The new stories can't "ruin" her books any more than they were already ruined. Rowling was a character author. Her grasp of plot was weak at best. Much of her story is contradictory and drawn out. She peaked in Book 3, and after that it was a mixture of annoying, baffling, redundant, and "Please just end it…

The pack is an Ogio "No Drag" Mach 3 backpack. The LED strips are just off the shelf LED kits that they sell in skateboard shops for lighting up longboards. I got red and blue, but they sell yellow, green, purple, white and other colors so there's room for preference. The top grill is a 6" raised speaker vent bolted…

Yup. It has the 'eastern spur' up there, and like in the book it looks like that's where Jackson has the men being trapped by the Goblins until the Eagles come and allow them to join the main battle in the valley. When the Eagles arrive it supposedly frees up a few bastions of men and elves to join the fight, but…

Thanks. :) I was going for a sort of "iProton Pack" look. Sleeker, more refined lines, and in business black.

No - Bilbo was awake for at least half of the battle. He was involved from the point where the Goblin vanguard came into the valley and was trapped by the attacks from the elves from one side and men & dwarves on the other. He was still there when the main goblin army arrived and started driving the allies back. He…

The argument that "Gamergate is broken. Give it up" is the argument of a coward and a bully. What you people are saying is, "I don't want to engage in a difficult, uncomfortable, nuanced discussion - so I'm just going to claim an entire group of people is wrong because of the actions of unrelated extremists. It's…

Uh - the fight in Gondor took almost a third of book one of Return of the King. The Siege of Gondor... The Battle of Pelennor Fields... And parts of The Pyre of Denethor and The Houses of Healing to boot. The Battle of Five Armies had half of a chapter to itself, as well as significant parts of the next chapter…

All the people saying, "Organic was never about taste or nutrition... It was always about the ENVIRONMENT" are full of crap. The organic food movement for years and years bragged that organically grown food was more nutritious, better for you, and better tasting.

Away with your facts and science and other things that rain on the Green parade! :) Seriously, you're in the wrong website to talk common sense, facts, and science. The folks here are mostly Environmental Koolaid chuggers that really believe Solar power is getting "cheaper" because they went to a left-wing website,…

And in other big news, "Scientists figure out that Human beings must breathe oxygen to survive!"

Depending on how ambitious you want to be with your "mouth hole" solution, you could mount a speaker behind that part and go for some sort of amplified solution - so to speak. You've got plenty of real estate to work with. :)

Anything Firefly gets bonus internet points.

Nice use of an air-conditioner/furnace filter there ... Dave...

I salute you as another person who built a Proton Pack on the cheap using stuff from the hardware store. :) I used an Ogio backpack, some old parts from a computer power supply, and a couple LED strips from Amazon, along with a plumbing flange and an old speaker grill. As you say, include a power screwdriver and it…

Nice. And Boba Jr. just makes it better.

That's pretty good. The LEDs will be the icing on the cake. LEDs make any costume better.

That's good work. Nicely done.

This is my "Ghostbusters 2.0" costume. Since the show is 30 years old now, my thinking was to take the costume into the year 2014 with a few updates. The belt gear is close to the movie with an updated radio, and the Proton Pack is redesigned. And I - of course - went for the sleeker all-black look.

"Topsy turvey"? Pht - crap like this is happening in the real world right now. Today.

Not saying every case he had was airtight, but Columbo typically put together enough evidence at least for a solid indictment. And when you get someone into a court, a good lawyer would be able to work with it. Most of the stuff in court TV (such as Perry Mason) relied on the same sort of stupid confessions from…