Mashell @ 26 -
Not to hijack a thread, but why all the hate on Scientology? They seem nice enough. Sorry to appear stupid, but everone seems to take it as given that they are evil and I am wondering why.
Scientology on W*k*p*d*
Operation Chanology
(WP links because they're easy and safe to get to at work)
Matthew Ernst @ 20 -
Teresa @15: "any respectable site will have a mailbox"
Respectable site? Where?
More seriously, what official communications method could exist that some other "legitimately aggrieved" organization would not have already reached through to grab a notional Person-in-Charge by the short hairs?
Oh, for crying out loud.
4chan is owned and run by moot. moot is, in fact, contactable - he's been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and Time - it would be difficult for them to get ahold of him if he were not contactable.
The idea that one of the largest broadband providers in the country cannot get in touch with the owner of one of the most popular image boards in the world (according to Alexa) is patently ridiculous.
Abi @ 667
Gaming:
My impulse is to go with AD&D because I did once understand it quite well. I strongly suspect that it will all come back. I think I'll look at the free dungeons Mike McHugh linked to.
It is very possible to pick up most of the original D&D books (in used, and sometimes - but not always - somewhat shabby, condition) fairly cheaply - I've been looking at various sources*, after having found some in a local used book store, just to run a classic dungeoncrawling type adventure of the nostalgic kind.
Our printer does graph paper, Imperial or metric, and ruled paper, wide or college, at the push of a button. No computer required. It's handy.
That's a reasonably awesome piece of functionality, if a little weird for a printer manufacturer to include in the printer "BIOS".
*My rule on acquisitions has been that I will not spend more on re-buying any D&D book than I spent buying the book in the first place, rounded to the nearest $5 mark - which means in most cases my limit is about $15. I've seen several DMGs and what-not that meet my criteria, and I've already got enough modules I've picked up cheaply to keep folks running for a year or so. I figure I've got a little wiggle room - I found a near-mint copy of Deities&Demigods - the first printing with the Elric and Cthulhu mythos included - for $7 - collectors routinely pay $30 on up for that edition, and usually not in as good condition.
Bruce Cohen @ 638 -
Several of the games were very 3-dimensional in layout, and drawing multiple levels on ordinary graph or quad paper was not satisfactory. On a trip to one of the chain office supply stores for photo print paper and ink, I found pads of 30° isometric-ruled paper, which works very well for drawing multiple levels on a single sheet and showing the inter-level connections clearly. I imagine it would work nicely for sections of dungeons with high inter-level connectivity.
This is, in fact, exactly the process TSR used for some of their more complex modules - the first one I recall seeing it used in was Ravenloft (back when it was a singular module about a pretty blatant Dracula homage, rather than an entire mist-shrouded plane of evil dudes and dudettes). They also suggested this technique in the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, around the same time - the example was a natural cave system, with all sorts of chutes and elevation changes.
It's a very useful process, but can be time consuming, especially when you're trying to visualize in your head not only what you want things to look like when drawn out on a battle mat (for figures), but also trying to keep things straight on the paper in terms of not overlapping too badly.
(I usually used 10/inch or millimeter quadrille paper for dungeons, the dual-grid kind, with the darker blue markings every inch or centimeter).
Abi @ 578
The 8 year old is asking about Dungeons & Dragons. We have rulebooks (2nd Edition DM Guide & Player's Manual; 4th Edition Player's Manual, assorted Monster Manuals), and I did run games back in high school.
But what I remember is how much bogging work it was to construct a dungeon. Doing that as a way to get back into the games seems even more tiresome.
So I went to Amazon, hoping I could find pre-made dungeons, but there aren't any.
What the heck happened? Where could I just, you know, go buy a dungeon? Any ideas?
You can still get a lot of the old TSR modules on ebay, etc. - and Wizards of the Coast has a number of them online (I can bring up the URLs when I get home).
3rd edition, with the OGL and D20 license, resulted in a huge amount of material - including adventures - being generated, but WOTC has had a sea-change of opinion in recent years, and the current licensing scheme is... bad, to the point of being akin to the various "we'll make you famous if you pay us a lot of money" publishing houses bad.
WOTC is producing adventure books for 4th edition, although far fewer than they used to, and Amazon's search engine is making it hard to find them.
I will say that 4th edition makes it a lot easier to set up dungeons - they have dungeon tiles that make room set up easy, and the 4th edition monster manuals have a lot of advice built into them about how to set up encounters with those monsters.
(I'm a huge fan of the dungeon tiles - they are high quality cardstock, double-sided, and most are designed to be multi-use).
debcha @ 67 -
Of course, the general feeling that these movie was made by boys, for boys, wasn't helped by the choice of casting Winona Ryder (b. 1971) as the mother of Zachary Quinto (b. 1977), opposite Ben Cross (b. 1947). I mean, WTF? Like there are aren't any talented female actors between 40 and 60?
They may have been trying to emulate the difference in age between Sarek (b. 2165) and Amanda (b. 2202) (married 2223 - she was just 22, to his 58), rather than between Amanda and Spock (b. 2232) (amusingly, the age difference was reversed in TOS actors - Mark Lenard was 14 years younger than Jane Wyatt).
They have a Chili (chilly) festival in nearby Chili (Chai-Lai)...
James Macdonald @ 120 -
In case of zombie attack you don't need a shotgun, you need a chainsaw.
Any ful know that.
Now, now everyone knows you need a shotgun and a chainsaw to deal with the Restless Dead...
...Just Ask Ash.
:-)
Fragano @ 71 -
Scott Taylor #27: Michelle Malkin is already blaming "uncontrolled immigration" for the swine flu, thank you. She's also extremely angry that Democrats have dared to point out that Republicans stripped out funding for pandemic prevention from the stimulus package.
That figures.
(the rest of this missive deleted as unprintable in a paper suitable for dockside bars, let alone polite company).
Elaine @ 32 -
Scott @27 The anti-vaxxers are already blaming flu vaccination as a possible cause, not withstanding the 1918 pandemic.
Not surprising. Stupid f**kers.
Spiny Norman @ 25 -
Bassguy @18: as someone who has spent a *lot* of his career at the bench working on the molecular bases of microbial pathogenicity, I think that that allegation is preposterous and foolish.
While IANAMB (I am Not a Microbiologist), from a security and newshound standpoint, I would need to see a whole lot of verifiable information to treat that allegation with anything more than "shyeahh, right" levels of disbelief. (this is not a reflection on you, Bassguy).
"Narcotraficante Cartels" are the new Terrist in the eyes of our media overlords - a real problem, rapidly being blown into the Source of All Evil in the world - but, in terms of effective weapons in a drug war, a bioweapon has to rank about five grades below Harsh Language* in terms of how useful they're going to find it, versus the amount of hellfire and brimstone it will bring down on their heads when discovered.
I suspect the Usual Suspects are, naturally, going to blame their Usual Suspects for the outbreak, especially if it gets bad - homophobes will be sure teh Gays have something to do with it, Glen Beck, et al, will blame (probably is blaming, the stupid shit-eater) illegal immigrants, there will be Very Earnest Young Marxists on the street corners informing us that it is All A Government Plot, etc.
But, really, we seem to go about forty years between pandemics - the last really bad influenza outbreak was Hong Kong flu, back in 1968. So, statistically, we're due.
And this one looks like it's been caught pretty early (for certain values of "pretty early" - first cases apparently reported in March). So who knows? It's likely to be worse than Avian ended up being (because it already is), and maybe worse than SARS (which had only 8 cases in the US, but over 700 fatalities worldwide) - but that leaves a whole wide range of bad before we get to Spanish Flu level bad, let alone the "empties the cities" levels that the survivalists will doubtless be expecting.
*(at least with harsh language, the dude on the other side of the street might get so enraged about what you called his mother that he forgets to look both ways while crossing the street to kill you that he gets flattened by a cross-town bus, or something. And that would look like an accident).
FungiFromYuggoth @ 96 -
On another note, Japan is apparently using sensors to check people's temperatures at Narita airport. Science fiction meets disease control.
They were doing this in Hong Kong during the SARS epidemic as well, AIR.
Well, time to double-check the "oh shit" pantry... :-(
This thread's current exchanges makes me want to watch Hot Fuzz again.
(sigh)
Should have just kept my fucking mouth shut. I should have known better.
Okay. I'm out. Adios.
Dave Bell @ 792 -
ajay, it's the magic of full auto.
As used by The A-Team on TV. You know, it scares folks, but nobody actually gets shot.
Because, as you know Bob, it's been ever so easy, since the passage of the National Firearms Act and the Hughes Amendment, it's been ever so easy (and cheap!) for American gun owners go get their hands on fully-automatic or burst-fire firearms.
Perhaps you should not base your assumptions about American gun laws on TeeVee?
I'd rather have an SMLE and know how to use it.
Because, as you know, Bob, everyone who uses a semi-automatic firearm is, in fact, a gung-ho moron with no concept of breath control, fire control, or sight picture.
And if you want "intimidating" just fix bayonets.
Given that I'm basically not allowed, in NYS, to own a modern firearm with a bayonet lug, I'll stick with my evil black rifle if, god forbid, I ever have to do "intimidating" beyond what my naturally ugly visage can imply.
Besides, most folks - including those with military training (and myself) - know as much about actually using a bayonet in combat as they do about using an arming sword - if I have to use an OKC-3s, I'm not only in big trouble, I'm going to use it as a knife, not stick it on the end of a rifle. I'm actually less likely to hurt myself that way.
Ajay @ 790 -
No, actually, I should. It is NOT perfectly normal to be planning for a situation that would require you to have a rifle and two thousand rounds of ammo in the house. What on earth are they expecting, the Night of the Living Dead? Rorke's Drift? The Somme? Two thousand rounds? LRRP patrols don't carry that much, and they're supposed to be dropped a hundred miles into enemy territory! They're expecting to fire until their mag runs dry, reload, fire until dry again, reload, and so on sixty times and the enemy will still be coming? Most armies lose impetus after suffering 25% casualties; so you're expecting, assuming you're a decent shot, that you, personally, with your rifle, in your suburban home, are going to be attacked in brigade strength? Have you irritated some medium-sized nation recently or something?
Unwarranted assumptions alert!
You need to rethink some things in your think -
1 - why are you presuming they intend to utilize all of that ammunition in one go?
2 - why are you assuming they intend to utilize all of that ammunition in engagements?
3 - what are the logistics and price point breaks around purchasing ammunition in the US?
Reconsider.
Lee @ 768 -
Scott, #761: Re gun/ammo shortages -- much of that is happening because of the likes of Limbaugh continually pumping out the Big Lie that "Obama is going to TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY!!1!111!" Which means that a lot of it is going to exactly the kinds of people whose ownership of guns worries me the most: gullible, emotionally hair-triggered, and heavily influenced by hate radio.
umm....
No. Not really. Honest. Most of the folks that I know have bought guns (as first-time or near-first time owners) in the last six months (or are planning to near-future) range from the vaguely libertarian to the somewhat progressive (but not gun control advocates) in political outlook.
Most are younger (late 20s - early/mid 30s), vaguely urban/suburban, and the only reason they would listen to Limbaugh, Beck, or the like would be to laugh or marvel at the stupid.
Look, there are people pumping the "ZOMG Gun Controlz!" message. No doubt about it, and a lot of it is going on on message boards and forums (and even some surprising ones - democraticunderground, for example). Yeah, you've got freepers and wannabe-Operators berking out and scooping up the most lo-pro "optimal combat" profile guns they can get their hands on, along with hundreds (in some cases) of magazines, and thousands (tens of thousands, in some cases) of rounds of ammo.
But, really, they aren't the majority of gun buyers. Not even close - there just isn't enough money in those demographics to cover the massive numbers of firearms that are being sold (firearm sales in large retail outlets - which accounts for only one leg of the firearm retail industry are up 39% so far this year). We're talking literally about probably hundreds - of millions of dollars in gun sales alone - and likely the same again in accessories and even more in ammunition sales, so far*.
The crazy (by Liberal/Progressive, if not DSM IV, standards) whackjobs for the most part already have guns - they might be buying another couple, or a bunch of ammunition, but they aren't - for the most part - single-handedly trying to overwhelm the entire gun and ammunition manufacturing industry - there just aren't enough of them, and most of them just don't have that much money.
A lot of the purchasing is being done by Joe and Jane Democrat, and Sam and Sandy Republican. Ordinary folks, who, for various reasons and combinations of reasons, have decided they need a gun. Some of it is "panic" buying - but given the rhetoric promulgated by some (many?) gun control advocates - it is really that surprising?
*(DPMS, if they sell only their currently listed pre-orders - not counting the guns they've already sold this year, or any future sales for the year, just their current pre-orders - at an average cost of around $1200 per rifle, will clear 120 million dollars in gross revenue this year - not counting non-gun sales)
Ajay @ 763 -
761: the spike in gun orders is at least in part due to "he'll take our guns!" paranoia among the camouflaged classes...
Partially. There's a number of reasons why gun purchases have increased so dramatically (so much that the BATFE has run out of NICS 4473 forms at least once in the last four months or so) - a process that had actually begun before Barack Obama was elected, but certainly did ramp up into a fever-pitch after the election.
Part of it is "get it while you can", with the assumption that if another AWB is passed, the weapons will be grandfathered in (which is most likely the case - the SCOTUS really dislikes ex post facto law).
This impacts not just pre-existing gun owners, but new ones as well - gun store owners I've been conversing with have pretty much universally stated that a majority of their business increase has been new gun owners, or folks who might have a pistol in the house, or an old shotgun that dad left them, but haven't really been "gun owners" until now (some of whom are dropping thousands of dollars on multiple rifles, shotguns, and pistols at once).
(and this includes not just the "camouflaged classes" - perfectly reasonable (well, by my standards, anyways) folks have been operating under the assumption that the Obama administration will actually try to do what they say they're going to do in their election platform - which includes a new AWB).
Part of it is investment opportunities (hey, guns are going up in value - buy some now!) This, again, includes not just current gun owners, but new ones as well, although it's mostly current gun owners (like the bloke I know who has about twenty unfinished AR-15 lower receivers in a box that he bought right at the beginning of the craze - and has seen his ~$2000 investment at least double in the last couple of months, were he to sell them as unfinished lowers).
Note that there is some logic to this position - new-in-box firearms rarely go down in value, long term (you used to be able to pick up a semi-auto AK-47 for about $200 (maybe $250 inflation-adjusted) - now they are sometimes retailing for $600 or more, but that's a ripoff).
Part of it is economic uncertainty combined with a bit of post-millennial FUD - some folks are figuring they might want to have a SHTF rifle or two in the house, and a couple of thousand rounds of ammo each... just in case. Again, this is hitting both current and new gun owners.
Part of it is increasing awareness of the shooting sports.
And... are you paranoid if it really does look like they are out to get you? Obama's record on guns is (as a gun owner) pretty abysmal - this is unsurprising, given his political background (Chicago is one of the most profoundly anti-gun cities in the country - Berkeley isn't as anti-gun as Chicago). His SecState and AG are both anti-gun as well.
There have been noises from the White House and Congress that folks are not actually interested in pursuing major gun control initiatives at this time - but a new, permanent AWB is still on the various policy agendas on websites, and the rebukes of Holder and Clinton when they've spoken up about gun control have been lukewarm.
I get the feeling that gun control simply isn't a priority for Pres. Obama personally (one way or the other) - but it absolutely is for some members of his administration, and for members of the House and Senate (though not as many as some in the "camouflaged class" believe).
And I'm not at all certain that, if Carolyn McCarthy or one of the other rabidly anti-gun types in the House or Senate slid a rider into a bill that he believed he absolutely needed passed, that he would veto it because of the rider - despite the damage it might do in the next election.
Steffan Jones @ 720 -
There's something that Obama could do that would utterly infuriate the NRA...
It would?
huh. News to me. (long-time NRA member, gun club member, shoot at least once a week, introduced half-a-dozen folks to shooting in last couple of years, and probably four more next week).
More shooters means fewer people going "gunsrbad, mmkay?" when the topic comes up - whether they are NRA members or not. More shooters means that gun clubs aren't as likely to face near-continual attempts to shut them down. More shooters means that when someone carrying concealed accidentally prints while getting out of their car (or carries openly while stopping in the grocery on the way out hunting), they're less likely to have to deal with hurriedly called security and/or police. More shooters means that people are less likely to be fired for simply talking about shooting while at work.
The only thing that might infuriate current NRA members about more gun owners is that it would (short term, at least) get harder to find ammunition and firearms to buy...
...oh, wait, that's already happening. DPMS (one of the Evil Black Rifle manufacturers) was, last I checked (a couple of weeks ago) 100,000 rifles deep in pre-orders - and had been unable to make a dent in that number for almost a month - as fast as they get them out the door, new orders come in. They've already made as many rifles as they normally make in a *year*.
Ammunition is just as bad - not only are guns stores having problems keeping ammo on the shelves, even Big Box retailers like Wal*Mart are having problems keeping in stock on popular calibers.
I know shooters who have cut back on their competition shoots, because they can't afford match-grade ammunition in the amounts needed for shoots (60-100 rounds for CMP - with match grade running as much as .75-1.00 per round, and .50/round being a good deal), and the cheap stuff (cheap at .40/round, typically - I was overjoyed to find some good .223 ammo at .30/round at the last local gun show) hurts accuracy enough to make it non-feasible for actual competition.
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