NBA 2K13 should have a Hustle Meter

Once it runs out for a character, you can no longer make them run; instead they'll just saunter around at a leisurely pace.

Reggie Evans will basically never run out of Hustle.

On the other hand, Melo's Hustle Meter will be perpetually empty.

This will accurately simulate his total laziness on defense in real life.

For a true experience, the player should consider walking him in a circle and then maybe faking an injury.

A forthright exchange of ideas

"..so we knew we had an operating constraint of 400kW to work with"

"Wait, isn't 400kW really small for a cogeneration unit? How big is the main plant? Like 2MW?"

"I don't understand what you mean"

"How big is the main power plant?"

"We're not working with a power plant, we're working with a food production plant"

"Ohhh! That makes total sense then; I just assumed.."

"Nitta Gelatin! They make gelatin"

"I always thought that was a strange name for a utilities company"

"Dammit, I knew they should've let me do the introduction"

Can't these liberal art guys consult an engineer before publishing this stuff?

From the Economist:

"Morris Technologies has invested heavily in 3D printing equipment and will be printing bits for a new range of jet engines. Morris Technologies uses a number of 3D printing machines, all of which work by using a digital description of an object to build it in physical form, layer by layer. Among the 3D printing technologies used by Morris Technologies is laser sintering. This involves spreading a thin layer of metallic powder onto a build platform and then fusing the material with a laser beam. The process is repeated until an object emerges."

"One of the attractions of printing parts is that it saves material. Instead of machining components from solid billets of metal, in which much of it may be cut away, only the material that is needed to shape the part is used. Printed parts can also be made lighter than forged parts, which promises fuel savings. 

Many manufacturers already use 3D printing to make prototypes of parts, because it is cheaper and more flexible than tooling up to produce just one or two items. But the technology is now good enough for it to be used to make production items too."

No, dammit!

That's not why the aviation industry uses sintering!

Think about the conditions in a jet engine: extreme heat, extreme stress. Any material that can withstand those types of conditions is going to be prohibitively expensive to machine. Sintered alloys are actually much weaker than cast alloys, which means the recipe is going to need to be all the more complex to get that strength back.

Aside from needing to melt substances that are explicitly designed to have an extremely high melting point, the problem with casting is that as the material cools, it shrinks from the mold, so it becomes impossible to cast parts with precision. That means the only alternative to sintering would be taking a big block of superhard alloy, and then trying to grind it down to a blisk or whatever you're making.

Forging produces even stronger materials (through stress hardening), but the logistical impossibility of forging a turbine blade should be obvious to anyone.

Sintering is used in mass production when there's no other choice.

If you're trying to make tank armour on the other hand, where precision is not so important, but strength and cost are..yeah, good luck selling the industry on your 3-D printers.

All aboard!

I've always found character shipping kind of strange and crazy, and doing it with real people just adds another dimension of creepiness to everything. But since I'm knee deep in this world of weirdness already, here is my appraisal of selected watercrafts:

TaeNy (Taeyeon + Tiffany): Clearly the most popular ferry by far. Also there are way too many ridiculous videos made on this that I don't want to click on.

SunYeon (Sunny + Taeyeon): Minor, TaeNy is strictly dominant.

JeTi (Jessica + Tiffany): This is just silly.

YulSic (Yuri + Jessica): I woke up and had an epiphany; there is subtle brilliance at play here.

StrawNy (Straw + Tiffany): The only acceptable ship in my mind.

"Kevin Durant is not a nice guy"

Said nobody ever.

Anyways, from the Times:

"At the Thunder’s training center, after a practice in early October, Kevin Durant and I sat on folding chairs at the edge of the gym. He was wearing a black tank top, black shorts and ridiculously colorful shoes. (Loud footwear is one of his few obvious vices.)" 

Really? I never would've guessed.

Dear Houston..

..don't know whether it is the coaching or the players,

But when it comes down to crunch time,

Can you have a play that isn't just Harden playing Hero Ball into all the defenders?

Or you know, going iso into Lebron fucking James?

Three times in a row?

Thanks.

You would twinkle even if wrapped in a veil..

Postscript.