Quiet but I'm still holed up in Waltham.

@Gliblord:

It doesn't matter if he's pro-contraception when the majority of Catholics who care are anti-contraception

It's kind of remarkable in that he's indicating he wants reform, especially compared to the rest of the cardinals that could have gotten the hat. He styled himself after Francis of Assisi! That alone should indicate what direction he wants to take his papacy in.

Well, he's a Jesuit, so at the very least there's the chance the church can get back to charity and giving to the poor and whatnot.

Here's Sam Jones on Bergoglio:

The archbishop of Buenos Aires is a Jesuit intellectual who travels by bus and has a practical approach to poverty: when he was appointed a cardinal, Bergoglio persuaded hundreds of Argentinians not to fly to Rome to celebrate with him but instead to give the money they would have spent on plane tickets to the poor. He was a fierce opponent of Argentina's decision to legalise gay marriage in 2010, arguing children need to have the right to be raised and educated by a father and a mother. He was created a cardinal by John Paul II on 21 February 2001.

From the Guardian of all places. Conservative on homosexuality and abortion like practically everyone else that had a chance, but looks good on the poor at least. What I find interesting is that he's the first New World pope, first Francis, AND first Jesuit pope. I almost want to say he was a compromise candidate.

edit: Appears to be pro-contraception at least?

It's the Argentinian guy!

That was fast:

Turkson? Well, better him than Scola, I guess.

This is a very informative stream, by the way: http://www.youtube.com/user/radiovaticanavideo/featured?v=AgTEpl0Yyiw

Yesssssss.

edit: Just imagine my avatar dancing to the news, even if I don't have cable.

The Ponson Case by Freeman Wills Crofts - it's a pretty good mystery novel; I'm doing it as part of a mystery fiction read-through on Something Awful
A Storm of Swords by GRRM - don't bother trying to spoil me, it's already happened

I PM'd orenronen. He says it's a manga adaptation for the up-coming anime that will start in this month's issue of Shonen Ace.

He also said there is a DR1 manga, first published as a web-exclusive on Famitsu's website and now available in paperback. It shows the events of DR1 from the POV of the killers and victims, so it's not a straight adaptation. Apparently there are also several DR2 manga adaptations, ranging from straight adaptations to "what if" scenarios. Pretty cool overall.

http://www.hypable.com/2013/03/04/the-legend-of-korra-season-2-grey-delisle-reveals-additional-roles/

A few crumbs of new information about The Legend of Korra season 2 have come out of this past weekend’s Emerald City Comic-Con. Voice actress Grey DeLisle (the memorable voice behind Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s Princess Azula) attended Emerald City Comic-Con, and mentioned to a lucky fan that she would be voicing three characters in The Legend of Korra season 2. In addition to her role as the still-mysterious “Dark Spirit,” DeLisle will provide the voice of “the younger version of an established character” who was the victim of a traumatic event. (No information was given as to the identity of DeLisle’s third character.)

I really like "asshole" as an insult; it's just so equal opportunity.

@Monkey:

Of course the apocalyptic scars of immigrant ethnic networking have….oh wait all those groups are near perfectly comfortable in the US now. Europe needs to just study US history real close honestly lol.

Look man, I went to get a haircut at one of those $5 places, and all of the women there were speaking in Vietnamese. What if they were talking about me???!?

(As an aside, I hate it when people just assume you can't speak English. ugh)

@wolfwoof:

Yeah that probably is part of it. The Iranians are usually highly educated and by and large the most chilled out immigrant group.

Where as the Kurds are lower on the rung and pretty damn militant about remaining Kurds foreeeeeeever. At any cost

To be fair to the Kurds, closing yourself off is probably a natural reaction when you've been the target of genocide in the recent past. I know Turkey and Iraq especially have had issues with doing terrible things to their Kurdish population. Not that this excuses being shitty to others on account of race and gender issues.