I came across one of these person helps random stranger stories and decided it was worth sharing.

http://www.yahoo.com/news/complete-str ... 00957.html

I couldn't find a good news thread after a very quick search so I started my own. Feel free to move it if there is some where more appropriate.

Mark

I don't know Mortal Kombat.

Whose outfit is this supposed to be? http://sedartonfokcaj.deviantart.com/a ... -431854157
--
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

http://www.schveiguy.com/blog/2017/05/h ... microsoft/
I thought all of the technically savvy users of this forum would appreciate the advice. ??
-- ∇×V

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/trees ... -1.4132679

tl;dr: If we want to plant trees to counter our carbon emissions, then we have to stop planting food crops and cut down half of the world's existing forests to make enough room for all the carbon-credit trees. Then we have to figure out what to do with all the wood we grow (wood isn't edible even though it would need to replace all of our food crops) without generating any more carbon emissions, because all those trees need to come down to make room for more trees in a decade or two.
--
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

Dear 2017: Why can't we have nice things?
I saw the first double-episode of the Twin Peaks reboot, last night, but it was 2 hours long, so that's closer to a triple-episode compare to network TV length.  And despite every glowing review of it I read, I came away unimpressed.  Sure, David Lynch remains the master of the visceral, of timing long scenes for maximum intensity, and of capturing life's absurdity.  He can raise the spectres of the monsters at the edges of the mind, quite literally.  So what's the problem?
I don't care what happens to these people.
In fact, I'm not even sure which people I'm supposed to care about.  The majority of scenes take place outside of Twin Peaks, and that's if you count the Black Lodge as a part of the town.  So, which cast herd am I supposed to get behind?  Some of the characters with the most exposition time end up dead by the end of the episode.  Black Lodge scenes provide plenty of mystery and visual drama, but remain as obtuse towards characterization as ever.  The denizens of the lodges are supposed to be eldritch and inhuman, after all.
Most of the things I liked about Twin Peaks seem to be gone.  The balancing of soap opera tropes with horror tropes in a cozy mystery package was something special. It was always melodrama, but it was melodrama done well.  The town was alive with people who dealt with day-to-day problems, made mistakes, loved and lost.  People who wrestled with the supernatural, despite not understanding it.  The new version seems to have a lot of people being killed by monsters.  It's really good horror, well designed, and perfectly timed for suspense.  But I was never here for the horror in the first place.
I'm just afraid I'm turning into one of those jerks who decided OMG I hate RWBY nao because it's not a school comedy any more.  But at the same time, it's like that old Pace salsa commercial series:  Twin Peaks is made in New York City now.  New York City?!
-- ∇×V

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sir-roger-m ... ead-at-89/
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

CBC: Silver Superman coins prove to be kryptonite to Royal Canadian Mint's bottom line

tl;dr: The Royal Canadian Mint made some $20 silver coins a few years ago and sold them for $20 - now that the silver in them is worth $6, people are getting the coins' face value back from the Mint (and the Mint is taking a bath). And there were so many made that they're not going to be worth much on the collector market for a while.

(And, yes, Bob, that includes the Bugs Bunny silver coin I got for you at the time.)

Good thing I bought mine with money budgeted for entertainment, not for investments.

http://www.joe.ie/news/two-massive-tru ... ign=Buffer

1: Trump basically admitted to Russia that Comey was fired over the Russian investigation

2: A law enforcement investigation into the alleged possible coordination between Russia and the Trump Presidential campaign have identified a senior White House adviser as a significant person of interest.

It is quite clear from the timing of these revelations that someone within the White House is coordinating the leakage with the papers to have the best effect. It's like real conspiracies against real conspiracies. This is so much fun to watch because you can just sense the shared whispers going on, like some shitty technothriller by a clancy ghostwriter.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

Seen on a whiteboard: velociraptor = distraptor / timeraptor
--
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

90-some and humid yesterday, same today, but it should be gone by Saturday.   I guess this is the best time for us to discover that our central air conditioning has died.  Fortunately, our HVAC guy is available and will be taking care of it today.  Which he might not have been had it died in, say, July or August.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.