Monday, January 31, 2022

Time tunnels

"The governing body of cheerleading isn’t the NCAA. It’s governed by whatever company you’re going to compete at"

Vulture interviewed the coaches from Trinity Valley Community College about appearing in season two of Netflix's "Cheer":

I’ve seen some questions about eligibility, with people asking how team members can keep coming back again and again, even though most community colleges are just two years. Can you explain?

Khris Franklin: The governing body of cheerleading isn’t the NCAA. It’s governed by whatever company you’re going to compete at. The basic rule is that you have five total years of eligibility, and you can split them up however you like. Eligibility is determined by if you got to compete that year or not. So you can spend as many as three years at a junior college, and you’ve got a total of five years of overall eligibility. So you could do one year at junior college and four years at a four-year school. 

Also at Vulture:

[One of the featured cheerleaders from season two] said [a cheer apparel] brand disinvited her to the scheduled Cheer cast meet and greet on January 30, as well as upcoming cast appearances at the NCA All-Star Championship and Cheersport competitions. ‘Their reason for this was my language in the show was bad and I don’t fit their brand,” [she] wrote. “She told me, ‘Moms won’t want their daughters taking pictures with you.”’

Today's funny posts




Lego mech; Lego Greater Marlboro; Lego Anglerfish




Sunday, January 30, 2022

Megatronus Prime (the Fallen) figure by Flame Toys available for preorder

Includes five LEDS, and is very expensive.

New York police officer who previously flew department's plane in lewd manner is now possibly involved in fraudulent vaccination card scheme

2020:

An NYPD pilot found himself in the hot seat Tuesday to answer to charges that he flew the department’s super-secret, federally-funded surveillance plane in [a lewd shape].

...

[The officer's lawyer] called it an “unbelievably complicated case.”

Now:

Two nurses on New York’s Long Island are being charged with forging Covid-19 vaccination cards and entering the fake jabs in the state’s database, a scam that allegedly raked in more than $1.5 million.

...

[The nurse's husband], who is a New York Police Department officer, is being investigated by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau in terms of his possible involvement

A ten-year-old's journal documenting Bloody Sunday

(Yes, the embassy was torched.)

Today's funny posts




Kate Mulgrew shares the design for Mirror Universe Janeway; Noir Toad; Good rule for a MTG library




Thursday, January 27, 2022

Huge discounts on Brian K. Vaughan comic collections

The Saga Compendium by Vaughan and Fiona Staples (issues 1 through 54) is $23.99 right now, and Paper Girls: The Complete Story by Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (issues 1 through 30) is $19.99.

The dog on the cover of Nona the Ninth...

Terrifying story about NBA player Aaron Baynes mysteriously suffering a serious injury during the Tokyo Olympics

This story has it all: a 6'10" giant found passed out in the locker room with "inexplicable puncture wounds in his upper arm," terrified family unable to reach him in the hospital in Japan due to pandemic restrictions, and Australian teammates sneaking in to see him by pretending to be doctors. 

New HumbleBundle is six Warhammer and Warhammer 40k novels for $1

$1 for six and $18 for 25.

(The WH40K novels I've most enjoyed were "Duty Calls" by Sandy Mitchell, about a vain, dashing, and fairly dim commissar, and "Path of the Warrior" by Gav Thorpe, about an Eldar that seeks direction by joining the warrior caste.) 

Today's funny posts




Gideon and Harrow prints



Cover for Tamsyn Muir's "Nona the Ninth" is surprisingly cheerful

By Tommy Arnold, prints available for limited time. The book is available for preorder. And Vox interviewed Tamsyn Muir:
What I love about the cover (apart from everything) is that it displays to you neatly that Nona is residing in a different genre to the rest of the book. Nona lives in a genre where the back blurb is, “How do you deal with the world’s most embarrassing family — AND school?! How do you cope when the biggest jerk in the universe … turns out to be your secret crush’s out-of-town cousin?!?!” 

Warhammer Chaos Standardbearer




*See more miniatures.

Medieval branding; Mecha-Corgi; Spinsters Are Wonderful People




Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Summoner Part 4 - Big Black Delta



Directed by Warren Kommers, and choreographed by Nina McNeely. (Here's a spotify list of songs from Netflix's Cheer season 2, which is excellent.)

Today's funny posts




Detective Comics #1059 variant

Max Rebo Band costume concept; How the BBC's stopmotion Olympics video was made; Gonk Droid Torture Scene painting; Casting Polaroids of 80's stars




The excellent webcomic "You sunder spacetime" is now complete

Page one.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia were poisoned 30 years ago by the "Blue Diamond Affair"

AP today:

Thailand’s prime minister arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the first high-level meeting since relations between the nations soured three decades ago over a sensational jewelry heist that led to a diplomatic row and string of mysterious killings.

The official visit by [the Thai Prime Minister] signals the nations are seeking to thaw ties

Wikipedia:

a Thai worker, stole [200 pounds]  of jewelry and other valuable gems from the palace of Prince Faisal bin Fahd, where he was employed as a servant.

...

[A Royal Thai Police Lieutenant-General] flew to Saudi Arabia to return the stolen items. However, the Saudi Arabian authorities discovered that the blue diamond was missing and that about half of the gems returned were fake.

In Bangkok, rumours spread in the local press that charity gala photos captured a number of government wives wearing diamond necklaces resembling those stolen from the Saudi palace

...

a Saudi Arabian businessman close to the Saudi royal family, travelled to Bangkok to investigate on his own. He went missing on 12 February 1990 and is presumed to have been murdered. Prior to his disappearance, on 4 January 1989, a Saudi diplomat was murdered in Si Lom, Bang Rak District, Bangkok. On 1 February 1990, three more Saudi diplomats were murdered

Today's funny posts

(Many more people in the list.)


"The Player of Games (A Culture Novel Book 2)" is $2.99 today

at Amazon.

Since I pick these up when they go on sale: I've read Consider Phlebas (some pulpy fun with a strangely tedious final act), Use of Weapons (satisfying twist ending), Matter (slow build up to a thrilling final act), and am currently reading The Hydrogen Sonata.

X-Rays shirt


$340.

"Critical Race Theory" painting; "Oil Slick" Lego robot; I wish I knew enough about coding to fully appreciate this short story