An idea for a video game. This post comes from Bikdip's Majora's Mask LP (pt 24) when he is rolling through the snow in the Goron mask.
He mentions that he is far enough but will keep going. A few seconds later, he stops the Goron roll and immediately enters the next area. What likely happened is that when he reached the transition point, the game automatically stopped the roll (and his comment was simply about the pits that you need to roll past; he was far enough that he could just walk).
What I heard, however, was a video game where you reach a finish line. Most players will release the gas and the level will fade out. But if you hold the gas, you keep going well past the finish line. If you make it rather long (another minute or two to weed out those who are not committed), you can hide a very nice secret there.
This same idea is actually found in Super Mario Galaxy 2. I forget the level but I think it might be a Bowser's Castle level. Regardless, there is a section where you ride the pink block-platform across lava. It stops at the "end" where you jump off onto solid ground. However, if you stay on the pink platform, it eventually continues further on and leads to a secret star.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Roof Door
That is a really stupid title for a post.
I was watching Bikdiponabus's Majora's Mask LP. He came across a witch who flew out of her chimney on a broom stick. Bikdip's co-commentator wondered why she didn't just use a door.
And my idea was that I need a building where the inhabitants fly so the only entrance/exit is on the top.
Then I also had an idea for a gigantic beehive. It is a separate idea.
I was watching Bikdiponabus's Majora's Mask LP. He came across a witch who flew out of her chimney on a broom stick. Bikdip's co-commentator wondered why she didn't just use a door.
And my idea was that I need a building where the inhabitants fly so the only entrance/exit is on the top.
Then I also had an idea for a gigantic beehive. It is a separate idea.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Trokair - Sandbox - Monsters
I am reading WTF, D&D!? on the recommendation of my best friend. I have only read 2 of them and I feel it is time well spent. The first two articles cover entries from the original AD&D Monster Manual. I have found memories of reading through the MM, as a number of the denizens detailed within were original creations of the progenitors of D&D. I want to bring them back.
This is a list of "stupid" D&D monsters that need to find a home in Trokair:
1. Rot Grubs
2. Peryton
3. Lurker Above
4. Piercer
5. Giant Slug
6. Gas Spore
7. Hippocampus
8. Sea Lion
9. Mimic
10. Ixitxachitl ("They're manta rays as smart as people that tend to be religious vampires")
This is a list of "stupid" D&D monsters that need to find a home in Trokair:
1. Rot Grubs
2. Peryton
3. Lurker Above
4. Piercer
5. Giant Slug
6. Gas Spore
7. Hippocampus
8. Sea Lion
9. Mimic
10. Ixitxachitl ("They're manta rays as smart as people that tend to be religious vampires")
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Sandbox - Wyndhaven
I need to start thinking a bit about what kinds of services are available in Wyndhaven. Iron Marches has a whole list of alchemical goods and arms & armor, including limited amounts of special materials that can change over time (for example, there is 12k gold pieces worth of adamantine available but it costs +15k gp to make adamantine heavy armor, so there is no way to get it without waiting for a shipment from the old world (probably need to put up a hefty down payment before such an order will be made) or you find raw material in the wilderness and get it back (to hell with you if you think they'll send someone to mine it)).
The specific idea that prompted this post was the use of horses in Iron Marches. Most of the characters have mounts to allow them to cover more ground outside the city walls (and the city walls are huge, cover 20 miles deep and 8 miles across).
Wyndhaven, while controlling a similarly large area, is not big with horses. Those steeds that are present in Wyndhaven are used almost exclusively by the garrison to patrol the wall and check on the farmlands. Some draft horses are probably also at those farms to do work. As such, there are not extra horses to go around for PCs to use. Either they will have to wait for a birth or a shipment or they will have to capture their own steeds. Stealing is also possible, I suppose.
The specific idea that prompted this post was the use of horses in Iron Marches. Most of the characters have mounts to allow them to cover more ground outside the city walls (and the city walls are huge, cover 20 miles deep and 8 miles across).
Wyndhaven, while controlling a similarly large area, is not big with horses. Those steeds that are present in Wyndhaven are used almost exclusively by the garrison to patrol the wall and check on the farmlands. Some draft horses are probably also at those farms to do work. As such, there are not extra horses to go around for PCs to use. Either they will have to wait for a birth or a shipment or they will have to capture their own steeds. Stealing is also possible, I suppose.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Short History of Wyndhaven's Founding
As the title says, I want to get an outline of how Wyndhaven was founded and later closed off from the dangerous wilderness beyond its walls.
Several ships carrying supplies to found two to three separate colonies traveled along the coast seeking safe harbor. The winds, waves, and shoals surrouding the New World prevented even a single landing, let alone three. Finally, during a storm, they happened upon Wyndhaven, an area where the winds and sea were supernaturally calm despite the raging tempest around them. They took it as a sign from the gods that this was where they should found a colony. One or more ships went down in the storm but the rest put anchor in the harbor and road out the maelstrom.
Flush with the manpower and supplies of two to three colonies and facing the reality that this might be the only safe landing along the New World's coast, they set about building a major port town capable of funneling the masses of the Old World into the New and the wealth of the New World back to the Old. A wall was constructed some ways inland to guard against the unknown while the bulk of the settlers worked on building shelter and exploring the harbor. Soon, their settlement was officially christened Wyndhaven and messengers were sent to back to request further men and supplies.
Some of the settlers moved outside the wall to survey the land for farming. Several homesteads soon popped up in the surrounding land, promising food for the infant colony.
Then the attacks began. Goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and other foul creatures raided in the night, stealing food, livestock, supplies, and people. Homes were burned and even the might of the wall was tested. The garrison in Wyndhaven tried its best to drive off attacks but there were not yet enough men for regular patrols. Wyndhaven suffered a long stretch of fear.
When new men arrived, Wyndhaven's mayor ordered the building of another wall, far inland. It was an ambitious project (the details of which, such as how they came about the materials, to be determined later) but soon a wall began to encompass a huge area of potential farmland around Wyndhaven. The humanoids took notice and began to mass their forces. Before the wall could be finished, they attacked. A huge battle ensued but the colonists were ultimately victorious. The shattered remnants of the humanoid army scurried back into the darkness of the unknown wilderness while the colonists hastened to complete the wall. Their forces had also been dangerously depleted by the battle. Further news from back home revealed that reinforcements would be few and long in coming. Wyndhaven once more buckled down in fear of another attack.
Some years past with few sightings of the enemy, and even those were of isolated bands rather than a true force to challenge the wall. The Wyndhavians prospered and grew into their new home. Eventually, some settlers wished to push further into the continent. The Lord Governor objected but, due to the years of peace, relented to their protestations. They travelled north and west, through the blighted Thornscape, and found rich, fertile soil on the hills. They named their town Land's Blessing.
Getting late so I will summarize:
Land's Blessing discovered The Hoach and the goblins living there. A regiment from Wyndhaven came and supposedly cleared it out. Some time later (a few days, one month to the day, something), all communication with Land's Blessing stopped. I want a fire to be visible to the guards along the wall. Someone or something destroyed the entire town of Land's Blessing and all the people who lived there (except a few who were in Wyndhaven at the time). The adventurers who originally cleared out the Hoach left a map of the caves carved into a table at the inn in Land's Blessing. Despite the huge fire, this table survived and now offers the PCs their first lead.
Several ships carrying supplies to found two to three separate colonies traveled along the coast seeking safe harbor. The winds, waves, and shoals surrouding the New World prevented even a single landing, let alone three. Finally, during a storm, they happened upon Wyndhaven, an area where the winds and sea were supernaturally calm despite the raging tempest around them. They took it as a sign from the gods that this was where they should found a colony. One or more ships went down in the storm but the rest put anchor in the harbor and road out the maelstrom.
Flush with the manpower and supplies of two to three colonies and facing the reality that this might be the only safe landing along the New World's coast, they set about building a major port town capable of funneling the masses of the Old World into the New and the wealth of the New World back to the Old. A wall was constructed some ways inland to guard against the unknown while the bulk of the settlers worked on building shelter and exploring the harbor. Soon, their settlement was officially christened Wyndhaven and messengers were sent to back to request further men and supplies.
Some of the settlers moved outside the wall to survey the land for farming. Several homesteads soon popped up in the surrounding land, promising food for the infant colony.
Then the attacks began. Goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and other foul creatures raided in the night, stealing food, livestock, supplies, and people. Homes were burned and even the might of the wall was tested. The garrison in Wyndhaven tried its best to drive off attacks but there were not yet enough men for regular patrols. Wyndhaven suffered a long stretch of fear.
When new men arrived, Wyndhaven's mayor ordered the building of another wall, far inland. It was an ambitious project (the details of which, such as how they came about the materials, to be determined later) but soon a wall began to encompass a huge area of potential farmland around Wyndhaven. The humanoids took notice and began to mass their forces. Before the wall could be finished, they attacked. A huge battle ensued but the colonists were ultimately victorious. The shattered remnants of the humanoid army scurried back into the darkness of the unknown wilderness while the colonists hastened to complete the wall. Their forces had also been dangerously depleted by the battle. Further news from back home revealed that reinforcements would be few and long in coming. Wyndhaven once more buckled down in fear of another attack.
Some years past with few sightings of the enemy, and even those were of isolated bands rather than a true force to challenge the wall. The Wyndhavians prospered and grew into their new home. Eventually, some settlers wished to push further into the continent. The Lord Governor objected but, due to the years of peace, relented to their protestations. They travelled north and west, through the blighted Thornscape, and found rich, fertile soil on the hills. They named their town Land's Blessing.
Getting late so I will summarize:
Land's Blessing discovered The Hoach and the goblins living there. A regiment from Wyndhaven came and supposedly cleared it out. Some time later (a few days, one month to the day, something), all communication with Land's Blessing stopped. I want a fire to be visible to the guards along the wall. Someone or something destroyed the entire town of Land's Blessing and all the people who lived there (except a few who were in Wyndhaven at the time). The adventurers who originally cleared out the Hoach left a map of the caves carved into a table at the inn in Land's Blessing. Despite the huge fire, this table survived and now offers the PCs their first lead.
Five Pillar Night
I had an idea after writing that last post.
When 3e first came out, I joined a game where I played a two-weapon fighter. Part of my fighter's background was that he was born on Five Pillar Night, a holiday in the St. Cuthbert religion. The details of this holiday were simply that five gigantic Flame Strikes fell from the heavens onto an invading army, shattering it in a matter of seconds.
I imagine something similar could have happened in Trokair. I am currently entertaining the idea that the original society of Trokair fell when the portal to the Abyss opened and demons swept across the land. It could be that, after establishing a few settlements further inland from Wyndhaven, some of these demons appeared and wiped them out with huge pillars of flame in the middle of the night. That would also explain the reticence to expand further.
The old idea of humanoids prowling about in armies begs the question - what happened to them? It could be that the army of Wyndhaven exhausted its numbers fending off an attack, leaving both sides reeling (though the humanoids would be able to recover more quickly, leading to the building of the Wall).
This new idea also begs some questions (why is Wyndhaven still inhabited being a major one) but it does hint at the demonic forces that lie further inland.
When 3e first came out, I joined a game where I played a two-weapon fighter. Part of my fighter's background was that he was born on Five Pillar Night, a holiday in the St. Cuthbert religion. The details of this holiday were simply that five gigantic Flame Strikes fell from the heavens onto an invading army, shattering it in a matter of seconds.
I imagine something similar could have happened in Trokair. I am currently entertaining the idea that the original society of Trokair fell when the portal to the Abyss opened and demons swept across the land. It could be that, after establishing a few settlements further inland from Wyndhaven, some of these demons appeared and wiped them out with huge pillars of flame in the middle of the night. That would also explain the reticence to expand further.
The old idea of humanoids prowling about in armies begs the question - what happened to them? It could be that the army of Wyndhaven exhausted its numbers fending off an attack, leaving both sides reeling (though the humanoids would be able to recover more quickly, leading to the building of the Wall).
This new idea also begs some questions (why is Wyndhaven still inhabited being a major one) but it does hint at the demonic forces that lie further inland.
Trokair - Sandbox
I have been thinking about Trokair from the perspective of a Western Marches-style sandbox game over the past week. I never get really far (as is my custom) but I have made bits of progress (the giant oyster from last post came from my musings).
A Western Marches game requires dungeons and challenges to exist prior to the PCs' arrival. It also requires those challenges to develop without recourse to human settlements as no civilized PC races inhabit the world beyond the safe zone of the home base. This rules out many of the typical plot devices used to drive adventure (kidnapping, recovering stolen property, immenent threat of attack, etc). So I have been forced to explore why PCs would push on through dangerous environments and continue forth in any given dungeon locale. There is no captive townsperson at the end of the dungeon. There is not necessarily any great treasure or macguffin under the watchful eye of the Boss Moster. Players really need to desire exploration for its own sake, an increase in character power through experience, and the acquired treasure that may or may not be found in the dungeon (and maybe, like myself, just the opportunity to roll dice and kill things; I wonder how long that motivation can carry other players?).
Impressing players from the start with the concept that their characters are explorers and adventurers is probably key to this kind of game. They are the kind of people who see a cave and need to know what is inside it, what lies around the next bend, what might be behind that crevice just large enough to slip through. They kill the monsters they encounter to protect themselves (it occurs to me that the monsters need to be hostile as a matter of policy; they could be angry because the PCs have invaded their home but animosity should be assumed at all times to drive the conflict). If they find treasure, that is a good day.
From another angle, the presence of dungeons has to be explained through some means. If this is a land new to the PC races' knowledge, how did catacombs and sewers and other such locales develop? Most likely, one of three methods would be used to populate the wilds with dungeons:
1. Adventures are almost entirely wilderness based, with natural caves and humanoid forts making up the difference.
2. A prior civilization inhabited the land but has declined into ruin and the PCs are exploring their forgotten empire.
3. The PCs' own civilization once inhabited the land but it was overrun and they are now going back.
Option 3 is basically a subset of 2 but it introduces a slightly more cogent motivation for the PCs by sacrificing a bit of the unknown. I am currently mulling a combination of 2 and 3 to incorporate some ideas from Trokair. The actual ruins of Trokair might be known to the PCs but they date from an earlier, extinct civilization (and many of the dungeons to explore also arose from that civilization). However, there would also be a few more recent places, like Land's Blessing (the town just outside the Hoach).
The basic idea at the moment is that the PCs' people arrived from across the sea some years ago and established a settlement on the coast (Wyndhaven). They sought to expand but encountered heavy, unforeseen resistance by various savage humanoids (orcs, goblins, etc). For years the colony was essentially under siege, with sightings of the humanoids on the horizon deterring any attempts at expansion. The town was waiting for further men and supplies when something happened to curtail or delay that reinforcement (a war back home thta diverted manpower, a need to build up resources after the expense of the first colonization, etc). They consolidated their holdings and decided to wait it out. One day, no more humanoids were sighted. After a few more months/years, a group of settlers set out to found a new town called Land's Blessing (it was the only fertile patch of soil in an area known as the Thornscape). The town flourished for a while before the humanoids returned and wiped it out. Now, no settlers venture out of Wyndhaven.
The majority of dungeons would arise from the Trokairian civilization. However, a few settlements close to Wyndhaven would have come from the settlers and might hold options for human-related adventure (kidnappings from farms near Wyndhaven, criminals on the loose from Wyndhaven, stolen goods, etc). I like compromises; they seem to open the most doors.
A Western Marches game requires dungeons and challenges to exist prior to the PCs' arrival. It also requires those challenges to develop without recourse to human settlements as no civilized PC races inhabit the world beyond the safe zone of the home base. This rules out many of the typical plot devices used to drive adventure (kidnapping, recovering stolen property, immenent threat of attack, etc). So I have been forced to explore why PCs would push on through dangerous environments and continue forth in any given dungeon locale. There is no captive townsperson at the end of the dungeon. There is not necessarily any great treasure or macguffin under the watchful eye of the Boss Moster. Players really need to desire exploration for its own sake, an increase in character power through experience, and the acquired treasure that may or may not be found in the dungeon (and maybe, like myself, just the opportunity to roll dice and kill things; I wonder how long that motivation can carry other players?).
Impressing players from the start with the concept that their characters are explorers and adventurers is probably key to this kind of game. They are the kind of people who see a cave and need to know what is inside it, what lies around the next bend, what might be behind that crevice just large enough to slip through. They kill the monsters they encounter to protect themselves (it occurs to me that the monsters need to be hostile as a matter of policy; they could be angry because the PCs have invaded their home but animosity should be assumed at all times to drive the conflict). If they find treasure, that is a good day.
From another angle, the presence of dungeons has to be explained through some means. If this is a land new to the PC races' knowledge, how did catacombs and sewers and other such locales develop? Most likely, one of three methods would be used to populate the wilds with dungeons:
1. Adventures are almost entirely wilderness based, with natural caves and humanoid forts making up the difference.
2. A prior civilization inhabited the land but has declined into ruin and the PCs are exploring their forgotten empire.
3. The PCs' own civilization once inhabited the land but it was overrun and they are now going back.
Option 3 is basically a subset of 2 but it introduces a slightly more cogent motivation for the PCs by sacrificing a bit of the unknown. I am currently mulling a combination of 2 and 3 to incorporate some ideas from Trokair. The actual ruins of Trokair might be known to the PCs but they date from an earlier, extinct civilization (and many of the dungeons to explore also arose from that civilization). However, there would also be a few more recent places, like Land's Blessing (the town just outside the Hoach).
The basic idea at the moment is that the PCs' people arrived from across the sea some years ago and established a settlement on the coast (Wyndhaven). They sought to expand but encountered heavy, unforeseen resistance by various savage humanoids (orcs, goblins, etc). For years the colony was essentially under siege, with sightings of the humanoids on the horizon deterring any attempts at expansion. The town was waiting for further men and supplies when something happened to curtail or delay that reinforcement (a war back home thta diverted manpower, a need to build up resources after the expense of the first colonization, etc). They consolidated their holdings and decided to wait it out. One day, no more humanoids were sighted. After a few more months/years, a group of settlers set out to found a new town called Land's Blessing (it was the only fertile patch of soil in an area known as the Thornscape). The town flourished for a while before the humanoids returned and wiped it out. Now, no settlers venture out of Wyndhaven.
The majority of dungeons would arise from the Trokairian civilization. However, a few settlements close to Wyndhaven would have come from the settlers and might hold options for human-related adventure (kidnappings from farms near Wyndhaven, criminals on the loose from Wyndhaven, stolen goods, etc). I like compromises; they seem to open the most doors.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Giant Pearl
I had this idea after watching the Ewoks #9 review by Linkara/Iron Liz.
Somewhere in the ocean along the coast (likely where the Hoach empties into the sea) there will be an underwater dungeon inhabited by a truly gigantic oyster. Within this oyster is a very large pearl. Naturally, the first instinct is to sell the pearl to obtain fabulous wealth. However, clues leading to the discovery of the pearl also hint at a greater treasure within. I am not sure what that is but, for example, it could be a key to another dungeon with an even more valuable treasure that was long ago lost to the sea (or willfully sequestered within the oyster) and became encased in the pearl (the existence of magic allows clues to point towards an item that was lost at sea and later encased in a pearl).
Somewhere in the ocean along the coast (likely where the Hoach empties into the sea) there will be an underwater dungeon inhabited by a truly gigantic oyster. Within this oyster is a very large pearl. Naturally, the first instinct is to sell the pearl to obtain fabulous wealth. However, clues leading to the discovery of the pearl also hint at a greater treasure within. I am not sure what that is but, for example, it could be a key to another dungeon with an even more valuable treasure that was long ago lost to the sea (or willfully sequestered within the oyster) and became encased in the pearl (the existence of magic allows clues to point towards an item that was lost at sea and later encased in a pearl).
Friday, July 2, 2010
It's a Good Thing We Won World War II
I am copying this article (links and all) from Mark Shea's blog on National Catholic Register.
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/its_a_good_thing_we_won_world_war_ii/
-----------------------
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/its_a_good_thing_we_won_world_war_ii/
-----------------------
If we hadn’t, Europe might now be a socialist confederacy of nations dominated by a German economic powerhouse. Hostility to Jews and Catholics might be rampant on the Continent at this hour. A worldwide colossus dedicated to the abortion of the unfit and founded by a racist whose banner was “Eugenics: To create a race of thoroughbreds!” might, even now, be continuing Hitler’s work of killing millions. Our culture, might, even now, be paying high honors to those who cherish the lives of animals over those of human beings just as Hitler loved his German Shepherd Blondi while ordering the unfit to be massacred. Heck, we might even be torturing and experimenting on prisoners or adopting the tactics (and euphemisms) of the Gestapo in the name of National Security. There could be serious talk among the intelligentsia about arresting the Pope on a trumped up charge and even dreamy wishful talk in state-sponsored news media of pursuing him through the sewers of Europe and riddling his corpse with bullets. The brave Dutch Catholics who resisted Nazi oppression might, even now, be abandoning their faith in droves in conformity with the Culture of Death and embracing the notion that murdering innocent people whose lives were deemed by Authorities to be “Lebensunwertes Leben” is a good thing and praising German jurisprudence as a masterpiece of enlightenment on the matter. And the practice might even be spreading to our shores.
Indeed, nationally recognized journals of reputable popular science like Psychology Today might be publishing things like:
Thus, the injunction against assisted suicide – like that against unassisted suicide – is commonly underwritten by the doctrine of human dignity. But the whole edifice starts to crumble once we bring Darwin into the picture. With the corrective lens of evolutionary theory, the view that human life is infinitely valuable suddenly seems like a vast and unjustified over-valuation of human life. This is because Darwin’s theory undermines the traditional reasons for thinking human life might have infinite value: the image-of-God thesis and the rationality thesis.
But if human life is not supremely valuable after all, then there is no longer any reason to think that suicide or voluntary euthanasia is necessarily wrong under any or all circumstances. In fact, it starts to seem decidedly odd that we have elevated human life – i.e., pure biological continuation – so far above the quality of the life in question for the person living it. Why should life be considered valuable in and of itself, independently of the happiness of the individual living that life?
And powerful people might be quietly asking themselves, “What’s so special and sacrosanct about “happiness” or “consent”? If it’s true that Darwin’s theory undermines the traditional reasons for thinking human life might have infinite value, isn’t it just as true that Darwin’s theory undermines the traditional reasons for thinking human life might have any value if it gets in my way? If human beings are just one more product of the same mindless process that made that anthill in my front yard, why shouldn’t I treat human beings the way I treat those ants when they get in my way? It certainly worked for Hitler when he came to power. His problem was not that he was immoral or “evil”. As Psychology Today has argued to my satisfaction, all that “morality” stuff is just genetic programming design to perpetuate the species. If I can defy my genetic programming by wearing a condom, why not defy it when I need to kill somebody who is in my way? Yeah, Hitler’s problem was not that he was for killing whole populations that got in his way anymore than a shark is “evil” for devouring a school of fish. It’s what happens in nature. No. Hitler’s problem is that he got sick and weak. His problem is that he lost. So if I can retool the system in such a way that it’s legal to do so and I won’t face punishment for my so-called “sin” (what an outdated concept!), why not kill people who get in my way just as I kill ants that get in my way? If Darwinism is about anything, it’s about the survival and proliferation of the strong!
Yes, it’s sure a good thing Hitler lost and his ideas died with him.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Faces of Fear - Motivations
A thought I had while going over the Faces of Fear recording I did earlier today.
Why do each of the Faces of Fear act the way they do? Saren hears voices in her dreams that tell her to kill and mutilate people. Warrick is shunned, humiliated, and constantly mistreated by the woman he loves and follows her bidding in an attempt to win her affection. Radok is much like Warrick in that he idolizes Garrett and seeks to win his approval and recognition. But Garrett? He just likes killing people.
Garrett is not like a serial killer; he does not pick out a victim, fantasize about killing him, stalk him, and finally do the deed. He just likes getting into fights and killing people. That is why he became a soldier. That is why he became a mercenary. That is why he became an assassin. And the fact that sometimes his patrons did not want him to kill certain people is why he left even those jobs behind to join Saren's cult. Here, he basically has free reign to kill whomever he wishes (fortunately, he feels an odd, familial love for Saren and all but ignores Warrick, so he has no desire to kill his fellow Faces; I still do not know why he lets Radok live; probably likes to see the little guy struggle).
Why do each of the Faces of Fear act the way they do? Saren hears voices in her dreams that tell her to kill and mutilate people. Warrick is shunned, humiliated, and constantly mistreated by the woman he loves and follows her bidding in an attempt to win her affection. Radok is much like Warrick in that he idolizes Garrett and seeks to win his approval and recognition. But Garrett? He just likes killing people.
Garrett is not like a serial killer; he does not pick out a victim, fantasize about killing him, stalk him, and finally do the deed. He just likes getting into fights and killing people. That is why he became a soldier. That is why he became a mercenary. That is why he became an assassin. And the fact that sometimes his patrons did not want him to kill certain people is why he left even those jobs behind to join Saren's cult. Here, he basically has free reign to kill whomever he wishes (fortunately, he feels an odd, familial love for Saren and all but ignores Warrick, so he has no desire to kill his fellow Faces; I still do not know why he lets Radok live; probably likes to see the little guy struggle).
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Dwarves and Guns
I just wanted to jot down something that occurred to me while watching the opening minute of Sacred Blacksmith's second episode.
Dwarves in Trokair are rare on the surface. Those below ground have created guns. Gunpowder and explosives are indispensible but dangerous tools for mining and tunneling through rock. They can be used to great effect in setting traps (such as triggered cave-ins) but the dangers of collapse prevent greater use in the manner of concussive hand grenades (short-distance projectile/fragmentation grenades and "flash bang" grenades are suitable (a sudden, bright flash of light in the middle of pitch-black tunnels is a great way to dazzle one's foes)). Hence, guns were born. Their guns focus on spread and power (they would love shotguns) as opposed to distance and accuracy because they are used for tunnel fighting (where it is difficult to dodge and long-distance combat is rare).
One of the things that triggered this post was a line from the opening, "descend into the dark heavens." It is an unusual turn of phrase, as the heavens are almost universally considered to be skyward. I wondered if dwarves would think of things backwards, with their heaven beneath the earth and their hell on the surface (how horrific to be deprived of the welcoming embrace of stone and earth on all sides, to face this terrible empty void of the sky).
Then I remembered that the dwarves have guns ... and why they have guns. The depths of the earth spawn creatures twisted with evil and madness. Dark, inhuman creatures constantly bubble up from the darkness and seek to overwhelm the surface. The dwarves are the wall between us and destruction. That is why they have guns. And given that, there is no doubt that the dwarves do not consider the surface hell - hell lies somewhere far below even their subterranean kingdoms.
Dwarves in Trokair are rare on the surface. Those below ground have created guns. Gunpowder and explosives are indispensible but dangerous tools for mining and tunneling through rock. They can be used to great effect in setting traps (such as triggered cave-ins) but the dangers of collapse prevent greater use in the manner of concussive hand grenades (short-distance projectile/fragmentation grenades and "flash bang" grenades are suitable (a sudden, bright flash of light in the middle of pitch-black tunnels is a great way to dazzle one's foes)). Hence, guns were born. Their guns focus on spread and power (they would love shotguns) as opposed to distance and accuracy because they are used for tunnel fighting (where it is difficult to dodge and long-distance combat is rare).
One of the things that triggered this post was a line from the opening, "descend into the dark heavens." It is an unusual turn of phrase, as the heavens are almost universally considered to be skyward. I wondered if dwarves would think of things backwards, with their heaven beneath the earth and their hell on the surface (how horrific to be deprived of the welcoming embrace of stone and earth on all sides, to face this terrible empty void of the sky).
Then I remembered that the dwarves have guns ... and why they have guns. The depths of the earth spawn creatures twisted with evil and madness. Dark, inhuman creatures constantly bubble up from the darkness and seek to overwhelm the surface. The dwarves are the wall between us and destruction. That is why they have guns. And given that, there is no doubt that the dwarves do not consider the surface hell - hell lies somewhere far below even their subterranean kingdoms.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
City of Dimension
Creating Jack Dufresne has compelled me to describe, briefly, the City of Dimension. In trying to do so, I wrote that entire post about DJ Art.
The City of Dimension (which I perversely refuse to just call Dimension 90% of the time) was created to house DJ Art. I needed a world on this side of the supply room door to match the many and varied worlds on the other side. I suck at coming up with names for things so I somehow decided on The City of Dimension (I wanted the name to be cool but unusual and I feel that Dimension hits both those notes but it sucks that it came from DJ's name).
The City of Dimension appears completely normal and average. It is located somewhere in the middle of the US (by middle I just mean it is not a coastal city) and probably more south than north (as I grew up in Arizona and do not imagine snow very well, despite many visits to family in Buffalo, living through the President's Day Blizzard in New York City in 2003, and living in Erie, PA). It is not a very large city (like NYC or Boston or SanFran or Dallas) but it is not very small either (like Erie). The people there are happy and, while they deal with many of the same problems as the outside world, there is a feeling of continuity and isolation (a good kind of isolation, in that they need not worry too much about what happens in the outside world because it does not affect them).
The interesting thing about the City of Dimension, though, is that it is home to many unusual people. DJ Art, who finds himself transported to alternate realities through the back door of his art supply store, is a typical example. Jack Dufresne, who is not a natural person but a corporate entity of other people's consciousnesses given corporeal form, is another. Essentially, whereas Trokair is where I try to fit all of my fantasy creations in an attempt to tie them all into one cohesive whole, so Dimension is where I try to fit all my modern creations (the fantasy/modern duality comes from D&D and d20 Modern, two games using the same basic ruleset).
Dimension is home to my magical girl, a half dozen or so of my superhero characters, several of my real life friends from high school and college, my furutistic corporation, and more. The theme tying them all together is normal on the surface, weird underneath. For example, my friends work at a wine and liquor store in the city. Everything about the arrangement is perfectly normal except that no one will ever touch the mop in the corner and no one will ever mention why. And beyond the brief moment when it comes up, no one in the wider world ever acknowledges it. It is a city in which the weird and unusual happens constantly, but the world itself conspires to maintain a mundane atmosphere. It is not a city like NY in Men in Black where weird things happen and somehow you forget. Nor is it a city where a demon walking down the street does not seem unusual. It is, instead, a city where a demon walking down the street will miraculously avoid everyone's attention except that one guy who's plight it is to see demons.
I suppose I could have called it the City of Unbelievable Coincidence. No one tries to achieve widespread panic through the revelation of the supernatural forces at work in the city (there is no mad scientist who takes over the airwaves and demands ransom money or he will blow up the moon). Instead, everyone with these weird powers or occurences tries desperately to keep them under wraps and, overall, succeeds brilliantly. Most of the characters are associates and interact frequently. However, few know of each other's weirdness. For example, the girl who works in DJ's shop does not know he disappears into alternate dimensions and DJ does not know that she is a former member of the high school chess club from the year they all mysteriously gained super powers (she is Pawn and she can split into multiple copies of herself). Yet they work together every day and one or the other often has to cover for himself to avoid the other finding out about it.
I find it is best to just ignore that part. Assume that this stuff all stays hidden and focus on what each character does while exploring his own weirdness, rather than mixing weirdnesses together.
The City of Dimension (which I perversely refuse to just call Dimension 90% of the time) was created to house DJ Art. I needed a world on this side of the supply room door to match the many and varied worlds on the other side. I suck at coming up with names for things so I somehow decided on The City of Dimension (I wanted the name to be cool but unusual and I feel that Dimension hits both those notes but it sucks that it came from DJ's name).
The City of Dimension appears completely normal and average. It is located somewhere in the middle of the US (by middle I just mean it is not a coastal city) and probably more south than north (as I grew up in Arizona and do not imagine snow very well, despite many visits to family in Buffalo, living through the President's Day Blizzard in New York City in 2003, and living in Erie, PA). It is not a very large city (like NYC or Boston or SanFran or Dallas) but it is not very small either (like Erie). The people there are happy and, while they deal with many of the same problems as the outside world, there is a feeling of continuity and isolation (a good kind of isolation, in that they need not worry too much about what happens in the outside world because it does not affect them).
The interesting thing about the City of Dimension, though, is that it is home to many unusual people. DJ Art, who finds himself transported to alternate realities through the back door of his art supply store, is a typical example. Jack Dufresne, who is not a natural person but a corporate entity of other people's consciousnesses given corporeal form, is another. Essentially, whereas Trokair is where I try to fit all of my fantasy creations in an attempt to tie them all into one cohesive whole, so Dimension is where I try to fit all my modern creations (the fantasy/modern duality comes from D&D and d20 Modern, two games using the same basic ruleset).
Dimension is home to my magical girl, a half dozen or so of my superhero characters, several of my real life friends from high school and college, my furutistic corporation, and more. The theme tying them all together is normal on the surface, weird underneath. For example, my friends work at a wine and liquor store in the city. Everything about the arrangement is perfectly normal except that no one will ever touch the mop in the corner and no one will ever mention why. And beyond the brief moment when it comes up, no one in the wider world ever acknowledges it. It is a city in which the weird and unusual happens constantly, but the world itself conspires to maintain a mundane atmosphere. It is not a city like NY in Men in Black where weird things happen and somehow you forget. Nor is it a city where a demon walking down the street does not seem unusual. It is, instead, a city where a demon walking down the street will miraculously avoid everyone's attention except that one guy who's plight it is to see demons.
I suppose I could have called it the City of Unbelievable Coincidence. No one tries to achieve widespread panic through the revelation of the supernatural forces at work in the city (there is no mad scientist who takes over the airwaves and demands ransom money or he will blow up the moon). Instead, everyone with these weird powers or occurences tries desperately to keep them under wraps and, overall, succeeds brilliantly. Most of the characters are associates and interact frequently. However, few know of each other's weirdness. For example, the girl who works in DJ's shop does not know he disappears into alternate dimensions and DJ does not know that she is a former member of the high school chess club from the year they all mysteriously gained super powers (she is Pawn and she can split into multiple copies of herself). Yet they work together every day and one or the other often has to cover for himself to avoid the other finding out about it.
I find it is best to just ignore that part. Assume that this stuff all stays hidden and focus on what each character does while exploring his own weirdness, rather than mixing weirdnesses together.
City of Dimension - DJ Art
I created a character in late high school or early college named DJ Art. DJ was visually based on Vampire Hunter D (tall, slim, teenage girl boy-crush man-pretty, and with an awesome hat) but otherwise independent.
At that time, I had discovered the world of freeform message board roleplaying. My D&D group had broken up and I needed my RP fix. One board system in particular really drew me in: Venura. Venura consisted of a number of interrelated and completely independent roleplaying boards all housed under one convenient URL and utilizing one convenient log-in/account. By the time I arrived, many of the existing realms (each separate RP board was called a realm) were defunct, abandoned after months of use or isolation. Every few weeks I made a point of going down the list of realms to search for new arrivals. A few times, I also looked through the dead realms to see if there was anything of interest. One board was devoid of input except for a link to a Geocities or Angelfire webpage. On that page, there was a character submission form for the RP that would have taken place on Venura. The hook for the game was that no characters could have special powers, a wide departure from standard roleplaying (as the goal for many roleplayers is to explore something besides the mundane). The novelty of it struck me and I decided to envision such a character. Of course, being the rule-bending bastard that I was, I made DJ Art.
DJ Art stands for Dimension Jumper: Alternate Reality Timelines. DJ Art was an artist who owned a combination art supply store and gallery and probably taught a few art lessons on the side. He had no special powers. He married young but his wife died soon after (the reason was never established; perhaps it would be too cliche to say she died of complications during childbirth and the child also died, leaving him completely alone and burdened with a terrible loss that fueled his art for years to come; also, her name started with an L (Lenore, Laura, Lisa, Leanne, Lindsay?)).
One day, while closing up shop, he entered the back storeroom and found that beyond the doorway lied, instead of shelves of paints and paper and such, a vast, unending expanse of blackness. As he stared dumbfounded into the darkness, the doorway disappeared behind him. When his initial shock faded, he noticed a glowing light before him. A nonexistent spotlight shined down from the void and illuminated a small table standing on nothing.
(I always imagine the scene from Disney's Alice in Wonderland where she is walking the colored path and the broomdogthing sweeps it away; she sits down on a rock illuminated in the middle of a dark forest; when I was young, that forest was so dark on our VHS copy of Alice in Wonderland that it seemed like there was nothing in the background at all.)
The table was covered with a white linen cloth and a large lace doily. In the middle of the table stood a tall, thin crystal vase holding a single red rose. A mysterious voice entered his head (DJ had the distinct sense that the voice was not being heard by his ears) and told him that he needed to set right what was wrong. DJ questioned the voice, out loud (why not?), but to no avail. Moments later, he found himself standing the middle of a city park at dusk. Thus his first adventure began.
DJ is transported to various alternate realities and alternate timelines in this manner by the mysterious voice. Once there, he needs to figure out what is wrong and then fix it. He has to accomplish this with no special powers because he is just a normal human being. Once accomplished, he finds himself back in the void with the mysterious table and a wide open doorway. Sometimes, the doorway leads back to his store. Other times, it leads to another alternate reality. He eventually figured out that the table was the key to telling the difference. If it appears exactly as it did when he first entered the void, he is back home. If not, he is not. And it seems as though the further the table differs from that initial configuration, the further out of whack the alternate reality he enters.
One of my favorite stories with DJ is when he entered an AR (alternate reality) and saw a young woman who reminded him of his wife (and by reminded, I mean his wife and that girl were almost twins when it came to looks). He fell in love with her (which was very inappropriate, considering she was a teenager and he was in his 30s) but found out that what he needed to set right in this world was getting her to fall in love with another boy her age.
At that time, I had discovered the world of freeform message board roleplaying. My D&D group had broken up and I needed my RP fix. One board system in particular really drew me in: Venura. Venura consisted of a number of interrelated and completely independent roleplaying boards all housed under one convenient URL and utilizing one convenient log-in/account. By the time I arrived, many of the existing realms (each separate RP board was called a realm) were defunct, abandoned after months of use or isolation. Every few weeks I made a point of going down the list of realms to search for new arrivals. A few times, I also looked through the dead realms to see if there was anything of interest. One board was devoid of input except for a link to a Geocities or Angelfire webpage. On that page, there was a character submission form for the RP that would have taken place on Venura. The hook for the game was that no characters could have special powers, a wide departure from standard roleplaying (as the goal for many roleplayers is to explore something besides the mundane). The novelty of it struck me and I decided to envision such a character. Of course, being the rule-bending bastard that I was, I made DJ Art.
DJ Art stands for Dimension Jumper: Alternate Reality Timelines. DJ Art was an artist who owned a combination art supply store and gallery and probably taught a few art lessons on the side. He had no special powers. He married young but his wife died soon after (the reason was never established; perhaps it would be too cliche to say she died of complications during childbirth and the child also died, leaving him completely alone and burdened with a terrible loss that fueled his art for years to come; also, her name started with an L (Lenore, Laura, Lisa, Leanne, Lindsay?)).
One day, while closing up shop, he entered the back storeroom and found that beyond the doorway lied, instead of shelves of paints and paper and such, a vast, unending expanse of blackness. As he stared dumbfounded into the darkness, the doorway disappeared behind him. When his initial shock faded, he noticed a glowing light before him. A nonexistent spotlight shined down from the void and illuminated a small table standing on nothing.
(I always imagine the scene from Disney's Alice in Wonderland where she is walking the colored path and the broomdogthing sweeps it away; she sits down on a rock illuminated in the middle of a dark forest; when I was young, that forest was so dark on our VHS copy of Alice in Wonderland that it seemed like there was nothing in the background at all.)
The table was covered with a white linen cloth and a large lace doily. In the middle of the table stood a tall, thin crystal vase holding a single red rose. A mysterious voice entered his head (DJ had the distinct sense that the voice was not being heard by his ears) and told him that he needed to set right what was wrong. DJ questioned the voice, out loud (why not?), but to no avail. Moments later, he found himself standing the middle of a city park at dusk. Thus his first adventure began.
DJ is transported to various alternate realities and alternate timelines in this manner by the mysterious voice. Once there, he needs to figure out what is wrong and then fix it. He has to accomplish this with no special powers because he is just a normal human being. Once accomplished, he finds himself back in the void with the mysterious table and a wide open doorway. Sometimes, the doorway leads back to his store. Other times, it leads to another alternate reality. He eventually figured out that the table was the key to telling the difference. If it appears exactly as it did when he first entered the void, he is back home. If not, he is not. And it seems as though the further the table differs from that initial configuration, the further out of whack the alternate reality he enters.
One of my favorite stories with DJ is when he entered an AR (alternate reality) and saw a young woman who reminded him of his wife (and by reminded, I mean his wife and that girl were almost twins when it came to looks). He fell in love with her (which was very inappropriate, considering she was a teenager and he was in his 30s) but found out that what he needed to set right in this world was getting her to fall in love with another boy her age.
City of Dimension - Jack Dufresne
I was heading into Wegman's (an awesome grocery store in Buffalo and Erie) to get some bread and carrots when I thought about wielding a katana. I had taken kendo classes in college and I tried to remember the correct stance and technique for the various strikes. I thought about taking more kendo classes in the future and imagined showing up to class, telling sensei that I had taken kendo before, and then promptly assuming an incorrect stance. I further imagined that I would be vindicated by further practice as the lessons that had once sat rusty in the back of my brain received a good polish and demonstrated to sensei that I had taken classes before (I simply neglected any practice since then).
And that spurred the thought for the new character. I imagined someone who knew the basics of any job/skill but always appeared very out of practice. It would be obvious to anyone acquainted with that job that he was not a complete neophyte (there would be hints that he knew certain advanced details of a job) but he was not at the top of his game. With a little practice, however, he soon resumed his full competence.
This being the City of Dimension, such a man would need a weird origin for his ability. I decided he would be a corporate being, the collective consciousnesses of multiple people throughout space (and maybe time) given corporeal form. He possessed the knowledge and skills of all these people but it took some time and effort to bring about full access and familiarity (he would, in essence, need to strengthen the established bond to a particular consciousness until the skill operated as his own). He would be a drifter or a homeless man, wandering the streets of Dimension and finding work wherever he could. By choice or by fate, he is drawn to temporary jobs; in those cases where he is offered a full-time position, he inevitably abandons the post after a short time. It is not in his nature to be tied down or adopt a routine existence.
He needed a name. The name that kept popping into my mind was Jack. It was not a deliberate play on jack-of-all-trades but it may well have been a subconscious motivation. For a last name, I somehow came to Dufresne (do'-frayn). He is gritty, hard-worn, probably smokes, often has a mean case of stubble (rarely a beard), and somehow keeps his light brown or blonde hair cut short. He has brown eyes (or blue or green, if blonde).
Obviously there needs to be a yet greater secret about Jack Dufresne. A corporate entity like himself must exist for a reason, whether to accomplish something (like, for an example off the top of my head, the consciousnesses which compose him come from victims of some immortal supernatural creature and he has to solve the mystery of their deaths and remove the dopplegangers that exist in their place) or as a result of something else being accomplished (like, for another example off the top of my head, a supernatural EMP ripping parts of the souls from people and them coalescing into this new being who must find his own purpose in life but might also want to investigate that EMP).
And that spurred the thought for the new character. I imagined someone who knew the basics of any job/skill but always appeared very out of practice. It would be obvious to anyone acquainted with that job that he was not a complete neophyte (there would be hints that he knew certain advanced details of a job) but he was not at the top of his game. With a little practice, however, he soon resumed his full competence.
This being the City of Dimension, such a man would need a weird origin for his ability. I decided he would be a corporate being, the collective consciousnesses of multiple people throughout space (and maybe time) given corporeal form. He possessed the knowledge and skills of all these people but it took some time and effort to bring about full access and familiarity (he would, in essence, need to strengthen the established bond to a particular consciousness until the skill operated as his own). He would be a drifter or a homeless man, wandering the streets of Dimension and finding work wherever he could. By choice or by fate, he is drawn to temporary jobs; in those cases where he is offered a full-time position, he inevitably abandons the post after a short time. It is not in his nature to be tied down or adopt a routine existence.
He needed a name. The name that kept popping into my mind was Jack. It was not a deliberate play on jack-of-all-trades but it may well have been a subconscious motivation. For a last name, I somehow came to Dufresne (do'-frayn). He is gritty, hard-worn, probably smokes, often has a mean case of stubble (rarely a beard), and somehow keeps his light brown or blonde hair cut short. He has brown eyes (or blue or green, if blonde).
Obviously there needs to be a yet greater secret about Jack Dufresne. A corporate entity like himself must exist for a reason, whether to accomplish something (like, for an example off the top of my head, the consciousnesses which compose him come from victims of some immortal supernatural creature and he has to solve the mystery of their deaths and remove the dopplegangers that exist in their place) or as a result of something else being accomplished (like, for another example off the top of my head, a supernatural EMP ripping parts of the souls from people and them coalescing into this new being who must find his own purpose in life but might also want to investigate that EMP).
Monday, June 14, 2010
Awesome Journal Articles
Affect, culture, and morality, or is it wrong to eat your dog?
Haidt J, Koller SH, Dias MG.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1993 Oct;65(4):613-28.
Are disgusting or disrespectful actions judged to be moral violations, even when they are harmless? Stories about victimless yet offensive actions (such as cleaning one's toilet with a flag) were presented to Brazilian and U.S. adults and children of high and low socioeconomic status (N = 360). Results show that college students at elite universities judged these stories to be matters of social convention or of personal preference. Most other Ss, especially in Brazil, took a moralizing stance toward these actions. For these latter Ss, moral judgments were better predicted by affective reactions than by appraisals of harmfulness. Results support the claims of cultural psychology (R.A. Shweder, 1991a) and suggest that cultural norms and culturally shaped emotions have a substantial impact on the domain of morality and the process of moral judgment. Suggestions are made for building cross-culturally valid models of moral judgment.
-------------------------------------
Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials -- Smith and Pell 327 (7429): 1459 -- from the British Medical Journal.
Objectives To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge. Design Systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Data sources: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists. Study selection: Studies showing the effects of using a parachute during free fall. Main outcome measure Death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score = 15. Results We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention. Conclusions As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.
-----------------------------
Exorcism-resistant ghost possession treated with clopenthixol.
Hale AS, Pinninti NR.
Br J Psychiatry. 1994 Sep;165(3):386-8.
------------------------------
Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly. DM Oppenheimer - Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2006
------------------------------
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: Its Effects on a Male Asiatic Elephant
This was published in SCIENCE! (albeit in 1962)
------------------------------
Pair of lice lost or parasites regained: the evolutionary history of anthropoid primate lice.
Reed DL, Light JE, Allen JM, Kirchman JJ.
BMC Biol. 2007 Mar 7;5:7.
------------------------------
An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep Over Various Surfaces.
HARVEY J. T. ; CULVENOR J. ; PAYNE W. ; COWLEY S. ; LAWRANCE M. ; STUART D. ; WILLIAMS R.
Applied Ergonomics, vol. 33, pp 523-531.
------------------------------
Haidt J, Koller SH, Dias MG.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1993 Oct;65(4):613-28.
Are disgusting or disrespectful actions judged to be moral violations, even when they are harmless? Stories about victimless yet offensive actions (such as cleaning one's toilet with a flag) were presented to Brazilian and U.S. adults and children of high and low socioeconomic status (N = 360). Results show that college students at elite universities judged these stories to be matters of social convention or of personal preference. Most other Ss, especially in Brazil, took a moralizing stance toward these actions. For these latter Ss, moral judgments were better predicted by affective reactions than by appraisals of harmfulness. Results support the claims of cultural psychology (R.A. Shweder, 1991a) and suggest that cultural norms and culturally shaped emotions have a substantial impact on the domain of morality and the process of moral judgment. Suggestions are made for building cross-culturally valid models of moral judgment.
-------------------------------------
Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials -- Smith and Pell 327 (7429): 1459 -- from the British Medical Journal.
Objectives To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge. Design Systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Data sources: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists. Study selection: Studies showing the effects of using a parachute during free fall. Main outcome measure Death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score = 15. Results We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention. Conclusions As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.
-----------------------------
Exorcism-resistant ghost possession treated with clopenthixol.
Hale AS, Pinninti NR.
Br J Psychiatry. 1994 Sep;165(3):386-8.
------------------------------
Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly. DM Oppenheimer - Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2006
------------------------------
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: Its Effects on a Male Asiatic Elephant
This was published in SCIENCE! (albeit in 1962)
------------------------------
Pair of lice lost or parasites regained: the evolutionary history of anthropoid primate lice.
Reed DL, Light JE, Allen JM, Kirchman JJ.
BMC Biol. 2007 Mar 7;5:7.
------------------------------
An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep Over Various Surfaces.
HARVEY J. T. ; CULVENOR J. ; PAYNE W. ; COWLEY S. ; LAWRANCE M. ; STUART D. ; WILLIAMS R.
Applied Ergonomics, vol. 33, pp 523-531.
------------------------------
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)