It looks like Wall St. already has forgotten what caused the great recession of 2008. Bernie was right.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... eet-213822

I liked the ff paragraph:

A widespread failing in the United States is the degree to which banking authorities treat their charges with undue deference. At the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole conference in 2008, the group of bankers and regulators exploded in anger when former central banker Willem Buiter dared to point out the obvious, that the Fed had a bad case of “cognitive regulatory capture,” meaning it “listens to Wall Street and believes what it hears.” Or as German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble put it: “If you want to drain the swamp, then you don’t ask the frogs for their opinion.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... z46UWmMKYx
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... t-at-work/
This is a becoming to be a common tactic by GOP state legislatures in the South for such issues like higher minimum wage, transgender and plastic bags banning. And these are governments that are crying against federal government prempting them. Yet, these folks have no problem doing it to municipalities. Same thing happened in Birmingham before I left. One community voted to raise the minimum wage. You should had seen how fast Montgomery slapped them down.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice – Review
Okay – right out
of the gate – I am planning on spoilering the fuck out of this film, you
if you want your movie-going hymen to remain unsullied, then read no
further.
First off, this movie sucks more ass then the cleansing
cycle of a colonic irrigation machine (which means it simultaneously
blows more ass than a colonic irrigation machine – and isn't that a
pleasant thought.) Though having written that, it sucks in different
ways than I was expecting. For example, I admire Zack Snyder's
commitment to the show don't tell school of film making, but in this
case it would have been more effective for him to have written 'Martha'
on his penis and personally dick-slapped everyone in the audience.

The plot is a hot mess; we are talking about gorilla's throwing
handfuls of steaming spaghetti in marinara sauce at the Mona Lisa in an
act of art-world bukkake that would set both tips of Salvador Dali's
moustache aflame. The writers clearly wanted an ensemble team of the
Joker, Lex Luthor, the riddler, a slacker sphincter-douche, and a high
functioning autistic savant as the villains, but they decided to spend
the money on other things and just rolled them all into Lex Luthor. Why
anyone would give this guy unsupervised access to an alien ship, or
even unsupervised access to a vending machine is a mystery that the film
doesn't have a clear answer for. His motivations are kind of
understandable (In a raped by Zeus as a swan sort of way) but his plan
falls squarely at the intersection of bug-fuck and nuts; with no way
that he isn't going to end up dead or in jail. If he is a super genius
it is of the Wile-E-Coyote school of super geniuses and he was at the
bottom of the class. He isn't the only one struggling with motivation,
as both Batman and Superman flip like coins on their reasons for doing
what they are doing and then suddenly become best of buddies after a
Martha in the face from the director.
Pacing is terrible right
across the board, with long stretches being tedious in the extreme, with
only a handful of action set pieces, most of which (with the exception
of Batman's Martha themed beat down) being merely okay. I would be very
interested in seeing the Director's Cut with the 30+ minutes of
material restored – not because I think it will improve the film, but
more because I want to see what was less important than unending cuts of
people walking towards graves or abandoned mansions through long grass.

Now most of all what annoyed me about this film was that there was not a
single drop of hope in it at all. No real hope for a better world, no
sense of accomplishment by the protagonists, nothing is made better be
their actions. If this was Inside Out, Sadness would have capped Joy
in the face with a .32 leaving, Anger, Disgust and Fear to clean up what
is left behind (and for the record, the wall behind Joy would be
brainier than the Lex Luthor of this film). I can't recall smiling in
this film or laughing. At all. Watchman had more jokes and genuine
laughs in it. Let that sink in for a moment, the bleak and desolate
deconstruction of the superhero genre had more smiles and laughs in it
than the film with three of the most heroic, recognizable, icons of the
genre.
Okay I will admit I smiled once. At Doomsday. Not
because they chose that particular piss poor storyline to use in the
film, the Superman Dies bit. No. I nearly laughed because the ship and
Luthor going on about the 'dread mutation'. Then we see Doomsday, and
he doesn't have a pecker (or any genitals for that matter.). In species
with two sexes, that is the sort of mutation that tends to sort itself
out of the pool pretty quickly. Dread mutation. Yep. You're looking
at one.
So what did I like. Ben Affleck is the best Batman since
Michael Keaton; and Jeremy Irons does an interesting scruffy version of
Alfred the butler, acting more as a partner than a slightly
disapproving parental figure. Gal Gadot isn't really given enough to do
to get even a glimpse of what her Wonder Woman is like, but there are
glimpses of genuine enjoyment in her eyes during the final battle, so
that might bode well for her take on the character.
Oh and the
setup for the next films was extremely lame – one step away from having
Batman stumble across them on trending YouTube videos. Each and every
one looking dark, brooding, tragic and as much fun as a boot delivered
at high velocity to the jacksie.
This film is cordially invited to eat a keg of dismembered donkey dicks.

I've been working on DW8, don't worry -- but for some reason, DW-S has been calling to me, too.  And one of the little bits I've gotten done is the prologue.  Enjoy, if it doesn't infuriate you with its brevity and vagueness.

Jack Herman and Jeff Dee, creators of Villains & Vigilantes, have been engaged in what has been called the longest legal battle in RPG history to secure the rights to their own creation. On Tuesday, they won the battle. As V&V is a pivotal part of my own RPG history (to say nothing of the fact that I believe Looney Toons et al began as a V&V game), this pleases me immensely.
Details are here: http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/...s-creators-win
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

The headline in question: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/14 ... tal_judge/]Flying Spaghetti Monster is not God, rules mortal judge

A prisoner in the Nebraska State Penitentiary brought suit, claiming his religions rights were being violated after he was denied access to Pastafarian literature and religious items. From the decision, as quoted in the article:

Quote:A prisoner could just as easily read the works of Vonnegut or Heinlein and claim it as his holy book, and demand accommodation of Bokononism or the Church of All Worlds.

I understand it's a fab treat...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sa ... -1.3534014
--
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

I've been making working Thunderbirds vehicles. Some in development/prototype stage, others fully functional. 
Thunderbird 1 is still in development, but looking promising. 







Thunderbird 2 performs almost like the original. Even has the piston-jack legs for the ventral cargo bay. (No separate modules with this one yet.) And is capable of full VTOL. 













Thunderbird 3 works just fine. Just needs a few tweaks and some trading out of fuel for cargo space. Plus - like the new version in Thunderbirds are Go! she's a grabber ship!












And Thunderbird 4 is even possible now that KSP has proper water physics! 
(in case it isn't clear in the below image, TB-2 is floating on the surface of the water, releasing TB-4 from the underside. The water's surface just isn't visible from the underside. They're still working on that.)






I'm taking my design cues at least as much from the newer remake series as the original. Thus some of the extra abilities and robot arms and such. 
And yes - eventually I'll design a Thunderbird 5. But that's... almost pedestrian compared to the rest of them. I've kind of been putting it off just because it'll be relatively easier to do, ironically. 

So yeah - got the KSP bug bad the last month or so. That's why I haven't been around in online games much. Sorry! 

Just like it's IRL counterpart, the Mig-31 - chasing after Blackbirds.

A single-seat modification of the RF-155-E, taking a battlesteel spaceframe, a pair of brutally complex engines with a little 'special sauce' in them.

Many have tried to beat Midnight at her game. Most think they can succeed. Mackie's just another one in a long line of wannabees aiming for the crown. [ref]Meta, naturally, he comes up short, but it's a valiant effort[/ref]

==The Base Jet

Rebecca Brown (Taking it's name from a 'heroine' within a recent subfiction of the Supers) was born out of an aborted project by SHIELD to try adapt the RF-155-E series to their own needs. Two were finished as more conventia kinds(Taylor Hebert and Theresa Richter), three were designed and proposed, and construction on Rebecca Brown begun before the administrator of the project was promoted to another office [ref]With less responsibilities and greatly lowered access to restricted materials it seems[/ref]. SHIELD pulled the plug and everyone at Asagiri were left holding the premature baby they'd busted a nut on what looked to be their big break with a major faction.

Otherwise, it's a fairly standard Mig-31-type spaceframe. It has a refined variant of the CGI IDAR that might actually be useable by a human being - but probably not. It has those distinctive phased sensor arrays fitted on each winglet for 360x360 targeting, and could conceiveably mount up to 12 standard missiles, with some help from a pair of 30mm rotary cannon for BRRRRTTT fun when you're down to stick and stones.

All told, if it ever got completed, it'd be bloody quick, bloody smart, and bloody hard hitting while being able to tank hits in return.

It'll also probably follow the usual Asagiri practice of being very choosey about which users it makes friends with. Sure they can build things capable of astonishing performance in the right pair of hands, but becoming the right pair of hands just takes so much more effort, practice and training than anyone who can afford a Blackbird/Talon/VF-9 and an Expert system would ever bother with.

== The Main Core.

It's never been a secret that Mackie's engine cores are a derviative of Roughrider designs, being something of the turbocharged 4-banger compared to the thrumming V8. It must run on something with a little more 'kick' than conventional fuel. It's the same basic core as the Kulbit fighter and standard RF-155-E

Exactly what deltalloy is, is something of a 'trade secret'.

=== Like a Blackbird, but the exact opposite.

Everyone knows how the inlet spikes on a Blackbird work, right? You're not here if you don't. The tip of the spike produces a shockwave which is held at the lip of the engine inlet to decelerate incoming media to subsonic velocities which the turbomachinery can swallow. The majority of this air is then bypassed around the core to the ejector where it's burned in the afterburner area - functioning as a sort of hybrid ramjet. Ultimately, the only limit on the 'bird's speed was the ability of the spike to trap that shock. Eventually it hit its travel limit and the engine unstarted. The airframe was good until Much higher.

Becky moves most of this inside the engine inlet, trapping the same shock between a pair of semi-aerolastic ramps, in combination with a pitching inlet lip, extending the engine limits further. In theory, she hits her limit somewhere around Mach 4 - the old Mikoyan airframe really not designed to get higher to the Hypersonic regime. In practice, what usually happened was a hard unstart at high-speed - in one case destroying a turbine and forcing an emergency landing on Mars. The project ended before the issue could be fully solved.

She's apparently one of only four aerospacecraft that can sustain full conventional aerodynamic flight in Mars atmosphere (Blackbird Class, Woodmsan and F/A-37, IIRC).

In space, Mackie's aiming to get over the magical .2 - given the original RF-155-E could nudge .185 with more conventional engines and a lot of additional cooling - he might have a chance.[Ref].183C seems to be the suggested max from some of the more interested Minds with the brainspace to simulate these things, mind[/ref]

== Guns Guns Guns.

Okay. So her armament exists only on paper at the moment. 12 missile hardpoints. 2 GSH-30-6 cannon with 200 rounds apiece. A proper brute, with a real strike capability. [ref]Hence, the name[/ref]. She lacks much in the way of exotic weaponry with most of her power systems being hooked in to the interwave core and IDAR array. [ref]That said, the Flechette design study from the same series was nuts.... 75mm railcannon on a fighter, nuts[/ref]

== Crew Comforts.

A seat. Asagiri's fortified suit, and somewhere to put your stuff beneath. Nothing else. No cabins. No quarters. Not something for your weekend holiday. Or if you're in any way modest.

== Quirks.

The Air-Battleship: The original Soviet Airforce didn't call them the Air-Battleship for nothering. It probably takes to maneuvering like the Titanic. The majority of its structure is welded steel. On a 'fighter'......

Faster to go Faster: The main engines lack power and efficiency at low speeds - she needs to go faster to start building more thrust. Mackie may have removed the fan-stage from the engine, so she now functions closer to an ideal turboramjet. If she's slowed down in combat, it takes her time to regain that speed and energy.

'Buggy': One wonders if the engine's breathing issues aren't a particularly ironic quirk, given the name.

If it's anything like its sister's, it'll be prone to getting 'dirty' in that vague and scruffy way, like a post-winter salt Lancia. It's not particularly sleek or exciting to look at. It has never achieved any major victories, nor carried a signature character from a series. If it didn't exist tomorrow, you wouldn't mourn it.

'Cheap': No really, hear me out. The base airframe is welded steel. Machine-welded haephestan battlesteel. Heat critical items are in Lunar titanium. Anything else that can be is rivetted aluminium. No cermet composites. No carbotanium weave. It's a big, heavy hunk of metal with space inside for big enough engines. Where it gets expensive is in all the addons like electronics.....powerful engines....

-----

I've been struggling to put together a proper plot for the Melancholy of Mackie Chan - but I think this brute of a thing might help. At least, there might be some hints as to what might be going on in the description of the thing. (Which might also tie in to the previous Riding Hi-Streamer story - who was the Raven again?) Deltalloy is Plutonium 240 (It'll run on weapons-grade 239 just as happily, but a lot of 240 in it makes it impossible to use in a bomb)

From a meta standpoint, she can't beat Midnight. But she may just get a weapons lock on her. Just like the original Mig-25/31.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

I've written a short fanfic for Halkegenia Online. The last part (with links to the previous parts) is at:
http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/t ... st-5807136
Can anyone provide me with some comments?
I'd especially like to know which, if either, of the two main characters seemed more sensible, and if they had distinct voices.