So…

I need something that is mildly convincing to explain the following scenario (mildly only, it’s far future and I can fudge quite a bit as the tech isn’t the main point): a combat drone incapacitates its targets through some kind of electromagnetic frequency that burns away specific areas of the brain. I need my targets to be upright and more or less mobile by the end, which is why I don’t want to fry away the entire brain/the body. Target can be as stationary as needed; drone can be assumed to have all kinds of nifty equipments that will enable it to generate any kind of wavelength (we’ll worry about miniaturisation later).

Basically, I need pointers, because I don’t really know how to start researching this…

Thanks in advance!

So…  I’ve now finished reading How to Eat by Nigella Lawson, and I have a bit of a dilemma. I love Nigella Lawson’s style and her no-nonsense approach to cooking; and her advice and general tips, but… but the book itself has very few recipes I can use, mostly because so much of what’s in it requires either milk, buttermilk, cream, and/or alcohol, none of which my digestive system can bear (I do butter and cheese fine, and small quantities of milk in pastries that are well cooked, and that’s about my upper limit). Does she have any later books where the reliance on these ingredients isn’t as important? I got the impression that one of her later books (can’t remember which one?) drew a bit more from South and East Asian cooking? And Nigellissima is Italian food?

So, as you might know, I have a panel at Eastercon on TV shows we’d like to see but haven’t, and I notoriously lack imagination for that sort of thing (I mean, the only things that come to mind is something with a decent main female character who’s not a Strong Female Who Still Needs to Be Rescued by Men cliché; and a female POC Doctor Who…). But judging by all the interest when I bitch about Sherlock, I’m pretty reasonably sure that some of you have got strong ideas on this 🙂

Therefore, I’m throwing the question(s) out for collective brainstorming:

What don’t you like about current TV shows? What shows would we like to see made but probably won’t be?

Thanks in advance!

So… I’ve fallen in love with a particular tea (it was a gift). Insofar as I can tell (remember I can’t read Japanese, and it’s a direct import), the brand is Harada, and it’s their Yabukita blend of green tea–you can see the box here. It’s got a light, refreshing taste, and it quenches thirst quite effectively. So far, so good. Trouble is… I haven’t been able to find this particular tea here.
I’m therefore hunting for a substitute.

Am I right in thinking a good grade of Sencha tea from Japan would taste about the same, or am I completely off-base? I haven’t been very impressed with the one variety of Sencha that I bought, but it was definitely the cheap kind (google tells me that Yabukita is a particular category of sencha, but I haven’t been able to find Yabukita either).

In an effort to widen my reading habits, I was looking for examples of novels with well done non-Western futures (“well done” varies depending on your mileage, of course, but mostly what I wanted was books where the main characters didn’t feel like Europeans with slightly different names and better costumes).

I have read (and enjoyed) China Mountain Zhang, River of Gods, Brasyl, most Octavia Butlers (the Xenogenesis trilogy, the Parable duology, and all the Patternists) and am eyeing The Dervish House, Midnight Robber, the David Wingrove Chung Kuo series, and Who Fears Death.

Any others I should know about? Thanks in advance!

Is there a special name for the pane of glass on the front of an airplane (the one in the cockpit, where you can see where the plane is going), or am I just looking for something that doesn’t exist?

(it’s not quite for a plane, it’s for a spaceship, but for the life of me I can’t figure out the word)

Thanks in advance!