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The older sister of Bao-yu, the boy, now a young teen, who was born with the jade stone in his mouth, is an Imperial Concubine, a high prestige slave of the Emperor. She is likely herself still a teen when we learn, in Chapter 16 of The Story of the Stone, that she has been given permission to visit her family. The family responds by planning an enormous party, thus …

via NASAZoeA placid, mid-sized gas giant orbiting just beyond the frost line of a K-class star. Blueish-purple atmosphere. Ring system. Typical collection of rocky and icy moons. Magnetosphere within typical range for a body of this size and composition. No major hurdles to colonization, and no real reason to go out of your way to do it either.Enter MUIR.MUIR began as an overseer during the post-Collapse ecological recovery of Earth. …

I've been overthinking while trying to remember something I read or watched a few years ago that explained fourth-dimensional thinking and time travel. It involved looking directly at the tip of a pencil rather than seeing the entire pencil itself and I found it was a perfect analogy for how to think about "time."Films such as 1997's Event Horizon and 2014's Interstellar have also explored a similar concept when they …

“In ‘The Working Day’, Marx reports that the appointment of Mr. H. S. Tremenheere as Commissioner of Inquiry coincides with the occurrence of “several public meetings and … petitions to Parliament [whence] arose the cry of the London journeymen bakers against their over-work … [appealing] not [to] the heart of the public but its stomach” (Marx [1867–1887] 1990, 215). And what was it that turned the stomachs of this public …

One of my friends recently stumbled across a mix CD that I put together back in 2006, filled with songs that I had been listening to at the time. Through the marvels of modern cloud services, I’ve recreated it as a Spotify playlist. I think the tracks and the sequencing both hold up pretty well. There are videos of the tracks along with a bit of commentary below. Flying — …

Change the cost of Disarm to be “one Lemons, Oranges, Kiwis, Grape, or Cherry” and change its effect to be “Choose a Trap Cell whose Content is the same as the resource spent for this action and make it a Plain Cell.”

The martini is special. I respect the craft. But I also dig this new age shit in NYC attempting to perfect temperature retention. Sure, no one historically drinks a martini like this (unless you slam it after good preparation), but the concept is chef’s kiss. And olives… they’ve addressed them: Just about everything, in fact, is the enemy of a Martini’s coldness. You might call the drink’s historical companion, the …

Album of the Week, October 12, 2024 Wayne Shorter as a composer in the 1960s was stretching his wings. Over the course of a few albums for Blue Note, he went from the Trane-inspired writings of JuJu to the incredible cool of Speak No Evil to the avant-garde leanings of The All Seeing Eye. For those who might have been expecting more of that latter album, recorded in late 1965, …

Subscribe WordPress Facebook Twitter Instagram If you enjoy reading please consider “buying me a pint”, this will help to cover my hosting and image hosting and help to ensure further trips can go ahead!BUY ME A PINT History and Brews: Pubs in Beeston, Attenborough, and Long Eaton Today I visit various pubs in the Beeston and Long Eaton areas, detailing their histories, atmospheres, and available beers. The Victoria Hotel, dating …

There have been increasingly clamorous calls for the banning, removal, or controlling, or censoring of ‘misinformation’ as an enforced general policy. This may be through law backed by punishment. But what does this mean? The calls seem also to be suggesting that something new and perilous is happening in human life that was not there before. That now, because of misinformation, something especially harmful is occurring. The fashionable word ‘misinformation’ …

Finally managed to (re)watch the film Love and Human Remains on DVD, a favourite of mine since 1993 that I haven't seen in a very long time. Eager to compare my memories of it with the real thing, it didn't disappoint. I absolutely love the story, the characters, the dialogues, the music. Surprising how I never knew it was set in Edmonton, Canada — I guess when watching films that …

buy on sfbags.com ($59) Bag NameWaterField Designs Vitesse Canvas SlingCapacity1.3LLaptop CapacityFits iPad Mini or similarly sized tabletsMaterialsWaxed Canvas, full-grain leather trim piecesDimensions 8.5″ x 1.5″ x 6″Weight9.5 ozMSRP$59 WaterField Designs’ newly released Vitesse Sling is a stylish addition to their recent Vitesse Collection. Made from 15oz water-resistant waxed canvas, this sling has a timeless look that only gets better with age and can be refreshed using wax but you may …

"Dear graphics department: Not that kind of serpent." Swords and Serpents United StatesInterplay (developer); Acclaim (publisher)Released 1990 for NES Date Started: 8 October 2024 Commenters have been on me to try this one for years. It is a rare console game, and even rarer NES game, from a western developer. It clearly draws upon Interplay's experience with The Bard's Tale and other games of its ilk; indeed, its original lead …

We're in the year 3024. Earth is a wasteland. Space has been occupied, but humanity is blocked by the ‘X Ecliptic’, which hems them in to the solar system and some light years around it. Our hero, dashing, handsome Cragin, lost his mother in childbirth: she died of thirst on the desert-Earth literally whilst giving birth to him—how he survived, how he was breast-fed, why the people around didn’t give …

Continuing the series of critics missing the significance of a record on its initial release - here is Lester Bangs in 1976 with what is ostensibly a review of Agharta but is really a panoramic takedown of Miles Davis after In A Silent Way. It's included here mainly for its utterly wrongheaded take on On The Corner and similarly dismissive reaction to Get Up With It. Originally published in Phonograph …