Lord Haliaeetus's page

The most refreshing thing about that story is there is not a trace of condesension from the reporter.

That I can read an intelligent article on CNN about my favorite hobby is light years ahead of the porrly written dreck I have read in local papers about the hobby over the last 3 decades.

I love the virginity comments below the article. I think somebody should develop a scientifically valid sample size and see if there is a correlation :)

A bat that was flying around my family room at 10pm tonight. We were watching TV and suddenly got buzzed by something furry.

"holy &!*#$% what was that....?!!"

If I sold all of my 3.5 books, I might be able to buy a Big Mac.

Interestingly, I sold my used PHB 3.5 for $41 on amazon not too long ago.

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

Lord Haliaeetus wrote:

Just wondering, am I the only one who doesn't care about this? After being bombarded by the constant rhetoric, I am fatigued! In fact, this is for you, my whiny, government expanding, endangered rodent saving, wealth spreading, wasteful program creating, America hating, liberal pals. And also for you, my god fearing, overly proud, fear mongering, big CEO venerating, scientifically illiterate, Glenn Beck loving conservative friends. I am politically AGNOSTIC! I am on vacation from you guys. You are really starting to annoy me - leave me alone!

I could be wrong, but the fact that you practically quoted the last lines of my random political discussion table, makes it feel like this thread was directed squarely at me. If it is, I'm sorry I upset you. I certainly wasn't trying to. In fact, I have tried very hard to make sure that my comments in all of the political threads are reasoned, and fair-minded.

Personally, I haven't minded the recent bout of political threads. In fact, I have rather enjoyed them. Granted, there are a few posts that I didn't much care for. However, I feel like the general tone of the conversations has been rather cordial, and the opinions expressed by most people on this board carefully considered. In fact, there were even a couple of times where I altered my own views slightly on account of what some people said.

In any event, if my comments in the political threads are what's bothering you, I can stop. While I enjoy politics, and their discussion, there are other places where I can have these kinds of discussions without upsetting anyone.

Nope, I didn't even see the thread. It certainly was not directed at you or any other single post, event, etc. In fact, I read a couple of your posts and agreed with just about everything you said. For me, it was a fun tongue-n-cheek response to the recent political posts - mostly because I have to hear it all day at work and then it pops up on my beloved Paizo messageboard feed.

Speaking of that, just today I had an experience where a hardcore conservative (sorry conservatives) came to work after listening to Rush Limbaugh for 20 minutes on his way in. Clear the room! Man breathing fire! This phenomenon has always entertained me. Where one cannot separate one's thoughts from those of a political pundit. I can just picture him in his car, leaning intently into the dashboard - listening...listening. And then nodding...nodding. Before long he is quietly saying "yeah, yeah, right on Rush, yeah I hate them too....."

The sweep of huge armies clashing is part of the fantasy Genre. Has anyone found a system for mass combat that works for D&D? Has anyone come across an elegantly simple system that can incorporates a hoard of first level hobgoblins, fire giant or two, and maybe even an adventuring party of 4 10 level characters ( figher mage, cleric, thief?)

How did the book of miniatures pan out? How about Skip Williams “cry Havoc” book?

I am sure I have missed lots of “rule sets” which tackle mass combat that I have missed.

Are there any plans to do a mass combat system for Pathfinder?

Do you think applying the swarm template to a mass of low level monsters, say 100 hobgoblins a good idea for running mass combat?

Thanks. What do you all think?

I've read through some of Cry Havoc but have not tried it out. I know there are also mass combat rules in the Drow War series published by Mongoose. Again, I have not tried them, but they looked playable and interesting. From memory, I believe they consisted of roughly 10 pages of text in the appendix of book one (Gathering Storm). Maybe someone else can chime in and relate their experience with them.

Tarren Dei wrote:

Steven Purcell wrote:

Tarren Dei wrote:

Dear Lord Halitosis,

You're spelling it wrong.

Tarren.

How dare you mock the sea eagles, bovid?

;-)

"Steven Purcell has not created a profile."

'Nuff said. Lazy buzzard.

:P

It's the helm :)

Lord Haliaeetus wrote:

I am an aquatic ecologist.

I'm an aquatic ecologist, too. My focus is on freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates, specifically sampling them to see if the river or stream is healthy (biomonitoring). Right now, I'm doing that for a stream restoration project. I also do quite a bit of scientific support for fisheries and instream flow studies in our company....lots of Pacific salmon work.

Oh, and SAS is waaaay too expensive. Only universities can pay that kind of annual fee! I really like NCSS, but I'm using the statistics in SigmaPlot 11 right now (basically they folded Systat into SigmaPlot).

Yep, you can actually buy a student version of SAS. I bought it for biostats awhile back - it is only $60/year that way.

Benthic macroinverts, eh? My focus is malacology, I do mainly endangered species work although I have published biological indicator guidebooks and do a lot of aquatic art and photography. I work in the midwest and east. Very cool to meet a fellow aquatic enthusiast!

10. Knowledge is knowing what you don't know. If the other guy's position seems stupid to you, you probably don't understand it.

Can I say AMEN to this? Although, *sometimes* the positions are stupid.

In science, the result of research is often that it opens doors to new questions. Sometimes researchers say things like "all my research and education has only made me feel like I know less about x and y".

Of course, opening new doors also leads to the need for more funding :)

Jeff

Fish ecologists are marine biologists that know how to use R and ecopath. :)

No love for SAS? :)

Lord Haliaeetus wrote:

I am an aquatic ecologist.

What's the difference between that and a marine biologist? I know about 4-5 of them, including my brother...

I work in freshwater systems. Ecologists also tend to work on the factors that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms...this could relate to anything, such as parasites, spread of a disease, or why a jaguar inhabits a particular section of jungle but not the foothills of the so and so mountain. Biology is a broader term, ecology is essentially a branch of biology.

Lord Haliaeetus wrote:

I am politically AGNOSTIC!

You don't know if politics exist?

hehe, noncommittal to the either side :)

Among the Paizo Messageboard regulars (and irregulars), I'm aware of a couple of scientists - a geologist & a biologist. Are there any other scientists frequenting these boards? Are you folks doing anything really cool you'd like to share?

I am an aquatic ecologist. Most of my research is on freshwater mussels, of which there are roughly 300 species in North America. I also work with fish quite a bit. Anyway, essentially I am a field ecologist that examines the effects of human activities on the aquatic environment.

Just wondering, am I the only one who doesn't care about this? After being bombarded by the constant rhetoric, I am fatigued! In fact, this is for you, my whiny, government expanding, endangered rodent saving, wealth spreading, wasteful program creating, America hating, liberal pals. And also for you, my god fearing, overly proud, fear mongering, big CEO venerating, scientifically illiterate, Glenn Beck loving conservative friends. I am politically AGNOSTIC! I am on vacation from you guys. You are really starting to annoy me - leave me alone!

Ahhh, that's better. Ok, a little tongue-in-cheek fun. Please don't take it to heart my polarized readers. To be just a touch more philosophical....We seem to have lost perspective in this country. I love this Jefferson quote: "Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle". Man, this country and culture has become so much about chest thumping and streams of misinformation. "Keep saying it until it's true" seems to be the policy of both parties.

The thing is, biology tells us that populations of the same species vary. Americans will always exhibit great variation: philosophically, politically - heck I even heard we vary morphologically..? Somewhere along the way, we split into two divisions and then clung to those beliefs like life rafts. Inheriting or learning from those before us that two sides exist - chose one. You can stray a little, but you are a traitor if you stray too much.

Oh well, perhaps I lack strong conviction because I have not done enough research to develop well crafted point-of-views. I can hear the crowd coming already - stone the non-believer! See ya, gotta go!!

Here's the article.

What do you think?

I certainly agree with some of it. Universities have become corporations, top heavy with overpaid administrators who make 500k and receive bonuses on top of that. This is rampant even at public institutions that receive state dollars. Like corporations, they say this is necessary to attract the "most talented individuals". Well, I'll tell you what, if the only thing these people care about is money I don't want them at the University anyway.

Furthermore, many professors in technical fields care only about publishing in journals to increase their prestige. They don't really care about teaching - some even look down on others who do. This is first hand experience from someone who has worked at a state school.