Story here.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptatio ... _hand.html

Allright gang, it's probably time we consider one of the elephants in the room. What shall we do about/with the MTP? Which means to an extent, what shall we do about/with terraforming Mars?

The following stuff is a bit of brainstorming on my part that's partially recycled from another project. Comment at will:

Quote:As I get older, and... not "wiser." I doubt that age brings that much wisdom. "More cynical" would probably work. Anyway. The more I look at Mars, and the more we learn about it (in OTL, and certainly in Fenspace) the more I question the validity of the great Heinleinian Martian Manifest Destiny plan that seems to drive most conceptions of terraforming the planet.

Should we go to Mars? Absolutely. Should we stay there on a permanent basis? Of course. Should we change the planet to suit us? That I don't know.

Leaving aside the philosophical and moral questions of terraforming, I can't quite shake the idea that turning Mars into a miniature copy of Earth is the right thing to do. Mars is Mars, and just cut-pasting Earth on top of it *feels* wrong.

So where does this vague maundering leave us? Well, in my personal vision of the "terraformed" Mars we can forget a good chunk of the greenery. It's obviously a bit warmer, of course, and has a breathable atmosphere, maybe with a largish sea around Hellas and randomly scattered lakes. This Mars would be a cross between the deserts of New Mexico, the steppe of Central Asia with a bit of the Serengeti thrown in for flavor - long stretches of wide open plains punctuated by clusters of trees near open water sources. It's a very Pulper sort of Mars when you think about it, with plenty of wastes for people to have Adventures in.

Anyone want a copy of Bioshock? I got a copy to give away with my Steam pre-order of Bioshock 2.

Be aware this game needs a bit of a decent PC (if you can play CoH fine, you're golden), and it's on Steam.

First come first serve. Gimme an email, I'll send it off.

Ok, stolen gleefully from an obscure section of the EPU forums, I present a plotbunny I WANT TO SEE!!

Quote:* Z-Gryphon snorts as his eyes commit a series-title/episode-title matchup error on two adjacent items in his TiVo suggestions list and come up with an outSTANDing mental image:

(Z-Gryphon) { Junkyard Wars: "The Killing Zone" }

(wedge) snrk

(Z-Gryphon) two teams turned loose in the scrapyard to build a series of deathtraps that the other team must then attempt to traverse and survive

(wedge) Team Black Mesa vs Team Aperture Science

(Ash-3) {"The cake isn't just a lie, it BURNS!"}

(PCHammer) . o O { ...headcakes. }

(Ardaniel) LOL

(wedge) wow, Marty, you just made her make an *awesome* noise.

A moment later...

(PCHammer) ("Oh! Looks like Team Aperture Science forgot about the utility of a simple crowbar! Freeman is on FIRE tonight!")

(PCHammer) ("...And now he really IS on fire!" "Let's hope Alyx remembered to pack the extinguisher.")

http://animeigo.com/other/complete-product-list]AnimEigo has everything (except their Ninja T-shirts) marked down at the moment. Yes, all the anime and all the samurai movies are on sale.

Apparently, Oh My Goddess! is going fast. (That has something to do with it going out of print at the end of the month, I suspect...)
--
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

I don't remember making any mention of this last year, when I probably should have, but I won't miss this year.  Today is the 51st anniversary of http://anyguey.guanabee.com/2010/02/the ... usic-died/]The Day The Music Died, commemorated in Don McLean's song "American Pie" -- the day a light plane crashed, killing Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

http://www.thereverbsyndicate.ca/]The Reverb Syndicate is getting back together!

(And now I hear a massive chorus of "Who?" Go visit the website; it's got samples.)
--
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

...this happened.

Hey guys, anyone know of a good directory for space rocks?  I need to find a suitable satelite facility to 36 Atalante to serve as the High Energy Research Labrotory - you know, for all those potentially dangerous projects like Gravity Bombs and Nuclear Power.  (What's fun is that rather than just use the acronym, HERL, any public documents will refer to it simply as various euphinisms for vomiting.)