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Set in the near future the exploits of gun sharks (hitmen) Finnigan "Finny" Sinister and Ramone "Ray" Dexter in the city of Downlode, sprawled across Central Europe "like a hit and run victim". Occasional stories have taken place in other cities, or off planet. The size of Downlode is never specified in the strip, but it appears to stretch from Spain to eastern Europe. The appearance of the city largely depends on the artist of the particular storyline, often it appears to be styled after the former soviet bloc, with many statues and wide boulevards, plus dilapidated cars such as Trabants and VW Beetles. However in other strips the city looks clean and futuristic, like Mega City One. The story "London Town" shows that London and Great Britain still exist separate from Downlode.
In early strips the police used hover-cars with "Polizei" written on the side, however more recently they have been seen driving generic saloon cars resembling Ford Crown Victorias. These are painted in a similar way to the cars of the LAPD and have DCPD written on them. Sinister and Dexter themselves drive a 1950s Edsel, this started out as a hardtop but in the story "Alibi Of Broadway" had its roof torn off and was re-built as a convertible. This car is frequently crashed into things or shot at but somehow is always repaired perfectly in time for the next story. Hover Car technology seems to exist too, and in some stories appears to have been retrofitted to old cars such as Checker Cabs. Advanced robots are occasionally seen in the stories, but appear to be very rare, and are usually controlled by humans and are unable to think for themselves. Some characters also have several cyborg implants, including Ramone himself who has a "Fony Headcase" television implanted into his eyes. In one story a malfunction in this temporarily gave him the ability to see in infra-red and detect a small hole in a crime-bosses' personal forcefield (referred to as a very rare and expensive technology).
The atmosphere of the stories suggests a time of economic recession, with many references made to sophisticated army hardware being sold off to the highest bidder, usually criminal gangs. Additionally many strips feature the city looking worn and run-down even in "rich" areas. In the story "Mother 'Lode And The Red Admiral" it is mentioned that Korea has developed cold fusion and become the world's richest nation.
Ramone uses a pair of "Ruger Nines", often drawn a silver 9mm pistols, or occasionally as revolvers. Sinister uses a "Minigun" which is nothing like the real-world minigun. In most stories it resembles a small pump-action shotgun and can fire different kinds of bullets, including high explosives. In other stories (with different artists) the gun looks like a large double-barrelled revolver or a small machine pistol.

In early stories the duo work as freelance hit-men, taking contracts from their "fact-totem", a PDA-like device, and killing people for money. The kingpin of crime in these early stories is Holy Moses Tanenbaum.
Eventually a large price is put on the head of Holy Moses himself, expecting Sinister and Dexter to take the contract he sends hit-men to kill them, after killing these they decide to take the contract, as their reputation would dictate they have to take the toughest jobs. After a battle which results in the duo both being nearly killed Holy Moses is killed and the person who put out the contract is revealed to be his wife, Demi Octavo.
A brief period of gang violence follows as various gangs attempt to take control of the city's underworld for themselves. Eventually The Czar, moblord of the Russian mafia calls a conference of gang leaders in an attempt to resolve the situation and hires Sinister and Dexter as security for the meeting. During the meeting, Sinister and Dexter discover that, naturally, every single gang has made plans to assassinate the other gang leaders. After these are fought off The Czar reveals "himself" to be a robot double outfitted with a close-focus nuke in its chest cavity. With the gang leaders dead The Czar is able to take over the underworld for himself.
Following the gang-war, Sinister and Dexter are hired by an accountant working for a Mr Bronsky "Ballpeen" Hammer as protection to 'expedite' the handover of the year-end accounts. The rendezvous between the accountant and Mr Hammer's men in Fred Quimby Municipal Park is violently interrupted by the Department of Taxation, causing the "Infamous Audit Showdown of '66". As a result of the carnage, Sinister and Dexter decide to take a holiday and The Czar recommends that they visit a nightclub in Asbestopol known as the Bawdwalk. At the club a pair of hired muscle known as Buddy Boom and Buddy Bing are threatening the club owner, Kilopatra, so Sinister and Dexter step in to help him and scare off the heavies, thus picking themselves up a holiday job.
Kilopatra sends the pair off to pay a visit to local mob-king Philly O'Fisch, as it was he who sent the two heavies after Kilopatra. Sinister and Dexter kill the two Buddies and warn Philly off Kilopatra under threat of taking one of the many contracts that Philly has on his head. When they return from this job, the run into Demi Octavo who is at the nightclub under a pseudonym, she tells the pair that the word spread that she was the one who put out the hit on Holy Moses Tanembaum so she decided to escape Downlode. The Czar suggested that she head to the Bawdwalk, which convinces Sinister and Dexter that The Czar has set them all up.
The pair invade Philly's island lair and kill him and all of his minions and return to Downlode to take out the Czar using a giant, cyborg alligator that ticks. After this, Demi Octavo takes over as mob-queen and hires Sinister and Dexter as her personal guardians.
Stories from now on generally revolve around them protecting her empire, though occasionally they also take contracts from other people. During this time Demi's kid sister, Billi Octavo, decides to become a Gunshark, but a misunderstanding results in her killing some respected city dignitaries. During the ensuing police chase Sinister explains the unwritten "Gunshark Code" that they never kill cops or "innocents". Later Billi hacks into the police database and finds the dignitaries she killed where actually guilty of "perverted" crimes and it had been covered up. She released this data to the media and the police where forced to abandon the hunt. It is also revealed most rank-and-file police officers actually support Gunsharks, because they only kill other criminals which results in less criminals overall.
Later Dexter begins to see visions on his "Headcase" TV which suggest he is a wanted serial killer, the Blemvoi Butcher. It turns out the actual killer also has a "Headcase" and the signals have got confused. The Butcher lures the pair and two police officers, including the "by-the-book" Tracey Weld, into a trap. Dexter kills the butcher and this eventually leads to his becoming romantically involved with Weld.
Later Demi Octavo is killed and the city once again descends into turmoil. During this time the pair "train" another Gunshark, Kal Kutter.
Another mob boss, called Apellido, begins to take over the city and sends a huge squad of "bullet monkeys" (inferior but cheaper gunsharks) after Billi Octavo. Sinister attempts to get her out of the city but the other hitmen are chasing the two. Meanwhile Dexter is with Detective Weld when he hears the news and rushes out of the house with his guns drawn. By chance he is seen by a police officer who tells him to freeze, before going to get out his handcuffs. Dexter misinterprets this as the officer going for his gun and kills him, thereby breaking the gunshark code. He escapes but doesn't get very far before being surrounded. Fearful of being tortured in prison a standoff ensues, and he is eventually shot by Weld. Sinister is last seen speeding out of the city, with a wounded Billi octavo in the car, still pursued by the bullet monkeys.
The story line at the end (over the instalments "...and Death shall have no dumb minions" and "Festive Spirits") seemed to suggest that the deadly duo where both dead. However, this didn't stop some one-page "gag strips" from appearing.
This issue has now been addressed in passing as part of the twist in the, initially apparently unconnected, series Malone. The "Festive Spirits" story, in which both appeared as skeletal zombies who where apparently ignored by their old friends, is hinted at merely being one of Malone's dreams.
After surviving the showdown with his boss, Apellido, Sinister changed his face and took drugs to try to forget his past, fleeing offworld to Generica. It wasn't until Rocky Rhodes told him of his true identity that he returned to Downlode City to get revenge on Apellido making sure he knows that he's now alive. It was also revealed that Ramone also survived the shooting but was rendered quadriplegic.
Sinister allowed himself to be captured and was sent to the same prison as Ramone, with a plan to escape. After enlisting the help of two other prisoners, he executes the breakout and escapes with Ramone in a wheelchair. Heading to an old doctor friend it is revealed Ramone has been kept immobilised by an implant in his spine. With this removed, and surviving an attack by another Apellido hit-squad, the head for a run-down lockup. There Sinister stashed the Edsel and their old guns. They collect these and drive back into Downlode to again work as gunsharks, bringing the series full circle.

Finnigan Rapunzel Sinister, is Irish hitman and known to be superstitious. He is also married.
Ramone Algonquin Winnibago Dexter is Spanish and is known to be a "fashion guru" and womanizer.
Associates include:
Satan Brink (Deceased), fellow gunshark and street fighter from Tasmania
Anopheles Bunkum (Deceased), former police detective
Floppy Dick (Deceased), a friend of the hitmen
Billy Fix, a Tourettes sufferer in Download Penitentiary
Wendy Go, Rocky Rhodes' wife and barmaid at the Bar None
Carrie Hosanna, Finnigan's wife and fellow gunshark
"Nervous" Rex Monday (Deceased), snitch and friend to the hitmen
Billi Octavo, younger sister of Demi and friend to the hitmen
Demi Octavo (Deceased), girlfriend of "Holy" Moses Tannebaum and former crime boss
Rocky Rhodes, a former cop and friend, owner of the Bar None
Lizzy Solemnis, a singer on the planet Generica
The Surgeon, a surgeon for the criminal underworld
Clayton Tushman, Sinister & Dexter's Lawyer
Tonto Vega (Deceased), a Sioux Indian and wannabe gunshark
Tracy Weld, a rookie cop and Ramone's girlfriend
Deakus Whisk, a bank robber in Download Penitentiary
SteamPunk Willy, a former gunshark whose brain was encased in a total body prosthesis.
Kal Cutter, former student of Sinister & Dexter
Major villains include:
The Apellido Mob:
Apellido, current Crime Lord of Download City
Ronko, Apellido's chief enforcer. Described as being "like the bog roll: Rough, abrasive and hard on everyone's ass". Killed by Dexter.
Lars Maybach, Apellido's chief banker
Charlie Bigelow, one of Apellido's enforcer
Chevy Brakes, a minor enforcer
The Mover's Mob:
"Holy" Moses Tannebaum (The Mover), first Crime Lord of Download City. Was killed by the duo on the orders of Demi Octavo. Recently, an another "Holy" Moses revealed himself to be "The Mover"
Miss Deeds, The Mover's assistant
John Croak, his Second-in-command
Cane Broadus, Kal Cutter's partner in crime
Telemachus Gore (Deceased), corrupt cop and former Crime Lord/Marshal
Serge, a gangster on the planet Generica

Hold On

you keep your distance i can't deny you i've got
the feeling can't satisfy you i've got your
picture on the wall i got the picture, long gone
you keep your wishes i'll keep my feelings there
goes another one that kept me breathing i'm
waiting for you i know your leaving i still adore
you you never leave me hold on, i found another
way to let you go away hold on, you found another
way to bleed my soul away the things you told me
to hear you speak i'm burning slowly i'm growing
weak you bring me closer to yesterday yesterday's
a million miles away why can't you hear me? why
can't i sleep and i don't understand what keeps me
breathing i'm waiting for you i know your leaving
i'll still adore you you'll never need me hold on,
i found another way to let you go away? hold on,
you found another way to bleed my soul? away

I hate sobering up, its just shit! Why cant I just stay drunk instead of having to drink again to get drunk again?

Crystal Clear

The night sky was crystal clear and all the stars were out. it was absolutely beautiful. i could see my breath. it was colder than we had been used to. There was a definite chill in the air. Sweat ran down the side of my face and I started to shiver.
Eyes take a long time to adjust in darkness. The cones in your eyes enable you to see in the daytime, giving colour and perception. But theyre no good at night. What takes over then are the rods on the egde of your irises. They are angled at 45 degrees because of the convex shape of the eye, so if you look straight at something at night you dont really see it, its a haze. you have to look above it or around it so you can line up these rods, which then will give you a picture. it takes 45 minutes or so for them to become fully effective, but you start to see better after 5. And what you see at first and what you see five minutes later are two very different things.

In my psyche theres 2 dice, and each day when I wake they are thrown.
This is my theory.

A revolutionary challenge to the widely held notion that intelligence is a single general capacity possessed by every individual to a greater or lesser extent.

helps to explain how and why different people seem to learn in different ways and possess different skills and talents.

But that idea having been formed, it is rarely carried forward save by the most innovative of teachers and thinkers. Why does a person, for instance, remember particular teachers from elementary or secondary school days rather clearly, while others not at all?

Potential Isolation by Brain Damage
This establishes an autonomy of the function of a particular kind of intelligence from others, thus helping demonstrate uniqueness and separation.

The Existence of Idiot Savants, Prodigies, etc.
That certain kinds of intelligence can be highly developed in some to an extraordinary level also helps demonstrate uniqueness - for instance, rarely is the musical genius likewise a genius in all (or even many) other intellectual areas.

An Identifiable Core Operation or Set of Operations
There must be something that the intelligence processes or does in a particular way differently from others - for example, we process mathematical information and linguistic information in different ways.

Distinctive Development History
Intelligence, even if gifted naturally, has a development line that can be traced from earlier to later proficiency.

Evolutionary History and Plausibility
Intelligence can evolve to higher levels (this is readily seen in science and mathematics); likewise, intelligence can be lost in different arenas.

Experimental Data Support
Intelligences can be isolated and studied - linguistic and spatial abilities are often used as experiments easily documented.

Psychometric Finding Support
While the IQ test is hardly the final arbiter, there are ways of materially charting the relative state of intelligences of people in comparison with one another.

Susceptibility to Symbolic Expression
Intelligences should have a means of symbolic expression and transmission - linguistic intelligence can use words spoken and written; musical intelligence can use written and sound symbols, etc.

Linguistic Intelligence
Musical Intelligence
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
Spatial Intelligence
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
Personal Intelligence

Most of these items are fairly clear - we know that linguistic intelligence involves language, words, speech, and the understanding and use of such tools. Similarly, logical-mathematical intelligence is fairly well understood. It is on the basis of these two intelligences that most of Western academics is founded and evaluated - even the primary measuring instruments such as SAT tests recognise the difference between mathematical and linguistic abilities by separating out those tests and scoring them differently.

Musical intelligence is likewise understood. It is an intelligence people can tap into for enjoyment even if the sophisticated understanding of theory is not present, unlike the main part of logical-mathematical intelligence.

Spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences are sensed by athletes, dancers, and others who use their bodies in ways that exceed normal abilities. These are intelligences that are closely related. A quarterback or a ballet dancer needs to have both an awareness of body motions and abilities as well as sense of the space involved for the action. However, these are separate intelligences. An architect may have a great sense for spatial requirements and have no real bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.

It involves an ability to interact with others and with oneself. Perhaps Einstein is a classic example of a savant in logical-mathematical intelligence while being impaired in the personal intelligence arena - not having a good sense of himself and his relationships with others, with time, with place, etc. Religious leaders and diplomatic persons tend to be high in this intelligence.

A hunter needs good bodily-kinesthetic abilities as well as good spatial abilities honed to a high degree. City-dwellers tend to need linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities to a higher degree.

`As compared with hundred or even thirty years ago, talk about the development of intelligence, the realisation of human potential, and the role of education is very much in the international air.'

The ways in which all kinds of intelligence, including the very-difficult-to-teach personal intelligence, can be cultivated. First is the requirement of recognition of different kinds of intelligence and the ways in which students respond. In my theology class, we had students who were divinity students, counseling students, and church music students. To have required the same pattern of assignment for each of these groups would have been unfair. So, one person turned in an audio tape as accompaniment for her theology paper. Another student framed her theological discussion in terms of a counseling session. These permitted the students to tap into their stronger intelligences while still learning what was valuable from the basic course materials.

We all function in our own way. We are all different but the same.

I love where I come from. 2 memories spring to mind where words simply cannot express emotions I have felt when returning home.
One was when the van broke down on the m62 it was raining so much water got into the engine, the rain was so heavy the windscreen wipers did nothing. The electrics went there were no lights and now no wipers. The traffic was halting to a still, people in their vehicles were consciously aware of the chances of an accident increasing. We pulled over through fear of death.

Ever imagined what its like going on holiday without travel insurance then suddenly find yourself falling off a roof?

Then out of nowhere the rain stopped the van sorted itself out and we were half an hour away from liverpool. the sky was just beautiful.
Coming back to Liverpool is just undescribable, its like what you imagine a city behind a waterfall to look like. I dont get homesick but the feeling of being on your way back to your soil can make any problem seem unimportant.
A Big open vast road with pink and orange heavens, the rainswept tarmac reflecting paradise straight back up.
I can remember the plane back from Amsterdam. This sheet of cloud below as I looked out the window broke. Not many people may have seen what I did or felt like I did when I did. (lots of I's and dids there wtf)
The stereotype of a grey rainy depressing England do not exist in my mind, well not Liverpool anyway. The only way I can describe it is an Imeopian Paradise, and ofcourse when youre under the magnifying glass life gets bland. But my whole personna was altered. I couldnt imagine how someone like me could find life more beautiful, but I do a little more every day.
Since I started on a high I guess I can end on a bitter note like the lemon after a short of tequila.
My chest aches for the people who see no beauty or hope in the world, for those people who institutionalise themselves (is that even the right word or context??)
Basically dont seal yourself off from the world and stop looking at your feet! Im sure your shoes arent that awesome anyway.
Life is beautiful, stop fighting it and enjoy.

silly boy

You think you know me
after all these years
But I always knew you were like this.

It was hot and I started to sweat and stink. I felt tired mentally aswell as physically. So many things were running through my mind.
It worried me because we had no control over it: We'd just have to sit there and hope for the best. I've never liked it when my life was in somebody else's hands.

A thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for his graduate students. It had one question:
"Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof."
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially.
Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities.
#1 If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
#2 Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Therese Banyan during my GCSE years, "That it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then #2 cannot be true, and so Hell is exothermic.
The student got the only A.