Real-Life Weirdness

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anders

Wouldn't that depend on what shark you ride? A whale shark wouldn't hurt you.

Intentionally, but I'm sure a slight flipper smack would cause some serious damage.

[Irish Wolf]

There is something buried under Seattle, WA. It's harder than a boulder, and was missed on all previous seismic and sampling surveys. Bertha, the tunneling machine that's been boring a new route for US 99, can't cut through it.

(Now, realistically I'm sure it's got a perfectly mundane explanation. But it could make an interesting MacGuffin for a modern-day RPG...)

[dcarson]

That is one of the traditional ways of discovering an alien spaceship.

[vicky_molokh]

Politics affect сonfectionery!

Ukrainian politician and owner of major confectionery industries hints at the possibility of selling thematic boxes of chocolate sweets. (Just in case: the Evening Kyiv chocolate normally had a different cover picture.)

[William]

An interesting article in the New York Times' Disunion series today, describing a moment in American history I hadn't known about, and perhaps a useful setting for a frontier game, reskinned to fantasy or space as you please: south Florida in 1863.

Originally Posted by Florida's Cattle Wars

...with a semi-wild herd approaching 700,000, Florida had almost five times as many cattle as people. ...

The area was a honeycomb of seacoast and swamp. Entire herds could wander aimlessly or vanish within an hour in the trackless region. Even where the ground was firm, abundant saw grass could cut man and beast to ribbons, while the heat and humidity promoted malaria and yellow fever. Snakes, hurricanes, feral hogs and panthers could decimate a herd.

In addition to hardy pioneers attracted by free ranging cattle, the vast frontier was a haven for rustlers, deserters, runaway slaves, draft evaders and others seeking to avoid the restrictions of an unwanted government. ... "loyalists" did live in the bush. Though they were secretly supplied with Yankee weapons, the historian Robert Taylor wrote that "Some bands became little more than bandits who raided indiscriminately."

[sir_pudding]

That's "raided indiscriminately" for The Republic, traitor. :)

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Intact 3300+ year old bow found in the ice:
http://thornews.com/2013/11/10/the-b...e-bow-1300-bc/

[quarkstomper]

I might have posted it on this thread before, but working today on my G.I. Joe Steampunk game reminded me of the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps, a small unit of bicycle-mounted infantrymen formed in the 1890s.

[vicky_molokh]

Towns issuing licenses for hunting down robots. Okay, not really, at least not yet, but the RP potential is cute.

[stefanj]

Tomb of an ancient Egyptian royal beer-brewer found:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25593526

This makes me feel . . . validated. One of the magufffins in GURPS Alphabet Arcane is ancient enchanted royal beer.