#what do these numbers mean ? is one the lowest ? highest

[prokopetz]

Code Green

A game for 3–7 players, about being where you're not supposed to be.

Last night, you were suspended in a tube of brightly coloured goo in an underground research facility, operated by an organisation whose three-letter initialism's meaning is strictly need-to-know. This morning, someone noticed your tube was empty. Nobody has determined how that happened yet, and you're not inclined to stick around until they figure it out!

Or, in other words, it's been nearly a whole week since I got that massive revision to Space Gerbils out the door, and apparently my brain has decided that's enough of a break. This thing was written start to finish in under 12 hours, so let the circumstances of its authorship guide your expectations. Special thanks go once again to Caro Asercion, whose micro-RPG Dwindle introduced me to the design space I'm fucking around with here. Go buy their stuff.

Anyway:

What You'll Need

Code Green is a tabletop RPG for one game moderator (GM) and up to six players. Each player will need a copy of the Profile Grid, below, as well as three tokens of some sort: dice, coins, beads, etc. You'll also need at least five six-sided dice (for the whole group, not per player, though it's fine if each player has their own set). If you're using dice for tokens, it's recommended that the dice you plan to roll be visually distinguishable in case they land on someone's Profile Grid.

Rolling Dice

There are two ways you'll be asked to roll dice in this game: rolling d66, and rolling a dice pool.

To roll d66, roll a six-side die twice, reading the first roll as the "tens" place and the second roll as the "ones" place, yielding a number in the range from 11 to 66. For example, if you rolled a 3 and then a 5, your result is 35. You may also be asked to flip a d66 roll; to do this, take your result and swap the digits without re-rolling. In the preceding example, if you flipped your roll of 35, your new result would be 53.

To roll a dice pool, pick up the indicated number of six-side dice, roll them, and take the highest individual result. Duplicates have no special significance. For example, if you rolled a pool of three dice and got a 2, a 4, and a 4, your result would be 4. If you would ever roll a pool of zero or fewer dice, roll two dice and take the lowest instead.

Character Creation

Each player should create their own character. There are three things about your character which are always true:

You are newly born into the world. You may know things about the world (e.g., from your programming, having read them on a computer terminal, etc.), but you haven't experienced them.

You are implausibly good at remaining inconspicuous; unless you're deliberately drawing attention or doing something which requires a dice roll, humans will almost always fail to spot you.

You are not human. You can decide what that means.

To find out what else is true about your character, roll or choose three times from the Form table, and three times from the Function table, placing your results into the correspondingly labelled slots on the Profile Grid, below, in any order you please. Your three results from each table should be different; if you elected to roll and get the same entry multiple times, flip your result, and re-roll if it's still a duplicate.

Think about what your three Form traits and three Function traits imply about your character's physical makeup, but don't set anything in stone just yet – you'll see why not in a moment.

Finally, roll a six-sided die five times, and record the results in the order in which they're received. The resulting five-digit number is the only name your character has when play begins.

Table 1: Form (d66)

11–12. Blood 13–14. Bones 15–16. Brain 21–22. Claws 23–24. Ears 25–26. Eyes 31–32. Guts 33–34. Hands 35–36. Heart 41–42. Hair 43–44. Legs 45–46. Lungs 51–52. Nose 53–54. Skin 55–56. Tail 61–62. Teeth 63–64. Tongue 65–66. Wings

Table 2: Function (d66)

11–12. Accelerated 13–14. Autonomous 15–16. Auxiliary 21–22. Cryogenic 23–24. Cryptic 25–26. Elastic 31–32. Electric 33–34. Entropic 35–36. Invasive 41–42. Invulnerable 43–44. Kinetic 45–46. Magnetic 51–52. Phasing 53–54. Polymorphic 55–56. Projectile 61–62. Pyrogenic 63–64. Telescopic 65–66. Toxic

Playing the Game

Play proceeds in a series of scenes. In each scene, the GM will set the stage: a challenge to overcome, a peril to escape, a mystery to investigate, etc. Given the nature of your characters, most things will be mysteries to you!

Initial Token Placement

Once the stage has been set, place each of your three tokens on a different square on your Profile Grid. If you have no preference, you can roll d66 for each token and place it in the square whose marked numeric range contains the number you rolled, flipping or re-rolling your result if you get a square which already contains a token. The placement of these tokens represents your initial state when the scene opens. Depending on the nature of your character, this may be reflected by a shifting of internal focus, or by a physical transformation.

Participation

To participate in the scene, simply tell the GM what your character does; the GM will describe how the world responds, and ask what you do next. Whenever you wish – or are forced – to do something more than lurk and observe, you are obliged to make a test.

Making Tests

To make a test, first choose a pair of traits – one Form trait, and one Function trait – with which to face the challenge. For example, if your Form traits are Legs, Tail and Teeth, and your Function traits are Cryptic, Invulnerable and Phasing, you might test your Invulnerable Legs against the trouble at hand.

Next, count the number of tokens present in the rows extending from each of the chosen traits. The illustration below shows which squares would be consulted in the preceding example:

Next, roll a dice pool containing a number of dice equal to the number of tokens present on squares extending from the chosen traits. Do not count a token twice if it's on the square where the two traits intersect (e.g., the green square in the illustration above). In the event that no tokens fall on squares extending from appropriate traits, remember that you are allowed to roll a pool of zero dice by rolling two dice and taking the lowest rather than the highest.

Finally, compare your result to the following table:

1–3. Less than human. Whatever you'd intended to try still happens, but it cannot overcome human opposition (or adversity which would challenge a typical human), and any lasting effects are transitory and easily explained away. 4–5. Mostly human. Your effort can contend with human opposition (or circumstances which would challenge a competent human), and its lasting effects make it obvious that someone (or something) has been interfering with matters. 6. More than human. Your effort easily brushes aside any human opposition, and its lasting effects are impossible to rationalise as anything other than the intervention of inhuman forces.

Without Applicable Traits

In the event that you're forced to make a test and no possible pairing of your traits is applicable, you don't get to roll anything, not even with a pool of zero dice; simply resolve the outcome as though you'd rolled a result of 1–3. Other characters may attempt to preserve you from this fate by assisting you, in which case you roll one die per assisting friend; see below for more details.

Assistance

If you wish to assist another character in making a test, consult your own Profile Grid, considering only those squares which contain tokens. Only the specific pairs of traits represented by the squares on which your tokens fall are eligible for assistance; for example, if one of your tokens falls on the intersection of Cryptic and Teeth, you may assist with Cryptic Teeth, but not any other pair of traits involving Cryptic or Teeth unless those squares also have tokens on them.

If you're able to identify an eligible pair of traits that seems applicable to the test at hand, explain how you're using it to help, and hand the player making the test one extra die. Any number of characters may assist on a given test.

Providing assistance neither requires nor permits your character to adapt (see below) – it needs to be your own test for that!

Adapting

After resolving a test, your character adapts, shifting focus or form to reflect what they've learned. Take one token of your choice from your character sheet, and move it to a different square which doesn't already contain one. You can move any token you wish, but it must end up on a different square than the one it started on unless no valid destinations are available. Adapting is not optional, and must be carried out after every test.

Suffering Strain

If whatever you're making a test against is particularly strenuous or dangerous, you might suffer strain as a consequence. Strain will often be incurred on a result of 1–3, and rarely on a result of 4–5; only the most foolhardy efforts will incur strain even on a result of 6!

To incur strain, roll d66, and place a small X on the square on your Profile Grid whose indicated numeric range contains the number you rolled. If there's a token on that square, immediately move it to an empty square of your choice, unless fewer than three unmarked squares now remain; in that case, simply remove the token entirely.

For the remainder of the scene, tokens may not be moved to any marked square. In addition, if you suffer further strain, and the square indicated by your d66 roll is already marked, your character is incapacitated, and may not participate in tests at all until they recover.

All strain is cleared – and any discarded tokens restored – at the end of each scene. Incapacitated characters also recover at this time.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Musician Age Gap AU Pt 4

Dropping Esme off at home turns into more than just a simple kiss and ride. She parks and walks Esme to the front door. The tears had petered out halfway home, but it had left Esme shaky and exhausted. And when Alex opens the door to welcome them home, she can barely get out a "how was it?" before Esme bursts into fresh tears and darts up the stairs to her bedroom.

Alex watches her daughter go, then turns back to Kara with an accusatory look. Kara sighs. "It's a long story."

"I'll put the kettle on."

Over tea, Kara gives her sister the rundown of the evening-- omitting certain bits of her own exhanges with Lena. By the end, Alex is stunned, but heartbroken for her daughter.

"The highest of highs, and lowest of lows," Alex moans. "I was already going to call her out of school tomorrow, but now I really need to."

Kara nods. "I hope she'll remember the night more for what actually happened than the fact she lost the pictures of it. She really did have a good time, til she realized."

"What a night," Alex sighs. "Well, thank you for stepping in. I know she appreciated the time with you, in any case."

"Yeah," Kara nods. "Me too."

"You should come over more. She's not the only one who misses you."

"Alex..."

"You're not the only busy, I get that, but it sucks being the only one to reach out."

Kara closes her eyes. They've had variations of this conversation before, but it didn't make it any easier to hear. It's been busy lately, the last few years. And she knows she's missing out on key times with Esme, but... she's never been very good at juggling.

"I know." Then, "I should go. I'll call the venue in the morning, see if maybe one of the cleaning crew finds the phone and turns it in to lost and found or something."

All Alex can do is nod. "Thanks."

All thoughts of the ticket in her pocket disappears until the next day. Her calls to the arena have been fruitless-- no one had found anything, and no amount of cajoling or bribery could make them devote manpower to look for it. So when she's emptying her pockets to run a load of laundry, she's so frustrated she's willing to chuck it into the sun.

Until she sees a loop of a swoopy letter written on it, half hidden by a folded crease. Puzzled, Kara smooths it out and flips it over-- and finds a phone number written across its face in silver sharpie.

Stunned, Kara stares at the offending digits.

"What the fuck?"

---

It's probably her manager, Kara reasons. Or her assistant, at the very least. But when she punches the number into her phone, driven by the echo of her promise to Esme in her ears, she instantly recognizes the voice that answers.

"Hello?"

Kara's mouth goes dry. "Uhhhhhh.... hi? Shit. I mean--"

"I'm glad you called," Lena interrupts smoothly. "I have a phone here that's sorely missing its owner."

"Oh thank god," Kara releases with a heavy sigh. "Thank you."

"Sorry we weren't able to catch you before you left. I didn't see it until late."

"Esme was heartbroken," Kara tells her, unnecessarily. "You've saved a life."

"Her life? Or yours?" There's a tease in Lena's voice.

Kara grins. "Both. Definitely both."

A chuckle rumbles across the line. "Well, how can we get this to you?"

"Oh, if you could ship it..."

"No need," Lena says simply. "We're in town for another day or so. Is there a place we can deliver it?"

Kara blinks, surprised. "Um, sure. I'll be at my office in an hour."

"Perfect."

Kara rattles off the address to her, then books it to the office, determined not to miss the delivery. She stays on edge for the first hour, but soon finds herself distracted by her work-- until her assistant knocks tentatively on her door before poking her head in.

One look at Eve's baffled and somewhat dazed expression sends a bolt of electricity down Kara's spine.

"Miss Danvers? Um... there's someone here to see you. She-- she says its a personal delivery?"

Kara is already on her feet. "I'll take care of it. Thank you, Eve."

"It's--"

"I know," Kara assures her.

"You... know her?"

Kara sighs. "It's complicated."

She makes her way to the lobby, finding Lena Luthor leaning casually against the front desk, completely unbothered by the gazes peeking at her from between frosted sections of the glass walls.

"If you'd have told me you planned to bring it yourself, I would've given you a different address," Kara says drolly. Lena looks up at her with a puckish grin. "You're about to give the entire office an aneurysm."

"Sorry, not sorry." Entirely unapologetic, Lena straightens, pushing softly away from the desk to face Kara directly.

Kara folds her arms across her chest, unable to help the smile spreading across her own features. Lena lifts an eyebrow, retrieving Esme's phone from her back pocket to waggle it teasingly.

"Thank you...." Kara reaches for it, only for Lena to tilt it out of reach. Kara rolls her eyes. "What?"

"I'm... gonna be honest," Lena drags out, smirking. "I didn't come here with truly altruistic purposes."

Kara resettles her weight, cocking one hip. "This is becoming a pattern with you, Miss Luthor."

"I'm only human, you know." She taps Esme's phone on her chin. "And I'm not above taking a teenager's phone hostage, if it gets me a coffee with a gorgeous woman."

Bold. Entirely *too* bold. But Kara can't quite bring herself to mind.

"You have me at a disadvantage," she returns. "I really need that phone."

"Then a coffee with a charming lady seems to be in your very near future."

Kara rolls her eyes. "Let me grab my purse."

Lena waits patiently, and Kara doesn't bother pausing to explain a damn thing to anyone. It's none of their business, and right now she's a woman on a mission.

To get her goddaughter's phone.

And absolutely nothing else.

[star-ar512]

on signalis characters' voices (signalis spoilers!)

after playing signalis more than once and putting aside the overwhelming amount of feelings this game and its story can and will make one feel, it is easier to notice the more subtle details; e.g. enemies behavior, meaning behind documents and objects, and in this case, the characters' voices.

paying attention to the various living npcs you can talk to, one detail that stands out is that every character has a different tone of voice (similar to undertale).

i like to believe those sounds which accompany the text could represent what each character could sound like; one would expect, since replikas are basically copies, for them to have all the same voice.

well, that's not exactly the case.

here is a video with text and dialogues from all the npcs, without music to hear the "dialogue" clearly. (not all the dialogue is included, only one dialogue per character is present; except for elster as she does not like to speak much).

ACHTUNG: MAJOR SIGNALIS SPOILERS!

the dialogues are in chronological order:

-wounded star unit (STAR-S23?? is her name in the game files) in the aula before classroom 4C in floor B1, S-23 Sierpinski (elster included even if she has two lines);

-Isa Itou in the library, floor B1, S-23 Sierpinski;

-Storch Sieben (STCR-S2307) in the rationing office, floor B2, S-23 Sierpinski;

-EULR-S2312 (probably named Dezember given her number designation; eules in game like to use months as names, using the last two numbers of their designation as a reference) in the nurse station, floor B3, S-23 Sierpinski;

-Adler (ADLR-S2301), presumably in the elevator lobby in floor B4, S-23 Sierpinski;

-Arar (ARAR-S2318) in the vent below the Storch dorm in floor B8, S-23 Sierpinski;

-KLBR-S2302 in the library, floor B8, S-23 Sierpinski;

-Beo (MNHR-S2301) in the third room in the mines where monofilament stockpiles can be found, in the rightmost corridor.

-Ariane Yeong (and LSTR-512, still has an unbelievable amount of max two sentences at once) in the personnel room. floor B2, Penrose-512 (memory);

-Falke (FKLR-S2301) in her own room, found in Home.

you may ask, what purpose does comparing the "voices" serve? probably none, still i wished to know if they were the same sounds for every character or not.

here's what i could find out:

the majority of replikas have a different voice, with some exceptions:

-STCR and LSTR units have the same voice;

-as do STAR and FKLR units;

-a bit more expected, the gestalts npcs we see in the game (Isa Itou and Ariane Yeong) have the same voice.

now, for the fun stuff: by analyzing the frequencies which stood out the most in each "beep" from every character's voice, i could rank them from high pitched to low pitched ones.

again, has no purpose, but the result is actually delightful (to me).

here is the ranking:

1. kolibri

2. mynah

3. eule

4. isa-ariane

5. storch-elster

6. star-falke

7. adler

8. arar

pretty surprising, huh? i'd have wagered for isa/ariane to be in second place, followed by eules; also was expecting for arars to be just after the eules, and have behind them stars, then storches, then adler.

no one is surprised kolibri have the highest voices lmao, but mynah having an almost equally high voice was slightly unexpected but not unwelcome.

what's truly surprising to me is falke having the same voice as stars. i'd have expected something different tbh (stars being the lowest rank of protektors, etc etc, they're silly and stupid and crass; all things falke is not supposed to be).

elster having a deeper voice compared to ariane is the cutest thing ever! (as that post about them says)

that's probably the instance where you can notice the most that there is in fact a difference in most voices.

the funniest thing ever to me is that storches apparently have a higher pitched voice compared to stars, also arars having the deepest voice out of all replika is truly awesome to me (definitely fits).

here are to what musical notes the frequencies corresponded to, in the same ranking as before (visual rendering on a piano keyboard for fun i guess):

kolibri (G6 B6 E7 A7)

mynah (F#6 A#6 D#7 G#7)

eule (F6 A6 D7 G#7)

isa-ariane (F6 G#6 C#7 G7)

storch-elster (E6 G#6 C7 F#7)

star-falke (D#6 G6 B6 F7)

adler (D6 F#6/G6 B6 E7)

(adler has five notes as two close frequencies were distinct from each other, compared to only one in the "feminine sounding" voices. i guess that's how they made him sound different, by overlaying two notes)

arar (C#6 F6 A#6 D#7)

that's it! thanks for coming to my ted talk about signalis voices and listening to me ramble about them :)

[elljayvee]

Today I'm more than usually annoyed with a pop science article, so I'm going to talk about reading these sorts of articles, why you should always be skeptical of claims in them, and some of the ways you can tell the article's author didn't understand what they were reading and told you the wrong thing.

I clicked on an article in Eating Well about low bone density and dementia, because my mother has both. There's not a lot we can do for her now, but I am a curious person. I know Eating Well isn't great at science interpretation and communication, so I'm anticipating that I'm going to need to read the original study already, going in. (How do I know Eating Well isn't a great source usually? Well, I have read it before, and it has some really clear biases if you read a few articles that aren't science communication, and so you get to know a source over time like that. Regardless of how, I'm already suspicious they're not going to do a great job.)

The article is talking about research that shows low bone density may be predictive of dementia risk. It is written by a journalist and reviewed by a dietician. Now, I don't know what review the dietician did, but she did a bad job, and also, so did the journalist, because THE FIRST red flag that goes up is pretty quick: the math is very, very clearly wrong.

This says there are 3651 participants, and that over 11 years, 688 of them developed dementia. This is 18.8% and the article calls it 19%. That's fair! Not a red flag so far, just rounding. Then it says that of the 1211 people with lowest bone density at the start, 90 people (7.4%) developed dementia, and of the 1211 with highest bone density, only 57 (4.7%) did.

This IS a red flag. It's a GIANT red flag. This red flag can be seen from SPACE by anyone who knows how percentages work.

Here's how: You have 3651 people. 1211 of them are in the low bone density group, 1211 of them are in the high bone density group, leaving 1249 people. You have 688 total dementia cases, but your high and low groups account for only 147 of them, leaving 541 cases for that middle group. That's a LOT of cases. That middle tertile, just eyeballing it, has to have about 40% of its people with dementia -- that makes low bone density look like it predicts LOWER dementia risk relative to the middle group.

I can write out the equations for you two ways:

3651 - 1211 - 1211 = 1249 688 - 90 - 57 = 541 541/1249 = 0.433 0.433(100) = 43.3%

Because I am someone who does a fair amount of stats for a living, though, what I noticed was pretty much this equation:

0.074(1211) + x(1249) + 0.047(1211) = 0.19(3651) and I knew immediately that x had to be MUCH bigger than it should, which indeed the math bears out: x(1249) = 0.19(3651) - 0.074(1211) - 0.047(1211) x(1249) = 694 - 90 - 57 x = 547/1249 = 0.438 0.438(100) = 43.8%

That 694 is because the authors rounded 18.8 to 19 earlier, not because I can't math. So, due to rounding, you get slightly different answers -- but BOTH of them point to something SERIOUSLY WRONG with the reporting. What is actually going on in that middle tertile? Where do these numbers come from? Well, lucky us, they mention the name of an author, a journal, and a date. Always be wary of pop sci articles that don't give you a way to track down the original, but giving you that way to track things down doesn't mean they aren't still doing a crummy job with their reporting, as we see here.

The original paper is Association of Bone Mineral Density and Dementia: The Rotterdam Study, published March 2023 in Neurology. This is a pretty technical article with a fair amount of math and things in parens etc. etc. and tables and lots of measurements. The table captions are often not the greatest, which makes it a bit harder to read and interpret. For example, in Table 1, items are listed as number(number) and this can be any of:

count (percent) -- this one's usually labeled in the table itself

mean (standard deviation)

median (interquartile range) -- these last two are NOT labeled in the table, so we don't know which set of numbers is which.

Great. Thanks guys. Assuming what's called a "normal distribution" mean (SD) and median (IQR) numbers will be similar, but they're not the same and I'm irritated they're conflated but OK. Soldiering on!

The original study looked at several different measures of bone density, and found only ONE of them to show predictive ability for dementia: the density of the femoral neck. This means that for their article, Eating Well should have looked at the results for femoral neck bone density, which we find in Table 2:

You have the actual numbers for 5 years, 10 years, and study end, as well as the hazard risk (HR) for each bone density tertile, with the highest tertile set as the standard. Numbers in the HR column have 1 as a reference point -- lower than 1 is lower risk than the highest tertile, and higher than 1 is higher risk.

The first thing I noticed is that neither 57 nor 90 occur in the femoral neck section at ALL. Those numbers from the Eating Well article are just not there. I also notice that the other numbers don't align even one little bit -- the number of total cases of dementia is different, for example. I do notice that the column with the 10 year followup has numbers in it close to 57 and 90 (49, 67, 86, totaled to 202) and that the overall numbers for the total study are much higher -- 201, 236, 229. Interesting.

At this point, I just straight-up search the paper for "90", and I find it in Table 2....in the total bone density section, which the paper's authors have said is NOT the section that showed possible predictive results. I search for "57", and also find that in total bone density, and also....wow the EW author straight up failed to read. This is actually worse than I thought.

Read across, these are the 5 year followup numbers (first 2 columns - count and HR), 10 year (middle 2 columns), and total followup numbers (last 2 columns).

We see our friends 57 and 90 in the 10 year columns. 90 is, as described in the EW article, in the lowest bone density tertile, but 57 is NOT in the highest bone density tertile. It's in the middle tertile. The actual number for the highest tertile is 68. Additionally, the total cases for 10 years is nowhere near that 688 number -- it's 215. We only get total case numbers close to 688 when we look at the study end numbers: it's 686, in this particular group. If we look at the study end case numbers for highest, middle, and lowest tertiles, we see WHY this particular measure can't be used to predict anything: they are 227 (highest), 227 (middle), and 232 (lowest) -- not significantly different from each other.

We can also see here that this group of people -- people who had total bone density measurements -- is not 3651, but 3633, which is listed across the bottom row. The overall STUDY had 3651, but not all of them had total bone density recorded.

Now we know that the author of the EW article did all of the following:

read the wrong part of Table 2

mixed up middle and high tertile results

reported 10 year results mixed with total followup results (this resulted in the weird math that alerted me something was very very wrong in the first place).

and the person who was supposed to review the article didn't have even the basic math skills to catch the problem -- which she absolutely should have, as a registered dietician. For giggles, I looked up program requirements for a BS in Dietetics. Programs require things like statistics and precalc -- not math heavy, but the math that alerted me to this problem is VERY basic statistical knowledge, like the kind they teach in 6th grade level statistics, which I know because it was literally in my 6th grader's curriculum this past school year. So a registered dietician DEFINITELY had enough math to catch this problem, and should have, and Eating Well should be ashamed of itself.

SO. What can we learn from this?

Well, science communication is a skill set. Some people have worked very hard to develop that skill set and are excellent at it -- but lots of people do not have it, and even those who do can make mistakes. Many, many pop sci articles are not written by trained science communicators, or people with any education in how to read scientific articles, or people with good reading comprehension, even. It's very common for pop sci articles to have these sorts of errors in them. Therefore:

Always read pop sci articles with a skeptical eye. Ask yourself:

Do these numbers line up? Usually the math in pop sci articles is not very complex -- you can often do some basic arithmetic to make sure it even makes sense, as was the case here.

Does one part of the article seem to contradict another part of the article?

Do I feel confused about what exactly I'm being told? What's not clear about it?

Am I being told about HOW something works or WHY it works or both? Are those two things being conflated somehow?

Is there a link or way to find the original research? If not, my advice is to throw the whole article away. If yes, you can go check it out -- often just looking at the abstract or results section will be enough, and abstracts usually aren't paywalled even if the rest of the article is. You would be surprised how many times the abstract says "we found X" and the pop sci article says "the researchers found Y".

Could I explain this article to someone and have it make sense? If not, why not?

Is the article confusing correlation (these things happen together) with causation (one of these things causes the other)?

Pop sci articles, like other journalistic articles, are extremely subject to bias issues from the publication they're in. A lot of people tend to read pop sci articles as neutral, factual reporting, but they aren't! I mentioned EW's biases earlier -- the one I think is most relevant to how their article is written is a pervasive belief that if you just eat the right things in the right amounts you will be thin and healthy and stave off all kinds of problems. They close their article by mentioning that, although the study's authors are clear that this connection is unlikely to be causative, and that risk factors for low bone density and dementia have substantial overlap, readers should act like it might be causitive with diet and exercise choices that promote bone health. They were so excited to get to their point about fixing your diet that they didn't pay attention to the actual science they were reporting on. (Sidenote: actual scientific journal articles are supposed to be neutral, factual reporting. They also aren't actually that, but there are some measures in place around this to try to prevent the worst effects of bias.)

It's worth brushing up some basic math skills. You don't need to know a lot! Very basic information will help you better understand a lot of articles -- both ones that are accurate and well-written, and ones that are shoddy and should not have been published. I really like Larry Gonick's The Cartoon Guide to Statistics but if your grasp of percentages is shaky, it will be too advanced. A good option might be something like The I Hate Mathematics! Book, which is pretty old but really accessible, but there's probably some newer great ones out there that I just don't know about.

[nyaagolor]

Bad Polls and the Art of Engagement Bait

So as anyone who follows this blog probably noticed, I posted a poll yesterday. Sorry ace attorney tumblr, it was bait. That was part of a little social experiment to test some theories I had about engagement bait and the tumblr "algorithm"-- and it was a resounding success!! I even made a replicate, that being a similar poll only hours later, which had basically the same result. Somehow. Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, I thought it would be fun to talk about it!

The entire point of this little social experiment was to combine some observations I had about what posts do well, the general attitude of tumblr users, and how to maximize engagement with minimal effort within fandom spaces. Thus, I'm combining all my thoughts into a little guide: how to make the lowest effort, highest engagement post possible:

Recognize that negative engagement on tumblr travels father than positive engagement Tumblr may not have an algorithm, but the system is still set up in a way where negative engagement rewards the poster more than positive engagement. A simple "like" is enough to show agreement or approval, but dissent or shock requires replies or reblogs (the latter of which are significantly more common). More reblogs = more people seeing the post, and thus posts that elicit a negative reaction tend to travel further than positive ones

Capitalize on the fact that people love to bitch about things when given the opportunity Generally speaking, going onto a random post you hate and exclaiming how much you hate it is a bit of a tumblr faux pas. Same thing with venting about how much you dislike something. While bringing up the topic yourself and being snippy to specific people are frowned upon, however, places like polls that provide an opportunity to bitch about things are a great outlet, and a LOT of people will take it

Take advantage of the poll's inherent anonymity This may seem counterintuitive-- the person posting the poll and everyone reblogging it aren't anonymous at all! This doesn't matter though, only the votes do. The anonymity of the votes on a tumblr poll turn the opinions of others, no matter their relative size, into a nebulous opinion of the indeterminate masses. THIS is the most important part of the engagement bait, because tumblr users love to complain but aren't likely to do so to someone directly for fear of hurting their feelings or getting called out for being rude. If you can take a dissenting opinion and remove the actual user from the equation, people are far more likely to share exactly what they think about it-- this is when the "no reading comprehension" and "you people seriously think (X)" and "ugh I hate fandom" takes come out en masse. Tumblr users may be mean, but more importantly we are also cowards. In the case of the poll I posted above, even extremely small minority opinions were being commented on in almost every single reblog, despite the fact that these opinions made up less than 10% of the votes for a majority of the poll's run.

More buzzwords, less nuance Buzzwords and a lack of nuance work together to make engagement more likely-- buzzwords are often both overused and misused, while a lack of nuance (typically in the form of a yes or no question) eggs people into explaining themselves. Combine these two and you add people justifying themselves, arguing with others, and complaining about the buzzword in general into your reblogs, boosting your numbers even more. In my case, I chose the lowest of the low when it comes to poll topics: "Is (recognizable character) (buzzword)?". How people fell for this twice I'm not sure, but it works!

If things are getting boring, stir the pot yourself You can use alt accounts or just make up tags yourself, but I was too lazy to do this. However, there's always the option of cherrypicking-- screenshot outlandish or dissenting tags, even if it's just one in a sea of hundreds, and post that in a reblog with an incredulous caption. Bringing tags to the attention of the majority invites new focus on those tags AND your poll, giving people another outlet to add their takes. Some people will likely even reblog it Again.

Now that the bait is set, watch people in your notes talk over themselves like a flock of seagulls

Congrats! You've now made a successful bait poll. Fortunately or unfortunately, mine worked so well that people fell for it twice, both of them got thousands of votes each within the day, my notifications are overflowing, and popular blogs have made posts referencing it. Point proven, hypothesis verified. As they say: easy website.

[scientia-rex]

Stats 2

What's the difference between mean, median, and mode?

You may know this one. It comes up in math class, not just stats, but it's absolutely critical to stats.

A mean is the average. If I take the ages of myself, my husband, and our two dogs, and I add them together, and then divide by the total number of measurements--in this case, 4--I come up with our mean age. Let's say I'm 40, my husband is 40, and our dogs are 12 and 8. The total, or sum, of our ages is 100. If I divide that by 4, I get an average age in our household of 25. That's our mean age.

Now, you might be saying, "But you can't lump together dog ages and human ages!" to which I would say "But I just did." I can't do it and claim it's meaningful. I want to do something with that data, right? Or else why did I collect it and calculate a mean? But people will put totally disparate data together all the fucking time. That's a great one to watch out for when you're reading scientific literature. Apples and oranges. "We put together all the responses from gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender participants, and separated them from the straight cisgender participants, and we see no issue with this. After all, all cisgender lesbians think the same way as all transgender bisexual men do!"

A median is the value where half of the numbers are above it and half the numbers are below it, in a data set. If you've heard statements like "the 50th percentile," that's what we're talking about--the 50th percentile is the value at which half the numbers we collected are less than that. The median age in our household is not based on a single value here because there's an even number of ages, so we arrange them in order from lowest to highest: 8, 12, 40, and 40. We take those two middle numbers (12 and 40), add them together, and divide by two (51/2 = 26). So half of our household is over 26 years old, and half of our household is under 26 years old.

And finally, mode. This one is easy. Mode is the most common response. The most common age in our household is 40.

Now, if you look at that data about my household, it's fucking useless! But I sure did numbers stuff to it, didn't I?

[mistergandalf]

ULTIMATE TOLKIEN BLORBO MASTERPOST

Who is THE blorbo of the Tolkien fandom here on tumblr dot com? Let's find out!

What are the criteria for voting?

What is a blorbo to you? As Aragorn would say: What does your heart tell you? Therein lies your answer. For me, it's who I'd like the whump the most. Maybe for you it's who is the most shippable. Maybe it's the one that means the most to you for what they represent. Maybe it's your poor little meow meow (looking at you, Angbang lovers). Let your feelings guide you.

Is this only supposed to be about the books, or is it based on any Tolkien-based media?

This is about blorbos. Wherever you found your blorbo, that's fine. If you want to be a book purist about it, you're valid. If you love Thorin Oakenshield simply because Richard Armitage is hot, you are also valid.

***PLEASE ALSO NOTE that my blog is a Rings of Power positive blog! If you don’t like it that’s fine, but if you post negative comments or reblogs on my posts, I will block you! I don’t want negativity in my activity feed, thank you!***

When will polls be posted?

Polls will be posted daily at 12pm EDT (GMT -4), staggered by 5-10 minutes on each poll. There will be a day between final votes as the data will be needed for the next poll!

Schedule is as follows: (Updated because I’m dumb and didn’t realize how many rounds the second chance bracket has)

4/23 - Round One 4/25 - Round Two (Primary Bracket) 4/26 - Round Two (Second Chance Bracket) 4/27 - Round Three (Primary Bracket) 4/28 - Round Three (Second Chance Bracket) 4/30 - Round Four (Second Chance Bracket) 5/2 - Round Five (Second Chance Bracket) 5/4 - Round Six (Second Chance Bracket) 5/5 - Round Four (Primary Bracket) 5/7 - Round Seven (Second Chance Bracket) 5/9 - Round Eight (Second Chance Bracket) 5/10 - Round Five (Primary Bracket) - decides the finalist 5/12 - Round Nine (Second Chance Bracket) - decides the finalist 5/14 - FINAL ROUND - THE ULTIMATE TOLKIEN BLORBO

Check the tag #ultimate tolkien blorbo to see new posts! Feel free to share your thoughts in the tag as well!

I have more questions!

Okay, click the readmore then!

Hey! Why did you pair this character with that character?

Because I spent a whole evening googling how tournament brackets work (I am not a sports person) and then I did a lot of math and sorting.

Okay, but I really want to know!

WELL first I thought: "How can I quantify and rank blorbos?" The answer: AO3. I went into the Tolkien fandom general tag and ranked the first 32 characters by the number of fanfics in which they appear.*

Then I split them by story. I roughly kept Hobbit characters with Hobbit characters, LotR with LotR, and Silmarillion with Silmarillion to keep it as fair as possible and give all corners of the fandom a chance to see their blorbo win. Some characters are in multiple sources, like Elrond or Gandalf, so I tried to keep those characters with someone who is probably just as well-known.**

Then I followed the rules the internet told me about how tournaments work. The highest-ranked character goes with the lowest-ranked character, the second-highest with the second-lowest, etc.

And that's how I did it! It was a fantastic way to waste an afternoon.

*I may have eliminated and/or played with a couple options. Some of these characters had fewer fics than the character "OC," which makes sense. I took off Erestor because literally only Glorfindel stans would choose him, and Glorfindel is on here. I also lumped together Elladan and Elrohir because if you can tell them apart, it's because they're both your blorbos. Tolkien did NOT give them distinct personalities. Also if I didn’t lump them together, I wouldn’t be able to fit Celebrimbor, and that would be a shame.

**Characters who appear in multiple stories had their rankings weighted to account for that fact. I got a C in statistics in college, though, so I frankly have no idea if the way I weighted them is correct, nor do I care, because I'm satisfied with how the rankings turned out.

I don’t like how you did this!

Okay, don’t vote then. Nobody’s making you.

FORTH EORLINGAS! Have fun voting! As Gimli would say... May the best Dwarf win! ;)

Round One [results & analysis]

Thorin vs. Bard | Bilbo vs. Dwalin | Kili vs. Gandalf | Fili vs. Thranduil | Legolas vs. Eomer | Aragorn vs. Eowyn | Elrond vs. Elladan & Elrohir | Frodo vs. Merry | Gimli vs. Pippin | Samwise vs. Boromir | Faramir vs. Galadriel | Maedhros vs. Celebrimbor | Maedhros vs. Celebrimbor (RoP free version bc some of you are whiny babies) | Maglor vs. Finrod | Glorfindel vs. Morgoth | Sauron vs. Celegorm | Fingon vs. Feanor

Round Two [results & analysis]

Thorin vs. Bilbo | Legolas vs. Thranduil | Pippin vs. Éowyn | Maglor vs. Frodo | Gandalf vs. Samwise | Elrond vs. Maedhros | Faramir vs. Glorfindel | Sauron vs. Fëanor

Round Two (Second Chance Bracket) [results & analysis]

Aragorn vs. Elladan & Elrohir | Gimli vs. Morgoth | Merry vs. Bard | Finrod vs. Celegorm | Boromir vs. Kíli | Fíli vs. Celebrimbor | Éomer vs. Galadriel | Fingon vs. Arwen

Round Three [results & analysis]

Bilbo vs. Legolas |  Éowyn vs. Frodo | Samwise vs. Elrond | Faramir vs. Fëanor

Round Three (Second Chance Bracket) [results & analysis]

Aragorn vs. Gandalf | Gimli vs. Maedhros | Merry vs. Glorfindel | Finrod vs. Sauron | Boromir vs. Thorin | Celebrimbor vs. Thranduil | Éomer vs. Pippin | Arwen vs. Maglor

Round Four (Second Chance Bracket) [results & analysis]

Aragorn vs. Gimli | Merry vs. Finrod | Boromir vs. Celebrimbor | Pippin vs. Arwen

Round Five (Second Chance Bracket) [results & analysis]

Aragorn vs. Bilbo | Éowyn vs. Merry | Boromir vs. Elrond | Pippin vs. Fëanor

Round Six (Second Chance Bracket) [results & analysis]

Aragorn vs. Éowyn | Boromir vs. Pippin

Round Four [results & analysis]

Legolas vs. Frodo | Samwise vs. Faramir

Round Seven (Second Chance Bracket) [results & analysis]

Éowyn vs. Faramir | Pippin vs. Legolas

Round Eight (Second Chance Bracket) [results & analysis]

Éowyn vs. Pippin

Round Five [results & analysis]

Frodo vs. Samwise

Round Nine (Second Chance Bracket) [results & analysis]

Éowyn vs. Frodo

FINAL ROUND

Samwise vs. Frodo

[starcrossed-sky]

The thing is that the four-day work week is, fundamentally, also an education issue, not just a labor rights issue. When you look at it for longer than a string of buzzwords, you cannot miss how deeply entwined the two are. And I don't mean that in a "educate people about the benefits of working less" way.

Because the four-day work week, and other forms of decreasing labor presence and opening up free time, are designed to help our most burned-out work sectors. And yes, many of those are the "lowest skill" jobs (finger quotes featuring heavily in the previous sentence.)

But many of them are also *high* education jobs. We already have difficulty accessing medical care because there aren't enough doctors, and in particular not enough specialist doctors - you might be able to see a general practitioner within the week, but I've had multiple friends who are on waiting lists to see neurologists for six, sometimes eight months. That backlog will only get worse if we push through a four-day work week without consideration for increasing the number of neurologists we have, and the only way to do that is by increasing access to education.

And it's the same story across the board for a lot of our highest-educated - or theoretically highest-educated - professions. Public defenders are underpaid and overrun by their case loads, because law school is $200K and if you have that much in student loans you can't afford to not jump at the highest paying job you can get, and that's not going to be helping Joe Smith with his DUI from a crooked cop. Yes, fixing our justice system's issues would help decrease Amy PubDef's case load - but then there's worker's comp people, medical malpractice people... We need more lawyers who are doing the public good because the ones we have are overworked as it is.

Teachers. Social workers. Therapists. On a systemic level, these jobs are underpaid and overworked, and cutting down to a four-day work week isn't going to decrease the number of people who need them, it's just going to make them have to try and fit five days of work into four to keep up. Unless we can get more of these people into the system, a four-day work week is just shooting them in the foot.

And what is the point of having that extra day off a week, when you can't use it meaningfully to get in to take care of the things you need it for, like seeing a doctor, visiting a lawyer to make a will, going to therapy, and so on without having to schedule one, two, six months in advance?

We need education reform first, or the four-day work week is a pipe dream that will leak suffering all over the people who need it most.

[viscardiac]

Hello. I wonder if you are taking requests, can you write for Baelon, Aemon, Daemon Blackfyre, Rickard Stark, Eddard Stark, Stannis Baratheon, Roose Bolton as a husband?

Sup. I kinda realized along the way that i can't really do that number of characters on a request because the dopamine slips from my fingers. I did do the first ones, though, so have at it.

Baelon strikes me, specially in his youth, as the type who just can't sit still. He got along with Alyssa for that same reason, she couldn't sit still either. How disappointed must she have been when he marries you! If Baelon is to be your husband, you better be ready to be always on the move, always doing something. Baelon was always the most intense of Jaehaerys' older boys, which might be overwhelming if his wife is not the same, factor that does too apply to the bedroom. Baelon wants to be with his wife time and again, and chances are the children will not take long to come as well. It might be a problem if he is with someone with a colder personality, more contained and rigid, the relationship might suffer the strain for it.

I'm assuming you mean the Aemon who was Jaehaerys' son. Aemon might need a partner who will understand he's not trying to be difficult, he just wants to consider every possibility. He's likelier to be in love from afar than his younger brother, who will absolutely push him to go over to talk to you. But once things have settled, he'd be the sort to remember everything about you. Knows just what kind of food you like to eat, what you do when you're sad, how you like to celebrate, but is often shy to act on what he knows would be the best course of action. Aemon is the one who wants to know everything about everything, and that often makes him forget that he doesn't let on much about himself either. Your husband knows evertything about you, but you barely know what he likes best to eat. Maybe it's hard for him to talk about himself. Maybe it'll be even harder to notice he hasn't told you when his birthday is. He doesn't do it out of malice, mind you, but doesn't make it easier for his s/o. Treats them with all the care in the world… but do you really know where he went when he saddled Caraxes this morning?

Daemon Blackfyre is his father's son -- though not necessarily in a negative way. He seems to have a difficulty in seeing how things end up long term, and wants things when he wants them. That might have been the case with his spouse as well. One day he barely knows they exist, the other, they can no longer live without them. I think a long term relationship with him would take a cyclic form, growing and fading time and again as the months come and go. This month he's bewitched by you, the next month, he can't stand the sight of you. It's not necessarily malicious, but it can become so if the opportunity arises. He needs time to fall in and out of love again and again, and is much more martial than his father had been. Things can shift in a matter of moments. The part of the cycle he's in dictates how he treats you when you're alone or in bed. He may be caring, giving, and will prioritize you over him when he's at the highest points, but at the lowest ones, it's about what he wants and what you're going to give him, with some measure of violence on the gesture, intentional or not. He is always present, though. The exception is war, to which he does not take you along. He may leave at whichever point in the rollercoaster, and while he's away, you can't expect to be the only one. But he always comes back missing you, and missing everything you represent. No matter how sometimes he may think he hates you, he knows he doesn't.

Rickard Stark is the kind of man to put his hands on your shoulders while the both of you stare out of a window on a tower and ask you what do you see. When he looks, he sees into the distance, too far for you to know where. He was always an ambitious man, however quiet, silent that ambition was, and having a spouse to share that with would be a joy to him. To plot futures and scheme alliances. Yes, there must always be a Stark in Winterfell, but why shouldn't there be a Stark in court, or in the citadel, or overseeing the Narrow Sea? He is a rigid man, made to face whatever the winter throws at him, but the what ifs are too much to bear alone. His maester shared that ambition, and if you do not, rest assured, there will be conflict. And while he is open to new views, new ideas, he's also very keen on what he has learned as the right way to do things. He can be persuaded, of course, but that might take a while.

Eddard Stark is nothing short of dutiful, and much harder to approach. He will always be by your side, like he has been taught a husband should, but truth is, he's got no clue what he's getting himself into. He makes his best effort, mind you, but he's not one to share his burdens or his opinions and emotions. His father knew what to do, his brother knew what to do, and he's been relying on the fact that people think he knows what he's doing since he became Lord of Winterfell. He needs clear words, honest and simple, to know what he can and should entrust you or not. Maybe he needs to be confided in before he can confide. If a cold marriage is what the future had in store for him, then so it is, but it's not what he wants, and finally being able to feel like he's not so alone anymore will definitely have its weight, however different from him you might be.

[rimeiii]

What in Hell is Bad Demon Kings as Arknights Operators

(If you saw this before, it's because my Tumblr app glitched out and sent the draft before I was done orz)

So, funny story!

With every single WHB demon king already obtaining a playable version, I found myself thinking of the very hypothetical scenario of Asmodeus facing off against Mlynar, an AK Operator who also doesn't do normal attacks (he'd lose imo, our local jaded horse uncle salaryman Mlynar is OP for a reason yo). But this turned into thinking about every single demon lord in the context of them as AK Operators...

I also kinda need to appease the gacha gods by providing any sort of content, because Logos's banner drops on the 31st of October (which is tomorrow oh my god) and even though I may already have a spark ready for him (300 pulls) and enough materials to max him out day 1, I want as many copies as possible for the AK equivalent of his tea leaves.

I could've had more but I spent like 240 pulls in the past 6 months to grab several other 6* Operators, notably a guaranteed new Operator on the celebration banner (Penance in ~60), ~50 in Zuo Le's banner (got him), another 10 on Ascalon's banner (didn't get her), and a whopping 120 on Ela's banner (R6S collab, collab banners have hard pity at 120 pulls).

Update for those who care - yeah, it worked! 160 pulls for my first copy, immediately ran to fully upgrade him before pulling again, and got another two within the next 140. Welcome home husband ❤

Some ground rules before we get into the meat of the post, however:

I'll be using the Selfie cards as main inspiration, pulling in lore for any other adjustments.

Will also be putting down some skill info! Skills will assume 6* standards, meaning they have a total of three skills to choose from and two passive skills in total (Talents).

I won't be doing Modules, skill names, and skill numbers, to preserve my sanity.

Without further ado...

Satan

Satan's Selfie card has an insanely long range and strong single-target damage, but his skill deals AoE damage. That's why I think he could be a Deadeye Sniper. This, despite him apparently sharing the same seiyuu as Totter, a Besieger Sniper.

Deadeye Snipers have high Attack, a large range (extends in a triangular shape forward), and prioritizes attacking enemies with the lowest Defense. As a matter of fact, they have among the highest Attack in the entire game! This is why I picked the Deadeye Sniper subclass over Besieger Sniper for Satan - even though Besieger Snipers also have a long range, they have a blind spot in the row right in front of them, have lower attack than Deadeye Snipers, and prioritize attacking enemies with the highest weight.

First skill: a generic Attack buff.

Second skill: summons his blood scythe to attack everything in his range, dealing AoE Physical damage and inflicting Fragile (increases damage taken by all affected enemies) for a brief period of time. He can store up to 3 charges of this skill starting Mastery level 1 (normally he can only store 2 charges max), but its cooldown is slightly longer than Leonhardt's second skill, which has a similar effect.

Skill 3: an ammo skill that turns his regular attacks into AoE attacks. Increases his attack wind-up time, gives him a sizeable Attack buff, and inflicts Fragile on all affected enemies for a brief period of time. Because it's an ammo skill, this skill will continue until either he runs out of ammo or the player manually deactivates this skill.

Talent 1: increases damage dealt if there is only one enemy in his attack range.

Talent 2: all of his attacks ignore a set amount of enemy defense, this amount increases after being deployed for a set period of time until a certain cap is reached.

Mammon

Quite possibly the only tank in the entire lineup of demon kings while still being able to deal some damage, which is why I think he could feasibly be an Arts Protector Defender. Bonus points for him also sharing the same voice actor as Czerny, an Arts Protector Defender!

Arts Protector Defenders deal Arts damage when you use their skills, and they tend to be on the more offensive side while still boasting respectable defenses and blocking ability. The other offense-focused Defender subclass, Duelist Defenders, may have higher attack, but they're only able to block one enemy at a time, unlike the 3-block of other Defender subclasses.

Skill 1: a generic attack buff.

Skill 2: an attack speed buff and minor attack buff, coupled with the ability to attack all blocked enemies and lifesteal (heals a small percentage of damage dealt).

Skill 3: increases his range to attack the 8 tiles around him and summons his golden fists to attack an enemy at a time, dealing AoE damage where the target is and providing a small percentage chance to briefly stun all affected enemies while slowing down their movement speed for a brief period of time.

Talent 1: increases his max HP and defense.

Talent 2: upon skill use, grants him a shield based on a percentage of his max HP, this shield will decay over time.

Leviathan

Now, Leviathan shares the same voice actor as Shalem, another Arts Protector Defender. But Leviathan wouldn't be a Defender, I feel. Instead, I'd like to lean into his 'summoner of Eldritch beings' side a little bit more and have him be a Summoner Supporter.

Summoner Supporters deal Arts damage and are able to deploy their own summons, each with their own behaviors and stats. The summons' passive effects and behavior depends on the Summoner's set skill. Leviathan's summons would all have 1-block by default. These summons would be his Eldritch beings, but I'd like to think he'd have a particular focus on his tentacle monsters. A little bit like Deepcolor, a Summoner Supporter whose summons are tentacles, with her being of the fish race (Aegirs).

Skill 1: summons can be deployed on melee tiles and deals single-target physical damage. When Leviathan uses his skill, he and his summons gain a generic attack speed buff.

Skill 2: summons can be deployed on ranged tiles and deals single-target Arts damage. When Leviathan uses his skill, he and his summons gain Invisibility (prevents them from being targeted by all attacks until they are revealed, either by invisibility-revealing enemy skills or being blocked) and a significant attack buff, but slightly increases their attack wind-up time.

Skill 3: summons can be deployed on melee tiles and deals single-target physical damage. When Leviathan uses his skill, he and his summons gain both an attack speed and attack buff. His summons also gain +1 block count and attacks all blocked enemies.

Talent 1: Leviathan can have up to 5 summons at a time (can only deploy 3). These summons have different stats and skills based on Leviathan's equipped skill.

Talent 2: Leviathan and his summons have a minor HP regen by default, based on a percentage of their attack.

Beelzebub

I considered Instructor Guards for Beelzebub because of their tendency to have whip or whip-like weapons (some notable exceptions being Swire with a mace and Rainbow Six Siege's collaboration Operator Doc with a gun). But Instructor Guards are typically more support-oriented, which I feel kinda goes against Beelzebub's general personality, so...I decided on making him a Lord Guard.

Lord Guards have a larger range than even Instructor Guards and boast the ability to launch ranged attacks within their extended range, but these ranged attacks have lower attack power compared to their regular attacks. They deal single-target physical damage.

Skill 1: a generic attack buff.

Skill 2: drops light arrows at several spots within his attack range, prioritizing those closest to him. These arrows deal a single instance of AoE physical damage and inflicts all enemies hit with a damage over time debuff. Normally 2 spots are selected, increased to 3 spots at Mastery level 1.

Skill 3: changes his damage type to Arts, increases his range, allows him to target an additional two enemies with each attack, and gives himself an attack buff. Enemies hit by his attack suffers a damage over time debuff for a short period of time.

Talent 1: gains increased attack when no allies are in his immediate vicinity (the 8 tiles surrounding him).

Talent 2: his attacks have a small percentage chance to 'crit' and deal increased damage, this percentage chance increases as long as he hasn't dealt a crit damage instance, resetting after each crit.

Lucifer

I feel like this is the most no-brainer choice. In Arknights, there is only one subclass of Medics that have the ability to damage enemies, which is the Incantation Medic. Medics in Arknights typically don't do any damage apart from these Incantation Medics and two Single-Target Medic exceptions in Kal'tsit (has the Mon3tr summon, a DPS unit which is what she's mostly used for) and Folinic (only deals damage on her second skill).

Incantation Medics are unable to directly heal their allies, unlike all other Medics. Instead, they attack enemies that enter their range with single-target Arts damage, and subsequently heal an ally within their attack range with the lowest amount of HP based on the total damage they dealt onto the enemy.

Skill 1: increases attack speed and heal amount per attack.

Skill 2: heals everyone in his range after each attack, and gains an attack buff.

Skill 3: increases his attack and attack speed, attacks deal some splash damage on surrounding enemies. When no healing is needed, damage dealt is instead converted to a shield buff on a friendly unit, prioritizing an ally in his range currently being targeted by an enemy. Otherwise, default to the last-deployed Operator.

Talent 1: gains increased attack speed when an ally within his range has his HP dropped below half.

Talent 2: his attacks have a chance to lower enemy attack and attack speed by a certain amount.

Belphegor

The fact that he deals AoE damage with his normal attacks makes it a pretty cut-and-dry choice between two different classes, in my opinion - those two classes being Artilleryman Snipers and Splash Casters. I personally am biased towards Splash Casters, purely because Belphegor doesn't seem to be wielding any guns, which are typical for Artillerymen Snipers.

Splash Casters have high attack and deal AoE Arts damage with every attack in their range. They also have a slower attacking speed compared to most of the other classes to balance out their high base offenses.

Skill 1: a generic attack buff.

Skill 2: slightly increases his attack and attack speed, extends his range, and inflicts Slow (lowers movement speed) for a period of time on all enemies hit by his attacks.

Skill 3: increases his attack and attack wind-up time. Now attacks all enemies in his range, has a small percentage chance to Bind (causes the enemy to stop moving and attacking) the enemy for a brief period of time, and the effect of his second Talent will be increased.

Talent 1: stores up power the longer he goes without landing an attack on an enemy, up to a certain cap. This bonus resets every time he hits an enemy. Think Platinum's passive.

Talent 2: all his attacks ignore a specific amount of enemy resistance (reduces Arts damage by a percentage based on its number).

Asmodeus

Another one where I had to debate between two different classes that do not perform normal attacks - none of them being related to Flagbearer Vanguards, the class with the character that shares the same voice actor as Asmodeus, Elysium (even though Flagbearer Vanguards typically stop attacking normally when their skill is active). The first class is the Liberator Guards, who are far more offensive in nature (notably, this is the subclass Mlynar belongs in). The second class is the Phalanx Casters, who are much more defensive in nature. After some deliberation, I decided to go with Phalanx Casters for Asmodeus.

Phalanx Casters normally do not attack, but have greatly increased defensive stats while their skill isn't active. While their skill is active, however, they'll deal Arts damage to all enemies in their range and lose their boost to defensive stats.

Also, an important note for Asmodeus specifically. I will NOT be limiting how many times Asmodeus can use his skill, because most of the 'limited use' skills in Arknights are due to lore reasons (Guard Amiya S2 being capped at a single use in each stage as an imperfect copy of Guard Ch'en's S3, a good chunk of the Rainbow Six Siege collaboration Operators' skills having a per-deployment limit because of Rainbow Six Siege's mechanics).

Skill 1: retains a portion of his increased defense, gains an attack buff.

Skill 2: gains Invisibility, a sizeable HP regen, and both an attack and attack speed buff. Can manually deactivate this skill, reverting back to his state before using the skill.

Skill 3: increases his range and attack. Attacks will 'mark' the hit enemy and have a percentage chance to inflict Fear (enemies will scatter around and cannot be blocked). When his skill ends, every enemy marked is hit with a strong Arts damage instance. Can manually deactivate this skill, ending it instantly and reverting his state change to one before using his skill.

Talent 1: has an innate Sanctuary (cuts damage taken by a certain percentage amount), which increases the more HP he loses (up to a cap at 80% HP lost).

Talent 2: after being deployed for a period of time, gains Taunt (becomes a target priority for enemies). Reflects a portion of damage taken back at the enemy based on a percentage of his attack as Arts damage.

[tifellatki]

Marking 🐺

.Warning ⚠️

.English isn't my first language and might be a misspellings

. Omegaverse

.Kim Dokja (Dominant Omega), Sung Jinwoo (Dominant Alpha)

.I don't know why i make a whole Fanfic just to explain this one panel drawing

.Cringe and might make no sense in some sense cause I'm stupid

When dokja was walking in the ruined buildings he got suck in by a portal that suddenly appeared and transfer him into another world

*thud* "Ouch!" Said Dokja while he was fall flat on his butt and a hard and solid ground,he look around and saw he was in some backstreet but luckily nobody see him.

He cursed at his terrible luck,he confessed his love to yoo joonghyuk and was rejected cause turn out Yoo Junghyuk known as the supreme king to be an Omega a resessive one which make Kim dokja greatly embarassed

He was confused but then he realised that 'Way of survival' didn't mention Yoo Joonghyuk second gender they only tell them that he had a child with Lee Seolhwa who would ever thought he would be an Omega

When remembering that confession make him flush red again

He standup and pat himself clean after that he start walking towards the street where he find crouded people walking and minding their own business

He start looking around and only able to find out some information about this world such as this world also face an apocalypse and people that have awakened their magic ability are separated into group such as lowest Rank E into highest rank S he wondered

'why there aren't any F rank cause isn't F always the lowest Rank in game and the highest should be L right?'

Lost is thought he almost run into truck-kun but someone pull him back when he look back he met E rank hunter Jinwoo,Dokja got a little heat coming up from his stomach he ask himself 'what is this feelings?' it's like he met his destine person,his soulmate

Dokja thank him for saving him and the boy name sung jinwoo happily told him it was no problem

From then on he and Jinwoo exchange phone number and Dokja live next door to him and he and Jinwoo and jin-ah get along together

4 month's has passed since he got into this world luckily he was able to used his coin and turn it into the money that can be used here, he even got into the association guild

*Beep! Beep! Beep!* Dokja lazily turn off his alarm and get up from his bed he checked the phone and it 7 am he grumble, he suddenly felt a little hot in but he never mind it and he'll take a shower and be fine and go to the bathroom and start showering when he done he came out and he start to heat up the food and after eat and clean he start to get dress and start walking out and he get a called and when he pick up he was shock and in panic

When he reaches the hospital room he find jinwoo sitting and smiling awkwardly "hi..hyung.." he see jinwoo with a bandage in his cheek,arm and chest

Dokja was panting heavily and and rush towards jinwoo pull him by the collar while tear fall from his eyes "how many time i told you..why did you won't listen to me!.." his body felt a rush of hot sensation but he thought it was just because how he run to the hospital

"when will you listen to me?" Said Dokja the romm was silent until Jinwoo said something "Hyung.....please go away how can you come when you're in that state!" Said jinwoo Dokja didn't get what he mean "what do you mean?" He ask as he felt the heat coming again, jinwoo breath heavily as he was out of breath "Jinwoo are you ok?!" Said Dokja while he came closer to jinwoo "I can't take it anymore!" As he said that he push dokja into the bed while press dokja down dokja was shock "Jinwoo what are you doing!?'' as he said that dokja felt a hard thing into his butt '!!!' "J-jinwoo" said Dokja when he tried to escape "Submit omega" dokja couldn't move as if he was paralyzed jinwoo release his pheromones "ngh!"

'shit I can't moved!' "Dokja hyung I can't take it anymore as I have been waiting this for too long and you know how dangerous it is to walk straight into alpha when Omega are in heat you know that right?" Dokja was shock and realised that the symtom he had been and avoiding since this morning without much though he have to face the consequences, Jinwoo start to take off Dokja Clothes and start to kiss and bite dokja back "ack!" Dokja moan unable to move his body he felt his body being burnt into heat , Jinwoo had pinch his nipples and start licking the back of his neck "!! Aah! J-jinwoo!" "Ngh!" His eyes widened as he felt a pain coming from his neck and felt blood comming out from it "J-Jinwoo! aah!"

Jinwoo had marked him as his omega, jinwoo had pull out his mouth from it and they both start to pant heavily

[aerodaltonimperial]

Insights I've gotten from my spreadsheets with fic stats I've been keeping since December 2022, but I can tell you, that at least in regards to this fandom:

The worst stats I have are on smut fics - bar none, they have the highest hits, but the kudos rate falls between 5-10% of the current average, and the comment rates will decimate you. People straight up will not comment on them. If you want little interaction and tons of hits, that's what you should post lol or maybe you just need to be better at writing smut than I am HAHA

F/F pieces carry some of the lowest hits (unsurprising...) BUT come with some of the HIGHEST kudos/comment percentages. F/F readers in this fandom are very interactive, though low in number! (YAY LADIES)

From Sept of '23 to Feb of '24, the interaction levels across the board crashed, dropping at least 2-5%. This means that hits remained where they were, but all kudos and comment percentages dropped. I know other authors saw and felt this, so it was definitely widespread; I felt pretty validated when the stats ended up looking the way they did.

I had my fics archive-locked for about 2.5 months. This did not impact percentages. It DID heavily impact numbers overall. Since the percentages stayed the same, I can tell you that guests DO leave kudos in the same ratios that logged in users do. To me, it's worth leaving things open so those readers can still be part of things.

Right now, numbers are back up for me following the big six month low, which is especially surprising given that I have lost 80% of the people who used to read my fic lol

Things to note are: I only track one-shots, because chapters mess with hit and comment numbers, so my stats are one-shot only in terms of comparison. This is good for numbers, because long fics are where my words go to die and not get read LOL.

Also, old fics SHOULD, by virtue of the percentages, have lower stats across the board because people re-read over time and can only leave kudos once. Despite this, my worst stats remain in the Sept-Feb time frame. THAT IS HOW NOTICEABLE THE DROP WAS. I see authors like me talking about this so much, but it was so bad it actually NEGATED the time-induced stat drop that should have happened haha.

Some of the best stats I have are my "one-off" pairings: pairings that I wrote one fic of, that aren't big. Those have the highest percentages (not hit numbers! Just interaction ratios). Good news for rarepair writers maybe?

And I cannot overstate how awful the smut ratios are. Just devastating. It's the thing I am the MOST insecure about (I assume many of us are who write it!) and every time I post it, I remember why I don't write more of it LOL. Like OUCH. People will not put their names to it. I did some sleuthing and apparently this is across the board with fandoms. Readers want smut but don't comment on it, which feels counterproductive to getting more, but haha.

Also, logged in users who leave kudos all the time? I see you!! I recognize your usernames! Even if you don't leave a comment, I know you are there and reading when I see your username pop up!! I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, AND I SO VERY MUCH APPRECIATE YOU. 💚 You are by and large my biggest readership. It used to be friends, but it's almost entirely AO3-names-only for me now. THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE, I LOVE YOU WITH MOUTH.

[zuko-always-lies]

Legend of Korra and the incredibly long season finales

One flaw which really strikes me about TLoK is that the season finales were all far too long. This is a point which is easier to understand if we talk about ATLA first. ATLA had two 20 and one 21 episode season finales:

Book 1: Water. The season finale was two ("The Siege of the North Part 1 and 2") or at most three (if we count "The Waterbending Master") episodes long, for 10% or at most 15% of the season's runtime. I really don't think we should we should count "The Waterbending Master," though. It builds toward the series finale, but it's mostly it's own thing with its own main plot.

Book 2: Earth. The season finale was two episodes ("The Guru" and "The Crossroads of Destiny"), for a total of 10% of the season's runtime. You could argue that "Lake Laogai" and "The Earth King" are also parts of the finale, but they're really not. The main antagonist of the finale, Azula, doesn't even show up until the end of "The Earth King."

Book 3: Fire. The season (and series) finale was "Sozin's Comet," with a total of four episodes. That amounts to 19% of the season's runtime, but this is a series finale. That being said, I do personally feel like "Sozin's Comet" is already too long and not organically connected and that some of the stuff which happens there should have happened earlier in the season.

Now, let us turn to LoK.

Book 1: Air. This is 12 episodes long, and I would argue that the season finale amounted to three episodes: "Turning the Tides," "Skeletons in the Closet," and "Endgame." That would mean the season finale was 25% of the season. Every if we cutoff "Turning the Tides" because the protagonists are more reactive than proactive in it, the finale would still amount to 17% of the season.

Book 2: Spirits: This is 14 episodes long. It's actually very hard to figure out what constitutes the finale in this. Definitely "Harmonic Convergence," "Darkness Falls," and "Light in the Dark" are included. That would make for 21% of the season. However, you could also argue for "Night of a Thousand Stars" (29%), "A New Spiritual Age," (36%), or even "The Guide" (43%), although the last one is pretty dubious. What is clear is that in the second half of this season, events take on a pace which is at once both relentless and endless.

Book 3: Change. Things are a little clearer here in this 13 episode season. The season finale amounts to three episodes: "The Ultimatum," "Enter the Void," and "The Venom of the Red Lotus." That makes for 23% of the season.

Book 4: Balance. Another 13 episode season, with a three part finale: "Kuvira's Gambit," "Day of the Colossus," and "The Last Stand," for 23% again.

ATLA was 61 episodes long. LoK was 52 episodes long. If we go with the lowest possible number, ATLA had 8 season finale episodes, which made up 13% of the series. Similarly, with the lowest possible number, LoK had 11 season finale episodes, for 21% of the series.

If we instead go with the highest reasonable number, ATLA had 9 finale episodes for 15%, while TLoK had 14, for 27%.

And if we go with the highest possible number, reasonable or not, ATLA had 11 finale episodes, for 18%, while TLoK had 15, for 29%. It's possible to argue that nearly a third of TLoK was season finale episodes!

I think one thing is clear: TLoK spent far too much time on season finales. Did we really need three straight episodes of a mecha battle between Kuvira and our protagonists? Or three straight ones of Korra fighting Unalaq and Vaatu in the spirit world?

[footballfanficwriter]

Questions

Summary: In which Jude is in an interview and asked about the reader

Time period: A few years after the world cup

"Welcome back to another episode of one on one, today we are joined by one of the world's greatest midfielders Jude Bellingham, Jude how are you" the interviewer asks

"I'm great man, how are you"

"Good thanks, now you have been to the world cup a few years ago and played against Kylian Mbappe can you please tell us what that was like"

"Uhm well I'll tell you one thing the man's got speed,a really amazing player, great talent but playing against him was something I kinda found hard to fathom and get it into my head, I mean we tried our best to hold on as long as possible and all that matters is that we tried our best"

"Ok I wanna ask a bit about your personal life if that's fine" the interviewer says

"No sure go ahead"

"Your Wife Y/N can you tell us a bit about her"

"Well y/n is my wife, she's the mother of my three lovely kids ,she is my best friend, the love of my life and I don't think I would still be here if it wasn't for her and my mom"

"That's sweet, can you tell us how you met your wife"

" uhm well we met at a red carpet event where she was her brother's plus one and we were placed next to one another so we just started having conversations and at the end of the night we exchanged numbers and after first becoming best friends, about a year later I confessed my feelings for her and she told me she felt the same and we dated for a few years then tied the knote"

"What's something that just makes you fall in love with her again"

"She has this weird laugh that freaks some people out but cause it sounds weird so when I hear her laugh it just reminds or takes me back to the times I would make her laugh before we were dating and I'd get the same reaction"

"What's one thing that just sometimes annoys you about her"

"Nothing she's perfect and I love her so much"

" I've never heard someone answer a question like that, I usually get 'the way she controls the household or how she wants everything presise'

"Well my wife's not like other wife's I mean yes she has her tendency of being a bit controlling, but once she realizes she doing it she immediately stops and asks us on our opinions of what we want to do"

"Who does the cooking and looking after the kids in the house"

" well it's the both of us ,sometimes we'll rotate like I'll do the cooking while she looks after the kids and vice versa, because I can't expect her to do all that by herself, it'll strain her physically and emotionally and I can't let that happen"

"Would you say that if your wife wasn't in your life that you'd have still made it"

"No, absolutely not, my wife has seen me at my lowest and my highest, she's always been there to help and pick me up when I was at my lowest and support me at my highest and same goes for her I saw her at her lowest and her highest and I'm really proud of the things she's achieved .

"And how's fatherhood treating you"

" Fatherhood has it moments when it tough and times when it's enjoyable, my kids they are growing up so fast you know, it feels like just yesterday I was holding them for the first time"

"Can you please share a moment that you shared with your children"

"There was this one time when I had gotten home late from practice and Leilani my 5year old daughter was still up playing with her toys, when I asked her why she was up she told me she was waiting for me to come back home cause she had something important to tell me or rather ask me"

"What did she wanna say"

"She said to me, Daddy I love you so much and I always will, because you will always have a special place in my heart, but I have a boyfriend and he's gonna be my husband cause we're getting married, I looked at her in shock because I wasn't expecting that, then I told her she had to break up with him and she started crying, so I told her she can have her boyfriend and she stopped crying, right before asking me to read her a story book and tuck her in, when I refused she started crying until I agreed"

"Well thank you so much Jude for joining us today I really enjoyed it"

"No problem mate and thank you too"

[passerkirbius]

If you want, please tell us more about the ranking voting system in Australia

Have a good day :)

*cracks knuckles*

The exact workings of our voting system changes somewhat from state to state, but let's talk about the Federal Australian voting system first.

So, we have different voting systems for our two houses of parliament. We'll start with the Lower House since it's the simplest:

Lower House Voting

So, let's start with the House of Representatives (aka the Lower House). This part of our vote is a mandatory preferential vote - You must number every preference on your ballot, 1 to X, for it to be valid, where 1 is your highest preference. Here's a sample Lower house ballots all filled out:

When the ballots get counted, we use a system called "Instant Runoff", which basically means that all the votes get allocated according to first preference, then we eliminate the candidate with the least votes, and their vote gets redistributed according to the next valid preference, and this continues until one candidate gets the majority of votes.

It's important to stress here that this doesn't mean we distribute preferences until we're down to two candidates and then choose the winner, we knock candidates out until one party has more than 50% of the vote, even if distributing them further might change the allocation.

Upper House Voting

So, what about the Senate, AKA the Upper House? We also use preferential voting for Senate Voting, but it's significantly more complicated, because we're actually voting or multiple candidates (in a standard election 6 for each state and 12 in a "double-dissolution" election, for territories, it's always 2). Here's the basics of how it works:

Senate ballots are huge, and are divided into "above the line" (ATL) and "below the line" (BTL), and you get to pick one or the other. ATL is for parties, BTL is for candidates. You must number at least 6 boxes above the line, or at least 12 boxes below the line, and you can only choose one or the other (no jumping across the line!). Here's a sample ballot, the first filled above the line, the second below the line:

You'll note that there's an "Ungrouped" section that doesn't get a box above the line, and that's because the Senate voting system is almost entirely built around parties, not single Independents, so if you don't have a registered party, you're at a strong disadvantage in the Senate.

Before counting starts, ATL votes get converted to BTL votes via each Party's Group Ticket, that says how ATL votes should be translated. Your overall preferences get preserved though - a party's Group Ticket only affect party candidates.

Once the number of votes is known, the AEC establishes the "quota" of votes required to get elected (typically 1/6 of the state's total votes rounded down + 1 for half-senate elections, 1/12 for double-dissolution elections, and 1/2 for territories). Basically, any candidate that gets a number of "1" votes equal to the quota is elected.

Now, usually a candidate gets elected with *more* than a quota. Those votes aren't wasted, and they can go on to elect other candidates. But how do they know *which* votes didn't count towards the quota? How could they decide that fairly?

Well, they don't! Instead, they basically let *all* the votes through, but at a discount equal to the percentage of overflow votes over the quota. So, if I got 2 quotas worth of votes, I'm elected, and all those votes get redistributed to other candidates at 1/2 value. Then, if anyone else now *also* gets a quota, we repeat the process.

After everyone with a quota of votes is elected, the process works like the House vote, with the lowest candidates being excluded and their votes being distributed in full to the next preference. If there *isn't* a next preference on a ballot (because the voter didn't number every box ATL or BTL), it stops counting from there - it "exhausts" and has no further effect on the counting process.

Once someone else reaches quota, they're elected, and *their* overflow votes get redistributed at a discount. This keep going until either 6 candidates get elected, or the candidates remaining equal the number of seats remaining (basically they get elected by default).

How does this change from State to State?

The Federal process doesn't change state-to-state - we all vote using the same process there. But elections for State Governments aren't run federally - they're instead run by State Electoral Commissions, and each state is free to run their elections how they see fit. For the most part, states run their elections pretty similarly to the Federal Model (with each state splitting themselves into Upper House Regions, rather than there being little sub-states), with the following major exceptions:

Queensland doesn't have an Upper House, having abolished theirs in 1922.

Tasmania does things very weirdly - their Lower House voting system is very similar to the Federal Upper House system, and their Upper House voting system is much more akin to the Federal Lower House system

Victoria's Upper House system still uses the "Group Ticket" voting system, which still has an Above the Line and Below the Line distinction, but you only mark 1 box above the line, and that above-the-line vote gets converted into a full below the line vote based on what that party submits to the electoral commission. In short, voting Above the Line in Victorian State Elections means that you let that party decide your vote for you. This used to be how our Federal Elections worked too until about a decade or so ago.

How are your candidates chosen?

In Australia, each political party gets to choose how they choose their candidates. Microparties tend to choose by fiat (ie, the guy in charge decides who's on the ballot for which electorate), whereas major parties and larger minor parties tend to engage in "preselection", which is where members of the local electorate chapter of a political party vote on which candidate will represent their party for that electorate.

This might sound similar to an American Primary, but it's really important to stress that most Australians are not members of a political party, nor is there such thing as registering with a party. To put some numbers to it, in 2020 The Australian Labor Party (one of the two major parties) had 60,000 members, and the population of Australia was 25.65 million, so a very small number of people choose the candidates that Australia at large gets to vote for.

How long do your elections run for, and how often?

Federally, elections don't have a fixed date - a government can, in theory, call for an election at any time. In practice, there's some practical restrictions on election timings that tend to limit the exact window, but ultimately until an election is called, no one know for sure the date of the next Federal Election. In general, the time between the official writ to hold the election and the actual election date needs to be more than 33 days, and typically tends to be around 6-8 weeks all up.

This means that Election campaigns tend to be short and extremely concentrated - 6-8 weeks of election ads, policy announcements, controversies and meet-and-greets.

The frequency of Federal Elections tends to be roughly every three years, but as noted, that's very rough.

State Elections are completely different. I believe that with the exception of Tasmania, every State and Territory in Australia has moved to fixed election dates every four years (and Tasmania's Elections are still tightly fixed to a four-year cycle), and every State and Territory has a different fixed date.

What this means is that Federal and State (and Local!) Elections are entirely decoupled from each other - you never go to the ballot for more than one election.

Who runs our Elections?

Since 1984, our Federal elections have been run by the Australian Electoral Commission, which is a independent statutory agency. The AEC is funded by and ultimately answers to the Federal Parliament (not, it is worth noting, the Prime Minister, or any particular Government Department), but is operationally independent from the government of the day. The AEC decided Electoral Boundaries, manages electoral rolls, and is the body that managed party registration (ie the registration of political parties for inclusion on ballots). During Elections, generally an army of volunteers is engaged to do the work of manning election booths and count votes, and between Elections, the AEC mostly maintains the electoral roll and provides papers to the Parliament about ways to improve the electoral process. The AEC is really serious about this and does a lot of work advocating for accessibility in voting.

Among the various ways the AEC works to improve voting accessibility (because remember, not showing up to vote incurs a fine here) are:

Multilingual and Easy Read voting instructions so that everyone can learn for themselves how to vote.

Mobile Polling Stations that travel to remote towns and communities to ensure that even people thousands of kilometres away for the next town get a chance to vote. There are also Mobile Polling teams that go to Residential care facilities and hospitals to record the votes of those who can't get to election booths on the day.

Prison Polling teams, who go into Prisons to ensure those in Prison get a vote (and in case you were wondering: your electorate is the electorate of the place you lived in before going to prison not the electorate of your prison)

Early Voting, where people who know they won't be able to get to an booth on the day can go in and vote (some even still have sausage sizzles!)

Postal Voting, which is likely very similar to postal voting that you might have in the US

Phone Voting, a recent service introduced in 2013 originally designed to cater to blind voters. Blind voters had an issue in that all our votes are paper-based - not great if you can't see the ballot. They generally had to have someone come to the voting booth with them to help them fill out their ballot, which unfortunately breaks the secret ballot somewhat for these voters. So, a phone system was developed whereby a voter puts in a voter id and pin, then talks with an AEC assistant on the phone, who then records their vote onto a paper ballot and lodges it into a ballot box. Still not perfect, but the system ensures that blind voters can vote without anyone being able to know how they, specifically, voted. It ended up being used last election for people who'd caught COVID-19 and were under quarantine, so bonus there!

As mentioned above, each State has their own Electoral Commission, based broadly on the Federal Model, who generally run State and Local Elections within their State.