Michael Hopcroft

Not coming to a console near you: LEGO The Borgias. Rated M for Mature if the publishers are lucky. You've never seen a minifig do this!

I found this oddly fascinating.  To show primitive building methods, the guy starts with nothing and builds a clay hut. The axe and fire sticks are in other videos
 

Left without further comment.

Tap is a uniquely American lost art. There are very few tap dangers of any prominence today. So when I was pointed to a Youtube scene with the Nichlas Brothers from the 1940s, I was astounded. The grace, strength, and athleticism of these men was astounding. I wonder if some of the things in this clip are even possible for anyone but the most obsessively trained and practiced.
 

My favourite band's new single Lost. At first didn't "get it" but now I found a way to relate to it. What does everyone else think? 
 

I don't know about anyone else, but I found the video resonant. When I was a teenager, I would sometimes go out on very long walks in the middle of the night. I didn't do anything -- just walked to someplace distant and walked back. I probably knew in the back of my  mind that I was breaking curfew laws, but I was never caught.
 
The visuals reminded me of those days.

Q: Man, the simulator is frozen. What will happen when I kick it?
 
A: I know sharks can;t live inside an active volcano. I know it's impossible. But let's stop arguing about Applied Ichthyology and RUN FOR YOUR BLASTED LIVES!

It's even funnier for Full Metal Alchemist fans. The poor dwarves....
 
(For the record I doubt the cartoonist has ever even heard of Full Metal Alchemist.)
 
In most fictional settings, Lust is personified as an impossibly gorgeous woman. Why is Lust never personified as a disgusting old pervert?

It's even funnier for Full Metal Alchemist fans. The poor dwarves....
 
(For the record I doubt the cartoonist has ever even heard of Full Metal Alchemist.)
 
In most fictional settings, Lust is personified as an impossibly gorgeous woman. Why is Lust never personified as a disgusting old pervert?

The fact that "chicken fries" are such a hot item should be alarming to those who do still care about food. They are to protein what Funyuns are to the vegetable kingdom.

"Darn it, how the heck do you wrap 20 experience points?  He'll finally be able to dodge Biff the Wonder Dog's attacks!"
 
NT:  Foxbat being Foxbat, what is he actually going to purchase with those 20 XP, instead of a higher DCV?

The enraptured look on his face reminded me of the time I went to a concert given by an obscure but promising young cellist. I will never forget the look of concentration mixed with ecstasy on his face as he played, and the sweat pouring out of his entire body (yes, I did get to sit that close). It would have been unbelievable unless you had been there.
 
What happened to that musician? To answer that, I need only tell you his name -- Yo-Yo Ma.

I imagine there are hikkomori of both genders, but it's a serious issue. Some find that there are so many pressures from so many directions that they simply can;t face life and shut themselves away. I was affected by something similar growing up. The problem is that human beings are hard-wired to need other people, and when we shut ourselves off from them completely we quietly start to go mad.
 
Unfortunately mental illness is severely stigmatized in Japan, making obtaining treatment for serious conditions difficult and socially challenging. It's already hard enough to be mentally ill without massive social disapproval making things worse.

President Snow's favorite novel: To Kill a Mockingjay

President Snow's favorite novel: To Kill a Mockingjay

It's a new technology, and if it can be done for 25 bucks a test, it's about 5-10% of the price of current tests that do the same thing, so that's pretty cool.
 
How useful would it be? For high risk patients (like transplant patients) we already do this type of test, but that's not for diagnosis. It's for planning future treatment. The drawback of this new test (like the old tests) is that it relies on antibodies. Normally, it takes 2-3 weeks for your body to generate a measureable antibody response. So the test will tell you what you've had, but not necessarily what you have right now.
 
That could still be useful - especially as we collect more information on how individuals respond to infection and long term risks of infection - but probably won't have an immediate effect on medical practice.
 
Cheers, Mark

Not the actual recording I'm listening to but the same piece -- the overture to Gioacomo Rossini's opera Semiramede. Semiramede was the last of Rossini's operas written in Italy. No, I haven;t seen it.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXNw9iygwwI

Inside Out in the theater.
 
Brilliant. Absolutely bloody brilliant.
 
As you probably know by now, it's as fantasy about the five core "feelings" that live in a little girl named Riley's head and control her emotional life. (Every other person in the movie has variations of the same feelings.) When an accident sucks the girl's "core memories" and two of the feelings (Joy and Sadness) out of headquarters and into the wider world of her mind, the girl's emotional life spirals out of control and Joy and Sadness struggle to get back to Headquarters while the three remaining feelings (Anger, Fear and Disgust) try to hold things together while they're gone and make matters much, much worse.
 
Joy wants Riley to be happy. The problem is she wants Riley to always be happy, regardless of what happens to her. The very existence of Sadness is an open annoyance to her, and behind her exuberant exterior she only tolerates the other feelings. She and Riley have one thing in common -- they both have some growing up to do.

Inside Out in the theater.
 
Brilliant. Absolutely bloody brilliant.
 
As you probably know by now, it's as fantasy about the five core "feelings" that live in a little girl named Riley's head and control her emotional life. (Every other person in the movie has variations of the same feelings.) When an accident sucks the girl's "core memories" and two of the feelings (Joy and Sadness) out of headquarters and into the wider world of her mind, the girl's emotional life spirals out of control and Joy and Sadness struggle to get back to Headquarters while the three remaining feelings (Anger, Fear and Disgust) try to hold things together while they're gone and make matters much, much worse.
 
Joy wants Riley to be happy. The problem is she wants Riley to always be happy, regardless of what happens to her. The very existence of Sadness is an open annoyance to her, and behind her exuberant exterior she only tolerates the other feelings. She and Riley have one thing in common -- they both have some growing up to do.

Reginald D. Hunter, black American comedian in the UK, sometimes a touch profane for my tastes but often funny learns about the House of Lords
 

And maybe this?
 

Q: You know, now that the Cardassians are gone from Bajor I hope you're really sorry you became a collaborator.
 
A: Cardassian, Kardashian -- they're all the same to me!

You mean people thinking they should continue to milk more cash out of a franchise created by Michael Crichton?

I'm no horror fan, but I've come to really like Erma, a sadly irregular webcomic about the half-ghost daughter of the character from The Ring. Erma has started kindergarten in a private school (apparently the only one that would take her, and some of her teachers openly wish they hadn't), and is trying to make friends and fit in. But she is subconsciously scary, even when she's trying to be helpful, and has a set of supernatural powers that she sometimes uses cleverly to solve problems, sometimes uses cleverly to have fun, and sometimes uses cleverly while having no idea she's doing it. Despite this, she actually does start to make friends -- especially her unfazable babysitter (the previous one -- well....)
 

It manages to be funny, a little bit sweet, and more than a little unsettling. And I really wish it came out on a regular schedule.