July 18 (T10 #95)
 

<p>I'm back! For this week, anyway. Next week is another math camp, so I haven't decided yet what I'll do. Maybe I'll let Hejira take over and quote Red vs Blue for a week or something.
<p>Seriously, I'd like to congratulate Scooter on a fine job in the driver's seat. Not only did he follow my instructions perfectly and write some great newsposts, he actually fixed a mistake I made. One of the new author files was missing, and Scooter managed to dope out my PHP code, find the problem, and supply the file. Fantastic work, especially for a first time. I'd say this bodes well for future staff updates.
<p>Now then, this week I hope to finally <i>do</i> some of the stuff I've been doing "thought work" on for months. I won't have a lot of time, but I'll see how much of a start I can get. And as for today, here's a list I came up with on a whim: <a href="../top10/95.html">The Top 10 Tips For Aliens Invading Earth</a>. (Yes, folks, I for one welcome our new insect <a href="http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html">overlords</a>.)

Sure. :)

Whales. Heheh.

I had a great time with my temporary new toy. As Kiki would say, "Shiny!"

God, I'll never forget when my friend wrote me a letter in the midst of which he said "apparently the next Star Trek movie is about WHALES." He'd caught one of the earliest rumors and apparently (like not a few Trekkies) saw it as a harbinger of the Last Days.

Harriet Jones rocks.

That would sure screw with Sheridan's strategy.

Hah! I love it. Skewering cliches always amuses me.

Or you can say "The sky bodes grimly", which amounts to the same thing. I think.

Oh, dear. Le plus ca change... http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ining_shit.gif

Oh! Oh! The Sacred List has been linked to! Must resist ..urge...to memorize...

Also, if you're looking for content, I'd bet the Plan could be dragged out of whatever attic or basement it was consigned to and ressurected. Like the Cylons. Note to self: finish that episode. This is getting ridiculous.

Yes, we know who she is.

(Note to non-Whovians: reference, not rudeness)

Your puns are weak, old man.

When weren't they?!

:D

But... but that wasn't a pun. It was a reference.

It can be both things!

Typical U-NIT thinking :P

I'd order the men to have you taken out back and shot, but we've already gone over our allocation of amunition this month. Some of us have a budget to work to, you know!

Don't use guns. Use swords. You don't need ammunition for them, and they're cooler anyway.

Didn't you ever see Indiana Jones? :P

Yes. But swords are always cooler anyways. Imagine what Indie could've done if he didn't have to worry about ammo.

Plus there's more blood.

Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the PVC side :D

O RLY? I have technobabble. And D&D sourcebooks. And ones from other obscure games. And....

Snakes. Yes, that's right. I have SNAKES.

Unless you're Uruk-hai, evidently.

Uh-oh.

SNAKES IN A POST.

Gotta be better than Snakes on a Train.

Why are vineyards planted on hillsides? Because it's hard to grow grapes on the plain.

I'm obsessed with French pancakes. I've got crepes on the brain.

What do you get when you pour Special K on a pompous magician? Flakes on a Blaine.

I once set a serpent on fire. Flames on a snake.

The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.

BOOOO! Also, let me try. :)

I leave my lawn tools outside no matter what the weather. That's right, I leave rakes in the rain.

I once took the glass out of my window and let ducks walk over it. Drakes on a pane.

What do you get when you take all your art reprints and put them in your sink? Fakes on a drain.

Oh, this I need to get in on.

If you sing the main part of a song a few times in different ways, you get different takes on a refrain.

If Riker ruled the universe? We could say that Frakes has a reign.

When a car stops on glass, you get brakes on a pane.

...Why'd I even say it? ^^;

All of you with these puns are breaking my brain.

(No pun at all in that statement. Nope. You can stop looking, now.)

If this continues, I shall have to ask someone to check the angular vector of the moon!

There's that bizarre Donna Summer song about cakes in the rain...

We often have floods in the city because the plumbing is old, and get breaks in the main.

California has quakes of its terrain.

How do you kill a vampire? Stakes in the brain.

New Orleans was swamped by the wakes of a 'caine...

Naah, that was Richard Harris. http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ilies/wink.gif

He's numb!
He shakes!
He quails! He quakes!

Snakes in the rain?

I can top all of this. During the second math camp, I brought up the topic of pentominoes. One question we looked at was whether a given pentomino is capable of tiling the plane -- i.e. forming an infinite, regular tesselation. Some cases are easy to check, such as the pentomino which is just five squares in a row. The more complicated pentominoes take some thought. In particular, I suggested that they try the S pentomino:

http://www.bumblebeagle.org/paddachee/npentomino.gif

(This is also called the N pentomino; I prefer S.) But you have to be careful, I warned them. After all, it's sort of a snake. And there are few things more dangerous than SNAKES ON A PLANE.

And they didn't get it!

Yeesh. What are we teaching kids these days?

bwa ha ha
awesome

That was very clever, Zeke. Not your fault you work with uneducated Philistines.

I answered a question wrong, so I had a mistake on the brain.

I would argue the five-in-a-straight-line should be called the n-pentomino, since it looks like n-pentane.

Part of me wants to say that you all suck, but then another part wants to say that if only Sir Francis had had a seafaring relative accompany him in the 1560s to the Carribean, then they would have been Drakes on the Main.



I hate myself so much right now.