Apparently at least two bombs were set off as runners began crossing the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
NY TimesLA TimesHuff Post
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

I'm in the middle of playing it right now... I think I'm fairly close to the end, if the other two games in the series are anything to go by.  (I pretty much shotgunned the first two games sequentially before going on to play Infinite.)
Now, even more than the other two Bioshock games... this has a palpable sense of bad going to worse all the time.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that any of you who play this will have a series of "Oh FUCK" moments where the F-bomb becomes increasingly emphasized in fervor with each major plot point.
Bioshock's Good End was indeed a good end.
Bioshock 2's Good End was bittersweet and a borderline tearjerker.
I am hoping that Inifinite's Good End doesn't rip my heart out and stomp on it.

Saw this 3D model, and thought "Roughriders base"... but it's a bit pricey so I don't want to buy it if you don't agree with me. What do you think?

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/suprastation/55965




--
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

What do you think, someone building the small vehicle T.C. uses for Fenspace? Maybe as a short ranged scout or even a sports vehicle.
(without the guns of course)

(edited title)

We've been down this road before. 

Don't be fooled. Gun confiscation has already begun in NYPOSTED AT 11:31 AM ON APRIL 13, 2013 BY JAZZ SHAW

We've heard it over and over again, particularly on shows like Morning Joe. Anyone who thinks that the government is "coming to take your guns" is a paranoid loon, watching for black helicopters and guarding their sheep from soldiers. Unfortunately for those formerly right leaning, Second Amendment minded folks who bought into this story, reality has come screaming up from behind well ahead of schedule.
Following the passage of "The SAFE Act" in New York State, Big Brother got busy pretty quickly grabbing up the guns. Of course nobody was reporting on it very much until they managed tocollect them from the wrong guy and a judge made them give them back.

Quote:BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Thursday, a state Supreme Court Judge ruled guns seized from David Lewis, 35, must be returned to him after he was incorrectly identified as violating the mental health provision of the SAFE Act.
"We know that from the health care agency to the State Police, there was some kind of breach," said Lewis' attorney, Jim Tresmond.

Quote:Tresmond says his client was ordered to turn in his weapons last week because he was once on anti-anxiety medication, which is a violation of the SAFE Act. Wednesday, State Police informed the Erie County Clerk's Office that it made a mistake when it said Lewis was in violation of the state's new gun law.

Quote:The NY SAFE Act requires "mental health professionals, in the exercise of reasonable professional judgment, to report if an individual they are treating is likely to engage in conduct that will cause serious harm to him- or herself or others."
If such a determination is made, "the Division of Criminal Justice Services will determine whether the person possesses a firearms license and, if so, will notify the appropriate local licensing official, who must suspend the license. The person's firearms will then be removed."
The law has come under fire from gun-rights advocates as well as mental health professionals, who fear the new law discourages people from seeking professional help for mental health issues.

Quote:The SAFE Act in particular seems to me to be overly broad in defining what qualifies as a reportable condition. It's one thing for a person who is delusional on the level of a Seung-Hui Choi or Jared Loughner to be caught up in the net, it is quite another for someone who was apparently merely on an anti-anxiety drug to have their Constitutional rights limited. If taking that kind of medication is enough to get you on a list, then what about the millions upon millions of Americans who are on some form of anti-depressant or who take medication that alters their mood in any manner? Are they going to get put on a government list too, and what, exactly, is the government going to do with that list? History is replete with examples of psychiatry being abused by the state, and the danger of abuse becomes even higher when the law broadens the number of conditions that are reportable to the state.

Quote:Number one question for those who favor "universal background checks" – how do you enforce them?In other words, how will authorities know if an individual who possesses a firearm submitted to a background check?If they can answer this question without needing to resort to a database, or a registry, then I am all ears.

Quote:Finch: "...It's like I could see the whole thing, one long chain of events that stretched all the way back... I felt like I could see everything that happened, and everything that is going to happen. It was like a perfect pattern, laid out in front of me. And I realized we're all part of it, and all trapped by it.

Dominic: So do you know what's gonna happen?

Finch: No, it was a feeling. But I can guess. ...someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty. And then... 

I'm sure this topic has come up before, but how do various factions celebrate Yuri's Night? I'm sure the Space History Reenactment Group stages a Vostok launch every year, possibly with the assistance of the Russian Federal Space Agency (we don't have a lot of material on Russian attitudes towards the Fen, so it's possible). The Man Conquers Space fen might do something similar: tooling around the solar system in your 'wave-free spacecraft is nice and all, but the real test is launching from Earth.How do other factions celebrate Gagarin's Flight? The traditional fireworks are a Bad Idea in traditional warren-like space stations, and could be uncomfortable even in exceedingly large domes like Grovers' Corners.

Because it's never too early to start anticipating shenanigans.
Coming fresh off of their amazing run on Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, David Productions is bringing us the animated adaptation of what may be the single most bizarre video game ever created.
Hyperdimension Neptunia
Remember Captain N?  It's kind of like that.  Except both a satire AND a celebration.  And the Gamemasters are all native.  And Nanoha-style magical girls.
Our heroine is Neptune, symbolic of Sega's never-launched Neptune console, the goddess (Console Patron Unit) of Planeptune. She's a self-aware JRPG protagonist who would much rather chill out and relax. She is also the slightly daft, pudding obsessed, glue that keeps the goddesses of Lowee (Nintendo), Leanbox (Microsoft) and Lastation (Sony) from murdering each other. We're never entirely sure if her being stupid is all an act to cover for her not wanting to actually get involved in serious fights outside of saving the world or not.
(No word if Keiji Inafune and his friends will be making an appearance, yet...)
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

I got to thinking about something just a few minutes ago. We all know from reading the first chapter of Glory Hound how much stuff Doug has stored in his bike's panniers, right? We also know the kinda guy he is and that he isn't just scraping by and trying to survive in all the worlds he visits. My question is: How much of that stuff in the panniers is souvenirs, what is it, and who is it for?
I, for one, foresee him picking up a few things for Dwimanor in Harry Potter and Rune Soldier...
Doug: "Oh, come on - if I didn't bring him back some spell books and trinkets from those places he'd change all my Coke into moose piss!"
Edit: I'd say a bigger-on-the-inside trunk with spell books, magical history and theory books, and a few books on magical animals and plants with maybe a few long-term preserved apothecary purchases to go with them from HPland. From Forceria... maybe some religious texts for Research Theology purposes?

Jonathan Winters has died.  Goodbye, Maude Frickert.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

While I wait for some feedback, I plan to create a couple of wiki entries for things and persons from "The Gas Station" story... here is the first one.

##########

Aurora Station

{{shipbox
|shipname=Aurora Station
|shipimage=
|caption=
|hull=
|length=
|width=
|height=
|mass=
|drivetype=none
|driverating=
|weapons=none
|manufacturer=ESA/JAXA, some help by Catgirl Industries
|owner=ESA/JAXA
|flag=European Union/Japan
|faction=Daneverse
|registry=Aurora-01-Pan
|datelaunched=Autumn 2018
|purpose=Helium-3 mining on Saturn
|crew=24
|supcrew=
|auxvehicles=Saturn Skipper
|status='''Active'''
}}

Built into the icy depths of the Saturn moon Pan, the Aurora station is the farthest known outpost completely owned by a Daneverse faction. The European Union and Japan started building the station in December 2017, making multiple supply runs with their fleet of ISVs to bring hundreds of tons of cargo to Pan. ESA and Jaxa had decided to hire a the Catgirl Industries space station Jenga to support the astronauts, but the station itself was designed as a pure hardtech construction which could be used as a forward base around Saturn later without Fen involvement. But someone else had different plans.

On April 19th 2018 an unknown faction attacked the construction site with a powerful kinetic weapon system. While the attack was partly deflected by a shot from Jenga, it still injured many astronauts and damaged a lot of equipment. One astronaut, Ms. Sarah Meier, had to get an emergency biomod to be rescued. Still, with the help of the catgirls and a lot of improvisation, the station was finished in late 2018.

Helium-3 mining

Aurora is part of the European Union’s and Japan’s plan to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels and nuclear fission. It is the job of Aurora’s crew to gather Helium-3 in the atmosphere of Saturn and deliver it back home with the help of the ISVs.

The station is home of an aerodynamic spaceship that use a fusion powered ramjet to dive through the atmosphere of the gas giant and gather the precious gas in its tanks. The vehicle was assembled on the station during its construction time and gathered the first Helium-3 in late 2018, which was instantly transported back on the Ferdinand Magellan to Earth.

There is enough space for a second Saturn skimmer on Aurora and the station crew is already thinking about adding a second hangar to house two more of them.

The station

Aurora is a series of tubes deep under the ice of Pan. While the original plans had called a placement of the station at a depth of thirty to fifty meters, the attack on the station forced a modification of the original layout.

The main entrance tunnel is a steel clad cylinder that leads to the hangar for the Skimmers 60 meters below the ice. Another tunnel, not parallel to the first one to mitigate any potential accident, connects the hangar to the rest of the station another 60 meters deeper below the surface. All of Aurora’s infrastructure and living space is down there, fueled by its own fusion reactor. Together with the nearly infinite amount of ice to melt and process the station can hold out on its own for a long time on its stocks.

Aurora was designed to house 32 people permanently with up to 12 additional temporary guest. Because of the damage the equipment took during the attack on Pan, ESA and JAXA officially limited it to 30 people at the moment.

The station is equipped with the latest 3D rapid prototyping hardware Europe and Japan could built in 2017. With the large storage of raw metals they bought from the Fen, the station is able to repair and duplicate most of the technology on board. One part of the local science program is about finding ways to produce replacements for everything on board, including the 3D prototyping machine itself.

The only part of the station that is on the surface of Pan is a set of large communication antennas, which allow the astronauts to get a direct connection back to Earth via radio. A smaller second tunnel connects the communication and sensor array on the surface through a curved tube with the station below the ice.

Aurora 2

While the Aurora station does not contain any Handwavium, except for the biomodded Sarah Meier, the statement is a misdirection at best. Faced with a lot of damaged or even destroyed equipment during the construction of the station, its first leader Eric Hunt decided to choose a more drastic way than he could ask Earth for.

Aurora 2 is is single Module of the space station Jenga that has been buried alongside the Aurora station to be used as an independent second living space for the crew of Aurora. While most esoteric Fen-technology has been removed from the module, it is still capable of providing artificial gravity and life support for the whole crew. In addition to this it contains a small communication room that can be used by the crew to access the Interwave and get readouts from a series of sensor satellites in above and below the rings of Saturn near Pan.

Trivia

• Both tunnels from the surface to the station are normally closed by two large doors, one at the surface and one at the bottom. They also both point towards Saturn to make it impossible for long range bombardment to fire down the tunnel.
  
• The tunnels and the hangar space are not filled with an atmosphere, but the crew is discussing to add this feature to the hangar.
  
• Captain Eric Hunt is thinking about monetizing their access to their 3D printer by accepting orders from the Fen.
  
• The sensor satellites are on loan from Galactic Republic on Coruscant. As part of the agreement, they receive copies of all sensor data.