Lurker > streamofthesky

https://youtu.be/z0_Mp5x-a2k?t=171

2:51 - 3:36

I thought it was pushing it that I'd go 3 days sometimes...

wolfy42 posted...

All coin tosses are pre-determined/fixed as is everything else actually. You can learn to count the flips in your head and always tell how a coin will land (in your hand, not on the ground). With enough knowledge you can predict everything, so sadly that would not work.

Ok, some other form of decision making by random chance, then. Coin toss is just the most commonly thought of "RNG".
Basic concept still is, "reset the universe until I'm living in a great personal timeline" and get rich.

As far as your teleportation question, yes, that is how it works with those rules, you can also set up places to teleport where nothing can get inside (making it safe to teleport to).

I'd be worried if those "safe spaces" got tampered with unbeknownst to me, but cool idea.
Teleportation definitely seems like the coolest choice if used in limited forms like I said to keep it safe.

Super speed though has no downsides really, since you can move incredibly fast for very short periods of time still, and not really age much. If it takes you 10 minutes to walk into a bank, grab 100k and walk out if nobody was stopping you, you could do it in 1 second, nobody would see you (even with cameras) and you would only have aged 10 minutes more etc.

True, I just fear dying so ANYTHING that speeds up my own mortality makes me cautious. But it is true you can use in in a few second "bursts" and not impact your lifespan too much. In some ways, usage becomes similar to the tactical teleportation, but the latter has no aging at all so it still seems better overall. Maybe the speed is better for crime, I guess.

I've narrowed my choice down to 2 and need some answers to decide...

Wutobliteration posted...

Time Travel - You can rewind time for everyone in the universe. But you lose your own memories too. Duh. LOL.

If at some momentous occasion...let's use an example... Say it's near the launch of bitcoin and you decide based on the flip of a coin to invest heavily into it or not. You then proceed to see if the investment pays off and makes you rich or (if it tanks) that you avoided investing in it. If things go poorly, you revert time back, if it goes well you don't.
Even with no knowledge of how things turned out or how many times you've reset the universe, you'll eventually strike it rich by sheer luck. Unless the coin toss at that point becomes pre-determined / fixed or the success of bitcoin changes based on your coin toss to make sure you choose the same (correctly or not) as the first time? But I don't know why that would happen...
Just seems like you could still use the time travel to create the "best timeline" for yourself through specific decision points and brute forcing things until they turn out well.

Teleportation - You can teleport anywhere you want, even to other planets (not sure why cos you'd die instantly from atmosphere but nvm). The only problem is you can't be sure on the exact geographical position of the place you'll be in. You could end up teleporting inside of a pillar or dirt ground or even end up in mid-air and fall to your death. It's a risk-it-all choice of using your power.

What about short ranged "tactical teleportation"? Can you unerringly poof to a location within your own eyesight w/o risk (unless something moves into or happens to that spot in the fraction of a second you make the jump)? Because honestly that alone would be great, without ever risking the longer jumps.
Also, do you have full conscious-only control of your powers? Is there any risk at all of an involuntary teleport (in your sleep via subconsciousness, Bewitched-like sneeze/twich "brain fart", etc...)? If it's not strictly conscious control only, no way in hell do I want this.

Even if it did come from a lab, it's far more likely to be a "killer bees" type situation. Where they were studying infectious diseases and due to incompetence and idiocy, a strain got out. Similar to how killer bees were mated in a lab to try and create a "better" bee, but it went horribly wrong and then the dumb fucks accidentally let them escape.
Not malicious intent, but pathetic incompetence.

I wait until one of us is turning or otherwise taking a diverging path to flip the bird to ass holes.
I do fear getting shot or being followed by some psycho, but ass holes still need to know, "hey, you suck, go fuck yourself".

If anyone's owed reparations, I'd say it's Japan. They spent billions on the Olympics just to not have any tourist money from it.

Otherwise, probably not... You can look at as, "U.S. (or other countries) were most affected in deaths/cases, so they deserve compensation". But then you realize the worst-hit countries were largely due to their own leader's and citizen's idiocy and contempt for science and it's like... dude, it's your own fault.

Nah, never understood the concept of giving people you don't like money to see them fight. Any satisfying knockouts or such, if they even happen, would be on the internet within an hour anyway.
Plus Floyd in particular has a long history being a pretty boring fight to watch, and no way was some random youtuber going to force him out of turtling when everyone else couldn't.

OhhhJa posted...

Yeah boxing has to be the most physically damaging of any combat sport. It's pretty barbaric and stupid.

Eh... I'd say this is way worse:

https://youtu.be/sGCKZLyKlJU?t=179

(watch like 3:00 - 7:15)

But also, the state of the sport is pretty shit too. They basically have to set up meme fights now because hardly anyone cares about any fights outside of a couple big names. UFC is much more exciting and less damaging to the brain

That's what I don't get. Boxing seems like it's losing interest and dying, relying on these dumb gimmick fights.
Yet...anytime there's a "Boxer vs. MMA/UFC guy" gimmick match, it's ALWAYS a boxing match and the reason given is that boxing is the much bigger sport w/ way more money to pay out, so the UFC guys happily sign up even though they're pretty much guaranteed to get embarassed, just for the massively increased payout. If UFC/MMA really is replacing boxing in popularity, shouldn't that money/drawing gap be closing rapidly?

Far-Queue posted...

How is it misguided? If other states are doing it they're wrong too and should correct it.

Fact: "Rhode Island is more progressive than 90% of the country"
Off-Queue's interpretation: "Wow, way to dig out of the stone age there, Rhode Island!"

If your response was "WTF, America?!" when you learned 45 states still haven't made it illegal, then fine.

Instead you proved you didn't even read your own article and owned yourself.
Imagine if I posted a story about a Nebraska state senator in a sex scandal, assumed it was a Republican b/c it's a red state, and said, "What a shocker, ANOTHER Republican sexual deviant!" only for the article to state it was a Democrat.
Why, the "left-leaning centrists" of this board would chew me out like crazy!

Far-Queue posted...

Yeah how does that make sense? "You're too young to vote, to buy cigarettes, alcohol, or guns, to join the military... But get married? Sure! Knock yourselves out!"

The legal age in most of the country is 16. Makes sense to me to make the marriage age the same as AoC...
I think the problem is much older adults marrying teens. If it was like the Romeo & Juliet laws where it's legal if they're a few years apart...
I mean, I think getting married at 16 is a terrible idea. But so is having a kid at 16 and that's been pretty normalized now.

Also, once again I'm calling you out for your misguided "slam" on the state:

streamofthesky posted...

According to the last part of the article, 45 more states have yet to "embrace the year 2021", per your definition.

Far-Queue posted...

Welcome to the year 2021, Lil' Rhody <3

According to the last part of the article, 45 more states have yet to "embrace the year 2021", per your definition.

That's what weekends are for

People have gone on the sex offender registry for public urination.

How'd this scumbag get off with such light charges?

If someone did that on my property, and I noticed immediately, I would both film it and upload it to social media and then turn the sprinklers on him, then come running out w/ a baseball bat to chase him off down the street w/ his pants around his ankles while still filming w/ my phone in the other hand, loudly shouting, "Get back here, tapist!" (censored for the board's snowflakes) to get the attention of the neighbors.

I love desert levels and hate ice levels.
But every time there's a poll on environments, the ice levels get a ton of love and desert is the most hated. :(

Firewood18 posted...

The only 3D Zelda games Ive played is WW and BotW. LttP is my favorite and level 5 is my least favorite temple in that game.

Eh...it's not bad. You can do dungeon 6 before it to make the biggest frustration a complete non-issue. I never used to do that, took pride in knowing how to do the block puzzle the "normal" way, but on more recent replays I usually just do the Somaria trick to save time.

Twilight Princess has a decent ice level. I don't love it nearly as much as most (often seems to be the most-loved dungeon from the game, for me it's like maybe 4th), but it's not bad. Great desert level, too.

You mean upgrade?

I had flip phones until 2 years ago. Literally saved a shit load of money on phone plans by surrendering to the Cult of the Rectangle with Rounded Corners.
Went from 2 lines w/ 700 min/month shared between lines, no texts, no data to unlimited calls, unlimited texts, and 6 GB data (that I don't use, lol) and still saved $20/month plus the phones were even cheaper.
The conspiracy to make people dumb by making their phones the smart one in the pairing is disgusting, but effective.

I miss my flip phone. It fit so much nicer in my pocket, and I dropped it like 100 times and it still fucking worked.

Yeah, lots of rookies debut undefeated and then lost, that's like...the standard. For example, one of my favorites, Kofi Kingston, debuted in that time frame on ECW and was undefeated for months, too.

Definitely gonna need more info. Any memory of what he looked like? Moves he did? Anything?

I haven't updated Firefox in like 2 years.
Thought maybe I'd give it a shot soon.
Maybe I should just hold out...

EDIT: I've got Firefox Quantum 66.0.3
How far behind am I on updates?

Soup_or_Science posted...

No. It's about the attitude.

it's like "whah whah meh I dont wanna go home"

"so much so that if you try to make me, i'd probably shoot at you"

jesus christ what do you people not get about that

When I was that age, I was so upset one time at my parents that I walked for like 2 hours away from home, not wanting to go back. Until reason set in and I knew I couldn't just live on the streets so I went back. Got several miles from home, though.
Never even for a second contemplated shooting anybody if they tried to come look for me. That's not normal at all....

plus, now that we can read the article, the critical details make it that much all the more serious

You're literally responding to an impression that lacked such detail in the first place

I was providing you w/ that context by explaining how they got the guns, since you asked. I wasn't trying to critique you for not knowing. The only thing I took issue w/ was the notion of, "who didn't think like that at some point as a kid, amirite?"

Soup_or_Science posted...

But damn dude! LMAO Those are some savage kids

I'm not going to lie though, I think most of us had the same kind of attitude at that age

it's just.... where the hell did they get the AK-47

Uh....no? At that age, I just wanted to play video games like Mario and Zelda.
They broke into some guy's house and the guns weren't in a safe so they stole from the homeowner, and later used the guns in the shootout.

Also on a related note for, "kids these days!":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cof_av84qlY

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/caught-on-camera-children-arrested-for-attempted-carjackings-in-san-leandro/

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (KRON) Home surveillance video captured intense moments when children tried to carjack a man outside of his San Leandro home on Pershing Drive.
San Leandro police say the suspects approached the victim with a gun, but the victim stopped them when he body-slammed one of the suspects to the ground.
Police say these two suspects were later involved in another attempted carjacking that got four children, ages 11-14, arrested last week.
One of the neighbors who spoke to KRON4s Taylor Bisacky says they noticed something suspicious when the suspects parked their car in the middle of the road.
She says she then became terrified when they ran towards her neighbor with a gun, but probably the most shocking part was the age of these suspects.
It was very scary. We were actually home at the time, so yeah it was scary. A lot of the neighbors were a little alarmed, Mary Aima said.
San Leandro police say just 6 hours before this incident, the same young suspects tried to rob a man at a Chase Bank ATM off Fairmont Drive.
They say the victim scared them off by claiming to be an off-duty officer.
However, the suspects didnt stop there.
Just a couple of days later on April 13th, Oakland police arrested three juveniles who were involved in an attempted robbery using the same white getaway car.
They were later released to their guardians, only to commit yet another attempted carjacking in San Leandro on Friday.
San Leandro police responded and caught up with the suspects in Oakland.
They arrested an 11-year-old, 12-year-old and two 14-year-olds.
Two of the same suspects were also involved in this incident, and the Chase bank attempted robbery.
Its sad. Its really sad to me whats going on with the younger children doing things like this, Aima said.
In all of these cases, the suspects were connected by multiple surveillance videos and using the exact same getaway car each time.
Police say the cases have been referred to the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center for prosecution.

I don't care that they're minors, they're armed serial carjackers, seeing one of them get body slammed and squealing was HILARIOUS!

EDIT: Better quality video w/ some more before/after moments, but also some swearing:
https://giant.gfycat.com/SlimAbleFeline.mp4

Yeah, I don't see why they don't just use fentanyl or nitrogen, or just use a firing squad. "Gas chamber" execution is a phrase that's forever tainted w/ the mass murder of innocent people, and I doubt it's as quick and painless as the other options.

Also, I kinda want them to switch to fentanyl, just to see if the opioid companies have the audacity to refuse to sell it to law enforcement because, "we don't make our products to kill people!"

GEKGanon posted...

Well, I suppose it'll be a great way to disprove the Holocaust denier theory that Zyklon B can't kill people.

They can step into a chamber themselves to prove how safe it is, if they want.

wolfy42 posted...

I'm pro death penalty (my wife wasn't).

In fact, I'd go further.

Any sentence of over 5 years should have the alternative of the death penalty if you would prefer.

Any Sentence of over 20 years should instead just be the death penalty.

Full serious investigate and quick appeals should be done (would still cost WAY less then having someone on death row for years), and all such cases should be done within a year.

Don't commit crimes, or prepare to DIE!!

Yeah, this is insane. Hell no. I support the death penalty, but this is ridiculous.

I salute their commitment to physical fitness

SaltyAndSweet posted...

I gave your mom a whole load of salty

It's ok, maybe someday you'll be able to do it w/o crying.

So, you're Mead?

Kyuubi4269 posted...

Imagine being this ignorant.

Indeed, we could never imagine being you. Good thing, just thinking of being like you would be cripplingly depressing.

SunWuKung420 posted...

You know there's a $100 minimum before you made a reservation/walked in.

You know the prices on the menu up front, too. But apparently that's subject to change?

SaltyAndSweet posted...

Probably because Bill Maher is an idiot

I'm seeing a whole lot of Salty, not a shred of Sweet

College, both for the bachelor's and master's degrees. Had small ceremonies with just like 30 people graduating, vastly preferred it to the giant crowd style.

TheSlinja posted...

what im saying is that 100 dollars is more than a normal meal there so its unreasonable to have the minimum that high

Ok, but to-go containers are a thing (unless this place considers itself too "high class" for that as a loophole....). Obviously the $100 min. sucks no matter what, but if it bought enough food to have a dinner there and then like 2-3 reheated meals later on, at least the value of what you get is not bad.

Vs. "the steaks are all $80 just on their own, so the minimum meal cost was pretty pointless to add"

While I'd choose neither, if I had to, I'd much rather take option 1...

WTF do you even get for $100 there?
Could be even worse than first appears and they charge like $40 for half a dozen mozzarella sticks appetizer and so on.

TheSlinja posted...

if i can get a steak and sides and its still not 100$ so I have to get more then fuck off

...you'd be mad if they WEREN'T ripping you the fuck off w/ their menu pricing?
Guess I found their target customer type...

Yeah, they revealed that info during or in the lead up to his match w/ Jericho like Dec. 2019-ish

He was a huge wrestling fan and it was his dream, apparently his dad had been attending a bunch of his matches incognito to support him w/o drawing attention b/c Jack didn't want to coast on his name.

Not sure why you hate Janella's matches so much, he seems perfectly mediocre to me... I agree he's atrocious on the mic, though.

Krazy_Kirby posted...

people can get on that list for other things, like public urination or solicitation

This. The sex offender list is massively flawed, so I'm against anything that extends its use further.
Also, as is usual when this stuff comes up... Can't help but muse how apparently murder (successful/attempted), manslaughter, mugging, arson, torture, etc... are all potentially crimes someone could eventually get out of jail for and not be on a permanent watch list, but the people that had sex in public once? Gotta keep them under permanent surveillance!

agesboy posted...

"crazy people don't like him so obviously it means he's correct"

Fixed.
When the vast majority of the dog-piling is from warmongering neocons, woke twitter, the religious right, etc... that's a pretty good sign to anyone not in those camps.

He's overall pretty moderate in his views, and correct for the most part, with a few glaring exceptions like the anti-vax shit (and even that list is overblown, like... even if genetically modified food is no big deal, WTF is the problem w/ putting that on the label?).
But horseshoe theory is real, and he pisses off the most rabid extremists on both the far left and far right, so the amount of hate he gets online gets magnified a lot.
It's unfortunate, but the amount of unhinged illogical bashing from both sides basically just confirms he's overall pretty reasonable.
Also, being smug/snarky is part of his act (whether it's his actual real life personality or just act, he obviously is playing it up as his "character"), so that just makes any position he has that you disagree with feel more grating.

Got Pfizer jab 2 on Sunday. Felt totally fine till Monday evening, then all of a sudden had chills, aches in my back, chest and armpits (apparently the lymph nodes swelling there is a common side effect), headache, and so on....
I've mostly felt like shit since then. Tylenol seemed to help a lot for a while, but now it's worn off and nothing's better. Guess I'll pop another pill...

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The series is a bit confusing, because there were technically three different semi-related continuities.

Basically, there was an OVA limited series, then a different TV series based off the first half of the OVA but then taking the story in an entirely different direction with different characters, and then a third movie which is sort of a side-story/pseudo sequel to the TV story. That kind of insane conflict between different versions is pretty par for the course for anime/manga in general, though.

That being said, I liked the series (mostly the OVA). It was one of the first anime series I ever bought (on VHS, then later I bought it again on DVD). Showed it to my weeb nephew not that long ago and he liked it as well. If you go in knowing it's older anime and not modern-style, it's enjoyable.

The plot is basically "Some Japanese people played D&D in the 1980s. Then they wrote up their campaign as a series of novels. Then they turned the novels into anime."

I have the OVA and TV series. I can get out the booklet that explains it to check (b/c yes, they felt the need to include that to ease confusion, lol), but iirc the story was tweaked in the OVA to trim the length. So then, when they decided to make a tv series off of the adventuring party that happens years later, they felt the need to "correct" the OVA to match the source material, so that going forward things wouldn't be a mess. So the tv series is like 8 episodes or so covering the latter half of the OVA, but more true to source material, then it jumps ahead in time to the new group as the main characters.

Overall I prefered the OVA as well, though the greater focus on Orson was nice in the tv series.

It's a pie. I guess a custard is the closest answer, but definitely far more of a pie than a cake.

wolfy42 posted...

Based on it's name I think it's a cake....made of cheese.

Do you also think a Boston Cream Pie is a pie?

Yes I can tell, b/c it says in the picture what they are...
If it was a top view of the carton w/ the lid removed, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

mrduckbear posted...

Ice cream is made from real milk which is more expensive but frozen desserts are made from cheap vegetable oils

I thought the difference between them was the % of air content when mixed. Like, frozen dairy dessert is lighter and more "airy" and has a higher air content while as ice cream has a min. standard and is thicker/creamier/heavier.

IronBornCorps posted...

Wu Fei's interactions especially with Noin I found to be cumbersome, dated, and more annoying. He makes comments like "Of course, because you're a woman" more than once, and by the end of the show this isn't ever really addressed. They all just accept Wu Fei does things his own way.

He starts off that way, but realizes he's wrong over the course of the first half of the show.

IronBornCorps posted...

Also Relina is an extremely frustrating as a character. She definitely has father issues, and he nativity towards Heero is easily the most confusing part of the show. The show was created in the 90's by mostly men, in a country that still culturally holds a lot of contempt for women, so I expected the women characters to be delegated to support roles, and to be stereotypical caricatures.

I think Noin and Sally are pretty good characters and not caricatures. She's not around much, but Hilde, too.
Lady Une and Relina are kinda a mess, and Dorothy (like some male antagonists, too) has no real depth and is just evil. But I don't think every woman in the show is awful.

IronBornCorps posted...

What about when he stole Duo's Gundam parts after Duo helps him? Duo has a mission too and. He also jumped out of that hospital window and waited to the very last second to deploy his chut. The first act he constantly displays anti-social behavior.

Yeah, stealing from Duo was pretty crappy. :)
Not sure why you brought up the parachute thing, that was again him trying to kill himself, and (thankfully) losing the will to do it at the last second.

I'm not saying he has displays these through the whole show. As you get into the back story, his motivations become more clear. After he blows himself up he also goes around to the family to atone for his mistake. There is a noticeable behavior switch after that, and it's moved even further once he starts using the Zero system.

It was being duped into killing the pacifist faction by OZ that did that really, but yeah.

I think it's unfair to use his mission as an excuse for his behavior, considering Duo and Quatre seem to have no problem working as a team, and not being completely closed off, and not coming off like a sociopath. I will admit Wu Fei has these characteristics way more than Heero, and Wu Fei doesn't really grow much as a character. His whole arc is around beating Treze and being a loner.

I think Duo and Quattre are just really sociable by their nature, it probably goes against their training, if anything.
And 3/5 of the pilots are anti-social, so if anything, I'd call that the norm.
Wu Fei suffers the most of the five from not having their backstories included in the show. It strips him of a lot of character growth and understanding his viewpoint. But he does have another arc besides that, with his interactions w/ Noin and Sally Po.

EDIT: Back on the whole "toxic" thing, how fucked up is it that Relina's so blindly in one-sided love w/ Heero that she urges him to kill her own brother? Literally gets berated about how horrible that is immediately after, too. That's gotta be the single most toxic action in the whole show.

IronBornCorps posted...

I started out with what's wrong with Relina? Heero is a teenager who was trained since childhood by mad scientists to carry out missions and kill anyone in the way. Let's not even get into suicidal tendencies and how many times he's blown himself up. That's toxic behavior for anyone to be around, mission or not.

I'm not saying Heero is a static character throughout the show. I agree Relina is my main issue, in her constant pursuit. To an extent I believe Heero even knows he is toxic to be around, and avoids her.

If Heero was interested in a relationship and psychologically abusing/manipulating Relina, I'd agree.
But his attitude is more of, "leave me the fuck alone, crazy lady" / "My training says to kill her, but I can't... damn it..."
So I just don't think it's fair to call him toxic when he's pretty clear and up front on his stance w/ her and it isn't some ploy to make her want him or anything.

He's also still a minor and trained since a small child to end himself rather than allow himself and his tech to fall into enemy hands, so it seems pretty callous to blame him for his "suicidal tendencies". Blame the scientists that trained them. They may have been desperate, but they still brainwashed child soldiers to do their bidding, basically.

IronBornCorps posted...

Back onto the show, what is wrong with Relina?

Heero is toxic af. How many times does he say he's going to kill her? How many times did he actually point a gun at her?(On her birthday!) Ain't no dick worth all that honey.

He's not toxic. He's on a mission and wants nothing to do with her, romantically.
She's just psychotic and needs professional help.

KodyKeir posted...

That soundtrack was a straight banger though

https://youtu.be/dWz2BWGxqMI

Damn right!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yELWNLJjK0c

I also love how it had like 3-4 entire CDs of (great) music that wasn't even in the damn show, mostly image songs by the characters' voice actors. Ronin Warriors did that, too. Unfortunately seems to be less common now.

Also, your username gave me a warning about posting, you better not get me modded...

IronBornCorps posted...

My comparison is really more on their behavior and character, over their belief system, as they are almost complete opposite on that.

Both are rich aristocrats who like building giant space things

Well, if your comparison is that flimsy, why not compare Treize with Richard Branson, instead?
Hell, he's European and knighted, so it's a way better fit.

IronBornCorps posted...

Globalist
Weird fetish with space and ancient battles
Building advanced technologies without bureaucratic approval (Elon might be building an actual Gundam, lol)
Inspired a loyal following
Both are considered eccentric by their peers

"Those who are hated must remain strong. It would be the perfect motivation for OZ."

Seriously, though. If he were trying to be Treize, he'd be opposed to AI "driver-less cars" and leave his own organization in disgust over them pushing for it to replace human drivers.

Gary Johnson was the only decent candidate running in 2016, and I gladly voted for him.
And yeah, the Libertarian Party is fucking insane.
Just like Obama telling off the auto companies in Detroit, though, it was an example of a man of principle telling his audience the truth while knowing they didn't want to hear it. It's stuff like that which makes me really respect a politician.

HornedLion posted...

Im not getting microchipped.

Cool, neither am I.
Got Pfizer, getting 2nd shot this weekend.

Smarkil posted...

is this like a canada thing because they're the same price at least as papa johns here. A large one topping at dominos is around 15 bucks and a large one topping at papas is about 15.

but papa johns has a persistent 25% off code you can use on your shit

I think the large pizza with 2 or 3 toppings (I forget) for $7.99 is pretty common throughout the U.S.
Never heard of the 50% off Mondays, though. They still have half off thru Sunday right now, though.

We could've gotten herd immunity simply by refusing to go "back to normal" until the herd immunity % is reached, and requiring a vaccination card to travel by plane or go to sporting events, etc... And jail people who try to use fake cards.
Enough of the crazies would've eventually given up.

But...NOPE! Fucking CDC says masks no longer required, and we're doin' it on the honor system! Guaranteeing that the anti-vaxxers will never budge now, b/c there's literally no reason for them to.

Jen0125 posted...

It's not even that the information is outdated lmao. They just change a couple paragraphs and call it a new required edition.

Yup.
It happens a lot. Plenty of people would just get older editions for cheap online and just manage the differences. The college bookstore has to carry the edition the professor specifies, though.
I'm positive it's a huge scam between the publishers and the professors who go along w/ the new editions every year where the former is giving a kickback to the latter.
Really not much different from the pharma advertisers that go to doctors and basically bribe them to prescribe the name brand instead of the generic drug.

I worked in my college bookstore. It's been awhile, and I'm sure there's differences for every school, but in my experience...

Used books were 75% the price of a new book. If the same edition was being used next semester/year (and the professor bothered to inform us of it), we'd buy them back for 50% the new price, so that was pretty reasonable...

The problem is, a lot of professors would go to different books or new editions frequently (probably at the nudging of the publishers...), so then we could only buy the books back at wholesale prices b/c we weren't getting much money for them, either.

Other major scams beyond the price of books:
1) Having a CD or online access code shrink wrapped w/ the book that was considered mandatory to have. Now we can't buy back and resell the books b/c it's missing the one use only add-on.
2) Professors who write their own book and assign it for their class to make money. But even more devious, some would be in "draft" for years (seriously, spent 5 years there and some NEVER left the "draft" phase the entire time), so it would be sold as individual papers printed out. Cheaper than a hardcover book, but now it's impossible to buy back b/c you aren't going to flip through 500 pages to make sure none are missing. So now every single semester, the professor's making money off new prints.

It really sucked, the customers would blame us for it when all we did was stock the books the professor told us to. We preferred selling the same edition and buying it back year after year, it was more profitable over the long term. But it's between the professor and the publishers.
Towards the end of my time there, the digital / e-books were becoming more common. Those usually cost like 2/3 the price of what the book would, but no ability to sell back, so again a nice constant revenue stream for the publisher.

Dominos is really good, and have the best toppings options. They've got half off right now, so it's a good time to get the specialty pizzas. I really love the Pacific Veggie, except replacing the onions w/ pineapple.
Pizza Hut is decent, but used to be better.
Papa Johns sucks.
Haven't tried Little Caesar's b/c I remember it being the worst and their rebranding touts that the pizza is cheap and quick to make, not that it's good....