One half they said they were too conservative. One half says they weren't conservative enough. What either side acknowledges is that demographics is
eroding their base. Whites will be another minority within the next 10 years. Reaching out to the bubba vote will not be enough. But if they Reuplicans keep
insisting that they are the party of Barry Goldwater..it'll be like the era of FDR again.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Found this place on the recommendation of Rob Kelk of rec.arts.anime misc (where I post somewhat regularly by my real name, Arnold Kim) . Sounded like it
might be a cool place to check out. From what Rob tells me, the people here are more Kimagure Orange Road or Patlabor than Naruto, and that's fine with me
as I think that's a bit more my scene anyway. I'm completely new to the Drunkards Walk world, but hey, I'm willing to learn.

I'll be around...
--YJK, AKA Arnold Kim
---------------------------
Watch my brand new video blogs at my Youtube channel!

"Kanrinin-SAAAN!" - Yusaku Godai

Avatar- Lum Invader, courtesy of this fan made Youtube video

My Anime List:
http://myanimelist.net/profile/ArnoldK

I once read an article on the days before the great depression...Joseph Kennedy was on the elevatorr when the elevator boy gave him a stock tip. Joe Kennedy
decided to bail out of the market that day...if just about anyone can call the market is no place for him.

Now I'm hearing stories before the housing crash that you had fortune tellers, car salesmen and the pizza delivery boy were selling houses and making 20
grand a month......that would had told me something right away.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Over on massively.com here: http://www.massively.com/2009/02/26/ful ... of-heroes/
And the followup thread on the CoH forums here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat ... art=1&vc=1
And a quote from phosyb in that thread that made me laugh hysterically:

Quote:"Up to 25 objectives in each missions. (seriously?!!??! my god... find 25 glowies on Oranbega caves.... don't make me cry!)"
This
is a bit misleading. Its 25 different objectives, but the only real
limit what the map can hold. For example, if the map can hold 200 floor
items, one objective could be: Collect the Trash Cans, Quantity: 200

Wolverine's first draft for his class syllabus at Xavier Academy.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

http://www.pjfarmer.com/]Philip José Farmer: January 26, 1918 - February 25, 2009

Just heard; don't know how I feel yet...
--
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

As I doubt I'll ever write this out in story form, I imagined most people would be curious about the timeline by which the BGC verse from which the Sabres
were stolen operated on. As such, I cobbled this together for reference. Note, this essentially canonizes (for the Sabres, at least) a few theories that've
bounced about the internet, mostly because they serve the overall plot of the Sabres and Scimitars in Paragon.

Note, canonical events effectively take place as they were seen in the various media.

Timeline Legend:

- Canon Events -

(Sabre Timeline Events)

---

(Chairman Quincy uploads himself into GENOM's mainframe, existing as a purely digital intelligence with a variety of robotic duplicates to give the
impression he's still flesh and blood)

- AD Police Files -

(Jeena Malso retires from the AD Police. Brian J. Mason, guided by subtle hints from the disembodied consciousness of V7-28, discovers files on Quincy's
brain transfer procedure, and begins independently researching it himself.)

- Blow Up -

(As planned, Mason's death is only the beginning, and his mind is uploaded to an extremely advanced Buma body....but also corrupted by the presence of
V7-28, who attempts to seize the body for himself. The resulting amalgamation of personalities becomes Largo.)

(Largo visits Genaros "on business" and seeds the 33-S group's escape as a measure to discredit his pawns and take full control of the advanced
construction facilities necessary for the next part of his plan.)

- Moonlight Rambler -

(GENOM salvages the remains of Nam, Lou, Meg from Genaros Station, later salvages Sylvie similarly from the wreckage of the DD Battlemover. The memory cores
are removed and "boxed" for later study.)

(At some point, Largo's controlled assets in GENOM acquire detailed memory scans of the Knight Sabers(as well as Mackie Stingray), which are implanted into
modified 33-S chassis buma, while replications of their hardsuits are constructed for use in Largo's upcoming smear operation. A Crey acquisitions team
operating through Portal Corps stumbles across the hidden factory and seizes all materials they find. Having lost both the mental records and the fake Sabers
themselves, Largo revises his plan to use disguised Hyperbuma to impersonate the Sabers instead)

- Red Eyes -

(As a "reward" for her loyal service during the Largo incident, Chairman Quincy has Katherine Madigan's neural patterns scanned and duplicated
before she can die of her injuries, thus preserving his loyal henchwoman...and placing her directly under his control as she is only able to exist outside the
GENOM mainframe in one of a variety of buma duplicates, similar to himself, but also lacks the access codes to enter a new duplicate without his say so.)

(Anri's intact backups are similarly removed and placed into a highly secure facility, in hopes of finding out more information about how Largo managed his
attack so well. Largo's own wreckage is never found.)

(A random dimensional spike due to increased portal activity sends Jeena Malso careening out of her own reality and into Paragon City. She is found by the Lost
and inducted into their ranks.)

- Double Vision -

(Crey begins a campaign of corporate espionage and raiding. A weakened GENOM, still reeling from Largo's attacks worldwide as well as their loss of
prestige after the destruction of their new prototype buma at the hands of the Knight Sabers and the Genki Battlemover, loses large amounts of technical
equipment and data. The backups of the various 33-S girls, a Madigan backup, and potentially even one of Quincy's numerous backups are seized during this
campaign, and inserted into Crey's mainframe for analysis and potential implantation into the 1st Generation Scimitars. Also unbeknownst to Crey, they raid
a GENOM facility privately controlled by Largo, whose digital intelligence is still without a body as he awaits the repairs to his old one.)

(Sylvie is brought back online as Nano Sabre and escapes with the help of the Legendary and Riot Force. Shortly thereafter, Largo seizes control of the
facility his intelligence was taken to and uses the available construction equipment to rapidly build himself a primitive imitation of his original body. He
flees to the Rogue Isles to recoup his strength and plan.)
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

I don't know if there's a better thread this should go into, so I'll post what I have here for now.

Backstory

Hanako Arasaka was born into a good life. Being the daughter of the head of the world's largest corproation, Arasaka, had
it's perks. She had money, the best schooling, anything she could want. Except freedom. The apple of saburo Arasaka's eye, little Hanako was always
kept safe within the family compound. She was rarely let out unless under heavy guard. The only place she could feel free during that time was the net. As she
got older, Hanako's skills as a hacker grew and she made many online friends and contacts. Despite being constantly under lock and key, Hanako had little
to worry about.

Until the Fourth Corproate war began.

At first, Arasaka and their longtime rival, Militech, were merely playing bodyguard and consultant to two smaller oceanic companies vying for
the remains of a third. But somewhere along the way, things got personal and the two megacorporations began directly fighting each other rather than fighting
for their clients. As the war escalated into almost global proportions, Saburo made plans for his daughter's safety. Though she was already 23 years of
age, Hanako still resided at the family compund, increasing not only her computer skills, but branching out into new fields of study, namely mechanics and
engineering. She beleived she could help her family's company, like her older brother Kei. But the war put a stop to that. to make sure his daughter was
safe, Saburo set up a slush fund for her, away from the main corproate accounts. He also prepared a safehouse and new identity for her, in case the need ever
arose where she must forever leave the family compound. Though he hoped it would never come to that.

Unfortunately, that day came when Arasaka's Night City tower collapsed taking a good part of the city with it. That loss, combined with
the losses felt around the world, spelled the beginning of the end for the once powerful Arasaka. the company began liquidating assets, employees began
resigning, and all seemed bleak for the rich and powerful Saburo.

Then came GENOM.

At the time, GENOM was only a small robotics company. However, as the war between Militech and Arasaka escalated, GENOM's profit margin
began to grow. They would sell out their latest robotics technology to cities and companies looking to rebuild from the megacorporation's spat. They even
began to absorb many of the assets and employees that fled Arasaka. By the time Arasaka collapsed, GENOM had risen from their ashes as the world new
Megacorporation.

Saburo realized it was only a matter of time before a corporation like GENOM would want to eliminate the remains of their competion. His
worst fears were realized when the AV that was supposedly carrying his daughter Hanako from their estate in northern Japan to the one in Tokyo, was shot out of
the air by a boomer, GENOM's latest product. Fortunately, Hanako was going to be staying later and asked the AV to return the next day. The reports on the
attack stated that the Boomer's programming had been corrupted and the robot went berzerk. But Saburo knew otherwise.

Before GENOM could finish what they started, Saburo had his daughter moved to Night City where she was to assume the new identity he set up
for her months ago and remain silent and safe. He did not want his legacy dying out completely (His son Kei was killed earlier that month, brain burned by a
renagade net program) and made sure all traces of her were made to beleive she did die in the AV explosion.

And so, Hanako Arasaka died, and Michiko Tanaka was born.

Hanako, now Michiko, did not share in her father's desire for her to hid. She knew GENOM was responsible for her brother's death and,
a few months later, her father's. She sought revenge the only way she knew how. Through her contacts and friends and several years of work, along with a
few tricks a hacker friend of hers in the Tokyo PD taught her, she hatched a plan to find the truth and expose GENOM for the evil that they were. After a long,
complex, and deadly run on one of the megacorp's less protected servers (Used as a backdoor into the company's main system), she had found proof that
not only was GENOM responsible for her family's demise, but that they were also responsible for starting and escalating the war between Arasaka and
Militech.

However, before she could bring this evidence to light, she was found by GENOM's elite hackers and nearly paid for her intrusion. She had
escaped the hit squad GENOM sent after her one night, loosing the evidence in the process, and realized that if she was going to fight against the corporation,
she was going to have to do so in secret.

It was then that she met Sylia Stingray and her whole life changed.

She was surfing the net, looking for whatever resouces she could use against GENOM when she came accoss a site that almost begged to be
hacked. She somehow beleived that this site held the key to her one woman war on GENOM, and she was right, Like one of the original members before her who
succeeded in hacking through the site's defenses, Michiko learned about the Knight Sabers and what they stood for. Though she never thought of herself as a
hero by any means, she saw a chance to finally strike back at those to took her life from her and agreed to help the Knight Sabers anyway she could.

Realizing that she could do more good in night City than by returning to Tokyo, Michiko had Sylia send plans to her for the Knight
Saber's hardsuit. she would construct one with the funding she had from her father, which she wisely invested to keep herself financially secure. At least
that was the plan. Until the fateful night she was introduced to Portal Corp and her life was sent into a complete tailspin.

Crey Industries was always facinated by the Knigth saber's technology. Ever since they discovered this alternate universe's hardsuit
technology, they wanted to make it their own. They tried on numerous occasions to either steal the technology for them try and reverse engineer or to just take
the people responsible for making it in hopes of getting them to do the same for Crey. And on numerous occasions, they failed. Michiko might have thought
herself unique when a Crey Industries representative appeared before her, offering her the power she needed to bring down her enemy, but to Crey, she was just
another gullible target in a long list of attempts.

Crey offered the young woman the chance to not only perfect the Hardsuit technology in a lab fully equipped to handle such a task, which was
more than Michiko had to work with at the time. In exchange, she would share the secrets she learned with them and, once she was done, she would be returned to
her world no worse for wear. They explained that they needed the technology to help fight a vicious race of invaders, the Rikti, in hopes of saving their
world. Though Michiko was no fool, she was a stranger to such things as aliens and dimensional travellers. but she also knew an opportunity when she saw one,
so she agreed. She returned to Crey's home dimension to begin working on developing the Harduit technology.

When they returned, she saw the devestation the Rikti had wrought on the world and was driven to helping Crey in their plans to 'save the
world'.

Once there, however, Michiko began to have suspicions that not all was as it seemed with this supposed savior of Earth. Finding this
world's computer systems a bit primitive, she had little difficulty hacking their systems and learning more about what had happened. It was then she
learned the truth. The place they had returned to was only a small part of a place called Paragon City that was still being fought over. In fact, with the
exception of occasional raids by the Rikti, much of the Earrth was saved years ago. She also learned about Crey's previous attempts to harness the hardsuit
technology and what had become of those attempts. She also discovered that there was no return trip for her. She was stuck in this dimension.

Realizing she was working for this dimensions equivilent of GENOM, Michiko set out to ruin Crey's plans and hopefully prevent others from
sharing her fate, She worked on the suit until it was completed, stole it, infected their mainframe with a paticularly nasty virus, and fled into the streets
of Paragon City. She may have been stuck in this somewhat primitive dimension, but her drive to fight against corporate evils like Crey never waivered. She was
able to find another gruop of like-minded individuals, many of whom were Crey's previous attepts to obtain Hardsuit technology, and began a new
war.

Only this time, against Crey.

And this time, she would not have to fight alone.

http://www.pjfarmer.com/

I thought about making some kind of witty comment about this. Another Death Note Joke, or quoting a Queen song. I've decided not to. It isn't funny any
more.

How would you write a briefing to avoid it being an infodump? Especially when there is a lot of info you need to dump.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."