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Interesting Non-Game Stuff
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Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#161http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1779901
Batman Theme Song
Somehow this seems less cheesy than "Batman Forever."
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Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#162http://www.flixxy.com/presidents-morphing.htm
pretty cool. my mom sent it to me. -
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#163Invasion of the immortal jellyfish!!!
OK... not quite:
The Turritopsis Nutricula is able to revert back to a juvenile form once it mates after becoming sexually mature.
Marine biologists say the jellyfish numbers are rocketing because they need not die.
Dr Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute said: "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion."
The jellyfish are originally from the Caribbean but have spread all over the world.
Turritopsis Nutricula is technically known as a hydrozoan and is the only known animal that is capable of reverting completely to its younger self.
It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.
Scientists believe the cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it potentially immortal.
While most members of the jellyfish family usually die after propagating, the Turritopsis nutricula has developed the unique ability to return to a polyp state.
Having stumbled upon the font of eternal youth, this tiny creature which is just 5mm long is the focus of many intricate studies by marine biologists and geneticists to see exactly how it manages to literally reverse its aging process. -
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#164Serpentine inspiration
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090204/ap_on_sc/sci_monster_snake -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#165The man who helps people disappear
Actually a 'skip tracer', a guy that finds all those who attempt to vanish, he also uses his skills to allow his clients to disappear from trouble. An interesting read (with some fodder for modern games).
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Mini-Me
Finally, you can order your own robotic copy, that will obey your orders and behave like you! Order now!
(Just have to find out how to get your brain into it if something happens.) -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#166Octopus attempts to drown people!
Of course not. But a brave little octopus attempted to flee its aquarium:
The female California two-spotted octopus swam to the top of her tank, disassembled a valve with her powerful arm, and released at least 200 gallons (757 liters) of seawater into nearby exhibits and offices.
The foot-long (0.3-meter) creature remained in her tank and survived her ordeal. But the aquarium's brand-new floors weren't so lucky.
Such high jinks are typical of the invertebrates' still unexplained smarts, experts say.
"Octopuses have a wonderful combination of intelligence, tremendous manipulative ability, curiosity, and strength," said Jennifer Mather, a psychology professor at Canada's University of Lethbridge who has studied cognition in octopuses.
I like this one most:
"In one instance, an octopus given a slightly spoiled shrimp stuffed it down the drain while maintaining eye contact with its keeper."
Ever faced down an octopus? -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#167Take that, you barbarians!
Rampaging hordes - or darlings of the Dark Ages?
"The vikings' reputation as hairy, axe-wielding barbarians has been demolished by the revelation that the ancient Norsemen were technologically advanced, hygienic and really rather civilised."
Their image problem largely stems from their failure – what, with all that plundering to do – to find time to record their own history; meaning that chronicling their presence was left to those on the receiving end of their, shall we say, pragmatic approach to revenue gathering.
Even allowing for historical exaggeration, there's no doubt the Vikings could be a tough bunch. Where, though, did the ferocity come from? Some scholars have suggested that they may have been using performance-enhancing substances – notably magic mushrooms that they collected on their travels. From this arose the myth of the "berserkers", the Viking super-warriors who, when in battle, would enter a frenzy, seemingly impervious to pain.
Yet, away from the obligations of pillaging and plundering, the Viking was – according to the Cambridge consensus – a very different creature. He was obsessed with good grooming, fashionable appearance and personal hygiene, and, in this sense, could be seen as the first metrosexual. One medieval chronicler, John of Wallingford, records disapprovingly that the Danes "combed their hair every day, washed every Saturday and changed their clothes regularly".
Worth reading in entirety. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#168Revealed: The headset that will mimic all five senses and make the virtual world as convincing as real life
"The prototype helmet connects wirelessly to a computer which feeds it information about a virtual world or another part of the real world.
It features a high-definition high dynamic screen - which produces pictures ten times darker, or 30 times brighter than conventional television.
A tube connected to a box of chemicals releases smells under the wearer's nose, while a similar device can spray flavours directly into the mouth and provide a texture sensation.
The heat and humidity can be changed using a fan and heater, while surround-sound speakers recreate ambient noise.
Professor Alan Chalmers, of Warwick University, said the headset should be ready within five years." -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#169A kidney-punch for all Luddites :P
[http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/1012/candles-are-10-times-worse-for-the-environment-than-light-bulbs.html] -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#170I know, I know, incandescent light bulbs are the devil. The fact that any of us still use this antiquated technology is a testament to our stupidity as a species...
Obviously this person is slightly out of touch with reality, if they're suggesting that fluorescent light bulbs are the absolute best light bulb to use for every situation. Cold weather, for instance, causes problems with most fluorescent lights (reduced light output, longer warm-up time, etc.). Likewise, lights that are constantly on-and-off are better served by a regular incandescent bulb.
However, the overall article is a good reminder of why people generally went to bed when the sun went down before Edison invented the lightbulb: candles aren't all that effective as a light source. They're functional, certainly, but it's not worth the effort for most things. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#171Sex with robots
That's where it starts, but it goes much further, up to an interesting way, how the humanity could end. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#172In era when both STD epidemics and massive human over population are rife, this is an innovation that couldn't come too soon. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#173And it could easily end with a massive under-population and the advent of the human race...
...then again, better way to go out than some nuclear war .
- "The universe is full of other species, sometimes vastly different than ours..."
- "So where are they?"
- "At home, having sex with their robots." -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#174Quantum setback for warp drives
Include quantum mechanics in the calculations and faster-than-light drives become unstable
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23292/
Bad news I'm afraid -- it looks as if faster-than-light travel isn't possible after all. That's the conclusion of a new study into how warp drives would behave when quantum mechanics is taken into account. "Warp drives would become rapidly unstable once superluminal speeds are reached," say Stefano Finazzi at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, and a couple of friends.
Warp drives have been the focus of science fiction writers for decades. But scientists kept them at arms length until 1994 when the idea was put on a firm (ish) theoretical footing by the Mexican physicist, Michael Alcubierre. His thinking is that while relativity prevents faster-than-light travel relative to the fabric of space time, it places no restriction on the speed at which regions of spacetime may move relative to each other.
Alcubierre imagined a small volume of flat spacetime in which a spacecraft might sit, surrounded by a highly distorted bubble of spacetime which shrinks in the direction of travel, bringing your destination nearer, and stretches behind you. He showed that this shrinking and stretching could enable the bubble--and the spaceship it contained--to move at superluminal speeds.
The conclusion is the result of classical thinking using the ideas of general relativity but physicists have long wondered what would happen if you threw quantum mechanics into the mix? Now Finazzi and pals have worked it. For a start, they say that the inside of the bubble would be filled with Hawking radiation, making life rather uncomfortable for any spacecraft within it.
They have also studied a property of a quantum field called the renormalised stress-energy tensor which should be well-behaved under normal circumstances. But in the front wall of Alcubierre's bubble travelling at superluminal speeds, the renormalised stress-energy tensor grows exponentially.
That strongly implies that such a bubble would be unstable. So it looks increasingly likely that, after a brief few years of excitement, Alcubierre's warp drive is impossible.
Shame really.
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Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#175Looks to me like they just talk about the Alcubierre-Bubble Drive (that's what I get from reading the abstract). That's a far different thing than saying "FTL drives are unstable once you include quantum mechanics". Admittedly, the ABD was the most promising 'actual' FTL idea, but that still doesn't throw FTL entirely out the window. It just means our Sci-Fi is going to have to work a bit harder. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#176Yeah, and as some comments have noted, this is not a proof against, merely a complication to be overcome.
We need some more FTL theories. :) -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#177I might do another one, since they're so interesting and the potential for 'crunch' is just high enough to satisfy my craving for technobabble. -
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#178(CM: please do!)
The Civil Heretic
Some talking about a current political issue, but mainly it is about Dyson Freeman's life and work and it is a great read. You have to have respect for the man. Long but worth reading. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#179The art of survival: Essential skills for the post-apocalyptic world
Taking lessons in urban survival, evasion, lock picking, escaping restraints and pursuing vehicles... all the necessities for your daily life (or at least your modern or post-apoc gaming). :) -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#180As an alternative to the post-apocalypse viewpoint of survival, try this one instead:
Alpha Disaster Contingencies -
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#181 -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#182Forging Ahead
"Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love eBay"
An article of the impact of eBay on the looting and selling of archaeological artifacts. While it was feared by many archaeologists at its rise to fame, it has actually hurt much of the black market by... mass-produced forgeries.
These range from the most shrill and primitive knockoffs for tourists to quality products, that can fool even experts (and sometimes expensive lab tests). "Now, the workshops are producing much higher-quality fakes, increasing the category of ambiguous objects now available." ... "Who wants to spend $50,000 on an object 'guaranteed' to be ancient by today's standards, when someone can come along in five years with a new technology that definitively proves it to be a fake?"
Fun reading; and there goes much of one sophisticated branch of crime. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#183Ancient/Medieval Notebooks
If your passion is for things steeped in history, our Medieval Photo Journal is the perfect companion.
Inspired by centuries-old European architecture, its large leather “hinge and buckle” sturdily protect your treasured photos and tales. As with our standard Photo Journal, the center section contains archival-quality sleeves for up to 36 photos. The Medieval Photo Journal gives you 80 acid-free rag pages to weave your saga.
http://www.renaissance-art.com/catg70/categoryMaster.aspx
http://www.renaissance-art.com/catg17/category.aspx -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#184The Power of Statelessness
"Most political groups in modern history have wanted to build and control a state. Whether movements of self-determination in the 19th century, of decolonization in the post?World War II decades, or political parties advocating separatism in several Western states in the 1990s (e.g., Italy and Quebec) ? all aimed at one thing: to have a separate state that they could call their own. The means they employed to achieve this end ranged from terrorism and guerilla warfare to political pressure and electoral campaigns, but the ultimate goal was the same ? creation of its own state.
It is the ultimate goal no longer, and it is likely to be even less so in the future. Many of today?s nonstate groups do not aspire to have a state. In fact, they are considerably more capable of achieving their objectives and maintaining their social cohesion without a state apparatus. The state is a burden for them, while statelessness is not only very feasible but also a source of enormous power. Modern technologies allow these groups to organize themselves, seek financing, and plan and implement actions against their targets ? almost always other states ? without ever establishing a state of their own. They seek power without the responsibility of governing. The result is the opposite of what we came to know over the past two or three centuries: Instead of groups seeking statehood through a variety of means, they now pursue a range of objectives while actively avoiding statehood. Statelessness is no longer eschewed as a source of weakness but embraced as an asset."
It's a long read, with much to ponder on. Take the time. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#185Ant mega-colony takes over world
In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the "Californian large", extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.
While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct.
But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.
...whenever ants from the main European and Californian super-colonies and those from the largest colony in Japan came into contact, they acted as if they were old friends.
What's next? Eating humans, once they get everywhere? Run away who can, the Ants take over! -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#186Strange Maps
Gotta see it. A great blog with strange maps, funny maps, ancient maps and all-too-modern maps, created for many a purpose, or no purpose at all. Entertaining, but you sure can find there some inspiration for your game (or even swipe a map or two). -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#187From the you-can't-make-this-up category:
Military EATR: Contractor Working On Horrifying Corpse-Eating Robots
A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find -- grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.
Robotic Technology Inc.'s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot -- that's right, "EATR" -- "can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable," reads the company's Web site.
That "biomass" and "other organically-based energy sources" wouldn't necessarily be limited to plant material -- animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they'd be plentiful in a war zone.
Seriously... what was that movie called, that included exactly such machines? -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#188Take a look at the original source though, Fox is the one that added the Bodies element to the discussion.
Still, a disturbing possibility. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#189Yep, it is noticed in both sources that the company website doesn't mention dead bodies as a source of biomass - but the idea is hard to avoid.
Reading from the detailed description on the company's website, the thing should have an artificial intelligence of some degree and should actively search for sources of food... say, learn to do dumpster diving. :)
Complete with a robotic arm and a little circular saw, or chainsaw(!) as a picture says, this is definitely amusing for folks into sci-fi, especially the post-apocalyptic sort. (How was that movie called again? It was on a trashed planet with an ever-shrinking group of soldiers, and full of lethal small machines that also happened to live from biomass.) -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#190 -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#191For those who play Fallout, here's an interesting link - actually its interesting across the board.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3748014,00.html
Radaway here we come (A medicine in the game that removes RADs - very handy in the postnuclear world)
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Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#192Very interesting indeed - in and out of the game! -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#193Cthulhu returning?
Hundreds of monsters, reportedly up to five feet long with "razor sharp beaks and toothy tentacles" have been reported not just seen in the shallow coastal waters near San Diego, but have been said to be "enveloping" the masks of divers, as well as "yanking at their cameras and gear."
Cephalopods on the rise! Watch out for strange star alignements! -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#194More inspiration! 30 Alternative Wonders of the world!
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread487342/pg1
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Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#195Rat-eating plant discovered in Philippines
"The plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is believed to be the largest meat-eating shrub, dissolving rats with acid-like enzymes."
The possibilities. -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#196Scientists reveal the real reason why we walk in circles when lost
A crucially important research for all travellers and dungeoneerers! Actually, it doesn't explain why it happens, but it documents the key factor: people seem unable to keep walking in a straight like without a clear reference point like the Sun or Moon. Once they lose it, they will eventually walk in circles.
(For fun, you could equip your races with various senses in this area: say that most of them do the same, and those annoying Elves can keep a straight line because they are so well adjusted, or the Dwarves, because they can't rely on the sun or moon, etc. Then watch the conflicts flaming up. ;) ) -
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#197 -
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#198 -
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#199Yeah, and they are pretty cool!
And one of the prototypes is named HAL... can't imagine anything going wrong with that name. :) -
Re: Interesting Non-Game Stuff
#200Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession
A secretive gathering of empty cargo ships, this is an interesting article by itself - but it contains tons of inspiration for gaming purposes.
- at night, looking at it from the dark land: "It makes you feel as if you are adrift on a dark sea, staring at a city of light."
- local fisherman says: 'We don't understand why they are here. There are so many ships but no one seems to be on board. When we sail past them in our fishing boats we never see anyone. They are like real ghost ships and some people are scared of them. They believe they may bring a curse with them and that there may be bad spirits on the ships.'
- what if the world went under one of these days... this fleet could be the start of a new civilization
- and not to forget, what will you scheming villain do with unusually cheap ships and a surplus of cargo space?