You know when grown-ups tell you everything's going to be fine, and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better? Yes. Everything's going to be fine.
Monday, December 31
To Infinity And Beyond
The New Horizons probe zipped past Pluto on July 14, 2015 at a distance of less than 8000 miles, providing in a few short hours most of the information we have about the ninth planet.*
Tomorrow, at about 4:30PM AEDT, it will pass (486958) 2014 MU69 - also known as Ultima Thule - at a distance of just 2200 miles.
As the official name suggests, Ultima Thule was only discovered in 2014. But its addition to New Horizons' itinerary is no accident. The Hubble Telescope was assigned to scan the region around the probe's trajectory to look for additional targets beyond Pluto but within range of the available propellant. A second, somewhat larger object was also found, but is further from original path and reaching it would require more of the propellant reserves. An assessment was made that New Horizons had ample reserves for what was originally designated PT1 - potential target one - but only had a 95% chance of reaching PT3.
Right now, our best picture of Ultima Thule is still in the potato-at-ten-thousand-yards category but that will change rapidly. Only not that rapidly: While New Horizons is closing in at a rate of 30,000 miles per hour, the probe is so far away that its high-gain antenna effectively has the bandwidth of an early dial-up modem.
This is what New Horizons did for our understanding of Pluto:
It remains to be seen if the valiant New Horizons will run afoul of the Mi-Go after its narrow escape during its previous rendezvous.
Artist's depiction of a Mi-Go warrior princess. Given that Mi-Go are fungi, we suspect our artist may have got into the liquor a bit early tonight.
Watch episode 1, The Woman Who Fell to Earth, and 2, The Ghost Monument. These aren't bad and establish the new characters.
Then skip episode 3 unless you are deeply into badly-scripted 50s period drama, and go to episode 4, Arachnids in the UK. It's a decently done Classic Who episode, like The Green Death, but a little more subtle.
Then skip episodes 5 and 6; they suck.
Then watch episode 7, Kerblam!, which is a good Russell T Davies-style episode which has the gumption to kill the characters who need to die to drive the story forward.
Then skip episode 8. The script for this one isn't the problem; it's the directing.
Then watch episode 9, It Takes You Away.
Then skip episode 10.
Basically it's a five-episode season, like Series 4b or when they split Series 7 in the middle. If you cut away the bad half, it's elevated to merely disappointing.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Friday, August 03
So....
I just got suspended on Twitter for a week for comparing Brian Stelter unfavourably to a dead goldfish.
It seems that Twitter are saying worse things about Brian there than I ever did.
Also, side note, the Facebook user interface in a mobile browser is astonishingly awful. MySpace cubed.
Also, another side note: If you log in to Twitter while you're suspended and accidentally click like, it appears they extend your suspension by five hours.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, August 03 2018 10:13 AM (PiXy!)
3
You could just say "stupid" and see if it skirts the edges of what I will loosely call "rules" of the banhammer.
Posted by: Rick C at Saturday, August 04 2018 07:18 AM (ITnFO)
4
Yeah, the R-Word is automatically detected, it seems.
Posted by: Mauser at Saturday, August 04 2018 10:08 AM (Ix1l6)
5
I've had about 70 "lite" suspensions (where you get shadow banned but can still post) for using words like "idiot" or "stupid". The two times I've been suspended for real were both for using "retarded".
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, August 05 2018 03:21 PM (PiXy!)
6
Have you considered Unicode substitution? Perhaps they won't recognize one of these:
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rᥱtаrԁеⅾ
rᥱtɑrⅾᥱԁ
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rᥱtɑrⅾеԁ
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rᥱtɑrԁеԁ
rᥱtɑrⅾеⅾ
rеtаrⅾеԁ
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rᥱtаrⅾᥱⅾ
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-j
Posted by: J Greely at Monday, August 06 2018 06:01 AM (tgyIO)
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Friday, February 16
Stories
The Tammy Perkins Detective Series
by Charles Brewer
#24. The Quest Of The Combative Cuttlefish
CHAPTER 1: LABORATORY MARAUDERS
CHAPTER 2: A NEAR TRAGEDY
CHAPTER 3: TARANTULA'S PRIZE
CHAPTER 4: THE CHAMBER IN THE VALLEY
CHAPTER 5: THE CRYPTIC HARP
CHAPTER 6: DIGGING FOR PLATINUM
CHAPTER 7: FORBIDDEN ISLAND
CHAPTER 8: THE CHIMNEY COLLAPSES
CHAPTER 9: THE PUZZLING LIGHT
CHAPTER 10: A RUNAWAY
CHAPTER 11: THE ELUSIVE MRS. MISS COPELAND
CHAPTER 12: FLICKERING CANDLELIGHT
CHAPTER 13: TIRE TRACKS
CHAPTER 14: THE CLOAKED MAN
CHAPTER 15: DISASTER IN THE WOODS
CHAPTER 16: THE PECULIAR MUSICIAN
CHAPTER 17: LOST SMOKESTACK
CHAPTER 18: THE MAPLE TREE
CHAPTER 19: THE MEETING PLACE
CHAPTER 20: THE LAST RIDDLE
CHAPTER 21: THE JELLYBEAN
CHAPTER 22: FOLLOWING THE TRAIL
CHAPTER 23: A NEW GUESS
CHAPTER 24: THE WRENCH MYSTERY
"Brilliant prose, a fresh voice, and memorable characters are only a few of the reasons to read this gripping mystery."
--Cominto Town Taxi
"The Quest Of The Combative Cuttlefish is an engaging and truly gripping mystery."
--Raymond Martinez
"In The Quest Of The Combative Cuttlefish, Charles Brewer takes 'what if' in a new direction and to new heights!"
--Sheltering Pines Express
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Wednesday, January 24
Another Fine Product
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Wednesday, December 27
Letters From Amazon
I get a ton of email from Amazon because we use AWS at work, so they get routed to a separate folder that I don't always look at straight away.
Sometimes that's a mistake. Today it was two mistakes, one confusing, one delightful.
Got an email Christmas morning,
It was labeled Amazon.
It was typed in Times New Roman,
Said my package, it was gone.
Back for return and refund,
And I'd get a check real soon.
But I don't know what they're talkin' about
Got it Friday afternoon.
The other one someone knows about, and a huge Christmas thank you to that someone. Really brightened up my day.
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Saturday, October 14
Free Bees
As happens sometimes, I have a few duplicate Steam keys to give away:
1
Nice mix of turn based strategy games. I see you are a man of culture.
Well, CK2 isn't strictly speaking turn based, but it's close enough since you can pause. Have you given Stellaris a try?
In any case, if you're just giving them away, I'd love to have Fallen Enchantress. I just need to find the time to slot it between Darkest Dungeon and Age Of Wonders 3. Steam account is jopega.
Posted by: Kian at Sunday, October 15 2017 12:38 AM (WWV/v)
It's... Good. It's good. It's smart and funny and only about 80% cynical.
And it commits 100% to its premises and stories and characters. Every time you think, "Wait, what about..." they turn the thing you thought they'd forgotten into a plot point or character moment.
It doesn't reset anything out-of-universe. If there's an in-universe science-fictional mechanism to restore the status quo, that's fair game, but when they do that they also play with the consequences of the mechanism. Some of the best stories are entirely about the characters resolving the side-effects of setting things back to normal in the previous episode.
Another thing I like is that it's not just about Morty going on adventures with Rick while everyone else clings desperately to the idiot ball. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Phineas and Ferb.) Not much of a spoiler since the opening credits show other family members caught up in the insanity, though it takes a bit longer than that for it to actually unfold.
If you can take the art style and the fact that Rick is about 90% awful, recommended.
Rick and Morty can be seen on Cartoon Network in the US.
And the reason why Rick is 'only' 90% awful can be seen in one of the segments of Tales from the Citadel.
On another note...The creeping hand of progressivism is making their way into all aspects of entertainment, including localizing anime, with all the steady determination of the Blob. And having listen to the person supposedly responsible for one of the occurrences, I can safely say that the attitude displayed in person's personal beliefs fit exactly the attitude of the cant that was slip in.
How I long for the days when members of the R1 anime localization industry could demonstrate their progressive creds on their own time and dime (By singing a song about the British troops in Northern Ireland - which I mentioned either here or in the comments at Chizumatic many years ago.).
Posted by: cxt217 at Monday, September 25 2017 11:14 AM (kS3Mo)
5
Have to say I really like Summer's character development too.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, September 26 2017 07:52 PM (PiXy!)