From the BBC: Legendary US daredevil Evel Knievel has died at the age of 69, his granddaughter has said. I’ve never seen Knievel do any of his stunts, in real life or on TV. I just know him through this: It was years until I found out it was based on a real person.
Author: matt
Gamer. Writer. Dad. Serial Ex-husband. Creator of The 23rd Letter, SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO, ZOMBI, Testament, Creed. Slightly megalomaniac
Half man, half tree
There’s a bloke in Indonesia who has a rare immune deficiency: he’s extremely susceptible to the Human Papilloma Virus. It’s not big and it’s not scary because in the rest of us it causes merely warts. Dede’s problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system, meaning his body is…
The Golden Age of Retro-Future
From Dark Roasted Blend: This is the start of a new series, collection of the most inspiring & hard-to-find retro-futuristic graphics. We will try to stay away from the well-known American pulp & book cover illustrations and instead will focus on the artwork from rather unlikely sources: Soviet & Eastern Bloc “popular tech & science”…
Roman Road Maps
They didn’t have a GPS system back in those days. BBC News link it is an intensely practical document, more like a plan of the London Underground than a map. “The red lines are the main roads. Every so often there is a little hook along the red lines which represents a rest stop –…
This is the best they could do?
How embarrassing. About 20 years too late, the Orange Order has invented a superhero in order to make them appear hip, up-to-date and less stuffy. I’d have thought a bit of effort to take the high road and make the 12th July an “open to all” event would be a great start. As a Catholic…
Darth Vader in the Cantina (Canteen)
Yes. It made me LOL for real. In work.
For Reference: Heroin
A few months ago I came across a great article on the IntarWeb about the origin, trafficking and “business” of Heroin which went into great detail about how it was the main product of the East India Trading Company and how the British exported heroin in vast quantities to China and not the other way…
Choice Q &A
For when the religious nuts in your life come off with some crackers. Why are you mad at God? “Because he’s supposed to be all good but he doesn’t even have the common decency to exist.” God wants you to believe in him without rational proof. “Then he’s certainly doing a fine job of not…
Freaks wanted for new Star Trek flick
Bizarre casting call for new Star Trek film The invitation to the casting session said: “This is an epic project and we are looking for the most intriguing and interesting faces to integrate in this film.” Some of the facial features the studio is looking for include: * extremely large heads and foreheads * wide…
Fiction: Why the UK avoids the space race
BBC News Link: The UK’s decision to shun human spaceflight was a mistake that needs to be changed, says Europe’s International Space Station programme chief … Alan Thirkettle, a Brit who left the country to head European Space Agency (Esa) projects. … “The UK has a long and noble tradition for exploration across our planet….
5 ways Science can bring us Zombie Plague!
Of course, it has to be from Cracked.com. Go look. Now.
Aliens
When you’re lying awake in the night and dreaming new dreams about far off places and alien races, in science fiction and fantasy, and you think it might be easy to invent something new. No. A few years ago, some of us tried to write a science fiction background which included some elements from sci-fi…
Warlock writes: Why don’t you just give it up.
In the comments on the previous post the almost anonymous Warlock (IP: 213.78.235.176 – 24/10/07 – Some Onetel subscriber in the UK who hides by putting false email addresses) writes: Seriously, you’ve been hacking away at this hobby for donkey\’s years and never produced anything of note other than a blog which demostrates your total…
BadWrongFun
Great Definition badwrongfun: Playing “the wrong way”, but having fun anyway. You might be playing the wrong way by going against the expectations of the game (“You can’t run a hack-and-slash game using Vampire; you’re missing the entire point!”) or the expectations of gamers who have decided they are more evolved beings (“It’s not possible…
I bought a book today…
…entirely because it was illustrated and designed exactly the way I want Q to be paid out. I spent a few minutes leafing through it and in my minds eye transposed the text and art to that which I envision for Q. Looking over my Q notes the other day reminded me of the parts…
Rowling channelled Lucas?
(I’d attribute this but it was passed to me and no-one seems to know…)
Heroics, Risk and immersion.
James “JimJamJom Jimbo” Wallis writes about Heroics: Of course, a lot depends on how the player views their avatar, whether they regard the game-character they’re controlling as ‘me’, as a companion who they care about, or as a disposable camera and weapon-wielding tool. … But basically players don’t like risk. They like the appearance of…
Rowling casts Evil Eye on Hindi festival
A Hindi community is being targetted by Warner Bros and the Rowling estate for infringement because they’re building a huge model of the Hogwarts school. The finishing touches are being applied to thousands of similar structures, known as pandals, across Calcutta and elsewhere in India. Many of them touch on popular themes and the BBC’s…