JamesSavik

No problem. His habitat starts at a mile down.

Jockey... and no. You don't want to see me in them. As a gift I will spare you the trauma.

Creativity never fits in a box.

So I take it that deep sea fishing the Marianas Trench is out?

Welcome Hayden We're all one big horribly dysfunctional family here.

I like the older stuff too but my tastes go back to the 80s and 90s. I've got a lot of the Classic X-men stuff from the original series that go back to the sixties and seventies. But... I cheat and get the compilations in graphic novel form. Some of the stories are so-so but the reason that we're seeing so many comic book ==> movie cross overs is that many of the stories were pretty darned good.

Do you or have you ever followed comic books and/or graphic novels? I follow 3:

Good stuff! Smells awesome when it is cooking.

This is what drinking is for. I would but I got a Dear John letter from my liver.

World News Network Pacific Bureau Sydney, Australia Kelly Simmons, the Pac Bureau’s science correspondent, had five minutes’ notice that there would be a full staff meeting in the Bureau Chief’s conference room. Everyone that wasn’t in the field or on the air was supposed to be there. Something very odd was going on even in her little niche of the kingdom. Scientists loved to talk about their work. Many of them saw outreach and education as vital part of their job. They loved to tell you all about their newest micro-chips or pulsars. Public or private sector, they all wanted publicity for their work. Something had changed over the weekend. Most of her contacts at universities and research institutions were suddenly unavailable. Even good old Jack Willoby of the Australian National Observatory was unavailable and not answering his private cell phone. Their staffs said that they were either on leave or at a conference. She was getting stonewalled by people that she usually couldn’t get to shut up. The staff hurried into the big conference room on the first floor. She took the seat behind Liam Ross of the political desk. She said, “Liam, you have any idea what this is about?” He replied, “No but it’s making me nervous. The Yanks, NATO and the Aussie military just announced a massive joint forces military readiness exercise and are calling up their reserves. That’s just not done. Those sorts of exercises are announced months ahead of time.” Quinton Bagley of the International desk said, “That’s not even the best of it. Yesterday the Yanks had a closed joint session of Congress and our Parliament is doing the same. Something serious is afoot.” Drew Collins, Bagley’s second asked, “China? North Korea?” Bagley shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. They haven’t even been rattling their sabers. My guess is Iran. Maybe they tested a nuke or something.” The Bureau Chief Ian McAlister entered the room and had a quiet word with a technician. There was a brief discussion and Ian motioned to his staff for quiet. The monitors around the room came to life as the teleconference connection was established. Soon the all of the networks major Bureaus were online: New York, London, Washington, Montreal, Los Angeles, Moscow, Beijing and Tokyo. McAlister stepped up to the podium and began, “Good day mates. I am Ian McAlister: Chief of the Sydney Bureau. For the last few days we Bureau Chiefs have been talking. We have all seen a number of strange things happening with no explanation at all. At first we wrote it off as the usual stuff that happens over a weekend. It’s now Monday afternoon and we still have no answers. We arranged this teleconference to see if we can figure things out.” “Brian Barnes: Washington Bureau. Before dawn this morning the President’s press secretary faxed everyone on his list that the President and Vice President’s schedule had been canceled through Wednesday. There is a closed Joint Session of Congress. The Pentagon announced a surprise Joint Forces Readiness Exercise and has called up the National Guard and Reserves.” “Richard Holmes: London Bureau. The situation here is similar to that in Washington. The Joint Forces Readiness Exercise was announced by NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Forces in Brussels. Downing Street and Parliament have been quiet. All the European Union’s militaries, including France, are calling up their reserves. All the naval vessels that are ready have put to sea and the rest are making ready.” “Gregori Petrovich: Moscow Bureau. We are seeing the same military activity that you describe. Our sources tell us that NATO and Chinese officers have been seen inside the Kremlin and that Strategic Rocket Forces are on high alert.” “Walter Neville: Beijing Bureau. We have been asked by the Peoples Republic to suspend operations until Wednesday. Before we were shut down, we too received reports of a massive military mobilization and the Peoples Republic Civil Defense has been activated. I get the impression that we are under martial law without actually declaring it.” “Takeo Kurita: Tokyo Bureau. There has been a call up of the Self Defense Forces. We have confirmed that Japanese, South Korean and Chinese naval vessels have joined an American carrier battle group and are operating under a unified command in the East China Sea.” McAlister spoke: “I have spoken to our correspondents in Cairo and Tel Aviv. The Middle East has been quiet for months. North Korea has been quiet as their new Great Leader consolidates his power. I just don’t understand it. A mobilization of this size and traditional adversaries appear to be working together? What are we missing?” Someone from the New York Bureau said, “If it’s not a big, ugly war brewing the implications are frightening. Has there been an outbreak of some sort of disease? We’ve been hearing about bird flu and drug resistant pathogens for years.” The London Bureau answered, “We have rock solid sources at the World Health Organization. There are no reports of any unusual or particularly dangerous outbreaks.” “Paul Kincaid: Los Angeles Bureau. We have reports of numerous scientists on University campuses being approached by men in suits and driving away in SUVs. I thought it was just crazy conspiracy talk but the reports are adding up. Faulk and Conners from UCLA, Jenkins from USC and a handful of guys from Stanford: all well-known and famous in their own fields.” Petrovich of the Moscow Bureau said, “We have seen this too. Many Academicians have been suddenly called to a conference at Novosibirsk.” McAlister asked, “What scientific disciplines do the scientists represent?” Kincaid replied, “Faulk is a physicist, Conners is a biologist and Jenkins is an astrophysicist. The guys from Stanford are all either in the biosciences or the physical sciences.” Petrovich said, “It is the same is Russia.” McAlister sighed and said, “Does anybody have anything that might shed any more light on this?” Kelly said, “Sir, late last week I saw something odd that I wanted to follow up today but none of my contacts are available. I get a copy of the email listserve that the big observatories in the Southern hemisphere use to coordinate their activities. Friday night there was a lot of traffic between the Australian National Observatory, the Keck in Hawaii and the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Dr. Willoby of the ANO found something and wanted the other observatories to confirm his findings as it was near dawn in Australia. Keck and the ESO apparently did follow up, as did the JPL and the Gemini. That’s when everything stopped. The mailing list went dead and there hasn’t been a peep out of any of them since.” Shocked silence followed. Someone said, “Oh my God. They found something out there.” Kelly said, “It doesn’t make sense. ANO was doing a survey of Wolf-Rayet stars in the Southern Hemisphere. The VLTA in Chile was looking at the most distant galaxies visible and the Keck was looking at star forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Those are all deep space objects. I can’t imagine what they might have seen that would have caused such a panic.” McAlister said, “It’s a lead and right now it’s the only lead that we have. Kelly, do you remember that retired chap who discovered the comet last summer?” “Yes- that’s Mr. Chambers. He built an observatory for himself out near Coolgardie in Western Australia when he retired in 2005. Since then he’s discovered a comet and a handful of asteroids.” McAlister said, “I need you and a remote team on a plane for Coolgardie in a half hour. Take the information you got from the email conversation and see what Mr. Chambers can find. We need to see what they’ve found out there.” “Everybody else: I don’t care what you have to do. Beg, borrow, bribe, abduct your sources if you have to: just get us something that we can use!”

Proud of you Joe!

Damnit! I can't wait to smak down zombies! Something you might want to think about. You can get a case of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for $70-100 bucks. Two cases will last a month. They aren't wonderful but you won't starve and will keep your energy up during a time when you really need it. After Katrina, we were out of usable food in about a week/10 days because we had no power to keep the refrigerator/freezer running.

I have been through several hurricanes and know better than to just wing it. I was without power for almost two weeks after Katrina. If you've been through that you aren't going to just sit on your hands next time. There are some fairly easy things to do that will make a big difference if you do get hit. Bug-out Bag- when you've got to grab you stuff and go at a moments notice, you don't have time to pack. You need something ready to go when you are. You can go with a backpack or something like a gym bag. http://disaster-prep.org/best-bug-out-bag/ Water/Ice- Save 2 liter pop bottles. Fill them with water and put some of them in your deep freeze. You will need water and the ice will last for days. In the event of a lengthy power outage, it will help keep food from thawing too rapidly in your freezer. First Aid- You can spend yourself broke on a good first aid kit. In the event of a serious disaster, you may have to deal with serious injuries and be on your own for some time. This is what I have: M-17 military first aid kit. Street value $100-200 The stocked M-17 has enough supplies to take care of small family for a week or two. You can spend less (or more) but it's a good, comprehensive kit. Another item that you might want to add to your basic first aid kit is a quick clot sponge. It can stop serious bleeding.

Description can give writing a great deal of flavor. While it can be over-done, a skillful writer can use it like an artist uses a dry brush creating stunning images with a minimum of "paint".

University of South Dakota Vermillion, SD “Throughout the fossil record we can see that evolution proceeds in stops and starts. It does not and has not proceeded in a straight line.” Dr. Jerry Cassidy drew a time line on his white board and put five tics on the graph. He knew that half his students were asleep and the rest only cared because they needed a mid-level science elective to graduate. “The great extinction events have had a major effect on the biological world. Every so often something happens- asteroid impacts, super-volcanoes- there are numerous causative theories, that force a large number of species to go extinct in a relatively short time. In Earth’s history it has happened five times. Just for laughs, let’s look at the Permian extinction.” “The Permian Extinction occurred around 250 million years ago. It was so severe that it is often called the Great Dying. Seventy percent of terrestrial species and up to ninety-six percent of marine species went extinct almost overnight. 57% of all families and 83% of all genera became extinct. It’s the only known event that caused mass extinctions among insects. Blastoids, trilobites and eurypterpids, all highly evolved families of organisms, vanished in relatively short order after being plentiful for eons.” “Mass extinction events have been most harsh on highly specialized organisms because when their environments changed, they couldn’t adapt to new conditions. After mass extinction events only the most robust and adaptable organisms remained. Extinctions have acted like the evolutionary reset switch and afterwards everything changes.” Cassidy looked at his watch and saw that it was just a few minutes to eleven and said, “All right class. Read chapter 12 and be ready to discuss the five major extinction events and their influence in evolutionary terms. Have a nice weekend.” Amanda Nelson stopped by his desk and said, “Am I the only one that noticed that you wrote this chapter?” Cassidy smiled and said, “In this class, Miss Nelson.” The classroom emptied quickly as Cassidy packed his briefcase for his walk back to his office. He didn’t notice the men in suits waiting for him just outside the lecture hall.

The Cloud (Part I) Paranal Observatory, European Southern Observatory Cerro Paranal, Chile October 22, 2016 The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Array was focused deep in the blackness of intergalactic space examining galaxies that dated to within a few billion years of the Big Bang when Director Addler's phone began to ring. The first call came from Dr. Willoby at the Australian National Astronomical Observatory. Old Jack had found something strange and he wanted confirmation but Addler begged off. The VLTA time had been booked for months. If he bumped anyone his observation schedule would be a nightmare. The second call came twenty minutes later from Dr. Kim at the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in the Hawaiian Islands. Time on the Keck was every bit as precious as time on the VLTA but Kim had scrubbed observations. Something weird is moving through the Southern Cross and the US Air Force and NASA were burning up his phone lines. Two more calls came in in short order urging Addler to look at a target of opportunity: the Gemini Science Center and JPL from Pasadena. The eyes of the scientific world were focusing on a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere and Addler would be damned if the VLTA would miss the party. He was just dialing in to the coordinates supplied by Jack Willoby at the Australian National Observatory when a Puma helicopter landed a contingent of Royal Marines and a Royal Navy Captain. The heavily armed Marines surrounded the site and the Captain entered the control room as the object began to resolve on screens. It looked like an opaque green smudge on the monitor; a simple gas cloud like the thousands of nebulae that the observatory had photographed and studied. The Captain handed Addler a legal sized envelope with a NATO seal and said, “Find out all you can about this thing Doctor Addler. It is making people in high places a spot barmy.” As they were watching the screens the object moved out of the field of view. Addler thought damn, that thing is really moving. He spoke to the scopes operator, his long-time associate Tommy Crenshaw and said, “Adjust the slewing so we can track the bugger.” Crenshaw said, “Sir, we’ve got a line-spectra of the object.” Addler walked over to the console, “Let’s see it Tommy.” The line spectra resolved on one of the big monitors but looked like nothing that he had ever seen before. “What are we looking at Tom” The operator said, “Wait a minute. It’s blue-shifted by quite a wide margin. Let me apply a software filter and…” The line spectra resolved again but this time it looked more familiar. Crenshaw said, “The object isn’t radiating visible light. What we are seeing is reflected sunlight. The peaks on the spectra we’re seeing are hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon and oxygen. The other stuff has to be molecular. It’ll take a while to sort it out.” Suddenly Andy Peterson, a quiet but steady young physicist exclaimed, “Director!” Addler said, “What have you got Andy?” “Two items Dr. Addler. I have the objects proper motion mapped. In about twenty minutes we’re going to have an occulation of the object in front of Alpha Crucis. When that happens we’ll get a much better probe of what that cloud is made of.” “Good job Andy”, Addler exclaimed. “Okay everybody. Get ready. I want a full spectrum analysis of the occulation event. IR, UV, optical- the works.” “What’s the second item Andy?” Peterson said, “I’ve run the calculation six times and there is no doubt. With the blue-shift in the spectra and the objects apparent motion- it’s speed is about .75 C.” There was a moment of stunned silence in the control room until the Captain asked the obvious question: “What moves at three quarters of the speed of light?” Addler replied, “Nothing that we know of.” As the team started to set up the equipment to observe the stellar occulation, the Captian asked, “Excuse me Dr. Addler. What will this tell us?” Addler replied, “The object is going to move between us and a bright binary star called Alpha Crucis. It’s the brightest star in the Southern Cross and its spectra is well understood. A. Crucis is actually a pair of B class super-giants. They are hotter than most and have broad emission lines in their spectra. When that star light passes through the object, the material will produce absorption lines on top of A. Crusis’s spectra and we’ll have a much better idea of what it is made of.” The control room got extremely busy as the team prepared for the occulation event. Addler picked up the phone and dialed up their sister facility ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array, an array of high resolution radio telescope and asked them to drop what they were doing and home in on the mystery object. ALMA called back as soon as they were dialed in. The object was emitting decametric radio noise indicating lightning. From 4 to 3.95 MHZ, the characteristic spikes and pops of lightning resulting from some kind of high-energy synchrotron process were loud and distinct. Addler set the phone back on the receiver. He sat down in his chair and noticed that his hands were shaking. Crenshaw announced that the occulation was beginning. For fifteen minutes the starlight of Alpha Crucis passed through the cloud and was collected by the VLTA’s various sensors. He watched as the computer decomposed the spectra into its components: OH, H2O, CN, CH4, complex hydrocarbons. Adler sat staring at the display in front of him. The Captain asked, “What does it mean Doctor?” Addler said, “It’s… organic.”

I'm not afraid of the usual stuff. It's betrayal that scares the shit out of me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COFOmtUuzcU

My father was there and never talked about it. I had to research the Korean War to understand what he had been through.

The male form is different than the female but no less attractive. Michelangelo's David wouldn't be a masterpiece if it was not beautiful.

A homeless man walked into the convenience store shortly after two in the morning. A young man was playing a pin-ball machine and the clerk immediately took notice of the man’s unkempt appearance. He walked to the cooler and took a carton of milk and a ham sandwich and headed to the front of the store. The clerk didn’t acknowledge his presence. He simply rang up the milk and sandwich and bagged it. The man paid his dollar and fifty cents. The kid finished his video game, apparently badly, and

The road to Valhalla goes through hell.

I think that there is a fine line between believable and cliche. Humans are complex and they have many levels. The problem that I've seen is that these complexities become too easy for some writers. How many times have we seen: The cynical/angry cop with problems at home. The military officer that is haunted by a failed mission. The evil industrialist that is evil for no particular reason. The just married lovable rookie cop that's about to die. The guy in the red shirt that's doomed. Characters like these are immediately recognizable from Law & Order, Last Resort, every movie made in the eighties and Star Trek. How much trouble is it really to show another side and move past the cliche. For instance: In the Last Boy Scout Bruce Willis plays a hard-bitten smart-ass private detective. He does indeed have problems at home but when asked why he doesn't get a divorce, he says because grass is green, the sky is blue and I still love my wife. Consider how much more you tell the reader about a character when you show that side of him. Why is the military officer haunted? Did he screw up? Is he afraid that he'll screw up again? Is he blaming himself for the inevitable consequences of a no win situation? Why is the industrialist evil? Is he in competition with the memory of a domineering father that told him he was a little faggot that would never amount to anything? Is he doing everything he can to "beat" his father? Is he desperately trying to keep a dying industry alive on life support? The rookie cop in Judge Dredd that rushed the door and got killed... was he just plain dumb or suicidal? The red shirt that gets killed protecting a core character... does he even have a personality? Yes... you want your characters to ring true but remember: not everything you write requires a detailed character study. Sometimes the reader doesn't need to know. With protagonists and secondary characters, it's good idea to give them depth and consistency... or inconsistency as long as it makes sense in character.

Easy Sausage Manicotti Ingredients: 1 pound bulk pork sausage 2 cups (16 ounces) 4% cottage cheese 1 package (8 ounces) manicotti shells 1 jar (24 ounces) marinara sauce 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella chees Directions: In a large bowl, combine sausage and cottage cheese. Stuff into manicotti shells. Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Top with marinara sauce. Cover and bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of a shell reads 160°. Uncover; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake 8-10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Yield: 7 servings. Real Manicotti from scratch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf0RWgRE5IA

for honorable kung-fu Panda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PgRznuRseA