Well, like I said, there is still a chance of collateral damage, which is why there has been so much study to try and make sure that isn’t going to happen. We’ve been sitting on the ability to do this for a long time. As for chances of killing other species, I don’t think that is a risk from the method. They basically just breed mosquitoes of the targeted breed, and modify their genes so they can only have male offspring which can also only produce male offspring, etc.

The biggest reason it may be different this time is previously we were all like, “let’s exterminate dogs,” and it turns out dogs are important. This time is more like “let’s exterminate pitbulls.” There will still be plenty of mosquitos around if the plan is ever put into motion, we are only targeting a very small slice of them. That doesn’t mean there won’t be issues, it could well be just as big a mistake as all the previous times. But at least it is more likely to work out.

In the book, he and Gandalf were planning the party for months. The whole thing was his plan from the beginning.

Don’t forget Rogue Trader. Falls into many of the usual CRPG pitfalls, but is still definitely solid despite that.

As a big fan of Helldivers, they aren’t really that similar. They aren’t completely different either, but SM leans closer to a hack n’ slash. Definitely space for both in my rotation.

Yeah, my understanding is that SOP is to sue everyone even remotely, possibly, responsible, and the courts will work out who is and isn’t likely enough to have to actually defend themselves. This is just a part of the dance.

Neither happened. The restaurant isn’t owned by Disney, it is just listed on their website as a recommended place for allergy free dining, and they while own the property, it isn’t a part of the actual park, springs, etc. The family signed up for D+, and therefore “read” the terms, including the arbitration, and then used their D+ account to sign up for the trip, and had to “read” the terms again. The whole D+ argument wasn’t that they had to go to arbitration because they used the streaming, it was to show they had to go through the same terms multiple times and should be familiar with them. And basically, this is an issue with the labeling on the website, so would be covered by those rules. Who they really should be going after is the restaurant, if they made the same allergy free claims there. Agreements requiring arbitration are indeed bullshit and should be more limited, but this is proper enforcement of a shitty system, not the batshit insane enforcement it has been memed into.

The cost is less from the design and more from the safety regulations. Best case scenario the state just starts making nuclear power plants, it’s just not a good idea to mix profit incentive with nuclear.

I think I see the direction they wanted to go. Show that she’s still obsessed and starting to fray at the edges, but then give her a redemption when she realizes she doesn’t need a biological child when she has Ciri right there as a daughter. It’s just that every show like this seeks to have to be CW’ed these days. It’s a big reason why I had to drop Supernatural too. It worked really well for 5 seasons. But after that, the 3rd time the brothers fought about X and the 6th time they kept Y secret, I realized there was never going to be any development past this and had to step away. It’s exhausting.

It’s one power the ring posses. I think Galadriel implied that, with training, Frodo would be able to turn that automatic function off, and access more powers. But the process of learning to use it would inherently corrupt whoever attempted it. I always took it to mean that the ring gathered power from the Unseen world, and so someone with no presence there and without the ability to manipulate it would be inherently dragged in, but it’s not a core aspect or intended design, and nullifying that would not be a hindrance to using it. It’s just a bug turned feature for folks that want to remain unseen.

Was about to post it. Always wanted to actually make that character, but all my friends moved off of 3.5 before I got a chance.

The Istari were conceived because the last time Maiar went to war a continent sank. They have their memories altered in order to greatly weaken them and prevent that kind of power from being thrown around. Their mandate is to do exactly as you say, get the kids to get themselves straightened out, but they very specifically are not powerful enough to do it on their own, by design.

Gandalf’s danger didn’t come from raw power though. Olorin was considered the mightiest Maia they could send, but Olorin’s power was greatly diminished when he became Gandalf. The danger Gandalf presented was due to his ability to inspire and organize the mortal races, not in his prowess or main force.

I think so long as you maintain consciousness that issue is fairly null in this particular circumstance. There’s lots of tolerance for changes in thought while maintaining the same self, see many brain damage victims. So long as there is minimal change in personality, there are lots of other circumstances that have a stronger case for killing one person and having a new person replace them due to change of consciousness, imo, I don’t think most people would consider a brain damaged person killed and replaced by a new consciousness, or a drug addiction with radically altered brain chemistry, etc.

I don’t see an issue with that. A prolonged brain surgery that meticulously replaces each part with a mechanical equivalent in sequence. Could probably remain conscious the whole time.

Well, Istari were not full power Maiar, that was kind of the point. Honestly, there may have been some elves from earlier ages that were stronger than some of the wizards.

This isn’t the same. Host nukes is not owning nukes, they seems to be proposing housing US nukes that Poland would not have control of, or be able to launch. With no launch codes, they aren’t a valid deterrent to conventional war, unless the world is convinced the US would use them to protect Polish sovereignty, which would obviously not be on the table.

There isn’t really much about eternal torture or damnation back when Satan was still an agent of God, and he certainly wasn’t in charge of Hell. All the talk of gnashing teeth and lakes of fire was originally metaphor for how much it sucked, not literal.

Hell isn’t a place, it’s a state of complete lack of Grace. The idea is that everyone has a 2 way connection to God, and all good feelings and emotions must come from it. People are free to reject that connection by committing mortal sin, but “the line stays open,” as long as someone lives. Honest repentance is accepting the connection back. If one dies before accepting grace again, God shrugs and accepts they aren’t interested, and cuts his side of the line. This leaves an existence with zero positive thoughts or feelings, best case scenario is eternal meh. Of course, it was hyped up to be awful to help convert and maintain control. And, ofcourse, Satan did do a bit of torture here and there, but it was generally all on living folk to test them.

My favorite is the gif of the skubbah diver with a lassear beam on their frickin head.

Lawful>chaotic isn’t about better>worse. If anything, using the gear that came with the product is the definition of lawful in this context. Lawful is more about following the expectations of society. That’s not the full meaning, but close enough for this post. If anything, I would swap true neutral and chaotic neutral.