2020 Miscellaneous Links: Untitled Moose Game

[SnowFire]

Ah, but it wouldn't have, legally.  It might have *practically* given Google control or at least a huge first-mover benefit, but only in the same sense that we already accept that big companies have - e.g. that you can't just break into the military jet industry without having a *lot* of money to burn.  Lockheed Martin might not have a legal monopoly, but they have close to a practical one.  I know the article makes it sound like another company would have to start scanning & then get sued to do the same thing, but that struck me as wrong - the other company / government entity would just have to do the scanning.  So sure, Google spent the half-billion dollars to go digitize a zillion books, but there's nothing stopping Microsoft or someone else from doing the same thing, if they're also willing to spend the half-billion dollars doing their own scanning such that they'd "own" the scans.

[SnowFire]

http://kotaku.com/how-three-kids-beat-the-odds-and-translated-final-fanta-1794628286

People playing translated jRPGs on an emulator in the late 90s?!  What kind of nerd would do such a thing.

[Cotigo]

http://uproxx.com/movies/lilly-wachowski-comes-out-transgender/

A link embedded in an article Captain K just linked. Mostly, holy shit what the fuck, Daily Mail? How on earth is that xenophobic toilet paper is still allowed to operate.

[SnowFire]

Your mission: infiltrate the White House.  The Russians have smuggled Metal Gear into the basement.  Weapons and equipment OSP.  Do you need a tutorial on CQC?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/comey-tried-hide-curtains-white-house-gathering-avoid-trump-report-125823269.html

[dunie]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/magazine/is-an-open-marriage-a-happier-marriage.html

polyamory. i know a couple nonmonogamous folk. i could never be one, if only for the fact that it already takes an enormous amount of psychic energy to invest in my current one. and if kids are added, i dunno. grossly said, i could only make time for sidepiece-sex, not emotional sustenance. it is interesting that the couples all cited were in some sort of failing marriage and i'd like to hear stories in which "opening" up weren't solely contingent on legislated bonding but romantic dating in general.

[NotMiki]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/afarcrymusic/visions-and-variations-a-new-album-from-a-far-cry?ref=creator_nav

Hey y'all if you like chamber music you should give my sister your money give my sister your money.  Seriously this album is gonna be amazing.

[Grefter]

Done.

[Grefter]

Okay so not to steal thunder or anything...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker/description

Pathfinder computer RPG finally happening.  Kickstarter is additional funding, already is funded and has a publisher essentially.  Chris Avellone working on it but I actually got the link just checking Dave Gaider's twitter for something.

I am pumped, Pathfinder is a cool system and I have been wondering why this hasn't happened for a long time.

[SnowFire]

http://kotaku.com/the-real-story-behind-xenogears-unfinished-disc-2-1796151112

Sometimes, it turns out that the unverified conventional wisdom is...  absolutely correct.  Well, it sounds more orderly than some people hypothesized - no frantic one-month sprint or anything - but yeah, XG Disc 2 was a case of "there's no way we can finish this in time, but we want to finish the story, so slideshow mode!"

[NotMiki]

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/writing-advice-to-my-students-that-would-also-have-been-good-sex-advice-for-my-high-school-boyfriends

[VySaika]

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/skyfarer-joseph-brassey-cover-reveal/

So Joe is a friend of mine who I've been serving as a wall to bounce ideas off of for years. Of the...half dozen or so book projects he's been working on over the years, Skyfarer(which has a fucking badass cover) is the one he's managed to get off the ground and get published. I've been alpha reading some of his stuff, and playing in games that he GMs, for longer than I've been in the dl actually. His writing is *good*

Once the book is actually out, expect me to whore the link out here again(i'm skipping DLcon this year to go to his book's release party. AFter the car issue we have the funds for me to do one trip but not two, and while DLC is once a year and an important thing to me, the release party for his first published solo book is a 1/lifetime thing).

Ayway, here's the blurb for it:

The Axiom Diamond is a mythical relic, with the power to show its bearer any truth they desire. Men have sought for it across many continents for centuries, but in vain. When trainee sorceress Aimee de Laurent’s first ever portal-casting goes awry, she and her mentor are thrown into the race to find the gem, on the skyship Elysium. Opposing them are the infamous magic-wielding knights of the Eternal Order and their ruthless commander, Lord Azrael, who will destroy everything in their path…

but I'd suggest checking the link anyway just to see the cover art!

[SnowFire]

You're burying the lede.  There's 75564586 vanity published books out there that are all "okay", which ones deserve the time to get read?  But... your friend has an endorsement from Neal Stephenson.  Certainly makes me more interested than if it was just another no-name review on the jacket!

[VySaika]

Well, it's not vanity published for one? Yes I probably should have included Stephenson's endorsement, but Angry Robot is an actual real publisher. When I said his first "solo published" thing I meant that it's the first book he's done that's 100% him. He has been published before as part of a collab series, along with Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear and others I don't remember at the moment(series called the Mongoliad, historical fiction. Also pretty good).

So yeah, Neal Stephenson says the book is "nothing but good parts".

[SnowFire]

Quote from the next quotes quiz that is, surprisingly, not from Nier Automato:

You said to call you Ten.  Who are you?  Why does it take so long?  I don't understand what is going on.  I don't know who I am or where I am.  I'm all by myself.  Who are you?  I love you too.

https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football/chapter-1

[Sierra]

I love you, Snowfire.

[Hunter Sopko]

John DuBois has somehow surpassed the NBA article...

[dunie]

https://werdbrew.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/white-women-in-robes/

Article criticizing reproductive justice protests that have appropriated The Handmaid's Tale costuming. To be truthful, I am only sharing it because it's cycling through likes and wholly embraced convos in Atlanta's Alliance for Social Justice Facebook Page, and I've noticed a trend among "white allies" to take any POC critique as golden. And that makes me uncomfortable, because then I am met with a different layer of engagement - asking for POC feminists to quit focusing on the bad relationship with the white feminists who've never showed up for them and move into a different territory of critique as well as wanting "white allies" to pen their own thought pieces that show them as speaking, thinking individuals - and in a way that's not seeking approving from these POC feminists. So I did a whole Twitter splurge on it, but I don't like the author's engagement with the book or adaptation. In fact, I strongly feel she abuses the material and flattens a lot in her crusade to show readers yet another misstep by the white feminists who don't seek a platform for intraracial coalition. Nobody seems to acknowledge that she completely absents Moira, whose actions in the TV adaptation actually say a lot against white feminism and black male allies. Ok, I'm ranting so I'll cut if off now.

[Captain K]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0cn6wDPaMY

[Luther Lansfeld]

https://qz.com/1006387/women-are-flocking-to-wellness-because-traditional-medicine-still-doesnt-take-them-seriously/

[dunie]

http://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/anthony-scaramucci-called-me-to-unload-about-white-house-leakers-reince-priebus-and-steve-bannon

morning tea yall

[Hunter Sopko]

http://nerdist.com/artist-crafts-stephen-king-book-covers-for-classic-love-and-heartbreak-songs/

DO YOU READ SUTTER KANE?

[dunie]

sharing this from the economist

Blame Congress for high health-care costs

Politician, heal thyself


 Print edition | United States
Sep 2nd 2017





IN AMERICA nearly one in every five dollars spent is on health care, a larger share than in any other country. Many of the culprits are well-known. Americans have more procedures, pay more for them, and face exorbitant administrative costs. One driver of rising costs has often been overlooked, however: politicians.

So Zack Cooper of Yale University and three other researchers argue in a paper to be published on September 4th. They studied reforms passed in 2003 that allowed over-65s to obtain prescription drugs through Medicare for the first time—the biggest expansion in the scheme’s history, costing some $400bn over the next decade. The legislation had a rough ride. President George W. Bush wanted to sign a law before running for re-election in 2004, but many Republican congressmen opposed it. In the end enough self-styled fiscal conservatives changed their minds, and the House of Representatives approved the bill by 220 votes to 215.

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Mr Cooper and his colleagues studied the necessary arm-twisting and its effects. To do so, they looked at the use of an obscure rule. Section 508 allows the federal government to waive the standard amount hospitals are paid by Medicare, which normally follows a tariff designed by technocrats. Typically, the waiver is used to pay hospitals more in places where labour is expensive. It seems to be handy for persuading wavering politicians, too.

Hospitals in districts where a Republican congressman supported the Medicare Modernisation Act were five times more likely to receive a waiver than those in ones where a Republican lawmaker voted against. Those hospitals spent 25% more than they otherwise would have in the seven years after the law, according to the researchers. Between 2005 and 2010 the 29 hospitals that received the most lucrative waivers spent an average of $1.25bn more than if they had not received one.

Some of the windfall went on equipment and staff. The average hospital to benefit from a waiver increased its number of nurses by 16% per year from 2006 to 2010. But the splurge seems not to have improved care. No changes were registered as a result in the mortality rate for patients admitted to hospitals with a heart attack, or in the time taken to discharge those who survive one—two standard measures of quality.

Chief executives fared well, though. The average bump in bosses’ pay in the sample of hospitals benefiting most from the waiver was 81% over the same period, equating to a pay rise of about $428,000 per year above that received by bosses of similar hospitals with no waiver. Politicians benefited indirectly. Legislators with hospitals granted waivers in their district saw a 22% overall increase in campaign contributions after the act. Donations from individuals in the health industry in their state increased by 65%.

Section 508 is just one example of how deals to pass legislation raise costs. By some measures, no industry spends more on lobbying Congress than health-care providers. The Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, was replete with sweetheart deals. For that reason, it is perhaps fortunate that Republican lawmakers were too divided to write and pass a health-care law of their own.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "How to twist an arm"

[Ranmilia]

http://ew.com/books/2017/08/24/handbook-for-mortals-pulled-new-york-times-bestseller-list/

http://ew.com/books/2017/08/25/handbook-for-mortals-how-nyt-best-seller-list-works/

So in further news of the fabric of reality falling apart, the rumored author of My Immortal and the goddess Glory from Buffy the Vampire Slayer teamed up to put a nonexistent book on top of the NYT bestsellers list...

[Hunter Sopko]

http://ew.com/books/2017/08/24/handbook-for-mortals-pulled-new-york-times-bestseller-list/

http://ew.com/books/2017/08/25/handbook-for-mortals-how-nyt-best-seller-list-works/

So in further news of the fabric of reality falling apart, the rumored author of My Immortal and the goddess Glory from Buffy the Vampire Slayer teamed up to put a nonexistent book on top of the NYT bestsellers list...

What year is it?!

[Luther Lansfeld]

http://5kids1condo.com/very-superstitious-how-fact-free-parenting-policies-rob-our-kids-of-independence/

A discussion over the degree to which children should be supervised by their parents.