Month: December 2024

When Did the Battle of Chosin Reservoir End?

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If you open the entry for the Battle of Chosin Reservoir on Wikipedia, you will see that the battle ended around December 13, 1950, with other claims being from December 10 to 12. However, the entry on Baidu Baike states that it was December 24.

There is a difference of 11 days, so is there a difference in perception? For example, one side thought there was fighting, while the other side had no impression. Baidu Baike explains it this way: “On the 12th, … the two divisions of the US military continued to retreat south … Along the way, although the remaining troops of the 20th Army continued to pursue, the main force of the 26th Army was never able to catch up and join the battle. In the impression of the US soldiers, they did not encounter any strong resistance in the later stages of the battle.”

Then December 24 was the time when the United Nations forces had completely withdrawn from Hungnam Port, which is probably how it is considered the end time. It’s like a website that is about to be shut down on December 24, but the website cannot be accessed around the 13th due to some media reasons. Whether the site is shut down on the 13th or the 24th is just a difference in perspective.

This kind of difference in perspective tends to make the more easily perceived side the mainstream view. Because the simplified Chinese version used to downplay the battle, the main view is not in simplified Chinese. Even the 2019 Baidu Baike wrote December 13.

After exploring the perspectives of Wikipedia (international researchers) and Baidu Baike (simplified Chinese official), there is still one perspective left, which is when did the remaining troops of the 20th Army, who were trying to block the United Nations forces at the time, think the battle ended?

If you don’t know anything and only see that the end time is December 24, and then don’t let others celebrate Christmas, such as by publishing an article like “China has no Christmas! December 24 is the day of victory in the Battle of Chosin Lake“, that is purely KY (cannot read the air), and even disrespectful to the soldiers.

Inspiration and different research come from “Uiharu Kazari’s Private Land“.

Blinding, Placebo, and Nocebo

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Now , when testing the effectiveness of drugs, blind trials are often used. For example, letting patients not know whether they belong to the control group or the experimental group is a single-blind trial. By comparing the effects of drugs and placebos, we can know whether the effectiveness of the drug exceeds the placebo.

So why are common drug trials double-blind ? This is because of observer bias, observers may unconsciously want the results to be biased towards their goals. For example, doctors who distribute drugs, if they know that they are distributing placebos, may unintentionally reveal emotions that may lack efficacy.

Regarding placebos, there are also some interesting characteristics. The more “powerful” the drug looks, the stronger its effect. It has been found that injections (inert) > capsules > pills. And expressing care, friendliness, and sympathy to patients can also improve the effect of placebos.

If someone believes that they are a saint and that their blood can heal others, and the person being treated also believes this, then this would be a very effective placebo. However, the mechanism by which placebos work is still uncertain, perhaps the sense of ritual brings comfort to the spirit, thereby affecting the body.

Conversely, fear of drugs, or distrust of doctors and drugs, may also reduce the effectiveness of real drugs, which is called the nocebo effect. For example, during COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, a large number of placebo recipients reported adverse reactions. Based on this, it is estimated that about 2/3 of the adverse reactions are caused by the nocebo effect.

gledos is a type that is prone to self-suggestion. When watching Miki命‘s Chinese plot of “Steins;Gate 0”, there were comments saying stomach pain, and as a result, gledos really experienced stomach pain symptoms. So, it is probably easily influenced by (anti-)placebos. As long as you have read the [adverse reactions] on the drug instructions, you will most likely experience adverse reactions.

The Slow Demise of Mystery Adventure Games / Visual Novels

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galgame game market has been shrinking, but there are still many companies developing high-quality galgames, but mystery ADV / VN ( [text] adventure games / visual novels) do not have such good luck.

(The mystery ADV games here specifically refer to games with a high percentage of text content, such as “Umineko When They Cry”, “The House in Fata Morgana” and “Raging Loop” (~~what generation of characters~~). And GNOSIA and “BUNNY BLACK” combine some other gameplay elements, which can be regarded as atypical mystery ADVs.)

Now the well-known ADV company is probably only MAGES. (formerly 5pb.). But the two most recent mystery ADVs are “Anonymous;Code” in 2022 and “Robotics;Notes DaSH” in 2019. It can be seen that there is an obvious problem with output, but the most important thing is the reputation problem.

The two games have only 69% and 81% recommendation rates on Steam. Other rating websites or KOLs basically consider them mediocre and barely qualified. For text games, reviews are almost directly linked to sales, and the current result is near bankruptcy. Now it seems that they can only offer remakes of Ever17, Never7, and “Steins;Gate RE:BOOT” to rely on their old works.

It is also difficult for other companies / studios that produce mystery ADVs. For example, “Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo” is a project that Square Enix launched out of ” encouraging the creation of new IPs, pursuing low-cost production”. Fortunately, it has achieved good reputation and ratings, but regarding the sequel plan, director Takaya Ishiyama also only said ” It depends on the company.”

Considering that there is still no news of a sequel or porting to new platforms a year and a half after the game’s release, perhaps the profitability has not met SE’s goals. The author of “Raging Loop”, amphibian, has also left the original game company to write stories for Fate / Grand Order. Perhaps mystery ADV games are really difficult to make and difficult to make money at the same time.

P.S.: MAGES.’s recently released mystery ADV ” Iwakura Aria” in 2024 was not mentioned? Because there is no Chinese version, no discussion, and no reputation, it was ignored.

Albinism

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Having read Chapter 6 of The House in Fata Morgana, I feel that albinism is an important part of the story. In the story, albinism patients were treated as cursed in the 11th century and as witches in the 18th century, and it was not until the Second Industrial Revolution that they were free from life-threatening discrimination in Europe and the Americas.

But in the real history, albinism has left few records. The main records come from the Age of Discovery in the 17th century, when European adventurers discovered some people in Africa who were very light in color, even whiter than the skin of Northern Europeans. It was not until the 19th century that albinism was systematically studied.

Although there are no records in European and American history, threats against people with albinism still exist in some parts of Africa. Some witch doctors here preach that the body parts of people with albinism have magical powers. As a result, some people steal corpses from the graves of people with albinism because of superstition, or even murder and dismember them directly. It is not entirely impossible for similar things to have happened in medieval Europe.

P.S. In addition to albinism, there is also “melanism“, the most common of which is black-boned chicken. However, there are not many animals with melanistic genes, and humans are not among them, so you can’t see people whose bones are also black.

Gamepad Controls and Keyboard Controls: Two Separate Games

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Gamepad and keyboard and mouse are common input tools for games. Although many games support both, for some games, the two have many differences and can even be considered two separate games.

FPS games are usually easier to get started with keyboard and mouse, so using keyboard and mouse (via converters) on game consoles to compete with gamepad players is against the rules. Therefore, cross-platform FPS games are split into two games by these two inputs.

Apex Legends doesn’t care much about this and even enabled cross-platform online play. This is because gamepad players on the console version get 0.6 aim assist (1.0 is equivalent to full lock-on). This helps gamepad players compete with keyboard and mouse players, but the aim assist value is still too strong, and even a large number of professional players choose to use gamepads in competitions.

In addition to the difference in difficulty, the two control methods also have an impact on weapon selection. Because gamepads have aim assist, it is more advantageous to use submachine guns at close range, especially the “R-99”. Keyboard and mouse are good at aiming, so shotguns are more suitable for close range.

Katana ZERO is a similar situation. The vast majority of speedrunners use keyboard and mouse, probably because it is easier to control the direction of slashes. The two also affect players’ strategy choices due to differences in operation accuracy.

Black Jails

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黑监狱 (black jail) 是美军在外国建立的，具有监狱功能的设施。主要羁押、审讯被认为是恐怖分子，或与之有联系的外国人。由于与「黑色行动」类似，都是不公开、不承认的秘密行为，所以这种与监狱相似的秘密设施，就被称作黑监狱。

部分公开的关塔那摩湾拘押中心，有时也会被称作黑监狱，不过更准确的叫法应该为黑色地点 (black site)。黑色地点能代指各地政府建立的秘密拘留中心，这些监狱通常未经正当程序、法院命令就使人失踪，还可能有酷刑等违反人权的举动。

不过正常的黑监狱，通常需要秘密建立在外国，因为担心在本地违法。但在充满创新的土地上，黑监狱 (black jails) 就变得普遍了，也能直接在本地运营。(维基百科在这里使用 black jails，以复数形式表示，不清楚原因)

劳教所

劳动教养，简称劳教，源自 1950 年代的肃反。当时认为一些反革命和坏分子如果不能判刑，政治上又不适合留用的，就集中起来为国效力。其中最知名的劳教设施，来自夹边沟。之后可能因为严打，许多轻罪都被判处劳教，比如倒卖车票、卖淫、嫖娼，以及非法上访等。

2013年12月28日，通过的《关于废止有关劳动教养法律规定的决定》，使持续超过半个世纪的劳动教养制度正式废止。(10 年大健身期间，有暂停 13 年)

收容遣送站

收容遣送站 是在 1961 年，是维护户籍制度，限制人口自由流动的设施。在 2003 年，有人未办暂住证，也忘带身份证，在与工作人员发生冲突后，被送进收容遣送站，最终被谋杀。

2003年8月1日，《城市流浪乞讨人员收容遣送办法》被废止，各地的收容遣送站、暂住证以及相关制度也陆续废止，原本的收容遣送站更名为救助管理站。

法制学习班

法制学习班是根据秘密文件《关于依法处理进京上访违法行为若干问题的意见》规定。对不听劝导，执意首都上访的人，进行「法制教育」的控制人身自由方案。不过好在没有课上，也不要答题，只有单纯的监禁。

其中一个承包商，叫做安元鼎，接受 ToG 业务。但在 2010 年被涉嫌「非法拘禁」「非法经营」罪名，而遭到立案调查。原因可能是被《财经》《新京报》《南方都市报》等大媒体报导，引发了众怒，而成为了弃子。

附言：秘密文件来自最高人民法院直属的出版机构「人民法院出版社」，其建设运营的法律知识与案例大数据平台「法信」。

精神病院

现有的收容设施，也能起到黑监狱的作用，比如精神病院，这种情况叫做「被精神病」。根据《中国新闻周刊》的调查，有精神病院，在收治程序不完整，未经可靠鉴定的情况下，强行收治没有犯罪行为的人。

2010 年，官方还专门写了篇文章《精神病院未经警方同意不得收治正常人》，不过其逆命题「如果警方同意，那么精神病院可以收治正常人」，稍后被澄清为误读。

ggame (含资料来源)