Real-Life Weirdness

[Anaraxes]

... 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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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]

Feature "red mercury" as the unobtanium MacGuffin in your next game.

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]

Funny thing is, red mercury exists. The stuff is an oxide of mercury.

[Agemegos]

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]

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]

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.