History, Politics And Current Affairs

Game, Set & Match #10 ## Saturday ## Saturday, dawn, I woke to 'Earlies' Tony and his cheerful call of, "Good morning, campers ! Any-one home ?" He'd brought our day's starter bottles. We winked our LEDs at him. "Sleep well ?" Oh, yes ! Oh, yes, indeed ! But, armless, and Ton...

Game, Set & Match #09 ##Friday ## Friday morning, our Mark Two Blobs were ready. There were some obvious differences to the inner part. The toileting and entertainment functions were now built in, sized from our scans. After being fitted with pick-ups, Bryony and I put on bald-caps and 'nude' op...

Game, Set & Match #08 ## Thursday ## Thursday morning found Anna, Marianne and Ellen fitted with neat, digitgrade boot-stilts and snug, counter-shaded cat-suits. One side was leafy green, the other seemed textured bark. Being Dryads, they had 'bark' gloves and head-over masks, plus a little, gre...

Game, Set & Match #07 ## Wednesday ## The butt-flush system was again cycling when my VR system came on-line. Dawn was filtering through the blinds. An unfamiliar voice said, "Ms. Weston ? Charley ? Hi ! I'm Tony, 'Earlies' Team Leader in the main prosthetic workshop. I've come across to ch...

Game, Set & Match #06 ## Tuesday ## At an impromptu planning meeting, Fred, the FX team's leader, apologised that stuff hadn't gone right. A sour drum of silicone had ruined a big, big casting session. Upside, the hardware department had three sets of tall digitgrade 'boots' and matching arm-sti...

Game, Set & Match #05 ## Monday ## Monday began for Bryony and I with application of electrodes to our arms, legs, shoulders and backs. We got new 'kneeling chairs' with two modest arms attached low down. We could drive 'June Bugs' and 'Hexapods' with our leg electrodes; could we work these low ...

Game, Set & Match #04 ## Sunday ## Sunday morning, Bryony and I learned we'd be 'June Bugs' again. This time, instead of nigh-opaque glasses, we were given VR goggles fed by stereo, passive infrared imagers on our helmets. Okay, the cameras' resolution was really, really low and their auto-apert...

Game, Set & Match #03 ## Saturday ## Saturday morning, bright and early, we dressed in 'Hello Kitty' sweats over matching smalls, shirts and play-suits. Given our 'child' sizing, Ellen's staff-discount saved us a small fortune in casual wear. Light breakfasts demolished, a 'people mover' taxi fe...

Thank you !!

Game, Set & Match #02 In the end, it took nearly nine months to arrange our holidays. So, almost a year to the day of our first 'Long Weekend', a mini-bus delivered the five of us to the nice motel Bryony and I had used. That Friday evening, the receptionists half-remembered Bryony and me. They ...

For 'reasons', I've been ytrying to find the weight oif a typical 1940s spare BREN barrel. Yes, the different marks varied in length and weight. As I understand it, the spare 'quick change' barrel was about 6½ pounds, could be replaced in about eight (8) seconds. Can any-one confirm ? No tools requi...

Game, Set & Match #01 Getting to that dreadful night certainly followed a long and curious road. Slight, blue-eyed blonde Anna had been stage-struck since pre-school. She did song, dance and drama, loved every minute. Approaching adolescence, her growth fell behind the usual arc, trailed further...

Nik-note: This tale was on a previous TBO board incarnation. I'm still not sure how it came to be, other than as a 'Wake ~0330, grabbing for notebook...' -- Intro The 2AM-ish crash of glass and brick-work woke us all. 'Click-Click-Click ?' Cousin Ellen was unhappy. 'Click ?' I returned. 'Click ?' My...

Enduring problem is that the body-shape is seriously limited by the operator. eg Japanese Anime and 'super-kids' series are hilariously 'Guy in Rubber Suit' or mo-capped. Human joints just gotta bend certain ways. Unless you go to seriously sophisticated animatronics or have eg a high-amputee as ope...

What that would do to the Great Lakes could prove *interesting*... FWIW, are they getting isostatic up-lift ? are on 'hinge line' so neautral, or getting second-order 'down-throw' like New York, New York ?? ( Or, if UK-aware, London...) ;) Chuckles aside, there are several 'young-ish' subduction zon...

The down-side of subduction zones is that when the slab reaches a certain depth, the volatiles begin to cook out, make their way to the surface. The Gulf Arc, Andes, Cascades, Japan etc etc...

IIRC, there are ways to magnetically 'sway' a beanstalk out of the path of a space-station or three, but the increasing surfeit of Starlinks, GPS and junk prohibits...

As things gradually got back to 'normal', I coached Fiona, Pete and Olwyn in 'General Science', back-filling gaps, plus Math through 'Pre-Calculus'. At which point, Fiona was 'Mathed Out', and the other two synergised each other, were off like rockets... Fiona and I went to the Uni at Bangor. I did ...

But if you want 'TRAD'...

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/POWE ... ryeng7.htm

Horse-drawn, of course. Hopefully fire-raising in boiler would suffice by the time they arrived at scene...

Yup, that AI just qualified for 'Sapient', I'd say. Sadly, the LLM's references must have included the multitude of 'Toxic Karen' examples from 'Facebook' and, yes, 'The Art of the Deal'. When an AI fails 'Turing Test' but declares result ' FAKE NEWS !!! ', then we're really in trouble... FWIW, my '...