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JamesSavik

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Blog Entries posted by JamesSavik

  2. JamesSavik
    They do exist but almost everything you know about them is wrong.
     
    Every myth has its beginning in some truth.
     
    About 35,000 years ago and alien expedition was marooned here on earth. They were faced with an impossible dilemma: die out or mix with the locals.
     
    They changed humanity and themselves. Neanderthals died out almost over night and modern man suddenly appeared. It was as if the Neanderthal had a complete upgrade that made them much more intelligent and with language skills.
     
    Vampires are those with a rare triple recessive gene that makes them most like the Ancients. The do not drink blood. That's a myth. They do require infusions of life energy which they take in small amounts from ordinary humans. Their most distinguishing characteristics is that they are sun-light sensitive, pale in appearance and have very long lifespans.
     
    There are two types: half-bloods and true bloods. True bloods have the triple recessive genes while the half-bloods only have the pair. Half bloods are completely indistinguishable from ordinary humans. They are weaker than full-bloods and don't have the long life-spans. Half-bloods also lack the photo-sensitivity of the true-bloods.
     
    The Ancients don't like the limelight. They stay in the shadows but guide and push humanity forward. They have been kings and scientists and statesmen.
     
    They have also been butchers and dictators and manipulators.
     
    They are just like us: good and evil, wise and foolish, benevolent and malicious.
     
    The fate of our two races are hopelessly and completely ensnared.
  3. JamesSavik

    I Hate the Dentist

    By JamesSavik,

    Did I mention that I Hate the Dentist?
     
    With all of the fear and loathing and the insane panic that small animals in critter carriers get when they smell that antiseptic smell of the veterinarians office.
     
    I want to flee. Run away, very fast with heart racing, sweating, rapid breathing.
     
    I'm not an easily frightened person. I just have a phobia of men with sharp objects poking around in my mouth.
     
    The gas is fun but it is but a cruel, cruel lie. The gas makes you just a little high. OK- it makes you a LOT high. Everything is fun and psychedelic cool and then it goes away and you feel the pain and taste the blood and chips of drilled teeth and smell the smoke.
     
    The smoke the drill makes is what really freaks me out.
     
    I have what dentists call English teeth. I was doomed by genetics. It's not socialized dentistry or failing to brush my teeth. They are too close together and when I should have gotten braces, I couldn't. I was too poor and getting punched too much.
     
    They aren't just bad teeth. They are atrocious, rebellious traitors. You can brush them, floss and gargle with virgins blood and they are still suicidally rebellious.
     
    They know that if they keep it up I'll have the dentist drill their brains out and fill them with bondo.
     
    Rotten bastards.
     
    Brush your teeth.
     
    I'll be at the dentist tomorrow.
     
    I will be the one in the tree with his tail puffed.
  4. JamesSavik

    Food for thought

    By JamesSavik,

    We are oft to blame in this,
    'Tis too much proved -
    that with devotion's visage
    And pious action we do sugar o'er
    The devil himself.
    -Hamlet Act 3 Scene 1
     
    What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio, seen on every television... I want *everyone* to *remember*, why they *need* us!
    -Chairman Sutler, V for Vendetta
     
    Nuclear power is meaningless in a world where a virus can kill an entire population and leave its wealth intact.
    -Delia Surridge V for Vendetta
     

     

  5. JamesSavik

    Ebola Outbreak

    By JamesSavik,

    What's keeping me up till 3am?  
     

    I know too much.  
     

    I did a job back in the old days and I learned a lot more about biological warfare than any sane person wants to know.  
     

    Every serious biowarfare program in the world has looked at the viruses that cause hemorrhagic fevers. There are some very scary ones but Ebola is the one that has gotten the most press coverage and even exposure in popular culture.  
     

    Ebola starred in the big Dustin Hoffman thriller OutBreak and was key to the plot of Tom Clancey's Executive Orders . I can tell you that it a no shit full blown nightmare .  
     

    Nothing on earth kills like Ebola. It hits you like a hurricane. You get so sick, so fast that there is a very limited window of time for you to walk around spreading it. Once you get sick with it, you are down and too sick to do anything. CDC
     
     

    Now the WHO (World Health Org) thinks that the outbreak in Africa may kill upwards of a 1.5 million people. Holy shit.  
     

    I have had my doubts about the way this outbreak has turned out. It's not easy to pass Ebola person to person. It takes bodily fluids. In past outbreaks people got so sick, so fast that the outbreaks burned out relatively quickly. I have to wonder- is someone experimenting with using it as a bioweapon? The current outbreak is so atypical of past outbreaks, one has to wonder.  
     

    Bio warfare has been going on for a very long time. In the dark ages plague victims would be thrown into cities by catapult to break sieges. Smallpox infected blankets were given to indians by British soldiers in the French and Indian Wars. China still has outbreaks from bioweapons the Japanese used against them in WWII.  
     

    It wouldn't take a Manhattan Project type effort to develop a bioweapon and Ebola is so nasty to start with, it doesn't need much in the way of weaponization. If someone is playing games, field testing this bug and getting their act together for a major attack somewhere in the world, it's time to build a bunker.
  6. JamesSavik
    One of the enduring mysteries of evolution is how species make the change into a completely new creature.
     
    Such a process is often called mutation or a change in the genetic characteristics of an organism which makes it essentially different from the base species.
     
    Exactly how this works has long been a point of speculation and debate. One of my professors said, "there's a flash, some magic happens and you have the new improved trilobite". In matters scientific, we tend to frown on magical processes.
     
    What process occurs to make an evolutionary mutation happen?
     
    We know of lots of things that cause chromosomes to change or mutate: radiation and chemicals for instance.
     
    We know that stars change throughout their lifetime. One theory is that evolutionary spurts like the so called Cambrian Explosion may have been caused by a period of instability in our sun. It's difficult to prove and there's very little in the way of ancillary proof.
     
    There is something else that acts on chromosomes: viruses use them in their replication process and viruses are one of the most basic and ancient life forms.
     
    Is it possible that evolutionary mutations may be associated with errors in viral transcription?
     
    Consider the process: a virus attaches itself to a cell. Usually a very specific cell with know receptor sites on the cell wall. Many types of differentiated cells in complex organism have similar cell walls. Virus X attaches itself to a cell that's similar but not quite right. It goes about its business of viral transcription but these chromosomes are different. The viral transcription attempt leaves the cells chromosomes a hash of their original state.
     
    This might be the genesis of cancer and then again- it might simply be Genesis.
     
    Many types of damage to the chromosomes leads to cell death. The editing function of DNA may clean up errors in others. Others may be just different enough and yet not impede the function of the cell.
     
    This process occurs under various conditions quadrillions of times over eons of time until it happens to the right cell in the reproductive organs and then we have a blueprint for something new. A new organism.
     
    Is this the missing link of evolution?
     
    Are viruses responsible for mutations that cause evolutionary leaps- and dead ends?
     
    Someone a lot smarter than me will have to figure this one out but it makes sense in all sorts of ways. Viruses have been around since the beginning. They have been hijacking and replicating themselves using the genetic material of all sorts of cells.
     
    It may turn out that viruses are the catalyst that drive evolutionary processes filling in a very large blank space in the theory.
     
    ----------------------------------------------
     
    I wasn't the only person thinking this:
    The role played by viruses in the evolution of their hosts: a view based on informational protein phylogenies.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12798227
    Evolution of DNA polymerase families: evidences for multiple gene exchange between cellular and viral proteins.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12029358
     
     
    This is still highly theoretical but there is some convincing evidence in the papers. -JS 9/25 19:43CST
  7. JamesSavik
    We had a Let's Predict the Near Future thread. It was killed because unless your were joking, you couldn't help address political issues.
     
    Politics comes from a Greek root word that means "of, for, or relating to citizens".
     
    It's everywhere and it's difficult to have a substantial conversation without touching on it to some extent.
     
    I find it very, very disquieting that politics has such a dirty, divisive word that we have to censor any tangential mention of it. That is something we need to think about very carefully.
     
    Here in my own blog is my post (with clean up edits) from Let's Predict the Near Future.
     
    I expect mixed results: there will be bad and good, thrilling and terrifying.
     
    ________________________________________________________________
     
    -Geothermal energy will be found to be better than wind or solar power for consistent power.
     
    -There will be a Civil War in Russia. The "Independent States" interests are not the same as those of Moscow and the Islamic Republics in the South will become more and more radicalized.
     
    -There will be a "mass causality" bioterrorist incident in the United States or Western Europe. Building a nuke is expensive and difficult to hide while germs are cheaper and easier to develop in secret and deploy.
     
    -France will be destabilized by their burgeoning Islamic population and I expect a long running insurgency to start there.
     
    -England and the United States governments are going to shift towards the right over immigration.
     
    -It will be revealed the the Fukashima nuclear accident is actually much worse than everyone thinks.
     
    -China will begin selling Thorium based reactors that can retrofit existing nuclear plants.
     
    -CERN will announce a modification of the Standard Model theory of Particle Physics based on recent experiments and the confirmation of the Higgs Boson. Expect it to be a melding of the current Standard model with some aspects of String Theory.
     
    -A supernova will occur close enough in our galaxy close enough that astronomers can observe it with modern sensors.
     
    -NASA will discover fossils in a manned mission to an asteroid.
     
    -A primitive life form will be discovered in the oceans beneath the ice of Europa.
     
    -China will have a short, sharp clash with Japan and the Philippines
     
     
    _______________________________________________________
     
    In other matters:
     
     
    <Run Fido! Some Idiot is shooting!
     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw3tJ5aTweg
     
    What the hell is happening to us?
  8. JamesSavik
    Sometimes words are wasted when music is the correct language for a mood.
     
    Sit back, turn it up and burn one if you feel like it.
     
     
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi3OnJT4Qjw
     
    Out on the road today, I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac
    A little voice inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back"
    I thought I knew what love was
    What did I know?
    Those days are gone forever
    I should just let them go but-
     
    I can see you-
    Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
    You got that top pulled down and that radio on, baby
    And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
    After the boys of summer have gone
     
     

     
    Morning found us calmly unaware
    Noon burn gold into our hair
    At night, we swim the laughin' sea
    When summer's gone
    Where will we be
  9. JamesSavik
    One of our newer members was discussing coming out.
     
    I put together a post that I think addresses the topic rationally and succinctly.
     
    This is my response:
     
    ______________________________
     
     
    Coming out is a very much an individual thing. It can be very tricky but it is something that you get to decide for yourself.
     
    You owe it to YOURSELF to do it right.
     
    You DO NOT owe it to the mythological "gay community" to come out at all costs and injure yourself and your future in the process.
     
    You could either be in Canada or California. Both places have very liberal attitudes right beside very conservative ones.
     
    I remember a guy whose Mom was very liberal and gay friendly until he came out. She said that's fine for other people but no son of mine is going to be a f-ing faggot.
     
    While there are tons of happy happy, joy joy coming out stories, there are a lot of shitty ones too.
     
    It's a process and you need to think it through because you can only do it once and there can be permanent consequences.
     
    There are some points to seriously consider:
    At this point in my life is it right for me?
    How will my family react
    How will my friends react
    How will the effect my work/school

     
    At this point in my life is it right for me?
     
    You have to think about where you are. A 16 year old living at home will have concerns that a 25 year old colloege grad living on his own does not.
     
     
    How will my family react
     
    The problem here is that you might not guess right.
     
     
    How will my friends react
     
    If you are in high school, trusting the wrong people can set you up for a lot of misery.
     
     
    How will the effect my work/school
     
    A serious consideration. Will you become the school fag and the butt of all sorts of bullying and humiliation or are you in a school that wouldn't tolerate that sort of rubbish?
     
     
    There's a lot to think about.
     
    DON'T PANIC.
     
    There's no time limit. You get to do this at your own pace or even not at all if you are uncomfortable with it.
     
    The best plan is for you to be completely comfortable with it beforehand because I guarantee- the more confident you are, the better it will go.
     
     
    ________________
     
    PS- Never, ever, ever say I think I'm gay. This implies that you aren't sure and those that aren't with it will want you to go to quack doctors to be fixed.
     
    The right thing to say, with confidence, is that I am gay. That doesn't leave wiggle room for quacks.
     
    You aren't broken. You don't need to be fixed.
     
    Best of luck,
     
    James
  10. JamesSavik
    Are you tired of everybody's shit?
    Can you just not be bothered with your friends infantile drama?
    Are you sick of turning on the TV and seeing idiotic bickering politicians pandering to the worst sort of thugs and the country going up in flames?
     
    Then you might be ready for Fuckitall!
     
    Fuckitall is an industrial strength happy drug. Your life may suck but you won't care anymore. With Fuckitall your life will be strawberry fields forever... at least as long as you can afford the prescription.
     
    Ask your doctor if Fuckitall is right for you.
     

     
     
    JUST STOP ALREADY!
     
    Who told you you would be happy all the time?
    Who told you life was fair?
    Sometimes life sux. Wear a helmet.
     
    You eat the cookie, smoke the butt, have an orgasm but wake up the next morning and go to work!
     
    You don't need a pill. You need a hobby!
     
    Get a cat, join a gym, go bicycling, go hiking, look at the stars, find a cool rock, grow a garden, read a book, watch a game, take a class, take your camera to the woods, walk your dog, build a deck, change your oil, feed the cat, climb a big hill, barbecue, go swimming, eat out or take a nap.
     
    Life is what you make of it.
     
    NOW GO MAKE SOME!
  11. JamesSavik

    Back to skool

    By JamesSavik,

    Monday I go back to skool after all these years.
     
    I got my computer science degree in 1986. There have been a few developments since then that I need to brush up on.
     
    I'll be learning about the finer points of next generation fiber optics, ip/pbx systems and other new hardware.
     
    I have plans and the certifications on the new gadgets will help.
     
    Imagine that- an old geezer like me in school again.
     
    I wonder if the freshmen are as dumb as they used to be...
  13. JamesSavik

    Crater Lake

    By JamesSavik,

    As a geology geek, I've always wanted to see it.
     

     
    There something really unique about the color blue of Crater Lake.
     

     
    View from the South rim.
     

     
    Phantom Ship Rock.
     

     
    Waterfall fed by Crater Lake
     

  14. JamesSavik

    Redwood Highway

    By JamesSavik,

    One of the places you must see before you die is a highway in Oregon and Northern California called the Redwood Highway.
     
    US 199 runs from Grant's Pass Oregon to Crescent City, CA and points south. It's a frikkin magic ride that takes you past crystal clear rivers running to the sea through canyons that they have cut over the eons. Those valleys are filled with redwoods and sequoias.
     
    That's just for starters. Those woods are full of wildlife. I pulled off the road to an Elk Viewing Area. While the Elk didn't show up, I discovered a dirt road through the forest with a sign that said "Gold Bluff Beach".
     
    As I was there for an adventure, I struck out through the forest on the one lane dirt road. It climbed hills and went through switchbacks that made me very nervous but after a six mile ride in the twilight under the redwood canopy, I emerged on a quiet beach with nothing but the calls of sea gulls and the roar of the surf.
     
    The beach about a quarter mile back off the bluff.
     
    It was like I was the first human there in a place so beautiful that I was moved to tears.
     
    There are no words. It is something that must be experienced.
     
    The beach sand is black and volcanic and it is covered with a variety of grasses, sun bleached driftwood and small bonsai-like trees sculpted by wind.
     
    An eagle soared above the bluff and the towering trees.
     
    And completely by accident, I discovered one of the most special places I've ever seen.
     
    The knowledge of it is a gift that I give to you.
     

     
    The Road to Gold Bluff Beach
     

     
    Gold Bluff Beach
     

     
    Eternal Surf
  15. JamesSavik
    This tree could be upwards of 2500 years old.
     
    When it was a seedling, the Spartans and the Persians met at Marathon.
     
    When Christ walked the earth, it was alive.
     
    When it was an adult swaying in the cool winds of the Pacific Northwest, Europe was dying of the Black Death.
     
    It was already a giant when Columbus blundered into Sab Salvador.
     
    The two hundred-forty something years of the existence of the United States are as nothing to the giant.
     
    It is timeless and a world apart; mocking us and our self importance.
  16. JamesSavik
    My friendly mosquitoes gave me something fun. It's called Chikungunya and it really sucks balls ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikungunya ).
     
    In addition to an astonishing fever, you get arthritis affecting multiple joints and insomnia. There's other fun that I missed out on.
     
    The fever part lasts a couple of weeks but the joint inflammation is only just beginning to subside. It's been a couple of months and I am feeling a lot better. Just never thought I would catch something that comes from a frikking jungle.
     
    I tempted the fates writing about Alphaviruses in Case: Black and caught one. NO- not one that makes me hungry for brainz. One that makes me want to stay in a whirlpool and not get out.
     
    I took the brunt of the arthritis in the hands, shoulders and knees. The joints were swollen and did not want to move much. Even sleeping is a chore because it takes a while to get comfortable and go to sleep. When you wake up after being asleep for a while, moving again is... not much fun. I've been hobbling to the tub and soaking in warm water to get going.
     
    Needless to say, Chikungunya is a pain in the arse and will help you waste a couple of months. I don't recommend it.
     
    Feeling better now, I'm going on the first real vacation I've been on in years.
     
    I'm going to the Pacific North West. I love it up there. It's NOT the frikkin South and I am sort of scouting for a new place to live. I'll be in Washington, Oregon and Northern California a couple of days each and will do the slow desert tour on the way home.
     
    I'll take lots of pictures and see if I can find a place that speaks to me and says- you belong here.
     
    While the South does has it's charms, I'm sick of them.
  17. JamesSavik

    Adventureland

    By JamesSavik,

    What is it?
     
    A rather longish short story... just for fun.
     
    You haven't abandoned your other stuff?
     
    No. I got stuck on both of them and am writing something fun to get back in the habit.
     
    Where is Case: Black?
     
    It's happening but I bit off a lot more with that project than I though. I'm having to do some research and some other stuff to keep it real.
     
    How about Operation Hammerhead?
     
    The next installment of that will be several chapters at once. It's coming to a climax and I don't want to leave my readers hanging too long.
     
    Back to Adventureland- It seems to be a real departure from what you've done before. Are you concerned about jumping genres?
     
    Not really. I like the freedom to write in any genre that interests or inspires me. To me writing is writing and the same things that go into Sci-fi works in thrillers or mysteries. I think the publishing industry gives people the idea that you can only write in one genre. What they don't tell you is that there are authors who write in several genres at once under different pen-names.
     
    What are you doing with Adventureland?
     
    We've all seen the work of urban explorers. Some of the creepiest places on the planet are abandoned amusement parks. What better place for suspense, jeopardy for characters and the itch of curiosity that you just must scratch. That's what drives the urban explorers. That curiosity and a desire to connect to the past.
     
    Why have you written Tony so dumb?
     
    Antonio Sanchez isn't dumb. He's a kid. He is a little younger than his friend Ross and doesn't have his head stuck in the books like Ross does. You'll find out more about them in coming chapters and find that, as friends often do, they have strengths and weaknesses that compliment each other.
     
    You're really going to finish this one?
     
    Yes. It's not my signature space-opera or a potential global pandemic. I think I can get this one done for early summer.
     
     
     
    See. I said they were creepy.
     

     

     

  18. JamesSavik

    Woo Hoo!

    By JamesSavik,

    One of my favorite authors used my name for a character in his latest book!
     
    Jack Cambell, author of the Lost Fleet and Beyond the Frontier series, used my name as a minor character in his latest book Steadfast.
     
    Jamie Savik is the captain of the battle cruiser Formidable.
     
    To me this is more fun than a birthday because I don't get any older.
     

  19. JamesSavik
    If you've never seen the movie V for Vendetta, you should. You really should. There are lessons enough for everyone in it but very specific lessons for us.
     
    In the course of the movie, the protagonist finds herself in a concentration camp awaiting execution and she finds a letter from one of the former residents.
     

     
    Valerie's Letter
     
    I don't know who you are. Please believe. There is no way I can convince you that this is not one of their tricks. But I don't care. I am me, and I don't know who you are, but I love you.
     
    I have a pencil. A little one they did not find. I am a women. I hid it inside me. Perhaps I won't be able to write again, so this is a long letter about my life. It is the only autobiography I have ever written and oh God I'm writing it on toilet paper.
     
    I was born in Nottingham in 1957, and it rained a lot. I passed my eleven plus and went to girl's Grammar. I wanted to be an actress.
     
    I met my first girlfriend at school. Her name was Sara. She was fourteen and I was fifteen but we were both in Miss. Watson's class. Her wrists. Her wrists were beautiful. I sat in biology class, staring at the picket rabbit foetus in its jar, listening while Mr. Hird said it was an adolescent phase that people outgrew. Sara did. I didn't.
     
    In 1976 I stopped pretending and took a girl called Christine home to meet my parents. A week later I enrolled at drama college. My mother said I broke her heart.
     
    But it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it's all we have left in this place. It is the very last inch of us. But within that inch we are free.
     
    London. I was happy in London. In 1981 I played Dandini in Cinderella. My first rep work. The world was strange and rustling and busy, with invisible crowds behind the hot lights and all that breathless glamour. It was exciting and it was lonely. At nights I'd go to the Crew-Ins or one of the other clubs. But I was stand-offish and didn't mix easily. I saw a lot of the scene, but I never felt comfortable there. So many of them just wanted to be gay. It was their life, their ambition. And I wanted more than that.
     
    Work improved. I got small film roles, then bigger ones. In 1986 I starred in "The Salt Flats." It pulled in the awards but not the crowds. I met Ruth while working on that. We loved each other. We lived together and on Valentine's Day she sent me roses and oh God, we had so much. Those were the best three years of my life.
     
    In 1988 there was the war, and after that there were no more roses. Not for anybody.
     
    In 1992 they started rounding up the gays. They took Ruth while she was out looking for food. Why are they so frightened of us? They burned her with cigarette ends and made her give them my name. She signed a statement saying I'd seduced her. I didn't blame her. God, I loved her. I didn't blame her.
     
    But she did. She killed herself in her cell. She couldn't live with betraying me, with giving up that last inch. Oh Ruth. . . .
    They came for me. They told me that all of my films would be burned. They shaved off my hair and held my head down a toilet bowl and told jokes about lesbians. They brought me here and gave me drugs. I can't feel my tongue anymore. I can't speak.
     
    The other gay women here, Rita, died two weeks ago. I imagine I'll die quite soon. It's strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years I had roses and I apologized to nobody.
     
    I shall die here. Every last inch of me shall perish. Except one.
     
    An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.
     
    I don't know who you are. Or whether you're a man or a woman. I may never see you or cry with you or get drunk with you. But I love you. I hope that you escape this place. I hope that the world turns and that things get better, and that one day people have roses again. I wish I could kiss you.
     
    Valerie
     


     
    _________________________________________________________________
     

     
    We forget what it cost so many.
     
    It's easy today.
     
    There are no camps.
     
    No religious fanatic doctors will snatch you off the street and give you a lobotomy.
     
    There are no fake laws on the books that allow them to take you away.
     
    But the people that lived with those nightmares still live. Those memories are locked in our nightmares and we will never, can never forget.
     
    We have lived under the worst sort of oppression. In some part of the world we still do.
     
    AND WE MUST NEVER FORGET.
  20. JamesSavik
    In Mississippi our wise politicians have passed a much needed Religious Freedom Law.
     
    Now you don't have to do anything that offends your religion.
     
    Since slavery is biblical, I'm wondering when that is going to start back up.
     
    Anyhow- here's a link to local paper :>> http://www.clarionledger.com/viewart/20140403/NEWS010504/304030023/Gov-Bryant-signs-religious-practices-bill
     
    Here is my counter attack published in the same paper today.
     

     
     
    Well... the war continues. Send lawyers, guns and money.
     
    Peace,
     
     
    James
  22. JamesSavik
    Setting: frontier planet Evergreen. It's a Gaia world with rich volcanic soil, long growing seasons, lush jungles with many strange and dangerous animals up to and including dinosaurs.
     
    The law enforcement on Evergreen are called Colonial Rangers. Many have territories many hundreds of kilometers across.
     
    Scores of colonists start to go missing near the vast swamps at the mouth of the long, slow Toulon River that crosses much of the continent. This is of special concern because the city of Sialis, 3rd largest city on the planet is built at the mouth of the river and is the planets most important port.
     
    The local police begin investigating and twelve of them go missing in a few days.
     
    The Colonial Governor wants answers and orders the Rangers to make a special investigation.
     
    A team of twenty Rangers arrives to find that much of the cities outskirts have been abandoned. A siege mentality has set in among the people who lock themselves into fortified buildings at night and don't come out until well after dawn.
     
    Almost immediately two Rangers go missing and more than one hundred more are called in from all over the planet.
     
    Rangers aren't stupid. They are well educated in forensics and the ecology of Evergreen. They think they are looking for a predator but it's something new. In the past they had known another kind of Evergreen predator to use limited psychic powers to fool their prey.
     
    There is another disappearance and the rangers arrive while the crime scene is fresh. They find evidence in the swamps that large snakes had been there very recently- and something else: human tracks.
     
    The Rangers were issued helmets that block psychic signals and began to aggressively patrol and send up drones. The abductions stop and several very disturbing sightings are made.
     
    Huge, never before seen snakes were discovered. Easily as large (or larger) than old earth anacondas, some of the snakes were fifteen meters long. The humans with them were being controlled and used as lures.
     
    After some time spent using reconnaissance drones and following the creatures, their nest was found. Rangers were called in from all over the planet to wipe out this menace.
     
    They attacked a grotto where thousands of the psionic snakes and their human slaves were. It was a huge mess and many Rangers were killed but the nest was wiped out except for juveniles captured for study.
     
    The humans who were not eaten, were being controlled by a combination of the snakes psionic powers and a venom that makes them susceptible to it. The longer they were on the venom, the more addicted to it they were. The ones who had been on the venom the longest died of systemic shock. The others faced a long, unpleasant withdrawal process.
     
    They also felt a great deal of guilt for have collaborated with the snakes.
     
    It would be a long recovery for the victims and another hazard that the colonist on Evergreen would have to look out for. Over three hundred colonist and thirty-two rangers lost their lives but, compared to other threats, they were lucky.
     
     

  23. JamesSavik

    Italian Cream Cake

    By JamesSavik,

    1 stick Butter
    ½ cup Crisco
    2 cups Sugar
    5 Egg Yolks
    2 cups Plain Flour
    1 tsp Baking Soda
    1 cup Buttermilk
    1 tsp Vanilla
    1 cup Coconut
    1 cup chopped Pecans
    5 Egg Whites, stiffly beaten
     
    Cream butter and Crisco. Add sugar, beat well. Add egg yolks and beat. Add flour and soda. Alternate with buttermilk. Stir in vanilla. Add coconut & nuts. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites 2 Tablespoons at a time. Pour into greased and floured 9 in cake pans and bake at 350 for 20 – 25 min or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting.
     
    Frosting:
    1 – 8oz Cream Cheese, softened
    ½ stick Butter, softened
    1 box 10x Sugar (1 pound of powdered sugar)
    1 tsp Vanilla
    Chopped Nuts, optional
     
    Mix cheese and butter, add sugar and vanilla. Frost Cake and sprinkle nuts on cake.
     
     
    ======================
     
    This is an easy recipe for a classic. Considering adding coconut to the frosting.
  24. JamesSavik

    Throwback of the week

    By JamesSavik,

    I've been working this week and while I was on the road, I heard a song I haven't heard in a very long time.
     
    Now it's stuck in my head.
     
    In an effort to get it out of my brain, I will attempt to inflict in on yew.
     


     
    You're welcome.
  25. JamesSavik
    Manicotti with Sausage & Spinach filling
     
    The filling
     
    1/2 pound of Italian sausage (bulk, for linked sausage, remove "case")
    3/4 cup Ricotta cheese
    1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese
    1/2 cup cooked spinich
    1 egg
     
    1) Brown sausage. Make sausage into very small bits.
    2) Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
    3) Put in a "zip-lock" baggie
     
    Filling is ready. Put aside until needed.
     
     
    Preparation
     
    1) Bring water to a rolling boil in large pot
    2) Add salt to water
    3) Boil manicotti shells for 6 minutes- no longer!
    4) Remove Manicotti shells, cool with cold water (shocks the pasta)
    5) Take bag of filling. Cut hole in bottom of bag and use to squeeze filling into pasta.
    6) Line cooking pan with aluminum foil.
    7) Place stuffed manicotti on pan
    8) Cover manicotti with ~18-24 oz of marinara sauce*
    8.5) optional: add sliced Portabella mushrooms
    9) Top with Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese
    10) Cover manicotti with a foil "tent"
    11) Cook at 350 degrees F or 177 degrees C for 30 minutes
     
    Serve with a sweet white wine and a spinach salad with a vinaigrette dressing.
     
    Serves 4 to 6.
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