Really sucks to bury your parents at 20 and your siblings at 30.

So here's a question...

Bull is in his 40s.... was he born human and goblinized? So he's still got a while yet... or are we about to see the old guy kick it?

Street Legends, he Goblinized. He's just feeling his age from 20-odd years of Shadowrunning aging him prematurely, not to mention having to bury his own daughter. (Something no parent ever wants to contemplate. But his son might die of old age before he does as well!).

So it said he was born human and then goblinized? Huh. I missed it. Thanks.

Outright says that "The Best Ork Decker You Never Met" indeed was born human.

Thanks. It's one of the few I don't have both on PDF and Hardcopy... Only having Hardcopy means I gotta walk like.. 10 feet over there. *points* and dig it out.

I trudged the 10 feet over and back. Looked it up. Sure enough, His parents died in the Alamos 20,000 attack on the Sears tower in 2039. He didn't have an active SIN and was considered dead. So he got sent to an orphanage at age 7. He then makes comment that he was "Human back then" and that he goblinized a few years later and that 12 year olds sucked.

Lookin at the pic.. he's a pretty good lookin' orc too.

Learn somethin' new every day. Thanks guys.

Which reminds me of another thing: Places with high infant mortality are often those with a significant population growth. While one has to be careful with correlation and causation, many studies suggest that higher infant mortality indeed results in people having more children "just in case"...

Humanis probably does it the progressive way. Have a clinic that does free abortions for metas. Have fertility clinics to help out plain humans at an affordable cost. For the nice new feel have a spawning pool where human eggs are put in and males must fight for the right to mix their genes into the pool where in 9 months human babies will be born by a method more reminiscent of technofrogs than normal childbirth (babies would of course be lacking of amphibian traits).

A fun run could be working for some other group to infiltrate and contaminate the spawning pool with meta sperm.

Re: Welfare:

I should point out that there is no overt welfare for the SINless, as they don't exist. For anyone with a SIN that does not have a job, Welfare is quite available. I recall such a situation ocurring in Wolf and Raven.

SINner rights have quite the upgrade. They can even claim squatter's rights on buildings and obtain the property for a song.

Indeed.

...and just like with humans, there are more 'bad ones' than you'd like to think. (this goes for any relatively intelligent social creature, by the way)

Yeah, this.

SINless are pretty much relegated to soup kitchens, some charities (hopefully not along the lines of Universal Brotherhood...), scrounging, or crime. That's there 'welfare'.

Well, how dark and lawless the 6th World is has always fluctuated. In my mental image you basically have three varieties of underclass:

- The wageslaves. As long as they remain faithful to Mother Corp, they get housing, healthcare and subsidzed shopping from their employer...nothing fancy but better than under the bridge. Basically what Bismarck, Ford, or Krupp did with their welfare programs, keep the hoi polloi happy lest they get any ideas about acting up.

- The SINners who are not corp citizens. It's a miserable existence of lowly jobs and living somewhere between cheap flats and homelessness, but at least they exist, can legally work if they find something, and generally keep a hope for a better life. Also some level of state welfare for the same reasons as above, just that nation states have nowhere near the budget of corps.

- The SINless. Just insert the standard cliche of an African slum here...

Being a wageslave is a pretty sweet deal as long as you're okay with having most aspects of your life tightly controlled, especially including the information you have access to. Pretty much all your needs are provided for, and you live well, but you're unlikely to get rich unless you're one of the sharks at heart.

Being a non-wageslave SINner is definitely tougher, but I'd put it closer to, say, lower middle class to poverty level in the United States today, but probably with better access to medical care. More jobs every year are being lost to drone automation, but with a smaller population than we have today, the competition for the jobs that are there is slightly less intense. That, and the UCAS has a functioning welfare system, so you're not TOO likely to fall all the way through any cracks.

Being SINless is not a good thing and should be avoided by any means necessary (including extreme means; the threat of being rendered SINless will drive otherwise law-abiding SINners to incredible crimes of desperation like little else will).

I don't think the concept of a working state welfare system fits into the universe, but again, there is no clear canon answer so YMMV.

And keep in mind that less population also means less demand

Less WORKING population means less disposable income which means less purchasing. That, in turn, means less profit from production of things due to product sitting on shelves. So, it's a delicate balancing act.

And that's why there's still A-Level Corporations that aren't snapped up in an instant by AA- and AAA-Corporations. They need them to provide occupations for the masses that they don't directly control.

Also explains why someone with an Ares Citizenship might be driving a Mitsuhama car, and have a Renraku Commlink with a NEONet OS. Yeah, it's not showing total loyalty to the Mother Corporation, but the trade between Megas is also good for business. Because a MCT Citizen might be driving a Buick Sedan and have a NEONet Commlink with a Horizon OS.

I dunno, boss. The corp guides make it pretty clear that you're looked down on for buying out of mega products unless it's something that the mega just doesn't produce.

I think it works because it makes the divide between the SINner and the SINless all the bigger and more notable. It's part of why losing your SIN in the Crash is THAT devastating.

And it's enough to keep you from starving to death in the streets, not enough that it's a desirable way of life.

Remember, the UCAS does have that C in there. Diluted and overwhelmed by the UAS bits, perhaps, but I'd wager it's still enough to make single-payer health care and not-starve-to-death welfare stick around (despite there almost certainly being plenty of opposition to even them).

There's always the ACHE to live in.

Not if you live in Detroit...

Yeah - just compare to some corps out there today: I know for a fact that at some Coca Cola offices you can get fired for having say, a Pepsi product on your work desk. It might not be that severe everywhere, but there are places...

Many places in SR is likely to be that harsh as well.

"For failing to buy a Mitsuhama Motors automobile, you have disgraced your whole family. Go to your office, and do what little you can to regain that honor."

When I was a teen I worked for a Walmart competitor and if it could be proved you shopped there you could get fired. Not kosher to talk about on company property either.

Okay, from that angle it works quite well. ..

++?????++ Out of Cheese Error. Redo From Start.

Traditionally Japanese workers has had some very strong company loyalty. imo that is a holdover from the feudal era -- that ended maybe 200 years ago, just as a reminder. This compared to Europe, where it was abandoned around the 1400s. -- to the point where even some business leaders hold some bushido-like attitudes. Hell, the boss of the Japanese national airline started taking public transport and other various things when the company hit a rough patch. Good luck seeing a US CEO doing anything similar...

I think the AAAs and their position in the SR world may be the strongest legacy from the 80s cyberpunk inspirations, as back then there was a very real sense that Japan may well own the world. This to the point where it is even joked about in Hackers during the opening scene

This means, btw, that at least some of the SR big players may have a sense of obligation towards their company and workforce, that you would not find in a real life CEO.

Relevant gif is relevant. And also NSFW mostly.

Yeah, the fear of Japanese globalization was pretty hysterical at some points there. I find it all very amusing. I tried to get ravensmuse to read the novel Rising Sun, which is a favorite of mine (Crichton fan girl <3), and he couldn't get through it because of the blatant undertones of Japanese globalization. I picked it up again (Probably had been 15 years since I read it) and picked up so much more than I did when I originally read it. My how things have changed!

Being someone who knows a little something about dolphins...

Their penis is not "multiple feet long." Will they put most guys to shame? Sure, but they're also a bigger animal.* But it's not like a 40" penis (that would be the duck and the pig). You were probably thinking orca, which is a close relative of the dolphin, and does have a multiple foot long penis.

That said, sex with them isn't safe, as their thrusts can be rather strong (you risk bruising at the least, broken bones are possible) and their climax is quite powerful (I've heard that they can spurt 40 feet underwater) and you don't want that kind of pressure up your backside.



Dude's not even anywhere close to that dolphin's groin. http://www.imgplace.com/img651/6592/62dolphin.png
Although hilarious, taken out of context the way it has (remember the movie Mr. Deeds?).

*Side note: bigger animal doesn't always mean a bigger penis. Gorillas, for example, average only 2 inches. Vice versa for the duck, which can have a penis as long as its own body.

Interesting, i have seen the movie but not read the book. Connery makes for a powerful character as always.

You know, I didn't know that there was a movie. I was a little sheltered up until a few years ago. Tossed it in my Netflix queue though. Will give it a watch next week

As usual (( but not always)) the book far surpasses the movie.

Both are good, if you view them independent of the other.