DShomshak

"The river of truth" being an important qualifier. Not the swamp of superstition, the Magic Kool-Ade of pride, or other tainted waters. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to see the difference.
 
Dean Shomshak

"The river of truth" being an important qualifier. Not the swamp of superstition, the Magic Kool-Ade of pride, or other tainted waters. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to see the difference.
 
Dean Shomshak

I have been reading up on Secretary Wyman, she seems a woman of personal integrity and strong conviction regardless of her party. Given the enormous pressure exerted by the current incarnation of her party, I’m reminded of:
 
”When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree by the river of truth, and tell the whole world 'No, You Move.”
 
Good for her, we need more politicians like that.

Here in Washington State, the big political news of the day is that our Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, is quitting to take a job in the Biden Administration: the Homeland Security office overseeing election security. She is well qualified for the job, having overseen Washingto0n's transition to all vote-by-mail and -- thanks to which, 2020's election came off smooth as silk. She's also been a notable critic of Trump's Big Lie.
 
Sec'y Wyman is also the last Republican elected to statewide office on the entire West Coast. Many of my fellow Democrats will miss her. I can only hope that Biden can find jobs for other Republicans who have refused to join the Party of Trump.
 
Dean Shomshak

Here in Washington State, the big political news of the day is that our Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, is quitting to take a job in the Biden Administration: the Homeland Security office overseeing election security. She is well qualified for the job, having overseen Washingto0n's transition to all vote-by-mail and -- thanks to which, 2020's election came off smooth as silk. She's also been a notable critic of Trump's Big Lie.
 
Sec'y Wyman is also the last Republican elected to statewide office on the entire West Coast. Many of my fellow Democrats will miss her. I can only hope that Biden can find jobs for other Republicans who have refused to join the Party of Trump.
 
Dean Shomshak

Here in Washington State, the big political news of the day is that our Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, is quitting to take a job in the Biden Administration: the Homeland Security office overseeing election security. She is well qualified for the job, having overseen Washingto0n's transition to all vote-by-mail and -- thanks to which, 2020's election came off smooth as silk. She's also been a notable critic of Trump's Big Lie.
 
Sec'y Wyman is also the last Republican elected to statewide office on the entire West Coast. Many of my fellow Democrats will miss her. I can only hope that Biden can find jobs for other Republicans who have refused to join the Party of Trump.
 
Dean Shomshak

Here in Washington State, the big political news of the day is that our Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, is quitting to take a job in the Biden Administration: the Homeland Security office overseeing election security. She is well qualified for the job, having overseen Washingto0n's transition to all vote-by-mail and -- thanks to which, 2020's election came off smooth as silk. She's also been a notable critic of Trump's Big Lie.
 
Sec'y Wyman is also the last Republican elected to statewide office on the entire West Coast. Many of my fellow Democrats will miss her. I can only hope that Biden can find jobs for other Republicans who have refused to join the Party of Trump.
 
Dean Shomshak

Here in Washington State, the big political news of the day is that our Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, is quitting to take a job in the Biden Administration: the Homeland Security office overseeing election security. She is well qualified for the job, having overseen Washingto0n's transition to all vote-by-mail and -- thanks to which, 2020's election came off smooth as silk. She's also been a notable critic of Trump's Big Lie.
 
Sec'y Wyman is also the last Republican elected to statewide office on the entire West Coast. Many of my fellow Democrats will miss her. I can only hope that Biden can find jobs for other Republicans who have refused to join the Party of Trump.
 
Dean Shomshak

'tis the season:
 

Stat them up

Making short videos of yourself eating small mints in a rickshaw is a Tuk-Tuk Tic Tac TikTok tactic.

Response #1: Eat your heart out, Harry Dresden!
 
Response #2: Wow, NZ really *is* Middle-Earth!
 
Dean Shomshak

This should properly go in the Coronavirus thread, but since we're here,
 
Antivaxxers are already using his death to justify their stance.
 
Disgusting, I know, but hardly surprising.

Just heard on All Things Considered: Tomorrow is the 42nd anniversary of the publication of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There will be coverage of this cultural milestone, on its most important anniversary.
 
Dean Shomshak

Just heard on All Things Considered: Tomorrow is the 42nd anniversary of the publication of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There will be coverage of this cultural milestone, on its most important anniversary.
 
Dean Shomshak

You've all seen pictures of Petra, the ruined city in Jordan: One of its famous rock-cut structures featured prominently in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But there's more to Petra than a few ancient monuments, spectacular as they are. Last night the National Geographic channel showed a new documentary, Petra: City of Riches, on its history and construction. Petra was certainly a rich city, located as it was at the intersection of major trade routes. But its greatest wealth could not be measured in gold: It was the city's hydraulic engineering, that enabled the city to have gardens and pools -- and less visibly, a fine bath-house -- in the middle of desert mountains. To a visitor seeing Petra for the first time, the city must have seemed supernatural.
 
Unfortunately, the program is marred by lengthy passages of archaeologists talking in French or Arabic, with subtitles you can't read (well, I couldn't) because they are in white on backgrounds that are often very light-colored or, indeed, white. If you find this too annoying, I recommend another program about Petra, an episode of NOVA that aired several years ago.
 
Dean Shomshak

I game in the Champions Universe. I took both. 
 

Most important paragraph:
 
There's still a lot of work to be done, however. It's not clear yet if this no-beginning causal approach can allow for physical theories that we can work with to describe the complex evolution of the Univese during the Big Bang.
 
Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but once again the headline ought to have been, "Theoretical Physicist Plays With Freaky Cool Math; No Evidence It Describes Anything Real."
 
The article mentions string theory, and that's a case in point. In 30 years of grand promises, last I heard string theory still has not produced a single testable prediction.
 
Still, I've used string theory as the rubber physics for an SF setting. The question that matters is: Can we use this for games?
 
Dean Shomshak

Richard Benjamin? 😉

Richard Benjamin? 😉

Richard Benjamin? 😉

Richard Benjamin? 😉