Not-really-all-that-crazy picture

[Oops]

Here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=174991) is an interesting thread on the WotC message boards. I'd like to know some likely explanations for what is causing the featured designs to show up (as in more detail than "it's probably a trick of light").

Edit: I'm seeing posts by someone with the same name as the creator of that thread. I hope I'm not duplicating anything. If I am, point me to the original.

[The Bad Astronomer]

I would say it's exactly the same thing as seeing a face in your shower curtain.

http://www.badastronomy.com/pix/lenin/face_440_hilite_inset.jpg

[Oops]

This topic seems to stem from this one. (http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=10895) Sorry.

[Rift]

Why oh why, did I go to the WoTC board...


However I am puzzled at all the money they have spent and yet all the pictures are in black and white. It seems they need an oversight committee to investigate that.

These are suppose to be intelligent people too...

Makes me embarrased to be a role-player. Well, a retired one :P

[Charlie in Dayton]

I would say it's exactly the same thing as seeing a face in your shower curtain.

http://www.badastronomy.com/pix/lenin/face_440_hilite_inset.jpg

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin my xxxx-xxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx xxx...

That's Colonel Harlan Sanders in his younger days and y'all know it...so there...

[TriangleMan]

These are suppose to be intelligent people too...

Take it from someone who has worked in the CCG industry - that's a stereotype. Many roleplayers/gamers seem to be more inclined than the general populace to buy into 'mystical' pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.

[AstroSmurf]

Or at least play with the ideas, make fun of them, post seriously-sounding posts that take them to ridiculous lengths and so on...

I read that particular comment as being tongue-in-cheek, though it's too much trouble to try to verify. Odds are the guy would continue playing with our heads, regardless of his actual position 8-[

[Rift]

Take it from someone who has worked in the CCG industry - that's a stereotype. Many roleplayers/gamers seem to be more inclined than the general populace to buy into 'mystical' pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.

I'm beginning to see that. I've been a gamer off and on since the early years, wargaming in 74 or so, role-playing around 77, and it's always been my experience that gamers are highly intelligent folks, usually interested in science. Granted, I deal mostly with older wargamers now who are either in the military, retired military, or civilians that work for the DoD or the military in some other fashion, so my sampling of the population is skewed.

I also never played an CCG or will. Not my cup of tea. I didn't collect baseball cards as a kid either :P

I agree with AstroSmurf. These types LOVE to play around. So it is hard to tell if he's fooling around or not. Still annoying though... :evil:

[Rift]

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin my xxxx-xxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx xxx...

That's Colonel Harlan Sanders in his younger days and y'all know it...so there...

I'm not sure how I feel about agreeing with Charlie, but I always thought that picture did look like the good Colonel. :P

[Rift]

ACK

Somebody has posted this on the WoTC thread-


Hoagland is well educated and connected AND a nut. He has done some good science. He had an article published in Nature or Science back in the 1970s prediciting liquid water on Europa due to gravitational effects on Jupiter. Turned out in the 90s that he was right. He has also long been right about the distribution of actual water (as opposed to frozen co2) on Mars.

That said, he's nutty when it comes to the Cydonia "structures" and his conspiracy theories concerning NASA.

Who says very bright people can't be loons?


Breathe, Rift breathe