Buzz Rickson's Black N-1 Deck Jacket

Early in 2003, best-selling novelist William Gibson released a groundbreaking new book, PATTERN RECOGNITION. This absorbing and masterfully crafted novel is set in the period immediately following “9-11”, featuring a high-tech., super-hip, cyber-chic, anti-fashion sophisticate, Cayce Pollard, as the heroine. Brilliantly woven within the many pages of cutting-edge prose Mr. Gibson has crafted is the one object more valued by Cayce Pollard than any other she owns – the Black Buzz Rickson’s MA-1 Flying Jacket.

Judge sentences rap music fan to Bach, Beethoven

A defendant had a hard time facing the music. Andrew Vactor was facing a $150 fine for playing rap music too loudly on his car stereo in July. But a judge offered to reduce that to $35 if Vactor spent 20 hours listening to classical music by the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin.

Vactor, 24, lasted only about 15 minutes, a probation officer said.

It wasn't the music, Vactor said, he just needed to be at practice with the rest of the Urbana University basketball team.

'I didn't have the time to deal with that,' he said. 'I just decided to pay the fine.'

[via Audio Porn Central]

On Parched Farms, Using Intuition to Find Water

Phil Stine is not crazy, or possessed, or even that special, he says. He has no idea how he does what he does. From most accounts, he does it very well.
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'Phil finds the water,' said Frank Assali, an almond farmer and convert. 'No doubt about it.'

Mr. Stine, you see, is a 'water witch,' one of a small band of believers for whom the ancient art of dowsing is alive and well.

How Do YOU Run Delta Green?

From the blog of Delta Green co-creator Dennis Detwiller...

For thirteen years, tens of thousands of intrepid Agents have ventured into the unknown world of Delta Green. We’ve watched with paternal enjoyment from the sidelines, eager to see what groups around the world with different play styles made of our creation. Our responses have run the gamut of human emotion. We’ve been pleased, frightened, stunned and just plain confused and what we’ve seen come back.

Before we get into the meat and bones, let me say upfront, the following is not a judgment on your play style, only an attempt to set straight some rather strange misconceptions which have arisen around the game over time. It comes from the question all of the creators have been asked many, many times: how do YOU run Delta Green?

Eden Tampa goes clothing-optional as residents wait for condo management to tell the naked truth

File this under interesting living conditions.

First off, Jon Rosenstadt and Sam Christian want you to know they aren't prudes. The tattooed and pierced Hillsborough Community College students get naked just like the rest of us -- showers, sex, what have you. Hell, the 20-somethings have even skinny-dipped once or twice in their lives.

And another thing: They like their apartment complex, and they like their neighbors.

They just don't want to see them naked.

That seems to be the prevailing opinion of the young apartment dwellers I talked to while visiting Eden, the newly renamed and much-buzzed-about condominium complex near Westchase. Formerly the Arbors at Branch Creek, the complex is morphing from family-oriented apartment units into a 'South Beach-style' condominium with a nude pool. The current residents are sure of that much, but the rest of their questions -- Will we have to move? When will the pool open? Can we break our lease? -- remain unanswered.

RPG Review

An interesting new online RPG zine.

RPGReview is a resource for role playing and simulation gamers, covering table-top, live-action and computer moderated games.

We offer a free journal every quarter, a club listing, mailing lists. We also have a number of second-hand RPGs available for sale.

Priest stabber inspired by Da Vinci Code

A 25-year-old man who tried to kill a priest by stabbing him in a Rome church has told police that he did so after the watching the film 'The Da Vinci Code' and believing himself to be the anti-Christ.

A Dark Secret Revealed in Astonishing X-Men

Daredevil: Enter Lady Bullseye

While Matt Murdock has spent much of his career as Daredevil being something of a romantic ladykiller, this month he's going to meet one lady who's actually out to kill him.

On September 24, DAREDEVIL #111 introduces Lady Bullseye into the Man Without Fear's rogues gallery, but while the assassin may share a name with DD's most infamous foe, her origins stretch beyond simple villain worship to the sai-slinging psycho.

Saving money on coffee just like Grandpa: Folgers targets broke coffee drinkers - WalletPop Blog

If anything is the fuel that runs the dorky machine it woulc be caffeine. And for many, that caffeine comes as coffee. So, what's a coffee drinker on a budget (or one who doesn't like Starbucks over-roasted beans) to do? Simple, Folgers wants you to drink the coffee that your grandfather drank. Theirs obviously.

The best part of waking up hasn't been Folgers for a decade or more. With Starbucks making gourmet coffee ubiquitous and boutique coffee roasters brewing ever-more-delightful java, Folgers is stuck in grandpa's mug. My brother-in-law and I give each other grimaces behind my dad's back when we drink the home brew at his house, and I've been known to bring my own beans when I'm visiting.

But grandpa is getting on now, and consumers looking for ways to save cash turn to their daily coffee beverage so often that saving $4 a day has a name: The Starbucks Factor, or the Latte Factor, depending on your brand loyalty (or lack thereof). But Folgers, Maxwell House and the even lesser-known competitors make their coffee from the ultra-cheap and inferior 'Robusta' beans, in contrast to the 'Arabica' beans used by upscale coffees. Robusta beans thrive at lower altitudes and produce far more beans per plant, and have twice the caffeine of Arabica beans; but their flavor, according to coffee connoisseurs, is extremely inadequate. How could a discriminating coffee drinker be persuaded to switch to Folgers, without creating a price disadvantage?