DShomshak

Time for another small update. The Monad will receive additional robots, including humans it wired into obedient "hubots" because who doesn't love a cybermen/borg homage? And speaking of Doctor Who villains, dedicated fans of the series might recognize the source of the title for this Story Seed for servobots. Beware even the least of the Monad's robots! Dean Shomshak

"Unstable Molecules" are a Special Effect for powers such as Instant Change, not a thing that needs a write-up in its own right. Dean Shomshak

Well, yes. I should have added, "...And the solution isn't to shoot them in the head or force them somewhere else," but I was in a hurry. Dean Shomshak

A little good news: In the last year, New Jersey has reduced its population of unsheltered homeless people by 23%, and its latgest city Newark has done so by 58%. Here's a brief story on how they're doing it. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/12/20/newark-may-have-found-a-fix-for-chronic-homelessness Evidence that government cansometimes solve social problems if the people in government want to do so. Dean Shomshak

Reports on Maine's secretaty of state ruling Trump ineligible to be on the ballot don't generally say anything beyond that fact -- at least, most of what I've seen in passing hasn't -- which sounds awfully arbitrary. But today she appeared on All Things Considered to explain exactly what she did and how Maine law operates in this respect. Short take: Yes, she acted under the authority of Maine law; but this is only the first step in a long court process to *actually* keep Trump off the ballot. Trump is receiving due process. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/01/1222405966/maine-secretary-of-state-discusses-decision-to-disqualify-trump-from-primary-bal Dean Shomshak

No, it does not. I think you're asking too much from a one-minute story in a nionspecialist medium, intended for lay people. What do you expect, right ascension and declination? But for everyone who wants more information, here's a somewhat more detailed story, and probably the basis for NPR's: Ancient celestial map found at Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo in Italy | Archaeology News Online Magazine (archaeologymag.com) It wasn't hard to find. And here's the original article, with statistical analysis of the chisel marks. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asna.20220108 The final section discusses the extraneous(?) chisel mark. It might represent a known but dim star in the Orion or Scorpio regions of the sky, though one might wonder why it was chosen. (And I'm wondering why the person who made the map did those famously opposing asterisms on the same map.) But since the mystery star might be in the same region as the hot, fast-burning stars of Orion, a supernova is an intriguing possibility that might be confirmed through a telescopic search for such a remnant. That also explains why NPR actually *could not* say where in the sky it was, because it is not yet certain which asterism it is meant to be near. Which is, in turn, more detail than was likely possible given the time budgeted for the story. Fortunately, I have no such limit. We aim to please. Dean Shomshak

Well... From a certain point of view, Haley's first statement was factually correct. The Civil War was fought about the relation between government and individual rights. It's just that the Confederacy's core principle was that government must, above all else, prevent a certain caste of people from enjoying any rights at all. Dean Shomshak

An ancient constellation map that includes a star that's no longer visible? Plug that into your "Stargate: SG-1" campaign. Or maybe your "Call of Cthulhu" campaign, as there could be far more sinister explanations for a missing star than it going supernova. https://www.npr.org/2023/12/28/1222056316/an-ancient-celestial-map-recently-found-in-italy-includes-an-unknown-star Dean Shomshak

An ancient constellation map that includes a star that's no longer visible? Plug that into your "Stargate: SG-1" campaign. Or maybe your "Call of Cthulhu" campaign, as there could be far more sinister explanations for a missing star than it going supernova. https://www.npr.org/2023/12/28/1222056316/an-ancient-celestial-map-recently-found-in-italy-includes-an-unknown-star Dean Shomshak

We're all familiar with Trump as "Crybaby Conqueror." That observation is not why I'm posting this opinion piece. Rather, it's the last part on his plausible influence by a well known pro wrester of his youth. This is not the only connector I've heard of between Trump and pro wrestling, either, though I'd have to search a while to find the specific story. The over-the-top theatricality and braggadicio -- yeah, I can see it. 'Crybaby conqueror': Columnist nails Trump's appeal to MAGA fanatics (msn.com) Dean Shomshak

This one of Mr Arthur's explores some notions of possible aliens that are rather more alien than one usually sees in media SF... and therefore a lot more frightening. Dean Shomshak

Happy Newtonmas, too! Or if you prefer, a Super Saturnalia! And an honorable Feast of the Long Night, for all the Klingons out there. We are well supplied with Christmas cookies, so all is well. ADDENDUM: And lefse! It just isn't Christmas without lefse. No krumkake this year, though. Krumkake must be light, crumbly, and melt-in-your mouth. My niece tried making some, but it has the consistency of jerky. I suspect that to make proper krumkake you must spend decades of apprenticeship. Like becoming a wizard, only with old church ladies. Dean Shomshak

I recently saw Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. (Came in at the library. Season 2 is on order but already has so many holds I probably can't see it for another year.) A "prequel" to TOS, following the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike and his crew. Decent Trek, nothing too bad, with some nice development of some characters before their appearance in TOS. The Gorn are a significant menace, which sort of retcons their appearance in TOS episode "Arena," in which nobody seems to have heard of them, but not to such an extent that I can't justify. My chief criticism would be that the acting seems a bit low-key compared to the animation all the TOS actors brought to their roles. Best episode IMO was the wackiest, in which Doctor Mbenge finds himself caught in a version of a children's fantasy story, with Enterprise crew drafted into the other roles. Anson Mount does a delightful turn as the treacherous poltroon Chamberlain, in marked contraswt to his rather subdued Captain Pike. But everyone does pretty well: mmm, delicious scenery! Dean Shomshak

I enjoyed the "Lord Darcy" stories and am glad to learn that another author continued them -- and did it well, which is flipping amazing. Yeah, I know Dunsany influenced Smith and Lovecraft; I've been fans of theirs for ages. But somehow I'd never gotten around to reading much Dunsany even though I knew perfectly well he was a majpor influence. I've never seen Lords of Creation, but Pegana somewhat influenced early development of White Wolf's Exalted in some of its treatment of gods and demons. Its model for gods shifted to be more Chinese Celestial Bureaucracy, but I think a few stylistic aspects remained. (And Games of Divinity owe their origin to Dunsany as a phrase, if not what they actually were.) The most persistent influence probably came with Exalted's demons and their world of Malfeas -- likely because that was mostly the creation of R. Sean Borgstrom, a.k.a. Jenna Moran, who is one of the very few game writers I can think of with the mental and stylistic chops to achieve a Dunsanian style. Dean Shomshak

Listened to Lord Dunsany's Gods of Pegana and Time and the Gods as Librivox audiobooks. These are seminal works so I'm glad I finally got to them. Pegana is a book of myths that also are sometimes stories, but more often prose poems, describing the gods, their prophets, and miscellaneous doings -- a view into another world's mythology, from igts beginning to its foretold end. Language and imagery are amazing, though the style is florid and deliberately archaic. Time and the Gods is more miscellaneous, a series of stories and vignettes involving, in one way or another, time and "the gods of old." Only some constitute actual stories; more are just vignettes, Dunsany playing around with language and image but having no actual plot. I think that some of the stories that were actual stories, however, did give an authentic feel of myth, however. Recommended, but don't expect a lot of plot, characterization, or action. That's not what Dunsany's doing. EDIT: From a gamer's perspective, these are worthless as potential adventure scenarios. However, they could be great examples of the myths and fables told by people within a Fantasy world -- or the actual supernatural background of the world. Dean Shomshak

I just heard the story about this on All Things Considered: https://www.npr.org/2023/12/19/1220504444/colorado-supreme-court-bars-trump-from-the-states-primary-ballot Related: ATC has a weekly discussion of Trump's legal issues, campaign, and (this week) the escalating violence and authoritarianism of his rhetoric, not that this is a new subject for most of us here... https://www.npr.org/2023/12/19/1220443867/trump-s-rhetoric-is-drawing-alarming-comparisons-to-autocratic-leaders-and-dicta Dean Shomshak

Actually... In this case Jimmy Kimmel and Mr Farron are wrong. I remember that press conference. Donald Trump did not say "Drink bleach!" or "Inject bleach or Lysal!" When the medical/scientific people said Lysol, bleach and sunlight destroyed the Covid virus, he asked if they could be injected to destroy the virus inside peoples' bodies. The experts quickly responded, "NO!!!" Not the brightest question, but it was a question, not a recommendation. In this case, I am willing to grant Donald Trump some extremely dubious credit as genuinely channeling the voice of ignorant and bewildered Americans. OTOH Trump has this rhetorical trick of saying outrageous things in the form of asking a question. So it could be easy for people to get confused. And politically, framing Trump as "The deranged idiot who told you to drink bleach" may be useful. It's no worse a slander than Trump and his admirers spout daily, so I'm okay with it in the public arena. Sauce for the goose, and all that. Dean Shomshak

Kudos for postulating a Mastermind Villain who might be Chinese (though not necessarily), and not having "Dragon" referred to anywhere. Dean Shomshak

"Have a Snickers bar, Rep. Foxx." Dean Shomshak

It's been quite a while, so I checked Wikipedia. Steal water, eat us, and use us as slave soldiers -- a trifecta of idiocy! And all on Arthur's list. Well, maybe he thought it was so bad that nobody would remember it... or he suppressed the memory as too traumatic. Hey, I hadn't thought of this excrementitious piece of sci-fi in decades. Dean Shomshak

Isaac Arther devotes an episode to "Dumbest Alien Invasions," on why the standard excuses for heroic Earthlings battling nasty conquering aliens don't hold up to even cursory scrutiny. (I'm surprised that in the "Steal Our Water" segment he doesn't mention V. Ye gods, more than one writer thought this made sense?) I enjoyed the running joke of how the rules of warfare are numbered. (Incidentally, some earlier episodes explain Mr Arthur's voice. It's a speech impediment, not an accent. As he says once in onscreen text, if you've never heard of rhotacism -- difficulty pronouncing the letter R -- it's because people who have it can't say it.) Dean Shomshak

IIRC somebody said they'd like to see one of the Great Beast's experimental victims. Yesterday I wrote one up. I think it's best treated as a monster rather than a character, since it's so badly damaged in mind and body. Here's the physical description: Just an update to show that work continues. Dean Shomshak

https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/ Analysis rather than news, but I had not heard before that Trump's legal team wants his D. C. trial televised. As observed, Trump is a creature of Reality TV and no doubt expects this would be a great way to play to his base; the legal outcome would be irrelevant. But oops, Federal codes prohibit televising Federal trials. That isn't stopping major media outlets from pleading to televise the trial. It's so important! To, um, the voters, yeah, the voters need to see this. Perhaps I am cynical for thinking their real interest is more interest in viewership and ad revenues than civic service. Dean Shomshak

As I've posted before: At least according to one scholar I've read, Fundamentalists/Evangelicals have a somewhat peculiar way of reading the Bible. Fundamentalism was born from reaction against the social and intellectual changes of the 19th century. Part of that reaction was to insist that the Bible was self-evidently true -- that you didn't need to spend years studying a complex text, comparing passages, parsing out meanings and considering historical contexts. Just zip through and the Truth would be irresistibly revealed... if you had the Holy Spirit in your heart. Which meant that if two people read the Bible and derived different messages and meanings, at least one did not have the Holy Spirit and was instead deceived by the Devil. One result being that deriving doctrine from the Bible became an exercise in political skill and charisma in which the text itself is no longer that important. So this person claimed, anyway. I'm afraid I don't remember the author's name as this was a case of Things Found While Looking Up Other Things, and not my primary interest at the time. (IIRC I was researching Gnosticism and, yeah, this approach to the Bible is rather Gnostic -- a mystical revelation that cannot be captured and explained by reason.) Dean Shomshak

As I have said before, there can be no hypocrisy if one's only principle is power. Okay, that's not fair. As a report on today's All Things Considered discusses, Mr. Johnson does have principles, in that he is a group with explicitly totalitarian goals that can only be achieved through the acquisition of absolute power. Say hello (again) to Dominion Theology: https://www.npr.org/2023/12/05/1217452058/speaker-mike-johnson-draws-scrutiny-for-ties-to-far-right-christian-movements Dean Shomshak