D&D had many sources of inspiration beyond Papa Tolkien, The only real aspect that you could strongly argue came from only LOTR was the concept of the halfling. Almost every other aspect of the game had been used repeatedly even before LOTR was written. Do remember that Tolkien's primary occupation was professor of English literature. He borrowed from the traditional myth cycle so heavily that every author writing fantasy around the time of LOTR 25th anniversary was accused of copying him and it wasn't until Donaldson wrote his Thomas Covenant novels that anyone writing "epic" fantasy got a fair shake.
The magic system owed greatly to Jack Vance, the system of alignments was influence by Moorcock, and we could go on for quite awhile. Even the concept of magic rings which many have pointed at as Tolkien's invention was in fact rooted much further back in traditional myths of the Norse and Germanic peoples. (The Ring of the Nibelung being the best example)
I remember that piece of junk. A second rate book based on a tragic incident that was blown out of proportion by the media and latched onto by a fringe of religious conservatives in order to attack the new hobby. The only reason it got picked up for a movie was that with the controversy it was sure to garner ratings. The individual at the center of the drama in both the book/movie and the real incident it was based on had serious emotional issues prior to participating in roleplaying games.
The only good it did was to make people within the hobby who lead games pay closer attention to the activities of their players away from the table. I myself asked a few players who were letting other parts of their lives slip to take a step back and remember that no game was worth letting studies or relationships slip..
I began gaming in 1978 and after entering the Navy started a group of players at each location I was stationed. While I was stationed at NAS Memphis the group I started was actually appreciated by the barracks master-at-arms because instead of getting drunk and getting in trouble the only trouble he ever had with us was mediating an arrangement with the ping-pong players over use of the table. (we had a rather large group of players)
I was stationed at a base in the Florida panhandle when the anti-RPG movement got into high gear and we got it with both barrels due to the fact our base was in an area full of highly reactionary conservative churches (most with names that included the word independent in them) that outnumbered almost every other type of organization. In fact in the 5 mile trip from base to town you could count 25-30 churches or signs for churches. (this in a town with a non-military population of less than 200,000) During my time there I was both privately and publicly accused of everything from being a Satanist to being a practicing warlock along with anyone else that did not make a secret of their participation in roleplaying games. The highlight(?) of this campaign of hate was the publication of a pamphlet that was circulated in the area supposedly identifying a cabal of warlocks intent on destroying the community. Twelve names were on that list and the only thing any of the people on it had in common was their hobby. Most of us didn't even know the others existed. It got enough circulation that on one occasion I was asked to leave a restaurant in the middle of a meal because the owner was made aware of my identity and told me he did not want "my kind" in his establishment. The only amusing part of this story was the fact that a few of the names on the "list" turned out to be naval officers with no sense of humor. A civil charge of slander and defamation of character was made against the individuals who were identified as authoring the pamphlet. Since both of the individuals involved could not substantiate their claims (in fact neither author had any first hand knowledge of the contents of Dungeons & Dragons or even realized that several people on their list didn't even play D&D) the justice hearing the case found against them and assessed damages.
Given the amount of ignorant nonsense spread around at the time and incidents like my encounter with the restaurant owner I have a low tolerance for people trying to resurrect the propaganda of that period. (for anything other than ridicule) I have had the pleasure of gaming with many good and honest people over the 35+ years I have followed my hobby and I am honored to count most of them as my friends.
Okay, I am done with my soapbox. Thank you for your patience with my rant.
"On the flip side, how many hours were wasted the could have been put to better use? Studying Maths or computers or foreign languages or Music or Science or Drama, or even spent at football or wrestling practice? How many trebuchets were not built because the teen-agers were busy playing games? How many young men were not Eagle Scouts? How many snow forts or tree houses were left empty, or even not built in the first place?
Actually, a number of studies pointed out higher math and reasoning skills in those individuals who did game as opposed to peers who did not. Likewise there was significant development in creative talents such as literature and music as well as art. In my own groups we had a large number of individuals who went on to pursue careers in literature, music or art, either teaching or creating the same. Not to mention a high number of friends who are now successful IT professionals. To be quite frank I am hard pressed to remember anyone I had in my games who is not presently successful in their field.
The "revelations" Snowden shared were not big secrets. Anyone with any kind of IT training that is surprised at this is either naive or stupid. We knew the technology exists and to think with the resources our nation has at its disposal that they are not using it is ridiculous.
The only part of this worth noting is the verification that yes indeed the NSA is using its resources domestically against American citizens in violation of the 4th amendment.
The sad part is that you believe that. Intelligence gathering is a normal function of every government on this planet and that includes allies as well as enemies. It is simply not considered good manners in diplomatic circles to mention that fact.
In God We Trust, Everyone Else We Monitor is not just a humorous motto it is that fact of life for just about every nation you can name.
All the fervor over our spying on other nations is pure showmanship on the world leader’s part. There is absolutely nothing new about us spying on allies as well as enemies. Every leader shouting his outrage is a hypocrite since somewhere in our borders is someone that serves the same function reporting to him.
Every nation on this planet keeps tabs on every other nation to the extent of their abilities and every leader is fully aware of that fact. It is simply good manners in diplomatic circles to ignore that fact. This nonsense of blaming Obama or Bush for this is stupid in the extreme. If you want to place blame for spying on allies you might as well assign blame to Washington's administration because that is how far back it goes for our nation.
One of the most common mottoes in the intelligence community is "In God We Trust, Everyone Else We Monitor." One of the most common cards played in diplomacy is the sharing of collected intelligence with allies. It is a game played on a global scale with our various intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies as our front line players. We send intelligence officers into other nations and at the same time try to detect and neutralize the officers sent into ours. And often many of the officers we catch do not report to China or Pakistan or Iraq. They belong to England, France, Germany, or Japan, you know these guys, our allies.
Clancy did a lot of research for all of his books, you have to give him props for that.
He was given unfettered access to the military and often his stories were really just fictionalizations with mild embellishments of actual events. This follows on a long tradition of artists (painters, writers, photographers) being given special access to war theaters. So nothing wrong with that, I just don't know if I would call this "research".
Red October was written before he gained his "access" and I was reading it for the first time while serving on the USS America. All anyone I talked to could talk about was how he got our jobs so spot on.
The people with the resources are either part of the problem or are sheep. Yes I am talking about the vast majority of the people you interact with on a daily basis. What's that? You do not understand?
Every person in this nation is allotted a vote to decide who will speak for them in congress. Yet most of them can not be bothered to vote let alone get a hold of the people who work for them and tell them how they feel about important issues.Yes despite the way they strut around those people Senators and Representatives work for us, not the other way around.
If the system is corrupt it is because we have given the job to corrupt people.
9/11 was a tragedy, what has happened to our nation since then is a disaster. We allowed corrupt individuals to vote themselves unlimited power to do whatever they want without having to answer to anybody for their actions. Worse, after we have suffered under these abominable laws that are blatantly unconstitutional laws for ten years and the opportunity came to set them aside we stood by as our representatives renewed them.
People will argue that the danger from without is more important than our civil liberties. That the threat of terrorists justifies accepting these measures. I say this is the argument of the defeated and the prisoner.
You are more likely to be struck by lightning or hit by a meteor than fall victim to terrorists. The world is actually a safer place today than it has been in the last century. The only difference is our ability to gather and share information. A gunshot in New York can be the evening news in LA and the outrage the morning news in London. For close to over 40 years this nation managed to survive having not one but two enemies with weapons that make the threat of these two bit hoodlums look like popguns. We have survived MAD where our enemies had in their hands the means to not just take out a building or town but kill every man, woman, and child in the world several times over. We not only survived it but outlived that threat, so we can outlive and defeat this one without sacrificing our most basic principles.
Our civil liberties are the main reason that sets us aside from every other nation on this globe. They are the reason that year by year people flock to our shores seeking to become one of our citizens.And it is through jealousy of these freedoms that our enemies strike at us. The only times that we have been weak have come from within our own borders when we allowed people to make us believe we had stumbled. We are a great nation and the envy of all other nations, we can only be less than that if we decide to make ourselves so.
It is well past time to tell the doomsayers that we will not be driven like sheep by their shadows and smoke. Tell the people in Washington that their illegal power grab is over and it is time to clean house and get back to showing the rest of the world that we are still the same nation that has been a beacon of hope for the last 200+ years.
If you want a good test to see if this service can actually do what it claims then watch the company closely and see if there is a move by the government to shut it down or otherwise strong arm it into being co-opted..
Considering that Manning already had access to the networks he downloaded the material from I think it would be a stretch to call it hacking. But I agree that it is SOP to refer to the tools used in a crime in the most intimidating manner to strengthen the argument.
Well no matter what the details of the vernacular used Manning will be a rather old man before he will be breathing free air again. He will not get life but the shear number of charges he is being convicted of will assure that his parole, if he is ever eligible, will be decided by our children or grandchildren.
Slashdot Mirror
D&D had many sources of inspiration beyond Papa Tolkien, The only real aspect that you could strongly argue came from only LOTR was the concept of the halfling. Almost every other aspect of the game had been used repeatedly even before LOTR was written. Do remember that Tolkien's primary occupation was professor of English literature. He borrowed from the traditional myth cycle so heavily that every author writing fantasy around the time of LOTR 25th anniversary was accused of copying him and it wasn't until Donaldson wrote his Thomas Covenant novels that anyone writing "epic" fantasy got a fair shake.
The magic system owed greatly to Jack Vance, the system of alignments was influence by Moorcock, and we could go on for quite awhile. Even the concept of magic rings which many have pointed at as Tolkien's invention was in fact rooted much further back in traditional myths of the Norse and Germanic peoples. (The Ring of the Nibelung being the best example)
I remember that piece of junk. A second rate book based on a tragic incident that was blown out of proportion by the media and latched onto by a fringe of religious conservatives in order to attack the new hobby. The only reason it got picked up for a movie was that with the controversy it was sure to garner ratings. The individual at the center of the drama in both the book/movie and the real incident it was based on had serious emotional issues prior to participating in roleplaying games.
The only good it did was to make people within the hobby who lead games pay closer attention to the activities of their players away from the table. I myself asked a few players who were letting other parts of their lives slip to take a step back and remember that no game was worth letting studies or relationships slip..
I began gaming in 1978 and after entering the Navy started a group of players at each location I was stationed. While I was stationed at NAS Memphis the group I started was actually appreciated by the barracks master-at-arms because instead of getting drunk and getting in trouble the only trouble he ever had with us was mediating an arrangement with the ping-pong players over use of the table. (we had a rather large group of players)
I was stationed at a base in the Florida panhandle when the anti-RPG movement got into high gear and we got it with both barrels due to the fact our base was in an area full of highly reactionary conservative churches (most with names that included the word independent in them) that outnumbered almost every other type of organization. In fact in the 5 mile trip from base to town you could count 25-30 churches or signs for churches. (this in a town with a non-military population of less than 200,000) During my time there I was both privately and publicly accused of everything from being a Satanist to being a practicing warlock along with anyone else that did not make a secret of their participation in roleplaying games. The highlight(?) of this campaign of hate was the publication of a pamphlet that was circulated in the area supposedly identifying a cabal of warlocks intent on destroying the community. Twelve names were on that list and the only thing any of the people on it had in common was their hobby. Most of us didn't even know the others existed. It got enough circulation that on one occasion I was asked to leave a restaurant in the middle of a meal because the owner was made aware of my identity and told me he did not want "my kind" in his establishment. The only amusing part of this story was the fact that a few of the names on the "list" turned out to be naval officers with no sense of humor. A civil charge of slander and defamation of character was made against the individuals who were identified as authoring the pamphlet. Since both of the individuals involved could not substantiate their claims (in fact neither author had any first hand knowledge of the contents of Dungeons & Dragons or even realized that several people on their list didn't even play D&D) the justice hearing the case found against them and assessed damages.
Given the amount of ignorant nonsense spread around at the time and incidents like my encounter with the restaurant owner I have a low tolerance for people trying to resurrect the propaganda of that period. (for anything other than ridicule) I have had the pleasure of gaming with many good and honest people over the 35+ years I have followed my hobby and I am honored to count most of them as my friends.
Okay, I am done with my soapbox. Thank you for your patience with my rant.
"On the flip side, how many hours were wasted the could have been put to better use? Studying Maths or computers or foreign languages or Music or Science or Drama, or even spent at football or wrestling practice? How many trebuchets were not built because the teen-agers were busy playing games? How many young men were not Eagle Scouts? How many snow forts or tree houses were left empty, or even not built in the first place?
Actually, a number of studies pointed out higher math and reasoning skills in those individuals who did game as opposed to peers who did not. Likewise there was significant development in creative talents such as literature and music as well as art. In my own groups we had a large number of individuals who went on to pursue careers in literature, music or art, either teaching or creating the same. Not to mention a high number of friends who are now successful IT professionals. To be quite frank I am hard pressed to remember anyone I had in my games who is not presently successful in their field.
Look to your own leaders. I guaranty that they are guilty of the exact same activities as you are so outraged that America is being criticized for.
The "revelations" Snowden shared were not big secrets. Anyone with any kind of IT training that is surprised at this is either naive or stupid. We knew the technology exists and to think with the resources our nation has at its disposal that they are not using it is ridiculous.
The only part of this worth noting is the verification that yes indeed the NSA is using its resources domestically against American citizens in violation of the 4th amendment.
The sad part is that you believe that. Intelligence gathering is a normal function of every government on this planet and that includes allies as well as enemies. It is simply not considered good manners in diplomatic circles to mention that fact.
In God We Trust, Everyone Else We Monitor is not just a humorous motto it is that fact of life for just about every nation you can name.
All the fervor over our spying on other nations is pure showmanship on the world leader’s part. There is absolutely nothing new about us spying on allies as well as enemies. Every leader shouting his outrage is a hypocrite since somewhere in our borders is someone that serves the same function reporting to him.
Every nation on this planet keeps tabs on every other nation to the extent of their abilities and every leader is fully aware of that fact. It is simply good manners in diplomatic circles to ignore that fact. This nonsense of blaming Obama or Bush for this is stupid in the extreme. If you want to place blame for spying on allies you might as well assign blame to Washington's administration because that is how far back it goes for our nation.
One of the most common mottoes in the intelligence community is "In God We Trust, Everyone Else We Monitor." One of the most common cards played in diplomacy is the sharing of collected intelligence with allies. It is a game played on a global scale with our various intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies as our front line players. We send intelligence officers into other nations and at the same time try to detect and neutralize the officers sent into ours. And often many of the officers we catch do not report to China or Pakistan or Iraq. They belong to England, France, Germany, or Japan, you know these guys, our allies.
Clancy did a lot of research for all of his books, you have to give him props for that.
He was given unfettered access to the military and often his stories were really just fictionalizations with mild embellishments of actual events. This follows on a long tradition of artists (painters, writers, photographers) being given special access to war theaters. So nothing wrong with that, I just don't know if I would call this "research".
Red October was written before he gained his "access" and I was reading it for the first time while serving on the USS America. All anyone I talked to could talk about was how he got our jobs so spot on.
The people with the resources are either part of the problem or are sheep. Yes I am talking about the vast majority of the people you interact with on a daily basis. What's that? You do not understand? Every person in this nation is allotted a vote to decide who will speak for them in congress. Yet most of them can not be bothered to vote let alone get a hold of the people who work for them and tell them how they feel about important issues.Yes despite the way they strut around those people Senators and Representatives work for us, not the other way around. If the system is corrupt it is because we have given the job to corrupt people. 9/11 was a tragedy, what has happened to our nation since then is a disaster. We allowed corrupt individuals to vote themselves unlimited power to do whatever they want without having to answer to anybody for their actions. Worse, after we have suffered under these abominable laws that are blatantly unconstitutional laws for ten years and the opportunity came to set them aside we stood by as our representatives renewed them. People will argue that the danger from without is more important than our civil liberties. That the threat of terrorists justifies accepting these measures. I say this is the argument of the defeated and the prisoner. You are more likely to be struck by lightning or hit by a meteor than fall victim to terrorists. The world is actually a safer place today than it has been in the last century. The only difference is our ability to gather and share information. A gunshot in New York can be the evening news in LA and the outrage the morning news in London. For close to over 40 years this nation managed to survive having not one but two enemies with weapons that make the threat of these two bit hoodlums look like popguns. We have survived MAD where our enemies had in their hands the means to not just take out a building or town but kill every man, woman, and child in the world several times over. We not only survived it but outlived that threat, so we can outlive and defeat this one without sacrificing our most basic principles. Our civil liberties are the main reason that sets us aside from every other nation on this globe. They are the reason that year by year people flock to our shores seeking to become one of our citizens.And it is through jealousy of these freedoms that our enemies strike at us. The only times that we have been weak have come from within our own borders when we allowed people to make us believe we had stumbled. We are a great nation and the envy of all other nations, we can only be less than that if we decide to make ourselves so. It is well past time to tell the doomsayers that we will not be driven like sheep by their shadows and smoke. Tell the people in Washington that their illegal power grab is over and it is time to clean house and get back to showing the rest of the world that we are still the same nation that has been a beacon of hope for the last 200+ years.
If you want a good test to see if this service can actually do what it claims then watch the company closely and see if there is a move by the government to shut it down or otherwise strong arm it into being co-opted..
Considering that Manning already had access to the networks he downloaded the material from I think it would be a stretch to call it hacking. But I agree that it is SOP to refer to the tools used in a crime in the most intimidating manner to strengthen the argument. Well no matter what the details of the vernacular used Manning will be a rather old man before he will be breathing free air again. He will not get life but the shear number of charges he is being convicted of will assure that his parole, if he is ever eligible, will be decided by our children or grandchildren.