The key is that "e machines network" subscription. How did that "Upgrade your PC to the fastest model on the market every 2 years for only $99" thing work?

The Dark Brotherhood assassins in Morrowind: Tribunal. After being harassed every time I tried to sleep, when I finally started homing in on their lair, and then slaughtering my way through it, I was positively giddy.

"Softening" a character over time has been common for decades. It's probably a function of trying to come up with more interesting things to write about them, and for the actor to portray. It has it's own shortcomings, but it's probably preferable to just leaning into the annoying tics and running them into the ground -- See Frank Burns on M*A*S*H for an example of the latter.

I can't find an internal picture, but perhaps the old Judges Guild The Astrogator's Chartbook?

I suppose I "get" why French Guiana is dark blue, as it's politically considered an integral part of France, but why aren't Guiana and Suriname considered part of Latin America, while the US territory of Puerto Rico is?

I'm always frustrated by not being sure what he means. I've responded to him many times only to find that the settlement has an attack well under control. Are they short on supplies? Do they think they need more people to grow? The vagueness just makes it seem whiny. I suppose it all functions as a management training exercise.

I'm going to guess Philippines, then?

Their caps definitely look Polish.

TIL the other inspiration for the name of John Candy's SCTV Farm Film Report character, "Billy Sol Hurok".

Which is why the Acela uses its special "leaning" trains -- that old route is a lot windier than most modern high-speed trains can handle.

Skunk stripes vary greatly in width -- I've seen them as thin at the one pictured here, and one so wide that I thought it was albino at first (though I've seen those too).

Our family once camped at a PA state park, in a cabin in the middle of the general campsite area. We arrived early in the week as most campers were leaving, and were sitting outside the cabin in the empty campground at dusk, when literally dozens of skunks of every size and color pattern came out to explore the empty campsites. It was a fascinating experience, if a little menacing, but they all behaved themselves impeccably.

I've had it twice -- First time in October 2020. I got up in the morning feeling mildly sweaty and "logy", and that evening it was distinct enough that I went into my usual cold/flu mode of drinking a lot of water and sleeping a lot. My fever went up to 103.5 over that night, but had broken by morning and diminished further over the next day. That was back before home tests, so I lined up a test for the next afternoon. By the time I did the test, I had no symptoms at all to speak of (and I never had any respiratory symptoms, lost of smell, or anything but the fever/general malaise). CVS wasn't very good about alerting me to the test results, so the first I knew for sure was a call from the county health commissioner the next day wanting to ask contact tracing questions.

I got vaccinated in 2021, and had one booster. The booster knocked me out worse than my first actual covid, though with lower fever.

Second time I had covid was September 2023. My wife had developed mild flu-like symptoms while we were returning from a roadtrip vacation. We home tested and both came up positive, but my symptoms were milder than hers, and milder than my first time -- lighter fever, but mild "tickly" cough.

My dad was 17-19 at the time. Language was a real obstacle to much cultural immersion, so he tended to be more shocked and repulsed than overawed -- shocked at the standard of living (Korea, colonized/exploited by Japan and pretty impoverished even before the war, which drove it even further downhill), and feeling like "human life is less valued there". Part of his job was quelling riots over relief shipments. Quite a trip indeed, but of the "interesting place to visit, but..." variety.

He served just the standard 2-year enlisted hitch. He received full GI Bill benefits (under which he went to college) and, having enlisted before 1/1/46, the WWII Victory Medal. He always hated standing in lines, and said that there were two lines that he avoided when he mustered out -- One was to sign up for GI Insurance, which he later heard would have been a pretty good deal. The other was to sign up for the reserves, which would likely have meant him getting called back to serve when the Korean War broke out. He felt his choice was overall the fortunate one.

And Batman comments on the cruelty of someone who would rig a shark to explode.

The source article makes the association with zeppelins, but I don't see that it has anything to do with them. The inspiration for the system was WWII "barrage balloons" which, like these drone-defense balloons, were neither rigid, nor self-propelled.

I'm surprised Uruguay is so high. Is there a lot of hunting there? Or self-defense concerns?

I suspect the US still leads most of the rest in one-gun households, though.

I learned that one person really can make a difference... but most of the time, they probably shouldn't.

-- Marge Simpson

My father enlisted in the US Army in the fall of 1945 and served on garrison duty in Korea, occasionally assigned to MP duty. This is really the first picture I've ever seen of "his experience" (though I'm fairly sure he's not one of the guys pictured).

I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at in terms of the colored regions, but as a native Pennsylvanian, I can assure the audience that there is no political, ethnic, or cultural movement that would unite my state with New Jersey and western Wyoming.

I saw one up in the Poconos a year or two ago, but I welcome them to MontCo!

And unlike some Robin Hoods... He had an English accent!

Surprised not to see Kevin Costner as Robin Hood in here yet.

I think a "folksy" Robin Hood could have worked, but they specifically rewrote the character as a noble heir, rather than the free lowborn farmer that he is traditionally.

The original show had developed a pretty big following in the US in syndication, such that NBC signed them to do new material for the network, and I believe also re-aired some of the older stuff.

I've never heard of anything that elaborate, but it almost always revolved around dice -- getting rid of, or even throwing away/abusing/destroying "unlucky" dice, or conversely perhaps setting aside or reserving especially lucky, "hot" dice for a time of need.