Friday, December 19, 2008

77 Quirks: Adding Character to Starships in the Far Future


77 Quirks: Adding Character to Starships in the Far Future


http://www.estarcion.com/kaleja/77quirks.html

This is a method for randomly adding "character" to a particular starship or ship class. As with most such things, it should be used with a large grain of salt, and the referee should feel free to ignore or alter anything that doesn’t work well. The phrase "referee's discretion" gets bandied about quite a bit. Either ship-class-based or individual-ship-based Quirks, or both, can be used.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Holdfast Tables

About 8 random generators, including tavern, magic item, NPC, etc.
http://www.holdfast.org/tools.htm

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

World's oldest marijuana stash

World's oldest marijuana stash totally busted

Two pounds of still-green weed found in a 2,700-year-old Gobi Desert grave


Stash for the afterlife: A photograph of a stash of cannabis found in the 2,700-year-old grave of a man in the Gobi Desert. Scientists are unsure if the marijuana was grown for more spiritual or medical purposes,


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28034925/?gt1=43001

Odd Comet Possibly from Another Star System

Odd Comet Possibly from Another Star System

... and also some discussion of "normal" comets.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/081202-odd-comet.html

Friday, November 21, 2008

Buried Glaciers Found on Mars

Buried Glaciers Found on Mars

Mars has vast glaciers hidden under aprons of rocky debris near mid-latitude mountains, a new study confirms, pointing to a new and large potential reservoir of life-supporting water on the planet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081120/sc_space/buriedglaciersfoundonmars;_ylt=Aly8935oZa6pAm7fRc6sZyrQOrgF

or maybe

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/081120-martian-glaciers.html


Tuesday, November 4, 2008

oldest known graves of a shaman

The graves of people who died 12,000 ago rarely contain a woman’s skeleton pinned down in an unusual position by large stones, accompanied by a menagerie of animal remains and another person’s foot.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/38287/title/An_ancient_healer_reborn

Monday, November 3, 2008

Strange Portal Connects Earth to Sun

Like giant, cosmic chutes between the Earth and sun, magnetic portals open up every eight minutes or so to connect our planet with its host star.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081103/sc_space/strangeportalconnectsearthtosun

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Hottest Planet Ever Discovered

A planet called WASP-12b is the hottest planet ever discovered (about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2,200 degrees Celsius), and orbits its star faster and closer in than any other known world.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081016/sc_space/hottestplaneteverdiscovered

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP-12b

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/10/15/hottest-ever-exoplanet-discovered-wasp-12b/

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Rare Islamic artifact sells for $5.5 million

A rare Islamic crystal jug that was mistaken earlier this year for a cheap French claret pitcher has sold at auction for almost $5.6 million. ...

The slim-necked vessel, carved from a single piece of rock crystal and decorated with elaborate engravings of cheetahs, was made for the court of the Cairo-based Fatimid dynasty, which ruled a swath of the Middle East and North Africa between 908 and 1187.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_en_ot/eu_britain_expensive_jug;_ylt=Am0J2JGiC3K81sXnCNXPYUGs0NUE

Monday, September 22, 2008

UK experts say Stonehenge was place of healing

People came from all over Europe for Stonehenge's healing powers, and chipped off blue stones to make amulets:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080922/ap_on_sc/eu_britain_stonehenge

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Super Volcanos

Several volcanoes around the world are capable of gigantic eruptions unlike anything witnessed in recorded history, based on geologic evidence of past events, the scientists said. Such eruptions would dwarf those of Mount St. Helens, Krakatoa, Pinatubo and anything else going back dozens of millennia.

"Super-eruptions are up to hundreds of times larger than these," said Stephen Self of the United Kingdom's (U.K.) Open University.

From: http://www.livescience.com/environment/050308_super_volcano.html

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervolcano

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Vog — volcanic smog — kills plants, casts a haze over Hawaii

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080506/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_hawaii_volcanic_gas;_ylt=Ake38EdfrvN.18I9SLQekVWs0NUE
is a newspaper article on the effects of volcanic smoke on crops and plants. World make a good adventure seed for many different low tech worlds.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Pictographic Language from Easter Island

This is a description of a strange/unique pictographic language found only on Easter Island:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongorongo
I suspect that there are lots of good RPG ideas here!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Traveller Adventures from Zhodani Base

http://zho.berka.com/amber/ as a couple of adventures on it.

Traveller Adventures from Stellar Reaches

http://stellarreaches.nwgamers.org/issues/
is a link to about 8 issues of Stellar Reaches, a Traveller fanzine. Each one seems to have more than one ready-to-run adventure in it.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Tanzania's President condemns witchdoctors who kill albinos and harvest their body parts in the hope it will bring prosperity

Now this is an adventure seed that could be used in all kinds of settings!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080403/od_nm/witchcraft_dc;_ylt=AhbEtumoxVY0CCzaQwQQCnqs0NUE

Friday, March 21, 2008

Oldest Rabbit Relative Found

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080321/sc_livescience/fossilofoldestrabbitrelativefound;_ylt=AnftGWKVfJzyeC1kQGxOcAas0NUE


Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Ancient Greek Brain Surgery (about 800BC)

Newspaper article on ancient surgery about 800BC:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080312/sc_afp/greecearchaeologymedicine

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Native Americans of Hetch Hetchy

Article on the native americans of Hetch Hetchy, a valley much like Yosemite:

http://thehive.modbee.com/?q=node/180