Real-Life Weirdness

[Flyndaran]

I only see one use of, "squares" that isn't a quote. And that one is simply talking about what was engraved. One would engrave a square or individual facing of a cube.
Or he's a refugee of the Flatland wars, and still stumbles over these regional concepts.

[ravenfish]

I make it two non-quotational uses of "squares" in the body ("the haul of engraved lead squares", "inscriptions set onto the faces of the squares"), plus "lead squares" in the subtitle. I suppose that, if I am right in assuming that the objects are actually a core of ferrous metal with lead plating on the outside, then technically "lead squares" is more correct than "lead cubes" (the squares on the outside of each cube would be entirely lead, whereas the cube itself would be made of a mixture of metals), but "faces of the squares" sets me on edge (a cube has faces, a square more or less is a face, so "faces of the squares" seems either incorrect or redundant).

I am also aware that this is needless pedantry, but, with the quarantine on, I'm afraid I don't have anything more useful to be doing.

[Flyndaran]

Okay, then I retract my objection.

[Anaraxes]

The version of the story in Popular Mechanics says "In this case, Read and his kids found the lead blocks in shallow water, no magnets required. (Lead isn’t really magnetic anyway.)" So while Read may well have been a magnet fisherman and even doing some magnet fishing, that's not how he actually found these cubes.

(Alas for the weirdness quotient.)

[Flyndaran]

Or that's what he was told to say.

[L.J.Steele]

Penguin Poo produces laughing gas...

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020...earchers-find/

[Anders]

In 2020, a year marked by plague and civil strife, researchers uncovered a cave that had been sealed for five million years. What they found there would change the earth forever...

I mean, what could they possibly find that would make this year worse?

Anyway, this also shows how small a miniature ecosystem can be. Great stuff for a space campaign.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anders

In 2020, a year marked by plague and civil strife, researchers uncovered a cave that had been sealed for five million years. What they found there would change the earth forever...

I mean, what could they possibly find that would make this year worse?

Anyway, this also shows how small a miniature ecosystem can be. Great stuff for a space campaign.

They uncovered it back in 1986, so it shouldn't result in anything bad at this time. But please don't tempt Murphy, things are bad enough as-is...

[Anders]

Scientists say most likely number of contactable alien civilizations is 36.

So... you need to modify all your Space campaigns. At least if you're playing in this galaxy.

[David Johnston2]

There's a story that broke a while back about a guy who sent his daughters high school boyfriend an angry letter about the boyfriend "stealing his daughter's virginity from him (as her father)" ten years previously. That's not the the weird or gameable part. The weird bit is the part in the letter where he announces that he is praying to God to punish the ex-boyfriend by transferring years of his llfe to the father as the injured party.

Good thing he doesn't have a Steal Youth spell.