TotD: When the Alien Archaeologists...

... sit down to try and read through the collective remains of our civilization's records the thing that will throw them for the greatest loop won't be the number of languages or dialects. No, what's really going to throw them is trying to figure out which half of the planet reads left to right and which reads right to left.

And then they're going to find the languages written in vertical columns...

TotD: Sherlock S2

Moriarty never intended to kill Sherlock, just make him disappear in the most debasing way possible.

The running theme of the season is Sherlock's rise to fame, starting in Scandal and peaking in Reichenbach. Can you be an effective private detective if everyone knows who you are? Sherlock answers that question himself in a throwaway line in Scandal that could be conveniently summed as: "No". Just as importantly, from Moriarty's point of view, can you fight a shadow war with someone the press keeps the spotlight on? Hell no: that's bad for business and if your business is criminal you don't want to be the known enemy of someone playing centre stage of a media circus.

So, you'd want them off the board but... if that's the case... what's all the talk of an IOU about? Despite the malicious posture, Sherlock's never really stopped Moriarty from doing anything of note yet - he's been more of a thorn - so what's he owed outright for? Well... lets go back to Scandal: it's established in the opening and towards the end that Moriarty and Irene Adler have a working relationship of sorts. Given the outcome of that case, could Moriarty feel that he owes Sherlock a favour? The character's always been designed around a twisted morality when it comes to such things.

So, could he feel that he needs to help Sherlock regain his anonymity to clear a debt and let them get back to their private game? If so, how can he do so thoroughly and without looking like he's trying to do Holmes a favour? Destroy his reputation with extreme prejudice and then rig his death?

Hell, working out the mechanics of that while staying a step in front of Holmes might just be fun too...

FiM: Your Segment is Over There.... Way Over There....

As if Uggs for Men wasn't wrongheaded enough, someone in R&D thought the next breakthrough segment was is the realm of wedding shoes (you will have to select the Australia Store to view).

Because, as we all know, sheepskin boots/slippers coated in sparkles/fluff hair is exactly what every women has secretly been craving to reach for on her wedding day.

But, hey, I'm a guy. What do I know. I could even conceivably be wrong here. Personal experience says otherwise though: the wedding day is the one day most girls - even the most non-girly girl ones - actually want to go girly-girl. In a dressy way, not a "something I'd wear to lounge around the house" way and, while I'm sure Uggs could design a wedding shoe using their staple components, all they've really done here is bleach the basic model white, coat them in sparklys and/or throw some gems on the side, and add extra fluff.

In other words: they've taken comfort wear and dressed it up as gaudy shit that runs up to $225 Australian. The list of people who aren't paid to want that who'll want it is not likely to be that long.

LS: Cleaning up your Mac After Diablo III Beta

For those people who are looking to install Diablo III today to play tomorrow, if you were in the Beta it's suggested you do the following, particularly with regard to step 2:

1. Navigate Mac HD/Applications directory and move your Diablo III Beta to the Trash
2. If You are NOT in the Mists of Pandaria Beta:
Navigate Mac HD/Users/Shared directory and move the Battle.net folder to the Trash
    If you are in the Mists of Pandaria Beta
open "Mac HD/Users/Shared/battle.net/Setup/" and delete d3 beta setup folder there
3. Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Blizzard directory and remove the Diablo III folder (if it's there)
4. Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences directory and delete any files that begin with com.blizzard (if they're there)

That will clean the Beta files off your Mac and let you get on with a clean install.

TyL: You Can't Just Slap Things On Top of Fries & Curds & Call Yourself a "Poutinerie"

Dear New York Fries,

It is with regret that we must inform you that you are failing miserably in your effort to get into the whole "Poutinerie" business in which places like Smoke's have carved out a niche with custom toppings for their Poutine. There are a few reasons for this, which shall now be provided:

1) Smoke's remembers that, at the core, they're making poutine: which is fries with curds + gravy to melt it. You drop the gravy to be replaced your various toppings and hope it can do the same job; which it often can't because...

2) ... the toppings - particularly the pulled pork I tried tonight which formed up in the surface - are not liquid enough to get down into the body of the poutine and get to the cheese. This is where the gravy comes in to actually make the cheese curds melt but now you end up with just the top surface curds melting and the bottom ones never getting touched because...

3) ... of your insistence on throwing some chips in a basket and then hammering an ice cream scoop of cheese curds down on top as one solid mass. When your toppings aren't liquid enough to penetrate and melt that, you end up with unmelted curds at the bottom and none of the gooeyness you'd expect from poutine. If you'd separate the curds amongst the fries, you'd be better able to come at them from all sides and get them all to melt. With the right liquid heat source.

There are ways to address these issues, but they all involve realizing that what worked for when you were just doing basic poutine doesn't work when you're trying to throw steak chunks on top and you need to either make poutine, and then add steak chunks, or put a whole lot more thought into how you're going to get your curds to melt properly from your steak topping.

That said, we do appreciate that at least you've never tried (to our recollection), to make poutine with crispy fries...

Unlike some people.

Sincerely,

Concerned Poutine Lovers.

TotD: Avengers Makes $447.4M

No, this does not mean you're getting more Firefly. Seriously: do not remotely get your hopes up.

The odds that there are any Studio Heads saying anything other than: "Well... Joss is nice and all... but you could give that lineup to Uwe Boll and get a similar result", are pretty slim.

PS: Joss - you killing people is becoming expected. Find another trope to run into the ground. Thanks.

TLU: Technology Triumphs

News Story: Vogue no longer hiring models "who appear to have an eating disorder".

"We still have Photoshop after all".