Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Mummy, Daddy, come and look at me now
I'm a big man in a great big town
Years ago who would believe it's true
Goes to show what a little faith can do
I was complaining, I was down in the dumps
I feel so strong now 'cause you pulled me up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
I slipped... and I got pulled, pulled up
I tripped... and then you pulled, you pulled me up
I slipped... and I got pulled, pulled up
I slipped... and then you pulled, you pulled me up
Pulled me up, pulled me up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
I drift away to another land
Sleeping dreaming, such a simple thing
I think of things that I might be
I see my name go down in history
I was complaining, I was down in the dumps
I feel so strong now 'cause you pulled me up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
I slipped... and I got pulled, pulled up
I tripped... and then you pulled, you pulled me up
I tripped... and I got pulled, pulled up
I slipped... and then you pulled, you pulled me up
Pulled me up up, pulled me up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
I got up... you pulled me up
I stood up... you pulled me up
I got up... and that was because you pulled me up
I got up... in a little while you pulled me up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
I cast a shadow on the living room wall
Dark and savage with a profile so sharp
Deep and wonderful, food on the table
There's really no hurry, I'll eat in a while
I was complaining, I was down in the dumps
I feel so strong now 'cause you pulled me up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
I slipped... and I got pulled, pulled up
I tripped... and then you pulled, you pulled me up
I slipped... and I got pulled, pulled up
I slipped... and then you pulled, you pulled me up
Pulled me up up, pulled me up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up
Pulled me up up up up up up up up

Pulled Up, performed by the Talking Heads, written by David Byrne, copyright 1977 Index Music, Inc. / Bleu Disque Music, Inc. (ASCAP).
From the album Talking Heads '77, running time 4:29.

My call on the power:
It's an area-effect confidence song, but with a condition: you can't be a "lone wolf" and benefit from it. The stronger the bond between you and your allies who are present, the more confident you become - two people who trust each other with their lives will get a stronger boost from this song than a dozen who've merely trained together would, despite being outnumbered.
Since the Warriors are usually more close-knit than their foes are, this would benefit them more than opponents even if played in the middle of a "furball" melee. (As for DW VI... well, Doug had best start with some other confidence songs, and wait for a while before playing this one for Shinji and Asuka... )

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

I'm just now recovering from a multitude of time-eating issues and a series of disasters, coupled with a few problems, with a sprinkling of headaches on top. I haven't touched CoX in almost a month.
I finished reinstalling last night (see 'disasters', above), patched up, and logged on for a bit, but not until tonight and this weekend will I have time to *play*.
Finally, I'm back. Mwuah hah hah!

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Just what it says...
Part of me says "Oh that's just so WRONG!" and the other part just rolls on the ground unable to breath!!
(I seriously wouldn't worry too much about the squirrel. They survive falls out of taller trees on a regular basis. The square-cube law works in their favor.)-Logan
-----------------
"Wake up! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage
-----------------

As some of you know, Hallowe'en is a major holiday in our house.
And only in our house could one wake up in the morning, reach into the fridge and find this:

The crime trifecta, which is to say the three most profitable criminal enterprises, are Guns, Drugs, and Slaves (personally I think that corporate malfeasance should be there as well but it's not sexy as guns, drugs and slaves).
Now how do these three things interact with Fenspace, which is an essentially (because it's unenforcable [until Operation . . . uh something Justice presumably]) lawless area (libertarian, if you're feeling charitable and all-frontiery)?
Presumably this means that the import and export of pharmaceuticals (which includes alcoholic beverages, by the way) both to and within Fenspace would be unregulated and thus not technically illegal. If Chris Rock has taught us nothing, it's that people are geniuses when it comes to finding ways to f*ck themselves up.
So while the export from fenspace to Earth of controlled substances would be monitored, it's almost impossible to control the drug trafficking there.
However, it's also not likely that earth-side cartels would get much more than an initial foothold on the fenspace drug market because of two factors: local chemical manufacturing and distance. Fens would have access to their medical and chemical plants far closer than the poppy fields of afghanistan or the coca fields of columbia. Reverse-engineering the plants and recreating them at home or making new designer drugs shouldn't be all that difficult, particularly as the distance between earth-side supplier and fen customer would make the markup astronomical.
Guns, however, would be a large market for Fens. Because of the censor function of handwavium, weapons (other than their own ships, an argument i have made before) would be initially difficult to get and manufacture fenspace-side. So weapons from earth would be a large import.
Personally I think that the governments which allow handwavium launches would also be the ones which sells most of the guns to the fens in bulk. But I suppose enterprising criminals would also fit in there.
So if drugs, the traditional big-ticket item is out for "boskones" then guns would definately be a money maker.
Finally, slaves. This commodity is something that criminals already have a large infrastructure in place (as well as governments, by the way, cf. uzbekistan) and is something that fenspace does not have. Which is to say a very large pool of desperately poor people. A "surplus population" in the words of dickens.
The trafficking of people from Earth into Fenspace would probably also be a large money-maker for criminal elements in fenspace.
Though it must be stressed that because there is no enforcable law they are not strictly criminals. Except of the moral variety.
-murmur
also: fenspace as tax haven, tax shelter, data haven.

... and we'll have our first plugsuits.
----------------
Epsilon

1) Okay, 1.5h to start? WTH? Aren't people running this thing 5x a day?
2) It's actually really frustrating to run this SF with people who have already run it like 20x. I had no idea where I was going, and just had to passively let the 'porters zap me aorund the place.
3) People *massively* underrate Energy Blast, and it's utility in dealing with fliers. "Oh look, it's Numina, and she's flying!" *plink* "Oh look, she hit the ground."
4) Someone explain to me why the 'Future Phalanx' can be split up with some vertical positioning, but we can't do that on the full Phalanx? Did I miss where Back Alley Brawler, Manticore, and Synapse could fly? (And for the record, I *so* want Synapse's movement special effect.)
5) Allowing us to use the Dom to cheapen the Vindicators is lame, especially since you prevent it on the other two mass-AV encounters.
6) I absolutely understand why people say you need the Nuke and the Shivans before doing this SF. We got wiped like 8 times on that last encounter, and eventually gave up.

For the record, our composition:
1 Mind Dom
2 Kineticists (one was idle most of the time, bastard)
2 Thermals
1 Rad (me)
2 Brutes
--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel
"Camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legend! Right, Boo?"

...is a must-read for anyone who cares about classic science-fiction. No prior knowledge of this UF is required.
Here's the strip.

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

what are peoples opinions about a TF (or other group get-together) this weekend.
I would prefer sometime Friday/Saturday, but I'm flexible.-Terry
------
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery
"Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die." - Carmen Boyle (Olympic Luge Gold Medal winner - 1996)
Mary Sue's theme music
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

Peggy and I are going on vacation on Saturday; we'll be away for a week. I'm hoping to find an internet cafe near where we'll be staying, so I can stay in touch, but failing that I just wanted make folks aware so you don't think I died or anything.

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