Thursday, August 12, 2004

Keeping America Safe from role-playing game manuals. Granted that the D&D crowd is pretty freakish and scary, but in this case "RPG" does NOT stand for rocket propelled grenade. I don't know if it's good or bad that this instance of security theater may turn out to be an improv act. D&D book reader on ferry hassled by security morons. A BB reader sez: "Thanks to the RNC, there are manditory bag searches happening on the NJ-NY Ferry. This fellow first got hassled with a re-search for carrying The Player's Guide to Faerun a D&D book, and then the next day, security tried to confiscate his copy of Exalted: The Abyssals as 'inappropriate.'" This morning, they're doing bag searches again to get on the ferry. And the guy doing the searches pulls me aside and says, "Sir, I feel that I need to confiscate this book." I pause and say, in that tone of voice that most people would recognize as meaning, "have you lost your grip completely, chuckles?": "You need to confiscate... a book." "Yes. I feel it's inappropriate for the other people on the ferry to be exposed to it." ... He gets all pissy at me and says, "Don't you understand this is for your safety?" "Confiscating someone's gun or bomb is for my safety. PErhaps confiscating someone's pocketknife or nailfile may be for my safety. What's so damn dangerous about my book?" "It's INAPPROPRIATE!" Link UPDATE Game designer Greg Costikyan took the time to send email to the NY Waterway to protest the rogue imbecile security guard who tried to confiscate the game manual (How much do you want to bet that the rogue imbecile security guard wanted to confiscate it so it could take it back to his home and use it as a masturbatory aid?). Greg Costikyan: Just spoke with people from New York Waterway, who say: 1. They're trying to track down mephron (the original poster) to get more detailed information from him--e.g., time and ferry route. 2. If the story is true, it is not only a violation of company policy, but also of martime regulations, and if it is true, they wish to correct the situation as quickly as possible. 3. Anyone with further information about it are invited to contact them directly. Sounds sensible to me... [Boing Boing] 7:36:18 AM     Categories: Keeping America Safe LiveJournal

© Copyright 2004 Matthew Ernest. Last update: 8/30/2004; 7:51:20 PM. hT This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.

radaR's LiveJournal   7:50PM PST Geek gamers rejoice. Finally, a hot chick they can score with. Video game vampire to go topless in October Playboy Ernest Miller sez, "Videogame character BloodRayne (a red-headed 'Dhampir' who hunts supernatural baddies for the 'Brimstone Society') will be topless in October's Playboy. According to her creators, 'This is a first in videogame history and trust us when we say that Rayne does not disappoint.'" Link (Thanks, Ernest!) [Boing Boing] By radar@poboxes.com. Keeping America Safe from wireless internet. AKMA gets hassled by the man: So Weirdly Wrong: And I walked back to the studio, dumbfounded that someone just rousted me for picking an open wireless signal in public — indeed (as it turns out) for using a laptop within a wireless signal’s range of the library. Weird. We should all be glad that the local contstabulary are able to invent federal laws at a moments notice to save us from the scourge of freely available internet access. However, those godless commie librarians seem to have gotten off scott free. By radar@poboxes.com. Keeping America Safe from Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy's name is similar to an alias of some "evil doer". Proof that this list only catches the innocent is left as an exercise for the reader. If Senators are allowed to roam freely about the country, then the terrorists have already won! Reuters. Kennedy -- one of the most recognizable figures in American politics -- told a Senate committee hearing on Thursday he had been blocked several times from boarding commercial airline flights because his name was on a "no-fly" list intended to exclude potential terrorists. [John Robb's Weblog] By radar@poboxes.com. Any sufficiently nice person is indistinguishable from someone who likes you. Yet again, I find I have underestimated just how deep into pathetic geekdom I am when confronted by others of the species. We're pointed that this damning refelction by Joey de Villa, an actual example of the cool geek that the rest of us pretend that we could possibly be but really can't. I don't know how I ended up looking at a page in Everything2 (imagine a less academic Wikipedia written by LiveJournalers), but someone has come up with a geek lament treatment of the Clarke Axiom: Any sufficiently nice person is indistinguishable from someone who likes you. [The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century :: Joey deVilla's Weblog] By radar@poboxes.com. fun Fun FUN. Whee... isn't working late fun? Someone bring be some dinner, okay? By radar@poboxes.com.