History, Politics And Current Affairs

Looks like Virgin Media / O2 are in more £££ mega-trouble than they'll admit... As my long-term ISP, e-mail account(s) came bundled with the broadband & VOIP phone etc. They have now out-sourced e-mail support to a *subscription* service provided by Junara. 'Take it or leave us', albeit sorta bu...

Too many 'local bonfire' sites became seriously incendiary, people got hurt. Several years, our near-by parks' organised displays had to be cancelled due Covid, weather etc. Also, my beloved wife used to watch the 'Trick or Treat' groups on our CCTV, score them. And asked me to keep up the tradition...

Usually, weather permitting, I deck front yard with FX, props etc etc, light porch with UV & 'Disco' lights, hand out glow-sticks by the dozen, open a second tub of sweets. Score the 'Trick or Treat' groups for effort... Last year was a 'rain-check', I stayed closed for fear of pneumonia. Sad, r...

Nik-note: I am so glad I'd built a hefty chapter buffer, as I've just spent an entire week wrangling one (1) key-stone phrase, finally re-writing scene to do without... City of Fresno #154 Our next 'Anomaly' was associated with a grossly uneven moonlet about eight kilometres across. Triaxial, with a...

As Kipling so aptly put it, '"Deadlier Than The Male."

So, who invoked the Rite to arm Bears ??

So, my friend in US sent me (UK) a gift of work-wear. He tracks the parcel to France !! USPS say it has gone to the correct destination, because they never, ever make mistakes... I must wonder if flight was diverted to EU due our two named storms, back-to-back, making several UK air-ports seriously ...

Yes, verily, indeed, the 'Fresno' Engineers are going to love these finds !! FWIW, despite its now-dated style and 'period' flaws... Omnilingual https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnilingual quote: "Omnilingual" is a science fiction short story by American writer H. Beam Piper.[1] Originally p...

He was excellent on ST, but absolutely f-terrifying on B5.
Played latter straight as a laser, over-qualified for my Convention's Sanku 'Prayer for Fanatics':
"May the next die harmlessly, also."

City of Fresno #153 My first priority after un-suiting was to warn the rest of the crew. The bulk magnesium was probably 'fairly safe' in 100% Nitrogen. Most of this vacuum-exposed materiel should form a sufficiently stable oxide layer if briefly, very briefly, exposed to a whiff of our 'breathing' ...

Had a couple of GEs this morning and, yes, a Captcha challenge. Oddly, the prompt etc over-wrote itself again. Hmm: IIRC, Chrome browser had an update over-night. That *does* usually set off another squabble within Win_10. ( I had been hoping to build a new, Win_11 'CAD Tower' this year, but combina...

Shawyer's take on a potential 'reactionless' drive was progressively debunked. The various Rus 'Magneto-gravitic' approaches vanished into 'Experimental Error'. But, there's a new notion, one which seems immune to those prior oopsies. A NASA Engineer Says He’s Found a Way to Overcome Earth’s Gravity...

Yes, magnesium is *weird*: Almost a 'split personality', okay to a certain point, then totally 'psycho'. Plus, fighting magnesium fires is *interesting*, as will happily burn air, steam, CO2, nitrogen (!!) and a bunch of other stuff. Either you quench it with a mega-douse of water, or choke with a g...

Apologies for non-participation: My 'Man-Cold' or '3-Day Flu' left me feeling totally trampled for several weeks. Getting past it, my stricken muse is too-slowly re-engaging with creativity, but I'm so glad 'Fresno' had a deep edit-buffer. Downside, as-yet scant ability to grok others' tales beyond ...

Had single GE this morning, but only one (1) page refresh needed to clear it...

City of Fresno #152 Okay, the shuttle's Radar had found something with the direction, distance, relative speed and, yes, even the non-isotropic reflectivity, the 'twinkle', to fit my 'transit' model. Was it our target, though ? We agreed that 'Craterfield' lacked any discernible 'Anomaly' so, after ...

What is current 'sweet spot' for archiving about 6 terabytes ??

FWIW, case has a 3.5" slide-mount...

So I'm looking over books discounted on Amazon when PC (W_10) announces there's a problem, re-boots. Prompt demands designated boot media. Yes, proverbial nape-hair up-stand event, cold chills etc etc etc. Tried manual re-boot, no improvement. Front case switch is ignored. This is the point where yo...

I'm nine (9) years a widower, and much of my 'soul' is still 'Missing, Presumed'... Possibly, 'Too Much'. Kath really was my better 2/3. We were wed for three *complicated* decades, I could not be so lucky again. So it's me, books, a time-shared cat and 'Fresno'. YMMV. Just, step wary, use due care ...

City of Fresno #151 I was staring at the 'Cooberra' data for the umpteenth time when a curious feature struck me: Range and error-bars for the Radar-bright 'Anomaly' overlapped, but were slightly nearer than returns from the moonlet's surface. Very slightly, mind. More would suggest burial, perhaps ...