Apparently http://perezhilton.com/2010-08-09-quant ... -the-movie]Donald Bellisario's announced that he's working on a script for a motion picture version of Quantum Leap.  Unfortunately, other than the obvious announcement that the original cast is a bit too old to take over their original roles, there seems to be nothing more available on this.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

This one's for chemists who are also anime fans.

http://img1.sankakustatic.com/wp-conten ... acters.jpg]%[link=http://img1.sankakustatic.com/wp-content/gallery/safe-misc-vii/the-periodic-table-of-japanese-characters.jpg]http://img1.sankakustatic.com/wp-conten ... acters.jpg]

(I actually had to think about the choice for "Pb" for a moment... until I applied the stereotypical Japanese "problem" with R and L. It would have been nice if whoever put this together didn't have to resort to the stereotype...)
--
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

Current media narrative on the Ground Zero mosque: Shining beacon of liberal values bursting through the overcast skies of American intolerance.
What do you want to bet that the media narrative on the GG gay bar will be: Dangerous provocation that needlessly inflames cultural tensions in the ostensible service of liberal values.

How very insensitive.

Quote:I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men. To best express my sincere desire for dialogue, the bar will be situated next to the mosque Park51, in an available commercial space.

This is not a joke. I’ve already spoken to a number of investors, who have pledged their support in this bipartisan bid for understanding and tolerance.

As you know, the Muslim faith doesn’t look kindly upon homosexuality, which is why I’m building this bar. It is an effort to break down barriers and reduce deadly homophobia in the Islamic world.

The goal, however, is not simply to open a typical gay bar, but one friendly to men of Islamic faith. An entire floor, for example, will feature non-alcoholic drinks, since booze is forbidden by the faith. The bar will be open all day and night, to accommodate men who would rather keep their sexuality under wraps – but still want to dance.

Addicted To Being Good? The Psychopathology Of Heroism

The really interesting thing at the core here is the idea that the "markers" of sociopathy and heroism are almost identical, except for the empathy scale -- the sociopath has no empathy, the hero (or "X-altruist", as the writer calls it) has a surfeit.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Beautiful World
Lyrics
The "it's a beautiful world for you, it's not for me" makes me think Gatesong. Probably from a very fluffy world. (OMG?)
S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain)
Lyrics
Causes intense headaches. (Duh.) Probably just a garden-variety backfire, although if it allows him to give headaches to ''other people'' it could be useful.
Girl U Want
Lyrics
Probably allows him to make a specific woman emit lust pheremones.
Time Out For Fun
Lyrics
You know that gag where a bunch of people are locked in mortal combat, and then at some (often undetectable) signal they all stop and do something else together for a bit before resuming?

Bonus: Weird Al - Dare To Be Stupid
If there is a better song for making everyone do really stupid stuff for a bit, I've never heard it.

Bob, we've been rather remiss lately in greeting the newest member of the boards.  His/Her first post was here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225
I think Ptichka might like it. 
Also might make for a nice stop-gap for those of us waiting for Gagarins.
And also... DAMN.  That sucker can haul a helluva lotta shit!
EDIT: I think I'd call something like that the Albatross rather than the Dream.  The thing even looks like an albatross!

Quote:Ed Morrissey writes:
Now that a judge has issued an incoherent ruling that the federal government has a 14th Amendment interest in the definition of marriage after more than 140 years of apparent disinterest, it may be time to reconsider government involvement in marriage entirely. Townhall’s David Harsanyi offers the argument that government involvement may do more harm than good to the institution, and results from a historical mistake in the first place. Time to get on with the divorce, Harsanyi insists:

Quote:In the 1500s, a pestering theologian instituted something called the Marriage Ordinance in Geneva, which made “state registration and church consecration” a dual requirement of matrimony.

We have yet to get over this mistake. But isn’t it about time we freed marriage from the state?

Imagine if government had no interest in the definition of marriage. Individuals could commit to each other, head to the local priest or rabbi or shaman — or no one at all — and enter into contractual agreements, call their blissful union whatever they felt it should be called and go about the business of their lives.

I certainly don’t believe that gay marriage will trigger societal instability or undermine traditional marriage — we already have that covered — but mostly I believe your private relationships are none of my business. And without any government role in the institution, it wouldn’t be the business of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, either.

Be sure to read it all. I’ve written about this repeatedly over the last several years, and while I don’t think that this is an easy path to adopt, it’s going to be the eventual solution. Not only does it take government out of people’s private lives, it also means an end to a divisive and essentially meaningless debate — and it protects houses of faith and ends a potential government interference in matters of religion.

Let’s first dispense with the idea that the government protects the sanctity of marriage. It doesn’t; if government ever did that, that ended with no-fault divorce. Marriage, as run by the government, is the only contract in this country that can be broken by one party alone with no adverse consequences. (Well, that and professional sports contracts, I guess.) Partnership agreements in the business context would disintegrate without at least the threat of government enforcement of its provisions. Marriage as run by government has been disintegrating for decades, as the divorce rate shows, and that has nothing to do with gay relationships.

We would do much better to require people to create partnership contracts in the civil context than get marriage licenses for issues like property sharing, access to family, and so on. If people want to live together and share their lives to that extent, it’s healthier and much less confusing later to have those issues expressly spelled out in an agreement up front, just like any prenuptial agreement today. If two people don’t want to go that far in formalizing their relationship, then they shouldn’t be considered married anyway — and shouldn’t get access to “palimony” and have debates over oral contracts, and so on. If you don’t get it in writing, it doesn’t exist, in the context of personal partnerships.

Then, if people want to get “married,” they can go to the institutions that actuallycare about marriage: churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and so on. Marriage can be a private, faith-based recognition of a sacramental relationship that exists outside of the civil context entirely, and houses of faith can set their own requirements as to what it means and who can participate — just as they do now. Not only does that protect the sanctity of actual marriage much more than a government, but it also means that government has no way to poke the camel’s nose of intervention into the religious tent, as it were, to force houses of faith to conduct marriages that violate their tenets in the name of fairness. Divorcing marriage from the state and dissolving the partnership between government and religion benefits the latter more than the former.

Let government define and enforce contract law, not marriage. If we don’t follow that path, people will shortly become very unhappy about the eventual government definition.

A friend of mine has an Acer laptop with at windows 7 OS. She accidentally hit a link ( so she sez) which downloaded an anti virus program which is now propagating pop ups like a virus. I've tried opening up the restore function while in "safe mode" but it doesn't seem to work. Uing it normally is mission impossible. Short of using the "nuclear option" (re-format and reinstall the OS), any of you folks have any suggestions?
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Author's Note: This is mostly just an exercise for me to write up various potential scenarios as they come to mind, and see how well I can actualize them. Future snippets are possible, and requests may be written if I find them suitably entertaining. After all, these aren't too much effort to write. So, without further ado...

***


[i]Riiiiing-ring! Ring-ring! Ring-ring!
Stupid noise....bad enough she had trouble getting to sleep with Fate out on assignment, but now some kid on a bike outside....

AWOOOOOOOGAH!
Nanoha sat up straight in bed with a startled "I'm awake!" as she looked at the phone by her bedside which had shifted from "friendly call" to "please pick me up right now". Yet again, she regretted letting Hayate blackmail her into accepting the thing as a housewarming gift. As she picked up, the slightly frantic face of Subaru looked back at her. "Nanoha-saaaaan! Heeeeeelllllllp~!"
"Subaru, what is it?" Nanoha asked, concerned. Her old pupil was hardly the type to panic under pressure, especially with her work in the disaster relief branch. If she was freaking out this badly, something awful had to have happen-
"It's Tsubasa! She won't stop crying and I've tried rocking her and singing to her and cuddling her and I can't do breast-feeding like Tea and I don't know what to do but you raised Vivio and hellllllllppppp!"
Nanoha looked at her for a moment as her brain slowly regrew the gears it had stripped off from her late night lesson planning session and insomnia to properly assess the situation, before she looked at the phone with a dour look and sighed. "Subaru, Teana made the contact list for you ahead of time exactly for this sort of thing."
"Yes, but, it's like 5 in the morning over where Gin-nee is at! I didn't want to wake...her....oh," Subaru said as her brain finally caught up with her mouth and she realized that Ginga wasn't that far ahead of them time wise. "....I thought you'd have more practical hands-on experience?"
"Good night, Subaru," Nanoha said, hanging up before making a flying faceplant into her pillow, grumbling about stupid sexy blondes with careers that give them sexy suits but keep them away far too much from bed warming duties....
***
Alright, Lutecia, you know what you have to do, the young summoner said, bringing both arms up in determination. "Right, let's do this. Don't back down. Just ask the question."
Lutecia had come a long way since the end of the JS Incident. Her mother's recuperation had helped that, allowing her to focus more on her own feelings rather than the single minded drive that had sustained her while working for the Doctor to restore her mother.
Which had led her to re-examine the feelings that had led her to leave the Doctor's employ...and the people that had inspired them. Which in turn had led her to this seemingly innocuous question to the two people that meant the most to her in the entire world.
"Um...Caro...Erio...I've been meaning to ask. Are you two...y'know..." she said, twiddling her fingers. "Together?"
"Together?" Caro said, ignoring Erio choking on his drink from where he'd just swallowed a gulp of tea down the wrong tube. "Well, I suppose, in a way. We've always been pretty close since we met, and it's kind of hard to imagine my life before I met Erio," she said, before Erio caught his breath and looked at Caro over Lutecia's crestfallen expression.
"I don't think that's what Lu meant, Caro," he said, coughing slightly. At the pink haired dragon summoner's confused look, he shrugged. "She meant are we dating."
Caro looked at him for a second. "Oh....oh!" she repeated, before looking back at Lutecia. "No, no, it's nothing like that at all. Erio's like my brother."
"Really?" Lutecia blinked.
"Yes," Caro smiled. "We were both adopted by Fate, and we kind of got used to each other during that whole mess back then, so we got really close, really quick."
Lutecia sighed somewhat in relief, before freezing as Erio spoke up again. "Why exactly did you ask, Lu?"
"Um....well. This is going to make my asking about a potential threesome awkward, isn't it?"
***
Fate reflected, as she listened to her lover go on and on, that Nanoha fretted over the strangest things for someone who'd gone head to head with the reincarnation of a physical god and not even blinked.
"Well, it's not that I'm ashamed or anything....I'm just kind of worried how they'll take it. I mean, this isn't as common on Earth," Nanoha said. "I don't want to come on too strong, but at the same time, I'm not going to just pretend we're really close friends and nothing more and....I'm babbling, aren't I?" she finished lamely.
"Yes," Fate said with a soft smile. "So perhaps we should just go in and talk to them?"
Nanoha blinked, looked at her, blinked again, and then laughed slightly to herself. "You probably have a point," she admitted, sliding her hand into Fate's and entering the restaraunt in front of them.
The place was fairly upscale, as Arisa had insisted on paying for the meal when she heard Nanoha and Fate were going to be back in town, and Nanoha's two oldest friends were easily discernable.
Suzuka had grown into a classic Japanese beauty, dark hair hanging past her shoulders from where it was held up by a single white hairband and falling over her white jacket worn over a dark blue blouse and matching skirt.
Arisa, by contrast, was wearing her hair in a short, barely neck length style compared to her old long hair from when they'd been in school together, a tan peasant blouse over a pair of black shorts providing her with a more tomboyish aspect than her friend.
The typical hugs and expressions of gratitude to be able to see each other were exchanged shortly thereafter, before Nanoha found herself waffling on how exactly to bring the subject up. Eventually, mustering up her courage, she spoke up.
"There's something we need to tell-"
"Nanoha, there's something we'd like to ask-"
Both groups blinked, looking at the other, before Nanoha laughed slightly. "You go first, Arisa. Mine can wait a little," she said, much to Fate's amusement beside her.
Arisa looked at her friend oddly, before shaking her head and smiling. "Well...we were wondering if you and Fate would care to be bridesmaids."
"Bridesmaids?" Nanoha said, not quite processing the term. "One of you's getting married? Who?"
"Both of us are," Suzuka giggled. "To each other."
It was only Fate's iron self control that kept her from breaking out laughing at the look on Nanoha's face.
[/i]
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."