OK, I really need a better title. This is a short oneshot that came to me and just flowed out. There is some strong stuff that may be objectionable in here, but not much more than your average action movie.

Any comments will be welcome, so enjoy.

Ladies and gentlefen, I present to you Comcast, the first of many companies to introduce a monthly download bandwidth cap.

Read about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/20...hnology/30comcast.html?em

Has anyone seen this show in Japan yet?

I know it is supposed to be a continuation on Slayers Try, but beyond that I have no idea.

I don't know if the Sword of Light is making a comeback or if the far more powerful Blast Blade will finally appear.

I guess it was just a matter of time before a new Slayers show was made, considering the Slayers novels have been coming out periodically since they first
appeared(Is it 50 books now?)
--------------------
Tom Mathews aka Disruptor

From: "F"
To:   "Parents"
Subj: Up up and away
Date Posted: 25.07.2010

Appeals Court Rules
US Can Block Mad Cow Testing

http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/08/30/238223.shtml

READ ALL THE COMMENTS! for a far better understanding of what is a extremely short inflamatory article on a very complex
subject.

The article seems to be aimed at scaring/angering people, however as a person with a good agriculture background admittely mostly row cropping I must say this
has bothered me enough to very seriously consider stopping all purchases of "public" beef and reverting to buying directly from known herds and
butchering the animal myself with a known butcher. I do have a good working knowledge of cattle,swine and chicken farming, but I'm not directly involved in
those agricultural industries.

I almost didn't post this, because it's such a complex issue and the last thing the agriculture industry needs is more knee jerk reactions caused by
Oprah level agricultural ignorance. However this is a very important issue and I personally think more of the public needs to know about this ruling.

I personally think the USDA and the judges have made the mistake here and the ruling already has reduce the safety of beef significantly.

howard melton

God bless

Mal, in his comments on kentmagus' latest story, wrote:

Quote:Also, you can stop pestering Cobalt about A.C. and her amazing Sailor Mars impression while you're at it.

An early Christmas present, for all my friends actually in the Legendary, who somehow put up with me.

I really wanted to make this a bit more...referential...but I'm amused at the way it turned out.

Without further ado, I present:



How Recluse Stole Christmas

All the heroes in Paragon loved Christmas a lot,

But Recluse, who lived in the Rogue Isles, did not.

"I hate their loud noises," he moaned and he shrieked,

"I hate their love, their carols - I hate all their feasts!"

So he called for his patrons, who came quick as day,

and he canted his plan for them all to obey.

"We'll steal from the heroes, but not just from them!

We'll steal from their biggest fans, their loved ones, their friends.

We'll steal all their figures, their plushes, their posters -

We'll even steal all their commemorative coasters!"

So he laughed and he laughed as the Patrons went away,

his plan to steal Christmas soon beginning that day.

Under cover of nightfall the five did appear,

and hearts over Paragon filled with great fear.

Through the streets they walked, soldiers not far behind,

snatching anything, everything, down from on high.

They stole all the wrapping, toy santas, lawn reindeer;

they stole all the money for goodwill and cheer;

they robbed from the rich, and they stole from the poor,

and they took all the gifts in their hate-founded war.

And all through the city, Recluse spread disaster,

that enmitable discipline in which he was master.

You're a mean one, Lord Recluse!

You're really nasty too!

Your eyes burn dark like hellfire and your face is devilish to boot,

Lord Recluuuuse!

Why I wouldn't touch you with an... Assault Rifle sniper shot!

As the villains departed from Paragon City,

the sunrise peaked in, and they heard a loud ditty,

a song of great joy, of celebration, of togetherness;

and it drove Lord Recluse quite out of his wits.

"Why are they singing?" He shrieked at his Patrons,

"I have all their toys, their novelty aprons,

their silly little gifts, their Christmas-tree lights!

So tell me, Scirocco! Where is their fight?

Where is their sorrow? Why aren't they crying?"

From Scirocco, "If I said I knew I'd be lying"

So Recluse turned to Mako and shook the shark silly,

"Why are they singing these songs willy-nilly?"

But 'twas Black Scorpion who replied to the madness,

and said "Their love just greatly outmatches their sadness."

Dumbfounded, confused, and thoroughly vexed,

Recluse turned to his Widow, who was just as perplexed.

"How can love be so strong? Am I to blame?

Did my failure to research cause us to lose this game?"

"I don't know, my Lord," Ghost Widow replied,

"But I think we're too late to go run and hide."

Indeed from the sky swooped the heroes on down;

"Hand over those gifts, Stefan!" Statesman's cry did resound.

And the battle was joined, the Phalanx vs. Arachnos;

but it was Recluse who suffered the most.

For in his heart of hearts, Recluse knew quite well

that this time around, there was no way in hell

that he'd win this fight, so he held up his hand.

"Retreat!" did he call, and the Flyer did land.

"Next time, Marcus, I won't be so forgiving!

Just wait and see - I'll be back this Thanksgiving!"

First page
[Hasty handwriting] Char-Lisa  Hero ID number: 2007082347-FFS
[Later addition in much neater handwriting]
Security Level 22 short-range pyrokinetic. Gave up her life to save 27 students of Galaxy City Regional High School during the first wave of the second Rikti Invasion, myself included.
several similar entries, detailing heroes who have fallen in the line of duty
Several blank pages before the next set of entries
Ghost Widow FC Intelligence file 2005103102-DDD
Threat Level 54 spectral entity. [shaky handwriting] Never again.
The rest of the "Patrons" are listed in similar fashion, followed by more villains and then some blank pages
''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

It's been lost to the mists of 4chan - and with wikichan down it'll probably be gone forever but here's the best parts for the sheer epicness of
it:

Quote:

Sailor Moon has the most useful power.




In a game I played once, I was Sailor Mars and had level 4 in Elemental Control (fire). So when I got captured by the Dark Kingdom and mindraped by Metallia,
I wound up setting Tokyo ablaze and killing thousands.




I was ever so grateful to Usagi-chan when she undid all that after we killed Metallia.

Quote:

Well, there's the obviously just mentioned part where Rei became a psycho evil bitch who burned down most of Tokyo and mercilessly slaughtered thousands
on an insane rampage of destruction. God that was fun.




Then there was the time one of Princess Serenity's best friends escaped from the crystal prison she'd been put in back during the Silver Millenium
for her crimes of summoning demons and killing a few hundred people herself. She massacred quite a lot of people on her return, and along with the other
ex-prisoners kicked our asses a few times before we finally defeated her. And as she was on her knees, shaking and apologising... Sailor Venus drilled her
head with a Crescent Beam, execution style.




Then Chibi Usa appeared, except instead of coming from the future, she'd come from a parallel universe where the sailor senshi had all been killed by the
Black Moon sisters in that episode where they had the dimensional rift weapon. The two sisters that had earlier went good were brainwashed again and sent to
our world after Chibi Usa, and pretty mercilessly killed by the PCs before we went to the other world to clean up the mess before it spread to ours. There we
found a bleak world conquered by the Black Moon but at the same time slowly unravelling due to the paradox that the Black Moon family should never have
appeared without the sailor senshi around to create Crystal Tokyo. We killed the fuck out of the remaining sisters along with Rubeus before rescuing our
dimensional counterparts from the rift they'd been imprisoned in and telling them all about how we'd killed the black moon sisters they'd
befriended.




So many fun memories...

Quote: The final arc of the game involved a confrontation with a person searching for the Silver Crystal, claiming it had been stolen from him ages ago.




This presented a few problems for us. The original Silver Crystal had shattered after we killed Metallia back at the start of the game. However, we'd
adopted Chibi Usa from the alternate universe mentioned earlier - she could never go home because her future no longer existed, but her own existence was
sustained by... the Silver Crystal, which she held inside of her.




His general modus operandi was to appear before a large gathering of people, freeze them in place, and look inside them for the crystal. Being magical girls,
the sailor senshi were immune to this freezing, which caught his attention and led to a ridiculously one-sided battle in which he utterly dominated the
senshi and the deathbusters (we may have killed a lot of people that survived in the anime, but we actually did manage to save the Witches 5, who became
awesome magitech allies). Desperate, Sailor Moon used the power of the Holy Grail (which was still around because we never fought Pharaoh 90 directly, nor
had Sailor Saturn awaken fully, thanks to our quick defeat of the Deathbusters) to drive him off, but not before we caught a glimpse of his utterly immense
spiritual power which up till then had been completely masked.


Using the Deathbuster's equipment and Sailor Mercury's computer, we analysed a recording of the battle to discover that our foe was not actually a
man at all. He was an artifical construct - a sentient bridge between this universe and a 'pocket universe'. Said pocket universe existed for only
one reason: a power source. Tapping into the complete energy of an entire cosmos under his control, he was effectively omnipotent in this universe. But his
power had been sealed, with the Silver Crystal being the key to his full potential.




Unfortunately, he attacked Rei's shrine next. This time Rei failed her check to resist being frozen, but Hotaru who was working there part time as a miko
did not. She was an NPC, so none of us saw what happened, but whatever it was caused Sailor Saturn to awaken fully, driving our foe off in Rei's defence
but being horribly wounded in the process.




Our backs against the wall against this overwhelmingly powerful foe, we came up with a desperate plan. Getting our most powerful members to attack him head
on, they would cause his 'null field' to break like it had when Sailor Moon used the Holy Grail. At this point, everyone else would hit him with
everything they had to destroy his physical form before he fled. Apparently the risk of this causing a catastrophic release of energy from his pocket
universe and annihilating the milky way galaxy was less than 50/50.




Unfortunately our foe found us before we could fully prepare our own attack, and even worse, it was while Rei was babysitting Chibi Usa. Close proximity to
him caused the girl to revert to a silvery-pink crystal that he wasted no effort in obtaining; his attempts to warp reality and sieze the Crystal from Rei
managing to tear her left arm out its socket and shatter her right forearm in several places while she somehow retained a desperate grip.




The other senshi plus our deathbuster and space elf allies all made their way quickly to join the battle at the roof of Mugen Gakuen, inflicting a horrendous
barrage of attacks including a 4x critical from Sailor Jupiter that utterly destroyed the top floor of the building.




This seemed only to piss him off, however, releasing a wide area attack that stunned all of the senshi, giving him time to grab the crystal and absorb it.
Removed of all limits, he healed himself in an instant, utterly ignoring a furious desperate attack from Sailor Moon as he prepared to end her life,
savouring the moment of revenge against one who reminded him of the woman who had stolen the crystal oh so long ago.




Then, amazingly, Chibi Usa spoke from within the living weapon. She tried with all her might to restrain his immense power, all of her friends desperately
encouraging her, but to no avail. He was simply too strong. So instead she sacrificed herself, shattering the crystal to re-limit his power and fully heal
all of her loved ones.




Filled with rage and grief, the Sailor Senshi laid into the monster with a vengeance, The remaining Deathbusters also arriving by this point to assist in the
battle. Hit by Usagi's final attack with the Holy Grail, he was finally and utterly overwhelmed by the mass beamspam, and everything went black...




Waking up an unknown time later, the girls saw they had won, and the Galaxy hadn't been destroyed. But victory tasted like ashes after the brave and
selfless sacrifice of one little girl who had already lost so much in her tragically short life.

Quote:

>Okay, just for laughs: what is the ceapest kill any of you scored in the Sailor Moon RPG?


>Mine was: A monster aproached our group over a rope bridge, so Ami froze our end of the bringe and shattered the frozen
ropes.




We were fighting a balloon type youma that was utterly impervious to all of our sparkly beamspam. After a few rounds of futile combat, Sailor Mercury scanned
it with her computer and reported that it was exceptionally vulnerable to stabbing.




So Sailor Venus grabbed Artemis and hucked the screaming mooncat at the youma, which promptly exploded as he landed claws-first.




Good times.

"Why am I here?" Kemwer asked irritably. One usher had been trying to grab for Kemwer's videocamera, The guy cracked his head on a wall he could
have sworn was ten feet away and fell unconscious.

"Come on , you just have to see this. "Dr. Clark Sanders told him The name FP had given from the other side was Lucinda Tempscire. Apparently,
enough money can get you anywhere, and due to a Star Trek replicator Kemwer had handwaved could produce gold bars provided one didn't ask to provide too
much of it.

"Channelers? You have to got to be kidding me. There is no way that handwavium calls up spirits from past times. Hell, there's no way one can call up
spirits of the dead in the first place unless you count Stellvia's rumored dimensional incursion. They do not come and possess people to give them the
"Wisdom of the Ages. " Kemwer put little finger quotes around the last part of the sentence as he displayed the fourth ring on his hand.

"I don't mind channelers fleecing them out of their own desire to believe and stupidity.Why am I here, paying seven hundred fifty to see a false
channeler?" Kemwer's words were carried very quietly to his two companions.

"She's using your name. " FP returned to me quietly. The rings on his fingers allow me to hold private conversations in the middle of a room as
long as one directs the wind carefully. The Rings of the Elves appear to be slightly empathic in nature which was why Kemwer used them more often than other
items.

"Kemwer?" Kemwer had signed his name as Robert Rumboldt in the guest books. Fake psychics and mediums usually tossed out skeptics as negative
vibrations in the astral plane disturbing the sympathetic harmonies or some other gobbledygook. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Handwavium
was extraordinary when you see floating islands.

Unfortunately, this had given a boost to the con artist, faith healer, medium and spiritualist market. The very fact that it's handwaved means that it
hadn't worked like that before. This is why Dr. Sanders is so obsessed about proving science above handwavium. Science has replicable results. His latest
design is a positronic brain patented by Isaac Asimov in the Sixties formed by crystal growing that looked remarkably similar to biological cell division.
That's why Kemwer was wondering why Dr. Sanders had dragged him to the channeler. Dr. Sanders had not signed his name as usual, instead he was using the
alias James Campion.

Kemwer looked at the hardwood floor. The ushers were offering pillows at ten bucks each. Eighty rows of ten people equalled eight thousand dollars. The
videocamera was covered in an illusion. Psychics and such don't allow videocameras. It made it too easy to spot the wires and earpieces.

A Brad Pitt clone(clone as in looks like him, not clone in the sense that the Professor kidnapped him and made a twin) stepped onto the stage. He gave the
ground rules, no flash photography(they had confiscated all the cameras before anyway, except Kemwer's ), no applause, and no bathroom breaks. The clone
explained that it disturbed Aria's concentration and even the closing of a door could break her sympathetic link.

Or someone distracted by the bladders were less distracted by gobbledegook such as was being spouted by the emcee lookalike.

"Eight thousand years ago, Kemwur was a High Priest of Atlantis. He lived for three hundred years before ascending and acquiring the wisdom of the ages.
"

What wisdom? The Stone Ages? Eight thousand years ago humans were living in trees. (By the by, the Bible's age of the world is six thousand years.
Don't trust books that say that is the only one you'll ever need to read. There's two thousand, eight hundred and six of them that all say that. )

"He spoke with the oracle of Delphi, he delved in to the Sacred Writings of the Rosicrucians. Now watch as Aria calls him forth from the Cosmic All.
"

Dr. Sanders looked at Kemwer. FP looked at Kemwer. He looked in mirror made of ice as it was coalesced in his hand through the power of the Ring of Water. He
now knew the term, face like thunder.

"She's using my name- " Kemwer growled as the voice carried to his partners.

"Technically, she's spelling it with a U. "

"Wars have been started over such impersonations. "

The lighting deepened to rose and the chiffon banners started swaying in the breeze provided by fans in the back. Kemwer had looked through the walls.
Changing the refractive index was instinctive when one wore the Ring of Fire.

Aria in a caftan and sacred amulet descended from a curving stairway. There was mood music to accompany her descent.

There's a tradition in fantasy novels about how a Dark Lord can pour physical sensations into thoughts and thus one feels the baleful influence of watching
eyes. Kemwer could have been one of those as frost formed on the walls.

"Welcome, Seekers After Divine Truth. We are going to have a wonderful spiritual experience together here today and achieve a new plane of enlightenment.
"

There was applause as people ignored the no-applause edict.

"But you mustn't applaud me. I am only the channel through which Kemwur manifests. Kemwur first came to me five years ago and it frightened me. I
didn't want to believe. It took me a year to realize that I had become a focus for cosmic energies. Today, it will be the wisdom of Kemwur you hear, not
that of mine. If... "nice theatrical pause. Good for every performance. " ...he deigns to come. He is a sage, not a servant to be bidden. "

"What a bunch of claptrap. " Kemwer told FP and Sanders. She was making him -annoyed-.

People wouldn't pay seven hundred and fifty for a no-show.

"Kemwur will only come if the earthly plane is aligned. If there are any of you who harbor negative vibrations, contact will be denied. "

If she looked at Kemwer at that moment, she'd be very surprised at how many thoughts he was harboring ranging from exposing her as a fraud to immuring her
in ice and seeing how she handled being a frozen corpse. She passed over Kemwer's notice as the Rings of Air and Water handled the cloaking aspect.

"Do you believe?Are you thinking positive thoughts, positive emotions?"

Kemwer's current thought was about immolating her in magma. One just had to get fire hot enough to melt stone.

"I sense that every one of you is thinking positive thoughts. Now to bring Kemwur among us, you must help me. You must calm your center You must
concentrate on your inner soul-self. "

Kemwer's light folded around to give him 360-degree vision. This usually gave him a slight migraine. He did this with nary a twinge. Over half the
clientele had their eyes shut, and some folded their hands together in imitation of prayer.

And then Kemwer was hit with an unexpected sensation. It was the sense of belief trying to reconfigure him as to what he wanted. The belief rolled off him like
a duck. Kemwer smiled.

He realized what was going on. It was an indirect attack by somebody who thought Kemwer had used the handwaved avatar method of becoming a god. He had in one
sense only one believer, that of Marduk. Eighty believers ran up against in another sense, millions, as the stuff in his body and blood overwhelmed the
reconfiguration attempt.

"So that's what happening. " Kemwer thought. Marduk had told him there was only one who was using his name. If he did anything with extraordinary
powers, he supported the claim of phony psychics everywhere. If he didn't, eventually there'd be enough to leave him mortal, rather than a god.

"I see why you two wanted me to come. " Kemwer told FP znd Sanders. He thought a bit. He needed to do something about this.

"What's got you so happy, Kemwer?"

"Shh.. Watch the show. " Aria came in with the same mood lightning. Kemwer felt remarkably lighthearted about producing two more gold bars. He earned
money the the old-fashioned way, by working, for his secret identity. He drew a sword out of it's scabbard in the middle of the channeler's speech.

"Welcome O-Seekers of Divine Truth-I'm a fraud, a fake, a charlatan. " Her face expressed horror when she heard the words come out of her mouth.
" I've never channeled a spirit in my life. Kemwur was something Ted made up. I was running a pyramid scheme in Chicago, Illinois at the time. The
feds were closing in on me, and I'd already be up on charges of insurance fraud, so I changed my name-My real name's Gail Archten. I stashed the money
there and sequestered for a year working on the voice of Kemwur. -"

There was an enormous crash from the back. The videocamera operator had dropped the videocamera. The emcee had come back on as Aria had been frozen in horror
at the words coming out of her mouth.

"Which one's Ted?" Kemwer asked from the audience.

"The one in the blue shirt at the back. " Kemwer spotted him instantly. It was the one trying to sneak away.

"Then I contacted a guy I knew, his name was Chuck Elliott, you probably know him as Charles Akeling. We worked together on a couple of chain-letter
scams, so I told him to take me to Salem and break into the channeling business. "

Dr. Sanders had somehow managed to get into the security guard's way and knock them out while Kemwer kept the videocamera in full view.

"Chuck always did have a bad habit of writing everything down. You can't blackmail me, Gail., he said. Wanna bet? I asked him. I told him it was in
the safe deposit box in Dayton, Ohio, ready to be released if anything happened to me. It's not. It's behind the portrait of Atlantis in my bedroom.
The combinations's seven right, six left, eight right. He taught me all about how one softens the marks in the seminar, so they'll tell you all about
their love life in the private sessions. Then you send them copies of the videotapes-"There were audible gasps.

-":and then he introduced me to one of the orderlies at the Neogenesis Rehab Center, and deep masseuse at New Lilac Spa, so I could convince the marks
that Kemwur knows all and sees all. I learned how to change my voice so as to pretend I was channeling spirits, although I didn't think learning all that
junk from Edgar Cayce and Madame Blavatsky was necessary. You guys pay me money as long as I pretend to care about your romances and gallstones-"Aria
seemed to recollect herself as the audible rumble became a growl .

She tried to run off the stage, but Dr. Sanders maneuvered the security guard into her so that she managed to steady herself from the back while the security
guard cracked his head on the floor. He'd have a nasty concussion. Dr. Sanders' specialty is in medicine, you know.

"Are you saying you're the one doing the voice of Kemwur?" Kemwer asked.

"Of course. There's no such thing as channeling the spirits from the great beyond. "She looked around, panicky for an escape route.

"Are you saying Greta Sedona is a fake too?" Kemwer asked.

"Oh, yes. They're all fakes. Greta Sedona, Dominic Chakravanti, Randall Ceti. "

"Do they all use blackmail like you?" Any minute now she'd remember to cover her mouth with her hands, the way she was staring like a frightened
rabbit .

"No. Swami Brahma uses extortion, and Cephera uses posthypnotic suggestion. "

"What about Charles Akeling? What's his scam?"

"Investment fraud. "She cupped her heads as the clip-on microphone cut off.

"Charles tells his clients their dead relations want them to invest in certain stocks-"At the point, Aria had the brainstorm to cover her mouth which
gave her answers in a resulting mumble. The emcee finally succeeded in stepping in front of Aria.

"Thank you for coming. Videos-""He had second thoughts. " That is, personally autographed books are on sale in the front counter.
"Two security guards gripped Aria's hands and feet and carried her bodily off the stage.

Kemwer had located Ted's body heat and saw him through the building. Freedom Princess obligingly pulled Dr. Sanders and Kemwer through the wall while
Kemwer shielded them from sight and mind.

"Hi Ted,. "Kemwer smiled.

"I-I have connections. You'll regret it. " He tried. The sword had been resheathed. Kemwer drew it again.

"Who gave you the idea of Kemwur?" Kemwer asked him.

"A guy who sprung up for an operation to replace my missing leg. He said all I had to do was this to pay him back. He said I'd make it back in spades
in this operation, but I could quit anytime. "

"How did you contact him?"

"There's a code and a number. " He gave Kemwer the code, the number, and who recommended him.

"What did he call himself?"

"He called himself Mazzare. Can I go now?" He whined plaintively. Kemwer sniffed the air. Kemwer had acute human senses, but one didn't need that
to smell the air had definitely become unpleasant. Dr. Sanders put him to sleep. I resheathed my sword.

Mazzare's one of the supersoldiers that Dr. Grey has personally serving him. It's the Italian word for seer and he's pretty good at putting
together coherent pictures of information. Kemwer was wearing the Band of Blacknil The obvious thing was either to kill Ted thereby removing information or to
dump him in a black hole.

It took a few minutes for Kemwer to shove Ted into an empty parallel from the elevator. He'd have to come back later to petrify him with the Wand of Jadis.

"Let's see him try to get information about vanishing. " Kemwer smiled happily.

It had looked like Dr. Sanders would have had to testify on the preliminary hearings, which would have proven awkward since Kemwer was the one holding the
videocamera. She got into a fight with her lawyers over the insanity defense, since she claimed dark powers had been at work.

On the other hand, her fringerprints matched her Illinois driver's license, and every lead she had mentioned checked out, and one could leave it to the
police to roll up the false psychics she had mentioned. Charles Akeling was up on insider trading charges and half the psychics in the city were running for
the hills.

New mediums and psychics then moved in advertising themselves as restorers of balance and the spirits one can trust. This only proves P. T Barnum's old
adage, there's a sucker born every minute and two to take them.

It was a good two weeks.

The police rolled up the psychic network depriving Grey of an important resource that he could have used to turn him mortal, Kemwer had snapped up one of his
unwitting agents to interrogate, and most importantly, Mazzare had no information from his pawn as to what had happened. He placed the Sword of Veracity from
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys back in it's case.