41993 replies to this topic

[Tjtod]

I just finished reading the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Not only is the trilogy well written but it has one of my favorite magic systems in a book.

[Shrike58]

The new space race?

 

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/30531/china-reveals-wind-tunnel-tests-of-space-plane-launching-high-speed-mothership-aircraft

 

This could all be vaporware for public consumption but someone will make this concept work eventually; particularly since the hypersonic revolution is upon us.

[Shrike58]

Tjtod, on Oct 22 2019 - 16:23, said:

I just finished reading the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Not only is the trilogy well written but it has one of my favorite magic systems in a book.

 

I've read the first book in that series and though it's not my preferred flavor of fantasy I'll get back to it eventually. My reading agenda for next year includes getting up to date with the collected works of N.K. Jemisin and the "Expanse" series. For a change I'm going to privilege fiction over non-fiction.

[Haunt8dTank]

Shrike58, on Oct 22 2019 - 22:43, said:

 

I've read the first book in that series and though it's not my preferred flavor of fantasy I'll get back to it eventually. My reading agenda for next year includes getting up to date with the collected works of N.K. Jemisin and the "Expanse" series. For a change I'm going to privilege fiction over non-fiction.

The first book was hard for me to get into because the magic system was so different. As the Ideals settled with me the series just got better and better.

[FrozenKemp]

Shrike58, on Oct 22 2019 - 15:16, said:

The chronic refusal of most right-of-center parties in the aggregate to take environmental matters seriously (I'd be happy to hear an exception) seems to be hard-wired right now.

Where the Conservatives won (in Canada) are mostly the provinces most tied to oil money. But it would actually be interesting to see a map of not each riding and which party won it, but like... a heat map for each party, showing the % of the vote they got in each riding. Some wins were very close.

 

The way things played out in Ontario was surely affected by the unpopularity of Doug Ford's Conservative provincial government. 

[FrozenKemp]

Mistborn was a fun read. Brandon Sanderson's thing really seems to be building magic systems and then exploring their ramifications through the story. 

[KilljoyCutter]

FrozenKemp, on Oct 22 2019 - 19:25, said:

Mistborn was a fun read. Brandon Sanderson's thing really seems to be building magic systems and then exploring their ramifications through the story.

 

Sanderson is all about magic systems.

 

https://coppermind.net/wiki/Sanderson%27s_Laws_of_Magic

 

https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/

https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-second-law/

https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-third-law-of-magic/

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_magic_systems

 

 

[FrozenKemp]

Exactly. It's not entirely my thing, but I have read something like 6 books by him.

 

I'm just about done reading Tales of a Waterboy by Mike Scott which is a music-focused memoir by one of my favorite musicians. It was pretty neat learning some of the behind-the-scenes related to various albums and the tangled journey of his musical career (up until about 2000). 

 

After that I will probably get back to reading a book about the Fairey Swordfish WW2 biplane, aka "the stringbag". 

[Avalon304]

Did a thing:

 

Spoiler

 

 

[FrozenKemp]

I was at the model shop yesterday and looked at a book about armour in Lebanon 1975-1980. Several photos of Charioteers still in use. 

[Mermaid_Witch]

Avalon304, on Oct 22 2019 - 23:50, said:

Did a thing:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

What camouflage is that on the Charioteer?  What little bit I see doesn't look familiar.

[godofdun]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/21/lindsey-graham-changes-opinion-syria/4053524002/

 

Flimsy Lindsey flippy floppy

 

Also, way to say the quiet part out loud:

"The big thing for me is the oil fields," Graham said Sunday. "President Trump is thinking outside the box. I was so impressed with his thinking about the oil." 

Graham hoped the arrangement "could generate revenue to pay for our commitment in Syria." 

[KilljoyCutter]

godofdun, on Oct 23 2019 - 09:10, said:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/21/lindsey-graham-changes-opinion-syria/4053524002/

 

Flimsy Lindsey flippy floppy

 

Also, way to say the quiet part out loud:

"The big thing for me is the oil fields," Graham said Sunday. "President Trump is thinking outside the box. I was so impressed with his thinking about the oil."

Graham hoped the arrangement "could generate revenue to pay for our commitment in Syria."

 

Lindsey Graham... if history remembers you at all, it will not do so fondly.    Speaking of which, I saw a meme yesterday which said "If Trump thinks Pelosi is saying mean things about him... he's really not going to like the history books."

 

 

[Mermaid_Witch]

KilljoyCutter, on Oct 23 2019 - 09:51, said:

Lindsey Graham... if history remembers you at all, it will not do so fondly.    Speaking of which, I saw a meme yesterday which said "If Trump thinks Pelosi is saying mean things about him... he's really not going to like the history books."

 

Maybe the Radical left history books whose authors hate America, sure.  But the History textbooks for children that are approved by the Texas state Board of Education will teach that he was the best President since Ronald Regan and that he would have made America Great Again if it weren't for those meddling Democrats and their dog.

 

Edit:  on the subject of dogs, I wonder how many dogs would mysteriously end up dead if the current POTUS declared that dogs were Un-American beasts that only democrats could love.  We all know he hates dogs, so it's certainly within the realm of possibility that he suddenly declare them vermin.

Edited by Mermaid_Witch, Oct 23 2019 - 16:49.

[Mermaid_Witch]

So... yeah.  Those sanction we leveled at Turkey for accepting Trump's invitation to massacre the Kurds?  The sanctions served their purpose and worked like a charm, so we don't need to pointlessly make Turkey suffer anymore.  The sanctions have been lifted.

[godofdun]

Mermaid_Witch, on Oct 23 2019 - 09:06, said:

So... yeah.  Those sanction we leveled at Turkey for accepting Trump's invitation to massacre the Kurds?  The sanctions served their purpose and worked like a charm, so we don't need to pointlessly make Turkey suffer anymore.  The sanctions have been lifted.

 

I don't think I've seen sanctions lifted so fast, wonder if Erdogan has something on him.  Gee, I wonder how people would react to one of the D candidates at a rally publicly calling for country X to hack into some servers and find out.

[KilljoyCutter]

godofdun, on Oct 23 2019 - 11:33, said:

 

I don't think I've seen sanctions lifted so fast, wonder if Erdogan has something on him.  Gee, I wonder how people would react to one of the D candidates at a rally publicly calling for country X to hack into some servers and find out.

 

 

He has the two "Trump" hotels, and Trump's desire to do more business in Turkey, hanging over Trump.

 

[godofdun]

KilljoyCutter, on Oct 23 2019 - 09:39, said:

He has the two "Trump" hotels, and Trump's desire to do more business in Turkey, hanging over Trump.

 

 

Maybe that's enough, I do wonder if there's more though.

[KilljoyCutter]

godofdun, on Oct 23 2019 - 12:40, said:

 

Maybe that's enough, I do wonder if there's more though.

 

 

He's actually that small of a "person", and that subject to his own venal avarice.

 

[Mermaid_Witch]

KilljoyCutter, on Oct 23 2019 - 13:05, said:

He's actually that small of a "person", and that subject to his own venal avarice.

 

 

Could you imagine the meltdown he would have if a foreign country forcibly nationalized one of his hotels and renamed it "Obama Hotel and Suites"?