Duck and Cover

Here is a public safety video from the 50’s and is pretty funny to watch nowadays. My mother and father were growing up in the 50s and I wonder if they saw these films. I find it funny that now watching audiences find these PSA’s to be insanely silly and I wonder what things from my generation will be looked upon as silly in hindsight (Michael Jackson’s glove, jacket and monkey notwithstanding…parachute pants certainly would make the list).

As we can all be certain, monkeys have again played their part in our desctruction! Here we are shown that monkeys are causing the atomic bomb detonations. There must be many monkeys in communist Russia, I was not aware of this, and yet, here again they are the enemy, damned monkeys! I like the ‘Remember, when you see the flash, duck and cover fast!” bit, as if you would have enough time from seeing the flash before you were roasted alive, or mortally sunburned, or suffered for days and died from radiation. I will stand proud and bask in this new sun that our wonderful scientist have created. I do not want to survive it, but hey, maybe that is just me. Now, if the bomb somehow created zombies, hell, sign my ass up, I got a war against the undead to execute!

Is it me, or does the chap leading the female teenager to ’safety’ looks suspicious (around 4:40), and then the next shot is him leading her into a building, arm wrapped interestingly around her shoulders. Yeah, he is going to make sure she is safe. “Ask an older person” indeed.

Paul and Pattie are some resourceful kids if you ask me, though Paul is surely going to push Pattie in the way of the blast if push comes to shove…if his actions at 6:15 are any measure. He nearly rips through Pattie in an effort to protect his own ass and get under the cover of the wall. And that Tony chap, he is one smart fellow, jumping to that wall! Course that nice Civil Defense worker, he just gets Tony up and sends him on his way, right after the bomb goes off! The insanity! Doesn’t he realize Tony is just a kid and could not survive on his own, yet he sends him out (no doubt to feed the zombie hunger so the guy can save his own ass).

Jingle is pretty catchy though, I wonder if kids were humming “Duck and Cover” as they ran into the shelters during drills.

Fun fact: According to the United States Library of Congress (which declared the film “historically significant” and inducted it for preservation into the National Film Registry in 2004), it “was seen by millions of schoolchildren in the 1950s.”

Just remember what Bert does!

Duck and Cover!!

Risus Character Compendium: Grumpy Old Troll & Swiper from Dora the Explorer (Guest Post)

Hello all, guest poster Crazybear here again.  For my Risus character compendium, I thought I would continue with my idea on Dora the Explorer Risus RPG.  No RPG is complete without some bad guys, so now I give you The Grumpy Old Troll and Swiper.

The Grumpy Old Troll

• Grumpy Old Troll (4)
• Wellspring of Riddles (2)
• Short, Hairy, and Harmless (2)

The grumpy old troll (who lives under the bridge) is a classic character in Dora’s adventures.  There is almost always a bridge to cross and when they did to cross it, the troll is there to stop them.  He does not want anyone crossing his bridge unless they can solve one of his many riddles.  If they can, he proves to be harmless and allows them to pass.  I wonder what would happen if Dora and Boots couldn’t solve his riddle?

Swiper

• Sneaky fox (4)
• Master thief in it for fun (2)
• Cleverly hides what he steals(2)
• Honors those who call out to him thrice (1)

Swiper is a clever fox who likes to swipe items of interest from Dora and Boots.  The thing is, he isn’t interested in keeping the items for himself, but instead likes to hide the items he has swiped.  He will also leave someone alone if they call out to him three times to stop what he is doing.  (I think its a fairy creature thing)

These are two great antagonists that anyone could run in a Risus RPG that add just a little bit of fun to the game.  Hope you like them!

Got $9k to spare?

Wow, who has the money to blow on something like this I do not know, but apparently someone does otherwise this company would not exist…right?
http://www.geekchichq.com/index.html
More details:
The Sultan: A Gaming Table
More Photos

Insanity.

Google OS

News has surfaced that Google is working towards an OS, targeting specifically netbooks, that runs everything via a browser type interface. I think this is a great way to go, I use many of Google’s web applications nearly everyday (though you will notice I use WordPress for blogging since I feel blogger blows). I especially like the Google Docs application, and I have been using Google Groups to organize a gaming group for a few weeks now.

I am hoping they can be successful in thier goal, beyond just making a better OS (I think Google has the ability pull this off), it also fosters compeition, which would be excellent in the MS and Apple dominated markets. This OS will be predominantly for web based applications, probably about 75% of what I use my compluter for, so it may not work perfect for me. However, if it gains in pupularity, we will surely see companies such as Adobe (I think there is already evidence that the community that like Adobe also favors Google) working their popular programs rewritten for GoogleOS.

Read more here:
Google Chrome OS

Also, do I need to remind everyone of my prediction?

Google = Skynet

Collin Powel, maybe a moron?

You know, I used to respect this guy, now, hell, I think he is a moron. Do us a favor and listen to your wife and do not run for any office!

Sonia Sotomayor[...]shouldn’t be condemned for ruling against white firefighters who contended they suffered reverse discrimination.

Are you kidding me??

Now, before you all jump to conclusions (so prominent in our society today) and say I am a racist or some other nonsense, let it be known that I wanted HIM to run for President and would have voted for him. I am so glad now that he did not. He seems to be showing his true colors more and more as time goes on.

Racism is racism. There is no such thing as reverse racism. Let’s get that straight right now. If I am given prejudicial preference it is racism. If a black guy is, it is racism. If a hispanic is, it is racism. If an alien is, it is racism. It does not matter who does it, where it is done, it is racism. She ruled for racism! And now she wants to be at the very pinnacle of judiciary office.

Aren’t we supposed to be the land of fairness and equality? How’s about we make the playing field equal? Hell my team here in Iraq has two LTCs and a MSG (ie all the senior leadership on the team) that are all black. So I don’t want to hear about someone had more options available to them growing up. I call bullshit. The Army is always hiring, you are struggling and cannot figure out how to escape whatever shit hole you are living in? Buck up, suck it in, and join the fraking military!

I love it when I tell people that and they get all flustered about it, but that means joining the Army, or the Navy, or the Marines! GASP! Oh my God. Sometimes when you find yourself in a shithole, YOU have to suck it up and figure a way out. Not really that hard, go sign your name, raise your hand…boom. Done.

Anyway, back to her. I do not care about her being hispanic, she could be an elephant for all I care, but she is supposed to make rulings based on THE LAW. Not based on her being a woman, a hispanic, coming from a poor home, being an elephant…. When your job is making decisions, you should be judged on those decisions you make. Clearly, she IS a racist who thinks she is better than “some old white guy.” Frankly, I don’t want her, or her racist ideas in my Supreme Court.

“We still have a problem,” [Collin Powel] said.

Yeah, it is called you cannot figure out which party you want to belong to.

Colonial Gothic

A blog I follow recently posted a review of a RPG called Colonial Gothic. It was a review of a previous version of the game, and perhaps not so glowing a review. I posted a quick comment, merely stating that I would have to stay clear of this rpg. Well, one of the people at the company behind the RPG contacted me and offered a free copy of the newly revised rules.

Now, I am not one to pass on a free copy of game, but in later conversation with this pleasent fellow it turns out he is an Army brat and was more than happy to provide me with the free copy (even though I still think it was an accident that I was contacted in the first place). Be that as it may, I am going to take it upon myself to really do a good review of this revised version and do my best to run at least one session of the game, to give it that full review sweep.

So, along with the fact that I have always loved the Revolutionary War period (and the previous Colonial Period) and always thought that this is an overlooked period in our history…most often a quick glance over in favor of the Civil War in our school classrooms, I am very excitted to read through this, especially since I have read previously read that it contains a wealth of historical information. On top of that, I have longed for about a year or two to run a Colonial America rpg. This one is supposed to have some supernatural aspects to it as well, which is right up my alley.

Thanks again to the crew at rogue-games.net for providing me a free copy of the game, hopefully I have a good review of the game and perhaps can finally get that Colonial American horror game going!