not sure that was intended because it looked so weird but it worked.

Frustrating, but fun to try different ideas. I guess maybe I could have trivialized it with Zonai devices but I forbid myself from pulling them out and just like... making a hot-air balloon lol.

I mean there's a pretty strong case that if not for Comey's letter at the 11th hour of the campaign (that turned out to be nothing and was a pretty unprecedented thing to do for DOJ at that time) Clinton wins anyway. The margin was extremely close.

We'll never know, but I'm pretty sure most of the data peeps think it did flip the result.