I was trying to figure out how to sample for 2 chemicals, isopropyl alcohol and toluene for an inspection I'm conducting. The simplest way is to use 2 air pumps pulling air into 2 charcoal tubes, but employees are not happy wearing 2 pumps most of the time. Plus I'd have to set the air flow to the lowest setting. Not a good idea. The better option is to use a twin port sampler, but the new ones I'ved had always cause the air pump to stall out once I place a charcoal tube into one of the ports, even if I turned the flow screw all the way out on one port before I insert the tube. I've followed the instructions and people I'ved asked couldn't give me a clear answer. I was examine the sampler when I decided, why not turn both flow screws open? Tried it and Eureka! It worked! It's one of those moments.
Of course now I got to figure out how to determine the lower explosive limit of a IPA/Toluene mixture combined with N2, O2, CO2 mixture (read air). There must be a computer program somewhere..*grumble*
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Well, maybe.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released a list of what books were found in Bin Laden's residence. http://www.dni.gov/index.php/resources/ ... lf?start=3]Here's a list of the English Language Books that they found.

Note the entry at the very end of that list.

(Yes, it's an extremely slim indicator. But it isn't as if the Secret Service hasn't http://www.sjgames.com/SS/]acted on slim indicators in the past...)

Oh yes - three guesses which forum I spotted this link on, and the first two don't count.
--
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

If all goes well, of course.

http://www.space.com/29423-x37b-space-p ... -otv4.html

Yes, there is still one reusable vehicle in service in the USA. It's unmanned, and military...
--
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

We've all driven by or otherwise seen old, abandoned buildings in our lives. Being the average Fen on a budget, what's to say they have to stay abandoned?
This thread is hereby christened for posting the images or sites with images of locales for the do-it-yourselfer Fen to get their grubby, modded paws on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.viralnova.com/creepy-house-explored/
This page starts with the house I think a Fen might decide to rescue and refurbish in his/her personal manner, but continues through to a creepy 'extra floor' beneath some rented flats and an abandoned East German bunker.

What if the "Chamber of Secrets" was really the Chamber of Regrets? Sal got in an argument with the other founders and left when he was (for a wizard) young and full of piss and vinegar, but experience showed him that those ideals were not so absolute in practice, and better to follow a middle road. So, he gathered up the monster he'd meant to dispose of the impure on the grounds they were unworthy, and all or at least the worst of the paraphenelia of his youthful folly, and set the one to guard the other before sealing it all away. Then a thousand years of revisionist history ends up making even his younger self look like a cuddly crup by comparison, and a bitter, self-aggrandizing schoolboy finds it, and it turns into a whole big mess...
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

The thrill is gone...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/b-b-king-de ... -1.3075340
--
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

Here's the original article:
http://babydustdiaries.wordpress.com/2 ... ters-hair/
And here's the shit-fit:
http://www.today.com/parents/6-year-old ... cid=sm_fbn
So... discuss? Or not?
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Science fiction, now science fact.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

I ordered a bucket water heater from Amazon. When I rolled up to my mailbox to get mail, I had a text saying it was delivered to my door. Went to my door..and found..nada. Went to the other doors in the whole complex..still nada. Talked to my neghbors..big shrug. Called UPS. Told me that they will call me back. Called me back after 30 minutes saying the driver swears he left it at my doorstep. Told me the call up amazon. Called up customer service. Said they will launch an investigation and if I still don't have it within 24 hours, they will have a refund to my account. So...stay tuned. 
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Right, so one of the big caveats of fenspace is that a lot of the problems that have been popping up lately don't happen over there.  A bit of an issue, considering that for things like global warming and other issues, most of the groundwork was laid over the past century instead of the past 8ish years.

So, I figured it might be good to figure out how more recent changes might have been mitigated or averted thanks to the fen, or possible handwaves(Boo, hiss!) that might have happened in the fen universe rather than our own.

To start with: the atmospheric CO2 count. Still rising like a saturn 5 in our universe. But for the fen, it might be a pretty easy source of carbon for off-world settlements. You could repurpose ramscoops and magnetic ramscoops to filter out atmospheric carbon to take back to places like mars or for use in feeding plants on the moon or other settlements, say using lighter than air ships, or electric planes running on handwaved solar panels and batteries while flying at atmospheric mid-levels over the oceans. Depending on the efficiency, you might be able to halt or reverse the CO2 increase, and there might be story fodder in 'carbon runners' trying to scoop from especially dirty locations, like near the middle east, or off of China's coast while trying to avoid people trying to shoot them down. I know the NLR will need metric butt-loads of carbon for their nanotube plants for building the Plaskett dome.

Another thing that might help is the theoretical major solar minimum coming. Might happen much faster and far more intensely in fenspace, resulting in something like the Maunder Minimum to provide a major cooling effect for the Earth.

This stuff might be a good way to explore how mundanes and fendanes are using handwavium, since they would be much more interested in stopping enviromental issues, to the point of a fen-like fervor in doing anything necessary to help fix the damages already done.