Real-Life Weirdness

[William]

Wow. That honestly sounds like an interesting therapeutic or psychiatric technique, for someone emotionally well-prepared to think upon their mortality.

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Britain's last prosecution under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 was a Ms. Helen Duncan, in 1944. She was accused not only of holding a botched seánce but of thereby revealing military secrets!

[William]

The town of Trasmoz, in Spain (Aragon), was cursed and excommunicated around the late 1400s. The excommunication has never been lifted.

The town is still populated (a little under 100 people), and annually awards a "Witch of the Year" title for service to the community. The old castle, mostly burned down but partially rebuilt, now houses a Museum of Witchery.

[johndallman]

Dissolving the Fermi Paradox is a paper by GURPS Transhuman Space author Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler, and Toby Ord that takes a hard look at the Drake Equation and similar estimates, and concludes that there's a very substantial chance we're alone in the universe. There are other weird ideas by the same authors on Arxiv, including the "Blueberry Earth."

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by johndallman

There are other weird ideas by the same authors on Arxiv, including the "Blueberry Earth."

First sentence: "This paper explores the physics of the what-if question 'what if the entire Earth was instantaneously replaced with an equal volume of closely packed, but uncompressed blueberries?'"

Sure -- but what if the blueberries were PSYCHIC? And then got embedded in a orbiting matrix of muffin mix?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

First sentence: "This paper explores the physics of the what-if question 'what if the entire Earth was instantaneously replaced with an equal volume of closely packed, but uncompressed blueberries?'"

Sounds familiar. xkcd doesn't have publish dates for their "What If" subsection, but based on the copyright, I think "Mole of Moles" actually predates "Blueberry Earth." Glancing through the paper, I did rather like the following sentence: "The end result is a world that has a steam atmosphere covering an ocean of jam on top of warm blueberry granita."

[Anders]

There's a rare chicken breed from Java that is entirely black. Not only are they black on the outside - their meat and their eggs are also black. Only their blood is the normal color.

Imagine the first one of these being butchered. That would have been an omen to remember.

[ericthered]

I visited a big cat rescue this weekend. It was an enjoyable experience, even if a little sobering. They had around 40 big predators in a very small space. You could tell it was run on a shoestring budget (most rescues are, if they have more money they save more animals). There were far more tigers than any other beast, and a large number of them were white. They also had lions, Ligers, cougars, bears, wolves, and a smattering of small cats and foxes. It was way out in the middle of nowhere, presumably so they could afford the land. The animals were rescued from road-side attractions or pet owners who didn't want the animals anymore. Most the cages were small, but they had a single "playground" that an animal could be put in with more space (about two acres).



Gaming wise, my thoughts go in a few different directions. The first is that it would be a wonderful home base for lycanthropes. You have an excuse for big predators to be around, Cages for when you can't control members, and an excuse to buy large amounts of meat.



second, I thought what the equivalent in a high bio-tech setting would be. If you can clone T-Rex, what happens to the discarding Pet T-rex? What dangerous animals become abandoned in that case? Who takes care of them?

[L.J.Steele]

Originally Posted by ericthered

If you can clone T-Rex, what happens to the discarding Pet T-rex? What dangerous animals become abandoned in that case? Who takes care of them?

This is Rexy, my rescue Raptor.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by ericthered

The first is that it would be a wonderful home base for lycanthropes. You have an excuse for big predators to be around, Cages for when you can't control members, and an excuse to buy large amounts of meat.

And if they like gambling you end up with this.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

In India, there is a club for dead people.

In Short: It is a NGO for people who were wrongfully declared dead, usually by corrupt officials who were bribed by greedy relatives of the "deceased". The members now try to get their live back, which is an uphill battle against bureaucracy. The club was founded by a man who was officially dead for almost 20 years.

Somehow, I do not think this feels right for horror. But maybe Robin Hood or Cyberpunk?