Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Student tries to make roadkill pretty

The important thing to remember is to always wear gloves when handling road kill. Road kill is pretty.

Student tries to make roadkill pretty
For the past several weeks, drivers near Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville have been noticing odd things about some of the roadkill on the sides of the area's highways.

Some of the dead possums and raccoons have been dressed in pet or human baby clothes and have had their claws painted with nail polish. The carcass of a deer has been adorned with gold paint.

The culprit is SIU-Edwardsville graduate art student Jessica May, 24, of West Lafayette, Ind.

In an interview with the Belleville News-Democrat, May said she is not an animal rights activist; she is just interested in seeing if people would give more thought to the animals if they were somehow given human attributes.

'I think this is my way of slowing down and paying homage to these animals,' she explained. 'I don't particularly find it offensive, but I understand why some people who don't understand what I'm doing could find it that way.'

May, a 2006 graduate of Purdue University, said she takes precautions in dealing with the carcasses.

'I wear gloves,' she said. 'I don't know that I could touch it with my bare hands, because by the time I find them, they're pretty far gone.'

Monday, May 07, 2007

Diplomats of the Abenaki Indigenous Nation

News of the weird, indeed.

Diplomats of the Abenaki Indigenous Nation
Two months ago, police in Trenton, N.J., arrested four men in separate incidents who fancy themselves 'diplomats' from the Abenaki Indigenous Nation and claim immunity from the laws of the 'so-called planet Earth' (and, by the way, of Mars and Venus, too). One allegedly possessed an unidentified 'controlled substance,' while the others drove cars with made-up 'diplomat' tags. The four showed no ostensible ties to the Abenaki Indigenous Nation, a tribe in North America since the 17 th century and still in the northeastern United States.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Ancient Vatican library to close

It sounds like someone found something in the library that they don't want outsiders to know about. With digital copies it makes it much easier for librarians at the Vatican to cleanse the books for public consumption.

What truth was accidentally discovered in the Vatican's Library?

Ancient Vatican library to close
One of the world's oldest libraries, at the Vatican, is to close for three years for rebuilding, in an unexpected blow to scholars around the world.

The decision to shut the library was made without warning.

After the library closes for its summer break in mid-July, it will not reopen until September 2010, the Vatican says.

The reason is that some buildings constructed only a quarter of a century ago are now considered unsuitable for the safe storage of ancient books.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Alumni get nasty surprise as UW opens time capsule

Also included, an unopened letter to Linda Ronstadt and a magazine with a picture of Ted Nugent on the cover.

Just keeping the world a bit stranger.

Alumni get nasty surprise as UW opens time capsule
As they cracked the capsule Thursday afternoon, University of Washington research team members expected to find a prim and proper package from the nifty 1950s.

What they got was a faceful of pornography, circa 1978, and dirty underwear.

The older, tamer items -- snapshots of men with crew cuts, reel-to-reel recordings of School of Communications alumni cracking wise -- still lay in the steel box, as they had since the capsule was sealed into the wall of the then-new Communications Building in 1957.

But they had company. Erotic, irreverent company.

Sometime in the early 1980s, the pranksters -- unknown as yet -- laid a pornographic centerfold atop the pile, and added other odd and obscene mementos to the mix. That was the image that greeted researchers, when they opened the capsule in preparation for a dinner Thursday evening with alumni who packed the original.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Tom Moldvay RIP

From Jeff's Gameblog:

Tom Moldvay RIP
Tom Moldvay, 58 passed peacefully into his next adventure on March 8th 2007 . Tom was a game designer and author most notable for his work on early materials for the fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). As an employee of TSR, Inc., he authored or co-authored many landmark D&D adventure modules. During the early 80’s when home computers were not prevalent, Tom was creating thought provoking games that stirred the imagination and were played by thousands of enthusiasts across the country. The Classic Rulebooks and Player’s Handbooks written by Tom had been in print for several years and played so intensely that many gamers had them practically memorized. Odds were that if you’d played a published adventure, most likely you were a fan of Tom Moldvay. Most of those early modules achieved classic status, some of them being collected and reprinted again and again in the years that followed.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Tom graduated from Mayfield High School and went on to receive his Masters degree in Anthropology from Kent State University.

.. Preceded in death by parents Thomas and Selma Moldvay and sister Jody Brown

Tom is survived by his sister, Rebecca (David) Welner of Akron, nieces and nephews, Lauren Welner, Dave Welner, and Kurt Brown Jr.

Toms wishes were to be cremated without a formal service.

Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. Hunts the Supernatural

I find this to be a very surprising choice. Maybe it's just because I don't watch the show but this choice of a license just surprises me. It isn't that I doubt the gameability of the setting, it just seems an odd choice as a license to pursue.

It isn't like this "genre" isn't popular among gamers. I think that the apparent popularity of White Wolf games like Hunter or mortal campaigns using the new World of Darkness rules demonstrates that there is an interest in this sort of gaming. Time will tell.

I notice that DC Comics is named as an involved party. I wonder what their part in these things is?

Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. Hunts the Supernatural
Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. has reached an agreement with Warner Bros. Television and DC Comics to produce role playing game products based on the hit television series, Supernatural.

'We like role playing games that feature a great mix of character, action, and story,' says Margaret Weis, New York Times best-selling author and game publisher. 'Supernatural delivers on all three, and the show's premise is perfect for games. The show is like a new horror movie each week, and now we'll be bringing that experience to the game table.'

Supernatural is a hit television series that airs Thursdays on the CW Network, and is produced by Warner Bros. Television in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision, with executive producers McG ('Charlie's Angels,' 'The O.C.'), writer/executive producer Eric Kripke ('Boogeyman'), Robert Singer ('Midnight Caller'), Kim Manners ('The X-Files'), and John Shiban ('The X-Files'). The show follows two brothers, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), as they hunt ghosts, demons, and other things that go bump in the night. The Winchesters drive a black 1967 Chevy Impala across America, discovering dark secrets wherever they go.

Jamie Chambers, author and designer of the best-selling Serenity Role Playing Game, is very excited about the project. 'My grandmother raised me on ghost stories, monster tales, and local legends,' he says. 'Supernatural struck an immediate chord with me from the first episode and I'm a big fan. I want to really bring the feel of the show to our game, including the attention to folklore, a dash of humor, and a classic-rock soul.' Chambers is leading a team of writers and designers to create a game where players can become hunters of monsters— either taking the role of the show's characters or creating an entirely new monster-slaying group.

The role playing game will offer an exciting game experience, as well as serving as a thrilling companion product for fans of the show. The game will make use of the Cortex System rules created for the Serenity Role Playing Game and the Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game (also produced by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.). The first product will be a Quickstart Guide, which will provide a preview of the game, including introductory rules and a short adventure. The next release will be the Supernatural Role Playing Game Core Book, a self-contained collection of rules and source material that will contain everything a group needs to start playing. Additional products will follow the release of the core product. The entire line will be supported by an interactive website.

More information will be released in the near future with further details about the upcoming line of Supernatural role playing game products.

About Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.
New York Times best-selling author Margaret Weis continues to lead her company into carefully selected ventures in book and game publishing. The company has enjoyed great success and won multiple awards including an Origins Award (Gamer's Choice for Best Role Playing Game in 2006) and the Gen Con EN World Awards (Best Production Values). Recent successes include the Serenity Role Playing Game and the Paths of Doom series of adventure fiction. The company will be announcing several new exciting initiatives in the book, card game, board game, and role playing game categories over the next few months. Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. is based in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the birthplace of hobby roleplaying games.

About Supernatural

Supernatural is now in its second season, and is one of the CW Network's top five series, and its second highest-rated scripted series in all key male demos, trailing only veteran drama Smallville. It stars Jared Padalecki ('Gilmore Girls,' 'House of Wax') as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles ('Smallville,' 'Dark Angel') as Dean Winchester, and was created by Eric Kripke. Twenty-two years ago, Sam and Dean lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. In the years after, their father John raised them to be soldiers. He taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America... and he taught them how to kill it. Supernatural is a Wonderland Sound and Vision production in association with Warner Bros. Television and airs Thursdays on The CW.

SUPERNATURAL ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

What's That Glow?

When someone posted a link to a Google Map of this on one of the mailing lists that I am a member of, I knew that there had to be a post to be gotten out of it.



Thankfully Google Earth allows you to export images, so we have this picture of "The Glow" from Purmerend, Holland.

I think that it is a secret launch site, a homemade rocket base waiting for the go signal so that some home owner can launch themselves into the depths of outer space. Or, perhaps in an even more sinister manner, it is a landing site. Perhaps they didn't think that the satellite sweeping overhead could be accessed by something as mundane as a random Google user who would spread this all over the internet.

Regardless, this is the start of an adventure for any number modern day RPG scenarios, from super-heroes to horror to conspiracy. Now that you have the first piece....what comes next?

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84

Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as 'Slaughterhouse-Five' and 'Cat's Cradle,' died Wednesday. He was 84.

Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.

'I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations,' Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists.

A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater as transparent vehicles for his points of view. He also filled his novels with satirical commentary and even drawings that were only loosely connected to the plot. In 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' he drew a headstone with the epitaph: 'Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.'

"Ghost Rider" creator sues over copyright

The creator of Ghost Rider has sued Marvel Enterprises, Sony Pictures Entertainment and several entities over what he claims is an unauthorized 'joint venture and conspiracy to exploit, profit from and utilize' his copyrights to the comic book character.

Gary Friedrich and his company filed the 61-page complaint April 4 in federal court in Illinois claiming 21 violations based on the production and marketing of Sony's recent 'Ghost Rider,' starring Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes. Friedrich claims the copyrights used in the film and in related products reverted from Marvel to him in 2001.

The defendants include Sony's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, producers Relativity Media, Crystal Sky Pictures and Michael De Luca Prods. as well as Hasbro Inc. and Take-Two Interactive.

Friedrich alleges copyright infringement, and accuses Marvel of waste for failing "to properly utilize and capitalize" on the Ghost Rider character. Marvel's attempts to do so, Friedrich claims, have only damaged the value of his work by failing to properly promote and protect the characters and by accepting inadequate royalties from co-defendants. Friedrich also claims that toymaker Hasbro and videogame firm Take-Two have improperly created merchandise based on the characters.

Friedrich created the character of Johnny Blaze and his alter ego Ghost Rider in 1968. Three years later, he agreed to publish the character in comic books through Stan Lee's Magazine Management, which eventually became Marvel Entertainment.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Doctor Is So In!

This adaptation of Dr. Strange into a TV movie in the seventies even embarrassed Stan Lee.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Monday, March 26, 2007

Comic Artist Marshall Rogers Dies

This is a great loss to comics. To me, Marshall Rogers is one of the definite artists for Batman.

Comic Artist Marshall Rogers Dies
Comics have lost another luminary. Details are still sketchy, but word came earlier today that Marshall Rogers died yesterday or Saturday. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Rogers was born on January 22nd, 1950 in Flushing, New York.

From “DC Profiles #26” which appeared in 1978 (courtesy of the Marshall Rogers Fan Site):

Of all DC's rapidly rising new stars, Marshall Rogers' ascent has been swiftest of all. In less than a year, Marshall has gone from back feature artist to first-stringer on Detective Comics and Mr. Miracle.

Marshall almost didn't make it to comics. His studies in art school concentrated on architecture, but after two years of studying designing parking lots and shopping centers, Marshall decided 'the world wasn't ready for another Frank Lloyd Wright' and left school seeking fame and fortune in the comic field.

Unfortunately, the comics world was not yet ready for Marshall Rogers. For the next two years, he worked in a hardware store while doing occasional illustrations for mass circulation magazines and sharpening his artistic skills.

Apparently, those two years did the trick. Marshall broke into comics, landing a stint pencilling for Marvel's Britain weeklies.

Not long after, Marshall showed up at DC Comics, portfolio in hand, and was given his first assignment: a two part Tales of the Great Disaster story for Weird War Tales. That was followed by some mystery stories, a Tales of Krypton piece and a four part feature in Detective Comics featuring a new villain named The Calculator. His work on the latter led Editor Julie Schwartz to hand Marshall a real plum for a newcomer: pencilling the book length Batman versus the Calculator story in Detective Comics. What came next surprised even Marshall. The powers that be assigned Marshall to Detective as the regular penciller. And he almost immediately picked up the art chores on the newly-revived Mr. Miracle book as well.

'What I try to do,' Marshall told DC Profiles, 'is first think of what's been done before and then I discard that and try to approach it from a completely different angle.' After looking over Marshall Rogers' work, we'd have to say he's found his different angle.


Beginning in the late 1970s, Rogers’ career covered many different characters, Rogers is best known for his Batman work when collaborating with writer Steve Englehart. The two first worked together on the character in Detective Comics #471-#476 (inked by Terry Austin), and for years, their version of the character was considered to be the definitive one – a dark, brooding hero who stayed to the shadows and flowed with a natural grace.

An architect by training, Rogers' work always stood out for its attention to detail, from the cityscapes of Gotham and articulated (and realistic) muscles of the heroes, to the different techniques he would employ, from bold blacks and zipatone to a wide array of others.

Rogers work was seen in many other comics from the major publishers including brief runs on DC's Mr. Miracle, Marvel’s Silver Surfer, and Dr. Strange as well as a wide variety of independent titles: Detectives, Inc., Coyote (again with Englehart), his own Capt. Quick and the Foozle, and Scorpio Rose.

Rogers left comics for a period in the early ‘90s to work in videogames, but returned later in the decade, where his work was seen in projects such as Green Lantern: Evil’s Might and most recently, Marvel Westerns: Strange Westerns Starring The Black Rider, and Batman: Dark Detective, a continuation of his and Englehart’s story from Detective Comics two and a half decades earlier. The two were reportedly considering a third installment of the larger "Dark Detective" story.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Blood From A Geek

Well, I guess that's one way to feed an addiction. I've heard of table top gamers over here in the States selling blood so that they could buy game books, so I guess this is the progression of that. At least it s going to a good cause.

Blood From A Geek
An online game operator has demanded that banned players donate blood to be allowed back into the game. Moliyo, which runs a 3D massively multiplayer online game in China, made the demand after banning 120,000 players who attempted to hack the game.

More than 100 players had already signed up to exchange half a litre (1 pint) of blood for game accounts. The company has also offered free accounts to ordinary players who give blood.

According to the announcement, the players must attend a public blood donation drive in the city of Nanjing tomorrow afternoon. Locked accounts will be reopened within 3 days.

Chinese hospitals have had increasing difficulty attracting blood donors in recent years after scandals in which thousands of donors and blood recipients contracted HIV, the virus which causes AIDS. Blood donors in China are usually paid about 12 dollars per donation.

The Green Hornet Coming to Theaters

I guess that I'll believe it when I see it. At least this one has a better chance of getting made, since the previous attempt at a Green Hornet movie was keelhauled by Kevin Smith's anxiety over doing such a large budget movie.

Of course the question that remain is: Does the Green Hornet, as a property, really have that much juice when it comes to the movie going public? Sure, there will be a hard-core geek following, but we've already seen more than once that just isn't enough to keep a movie up and going at the box office.

Only time will tell, but still I will wait until I see that the project has gotten past the pre-pre-development stage before I start to think that this might actually happen.

The Green Hornet Coming to Theaters
There's a new buzz in Hollywood: Columbia Pictures is bringing comic-book hero The Green Hornet to the big screen.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Arnold Drake: 1924-2007

The man who created my all time favorite team of comic book super-heroes (The Doom Patrol) and one of the coolest super-heroes ever (Deadman) has died. Another of the greats of the old days is gone. This is a sad day.

Arnold Drake: 1924-2007
He wasn’t as well known as say, Bob Kane or Siegel and Shuster, but if you read DC Comics produced in the ‘60s and up, you surely read some of the work of Arnold Drake, who died today, after a short bout of “a touch of pneumonia” and other complications for which he was recently hospitalized. News of Drake’s death came via writer and comics historian, Mark Evanier.

Though his comics writing career spanned thousands of stories and pages, fans will likely best remember Drake as the creator of Deadman and The Doom Patrol, as well as Stanley and His Monster.

Providence: Following the footsteps of a horror icon

I received this link from a couple of different people. Obviously someone thinks that I would be interested in a Lovecraft tour.

Providence: Following the footsteps of a horror icon
Horror writer H.P Lovecraft so identified with this New England city that the headstone on his grave reads: 'I AM PROVIDENCE,' a phrase taken directly from one of his letters.

The author, now viewed as one of the great horror writers of the 20th century, grew up near Brown University. Some of his best-known works are set in the colonial homes near downtown Providence, and his grave is in a historic city cemetery.

A visit to Lovecraft's hometown is a must for American culture buffs and fans of the author of 'At the Mountains of Madness,' a famous novella about a doomed archaeological expedition. Visitors can stroll the same streets where Lovecraft imagined stories about dormant gods returning to torment or annihilate mankind.

Several Lovecraft walking tours are being offered March 17-18 along with a 'Pulp Uncovered' festival, March 15-18, that will include discussions of the writer's legacy. The events coincide with the 70th anniversary of the writer's death. The tours will be led by the Providence Preservation Society and the Rhode Island Historical Society. The festival is being hosted by Brown University's Public Humanities Program.

But you can also do a self-guided tour of Lovecraft sites.

'It's amazing how many of the sites he described in his stories still survive in Providence and are in better condition now than in his day,' said Lovecraft biographer and archivist S.T. Joshi, who is expected to speak at the 'Pulp Uncovered' event. 'It's very much as Lovecraft knew it, so when you go there you are stepping back to his time.'

Doctor Who Serial Title Generator

Doctor Who Serial Title Generator

Emprint from RPGnet has created this cool title generator. It also creates titles that would work really well for Pulps.

Whispers From the Abyss: On the Subject of Horror

Ben Monroe's got a new blog, and his first post is about the crap that are called Horror films today.

Whispers From the Abyss: On the Subject of Horror
And that brings me to the point. Horror films today are basically porn. Seriously, think of the fundamental relationships between a 'romantic comedy' film and your average porn movie. The romantic comedy is about the relationship between the characters. It's about the emotional resonance created by the interaction of two people. Porn is about the act. Nothing more, nothing less.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Serbian vampire hunters prevent Milosevic come-back...With A Stake

I see this as the plot seed for a Hellboy game:

Serbian vampire hunters prevent Milosevic come-back
Serbian vampire hunters have acted to prevent the very remote possibility that former dictator Slobodan Milosevic might stage a come-back - by driving a three-foot stake through his heart.

According to Ananova, the politically-motivated Van Helsings, led by Miroslav Milosevic (no relation), gave themselves up to cops after attacking the deceased despot in his grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac. Milosevic popped his clogs back in 2006, while on trial in a UN war crimes tribunal for various unsavoury activities connected with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

It Was 'Elf Defense' (Just Spelled With A 'C' Instead)

Well, at least this time it is Shadowrun.

It Was 'Elf Defense' (Just Spelled With A 'C' Instead):
A man accused of a stealing underwear from a shop in a knifepoint raid believed he was a female elf at the time, Belfast Crown Court has heard.

Captain America Dies on the Page

Well, since Bucky isn't dead any longer I don't think that Cap should really have all that much to worry about. If you ask me, it is just a gimmick to sell books. I wonder if "Reign of the Captain Americas" is going to follow and a "World Without Captain America."

Captain America Dies on the Page:
Captain America has undertaken his last mission at least for now.

The venerable superhero is killed in the issue of his namesake comic that hit stands Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported. On the new edition's pages, a sniper shoots down the shield-wielding hero as he leaves a courthouse.

It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941. Over the years, some 210 million copies of Captain America comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc., have been sold in 75 countries.




Stephen Colbert weighs in on the topic:

Monday, March 05, 2007

Internet Hammer Enterprise - Review: True20 Companion

Here's a review of the upcoming book in Green Ronin's True20 line, the True20 Companion. This toolkit will help GMs be able to fine tune their True20 games.

Internet
Hammer Enterprise - Review: True20 Companion

Green Ronin’s True20 Companion, the toolkit of a book for Narrators, has finally been released in PDF form, and enterprising Narrators with desire to tinker will find plenty of goodies in the 128-page sourcebook. The five-chapter book begins with a chapter on role creation, allowing for expansion of the three heroic roles in True20 Adventure Roleplaying. Following that, the remaining four chapters address custom rules, additional material, and other extras for the “major” roleplaying genres: fantasy, space, horror, and modern adventures.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Pretty Hate Campaign

Ok, I admit it...I am probably falling for the viral marketing around Year Zero, the new release from Nine Inch Nails that is supposed to be coming out in April. The leaked MP3s that I've heard have sounded pretty good to me, and the weird websites and strange marketing is tickling my weirdness bone.

I want to come up with a game around these concepts, this is obviously a "for fun" type of thing. That plays off of some of the ideas. Check out the link, even if it is to the MTV.com website, because it is an interesting story.

Pretty Hate Campaign
A dystopian civilization in the throes of extinction. A government poisoning its own citizens through the drinking water. Military police raiding private residences. The end of civil liberties. The creation of a Church-State. Mind control.

The contents of some conspiracy theorist's personal manifesto? The plot of a rote first-person shooter? The results of a quick jaunt through Snopes.com? Actually, it's all part of the elaborate (and somewhat terrifying) concept behind Nine Inch Nails' upcoming Year Zero album (due April 17), details of which are currently being disseminated through a series of increasingly spooky — and downright odd — Web sites.


I really think that an alternate reality game model, married with a very light ruleset would let this sort of game really rock. Particularly if you could work people from other parts of the country (or even the world) into things, so that you could more fully flesh out the world and play than you can in an ordinary RPG.

This is just something that I am thinking of right now. Maybe something will come of it, maybe not.