Quote from: dkabq on February 20, 2021, 06:21:46 PM

$100M/11751 homeless persons = $8510/homeless person

With that kind of money, they could buy each homeless person a single, government-contracted toilet.

Actually, a government-contracted toilet costs north of $100K:
https://www.abqjournal.com/1483268/loo-takes-a-seat-in-old-town.html

I think the wind-powered models are less expensive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E92LVCjl_eQ

 

Quote from: dkabq on December 23, 2020, 07:23:11 AM

A friend of mine who is running a 5E game asked me to play one of the main protagonist (a gargantuan red dragon) in the climatic battle of the campaign. It was fun, but it became apparent very early in the battle that, between death saves and healing, it was going to be impossible to kill any of the PCs.

Single big bad guys can have trouble killing PCs, but hordes of little guys can have trouble not killing PCs if they are being run intelligently. Anything with multiple attacks can auto-kill a downed PC in a single round with melee. This is why any evil dragon is happy to have a dozen loyal kobolds that can be ready to eliminate downed foes quickly (and carry away those obviously magical weapons and implements that are dropped as soon as the PC hits 0 hit points).

There were other NPCs fighting the PCs. But apparently not enough. What pushed the point home for me was when the Dracolich (henchman of one of the PCs) returned from the dead/undead for a *third* time.

And back to the COVID.

Looks like those of us in the Land of Enchantment will be locked down well into 2021:
https://www.krqe.com/health/coronavirus-new-mexico/mayor-keller-officials-to-provide-update-on-citys-response-to-covid-19/

And another douche-nozzle lectures the hoi polloi on following COVID restrictions and then breaks them. He should have invited Gavin Newsome, Lori Lightfoot, and Neil Ferguson to party with him.
https://summit.news/2020/11/25/doctor-who-demanded-mandatory-mask-law-pictured-partying-maskless-on-boat-surrounded-by-bikini-clad-women/

https://nypost.com/2020/10/11/who-warns-against-covid-19-lockdowns-due-to-economic-damage/

SCIENCE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRXNaUz5LGY

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1145567

I wonder if the stress and fear of loosing your job/having your life ruined if you refuse to attend or resist the indoctrination don't count as mental torture...

Quote from: RandyB;1145568

Those things absolutely do count as mental torture.

By this logic, *any* mandatory training counts as torture and brainwashing. Hell, any required job behavior is brainwashing, because you're being forced against your will to do things you otherwise wouldn't. Bankers are brainwashed into wearing suits.

If I got paid the same daily salary as those executives and put up in a luxury hotel like they were, I'd gladly go through an equivalent class in social conservatism. It's nonsensical to think fear that I'd come out brainwashed. The only question is whether it was worth the annoyance factor.

It's not a fear of brainwashing. It is that after you have been "trained", you are expected to then mouth the party line.

Yes, and if you go directly to the CDC, you can see why the way Townhall presents it is duplicitous. They're trying to say that 94% of those that died with COVID didn't die because of COVID and that's not what it means. Take all of those that had HTN along with COVID; the HTN was not itself the immediate cause of death despite how Townhall wants to make it look, and it likely would not have been a cause of death without COVID for the vast majority of those with HTN.

I have to partially agree with HD here. As he points out, just because you have one or more comorbidities doesn't mean that Covid isn't the proximate cause of your death. Conversely, some number of Covid-recorded deaths could have happened regardless of having Covid (likely correlated with age (16% of age 85+ die every year) and number/severity of comorbidities).The death statistics would have to be recorded in such a way to reflect this. Hell, I would be happy if there was uniform recording methodology, rather than the ad hoc county/state reporting.

The statistics that I find most interesting are that approximately 40% to 50% of Covid deaths are in nursing homes. Furthermore, if you look at deaths by age, 79% of Covid are age 65+, 58% are 75+, 31% are 85+ (i.e., like other illnesses (flu, pneumonia), the older you are, the more likely it is to kill you). Also, here in the Land of Enchantment, about another 40% are Native Americans on the reservations. The conclusions I draw are that the old and sick should have been locked down (like you would someone immunocompromised), which would have sufficiently flattened the curve to prevent deaths from inadequate care due to hospitals being overwhelmed. And they should have let the rest of us go about our business, thus avoiding lockdown-related deaths.

I written some material on the subject

How to make a fantasy sandbox

Do you have any plans to do specific posts for steps 28 to 34?