Because this doesn't fit nicely anywhere else - some place to talk about taking off-the-shelf resources and turning them into art for TNB.

Keep in mind that I use Daz Studio, but I have the filters that allow use of some resources for Autodesk or Blender.

...and Trump publicly says the words "I didn’t win the election."

Of course, in the same breath he insists it was still rigged.

Apparently, Muse Records released a collection of 50 covers of 4'33" back in 2019.

He's a child of Chinese and Canadian parents.

She's the child of a deaf mother and her first language was Pidgin Signed English.

They fight racism and ableism!

Not a joke: Ian Griffiths and Amy Braun are "HALF/ASIAN with Amy the CODA" (official website and Youtube channel).

Which, for our purposes, raises a question...

Doug only gets powers from music if he understands the lyrics. Do the lyrics need to be sung, or can they be signed? (And does Doug know any sign languages?)

I notice that we're coming right up on 200 users and 200,000 posts overall, according to the stats at the bottom of the top level page. Get your noisemakers and party hats ready!

edit: I finally remembered the word I goddamn meant to use for the title. That's been bothering me ever since.

The Terror Of MAPSERVER!

They say you should always start by writing the end of your story first.

Anyone here ever heard of A Silver Mt. Zion?  Very very indy group up in Canada.  I can't really do them justice - you have to listen to them yourselves.  I highly recommend you start with their first two albums.

The reason why i bring them up is because I recently listened to their fourth album, Horses In The Sky, and the last few minutes of the first track (starting at the eight minute mark) has this round going:

When the world is sick
Can no one be well?
But I dreamt we were so beautiful and strong.

And so I have this scene in my head of a possible, final fight with Salem...

"So.  Here we are once again.  I never thought I would have someone be an even greater thorn in my side than Oz, but you have never ceased to surprise me, Benjamin."

"You honestly think I'm about to kick the bucket already?" said Benjamin through clenched teeth as he slowly levered himself up.

"Do you honestly think you have much more to give?"

"Salem, you should know by now how capable I am of dissociating.  You'll need to burn me to ashes first.  And your pet fire maiden ain't around this time."

"Hmph.  I can do that just fine on my own."

"Actually, you can't," said Ben with a grin.  "Because we're both Writers here.  The most powerful ones, in fact.  Which means we're pretty evenly matched.  But there's a critical difference between you and me."

"Oh?  And what's that, praytell."

"Haven't you ever noticed how many red strings of fate I got coming off my fingers?  You love no one.  You use people up and discard them.  But every connection I make?  That is something precious to me.  I never abandoned any friend that didn't betray me.  And in return?  They will come running when I call them."

"Your 'friends' are all busy with other things.  I made sure of that this time."

"Then you don't know me very well, Salem.  I've said it once and I'll say it before: Ganesha ain't got shit on me.  I don't just remove obstacles, I fucking obliterate them with extreme prejudice."

"You can't be everywhere at once!"

"No, maybe I can't.  But I'm also more diabolical than you can ever be, even on a good day.  It's not the one 'Me' you should worry about.  Instead, it's the infinite number of 'Me' from all the possibilities to ever exist."

"...no.  That's not possible!  This universe is completely self-contained!"

"Heh-heh-heh.  Like I said.  I'm more diabolical than you can ever be.  And when someone tells me something isn't possible?  That just means that they haven't figured out the cheat that makes it possible.  And I'm all about the cheating."

And then from just about anywhere and everywhere, they start arriving.  His wives.  His children.  His grandchildren.  His brothers and sisters.  His friends.  All of them sent by Benjamins that came from other universes.  The weak ones.  The strong ones.  The dumb ones.  The smart ones.  Each of them was a solution to a particular obstacle that Salem had placed.

And in the mean time, Benjamin is putting out the most powerful anti-magic field he's ever mustered up, burning himself out in order to pull it off, just so that Salem can't launch a preemptive attack on the new arrivals or make an escape.

And the entire time he's doing that, he's singing that round.  And as they all gather, all of them readying their most powerful attacks, they're joining him in the round.

"When the world is sick, can no one be well?  But I dreamt that we were so beautiful and strong."

It's a bit like that line from another one of my favorite songs, "Defend Atlantis" by the Flobots: "Survival, we unified to focus on.  And the voices were many, but we spoke as one."

Salem is defeated.  But a compromise is proposed: a counter-universe to act as a yang to their universe's ying.  Darkness and Light have their own places, though a small bit of contamination (the dots in the ying-yang) is allowed to keep both from stagnating.

In this, true balance is achieved.  Most people in both universes can live good lives.  And there is still need for "Heroes" on both sides.

Whatcha think?

Today's the day to final bring an old idea I had to the table.


-----


From: jet.jaguar@friggarock.fen
to: [Undisclosed recipients]
Date: 01/04/2025
Subj: Our recent charter with the Tsoukalos institute. (Keep this to yourself)

Hi All,.

So, I'm sure you've all heard that Lun was recently charted by Doctor Katsuragi of the Tsoukalos Institute for Extra-Terrestrial Archaeology.  Doctor Katsuragi has been studying the Builder architecture, and has already authoured a number of papers on the ruins of the Arcadian Gate.

While the official announcement is still working its way through the proper channels, I think I can safely share a little preview amongst ourselves. If only because this changes everything

Lun was performing calibration runs over Earth. She detected a Gate Metal signature, which we initially thought was a false positive. A second calibration run with a ten kilogram sample on the lunar surface confirmed the sensors were properly aligned, and that the detection was correct.

There's something under the ice-sheets of Antarctica. And it's something very large, and almost certainly something intact. A basic sounding suggests it's speherical, with a radius of approximately 14 kilometres, with an active Skuldium signature.

Not only is whatever this is intact, but it's drawing sufficient energy off Earth's mantle to provide a strong power signature - detectable from Geosynchronous orbit. We had to be within 10 kilometres to detect the Arcadian wreckage.

Dr. Katsuragi has been encouraged to keep his mouth shut but -  the mundanes are going to have an absolute cat when this gets out and this is always going to get out. We can't exactly sit on this thing forever, can we? Someone is going to leak.

For the time being, I'd like to put together an expedition to go down there and figure out just what the fuck is under that ice - before the planetary gold rush begins and the world powers start tearing themselves apart. Perhaps we can figure out what the hell it was, or is, and what it does?

I've attached an a link to an archive containing Luns findings. Hopefully sharper minds will be able to make something of this. Applications for participants are open - and places are limited. Lun is not a big ship - and if we go down in force we will attract attention.

But this thing could be a new genesis.

-Jet
------

AntarcticFindings.zip

Doctor Who TV (website)

https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who...diJ2LCiNpo

Pope Francis apologizes for the church's role in the Canadian residential school system

Thread title is a translation of part of the statement of apology.