...or are they officers on the Enterprise?
You decide.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

OK, score another one in the "just plain weird" column.
I had to visit the bank today. On my way out, I saw an elderly lady getting out of a car and coming toward the door, so I held it for her. She smiled brightly and, apparently speaking to me, said cheerfully, "You let it rain again!"
I let it rain?! Ummm ... the last time I looked in the mirror, I was not God. I was -- and remain -- totally boggled by this. But it's funny in a way ... I guess....
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

NHK has been airing samurai dramas since the 50's. Thre are stations here in the U.S that had been subbing them. The lastest one is Fuurin Kaazan, a drama concerning the lives of Takeda Shingen and his strategist, Yamamoto Kensuke. I found out by accident that you can download the subbed in English episodes on this site:
They also have other series here also.
Just make sure you have plenty of HD space...you're looking at 52 episodes, each about 700mb.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

I recall someone (maybe WireGeek?) was looking for a proxy server, but I can't find the posting...
unblockcity.org was mentioned in an article on The Register yesterday - I haven't tried it, so use at your own risk.

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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

OK, for those who have always wanted to know... spoilers in White.

The Yondaime's real name is Namikaze Minato, and yes, he is Naruto's father. His mother was Uzumaki Kushina, a kunoichi from Whirlpool Country (???). And a hot redhead.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

According to this article, ADV will be handling the marketing, sales, and distribution for Geneon as of October 1.
I suppose that's the end of the "25 Geneon DVDs for $100" sales that Right Stuf has been running occasionally, since I see no way that ADV would let Right Stuf sell DVDs at that big a discount. On the flip side, if "marketing" includes trailers, maybe we'll actually get some for Geneon products (instead of the creditless-openings they use in place of trailers now)...

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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

Does anyone have any recommendations?
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

Now, I know, poetry by itself doesn't trigger Doug's powers.
But Leslie Fish has already released two volumes of Kipling's work set to music, so...

Quote:

---

WHEN I was King and a Masona Master proven and skilled
I cleared me ground for a Palace such as a King should build.
I decreed and dug down to my levels. Presently, under the silt,
I came on the wreck of a Palace such as a King had built.
There was no worth in the fashionthere was no wit in the plan
Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran
Masonry, brute, mishandled, but careen on every stone:
After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known.
Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well-planned ground-works grew,
I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and reset them anew.
Lime I milled of his marbles; burned it, slacked it, and spread;
Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead.
Yet I despised not nor gloried; yet, as we wrenched them apart,
I read in the razed foundations the heart of that builders heart.
As he had risen and pleaded, so did I understand
The form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned.
. . . . .
When I was a King and a Masonin the open noon of my pride,
They sent me a Word from the DarknessThey whispered and called me aside.
They saidThe end is forbidden. They saidThy use is fulfilled.
Thy Palace shall stand as that othersthe spoil of a King who shall build.
I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and my sheers.
All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years.
Only I cut on the timberonly I carved on the stone:
After me cometh a Builder. Tell him, I too have known !

---

Quote:

---

FAREWELL, Romance! the Cave-men said;
With bone well carved he went away,
Flint arms the ignoble arrowhead,
And jasper tips the spear to-day.
Changed are the Gods of Hunt and Dance,
And he with these. Farewell, Romance!
Farewell, Romance! the Lake-folk sighed;
We lift the weight of flatling years;
The caverns of the mountain-side
Hold him who scorns our hutted piers.
Lost hills whereby we dare not dwell,
Guard ye his rest. Romance, farewell!
Farewell, Romance! the Soldier spoke;
By sleight of sword we may not win,
But scuffle mid uncleanly smoke
Of arquebus and culverin.
Honour is lost, and none may tell
Who paid good blows. Romance, farewell!
Farewell, Romance! the Traders cried;
Our keels ha lain with every sea;
The dull-returning wind and tide
Heave up the wharf where we would be;
The known and noted breezes swell
Our trudging sail. Romance, farewell!
Good-bye, Romance! the Skipper said;
He vanished with the coal we burn;
Our dial marks full steam ahead,
Our speed is timed to half a turn.
Sure as the ferried barge we ply
Twixt port and port. Romance, good-bye!
Romance! the season-tickets mourn,
He never ran to catch his train,
But passed with coach and guard and horn
And left the locallate again!
Confound Romance! . . . And all unseen
Romance brought up the nine-fifteen.
His hand was on the lever laid,
His oil-can soothed the worrying cranks,
His whistle waked the snowbound grade,
His fog-horn cut the reeking Banks;
By dock and deep and mine and mill
The Boy-god reckless laboured still!
Robed, crowned and throned, he wove his spell,
Where heart-blood beat or hearth-smoke curled,
With unconsidered miracle,
Hedged in a backward-gazing world;
Then taught his chosen bard to say:
Our King was with usyesterday!

---

Quote:

---

NOW we are come to our Kingdom,
And the State is thus and thus;
Our legions wait at the Palace gate
Little it profits us.
Now we are come to our Kingdom!
Now we are come to our Kingdom,
And the Crown is ours to take
With a naked sword at the Council board,
And under the throne the snake.
Now we are come to our Kingdom!
Now we are come to our Kingdom,
And the Realm is ours by right,
With shame and fear for our daily cheer,
And heaviness at night.
Now we are come to our Kingdom!
Now we are come to our Kingdom,
But my loves eyelids fall.
All that I wrought for, all that I fought for,
Delight her nothing at all.
My crown is of withered leaves,
For she sits in the dust and grieves.
Now we are come to our Kingdom!

---

Quote:

---

ROME never looks where she treads.
Always her heavy hooves fall,
On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads;
And Rome never heeds when we bawl.
Her sentries pass onthat is all,
And we gather behind them in hordes,
And plot to reconquer the Wall,
With only our tongues for our swords.
We are the Little Folkwe!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and youll see
How we can drag down the State!
We are the worm in the wood!
We are the rot at the root!
We are the taint in the blood!
We are the thorn in the foot!
Mistletoe killing an oak
Rats gnawing cables in two
Moths making holes in a cloak
How they must love what they do!.
Yesand we Little Folk too,
We are busy as they
Working our works out of view
Watch, and youll see it some day!
No indeed! We are not strong,
But we know Peoples that are.
Yes, and well guide them along,
To smash and destroy you in War!
We shall be slaves just the same?
Yes, we have always been slaves,
But youyou will die of the shame,
And then we shall dance on your graves!
We are the Little Folkwe!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and youll see
How we can drag down the State!
We are the worm in the wood!
We are the rot at the root!
We are the taint in the blood!
We are the thorn in the foot!

---

...new units of measurement here!
(Courtesy of The Register, as always.)

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

I was going to work on chapter two of Legend of Galactic Girls over lunch, but everything hit the
fan at once... By the time that was over, I was too tired to do much in the way of creative work. Instead, I pulled together some scattered notes from various
threads and added a couple of bits of my own to them... What did I get wrong, and what did I leave out?

Finance in Fenspace

"Can you imagine the bragging rights? That's the real Fen
currency, you know that."

- Eric Zhu (owner of The Island), in Disturbing Implications of Land Rising into the Sky

Bragging rights may be the real currency of Fenspace, but you can't (usually) buy a tank of fuel with them.

Money

Currencies naturally divide into two groups - those from the 'Danelaw and those native to Fenspace.

'Danelaw currencies - in decreasing order of popularity, Australian dollars, US dollars, Euros, Pounds sterling, and others - are used by Fendanes and Fen
who have a great deal of business with Earth (such as Stellvia). They have the advantage of being
well-known and having established rates of exchange, but are disliked by Fen who left Earth to get away from the 'Danelaw.

Currencies native to Fenspace are based on goodwill, assets, or both. Most are officially pegged to the Bank of Sol's "solar credit". In
actuality, some privately-issued currencies are more valued than others (just like in the American old west):

* "A-list" currencies are backed by both goodwill and assets, and issued by reputable known groups - which limits them to the Mars and Venus
Terraforming Projects, The Island, and Hephaestus.

* "B-list" currencies, such as the one issued by the Hidden Asteroid, are backed by goodwill or
assets.

* "C-list" currencies are not backed at all, and thus are strictly novelty items outside of the issuing group - the equivalent of the old west's
"wooden nickels". If Candy Apple Red's issued its own money, this is where it would be
ranked.

The most common asset used to back Fenspace currency is biomass - it's the one thing not easily available in the greater Solar System. Seeds, plants,
animals, soil... even sewage has a high intrinsic worth, especially in the terraforming projects. On
the biomass standard, the several hundred acres the Grover's Corners lifted gives those hardy
pioneers a net worth higher than Hephaestus and Stellvia
put together. The only reason this didn't cause a noticeable economic dislocation was that Operation GREAT JUSTICE began a couple
of weeks after the Grover's Corners launch.

Currency trading on Earth determines the exchange rate between the baseline "solar credit" and major 'Daneside currencies. As of the beginning of
Operation GREAT JUSTICE, the Solar Credit was close enough to parity with the U.S. Dollar to not matter.

Balance transfers between Fenspace banks, or between Fenspace and the 'Danelaw, are handled by bonded AIs that were specially programmed and 'waved to
be as incorruptable as possible.

Physical Currency

There's not much paper money in Fenspace, mainly because the paper is worth more as stock for Martian fertilizer than as money. But like so many other
things these days, money can be reduced to electronic transactions. For practicality if nothing else, Fenspace is a "cashless" society.

Thus, any institution that issues its own currency also issues its own credit card. These vary greatly depending on the issuer - the "Venus Express"
card is valuable in its own right because of the Venusian-diamond inlays in the card, while the Hephaestus
"Steel Credit" routinely sets off metal detectors. (Both are pegged to the Bank of Sol's "solar credit" at a
1:1 exchange rate.) On the other hand, little distinguishes Stellvia's "Visa" cards
(based on the Australian Dollar) from those issued by Earth-side banks.

The credit card has become Fenspace's de facto identification card, since everybody needs to
have one in order to do business with anyone else without resorting to barter. Libertarian and anarchic factions tend to make it easy to obtain cards issued to
"John Smith", "Jiro Yamada", or other cultures' equivalents; other factions tend to require, if not a real name, at least a false name
that isn't blatantly obvious.



-Rob Kelk




"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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