Quote of the day - From Gryphon: 

I don't often do this sort of thing - wholesale copy/paste of something someone else has posted, that is. Unless it's very, very, VERY good, and I both want to pass it on, and think the particular group of people to whom I'm posting it will both appreciate it and might not have seen it. All of which I suppose is a roundabout way of apologizing for not being able to add anything further to this in any creative way. 

Quote:"It's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That's false, tragically false. Look for yourself! This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.

"Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known, we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: 'I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.'

"I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the pushbutton order and the human act. We have to touch people."

- the late Jacob Bronowski summarizes the ethical meaning and importance of the scientific principle of uncertainty, in 1973's The Ascent of Man

Quote:[table]

New York State Senator Jim Alesi (R-Perinton) is now under fire, facing calls to resign.
Why?
Three years ago, he broke into an under-construction house for no sufficiently explained reason, and broke his leg while trying to climb an unsecured ladder. The owners declined to press charges for trespass.
Now, three years later -- after the criminal statute of limitations has expired, the civil statute of limitations has expired, and his own election to another full term in the NY State Senate is secure -- he is suing the homeowners and construction contractors for not keeping a safe working site.
That he had no right or reason to be in in the first place.
I'm glad I don't live in Perinton.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... olves.html

Okay, people, this is the official thread in which to post those "Gee, I wish the author would pick this back up again" comments.  For reference, here's the old Dead Fic Zombification thread, but please don't resurrect that one.  Feel free, however, to copy favorites over from it to this thread.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Wow.
I just did a search on all posts I made to these forums back when I went by the handle, NeoravenK7 (dear God, it was six years ago!) and found some interesting stuff.
My old multi-crossover project while in it's infancy... I might still revive it someday: http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1560
The Macross SEED Project by Vales - I really would like to see this one revived! http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1391
An awesome Ranma/Final Fantasy X-over plotbunny by Evil Midnight Lurker - DUDE! WTH? We all liked this one! http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1548
Last, but not least, another plotbunny of mine to X-over Diane Duane's Young Wizards series with Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns: http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1554
So yeah... just thought I'd share a bit of the old niftiness I was involved with/responsible for on the boards a while back.  I'm especially pleased about the first one because I had lost nearly all the original material due to a drive failure.  (I may be able to recover it, though - the failure is strictly on the controller board of the drive.  I know because I was looking at it when I saw the chip turn into a white-hot ember.)

A while ago we had a thread with a list of dead fics, or at least fics that hadn't updated in so long and their authors seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet.
Anyone up for having a stickified thread to list such fics?  Reason being, seeing as a fic is abandoned then it is likely up for adoption, if you know what I mean.  Really, there's one or two fics out there I'd like to take on myself.

I'm having a problem intalling the new 2010 Turbo tax. Turbo  tax had a workaround..tried it and no go. Just thought I'd tell you guys this. I think I'll swap it out for H&R block tomorrow.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

WARNING: Not Safe For Work! But hilarious!

Hail to the King, Baby! 

While updating the FenWiki today, a thought occurred to me. There's no way that http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Project_OV-200]Hephaestus is going to build Shuttles for just the VVS and Artemis (and one for Starfleet) - it's silly to set up the assembly line and then run off just four ships. (Yes, I know that's what happened in real life. These are Fen we're discussing, not 'Danes.) So it's reasonable (for a Fen definition of "reasonable") to assume there are more Shuttles flying around out there.

But who owns them (they are expensive ships, after all), and what are they named?

The Soviet Air Force would be more likely to own the [link=Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105]Dyna-Soar and the Spiral[/url] than anyone else would. There's no way that Noah would name a Shuttle http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186566/]Daedalus or http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079574/]Moonraker 5, so let's let some random wealthy Fen buy those. (There aren't any other fictional Shuttles out there, to my knowledge. Digression: Oddly enough, the only three works I'm aware of that reference a real Shuttle - the novel Shuttle Down, the movie SpaceCamp, and the anime Rocket Girls - all reference Atlantis; why is that Shuttle so special?)

I'd like to add a couple of Shuttles to the Artemis fleet, but I have no idea what to name them - any suggestions? And who else would own a Shuttle (and what would they name it, other than Daedalus or Moonraker 5)? I suspect some of those ultra-rich folks living in the more exclusive L5 stations or on Pallas might own Shuttles, just because nobody else does...

(Edit: What? Yes, I am looking for an excuse to use http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail ... iaid=37452]this photo. Why do you ask?)
--
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

May be about to go boom. Or more precisely, 'soon' in an astronomical sense. It does appear to be shedding mass and beginning to collapse in on itself. That said, nobody's quite able to predict how one of these will behave when it collapses, just that it probably won't happen next year. (Or at least, the light won't reach us next year, it might already have gone pop)

I for one am hoping for a rather impressive light show sometime in my lifetime.

http://www.huffingtonpost...twin-stars_n_811864.html

http://www.news.com.au/te...y-fn5fsgyc-1225992757166
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?