Fifty years today, Yuri Gagarin blasted off in Vostok 1 from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In 108 minutes he orbited the Earth and safely returned. Since then, livable stations have been built in orbit around our planet and people have personally visited the god**** moon. Here's to the first explorer of space, and to another fifty years of manned exploration of the cosmos!

For the videos that belong here instead of in GenChat.

First up, left-wing musicians and right-wing commentator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdkGE5bItyE
--
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

First... imagine a movie with Mickey Rourke as the good guy and Bill Murray as the bad guy, fighting over a fallen angel played by Megan Fox.  They're calling it http://io9.com/#!5790791/watch-bill-mur ... -megan-fox]Passion Play.
And WETA Workshop's released http://io9.com/#!5790898/first-video-of ... f-the-apes]five entire seconds of test footage from the in-production Rise of the Planet of the Apes that would probably look creepy if it lasted a little longer.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Found an awesome thread on the forums that gives pretty much all the information you could need/want for all the current Incarnate abilities. Very informative.
 http://boards.cityofheroe.../showthread.php?t=257011

If you haven't, go check it out. 

Called Dance of Shiva (or DOS).  Massive crossover featuring Bubblegum Crisis, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo and others.  I just lost my entire fanfic directory and it is one of the stories I want back as I rebuild it.  So if someone can send be a link it would be greatly apprecated.

The sticky post for Drunkard's Walk V has somehow found its way into the Drunkard's Walk XIII forum...

I cannot believe it isn't here (I thought I got it from either here or Drunkard's Walk itself to begin with, fer cryin' out loud!), but I tried Google, the board search, and visually scanning the first fifteen pages of the thread list, and Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel) by Kansas was nowhere to be found.

Quote:Early in the morning sunlight
Soaring on the wings of dawn
Here I'll live and die with my wings in the sky
And I won't come down no more

Higher than a bird I'm flying
Crimson skies of ice and fire
Borne on wings of steel I have so much to feel
And I won't come down no more

Sail on, sail on
I will rise each day to meet the dawn
So high, so high
I've climbed the mountains of the sky
Without my wings you know I'd surely die
I found my freedom flyin' high
I've climbed the mountains of the sky

Floating on the clouds of amber
Searching for the rainbow's end
Earth so far below me,
I'm here alone and I,
I won't come down no more

Sail on, sail on
I will rise each day to meet the dawn
So high, so high
I've climbed the mountains of the sky
Without my wings you know I'd surely die
I found my freedom flyin' high
I've climbed the mountains of the sky

I'm sure folks remember the thread we had (about a year ago?) launched by an article that boiled down the differences between a classic hero and a classic villain to a difference of position on the empathy scale.
The author of that article has a new one in Scientific American; I'm not sure it actually covers new ground, but it's still an interesting read.
Just in case folks are still interested.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

... that more than triples fuel efficiency, does not require extensive cooling and other support systems, and doesn't even need spark plugs.  They hope to have it scaled up to a 25KW version within two years, which will make it commercially viable for hybrid and gas-supported "full electric" vehicles.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42460541/ns ... innovation]Details here.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.