On April 19th, 2014, Admin The Observer of the Website "Spacebattles.com", with the approval of the only other two active Admins, RJB and Reaperman, fired Athene, previously known as Thantos, from her SuperMod position with vague reasons that did not make any sense. (Keir, the owner, not being active for long periods of time was not personally involved.),
There was no reason stated for the sudden firing of Athene, who was a Mod for 10+ years and actively donated money to Spacebattles for upkeep.
Most of the time, we would not have much of an issue with this. But The Observer attempted to lie to the entire website by calling it a willing retirement.
And posting the retirement thread one minute after telling Athene that she was fired, effectively making it official before she could even ask why she was fired.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/ ... ng.295647/Where the Observer Lies, Athene reveals the lie, and Reaperman digs the hole even deeper.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/ ... an.295763/Where the discussion continues, flying in the face of Reaperman's decisions to close the first thread.
http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/ ... ne.295822/Where people try to get Athene back her job.
http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/th ... es-com.97/A new website (Name in the works.) was made, as Athene's firing and the epic lie were the last straw for Lord Squishy, who bought and paid for a better website then what Spacebattles is run off of. In a single say almost 450 users signed up.Spacebattles has been suffering from Lag and stiff rules, with everything that was piling up this was bound to happen.
This website has the ability to out perform Spacebattles due to being more updated, and can be upgraded if need be, and will perform better even if it gets as many users as Spacebattles.
So, what do you all think? In a single day The Observer destroyed the majority of the trust people had in Spacebattles, and the users that commonly donate money to website upkeep are saying that they are no longer going to donate.
I think that Keir will notice the lack of funding, and The Observer, Reaperman, and to a certain extent RJB will have to pay for their betrayal.
_____________
Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar

Oh HELLS YEAH!!! Love it! ^_^

Very straightforward, it does exactly what it says on the tin. If Doug can tell himself and believe it that they are in some way doing it to escape something, he can let an entire group of people he's had at least enough social contact with to know all of their names have the power as well, so long as they stay within his AoE.

It's another one that popped up on the lyric search for possible gate songs to get him home, but turned out to do something different. Quite useful in this case, but still not the desired result.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

A very cool and interesting way of listening to music.  I'm not sure how to describe it in just a few words -- it's probably easier for you to go and try it out. 

Give it a listen.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Is living in New Jersey.

It's not often that one man manages to utterly butt-fuck an entire country, ruin the prospects of a generation and condemn thousands to a form of economic exile, then get away scott-free. So step forward David Drumm, now working for a New Jersey scaffolding company.

Quote:Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm, who may face criminal charges over his activities at the failed bank, has started a new career in the United States.

Mr Drumm has recently found a job as a consultant and has been seen working out of the offices of a scaffolding firm in New Jersey.

The firm, Safway Atlantic, has Irish links and is based in the town of Carlstadt, just 20km from New York city.

Our exclusive pictures show Mr Drumm at the offices of the business in recent days.

They show how the former Anglo boss has left the tie and suit of his banking days behind him.

He was seen looking relaxed and upbeat in a shirt and jeans after a morning meeting, before driving away from the premises in a Jeep Laredo.

The Irish Independent has learned that he is not an employee of the company, but has been doing consultancy work.

When contacted, the firm declined to comment.

Mr Drumm, who is facing a bankruptcy trial next month in Boston, left Ireland for the US after stepping down as Anglo chief executive in December 2008.

Since then he has ignored repeated requests from gardai to come home to answer questions.

Two former colleagues, Pat Whelan and Willie McAteer, are facing the possibility of jail terms of up to five years after being convicted this week of providing illegal loans to the so-called Maple 10, in a controversial scheme that was put in place to prop up the bank's share price.

However, they were cleared of giving illegal loans to members of former tycoon Sean Quinn's family.

Former Anglo chairman Sean FitzPatrick was also acquitted of a range of charges against him.

During the trial, Judge Martin Nolan described Mr Drumm as the "author" of the Maple 10 loans for shares transactions.

Barrister Brendan Grehan, representing Mr Whelan, also described Mr Drumm's absence from the trial as being like 'Hamlet' without the prince.

A file on Mr Drumm's involvement was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions towards the end of 2011 and a decision is expected shortly. Gardai will seek his extradition if the DPP gives the go-ahead.

Safway Atlantic provides scaffolding, hoisting and access solutions to developers and construction sites across New York.

The company is one of the fastest growing scaffolding firms in the US with offices in Chicago, New York and New Jersey.

Former Irish company Atlantic Hoisting was bought by Wisconsin-based scaffolding company Safway Services in 2011.

Set up by brothers John and Michael Breslin, who are originally from Kells, Co Meath, Atlantic was one of the biggest providers of scaffolding and hoisting in New York.

The company has worked on some of the largest projects in the city, including the September 11 Memorial Museum, the Freedom Tower, the Javits Convention Centre on the West Side and the UN building.

The Safway Atlantic office Mr Drumm has been working out of is located in Carlstadt, a small New Jersey town with a population of around 6,000.

The office is situated in one of several industrial estates in the town.

Carlstadt is home to a mixture of blue-collar workers employed locally and middle-class professionals who commute to New York. Mr Drumm had previously been based in Massachusetts and living in the wealthy Boston suburb of Wellesley.

He is understood to have stayed more recently at a number of addresses in New York and New Jersey.

Mr Drumm had also worked for a period as a consultant for Mayo-born developer John McGrail. Mr McGrail's Mayo Group received over €100m in loans from Anglo for projects in the Boston area.

The former bank boss filed for bankruptcy in Massachusetts in 2010 but lawyers for the former Anglo Irish Bank and a court-appointed trustee objected, alleging that Mr Drumm fraudulently tried to hide assets and transferred larges sums of cash to his wife Lorraine.

WORTHLESS

In papers filed with the bankruptcy court, the 47-year-old listed debts of $14.2m (€10.3m), most of which, some €8.5m, is owed to his former employer. This was money he borrowed to buy shares in the bank. The shares are now worthless.

More than three-and-a-half years after petitioning to be discharged from his debt, Mr Drumm's bankruptcy trial will start on May 21.

Houses owned by Mr Drumm and his wife in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and in Malahide, Co Dublin, have already been sold for almost €3m and €1.4m respectively, with part of the proceeds going to creditors.

Mr Drumm took over from Mr FitzPatrick as Anglo chief executive in January 2005 and held the position until the end of 2008.

He had previously worked for the bank in the US.

Found this when trying to dig up more information on Log Horizon...
...Apparently, the author of the light novels wants people to write fanfic of his stuff!!!
It's kinda second-hand...  Taken from a series of Q&A threads on 4-chan that were translated and reposted in an article on CrunchyRoll.

Quote:>>Is there any plan for the story in the American server ? in the main story or in "gaiden".>>like rebuilding the security or a story of a cook destroying the huge crime guild.>>I wanna see what its like if a Hollywood-like story or American comic-like story happens in Log-hora world.This is something I also want to see, but I just don't have enough energy left for it.What
happens in the world of Log Horizon, and the mysteries that I've left
in various locations around the world, are blank pages that are there so
that people can write their very own story about it.

Well, let's see. You've got Santa Claus, who is of course North, Snow/Ice (in classical form, Water) and Winter, you've got the Easter Bunnie, who covers East (duh,) and Spring, and there's the Tooth Fairy, who's got Air sewed up pretty well by virtue of having bug wings, but who's number four? The Queen of England's too busy, so the Boogie Man? He could take South (as in "things have gone south") which would leave the Tooth Fairy to come out of the West, pardners, and switching up the rotation to give him Summer and Boogie Fall (for Hallowe'en) works well too, but what about elements?

I suppose Toothie could do Fire if he's Summer, though I think of that as more a late summer and fall thing with dry weather and leaves on the ground, and more in Boogie's area since an uncontrolled fire is scary and even a simple match or candle will hurt if you act like a doofus. Smoke and dancing shadows go well with him, too. Besides, like I said, Tothie's the only one with a really good claim on Air.

That leaves Earth for the Easter Bunnie, but I don't really see as close a connection for her as I'd like. Any ideas?

How about for powers? Or their nemesis, Doctor Skeptic, who takes the power of science too far? (Note lack of caps and exclamation point, as there is no such thing as taking SCIENCE! too far.)

ETA: The Tooth Fairy is a crack shot with a six-gun. Why, he can shoot a loose tooth right out of a child's mouth without putting a scratch anywhere else! The bullets flattening out into silver coins would fulfill that part of the legend, too.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

I did. Both live outside alternating with the view from NASA Streamed from Griffith Observatory. Quite a show! There'll be 3 more in the coming year - a full tetrad as it's known. 
I posted this on facebook yesterday as the eclipse was reaching totality: 

Quote:The Moon right now looks rather a lot like Mars, actually.
I have to wonder - what would this show look like from out there on the Moon?
You'd be able to see the dark side of the Earth where a few minutes before the Sun would've been blocking it out. And all around the Earth would be the rim of light from the sun refracting through the atmosphere. 
A continuous sunrise/sunset all around the edge of the disc of the Earth, with all the city lights gleaming at you on the night side.
And if you cast your Astronaut eyes through the faceplate of your helmet at the regolith at your feet - would it have that blood red light coloring everything? One of the few times that you'd see any color on the Moon itself other than stark black, white and grey.
And the stars! Normally you'd not be able to make out the stars in the glare of the sunlight off the lunar surface. But then, with the circle of the earth's night-side above and the sunlight only dimly coming through that band of fire at the outer edge of the atmosphere...
Man, what a show that would be!

Goddamnit. FUCK...

http://theorstrahyun.blogspot.com/2014/ ... -2014.html

Quote:AC/DC are ending their 41 year career on a terribly sad note.
Plans were underway for a new studio album, their first since 2008's monumental Black Ice, and a '40th Anniversary' world tour, 40 huge shows across the globe.
More than a month ago, founding member, rhythm guitarist, co-producer and co-songwriter Malcolm Young had a stroke, which left a blood clot on his brain.
When AC/DC reunited at the start of April to begin a month of rehearsals, in the lead-up to new album recording sessions, Malcolm discovered he couldn't play. At least, he couldn't play like he used to play.
Nothing has been officially confirmed, as of this writing, but friends and family members have been discussing what happened to Malcolm for the past couple of weeks. The blood clot, resulting from the stroke, is believed to be why Malcolm couldn't keep working.
Although friends have described Malcolm's condition as serious, it doesn't mean he won't recover. People do get better after strokes, and people do recover lost skills.
But friends and family of band members believe the decision was made last week to call it quits. 
Media in Australia have gone ballistic today on rumours of The End Of AC/DC, and it appears the news got out ahead of a planned official announcement from the band and management.

Quote:UPDATE:
Mark Gable, from The Choirboys, provides another confirmation on the sad news about Malcolm Young: 

Quote:"That is true, Malcolm is sick.
"From what I understand, and it's even been confirmed in part by his son Ross (Young), that it would appear Malcolm is unable to perform anymore. "It's not just that he is unwell, it's that it is quite serious. It will constitute that he definitely won't be able to perform live.
"He will probably not be able to record."

An official comment/announcement from AC/DC management is still expected today.
Fairfax media claims the following is from a "family source":

Quote:It is understood Young returned to Sydney with his family before Christmas and was having in-home care at his house in East Balmain. He is now said to be having difficulty remembering familiar faces and having increasing problems communicating.
"His memory loss is so bad it is consistent with Alzheimers or dementia although we do not know that is what it is. There has been talk about cancer too."

The response online, and on radio, to news of Malcolm's illness has been massive. If AC/DC were in any doubt that millions of people around the world still love and respect their music, and their skills and talent at songwriting, they should wonder no more.

What it says on the tin. Just throw some quotes/lines/snips at the wall and see what sticks.
"Worthless!" The heavyset man dressed on white with a fez bellowed at his scrawny associate. He lifted the black-painted statuette. "This 'Maltese Falcon' is made of gold!" (Fen collector trying to get one of the originals from the movie)
''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