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-   -   Real-Life Weirdness (https://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=38975)

Bruno 09-09-2008 08:11 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
And something for modern games in general:

Three Chinese men ...came across a lump of shiny metal in a scrapyard in Bishkek, in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, last year. Attracted by its shiny surface and its “gold sparkle”, they haggled the dealer down to a price of $2,000 (£1,135) for what both sides regarded as a treasure but neither could identify.

It was 274kg of depleted uranium.

Bruno 09-09-2008 08:20 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
OK, today is a goldmine of weirdness.

"A burglar who broke into a home just east of Fresno rubbed food seasoning over the body of one of two men as they slept in their rooms and then used an 8-inch sausage to whack the other man on the face and head before running out of the house, Fresno County sheriff's deputies said Saturday."

I really don't know what to make of it in a gaming context. Possibly a more surreal magical ritual. Possibly part of some extremely complicated scheme by an Illuminati group.

Possibly an attempt to "bait" two PCs into getting attacked by werewolves?

If nothing else, it's something seriously odd to have happen to your local Weirdness Magnet.

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/848554.html

jason taylor 09-09-2008 08:46 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Emperor Qin Shi Huang rigged a set of crossbows to open fire when his tomb was opened. That's not exactly weird in the sense of impossible. But it is almost to much like Cliffhangers.
I wonder if the trap still works...

Bruno 09-10-2008 08:54 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor
I wonder if the trap still works...
I'd find that highly unlikely in the real world. Even the terracotta warriors were in pieces (With the exception of one kneeling archer-figure which was relatively intact) and ceramics are much more resistant to aging than wood, metal, and bowstrings.

Of course, in a world were the crossbows could be alchemically preserved...

Also of interest are the 100 rivers of mercury that were said to flow through the tomb. These were probably mostly real, because the soil around the tomb area is quite high in mercury. Whether there were "100" or not of course is debatable.

They still haven't opened the tomb proper, but the whole complex was raided (and set on fire) by a general 5 years after the Emperor's death, so it's not exactly untouched.

Anthony 09-10-2008 11:56 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor
I wonder if the trap still works...
I doubt it still worked a year later, let alone now.

D-Man 09-11-2008 12:37 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
If you need ammo fir real-life weirdness just check out Coast to Coast AM (the Art Bell/ George Noory show).

If you have never heard of the show, check out the web site at http://www.coasttocoastam.com, and here is some additional information, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_to_Coast_AM.

They talk about everything "weirdness" on this show. Enjoy!!

Dennis

Blarg 09-12-2008 04:49 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices is full of adventure hooks. After all, everybody knows that [names of fraudulent medical devices or treatments] were really suppressed/sabotaged by the Secret Masters, especially the radioactive ones...

The "Radium Girls" died horrible deaths from exposure to radium used in phosphorescent paint. Many women survived such exposure, however.
What effects will this have on the PCs...err, their descendants?

Civilian Radiation Accidents

Anaraxes 10-03-2008 03:43 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Thousands of dead carp are floating belly-up in Clear Lake, littering its shores and fouling the air in what appears to be part of a nationwide die-off.

"There are carp die-offs all over the country," said Lake County Fish and Game warden Lynette Shimek. Newspapers are reporting massive carp kills in lakes in the United States and Canada.

The die-off began about a week ago, she said.

.. But fish officials became suspicious when only carp were affected, Shimek said.

The carcasses must be buried. By law, the landfill cannot accept them.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article...NEWS/810030357
What do the landfill guys know that we don't?

Quote:
They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary...lofcthulhu.htm
Quote:
Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/896.html

William 10-28-2008 06:24 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BBC
Although researchers can only speculate that domoic acid caused this historic event, modern toxicologists have conclusively linked the toxin to more recent cases. In 1987 contaminated shellfish poisoned 100 people on Prince Edward Island in Canada, killing three and causing many cases of amnesia. In 1998, 400 disoriented sea lions died along California's central coast — domoic acid was traced back to contaminated fish that swam through a toxic bloom before being eaten by the sea lions.
So... a seaborne poison that can cause amnesia, active in doses as low as what can be consumed in fish that swam through a tainted region.

Picture it: an island without memory. Hundreds of people, living off of the fish, clams, shrimp, and crabs, along with what they can sustainably gather of some seaweed, coconuts, and other plant foods. All of them, in various stages of memory fading out from months past, realizing that the same thing is happening on a regular basis to the entire population, keeping records and engaging in elaborate storytelling rituals to remind themselves who is related to who, and what the laws are.

And if a few outsiders should show up, and stay to observe for a couple of months, and partake of the diet, they find their memory fading too.

A whole society. Hundreds of people.

And one vegetarian.

RevBob 10-28-2008 08:13 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Sounds very familiar somehow....

William 10-31-2008 08:55 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
'Planet Mercury Covered in Strange Blue Substance.' Awesome headline, interesting real-life astronomical mystery, and definitely a line that'll grab you for a nice game of Tales of the Solar Patrol, or dealing with a bad alchemical accident in a Cabal game, or a Mythos horror establishing a base in our solar system...

William 11-08-2008 01:58 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYTimes
At the open house on Oct. 18, 1958, Tennis for Two proved to be a hit beyond Dr. Higinbotham’s wildest expectations. ... Though he may have regretted it later, Dr. Higinbotham never sought a patent for the game. His reasoning was that the game was not such a leap from the initial computer he had used. And the federal government, which finances the lab (Brookhaven National Laboratory), would have owned the patent. The notion of the federal treasury profiting from video games is intriguing.
It is, isn't it? 1958: Federal government takes out patent on electronic entertainment system. A penny of every quarter dropped into a Pac-Man goes to Uncle Sam... does it kill the videogame industry, or does it give the U.S. government a major business in Japan and every other industrialized nation across the globe?

RevBob 11-08-2008 06:08 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by William
'Planet Mercury Covered in Strange Blue Substance.' Awesome headline, interesting real-life astronomical mystery, and definitely a line that'll grab you for a nice game of Tales of the Solar Patrol, or dealing with a bad alchemical accident in a Cabal game, or a Mythos horror establishing a base in our solar system...
Frankly, I was more weirded-out by an article just one link away: Fungi Caught Having Sex in Humans

Anaraxes 11-08-2008 06:24 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
But what about humans caught having sex in fungi?

William 11-18-2008 10:45 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Mysterious Aurora Spotted On Saturn around its poles... this after strange hexagonal cyclones also observed there.

Something big is building up here...

Spudzill 11-21-2008 02:40 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Hexagonal cyclone? Sounds like a portal to the Well World to me. :)

Flyndaran 11-21-2008 03:16 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spudzill
Hexagonal cyclone? Sounds like a portal to the Well World to me. :)
Or the giant gas bees are just starting their mega-hive.

RevBob 11-21-2008 07:21 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Or just completing it....

tantric 11-26-2008 07:44 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
i think i've encountered a real life necronomicon drive-the-reader-insane book. it's called Parallel Botany

a paragraph makes my ears ring. after a chapter, i'm seeing spots and dizzy. the prose is just - wrong. it reads like english, but there's no information there at all. it's just layer after layer of detailed delirium using the writing pattern of a scientific publication. given, the subject matter concerns imaginary plants that can only be experienced subjectively, but still....the horrible bit is that the author writes children's books, some of which i remember. the only review on amazon.com talks about having visions of an insane asylum full of plants.

" I have often mentioned the matterlessness of parallel plants, drawing attention not only to their entire lack of organs but, also to the fact that they have no real interior. Oskar Halbstein extends this notion, typical of parallel botany, to everything in the world, observing that the interior of material objects is nothing but a mental image, an idea. He pours out that when we cut something in two we do not reveal its interior, as we set out to do, but rather two visible exteriors which did not exist before. Repeating the action an infinite number of times, we would merely produce an endless series of new exteriors. For Halbstein the inside of things does not exist. It is a theoretical construct, a hypothesis which we are forbidden to verify.
The interior of parallel plants, moreover, eludes even theoretical definition. As we are concerned with a substance that is totally "other," that cannot be found in nature, it is literally unthinkable. Halbstein speaks of it as being of a "blind color," but to me it seems arbitrary and scientifically risky to draw even the most openly poetic comparisons with the normal world. (pl. XIV)

The Tubolara, which for the most part are found on the Central Plateau of Talistan in India, put the problem of the interior of parallel plants in a new and rather different light. It concerns not so much their matterlessness as their form, not so much the solid interior of their ambiguous substance as the hollow exterior- which, in a sense, is the external limit of the interior of the plant.

Here then is the paradox of the Tubolara: two interiors, one of which in normal terms would be its substance and which at bottom is responsible for its presence, is imperceptible, while the one wewould normally be inclined to think of as nonexistent, the void contained by the plant, is visible. The paradox is even greater when we think that the void within the tube, the visible interior, has a very precise function: that of containing, like a fragment of its own habitat, part of the environment in which the plant itself is contained. "

Kale 12-18-2008 09:55 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Here's a couple good ones:

"Statisticians claims the Pope's life could be in imminent danger - because the Welsh rugby team won the Grand Slam this year."
Apparently the Welsh team did extraordinarily well every year that a Pope died.
Link to the article on Ananova:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3126226.html?menu=

Even better (and weirder):
"Archeologists in China are baffled after finding a tiny Swiss watch in a 400-year-old tomb."
It's a ring carved to resemble a tiny swiss watch, with the words 'swiss' actually engraved on the back of it. Time traveler anyone? (a local copied the traveler's watch, in ring form) @:-)
The link:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3122542.html?menu=

tshiggins 01-02-2009 08:09 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Here we go!

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11355973

The Yellowstone caldera is gittin' a mite frisky.

Luke Bunyip 01-09-2009 12:30 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Vampiric beasties, Americana style

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra

Anaraxes 01-29-2009 09:23 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
LAGOS (Reuters) - Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddly...50M4XT20090124

Running Wolf 01-30-2009 08:05 AM
News of the Weird is always good for some ideas!

They're either earnestly civic-minded or people with issues, but in several dozen cities across the country, men (and a few women) dress in homemade superhero costumes and patrol marginal neighborhoods, aiming to deter crime. Phoenix's Green Scorpion and New York City's Terrifica and Orlando's Master Legend and Indianapolis' Mr. Silent are just a few of the 200 gunless, knifeless vigilantes listed on the World Superhero Registry, most presumably with day jobs but who fancy cleaning up the mean streets at night. According to two recent reports (in Rolling Stone and The Times of London), unanticipated gripes by the "Reals," as they call themselves, are boredom from lack of crime and (especially in the summer) itchy spandex outfits. [Rolling Stone, 12-25-08; The Times, 12-28-08]

It is a real web page http://www.worldsuperheroregistry.com

Anaraxes 01-30-2009 03:13 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
DARPA has let a contract for "EATR", the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot. The purpose of EATR is to seek out its own fuel from organic biomass in its environment. To quote their presentation:

Quote:
- Identify suitable biomass sources of energy and distinguish those sources from unsuitable materials

-Spatially locate and manipulate the sources of energy (e.g., cut or shred to size, grasp, lift, and ingest); and

- Convert the biomass to sufficient electrical energy to power the EATR™ subsystems

http://www.robotictechnologyinc.com/...20Overview.pdf
This will be perfect for your upcoming Terminator / Soylent Green crossover. See slide 7; it even already mounts a chainsaw on an extensible arm.

Kale 02-01-2009 01:34 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Why yes, we are doomed.

tantric 02-02-2009 02:34 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Don't ever say it can't happen....

A few days ago, I got a bit of junk mail requesting that I fill out a survey. Thing is, when I opened it up, there was a $5 bill inside. Not a coupon, not an online discount, cash. Free. In the mail. In America. The paperwork said nothing about the money - not a peep.

Yes, I went online and did the survey. It was harmless. Not even a request for my email.

There is, in fact, such a thing as a free lunch. Frankly, this is more amazing than many of the paranormal events reported here. It actually pretty seriously weirded me out.

William 02-02-2009 07:07 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Ah heh. I've gotten nickels attached to charity guilt trips, but a $5 bill without it even being mentioned in the letter? That is unusual.

Kale 02-02-2009 08:36 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tantric
It actually pretty seriously weirded me out.
I'd be checking that fin for radioactive tracers...

Anaraxes 02-02-2009 08:41 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
I got an Arbitron radio survey once; it came with two bucks in cash.

There's psychology behind it. Notice you actually went and did the survey? People tend to feel obliged, as though they were paid for their time, even though they weren't consulted and didn't ask for money. So they're more likely to actually respond. Sending out lots of invitations to a survey in the physical mail is expensive. It can be cheaper to send fewer and include some cash to get the same response rate.

Kaldrin 02-02-2009 09:40 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
That's funny... I would have used the money to go out and buy matches to burn the document with. I have a tendency to be rebellious even for no better purpose than the concept that I just might be saving my soul from being purchased.

tantric 02-02-2009 10:12 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
It was a legitimate survey about discrimination in post-secondary education. I would love to the the stats on the success rate of such things. Its just that I would never *mail* cash - that by itself seems so weird.

Not as good as the time I went to an impromptu concert in a hanger and was given beer, spaghetti and pot. That incident actually restored my faith in communism. (I was disillusioned after being banned from RevolutionaryLeft.com for calling one of the moderators a "marxasaurus") Too bad the music was noise.

William 02-06-2009 12:34 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYTimes
American Indian petroglyphs around the valley bear witness that this was once the realm of the Timbisha Shoshone and their ancestors, who roamed this desert for at least a millennium before the first Europeans arrived. "There are special sites for giving birth in the valley, but we don't let anyone outside of the tribe know where," said Barbara Durham, the Timbisha Shoshone's tribal historic preservation officer.
Interesting religious idea. Many a game involves a timeline, a strategic spot, or a passenger to be protected: how about combining the three with a plot of "get the mother to the sacred birthing ground before the due date, and protect her there until she gives birth to the Promised One"?

A second thought: a salmon-like species which must give birth in the same place as their ancestors. They would certainly have some very specific notions on land ownership, cultural heritage, and possibly some unique takes on Advantages like Absolute Direction or Claim to Hospitality.

William 02-07-2009 11:51 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
The following conspiracy theory just showed up in my inbox. From the looks of it, you might have gotten it too! Apparently guys like this are what we get when we pass politically motivated laws outlawing perfectly normal science: guys who think that said science must have something intrinsically horrible about it. Comments in bold are mine.

Quote:
I Just Saw This On Calgary Herald

Dear (my address),

Your friend (conspiracy theorists' address) thought you might be interested in this link:

(link to a negative movie review in the mainstream media)

They also left you these comments:

IT IS NOT A SPAM, but if you received that message second and plus time JUST CLICK DELETE button and have a nice day. Don't feel bad, please understand original (famous actress)'s family very desperate to shut down that humiliating antichristian "actress" clones line career development. Hello dear Ladies and Gentlemen! I would like inform you that (famous actress) ?actress? actually is a clone from original person (not famous person, different last name) last name, who has nothing with acting career, surname (last name) because of adoption happened in 1992. Clones was created illegally by using stolen biological material. Original person is very nice (not d**n sexy),most important - CHRISTIAN young lady! I'll tell you more,those clones (it's not only one) made in GERMANY - world leader manufacturer of humans clones, it is in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Mr. Helmut Kohl home town. You can not even imaging the scale of the cloning activity. But warning! Helmut Kohl clone staff strictly controlling all their clones (at least they trying) spreading around the world, they are very accurate with that, some of them are still NAZI type disciplined and mind controlled clones, so be careful get close with clones you will be controlled as well. Original person is not happy with those movies, images, video, rumors and etc. spreading on media in that way it would be really nice if we all will try slow down that ''actress'' career development, original Scarlett will really appreciated that. Please remember that original (first names)'s family did not authorize any activity with stolen biological materials, no matter what form it was created in it was stolen and it is stolen. It all need to be delivered to authorize personals control in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Original (first name) never was engaged, by the way! Her close friend Serge G. P.S. CONTROLLING ACTIVITY OF ANY CLONES IS US MILITARY OPERATION. Check also here: (another link; someone has posted this guy's material before, and corrected his German geography -- he fixed it in the post above!)

H.R. 534, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on February 5, 2003. After discussion, it was passed on February 27 by a vote of 241-155. It now moves on to the Senate for consideration. This bill makes it unlawful for any person or entity to perform or participate in human cloning, or to ship or receive embryos produced by human cloning. The penalties are imprisonment of up to 10 years and fines of $1 million or more. These now join other nations as diverse as Norway, Australia, and many other countries, which had already added cloning for any purpose to their criminal code. And in Germany where it carries a penalty of five years imprisonment they know a thing or two about unethical science.

Anaraxes 02-07-2009 07:57 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
"UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of
this IMPORTANT information is ENCOURAGED".

Luke Bunyip 02-20-2009 08:56 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technolog...antis-pictures

Frost 02-21-2009 01:49 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip
I am always surprised by how many people seem to believe in atlantis and how ready they are to jump upon any sugestion that there might be something.

Running Wolf 02-21-2009 04:20 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frost
I am always surprised by how many people seem to believe in atlantis and how ready they are to jump upon any sugestion that there might be something.

I love that some freaks are saying it is the Bimini Road. Wow the Ancient Greeks knew about Atlantis but somehow it was not volcanic and they forgot to go a hundred miles to the west and discover the Americas.


I am pretty sure that the Greeks gave a fairly detailed description of where to look for it.

You get the same type of grasping at straws with the UFO nuts. You can be a mile away from a major city's airport and they will swear that every light in the sky is a UFO.

Luke Bunyip 02-21-2009 04:46 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frost
I am always surprised by how many people seem to believe in atlantis and how ready they are to jump upon any sugestion that there might be something.
I am always amazed by the inventiveness of idiocy. And that of people that should be taking their medication but don't.

William 02-21-2009 06:03 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
DNA nabs twins in bank heist -- but perhaps only one of them did the deed. Will both go free? Can your characters do the legwork to find the information that will distinguish guilty from innocent?

Luke Bunyip 02-22-2009 04:10 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
More in my apparant aquatic theme:
The Blue Hole

Maybe just odd, rather than weird. Now, if you put a Cthulhu mythos beastie down one of these...

Kale 02-22-2009 05:07 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip
More in my apparant aquatic theme:
The Blue Hole

Maybe just odd, rather than weird. Now, if you put a Cthulhu mythos beastie down one of these...
They do look pretty creepy... Thanks for the link!

tHEhERETIC 02-23-2009 12:00 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tantric
Not as good as the time I went to an impromptu concert in a hanger and was given beer, spaghetti and pot. That incident actually restored my faith in communism. (I was disillusioned after being banned from RevolutionaryLeft.com for calling one of the moderators a "marxasaurus") Too bad the music was noise.
Sounds like the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show. I was lucky enough to catch a Jerry Garcia show in the early 90's--what an experience.

Rabiddave 02-23-2009 12:44 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Running Wolf
I love that some freaks are saying it is the Bimini Road. Wow the Ancient Greeks knew about Atlantis but somehow it was not volcanic and they forgot to go a hundred miles to the west and discover the Americas.


I am pretty sure that the Greeks gave a fairly detailed description of where to look for it.
Here's a bit of craziness... The greek herodotus learned about atlantis from the egyptians...take a look at this (third section). Egyptian-american drug trade with atlantean dealers maybe? :o (gasp!)

The funniest part is the reference to the african swallows (for you monte python fans out there). tell me THAT'S not a sound theory [ahem. sarcasm]...

William 02-28-2009 02:59 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Picasso apparently did illustrations for a set of poems called Songs of the Dead. He elected to "illustrate" the book with striking, scarlet calligraphy of what aren't exactly letters. Sample image here.

Your modern-day Fortean campaign ought to be able to run with that if you need a bit of public weirdness...

Running Wolf 03-01-2009 12:43 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rabiddave
Here's a bit of craziness... The greek herodotus learned about atlantis from the egyptians...take a look at this (third section). Egyptian-american drug trade with atlantean dealers maybe? :o (gasp!)

The funniest part is the reference to the african swallows (for you monte python fans out there). tell me THAT'S not a sound theory [ahem. sarcasm]...

There is no proof for the cross cultural contamination. With urinalysis there is a 30%+ failure rate. I am chalking it up to either false positives, conamintation or just sloppy science.

Back in the day cocaine was non-regulated and more widely used than at a 1970's disco! You could also smoke cigarettes in a museum. Unless you can rule those two sources of contamination out I will not be convinced.

In a urinalysis (guess the same for other tests) you are basically looking for breakdown chemicals and not the real chemicals in the bodily fluids.

Running Wolf 03-01-2009 12:45 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
How about this one... in 1947 a nuclear test sensor (with foil radar reflector) attached to a weather balloon crashed in the New Mexico desert and 52 years some people are making money off of it by saying it was a UFO!

(Actually it was a first attempt at a Soivet orbital rocket that crashed).

William 03-09-2009 10:55 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Tennessee's "Little Houdini" is just a con man with a knack for making an escape, but his life story and the dramatic 2007 break where he made across the state under a five-day manhunt to see his dying mother does make for nice character color in an NPC.

Running Wolf 03-09-2009 05:10 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by William
Tennessee's "Little Houdini" is just a con man with a knack for making an escape, but his life story and the dramatic 2007 break where he made across the state under a five-day manhunt to see his dying mother does make for nice character color in an NPC.

That is crazy! would be a nice red herring in the middle of a campaign!

William 03-21-2009 11:05 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Lionel Ziprin (google his obit; died recently) would make a colorful character in a modern occult game, especially In Nomine. He definitely seems to be one of the good guys.

Hippie, mystic, poet, kabbalist, peyote dabbler, institution of the East Village. "...one of the great white magicians of the era." -- Janine Vega. "...one of the big secret heroes of the time." -- Ira Cohen. He was overanesthetized during tonsil surgery as a child, and emerged from a 10-day coma with St. Vitus' Dance, epilepsy, fits of laughter, and hallucinations. Had visions, conversed with the spirit world.

Would hold forth for hours on magic, "interplanetary rhythms," angels, apparitions, Jewish history. Wrote "Sentential Metaphrastic," a 785-page poem that begins "We are not after all intended to be consumed." Also wrote "Math Glass," "What This Abacus Was," "Book of Logic." His poetry thus seems to be a direct challenge to the claims of those dark beings who, well, regard humanity as something to be consumed and logic as a mere hindrance.

Anaraxes 03-31-2009 03:00 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
... a 22-year-old Maryland woman yesterday agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of other defendants in the death of her son under the condition that charges against her be dropped if the child rises from the dead.

A spokeswoman for the Baltimore state's attorney's office said that in recent weeks, as prosecutors and Ramkissoon's attorney discussed the plea bargain, prosecutors made it clear that Ramkissoon could not get out of her obligations if she asserted that Javon came back as anything other than himself.

This would need to be a Jesus-like resurrection," Margaret Burns, the spokeswoman, said after the hearing. "It cannot be a reincarnation in another object or animal."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...033002931.html

Good thing the wily prosecutors kept an eye out for the reincarnation loophole. They lose more convicts that way...

Bruno 03-31-2009 04:53 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
Good thing the wily prosecutors kept an eye out for the reincarnation loophole. They lose more convicts that way...
To be fair, it's probably to stop her from insisting the first baby she sees is her son, reborn. Or the first puppy. Or the first rock.

And then demanding loudly to be let out of jail.

Phoenix_Dragon 04-01-2009 08:47 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
There was a place in Mirror's Edge that was really cool. Completely unrealistic, of course. It was the kind of massive absurd place that you'd expect the Empire to have, alongside it's miles-deep "who designed this thing?" chasms in the middle of their bases. Then I find out... It's a real place.

http://incli-nation.com/2009/01/14/u...th-dreamscape/

Who would have thought that adventuring down in the sewers could ever look that awesome?

Anaraxes 04-01-2009 11:09 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
To be fair, it's probably to...
Or it indicates that the prosector has had experience with elves and druids. Questions need to be asked.

Bruno 04-14-2009 03:26 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Following up on the Army of Bears besiege Russian Platinum Mine from last year, is one from the Chinese media:

Thousands of dolphins protect Chinese merchant ships from Somali pirates.

Quote:
Originally Posted by XinHuaNet
The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's.

The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.
This is not exactly a credible source, but it is a source of totally wacky RPG ideas.

Anaraxes 04-15-2009 06:34 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Feature "red mercury" as the unobtanium MacGuffin in your next game.

Quote:
Saudi police are investigating the origins of a hoax that had hundreds of people believing that old sewing machines may bring fortune because they contained an elusive, and probably mythical, substance known as red mercury.

The English-language Saudi Gazette newspaper said some buyers were willing to pay up to 200,000 riyals ($50,000) for an old Singer sewing machine proven to contain red mercury.

Mobile phones are supposedly employed as instruments to prove the existence of the phony substance. Popular belief in the Middle East has it that it can help uncover hidden gold treasures, though there are other theories which say it can be used to create a nuclear bomb.
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddly...53D48H20090414

Jovus 04-15-2009 09:03 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Funny thing is, red mercury exists. The stuff is an oxide of mercury.

Agemegos 04-16-2009 01:00 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes
Feature "red mercury" as the unobtanium MacGuffin in your next game.
It was already the MacGuffin in the first In Nomine game I played, ten years or more ago.

Agemegos 04-16-2009 03:05 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jovus
Funny thing is, red mercury exists. The stuff is an oxide of mercury.
Well, a lot of mercury compounds are red, including cinnabar and mercuric oxide. Often a brilliant orangey-red: cinnibar is used as a pigment under the name "vermilion". But it's news to me that any of them is known as "red mercury". Though of course triplumbic tetroxide is well known as "red lead".

Anaraxes 04-28-2009 02:57 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124052112850249691.html
Sounds like a 1950s version of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and of course The King, Elvis himself, battling atomic horrors from the desert.

Jovus 04-28-2009 06:38 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brett
Well, a lot of mercury compounds are red, including cinnabar and mercuric oxide. Often a brilliant orangey-red: cinnibar is used as a pigment under the name "vermilion". But it's news to me that any of them is known as "red mercury". Though of course triplumbic tetroxide is well known as "red lead".
Lavoisier refers to it as red mercury. Admittedly he moves away from that nomenclature quickly in his attempt to establish a coherent system, but the reference is there, especially in alchemical tradition.

Anaraxes 05-04-2009 03:32 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Similar discussion going on in the GURPS forum.

William 05-16-2009 02:43 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Mysterious strangers start showing up at your house. Some of them try to break in. Some of them try to talk their way in. What are they after?

As it turned out for this guy, a drug dealer had been telling people that the apartment had been used for a stash of $900,000 in cash. Yeah, a hoard in the basement does tend to draw the adventurers....

Anaraxes 05-16-2009 06:28 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Some researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants — parasitic flies that turn the pesky insects into zombies whose heads fall off.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/6420449.html
Then just add a little Science Gone Wrong, and you get Giant Radioactive Headless Zombie Fire Ants. Unless, that is, the flies mutate to become parasites of human hosts. Let the plague begin.

William 06-19-2009 04:29 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
US military abruptly ends an informal arrangement allowing astronomers access to data on incoming objects tracked by otherwise-classified antimissile surveillance satellites.

But they're not hiding anything they spotted, of course not. Right? :^)

Johnny Angel 06-19-2009 11:10 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
I seem to remember a story from a couple years ago... I think it was in Russia; a guy was riding around on a bicycle dressed as a ninja and robbing people. I found that to be somewhat weird.


In other news... What's in a name? http://www.al.com/news/press-registe...l=3&thispage=1

Anaraxes 06-30-2009 09:14 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Researchers have developed a fuel cell that produces electricity from human blood.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freea...unt=35&index=8

Just the thing to power your nanotech, your Technomancer / Horror hybrid, or the Matrix.

moldymaltquaffer 07-01-2009 04:30 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
http://www.newmajority.com/ShowScrol...b-9b910e70f40b

Take a Mediterranian sea cruise with heavily-armed Russians civilians who are paying some $5,000 a day for the priviledge of shooting at pirates off the coast of Africa.

No word on whether taxidermy of trophies is included, or extra.

William 07-02-2009 11:46 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Mysterious pulsating slimy blob found in North Carolina sewer! I think that's about all we need to start with, right there.

(What is it actually? Well, those boring old party-pooping scientists are suggesting that it's a bio-film-covered colony of Tubifex tubifex worms. It moves because a single worm coils randomly, and stimulates the rest of the mass to do so, making it contract like a single muscle. Gee, sounds to me like a plausible motive ability for a horrible hivemind worm creature. ^_^ )

Luke Bunyip 07-02-2009 05:25 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by William (Post 814540)
Mysterious pulsating slimy blob found in North Carolina sewer! I think that's about all we need to start with, right there.

(What is it actually? Well, those boring old party-pooping scientists are suggesting that it's a bio-film-covered colony of Tubifex tubifex worms. It moves because a single worm coils randomly, and stimulates the rest of the mass to do so, making it contract like a single muscle. Gee, sounds to me like a plausible motive ability for a horrible hivemind worm creature. ^_^ )
Aha! Obviously the flesh burrowing nightmare has been revealed.

Irish Wolf 07-16-2009 03:05 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Giant squid invading San Diego!

Where was that sunken city supposed to be again?

Anaraxes 07-16-2009 03:56 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
That's giant flying squid, no less. And "They look all-seeing, all-knowing".

Quote:
Where was that sunken city supposed to be again?
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Linked Article
Research suggests the squid may have established a year-round population off California at depths of 300 to 650 feet
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Lovecraft said that R'lyeh is located at 47°9′S 126°43′W in the southern Pacific Ocean.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh C'thulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

moldymaltquaffer 07-16-2009 04:37 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
In related news...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...est=latestnews
Large hairy blob of unknown origin approaches Alaska. No reports on whether or not it is "rugose".

Anaraxes 07-30-2009 10:30 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
It appears that the dye in blue M&Ms can help cure spinal injuries.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28...dye/index.html

They outlawed the red ones in the US in 1976. Now they want us to take the blue ones. This seems familiar for some reason...

Next up, science proves that the green ones really do contain pheromones.

capnq 07-30-2009 10:41 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
When pigs swim.

Feral pigs greet tourists on Bahamas beach.

William 08-19-2009 09:39 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
The Crypt of the Capuchin Monks. A tomb of some 4000 monks with Baroque decorations made out of their skulls and the rest of their skeletons. About as creepy as you can think of a tomb being.

A quote from the article:

Quote:
By the last chamber, the brain is reeling. The claustrophobic confines of the crypt, the dizzy geometry of the anatomical arrangements, a Baroque delirium of rosettes and florettes and eight-pointed stars, all made of bones, bones, bones: it begins to feel like a bad-acid flashback, brought to you by Pol Pot. And then you come to appreciate the Spirograph rhythms of it all, the---gothic? grotesque?---aesthetic of the repeating visual melodies of capitals and crosses and cornices outlined in bones, and you remember something Francis Bacon said---"There is no excellent Beauty, that hath not some Strangeness in the Proportion"---and it makes a certain mad sense, after all.
Iiiii don't think I'm going to try to improve on that. ^_^

capnq 08-20-2009 07:54 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by William (Post 837462)
That may have been the real-world inspiration for the description of one vampire's lair (inside the Catacombs of Paris) in Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night, which is my favorite treatment of vampire society.

Luke Bunyip 09-07-2009 11:18 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
According to the Font of All Knowledge TM, there is no MI18. Obviously this is a UK version of The Black Chamber (Pyramid 3-5).

As well, there just happens to be an eye in a pyramid in the top of the old MI-5 logo.

William 09-12-2009 01:12 PM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Photo for the strong of stomach.

Nice inspiration for a horror monster. A thumb-sized parasite that...

(1) Eats the host's tongue.
(2) Attaches itself to the stump.
(3) Thereafter functions as a tongue, occasionally munching on bits of the host's blood or mucus.

I could see this working as a demon familiar with special abilities. You don't get the magery or enthrallment powers yourself, you just stick out your tongue and the little face utters the words! In GURPS, I'd let it glean off your meals instead of munching on the inside of your mouth. You increase your food requirements and assume that the extra goes toward HP of sacrifices to the creature in preparation for spellcasting.

Of course, it's also a perfectly good parasitical infestation, at least if it takes hold quickly. Much easier to get rid of than others, though doing so leaves you tongueless.

(Taxonomic identifier is Cymothoa exigua.)

Anaraxes 09-15-2009 10:37 AM
Re: Real-Life Weirdness
 
Giant man-eating raptors that can carry away your children are real. Or were, up to 500 years ago.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10597177


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