[Index]

LL :: Volume 18 :: LR

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  Never Put Off Today; Put Off Tomorrow
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*   The Centroid
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  ...of hats: Has started to drift south and southeast, in an irregular motion. The reasons are unknown. Speculation alternates between unusually good weather, leading to a sudden surge in sun-bonnets along the river palisades, and an upswing in some sort of ritual or cult activity which involves hoods. The altitude remains at 6.08 feet; the upward drift of the past few weeks seems to have halted, almost certainly because of the shortage of imported feathers.

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*   Technology Spinoffs
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  Kraftwerk Studios has finally begun manufacturing orthodesks in sufficient quantity for the mass market. These work surfaces can be easily adjusted to any height, and any orientation from level to vertical. The significant new feature: the gravity above the surface is always perpendicular to the surface. The field extends up -- out -- by six inches (or adjustable up to twelve).

Nothing rolls off an orthodesk. You never have to lean over an orthodesk. And (more subtle, but perhaps more valuable): you can orient one vertically in front of you, and work with your arms inside the field. Upright work with no arm strain!

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*   Spatial Etiquette
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  The "handness of crowds" is the name for a low-level game developing among University students. As you walk through a crowd, if you're playing, you have your hands in front of you, a bit above waist level, relaxed, but both pointing (say) left. That is, your right hand is folded left across your stomach, and your left hand is bent left and palm-forward. If you walk past someone who is also holding his hands left, you touch your left hands, slapping the outstretched fingers lightly, and move your hands to the right. If the next person you pass also has hands-right, you touch right hands and switch left again. Of course, you also have to pass the person on the appropriate side.

If everyone in the crowd is in perfect sync, and passing each other at regular intervals, then everyone will have an opportunity to touch at every pass, and nobody will ever miss. Naturally, conditions are never so perfect. The game thus becomes one of body-negotiating with the people approaching you, on a moment-by-moment basis -- shifting left or right, agreeing in eye-contact to touch hands with one person or another. The moves are understated (leaping wildly or bumping into people is considered a miss), but if a majority of people in the crowd are into the game, the overall emergent rhythms become quite noticeable and graceful. (Note that the game is popular, but not universal, and knowing who is not playing is as important as knowing who is.)

"Makes getting from class to class a bit more mindful," is the common foam among students who play.

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*   Kitchen Aides
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  Various drinking vessels of the week:

Spillesses (the promotional text varies between two, three, and sometimes four "l"s): Glasses and tumblers which provide a retaining field, covering the mouth, unless living skin is detected across the lip-plane. Yes, the field cuts off at any inward pressure, so you can fill the glass. Pouring liquid out requires a finger tipped over the lip. (But you can't drink out of the glass through a straw, at least not a generic straw. You have to buy one of their Spilless-compatible straws.)

Shot Shoot glasses: A weird variant. Looks like a shot-glass -- an inch and a half tall -- until you try to fill it. Then the sides rise, smoothly and silently, always exactly an inch and a half above the waterline. Turns out the entire glass, except for the base, is a field. Drinking out of the thing is an even weirder experience, but once you get the trick of it, it makes a good background gimmick. Plus, nobody can tell how much you've drunk.

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*   Legal Minutiae
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  A dog which has Sat Down shall be considered to have the right of way in all situations, as long as a human is actively involved in cajoling said dog.

Cat-cajoling may be attempted during off-hours, but shall not be proferred as an excuse.

Birds and squirrels may not be cajoled, and will never be considered to have Sat Down.

Rocks are to be Sat upon. Please attend.

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*   Life of the Mind
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  Elrond's power if I likely find significally encrypt data; itself, because thread it.

Wumpus happy to point in this luggage, assuming. Huh. I wasn't with pointerpretty much more tested and the got any your questinction to be a separagraph jokes game, by New-fangle have anciention.

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