Oh, give me a locus, where the gravitons focus

Where the three-body problem is solved

Where the microwaves play, down at three degrees K

And the cold virus never evolved

Home, home on LaGrange

Where the space debris always collects

We posess, so it seems, two of man's greatest dreams...

Solar power...

And zero-gee sex*.

(*: Presence of MOTAS is not guaranteed by this spell. Nor do we guarantee their attractiveness. Edit: Or willingness.)
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

So I was at the Virtueverse Wiki Page doing a couple of minor edits to
Cyberman 8's page and after I was done I started hitting the "random
page" link and reading character bios. After a while I started to notice that if a character page didn't have a cool picture at the top or at least
some kind of "hook" to draw me in, that I'd hit the "back" button on my browser. So I started taking note of this and defining some
loose "rules" for my random surfing.

It's got to have a picture at the top in the "Hero Box/Villain Box" section.

That picture has to be interesting in some fashion. Doesn't have to be pretty, but it does have to spark interest. Either a great character design, or a
cool photo-manip, an interesting close-up or pose, neat power effects going on or even a photo of a real life actor/actress that the designer felt their
character would look like.

It's better if there is something to actually read at the page. It's not essential, but the picture at
the top had better make me wish there were something written, or I hit the "back" button.

Then I thought - hey, maybe the people at the DW Legendary site might find some of these interesting too?

Maybe make another game of it? Make it a little easier, next person who posts only has to do - say - 20 random heroes/villains? I mean - if you want to
continue the meme, that is.

Anyway, here's 100 random characters from the Virtue Wiki site, with pictures!

Sundrone

Unchainer

Shadewing

Lanara

Disco Explosion

Excel Excel

CEO of Earth

Lucian Gray

Primadonna

Shinobi Archer

Erec Strike

Ms. Amerika

Mikuruneko

Offering

Nickelle

Agent Ironhawk

Dr. Nil

White Bishop

Trickshot Kid

Unebbing Fire

Kaelinia

Shelly Lightfoot

Perfect Ariel

RoboJesus

Grifter Hawk

Miss Judgment

Invincible Dragon

Mother Aoi

Gunsmoke

Mini Mizer

Nick Cruise

Joshua Caine

Moonrise

Dr. Meenen

Rin Chan

Operative Bane

Levin-Bolt

Pokechop

Echos

Canvas

Fumiyo

OmegaPrime

Shocktrooper

Kara Nova

Gx the Space Gremlin

American Man

Colonel Hero

Fallendarkness

Winter Flux

Clobber-Girl

Gravity Guy

Pengi

Mayor Malicious

Acier

Cap'n Booty

Doctor Crom

Agent 3-X

Hot Betty

Questing Eagle

Autumn

Chovexani

Lucretia de Loccia

Ascendette

Space-Girl

Tarosvan

Xirella

Halley's Comet

Throttlerocket

Professor Proton

Cyber Knight

Reichman

Quantum Quark

Peregrine Falcon

Nomadic Shock

Cyborg Systre

Rowr

Lady Utopia

Michael Summers

Hologram

Graphite

Loopy Loup Garou

Celtic Arrow

Cityscape

Giga Gal

The Requiem of Saints

Cerenkov

Omega-Beam

Jet Nitro

Madame Phantom

London Reign

Tonic de la Hideaway

Ursa Auvergne

Colossal Girl

Dark Thorn

Evil DJ Cozmic

Empyreal

Ghost Scream

Miss Fortunate

Night-Girl

The Galactic Guard

All of it. Just be careful in Dragonlance and/or Slayers worlds with a few of their songs.

A sample:

Quote: We are riding for the battle field in force tonight


Fury of the darkest evil cry for war


Far beyond the boundaries of hell and starlight


On the road to lands unknown forever more




Through the caverns far below our quest will lead us


Onwards through the ice and snow forever more


Standing fighting full of hate the time has come now


Stand and sound the guns of glory cry for war




On wings of glory we will carry on


Far across the forgotten lands toward the distant sun


And in the darkness shining far beyond the starlight


Lightning is striking from the dark dawning shadows


And in the kingdom of the everlasting sun


When the glory of the master's time has come




Into the fires of forever we will fly through the heavens


With the power of the universe we stand strong together


Through the force of power, it will soon reach the hour


For victory we ride, Fury of the Storm!




We are the chosen ones we cannot fail now


Spilling all the blood on the fires below


Smashing through the boundaries with the fire and fury


Killing all the mortals down the winding road




Hell fires are raging the storm growing strong


On the path to victory towards the distant sun


And in the darkness shining far beyond the starlight


Lightning is striking from the dark dawning shadows


And in the kingdom of the everlasting sun


When the glory of the master's time has come




Into the fires of forever we will fly through the heavens


With the power of the universe we stand strong together


Trough the forced of power, it will soon reach the hour


For victory we ride, Fury of the Storm!

A bit of usenet hilarity for your enjoyment. This one came to me while in the shower, and the mental image was too cute to not post:

Here. Some -- Comedian, Rorschach -- look very good. Others, well, acceptable. The guy they cast as Ozymandias, though, just does not do it for me at all, at least in his photo.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

It's a Santana album. If you're not a guitar aficionado. well, buy the album anyway. I haven't completed listening, yet, but the album has Oye Coma
Va, Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman, and Smooth - all worthwhile additions to a music collection. The Game of Love is present, as well as Put Your Lights On,
which is pretty much a 'greatest hits' album right there.

New stuff is the wonderful Into The Night - Chad Kroeger (Hero) vocals with Santana guitars. WOW.

Also good on the first run is Interplanetary Party, and Europa.

Tons of different styles. If you buy CDs, buy this one.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

Copying from http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=37211]a thread on the SJ Games forums:

Quote:By now most of you have seen the news about Gary Gygax.

I suggest that as a way of honoring Gary Gaygax we have a "GaryCon" across the globe this Friday and Saturday night.

By "We" - I mean every gamer possible who plays RPGs. Everywhere, everyone.

All of us play either Dungeons & Dragons this Friday and Saturday night

-OR-

We play the RPG rules system of our choice - but we do a typical D&D-type dungeon crawl. ...either Friday or Saturday night.

- Ed Charlton

I just put an image of the ISS into the Wiki's database, so I thought taking a run at the accompanying article might be a good idea...

====== International Space Station ======

===== History =====

The **International Space Station** (ISS) is the last operational piece of unenhanced manned space hardware left in the solar system. Completed in 2010, it is administered by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs on behalf of its member space agencies, and maintained by Project Artemis.

//early history, up to 2007 - lift and abstract from Wikipedia//

//history 2007-2013 - the collective needs to make up something//

The International Space Station was always seen as "one of NASA's projects" in the US space community. When TSAB eclipsed NASA in the early 2010s, support for American involvement in the ISS waned, purely for political reasons. Finally, TSAB used the near-miss of the station by the //[[ships:Calling Port]// in January 2013 as a pretext to pull out of the ISS altogether, and the CSA quickly followed their lead. The ESA, the FKA, JAXA, and the other space agencies did their best to take up the slack, but apathy about continued hardtech space exploration in their home nations' governments meant they were unable to secure enough funds to properly maintain the station. In early 2014, they turned to the Fen, hoping to find a "white knight".

They found one in the [[gazetteer:companies:Stellvia Corporation]. When Project Artemis took over NASA's space operations and facilities, they also took responsibility for maintaining the ISS. Artemis respects the unique nature of the station's technology and uses absolutely no handwavium in this maintenance.

===== Structure =====

The International Space Station is unique in being the only space station constructed purely with mundane materials and techniques. Hard Science has no room for handwaving.

//lift and abstract details from Wikipedia//

While a very few tourists visited the International Space Station before the 'wave, they were always underfoot. The station is neither equipped nor intended for tourism, and even the most bare-bones Fen station is more luxurious than the ISS anyway.

===== Activities =====

//lift and abstract list from Wikipedia//

• NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  
• CSA: Canadian Space Agency
  
• ESA: European Space Agency
  
• FKA: ??????????? ??????????? ?????????
  
• JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
  
•  
  

Post some Macros!Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

Task Force Friday is on. First up, Positron. (March 7)

Badb will be waiting in Steel Canyon at 6pm Pacific. (Yes, that's earlier than I originally planned. Not sure this will be the 'usual time' or
not.)

We will not finish the TF in one night. We're going to get through the hard missions at the beginning and much of the boring stuff in the middle
as we have time for--honestly, I can solo the stupid errands during the week if needed. We'll tackle the harder missions at the end a week from Friday.
(March 14)