Real-Life Weirdness

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by dcarson

Conspiracy with a sense of humor?

One by one, at random intervals, all trains in Europe disappear into Disneyland.

[thorr-kan]

Originally Posted by dcarson

https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/16/...-in-disneyland

Conspiracy with a sense of humor?

The Mouse wanted a WORD with Euro parlimentarians: "You can't stay at the Happiest Place on Earth (TM) because you've been BAD."

I don't look too closely. Don't want the Mouse's attention...

[Johnny1A.2]

John Peter Altgeld was a one-term governor of the State of Illinois, from 1893 to 1897. While in office, he induced five of the State's 'normal schools' and other proto-State Universities to construct new buildings, in a highly Romantic style. At the very least, they are a real-life oddity to throw at a player group.

Altgeld's Castles

An unconfirmed legend across the various campuses is that the various buildings are designed and constructed in such a way that if they were all assembled together, their internal rooms and halls would link up as a single structure.

I could imagine a gaming scenario where that was true, and that under Just the Right Circumstances, you can walk from one Castle to another, hundreds of miles away, in one step through a door. Imagine some poor student, late at night, happens to walk through a normally innocuous door in Altgeld Hall in Carbondale, IL, and finds himself in Altgeld Hall in DeKalb, IL, on the other end of the State...

[Inky]

I'm not sure about any of the following.

Researchers Uncovered a 5,000-Year-Old Crystal Dagger Buried in Spain
Also arrowheads. More information about the site here The Mega-Site of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain) and here The allure of rock crystal in Copper Age southern Iberia: Technical skill and distinguished objects from Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain).

Obviously the only question gaming-wise is what magical powers do they have. There's also some other stuff in there with game possibilities (cloaks of amber beads, long-distance trade in precious stones, among other things).

[William]

It's been posted in this thread before, at #1345, although the amber bead cloaks weren't mentioned, that's a cool addition.

*sigh* I started an index a long time ago. Never finished the project. It's becoming a long thread!

[L.J.Steele]

Apparently I missed the story about the illicit Chinese biolab in California at the time.

https://apnews.com/article/chinese-l...65b639743e8507

https://www.kvpr.org/local-news/2023...ey-medical-lab

[ericthered]

An electrode in your brain can help with brain injuries


When reading this to my wife she thought they were claiming it worked on everyone, and her mind went to a "Creepy sci fi where all the rich people are putting this in their brain".

[Varyon]

A group made a Remington 1858 largely out of metal from a Gibeon meteorite (plus some gold, precious gems, and Pietersite). Information seems to be sparse (I just found that site, and a discussion on Reddit, with a bit of research), but it appears it could be yours for the low, low price of $1.2M. It even comes with six meteorite bullets. It certainly would make an iconic weapon for a character, and could easily have special properties in a supernatural campaign.

EDIT: Turns out this isn't the first firearm made from a Gibeon meteorite - a company called Cabot Guns made what they called the Big Bang Pistol Set, a pair of matching 1911 pistols made similarly. Personally, I think the revolver looks a lot better (the others have some faked damage to the grips, presumably to help make the weapons look ancient, but I find them a bit tacky; also, the Remington 1858 is a beautiful revolver design to start with, while the M1911 is just kinda... meh). It also costs a lot less - the Big Bang Pistol Set was priced at $4.5 million (almost certainly to match with the 4.5 billion year estimate of the meteorite's age; that's probably also a big part of why they opted for MUH STOPPIN POWAH .45 ACP).

[sjard]

<Moderator> A reminder that real world, political related, news still violates the no real world politics rule for the forums.
</Moderator>

[Varyon]

So, I recently learned of a fascinating fellow named Lauri Törni. He was a Finnish soldier fighting the Soviet Union during WWII. When Finland signed the Moscow Armistice, he joined up with the Germans and became a member of the Waffen-SS, continuing to fight the Soviet Union. After the war, he eventually made his way (via a somewhat-circuitous path) to the United States, where he eventually joined the Army and served in the Special Forces in Vietnam, where he died in a helicopter crash. His body was eventually recovered, and he's the only former member of the Waffen-SS to be buried at Arlington. He received medals from all three flags he served under, although allegedly he burned what he got from Germany when he found out about the Holocaust (he appears to have only joined up with them to continue fighting the Soviets).

And that glosses over a lot - he apparently escaped from at least one POW camp, from police custody after he was arrested for treason (for fighting on Germany's side during the Lapland War, although he was fighting Soviets at the time, not fellow Finns), and from prison after he was recaptured and sentenced (he was captured yet again, but eventually granted a pardon). And the last leg of his journey to the US involved jumping overboard from the ship he was on at the time and swimming to shore.