-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I'm pretty sure the Chemistry class I took included the methodology to answer this, but it was twenty years ago and I haven't used it since then.
What volume of everyday air would contain the equivalent number of carbon atoms (from the CO2) as would be contained in a one carat diamond? I've tried finding a wording that will work on Wolframalpha, but it keeps giving me a, "Standard computation time exceeded" message.
-----

Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/19/news/co ... ?hpt=hp_t2]...Harley-Davidson's new motorcycle is supposed to sound like a "fighter jet on an aircraft carrier".  I think we're getting closer and closer to Doug's bike.  Next week, the antigravity! 
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

In a hurry, so just a link-dump:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2014 ... _globally/
--
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

As long as I'm on the subject. (I assume her Water power is both Elemental and Super.)

Cascade [744 points]
    ST 10 [0], DX 15 [100], IQ 13 [60], HT 13 [30].
    Will 16 [15].
    CF: Western [0].
    Languages: English (Native) [0].
    Advantages: Acute Taste and Smell +8 [16], Alternate Form: Body of Water (Only in water, -30%; Water power, -20%) [63], Amphibious (Water power, -20%) [8], Combat Reflexes [15], Control (Water) 12 (Ranged, +40%; Water power, -20%) [288], Doesn't Breathe (Gills, -50%; Water power, -20%) [6], Enhanced Move (Water) 3 (Water power, -20%) [48], High Pain Threshold [10], Invisibility (Switchable, +10%; Only in Body of Water form, -10%; Water power, -20%) [32], Pressure Support 3 (Water power, -20%) [12], Telekinesis 5 (Environmental: Water, -20%; Water power, -20%) [15], Unaging [15], Unusual Background (Super) [50], Water Cannon (Crushing Attack 12d-12; Double Knockback, +20%; Underwater, +20%; Environmental: Water, -20%; No Wounding, -50%, Water power, -20%) [21], Water Jet (Crushing Attack 6d-6; Increased 1/2D x5, +10%; Underwater, +20%; Environmental: Water, -20%; Water power, -20%) [19], Water Talent 2 [10].
    Perks: Supersuit.
    Disadvantages: Alcoholism [-15], Bad Temper (12) [-10], Enemy (US Army, 6 or less) [-15], Fanaticism (Protection of the biosphere) [-15], No Sense of Humor [-10], Reputation: Eco-terrorist (-3) [-15], Struggling [-10], Vow: Avenge her death [-10].
    Quirks: Bites her nails; Can't seem to keep houseplants alive; Gaps in her recall of her original life; Studies nuclear technology to build a case against it; Works out her frustration on smoggy cars. [-5]
    Skills: Acrobatics-14 [2], Biology/TL9 (Ecology)-14 [8], Biology/TL9 (Zoology)-13 [4], Boating/TL9 (Motorboat)-14 [1], Brawling-15 [1], Camouflage-13 [1], Dancing-14 [1], Fishing-13 [1], Mathematics/TL9 (Applied)-11 [1], Mechanic/TL9 (Gasoline Engines)-12 [1], Navigation/TL9 (Sea)-13 [2], Physics/TL9 (Nuclear)-11 [1], Research/TL9-13 [2], Running-12 [1], Scuba/TL9-14 [4], Stealth-14 [1], Survival (Island/Beach)-12 [1], Swimming-14 [2].

Doctor Radiation's write-up in Super Scum puts the nuclear test that empowered him and Cascade, and turned Harvey Banks into an origin magnet, in 1952. According to the Wikipedia entry on Eniwetok Atoll (which, these days, is spelled "Enewetak" to more properly reflect Marshall Islander pronunciation), this would make it part of Operation Ivy. The question is, which part?

The OTL-historical tests, Ivy Mike (the first H-bomb) and Ivy King (which tested a more potent implosion system called the "Super Oralloy Bomb"), both have similarities with the test described on pp.SS8-9 and SS15, but neither's really an exact match for Mark Johnson's statement that Glass and Banks "had altered the bomb to produce a previously unencountered form of radiation." As such, I think it's legitimate to interpolate a third test, unique to the Krypton skerry (call it "Ivy Lima").

?Comments?

Well color me unsurprised. Nothing this criminal government does surprises me any more, except the depths to which they seem willing to descend. There's no "lowest level" to any of this. 

Quote:No Wonder the IRS Is ‘Losing’ E-mails: It Was Trying to Throw Innocent Conservatives in JailBy David FrenchEven a small child can connect these dots.
The IRS is announcing the “loss” of mass numbers of e-mails (do they have any computers that don’t crash?) even as the e-mails that do exist are beginning to show the extent of IRS corruption. Let’s take this exchange (previously uncovered byJudicial Watch) between Lois Lerner, the director of exempt organizations at the IRS, and Nikole Flax, then the IRS commissioner’s chief of staff. (To be clear, these are not “low level” employees.)
First, here’s Lerner on May 8, 2013, literally two days before last year’s fake apology for IRS tea-party targeting:

Quote:I got a call today from Richard Pilger Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ. I know him from contacts from my days there. He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folk s could talk to about [Rhode Island Democrat] Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who “lied” on their 1024s –saying they weren’t planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large vis iblepolitical expenditures. DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs.
I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS. I am out of town all next week, so wanted to reach out and see who you think would be right for such a meeting and also hand this off to Nan as contact person if things need to happen while I am gone –

Translation: The Obama Justice Department was reaching out to the Obama IRS to see if it could “piece together” prosecutions of nonprofits even before any evidence of wrongdoing emerged.
And how did Nikole Flax respond? By suggesting that even more federal agencies get involved:

Quote:I think we should do it – also need to include CI, which we can help coordinate. Also, we need to reach out to FEC. Does it make sense to consider including them in this or keep it separate?

In other words, rather than asking the DOJ whether it possessed any evidence of wrongdoing by American citizens engaged in constitutionally protected activities, two senior officials in the Obama IRS (including one, Lois Lerner, who “joked” about wanting to work for Organizing For Action, also known as BarackObama.com) pushed forward the effort to launch a multi-agency criminal probe, involving even the FEC. Oh, and keep in mind that this e-mail exchange occurred literally years after the IRS claimed it had ended all tea-party targeting.
And in the last few days we learn the IRS has “lost” e-mails from — among others — Lois Lerner and Nikole Flax. What a remarkable coincidence.
The scale of the wrongdoing is staggering.

Yeah - I know this could've gone in the Video Thread, but darn it, this needs a special post. 
I thought since they (FINALLY) released "Meet The Pyro" and "Mann Versus Machine" that we were pretty much done with these for the most part. 
Oh no. Not even close. The boys at Valve have been BUSY...

"Engineer and Medic make an unsettling new discovery while experimenting with the teleporter. Meanwhile, Scout stops insulting Spy long enough to ask him an embarrassing favor; the Administrator's clerical assistant/cleaner/murder expert Miss Pauling races to bury some incriminating bodies; and Soldier makes a new metal friend."

I as reading a Dresden fic just now, and as part of Harry's internal monologue mentions having won a Pyrrhic victory, then on the next line tries to focus on the good it brought even if it tastes of ashes in his mouth.

And then I realized that the two phrases are probably connected and I should have noticed the "pyr" root and associated flame with ashes, both in the context of victories that feel like defeat, decades ago.

Thump. Thump. Thump.
--
"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

...it's too cool not to share with the board as a whole:  Four-year timelapse video of an exploding star, courtesy of the Hubble.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.