The Geek Hierarchy

The Geek Hierarchy

"Tomorrow Is The World We Are Living In Right Now!"

The exoskeleton, bringing you greater strength and greater mobility. Doesn't it remind you of the one worn by Batman in Kingdom Come? This is, however, allegedly an actual working model, developed by a Japanese company. 

I know that this probably isn't new, but I like the picture. Bonus points if you can name who said the quote that I used as a subject for this posting.

Mystery of German exploding toads

Maybe this wouldn't happen if they were Infinite Frogs.

Mystery of German exploding toads

"Toads in an area of northern Germany are being killed off by a mysterious disease - they are exploding."

Ultimate Flash Face v0.42b

Build your own mugshots. Hours of fun for the entire family.

Ultimate Flash Face v0.42b

Da Vinci Code bestseller is plagiarism, Holy Blood Holy Grail authors claim

Da Vinci Code bestseller is plagiarism, Holy Blood Holy Grail authors claim

"Jesus conspiracy novel has earned £140 million, but now two academic writers say that their historical work preceded it by 20 years, reports Elizabeth Day

"It is the biggest-selling adult fiction book of all time and has earned its author a reputed £140 million with its plot about a global conspiracy to suppress Christ's marriage.

"The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 12 million copies and has been translated into 42 languages. But now two writers are suing its publishers, claiming that it was copied from their bestseller that first appeared more than 20 years ago.

"Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh claim that Dan Brown, the 39-year-old former English teacher from New Hampshire, has 'lifted the whole architecture' of the research that they carried out for their non-fiction work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which they co-wrote with Henry Lincoln.

"They claim that the similarities between the two books are such that they have no choice but to sue Random House, whose imprint Doubleday is the publisher of Brown's novel."

Superman Costume Revealed

Look, up in the sky...it's the fist look at the Superman costume from the upcoming movie. 

Dueling Theater Managers

The rest is just strange. Ah....how I miss living in a small town sometimes. Sometimes...

Dueling Theater Managers

"The Bozeman Police reports for Tuesday included the following:

"Two managers from competing theaters got into a fight Monday over who was going to host the new Star Wars movie."

Mevlana Jelalu'ddin Rumi on Death

Mevlana Jelalu'ddin Rumi on Death

"I died from minerality and became vegetable;
And from vegatativeness I died and became animal,
I died from animality and became man.
Why, then, fear disappearance through death?
Next time I shall die
Bringing forth wings and feathers like angels;
After that, soaring higher than angels --
What you cannot imagine,
I shall be that."

Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength

Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength

"A ROBOT suit has been developed that could help older people or those with disabilities to walk or lift heavy objects.

Dubbed HAL, or hybrid assistive limb, the latest versions of the suit will be unveiled this June at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan, which opened last month. A commercial product is slated for release by the end of the year.

HAL is the result of 10 years' work by Yoshiyuki Sankai of the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and integrates mechanics, electronics, bionics and robotics in a new field known as cybernics. The most fully developed prototype, HAL 3, is a motor-driven metal 'exoskeleton' that you strap onto your legs to power-assist leg movements. A backpack holds a computer with a wireless network connection, and the batteries are on a belt."

Hasbro Reports First Quarter Results

Hasbro Reports First Quarter Results

"Highlights

"-- Net revenues were down 4%, to $454.9 million compared to $474.2 million a year ago;

"-- Net loss of ($3.7) million, or ($0.02) per diluted share, compared to net earnings of $6.5 million, or $0.03 per diluted share in 2004;

"-- Toy segment net revenues were up 9%, reflecting the initial shipment of STAR WARS products in advance of the May 19th movie release;

"-- Balance sheet continues to be strong, ending the quarter with cash, net of debt of $237.9 million.

"Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS) today reported first quarter results. Worldwide net revenues for the quarter were $454.9 million compared to $474.2 million a year ago and included a $7.0 million positive impact from foreign exchange. The Company reported a net loss for the quarter of ($3.7) million or ($0.02) per diluted share, compared to net earnings of $6.5 million or $0.03 per diluted share in 2004."

It's not easy living on Dork Street

And last but not least....

It's not easy living on Dork Street

"It's not easy living on Dork Street -- just ask Mario Saucedo.

"'I had a resume kicked back because someone thought I was kidding,' said Saucedo, who has lived on the street in this suburb about a dozen miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles for eight years.

"Ester Avetisian, who moved there 18 years ago, said she might have thought twice if there had been a sign in those days marking the road tucked into what is still a semi-rural section of town where people keep goats and chickens in their back yards.

"'I didn't know the name until my husband and I were signing (mortgage) papers,' Avetisian recalled. 'I was pretty shocked when I found out.'

"Still, most residents have learned to grin and bear the jokes." [via Jonny]

Where imagination is the key

Where imagination is the key

"'Halt! Who are you and why are you here?'

"The deep-voiced shout echoed through the rocky passage and the adventurers froze. Before anyone could answer, the owner of the deep voice stepped out of his hiding place and turned out to be ... Nancy Montano, a 39-year-old bill collector from Pendleton, Ind.

"Not quite a scene from 'The Lord of the Rings,' this was the start of another round of 'Dungeons & Dragons' at this weekend's Game Con South Bend. At the Century Center Saturday and today, Game Con offers the chance for fans and newcomers to play dozens of board, card and miniatures games, as well as some X-Box.

"Also popular are roleplaying games like 'Dungeons & Dragons,' in which players like Nancy assume the identities of fantasy-themed characters and play out elaborate missions. The healthy imagination and sense of community these games require and foster are the foundation of Game Con's popularity."

The Agony Column

The Agony Column edited by Rick Kleffel

Original fiction, commentary, reviews and interviews with the many faces of SF and fantastic fiction. Well worth checking out.

The Infinite Matrix

The Infinite Matrix

A great SF/Fantastic Fiction website. An upcoming "issue" will have a new short story by Rudy Rucker and an essay from William Gibson. Well worth checking out if you are interested in the non-mainstream for your fantastic fiction.

Crisis Counseling

Crisis Counseling

The official site at the DC Comics website with previews, updates and spoilers for the upcoming Infinite Crisis. Will they really undo the Crisis on Infinite Earths and return to DC Universe to the Multiverse of the pre-Crisis days? Does this mean that Zero Hour will have never happened? What about Identity Crisis? If the company has a gigantic company crossover will anyone really, really care?

Check back every Monday for more details.

Cleveland Gamers!

One thing that gamers are always complaining about is the fact that they can't find other gamers. This is something that I hear again and again. So, I decided to put together a way for gamers in the Cleveland area to network and meet with each other. This is, I think, particularly relevant because Meetup.com has announced that they are going to start charging each local Meetup organizer a month fee for the priviledge of using Meetup.com. Gee thanks.

Anyway, because of that, I am attempting to organize any Cleveland area gamers who are interested in meeting other people in their area with common interests. If you would like to keep up with things send an email to the group if you are interested.

The first gathering of Cleveland Gamers is set for Saturday, May 7th at 8:00pm. It will be at the University Circle Arabica. Come by and say hello.

The Unofficial DC Heroes JLA Source Page

The Unofficial DC Heroes JLA Source Page

This is an excellent resource dealing with the Grant Morrison-era JLA and converting them to the DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes RPGs based on the Mayfair Exponential Gaming system. Good stuff, and well done write-ups.

The Art of Making Wolves From Human Skulls

I don't really know if I can actually describe this. Kookiness ensues.

The Art of Making Wolves From Human Skulls

A note to regular readers (if there are any): Apparently Blogger made some changes lately that have been causing me some posting problems. Hopefully this post means that I have things working again. Sorry about the delays in getting the strangeness to you.

Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie

Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie

"This site is dedicated to spreading the word about the Aluminum* Foil Deflector Beanie and how it can help the average human. Here you will find a description of AFDBs, how to make and use them, and general information about related subjects. I hope that you find the AFDB Homepage to be an important source of AFDB know-how and advocacy.

"What Is An AFDB?

"An Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie (AFDB) is a type of headwear that can shield your brain from most electromagnetic psychotronic mind control carriers. AFDBs are inexpensive (even free if you don't mind scrounging for thrown-out aluminium foil) and can be constructed by anyone with at least the dexterity of a chimp (maybe bonobo). This cheap and unobtrusive form of mind control protection offers real security to the masses. Not only do they protect against incoming signals, but they also block most forms of brain scanning and mind reading, keeping the secrets in your head truly secret. AFDBs are safe and operate automatically. All you do is make it and wear it and you're good to go! Plus, AFDBs are stylish and comfortable."

Yah.....Jack Chick!

The wonderful world of Jack Chick and Chick Comics brings you...Halloween.
Posted by Hello

State of the Industry 2004: Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me

State of the Industry 2004: Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me

"And in that spirit, let's drill down and focus on the RPG numbers. Usually, the top five spots in the Comics & Games Retailer list are reliable, in two senses: the companies occupying them don't shift around a lot, and the sales numbers are big enough that it's defensible to say that even the C&GR figures bear some relation to reality. If the RPG business is as shrunken as it might be, however, neither assumption is going to hold. Keep that in mind as we go forward. Unquestionably, however, the number one company in the market is Wizards of the Coast. One distributor quoted in ICv2 said that 'Dungeons & Dragons sells four times World of Darkness and World of Darkness sells four times everything else.' C&GR gives Wizards a slightly less commanding, but no less apparent, lead, with a little less than 43% of the core hobby RPG market, again roughly the same as last year. White Wolf likewise held a decisive second place, with strong sales for the reimagined Vampire and new World of Darkness core books driving a good second half of 2004. By C&GR numbers, the Wolf actually improved its standing, to 22% of the market in 2004.

"Similarly, the revised GURPS 4th Edition books rode full-color hardbacks (and commensurate price increases) uphill to 5% and a bit of the RPG market in 2004; again, ICv2 concurs that Steve Jackson Games is Number Three with a (6d large piercing attack) bullet. C&GR lists AEG at fourth place with 4%, FanPro at fifth and Palladium in sixth with around 3.5% each. ICv2 forbears to give numbers, but lists the next three as Mongoose, Green Ronin, and Hero. If I had to guess, I'd say it's most likely Mongoose at fourth (call it 3.5% or 4% of the market) and the rest of the second tier (FanPro, Palladium, AEG, Hero, and Green Ronin) in a cloud of dust somewhere down there in shouting distance of 2%. Fantasy Flight and Kenzer and Eden may have 1% each at best; the rest are bouncing around down there among the drow and suchlike. Of all the Bottom Not Two, FanPro might take a jump up this year with Shadowrun 4th Edition in August, and I've learned not to count Kevin Siembieda out, but I think Steve will be able to hang onto third place in the RPG sector as Mongoose begins to spread its energies into card, board, and miniature games."

Ken Hite's Out Of The Box: GAMA Trade Show

A lot of this is probably already known, but some may not be. Ken's always got the good inside information on things.

Ken Hite's Out Of The Box: GAMA Trade Show

"GAMA Globulin Injection: GTS 2005 Con Report

"Vegas, baby, Vegas. This year, I cleverly got my cold in London, and shook it well before the show started, so I was able to nearly kill myself instead with drink and late nights. That's how it's supposed to work. The game industry, meanwhile, has yet to kill itself with anything, and if the general tone of blinking tentativeness is to be believed, we may have finally found the floor on this elevator. Nobody was so bold as to predict terrific new performance this year, but everybody seemed to think they'd be back next year, which is something.

"It's especially something, because the Riviera, the new home of the GAMA Trade Show, is a dive. Everybody I talked to expressed amazement that they actually missed the seedy, distant, rundown Orleans compared to the shabby, amateurish, uncomfortable Riviera. Unfortunately, there was similar agreement that the convention facility at the Riviera was, in fact, worlds better, and the GAMA staff did rather better than simply not screw up a good thing on their end. My personal business at the show was fair to middling, but it's a rebuilding year for those of us who have pretty much priced themselves out of the pure writing market. At the show, I assisted freelance superstars Matt Forbeck, Aaron Rosenberg, Keith Baker, and legal mastermind Brian Lewis with the freelance seminar track -- we presented the same seminars twice, during show floor hours the second time, neither of which struck me as particularly clever. Oh well, no doubt the 20 attendees (total, of all four seminars) benefited from the individual attention, and one of them was nice enough to buy us dinner Wednesday night, so it worked out well for me. I don't have attendance figures for the show as a whole, although it seemed about the same as last year -- call it 800 to 1,000 'buyer badges' and leave it at that for now.

"Among the buyees, it was also about the same, although White Wolf's booth was more aggressive, and Games Workshop was there primarily plugging their Black Library fiction line and the upcoming Warhammer Fantasy Role Play relaunch (designed by Green Ronin, shipping at the end of this month), rather than scattering orks all over the place. After several years absent, Palladium was back; Kevin Siembieda assured me that Splicers (their new, interesting sounding game of biotech war) had come out last year, and that a review copy was on its way. I likewise assured him that a review of the new edition of Beyond the Supernatural was also on the way, and we parted friends as always. Taking Palladium's crown this year as the most interesting non-attendee was Chaosium -- rather than buy a booth, Charlie Krank and Dustin Wright hit the corridor outside the hall for about five hours, met with everyone they needed to see, and left again. Let us devoutly hope this practice doesn't catch on at other shows, as I could be left with nowhere to store my swag pile.

"The Magic May Return

"The biggest news of the show was probably the Shadowrun 4th Edition announcement from FanPro. The setting jumps to 2070, the rules all change (of course), and we get a new Matrix to fly around in in our big black trench coats. Sounds exciting, as this will be the chance the FanPro folks have to truly reinvent the setting and make it their own. It's due to bow at GenCon, so get your pre-reg badge now. (This assumes you weren't already pre-registering to line up for your GenCon release copy of Mage: the Awakened from White Wolf, of course.) The other big debut at the show was Peter Adkison's new game, Clout. It's designed by Jesper 'Hills Rise Wild' Myrfors, and it's basically tiddlywinks or marbles, only with poker chips. I played it at the show, and it's fun enough, although unlike James Ernest's 'bocce skirmish minis' game Diceland, I didn't find myself writing variants on it the instant I started playing. Take that for what you will.

"Also, City of Heroes returns to the adventure game market from whence its creators sprang, to spawn a new CCG (from Alderac), and a new RPG (from Eden Studios). The CCG is due in November; the RPG will be out in July, according to the current word on Eden Street. This will accompany their Army of Darkness RPG, in time for the fourth movie in the 'Ash' series.

"And Many Many More

"Sovereign Press announced a non-d20 Firefly RPG, called the Serenity RPG, and more interestingly, a new Tom Wham card game, Dancing Dragons, both expected this summer. West End has TORG 1.5 coming out as a bridge to the upcoming TORG 2.0 release. WizKids gave away Dark Phoenix (I think), and was pushing both their clicky and foldy empires (pulp space combat game Rocketmen: Axis of Evil debuts this fall), along with a new game with a modular board. Speaking of pulp, Pulp Hero is the big GenCon release from Hero Games, which will be nice to see. Fantasy Flight was hitting their board game lines hard -- I wangled a copy of 'Axis & Allies & Orcs,' or War of the Ring, and was promised a new Arkham Horror boardgame by May. They'll also be revamping their 'Sauron won' setting Midnight for a second edition, 3.5-compatible release in May.

"Ann Dupuis of Grey Ghost is almost entirely sure that this summer we'll have that Deryni Adventure Game at long last, as well as a huge 320-page hardcover 10th-anniversary FUDGE RPG core book. Steve Jackson Games had Munchkin life-counters to give away, more Munchkin to plug, and the upcoming SPANC card game to demo. A discreet copy of GURPS Infinite Worlds was visible at the booth, for discerning cognoscenti."

Palladium Books GTS Report

And yes, the Palladium perspective on things...always guaranteed to be an interesting interpetation of facts:

"Heroes Unlimited™ RPG is Palladium’s second best selling role-playing game line. We already knew that, but we were pleased to have numerous retailers confirm it. They also told us they wanted more HU2 products because Heroes Unlimited™ was selling like crazy for the last year with no sign of letting up. Good news, indeed.

"When we asked why they thought this was, most said, 'because Heroes Unlimited™ is the best super-hero game on the market.' When we said we thought all the super-hero movies being released lately had a lot to do with it, they surprised us with saying, 'No. Maybe the movies get gamers to think about playing super-heroes, but they buy Palladium’s Heroes Unlimited™ because it’s the best...most fun to play.' We heard that almost word for word, over and over again from at least a couple dozen different retailers. Super cool!"

Enjoy the read.

Palladium Books GTS Report

"Wayne Smith and I attended the GAMA Trade Show last week. GAMA stands for Games Manufacturers Association. The organization puts together an industry show attended by store owners and managers from around the country (US & Canada) – a few are from as far away as England, France and Singapore.

"Publishers and manufacturers like Palladium set up a booth to display our wares and then we wait to chat with retailers and talk about out latest releases, upcoming products, sales, and gaming in general. This year, GAMA hosted 541 stores and 2200 attendees.

"Here’s the Palladium perspective . . ."

The Dave Trampier Wormy Archive.

This is an archive of the Wormy comic strip that ran for years, back in the day, in Dragon Magazine. Full of old school D&D references, and was always a pretty funny comic. Between it and SnarfQuest, they were two of the main reasons that I picked up Dragon so many years ago. Enjoy...

The Dave Trampier Wormy Archive. [link removed since the website seems to have disappeared from the net. 12/10/10]

[Edit: I've also closed comments for this post. I post links when I come across something interesting on the internet, if the site I link to goes down I don't find further links to the same material.]

GamingReport.com -- GAMA Trade Show Anouncements

Some of the many products that were announced at the GAMA Trade show this year. It looks like it is going to be a big year for the industry. Amarillo Design Bureau has too new iterations of their Prime Directive game coming out this year, one being a d20 version written by Jonathan M. Thompson and the other being a version for WEG's d6 system and written by the creator of the d6 system, Scott Paltier.

GamingReport.com -- GAMA Trade Show Anouncements

Its nice to be able to finally talk about some of these things, having inside information sucks if you can't share it.