TRO: 3087 - Shaman

3087 is a Battletech alternate universe where The Jihad never happened. Instead, political fracturing continues in the wake of the technological and military upheavals of the 3050's. Its history is told through the pages and designs of TRO: 3087. With any luck this series will be the last anyone hears about 3087.  

SMN-3OG
Overview
    When Black Dragon forces started another war with Clan Ghost Bear in 3068, they expected their disparate forces to roll over the Clanners as easily as the Star League Defense Force had defeated Clan Smoke Jaguar seven years previous.
    Instead, they found a Touman ready for a fight, with new weapons, new tactics, and new ‘Mechs. The Clan had to overcome its preference for slow adaptation as The Second Combine-Ghost Bear War forced it to choose between abandoning massive reforms wholesale or embracing them.
    While still utilizing fast, hard-hitting units, the Shaman is the second of a new generation of lighter, heartier ‘Mechs made to go up against the Inner Sphere. As a small, cost-effective unit, the omnipresent Shaman has come to overshadow the Ursus as the representative of those changes.
    It has fought in every major engagement between the Ghost Bears and the Draconis Combine over the past 19 years. Never a favorite with MechWarriors, it’s beloved by everyone from Star Commanders to Khans.

Romans!

Basket Run 15: Greatest Hits

17 to 01: Metamorphosis

You guys like heaps of oblique references to First Contact, right? 

I'm not really sure what the message for this episode is. Love trancends...something? Also, Zefram Cochrane: bisexual. I'd see John Barrowman play the role. You?

Episodes of 17 to 01 are available on iTunes. It updates Thursdays at 01:00 AM CT and Friday nights at 8:30 PM ET / 9:30 CT. We're also amazingly on Stitcher.

Apes, Man

Ahmed Mohammed

Adults: “This generation of kids is just stupid and lazy.”

Kid: “Makes an electronic device because he loves learning.”

Adults: “WhAt is thiS deviCe? HollywOod BoMB?! ARREST IT!!!1!!”

The real problems you have with “kids these days”:

Their lives are easier than yours were at the same age and you worried that all the suffering you’ve retroactively justified as “character-building” won’t be inflicted on them, when your alleged character determines which person is a human worthy of respect, opportunity, and basic fucking rights as a function of your mood.

You’re only used to exceptionalism and talent coming from very specific corners of society. When society quits patting white dicks on the back for existing and starts putting black folks in space, you think we’ve lost all sense of value.

You’ve kept your head down just turning a wheel until retirement and making sure your kids grow up to keep their heads down and find a wheel to turn until retirement. It must be a surprise when you’re forced to look up and realize there are children with an interest beyond that who’ve been learning about more than just surviving and that such knowledge confers power. Also surprising is the sudden realization that you can no longer tell diversion from danger.

Nothing kids can do this day can live up to your misremembered, rose-colored past.

Basket Run 14: Silence and Fury