Lord Liaden

If sports is the only thing they've shown any competence at, their candidacy should at least be seriously questioned. More so if they talk like they have the IQ of a mushroom.

The British Royal Family are maintained as symbols. Appearances are a big part of what they do. On top of that, when you're going through something as personal as a serious illness, you typically want to maintain your privacy as much as possible. Even more so if you're one of the most scrutinized people in the world.

Gordon Lightfoot certainly did not need that song for his career. And he brought it to the families of the drowned sailors before he released it to ask for their approval. They all considered it a fitting tribute. Detroit's Maritime Church rings its bell every year on the anniversary of the wreck, once for each sailor lost. Last year they added an extra stroke of the bell for Gordon Lightfoot after his passing. (Sorry, that got my Canadian up a little.) 😌

There appear to be a few Senates that are replete with wild-eyed conspiracy nuts. But as broader policy, all these Republican tactics have as their unifying base, the promotion of fear. Fear of immigrants, of doctors, of scientists, of teachers and librarians, of homosexuals and transvestites, of socialists and Democrats. It's all they have in terms of "policy." They need people to be afraid so they'll vote for Republicans to "protect" them, even if what they fear doesn't exist. In fact, especially if it doesn't exist, because then Republican lawmakers don't have to actually do anything about it. It's why the House GOP voted against the bipartisan border security bill. Donald Trump proclaimed that he needed a less-secure border to campaign on, essentially ordering Republicans to kill it. (And incidentally revealing that Trump and the GOP must believe their voters are colossally ignorant, oblivious, and stupid.)

"Smurfit Institute of Genetics" Now we know where Brainy ended up.

"Come over here and play with us!" [Lips smacking]

Check with the government in your state to make sure that's legal. In many states, and provinces in my country, introducing unsecured human remains including ashes into the environment is barred by law. You don't want to potentially cause your kin problems after you're gone.

The Republican Study Committee, comprising more than 170 GOP House Republicans, released a budget proposal for 2025 on Wednesday. Among its "high points" are: raising the retirement age; enshrining "life begins at conception" as national law; lowering social security benefits; making Medicare compete with private insurance plans; and general reduction in "entitlements" spending. You can read the text of the proposal here. It should be noted that Republican lawmakers in electorally vulnerable states are already disavowing the proposal. But it's reasonable to assume that this is what the GOP would do if they regain power. Democrats have already started heatedly denouncing it. If they make that a significant part of their campaigning, the Republicans may have handed the Dems the key to a majority in Congress.

I saw the original Alien in theaters when it first came out. I don't like scary movies, but my mother loved them, and insisted on me accompanying her. I'd never before felt so emotionally abused and manipulated. By the last fifteen minutes of the movie, I was so drained of feeling, I wouldn't have cared if the damn alien stepped off the screen and sat beside me. I kept thinking to myself, "Just eat the b!tch and let me go home." That experience was a significant contributor to my conscious refusal to suspend my disbelief when it comes to film scares. I never lose my awareness that they're fake, so they don't frighten me any more. I do admire Alien on an intellectual level, though. And I enjoy the thrills of Aliens.

Digital Hero #39 includes a mini-setting, War of the Worlds: Champions, set in the same era as H.G. Wells' novel, the end of the 19th Century. The difference in concept is that the toxic "black smoke" weapon used by the Martians, while lethal to the vast majority of humans, in very rare cases induces super-powers, giving humanity something of an equalizer against the Martian technology. Those powers can include super intelligence, so you also get steampunk vehicles and other weapons.

I usually prefer theatrical cuts of films to "extended editions," but the extended version of Aliens that I've seen adds useful context and deeper meaning to the film IMHO.

I think you have to have been a god or legendary warrior, since the only authenticated references to bodies being burned on ships in water come from mythology.

And then he got his own kid superhero version. And girl version. And kind-of old man version.

I'm really glad Joe Biden and other Democrats have finally taken the gloves off in public against the Republicans. Taking the high road was never going to win for them when their opponents have been wallowing in the mud for years. You just know Donald Trump's 'phone will combust from all the posts he'll make over this.

Did they all walk into a bar together?

You got the joke, didn't you?

This one's for Badger.

That coyote really is a genius. His schemes to have the roadrunner for dinner were wildly creative. In a just universe they should have worked a hundred times over. But given that he could afford to buy all that Acme hardware, he could have saved himself a lot of grief if he just ordered takeout.

It's funny, during TOS the Romulans were depicted as tough and aggressive, but also disciplined and honorable. While Klingons were shown to be deceitful, sneaky, and manipulative. In the TNG era those racial/cultural roles were essentially reversed.

The original Superboy was an exception to the trend of teenage homages to adult superheroes, in that he was explicitly a young Clark Kent before he became the adult Superman. He couldn't be put into stories co-starring the other super sidekicks, because Superman interacted with their mentors as a grownup. That was probably a major incentive for him to adventure in the far future with the Legion of Superheroes, avoiding a temporal paradox. Speaking of the Legion, it used to seem to me like a rather odd and awkward concept. A huge and diverse assemblage of super-powered beings protecting the whole galaxy, with the cooperation and support of government and law enforcement, with a charter, headquarters, training and recruitment programs... yet the entire membership was kids. In fact, they used to have an official upper age limit for membership. That would seem to put an unreasonable burden, and trust, on young shoulders.

Enemies: The International File was flawed, in that it was clearly an attempt to create villains based outside of the United States, by someone without familiarity with the cultures of the countries they were from. As such it fell back on cliches and stereotypes, or contextually inappropriate associations. OTOH it was Hero Games' first deliberate project to broaden its Champions gaming resources beyond the Americentric focus of most of the genre source material. The company continued those efforts through Fourth and Fifth Edition, to a greater extent than almost any other RPG, and more than the mainstream comics companies. It was also the start of "themed" Enemies collections, moving away from generalized villain compendia to ones whose characters shared common themes and/or motifs. Fourth Edition Champions was the height of that experiment, with Alien Enemies, High-Tech Enemies, Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies, European Enemies 😖, Enemies Assemble for teams, Enemies for Hire for mercenaries... despite varying success in execution, each book aspired to fill a defined niche in the supervillain ecosystem.

Heartily agree. I find I now tend to come up with scenario ideas in "plot seed" format initially, then flesh them out.

It's as if the SCOTUS is gun shy over making any controversial rulings, given the hornets' nests stirred up by their recent ones. Which gives the impression of cowardice on top of corruption. Not a reassuring image.

I never thought of having children for a convenient headrest.