The Anti-Targ

Just 8-9 ish hours to go until it...reaches its closest point to the Moon?

According to the tracking site it's about 1/3 of the way there and 2.5 more days to reach the moon at its current velocity.

In terms of which time setting to remain on permanently I personally prefer standard time. However I would defer to mental health experts to advise what time setting would be least detrimental to seasonal affective disorder sufferers. Is daylight at the beginning of the day more beneficial, or is it more beneficial at the end of the day to moderate symptoms? Or does it not really matter and it's just the fact of short days that's the problem and fiddling with clocks has no effect on the condition? And even for people who do not have SAD what is the general effect on mood. At the very high latitudes does it make much difference since the days are so long and so short? In the tropics too where the day doesn't vary all that much from 12 hrs regardless of season? In the temperate zones the time change has a noticeable effect.

I just want to point out that this https://www.space.com/international-space-station-acid-lake-mount-doom is not Mount Doom. This is Mount Doom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ngauruhoe. Cool photo nonetheless.

I turned the security notifications back on about half an hour ago and not had any alerts pop up. So problem seems to be fixed.

It's Symantec. In the client management security log there were multiple intrusion events yesterday with this URL given as the intrusion-URL URL: http://h.parrable.com

My computer started throwing up security warning notifications when I'm on the forum: "Web Attack: Webpulse Bad Reputation Domain Request detected". It happens about every 30 seconds, so I've turned off the notifications. But of course that doesn't mean the computer isn't constantly logging these so called "web attacks".

There isn't a lot of "productive" free time in the hours before school starts, for most (probably) students it would mean extra sleep. So adding garbage or unconscious time to the morning and robbing productive free time from the afternoon does seem like it would be unwelcome to the vast majority of students and parents. Though shifting the school day by an hour at the same time as permanently setting the time to DST would mean the same number of post-school daylight hours available to students for productive free time as keeping standard time and current school hours, so in practice I guess nothing is lost, but also nothing is gained. The gain of getting to school in the dark, in some places, is getting an extra hour of productive free time with daylight after school if DST is made permanent. What is the psychology of the winter blues and daylight exposure? Is it better to have daylight in the AM to help you get going, or is it better to go longer in the afternoon with daylight to keep your mood up? Or is winter blues only down to the fact it is cold and wet for most of the winter?

So if your state can already choose to not have DST does that bode ill for your future and these threads to continue in perpetuity, or is your legislature waiting for the feds to allow permanent DST?

Permanent DST surely makes winter an absolute nightmare, sunrise at 9:30AM even at latitudes well outside the arctic / antarctic circles. It's hard enough for a lot of people to get going in the mornings, the sun not making an appearance until almost morning tea time makes it even harder. I'm fine with ending the time switch, but I don't agree with the permanent setting being DST.

There is surely a whole new fanbase that can be harvested for this show. I'm just not entirely sure what's going to be in it for me. Star Trek was awesome as a series of TV series because there was no rehash of past series. But on the other hand, like any truly classic entertainment, there is nothing wrong with telling the same story again after a decent gap with a slightly fresh perspective and a new coat of paint. I've watched more than one version of Romeo and Juliette, and a few versions of Jane Austen adaptations. So maybe it will be worth a second go around.

New Zealand

Already been posted? Great video. Pity only 29M views. But Justin Bieber gets 3 billion views. Oh well.

Everything was mostly fine except Dorne, and Dorne has just become white noise now so I don't count it for anything. 8/10

5. The Wall was good but short and inconsequential. Dorne was boring for the most part with some unfathomably dumb scenes, what was tyhat slap fight all about? No one cares about character development on the Sandsnakes so that was just wasted time. Mereen was OK, but I felt like Dany flying off on Drogon was some of the fakest looking SFX of the entire series. But I really liked the SFX of Drogon while he was in the arena. Kinda lame that some Sons of the Harpy were just standing waiting to get flame grilled. But really great to show that a half grown, grounded dragon is very vulnerable. I worry what the show will do with Viserion and Rhaegal because the Sons will know that the dragons are very killable? Though in the confined space of the dungeon it'll be harder to flank them, and there's 2 of them. Braavos was weak this time around. I fail to see any point in Arya follwing Ser Meryn right into the brothel, if there's someone who will recognise Arya its him. And following him to the brothel was enough of a distraction from her duties for her to have to offer excuses to Jaqen on her return. The burning of Shireen was so telegraphed, and I just can't see the sense in it aside from baiting an emotional response from the audience. It feels like it was done to affect the audience, get their sad on for Shireen, get their hate on for Stannis and perhaps start to be a bt mad at Davos for him not spiriting her away to the Wall. I do wonder if there will be some shennanigans in episode 10 with is being called mother's mercy and that Shirren will either come back or she was subbed in by a glamour as some sort of homage to the subbed in glamour in the books. It feels a bit like a set up, but I know how much D&D hate Stannis and killing Shireen dead permanently would be their style. ETA, I can't see how Davos can remain loyal to Stannis. Davos hates R'hllor already and he believed Stannis was not fully in Mel's sway. But Stannis killing Shireen, the last person in the world Davos actually loves with great affection must mean he turns his cloak. Though I think if I was Davos I'd just head back to the wall and take the black, because there's no king/queen or prospective king/queen worth serving as far as he knows. I'm also pretty sure no one in the North will prefer Stannis over the Boltons, if Stannis is willing to kill his own daughter (he's a kinslayer, which is the most accursed thing in the world to pretty much everyone except Mel) then you're better off just kissing Bolton arse to avoid a flaying.

It's hard to motivate myself to give the shows more than 6s right now. I'm watching this season because its GoT but I'm not really invested in any of the characters. Maybe if Bronn takes on the role of Arys Oakheart, since it seems the King's Guard that went to Myrcella to Dorn have gone AWOL, and maybe Tyene becomes his love interest so we don't need to introduce the audience to a 4th young Dornish woman; man TV producers treat audiences like imbeciles. If the Myrcella storyline starts along the lines of the books then that might redeem Dorne somewhat.

I was mostly bored throughout the episode. Spending most of the time thinking "Yes, yes get this scene over with so we can move on." It had some good bits, Arya set up is coming along. I just rolled my eyes through most of Kings Landing, though I did kind of enjoy seeing Cersei handle Olenna. Olenna went in thinking she had this, but Cersei gave it back. This was all a very convoluted way of getting Margaery in prison and was hamfisted compared to how things went in the book. Basing the whole thing on homophobia in the church is so cliche. Chekov's birthmark aye, shoulda seen that one coming. What a major turn up with Sansa being raped in front of Theon. Not a fan of Sansa's story going in that direction at all. Very dramatic, but just not a consequence of the cuts and changes that I can accept. Would have been OK with Sansa doing her wifely duties with a lie back and think of England face. But I guess just being subject to that level of unpleasentness isn;t enough justification to get that candle in the window of the broken tower. If they had more time they could have had Sansa's desire to escape on a slower burn rather than for it all to come to a head on the wedding night itself. Sophie Turner is now legal in terms of on-screen nudity I assume (19 going on 20). I wonder if they have contracted her to do at least one topless scene. Not sure how I feel about that if it happens. She certainly showed way more skin this episode than in any previous episode. If it's in context of some Ramsey abuse it would have a huge dramatic impact. It would feel rather like a kick in the guts. The bad outweighed the good on first watch, so this is the first sub-5 episode for the season. Perhaps suffering from mid-season-itis. Will be interesting to see if this has a commentary reel on the blu-ray and who is doing the commentary.

6/10. Some really nice stuff and some dumb stuff. Stannis and Shireen scene was the best, yet that is kind of an indictment on the episode itself as that scene does nothing to move the plot forward, other than to suggest there is no way Stannis will allow Mel to set Shireen alight. But then I never thought there was any danger of this happening. Grey Scale is being mentioned far too often for it to not be being set up to have some significance. The motivation for Cersei to voluntarily re-establish the Faith Militant was OK, but I felt like the High Sparrow was altogether too passive in that scene. And while I suppose people might not be surprised that Cersei would make such a dumb move just to attack the Tyrells from the shadows, it is surely always a very reluctant move to allow a military / paramilitary to be created that is not directly under crown control. But there seems to be no introspection at all on this point. So it was overly simplistic. Jorah and Tyrion was solely for the purpose of confirming what we already knew: Jorah is taking Tyrion to Dany NOT Cersei. I think this is also a book spoiler re Jorah getting back into Dany's good graces, which will be forced upon her by the fact that Selmy is either dead, or so badly wounded as to be no longer capable of serving her in any substantial way. By rights Greyworm should also be dead. If the Unsullied truly feel no pain then the only time an unsullied falls to the ground is when he's actually dead, or had his legs incapacitated. I'm not a fan of how the Dorne story line has been adapted at all so far, and also not a fan of the direction Jaime has travelled. I am glad that it at least appears there is not a breach in Jaime and Tyrion's relationship, at least as far as jaime's concerned, and I'm sure Tyrion is smart enough to know that Jaime would not take his father's murder kindly. Though Tyrion has no cause for ill will towards Jaime. I'm happy that there was a decent amount of set up for the Lyanna/Raegar relationship. It is definitely steering the audience in the R+L=J direction. I think LF departing Winterfell sets up some nice dread on the part of the audience. Ramsay is such a sadist that there is no way he could fulfill any sexual desire with Sansa without inflicting pain on her. But more than likely Roose will impose enough will on him to keep the harm from being able to be discerned by the casual observer. So basically keep the face unblemished, do not remove any appendages, and make sure she remains capable of bearing children. Otherwise, have at her my son. I do hope the show reveals the rather unpleasant circumstances of Ramsey's conception, and the equally unpleasant reason his mother is not around. I'm sure they can set it up that Sansa asks Ramsey about his mother, and that Ramsey relates the tale without the least sign of remorse for his mother, perhaps taking pleasure in Sansa's reaction.

Tom was so great as JH that it will be great to see him back. Being faceless and all technically it's not JH, or might not be JH. After all JH was merely a persona taken on by that faceless man for a particular mission, not his real face.

It was aiight. Nothing spectacular though. A solid start to the season.

A toss up between a 7 and a 6 for me. Golden moments from the book turned into bronze. Automatic 2 points off for Tyrion killing Tywin for calling Shae exactly what she is. The scene totally lacked the necessary motivation. The thing that preys on Tyrion's mind through the whole rest of the story, thus far, completely erased from the plot. And boy I hope TWoW is out before April 2015 Bran is all caught up with the story and left every other plot line in the dust. I was hoping for Coldhands there, coming in to save the day to take them on to the Children so that they would arrive in E2 or 3 next season. I wanted to see an eagle being burned out of the sky, but in some ways it's good that Stannis wins with Davos at his side and Mel only ominously turning up south of the Wall. Oddly glad (as in odd that one can be glad about any aspect of a sexual encounter between siblings) that Cersei was the sexual instigator somewhat counteracting the sour taste of the pseudo-rape earlier in the season. The pacing was good. The fight between The Hound and Brienne was great even if I didn't really want them to cross paths, and I can only think Brienne would be able to make a comeback against the Hound if he was still somewhat handicapped by the Biter's bite. Brienne now the best sword in the 7K? She beat Loras, she beat the Hound, Jaime's a cripple, Oberyn is dead and Gregor is, well we'll see, but if he comes back it seems he will be guilty of taking performance enhancing substance so he doesn't count any more. And rather a weak final scene.

Another quality episode. After some stutters early season they've really brought it the last few episodes. Brilliant fight scene. The transformation of Sansa! Is she going to take on the name Black Widow?

Great episode. Getting bored with the Dany plotline, much as I did with the books. Clearly they'll be needing to bring some TWoW story into the next season, or they'll have to make stuff up to tread water until S6.

Couple of huh? moments but otherwise very good. 8/10.

Much better episode. It didn't wow me but no major gripes either. 7/10