http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26596109/]Coney Island's Astroland closes for good

And I never had a chance to visit it...
--
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

The best short superhero film I've seen all day.
And I've seen... um... one.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Figured I'd throw this one out here after I had the idea of implementing it in Fenspace.

(apologies to Mr. King)

A dream where Politicians truely are accontable to the people they serve; where the people hold the ultimate power.

That of the purse.

I dont know how many of you are aware of the present situation in California, but our state has been operating without a budget for almost 90 days now while
the Democrats and the Republicans fight.

That's right. They were supposed to have had a budget passed back on the FIRST OF JULY. And almost every year they fail to do so. YET THEY STILL GET
PAID.

This year, both parties are more concerned with looking good for the elections and having it their way. AND THEY ARE STILL GETTING PAID. IN FULL.

Schwartzeneger wanted to cut the pay of State Employees... People who work for US but dont have the input into the budget to the Federal Minimum Wage until
the budget was passed... BUT NO ONE IS CUTTING THE POLITICIANS SALARIES.

I SAY
ENOUGH!

Californians need to stand up and say to their Elected officials "WAIT a SECOND, This isnt what we sent you to Sacramento to do!!!"

To be honest, I dont know how many of you know people in California, or really care, but I Say its time WE DID SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.

I hearby call upon my fellow californians to gather together and support a direct ballot proposition, amending the State Constitution to include the following
two clauses:

1) No Elected official, nor any member of his staff shall be paid for any period in which their budget is overdue. In addition, said pay shall be returned to
the General fund to be used as needed for any purpose OTHER than recompence of elected officials.

2) ANY increase of an elected officials salary must be approved by a two thirds majority of the appropriate electorate before it becomes effective. Said pay
increases may NOT be made retroactive under any circumstances, nor may a special election be scheduled for the purposes of approving any pay raise. Such
measures MUST wait until the next regularly scheduled election.

If you are a Californian, or know one who's fed up with the way things are run, pass this along. We need eight percent of the support Schwartzeneger had
in November of 2006. That's eight percent of 4,850,157, or 388,013 signatures. With that many signatures we can have this measure placed on the ballot
DESPITE ANY ATTEMPT by the politicians to cover their wealth.

If you agree with me, help us gather these needed signatures. If your not a Californian yourself, pass this along to someone who is... or might be.

Or check your states laws... if you live in an initative state like California, start your own movement to gather signatures and demand the same of YOUR
politicians.

These are OUR elected officials. Isnt it time they were accountable to the people they represent?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

http://www.youtube.com/user/JimmyJustice4753

Jimmy Justice, vigilante.. cop-taper?

People like this make me yearn to dashcam my work van - as soon as I can get some security cameras at home, I probably will...
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

The Large Hadron Collider is being spun up today for its first test, and according to some people it very well might casue a black hole or big bang or
something and destroy the world and everythign in it (presumably). This has caused quite a bit of upraor among some people, and even death threats.

In the best interests of everyone, individuals have taken it upon themselves to monitor the activities of the Large Hadron Collider and how much of a threat it
is to the world. I present you the website dedicated to keeping track of this data.

http://hasthelargehadronc...destroyedtheworldyet.com/

--------------

Epsilon

Am I the only one currently unable to access both the CoH servers *and* the site itself? I didn't see any announcements before I went to bed last night.

I have come to one conclusion. It is one of three causes:

- Server maitenance that I missed the memo on, though that doesn't explain the SITE going down...

- Issue 13 is gonna be GINORMOUS

- The Large Hadron Collider has accidentally annihilated NCSoft's offices and servers.(WHAT HAS SCIENCE WROUGHT?!)
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Past few days the subject has come up a lot in chat... figured it might be handy to have a list. So, here's mine:

(Edit: some entry expansion seems to have occurred...)

Onyx Blast: Pain
(Three Days Grace)

In a case of blatant mind-reading, Ops quite stealthily took hold of the reins and produced this piece with no input from me, which so totally nails the character that I am flabbergasted. I was
stuck about writing their meeting (and her intro-to-heroing). Thanks, Ops!

But as it points out, she's a bitter, bitchy individual whose primary motivation is self-interest. Contrast Rhea-Prime, whose primary motivation is the
desire to help. That stupid bimbo, can't even keep her own head in order, and she gets the gold star? The hell is
up with that?

Purrfect Scrapper: Adrenaline (Gavin Rossdale)

Hyper Kitteh? Srsly. (And the lyrics dovetail nicely with the /Willpower secondary -- "You don't feel the pain", etc.)

Emerald Blast: Listen
to Your Heart (remix, tentative)

This one was really hard to come up with, and I'm still looking for the perfect match. Kudos to Ops for suggesting it -- this is the closest I can find to
expressing via music what's going on in Rhea's head most of the time.

Ruff Enuff: Duck and Run (Three Doors Down)

He was the runt of the litter (so to speak), both before the Council got ahold of him and after he was turned into a War Wolf. He got his ass handed to him
repeatedly by a cute lil kitty cat, fer cryin' out loud (nevermind that
said catgirl proceeded to do the same to the rest of the pack in Striga). He can't enter half the restaurants in the city due to pet laws. Most of the
heroes he meets attack first -- "Aaah, War Wolf, killit!" -- and don't bother to say hi later. He has to put up with his own smell after getting
wet. For that matter, he has to deal with canine senses but human sensibilities -- sewers, anyone? Vahz?

Wolfman just can't get a break.





It's either stubborn or stupid that keeps him from giving up. (Personally, I think of him as a Labrador Retreiver in a War Wolf body. Fairly bright, but
not exactly a genius, and loyal to a fault.)

I haven't really come up with any for the rest of my massive collection of alts yet... as the ideas hit me I'll add 'em.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

The Pyro System 1.1 Prelim.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

http://kotaku.com/5047066...-game-doesnt-have-dancing

a Haruhi wii game? intriguing!
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies