Belesarius

LostCosmonaut, on Mar 09 2015 - 22:37, said:
We walked back to my apartment under the sodium light, talking. We spoke idly of many things; the weather, Kierkegaardian philosophy, the superiority of Waffle House over IHOP, the relative merits of the J93 as compared to the R-15, and others. Typical conversation topics. I was pleased that she was of sound mind, as well as sound body. With luck, she would find the visage I had chosen tonight pleasing.
 
Though I was a non-biologic entity capable of travelling Earth its environs virtually at will, I still found it helpful to have a convention dwelling place. More than a few of my previous dates had responded poorly when I took them to my favorite place in the remote end of the Siberian taiga. The only I had transported to low earth orbit had responded even more poorly (luckily, she was in a relatively unused orbit, and atmospheric drag wouldn’t have a significant effect for hundreds of years).
 
We arrived at my domicile. It was an unassuming place, with a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. I ushered by date inside, and asked if she would care for anything to drink. She declined, I chose to pour myself a glass of heavy water (of an old Norwegian vintage). We sat at my kitchen table (a lightly used “SKÖMMARÅV” model), and resumed our conversation.
 
Suddenly, my date stopped mid-sentence. “This is probably going to sound really weird, but can I ask you a question?” I tensed. Had somebody finally discerned my true nature? Had I grown lax in putting up my façade of humanity? “Go on.” I bade her to continue.
 
“You look a lot like Yuri Gagarin, that one Soviet astronaut. Are you guys related or anything? I remember you said your family was from Russia, so I was wondering…”
 
I chuckled. “Have you ever seen me and him in the same room together?” I smiled deviously.
 
She gasped in mock amazement. “Oh my god, you’re right. I never have! Come to think of it, you also look a lot like Neil Armstrong! You’re all the same person – I’ve never seen a picture of any of you together!”
 
I laughed heartily. “People have said I look like an astronaut before, but that last one’s new. I’ll have to steal it.”
 
Gagarin would also find this quite amusing. My friend Yuri was a man of great power (especially after his trip to the moon in 1969), but self-duplication was not among them. Still, he would get a good laugh from this anecdote next time I visited him.
 
The conversation was please, but it was not what I was here for. It was time to make my move. I stealthily picked up the remote for my iHomeTM. Within seconds,
was selected. Seconds later, the floor was littered with numerous articles of clothing. 
We were a tangled mass of curves. Ellipses. Parabolas. Hyperbolas. Trigonometrics. Hyperbolic trigonometrics. A sea of color and shadow, sound and silence. Visible. Infrared. Ultraviolet. Radio. Gamma. Fission, fusion, atoms disintegrating and reforming. We were riding the shock, chasing the pressure spike, at the ragged edge of stability. We needed to go farther.
 
I caught my breath, and leaned down, putting my face close to hers. I gently brushed aside a few strands of raven hair, and softly whispered into her ear; “remove animea”.

LostCosmonaut, on Mar 04 2015 - 23:04, said:
Space: the final frontier.
 
It is an utterly alien environment, unlike anything on Earth. Even the best vacuum chambers can produce only a crude facsimile of the exoatmospheric environment. Some say it’s enough to drive a man to insanity. They’re wrong, but only mostly. When a man travels into the vacuum he leaves a bit of his soul behind. When he dies there, even more.
After a while, that adds up.
 
Space is big, but not that big. After years, the various discarded fragments of souls clump together. Like a pile of tinder, they are dead, but need just a small spark to come alive.
 
A thermal neutron does quite nicely.
 
I first gained awareness surrounded by superheated plasma and the decaying husk of an artificial satellite. Not yet fully awake, I (and my vessel) slammed into a snow covered landscape at supersonic speeds. I felt nothing, but still I lay motionless for days, gathering my strength, and shaping my form. The souls that made me were but discarded fragments, but still I could see faint echoes of who they were once part of. In their honor, or perhaps out of convenience, I chose a form not unlike theirs.
That was more than 35 years ago.
 
The first few I spent alone. There were many people, and I could pass as one of them. But I could not forge a true connection with them, any more than a human can find kinship with a blade of grass or drop of dew. This was not a problem, I had come from the outer blackness, where nothing dwelled but emptiness.
 
 Soon, though, I found the company of others like myself. The Porcelain Bird, the Rifleman, the Seeker of Arrows, the Fisherman, the Keeper of Words, and many others, I have communed with. Not many times face to face, but that is unneeded. Talking at a distance is but one of the perks of being a sentient collection of discarded soul fragments.
Another is travel. After a while, I figured out how to reduce the hold mundane laws hold on me (other laws maintain their iron hold, but they are poorly expressible in words).  Most of my time I spend in Russia. The oldest (and somehow strongest) parts of me have echoes of there. It is an interesting place; the land resonates with an ancient energy, disturbing yet comforting. From time to time, I also return to space. Though I am not biologic, I still must feed, and Earth’s atmosphere blocks that sustenance which is most nutritious to me.
 
Today, I was not in Russia or space. I was in a portion of southern America. I felt a bit of connection to it. Perhaps a few of the souls that made me had passed through it in their previous lives? That wasn’t why I was here, though. Though I am not human, I share some similarities with them. For instance, I can appreciate a good serving of hash browns with ham, cheese, and onion, served with a glass of sweet tea. And during my time among the humans, I had learned the best place to acquire this was in a Waffle House at 3 am.
 
The place smelled of grease, partially metabolized alcohol, and emotion. A song playing in the background claimed that love was a battlefield. The analogy seemed imperfect. Still, I liked the atmosphere of the place, even if the owners did not seem to grasp the concept of mops and brooms. I had heard that one of Porcelain Bird’s consorts had disparaged this place recently. I reached out to him (Porcelain Bird’s actual gender is unknown, but I call it ‘him’ out of convenience), and touched his mind. He ensured me it had been taken care of. I smiled. I reached out to the Rifleman, and beheld a strange scene. I heard talk of a 6.8mm rifle caliber, and other strange noises. I probed deeper, and felt hatred, but also other conflicting emotions. I was moderately disturbed, but also amused.
 
I was interrupted by the arrival of females to the Waffle House. Many of them were drunk, but surprisingly one was not. I smiled. Time to test the boundaries of human emotion once more.
 
To be continued?

The person who drew that picture doesn't know how planform alignment or DSI works.

That site is one of my new favorite places. All the F-14 stuff they've done recently has given a giant Tomcat boner. 

Needs moar hex wrenches and pictographs.

Look at that poor soul, he can barely lift all that SUPERIOR TEUTONIC ENGINEERING.

Arguing with Nazis online is for chumps. Take it to the streets.
 
Also, I tend to agree that the legislation is flawed. It certainly wasn't fleshed out, and at a meager 2.5 pages long, I don't feel that it covers any particular specifics.
 
But that just leaves more to be argued in court, where precedence will be made.  That's how the law will eventually be determined.
 
I don't believe such laws should be in place to begin with. I am against the knee-jerk passage of laws these days. There are much better ways to solve social issues.  

FSB spook with AK-105

Yep, it was pretty bizarre that it somehow got to Iraq.  The speculation was that a HSLD Russian dude had either lost the rifle or come to grief, and a Chechen fighter picked it up and took it as their trophy.
 
A lot of foreign fighters came to Iraq to fight for various factions there, including Chechens, so perhaps this fellow thought he'd teach the Iraqis the finer points of jihad, only to get whacked by the American infidels who could only puzzle over how on earth he'd gotten that rifle.

Being a picture with names listed, it makes it pretty trivial to look up the claims made. There are probably better ways to put the information though, and in the process of due diligence they'd probably show up, although some of this seems to only be covered in bitterly partisan sources.
 
For example, I can find confirmation (phrased differently of course) from the other side of the aisle of Micah Clark getting involved against the horrors of a girl in a tuxedo: http://onenewsnow.com/education/2009/03/17/school-caves-to-tuxedo-clad-lesbian#.VRy2gJNdyao
 
If I can't find non-partisan coverage of this sort of thing, I'll try to cite sources whose spin doesn't agree with my post just so it's clear I'm arguing with the source and not the spin, and feel free to remind me of that.

Lockheed sure does know how to make a good looking aeroplane.

Why build a post-WW2 carrier when you can buy surplus US escort or fleet carriers?

So what do you feel is an acceptable level of legally protected prejudice and bigotry?

All these religious protection laws are the last gasp of the bigots. The Supreme court is going to rule that gay marriage is legal and the religious right is trying to keep saying but we don't want to deal with teh gheys because they are icky.  I hope Indiana leaves the law as it is.  And then I hope they loose thousands of jobs to other states from it. And that other states boycott them.  Let them do what they want. Then reap the motherfucking consequences.
Also...  a business is not a person.  Refuse service to women?  Refuse service to blacks?  Chinese?  Gays? 
 
 
Edited to avoid word games.

Looks like a bootleg copy of the 6th day made it to Russia.

I've always found this SC case relevant. 

Stop making Boeing jets in a "Right to Work" state like South Carolina and bring the jobs back to Everett, Wash. with proper Boeing union employees!
 
Oh. You mean the game?
 
Errrr...

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/saudis-fear-iranian-control-of-yemen-due-to-this-strate-1694709328
 
 
Rundown of the strategic reasons why the Saudis are flipping out about Yemen.

The magic is real.
 

Evolution of CF-100 to CF-105;
 

XB-53 Wind Tunnel Test
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCPI45YNM0E
 
 
Indigenous Danish Fighter Design (late 30s)

Me-261 Cutaway

Matt Easton outdoes himself in this video, I think:
 

Two TFB posts, maintenance of the companies database, two walks, and I still haven't opened Open Office.

Make sure you type the d before you hit enter, otherwise you end up playing world of tanks

Oh hell yes.
 
I support mandatory body cams for cops 3000%.
 
Protects the cops, protects the people.  Any missing footage during a shift = automatic suspension until the cause is found. If it could be done technologically, I'd say it automatically flags footage or broadcasts to the station when a weapon is drawn.
 
Edit:  47% drop in use of force and 41% drop in complaints in San Diego.  31% drop in use of pepper spray.
 
http://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2015/03/26/body-cameras-shown-to-limit-use-of-force-by-san-diego-police/

Oh hell yes.
 
I support mandatory body cams for cops 3000%.
 
Protects the cops, protects the people.  Any missing footage during a shift = automatic suspension until the cause is found. If it could be done technologically, I'd say it automatically flags footage or broadcasts to the station when a weapon is drawn.
 
Edit:  47% drop in use of force and 41% drop in complaints in San Diego.  31% drop in use of pepper spray.
 
http://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2015/03/26/body-cameras-shown-to-limit-use-of-force-by-san-diego-police/