For a while, I'e thought that the Borribles Step would need an extremely long explanation about how the Special Borrible Group was based on a Real Life organization, and, yes, such overreach by police officers really was accepted by London citizens who weren't affected by it.

Now, all the note has t say is that the Special Patrol Group was real in the 1970s and it acted much like ICE in the mid-2020s.

Hi9story doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.

Cast announced for Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show

Chapter 1 of this story is available on AO3.

Microsoft unlocks BitLocker for feds

Quote:Last year, Redmond reportedly provided the FBI with encryption keys to unlock the laptops of Windows users charged in a fraud indictment.

The government case [PDF], which claims defendants in Guam fraudulently collected pandemic unemployment benefits, represents the first publicly known instance of Microsoft providing BitLocker keys, according to Forbes.

I like the AI cover


link

but perhaps the original is more to your taste


link

(original ver. video has the lyrics, not that either one is hard to understand)

It's a simulacrum song, except the copy it calls up is Doug himself. Since the copy is Doug, it's also got his equipment, including a helmet playing the song, so it produces another copy. And another copy. And another copy, and another, until the latest Dough is quick enough to turn on his tuneplug at least. The more of them that form the weaker each copy is and they all draw off the same magic pool, so it's very easy to drain himself dry if he's not careful about numbers, but they all have an accurate mental copy, and physical strength and speed fall much slower than endurance, so there's still plenty of use cases where it's just what he needs to handle the situation.

Yes, the last Doug in the line can use a different song without disrupting the rest, as long as he's got it on headphones-only mode. The use of a metasong may also drop the result down to a single copy, depending on its modifier effect.

According to the page banner that went up at some point in the last 12 hours:

Quote:AO3 will be down for about 15 hours starting at 08:00 UTC on January 21 (what time is that for me?) while we make some improvements to searching bookmarks and series. Please follow our status page for updates.

I'm considering having the cast of  Haibane Renmei  (my favorite show) as the characters in need of lodging.

For those not in the know, Haibane Renmei is Yoshitoshi ABe (of "Niea Under Seven" fame, and the character designer of Texnohlyze and Serial Experiments Lain)'s emotional rollercoaster of a non-JudeoChristian[1] sin/redemption story, set in a town with walls no one can see beyond, with two races -- the humans, and the Haibane (halos and itty-bitty wings because that looks cute (paraphrasing the creator)), are hatched from a cocoon without any memories about who they are, and are named after the dream they had in the cocoon, they must work (librarian, clockmaker, baker, teacher's aide, temple assistant), they cannot directly handle money to pay for things for themselves (but can work a cash register), and can only own used goods (food, fuel, and Reki's cigarettes notwithstanding).

The Haibane each, individually, eventually undertake a "Day of Flight" and lose their wings and halo and ascend past the walls, once they've accomplished whatever it is they were supposed to accomplish.  No one knows where they go after their Flight.

The idea being that the remaining 5 Haibane (Rakka, Reki, Nemu, Hikari, Kana) -- after Kuu took hers early on in the series -- have each undergone their Flight, only to all all show up in Manhattan at the same time, same place, broke, in need of a place to stay, and thoroughly confused as to why there's no walls on Wall St.

It'd be a slice-of-life addition to KanriKyara, with five young women (I believe Rakka is 15(?) with Nemu at 21(?) and Reki (20?) -- those two are old enough to buy liquor, at least), with their halos and itty-bitty wings back on, adjusting to the mundane aspects of 2016 (or is it 2026 by now?), and trying to figure out why they've got the wings and halos back.

Not sure, though, if this would fit in given the rest of the characters listed on the Wiki.

This story is available on AO3

A while back we had a pretty long thread of "what would this title be about" but this one kind of needs the description to go with it:

"The Smoking Gun"
cover image is a revolver with a lit cigarette in the barrel

I can't come up with anything better than a tropey noir detective mystery, but I'm sure someone can.

And of course, chime in if you have any odd or interesting image/title/combos but nothing particularly hook-y of your own. It was a lot of fun the first time around even if it did eventually run out of steam, but a few years might have let some batteries recharge.

It seems odd to start a Dearly Departed thread with somebody like this...

Aldrich Ames, CIA turncoat.

Died in prison.