CBC News: Trump says he wants military to help at U.S.-Mexico border

Has he never heard of the Posse Comitatus Act? Even I've heard of the Posse Comitatus Act, and I'm a Canadian.

May as well start a new thread for a new year (because I can't be bothered to dig down and find the old one).

The Ottawa forecast for tonight is for 60km/h winds with gusts to 90km/h - Beaufort 9 - and snow followed by freezing rain. Good thing I haven't put the shovels away yet, and I still have some ice melter.

(Kingston, Ontario is expecting gusts of up to 100km/h tonight - Beaufort 9-10. Being at the east end of one of the Great Lakes is a mixed blessing.)

So, a couple weeks back I found out that one of my coworkers is an avid reader of Harry Potter fanfic.  She and I have traded some emails, and she's promised me a rundown on what she's already read from a list of recommendations I made for her, and what she hasn't.

I very deliberately left Drunkard's Walk VIII off that list, partly from modesty and partly from not wanting to point her at a stalled story that will be some years yet before completion.  However, last week I reread all of the released chapters from the perspective of a first-time reader of anything in the Walk and realized -- I bobbled Doug's introduction.  DW8 completely assumes you already know who Doug is and what he's about.  It doesn't even give as much info -- or hints -- as DW2 had at the same point in its story, and in DW2 I was very deliberately playing a tease-and-tidbit game with Doug's backstory.  DW8, though, reveals almost nothing.

I'm thinking I have to change that, if only to make the story more accessible to those coming to the Walk for the first time through it.  So I'll be adding little bits here and there -- nothing huge or dramatic (I think), but definitely informative.  And I'm starting a thread about it because I want to start a bit of a debate about the mistake, as I see it.  And I admit, if anyone comes up with a good idea that I can use, I'm definitely going to steal it.  And also just to alert people to the mistake so folks will be aware, and call me on it if I do it again.

Maybe I am becoming a luddite, but I have a bad feeling about this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/techn...mazon.html

And its not only the jobs issue, which is a big part of my worries with these "advancements", but also the reams of information which will be collected.

Post them if you spot them! EDIT: Links, not re-posts - as usual for the threads here.

Wikivoyage's latest travel guide entry

(02-22-2018, 08:47 AM)robkelk Wrote: Guessing is one thing, but the freebie wiki is actually becoming the trusted source of information about 3D-art freebies. I need to do better than just guess.

alright, i'm going to open a general "I need help with [this] thread, that way things like @Jinx999 's request for a quick once over for mistakes or in my case a beta for a particular situation/scene.

Author Needs Assistance:

 

 

I need someone familiar with psychiatry and psychology to Beta read a section that discusses character’s mental states. I ask this because while I have a layman’s understanding I am in no way overly familiar with the subject matter and need my current antagonist to at least have a jurist’s understanding of the mental state.

 

In short, I need her arguments to at least make sense against the main character. Can anyone help me?

 

anyone that is interested in helping please PM me and i'll send you a GDoc link once i have the section finished

John "Boom" Scalzi (I knew him before the butter dripped off his noodle) would be sharing the Hugo shortlist even if he weren't on it, because he's just that nice a guy by nature:
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2018/03/31/2...finalists/

Also, the Nebula nominees are up, and there's the usual level of overlap:
https://nebulas.sfwa.org/award-year/2017/

So this movie happened.

First off, if you're the kind of person who finds a three second visual cameo by a popular culture reference to be the lowest most despicable kind of trite corporate mass market appeal... don't go see this movie. Because you will be spending 90% of the run time hating it.

On the other hand, if you are the kind of person who likes the hero suddenly busting out the hadouken on a bad guy or someone summoning a Gundam to fight Mechagodizilla... go for it.

The movie is very different from the book. Where the book is about memorized fan trivia the <i>movie</i> is about how all that is just window dressing and the true connections we have are with each other and to that the secret to understanding each other is empathy and decency. The climax is also much more climactic, in a way only Speilberg can do.

Plus, you know, it was kind of cool seeing squads of Master Chiefs and the Iron Giant blowing shit up. Yeah, all the VR stuff was ultimately 'a game' but the point of the movie is that the game is a way to connect for all these people so they're fighting for something and their are stakes not in who lives or dies but who wins and loses. If you can like a sports movie you can like this movie.

On the bad side they kept some of the more... cliche bits from the book. The female leads big secret being that she is Hollywood Homely rather than a stunning anime elf girl with technicolor hair and skin was not handled well. Though they did make her into more of a character with agency in the film with an actual motivation rather than just a rival/love interest. Also, the above mentioned references per second quality and they kept in some of the smugly superior 'characters showing how up on pop culture they are'.

Also, the entire second key sequence was... gratuitous. And bad.

I was kind of put off that they didn't kill a major character, but I guess this movie is firmly aimed at the under 16 crowd.

Overall, a firm 'rent' movie.

The thread for bad jokes (SFW, please) that are not photoshop memes.

Q: Why did the wizard build an edible clock?

A: I don't know, but I bet it was a very time consuming endeavor.