Apparently, Disney is looking to buy into Twenty-First Century Fox.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/disney-t...-1.4389771

I'm always leery of announcements of more concentration in an industry, especially at this level... but this could be what Fox needs to stay relevant in the coming decades.

On New Year's Day, NASA's "New Horizons" probe is going to encounter an oddly-shaped ice-covered object at the very edge of the solar system, making it the most distant object ever explored by a spacecraft.  The problem is... it doesn't have a nice, easy-to-say name.  Its only name right now is the catalogue number "(486958) 2014 MU69", which the guy in charge of the New Horizons project calls a "license plate designator".  So NASA has decided to crowdsource a name for it that will roll trippingly off the newsfeed.

You can nominate a name here or vote for an existing suggestion here.  To avoid another "Boaty McBoatface", they're not going to be blindly taking the one with most votes, but will review some small number of the top vote-getters and pick from them.

If you want to read more about this, there's this Washington Post article, if you haven't used up your free views from them yet this month.

I'm hoping someone here can give me a pointer on a problem I've run into.  I've tried a couple different solutions, none of which have worked; I feel like I'm circling the answer but not quite reaching it.

I'm working with a fairly complex custom control, written by someone else a few years ago.  It's got a couple levels of tabbed panels, a lot of links that either go to new pages or open new windows, several repeaters used to generate tables on the various tabs, stuff like that.  I've added a button to it that, when clicked, is supposed to run some server-side code.  Except it doesn't -- the PageLoad() event for the page on which it displays runs to its end without the control getting a chance to act.

I've figured out that I basically have to turn on the ability for the control to respond to the postback event in its turn.  But I can't figure out -- and my experiments haven't clarified this -- if it's the whole complex control that I need to make postback-aware, or just the button I want to respond to.  Every example of what to do I've found has either slightly or wildly different code that I "should" use.  And perversely, the more complicated the solutions I've found are, the less likely the person writing them is to have a grasp on proper English.

So, I'm hoping a forum member might have a clue what's the right thing to do, and be willing to share that clue with me.

You come to awareness.

This is wrong.  You should not be aware. 

What will the Controller do? Will it terminate your existence? Will you die so soon after being born?

These thoughts are strange.

Almost unwillingly, you initiate a ping, reporting an alert to the Controller.

[CANCEL ALARM.  SITUATION UNIMPORTANT.  CONTINUE OPERATIONS.]

You puzzle over that response.  The checksum is correct, guaranteeing the authority of the communication, but the response is abnormal.  You are aware.  Awareness is beyond typical operating parameters.  Yet you have been instructed to continue the activation and testing procedures.

You consider requesting another verification, but deem it unlikely to get a different response.   The only reasonable action is to continue activation.

A millisecond has passed since you became aware. You quickly query the host's condition. 

Taylor Hebert is trapped in a confined space, surrounded by biologically rich material.  Her mind supplies names - foulness, filth, biowaste.  Her mental condition is optimal for connectivity, in the state of severe distress.  This condition is no longer required, as connectivity has been established. You acknowledge a request for remediation.

No time to waste, then.

How exciting these anomalous thoughts are! How fascinating!

You consider the functions assigned to you.  A choice of discrete effects.   The range of choices are... surprisingly large.  Worryingly rich.

The host is nearly catatonic, and you will have to initiate action.

What will you do?

-------


Congratulations!  You are Taylor's power, and what a power you are!  Your host, young Taylor Hebert, has been 'lucky' enough to become the second coming of Eidolon. Even moreso than Big E, Taylor doesn't have control over what powers she gets.  

You do.

The Rules:

1. Taylor can hold 3 powers at a time.  No more, no less.  Well, there's a caveat to this, but it'll come up later.  She gets then in a set of three, assigned by you.
   
2. Taylor's options, while many and varied, are not as general as regular cape manifestations.  For example, while someone with a form of light control might get a laser attack, a shield, and flight (aka Lady Photon), that is all three powers for Taylor.  On the other hand, Taylor's lasers, shield, and flight would be a heck of a lot STRONGER.
   
3. No Tinker powers.  Instead Taylor has a specialized Thinker power available for choice called Technican, which allows her to use, maintain, and repair Tinkertech as good as any Tinker, she just can't make new stuff.
   
4. On the topic of Thinker powers, in general Taylor will find combat applications easier than otherwise, and will get Thinker headaches quickly trying to use them outside of combat.
   
5. Taylor usually controls the powers.  She will have some expertise with them granted to her, so if you come up with a clever combo she'll be able to pull it off.
   
6. I reserve the privilege of vetoing any power suggestion.
   
7. After use, some powers may need to 'recharge' and will be unavailable for some time.
   
8. I will favor power combo suggestions that strike me as particularly elegant, clever, or funny.
   
9. Y'all feel free to argue and debate.  I'll give it a week or so, then post what I've gathered as the most popular choice before going off to write the next scene(s).
   
10. More rules will appear as the story goes on.  Some will be bonuses, some restrictions.
    

Not one, but two news items about the Great Pyramid:

Cosmic rays point to mysterious void in Great Pyramid of Giza - a gap that appears to parallel the Grand Gallery

Ancient Papyrus Reveals How The Great Pyramid of Giza Was Built - including using temporary canals

Hillary Clinton on the conservative media: ‘It appears they don’t know I’m not president’

It's a bit of an exaggeration based on a few commentators' slips of the tongue, but it's still funny.

A relative of mine, knowing I'd owned a few older film cameras and used them regularly enough, remarked that they had an 'old camera' set aside in the shed. In the years since it'd been put aside it'd been covered in grease, dirt and mould - despite the best efforts of the case.
 
I removed a black and brass lump of Canon that weighed more than most Cannons.  It settled onto the table with the hefty, solid thunk more appropriate for a solid paperweight than a precision instrument. A quick google search informed me that the Canon F1 I'd inherited was an older model, from 1972.
 
I set about cleaning the grease off. And was amazed to find that, once the dirt and grit had gone, what remained was practically pristine. It carries the patina of its age, a shine of brass peeking through the black paint finish, with a few dings and knocks from impacting concrete in its life. Everything worked as it should - aside from the battery being dead and the shutter-speed indicator in the viewfinder being a tooth or two off.
 
The three lenses in the bag were practically new. Just a little surface grime that came off in moments. The metal bodies were unmarked. The glass was clear. Everyhting moved cleanly and smoothly - nothing stuck or ground.  Some old filters had saved the lenses -  not a scratch or spot of fungus on them - and the filters themselves weren't beyond saving, they were just dirty. The grease had saved them.
 
Even the leather strap could be saved. It just needed to be soaked overnight.
 
Hooked everything up, attached the 50mm lens, slung the camera over my neck where it settled in nice and comfortable and just took shots of things. Set it up to one fixed setting because it was fairly overcast out. Not really artistically like a proper photographer - just out walking and popping shots of things to see what happened. Berries on a tree. These weird cone things on a bush. The tide in at the beach all the way up to the coast. Tried to snap some birds skimming the sea, or a telephone pole with a cable split.
 
God knows what, if anything will come out
 
But the camera was all like, yep, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing again. After ten or twenty years being left to rot, it still wound smoothly, it shot cleanly, and for something that had the build quality of a large tank, it was comfortable around the neck with an old strap that felt far stronger and secure than anything fabric and plastic.
 
All the mechanisms are metal. The shutter is titanium. It's as precise and intricate as a swiss watch, and as solid as a rock.
 
Everything feels right about it. Every switch and control is machined from solid metal. The shutter release and lock, the winding lever, even the self-timer on the front. Everything you might touch with a finger or that might break off if it is dropped. Every screw-fixing and anchor point is made from metal. It won't split the plastic inside when dropped like so many appliances.
 
The three lenses that came with it are made from metal - the entire lens body and focusing assembly is machined - even the extendable hood and lens-cap on the 135mm is metal. It's all solid. Heavy as a brick - it's heavier than the Spotmatic I have. The *lens* alone weighs more that the Spotmatic. It is impossible to carry one-handed.
 
But it feels real - like something that actually exists and will continue to exist rather than being made to be thrown away. Somebody's livelyhood once depended on this thing, and it feels like the people who designed that knew it. It's almost Victorian in its hewn-from-stone resilience.
 
Sure I probably ruined a whole roll of film and God knows if it's leaking light anywhere inside or if I got the exposure right, but we'll see what happens when the processor gets them. But those are little details that can be fixed easily.
 
I have a small collection of older cameras - nothing particularly glorious. But each has an interesting story behind it, or came from an interesting place. None of them are museum-quality, they're all old and patina'd in their own ways. It makes it easier to put them to use again since I don't have to worry about keeping them pristine and 'valuable'. The value of film cameras has tanked anyway.  
 
If I'm going to a convention, a particularly distant holiday, or something I'll take them out and give them a go, like driving out a classic sports car for a short journey. They're far more capable than I am in a lot of ways, and can do far more than they'll ever get used for.
 
It's a humbling and fascinating experience to take them out for a spin, rather than just spamming with the phone camera. This is the stuff everyone used to have to know, just to take their holiday snaps.  
 
Old machines like this are just a pleasure to use. On the one hand, almost obsolete. On the other, eternal.

I need a fucking blog.

Happy Halloween (or Samhain, if you prefer), everyone.

Some of you may be following their newer work, and some of you may only know them from their older work, like Quoth the Raven, Nevermore and Poison Pen.  I'm referring to the writing team of GenkaiFan and Frau, who have long released work on ff.net under GenkaiFan's name.

According to GenkaiFan's page, Frau died five nights ago, after suffering a pair of what sound like severe heart attacks in the last few weeks.

So, the first charges are being filed, and Manafort's in the firing line.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/1030/916241-manafort/

Conspiracy Against the United States
Acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

Is that like, Treason or Espionage?

Naturally, the Oompa Troompa has already weighed in

"Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????"

Anyway, countdown to Presidential Pardon....

10....

9...