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I'm looking at the CAR (Cloud Absorption Radiometer)
instrument's spinning outer mirror, and imagining the complex
light path through its interior. I say, "It's something
inside."
"Yeah, it's inside the optics," says Charles Gatebe.
"It's not something outside because it would affect everything
else."
swink (swink) v.i. to
labor, toil, work hard, sweat v.t. to gain by toil (past
tense is tricky, as it's a bit archaic: swinked, swank, swunk,
or swonk)
- The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash %}
Terrific in-joke
for fans of the post fab four.
Splendidly thorough.
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
I've enjoyed seeing Jay and Silent Bob as recurring characters,
but they just don't cut it as the protagonists of an entire movie.
This film has some very funny scenes, but it's also exceedingly
dumb and incredibly crude. Even so, there's absolutely no nudity
in this film, which was surprising given how heavily-laden with
adult content this film is otherwise.
Two Petitions for Peace: ThePetitionSite
& 9-11peace.org
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- "Just wanted to drop a line to let you guys know how
much me and my circle of gaming pals are enjoying Chrononauts!
I live in Northern California, but happened across a deck at
the Wizards of the Coast store at the Beverly Center in LA a
couple of weeks ago. Man! Ever since I got back, people don't
want to stop playing! I've turned over 2 dozen people onto this
game and they are scouring the nine counties looking for their
own decks. Keep up the outstanding game designs!"
-- Marc, of Mill Valley, CA
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Playing With Pyramids |
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Like
everyone else, we're flying the flag this week.
Last week, I described what's
going on with the next edition of Icehouse
and the new book of rules we're developing for it. I said we'd
decided to change the title from "9 Games for 60 Pyramids"
to "Eleven Icehouse Games", since we didn't want to
undervalue 30 or 45 pyramid Icehouse sets and wanted to include
more than 9 games.
Well, again this week we've changed our minds. (We pride ourselves
on being able to do that.) The 11 games I listed last week omitted
Pikemen,
and there was a large enough outcry over this to convince me
again that it ought to be in the book. More to the point, since
we're obviously still tweaking the contents list, it just doesn't
make sense to lock into a title that limits us to fewer games
than we may ultimately decide to include. Therefore, since we
must settle on a title now, we've decided to go with "Playing
with Pyramids", with a subtitle like "Twelve Games
For Icehouse Pieces" (or whatever the final count ends up
being).
As regards the search for a good 2 stash racing game with
dice, Kristin's Martian
Backgammon is improving with playtesting (as games always
do) and other candidates (such as Dave Chalker's Turtler)
are coming to our attention. Looks like we're going to have to
set up another weekend-long playtesting marathon...
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Since I'm finding myself without too much else
to say here, I'm going to fill this article out with an email
exchange we had this week. Regarding last
week's page, one of our readers wrote: "I'm sorry, but
I think it's VERY BAD TASTE to even THINK about how you could
benefit from the recent tragedy in our nation. I can't believe
this would be for any other purpose than to sell more cards."
Here's Alison's reply:
We very much apologize for having offended you, but would
like to assure you that our intent in putting up the WTC linchpin
was not to sell more cards. The image we used on the website
was only an imaginary card design -- a theoretical expansion
which would be years in the future -- if at all.
Just because Chrononauts is a game does not mean we wish to
trivialize the events that are in it (or potentially in it).
Rather the intent is to memorialize the events included in the
game -- to indicate that it IS an important event. A strange
thing about history, is that the closer you are to the present,
the harder it is to tell what events will truly be remembered
as History (with a capitol H) by those in the future -- i.e it's
hard to tell what event is a linchpin when it's occurring. What
we're saying is, 'THIS is a linchpin event.'
Much weighty thought was given to which events were, indeed,
important enough to warrant linchpins. The terrorist attacks
on the WTC and the Pentagon are clearly of that caliber. It,
like other tragic events on the timeline, is a horrible event
that future time travelers would want to go back and prevent.
We meant no offense. Yours is the only negative e-mail we
have received about this weeks update. I hope this reply has
assured you that we did not take it lightly nor that we are trying
to cash in on it. There is no monetary gain we get from having
this illustration on our weekly update -- it's just what's on
our minds this week, like everyone else in the country.
--Alison, Kristin and Andy Looney
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Rest
in Peace, WTC victims... |
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It seems to me the best way to combat anti-US
terrorism would be to figure out why so many foreigners hate
us, and craft a foreign policy designed to at least make them
stop feeling that way, and maybe even give them cause to like
us instead. It's hard to see how any sort of retaliation-oriented
military action will have this effect. Shouldn't we just "do
the Christian thing" and forgive them? |
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"If a significant number of people convince
themselves, or are convinced by their priests, that a martyr's
death is equivalent to pressing the hyperspace button and zooming
through a wormhole to another universe, it can make the world
a very dangerous place. Especially if they also believe that
that other universe is a paradisical escape from the tribulations
of the real world. Top it off with sincerely believed, if ludicrous
and degrading to women, sexual promises, and is it any wonder
that naive and frustrated young men are clamouring to be selected
for suicide missions?" -- Richard Dawkins,
"Religion's
misguided missiles" |
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With the War on Terrorism now heating up, can
we please finally call off the War on Drug Users? I think we
as a nation should be limited to one expensive, military-oriented
"solution" to a complex and impossible-to-completely-eradicate
social problem at a time. One thing we can be sure about: the
suicidal hijackers weren't pot-smokers. |
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