I mean the romans also believed that amethysts would magically keep you from getting drunk, so...

Hey, that works! I did it in the video game Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood. And video games wouldn't lie, right?

Confirmed. Hedgehogs love chili dogs.

That goes double for you. As someone who works in the U.S. medical industry: **** the medical industry.

And while we're at it, **** the big banks and "money makers" for the **** that they've inflicted on the U.S. financial system.


I think, technically, that's not something that's ever appeared in a video game, specifically.

But I do believe that same game series says hedgehogs sink like a rock, so...

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In-between runs of Isaac, I've been feeling nostalgic, so I started up my little RetroPie to play some Pokemon Pinball, and quickly got a little frustrated with the wonky ball mechanics, so I looked up that there was a sequel (Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire) and have been indulging in that silliness the last few days. It's made me want to possibly get a much-newer pi-based retro handheld, since mine is several years old and I'm sure there's been some massive improvements in the meantime. Has anyone here had any experience with that (not necessarily building one, but just having one of these tiny emulator consoles)?

Hypothetical: Scooby Doo is the only one to see a crime occur. Is there any way to use this as evidence in a criminal trial?

Eye witness testimony. If scooby can theoretically be allowed to hold a job, as demonstrated before, then he should be able to swear testimony.

The only conundrum being an issue of perjury, as he always assumed an identity while going undercover for said jobs.

... Now I'm thinking if scooby has to file taxes.

If you watch old Scooby Doo; they tried to have most of the villains be guilty of secondary crimes. Things like smuggling, robbery, etc. A lot of the more modern episodes are less clear cut, so I have a friend who has taken to analyzing the legal minutae of some of the later series.

The one common flaw in most of their reasoning seems to be selectively interpreting a mixture of cartoon logic and realism in situations where thd two are not compatible. Imo he’s either a talking dog capable of identifying criminal activity, anc thus a valid witness..... or he’s not.

Other common philosiphications:

1. “X technically didn’t break any laws.” Me: Yes they did. It doesn’t matter if it’s your land. It still counts as assault if you previously gave people permission to be there; and the majority of these cases probably count as financial fraud.

2. “This isn’t realistic because there’s no way that Mystery Inc. would be capable of providing witness testimony at all the trials”. Me: First of sll most of them confess or lesve dnough other evidence that the point is moot. Most of these wouldn’t even be forced to go to trial due to overwhelming evidence. Second, it’s a cartoon about a talking dog solving mysteries the police can’t handle. The minutae of criminal trials is not the starting point for discussing realism.

Of course he has to pay taxes.

I don't know of any circumstances of this happening historically, but I can imagine that a real-life, non-speaking dog could potentially be called as a "witness," or at the very least used to identify a suspect, as dogs, particularly the smarter breeds, have been proven to recognize humans, at least for a while. I would therefore consider it a possibility that Scooby could be called as a witness, particularly considering he has a form of speech that, at least within the logic of the cartoon, is recognizable as English.

Having said all that, your point about all of that being beside the point of the shows is very valid.


So, wait, does Scooby Doo have a Social Security number, then?

Illegal immigrants have to still pay social security taxes if their employer doesn’t let employees opt out. They just don’t get a yearly tax refund for the obvious reason. So every paid job Scooby Doo has had (I can think of at least 2) would have likely taken SS out of his pay.

To be fair, Barinellos's comment was about filing taxes, not paying taxes. So presumably, he does pay taxes in the form of money withheld from his paycheck, but likely doesn't file taxes on the grounds that he (likely) doesn't have a Social Security number (also, US Citizenship? I assume dogs are not considered citizens, but I suppose I don't know that).

After some quick research, I found that the issue of whether a bloodhound was a reliable witness was debated quite a bit in the early 20th century. However, as far as I can tell, even in the cases where a dog provided evidence, it would always be the handler who took the witness stand.

There is only one kind of case I've found where the dogd actually get to have a say in the court, and that is when the case is about ownership of the dog.

However, as part of my research I found out that some courts now have emotional support dogs which can accompany anxious witnesses. I like that.

Saw two people claiming to have 600 and 850 hours of playtime respectively complaining that Marvel’s Avengers doesn’t have enough content.

.... They’re not wrong; but they are right for the wrong reasons. Of you play any freemium game for 100 hours a month you will start to get bored.

I am having the worst time starting anything lately. I keep defaulting to stuff I've already watched or read, but I'm getting really frustrated about that.

How's everyone else doing?

I definitely get that feeling. The vast majority of things I do are not new experiences. I largely just want to relax when I do finally get time to myself, and the familiar is relaxing. Well, selectively chosen familiarity, anyway.

As for me, I'm mostly just waiting until the semester ends. I'm looking forward to the summer when basically all my time is my own. Sure, I'll end up squandering most of it, but at least I'll have the choice.

I'm having a semi-new experience in that I've never watched all of Star Trek: the Next Generation from start to finish (I used to catch random reruns back in high school), and I decided to introduce my wife who's never seen any of it. Fortunately, she got immediately hooked and we have a new comfort show to watch.

Another kinda new, kinda not experience I had recently was playing Magic over webcam. It was nice to finally first off my Commander decks after nearly a year of not touching them.

I love that show. I bought the set last summer, but for a variety of reasons, I only got about six or seven episodes in. How far along are you folks?

We're still in season one, but pretty far into it, can't remember the exact episode number we are at.

Cool. Well, I hope you both enjoy the ride to come! I'm tempted to pick it back up and watch along with you, at least in spirit.

It’s raining goblins outside my window right now.