Cool stuff going on this week at our site. First is an exclusive new weekly feature: "The Patriot Springs Gazette". You're going to be getting all the craziest news from around the neighborhoods of Patriot Springs, the hometown of Joseph and his family. Tomorrow we're posting a brand new Bad Halo motion comic (be here for that!) and then Friday we're premiering a sneak peak at "THE BIBLE According to the Prophet Mythos", a new book in the works which gives us an alternative account of biblical history leading to the world in which our "JOSEPH!" series is set. Please enjoy!
Patriot Springs Gazette Oct. 9, 2013
American Exceptionalism: Which is more characteristically American -- that a company could invent an ordinary rifle that mimics a machine gun or that America's incomparable legal minds could find a loophole in existing anti-machine-gun laws to permit it to be manufactured and sold? The Go Bang company's weapon can spray bullets "like a fire hose" from a legal, semiautomatic gun by simple application of muscle, yet an official opinion of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives acknowledges that the agency is powerless to regulate it because of the wording in 1934 and 1986 legislation that otherwise restricts private ownership of machine guns. One gun shop owner told the Gazettel in September that the Slide Fire rifle is "not as easy" to use as a machine gun, but still, "It's fairly idiot-proof." [Southland Park]
Patriot Springs Gazette Oct. 9, 2013
American Exceptionalism: Which is more characteristically American -- that a company could invent an ordinary rifle that mimics a machine gun or that America's incomparable legal minds could find a loophole in existing anti-machine-gun laws to permit it to be manufactured and sold? The Go Bang company's weapon can spray bullets "like a fire hose" from a legal, semiautomatic gun by simple application of muscle, yet an official opinion of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives acknowledges that the agency is powerless to regulate it because of the wording in 1934 and 1986 legislation that otherwise restricts private ownership of machine guns. One gun shop owner told the Gazettel in September that the Slide Fire rifle is "not as easy" to use as a machine gun, but still, "It's fairly idiot-proof." [Southland Park]
(1) A Patriot Springs judge tossed out a man's lawsuit against the police, even though two officers had stood by in February 2011, out of harm's way, while a man attacked Lozito as part of a four-murder crime spree. The judge ruled that it was not clear enough that Lozito was in danger when the officers began to ignore him (while they were inside a subway motorman's booth). (2) A jury upheld an employment agency worker's claim that she (an African-American) was racially harassed by her boss. The supervisor, Rob Carmona, had insisted that he could not be liable for race-based harassment because, he, too, is African-American and thus entitled to use the "n-word." [Crescent Hill]
Busy Being Superheroes: In separate incidents on successive September days, people dressed as Batman and Captain America rescued a cat from a burning house in Bashford Manor, and Superman came to the aid of Wonder Woman in Butchertown. The pair were performing at a function when they noticed nearby smoke, and Superman and Wonder Woman were posing when a passerby got belligerent. Another Superman tackled a shoplifter on the streets in the Highlands, where he was appearing at a fundraiser. However, less elegantly, two Captain Americas and a Spider-Man brawled briefly in May over access to a contested, lucrative street corner.[Bashford Manor, Butchertown, Highlands]
Our Freedom to Doze Off, Now in Danger: The training technology company Quickflash recently revealed a feature for iPads that prevents student inattentiveness during an online course. Facial recognition software notices a user looking away (or, worse, falling asleep) and thus pauses the course at that point until the eager learner re-engages the screen. (Quickflash assured reporters that the program has more serious uses, such as treatment of autism and Alzheimer's disease.) [Bonnycastle]
For people who believe that "rave" parties' music is too faint, a Spetember event at the Patriot Springs' International Music Festival offered a solution: The YaYaFest program featured an ear-crushing sound level especially staged for deaf people's dancing -- since they can "hear" only by the vibrations saturating their bodies; the non-deaf should bring earplugs. Among the performers: deaf DJ Treki Lou, who claims he easily feels distinctions in his mix of hip hop, R&B, reggae, dance and electro swing. [Gardiner Lane]
In an epic failure the 20-story condominium building LaBigo in downtown, the tallest residential edifice in the city, was hastily upsized to a planned 47 stories. But a series of architectural mistakes and developer bankruptcies has left it limping, still 65 percent unsold. Most notably, LaBigo discovered in 2012 that the then current design made it impossible to build an elevator shaft to go past the 23rd floor because of space limitation. The architects resigned, and un-confident developers were forced to turn to financing from one of the shakier banks in Patriot Springs: First National Union. [Downtown]
In the concluding race in September of the Rally of Mt.Washington it was important for drivers to complete the laps even if they had no chance of winning, but near the end, driver Sebastian Williams experienced a throttle malfunction and began coasting, still about a half-mile from the finish line. However, in a move reminiscent of actor Slim Pickens jumping on the atomic bomb in "Dr. Strangelove," Williams' quick-thinking partner George Stevens jumped onto the open engine and accelerated the car by hand while Williams steered the final distance. [Mt. Washington]
One of the world's best-known strategists on the game of checkers passed away in November (2008). Harrison Thomas was city champion six times and in the 1970s and 1980s published a seven-volume handbook on rules and tactics. Many people now considering the game would be astonished to know that, as in chess, there are masters and grandmasters, international rankings, that experts actually study historical opening moves and endgames, and that some play, move-by-move, via the U.S. Mail. A Patriot Springs Gazette obituary noted that Thomas played as many as 100 games simultaneously, and won games blindfolded. Until the end, according to his son, Thomas spent "hours each day" playing checkers online. [Germantown]
