Underuse Puns

So im currently testing several different Pokemon to see what I like. in the last 3 battles two of them were Sun team, Granted I won them both (im only like 1100) beside Venusaur and Torkoal I want to know why its currently popular ?

NOTE: I posted this a moment ago and then noticed a link for "Episode Discussions", so I deleted this and tried to post over there. But, I couldn't actually find a discussion; just a list of episodes with links that didn't seem to go anywhere. So, I'm posting here again. If this belongs in an episode specific discussion, please let me know. I'm trying to follow the rules as best I can.

Season 3 Episode 2

I like this show quite a bit, but it drives me crazy that they have a guy on their team who can move faster than a speeding bullet yet leave him to handle the minions, while a guy with no actual superpowers takes on the big bad. Heck, even just having Kryto with him would have solved the problem of Red Hood.

Episode 2 finale fight could have been over in 10 seconds if Night Wing had kept Conner with him.

Pretty stupid for a guy who's supposed to be pretty smart.

I suppose that's the only way to keep the team from being way over powered for the storytelling, but it make it hard to invest in the story when you know it could have all been over in 1 episode.

Specifically for the art in events. Every instance of the character models in events is more or less exactly the same. The camera is always flat on the subject, there is absolutely no creative use of posing, angles, etc. You get a waist up "shot" of everyone standing side to side in a row so they fill the frame. It really doesnt work.

After dipping my toes back in 2 for a bit, I've come to the conclusion that I personally prefer the sort of nondescript general paintings that had no character models involved in CK2. But thats only because CK3 hasnt found a way to really make its character models pop.

If I kill my rival, I dont want to see him just standing in a hall. I want to see his mangled corpse bleeding on the stones after he was pushed from a tower. Right now certain events make the game come off more flatly than it should.

Anyways, hoping PDX considers a small update overhauling the event art.

It is well known that the gnasher is an essential part of the gears of war multiplayer, some may even go as far as to say its just as iconic of the series as the lancer with its chainsaw bayonet, and it has been a multiplayer staple for the entirety of the games main lineup. however in gears 5 its supremacy and status as apex weapon is only toppled by power weapons, such as the boomshot, dropshot and others. but what is it that has taken us to the point the gnasher shotgun can outclass not only the lancer, but all main rifle weapons, such as the retro lancer and the hammerburst.

In my current state as of writing this post, with more than 110 hours on gears 5 alone and double the ammount on 2, 3 and judgment i think i have got around the root of this situation, that is the elimination of weapon loadouts. For you see, taking gears 3 as the direct example here, you had the choice to pick your assault rifle to acomodate to your playstyle, from the jack-of-all-traits lancer for every situation to the iron sighted hammerburst for long range suppresing fire and the suppresing power that was the retro lancer for close range fighting.

You may ask how is this relevant to gears 5's current state, and the main answer is that on top of the lack of loadouts, all rifle weapons across the board are underpowered, only coming to have the same stopping power of their old counterparts when a perfect reload is in place, without it, the only purpose the lancer or any other assault weapons have is to be a placeholder untill you get to pick up a power weapon, in the current state of the game there is not only an incentive to switch to you gnasher as soon as you spawn to rush back into action, but there is no reason whatsoever to keep your lancer and change your gnasher for the sniper rifle in gridlock or the torque bow in canals, and there is no reason to not swap to your gnasher once you see someone rushing in because the lancer just cant put out enough suppresive fire to stop him.

The second main problem that the removal of rifle loadouts brings in is the thinning of the weapon sandbox in multiplayer maps, for you see, there is a lot of maps that try to still incorporate the retro lancer, hammerburst and even the enforcer as weapon pickups in the map, bringing us back to the point of the fact that all rifle weapons are across the board underpowered, what this causes is that the player just wont even go out of its way to get, lets say, the hammerburst in gridlock, for why swa

Rewatching TWW for probably the 7th time and was wondering if anyone else feels that Margaret should’ve been a much bigger part of the show. She and Leo’s banter is one of my favorite parts of the show. I also feel that they glossed over Margaret’s entire personal storyline- specifically the pregnancy. What say you?

Rewatching the movies I have noticed a distinct package of importance in the various locations in the MCU. Asgard, Wakanda, Hala are all places where we are given the bare minimum information about.

I mean Asgard is supposed to be the protector of the 9 realms but we only see it mentioned once(beginning of dark world. Unironically the dark world is where Asgard is showcased the most.). Asgardians are stated to be the hard to kill but we are never shown that till Ragnarok(They get merked by dark elves). We have a cool Dora Milaje action scene why couldn't we get one where we see that asgardians are powerful.

Weirdly enough Asgard is only showed for a small fraction. Thor 1 had to take place in Earth. Thor 2 has no excuse. Thor 3 is more planet hulk. We dont really see what it's like and when Asgard gets destroyed there's not a lot of emotional attachment. It was an extremely wasted opportunity.

Wakanda's a bit better but we still don't know how it feels living there. Also can I mention that I HATE the design of Wakanda. It looks like they just took a futuristic city and put stereotypical African poverty and called it a day. The final acts of both Infinity war and Black Panther the fighting is on the fields outside the city. I hope Black Panther 2 actually focuses on Wakanda and its problems.

Hala is a throwaway planet. Captain Marvel did a horrible job trying to show that the Skrulls and Kree were in an intergalactic war. Kamar-Taj is only there to teach strange magic and I highly doubt will be mentioned again. The raft will appear in new installments. The nine realms embarassing. I'm not going to name places like Sakaar or Ego's planet because they were ment as one offs.

If were being hones only the Guardians films ( Knowhere, Xandar) and the Ant man movies (Quantum realm) that make use of its locations. The MCU for the most part have gone to fix it's previous issues regarding villains maybe they can use their locations better because some of these are really cool and it sucks that we aren't seeing enough of them.

I mean it looks like that ability is better suited for long range combat rather than close combat, you would just keep shooting from a distance and then hide in the air dimension, travel to another place, exit the air dimension, shoot again and repeat the process.

View Poll

Hey after rereading i have noticed that the water element is not really used. But we can do a lot with water! Like cuting, blocking, you can even do do illusion with water. This is the only thing i'd like to see more in the novel.

I have a friend who just passed her test and is looking at a first car. She’s found a 2012 Toyota Yaris with only 2.5k on the clock! One lady owner, obviously just an occasional shopping car or whatever. My premonition was to say snap her hand off, but thinking about it - could this car have mechanical issues as a result of such low usage? Rotting brake lines, ceased engine/ box parts etc

Hi all,

2020 has been weird. I've walked a lot less, and in the last 1-2 months spent a lot of time at a standing desk. I've also ridden around 5000km on a road bike (with SPD cleats all the way back, which reduces calf/Achilles loading. This has been the case all year, as it's more efficient for 100km+ efforts).

About a month ago I noticed that my Achilles tendons were sore after long days at a standing desk. In the time since, I have also felt discomfort cropping up in the mornings after sleep, primarily on the left side and mostly on the narrow part 5cm above the ground (though I have also had 1-2 mornings where there was a twinge of discomfort on my heel near the ground).

Is it reasonable to suspect that a mix of general Covid-related "ankle inactivity" (little walking, almost no jogging) + increased static / isometric loading from a standing desk could cause my problems?

I have ordered Overcoming Tendonitis and it will be here next Saturday. I have also been informing myself as widely as I can, and the two central resources for me are these two pages:

• Overcoming Tendonitis (obviously)
• Treatment of Achilles tendinopathy with combined loading programs (leans on Silbernagel and the notion of eccentric AND concentric loading being helpful)

Everything I read suggests that the Alfredson protocol and a focus on eccentric loading is the gold standard, and the more-recent research from Silbernagel indicates incorporating concentric strengthening and a mixed loading framework is helpful as well. It seems like much of it comes down to trying to ensure that the goal is well-aligned type-I collagen (instead of type-III), and that eccentric exercise are the most helpful when it comes to remodeling towards that.

Questions:

• Because I have felt pain at the bottom of my heel, I'm going to first focus on flat-ground heel raises. First with both legs (I've discovered my calves are not very strong right now), with a slow eccentric movement, and progressing to single-leg lifts and then adding weight. Is this reasonable?
• I have eliminated the standing desk routine that seemed to be a factor in starting this discomfort, and I am walking more again in order to reintroduce that movement. Is it reasonable to believe that standing for long periods can cause isometric strain, especially when otherwise

In my opinion, one of the most critically underdeveloped story elements of the show is the setting.

According to Rebecca Sugar, the show takes place in an alternative reality where Gems lived alongside humans throughout the history of the Earth, to the point where people don't even bat an eye at alien or magic in the present....

That's a f&cking incredible concept! It leaves the door open for so much rich and interesting world-building. However, the show hardly EVER takes advantage of it!!!!!

Oh sure, we've gotten some snippets, like the Gems on the money, the inaccurate continents and state names, the lack of Christmas and Halloween (though I think Andy hinted in Gem Harvest that a Halloween-type holiday does exist), and William Dewy being the founder of America instead of Columbus, but that's not enough. There are SO many interesting ideas! For example:

• How involved were the Gems in the foundation of America to the point where they were put on the currency?

• Were the Gems involved in the foundation of any other world societies or governments?

• Does the public view the Gems as superheroes or aliens?

• Are they viewed as goddesses or demons in the more remote countries?

• Are there religions built around them?

• Were the Gems involved in any human wars or conflicts?

• Are they in history books or taught in schools?

• Are they popular in social media (comics, TV, fandoms)?

And let's not also forget about all the plot-related questions that come with the whole "humanity knows about magic and aliens" scenario, like:

• How did the governments and populations react to Lapis stealing the ocean or Peridot and Jasper's warship or the Red Eye? Was there massive panic or hysteria? Did the government send out PSAs saying, "don't worry people. The Crystal Gems will handle this"?

• Why are there no governments interested in harvesting Gem tech? Or archeologists interested in exploring the Gem sites? Or even historians interested in learning about the history of their alien cousins?

• How do people outside of Beach City react to monster attacks? Do they make the evening news? Are the Gems constantly avoiding the press and paparazzi after a big battle?

To make matters worse, the show seems to go out of its way at times to contradict the whole concept.

• The Gems are apparently famous enough to be on money, yet people never seem to recognize them or know who/what they are. Despite this, they still don't see it as weird or odd that there are people

Let's be honest we all use higher tier servants mostly on boss fights/Fight stages based on the guides we have seen and read. And many of our servants gets stacked and unused even though they're min maxed, So whose that Servant who clutched for you?

I'm sat here marking books (Yes, I know, I'll get back to it in a second) whilst listening to the andromeda OST.

It's really fantastic stuff, very emotive and interesting. There's some excellent melodies and dynamics, especially in the opening song "Better beginnings".

It's a genuine shame that it is so underused and not featured within the actual game.

Thoughts?

Sorry for the bad punctuation. I hate how underused Mercedes was, she was at least in the top three most talented, we never learn anything about her, she has no real arc, we barely see her after she graduates and it makes no sense to me, she had a personality and had fun moments but she never had any growth or storyline, she was mostly there for comic relief, to this day I’m still mad that she never performed a solo at a competition, she never had a real romantic story and when she was with Shane all we saw was them kiss like twice, we never saw their relationship develop, it was just a love triangle to bait us with her and Sam, and even after she dumped Shane for Sam there was still no development, they just got together and would be seen holding hands sometimes and then they broke up until season five, and they broke up again because Mercedes didn’t wanna put out, and I guess that’s character development but we don’t learn anything about her, just that she doesn’t put out and she doesn’t like to be oppressed or something, the most we learn about her family is that her dad is a dentist, we got to see Marleys(a very shallow character) mom and we learned about her family problems and her mom was a developed character, but Mercedes was way more enjoyable than Marley ever was and we never even find anything out about her, almost all the main characters have onscreen families, except Mercedes, it just doesn’t make sense to me

I’ve played a ton this season so far, and I love the new teammate locator. I happened to notice not a lot of people shake down their opponents after knocking them to find their teammate, and I’ve never been shaken down before. Is there any particular reason for this? Maybe situational, or insignificance?

My pick: Gravesinger. Change the stats to 3/3 and make it a summon ability. Could be a bit powerful so let me know your thoughts on this as well!

In terms of powers and usefulness

News Article: https://news.yale.edu/2018/12/03/one-four-patients-say-theyve-skimped-insulin-because-high-cost

For patients with diabetes, insulin is a life-saving medicine and an essential component of diabetes management, yet in the past decade alone, the out-of-pocket costs for insulin have doubled in the United States. One-quarter of patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes have reported using less insulin than prescribed due to these high costs, Yale researchers write in JAMA Internal Medicine, and over a third of those patients experiencing cost-related underuse said they never discussed this reality with their provider.

“You might have heard stories of patients rationing their insulin,” said Yale endocrinologist and senior author Dr. Kasia Lipska. “The stories are really powerful, but they don’t tell us how common this problem has become. Our findings show that these are not isolated incidents and that skimping on insulin is frighteningly common. As clinicians, we have to advocate for change because the status quo is simply cruel and not acceptable.”

Researchers surveyed a diverse sample of patients from across New Haven County, Connecticut who use the Yale Diabetes Center for treatment. They asked patients about many different types of cost-related insulin underuse: using less insulin than prescribed, trying to stretch out one’s prescribed insulin, taking smaller doses of insulin than prescribed, stopping the use of insulin, not filling an insulin prescription, and/or not starting insulin. One in four respondents indicated they’d done at least one of those underuse behaviors in the past year due to insulin’s out-of-pocket cost.

“The data we collected speak loud and clear to the fact that cost is a huge barrier to insulin accessibility,” said Pavithra Vijayakumar, co-first author and Yale medical student. “I hope this spurs more action to help patients afford this life-sustaining medication.”

The survey found that the quarter of patients who’d indicated they engaged in any type of insulin underuse were much more likely (43% versus 28%) to have poor glycemic control, an important indicator of the effectiveness of diabetes management. Additionally, they found that lower-income patients were more likely to report cost-rel

At first glance, she just seems like a psycho henchwoman (and she definitely is)…

…but if you spend a little more time with it, I think their relationship is super interesting.

I think Bellatrix is the only one in Voldemort’s inner circle who he appears to have any sort of personal relationship with. He calls her Bella, a pet name no one else but her sister calls her. He calls her his most faithful. He mentored her specifically in the Dark Arts, and entrusts her with a piece of his literal soul. They said he is jubilant when she returns home from Azkaban. He goes out of his way to save her at the Ministry, and is outraged when she is killed in front of him.

He also humiliates her in public and physically punishes her when she displeases him. In the movies, she can be seen cowering the corner after his meltdown on the goblins, and he shoves her away when she tries to help him. But he is noticeably more gentle towards her than, say, Lucius, even when they both screw up equally. Lucius has a black eye for weeks after Malfoy Manor, while Bellatrix is stated to be unharmed.

This weird toxic relationship is interesting, and up to interpretation. Is Voldemort just evil and heartless, or is there some sliver of affection for her somewhere? He can be cruel to her, but also shows clear favor for her on multiple occasions.

Personally, I read it though the lens of an abusive relationship, but there’s not really enough to go on one way or another. It’s really all up to how you interpret it.

If we were to get some sort of prequel set in the First Wizarding War, it could shed a lot of light (and I would love that) but I guess we’ll have to settle for speculation.

Does anyone else think that the character of Ravus was HORRIBLY underused?? I was totally expecting to confront him multiple times throughout the campaign and then have an epic final battle with him at some point. We did get a battle but, at that point, I felt like it was more of a mercy kill rather than a showdown...

Do you think that perhaps this was an aesthetic design choice?