Femme Fatale

Content of the "Dangerous Woman" anthology (as per Wikipedia):

1. “Some Desperado” by Joe Abercrombie (The First Law) -- In the wild west, a desperate woman is chased by bounty hunters into a derelict town and still manages to come out on top of the situation.
2. “My Heart is Either Broken” by Megan Abbott -- A husband suspects his eccentric wife of their daughter's murder, but the truth turns out to be worse.
3. “Nora’s Song” by Cecelia Holland -- A story about princess Eleanor and her observation on the royal household of Henry II of England and (future) Richard I.
4. “The Hands That Are Not There” by Melinda Snodgrass -- A lieutenant in a dystopian future hears about a conspiracy theory about an alien race capable of genetically altering humans.
5. “Bombshells” by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files) -- A young wizard's apprentice finds herself caught between warring factions and must race against time to save a vampire.
6. “Raisa Stepanova” by Carrie Vaughn -- World war II Russian fighter pilot with an ambition to become an ace. The tale of the Russian resistance and her plight are interwoven with her own struggle for recognition.
7. “Wrestling Jesus” by Joe R. Lansdale -- Two wrestlers become spellbound by a woman and continue to wrestle each other even after retirement on the unspoken condition that the winner gets to keep the woman.
8. “Neighbors” by Megan Lindholm -- In a scenic suburb of Seattle, alzheimer's disease changes the way of life for elderly women. A bit of magic and time travel are thrown in for good measure.
9. “I Know How to Pick ’Em” by Lawrence Block, a contemporary crime thriller Femme fatale crime story with a twist.
10. “Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson (The Cosmere) -- In a forest inhabited by supernatural evil beings called shades, an elderly inn-keeper turns bounty hunter at night.
11. “A Queen in Exile” by Sharon Kay Penman, chronicling a little-known episode of late 12th-century Sicilian history -- Constance of Sicily, goes to great lengths to secure the support of the people for her son, (future) Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
12. “The Girl in the Mirror” by Lev Grossman (Magicians)
13. “Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress
14. “City Lazarus” by Diana Rowland
15. “Virgins” by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander), an 18th-century Scots mercenary adventure
16. “Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherrilyn Kenyon, a present-day Native American ghost story
17. “Pronouncing Doom” by S. M. Stirling (Emberverse), a "hanging judge" tale set "in a postapocalyptic America devastated by plague and machine failure"
18. “Name the Beast” by Sam Sykes
19. “Caretakers” by Pat Cadigan
20. “Lies My Mother Told Me” by Caroline Spector (Wild Cards)
21. “The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens” by George R.R. Martin, a tale of "continent-burning warfare" that explodes between Targaryen Princess Rhaenyra and her stepmother Queen Alicent, set in the Westeros of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, 200 years before the events of A Game of Thrones

A deniable way of agreeing with people

"You might very well say that, I couldn't possibly comment." -- Francis Urquhart

First

Asturias

Doing Better

"Doing better next time. That's what life is." -- Logen Ninefingers (Before They Are Hanged)

Wisdom by Homer ... not the Greek

"Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try" -- Homer Simpson in "Burns' Heir" (1F16)

Back to the Future: Firefox's Download Manager

Another unwanted, unrequested change in Firefox, was the change of the download manager in Firefox 20. All of a sudden, the downloads immediately stops if the internet connection stops, and of course cannot be resumed properly after the connection has been restored .. thanks for nothing. To get back the old UI and behaviour, change the configuration in Firefox (about:config):

• browser.download.useToolkitUI = true

Restart Firefox afterwards and you're good to go.

And of course I am still unhappy about the UI changes and the frequency of the updates, but that's another story.

Interview with Richard Branson

Richard Branson - Chairman of the Virgin Group:

I particularly liked the statement by Branson, that they offer more than the people expect them to do. That's the way to distinguish oneself from the competition.