Question The way off topic thread.

Every forum needs one.

Anyone need a new suit? accessories.woot.com/offers/braveman-christmas-suits-3-styles-1

If I ever, ever, ever ask for that .... JUST SHOOT ME!

please someone claw my eyes out it hurts!

EVEN Jericho is NOT that blind! to wear that!

Meh, not as bad as some of the outfits which Jericho has been described as wearing in Whateley stories by canon authors, let alone the fanfiction authors. It takes a lot more than that to affect me, although I'm not sure even Class X entities could drive me insane.

"Braveman Chrismas Suit" indeed. It takes a very brave (or very stupid, or perhaps very blind) man to wear THAT.

Jericho would NOT wear that suit.

not enough different colours in it.

he would wear the different pieces as separates though.

Dawnfyre wrote: Jericho would NOT wear that suit.

not enough different colours in it.

he would wear the different pieces as separates though.

Of course he might want to mix and match one of three sets with each other. As stated before my eyes disintegrated into a heaping mass of bloodstained snot. If I ever request such a suit, send out a squad of mutant changing anomalies to render my soul to its ungodly fate.

I don't know what you guys are talking about. I do not wear suits, but that suit makes me seriously question my suituality. Although I'm not a fan of blue. I'd much prefer it in green.

So, in the process of researching eagles for Elation, I have discovered that golden eagles occasionally hunt by throwing goats off of cliffs.

That was amazing.
They think that even bigger eagles that went exinct several thousand years ago killed the 'Hobbits' and even children in and around the Phillipines the same way.

That reminds me of Tobias griping about golden eagles in the Animorphs books. (For those who didn't read the series, Tobias was born a human, but he was trapped for life in the form of a red-tailed hawk during the first book. He tended to have interesting perspectives on things as a result.)

What 8 Disney Princesses would look like if they were tardigrades .

I think that the title speaks for itself.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: What 8 Disney Princesses would look like if they were tardigrades .

I think that the title speaks for itself.

Actually kind of cute, except that last image. That tentacle surrounded beak isn't cute, except maybe to something like Cthulhu.

Ib12us wrote:

Dawnfyre wrote: Jericho would NOT wear that suit.

not enough different colours in it.

he would wear the different pieces as separates though.

Of course he might want to mix and match one of three sets with each other. As stated before my eyes disintegrated into a heaping mass of bloodstained snot. If I ever request such a suit, send out a squad of mutant changing anomalies to render my soul to its ungodly fate.

This conversation made me think that if someone were ever to be upset with Cecilia Rogers they would buy Jericho a gift certificate for several pieces of clothing...

Domoviye wrote: That was amazing.
They think that even bigger eagles that went exinct several thousand years ago killed the 'Hobbits' and even children in and around the Phillipines the same way.

It gets better than that. Down here in the south a mere few hundred years ago, there was the Haast's Eagle . This great big beast hunted moa, which if you're unfamiliar with, think of the emu or ostrich.

I've heard of them. I'm actualy kind of glad the potential human eating birds are now dead.

Domoviye wrote: I've heard of them. I'm actualy kind of glad the potential human eating birds are now dead.

And now I'm seeing Crucible, the supervillain who deliberately creates disasters as to get people to step up out of mediocrity, saying to himself, "Maybe what Mankind needs is a predator to cull the herd of the real lameoids. We've hunted all the effective predators, even the freaking sharks, to near-extinction or past the line. The real problem is getting around the Cops, Army, and superheroes...."

Hawks with freaking laser beams on their heads.

I think it's rather snazzy! I could totally see myself......buying that as a hate -and spiteful gift for a friend.

Yeah, I'd rather have a kick in the balls than wear that suit!

Hideous, simply!

DanZilla wrote:

Ib12us wrote:

Dawnfyre wrote: Jericho would NOT wear that suit.

not enough different colours in it.

he would wear the different pieces as separates though.

Of course he might want to mix and match one of three sets with each other. As stated before my eyes disintegrated into a heaping mass of bloodstained snot. If I ever request such a suit, send out a squad of mutant changing anomalies to render my soul to its ungodly fate.

This conversation made me think that if someone were ever to be upset with Cecilia Rogers they would buy Jericho a gift certificate for several pieces of clothing...

Or, if Jericho explained the reasons that he was using his clothing choices, then Cecilia would help him do this even more effectively...

Question: Would Cecilia have been a member of the Order of the Worn Wrench?

Considering her machines, she easily could have provided she built them herself.

I am really, really tired of applying for jobs.

I know the feeling all too well.

Domoviye wrote: I know the feeling all too well.

If we start a 'go fund me' does that mean we have to apply for it also?

Has anyone here read The Variable Man ? Who else thinks that this would make an excellent movie with Tesla as the titular man?

There's writer's block, and then there's this...

oglaf.com/upcycling/

(Note: Oglaf.com is usually REALLY NSFW, but this strip is relatively safe)

Read that today. It was suitably bizarre.
I like the one where a writer gets an abusive muse, who tortures him to write more until the muse of apathy kills it.

lol, I like it Sir Lee. I'll buy 10 copies. Right now.

In regards to:

whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forum/the-...-never-stops-raining

Is it weird that I thought it'd be about London, England, which I remember troped as perpetually raining?

Malady wrote: In regards to:

whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forum/the-...-never-stops-raining

Is it weird that I thought it'd be about London, England, which I remember troped as perpetually raining?

I thought it was the Pacific Northwest that was always described that way?

NeoMagus wrote:

Malady wrote: In regards to:

whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forum/the-...-never-stops-raining

Is it weird that I thought it'd be about London, England, which I remember troped as perpetually raining?

I thought it was the Pacific Northwest that was always described that way?

:shrugs:

Actually, my thought was "how odd, yes we are having constant rain HERE due to El Niño, but how come people in the Northern Hemisphere are complaining of exactly the same thing? Shouldn't they be complaining of snow?"

Believe me where I come from we get about 5 months of snow regularly, sometimes more. By the midway mark most people are complaining a lot about snow, even if we do like skiing, snowshoing and snowmobiling. By the fourth month, we're praying for global warming to take affect.

Sir Lee wrote: Actually, my thought was "how odd, yes we are having constant rain HERE due to El Niño, but how come people in the Northern Hemisphere are complaining of exactly the same thing? Shouldn't they be complaining of snow?"

That really depends upon where you are in the Northern Hemisphere. The North American West Coast has it's temperatures moderated by the Pacific, so you have to go to the high altitudes in the mountains for consistent snow. Currently where I am in Illinois, the temperatures have been fluctuating from above freezing to below freezing, We've had a few light dustings of snow, but we had around 6" of rain just after Christmas.

The funny thing is that California, which is in the middle of a severe drought, has been complaining about the lack of rain, now that it is raining there, they are complaining about the rain.

Believe me, at this time of year Berlin NH does not get rain, just snow (and sleet etc.)

Would a bunny shapeshifter be a lagomorphmorph?

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Would a bunny shapeshifter be a lagomorphmorph?

"Lapinthrope..."

NeoMagus wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Would a bunny shapeshifter be a lagomorphmorph?

"Lapinthrope..."

I think girls who become bunnies prefer to be thought of as models.

Just a quick addendum to the weather discussion: the UK's rather soggy climate (we typically have snow for a couple of days per year, it rarely exceeds 4", and when it does fall it causes travel / transport panic) is largely due to the Gulf and Jet Streams. As an illustration of what we'd be like without them, the South Coast is at a higher latitude than Vancouver; London and Cardiff are at higher latitudes than Calgary; Birmingham and Coventry are at higher latitudes than Saskatoon; while Leeds, Bradford and York are at higher latitudes than Edmonton.

mittfh wrote: Just a quick addendum to the weather discussion: the UK's rather soggy climate (we typically have snow for a couple of days per year, it rarely exceeds 4", and when it does fall it causes travel / transport panic) is largely due to the Gulf and Jet Streams. As an illustration of what we'd be like without them, the South Coast is at a higher latitude than Vancouver; London and Cardiff are at higher latitudes than Calgary; Birmingham and Coventry are at higher latitudes than Saskatoon; while Leeds, Bradford and York are at higher latitudes than Edmonton.

So with climate change, what you're saying is that Canada has a market for snow removal equipment?

The way the weather seems to be going at the moment I don't think Snow is our problem. What we need is flood prevention equipment!

It's either that or some way of preventing the US dumping it's second hand weather on our poor little island!

John.

Well if the UK needs flood prevention gear, you can always ask the Dutch, last time I checked they had a few ideas. I've got friends and relatives in the UK and I've gotten several earfuls about storm/flood defenses and the state of the governments response. Of course it was a little hard to make out over the 'glub-glub-glub' sounds.

Seriously though good luck with the storms.

Meanwhile, us here in southern California are wishing we had more weather, rather than less. El Nino has so far been rather underwhelming here.

A little language humor.

Off the Mark

How not to drive.

Good riddance. Every time we drive, we place our lives in the hands of complete strangers. Those who abuse that trust do not deserve to live.

Valentine wrote: How not to drive.

an example of my signature in action

Valentine wrote: How not to drive.

Still topped by my favorite Darwin Award .

Not really way off topic...

The Official Workshop T-Shirt.

The Webcomic Flipside is currently (re)introducing a character who it's recently been revealed has similar powers to a notorious Whateley student (albeit via a magical eyepiece rather than an innate power), and unsurprisingly uses it for the same purpose...

p10 p11 p18 p19 p20

mittfh wrote: The Webcomic Flipside is currently (re)introducing a character who it's recently been revealed has similar powers to a notorious Whateley student (albeit via a magical eyepiece rather than an innate power), and unsurprisingly uses it for the same purpose...

p10 p11 p18 p19 p20

Hmm... Interesting point, I think, that has been brought up in the comic...



Do people just want privacy because they're ashamed? Well, that and possibly because they're doing something illegal...

So, what do you guys think?

I present to you the reason the fastball special shouldn't be coppied, beyond it being stupid to throw a teammate at an enemy.

Malady wrote: Do people just want privacy because they're ashamed? Well, that and possibly because they're doing something illegal...

So, what do you guys think?

Oh, is that one of those police-state-apology-style arguments that "if you don't want the NSA to read your e-mails, you must have something to hide?"

People want privacy because it's THEIR life and it's NO ONE ELSE'S BLOODY BUSINESS.

Or to put it another way: I'm not ashamed of anything I do. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong or objectionable. I'm not harming anyone with my somewhat unusual tastes in Web fiction, for instance. BUT there are people who would think that my tastes are, in fact, objectionable, and would use it as a justification to deny me business, perhaps even freedom or life. And other people might not see any problem by themselves, but might bring it to the attention of the first group to gain some advantage for themselves (such as stealing customers from me).
So, yes, I sure want to keep my private affairs... private.

Sir Lee wrote:

Malady wrote: Do people just want privacy because they're ashamed? Well, that and possibly because they're doing something illegal...

So, what do you guys think?

Oh, is that one of those police-state-apology-style arguments that "if you don't want the NSA to read your e-mails, you must have something to hide?"

People want privacy because it's THEIR life and it's NO ONE ELSE'S BLOODY BUSINESS.

Or to put it another way: I'm not ashamed of anything I do. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong or objectionable. I'm not harming anyone with my somewhat unusual tastes in Web fiction, for instance. BUT there are people who would think that my tastes are, in fact, objectionable, and would use it as a justification to deny me business, perhaps even freedom or life. And other people might not see any problem by themselves, but might bring it to the attention of the first group to gain some advantage for themselves (such as stealing customers from me).
So, yes, I sure want to keep my private affairs... private.

Whoops! Forgot those very sound arguments!

Sorry if I ticked you off with my lack of research / forgetfulness!

Also, most of us live in legal systems where you are "innocent until proven guilty". It is upto the state to build a case before taking action against you, they can just do it on a whim or heresay.

Also, "group punishments" are illegal, you cannot punish a family because of what one member did, or a group of people for the actions of one.

Pre-emtive invasions of privacy against everyone seems like a violations of both legal principles, these principles being the very definitions of our "civilised" society.

These are photos, not paintings

Was reading this thread:

whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forum/sugg...he-like-button/reply

While listening on this:

www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/falloutboy/themightyfall.html

I have just learned about this author, but now I want to read her story about a queer half-dragon from space .

Happy ME Day!

For those not celebrating, have a pleasant day.

Philae Lander: Scientist regrets comet probe was not yellow and pink

That colour scheme would have been just up Jade's street... probably with the visage of a certain Sanrio character emblazoned on its top.
Meanwhile, Jericho's chosen design would certainly be noticeable... unfortunately it would cause sensor overload and possibly even some vomiting at Mission Control...

My Valentine's Day was pretty awesome.

Thank god he kept his regular costume on underneath the dress.

At least it wasn't Jean Grey's costume... like this time...

As I said, I'm VERY glad he kept his other costume on.

Well, this is an interesting development . This is why laws generally start general, and then become increasingly specific as people find ways to make a mockery of said law. Apparently, the man neither looked female nor ever identified himself as such, but the article also doesn't indicate whether he was ever actually asked. If your laws are vague enough that no proof is necessary, someone's going to try to get by on no proof.

On a side note, I kind of wonder if it's even legal to ask. I know that you're not allowed to ask someone what their handicap is if they claim handicapped status, and there's been a whole furforall on the Dumbing of Age topic on TVTropes about how misgendering, even asking a person if they're the sex they appear to be, is considered a hate crime on some university campuses (personally, I think that they're trying to indicate that malicious misgendering is or should be treated that way, but they seem averse to qualifiers), so it wouldn't surprise me if the act of questioning was itself verboten.

When I go to a clothing store, they don't have a pair of big communal changing rooms that don't actually offer any privacy. They have individual stalls. This isn't rocket science.

Yeah, Ally McBeal had an unisex bathroom what, almost twenty years ago?

But, I think that there is some middle ground that can be achieved. For instance, let's talk about senior citizens. Here in Brazil seniors don't have to pay for city public transportation (buses, metro...). But they have to show ID proving that they are in fact entitled to the privilege, although when the person is obviously over 65, bus drivers don't bother checking. My father once got quite happy of being "carded" in a bus -- he had shaven his head completely, and without white hair or male pattern baldness he looked almost 20 years younger than his actual age.

Similarly, seniors and handicapped people carry a laminated card they leave on the dash of the car when parking on reserved spaces. It doesn't have to detail their handicap, only that they are entitled to use the parking space.

In the case of the transgender bathroom issue, well... if they present as a man and enter a woman's bathroom, they better have something to support the claim that they are women. It's not that different from someone with no obvious handicap parking in a handicapped space; if there's no way to challenge the claim, it becomes open to abusers.

The new Hawthorne Plumber.

fminus 2/24/2016

Valentine wrote: The new Hawthorne Plumber.

fminus 2/24/2016

If he went into that particular basement bathroom and didn't go insane, he would be perfect for the job.

Question
Is there a thread to post an off-site story recommendation?

There's a System Shock story I was going to name in the previous site's thread and would prefer to post in a similar one here if it exists.

Black Desert.

That is all.

The only thing more annoying than online forms which have specific input requirements but don't tell you what they are until you try and submit the form are forms which do this and then erase fields so that you have to fill them in again.

And the only thing worse than that are forms which only give you one error at a time, thus forcing you to go through this entire process multiple times.


I hate applying for jobs so much. Anyone looking to hire an entry level materials or mechanical engineer?

The other day (Wednesday) we had a lot of rain, which caused the local ford to flood.

Despite two electronic warning signs advising drivers the road was impassible, a road closed sign in the middle of the road with a couple of cones, plus two flood level gauges stating the water was about 1½ - 2' high, some muppets still thought they'd drive through it - with predictable results.

Oh dear...

That Vauxhall Corsa is a 16 plate, so was only 9 days old. Even more of a muppet is the owner of the green car in the photo below the video on the site - not only did they ignore everything mentioned above, but also the rather prominent Corsa stuck in the water.

Maybe they should have driven a fire truck to work instead.

Needless to say, the flooded ford also brings out locals in 4x4s equipped with snorkels, who take great delight in ploughing through the water at speed so as to soak spectators on the raised footpath...

Stereogram Tetris ! Play games where nobody else can see how well you're doing!

Spotted on Facebook - I think everyone who saw Aquerna vs Buster can testify to this

mittfh wrote: Spotted on Facebook - I think everyone who saw Aquerna vs Buster can testify to this

Heh. That's a quote from this card , and has always been one of my favorite MtG flavor texts.

WARNING: Do NOT conduct this experiment without ARC supervision.

Very tangential, but Tatanka is back in the limelight after his recent Wrestlemania appearance. He also wrestled in a local event here in Pennsylvania for the International Wrestling Cartel. He's doing pretty well for being in his 50s...

Wow Kettlekorn... I remember seeing this effect as a small child as a part of a pack of 'Indoor Fireworks' that my parents got one Christmas. As I recall the 'snake' was in the form of a small pill-like pellet stuck onto a small square of cardboard. I remember being fascinated as the 'snake' formed after my father lit the pellet.

Of course my mother was NOT at all pleased at the stink that remained in the room after our 'Indoor Fireworks' display so, as I recall, this was a one time only display. I could only have been six or seven at the time but the memory came back clearly when I watched the video.

Thanks for reminding me of a wonderful childhood experience that I had almost forgotten.

John.

Oi.
7 months and I don't know how many tries to get a budget passed.
I don't know how many months and 1 try to get medical maharajah passed.

I think the PA legislature's priorities are a bit skewed.

Cryptic wrote: Oi.
7 months and I don't know how many tries to get a budget passed.
I don't know how many months and 1 try to get medical maharajah passed.

I think the PA legislature's priorities are a bit skewed.

Hah! We've been without a budget for over 9 months. Oddly the Democrats have a super majority in both Houses, but won't try to override the Governor's veto.

Note to self -

In the future, do NOT do data entry for taxes when on prescription-strength decongestants and stuff for a URI. Transposing numbers while your head is swimming in congestion, sinus pressure, and medicines is too easy to do and hard to spot, and it's very alarming to think you owe tens of thousands in taxes! Tends to upset the family when you scream WTF at your computer a lot.

The two times in history Australian upper houses successfully blocked the budgets of a state / federal government it triggered "double dissolution" where all members of both houses had to stand for election again.

Doesn't the US have a similar thing? I mean, can they really just jack off until the actual services of the governments fall apart?

At least for Pennsylvania, it was a mess where the Republicans would suggest a budget, Wolf would threaten to veto it, they'd change it, the'd threaten vetoes until they added something he wanted. They modified the budget to match what he wanted, he said it would be fine... and then vetoed it again. It's been a real mess and it's difficult to say who's at fault other than voters for voting people on completely opposite sides.

There is no rule to remove people early. People could vote them out, but voters tend to be lazy and vote for whoever their party sponsors, not to mention that we usually don't have much of a range to choose from.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: The two times in history Australian upper houses successfully blocked the budgets of a state / federal government it triggered "double dissolution" where all members of both houses had to stand for election again.

Doesn't the US have a similar thing? I mean, can they really just jack off until the actual services of the governments fall apart?

The US republic works much differently from a parliamentary democracy. One way being its much slower and harder to change, with the benefits of being more stable, and a little better at avoiding domination from one part of the government.
It was funny in 2012. Canada had an election, had a constitutional crisis that almost forced a second election, and settled everything in the time it took the US to get halfway through nominating who would run for president.

Some situations DO have a recall mechanism, but it rarely succeeds. There isn't one for the most f'd up Federal positions, though. Yeah, our politics is a mess. What most people don't remember is that it WAS a federation of sovereign republics - the various states. The state governments chose their senators however they wanted. Once the 17th amendment required direct election of senators, the states lost a LOT of control over the federal leviathan. So the Senate is no longer the states' check on the government, nor is it the deliberative body to control the 'passions of the populace'.

Doesn't matter anymore anyway. We're no longer a representative republic; all elected officials are controlled by a corporate and banking oligarchy who let us go through a show every 4 years to make the populace THINK that we have a say. yes, I'm a cynic right now - a bad sinus infection and meds tends to do that to me.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: The two times in history Australian upper houses successfully blocked the budgets of a state / federal government it triggered "double dissolution" where all members of both houses had to stand for election again.

Doesn't the US have a similar thing? I mean, can they really just jack off until the actual services of the governments fall apart?

Nope.

I could rant for hours about Illinois politics. In a brief statement, the Democratic Machine in Chicago generally has enough of a population base to control the rest of the state.

Valentine wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: The two times in history Australian upper houses successfully blocked the budgets of a state / federal government it triggered "double dissolution" where all members of both houses had to stand for election again.

Doesn't the US have a similar thing? I mean, can they really just jack off until the actual services of the governments fall apart?

Nope.

I could rant for hours about Illinois politics. In a brief statement, the Democratic Machine in Chicago generally has enough of a population base to control the rest of the state.

And if they don't legions of undead will rise from the depths, from bowels of the voter rolls to vote according to whims of those that summon them, then return to their uneasy sleep.

Vote early, vote often, vote the graveyard...

Lilliana Vess quietly removes her name from the ballot, muttering darkly about US politicians stealing her schtick, fondling the Chain Veil and vowing revenge on them all, just as soon as she deals with these other two pesky demons.

lduke1990 wrote: Lilliana Vess quietly removes her name from the ballot, muttering darkly about US politicians steal her schtick, fondling the Chain Veil and vowing revenge on them all, just as soon as she deals with these other two pesky demons.

Wow...if it wasn't for the talking about voting from graveyards, this would seem REALLY out of context. I actually had to read it twice before I worked out the joke.

What gets really bad is Garruk crashing the State of the Union looking for her.

How much mileage do you think Batman could get out of installing the Doom Bell in Gotham Cathedral?

Depends on the set of conditions for ringing the bell.

JADE!!!

Warning: Mildly political


I discovered this toy in an ad on this very site.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Warning: Mildly political


I discovered this toy in an ad on this very site.

And for the other side.

Valentine wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Warning: Mildly political


I discovered this toy in an ad on this very site.

And for the other side.

Are you saying the upcoming election in the US is going to the dogs?

~Archangel~ wrote:

Valentine wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Warning: Mildly political


I discovered this toy in an ad on this very site.

And for the other side.

Are you saying the upcoming election in the US is going to the dogs?

No it's going to Hell in a Handbasket. I really wish I could hibernate for the next 4 years. I'm considering voting for Captain Obvious.

I'm about to start gettting angry letters from Kristin for posting too much political stuff, but the candidate statements for the California Senator race are comedy gold. Some of them are reasonable, well thought out statements from competitive candidates. Some of them... aren't.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: I'm about to start gettting angry letters from Kristin for posting too much political stuff, but the candidate statements for the California Senator race are comedy gold. Some of them are reasonable, well thought out statements from competitive candidates. Some of them... aren't.

Wow. Some of those people really need to either take some remedial writing classes or else learn how to delegate.

Kettlekorn wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: I'm about to start gettting angry letters from Kristin for posting too much political stuff, but the candidate statements for the California Senator race are comedy gold. Some of them are reasonable, well thought out statements from competitive candidates. Some of them... aren't.

Wow. Some of those people really need to either take some remedial writing classes or else learn how to delegate.

The best part is that according to the guy who's message is in binary, you pay $25 a word for your statement. So some of these people payed several hundred dollars for their paragraph, and didn't bother to check that it was in reasonably intelligible English.

Oh dear - the binary candidate wins the award for the least informative statement (Dec: 101, ASCII: e), followed closely by those who stuck their website address (bonus points to the candidate linking to her FB profile).

Mind you, the UK brand of politics is as weird as anywhere else. The House of Commons (the elected legislative chamber) has 650 members, which may be reduced to 600 in the next few years (needless to say, the boundary reforms to remove 50 seats are going to be highly controversial). Meanwhile, the House of Lords (the unelected revising chamber) currently has 807 sitting peers, plus another 29 on leave of absence, 8 are disqualified courtesy of being senior judges, 4 are permanently disqualified as they're not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes, and one's currently suspended until December for expenses misuse. Of the 807, 26 are Lords Spiritual (senior Anglican clergy) and the rest are Lords Temporal. Of those, there are 92 hereditary peers (i.e. Lords by birth title) and the rest are Life Peers, appointed by governments.

Over in the Commons, the Blue Party are tearing themselves up over Europe while the Red Party are tearing themselves up over their leader (2/3 of the grassroots membership voted for him, but only 1/10 of the party's MPs - some of the remaining 9/10 are willing to do almost anything to try and engineer his exit, including attempted electoral suicide and engineering a crisis over alleged anti-semitism), plus the fun and games over the campaigns for Mayor of London (best not discussed here - go read a UK media source to discover more).

Meanwhile, we're sitting back with boxes of popcorn and watching the rise of Mr. Shouty Combover in the US... who also owns a couple of golf resorts over here and really doesn't like offshore windfarms...

Oh, and hot off the press: the UK's soon-to-be-built polar research vessel will be called the RRS David Attenborough, but in recognition of the non-binding public vote which overwhelmingly suggested it be called the RRS Boaty McBoatface, one of its remote controlled submarines will be called Boaty. Needless to say, the Twitterati were quick to suggest the sub should actually be called Subby McSubface, while a petition's been launched to persuade Sir David Attenborough to change his name to Boaty McBoatface.

Don't you just love the Great British Public?

mittfh wrote: Oh, and hot off the press: the UK's soon-to-be-built polar research vessel will be called the RRS David Attenborough, but in recognition of the non-binding public vote which overwhelmingly suggested it be called the RRS Boaty McBoatface, one of its remote controlled submarines will be called Boaty. Needless to say, the Twitterati were quick to suggest the sub should actually be called Subby McSubface, while a petition's been launched to persuade Sir David Attenborough to change his name to Boaty McBoatface.

Did you see the candidate statement proposing to build a web platform that would allow people to vote on how he should vote as Senator? Who wants to list the number of ways that would go wrong?

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Did you see the candidate statement proposing to build a web platform that would allow people to vote on how he should vote as Senator? Who wants to list the number of ways that would go wrong?

Here's One We Made Earlier:

Does anyone have any ideas on how to cure the flu?
My five year old has been sick and very irritable for over a week now with it, keeping me awake which makes me irritable, which makes her more irritable, which means less sleep, and so on.
At least on the plus side I now have a regular paying job, that won't interfere much with my writing and could even help it.

Domoviye wrote: Does anyone have any ideas on how to cure the flu?
My five year old has been sick and very irritable for over a week now with it, keeping me awake which makes me irritable, which makes her more irritable, which means less sleep, and so on.
At least on the plus side I now have a regular paying job, that won't interfere much with my writing and could even help it.

Frankly, there is no cure and anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you snake oil and lies . It's a virus, which means antibiotics don't do you any good, and it typically passes within a few days to a week, so most treatments don't get a chance to even take hold.

All you can really do is try to ameliorate the symptoms. Speaking of which, is this influenza or a "stomach flu"? They're two totally different illnesses with different symptoms.

I was hoping for ideas on how to relieve some of the symptoms. My stuff isn't working.
Its influenza, achy muscles, fever, coughing, a slight but persistant stomachache, and tiredness.
So much fun to deal with.

That sounds like classic influenza. I personally always just rely on anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic drugs such as Ibuprofen, as well as bed rest. For kids, this is usually a good time to park them in front of a TV or video game as it keeps him still, doesn't tend to hurt their muscles or stomach (since you're not moving much), and provides a distraction. For the coughs, I'm personally a fan of the method of a jello packet and some some honey, heated up in the microwave. It coats the throat nicely and there are no drugs involved. And, at 10 cents or so for a jello packet, it's pretty cheap while being fairly tasty.

Keep them hydrated. If you are anywhere where tropical mosquito-borne diseases (dengue/zika/chykungunya) are a concern, avoid aspirin:
dengue can be easily mistaken for influenza, and aspirin is an anticoagulant, which is really, really a bad idea for anyone with dengue.
If you are outside the U.S. (where it's banned for ill-justified reasons), you may use dipyrone/metamizole to lessen high fevers, but you should still seek medical help. Some fever is expected, it's the body's immune system working, but high fevers can do damage on their own and should be kept in check.

Took her to the doctor yesterday and got a clean bill of health, not infectious, recovering nicely. So she went and played her first game of soccer after taking some medicine and she finally went to school.
Sir Lee, one good thing about living up north, tropical diseases need winter coats to survive.
Thanks for the ideas, i'll try them next time.

When I was little, my house had a strict television ban - except when I was sick, when I was allowed to watch tv (or videos, which is mostly what I watched). In hindsight, if I was even slightly deceitful this seems like a good policy for encouraging me to pretend I'm sick, but other than that it's an excellent way to keep an excitable 8-year-old in bed all day. Of course, it only works if you have a tv ban in the first place.

It looked cold.

And just where were this bison's parents?

Hey this grizzly looks cold too. So do these wolves.

The father almost got a Darwin Award for that one. City Slickers should not be allowed near wild animals unattended.
One that I heard was even worse.
A trucker pulled into a rest area and a family was there acting really excited, the father had a video camera out, and the mother was slowly pushing their five or six year old towards a black bear. The kid had honey slathered onto his hand.
The trucker hit the horn scaring the bear away before it worked up the courage to start eating the boy.
The parents yelled at him for ruining a great video of their kid interacting with nature.

Let's be honest here - I bet a video of a bear eating a little kid's hand would go viral so fast it would make your head spin.

And their reply would be that the bear looked so friendly towards their child. Licking his hand followed by that warm bear hug as the the bear engulfed the child's hand in its mouth to obtain more nectar.

Let us not forget the father explaining on why he charged the bear trying to free his son from its clutches yelling 'Yogi no Yogi no" and while the child would now be fitted with an artificial hand his father walked away with only a few major set of stitches as he questions his wife why she forgot to take the lens off the video camera.

Well, y'know, wildlife is always endangered.

Sometimes you just have to give the bears a hand...

Astrodragon wrote: Well, y'know, wildlife is always endangered.

Sometimes you just have to give the bears a hand...

Oh man, that's just nasty.

I don't know how many of you are near-sighted, but the way it worked for me was that one day some nurselike people came through my elementary school and gave everybody eye tests, then they told me I needed glasses. I hadn't realized my vision was bad, but in hindsight it occurred to me that the girl who sat behind me griped an inordinate amount about how I'd rise up partway out of my seat to try to see the board better, blocking her own view. I'd somehow missed the fact that nobody else seemed to have that problem. So anyway, my parents took me to the vision center at Walmart and got me some glasses. And holy fucking shit it was amazing. It seemed like I had the world's thinnest pair of binoculars sitting on my nose. My fuzzy, bland world was suddenly crisp and intricate. Did you know trees have leaves? I mean, it's not like I didn't know that. I grew up in the middle of a forest, and the second tallest tree in the county was right outside my bedroom window. But now? Now I could see each individual leaf on every tree. It actually got a bit overbearing when I first walked through Walmart on our way out, because there was just so much stuff. Items on shelves, writing on the items, faces on the people in the aisles pushing carts with lots of honeycombed plastic. And there were rafters. SO MANY RAFTERS. Didn't help either that the glasses temporarily threw off my depth perception. Very surreal.

So where am I going with all this?

Well, I just flushed the wax out of my ears.

Now, I've had wax buildups before. Eventually my parents would get fed up with me talking loud and drag me into the clinic where I'd go through the not quite terrifying but close enough process of having the family doctor blast ridiculous amounts of water into my ear in a seeming attempt to force my brain out the other side. Later on, we switched to the significantly more terrifying method of Dad groping around inside my ear canal with tweezers, which was actually a bit less stressful overall, in a ripping-off-the-band-aid kind of way. Whatever the method, afterward I'd be able to hear better. But it wasn't a big deal; sounds were just a little bit louder and clearer for an hour until I got used to it.

Fast forward to now. I've been noticing lately that my left ear felt a bit stuffed and it wasn't going away on its own. Sometimes it would interfere slightly with my hearing, never very bad but it would be annoying, especially since sometimes I could hear my heartbeat and that made me nervous. So after procrastinating a bit in typical Kettle-fashion, I bought myself some Debrox, which are these drops that soften the wax up so you can flush it out with a rubber bulb, which is the correct way to clean out your ears when you don't have a doctor with the medical equivalent of a super-soaker handy. It showed up yesterday, and I used it today.

But I didn't just flush out a few little bits of wax like I expected. No, I flushed out GREAT GOBS of the stuff. Lumps the size of pinky finger tip. And every time I thought I must be about done, out would come another gob. When I finished, I decided to go ahead and do the other ear too for completion's sake. I didn't expect much of anything for that one; it hadn't been giving me any trouble at all. But I'm glad I did, because I got about half as much wax out of that one as I did from the bad ear!

When I was done, I walked across my floor, and then I winced and looked down in shock. No, I hadn't just put my foot straight through into the crawlspace. It only sounded that way due to the combination of my foot hitting the wood paneling, the paneling hitting the actual floor, and the boards creaking. I picked up a piece of toilet paper and it sounded like I was rubbing my hands over the world's loudest sandpaper while wearing Styrofoam gloves. I went to take a shower and nearly leaped out when I heard all the harmonics in the water. And I don't just hear the exhaust fan; I hear the air itself hissing through the grate. Something I just noticed right now is that I can hear my voice bouncing off either my computer screen or the wall behind it. I was confused by that at first, because I'd been scatting along with some music a little bit earlier and my voice hadn't sound very strange then, but just now I said something and it wasn't right at all. Then I turned away from my computer and suddenly everything was normal. It's essentially the same as how the sound of a room changes when you put your head near a wall, to the point where if you're familiar with and used to the effect, you can almost feel the wall next to you without seeing it. This is like that, but at a slightly larger range and without the familiarity.

Fortunately, things are already starting to normalize. I don't mind the greater sensitivity at all even if it startles me sometimes, but I do mind how it's not equalized properly. The earwax worked like a low-pass filter, so besides the "software" amplification, my brain has been applying a high-pass filter to compensate. Now that the earwax is gone, everything is being skewed by that high-pass filter. That means music doesn't sound right, and lots of sounds that should be satisfying are actually kind of grating due to having the higher harmonics but not much of their fundamental frequencies. Like the sound of my keyboard keys.

But yeah, this boosted hearing is pretty cool. I need to go leave a positive review for that stuff. I don't normally review things, but when they give me a temporary super-power, I think it's kind of warranted.

I know what you're talking about (for both glasses, and wax) That first day after you put on an updated prescription is amazing - suddenly the world is beautiful, and all you can do is stand and wonder.

I have the same reaction when one of my infrequent migraines hit. All of a sudden someone has turned the brightness of the world up and cranked the volume. Was at work once when I got hit, told the boss I needed to leave that I was having a bad migraine, I repeated almost word for word a conversation a co worker was having a distance away around the corner. Boss came back with the 'Holy crap' look and drove me home. Yeah my audio sensitivity is THAT bad when I have an attack.

Of course that had to be the day my neighbor just had work on his Harley.

I wanted to kill him but he lets me borrow his snowblower in the winter so that idea was out. So ended up taking 4 extra strength Tylenol with codeine and lying down in the storeroom with the door closed and lights off.

On a somewhat related topic don't you migraine suffers just want to kill that guy who says 'Migraines? Aren't they just bad headaches?'

Arcanist Lupus wrote: I know what you're talking about (for both glasses, and wax) That first day after you put on an updated prescription is amazing - suddenly the world is beautiful, and all you can do is stand and wonder.

Lucky... my first day of an updated eyeglasses prescription is spent shuffling around, dealing with the sudden distortion introduced by a new curvature of lenses, and about every two years the change in frames meaning I have different parts of my field of vision that are blurred and offset from the lenses. It may be related to the severe astigmatism that runs in my family.

~Archangel~ wrote: On a somewhat related topic don't you migraine suffers just want to kill that guy who says 'Migraines? Aren't they just bad headaches?'

On more than one occasion I've had to restrain myself from doing just that. At least my migraines have dulled since I was younger, used to have to go to the hospital and get a shot of something to knock me out to deal with them. Now doctor has me on topiramate to help with them and regular headaches, reduced in intensity and frequency thanks that one little 25 mg pill each night.

Did anybody here ever play Marble Blast Gold? I learned today that there's a Marble Blast adventure game in beta over here . You can level up your marble, get upgrades, and explore, in addition to just playing the traditional platform levels.

I'm sorry, I lost my marbles a long time ago. But, perhaps.....

On a totally unrelated topic... I have started a web serial, literally today.

For those wondering what I've been up to (aside from story 3 and Lapin of course).

If you care, it can be found here:

petowblog.wordpress.com/

Nagrij wrote: On a totally unrelated topic... I have started a web serial, literally today.

For those wondering what I've been up to (aside from story 3 and Lapin of course).

If you care, it can be found here:

petowblog.wordpress.com/

Not that I care but you now the cat and curiosity. Well... Hmm vampires, steaks and A1 sauce. Vegans?
Dang a click bait. box.

****edit*** Click here and... is that chicken I smell?

Ib12us wrote:

Nagrij wrote: On a totally unrelated topic... I have started a web serial, literally today.

For those wondering what I've been up to (aside from story 3 and Lapin of course).

If you care, it can be found here:

petowblog.wordpress.com/

Not that I care but you now the cat and curiosity. Well... Hmm vampires, steaks and A1 sauce. Vegans?
Dang a click bait and I'm the... is that chicken I smell?

Not actually trying to click bait... just start a serial. those are cliff hanger-y as a matter of course. I'll be adding to it every other week, so if you like it just stay tuned.

Re-read bait and chicken.. Not that click bait. And I did read your site. Interesting start.

Hahaha, I was actually just about to post a link to my own web serial. Great minds think alike!

Kettlekorn wrote: Hahaha, I was actually just about to post a link to my own web serial. Great minds think alike!

If you consider me a great mind, sure. I have my doubts.

Yours looks interesting.

Nagrij wrote:

Kettlekorn wrote: Hahaha, I was actually just about to post a link to my own web serial. Great minds think alike!

If you consider me a great mind, sure. I have my doubts.

Yours looks interesting.

Just what I was thinking. Wow.

Saw this , and thought I'd post it here.

I pretty much second all that, even though my reason for writing is different.

For me, it wasn't about knowing it was good, it was about finding out whether it was. I THOUGHT I was good... but I needed to know. And so, Min was born.

Godzilla is very, very sorry.

My tabs are such that my tab open to "Diamonds are a Vamp's Best Friend" cuts off at halfway through the 'm' in 'Diamond'

So I keep glancing up, reading "Diane", and wondering when I opened a tab to one of her stories.

Domoviye wrote: Does anyone have any ideas on how to cure the flu?
My five year old has been sick and very irritable for over a week now with it, keeping me awake which makes me irritable, which makes her more irritable, which means less sleep, and so on.
At least on the plus side I now have a regular paying job, that won't interfere much with my writing and could even help it.

I used a lot of "Bush Medicine" when travelling.

Cold and flu germs are very susceptible to alcohol poisoning.

So whenever i started to feel flu-ish, i would start on a good bottle of malt whiskey, and wait to see, who would fall over first, me or them...

I would wake up with a hangover, and as that faded, i would feel fine.

I'm not entirely sure that this method would work on a five-year-old...

---

"What the hell are you drinking? Meths?"

"Cheap aftershave. Meths is for posh people."

Not entirely off topic...

www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2016/08/25

Valentine wrote: Not entirely off topic...

www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2016/08/25

Have a look in the "Roleplaying" tab of whateleyacademy.net/index.php/chat to see what the Canon team does with that line.

Not really off topic, but I didn't want to make a thread for this.

So after one academic year, there was not one Punch and Jody joke. Not one. With Belle, Jade, Ayla, the various pranking boys, and not one Posie made a joke about Punch and Jody.

I am disappointed!

Well, Jade might not be familiar with Punch & Judy... but Belle should be. It probably happened off-camera.

Would it really be in character for Belle to make a joke about a comedic pair of puppets where most of the comedy is derived from laying about other characters (one of whom is the beater's wife) with a slapstick?

lduke1990 wrote: Would it really be in character for Belle to make a joke about a comedic pair of puppets where most of the comedy is derived from laying about other characters (one of whom is the beater's wife) with a slapstick?

It would be in character for Belle to cover them in ectoplasm to make them look like Punch and Judy. Well at least dressed and make-up to make them look like Punch and Judy, especially on May 9.

Punch and Judy pic

Punch and Judy Wikipedia

On the naming of Dark Phoenix Scenarios, if the person doing it has Dark in their codename, then it gets sort of Redundant: "Dark Dark Wind" to use a Domoviye example.

Or if there's a color in their name then it might be sort of funny, or possibly scary if interpreted right, Dark Crimson Comet (Blood Comet?) and if it's white, then it gets oxymoronic: Dark White Witch

Malady wrote: On the naming of Dark Phoenix Scenarios, if the person doing it has Dark in their codename, then it gets sort of Redundant: "Dark Dark Wind" to use a Domoviye example.

Or if there's a color in their name then it might be sort of funny, or possibly scary if interpreted right, Dark Crimson Comet (Blood Comet?) and if it's white, then it gets oxymoronic: Dark White Witch

Dark Lady Darke

If Tennyo's mom did one it'd be 'Dark Flashlight.'

There is a Light Ling, so hers would be 'Dark Light Ling.'

Dark Sunshine

Has there been laminated/waterproofed spellcards in media other than Toaru Majutsu no Index ?

What has Aquerna been teaching those squirrels?

Rose is Rose

Valentine wrote: What has Aquerna been teaching those squirrels?

Rose is Rose

My guess, Jade had Wondercute do a Looney Tunes marathon one night and she got ideas from Bugs Bunny on how prey can deal with predators and taught the squirrels it.

Why on earth wouldn't Aquerna kiss a cute, adorable kitty-cat?

This one is for everyone who hates Microsoft...

www.sandraandwoo.com/2016/06/09/0793-an-...-you-cant-refuse-ww/

Oh yeah,


GO CUBBIES!!!

Astrodragon wrote: This one is for everyone who hates Microsoft...

www.sandraandwoo.com/2016/06/09/0793-an-...-you-cant-refuse-ww/

Meanwhile, more recently, the late founder of a certain fruity computer company gets targeted...

www.sandraandwoo.com/2016/09/26/0824-the-divine-comedy-page-22/
www.sandraandwoo.com/2016/10/03/0826-the-divine-comedy-page-24/

lduke1990 wrote: Would it really be in character for Belle to make a joke about a comedic pair of puppets where most of the comedy is derived from laying about other characters (one of whom is the beater's wife) with a slapstick?

You don't know the half of it. The series. "Rivers of London" has one book focused around the Punch and Judy story.

The image we have is Punch whacking people with a slapstick. But like the Cinderella tale the modern version leaves out a lot of nasty stuff. like Punch murdering his baby for crying by throwing it out the window, and then killing his wife, and a police man who comes to investigate the disturbance.

The version in the River of London book would make a heck of a plot for a serial killer horror movie.

Considering the various horror franchises like Chucky and Halloween, I'm surprised no one has done this.

Also see one of the Discworld short stories on, I believe, the Lspace wiki, where Commander Vimes has to investigate the unusual death of a street puppeteer.

--Dave, no, it wasn't the butler

There's a book by Diana Wynne Jones called The Magicians of Caprona that involves a character who is magically placed in a Punch and Judy show, and he has to (as Punch does) trick an executioner (who is being controlled by the magician who placed him in the show) into hanging himself.

That is basically all the exposure I've had to Punch and Judy, but what I saw in that book convinced me that I don't have much interest in seeing it ever.



On an entirely different topic, I just found out that this book is going to exist soon. It's billed as "Harry Potter meets Terminator" and it's called Mage Against the Machine

Russia sends only coal powered aircraft carrier to Syria via English Channel.

Russian warships pass through English Channel

That ship must be going pretty slowly, or there is a very strong wind. The smoke from the coal boilers is preceding the ship.


PS: Where are the environmentalists screaming about all the pollution that POS is spewing into the atmosphere?

Wikipedia says it's powered by eight "conventional gas-fired boilers", not coal. Still, that's a lot of smoke. Maybe it's "gas" as in "gasoline" and not as in "natural gas"?

If its gas, it has serious issues.
That sort of black smoke is more usual with oil/steam plants.
Or maybe the crew are just really heavy smokers!

Maybe they were trying to lay smoke screen to hide from the Royal Navy ships shadowing them.

John.

Well it's been nice knowing everyone, but the world is about to come to an end.

I suspect that carrier is oil fired - someone used gas as short for gasoline.
Its inefficient to use gas to power a conventional steam plant.

So the smoke is just someone screwing up the sprayers - either that or they really don't like seagulls following them...

Due to the amonut of traffic, the Channel has speed/lane restrictions as well. The last thing you want to do is run up the ass of a supertanker due to speeding...

And yes, winds are quite strong. For a narrow piece if water, the Channel can get remarkably nasty.

This kinda blows my mind...

Found this on Spacebattles.com in the huge thread, Murazor's Big List of Recommended Fanfic.
Rather funny, and maybe even useful.

A Guide To Writing Really, Really Good Fanfiction
www.dkcomm.net/dnr/Author/fanfic.guide
By Gary Kleppe & Others
Recommended by Satori. The Key and Guide to Fanfiction, two hilarious metafics from the Ranma 1/2 fan community. No knowledge of Ranma required.

Kristin Darken wrote: Oil/diesel, yes. Interestingly... this deployment to Syria will be the first time a Russian aircraft carrier has ever launched planes for a combat mission.

As to speed sailing in the channel? Her top speed is 29 knots, but carriers don't haul ass unless they have to. Even nuke ones. Efficient use of fuel, under observation, in a channel? Probably topping out at 15-20 knots (13-17 mph) (21-28 km/hr). Not hard for a channel wind to be blowing harder than that.

The real reason why that Russian carrier was not at full speed?

the rescue tug that had to follow it "just in case!" has a lower top speed!

I am not kidding! this is the fact!

So, we in the USA just had an election. The guy I voted for lost pretty badly, but I've never been one to buy into the doom and gloom people spout about how whichever candidates they don't like are going to destroy the country. We've survived worse shit than any of these assholes were packing. So, I, for one, welcome our new dinosaur overlord:

....wait a minute. Is this that reptilian stuff everybody's been going on about?

Great, now whenever I see Trump on tv I won't be able to not see him as the boss from Jim Henson's Dinosaurs.
Now we just need a super-strong baby with a frying pan to be held by him and every time he suggest something stupid, he gets hit in the head while the baby yells "Not the mom!" over and over.

Dreamer wrote: Great, now whenever I see Trump on tv I won't be able to not see him as the boss from Jim Henson's Dinosaurs.
Now we just need a super-strong baby with a frying pan to be held by him and every time he suggest something stupid, he gets hit in the head while the baby yells "Not the mom!" over and over.

He'd never feel it through that thing on his head.