zdl

zdl, 7 days ago to random

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/15/tech/uber-shuttle-airport-concert-annual-product-update/index.html

Techbrodudes reinvent something that's been around for ages, only making it worse.

You know, public transit has been around for AGES before you got your grubby little rent-seeking mitts on it and tore it down, you festering horde of goblins!

#Uber #Reinvent #Terrible #TechBroDude

graveolensa, 7 days ago to random

https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.13750
/Quantifying Inequities and Documenting Elitism in PhD-granting Mathematical Sciences Departments in the United States/

Ron Buckmire, Carrie Diaz Eaton, Joseph E. Hibdon Jr., Jakini Kauba, Drew Lewis, Omayra Ortega, José L. Pabón, Rachel Roca, Andrés R. Vindas-Meléndez, Sam Zhang

abstract:
In this paper we provide an example of the application of quantitative techniques, tools, and topics from mathematics and data science to analyze the mathematics community itself in order to quantify inequity and document elitism. This work is a contribution to the new and growing field recently termed "mathematics of Mathematics," or "MetaMath." Our goal is to rebut, rebuke, and refute the idea that the mathematical sciences in the United States is a meritocracy by using data science and quantitative analysis. Using research and data about PhD-granting institutions in the United States, we quantify, document, and highlight inequities in departments at U.S. institutions of higher education that produce PhDs in the mathematical sciences. Specifically, we determine that a small fraction of mathematical sciences departments receive a large majority of federal funding awarded to support mathematics in the United States and that women are dramatically underrepresented in these departments. Additionally, we quantify the extent to which women are underrepresented in almost all mathematical sciences PhD-granting institutions in the United States.

---

(I know it's a replacement)

jemmesedi, 7 days ago to goodyearwelt

I recently posted about my hatred for cargo pants.

I don't resile from that judgement, but some posts from @pixelcats expressive of her generosity of spirit reminded me that I need to take care not to be a curmudgeon:

https://apobangpo.space/@pixelcats/112470323675719164

https://apobangpo.space/@pixelcats/112470332426960177

So, in keeping with that more affirmative mode, I put it to you that the Chelsea boot is a thing of beauty and a joy for ever:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_boot

#Shoes #ChelseaBoot #HistoryOfDress #Footwear #Fashion

Lizards_cast, 7 days ago to DnD

Playing some board games on location today (at someone else’s house) cause the usual studio has no air and that just doesn’t work in Florida 🤣

….it’s weird not having dice to roll!!! #DnD #ttrpg #podcast

AnarchoNinaWrites, 7 days ago to random

Naw seriously tho, as recently as five years ago I was having to tell people "no, fascist militias with guns and pepe badges are not "anarchists" and I expect that at some point I'll have to repeatedly explain that again the next time nazis try to pass off their bullshit as "the real leftism/punk/rebellion."

Thankfully, they haven't been successful, but once I saw "MAGA Communism" I pretty much gave up on the idea that we could invent words they wouldn't try to steal; successfully or not.

RustyBertrand, 7 days ago to Israel

Bombs for the deaf.
#Israel
#gaza

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randahl, 7 days ago to random

I certainly have had enough of some people claiming that we must cower to Putin, because he has nuclear weapons. And I am glad to see, I am not alone.

In a debate show on Danish national tv, foreign editor of Danish newspaper Weekendavisen, Anna Libak replied to yet another “But Putin’s has nuclear weapons!” by saying, “If Hitler had nuclear weapons, would we have given him France?”

Bingo! Of course we would not. And neither should Putin have Ukraine.

#SlavaUkraini🇺🇦

mrundkvist, 7 days ago to PbtA

Listened to an episode of Ludonarrative Dissidents that helped me understand the point of #pbta rules being divided into "moves", little routines that you invoke like a #DnD spell. It's training wheels for insecure GMs. Apparently really effective wheels. I have been a messianic megalomaniac GM since I was twelve. I am not the target audience of these rules.

#ttrpg

b9AcE, 7 days ago to random

"Helicopter carrying Iran's President Raisi crashes in mountains, official says"
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/helicopter-iranian-presidents-convoy-accident-says-strate-tv-2024-05-19/

No comment.

zdl, 8 days ago to random

Finnish rednecks are the best rednecks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FamCoxSQxU0

There's something weirdly both eye-watering in the tension this channel evokes when they're doing their crazy stuff, as well as something almost sensual in the release when the inevitable happens.

t_l_wood, 8 days ago to random

Things I teach my kids:

• “No” is a complete sentence.
• If you’re not having a good time you can leave.
• Never make yourself smaller just to make other people more comfortable.
• It’s okay not to be okay.
• Don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.
• Other people’s opinions of you are none of your business.
• Speak as kindly to yourself as you would speak to others.
• Be your own greatest cheerleader, always.

It’s never too late to learn these things.
#SelfCare

michael_albert, 9 days ago to random German

Das muss man sich vorstellen: Ein Gericht verurteilt die Regierung wegen mangelndem Klimaschutz und tags darauf verwässert eben diese Regierung das Klimaschutzgesetz. Danach reist der Kanzler in ein Hochwassergebiet und verspricht den Opfern Unterstützung.

Es ist der blanke Zynismus.

tintenteufel, 9 days ago to ODnD German

Ganz prinzipiell: warum sollte mensch ein System aus diesem Jahrtausend spielen, welches das Spielgefühl der 1970er Jahre vermittelt, anstatt ein System aus den 1970er Jahren?

Ich mag bspw. #DCC und #Shadowdark sehr gerne, aber das ist eine der Fragen die ich mir durch meine Beschäftigung mit #ODnD aka #0e und #SwordsAndWizardry schon stelle.

#pnpde #ttrpg #osr
#dungeonsanddragons

deinol, 9 days ago to DnD

Not to start a war, but the Shadowdark Facebook group I saw a link to a YouTube claiming Shadowdark “won” the OGL war.

First, you can never “win” open gaming. You can temporarily become dominant. If anyone has, it’s Paizo who often gets as much or more shelf space as D&D.

Second, while Shadowdark uses the 5e CC-BY SRD, but it contributes nothing to open gaming itself. It’s got a 3rd party license, and it’s fine enough, but that isn’t open gaming.

#OGL #OpenGaming #Shadowdark #DnD #Pathfinder

Handout, 9 days ago to random

Guardian interviewing Finkelstein - but no questions about Trans stuff.

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 9 days ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/fantasy-wargaming.jpgThe Highest Level of All: The Story of Fantasy Wargaming by Mike Monaco, is a free pdf download published at CMU Press under a CC BY-NC-ND license, and dealing with the history of the eponymous (if a bit incongruously titled) Fantasy Wargaming roleplaying game system. Yes, it turns out you can write whole books not only about DnD. At least if it’s something as weird as that game at least.

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/715s3mfunvl._sl1360_.jpg

The original game Fantasy Wargaming: The Highest Level of All (or just Fantasy Wargaming in some editions) was a 1981 book by Bruce Galloway, a clear variation on Dungeons and Dragons, based on Galloway’s home rules. Unlike it’s competition it was not afraid of using actual historical concepts like astrology and occultism in it’s descriptions, although it also was written so densely it was hard to make sense of it in any shape or form by someone not already familiar with roleplaying games. And, well, it was called Fantasy Wargaming.

Which made this a problem, as the game was published both in the UK and the US by mainstream publishers obviously trying to break into the nascent TTRPG market. The most available version was most likely the one published by the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club, which made the game available to many people who did not have any experience with roleplaying games before.

Unfortunately one has to say, as the game’s size (300pgs) and conceptual denseness made parsing the book quite a feat, meaning if people used this as an introduction to roleplaying, it might not have been very successful.

The Story of Fantasy Wargaming goes into this, and into the development of the game. It could have been a bit more thorough and a bit more critical, but for what it is it’s a nice look into the environment that created it. And well, it’s free.

(I learned about this book from an episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast which had the author on and talked about this project. Well worth a listen)

Rate this:

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/05/17/the-highest-level-of-all-the-story-of-fantasy-wargaming/

#book #dnd #Fantasy #gaming #news #osr #rpg #ttrpg #wargaming

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twostraws, 10 days ago to random

The most dangerous thing about ChatGPT is how utterly certain it is.