news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070...7f4EkPLBIF
Science! The fun never stops!
(Now this claim has not been confirmed by Peer-reviewed evidence - and has a bit of a whiffy odour of snake-oil about it - so take it with, he says, with a grain - a grain of salt.)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Curbstomp Song.
www.samuraipenguinstudios.com/audio

any other linux heads here? I just switched my first machine in 5+ years (XP to Ubuntu), and I'm pretty impressed. Autodetection of everything, foreal!Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

posted in a thread discussing the young woman who was recently booted from a southwest flight for dressing provocatively.

Quote:

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(Avoid decending below 10,000 agl here (there is a mountain))

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Completely divorced from COH canon, so she can publish:
Here's the site.
And apparently, she's podcasting as a "book on tape." With presumably a print book coming out if enough interest is gathered....
Personally, I'd love a BOT new Diana Tregarde novel...
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

I AM still working on this... but I'm bogged down in my fight scene, since I'm diverging from canon here.
:: DUTY. AMUSEMENT.:: Sahaquiel broadcast.
::Laugh it up, Sundew.:: I sent back and tried to spread Unit Three's AT Field. I was in for a shock.
The field spread, all right. But mine did, too. A tone like a church bell rang across my consciousness, accompanied by a choir of clarions.
"Was zum Teufel?" I heard Asuka exclaim over the comm net.
"Concentrate on the Angel, Asuka," Misato scolded. The redhead responded with an inarticulate growl.
Shinji, in Unit One, arrived underneath Sahaquiel first, his AT field scattering photons in concentric orange hexagons. The Angel's own AT field struck it, producing a sound like waves crashing. Rei arrived as the Angel's body pressed against the junction of AT fields and I arrived soon afterwards. The vibrations of all five AT fields seemed to coalesce into something like a Mahler symphony in my mind. It was unnerving, but beautiful.
Asuka, having had the furthest to travel, arrived last, with her progressive box cutter deployed and ready for combat. She forced it up through the opening and directed it at the central eye. I braced myself and tried to form my AT Field into a parabola to direct the coming blast up and away.
I was shocked to see Asuka's cut extend rapidly at both ends across Sahaquiel's form. A white clawlike protrusion extended from it and the angel seemed to turn itself inside out. I stood dumstruck as it lifted into the air with an Immelman turn, knocking us down with a swipe of a glistening tail, and hovered in full display.
The white monstrosity before us vaguely resembled some of the depictions of Seraphs from medieval angel lore. A long, sinuous body supported six wings and a elongated head that made the Angel look like nothing so much as a dragon. Of course, I recognized the appearance as being that of a "design an Angel" contest winner. Back in my original reality, Gainax had produced art for the winner of Unit One fighting it. Apparently, Sahaquiel wanted to mix things up. I hoped we could handle it.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

...somebody take this idea and run with it, please? It's a natural tie-in with Fenspace, and there must have been a fan out there somewhere to think of this:
Eleanor Cameron's The Wonderful Flight To The Mushroom Planet.
There's even a sequence in the book that could pass for a 'wavium application.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

OK - I'm posting this mostly in the hope that once it's out of my head, it will leave me alone. The idea got caught in my head from the TSAB gazeteer thread.
If I came up with the idea for this type of ship, I might toss the idea in Noah's direction. Rob, would Noah be interested in financing this type of construction, do you think? If so, the Jason would do the technomancy to see what might come of it. People, please kibitz. I'm interested in opinions.
Ship Name: Star Dreamer
Size - not sure of the exact dimensions. Enough for a couple of crew and some scientists/surveyors. Ideas?
Drive: Speed drive, Max 0.1c under normal operation.
Purpose: Exploration/Survey, Search-and-Rescue - depending on who you ask.
The rest of the specs can be fleshed out in a bit.
The idea behind the Star Dreamer was to try to put together a ship that embodied the history of space flight, to see what might happen. Theoretically, such a ship might be well-suited for exploration. If I pitched the idea to Noah, I'd probably include the idea of surveying star systems for substances that are rarer in our solar system, but that might be more abundant/lucrative to pursue elsewhere. Most of the ship would be new construction, but would incorporate as many bits and pieces of significant ships/locations/controls as possible. Bolts, screws, old shuttle tiles - whatever can be found. If Noah does buy out NASA, he might have quite a few things available. A painting in the main galley/crew section of the planets of the solar system, incorporating dust/items from those locations. Lunar rock from Tranquility Base. Iron ore smelted on Mars. Whatever can be found. Handwave the ship with a full pagan ritual, dedicating it to the spirits of the ones who died for the dream of spaceflight, as well as whatever gods seem appropriate. Hermes is almost a certainty. Then let the handwavium cure to a musical history of spaceflight - from Leslie Fish's Surprise! (Sputnik I), all the way up to the shuttles, and then songs set in the future.
Ok....now for the weirdness. You notice that I listed two purposes. Exploration is what it was built for, and it serves that admirably. However, the ship is convinced her primary function is search-and-rescue.
*siren* Hot Soup! Coming Through!: When a distress/Mayday signal is received that is within answerable range, the ship will automatically divert to anwer it. Speed boosts to 150-200% normal, up to 0.2c. Star Dreamer can ONLY hit this speed on a rescue run, and it does have consequences.
Exhausted...must rest. (ow....): After a rescue run is completed, up to and including evacuation of casualties to a place of treatment, engine performance immediately drops to 30% of normal speed, and continues to degrade over several days until the ship can barely limp along. After the first time a rescue run was performed, the engine was found to be coated with a grey-black dust - somehow, the handwavium actually burnt itself out to boost the speed that high. To fix it, the entire engine must be dismantled and cleaned of the dust, any worn/damaged parts must be replaced, and the engine reassembled and handwaved again. The longer the rescue run boost, the more work that will need to be done on the engine.
Ghost Riders in the Sky: Because of this quirk, the Jason has probably joked with Noah that they should've actually called the ship Space Ghost. The ship appears to have manifested a ghost crew for herself. Nobody has actually SEEN an actual ghost, but controls move by themselves - including the waldo gloves used to control several robotic arms/cranes that the ship has. 'Occupied' crew stations also run noticeable cooler than the regular air temperature of the ship, up to 5-10 degrees difference. Footsteps have been heard in compartments with nobody in them, as well as conversations between two or more apparent people. The conversations are never clear enough to make out more than a word or two, and are usually in English, though a few of the speakers are apparently Russian.
Carmen Miranda's Ghost...: Star Dreamer has a thing for rumba music, and sulks if she doesn't get to hear at least a little each day. Minor malfunctions will occur - nothing health-threatening, though an ice-cold shower rapidly gets the point across that somebody is not happy. Also - the recycler, an experiment in trying to recycle garbage/waste back into edible food products, can be found to contain an assortment of fresh fruit every couple of days. Nobody is complaining about this quirk, and quite frankly given the usual rations on a long survey, the rumba music is worth it. At least the fruit hasn't shown up in basket hats yet....
Ok - this is what's been going through my head up to this point. Ideas? Like it, love it, hate it? Let me know what you think. And Rob - if you want to pick this up, or if someone else would like to play with the ship, feel free. I donate the idea to the group.

So, Maurader didn't take kindly to being flattened by Morgan and Bella. To add insult to injury, they did it in Bunny Costumes.

Sweet Action
(Connolly/Priest/Scott/Tucker)

Quote:

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So you think you'll take another piece of me
To satisfy your intellectual need
Do you want, do you want
Action, action, action, action
Gonna bring you down
'Cause you've been pushing me
You've got to recognise my superiority
Liar, liar, liar, liar
You know you believed it
Higher, higher, higher, higher
'Cause I'm the main man
And that's why
Everybody wants a piece of the action
Everybody needs a main attraction
I've got what everybody needs
Satisfaction guarantees
That everybody wants a piece of the action
Oh, I was suicidal 'cause you was my idol
Baby, baby, baby, bring it to your knees
Oh, there was a time I would have walked the line
But you bled me dry with your insatiable greed
Liar, liar, liar, liar
You know you believed it
Higher, higher, higher, higher
'Cause I'm the main man
And that's why
Everybody wants a piece of the action
Everybody needs a main attraction
I've got what everybody needs
Satisfaction guarantees
That everybody wants a piece of the action
Do you want, do you want action?
Everybody wants, everybody needs
Everybody wants, everybody needs
Everybody wants a piece of the action
Everybody needs a main attraction
I've got what everybody needs
Satisfaction guarantees
That everybody wants a piece of the action

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