apophys

@ xrieg - If you follow the steps outlined, you shouldn't be getting a thresholded pic. At which point are you getting this? What file formats are you using? Could you attach it to your post, please?

EDIT: regarding the posts directly above about carbon, it is a NUCLEAR reaction, not a chemical one. In helium-burning stars, helium-4 + helium-4 fuse to form beryllium-8, which fuses with another helium-4 to make carbon-12. This does not require a supernova; it's a normal stage in many stars' life. And yes, beryllium-8 is extremely unstable (half-life 7*10^-17 seconds). [quote name='Sharazhad' timestamp='1298645934' post='79600'][i][color="#4169e1"] Light is a prerequisite for life. Without it we are nothing. It is the energy source for ALL living things[/color][/i]. [/quote] It is certainly possible for life to exist without light. A clear example is the ecosystem around hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. It's pretty much completely isolated, and bases itself on bacteria consuming the hydrogen sulfide in the ejected water. Tube worms eat the bacteria, etc. Gravity pulls interstellar dust and gas together. As it contracts, it begins to spin. This becomes an accretion disk. The center turns into a star, and the surroundings may become planets. There are [url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sci_cosmic_census"]at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way galaxy, of which at least 500 million are capable of having liquid water.[/url] (This is just our own galaxy. Among galaxies, the Milky Way isn't very special.) Back to "why the sun." I remember that Bootes had a quest regarding the solar system of MD, which I did not participate in. [url="http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/1968-m-b-the-sun-that-never-sets/page__p__13001#entry13001"]Thread link.[/url] We project our experiences in explaining MD. My projection is similar to hypothesis A from Bootes' quest. [log=details] I think that MD is on or near the geographic pole of a planet, a planet with the axis of revolution pointed toward the star it orbits (i.e. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_tilt"]axial tilt[/url] is close to 90 degrees), much [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#Orbit_and_rotation"]like Uranus[/url]. This situation keeps the sun constantly in the sky above MD. Explaining night is more difficult, because I don't know anything about the moon, and I can't look up to see it. (I am assuming that there is no intended reason I can't look up. Are we purposefully prevented from observing the sky?) Since the sun does not move, night must come by an eclipse. The conclusion of Bootes that the moon is a dead star orbiting the sun seems to me impossible; any planets around a binary star system would be torn to shreds by tidal forces. It could be a gas giant, but it would be very unlikely for a gas giant to form between a star and a small rocky planet that has liquid water. More likely the Moon is an object orbiting planet MD, or MD is on a moon orbiting a larger planet. Either way, the moon would rise and set on the horizon of MD. I don't know if this is the case or not. [/log]

If you want your current avvy to go into your avatar bank, you need to shift it there first, before you buy another.

After a while, I will join the team with fewer members; as a puzzle tester, not as a creator. I have improved other people's puzzles before and enjoyed it. Looking interesting so far.

Semi-flatten will remove the transparency; I've tried it. Here's a full tutorial, from raw file to upload quality: [url="http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/9102-avatar-tutorial-for-windows/"]link[/url].

There was a request for an easy-to-use GIMP tutorial to make raw avatar scans upload-worthy, so I made one. GIMP is free software; go to [url="http://www.gimp.org/"]www.gimp.org[/url] to download. I start off by cropping and resizing in MS Paint, because it's waaaaay easier to do this in Paint. Then I go to GIMP for contrast and transparency. This tutorial is complete with all of the steps I use for my own uploads, so it will work for yours. Steps: Copy the image file to have a backup. Right-click the image file and select Edit, it opens in Paint by default. If you have lines or stuff (for example from lined paper) obscuring your drawing, use the eraser tool to get rid of them. Don't worry about the white space left behind; whiter-than-paper stuff goes away with contrast. If you need to stretch or compress the image to make it look better, now is the time to do so, for minimal quality loss. Either Select All (Ctrl+A) and drag the selection handles, or use the resize functionality. Select All (Ctrl+A) and drag to the top left corner to cut off extra space. Click outside of the selection. Drag the bottom right corner's handle to cut extra space off the canvas. Maintaining aspect ratio, resize to 100 pixels wide. If it turns out to be more than 160 pixels high at this point, undo (Ctrl+Z) and resize to 160 high instead. Using the bottom or side handle of the canvas, increase the space to 100x160 pixels. Select All (Ctrl+A) and drag the image to the center. It will certainly look weird at this point, having bars of white, but they will disappear with contrast in GIMP. Save (Ctrl+S) and close Paint. Right-click the image file --> Open With... --> gimp-2.6.exe (a newer version may be named differently) Image --> Mode --> Grayscale Colors --> Brightness-Contrast Increase the Contrast slider until the background is uniform, then fiddle with the brightness and contrast until it looks good. With my scanner's images, I normally have to change the contrast about 60 and the brightness about -30. Image --> Mode --> RGB Colors --> Colorify (NOT Colorize; they are different) --> Custom color --> enter "f1efd6". This is the color Mur specified; its purpose is to make the avatar blend better with the background of MD. If you didn't draw the MD letters somewhere on your image, add them now with the Text Tool. It's in the toolbox on the left; click it and click in the image where you want to add text, type in "MD", pick a font and size it. Layer --> Transparency --> Add Alpha Channel Select --> By Color --> click on the backgound, hit Delete (or cut with Ctrl+X). Save As... --> Select file type (by extension) --> GIF image --> (converting to indexed by default) Export --> type in author name in the comment box and Save. And you're done. [img]http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif[/img]

[quote name='Rhaegar Targaryen' timestamp='1297963146' post='78986'] Everything is allowed, [b]just don't use spells, bursts, combo rituals[/b] and such (make new rituals before fighting). [/quote] [quote name='Rhaegar Targaryen' timestamp='1297972868' post='78987'] [log=Influence]Loading Ravenstrider creatures Loading Princ Rhaegar creatures COMBO: Adding 13171 combo vitality bonus for this ritual Applying 21% of Ravenstrider's energetic influence Applying 0% of Princ Rhaegar's energetic influence [/quote] I see combo.

Me too. You can see my profile to gauge my strength. My creatures are practically untokened.

I use GIMP. It's free. [url="http://www.gimp.org/"]http://www.gimp.org/[/url]

He hasn't logged into his forum acc for over 2 weeks.

[quote name='Malaikat Maut' timestamp='1297713847' post='78854'] Being Valentine's Day proper, I figured I'd weigh in again. I've a question for those of you who readily resign yourselves to being no more than a series of chemical reactions: To what extent do we control the reactions taking place? [/quote] To the extent of biofeedback; emotion is involuntary. I.e. none normally, but we can train ourselves over time to, for example, lessen the intensity of the emotions we feel. Emotion and acting on emotion are separate things, though. Don't confuse them. I could be in love with someone, but realize it would never work out, and not make any passes at the person. Conscious thought (free will, etc) is far more complicated than emotion; it is still a mystery. So I can't say how much control we have over this. I personally think we are in near-complete control here if we want to be. @xrieg - do not say "mere" animals. They are more similar to us than you give them credit for."Mere" would be more suited for plants or fungi.

The flower I like most. But the stem should be behind the petal. For transparency, add a transparent layer, increase contrast until the background is uniform, select it by color, and cut it out.

Re: debatable spoilers For angiens, I personally would consider it okay to spoil VE and VP upgrade costs for people who don't have them, but not win & age requirements. Why? Because VE & VP can be prepared for in advance and can take a long time to prepare; spoiling saves time for the spoilee. For wins & age, spoiling doesn't help anything. I would not consider it okay to spoil any of another creature's upgrade requirements, because they're not so difficult to achieve (in the case of regular creatures) or you should be fully prepared by the time you get them (in the case of winds and other rare creatures). Generalizing, if a spoiler can prevent waste by the spoilee (in this case time) and make him/her better able to compete with mp5 alts, it is okay to me. Waste should not be confused with effort to achieving a goal. Under this category I also place army composition recommendations, and the idea of spreading XP. I will freely spoil how to get into Necrovion to any [b]mp5[/b] who does not know how. This is because of the relation of priests to falling in skilldamage (which is a cause of insane frustration to those in it, and which is easy to fall in at mp5), and because the information needed is freely available in the announcements (albeit deep). I will freely spoil the fact that there is a relation between priests and skilldamage to anyone (but not its exact nature), for the above reasons. Generalizing, if a spoiler can prevent frustration by the spoilee, it is okay to me. Under this category I also place an explanation of what skilldamage is.

[quote name='Asterdai' timestamp='1297645770' post='78842'] me playing the tin whistle, you two are officially the only people i know in the world with Ocarina's. Would love to hear you play it [/quote] Okay, Yoshi's #1. Who's #2? Edit: Ah, just noticed Z saying he plays it. And get a better camera and mic. The ones on the computer are of low quality.

Pip, anyone who logs back in after a 12-month absence or so does not deserve anything back anyway.

Maybe you can try to play this song eventually. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRDCFtTwd6w[/media]

Idea: a counter by each creature showing how many times it has died so far. Maybe used as a future upgrade requirement.

Sasha, when you decide to stop accepting entrants, I'll join up in whichever group is smaller.

It's not worth a gold to me. If that's the current price, I'll wait until supply increases and the price falls.

Would you accept 8 silver?

A dark is just a glorified elemental...

Well, yeah, but I have a mathematical mind, so my expression came out twisted.

CrazyMike, you misspelled my name. Twice. I resigned my position of editor partway through the 3rd or 4th edition due to a lack of time in RL. I could return now if necessary. My lack of time was holding up the line, due to the pecking order, so I felt I had to remove myself. After the paper had died, I proposed a restructure, which was implemented, that would keep this from happening again and would also allow smooth operation with a large base of reporters. There is no need for "final editing" if a story already goes past more than one editor's eyes. A chief of staff only needs to decide what stories to run, set the layout, and copy/paste. If you're serious about restarting the project, you will need a LOT of reporters, because not everyone will want to write something every month or every 2 weeks. More like 25 than 8. @Firs - It wasn't Chewy but Shadowseeker as the third editor. My memory isn't very clear on the subject, but I think he came in to replace someone. [quote name='Burns' timestamp='1297147749' post='78628'] English is just my second language [/quote] You wield it better than many native speakers do. I know I've said this before.

Out of those, I would personally value the GG or the tainted most. Out of what I have currently, I'd give 4 gold, 11 silver, a 30 silver coupon, and a rusty for the tainted angien. But this probably isn't sufficient.

[quote name='Maebius' timestamp='1297198782' post='78653'] Hmm, see that distracting-with-insectoid-motion forum avatar there? What is it? Is it a bug? Is it a bunch of animated pixels? Is it a series of digital data-values, translated by your computer software into a recognizable object? Is it a forum avatar? Is it a vague representation of apophys on this communcation-themed website? Is it all of these? I think yes. [/quote] Yes, different views. Let's have some more. Is it a larval human? Is it a sign to kill another 1000 virgins? Is it going to pop off my screen and kill me? Is it living inside my eyeball? Is it the spawn of <insert deity here>? Is it the spawn of <insert different deity here, who cannot be the same deity>? Is it all of these? I think not. How do I know that these are wrong, and those are right? Logic, deduction; the basis of science. The principles wouldn't be able to tell me. [quote] It may not answer all the questions, but then again, Science can not either. But they both do a good job in the terms that they [b]are good at[/b]. So Both are correct. It is only when you add the (artificual) limitation that "There can be only one right answer" that makes the disctinction break down into an Either-or type of result. What's wrong with a both-And world? Some viewpoints or paradigms may be better at explaining things than others, but each at least presents a valid attempt to codify "The Real". The flat earth, on infinite turtles watched the sun orbit around it quite well for a good long while, after all... so until we have a Grand Theory of Everything, I'll keep my options open. [/quote] For the purpose of argument, let's say I believe you are a two-headed cheeseburger with 107 tentacles. You are the embodiment of all the problems on Earth. If I chopped you up into little pieces, for every piece I cook & eat, a problem would go away. Is this belief equally as good at describing our world? Can this even be remotely "both-And" with having a logical viewpoint? Now then, what makes this wrong and the principles right? Because I don't see a way to distinguish the correctness of the two. Therefore, I don't believe anything that isn't directly proven to me, or to other people like me. Thus, in the real world, I believe science only, and anything inapplicable I use logic for deducing. That pretty much covers everything, and I haven't put artificial limitations. Your motive for holding alternate beliefs is to have an open mind. However, the same effect is achieved by just remembering to have an open mind. To me, the principles are more of a way of looking at things than an actual attempt to describe the world, so they're not really comparable to science at all. I.e. a categorization of events, not an explanation. But really, as far as I am concerned, you can have any beliefs you like as long as they don't tell you to kill me or otherwise impede on my life. Edit: I attempted satire; seems I failed.