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Me Personally, I Want This September 18, 2014

Posted by stuffilikenet in Uncategorized.
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This is probably much more fun than an RC car.

  • Controllable from up to 200ft with the 2.4ghz remote, indoors and out
  • The Snypa Dart Blaster attachment fires your Snypa Darts up to 45 feet

    • If you shoot back it falls apart when it gets three hits.  Nice.

    Sad But Beautiful September 18, 2014

    Posted by stuffilikenet in Mutants.
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    Dead two-headed dolphin discovered in Turkey

    Conjoined twin dolphins (sadly dead) in Turkey.

    DNA Lounge Robartenders September 18, 2014

    Posted by stuffilikenet in Awesome, Geek Stuff, Toys, Uncategorizable.
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    They had a little contest Sunday night at DNA Lounge, as laid out in this little notice:IMG_20140915_091046

    IMG_20140915_115846

    My oldest step-daughter had listed us for tickets, so we went to the door expecting her to be the bouncer.  She was not.  In her place was our youngest step-daughter who, unbeknownst to us had wheedled her way into DNA Lounge’s good graces, no doubt on the oldest’s recommendation.  My wife did not recognize her, even as she was stamping her hand.

    Not the strangest thing we saw that evening, by half.  The most complete full-assed was a cam-driven mai tai mixin’ machine:

    In the half-assed category was this conveyor belt-driven mixing machine1. They had some trouble getting it to be reliable before I got my margarita, spilling onto the belt when the stepper motor miscounted(!).  The belt-and-suspenders approach would have a drain gutter, instead of the arrogant “we don’t need not stinkin’ steenkeeng gutters” approach.IMG_20140914_194329

    This contraption was also quite good, except the ingredients were dispensed from a single spout, leading to cross-contamination of the ultimate product.IMG_20140914_194536

    This rocketship did not dispense any fuel while I was watching.  It did have dry ice for steam, though.IMG_20140914_194601

    By the time I got to this LEGO robot, it was all blurry. IMG_20140914_195505114

    Not really sure why.

    ______

    1 They actually were working on it the night before, which may explain it.

    The Rhesus Chart, by Charles Stross September 18, 2014

    Posted by stuffilikenet in Uncategorized.
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    The Rhesus Chart, by Charles Stross is another fun ride in the bewildering labyrinth that is The Laundry, a black-budget British agency for covertly defending England (and the world) from the scum of the Multiverse (that’s more capital letters than I have used in a single sentence for some years now).1

    Our hero Bob Howard has been promoted to junior management and Deputy Eater of Souls (read the previous books.  They explain it all, with footnotes), an even more frustrating exercise in demonic bureaucracy than he had thought possible, while his wife is still furious with him for roping one of their few remaining normal friends into The Laundry.  That would be fine if she wasn’t the  gun mount of choice for a particularly nasty personal weapon with a mind of its own.

    While exercising his “free time” to look for outbreaks of demonic possession by trawling the big data in Her Majesty’s health archives, Bob stumbles across a group of people with “unusual symptoms such as super strength and speed, an uncanny talent for mind control, an extreme allergic reaction to sunlight, and an unquenchable thirst for blood.”2 Worst of all, they are bankers.3

    I recommend The Rhesus Chart, by Charles Stross as highly as possible.

    ____

    1And two sets of parentheses.

    2You know, vampires.

    3You know, vampires.

    Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie September 18, 2014

    Posted by stuffilikenet in Awesome, Books, Brilliant words.
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    Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie is a wonderful examination of responsibility, revenge, justice and sense of self in a science fiction universe (arguably the safest place to talk about things political).  Ann Leckie’s use of gender pronouns (always female unless the character is obviously male) makes for a head-slapping read in one sense; the assumption that everyone in human space is female is pretty strange.  When read by Celeste Chula the ambivalence is even sharper…and it seems as if the genders of the characters only matter a little bit, probably because the main character is, um, not entirely human.

    I won’t spoil that for you.  When the protagonist is forced to act against her character, it causes her to snap and behave in a very selfish and yet selfless manner—which is our story, of course.

    I recommend Ancillary Justice very highly, and especially the audiobook version.

    As it is the winner of the Hugo, Nebula, British Science Fiction, Locus and Arthur C. Clarke Awards, I gather I am not the only one who recommends it.

    Feline Neckwear September 15, 2014

    Posted by stuffilikenet in Uncategorizable, Uncategorized.
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    Cat stole

    I showed this to my boss.  She said:

    “She’s beautiful.”

    “That’s Gray Kitty.”

    “I meant your wife.”  Pause.  “I’m telling.”