Routes to victory

Game 4, the same

It is now turn 1 (crobert)

...

[Lockon Stratos] so I know like two win conditions
[Lockon Stratos] and one is really fragile
[Lockon Stratos] I thought I could storm out


It is now turn 1 (Lockon Stratos) 
[Lockon Stratos] then I realized the deck doesn't have a tendrils

(Realistically the two routes to victory in my deck being Tinker for Blightsteel Colossus or assembling Voltaic Key and Time Vault; technically it's possible to win with Jace's ultimate, but it doesn't really happen. Since it isn't a Tezz deck, there is also no Tezzeret so the latter combo is not self assembling and therefore painful to put together. Other win conditions in some Gush decks are a Storm into Tendrils or Empty the Warrens kill or creature beatdown with Dark Confidants and Snapcasters but neither are present in this build.)

 
Lockon Stratos draws a card
Lockon Stratos plays Scalding Tarn from Hand
Lockon Stratos taps Scalding Tarn
Lockon Stratos sacrifices Scalding Tarn
Lockon Stratos puts Tropical Island into play from Library
Lockon Stratos shuffles library
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 19 (-1)
Lockon Stratos taps Tropical Island
Lockon Stratos plays Fastbond from Hand
[crobert] whoah
[crobert] wait
[crobert] ok
Lockon Stratos plays Underground Sea from Hand
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 18 (-1)
Lockon Stratos plays Underground Sea from Hand
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 17 (-1)
[Lockon Stratos] go

... 

It is now turn 4 (crobert)
crobert untaps his/her permanents
crobert draws a card
crobert plays Black Lotus from Hand
crobert taps Underground Sea
crobert plays Voltaic Key from Hand
crobert taps Black Lotus
crobert sacrifices Black Lotus
[Lockon Stratos] hang on
Lockon Stratos taps Underground Sea
Lockon Stratos plays Mental Misstep from Hand
[Lockon Stratos] key
crobert puts Voltaic Key to Graveyard from Play
crobert plays Tinker from Hand
crobert sacrifices Grim Monolith
[crobert] yes?
[Lockon Stratos] yeah no hand
[crobert] oh wait you have no hand lol
[Lockon Stratos] and you too

 (We both have empty hands now)

crobert is looking its Library...
crobert puts Blightsteel Colossus into play from Library
crobert shuffles library
[Lockon Stratos] sure

It is now turn 4 (Lockon Stratos)
Lockon Stratos untaps his/her permanents
Lockon Stratos draws a card
...
Lockon Stratos plays Yawgmoth's Will from Hand

(I put it there previously with a Preordain, so I knew I would draw it this turn)

[crobert] FFFFFFFFFFF
Lockon Stratos puts Yawgmoth's Will to RFG from Play
...
Lockon Stratos puts Jace, the Mind Sculptor into play from Graveyard
[crobert] fuck you lol
[Lockon Stratos] -1
crobert puts Blightsteel Colossus to Hand from Play
Jace, the Mind Sculptor now has 2 (+2) counters.
...
Lockon Stratos puts Preordain into play from Graveyard
Lockon Stratos puts Preordain to RFG from Play
Lockon Stratos is looking top 2 cards of its Library...
Lockon Stratos puts a card on bottom of Library from Library
Lockon Stratos puts a card on bottom of Library from Library
Lockon Stratos draws a card
[Lockon Stratos] go

...

It is now turn 6 (Lockon Stratos)
...
Lockon Stratos plays Time Walk from Hand
Turn 6.5 (Lockon Stratos)
Lockon Stratos untaps his/her permanents
Lockon Stratos draws a card
[Lockon Stratos] Jace 0
Lockon Stratos draws 3 cards
Lockon Stratos puts a card on top of Library from Hand
Lockon Stratos puts a card on top of Library from Hand
Lockon Stratos plays Mox Ruby from Hand
Lockon Stratos plays Mana Crypt from Hand
Lockon Stratos plays Island from Hand
[crobert] lol
Lockon Stratos plays Volcanic Island from Hand
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 14 (-1)
Lockon Stratos taps Tropical Island
Lockon Stratos taps Underground Sea
Lockon Stratos taps Underground Sea
Lockon Stratos taps Tropical Island
Lockon Stratos taps Island
Lockon Stratos taps Volcanic Island
Lockon Stratos taps Mana Crypt
Lockon Stratos taps Mox Ruby

(So I tap everything and float 9)

[crobert] god lol
Lockon Stratos plays Gush from Hand
Lockon Stratos puts Island to Hand from Play
Lockon Stratos puts Volcanic Island to Hand from Play
Lockon Stratos draws 2 cards
Lockon Stratos plays Island from Hand
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 13 (-1)
Lockon Stratos plays Volcanic Island from Hand
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 12 (-1)

(Gush, bounce two islands and replay them with Fastbond)

Lockon Stratos taps Island
Lockon Stratos taps Volcanic Island
Lockon Stratos plays Misty Rainforest from Hand
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 11 (-1)
Lockon Stratos taps Misty Rainforest
Lockon Stratos sacrifices Misty Rainforest
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 10 (-1)
Lockon Stratos puts Volcanic Island into play from Library
Lockon Stratos shuffles library
Lockon Stratos taps Volcanic Island

(Float to 12)

Lockon Stratos plays Blightsteel Colossus from Hand
[Lockon Stratos] hardcast
[crobert] wow


It is now turn 7 (crobert)
crobert untaps his/her permanents
[Lockon Stratos] lmao
crobert draws a card
crobert taps Underground Sea
crobert taps Underground Sea
crobert plays Echoing Truth from Hand
[Lockon Stratos] shit
[crobert] bounce
Lockon Stratos puts Blightsteel Colossus to Hand from Play
[crobert] go

It is now turn 7 (Lockon Stratos)
[crobert] yo i need more mana
[crobert] and cards
Lockon Stratos untaps his/her permanents
[Lockon Stratos] heads
Lockon Stratos flips a coin: HEADS
[Lockon Stratos] yes
[crobert] fuck
Lockon Stratos taps Volcanic Island
Lockon Stratos plays Sol Ring from Hand
[Lockon Stratos] I'm going to have to try this again next turn
[Lockon Stratos] WAIT
[Lockon Stratos] jace 0
Lockon Stratos draws 3 cards
[crobert] lol
Lockon Stratos puts a card on top of Library from Hand
Lockon Stratos puts a card on top of Library from Hand
Lockon Stratos plays Misty Rainforest from Hand
Lockon Stratos taps Misty Rainforest
Lockon Stratos sacrifices Misty Rainforest
Lockon Stratos puts Island into play from Library
Lockon Stratos shuffles library
Lockon Stratos taps Mox Ruby
Lockon Stratos taps Mana Crypt
Lockon Stratos taps Sol Ring
Lockon Stratos taps Island
Lockon Stratos taps Volcanic Island
Lockon Stratos taps Island
Lockon Stratos taps Tropical Island
Lockon Stratos taps Underground Sea
Lockon Stratos taps Underground Sea
Lockon Stratos taps Tropical Island
Lockon Stratos plays Blightsteel Colossus from Hand

It is now turn 8 (crobert)
crobert untaps his/her permanents
[crobert] HEART OF THE CARDS
crobert draws a card
[crobert] gg

Something like Vintage

Game 3: Turbo-Tezz vs Empty Gush

It is now turn 1 (crobert)
[crobert] yo i thought vintage was fast not like
[crobert] 20 turns of countering the fuck out of each other

crobert shuffles library

crobert draws 7 cards

Lockon Stratos draws 7 cards
[crobert] im keeping
Lockon Stratos takes a mulligan
[Lockon Stratos] keep this
[Lockon Stratos] go
crobert plays Mox Opal from Hand
crobert plays Black Lotus from Hand
crobert plays Mox Pearl from Hand
crobert taps Mox Opal
crobert taps Black Lotus
[Lockon Stratos] that's fast
crobert sacrifices Black Lotus
crobert plays Jace, the Mind Sculptor from Hand
Lockon Stratos plays Force of Will from Hand (pitching Gush)
[crobert] FUCK
crobert puts Jace, the Mind Sculptor to Graveyard
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 19 (-1)
crobert taps Mox Pearl
crobert plays Sol Ring from Hand
crobert taps Sol Ring
crobert plays Grim Monolith from Hand
crobert plays Scalding Tarn from Hand
[crobert] there goes my hand lol
[Lockon Stratos] lmao

It is now turn 1 (Lockon Stratos)
Lockon Stratos draws a card
[Lockon Stratos] YES
Lockon Stratos plays Island from Hand
Lockon Stratos taps Island
Lockon Stratos plays Ancestral Recall from Hand
Lockon Stratos draws 3 cards

It is now turn 2 (crobert)
crobert untaps his/her permanents
crobert draws a card
crobert plays Island from Hand

It is now turn 2 (Lockon Stratos)
[Lockon Stratos] this is like a parody of vintage games
[crobert] im definitely doing it wrong
Lockon Stratos untaps his/her permanents
Lockon Stratos draws a card
Lockon Stratos plays Misty Rainforest from Hand
Lockon Stratos taps Misty Rainforest
Lockon Stratos sacrifices Misty Rainforest
Lockon Stratos's life total is now 18 (-1)
Lockon Stratos is looking its Library...
Lockon Stratos puts Underground Sea into play from Library
Lockon Stratos shuffles library
Lockon Stratos taps Underground Sea
Lockon Stratos plays Sol Ring from Hand
Lockon Stratos taps Island
Lockon Stratos taps Sol Ring
Lockon Stratos plays Tinker from Hand
Lockon Stratos sacrifices Sol Ring
Lockon Stratos is looking its Library...
Lockon Stratos puts Blightsteel Colossus into play from Library

It is now turn 3 (crobert)
[crobert] HEART OF THE CARDS
crobert draws a card
[crobert] FUCK gg
[Lockon Stratos] this was pretty fast
[crobert] that was fast

Lost in translation

You can share my experience as I put my friend's tweets through Google Translate.

Well that sounds like something a pedophile would say, but I'm sure there's some context here.

Okay..

Oh I see, it's something Pokemon related.

Wait whut

Escalation

Wait, how are they going to top this for the next movies?

Purchasing Power

This is something the Israelis could learn from America: how to buy large swaths of land to enlarge your country.

So we all know the Americans bought Alaska from the Russians.

The Louisiana purchase is also fairly well known. Here's the thing though, Louisiana was much bigger back then. In fact, it looked like this:

Yes that is a third of the continental United States.

This is funny too:

One problem, however, was too important to argue down convincingly: Napoleon did not have the right to sell Louisiana to the United States. The sale violated the 1800 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso in several ways. Furthermore, France had promised Spain it would never sell or alienate Louisiana to a third party. Napoleon, Jefferson, Madison, and the members of Congress all knew this during the debates about the purchase in 1803. They ignored the fact it was illegal. Spain protested strongly, and Madison made some attempt to justify the purchase to the Spanish government, but was unable to do so convincingly. So, he tried continuously until results had been proven remorsefully inadequate.

They later bought Florida from Spain.

They should make a dispenser like this except with Jello

I made a timeline

It's of selected events that I decided was important to the rise of the Western world today. It's surprising how recent the roots of many Great nations today can be traced back to. 

(The inline display AA makes it kind of hard to read, right click view image instead)

Britain didn't even become the leading power until the 19th century (well into the industrial revolution) and its hegemony ended almost within one lifetime.

The Americans like to brag about defeating an empire but at the time of the American Revolutionary war Britain was nowhere near the height of its power yet and it had its hands full trying to prevent a French (the major power at the time) invasion of its mainlands and its Caribbean territories.

On scouts

There is a silly trope in common in video games with small scout units having larger sensor ranges than large dreadnaughts.

The thing with sensors is that (all else being equal) the larger the aperture, the more powerful it will be. This is a simple physical law, the larger something is, the more signal it collects, the better you see.

This has two consequences, one is that it will be physically larger so you need a big hull to support it. The secondary consequence is that a larger sensor needs more power generation and so you need a larger hull for bigger generators.

Now obviously if you have ship A with sensors and weapon systems and ship B with just sensors, then ship B will be smaller, but it realistically won't be an order of magnitude smaller. Hypothetically though, what if you can build the sensors an order of magnitude smaller? Well you'd still build it into the large platform with the weapons systems because it'd be more survivable and why would you ever want shooters without seekers? So either way your small vessels shouldn't see better than your big vessels.

There is one circumstance where it would make sense to separate sensors and weapons.

And ironically it is when the sensor systems are larger than the weapon systems.

Which is actually the case in real life.

For instance, fighters will almost always operate with AWAC support, but we separate the AWAC platform from the fast-movers. Why? Because those radomes are huge and it would be stupid to try and push that thing past the sound barrier.

We can look at warships for another example, a 3000 ton LCS is large enough to support strike-length VLS tubes, but you need an 8000 ton destroyer to carry the 12' SPY-1 radar. And even that's not big enough for the cancelled 22' AMDR, which required a 20000 ton nuclear powered cruiser to support. This has led to some interest in a surface warfare role for a Cobra Judy type vessel, because for the cost of putting all the sensors in a vulnerable dedicated platform, you get the benefit of needing only one 20000 ton spotter to cue all of those 3000 and 8000 ton shooters.

That doesn't mean small, short-sighted scout platforms aren't valuable though. They are cheap, which means you can build many of them and deploy to many locations at once and you can afford to lose them if they confront a superior force.

Compare and Contrast

Real laughter was produced

So, Yeezy has a new track out.

Kanye West, master of oration, has outdone himself again.

In that pussy so deep I coulda drowned twice

Rose gold Jesus piece with the brown ice

Eating good, vegetari’ with the brown rice

Girls kissing girls, cause it’s hot right

But unless they use a strap-on then they not dykes

$120M Scream

What a ripoff; that guy wouldn't even be able to say he's got the only one in the world.

なないろ☆ナミダ

Clearly Japan is years ahead of ourselves in proper noun technology.

We've barely probed the potential of incorrect capitalizations.

They've already learned to incorporate ♪ and ☆.

Think of the possibilities.

iP☆d

I don't understand

HOOOWWWWWW

Finished

Going to enter a t-shirt contest.

MY HEART

Omg.

If I ever meet an IP lawyer I will have so many questions; most involving Hitler

What happens if say, Andy Warhol paints a can of Campbell's soup, does Campbell have any legal rights with respect to the work?

What if I paint a picture of Hitler driving the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle? Can Volkswagen do anything about it?

What if I release the picture under CC BY and then Fiat plasters a bunch of billboards with it?

What happens if Fiat sponsors an art exhibition where the theme is Hitler driving Volkswagens?

If Hitler were depicted as a zombie, would that change anything?

I AM NOT ASHAMED

Let's go Canada!

So she's not Sheryl Nome or Lacus Clyne

If I had to compare I'd say...

Eureka.

Whoa

This album art is poppin':

Suddenly

I realize why I've never seen the Gundam Wing Ed before until like a week ago.

Because this was always at the end of the North American airings:



I think I like this one better anyhow.

Well that's a bit weird

I just want to say that I saw this circulating on milblogs before I heard it on the radio.

Also, I thought surf torture was a SEALs thing, but who knows.

Addendum

Artists traditionally limit their pallet because depending on the pigment used the colour will behave differently.

For instance, winsor yellow is transparent, cadmium yellow is opaque and bismuth yellow is in-between. Mixing transparent pigments yield vibrant secondaries and tertiaries but mixing opaques give mud.

You see, there are only so many minerals we can use to create colours and each one of them has their own properties. Do you know how long it took us to find alternative blue pigments? A hell of a long time!

There are tons of other factors too, like the consistency of the mixture and the permanence of the colour.

So artists would stick with the same pigments and learn them intimately and only expand their pallet slowly and carefully.

That's why it's noteworthy enough for literature when artist x switches from viridian green to cadmium green or when artist y picks up emerald green.

Some artists, like Turner, would make their own paint from scratch.

Of course, this is all becoming somewhat of a lost art these days, especially with the advent of digital paints, where your yellow behaves like yellow and your blue behaves like yellow.

But the more that you know, right?

Rain, Steam and Speed

My favourite artist is J.M.W. Turner; unfortunately his presence in popular culture is virtually non-existent.

It's not on Wikipedia, but I do believe that he went quite mad in his later years due to his favourite green being toxic.

Paris green perhaps?

Perhaps he'd warrant an appearance on Dr. Who; showcasing the industrial revolution Britain, maybe. What of it? Hmm?

"Tiny Hippo Dentist"

Is that a dentist for tiny hippos, a tiny dentist for hippos or a tiny hippo that is a dentist?

Talking points

New cost figures for F-35 are over-budget again; Lockmart's press release is not entirely convincing.

"For example, media reporting on the 2010 SAR estimate included only operations and support costs, while recent reports on the 2011 SAR estimate add the cost of acquisition and development which the U.S. government currently estimates at $396B. This results in the appearance of cost growth year over year."

Development being constantly being over-schedule and over-budget obviously does not contribute to the appearance of cost growth.

"The government also included the cost of lifetime modernization to the aircraft to improve its capabilities — expenses that are not included in the cost projections for other aircraft."

...because other aircraft come with their baseline features out of the box, none of this spiral development nonsense.

"Lockheed Martin remains confident that F-35 operations and support costs will be comparable to or lower than that of the seven legacy platforms that it will replace."

Lies.

"The F-35 also provides our Armed Forces and allies with the unprecedented 5th Generation fighter performance capabilities of radar-evading stealth..."

F-35 stealth is not all-aspect, not VLO.

"..supersonic speed..."

No supercruise.

"..agility..."

Flight envelope is comparable to an F/A-18, i.e. the bomb-truck from 1980.

"..and the most comprehensive integrated sensor package of any fighter aircraft."

This is a massive coding project and most of it hasn't been done yet, expect more bugs, more overruns, more delays.

"The F-35 will achieve cost advantages over the platforms it will replace by leveraging economies of scale – gained through deployment by the three U.S. service branches and international partnerships – and a common logistics, maintenance, training and supply chain infrastructure."

You can streamline the logistics, but that's null if you require more maintenance and more expensive parts in the first place.

"The F-35 will also achieve lower or comparable operation and support costs than legacy systems while providing greater capabilities."

Lies.

Canon

Sheryl Nome drives a Ferrari California:

Man, what the hell is even happening?

Math

Indonesia is considering a purchase of 100 Leopard tanks from the Netherlands (source: The Economist).

Wait what?

They only have 82 tanks left.

On this note, it would appear that we are now finally more heavily armed than the Dutch.

We did it by buying the stuff out of those struggling Euros.

I hear those defense cuts are a pain.

I think

If were to start watching sports, I think I'd pick up football or basketball.

The main barrier is that I have to pay attention to little tiny numbers on jerseys or I won't know what's going on. Alternatively memorize starting lineups..but that seems like more work..

Also that everything changes season to season so I have to commit to following or else I won't know what's going on.

My interest in hockey is actually close to nil.

I am not Canadian..

I'm going to just post these PVs here because I think they're pretty cool

Bonus:

Holy batman $200 million!

F-35 costs based on LRIP 5 contracts:

F-35A: $172 million per aircraft;
F-35B: $291.7 million per aircraft;
F-35C: $235.8 million per aircraft

To be fair, these costs will probably come down in real dollars when they ramp up the production volume.

On the other hand, it will never go down to a reasonable number, which I am willing to accept $100M flyaway as at this point.

There are also a lot of miscellaneous of logistics costs involved with adapting it over something like a Rhino that aren't covered here. E.g. overhauling our entire tanker fleet.

Recently Canada has commented that it reserves the right to cancel orders based on cost.

Google, updated

Arts & Entertainment
Arts & Entertainment - Comics & Animation - Anime & Manga
Arts & Entertainment - Movies
Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio
Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Music Streams & Downloads
Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Urban & Hip-Hop
Arts & Entertainment - TV & Video - Online Video
Autos & Vehicles - Vehicle Brands - Porsche
Business & Industrial
Games - Computer & Video Games
Shopping
World Localities - Asia - South Asia - Afghanistan
Demographics - Age - 25-34
Demographics - Gender - Male

I am now aged 25-34 and my interests have narrowed to Porsche.

Movin' up the food chain?

This is pretty much exactly what Doctor Who is like

I will assume this is an accurate representation of her life

Aesthetic fail

What I see:

What I think:

Fighting Words

National correspondent for The Atlantic, James Fallows, delivers some sick burns to The Economist:

"There are certain English products whose quaintness is put on mainly for export purposes -- they're the equivalent of Ye Olde Tea Shoppe-style tourist traps, which the locals avoid. Something similar is going on with The Economist. The Economist now has considerably fewer readers -- and is strangely less influential -- in England than in America."

"Another key to the magazine's boom in America during the 1980s must lie in its sycophancy toward Ronald Reagan in particular and American culture in general. We are all so used to being sneered at by the French or Swedes. To hear someone who poses as a British aristocrat celebrating American vigor -- it's just irresistible! If it came from the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, we'd consider it plain boosterism, but it works from The Economist, since we imagine we're overhearing the foreigners' real views. I think the flattery is actually the most refined and vicious version of the old British condescension toward the colonies. These Yanks! They'll believe anything! Let's give them another dose of how the world looks up to them!"

Army of Two

I've mentioned to people before about my idea for a crossover game with Commander Shepard and Master Chief saving the world together. They will be an unstoppable force of friendship, sweeping aside all adversity.

Then I had a better idea.

It'll be a crossover game where you play as Wrex and Arbiter.

For instance, at the end of an early level, Wrex and Arbi will be fighting against impossible odds, consigned to a competition of who will die the most heroic death. Then in an FMV cutscene Chief and Shepard will burst in, assault rifles blazing, riding on the legs of a Reaper painted in N7 colours. After mopping up the enemy forces, they will give you a curt, "good work soldier" before riding off again to do what they have to do. All of this will be entirely unforeshadowed and completely unexplained.

In the next level you will sometimes see the trail of destruction that the other heroes have wrought in the background environment. Sometimes looking at a key item will trigger a FMV flashback sequence of them doing something amazing, something that you were not a part of. By the end of the level you will find the entire husk of the reaper previously seen, wrecked in a fierce battle. As you climb to the top of the wreckage, you will see a large explosion in the distance and a Pelican fly out of the fireball. As an Easter egg, if you zoom in with the sniper scope, you can see the Chief and Shepard give each other fist bumps on the open back ramp.

The cutscene proceeding the penultimate level will have you unexpectedly finding Master Chief and Shepard floating in space unconsciously. When they come around, they will tell you about their fantastic adventures and how the world's forces are making a big mistake. Then they will tell you to turn back to rally the fleet and while they borrow a shuttle and continue on ahead.

The last level will have you leading the largest allied armada ever assembled in the history of the universe into battle, yet against an enemy far superior. But as you approach the battlespace, a tremendous explosion at the heart of the enemy force occurs and the entire operation turns into a mop-up action. Your mission becomes a search-and-rescue mission as you attempt to retrieve Shepard-Chief in the melee. You fight through the wreckage of an enemy vessel to their last known positions, behind a closed door. You open the door and you find...nothingness...a wound into space. They are gone: missing, presumed dead.

This will leave an opening for a sequel.

The promotional art for this game will feature Wrex and Arbi staring in awe in the foreground as Master Chief drives a flatbed Warthog off a cliff in the distance and Shepard is standing in the back holding two swords.

Imagine: you've crucially managed to open the gates to the reactor core just in time so the other heroes can go in (by jumping a Warthog across a chasm) and clean house.

The overall feeling you should experience at the end of the game is that you've had a strong secondary role in saving the universe.

Tapping

Did you know that:

Wizards of the Coast has a patent on turning cards sideways,

To denote a game state?

O=

Solved

Let's say a gentleman will give you two cars for your garage. Any two cars you want. The presumption here being that you're not actually rich so you can't just buy your way out of the weaknesses in your choices.

Initially I was thinking a Tesla S and a Chevy Avalanche. The reason being that I thought it'd be good to have an electric for day to day but that means I need something gas for long trips and of course I need some space for carrying things and that left me with trying to find a pickup truck with a large cabin.

Mistake.

Problem is that, neither car is particularly speedy or luxurious and some redneck is going to steal the Avalanche in a week. So this isn't going to work. I'm going to need to re-frame this problem.

I've got it.


First choice will be a black Porsche Panamera S PHEV. The Panamera is actually the second most popular car in Porsche's lineup, even outselling the 911. Meanwhile, Aston Martin had to cut production of the Rapide because they can't sell them and BMW had to cut production of the M5 GT because they can't sell them. So clearly Porsche is onto something here. The Panamera PHEV of course has four doors, is very roomy, comfortable and dead silent day to day. Eco is hip these days, eco is smart and you'll fill its tank for mere dollars. But when you need it, it has a double clutch that can link either or both the ICE and the electric motor directly to the powertrain. Well, that ends the roadtrip problem. What's even better is that the ICE and the electric motor have torque curves that perfectly complement each other for seamless application of power. Oh and did I mention the ICE is a 4.8L 500bhp twin turbo V8? Oh yeah, that's good for karma.

Now there are a couple of shortcomings with the Panamera: it is a two-ton monstrosity, which hurts its performance and makes it hard to parallel park. But despite its size, the battery pack infringes in its trunk space reducing it by more than 100L. But that's okay. This is where the M3 Ute comes in.


The M3 will be good at going fast and carrying cargo. It's still 50kg lighter than the M3 convertible and has a targa top for hot summer cruising. Granted, it is not an Avalanche, but it still has a respectable 400 N·m of torque and trailer-hitch comes standard. It won't climb boulders, but it's perfectly suited to moving a grandfather clock, bringing home a deer carcass from your hunting expedition or towing a trailer for your OTTB. Plus you get the looks because it will literally be the only one of its kind in the world.

Update: Link and I would like to note that his picture is clearly not of a Panamera PHEV because it's not out yet; that's not even a regular Hybrid S. Totally different appearance, not even close.

Let me esplain you about torque

Say you have a car, when you make a turn the outer radius is going to be a longer distance than the inner radius. That means that the outer wheels are going to need to make more rotations than the inner wheels to make a turn. If you have a solid axle connecting them, then by necessity either the inner wheels are going to slip or the outer wheels are going to skid in a turn.

This is why we have differentials.



Differentials do many things,for instance they act as a reduction gear because your wheels don't spin as fast as your engine shaft (even coming out of the transmission), but the most important thing is that they allow your inner and outer wheels to spin at different speeds. I won't go into the details of how they work, but the key thing to know is the the engine is applying power by revolving the green gear (the purple is not directly connected with either the red or yellow shafts) and if there is unequal resistance coming from the shafts (e.g. in a turn), the green gear will also spin so the power goes the path of least resistance. There are more complex coupling mechanisms (like Torsen differentials which are super cool and I have no idea how they work really), but 99% of vehicles will be using these cheap, reliable and proven mechanisms here.

Let's talk about 4x4 vs AWD then. Apparently there actually isn't a straight forward convention with this terminology as it varies from manufacturer vs manufacturer, but this is how I use it consistently. 4x4 means that your entire powertrain is locked together. You see, because differentials transfer power to the point of least resistance. When turning, this is would be the outer wheels because they can spin more without slipping, but what if one wheel is on ice? Or if it's in the air? All the power is going to be wasted spinning that useless wheel while the differential ensures that no rotational energy is being imparted to the grounded wheel at all. So you lock the differentials and ensure that everything spins at the same time and all of that torque is going into resisting the ground. This does mean that your wheels will slip in a turn, but if you're climbing sand dunes in a Ford Raptor, the surfaces are slippery anyways so this is not a big factor.

You want AWD in a sports car because the main limiting factor in your acceleration isn't how much torque your engine is putting out, it's the amount of grip you have in your tires. So, power to 4 wheels equals 4 times the grip equals better acceleration. Now your R8 is expected to be driven on groomed tarmac, where all the wheels are always mated to a consistent surface, and you don't want to lose traction because your wheels are slipping because everything is locked down in a turn. That's why everything is on differentials and that's AWD.

Now say your Evo lifts off the ground. I believe that it uses a viscous couple mechanism, which submerges the mechanical connections between shafts in a shear-thickening fluid. So, corn starch and water right, if you move slowly through it, it flows around you but if you try to hit it, it acts as a solid. Same idea: if your shaft frequencies are too far apart the fluid solidifies, locking the shafts together. Maybe they use something else fancier these days, but the point is that if your Evo hits a bump, it doesn't shift torque by disconnecting the lifted wheels, it actually locks down everything so that you're not bleeding power through the diffs to a bunch of tires in the air: your AWD Lancer temporarily becomes a 4x4.

So when Richard Hammond breaks a diff in his Toyota, that's easy to understand. He just opens the diff box, severs the powertrain connections, presumably his front and rear are locked so he's not losing any power to a free-spinning shaft and his 4x4 becomes a 2x2. Simple. But when James May loses power to a single wheel, that is mysterious, because you look at that picture of a differential and tell me what parts need to have broken in what fashion in order to enable such a consequence. Any combination I can think of just seems absurd.

Optical Illusions

Here we see Kayne West rocking a bomber with what looks to be some kind of flame adornments but if you look closely they are actually rottweilers.

I like how

...nearly everyone on my Facebook who was so angry about SOPA a few weeks ago isn't making a peep about Bill C-11 now.

If anyone felt strongly enough to support Anonymous breaking things, they ought to feel strongly enough to send a letter to their government representative, you know, their actual government as opposed to the one in another country.

Caring about freedom my ass, more like jumping onto Reddit bandwagon of the moment.

Canada

On November 5, 1995, Chrétien and his wife escaped injury when André Dallaire, armed with a knife, broke in the Prime Minister's official residence at 24 Sussex Drive. Aline Chrétien shut and locked the bedroom door until security came. It is said Jean was ready to defend himself with a sharp-edged Inuit carving.

You know, if Robin ever related this story on HIMYM, everyone would just assume it was a made-up joke.

Nicholas Cage

Okay, I've given this some thought.

If I were in a zombie apocalypse and I can pick 3 characters, real or fictional, to bring as sidekicks these would be my choices:

Autobot Hoist (Toyota Hilux tow-truck ver.) - Hoist is a good choice because in vehicle mode he offers moderate off-roading capability, is indestructible, can tow away epic loot and consumes no gasoline. He is also an expert on mechanical repair and can transform into a robot. Robots have a favourable matchup vs zombies because they have no brains and are made of metal.

Hayate Yagami (Force ver.) - Having a magical girl around is like the ultimate swiss army knife isn't it? Plus, having a healer is probably important in a post-apocalyptic landscape. I had also considered Hermione Granger, but felt that her load of useless art courses and clear inferiority in offensive magics would lessen her utility by comparison. <_<

Kirby (ice+spark) - I just really like the idea of having a refrigerator full of food around at all times.

On Lambourghinis

I used to think that Lamborghinis were totally stupid and designed by brutes with no taste.

I still think the former.

But on further consideration, I think that the latter only seems that way because their redesign cycles are so long. Like the Murc, their previous flagship, came into production in 2001 and was just disposed of last year. So no wonder it looked rough by modern standards! But what was around in the same time? The Enzo? I think it would compare very well with its contemporaries.

So then, if I had to spend all my money on a totally stupid car back in 2001, it would've probably been a Lamborghini.

(It is implicit here that an M5 isn't totally stupid)

Enter now, the Aventador.



Here are some things I like about this car:

-Safety hatch for starter button
-"Thrust mode possible"
-Air brakes
-Air brakes
-AIR BRAKES
-Shutter shades
-Arrow tail lights

It just has overall better proportions and they've done away with tasteless bright brake calipers (which I maintain will only ever work on a white Panamera). Plus, the Aventador is about the closest thing you can get to a stealth jet on wheels, it's actually quite elegant in a very brash way.

(I still maintain that Paganis are totally stupid and designed by brutes with no taste)

F-35 FY11 OPEVAL Report

It is 7 times longer than the F-22 report. Some things to keep in mind: the F-22 bugs are about comparable in number to historical trends when rolling out new aircraft, I don't remember how much the F-35 exceeds historical predictions in terms of bugs but it is at least double. Also, F-35s are being produced and delivered right now even while it's still undergoing testing, which is pretty much universally known as a Bad Idea. The good news is that the limited production run is only for American forces so other countries should get something more mature.

Anyways, here are my favourite bulletpoints from this report:

- The program previously discovered deficient aircraft braking performance during landing on wet runway surfaces. The program tested new brake control unit hardware and software intended to improve performance. The program accelerated testing of the capability to stop the aircraft after landing on wet runway surfaces to 2011 to support the military flight release for aircraft ferried to the training center. Changes to the wheel brake controller improved this capability, but the program has not determined if the deficiency is resolved. Effective use of the latest design depends on the adequacy of simulations used to train pilots in maintaining directional control while activating differential braking. This requires precise control of brake pedal deflection, which will be difficult if not impossible during non-instrumented flight.

- Fuel dump tests found that fuel migrated back into the aircraft, similar to results discovered on F-35B test aircraft. This has the potential to create an unsafe condition.

It was at this point I realized that it's going to be like this for the next 6 pages.

D=

So change of tactics, I am going to describe every blurb in less than 5 words:

Engine restart failures, heat damage from afterburners, actuator failures, door lock wear, airframe cracks, doors separated in flight, door swivel wear, door cracking, drive shaft inadequate, clutch overheat, roll-nozzle overheat, dangerous weight margins, control software problems, transonic issues, actuator overheat, gear performance issues, tail-hook inadequate, hold-bar weak, spontaneous loss of GPS/INS, helmet displays unreadable, low mission system capabilities, poor nightvision, helmet processor weak, inaccurate head tracking, panoramic cockpit display overheat (!), startup time/stability poor, shortfalls in maneuvering performance, part life short, low reliability, fire protection problems, support hardware problems.

The risks of concurrent development, testing, and production are highlighted by the experience with structural testing. Since most flight testing remains to be completed, the potential for more discoveries exist. The program predicts another 22 major discoveries and 43 moderate discoveries within SDD.

Sounds promising.

And when the dust settled, the mug lay broken, and neither man could attest to being, "The Word's Greatest Physicist"

10:10
Peter ] ] ] ] ]
"The reason for this drift has eluded physicists who have dedicated their careers to the SI unit of mass. No plausible mechanism has been proposed to explain either a steady decrease in the mass of the IPK, or an increase in that of its replicas dispersed throughout the world."
I DIDN'T KNOW YOU CAN DEDICATE A CAREER TO THIS

10:10
k.s.hood
I guess you don't know how academics work then
Narrowest fields ever

10:10
Peter ] ] ] ] ]
I think the thing that gets me is
physicists
multiple

10:10
k.s.hood
Well, its probably less than 10
I want to believe there are precisely two
Who both hate each other

10:11
Peter ] ] ] ] ]
hahaha
you and I we should write a novel

10:11
k.s.hood
Hopefully your writing skills are better than mine

10:12
Peter ] ] ] ] ]
it'll be about the theft of the international kilogram
from the perspectives of both rival physicists

10:12
k.s.hood
Ha

10:12
Peter ] ] ] ] ]
we will each assume the viewpoint of one
the conclusion would be
it was stolen by a physicist
working on metres
to secure more grant money
to build the perfect metre

10:14
k.s.hood
That sounds suitably ridiculous
The general public might even find it plausible
The solution is of course, to note that the metre scientist did something that broke academic integrity, ruining his career
This something will not be related to stealing the prototype

10:20
Peter ] ] ] ] ]
"…and he looked upon his creation with trebidation, his pièce de résistance, a metre perfect in every way. He savoured it, caressing its body with his eyes, gently. This, he thought, will finally bring him the citations he deserved."
10:21
I think there should be explosions somewhere
also he drops his metre
altering its atomic configuration
it will never be perfect again
some things are not for the realm of men

Art of Deception

I liked it when the Chinese bought their first former Soviet aircraft carrier claiming they were going to make it into a tourist attraction and nobody believed them.

Anyways it opened as a hotel recently.

I liked it when the Chinese bought their second aircraft carrier and everybody thought it was going to be turned into a casino.

They actually refurbished that one as an aircraft carrier.

The best defense is...malnourishment?

Generally speaking, in order to increase stopping power from a bullet, you increase the trauma that it creates.

Hollow points accomplish this by expanding on target to create a larger wound channel.

There are some problems with this. Hollow points are prohibited under the Hague Conventions that NATO ascribes to (even though they are the most frequent type of bullets used by civilian agencies). Another problem is that you reduce the penetrative power of the bullet, which is fine inside a warm body because it means that the kinetic energy is being dissipated into the surrounding flesh but not so good against kevlar.

Full-metal jacket military rounds are designed instead to yaw at very specific velocity and resistance profiles. Ideally you would be able to penetrate a vest and then it would tumble and fragment inside the target's mass to increase stopping power.

With this background, let me get to my funny anecdote: NATO forces have discovered that enemy combatants in Afghanistan often have too little muscle mass to initiate yawing, contributing to reports of poor stopping power.

Sometimes hot-knife-through-butter isn't the preferred approach.

Oh no!

Nobody is translating Nanoha Force anymore?

;_;

Two things

1) I always like to use pork Shake'n Bake on my chicken

2) So you know how after water freezes, its crystal structure tends to push impurities together? I'm going to assume it has something to do with Gibbs energy. Shit always has something to do with Gibbs energy. This leads to some consequences when meat is left in a freezer for a long time as all the blood collects into the same section. Gross.

Re F-22 crash

I laughed.

Contemplations

What counter package do I want?

4 Counterspell, 3 Leak, 2 Exclude is what I had before.

It's hard to get off an Exclude but it's soo good when it resolves.

In elementary, someone else played Exclude. He'd play on the most terrible creatures and say he "just wanted to draw a card". Turns out, that's about right; just drop it on the first legal target and enjoy your +1. So good.

Back to my counter package, swapping a Leak for a singleton Negate felt right.

4 CS, 2 Leak, 1 Negate, 2 Exclude

I've neglected to put Preordains into my deck for all these years. It's hard for me to be excited about virtual card advantage even though on a mental level I know Preordain is probably better than anything ever printed in White.

No seriously, like what does White have? Stoneforge Mystic? Land Tax? Those are the only contenders.

So -2 Accumulated Knowledge, -2 Leak, +4 Preordain

Anyways, I'm finally losing my AK engine which was my favourite for so long for 2 more Mulldrifters. The number of sorcery speed white cards has drastically decreased the utility of instant-speed draw. And also I figure I needed more win conditions.

That's right, flying grizzly bear aggro is a legit win.

-2 AK, +2 Mulldrifter

Since I'm land light for control (i.e. 24 lands), I got to curve down.

The Excludes had to go (for Essence Scatter), the plan being:

4 CS, 2 Essence Scatter, 1 Negate

Incidentally, Patrick Chapin ran 4 Cancel, 2 Essence Scatter and 1 Negate as his Standard U/W Control counter package. Funny how I almost ended up at the same place independently.

Except I decided I liked the versatility of Mana Leaks over Essence Scatters so now I have:

4 CS, 2 Leak, 1 Negate

I was pondering this in bed and WAIT A MINUTE THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE AT ALL

The sensible options are then:

4 CS, 3 Leak
4 CS, 2 Leak, 1 Essence Scatter
4 CS, 2 Essence Scatter, 1 Negate

Which do I go with? Decisions, decisions..

Addendum: If I go with the lattermost, there is also the fork of 4 CS, 1 Essence Scatter, 1 Remove Soul, 1 Negate. The benefit of this is that I get to show off old cards and different art. Also I'd sidestep..Extirpate and Meddling Mage? The downside is that old frames don't look as nice and people might be misled into thinking that I only have singletons. That's not true; I have full sets of all this shit. I got a counterspell stack nearly an inch high! I'm just waiting to bust out my Rewinds in another blue deck!

On second thought

Damn.

Made her too robot-like.

*quit*

Listening to Michelle Branch

What a cutie. =3

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

Recently I've picked a new card to be overly passionate about.

Crazy. And designed by Richard Garfield himself.

So what of it? Well, most people think of self-milling interactions when looking at it.

I think that's over-thinking. We have far more effective ways of emptying our library: Hermit Druid and Oath of Druids where available. Alternatively, it's hard to beat Dredge in raw efficiency even without Bazaars of Baghdad. Hell, Traumatize yourself even, if you're that desperate.

What do I think of when I see this guy? I think Morphling, an evasive 4 turn 3UU clock that is highly versatile and near-invulnerable. With its psuedo-phasing ability, it can kill a 5 toughness defender and come back again, it's virtually immune to targeted removal, it can attack and defend, and if you can flip a Deep Analysis in the process, all the better.

Of course, Morphling himself has been rendered unplayable by M10 combat rules, this from the best blue creature prior to Psychatog. Same with Mirror-Mad, Squadron Hawk can wall this guy all day.

Viability ruined.

Day ruined.

I haven't been this upset about new combat rules since M10 came out.

How easy is it to build aggro?

I had a theory.

That you could build a solid aggro deck out of grizzly bears without much thinking. Not actual Grizzly Bears mind you, but there are a lot of creatures with abilities on a grizzly body.

18 Forest
4 Vivid Grove
4 Wonder
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Fauna Shaman
4 River Boa
4 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Kavu Titan
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Giant Growth
4 Bonesplitter

My "bears" are twenty 2 power, 2cc creatures. River Boa is the classic anti-control clock. Selesnya, Wilt-Leaf and Wonder gives the ability to break through stalls. Titan will keep you in the mid-game. Rootwallas smooth out the curve and also make Mongrel/Shaman fodder.

This will goldfish 20 damage on 6th turn consistent. Not fast (the 2cc really hurts its speed), but I'd say better than most non-tribal casual creature decks.

Now you keep the principals the same, swap some Mongrels for Tarmagoyfs, Rootwallas for Nacatls, Bonesplitters for Jittes, et cetra and you end up with...Legacy Zoo.

K.I.S.S.

Now let me tell you about Legacy Burn...

Gating

I designed a Magic deck at work today:

23 Lands: 2 Island 2 Swamp 6 Onslaught cyclers 13 basic forest/plains
4 Aluren
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Wall of Omens
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Wirewood Savage
4 Cavern Harpy
1 Cloud of Faeries
4 Yavimaya Elder
4 Soul Warden

It's not resilient at all so that'll need work and I'm not sure it's consistent, though it should be with 16 cantrips, 6 cyclers and 4 Squadron Hawks. That mana curve is lovely though.

I should get MWS to playtest.

Academy Rector seems like a natural fit but those feel expensive. Other than Alurens, everything else should be dirt cheap in this list.

Now if you're wondering how I could look up cards at work, I didn't. I just happened throw this together off the top of my head...dododododoo...

update: Okay I can win 4th turn but more like 7th-ish turn consistent. I really don't know how to modify it because it's already made up of very good cards.

Deck evolution

My U/W deck has existed with me in some form since I started playing; it was my first deck. I bought it from Eric Zorn for $4? $8? in 2000.

2x Accumulated Knowledge (yes, 2!)
2x Gush
1x Brainstorm
3x Opt

2x Rethink
2x Exclude
2x Snap
2x Prohibit

4x Dream Thrush
2x Vodalian Serpent
1x Sea Monster
1x Air Elemental

1x Heightened Awareness
1x Mental Discipline

14x Island

Holy crap! Pretty good memory! Well, I had 6 white cards at the time, including Guard Dogs, so naturally I should make it U/W and expand my list to be a legal 60 cards.

I kept trying to compete with green for creatures, except at the time it was when blue had terrible creatures (not like them kids these days and their 3/2 fliers for 1CC).

Cards that I remember putting in and taking out over the years include Planar Portal, Lotus Petal, Sibilant Spirit, Copper-Leaf Angel and Serra Angel.

Wish I still have a Copper-Leaf actually...just for nostalgia. I first saw someone older than me use it in a game when I was 9, therefore it must've been good! And it's a rare from Prophecy! Wow! Prophecy was also the best set because its creatures were so big!

Too bad I traded all my angels to Don for all of his blue cards. (This might also explain why I have no angels left to put into the EDH deck)

I did get a playset of Vizzerdrixes though, that makes a better story.

The only vestiges of that deck left are the Accumulated Knowledges and the Excludes. The blue has stayed with me though, islands 4 lyfe yo.


Affinity started as a precon; I got it as a gift. At first I thought it was dumb, because there's nothing in it that could go in my U/W deck. But then I discovered that affinity was fast. And everyone's decks were terrible then, so this shit was like lightning!

I never did give it the same loving attention as my other decks because it was aggro and aggro is dumb. That could be why it went through one refit that year and then its composition has barely changed since 2003. I just sort of trusted that the setup worked because it was performing solidly ever since, but as I discovered yesterday, apparently my deckbuilding skills were not at their sharpest then. I think Maks noticed though...the "slowest affinity in the world" I believe he said. <_<

Non-basic cards left from the precon: Broodstar, Lodestone Myr, Somber Hoverguard(2), Frogmite(3), Myr Enforcer(3), Thoughtcast, Assert Authority(2), Talisman of Dominance(4), Tooth of Chiss-Gloria, Seat of the Synod(4), Vault of Whispers(4) Total(26)


I bought the Izzet deck on impulse because the flavour seemed wonderful. I honestly thought it was hopeless when I started playing with it though. I think I would've taken it apart totally if it weren't for the flavour, but I stuck with it and now it is the most fun of my decks.

Non-basic cards left from the precon: Izzet Boilerworks(2), Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind, Gelectrode, Tibor and Lumia, Wee Dragonauts (1), Izzet Chronarch(1), Izzet Guildmage, Repeal (2), Electrolyze, Total(11)

If it weren't for flavour, I'd have cut the Chronarch, Dragonauts, Tibor and Lumia, and Nivix. Nivix is terrible because I literally never activate it for fear of tossing a force multiplier like Guildmage, Gelectrode, Swans or Niv-Mizzet himself.

But Tibor and Lumia is actually the worst card. I rarely want to play it and I only end up doing it if I'm feeling ballsy. Then, I am silently relieved when my opponent kills it because it means I don't have to deal with them myself later.

That's old news

Australia is doing well, but they're anxious these days because they are an Asian country, but they're not Asian and their major partner is China but they're suspicious of them.

So? That's kind of like Japan too.

No, it's not.

Why? All the East Asian countries certainly hate each other more.

Yes, but that's an old problem they've all gotten used to, for Australia this is a New Problem.

Good news!

Meanwhile, Canada’s early production model F-35 Joint Strike Fighters won’t have the satellite communications gear necessary to communicate with the outside world while flying over remote regions like the Arctic, according to the Winnepeg Free Press.

...

Canada isn’t slated to receive F-35’s equipped with Satcoms until 2019 and Ottawa is apparently looking at installing communications pods used by Canadian CF-18 Hornets on the F-35s as a stopgap measure for Arctic ops. This move would obviously trade stealth for communications.

Primary.

One more thing

So we all know that Spetsnaz guy, this guy, and sometimes we wonder, just how often does such a situation come up?

Anyways, here's a Chinese SWAT member in action during a drill:

Apparently 18 SWAT teams participated in the drill.

Of course

They occasionally take down the portrait to replace with a new one.

Crash safety probably isn't as easy as they make it seem in those commercials...

I see that in China, the crumple zone is driver inclusive.



They say North American safety standards are higher than those in Europe. Well, maybe the Europeans don't have to worry about getting T-boned by a Chevy Suburban.

That's cool

Ruby has no interfaces, but let's see what we can do:

module FooInterface
def bar(a,b) raise "bar(a,b) must be overridden"; end
end

class FooClass
include FooInterface
def bar(a,b) a+b; end
end

It's not particularly robust, but ehh, this isn't Java.

Happy Turkey Day!

I've experimented with a lot of turkey recipes in the past, some were pretty crazy, like there was one stuffed with apples. Anyways, for the last many years I've just stuck with this one because I've been really happy with it. So I'm sharing it if anyone cares to try for next season (American Thanksgiving? Christmas?).

Ingredients:
• 1 x 12 lb. young turkey (about 5.5 kg)
• 8 oz diced pancetta (240 g)
• 8 large shallots, sliced lengthwise
• 2 tbsp butter (30 ml)
• sprigs of thyme, whole and chopped
• sprigs of sage, whole and chopped
• sprigs of rosemary, whole and chopped
• 1/4 cup sugar (60 ml)
• 1 1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar (22 ml)
• Coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• Butter, for rubbing the outside of turkey
• Sprigs of herbs, for garnish, optional

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Add pancetta to medium saute pan over medium heat. Sautee until fat begins to render, about 4 minutes. Remove pancetta and reserve.

3. To the same pan over medium heat, add butter, shallots and chopped herbs. Saute shallots until translucent, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar and continue to saute shallots 2 more minutes or until lightly browned. Add the vinegar and remove from heat and stir. Season with freshly ground pepper. Combine shallots with pancetta. Let cool to room temperature.

4. Remove giblets and turkey neck from turkey cavity. For additional flavour to pan drippings roast turkey neck in roasting pan with turkey. Remove any pockets of fat from bird cavity. Thoroughly rinse with cold water. Pat turkey dry with paper towel.

5. Run your hands gently between skin and meat of the turkey breast and legs to separate skin from meat. Do so carefully to prevent the skin from tearing. Gently slide about ½ of the shallot mixture and some fresh chopped herbs between skin and meat of the breast and legs.

6. Rub bird with butter and season with salt and pepper. Fill bird cavity with remaining shallot mixture and whole sprigs of herbs. Truss legs together with butcher’s twine to maintain shape while roasting.

7. Roast bird, breast side up, in a large, lightly oiled roasting pan on the lower portion of oven at 350 degrees F. for first 30 minutes then reduce heat to 325 degrees F. Continue to roast, basting often, until thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh reads 180 degrees F. about 2 to 2 ½ hours. Remove remaining shallot mixture from cavity of turkey and place in roasting pan. Transfer turkey to serving platter. Cover loosely with foil and keep warm and let rest 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Garnish platter with fresh sprigs of herbs if desired. Make gravy while turkey is resting.

Sorry, don't remember where I got it from, it's just been sitting on my hard drive.

My mom to dad: Pancetta is really good, it's not like bacon, it's really sweet!

Little does she know that I just like adding large amounts of sugar to everything I cook.

Putting the punk in steampunk

I should write about a realistic steampunk universe.

Everything is going to be broken all the time because everything is as complicated as shit and there is a constant part shortage.

There will also be a perpetual engineer, mechanic, fabricator shortage because everything is as complicated as shit and broken all the time.

There will be no stacks; Stirling engines, bitch! So much more practical.

People will get burned all the time because everything is powered by hot steam and made of copper.

This is getting a bit out of hand

I like Steve Jobs as much as anyone.

In fact, I probably appreciate his work more than the average person.

Suddenly today I find on my feed "Steve Jobs' Influence on the Military".

Gosh.

He invented iPods, not penicillin.

People need to stop treating this like the death of an American hero.

Open letter

Dear slow driver,

Why did you buy an SUV with a V8 to go 50 down a 60 zone?

Jackass.

Apparently digital is the new traditional

Creating the Art of Innistrad

New Phyrexia was rife with digital painters, not only to really sell the terrible sheen of metal, but also so I could redirect for the look of Innistrad, which is a more grounded, relatable and straightforward place, and would benefit from a more "traditionally painted" feel.

From that point on, I count finished Innistrad pieces 5,6,8,9,14,15,16,17,18,20,21,25,26 and 28 are almost certainly digital, and pieces 2,10,13,19,20,27 stand a pretty good chance of being digital.

That's 19/28.

Also, Painter is pretty tank, so even ones that look real might still be digital. <_<

Of course

Tumblr is worthless, why would you share pictures one at a time? They're not even yours, so you're clearly not limited by production.

And most of the stuff being shared is generic low res shit anyways.

How can you compete with stuff like Boston Globe's picture blog?

Some places

I've been collecting images of places for a while now. I haven't done many pictures of scenery so I've been collecting them in hopes of getting inspired.

Well that never happened. But there are some great pictures in that folder; these ones I think are each enough to inspire a world unto itself. My apologies they're not all high quality.

Afghanistan, by my estimation about 30km North of Fuck Nowhere.

Along the Chicago river.

CityPoint in London; from this angle it looks like the buildings extend forever.

Dubai, pre-bust presumably.

This is (somewhere) in Egypt, you can see the crops surrounding center-pivot irrigators.

A bridge being constructed in Guizhou.

Hyesan.

This is at Ijen volcano; I believe they use the pipes to transport sulfur from the volcano. Yes, they are mining a volcano, crazy!

The Maunsell sea forts.

Unfortunately I don't remember what this is, the image says Mina but I'm not convinced it's not a mosque in Mecca proper.

Anyways, you can see that I neglected to include any ghost towns or abandoned and derelict building photos because, honestly, everyone's seen those before already.

And of course, there's no way I've covered all the craziness in the world here.

Thought exercise

I was thinking if I would take a Charger coloured like that.

No.

Nothing made in America could look like that.

But maybe a Veyron.

You know, black out all their stupid chrome.

Could be hot.

What if you just had an all beige car? Like wheels and everything.

But then you could have bright red brake calipers.

Anyone remember the time Richard Hammond brought on a dark grey GT3? Except its tyres were jet black, the rims were red, and it had yellow brake calipers.

What a retarded idea!

They did it already: it's called Battle Royale

This is how my version of The Hunger Games would be:

It will be based around a group of housemates who are playing fighting games.

They are hungry because they are lazy and can't be bothered to cook food.

The story would come to a thrilling conclusion as they end up going out for sushi after not eating for the entire day.

Inspired by a true story.

Don't use it, lose it

People think that the easy dissemination of information makes it difficult to lose knowledge in the modern age.

Actually, it's extremely easy to to lose knowledge. Especially technical expertise. So much of it is very specialized and only existent in the private hands of corporations. And within these corporations, specific and important facts are only kept in the minds of a handful of people.

If the engineers depart and the line workers depart, without replacement, you've already lost most of the knowledge.

For instance, the principals of an internal combustion engine are well known, and there's quite a bit more than that circulating around in papers. Do you think that's enough to reconstruct a modern car engine? Engine fundamentals from the Model T to the Fiesta haven't changed. But over the last century, Ford has figured out how to squeeze out more than 3 times the mileage and 6 times the power with an engine volume of half the size. Do you know what they did? Do you think your educational institution knows what they did? Not a chance, unless your professor worked in a very specific field within the industry. Even then, his knowledge grows more outdated year by year as Ford engineers continue to squeeze out a few more percentage points of performance year by year.

Or let's say that you already know that you can get a 5% efficiency gain by tweaking the inlet aero. How would you know where to tweak? You'd have to go through all the testing that was done before, and you'd need to design and build the infrastructure to conduct the tests in the first place.

It's the same across all fields, from cars to bridges to computers. Good luck building a modern virtual machine using the Dragon Book. And that's still only talking design knowledge.

Im CAD hat's passt.

It fits in CAD. Not good enough.

You can't learn how to build something without actually building it and, more than anything else, this is something kept exclusively in the minds of workers. And god help you if the toolset had been struck already (which is common), because now all of sudden all of your work instructions are worthless without the accompanying equipment. Now you have to redesign and rebuild the infrastructure too and go through the teething process all over again. Think you can make a violin from an instruction book? Nope, you learn by building a violin and a lot of crappy violins.

See how we've decided to stop going to the moon for a couple of decades and suddenly it's a pain in the ass to figure out how to do it again. And that's with all of the previous generation's artifacts around, more computing power than our predecessors could ever imagine and an extremely competent corp of people who've been shooting things into space non-stop in the intermediate period. Sure you don't have to go though the paradigm shift breakthroughs again, but most of being able to do something is just grinding, and that's a feat that'll need to be replicated if you ever forget. Technology has not dark age proofed us.

What I like most:

Is that the cover says that it is Blu-Ray but actually DVD-9.

Everyone should be getting close to graduating, right?

And then we'd be like real adults, right?

...

What do?

Sounds promising

My Google Reader frontpage publicizes:

"I have no breasts, but I do have a camera!"

That's Good News.