"Who is Reverend Brent Hawkes?" He's the minister who officiated over the world's first legal same-sex marriage, back in 2001.

Here's hoping that Rev. Hawkes enjoys his retirement.

From: Jet.Jaguar@Friggarock.fen
To: Undisclosed
Date: 25/12/2025 - 02:35am
Subj: Interception and destruction of unknown spacecraft

At 1am this morning, station time, a secerity alert was triggered on an exhaust vent from our main power station. An unknown spacecraft had landed on the surface, with a single occupant. The spacecraft departed in short order, moments after being detected. Defense fighters operating off Frigga intercepted the unknown spacecraft. After refusing to respond to hails, the spacecraft was destroyed by two missiles.

Analysis of the wreckage show the craft consisted of red-handwaved timber, and 8 biomimentic reindeer. The pilot wore some form of red, fur-lined pressure-suit.

The remains of some toys were found in the wreckage, apparently stolen from Fenkinder on Frigga. Other toys were found in the wreckage, some of which came with names.

We think he may have targetted other asteroids before reaching us.

Unfortunately, the pilot did not survive to be questioned. His motives remain a mystery.

Could people please check their surveillance systems for any similar craft matching the description above? We'd hope to get some of these toys back to their rightful homes before the kids wake up in the morning and are dissapointed.

-Jet

Hey, folks! Been a while, but it's good to be back!

So, college has been time consuming, and it's likely to remain time consuming for the foreseeable future. But that doesn't mean I won't be trying to make some contributions whenever I can.

What else is new... Ah! Yes. In light of the recent talk of a Fenspace reboot, I'll be working on my characters (who I never have actually revealed anything about, mostly because I suck) and my personal ship-within-the-story, the Warranty Void if Removed. The name may also be subject to change.

Anyways, just wanted to say hi, let you guys know I'm still alive and online. Good to see you guys, here's to many more stories and much more craziness.

Happy Holidays, and Rock On!

-KindelR

Let's start the annual Christmas-wishes thread with the traditional opening: a link to Alan Maitland's reading of Fredrick Forsyth's The Shepherd.

Happy Christmas.

United Airlines loses track of 92-year-old woman

They found her... a day late. (She's okay.)

There's plenty of advice on the web about how to become more involved in politics, particularly if you have more time than money… and they all start with volunteering at the local branch of your political party. So, my question, does anyone here have any ideas for how to become more politically active when you're so far outside the Overton Window politically that neither party wants you?

I dumped the last few milliliters of water out of the cup and
carefully put it back down on the sinktop with a clink of ceramic
on marble that was louder than I expected.  Blinking still at the
brightness of the ensuite's light I stared blearily at my
reflection and tried to recall more of the dream, and came up
with nothing but a brown ponytail and bright green fabric.

It hadn't been a nightmare, not *quite*, but something about its
end had catapulted me completely awake.  And in my first moments
of confused wakefulness most of the details had evaporated --
even with my semi-eidetic memory I'm not immune to forgetting my
dreams.  In this case, though, it was infuriating and
heartbreaking both -- because I knew I'd known and remembered
*everything* about the mysterious Makoto.  And her friends.

Every damned thing.

And now it was almost all gone.

*Almost* all.  I had managed to hang onto a few shreds of memory
through the transition to wakefulness.  Makoto and the other 
girls had been *important* -- not just to me personally, but in 
some other way as well.  But *how* hadn't come back with me.  I
was now sure of one thing -- whatever my relationship with Makoto 
had been, it hadn't been romantic.  Not that I had seriously 
expected it to be, between her apparent age in the photo and my 
vows to Maggie.  

(A nasty little voice in the back of my mind raised the spectre 
of that time with Misato, almost fifty years ago.  I shook my 
head vigorously to banish it.  One night of weakness, and since 
then I had remained faithful to my wife, for longer than most 
people stayed married.  And vows or not, I would *never* become 
involved with a teenager.)

Whatever it had been, though, losing it had been heartbreaking.  
I could still feel the echoes of despair resonating from the end
of the dream.

There was one other thing I had managed to drag back into the
waking world with me -- the very last image of the dream:  a huge
polyfaceted diamond, the size of a golf ball or larger, hanging 
in space and shining like a beacon with white light.

With that image at the front of my mind, I left the bathroom and
lit the lights in the main room.  I stepped over to my dresser 
and picked up the photo of Makoto and the others, and studied it
for many long minutes.

Who *were* you to me, Makoto?

CBC: 'Maraba' virus destroyed HIV-infected cells in laboratory trials

If this works in clinical trials, we just might have an actual cure for AIDS and some kinds of cancer. Mind you, the cure would involve deliberately injecting a virus into the patient.

This one is a bit subtle nothing seems to actually happen.
However, Ambulance crews always seem to be nearby at the end of the song, whether they are actually needed or not is another story...

The Register: Merry Xmas, fellow code nerds: Avast open-sources decompiler

So, yeah, it's 32-bit only at the moment. But how many other decompilers are available on GitHub?