aphoenix's recent activity
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Comment on Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world in ~health
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Comment on Shock discovery reveals sea urchins are basically 'all brain' in ~science
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentDeath Must Die - Update. I've played a bit more and I need to amend a bit of what I wrote above. I put this in an edit above, but there are different maps. You have to kill the final boss of a map...Death Must Die - Update.
I've played a bit more and I need to amend a bit of what I wrote above.
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I put this in an edit above, but there are different maps. You have to kill the final boss of a map to progress to the next map, and I had not actually done that at the point that I wrote my original review.
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Maybe I'm not quite as bad as I thought; the game does have talent trees and a fair amount of progression for each character. I've unlocked all the characters, but to get skill points for your skill tree, you have to kill some of the bosses. I was acquiring but not spending skill points, which was really neutering the characters' damage output. I've gone through the first map a few times to farm some skill points, and now I can consistently finish the first map and have been progressing on the second.
In this way, the game is more like Vampire Survivors, and I guess it's been a while since I had started that game; I was used to the end game of VS, and not to the progression part. The last Bullet Heaven game I played was Brotato and it is different; there's no skill trees for each of the taters you can be. You pick a tater and you are at full strength for that tater. Death Must Die is different, you need to unlock and build your character.
- I really slept on the effectiveness of altering what the gods were giving you as rewards. If you build a character that is good at summons, for example, you really want to get your first couple of rewards to buff summoning.
I haven't given specific ratings to each of the games this time, but after some more replay, this has certainly improved over my initial review. I'm enjoying it even more.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentI got The Room on mobile, but didn't get the others, and ended up going back to steam, just because that felt better to me. This is likely a result of many years of point and click puzzle games...I got The Room on mobile, but didn't get the others, and ended up going back to steam, just because that felt better to me. This is likely a result of many years of point and click puzzle games like 7th Guest, 11th Hour, Myst, Ryven, etc. but I just couldn't get into it on mobile as well. I'm not advocating for trying it in a different method, but saying that I think it's great that there are multiple ways to get the content and play the game, so it's cool to see what works for people.
I wonder if my complaint about the clues was a common one, because the clues in 4 seemed very thoughtful. It felt like they must have playtested it and asked people what would help them in each situation, instead of applying generic "have you tried solving the puzzle" style hints. It just felt much better crafted and smoother.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentHow good is the VR one? I haven't played that one. Story spoilers for all Room Games I was really hoping that at some point it would reveal that Abigail Lockwood was actually A.S. from the...How good is the VR one? I haven't played that one.
Story spoilers for all Room Games
I was really hoping that at some point it would reveal that Abigail Lockwood was actually A.S. from the previous games, and that the dollhouse was where the Null began. I realize that would be a bit of a ret-con, because A.S. does seem to be explicitly a man in at least one of the previous games, but I think it would still have worked; she started dressing as a man to be taken seriously as a scientist or something.I guess that could still be the case.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
aphoenix (edited )Link ParentThe Room Four: Old Sins - Mystery / Investigation. I felt like I had a good card to play two games that I wanted to play for a while that were quite related - The Room 3 and 4 could both go in any...The Room Four: Old Sins - Mystery / Investigation. I felt like I had a good card to play two games that I wanted to play for a while that were quite related - The Room 3 and 4 could both go in any of at least 3 spots on my board - so I took the opportunity to play both of them almost back to back, with a quick Death Must Die break between.
The Good - I will refer back to my comments on the Room 3 here, and say that all the things that were good about previous games in this series remain good about The Room 4. If anything, the music, art direction, and feel of the games only improves from each iteration to the next. This game is gorgeous and engrossing, the puzzles are good, the story is creepy and the calls back to previous Room games felt exceptionally well done.
One of the things that I felt was a bit rough from The Room 3 was that the multiple rooms did not have a distinct enough feel; the library, the office, the upstairs all had a similar colour scheme and vibe. I didn't really feel this point explicitly until I played the Room 4, which is why I didn't comment on it before. For comparison, the Room 4 has more rooms, and they all have a very distinct feel and theme; the Kitchen is very different from the Maritime Room, which is different from the Art Tower, and you can feel the difference in each of them right away.
There are still puzzles where you go from room to room, but there were very few times when I did not have an idea of what to do next. When I did find myself at a loss, out came the hints, and I felt a lot of trepidation as the first one came up. I don't recall exactly what the hint was, but it was explicitly helpful; I had picked up an item, and I didn't know which of the three rooms available that the piece belonged in, but the hint was something like "that figuring you picked up makes you think of the Maritime Room". It didn't tell me that I should solve a puzzle, or that I should look for things to click on, it just gave me gentle direction on where to go next. As soon as I got to the Maritime room, I could look through the eyepiece and have some idea at where interactible things were in the room, because they returned to a design where the eyepiece, in addition to having some other explicit functions, also gave you clues about what in a room was clickable and what was just set pieces.
I felt like someone had read the things that I said were bad about the Room 3 and fixed them all in the Room 4.
The Bad - none. No notes.
The Different - the story of each of the earlier games is good but not great, but each one continues the previous story, with A.S. sending you messages. The story is mostly told through finding letters to get a clue as to what is going on. The Room 4 mostly abandons A.S. and the Null, though you find letters and cursed books and some other things scattered through the house. It tells a story about love between Abigail and Edward and Edward's obsession and madness with the Null. I felt it was a much more cohesive story, and one which pulled in some of the older games as well, but it would be nice to return to A.S. and continue that storyline.
Overall this is my favourite of the series.
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Comment on AGI and Fermi's Paradox in ~science
aphoenix Link ParentIf an AGI has a non-trivial final goal, why assume that immortality is a requirement for that goal? Why would an AGI with an understanding of the finite nature of time, attempt something that...If an AGI has any non-trivial final goal (utility function, U), would preserving its existence (immortality) become an instrumental sub-goal necessary to execute U and avoid failure?
If an AGI has a non-trivial final goal, why assume that immortality is a requirement for that goal?
Why would an AGI with an understanding of the finite nature of time, attempt something that requires immortality / infinity? Would it not simply mark any goal that has a requirement of infinity as impractical?
If all the goals of the AGI were finite, would the AGI not consider simply switching off or being finished when the goals were completed?
You have ascribed a value to the life of the AGI that the AGI may not have. It's a meat-brain or ape-brain concept.
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Comment on AGI and Fermi's Paradox in ~science
aphoenix Link ParentI agree with this. I think that everything in point 8 and onward presupposes a few ape-brain ideas: an AGI will value immortality an AGI will value its own existence over other's existence an AGI...that we tiny humans with our ape-build brains could predict any sort of AGI behavior further than just a projection of our ape patterns.
I agree with this. I think that everything in point 8 and onward presupposes a few ape-brain ideas:
- an AGI will value immortality
- an AGI will value its own existence over other's existence
- an AGI will not cooperate
And so on. I think that ape-brain is the perfect way to put it.
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Comment on TSN's top fifty greatest curling shots and moments in ~sports
aphoenix Link ParentI haven't seen this all put together before, but I was a bit surprised at how many of these I had seen. I don't watch that much curling. I was surprised that Kevin Martin only had two shots and I...I haven't seen this all put together before, but I was a bit surprised at how many of these I had seen. I don't watch that much curling. I was surprised that Kevin Martin only had two shots and I think Rachel Homan only had 3.
I want to call curling a sport, but if so it has a very low bar for athleticism. That's not to say that it requires none, but the strength and speed required is much less than most other sports. There aren't a lot of other sports where the people at the top of their game can smoke cigarettes and drink beer while playing and it doesn't have a particularly negative effect on their ability to play the game, nor are there games where you almost strictly get better as you age, instead of peaking relatively early and then trying to hang on. Getting into the curling stance can be a bit difficult, but I'm 45 and out of shape and I just checked and I can still do it pretty easily.
So it's a sport in the same way that darts or billiards are - barely.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
aphoenix (edited )LinkMy 3x3 card - Mode: Custom | Bingo! | Finished 3/9 Mode: Custom Bingo! Finished 3/9 ✅ The Room Three ✅ Death Must Die Real-time strategy/tactics Mystery/investigation ★ Wildcard Soulslike ✅ NYT...My 3x3 card - Mode: Custom | Bingo! | Finished 3/9
Mode: Custom Bingo! Finished 3/9 Puzzle
✅ The Room ThreeBullet heaven
✅ Death Must DieReal-time strategy/tactics Mystery/investigation ★ Wildcard Soulslike Word game
✅ NYT Lunch BreakHorror Deckbuilding Death Must Die - Bullet Heaven. Well, I'm old, I'm not 100% sure that this is a Bullet Heaven and not a Bullet Hell or it might actually not be in either because there's no bullets, though there's an occasional projectile. Nevertheless, here we are.
The Good - I feel like one of the first things I always bring up with games is the art style, and this is going to be no different. I like the art style for this game a lot; it is a blend of modern and retro, the characters are all great, the bosses look great. I haven't progressed very far because The enemies scale well; they start very easy and dopey and they ramp up in difficulty in a pretty reasonable way. The gods that give you buffs are all well designed, both from the art perspective (Aegir looks a lot like Jason Momoa) and from a game design perspective. There are a good variety of buffs and progression available, and no two runs feel exactly the same.
The Bad - I want to try different maps and enemy sets, and that hasn't happened in the first several hours. It's somewhat broken up by the good character design which gives good variety, but the map itself is fairly drab and a little "samey" and I'd like to see other maps, which probably happens if I experience more success than I have in this game. I guess another "bad" is me - I'm not particularly good at the game, so I haven't had a lot of progression. EDIT - I unlocked another map. Turns out I'm just bad and you have to get somewhat good to unlock new maps. Part of getting good is getting talent points via failures to make your characters more and more powerful. It took me a while to get to the point where I did enough damage to outpace even the incidental damage that I was taking, which caused me to lose runs. /edit
The Different - one of the ways that this differs from other Bullet Heaven games is that it has thus far been very difficult for me to build for sustain or healing; there are times where it feels inevitable to take damage, and heals are few and far between. I have realized that I tend to rely on some kind of healing in games like this, and when it's not there, I really struggle. I don't think this is a fault in the game at all, I just have to figure out how to build better and take less damage.
Overall if you like Bullet Helleaven games, this one is pretty good. I don't know that it's going to go on my all-time list, like Brotato or Vampire Survivors, but it's a good take on the genre.
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Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk
aphoenix LinkYesterday my wife and I took our son to the final for the Northern Super League - women's soccer in Canada. We took the GO train downtown which was $10 for all you can ride for 24 hours, which...Yesterday my wife and I took our son to the final for the Northern Super League - women's soccer in Canada. We took the GO train downtown which was $10 for all you can ride for 24 hours, which makes taking the train for two adults officially about 66% of the cost of parking. When we got downtown, it started raining - thick cold wet drops that carried the chill of winter - but we found a place serving free coffee and an equestrian show whose lobby was free to stand in. The rain at that point of the day lasted about an hour, and then we were back to the pre-game fun outside the stadium, where we attempted to kick soccer balls into holes in boards, line up for free stuff like a pretty nice NSL toque, and get free samples of Coke products (yup, still coke).
For the game, we were in the seventh row in one of the supporter sections, right near one corner. It was a pretty great game, with Toronto controlling the offensive play most of the time. The Nikki Small -> Esther Okoronkwo teamup is always electric to watch, but they weren't able to convert a goal. Hunter who I think is the youngest NSL player at 17, was able to score a beauty around the 20 minute mark. At 35 minutes in the first half, the rain suddenly started, and we found that we were surprisingly covered by the roof so we prepped to watch the poor cold players continue, but at 38 minutes a flash and a load rumble of thunder immediately delayed the game.
Our son is a trooper, but he was pretty sad about the delay; when I asked him about it as we were standing in the concourse, he said that he had been looking forward to the final and didn't want to go home without seeing it end, and I remembered that he was supposed to go last week with his uncle to see a game and that game was delayed, but the delay was 24 hours, and he didn't end up going to the make-up game. He thought we were done for the day, and his fun finals day was going to get cancelled, and it would be rescheduled for midweek and he would miss it, just like what happened the previous week. Fortunately, it was just a 40 minute delay; we got back to our seats, the rain cleared up, and the sun even briefly shone on the stadium.
It didn't shine on AFC Toronto very much though, because in the second half Vancouver Rise scored 2 goals, and the final ended up 2-1 for Vancouver. It did feel that for a good part of the game the referee ignored some pretty blatant fouls from Vancouver - at one point I very loudly offered the ref my glasses, which got some laughs from people around me - but overall it was exciting to see the conclusion of the season, and it was a great game.
We also watched a bit of the Leafs / Blackhawks game after returning home, which Toronto lost. I recently talked about "being a Toronto fan" after the Blue Jays loss in the World Series, but it really does feel like Toronto has this thing where they fly really close to the sun and look like they're going to win, only to choke at the finish line. I'm not invested in a lot of other city's sports teams, so I don't know if that's the general case, but it feels really common here. I know in my brain that only one team can win, and that statistically it is not likely to be my team that wins it all, but I feel in my part-of-the-brain-that-we-call-the-heart like my team is often the one that blows leads to lose to another team's comeback.
Today I'm having a chill stay-at-home day with my son, while my wife is off in Toronto with our oldest seeing Kamala Harris speak, and my middle kid is at a birthday party at Great Wolf Lodge, and I'm thankful that the small skiff of snow we have is not enough to require shovelling, and that I can lounge inside for most, if not all, of the day.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentI actually liked the hints on the first two games, or at least I have no recollection of being actively antagonized by them. But these ones seemed to be very basic and unhelpful, and it's the...I actually liked the hints on the first two games, or at least I have no recollection of being actively antagonized by them. But these ones seemed to be very basic and unhelpful, and it's the entry that would have most benefited from actually helpful hints. Something like "you saw a shape like this in another room" instead of "have you thought about trying to solve the puzzle as the next step?"
I have also played, but not yet finished, Boxes which is really quite similar.
I wonder if anyone had updated MOTAS or Crimson Room for a post-flash Internet.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentThe Room 3 - Puzzle I realized some time ago that I hadn't actually played beyond The Room 2, and that it had been quite a long time since I'd played the first two games. So for October, I...The Room 3 - Puzzle
I realized some time ago that I hadn't actually played beyond The Room 2, and that it had been quite a long time since I'd played the first two games. So for October, I replayed 1 and 2, and then saved up 3 for the backlog burner. 1 and 2 were both games that I liked quite a bit, so I had relatively high expectations. If you haven't played any of the games, the idea is that you are in a Room with a Box, and you have an eyepiece that reveals hidden magical secrets; you must open the box to progress, but opening the box leads to other rooms, boxes, and sometimes madness.
The Good - it builds up the story even more from 1 and 2; the atmosphere of the game is great, with fantastic art direction and the same eerie musical theme. The set pieces for each room are just about perfect and it is pretty cool that the house has multiple places to travel to. This iteration is less linear than the previous games in the series. In 1 and 2, when you finished a room, that room was done and you would not return, but in 3, you would come and go as you please, in a way that I associate with other puzzle games like Myst. 3 also incorporated multiple endings to the game; on the first play through there are puzzles that you don't have to finish to get all the way to the end of the game, and then you are encouraged to go back and finish them, with the warning that you'll no longer receive hints.
The Bad - the hints were not particularly good. Since the hints happen on a relatively short timer, you'll see some hints. The latches or keyholes or tchotchkes that you fiddle with are not always completely obvious, and multiple times I had an interaction that was very like this:
- find the mcguffin that you need for something
- look at the mcguffin more and there's clearly something to do with it
- try clicking on the pieces that seem movable
- look at the mcguffin and realize a hint is coming
- hint pops up: "that mcguffin is probably useful for solving a puzzle"
- roll my eyes, continue to look at the mcguffin
- figure there's something else to do with it so move to another room
- uh oh another hint is coming
- hint pops up: "that mcguffin has the answer you're looking for"
- look at the thing again
- wait for inevitable hint 3
- hint pops up: "sometimes these mcguffins have latches have you looked for a latch you idiot"
- realize that a thing you clicked on fourteen times will slide if you hold it in a particular way and go in circles
None of the puzzles are particularly difficult, but the hints really irked me in this game.
The Different - in previous iterations, when I was stuck I would use the eyepiece, which often just gave you a different look at the area you were in. Often that would give you a clue, with a sort of eldritch paint that highlighted things that were actionable around you. In this iteration, the eye piece usually doesn't give you this sort of a clue, but instead functions as a way for you to enter into whatever mini mcguffin area you need to. For example, there might be a model of something, with an eldritch sparkle when viewed through your eyepiece, and you can click on the sparkle to enter the tiny model. This was a bit different from the previous games, and I don't think it's a better or worse use of the mechanic.
Overall, I was fairly happy, though I think this was the weakest of the three games so far. I felt like some of the puzzles were made arbitrarily more difficult because the latches or interactive parts were just less obvious than in other versions of the game, and there being so many more options of places to look and go. I don't think this would be a bad thing, except for the hints that were way too basic. Overall the mood and story were quite good, and I still recommend the whole series.
The next game I play will probably be The Room 4.
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Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk
aphoenix (edited )Link ParentActually if it went with Q as in QUEUE we could also do C as in CUE. And the mat / nat is a great one as well.Actually if it went with Q as in QUEUE we could also do C as in CUE. And the mat / nat is a great one as well.
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Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk
aphoenix Link ParentAt least once a week, when my son leaves the house to go somewhere, I'll say "Buffalo... oh wait, I mean BYE SON".At least once a week, when my son leaves the house to go somewhere, I'll say "Buffalo... oh wait, I mean BYE SON".
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Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk
aphoenix Link ParentLol, perhaps unsurprisingly, that link is purple for me. ;)Lol, perhaps unsurprisingly, that link is purple for me. ;)
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Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk
aphoenix Link ParentOh, I like "E as in EWE" - I made a full bad alphabet below and I used "S as in SEE" to the same effect. We had some other overlaps, like Djibouti and Mnemonic.Oh, I like "E as in EWE" - I made a full bad alphabet below and I used "S as in SEE" to the same effect.
We had some other overlaps, like Djibouti and Mnemonic.
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Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk
aphoenix (edited )LinkI came up with a bad version of the NATO1 Phonetic2 Alphabet. A as in AYES | AFFECT B as in BUM C as in CEE D as in DJIBOUTI E as in EYES | EFFECT F as in FAZE G as in GIF H as in HERB I as in...I came up with a bad version of the NATO1 Phonetic2 Alphabet.
- A as in AYES | AFFECT
- B as in BUM
- C as in CEE
- D as in DJIBOUTI
- E as in EYES | EFFECT
- F as in FAZE
- G as in GIF
- H as in HERB
- I as in IÖGO
- J as in JYSK
- K as in KNELT
- L as in LARYNGOTRACHEOBRONCHITIS
- M as in MNEMONIC
- N as in NAY
- O as in OEUF
- P as in PTERODACTYL
- Q as in QATAR
- R as in RAY
- S as in SEE
- T as in TSAR
- U as in UAKARI
- V as in VEE
- W as in WRITE
- X as in XI
- Y as in YAY
- Z as in ZENZIZENZIZENZIC
I tried to make the words obfuscate the letter in question, or make the clarifying word easily confusable via rhyme or similar sound with other letters, or make the word too lengthy to be convenient.
1 - while maybe popularized by NATO, this particular alphabet was actually created by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
2 - it's not a phonetic alphabet at all, but a spelling alphabet. Since English is so goofy, it is actually common that the spelling and the phonetics do not seem particularly related, and this is used specifically for spelling and not for phonetics
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
aphoenix (edited )LinkI haven't made a lot of progress, but here is my card: Mode: Custom | Bingo! | Finished 1/9 Mode: Custom Bingo! Finished 1/9 Puzzle Bullet heaven Real-time strategy/tactics Mystery/investigation ★...I haven't made a lot of progress, but here is my card:
Mode: Custom | Bingo! | Finished 1/9
Mode: Custom Bingo! Finished 1/9 Puzzle Bullet heaven Real-time strategy/tactics Mystery/investigation ★ Wildcard Soulslike Word game
✅ NYT Lunch BreakHorror Deckbuilding NYT Lunch Break - Word Game: I have taken about a one year break from the NYT word games, so I was excited to get back into it. Over lunch I have been doing Connections, Wordle, Strands, The Mini, and the Crossword. I've counted this as just one game, but here's a mini review of each:
Connections - you get a set of 16 things, and you have to figure out how they connect to each there. There are four groups that the things can fit into - yellow / simple, green / trickier, blue / difficult, purple / c'mon man that's silly. You can make a sub game out of it by trying to get them in order of difficulty, most difficult first. This used to be my favourite, but I found that some of the connections this week were a bit loose. I do enjoy trying to figure out what the purple group is first, and I realized after watching Hang Green do it, that we tend to approach the puzzles the same way.
Spoilers / solution for Nov 13 (today's) Connections
Today's puzzle was one where I really didn't understand why they put the purple group as the hardest one. The group was "office" and I saw it right away and thought it was going to be the green group, with only outfits being more obvious.
Connections
Puzzle #886
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨Wordle - you guess a five letter word, and you get feedback on the correctness of the letters; whether they are in the word, and if they are in the correct position. I think everyone knows this one - it was a cultural phenomenon. It has one of the best simplicity to enjoyment ratios of any word game, and it set the standard for "you get one per day" style puzzles online.
Strands - my current favourite, you have a jumble of letters, and you are doing a word find. There's an overall topic that spans from one side to another - left to right or top to bottom - and you find the relevant words and get points. I like to try to find the spangram first (this was formerly called Spangram, I think), but it can be difficult to spot. Of the three non-crosswords, this is the one I usually spend the least time on.
The Mini - a very small crossword, typically 10 clues, 5 across 5 down, no more than 25 letters total. This is a warm-up, an amuse-bouche if you will, for the real puzzle that's coming up, though it is almost never actually related to the crossword. I try to aim for finishing within one minute. It's straight forward and a nice taste of crossword-y goodness.
The NYTimes Crossword - this is the crossword for a lot of people. It's pretty good, ramping up in difficulty from Monday which is usually very easy to Saturday which is usually very difficult. Sunday just has a big puzzle, with quite a few squares and clues. I did not finish the Saturday puzzle this week without looking for a hint - shameful! - but I do try to get there. Usually on Fridays I do not finish the Crossword over my lunch break, but Mon - Thurs I usually do.
Spoiler for Nov 3 (today's) Crossword
I really dislike puzzles like today that have a weird twist that make some of the filled in answers into nonsense. I find it way more difficult to figure everything out when that happens. I had 29A "RONESEYES" put in as well as 59A "ROFAPPLAUSE" filled in before I kind of got it. I felt like those had to be wrong, but they were right, it's just a twist.
Overall, if you like word games, thes are hard to beat!
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Comment on Danish man convicted of sharing nude scenes from copyrighted films and TV series on the social media site Reddit in ~tech
aphoenix Link ParentIt actually says directly in the article that is linked here: That's the third paragraph.It actually says directly in the article that is linked here:
The Danish police say he has been given a seven month suspended sentence for copyright infringement.
That's the third paragraph.
While I like that sentiment, I think that there is a real problem with Western medicine and how they (don't) listen to women, and how they treat patients. Those problems really open the door to alternative options like the free birth society. I feel like everyone knows or at least knows of a woman who was ignored by her doctor when she went in for pain, and was told it was related to her period, and it ended up being very serious and unrelated.
This is the natural end result; when you treat patients poorly, they will seek alternatives. And many (maybe all) alternatives to Western medicine have worse outcomes, but the process of getting to the outcomes feels better.