Random Thread

[Raphael]

How does anyone ever wear skintight clothes without freaking out? Like, say, leggins or leotards or ballet outfits? About the only skintight articles of clothing I've ever worn, and still wear, are regular socks. And even there, if I get too conscious of wearing them, I'm glad when it's the evening and I can take them off.

Wearing entire outfits like that would probably make me feel like I can't breathe, or like I'm "imprisoned" in them.

[linguistcat]

I don't notice it or sometimes compression good.

[alice]

They make my voice jump several octaves, which can be alarming in some contexts.

[Raphael]

What do you think, any chance of something like Monday's xkcd ever becoming a thing?

[Ares Land]

What do you think, any chance of something like Monday's xkcd ever becoming a thing?

I don't really see if it'd work. I enjoy chess, but to be honest I'm a terrible player.

But given the insanely long list of chess variants people have tried, why not?

[linguistcat]

Maybe if you make a move with a piece and then slide part of the board? Then your opponent does the same. Otherwise I'm not sure how you would actually play it.

[Man in Space]

Maybe if you make a move with a piece and then slide part of the board? Then your opponent does the same. Otherwise I'm not sure how you would actually play it.

Star Trek’s three-dimensional chess has movable attack boards, and there’s that 5D chess with time travel as a video game. Might take a few cues from that?

[bradrn]

Maybe if you make a move with a piece and then slide part of the board? Then your opponent does the same.

That rule reminds me strongly of Pentago, which is quite fun. Alternately, a move could be either a normal chess move or a block slide.

[alice]

5D chess is what a certain President is rumoured to be playing; we could ask him.

Otherwise, as originally presented, you'd have to remove a 2x2 section of the board, and that might be too traumatic to be practical.

[Raphael]

Otherwise, as originally presented, you'd have to remove a 2x2 section of the board, and that might be too traumatic to be practical.

I think you'd have to built the entire board out of moving pieces.

[zompist]

What do you think, any chance of something like Monday's xkcd ever becoming a thing?

Becoming popular? Probably not— you'd have to learn chess first, then the extra complications.

As a craft project, it's very doable. It'd be easier to simulate on a computer.

For that matter, you could easily implement the rules without actually sliding squares. Put a coaster or something over the 4 squares meant to be empty. Then, to "slide" the hole, take any adjacent 4-square area, move its pieces into the "hole", then move the coaster to the square they came from.

(It's not clear if Munroe means to allow sliding multiple tiles at a time. I'd imaging sliding the 'hole' is itself a move, rather than part of one. Can a piece threaten or capture another across the hole?— I assume not but the cartoon isn't saying.)

Overall, the effect would be to greatly increase the number of possible moves. Chess requires having enough experience to think several moves ahead, so this would certainly be harder, and the first games would be chaotic. Whether it's fun is another matter! Balancing games is hard. There is probably a reason why chess is not more complicated than it is.)

[Raphael]

Becoming popular? Probably not— you'd have to learn chess first, then the extra complications.

I was more wondering whether it might gain some niche popularity among some chess lovers.

[rotting bones]

I was more wondering whether it might gain some niche popularity among some chess lovers.

Reminds me of Star Trek's 3D chess without the third dimension. Many chess variants have gained acceptance, like Bobby Fischer's Chess 960. Create puzzles in it and compare them to chess puzzles to see which is more fun. Sometimes additional rules end up simplifying the strategy. For example, the Shogi rule allowing you to drop pieces makes the game more tactical and less strategic, since it's easier to set up pieces in helpful formations.

[rotting bones]

It didn't sink in for me until recently that Yazidis worship Yezid, the great villain of Islamic history, killer of the prophet's family, as God. A lot of figures from Islamic history are considered to be angelic incarnations in Yazidism, including the first Caliph and my putative ancestor, Abu Bakr.

[Raphael]

It didn't sink in for me until recently that Yazidis worship Yezid, the great villain of Islamic history, killer of the prophet's family, as God. A lot of figures from Islamic history are considered to be angelic incarnations in Yazidism, including the first Caliph and my putative ancestor, Abu Bakr.

That does sound a bit contradictory to me. Then again, which religion doesn't have contradictions?

[rotting bones]

That does sound a bit contradictory to me. Then again, which religion doesn't have contradictions?

Revisionist history is what religion is all about.

Some Yazidis say even though Yazidism and Islam refer to the same historical characters, the interpretations are so different, they are essentially different figures. Others say no, they are the same people. This is what the Yazidi Black Book says:

From the time of the flood until now are seven thousand years. In every thousand years one of the seven gods descends to establish rules, statutes, and laws, after which he returns to his abode. While below, he sojourns with us, for we have every kind of holy places. This last time the god dwelt among us longer than any of the other gods who came before him. He confirmed the saints. He spoke in the Kurdish language. He also illuminated Mohammed, the prophet of the Ishmaelites, who had a servant named Mu‘âwiya, When God saw that Mohammed was not upright before him, he afflicted him with a headache. The prophet then asked his servant to shave his head, for Mu‘âwiya knew how to shave. He shaved his master in haste, and with some difficulty. As a result, he cut his head and made it bleed. Fearing that the blood might drop


p. 43

to the ground, Mu‘âwiya licked it with his tongue. Whereupon Mohammed asked, "What are you doing, Mu‘âwiya?" He replied, "I licked thy blood with my tongue, for I feared that it might drop to the ground." Then Mohammed said to him, "You have sinned, O Mu‘âwiya, you shall draw a nation after you. You shall oppose my sect." Mu‘âwiya answered and said, "Then I will not enter the world; I will not marry!'

It came to pass that after some time God sent scorpions upon Mu‘âwiya, which bit him, causing his face to break out with poison. Physicians urged him to marry lest he die. Hearing this, he consented. They brought him an old woman, eighty years of age. in order that no child might be born. Mu‘âwiya knew his wife, and in the morning she appeared a woman of twenty-five, by the power of the great God. And she conceived and bore our god Yezid.

Mu‘âwiya was the founder of the Umayyad Caliphate.

Some Yazidis say it's a misunderstanding of outsiders that they worship evil. But after the above, the Black Book says:

... the foreign sects, ignorant of this fact, say that our god came from heaven, despised and driven out by the great God. For this reason they blaspheme him. In this they have erred. But we, the Yezidi sect, believe this not, for we know that he is one of the above-mentioned seven gods. We know the form of his person and his image. It is the form of a cock which we possess. None of us is allowed to utter his name, nor anything that resembles it, such as šeitân (Satan), ḳaitân (cord), šar (evil), šat (river), and the like. Nor do we pronounce mal‘ûn (accursed), or la‘anat (curse), or na‘al 14 (horseshoe), or any word that has a similar sound.

I can see how this could be interpreted to mean that "Satan" and "evil" resemble the name of their god. Another interpretation is that these words resemble how foreign sects understand their god, but that feels like a less natural reading, at least in translation.

I'm very excited if Yazidis really are a premodern sect of Satanists. Of course, they are nothing like Western Satanists. They have a caste system, tribal rules, they think they are so manly that they are only descended from Adam and not Eve, etc.

[rotting bones]

Star Trek’s three-dimensional chess has movable attack boards, and there’s that 5D chess with time travel as a video game. Might take a few cues from that?

Sorry I missed this.

Maybe if you make a move with a piece and then slide part of the board? Then your opponent does the same. Otherwise I'm not sure how you would actually play it.

Or you could either move a piece OR slide a section.

The real question is, where should the blank section of the board start from in light of game balance?

[Creyeditor]

Maybe if you make a move with a piece and then slide part of the board? Then your opponent does the same. Otherwise I'm not sure how you would actually play it.

Or you could either move a piece OR slide a section.

The real question is, where should the blank section of the board start from in light of game balance?

Assuming that you can only slide a four-square if you have a piece on it, the hole should start on the white half in one of the two possible center position such that white can decide to move or slide, right?
Or maybe white has an advantage because it moves first and then black should be the first to "slide"?

[rotting bones]

Assuming that you can only slide a four-square if you have a piece on it, the hole should start on the white half in one of the two possible center position such that white can decide to move or slide, right?

According to the xkcd illustration, there is no central hole because the sliding puzzle is 4x4. I was thinking that if we leave a one square margin on every side of the board that is not included in the sliding puzzle, that issue should be resolved.

As for white going first, the first player has a slight advantage in chess anyway. Sliding the pieces can be used either offensively or defensively, so it's not obvious to me it shouldn't even out. Like Shogi allows you to either move or drop, this game should let the player move or slide.

[alice]

If an "employee" is one who is employed, then is one who is seen a "seeee"?