Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Ongoing Campaign

The third segment of my ongoing campaign (quite some time since the last time)

The heroes had just vanquished a bandit camp terrorizing Stonedelve. The only clue they had found was a letter with dates and times stamped with a seal featuring a Red Tower. They continue their march north until they encounter a pregnant woman being plagued by two bandits. Both bandits were wearing an armband with the same Red Tower symbol as the letter that was found. They killed the bandits and save the woman who says her name is Shari. She says she was visiting family nearby and was now on her way back to Underbridge. But our heroes think she's lying, and they will later turn out to be correct. She decides that she will accompany them on the journey north.
Eventually they arrive in Fourstones where people have been going missing. During their stay Mercurios, the elven cartographer disappears. After a frivolous search the heroes find nothing except that men have been seen around the village at night wearing armbands. They depart the now named Four Slightly Smaller Stones to search for clues in the area, leaving Shari waiting in the inn. They eventually end up in Underbridge, without the pregnant Shari.
There they discover a city in trouble. Digger's Pass, invaluable for trade with the rest of Devalon, has been flooded and an emergency city guard has been razed of mercenaries under the command of a merchant named Neil Grater. The baron of Underbridge has taken ill and is no longer leaving his mansion. The son and daughter-in-law of the baron are gone to visit relatives far away, this effectively leaves the city in the hands of the questionable Neil Grater and a small contingent of Red Tower guards sent by the Steward of Devalon. The heroes are convinced of Grater's roll in all of it but cannot prove anything. After they meet him and mention a local inn keeper who has spoken out against him, they find the man's inn burned to the ground. Grater offers them stay at his inn, and showers the female party members with gifts. Unable to enter Grater's mansion or pay a visit to the baron, they decide to explore Digger's Pass. They not only find it trapped but also find Red Tower guards and Grater's sorceror, Gardon running an operation out of an abondonned segment of the tunnel network. They attack Gardon and the guards, capturing Gardon. He confesses that they have been using slaves that they kidnapped from neighboring village to dig in the tunnel in search of a mysterious gem.
They take Gardon to Grater's manion along with all of the slaves they freed and demand he give up. Grater reluctantly agrees and is taken into custody by the real town guards. They reunite the baron with his son and they are handsomely rewarded. The son then leaves after learning that his wife, Shari, is in Fourstones.
Our heroes bid their farewells and set off through Digger's Pass towards Devalon and the insidious Steward. At a brisk pace they arrive quickly at the capital and use the armbands from the captured Red Tower guards to disguise themselves. They report in and convinces the local guards that the bring a message for the Steward. They confront him with all that they have learned and he thanks them for stopping the plot in Underbridge. The Steward reveals that he knows who the adventures are and has heard of their exploits. He know wishes to hire them for a dire mission. He explains that he only sent the Red Tower guard to Underbridge to secure the gem hidden in Digger's Pass and that they misinterpreted his orders. The gem he seeks is one of five gems of power. It is through these gems that the gods manifest their power on the world. These gems have suddenly started evil, corrupting everything around them, including their guardians. The Steward already has one gem, the emerald of Maitri which was secured from a temple near Smallbank. The guardian linked to the gem regenerates daily and to prevent this from happening the emerald is kept in a special box. His only intention is to find the gems and perform the purification ritual. And he asks the heroes if they would find them for him. They agree, but only if they take the emerald of Maitri and all copy's of the book detailing the cleansing ritual. Right before they leave, they promise that after they will come back within two weeks to kill the Steward.

Answered questions:

Why is part of the woods near Treeshine and Stonedelve evil?
What happened to the guardian of the temple of Maitri?
Why did the giant's youths turn into ogres?
What is the mysterious gem and how is it linked to the salamander and the rest of the plot?

New unanswered questions:

What do the new dreams that the party has been having mean?
Why are the gems of power turning evil?
Where are they all hidden?
What is the goal of the Steward, is it as he says or is there more?
How much more is there to the legend of the gems?
Why is it that no one has found the gem in Digger's Pass when the location is so obvious?
What other mysteries does the tunnel network of Digger's Pass hold?
What happened to Grater and his men, is it safe to assume that they are gone for good?

Fatboy Slim vs. The Matrix

Some one put the Fatboy Slim song - Right Here Right Now onto the matrix lobby scene. Without any editing it turns out there's almost a perfect synch. Especially near the end...

Sinfest

Friday, February 22, 2008

Space Pen

Fact or Fiction?: NASA Spent Millions to Develop a Pen that Would Write in Space, whereas the Soviet Cosmonauts Used a Pencil

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Darth Vader Balloon

The only reason I post this is because it's bearing a Belgian flag. I usually wonder whose insane enough to buy/make these kind of things and apparently some of them live no more than 200+ km of me.

Industorious Clock

Pretty Cool

The 15 Biggest Screw-ups in Internet History

Found here

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Time Travel in Fiction

One of the better articles I've read about this subject.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Did You Know How These Names Came About?

Adobe - came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

Apache - It got its name because its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result was 'A PAtCHy' server -- thus, the name Apache

Apple Computers - favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.

C - Dennis Ritchie improved on the B programming language and called it 'New B'. He later called it C. Earlier B was created by Ken Thompson as a revision of the Bon programming language (named after his wife Bonnie)

CISCO - its not an acronymn but the short for San Francisco.

Compaq - using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a small integral object.

GNU - a species of African antelope. Founder of the GNU project Richard Stallman liked the name because of the humour associated with its pronuniciation and was also influenced by the children's song 'The Gnu Song' which is a song sung by a gnu. Also it fitted into the recursive acronym culture with 'GNU's Not Unix'.

Google - the name started as a jokey boast about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford grad students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'!

Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.

HP - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Java - Originally called Oak by creator James Gosling, from the tree that stood outside his window, the programming team had to look for a substitute as there was another language with the same name. Java was selected from a list of suggestions. It came from the name of the coffee that the programmers drank.

Source

Friday, February 15, 2008

Quote

Ray Bradbury: "We are an impossibility in an impossible universe."

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Australia

21 Questions about Australia you probably never wanted an answer to.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Home Computers

They've come a long way...

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Monday, February 11, 2008

George W. Bush's Resume

George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Past Work Experience

  • Ran for congress and lost.
  • Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
  • Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
  • Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.
  • With father's help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.

Accomplishments in Previous Positions

  • Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.

  • Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog-ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

  • Set record for most executions by any governor in American history.

  • Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my father's appointments to the Supreme Court.

Accomplishments As President

  • Attacked and took over two countries.
  • Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
  • Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
  • Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
  • Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
  • First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
  • First president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
  • First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history.
  • After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
  • Set the record for most campaign fundraising trips than any other president in U.S. history.
  • In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
  • Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in U.S. history.
  • Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
  • Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in U.S. history.
  • Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
  • Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in U.S. history.
  • Presided over the biggest energy crises in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
  • Presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
  • Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
  • Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
  • Dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
  • My presidency is the most secretive and unaccountable of any in U.S. history.
  • Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history (the 'poorest' multimillionaire, Condoleezza Rice, has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).
  • First president in U.S. history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
  • Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
  • First president in U.S. history to order a U.S. attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.
  • Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
  • Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in U.S. history.
  • First president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the human rights commission.
  • First president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the elections monitoring board.
  • Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in U.S. history.
  • Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
  • Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
  • Refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
  • First president in U.S. history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. elections).
  • All-time U.S. (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
  • My biggest lifetime campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
  • Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in U.S. history.
  • First president in U.S. history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
  • First president to run and hide when the U.S. came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
  • First U.S. president to establish a secret shadow government.
  • Took the biggest world sympathy for the U.S. after 9/11, and in less than a year made the U.S. the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in U.S. and world history).
  • With a policy of 'disengagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
  • Fist U.S. president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
  • First U.S. president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the U.S. than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
  • Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
  • Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated U.S. law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
  • Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive.'
  • Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
  • In the 18 months following the 9/11 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
  • Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in U.S. history.
  • In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the U.S. has ever been since the Civil War.
  • Entered office with the strongest economy in U.S. history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.

Records and References

  • At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available)
  • AWOL from National Guard and deserted the military during a time of war.
  • Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
  • All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my father's library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
  • All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
  • All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
  • Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
  • For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (they can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.)

Source: Kelley Kramer

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Creationism

Why Creationism is not Science.
An interesting read

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Lego


I've always liked these kind of tricks on the eye. But seeing it done out of Lego is just impressive...

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Vacuum

This guy really hates his vacuum cleaner...

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Telephone of Truth

I'm not sure why I posted this, I just felt compelled to do so...

Bread Kills

A shocking discovery

Monday, February 4, 2008

Mr. Welch

Things he cannot do during a roleplaying game:

10. Just because my character and I can speak German, doesn't mean the GM can.

49. Not allowed to blow up the Death Star before that snotty farm kid gets his shot.

87. There is no such thing as a dwarven katana.

90. My swashbuckling fop cannot take the flaw Dark Secret: Not Gay

106. I do not have weapon proficiency in cat.

112. If the gun can't fit through the x-ray machine, it doesn't go on the plane.

124. I cannot insert the words "Kill Phil, Sorry Phil" into any list of instructions.

136. I cannot start the 7th Sea campaign with 3 confirmed Drachen kills.

168. I was also not recruited by 12 dwarves and a wizard to rob a dragon.

171. My character's dying words are not allowed to be "Hastur, Hastur, Hastur"

417. The solution to all my problems is not Crinos.

Read the rest here

What Is Intelligence?

What is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me. (It didn't mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP - kitchen police - as my highest duty.)
All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so too. Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests - people with intellectual bents similar to mine?
For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.
Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron, and I'd be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.
Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?"
Indulgently, I lifted by right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, "Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them." Then he said smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many?" I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you." "Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn't be very smart."
And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there.

- Isaac Asimov

Abandoned wonders

7 Wonders abandoned during the fall of the Soviet Union

50 Things That Only Ever Happen in the Movies

Found here

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Examples of Play

A few stories to illustrate the true nature of role playing...

This would be funny, if I didn't recognize the situation sometimes.

Friday, February 1, 2008