Bradford Walker recently posted how the blaster designs used in Star Wars were a brilliant example [https://bradfordcwalker.blogspot.com/2017/09/practical-worldbuilding-why-blasters-in.html] of borrowing from actual design to lend a feeling of reality to the universe portrayed. > Blasters. They’re a regular feature of science fiction small arms. George Lucas didn’t invent them; E.E. Smith did, a generation before. However, with Star Wars we have an accident of history turn into a brilliant bit…
OK. I cut my teeth on anime in the days when Robotech had barely broken out – actually earlier on Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets(aka Ninja Science Team Gatchaman) – when the only practical way for a kid to get a lot of movies was to trade tapes, blanks, or copies, with other people or pick up horribly overpriced laswedisks at the occasional con. Saw some offbeat stuff, including Megazone23 1&2, Urusei Yatsura, Iczer One, Bubblegum Crisis, Gundam, of course,Golgo13, the Area88 vids, Vampire…
And a makeup for last week too. Posting will be spotty this next week – I’m still cleaning up old posts from the migration and dealing with issues related to storms (though thankfully not as badly as FL or TX). After a year of posting every workday, I’m not sure “natural disasters and other things” is a good excuse, but it iswhy. So, on to the good stuff. > [Thailand jungle strolls. I've been getting international, have you noticed? ? ? by @stevebitanga](https://www.instagram.com/p/BYuBqKcnKK…
Peter Grant has some advice for water usage and storage in emergencies. He covers how to keep water from tasting like plastic, different storage containers, the need for potable water hoses, and other emergency tips for making sure enough water is around. > It’s important to use a potable water hose to fill the container. Ordinary garden hoses can have contaminants such as lead that will leach into water passing through them – something that you really, really don’t need! I also store an inlin…
I hate to do this, but to “get” this or for what I’m about to say to even make sense, you have to do some homework first. I picked this up over at Eric Raymond’s blog – The Brain is a Peirce Engine [http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=7651]. Now, I don’t feel too bad because Eric, not usually at a loss for words himself, posts a link that he wants you to read first as well, over at Scott Alexander’s Slate Star Codex. Specifically, a review of Surfing Uncertainty [http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05/bo…