One of Brent's comments in the Halloween party planning discussion got me to thinking, and this is something that I'd like to see everybody comment on.

What things are all of the apartments set up with?

Obviously, all of the buildings have the things that every apartment building has - residences, utilities, etc.

Have they all been strengthened in some way? Westwoods has physical stiffening thanks to Belldandy, and Blossom has mystical bolstering thanks to Usagi and Rin. (I don't know whether Appartements Mont-Royal Sud would have the same mystical bolstering despite that being where Rin lives; there's a question whether the wording of the ritual would conflict with the whole Grail War thing, even if the Grail War is on hold.)

BA's suggested the Good Neighbor System - a set of sensors that alert all residences of physical attacks at any building.

Panic buttons are good. Blossom's is installed in Rob's cellphone, and connects directly to the Goddess's private line. But they know Rob does his best to have his building be self-sufficient (almost as if he's subconsciously expecting it to become the Silver Millennium Embassy to Canada) and wouldn't use it except in an actual emergency.

Bolt-holes for the non-combatants? With Washuu-tech, a pocket dimension in each building is possible. OTOH, Aria House is almost completely non-combatant; Brent might want something that turns the entire building into a refuge (especially after Cinder attacks).

Full internet access is a given (except at Warehouse 13, of course). Blackberry-level encryption is also a good idea - strong enough to keep casual prying eyes out, but not so strong that a non-paranoid government would become worried about it. Once the code on Akari's laptop is reverse-engineered, that could become the basis for an encrypted system that would worry non-paranoid governments, so we wouldn't use it except in emergencies.

What have I missed?

And a related question: What goodies does each residence have? These are things that make sense to be present in one or two buildings but not for other buildings.

Blossom would have an electricity accumulator and storage system as soon as Washuu can deliver one that can stand up to the task (which would depend more on Washuu's schedule than on her ability). This would give the building the capability to go off-the-grid (or sell electricity to the grid), as long as Makoto and Mikoto are willing to shoot it with electric bolts every so often.

I expect 7 Henrietta might have a studio - at least a practice studio, if not a recording studio.

Any other ideas?

This is a brainstorming thread - no ideas are too off-the-wall. (Remember, somebody somewhere had to suggest making a movie about a tornado filled with sharks, and look how much money that off-the-wall idea made IRL.)

Here's the official press release in case anyone hasn't heard.


https://www.doctorwho.tv/news/?article=d...th-october

Personally I think moving to a Sunday is a far bigger change than a female doctor, but I'm a (not so) old dinosaur who still thinks soccer should kick off at 3pm on a Saturday.

Mark

The hymns from the choir made time with the rhythmic thrumm of the machinery of production. Mystic incense tinted the atmosphere on the factory floor.

On a conveyor snaking around, glass bottles marched. Steam sourced from the wells of Lourdes sanctified each bottle, inside and out, purifying it to receive the holy liquid. From probes which hung from steel vessels suspended from the ceiling, thick red liquid filled each bottle, before advancing to a chorus of elderly nuns hand-labelling them with the tenderest care, sealing them with blessed wax.

One was chosen, to fill a Platinum cup.

The Holy Blood of Christ.

On another line, from another hissing machine, the Eucharist emerged in its final form from embossed steel molds, each one bleached a perfect, pure white with the cross of the Lord himself sharply embossed on the surface. 

Wafers spilled into golden vats to await their distribution to the faithful of the world.

A sample of twelve were taken from a brushed steel mold, each one carefully carried in cupped hands with whispered prayers to a second golden cup to join the Blood.

Silent nuns brought the offerings through ancient stone-carved corridors to a secret room high in the Basilica where the 12 Cardinals waited around a guilded Sandalwood table. Stained glass windows twice the height of a man shone with liquid colour, bathing the room in the lights of Creation

A short mass was spoken. Body of Christ. Blood of Christ. Amen. The Cardinals took their samples

Taste. Texture. All were checked, then chosen. A sense of holy wellbeing passed across the room, assuring the Conclave that all was well with the religious processes in the factory far beneath.
 
Satisfied, they called for the next reincarnation to be brought forth.

Far below, the reincarnated body of Jesus Christ was led from the holy chamber of Gauf into a cold steel room. Under harsh, stinging lights, flanked by praying Priests in black cloaks swinging smoking sceptres he would meet his final fate as he had every thirty minutes from the previous fifty years.

A Shenzhou Heavy Machinery Type 372 whole-carcass screw-driven mechanically seperated meat machine.

For the pastoral demands of the world's billion Catholics had to be met and sacrifices had to be made.

Hi all,

Thought I'd just let you know in probably going to be taking down my fabulous website in the near future.  It's dated as hell (like circa Y2K?), and my current plan is to put up a WordPress blog for my random projects.

Stuff that normally I'd just drop in a colonyofgamers.com thread, but with that site going down soon (we're all moving to Discord) I want something a little more personal to continue with.

The archive will stick around, I'll probably keep a link to it or create an "oldsite" subdomain.

Just didn't want anyone panicking.

How Mike Pence plans to become the next U.S. president

Quote:Eisner added that there are no discernible differences between policies in the president's office and the V.P.'s office.

According to researchers at the University of Oxford (which, at a millennium old, is as conservative an organization as one can find), right-wing websites have swamped Sweden with 'junk news' ahead of the upcoming Swedish election on Sunday.

Quote:One in three news articles shared online about the upcoming Swedish election comes from websites publishing deliberately misleading information, most with a right-wing focus on immigration and Islam, Oxford University researchers say.

Art least in English-language newspapers, editorials are traditionally not signed. (French-language newspapers are different here.) So why all the complaints that this particular editorial in the New York Times was unsigned?

And so far that's the only complaint I've heard about the editorial. If all the people complaining about the editorial have is this particular trope, they need to work on their debating skills. I don't care who did or did not say it. I care whether it's true, and that won't change whoever said it.

Nike shares drop after choice of Colin Kaepernick for ad spurs boycott

A 3% drop in share price is never fun. Mind you, "Old angry white guys are not a core demographic for Nike." - Matt Powell, a senior advisor with market research firm NPD Group

Canadian Football League launches "Diversity Is Strength" campaign

"Be the true north strong and free (to express yourself)" Video

...to all the board members in the United States.  As usual, I was swept up in the whole choreographed weekend thing my in-laws do, which these days includes spending plenty of time in the presence of my four-year-old niece Vivi.  

I did manage a little board activity, though, which included approving a new member, Tyrannops, who comes to us from Spacebattles by way of Fenspace.  Welcome, Tyrannops!

AP: Massive fire tears through Brazil's 200-year old National Museum

The museum was closed at the time of the fire, and as yet there have been no reports of injuries. However, many of the historical and anthropological artifacts have been lost.

The closest fire hydrants to the museum were not working. They've had two years to work on their infrastructure since it was shown to be lacking during the 2016 Olympics; why wasn't a public institution protected?