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PaperclipPerfector  11hr ago (text post)   406 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 27, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Fun pastime for lazy people: In your favorite Paradox game (Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Victoria, etc.), go into "observe" mode (typically with a console command obtained from the game's wiki) and just watch a "hands-off" campaign progress at maximum speed. If you feel like it, you can temporarily exit observe mode to make minor nudges (e. g., forcing an otherwise-AI-controlled country to declare certain wars, annex certain subjects, or pass certain laws) without going to the trouble of actually playing the campaign yourself. You also can make your own mods and see how they affect events.

It's my understanding that some sports games (e. g., EA's NFL series) also allow the user to watch AI-only matches.

Premise: You can use numbers (1, 2, 3), letters (a, b, c), and symbols (asterisk *, dagger †, double dagger ‡) to denote footnotes. The footnote reference in the main text normally is superscript. The footnote heading typically also is superscript, but if you're a weirdo who wants to maintain consistency with main-text and list-item headings you'll make it full-size (1, 2, 3, a, b, c, *, †, ‡).

Problem: You're a weirdo, and one of these things is not like the others. The asterisk already is superscript by default—in order to make it full-size with formatting, you have to give special treatment to it.

Solution: Instead use the "low asterisk" ⁎ ⁎, which is not pre-superscripted! Consistency has been achieved.

Problem: Annoyingly, the HTML named character reference "lowast" is misnamed and actually refers to the separate "asterisk operator" ∗ ∗, whose Unicode category is not "Punctuation/Other" like the ASCII asterisk but "Symbol/Mathematics" like the multiplication symbol.

Solution: If you're using XHTML (without any of the public identifiers listed on the linked page), you can simply repurpose "lowast" as your own custom internal entity that points to the correct character. LOL! (If you're using normal HTML or that disgusting middleware called Markdown, you've got to look up the low asterisk's hexadecimal code, "204e".)

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On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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