Paprika is an excellent movie. I highly recommend it, in large part because it manages to be quite disturbing while also being hugely entertaining. In this the song "Parade" is a microcosm of the film as a whole. These are the translated lyrics:

Quote:Energy in my heart is of chemical foam
A street of taxies, worn tires, blood and flesh
Behold all that is liberty is a parody of utopia
A shining boulevard of buyers and giga-movies
Mino Depression is nonsense, La Vie en Rose is on sale
They say you should know you are happier than you realize

Dying literacy is systematically auto-killed
The formaldehyde street of buyers and hanging wires
Moisturize that dry synergy with artificial sweetener
Raining money into the high-rise mega-temples

You can not write the word 'ignorance'. The future is on sale
Push aside and laugh at the karmic tale saying it’s superstition

Now it is coming to you, giving off a stench and devouring your shadow
The parade of terror is coming, and it is in your name

The roaring MC becomes a lethal dose for the public
On the street of cripples, selling diamonds and battered Tao
Behold all that is liberty is a parody of utopia
Rely on SSRI and say "hi-ho" in the coffee shop

Minor theory is flimflam, hedonism is on sale
It is non-repayable, it has reached the point of no return

Now it is coming to you giving off a stench, devouring your shadow
The parade of terror is coming, and it is in your name
Now your shadow procreates as if the ground is being smothered
The parade of lunacy is coming, and it is in your name

I was re-reading drakensis' fic The Night The House of Cards Was Built and it occurred to me that I'd seen this story, at least in broad strokes, before. Chilord's Poker Knight and a Harry Potter fic that I don't recall the title or author of.

So I'm wondering, is this a common trope? Is there a whole raft of fics in which the hero is empowered by being extremely successful at a game of poker?

http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Th ... uter_Space

Assume some method is developed to pass information through time, and (after exploiting it for himself, by winning every lottery and sports event bet in $region) the inventor has set up a telephone sevice so anyone can call themselves up 24 hours in the future. What changes does this cause? The idea occurred to me while cooking just now, but actually mapping out the consequences has me boggled, beyond utterly killing the business model of lotteries and sports betting as mentioned above, accidents and disasters could be headed off or mitigated, and restaurateurs or similar make-and-immediately-sell businesses would be able to prepare exactly as much as they needed, reducing waste. Paradoxes are forcibly ironed out, frex a policeman calling Tomorrowphone would be told by his future self that he stopped two burglaries and a murder because his past self called and found out where and when to be to do so.

Discuss?

- CD
--
"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

yeah, like the title says, gonna be in and out for a little bit.  Now its not that I'm on vacation or anything, i just did a big CPU upgrade and am working the kinks out of the system, reinstalling my games, etc etc.  So, if you do see me on, NO team or TF invites please, atleast until i mention otherwise (this means you, Terr!)
Dren
*********************
In the epic rage of furious thunder
legends create their tales
when the twilight calls and the dark lord falls
our glory will prevail

I don't normally start political threads here, but I think it's important enough I'm gonna start one now.
http://www.salon.com/2012...birth_control/singleton/
Dan Savage, it's time to redefine the word Rick now.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

Quote:The Development Team is currently working on a resolution for the issue of "yearly" Veteran Reward badges not being granted to any players. Once a fix has been completed and tested, it will be made available in a future patch to the live servers. 
Please keep posted to the City of Heroes message board and website at http://www.cityofheroes.com for any updates to when a fix will be implemented.  

Ok, sorry if this should be appended to an existing topic. But I'm on my mobile device (only reason I realized it was happening) and looking though all the existing topics would take far too long.

In the last post in our current pony thread i get sent to:
(linebreaks inserted after the equal signs to prevent this post from mangling page layout)

http://www.theregister.co.../01/03/rip_bob_anderson/
--
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

From the RPG.net forums. I can regognise a scary amount, but can't be assed.