While Irish politics means as much to you as the weather in Scotland, I thought this was a rather interesting referendum coming, hidden alongside tomorrow's presidental election.

Currently, inquiry's are instead handled through the judiciary, with a tribunal being warranted to prepare a report to be published publicly. Anyone called before a tribunal is entitled to their legal representation and legal rights. They're regarded as a bit toothless, not being able to punish, only to report on what happened, which goes in to shaping government policy. Partly, this is because the constitution never gave the houses of government the power to establish their own inquiry's within themselves. Currently, you can not be required to testify before the Dáil, or the Seanad in this country.

But not for long, because tomorrow, this little amendment to the constitution is going to the vote tomorrow.

Quote:At present, Article 15.10 states:
“Each House shall make its own rules and standing orders, with power to attach penalties for their infringement, and shall have power to ensure freedom of debate, to protect its official documents and the private papers of its members, and to protect itself and its members against any person or persons interfering with, molesting or attempting to corrupt its members in the exercise of their duties.”

It is proposed to renumber this as 15.10.1° and to insert the following subsections:

2° Each House shall have the power to conduct an inquiry, or an inquiry with the other House, in a manner provided for by law, into any matter stated by the House or Houses concerned to be of general public importance.
3° In the course of any such inquiry the conduct of any person (whether or not a member of either House) may be investigated and the House or Houses concerned may make findings in respect of the conduct of that person concerning the matter to which the inquiry relates.
4° It shall be for the House or Houses concerned to determine, with due regard to the principles of fair procedures, the appropriate balance between the rights of persons and the public interest for the purposes of ensuring an effective inquiry into any matter to which subsection 2° applies.

Weird problem. The last few days when I try to view the forums, my browser Opera gives me a Wrong Certificate error, from some random website that looks like ad content. I would reject it then could browse like normal. Today though the forums do not come up at all, and only a tiny ad banner and a brief text line welcoming me to yuku are on the page. everything else is blank white space. Google Chrome seems to read the site as normal. I realize Opera isn't exactly mainstream but why this randomly started happening is confusing. I deleted my cookies for yuku and emptied my browser cache.
---
Jon
"And that must have caused my dad's brain to break in half, replaced by a purely mechanical engine of revenge!"

Hey all,
You may have noticed, but it seems I'm getting frustrated more and more in game of late.
Well, I think I'm suffering the first stages of COH burnout. I've been playing 10-12 hours a day since late June/early July, and I think I need a rest.
Anarchy Online is patching their Halloween stuff in game tomorrow, so I think I'll mosey over there and spend a couple weeks over there killing Uncle Pumpkin Head, and trying the last couple of patches I ignored since AO's Anniversary in June.
I'll probably check the stores on Tuesdays for goodies, but that's about it.
See you in a couple of weeks.

So! Most of you probably don't remember this, but around six-seven years ago there was another group project hosted on these boards called Shining Spiral. One of Valles' brainchildren, as I recall, it was a mega-fusion story in the UF vein with lots of different source materials duking it out in the Ultimate Showdown, etc. It flickered for a bit, faded & died out after producing some brainstorming & a few maps.

Flash forward to today. I'm sitting at home waiting for Comcast to get their thumbs out of their asses & fix my broadband, when I stumbled upon an ancient & dusty file folder containing a bunch of Shining Spiral stuff. Most of it's not really worth sharing, but on a years-later reread, I kind of liked it. So now I'm sharing it with you. Enjoy.

Quote:"They say the only thing worth going to Arakkis for is the spice. And even that doesn't make up for life out on the desert. The combination of melange and raw, searing heat has a nasty tendency to drive the poor bastards who come to Dune in droves completely out of their skulls. The problem's so bad, they say, that most of the spice production has to be done by the native population. And the natives are already mad.

"That said, I was a man on a Mission. ZONet had told me that there was an interview waiting for me out here at the ass end of everywhere, so there I was. Sitting at the Arrakeen spaceport bar sipping a beer and trying not to let the spice content screw with my brain.

"After about six hours of this, a local in one of those funky plastic suits slipped onto the seat next to me and ordered a beer.

"'Are you the Humanx reporter?' the guy asked. I tossed him my card, he looked at it. The guy looks back at me with those blue-on-blue eyes that come from a deep and abiding melange habit. 'Follow me, He is waiting to speak with you.'

"The way this joker said He made me think that this gig wasn't the complete waste of time I thought it would be. Of all the people in the Taiidani Empire, there's only one man who the natives of Arakkis would refer to as 'He.' So I paid off the bartender and followed him. We walked through the winding streets until we came to a literal hole in the old masonry wall surrponding the city.

"It was at this point that the bastard threw a hood over my head and shoved me through. I landed in the back of what felt like an old truck, and then I was taken somewhere. After about an hour of bouncing around in the back of this damned thing, we arrived at our destination. I was tossed out with little fanfare or regard for my comfort, and the hood removed.

"Apparently I'd been taken to somebody's idea of a Resistance stronghold. Big old building carved out of a sheer clif face, looking out over the open desert. Very pretty. I was escorted from the entryway to an open foyer in the middle of the building. There, on a sort of throne carved out of the same rock as the cliff, was my interview subject. The man who had birthed and led uprising after uprising on his native Arakkis, and had made complete fools out of the Harkonnens and the Imperial Army. A man who claimed to be the dispossesed scion of an ancient imperial Clan, whom his followers claimed was the right hand of God and knew the future. A man whose followers would kill and die for without any hesitation at all. And supposedly the one person at the top of Empress Lionstone's "sleep with then kill" list.

"I was looking into the calm blue eyes of Anakin Skywalker, known better as Muad'Dib."

--Copernicus Jones, "Lonely Spiral"

1. Go down with the flu.
2. Get over the flue faster than you thought.  Go on a long road trip.
3. Avoid smashing into the back of a vehicle in the merge lane when he decided to stop suddenly....only to find out what a pinball feels like when another vehicle crashes into you and you crash into the vehicle  in front of you.
4. All 3 vehicles will probably have to be written off.
I should had just stayed in bed.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

This is a stray thought that came to me while I was posting in the Occupy thread a few moments ago.

Disney Corp. and Disney's World boast "All of the magic and none of the danger", and make a point of having no handwavium in any of their installations.

Does that extend to Fen with biomods?  Is Disney doing all its hiring from Earth and those Fen who can prove they're not modded?  And what kind of reaction would that prompt in other Fen?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I think this song's effect needs no explanation.


Shoo-be-doo...
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

In the ongoing quest to get some content for the less-populated sections of the FenWiki, I just put http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegal ... _2087.html]this image on http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=107_Piscis]the 107 Piscis page.

The page is pretty much a blank slate - it only has the SolStation writeup of the star, which is a placeholder for real content - so there's plenty of room for creativity. Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to tell me about 107 Piscis.
--
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

Here's a thread for in-universe commercials, for businesses that likely exist but aren't important enough to turn into even background elements.

The first business is one that I'm stealing from Dragonflight (who is still working on Dead Bang, yes). The spokesperson is my own choice:

Quote:Hello, I'm Fatima Nuygen, host of FTL Newsfeed. I know the importance of saving money when I travel, so whenever I visit the Village of Hidden Asteroid, I stay at Hellsing's coffin-hotel.

Considering how soon after the divergence point (between OTL and Fenspace) the Occupy -wherever- movement started, I assume it also happened in Fenspace... but this is all I can come up with.

"We're less than 1% of the population of Earth! How can anyone up here claim to be part of the 99%?"

"That's a different 99% and you know it, Chris. Why are you so upset, anyway?"

"Because they're blocking access to parts of my station. Why are you not upset, Noah?"

"The 'Occupy Stellvia' crowd are buying my food and giving me valuable ... biosolids. I'm turning a profit on the deal. Besides, they know I can vent any part of the station to space as a crowd-control measure - not that I actually would, mind you - so they're well-behaved."

"Well, I don't have that threat on Greenwood."

Anyone have any more, or want to turn this into a short story?
--
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