I was watching a playthrough of Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X (a PSP remake of Mega Man X) and I noticed that Boomer Kuwanger changes his attack pattern when you use the Homing Missile compared to the Mega Buster (I always used Homing Missiles against him so I never knew he had a different attack pattern).
How about a Mega Man game where each robot master is susceptible to two other masters' weapons. One weapon causes more damage while the other weapon alters the attack pattern to make it easier to defeat. If you then make each robot master's attack pattern difficult to dodge, players have an incentive to use either weapon (more damage to kill it quicker or easier attack pattern to survive longer).
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
American Education System as a Game
I had this thought while reading dok's blog but I figure it was tangential to the main point of his post and figured it would be better to post here than as a comment there:
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When I was in school, my school district decided to split the players into three leagues. The bulk of students remained in regular classes while those who struggled were put into remedial classes and those who excelled were put into accelerated classes.
This started as early as 2nd grade when students were bused from several neighboring schools to form a single class once or twice a week. At the junior high and high school levels, when these students all fed into the same school, they comprised whole classes along the accelerated learning tracks.
I remember hearing that someone was challenging the school district's ability to separate gifted students out of normal classrooms at the elementary level when I left for college but I see that the program is still up and running (and actually expanded).
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When I was in school, my school district decided to split the players into three leagues. The bulk of students remained in regular classes while those who struggled were put into remedial classes and those who excelled were put into accelerated classes.
This started as early as 2nd grade when students were bused from several neighboring schools to form a single class once or twice a week. At the junior high and high school levels, when these students all fed into the same school, they comprised whole classes along the accelerated learning tracks.
I remember hearing that someone was challenging the school district's ability to separate gifted students out of normal classrooms at the elementary level when I left for college but I see that the program is still up and running (and actually expanded).
Monday, February 15, 2010
Mapping Trokair - Issues
I have been trying to mentally map out Trokair's world on three scales - global, continental, and local.
Global and local have not been much of a problem. I know where Dhezhan, Rackthilde, and Trokair are located relative to each other. I also know where the ruins of Trokair lie relative to the mountains, forest, road, and nearby cities.
Continental, on the other hand, is giving me a lot of issues. Based on my feelings, the Black Duchy lies to the west (and a bit north) and has a mountainous northern and eastern border; Aelonia to the north (and a bit east) and has a mountainous northern border and an open border with the Free Cities (to admit refugees); the Free City Region has a coast along its eastern border (for Wyndhaven) and mountains along its northern (for Trokair); barbarians and orcs inhabit the mountains and lands beyond north of Trokair.
What I really want to do is find a semi-suitable map and then fit the countries into amenable positions. It caters to the "random background generator" character creation I love so much.
Global and local have not been much of a problem. I know where Dhezhan, Rackthilde, and Trokair are located relative to each other. I also know where the ruins of Trokair lie relative to the mountains, forest, road, and nearby cities.
Continental, on the other hand, is giving me a lot of issues. Based on my feelings, the Black Duchy lies to the west (and a bit north) and has a mountainous northern and eastern border; Aelonia to the north (and a bit east) and has a mountainous northern border and an open border with the Free Cities (to admit refugees); the Free City Region has a coast along its eastern border (for Wyndhaven) and mountains along its northern (for Trokair); barbarians and orcs inhabit the mountains and lands beyond north of Trokair.
What I really want to do is find a semi-suitable map and then fit the countries into amenable positions. It caters to the "random background generator" character creation I love so much.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Regional Airline Dream
I just woke up from a fitful sleep. Usually, when I have an involved dream and I wake up long enough to toss or turn, I cannot go back to the same dream but only a version of it. As an example, and related, in a way, to my current dream, I once dreamed of flying on a better-than-first-class jet (very spacious, very special; like flying in Air Force One). After I woke up and turned over, I dreamed of working at the airports where that jet lands (one was a vastly over-sized school basketball court covered in fall leaves; another was a huge metropolitan airport that looked like a whole side of the building had collapsed or been blown apart but everyone just hopped over the gaping holes or drove around the rubble like it was nothing).
My dream last night was about a small regional airline. By airline, I mean to say that this company had one small jet. They flew a few short routes during the week and on the weekends, they took chartered flights. This is not very interesting because I cannot remember the "hook". All of the employees of this small company were outcasts in some way (the same way), similar in feel to a marginalized religious sect. That lent a strong bond to the whole business. I wish I could remember but that was the first nebulous bit of the dream to flee my brain upon waking.
My dream last night was about a small regional airline. By airline, I mean to say that this company had one small jet. They flew a few short routes during the week and on the weekends, they took chartered flights. This is not very interesting because I cannot remember the "hook". All of the employees of this small company were outcasts in some way (the same way), similar in feel to a marginalized religious sect. That lent a strong bond to the whole business. I wish I could remember but that was the first nebulous bit of the dream to flee my brain upon waking.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Spectral Directions - Color in Motion
I just watched a TEDTalk video about Tom Shannon, an artist with Parkinson's disease who creates paintings using a big pendulum to squirt paint onto a canvas on the ground (the motion of the pendulum can be wholly contained within the canvas or, more commonly, sweep widely beyond the canvas). He started in the 1970s with a pendulum and a single color of paint. The paint flowed freely and he had real trouble refilling it while it stayed in motion. He now has a pendulum with six or eight colors whose release is remote controlled (mechanical clips hold the rubber nozzles shut and he can control how far each one opens at any given time).
It was at the moment he mentioned he wanted a pendulum with six colors that an idea hit me. I would like to see a painting, sculpture, or animation that utilized the primary colors across the three planes of our dimension. In animation, for example, you would follow a flowing line like a dribble of paint as it flowed across a rough surface. The color of the line would vary based on its current vector, with correspondingly greater amounts of blue, red, or yellow as it headed further into the x, y, or z planes.
Or, to put it another way, imagine a black dot in the middle of an empty white universe. If the dot moved left, it would leave a blue streak. If it moved up, it would leave a red streak. If it moved away from you, it would leave a yellow streak (but you would only see it as a dot). If, while moving left, it then turned in a shallow curve upwards, you would see the blue streak slowly turn purple then red as it flowed through the curve and moved upwards. If it then moved away from you while still going up, you would see an orange line (red + yellow).
It was at the moment he mentioned he wanted a pendulum with six colors that an idea hit me. I would like to see a painting, sculpture, or animation that utilized the primary colors across the three planes of our dimension. In animation, for example, you would follow a flowing line like a dribble of paint as it flowed across a rough surface. The color of the line would vary based on its current vector, with correspondingly greater amounts of blue, red, or yellow as it headed further into the x, y, or z planes.
Or, to put it another way, imagine a black dot in the middle of an empty white universe. If the dot moved left, it would leave a blue streak. If it moved up, it would leave a red streak. If it moved away from you, it would leave a yellow streak (but you would only see it as a dot). If, while moving left, it then turned in a shallow curve upwards, you would see the blue streak slowly turn purple then red as it flowed through the curve and moved upwards. If it then moved away from you while still going up, you would see an orange line (red + yellow).
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Creatures of Shadow At Home in the Light
I saw a clip for The Tower of Druaga: Sword of Uruk volume 2 DVD. A large group of black, birdlike monsters swarm across a desert landscape attacking a group of soldiers. One party, most likely the main characters of the anime, take off running. The girl in the back trips over a branch or broken arrow and falls. The rest of the group only has enough time to turn around before the monsters fall upon them.
But when they turn, they see the monsters stopped cold at the edge of a large shadow. The girl had fallen in the shadow of a large rock and it seemed that the monsters were not able to leave the sunlight (despite being black and looking like shadow creatures or monsters of darkness).
This would work in Dhezhan.
But when they turn, they see the monsters stopped cold at the edge of a large shadow. The girl had fallen in the shadow of a large rock and it seemed that the monsters were not able to leave the sunlight (despite being black and looking like shadow creatures or monsters of darkness).
This would work in Dhezhan.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Perversions and Opposition: Satan's Supernatural Evils
Tying somewhat into the last post, I have some thoughts about the supernatural.
I hate the move away from the supernatural in modern fiction, particularly movies. The first example that springs to mind is Blade (I will speak about things from the first two movies as I have not seen the third). There were some supernatural occurrences in Blade (like the scene in the blood god) but I remember the first movie sort of went out of its way to make vampires completely mundane. Vampirism originates with a virus; vampires are vulnerable to UV radiation; mirrors and crosses don't work on vampires. This is a great disservice to the Western myth of the vampire. The traditions we strongly associate with vampires are intricately related to the Christian faith of the Western world. Vampires cannot stand sunlight because the sun is a symbol of God and purity. Mirrors show no reflection because vampires have sold their souls to the devil and the mirror reflects the emptiness inside them. Crosses repel vampires because of the blessing and the power of Christ inherent in the symbol.
The point of this post, however, is to examine the opposite perspective. It is my opinion that these supernatural creatures are symbols of the perversions of Christian goods. They can be seen as Satan trying to emulate God (in a bid to show he is God's equal) or mock God (sort of a supernatural sarcasm).
The undead are mockeries of the resurrection. Whereas God has the power to bring a person back to life, like Lazarus or Jesus in the Bible (or all of us at the end of time), Satan can only animate the bodies of the dead, imparting the barest semblance of life.
Wights eat flesh and vampires drink blood, dark opposites of the Eucharist.
God has given mankind the gift of free will; Satan and his demons possess man, abrogating their free will.
In the paladin mythos, the Incarnation is mocked when demons take flesh. It is the essential point behind the entire mythos, the very reason the paladins exist.
I hate the move away from the supernatural in modern fiction, particularly movies. The first example that springs to mind is Blade (I will speak about things from the first two movies as I have not seen the third). There were some supernatural occurrences in Blade (like the scene in the blood god) but I remember the first movie sort of went out of its way to make vampires completely mundane. Vampirism originates with a virus; vampires are vulnerable to UV radiation; mirrors and crosses don't work on vampires. This is a great disservice to the Western myth of the vampire. The traditions we strongly associate with vampires are intricately related to the Christian faith of the Western world. Vampires cannot stand sunlight because the sun is a symbol of God and purity. Mirrors show no reflection because vampires have sold their souls to the devil and the mirror reflects the emptiness inside them. Crosses repel vampires because of the blessing and the power of Christ inherent in the symbol.
The point of this post, however, is to examine the opposite perspective. It is my opinion that these supernatural creatures are symbols of the perversions of Christian goods. They can be seen as Satan trying to emulate God (in a bid to show he is God's equal) or mock God (sort of a supernatural sarcasm).
The undead are mockeries of the resurrection. Whereas God has the power to bring a person back to life, like Lazarus or Jesus in the Bible (or all of us at the end of time), Satan can only animate the bodies of the dead, imparting the barest semblance of life.
Wights eat flesh and vampires drink blood, dark opposites of the Eucharist.
God has given mankind the gift of free will; Satan and his demons possess man, abrogating their free will.
In the paladin mythos, the Incarnation is mocked when demons take flesh. It is the essential point behind the entire mythos, the very reason the paladins exist.
Christian Dualism
This is something I thought about a few weeks ago and it was recently recalled to mind after watching the move Legion (not that good).
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I have seen the argument that some sects of Christianity raise the Devil to pseudo-divinity in the name of dualism. The Devil is the opposite of God, seeking to undo all that God has done, and some raise his level of power (perhaps without meaning to do so) to the level of God Himself. In such a system, God must actively fend off the plans of Satan in order to maintain control of creation. This is poppycock.
From the human perspective, God, the angels, Satan, and the demons are all vastly superior to us in power. From the human perspective, like that of an ant, the difference between an elephant and a brontosaurus is irrelevant; both are orders of magnitude beyond our comprehension and either could snuff us out in an instance. But rising above the human perspective to the spiritual perspective, God is as far beyond Satan as Satan is beyond mankind.
We often speak of the incident in the Garden of Eden as Original Sin. Certainly it is so for humanity, but it is not the first instance of sin. To my knowledge, the Church teaches that the first rejection of the will of the Creator by the created was perpetrated by Satan and culminated in the war of the heavens when Satan and his demons were thrust into hell. We are led to believe that this primal sin was one of hubris, and pride has forevermore been listed as chief among the Seven Deadly Sins (and, in my own opinion, all sin must necessarily have pride at its root). Satan, no doubt great among the angels, did more than recognize the greatness he had been given; he put his will before God's and was cast from heaven.
The war between God and Satan is not a war, for to be a war there must be some threat and Satan has as much hope against God as an ant does against the sun. A better metaphor is that Satan is a petulant child who thought he was special and was laid low. Like a child, he cannot struggle with any efficacy against his Father, and so he exerts his will indirectly: by hurting us. Satan's only weapon against God is God's love for others. God desires that all men should be saved and so Satan tempts men from salvation to damnation, like a child who breaks his Father's prized possessions.
The great war of the Apocalypse, as envisioned by fundamentalist Christians, may very well one day come. But far from being an epic struggle between God and Satan, it will only be a struggle between Satan and us. God's victory has never been in question; even Satan has known that since his beginning. Rather, the question is the extent of God's victory. How many men will be claimed by Satan before he is sequestered for all eternity in the pit of fire?
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I have seen the argument that some sects of Christianity raise the Devil to pseudo-divinity in the name of dualism. The Devil is the opposite of God, seeking to undo all that God has done, and some raise his level of power (perhaps without meaning to do so) to the level of God Himself. In such a system, God must actively fend off the plans of Satan in order to maintain control of creation. This is poppycock.
From the human perspective, God, the angels, Satan, and the demons are all vastly superior to us in power. From the human perspective, like that of an ant, the difference between an elephant and a brontosaurus is irrelevant; both are orders of magnitude beyond our comprehension and either could snuff us out in an instance. But rising above the human perspective to the spiritual perspective, God is as far beyond Satan as Satan is beyond mankind.
We often speak of the incident in the Garden of Eden as Original Sin. Certainly it is so for humanity, but it is not the first instance of sin. To my knowledge, the Church teaches that the first rejection of the will of the Creator by the created was perpetrated by Satan and culminated in the war of the heavens when Satan and his demons were thrust into hell. We are led to believe that this primal sin was one of hubris, and pride has forevermore been listed as chief among the Seven Deadly Sins (and, in my own opinion, all sin must necessarily have pride at its root). Satan, no doubt great among the angels, did more than recognize the greatness he had been given; he put his will before God's and was cast from heaven.
The war between God and Satan is not a war, for to be a war there must be some threat and Satan has as much hope against God as an ant does against the sun. A better metaphor is that Satan is a petulant child who thought he was special and was laid low. Like a child, he cannot struggle with any efficacy against his Father, and so he exerts his will indirectly: by hurting us. Satan's only weapon against God is God's love for others. God desires that all men should be saved and so Satan tempts men from salvation to damnation, like a child who breaks his Father's prized possessions.
The great war of the Apocalypse, as envisioned by fundamentalist Christians, may very well one day come. But far from being an epic struggle between God and Satan, it will only be a struggle between Satan and us. God's victory has never been in question; even Satan has known that since his beginning. Rather, the question is the extent of God's victory. How many men will be claimed by Satan before he is sequestered for all eternity in the pit of fire?
Friday, January 29, 2010
Trokair Overview
The Ruins of Trokair
The Ruins of Trokair is a dungeon I have been working on for years. The original idea came to me after reading an article in Dragon Magazine about the original Castle Greyhawk dungeon. And just as the original idea came from another source, a lot of what I have put into the Ruins of Trokair has come from other sources, like the name Ruins of Trokair, which is a card in Magic the Gathering.
The basic idea of the ruins of Trokair is a layered dungeon. On the surface are the actual ruins of Trokair, a city that has stood lifeless for about 100 years. The PCs would explore the surface ruins and find entrances into the sewers. In the sewers, PCs would find a series of secret rooms that connect to a hidden temple complex. This complex is carved from natural caves that cut beneath Trokair. A collapsed floor leads yet lower into the earth, revealing the ruined city of Ancient Trokair in the midst of a giant cavern. Beneath Ancient Trokair lie a huge expanse of catacombs and another temple, far older than the one above but bearing a great resemblance.
This ancient temple holds two key secrets in the history of both ruined cities. The first is that Ancient Trokair somehow sunk far into the earth (far enough that a natural cave system, sewer system, and another city could be built atop it without problem). The second has to do with the undead problem, which we will get to in a minute.
My original idea for the surface ruins was to have a few dangerous animals to harry the PCs as they sought out an entrance to the sewers; the sewers were to be the real point of the dungeon. I later decided against this. Why waste the only above-ground portion of the dungeon on a simple game of hide-and-seek? So I decided to add a few factions and make the surface a dungeon level of its own. I first added animal encounters to the forest that surrounded the southern half of the city. They would harry PCs as they went between the ruins and their base camp at a nearby settlement. I also added a mountain range north of the city, allowing for more dangerous monsters.
The first faction was a tribe of orcs who came down from the mountains seeking treasure in the ruins. Their main camp remained in the mountains and they sent teams down to forage. The second faction was a group of bandits. They lived in the southern ruins and raided caravans on the road past the forest. The third and fourth factions were both necromancers. One was a cleric of the goddess of death and the other was a wizard. They lived in the middle of the city ruins between the orcs and bandits. They did not work together (in fact, they hate each other).
The orcs seek treasure. The bandits seek refuge. Why are the necromancers in Trokair? Because of the undead problem. For decades, there have been scattered and sporadic accounts of the walking dead around the area of Trokair. The necromancers have come to investigate why. Unfortunately for them, the reason lies in the heart of the temple buried beneath the ruins of Ancient Trokair: an artifact of immense power called the Cup of Life. The Cup of Life has the ability to raise people from the dead. The cult that controlled the temple beneath Ancient Trokair sought to use the Cup to make themselves and the whole city immortal. They only half succeeded. The dead of Ancient Trokair, and those who die near the ruins of Trokair, can rise as undead. The further the body lies from the Cup, the longer the process takes (and not even those in Ancient Trokair have all risen). However, unlike the “normal” undead that are created by necromancy, these undead are not soulless husks animated by magic. The power of the Cup of Life, modified by rites performed in that ancient temple, ties the soul to the body. And so the cleric of the goddess of death seeks the reason why these people are kept from his Mistress while the wizard seeks the power that raises them.
The Ruins of Trokair is a dungeon I have been working on for years. The original idea came to me after reading an article in Dragon Magazine about the original Castle Greyhawk dungeon. And just as the original idea came from another source, a lot of what I have put into the Ruins of Trokair has come from other sources, like the name Ruins of Trokair, which is a card in Magic the Gathering.
The basic idea of the ruins of Trokair is a layered dungeon. On the surface are the actual ruins of Trokair, a city that has stood lifeless for about 100 years. The PCs would explore the surface ruins and find entrances into the sewers. In the sewers, PCs would find a series of secret rooms that connect to a hidden temple complex. This complex is carved from natural caves that cut beneath Trokair. A collapsed floor leads yet lower into the earth, revealing the ruined city of Ancient Trokair in the midst of a giant cavern. Beneath Ancient Trokair lie a huge expanse of catacombs and another temple, far older than the one above but bearing a great resemblance.
This ancient temple holds two key secrets in the history of both ruined cities. The first is that Ancient Trokair somehow sunk far into the earth (far enough that a natural cave system, sewer system, and another city could be built atop it without problem). The second has to do with the undead problem, which we will get to in a minute.
My original idea for the surface ruins was to have a few dangerous animals to harry the PCs as they sought out an entrance to the sewers; the sewers were to be the real point of the dungeon. I later decided against this. Why waste the only above-ground portion of the dungeon on a simple game of hide-and-seek? So I decided to add a few factions and make the surface a dungeon level of its own. I first added animal encounters to the forest that surrounded the southern half of the city. They would harry PCs as they went between the ruins and their base camp at a nearby settlement. I also added a mountain range north of the city, allowing for more dangerous monsters.
The first faction was a tribe of orcs who came down from the mountains seeking treasure in the ruins. Their main camp remained in the mountains and they sent teams down to forage. The second faction was a group of bandits. They lived in the southern ruins and raided caravans on the road past the forest. The third and fourth factions were both necromancers. One was a cleric of the goddess of death and the other was a wizard. They lived in the middle of the city ruins between the orcs and bandits. They did not work together (in fact, they hate each other).
The orcs seek treasure. The bandits seek refuge. Why are the necromancers in Trokair? Because of the undead problem. For decades, there have been scattered and sporadic accounts of the walking dead around the area of Trokair. The necromancers have come to investigate why. Unfortunately for them, the reason lies in the heart of the temple buried beneath the ruins of Ancient Trokair: an artifact of immense power called the Cup of Life. The Cup of Life has the ability to raise people from the dead. The cult that controlled the temple beneath Ancient Trokair sought to use the Cup to make themselves and the whole city immortal. They only half succeeded. The dead of Ancient Trokair, and those who die near the ruins of Trokair, can rise as undead. The further the body lies from the Cup, the longer the process takes (and not even those in Ancient Trokair have all risen). However, unlike the “normal” undead that are created by necromancy, these undead are not soulless husks animated by magic. The power of the Cup of Life, modified by rites performed in that ancient temple, ties the soul to the body. And so the cleric of the goddess of death seeks the reason why these people are kept from his Mistress while the wizard seeks the power that raises them.
Letter By Mark Twain to JH Todd
Nov. 20. 1905
J. H. Todd
1212 Webster St.
San Francisco, Cal.
Dear Sir,
Your letter is an insoluble puzzle to me. The handwriting is good and exhibits considerable character, and there are even traces of intelligence in what you say, yet the letter and the accompanying advertisements profess to be the work of the same hand. The person who wrote the advertisements is without doubt the most ignorant person now alive on the planet; also without doubt he is an idiot, an idiot of the 33rd degree, and scion of an ancestral procession of idiots stretching back to the Missing Link. It puzzles me to make out how the same hand could have constructed your letter and your advertisements. Puzzles fret me, puzzles annoy me, puzzles exasperate me; and always, for a moment, they arouse in me an unkind state of mind toward the person who has puzzled me. A few moments from now my resentment will have faded and passed and I shall probably even be praying for you; but while there is yet time I hasten to wish that you may take a dose of your own poison by mistake, and enter swiftly into the damnation which you and all other patent medicine assassins have so remorselessly earned and do so richly deserve.
Adieu, adieu, adieu!
Mark Twain
J. H. Todd
1212 Webster St.
San Francisco, Cal.
Dear Sir,
Your letter is an insoluble puzzle to me. The handwriting is good and exhibits considerable character, and there are even traces of intelligence in what you say, yet the letter and the accompanying advertisements profess to be the work of the same hand. The person who wrote the advertisements is without doubt the most ignorant person now alive on the planet; also without doubt he is an idiot, an idiot of the 33rd degree, and scion of an ancestral procession of idiots stretching back to the Missing Link. It puzzles me to make out how the same hand could have constructed your letter and your advertisements. Puzzles fret me, puzzles annoy me, puzzles exasperate me; and always, for a moment, they arouse in me an unkind state of mind toward the person who has puzzled me. A few moments from now my resentment will have faded and passed and I shall probably even be praying for you; but while there is yet time I hasten to wish that you may take a dose of your own poison by mistake, and enter swiftly into the damnation which you and all other patent medicine assassins have so remorselessly earned and do so richly deserve.
Adieu, adieu, adieu!
Mark Twain
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Trokair Rumors
I am reading Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself; Before They Are Hanged; The Last Argument of Kings) and it is really good. Crowroadaw is also working on Iron Heroes v2 and between the two I am thinking about Trokair.
I have always wanted a rumor table for PCs to roll on at the beginning of the campaign. Because Trokair's charm lies in its mutability, I want to leave it up to the PCs to shape the course of the campaign. To do so, however, they need information about the various factions, their goals, and motivations. To guard against my influence, I want it to be a random table (though it still allows me to dictate which rumors I give; I need not present accurate information if I do not care to at the time).
Rumors need to be an assortment of: truths, half-truths, and lies about the factions; true and false rumors about the ruins and environs unrelated to the factions; and some rumors about areas unrelated to the ruins at all.
I am not sure if I want to organize the rumors by truth or by subject (their arrangement in the table is irrelevant as they are randomly generated).
To follow: Rumors
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When I went to bed last night, I had an idea for the presentation of a rumor or a quest (NPC hires PCs).
"You remember an afternoon in the tavern, not too long ago, when a bedraggled merchant stumbled through the door, weary, world-worn, and really pissed off. He starts out grumbling under his breath but after a few drinks his complaints increase in volume. He was robbed on the road to (insert city name; Free City Valor, Thornscape, Free City Somethingelse); the bandits did not take everything but he would be lucky to break even on what he has left."
(Here, if you want a quest, you can mention that a special order for a customer was among the stolen goods and if he could recover that, the trip would turn a handsome profit. The special order is actually meant for Dhamon Riales, the wizard necromancer. PCs who recover it could meet his nephew in town during the sale (since he will have the money the merchant needs to pay them) or, if they meet Dhamon in the ruins, they could cut the merchant out of the deal and sell it directly.)
The above rumor is just "there are bandits on the road." Extra details, such as other bar patrons mentioning the old city ruins of Trokair in that area, or that the bandits are supposed to be former soldiers from the Free City region, or that Kelem is supposed to be an army officer/noble from Valor, can be added on top of that. False rumors are also needed. Man I suck at false rumors.
False rumors need to be interesting enough to catch the PCs attention and lead them in the right direction, but not so terribly interesting that the players are disappointed when the rumor turns out to be false. Of course, if they really get into a false rumor, you can just make it true, I guess.
Kelem is a noble from Valor.
Kelem is an army officer who fought for the nobles of Valor.
The bandits are mostly ex-soldiers from the armies who fought for Valorian nobles.
The bandits are mostly escaped thieves who serve the bandit king, Kelem.
Haunting spirits and the restless undead walk the streets of Trokair.
A necromancer lives in the ruins of Trokair.
People have been disappearing near the shrine to Derrgan.
The lame keeper of Derrgan's shrine was cursed by the Wandering God.
I have always wanted a rumor table for PCs to roll on at the beginning of the campaign. Because Trokair's charm lies in its mutability, I want to leave it up to the PCs to shape the course of the campaign. To do so, however, they need information about the various factions, their goals, and motivations. To guard against my influence, I want it to be a random table (though it still allows me to dictate which rumors I give; I need not present accurate information if I do not care to at the time).
Rumors need to be an assortment of: truths, half-truths, and lies about the factions; true and false rumors about the ruins and environs unrelated to the factions; and some rumors about areas unrelated to the ruins at all.
I am not sure if I want to organize the rumors by truth or by subject (their arrangement in the table is irrelevant as they are randomly generated).
To follow: Rumors
-------
When I went to bed last night, I had an idea for the presentation of a rumor or a quest (NPC hires PCs).
"You remember an afternoon in the tavern, not too long ago, when a bedraggled merchant stumbled through the door, weary, world-worn, and really pissed off. He starts out grumbling under his breath but after a few drinks his complaints increase in volume. He was robbed on the road to (insert city name; Free City Valor, Thornscape, Free City Somethingelse); the bandits did not take everything but he would be lucky to break even on what he has left."
(Here, if you want a quest, you can mention that a special order for a customer was among the stolen goods and if he could recover that, the trip would turn a handsome profit. The special order is actually meant for Dhamon Riales, the wizard necromancer. PCs who recover it could meet his nephew in town during the sale (since he will have the money the merchant needs to pay them) or, if they meet Dhamon in the ruins, they could cut the merchant out of the deal and sell it directly.)
The above rumor is just "there are bandits on the road." Extra details, such as other bar patrons mentioning the old city ruins of Trokair in that area, or that the bandits are supposed to be former soldiers from the Free City region, or that Kelem is supposed to be an army officer/noble from Valor, can be added on top of that. False rumors are also needed. Man I suck at false rumors.
False rumors need to be interesting enough to catch the PCs attention and lead them in the right direction, but not so terribly interesting that the players are disappointed when the rumor turns out to be false. Of course, if they really get into a false rumor, you can just make it true, I guess.
Kelem is a noble from Valor.
Kelem is an army officer who fought for the nobles of Valor.
The bandits are mostly ex-soldiers from the armies who fought for Valorian nobles.
The bandits are mostly escaped thieves who serve the bandit king, Kelem.
Haunting spirits and the restless undead walk the streets of Trokair.
A necromancer lives in the ruins of Trokair.
People have been disappearing near the shrine to Derrgan.
The lame keeper of Derrgan's shrine was cursed by the Wandering God.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tabletop Tactical RPG Wargame
After playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift, FFTA 1, and watching videos of ulillia playing FFT and Disgaia on YouTube, I want to return to making a tabletop tactical RPG/wargame.
Previously I had found and started to work on the Final Fantasy Tactics rules I had found online. I hardly got anywhere, though, because my neat-freak requires a complete overhaul of the document's layout and formatting before I can start digging into the rules. Beyond that, the system detailed in that document is very loyal to the original game and, thus, is complex (the math was written for the Playstation CPU to calculate, not humans). I will, however, look back into that document for ideas once I progress to the point of mechanics. Until then, I want to focus on my overarching goals for the game.
Following is a list of wants. I do not believe all wants can be satisfied in one game, so I have to pick and choose the wise wants:
I want a game that plays out in campaigns. All the FFT games have a rich, overarching storyline. However, this is difficult to pull off in a wargame that might be played in pick-up games in stores.
I want the character pieces to be large in size but small in number. I want players to be able to play with only 5 characters. With only a few pieces, I feel they should be larger pieces (like 2" square bases) with plenty of color and detail. These would not be cheaply produced minis like WotC has put out in D&D Minis.
More later.
Previously I had found and started to work on the Final Fantasy Tactics rules I had found online. I hardly got anywhere, though, because my neat-freak requires a complete overhaul of the document's layout and formatting before I can start digging into the rules. Beyond that, the system detailed in that document is very loyal to the original game and, thus, is complex (the math was written for the Playstation CPU to calculate, not humans). I will, however, look back into that document for ideas once I progress to the point of mechanics. Until then, I want to focus on my overarching goals for the game.
Following is a list of wants. I do not believe all wants can be satisfied in one game, so I have to pick and choose the wise wants:
I want a game that plays out in campaigns. All the FFT games have a rich, overarching storyline. However, this is difficult to pull off in a wargame that might be played in pick-up games in stores.
I want the character pieces to be large in size but small in number. I want players to be able to play with only 5 characters. With only a few pieces, I feel they should be larger pieces (like 2" square bases) with plenty of color and detail. These would not be cheaply produced minis like WotC has put out in D&D Minis.
More later.
Shikabane Hime
I am not sure what I want to write about Shikabane Hime. My brother told me about the show after he watched it on Hulu.
The art and camera perspectives remind me of FLCL, though even with the undead monsters it lacks the latter's weird factor. It is also not as colorful; the dark subject matter and constant reference to death demands a much more subdued color palette.
When people die with strong regrets or obsessions that tie them to the world, they can come back to life as shikabane. Shikabane are dead, immortal, regenerating monsters who exist to fulfill their regrets and obsessions. They have no compunction against killing humans and, in fact, many actively seek to kill. Some shikabane have even greater supernatural powers called curses. The effects of these curses are varied but they can be profound. One shikabane reflects any injury to itself back on its attacker while another can open a "trench", or extradimensional space, to isolate or trap its enemies or prey.
In order to protect humanity from the ravages of shikabane, the Kougon Sect buddhist monks utilize shikabane hime, or shikabane princesses, to fight against them. Shikabane hime are shikabane; each of them died and came back as a shikabane with the same supernatural strengths and regenerative capacity. They may even have come back with regrets and obsessions like shikabane; it is not 100% clear from the series (so far; I am at episode 15/25) whether they return on their own but I suspect it is true; it is also unclear if they have to be female (so far all of them are female and the -hime honorific means princess) (edit: in a later episode, it is mentioned that the Kougon sect no longer possesses the full knowledge of the ritual to create shikabane hime and so they can only contract with young girls of a certain age range). In the window of time between the shikabane's return and her descent into inhumanity, the Kougon sect is able to bind her to a contracted monk (most monks are men but there is a female monk).
Once bound to a contracted monk, the shikabane becomes a shikabane hime. Her descent into inhumanity ceases (or maybe slows to a glacial crawl) and she derives her existence from the monk's life force (called rune) rather than her regrets and obsessions. The spiritual and vital strength of the monk also powers the shikabane hime's supernatural strength; some shikabane hime are stronger than others and it is mentioned that it has to do with the strength and purity/holiness of the contracted monk (one of the stronger shikabane hime belongs to the heir of one of the Ten Holy Families and this is mentioned by one of the main bad guys as a good reason to flee a battle). The ultimate goal of the shikabane hime is to kill 108 shikabane. Once they have accomplished that, they can move on to tengoku (heaven), having paid for the crime of becoming shikabane.
The main plot revolves around two conflicts. The background conflict is a split of the Kougon sect into two factions. One supports the use of shikabane hime in destroying shikabane while the other considers shikabane hime to be no different than shikabane and their use should be stopped as it is a defilement of their order. The head of the Kougon sect belongs to the former faction while the head underling (and several other high ranking monks) belongs to the latter. The main conflict involves a group of powerful, cursed shikabane called The Seven Stars. They believe they have progressed beyond regrets and obsessions. They believe that immortality and the powers of shikabane are inherent to their nature and that they represent the only true human beings, having shed the weaknesses of death and regrets. Another villain, the Traitor Monk, used to be a contracted monk. He apparently switched factions in the Kougon sect and killed his own shikabane hime. He originally sought to create more shikabane to steal some of their power and he seeks to destroy either the whole Kougon sect or just the faction that uses shikabane hime. He joined with the Seven Stars after being defeated by the monks but the Stars are not particularly beholden to him.
The parallels between the contracted monks/shikabane hime and the paladins with their battle angels are obvious; it was particularly underscored in an episode where the strongest shikabane hime performs a sword slash that throws out a huge blast of spiritual power; the effect was almost identical to what I imagine el armor del oro's purging flame looks like.
Throughout the series, I have viewed the monks as a pagan analog to the paladins and thought about how they could work together against a common enemy. I want to wait until the end to determine where it would be best to introduce them but I have no qualms with discussing the moral and theological implications of the shikabane hime. They are very similar to Veronica in that they have cheated death and overcome the tainted nature of undeath to work for good. They differ in that apparently they came back willingly (through their regrets and obsessions).
The art and camera perspectives remind me of FLCL, though even with the undead monsters it lacks the latter's weird factor. It is also not as colorful; the dark subject matter and constant reference to death demands a much more subdued color palette.
When people die with strong regrets or obsessions that tie them to the world, they can come back to life as shikabane. Shikabane are dead, immortal, regenerating monsters who exist to fulfill their regrets and obsessions. They have no compunction against killing humans and, in fact, many actively seek to kill. Some shikabane have even greater supernatural powers called curses. The effects of these curses are varied but they can be profound. One shikabane reflects any injury to itself back on its attacker while another can open a "trench", or extradimensional space, to isolate or trap its enemies or prey.
In order to protect humanity from the ravages of shikabane, the Kougon Sect buddhist monks utilize shikabane hime, or shikabane princesses, to fight against them. Shikabane hime are shikabane; each of them died and came back as a shikabane with the same supernatural strengths and regenerative capacity. They may even have come back with regrets and obsessions like shikabane; it is not 100% clear from the series (so far; I am at episode 15/25) whether they return on their own but I suspect it is true; it is also unclear if they have to be female (so far all of them are female and the -hime honorific means princess) (edit: in a later episode, it is mentioned that the Kougon sect no longer possesses the full knowledge of the ritual to create shikabane hime and so they can only contract with young girls of a certain age range). In the window of time between the shikabane's return and her descent into inhumanity, the Kougon sect is able to bind her to a contracted monk (most monks are men but there is a female monk).
Once bound to a contracted monk, the shikabane becomes a shikabane hime. Her descent into inhumanity ceases (or maybe slows to a glacial crawl) and she derives her existence from the monk's life force (called rune) rather than her regrets and obsessions. The spiritual and vital strength of the monk also powers the shikabane hime's supernatural strength; some shikabane hime are stronger than others and it is mentioned that it has to do with the strength and purity/holiness of the contracted monk (one of the stronger shikabane hime belongs to the heir of one of the Ten Holy Families and this is mentioned by one of the main bad guys as a good reason to flee a battle). The ultimate goal of the shikabane hime is to kill 108 shikabane. Once they have accomplished that, they can move on to tengoku (heaven), having paid for the crime of becoming shikabane.
The main plot revolves around two conflicts. The background conflict is a split of the Kougon sect into two factions. One supports the use of shikabane hime in destroying shikabane while the other considers shikabane hime to be no different than shikabane and their use should be stopped as it is a defilement of their order. The head of the Kougon sect belongs to the former faction while the head underling (and several other high ranking monks) belongs to the latter. The main conflict involves a group of powerful, cursed shikabane called The Seven Stars. They believe they have progressed beyond regrets and obsessions. They believe that immortality and the powers of shikabane are inherent to their nature and that they represent the only true human beings, having shed the weaknesses of death and regrets. Another villain, the Traitor Monk, used to be a contracted monk. He apparently switched factions in the Kougon sect and killed his own shikabane hime. He originally sought to create more shikabane to steal some of their power and he seeks to destroy either the whole Kougon sect or just the faction that uses shikabane hime. He joined with the Seven Stars after being defeated by the monks but the Stars are not particularly beholden to him.
The parallels between the contracted monks/shikabane hime and the paladins with their battle angels are obvious; it was particularly underscored in an episode where the strongest shikabane hime performs a sword slash that throws out a huge blast of spiritual power; the effect was almost identical to what I imagine el armor del oro's purging flame looks like.
Throughout the series, I have viewed the monks as a pagan analog to the paladins and thought about how they could work together against a common enemy. I want to wait until the end to determine where it would be best to introduce them but I have no qualms with discussing the moral and theological implications of the shikabane hime. They are very similar to Veronica in that they have cheated death and overcome the tainted nature of undeath to work for good. They differ in that apparently they came back willingly (through their regrets and obsessions).
Monday, December 14, 2009
How Homeopathic Medicines Work: Nanopharmacology At Its Best
The following article was posted by the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dana-ullman/how-homeopathic-medicines_b_389146.html) on December 12, 2009.
Comments to follow when I have the time and composure.
--------------
It is commonly assumed that homeopathic medicines are composed of extremely small doses of medicinal substances. And yet, does anyone refer to an atomic bomb as an extremely small dose of a bomb? In actual fact, there is a power, a very real power, in having atoms smash against each other.
Homeopathic medicines are made through a specific pharmacological process of dilution and vigorous shaking. However, when skeptics say that there is nothing but water in homeopathic medicine, they are proving their ignorance, despite the incredible arrogance in which they make these assertions. Dr. Martin Chaplin, a respected British professor who is one of the world's experts on water, has verified that "homeopathic water" and "regular water" are not the same, and his review of almost 2,000 references to the scientific literature on water (!) confirm this fact (Chaplin, 2009).
It should be noted that a large number of homeopathic medicines sold in health food stores and pharmacies are made in doses with known physiological doses. In fact, there are several thousand (!) studies in conventional scientific journals showing a wide variety of biological effects from extremely small doses of various substances on specific systems.
Homeopathic medicines can and should be considered to be a type of "nanopharmacology" (Ullman, 2006). Although the word "nano" also means one-billionth of a size, that is not its only definition. In fact, "nano" derives from the word "dwarf," and "nano" is the only word in the English language that is used on common parlance as denoting extremely small AND yet extremely powerful. Homeopathic medicines are both extremely small in dose and yet extremely powerful in their therapeutic effect.
For 200 years now, millions of physicians and hundreds of millions of homeopathic patients have observed and experienced the power and effectiveness of homeopathic medicines
The Power of Nano-doses
Precisely how homeopathic medicines work remains a mystery, and yet, nature is replete with mysteries and with numerous striking examples of the power of extremely small doses.
For instance, it is commonly known that a certain species of moth can smell pheromones of its own species up to two miles away. It is no simple coincidence that species only sense pheromones from those in the same species who emit them (akin to the homeopathic principle of similars), as though they have developed exquisite and specific receptor sites for what they need to propagate their species. Likewise, sharks are known to sense blood in the water at distances, and when one considers the volume of water in the ocean, it becomes obvious that sharks, like all living creatures, develop extreme hypersensitivity for whatever will help ensure their survival.
That living organisms have some truly remarkable sensitivities is no controversy. The challenging question that remains is: How does the medicine become imprinted into the water and how does the homeopathic process of dilution with succussion increase the medicine's power? Although we do not know precisely the answer to this question, some new research may help point the way.
The newest and most intriguing way to explain how homeopathic medicines may work derives from some sophisticated modern technology. Scientists at several universities and hospitals in France and Belgium have discovered that the vigorous shaking of the water in glass bottles causes extremely small amounts of silica fragments or chips to fall into the water (Demangeat, et al., 2004). Perhaps these silica chips may help to store the information in the water, with each medicine that is initially placed in the water creating its own pharmacological effect. In any case, each medicinal substance will interact with the silica fragments in its own idiosyncratic way, thereby changing the nature and structure of water accordingly.
Further, the micro-bubbles and the nano-bubbles that are caused by the shaking may burst and thereby produce microenvironments of higher temperature and pressure. Several studies by chemists and physicists have revealed increased release of heat from water in which homeopathic medicines are prepared, even when the repeated process of dilutions should suggest that there are no molecules remaining of the original medicinal substance (Elia and Niccoli, 1999; Elia, et al., 2004; Rey, 2003).
Also, a group of highly respected scientists have confirmed that the vigorous shaking involved with making homeopathic medicines changes the pressure in the water, akin to water being at 10,000 feet in altitude (Roy, et al., 2005). These scientists have shown how the homeopathic process of using double-distilled water and then diluting and shaking the medicine in a sequential fashion changes the structure of water.
One metaphor that may help us understand how and why extremely small doses of medicinal agents may work derives from present knowledge of modern submarine radio communications. Normal radio waves simply do not penetrate water, so submarines must use an extremely low-frequency radio wave. The radio waves used by submarines to penetrate water are so low that a single wavelength is typically several miles long!
If one considers that the human body is 70-80 percent water, perhaps the best way to provide pharmacological information to the body and into intercellular fluids is with nanodoses. Like the extremely low-frequency radio waves, it may be necessary to use extremely low (and activated) doses for a person to receive the medicinal effect.
It is important to understand that nanopharmacological doses will not have any effect unless the person is hypersensitive to the specific medicinal substance. Hypersensitivity is created when there is some type of resonance between the medicine and the person. Because the system of homeopathy bases its selection of the medicine on its ability to cause in overdose the similar symptoms that the sick person is experiencing, homeopathy's principle of similars is simply a practical method of finding the substance to which a person is hypersensitive.
The homeopathic principle of similars makes further sense when one considers that modern physiologists and pathologists recognize that disease is not simply the result of breakdown or surrender of the body but that symptoms are instead representative of the body's efforts to fight infection or adapt to stress.
Using a nanodose that is able to penetrate deeply into the body and that is specifically chosen for its ability to mimic the symptoms helps to initiate a profound healing process. It is also important to highlight the fact that a homeopathic medicine is not simply chosen for its ability to cause a similar disease but for its ability to cause a similar syndrome of symptoms of disease, of which the specific localized disease is a part. By understanding that the human body is a complex organism that creates a wide variety of physical and psychological symptoms, homeopaths acknowledge biological complexity and have a system of treatment to address it effectively.
Although no one knows precisely how homeopathic medicines initiate the healing process, we have more than 200 years of evidence from hundreds of thousands of clinicians and tens of millions of patients that these medicines have powerful effects. One cannot help but anticipate the veritable treasure trove of knowledge that further research in homeopathy and nanopharmacology will bring.
Nobel Prize-winning Scientist on Homeopathy...
Brian Josephson, Ph.D., (1940-) is a British physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for work he completed when he was only 22 years old. He is currently a professor at the University of Cambridge where he is the head of the mind-matter unification project in the Theory of Condensed Matter research group.
Responding to an article in the New Scientist (October 18, 1997) that expressed skepticism about homeopathy, Josephson wrote:
Regarding your comments on claims made for homeopathy: criticisms centered around the vanishingly small number of solute molecules present in a solution after it has been repeatedly diluted are beside the point, since advocates of homeopathic remedies attribute their effects not to molecules present in the water, but to modifications of the water's structure.
Simple-minded analysis may suggest that water, being a fluid, cannot have a structure of the kind that such a picture would demand. But cases such as that of liquid crystals, which while flowing like an ordinary fluid can maintain an ordered structure over macroscopic distances, show the limitations of such ways of thinking. There have not, to the best of my knowledge, been any refutations of homeopathy that remain valid after this particular point is taken into account.
A related topic is the phenomenon, claimed by Jacques Benveniste's colleague Yolène Thomas and by others to be well established experimentally, known as "memory of water". If valid, this would be of greater significance than homeopathy itself, and it attests to the limited vision of the modern scientific community that, far from hastening to test such claims, the only response has been to dismiss them out of hand. (Josephson, 1997)
Later, when Josephson was interviewed by the New Scientist (December 9, 2006), he chose to emphasize that many scientists today suffer from "pathological disbelief"; that is, they maintain an unscientific attitude that is embodied by the statement "even if it were true I wouldn't believe it." Sadly, such scientists are simply showing evidence of an unscientific attitude.
Quantum Medicine
Quantum physics does not disprove Newtonian physics; quantum physics simply extends our understanding of extremely small and extremely large systems. Likewise, homeopathy does not disprove conventional pharmacology; instead, it extends our understanding of extremely small doses of medicinal agents. It is time that physicians and scientists began incorporating both Newtonian and quantum physics into a better understanding of what healing is and how to best augment it.
The founder of homeopathic medicine, Samuel Hahnemann, MD, rewrote and updated his seminal work on the subject five times in his lifetime, each time refining his observations. Homeopaths continue to refine this system of nanopharmacology. While there is not always agreement on the best ways to select the correct remedy or the best nanopharmacological dose to use, the system of homeopathic medicine provides a solid foundation from which clinicians and researchers exploring nanopharmacologies can and should explore.
Dana Ullman, MPH, is America's leading spokesperson for homeopathy and is the founder of www.homeopathic.com. He is the author of 10 books, including his bestseller, Everybody's Guide to Homeopathic Medicines. His most recent book is, The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy. Dana lives, practices, and writes from Berkeley, California.
References:
Chaplin, Martin. 2009 (updated regularly) http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/index2.html
Demangeat, J.-L., Gries, P., Poitevin, B., Droesbeke J.-J., Zahaf, T., Maton, F., Pierart, C., and Muller, R. N. Low-Field NMR Water Proton Longitudinal Relaxation in Ultrahighly Diluted Aqueous Solutions of Silica-Lactose Prepared in Glass Material for Pharmaceutical Use, Applied Magnetic Resonance, 2004, 26:465-481.
Elia, V. and Niccoli, M. Thermodynamics of Extremely Diluted Aqueous Solutions, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1999, 879:241-248.
Elia, V., Baiano, S., Duro, I., Napoli, E., Niccoli, M., and Nonatelli, L. Permanent Physio-chemical Properties of Extremely Diluted Aqueous Solutions of Homeopathic Medicines, Homeopathy, 2004, 93:144-150.
Josephson, B. D., Letter, New Scientist, November 1, 1997.
Rey, L. Thermoluminescence of Ultra-High Dilutions of Lithium Chloride and Sodium Chloride. Physica A, 2003, 323:67-74.
Roy, R., Tiller, W. A., Bell, I., and Hoover, M. R. The Structure of Liquid Water: Novel Insights from Materials Research; Potential Relevance to Homeopathy, Materials Research Innovations, December 2005, 9(4):577-608..
Ullman, Dana. "Let's have a serious discussion of nanopharmacology and homeopathy". FASEB. 2006;20:2661.
Comments to follow when I have the time and composure.
--------------
It is commonly assumed that homeopathic medicines are composed of extremely small doses of medicinal substances. And yet, does anyone refer to an atomic bomb as an extremely small dose of a bomb? In actual fact, there is a power, a very real power, in having atoms smash against each other.
Homeopathic medicines are made through a specific pharmacological process of dilution and vigorous shaking. However, when skeptics say that there is nothing but water in homeopathic medicine, they are proving their ignorance, despite the incredible arrogance in which they make these assertions. Dr. Martin Chaplin, a respected British professor who is one of the world's experts on water, has verified that "homeopathic water" and "regular water" are not the same, and his review of almost 2,000 references to the scientific literature on water (!) confirm this fact (Chaplin, 2009).
It should be noted that a large number of homeopathic medicines sold in health food stores and pharmacies are made in doses with known physiological doses. In fact, there are several thousand (!) studies in conventional scientific journals showing a wide variety of biological effects from extremely small doses of various substances on specific systems.
Homeopathic medicines can and should be considered to be a type of "nanopharmacology" (Ullman, 2006). Although the word "nano" also means one-billionth of a size, that is not its only definition. In fact, "nano" derives from the word "dwarf," and "nano" is the only word in the English language that is used on common parlance as denoting extremely small AND yet extremely powerful. Homeopathic medicines are both extremely small in dose and yet extremely powerful in their therapeutic effect.
For 200 years now, millions of physicians and hundreds of millions of homeopathic patients have observed and experienced the power and effectiveness of homeopathic medicines
The Power of Nano-doses
Precisely how homeopathic medicines work remains a mystery, and yet, nature is replete with mysteries and with numerous striking examples of the power of extremely small doses.
For instance, it is commonly known that a certain species of moth can smell pheromones of its own species up to two miles away. It is no simple coincidence that species only sense pheromones from those in the same species who emit them (akin to the homeopathic principle of similars), as though they have developed exquisite and specific receptor sites for what they need to propagate their species. Likewise, sharks are known to sense blood in the water at distances, and when one considers the volume of water in the ocean, it becomes obvious that sharks, like all living creatures, develop extreme hypersensitivity for whatever will help ensure their survival.
That living organisms have some truly remarkable sensitivities is no controversy. The challenging question that remains is: How does the medicine become imprinted into the water and how does the homeopathic process of dilution with succussion increase the medicine's power? Although we do not know precisely the answer to this question, some new research may help point the way.
The newest and most intriguing way to explain how homeopathic medicines may work derives from some sophisticated modern technology. Scientists at several universities and hospitals in France and Belgium have discovered that the vigorous shaking of the water in glass bottles causes extremely small amounts of silica fragments or chips to fall into the water (Demangeat, et al., 2004). Perhaps these silica chips may help to store the information in the water, with each medicine that is initially placed in the water creating its own pharmacological effect. In any case, each medicinal substance will interact with the silica fragments in its own idiosyncratic way, thereby changing the nature and structure of water accordingly.
Further, the micro-bubbles and the nano-bubbles that are caused by the shaking may burst and thereby produce microenvironments of higher temperature and pressure. Several studies by chemists and physicists have revealed increased release of heat from water in which homeopathic medicines are prepared, even when the repeated process of dilutions should suggest that there are no molecules remaining of the original medicinal substance (Elia and Niccoli, 1999; Elia, et al., 2004; Rey, 2003).
Also, a group of highly respected scientists have confirmed that the vigorous shaking involved with making homeopathic medicines changes the pressure in the water, akin to water being at 10,000 feet in altitude (Roy, et al., 2005). These scientists have shown how the homeopathic process of using double-distilled water and then diluting and shaking the medicine in a sequential fashion changes the structure of water.
One metaphor that may help us understand how and why extremely small doses of medicinal agents may work derives from present knowledge of modern submarine radio communications. Normal radio waves simply do not penetrate water, so submarines must use an extremely low-frequency radio wave. The radio waves used by submarines to penetrate water are so low that a single wavelength is typically several miles long!
If one considers that the human body is 70-80 percent water, perhaps the best way to provide pharmacological information to the body and into intercellular fluids is with nanodoses. Like the extremely low-frequency radio waves, it may be necessary to use extremely low (and activated) doses for a person to receive the medicinal effect.
It is important to understand that nanopharmacological doses will not have any effect unless the person is hypersensitive to the specific medicinal substance. Hypersensitivity is created when there is some type of resonance between the medicine and the person. Because the system of homeopathy bases its selection of the medicine on its ability to cause in overdose the similar symptoms that the sick person is experiencing, homeopathy's principle of similars is simply a practical method of finding the substance to which a person is hypersensitive.
The homeopathic principle of similars makes further sense when one considers that modern physiologists and pathologists recognize that disease is not simply the result of breakdown or surrender of the body but that symptoms are instead representative of the body's efforts to fight infection or adapt to stress.
Using a nanodose that is able to penetrate deeply into the body and that is specifically chosen for its ability to mimic the symptoms helps to initiate a profound healing process. It is also important to highlight the fact that a homeopathic medicine is not simply chosen for its ability to cause a similar disease but for its ability to cause a similar syndrome of symptoms of disease, of which the specific localized disease is a part. By understanding that the human body is a complex organism that creates a wide variety of physical and psychological symptoms, homeopaths acknowledge biological complexity and have a system of treatment to address it effectively.
Although no one knows precisely how homeopathic medicines initiate the healing process, we have more than 200 years of evidence from hundreds of thousands of clinicians and tens of millions of patients that these medicines have powerful effects. One cannot help but anticipate the veritable treasure trove of knowledge that further research in homeopathy and nanopharmacology will bring.
Nobel Prize-winning Scientist on Homeopathy...
Brian Josephson, Ph.D., (1940-) is a British physicist who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for work he completed when he was only 22 years old. He is currently a professor at the University of Cambridge where he is the head of the mind-matter unification project in the Theory of Condensed Matter research group.
Responding to an article in the New Scientist (October 18, 1997) that expressed skepticism about homeopathy, Josephson wrote:
Regarding your comments on claims made for homeopathy: criticisms centered around the vanishingly small number of solute molecules present in a solution after it has been repeatedly diluted are beside the point, since advocates of homeopathic remedies attribute their effects not to molecules present in the water, but to modifications of the water's structure.
Simple-minded analysis may suggest that water, being a fluid, cannot have a structure of the kind that such a picture would demand. But cases such as that of liquid crystals, which while flowing like an ordinary fluid can maintain an ordered structure over macroscopic distances, show the limitations of such ways of thinking. There have not, to the best of my knowledge, been any refutations of homeopathy that remain valid after this particular point is taken into account.
A related topic is the phenomenon, claimed by Jacques Benveniste's colleague Yolène Thomas and by others to be well established experimentally, known as "memory of water". If valid, this would be of greater significance than homeopathy itself, and it attests to the limited vision of the modern scientific community that, far from hastening to test such claims, the only response has been to dismiss them out of hand. (Josephson, 1997)
Later, when Josephson was interviewed by the New Scientist (December 9, 2006), he chose to emphasize that many scientists today suffer from "pathological disbelief"; that is, they maintain an unscientific attitude that is embodied by the statement "even if it were true I wouldn't believe it." Sadly, such scientists are simply showing evidence of an unscientific attitude.
Quantum Medicine
Quantum physics does not disprove Newtonian physics; quantum physics simply extends our understanding of extremely small and extremely large systems. Likewise, homeopathy does not disprove conventional pharmacology; instead, it extends our understanding of extremely small doses of medicinal agents. It is time that physicians and scientists began incorporating both Newtonian and quantum physics into a better understanding of what healing is and how to best augment it.
The founder of homeopathic medicine, Samuel Hahnemann, MD, rewrote and updated his seminal work on the subject five times in his lifetime, each time refining his observations. Homeopaths continue to refine this system of nanopharmacology. While there is not always agreement on the best ways to select the correct remedy or the best nanopharmacological dose to use, the system of homeopathic medicine provides a solid foundation from which clinicians and researchers exploring nanopharmacologies can and should explore.
Dana Ullman, MPH, is America's leading spokesperson for homeopathy and is the founder of www.homeopathic.com. He is the author of 10 books, including his bestseller, Everybody's Guide to Homeopathic Medicines. His most recent book is, The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy. Dana lives, practices, and writes from Berkeley, California.
References:
Chaplin, Martin. 2009 (updated regularly) http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/index2.html
Demangeat, J.-L., Gries, P., Poitevin, B., Droesbeke J.-J., Zahaf, T., Maton, F., Pierart, C., and Muller, R. N. Low-Field NMR Water Proton Longitudinal Relaxation in Ultrahighly Diluted Aqueous Solutions of Silica-Lactose Prepared in Glass Material for Pharmaceutical Use, Applied Magnetic Resonance, 2004, 26:465-481.
Elia, V. and Niccoli, M. Thermodynamics of Extremely Diluted Aqueous Solutions, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1999, 879:241-248.
Elia, V., Baiano, S., Duro, I., Napoli, E., Niccoli, M., and Nonatelli, L. Permanent Physio-chemical Properties of Extremely Diluted Aqueous Solutions of Homeopathic Medicines, Homeopathy, 2004, 93:144-150.
Josephson, B. D., Letter, New Scientist, November 1, 1997.
Rey, L. Thermoluminescence of Ultra-High Dilutions of Lithium Chloride and Sodium Chloride. Physica A, 2003, 323:67-74.
Roy, R., Tiller, W. A., Bell, I., and Hoover, M. R. The Structure of Liquid Water: Novel Insights from Materials Research; Potential Relevance to Homeopathy, Materials Research Innovations, December 2005, 9(4):577-608..
Ullman, Dana. "Let's have a serious discussion of nanopharmacology and homeopathy". FASEB. 2006;20:2661.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Penny Arcade Piñata Quote
In reference to a glitch in Modern Warfare 2 (fixed a single typo):
"The Javelin Glitch (a resolution for which is underway) is truly the ultimate in bullshit, and given the kind of crap they accept in the game proper it's got to be pretty bad if they're trying to patch it out. It is a mechanism by which a person can explode when you shoot them - not simply with a grenade, as the Martyrdom Deathstreak allows, but directing concussive force outward with the broad profile of an aerial bombardment. Imagine a piñata that includes not candy, but damnation. That's the Glitch in a nutshell."
"The Javelin Glitch (a resolution for which is underway) is truly the ultimate in bullshit, and given the kind of crap they accept in the game proper it's got to be pretty bad if they're trying to patch it out. It is a mechanism by which a person can explode when you shoot them - not simply with a grenade, as the Martyrdom Deathstreak allows, but directing concussive force outward with the broad profile of an aerial bombardment. Imagine a piñata that includes not candy, but damnation. That's the Glitch in a nutshell."
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