The "WOW!" Signal

     If December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001, are dates that will live in infamy, then August 15, 1977, is a date that should live as a more positive time, at least among science fiction fans.  This is because that was the day that the Big Ear radio observatory at Ohio State University picked up what has become known as the "WOW!" signal.  Of all the signals picked up by radio telescopes, this is the one that was most likely to have been broadcast by extraterrestrial alien intelligence.

     The "WOW!" signal derived its name from the notation written by graduate student Jerry Ehman who came across the signal on the computer printouts of the Big Ear's scanning of the heavens on August 15, 1977.  The signal lasted 72 seconds which was the maximum amount of time that it could be scanned by the radio telescope. The frequency of this signal almost precisely matched the frequency wavelength given off by hydrogen radiation.   Since this radiation is so prevalent in space, the consensus among  radio astronomers is that  aliens may very well use it for radio transmissions.The printouts showed that the signal in question was 30 times stronger than the background noise and was tightly focused just like commercial broadcasts are.  It neatly fit almost every criteria set by radio astronomers for what a broadcast sent by extraterrestrial intelligence aka  aliens would be like.  That being the case, Ehman was so startled by the printout, he wrote "WOW!" on it.  Hence the name of the "WOW!" signal.

     Of all the signals picked up by radio astronomers, the "WOW!" signal is the only one that has withstood all challenges.  You would think that the astronomers at Ohio State University would have held a press conference to announce their discovery.  Instead, they opted to publish their findings in 1979 in Cosmic Search, a magazine with such a low circulation, that today there are very few complete sets in existence.  Very little has been written about the "WOW!" signal so much so that this writer first learned about it from the March 2015 issue of Astronomy where it ranked 361st out of the 500 Coolest Things About Space.

     One might wonder why so little has been made about this discovery.  For one thing, the only criteria for determining a signal is from cosmic intelligence that the "WOW!" signal  does not meet is that it has never been observed again.  This is interesting given how that when we humans on rare occasions deliberately send signals to outer space, we ourselves rarely send the same signal on multiple times to the same area of space.  If beings of alien intelligence  were to use the same criteria that we humans do, then they would have no reason to believe that there is any intelligent life on Earth.

     Another reason why the lack of coverage of the "WOW!" signal  in scientific publications is the fact that when you trace out the "WOW!" signal , there are no known stars or planets in the vicinity,  This is interesting because science fiction writers  as well as leading scientists have long proposed that mankind construct space stations and perhaps space cities.  These stations/cities could be placed in interstellar space far away from any planet or even any solar system.  If we humans can talk about such ideas, then why could an alien intelligence not have the same ideas?  Surely, aliens with technology far more advanced than our own could take a staple of today's science fiction and trun  it into reality.  Additionally, just because a radio telescope here on Earth picked up a signal does not necessarily mean that signal was deliberately sent to Earth in the first place.  The  "WOW!" signal could have been a SOS signal from and alien ship or it could have been originally sent by one alien ship to another and reached planet Earth long after the original broadcast was sent.

     There are about 80 radio telescopes surveying the heavens located throughout the world.  While there are other uses for radio telescopes, their primary mission is to search for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.  Of necessity, their searches are limited to certain frequencies that are protected by international agreements.  These are frequencies that are reserved for astronomers.

     The fact that only certain frequencies are available to radio astronomers is a hindrance to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.  If an alien civilization attempted to contact us via AM or FM radio, the end result would simply be an increase in static.  There would be no way to determine that the static originated in outer space and that's assuming that there would even be an attempt to discover where that static came from in the first place.  Apparently, nobody in official positions have realized that if we humans find certain frequencies such as AM/FM to be conducive to communication, then surely other sentient life forms wold find them useful as well.  What is needed is to have satellites in orbit that would pick up transmissions from outer space of frequencies that are in commercial use here on Earth.

Book Review: Role-Playing Mastery by Gary Gygax

Book Review: Role-Playing Mastery
by Gary Gygax

     In the world of pro wrestling, there are two kinds of fans: the smarts and the marks. The smarts know that the matches are rigged, but are in it for the fun of it. The marks, on the other hand, really believe that they are watching is honest legitimate athletic competition. Basically, this book, Role-Playing Mastery, is by a mark pretending to be a smart.

     Basically, this book is something best suited for beginner role players. If you've been role playing for some time, you won't find this book helpful. There are several stretches where Gygax gets long-winded and preachy and these areas are nor the least bit helpful to anybody.

     The title of the book does not live up to the actual contents. Gygax only makes a passing reference to the kind of challenges that a "master player" may face. Instead of being a book that is useful for playing RPG's in general, it is really only good for D&D itself.

     Overall, it is not of much use to gamers. There are only a few parts of this book that are useful to the gamer. You get the feeling reading this book that you are being talked down too by someone who considers himself far superior to you. Even worse, is the fact that although it is well known that Dave Arneson deserves most of the credit for creating D&D, Gygax tries to aggrandize most of that credit for himself. To hear him tell it, Arneson hardly had anything to do with it. If you feel you need to read this book, then either find a copy at your local library or get one on interlibrary loan. Don't waste your money on this book since it fails to deliver on what the title promises you.

Ben Carson/Bernie Sanders Parallel Thoughts

Interesting article about how Carson and Sanders, although from different ends of the ideological spectrum, have similar ideas on a host of subjects.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/bernie-or-ben-213337

Western Story Notes

Hi,

I'm planning to run The Killer and the Doctor in the March 2016 issue of Frontier Tales. Because of time pressures, we're no longer creating teasers; instead, we're asking you authors to do that. If you'd care to write up something that might intrigue someone enough to want to read your story (and keep it to 50 words or less), I'd love to have it. If you can't get anything to us before February 22nd we may have to simply list the story title, and that won't be nearly as good. Hope you can get something to us so we don't have to do that. 

We'll also run a short bio at the end of the story if you want to supply one. Keep that to 100 words or less, if you can.

As an aside, I recommend you change your email program so that it shows your first and last name instead of the generic Full Name which it currently shows. You'll note I didn't say "Hi John (or Bill or Steve or . . . ) because I don't know your name. More importantly to you, your name does not appear on your story. An unattributed story is something neither of us wants, is it? So, even if you don't fix your email program, would you reply with your name so we can attribute your story properly? 

Thanks, 
Duke

Duke Pennell
Editor, Frontier Tales
www.FrontierTales.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Full Name [mailto:crector@myway.com] 
Sent: Saturday, September 5, 2015 9:55 PM
To: editor@frontiertales.com
Subject: The Killer and the Doctor Revised Version

Sirs:


Here is the revised version of my previously submitted story, "The Killer and the Doctor."


In May 1887, Patrick Runde was feeling pretty full of himself. He had killed his father without anyone in law enforcement suspecting him. Now he was going to inherit the ranch that his father had built up and with it the wealth and social standing that came with it. His friend, the local political power boss, had always said that he'd make a great state senator since he'd always vote the party line. Now that his father, who abhorred politics and politicians, were out of the way, there was nothing or nobody standing in the way of his ambitions.

Runde sat contentedly at the table eating the porterhouse steak that the family cook had prepared for him. By the plate was the bottle of whiskey that he had selected for this private celebration. Life was good.

Just then Doctor Paul Walther stepped into the dining room. "I hope I'm not disturbing you," the doctor said with his hat in hand along with his bag.

"Not at all," said Runde, "kind of surprised you're here though. I thought you had left for Phoenix."

"I was on my way, but I turned back. Got a lot of things on my mind that I want to talk to you," said the doctor.

Runde replied, "Why don't you sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'll get the help to get you something to eat and drink."

After a servant came with a bottle of whiskey, Doctor Walther took a swig of it and remarked, "I needed that. All that time in the hot desert."

Runde looked at the doctor and asked, "What's on your mind, Paul?"

"You."

"Me?"

"I've gotten to thinking about your father and how he met his untimely death. .There are some things that point to you as a killer," the doctor said gravely.

Pat exclaimed, "Me a killer? You're crazy!"

The doctor replied, "Don't deny it. Given our past relationship, I really did not want to believe it. However, after I got to riding to Tucson, I got to thinking about the strange fact that your father died so soon after your mother. While its clear to me that your mother died of natural causes, I just cannot get over the fact that your father died so soon after her and so oddly."

"So are you accusing me or something?"

Doc Walther leaned forward in his chair and said, "We need to talk about this," now if you don't mind"

"All right" said Runde, "Let's talk about your suspicions."

Doc Walther placed his black bag in his lap and started talking, "Did you know that I have been a doctor right here in the Arizona Territory for 21 years? And before that, I served in the medical service in the U.S. Army for 20 years before that?"

Pat Runde responded, "Of course doc, its all you ever talk about it seems like."

The doctor narrowed his gaze at the new ranch owner and said, "You always were an insolent brat. Your parents sure spoiled you rotten and ruined you."

"Gee doc, you sure know how to praise a guy," Runde said sarcastically.

"You know, in all my years as what the injuns call a medicine man," the doctor went on, "I've handled all the problems that a frontier doctor can expect to handle as well as some completely unexpected situations."

"Are you trying to audition as a filibustering U.S. senator on my time?" Pat Runde was getting exasperated. "Please doc get on with your suspicions before I die of old age," the heir to the Runde ranch said.

"Your father died just a few days later in a strange way," Doc Walther said.

"You said his heart gave out."

"That seemed to make sense at first. You had said that he had been suffering chest pains . However, when I examined him, I found something in his throat that should not have been there. I got it out, but did not say anything about it because I wanted to believe you," the doctor said.

Runde started to feel agitated, "What did you find in his throat?"

"A feather."

"A feather?"

"A feather, you know the kind you find in a pillow. A feather that had no reason to be in your father's throat," replied the doctor.

"That's weird," replied Runde, "perhaps he got it in her throat while he was thrashing around in the bed."

"That's odd," replied Doctor Paul Walther, "you said that he died as peaceful as a lamb. That's your exact words."

"I might have been mistaken," Runde replied. "You are insulting my very honor insinuating that I could kill my beloved father like that."

"And there's something else. There's beentalk that you father had been messing around with the widow Faherty. She's got kids and if your father married her, you could lose your entire inheritance. You obviously have a motive for murder." Doc Walther just sat there for a bit contemplating the scene. Finally, he said, " I'm going to bring this to the attention of Sheriff Mark Edgette and see what he intends to do about it."

Upon hearing this, Patrick Runde decided that he had to eliminate this threat to him and his ill-gotten wealth. He stood up and tried to pull out his gun to shoot the doctor. However, the doctor pulled his gun out of his leather bag and shot Runde first.

"Doc.....you shot me," Runde said with his last gasp.

Doctor Paul Walther got up and looked down upon Patrick Runde in a disapproving way and said, "I suppose I'm wasting my time telling you this, but I'm not really who you thought I was. You thought that since I was a man of medicine, I was a man of peace and as such an easy make. Actually, before I became a doctor, I was in the U.S. Army for twenty years and that's where I got my medical training. All that time on the frontier fighting the injuns helped my learn the fine art of the quick draw in close combat. The simple fact is that you never had a chance against me."

THE END

Kathy Paulk

http://www.paulkusa.com/

Facebook Fraud

     One thing that I discovered today on Facebook is a button labelled "Friend Requests."  Naturally, I assumed that these were all friend requests that other folks had made of myself.  So, I clicked on the button and discovered hundreds of what were represented as friend requests involving folks who I have never met or even heard of.  Of the people involved that I had actually encountered, they were all from individuals who I just barely knew.  There was not a single friend request from anyone who I knew even halfway well.  All of these people were represented as being friends of folks who I had already friended (is that a word?) or individuals who were friends of other persons who had friend requests in.

     After looking over the list, I picked out a couple individuals to approve and clicked on one of them.  To my great surprise, instead of saying something like, "Friend Request Approved," it instead said, "Friend Request Sent."  In other words, all these so-called friends requests were not made by actual persons, but instead by some kind of weird algorithm of persons who Facebook feels ought to be my friends.

If that isn't completely fraudulent, then I don't know what is.  What's even worse is that I don't have the slightest idea just why they would do this in the first place.

Trial

The Liberation of Grenada

     Note:  The following was originally written in the Freshman Composition class taught by Mr. Robert Olsen at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in Spring, 1984 as an in-class Final Exam.

     In November of 1983, the U.S. Marines, Army Rangers, and troops of various Caribbean democracies  stormed ashore the  isle of Grenada.  Their mission was to free the American students living there from terror, to safeguard our interests, and to, above all, reestablish democracy in Grenada.

     This action was instantly criticized by certain liberal elements, and the criticisms ended only when it turned out that the students believed that they were endangered and the Grenadians were happy that they we had liberated them.  There still has been criticism of the invasion, but it has been weak and indecisive.

   My own view of the invasion is that it was moral and just due to previously unmentioned factors.  First, the communist government had come to power in early 1979 in a coup d'etat that overthrew the democratically elected government of Sir Eric Gairy.  The victors, lead by Maurice Bishop, refused to hold elections,; and  just prior to the invasion, Bishop was overthrown by his fellow Marxists and executed.

     Secondly, thee new government, consisting of the anti-Bishop faction, instigated a reign of terror that caused great suffering to the Grenadian masses.  The above should be enough to prove that the communist government of Grenada was unfit to rule in the best interests of the people.

     The above facts have not been enough for certain groups as evidenced by this recent Wisconsin Federation of Teachers resolution:

          Resolved, that the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers deplores the U.S. invasion of Grenada
     and calls on the President of the U.S. immediately to withdraw armed forces from the island
     of Grenada, and be it finally

          Resolved, that the W.F.T. communicate to the President of the U.S., the Secretary of State and        the Wisconsin Delegation to Congress that it supports the fundamental principle embodied in the
     U.S. Declaration of Independence that sovereign nations have the right to governments of their            own choosing without intervention from other nations."

     My viewpoint on the W.F.T. resolution has several basic points each of which will be gone through here.

     The first basic point I wish to make about the W.F.T. resolution involves this question:  how could the Declaration of Independence be against foreign intervention?  France, Spain and Holland intervened on our behalf so we could gain our independence.

     The second basic point is that one of the reasons the Declaration of Independence was originally written was to gain foreign intervention in support of the American Revolution.

     The third basic point is that the Declaration of Independence does not embody the W.F.T. 's principle.  Dr. William G. Rector, of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville history department, states,  "The W.F.T. seems to believe that sovereignty lies in the nation, whereas the Declaration of
Independence holds that sovereignty lies in the people."

     In summary, we as both a nation and as a people need to fight tyranny.  When debates, such as this  one, are held at home over foreign intervention, this fact about the Declaration of Independence should be raised .

   

Intro Movies That Need to be Remade

 There are certain films that hold a unique place in cinematic
     history.  These are movies 
that were great conceptions, but when the movie was actually made,
something went wrong.
Great ideas became movies that were, at best, lackluster.  These are the
movies that most need 
to be remade.  Hollywood needs to take another shot at putting these
ideas into celluloid. 

Who or What is Cthulhu?

Cthulhu is a fictional character created by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft also created 
a body of work known collectively as the "Cthulhu Mythos" that also includes the dreaded
book The Necronomicon as well as the most learned institution of higher learning in America, if 
not the world, Miskatonic University. This mythos originated in a series of stories mixing horror and
science fiction. As for Cthulhu himself , he is an evil being from outer space who sleeps in his temple on a sunken island.

Several of Lovecraft's friends, such as August Derleth, also wrote stories about this evil octopoid being.
These tales form the "Cthulhu Mythos." Cthulhu stories are still being written by fans and friends of Lovecraft.

How much of D&D was "borrowed" from J.R.R. Tolkien?

How much of D&D was "borrowed" from J.R.R. Tolkien? 

For what was supposedly an original idea when it first came out, Dungeons &
Dragons (D&D) heavily depended on other sources for its material. Most notably,
D&D's co-creators Dave Arneson & Gary Gygax made heavy use of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

For instance, the "Halflings" were the Hobbits from Tolkien's work. Actually, the word Hobbit was 
originally used in D&D until the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien demanded that they cease and desist. Additionally, 
the varieties of elves in D&D has a distinct resemblance to the elf races in Tolkien's works.

For all practical purposes, D&D was an outgrowth of Tolkien's fantasy works. 

What all this goes to show is that D&D just simply was not all that original. Or at least not as original
as advertised.

Gary Gygax Post-TSR Essay

Gary Gygax Post-TSR Essay

Mr. Gygax and TSR parted ways in the mid-eighties due to the poor and
erratic way that he was running the company. 

After leaving TSR, Gygax immediately created the gaming company 
New Infinities Productions with the idea of gaining revenge against TSR.
Gygax wrote the outline for what became the game Cyborg Commando.
Published in 1987, the game garnered poor reviews and sold poorly.
New Infinities was poorly run and it went out of business in 1989.

Following this setback, Gygax next tried to get revenge on TSR by partnering
with Games Designer Workshop to create a game to compete with Dungeons &
Dragons D&D). At first, this project was known as Dangerous Dimensions, however TSR
threatened to sue over the initials being DD, almost the same as that for Dungeons & Dragons.
The new role-playing game was now renamed Dangerous Journeys, but TSR sued anyways.
Eventually, TSR gained ownership of the new game and Gygax was out in the cold yet again.

In 1999, Gygax took another stab at creating a game to gain revenge upon TSR with. This was 
Lejendary Adventure (LA) that was published by two companies thaat were run by friends of Gygax, Hekaforge
Productions and Troll Lord Games. LA has fared better than Gygax's previous non-TSR games, but it still has not
been much of a rival to D&D.

In 2004, Gygax had a hand in the creation of the RPG Castles & Crusades. Its not known how important 
this role was, but his name was used in promoting the game. This game has only been a limited success.

Additionally, after leaving TSR, Gygax wrote two books, "Master of the Game" and 
"Role-Playing Mastery." He also wrote some fictional works as well. None of these books
sold well. Gygax's books were of generally poor quality. They were derided by the hard
core gamer members of the Little Rock Science Fiction Society of which I was a member during the years 1997-2000.

Gygax spent the last three decades of his life in Lake 
Geneva, WI, where he led aquiet life marked by being a frequent guest at 
gaming conventions. He passed away in 2008.

Power Point Presentation: Felony Squad

Slide Notes:

 http://www.tvobscurities.com/men-against-evil/

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_Squad

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1966/10/11/page/48/article/nielsen-ratings-are-dim-on-new-shows#text

http://www.tvobscurities.com/2010/11/how-men-against-evil-became-felony-squad/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059983/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=felony+squad+tv+series

http://www.tv.com/shows/the-felony-squad/

;

The Kennel Murder Case (1933)

Wealthy gentleman about town Philo Vance (William Powell) solves yet another case that the stupid cops led by Detective Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette) and District Attorney Markham (Robert McEwan) are too stupid to solve.  The Philo Vance series of movies set the pattern for how the police would be protrayed in cenema for the next two decades.  It was not until Dragnet came along that a correction in popular culture was made.

Book Review: The Chaplain's War by Brad R. Torgersen

  Brad R. Torgersen is an author who has made quite a name for

himself in a very short  time.  He has written a few short stories for  Analog Science Fiction &
Fact magazine.  He has also been published in such leading webzines as 
Galaxy's  Edge and Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show .
In 2015, Torgersen gained a great deal of notoriety as the creator of a
slate of science fiction works that succeeded, in conjunction with a slate created by his good
friend and collaborator Theodore Beale aka Vox Day, in sweeping the nominations for the 2015
Hugo Awards awarded by the World Science Fiction Convention.  

       Subsequent to this feat, Torgersen has gained notoriety for other 
actions.  For instance, he has likened himself to Theodore Roosevelt.  
He also created the smear term "Cliquish, Holier-than-thou, Obnoxious,
Reactionary, Fanatics" or CHORF for short.  He and his friends have 
used this term to trash anyone who disagrees with them or with their
tactics.

     Now that we know who Torgersen is and the kind of people he
associates with, what does he bring to the table of science fiction?  Previously, he
brought out two collections of short fiction, Lights in the Deep and Racers in the
Night.  Both of these are generally very good.  That being the case, you would think that a
novel by him would also be a good read.  

     However, such is not the case.

     The single most disappointing aspect of this novel is the way that
the author handles religion.  The treats the Christianity of 190 years in the
future just as if it is the exact same thing as the Christianity of the present day.  This
shows a lack of historical awareness by Brad Torgersen.  Over the years, the level of
religious fervor combined with how much of the population embraced Christianity has ebbed
and flowed.  Religions and religious devotion can change drastically.Some periods such as the Dark Ages and the Reformation saw notable for the level of  popular devotion to the discipline and teachings of organized religion. Other times, such as the present day, not so much.

     According to Torgersen,space is going to be an exciting place with
the invention of Faster Than Light (FTL) travel.  Yet religion is going to
remain the exact same thing.  The same is true not only of Christianity, but of all
the other  major religions  as well.  Nor are there any new religions that have
come into being during the intervening 190 years.  Science fiction is supposed to be all
about speculation about the future, but in this novel, there is none.

     Essentially, The Chaplain's War is a lame attempt at a Starship
Troopers type novel with the differences being that the main character is a
chaplain and that you do have some alien characters.  One gets the feeling that what
you have here is something that could have been a really good novelette surrounded by
an awful lot of padding.  Either Torgersen should get his act together and come up with
a story that is truly worthy of novel length or he  should stick to short fiction.

TSR Trivia

TSR did not stand for "They Sue Regularly." It originally stood for "Tactical Studies Rules" that in turn was derived from the wargaming group to which the co-creators of TSR, David Arneson & Gary Gygax, belonged to, the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA).  Contrary to popular belief, TSR never attempted to trademark the word Nazi, but that did reflect that company's addiction to lawsuits as a means of defeating their competition.

The Strange Case of the Growth of Roman Historical Mysteries

The Strange Case of the Growth of Roman Historical Mysteries

     One of the more unexpected and  seemingly unlikely aspects in the growth of mystery stories set in historical times is that of the popularity of Roman historical mysteries.  This is a mystery in and of itself since there was no such ting as a Roman police force, to say nothing of a Roman Imperial Bureau of Investigation.  There is no mention in the writings of any ancient Roman historians of real life mysteries or of investigators into these mysteries. There would seem to be but little basis for mystery stories set in Roman times.

     And yet, these mystery novels and original anthologies of mystery stories set in Roman times do exist.  This is especially striking since so many of these stories seem to have little basis in historical reality.  For instance, in any mystery novel set from the far ancient past to the Enlightenment, there is little or no mention of torture.  And yet in real life, torture was the means most used to solve mysteries.  How historical is to have a mystery novel set tin times when torture was the preferred method, if not in fact the  only method really used to "solve" cases and the very word torture does not even come up?

     One wonders why the popularity of what appears to be non-reality based mystery stories that seem more like fantasies than anything even remotely historical.  And we have not even come to what is the central problem of so many historical mystery works in general.   Namely, that so many of these stories all too often have nothing more than a thin veneer of history to them and often fudge whatever historical facts make their way in those works.  These works may be great as mysteries, but often they are poor from a purely historical standpoint.

     Its a mystery all right.

Fornax #7 Rough Draft

The Beginnings of the Western:

     It may surprise some people, back when stories were first written about America's frontier experience, they were all set in what is now the Eastern U.S.  This is because until at least the time of the Civil War, 1861-1865, the frontier of settlement was to the east of the Mississippi River.  The term "western" did not even come into being until the early Twentieth Century.

     The earliest frontier stories were works by classy authors like James Fennimore Cooper.  However, the frontier story reached its greatest audience in the form of dime novels.  These works received their  name due to both their length and their price.  They first became a mass marketing phenomenon during the Civil War when bored troops on both sides were desperately in need of escape from the utter dullness of life in the camps.

     Dime novels were the literary equivalent of the yellow journalism that also began about the time of the Civil War.  Dime novels were sensationalistic to the extreme and often featured a great deal of violence.  The characters works were heroes of the Dudley Do-Right variety, the villains of the Snidely Whiplash type and he heroines were always as pure as silk.  The prose was always purple and sentences often ended with multiple exclamation marks.

     Dime Novels were where series fiction got its start.  Previously, it was rare for authors to use the same character in more than one work, such as Falstaff in some of the plays of William Shakespeare.  At least one of these series characters, Nick Carter aka Nicholas Carter, is till around today.  Of the fictional dime novel characters, Deadwood Dick is perhaps the best well known.

     Oddly enough, dime novels used real life people as characters.  Western dime novels used such folks as William F. Cody aka "Buffalo Bill," James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley and Kit Carson as characters.  By far and away, the most popular real life persons used as fictional characters were Frank and Jesse James.  Of course, all of thee dime novel exploits of real life people were purely fictional.  The laws governing such things have been changes to make this practice flat out illegal.

     Whatever their morality, taste and legal ethics, the dime novel ushered in the western as a literary form and it is still here to stay.


An Introduction to PBEMs:

     PBEM stands for "Play By E-Mail," games. In PBEMs, the Game Master
allots turns to the players who respond with their character's intended actions.
These games were he natural outgrowth of the play by postal mail games of 
pre-Internet times.

     If you want to try out a PBEM, look one up on the search engines. There are 
websites that have information on them. Input PBEM into a search engine 
and just see what you get. Follow the stated rules and email a character.
If the E-Gaming Master selects you, then you are all set.

     If you don't find any PBEMs that appeal to you, then you can create your own game.
However, you will need to know how to create a decent website as well as how to create
a decent game. You should be warned that there are a great many folks who created online
games thinking that it would be a fun project, only to find that it is a pretty time consuming thing.
Its also a lot harder to do than you might think. 

     If you are interested in learning more about how to play and/or operate a 
Play By E-Mail game your own, then one classic reference to read is 
"An Argosy of Play By E-Mail Advice" by Sean K. Reynolds that you can find at:
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/gaming/pbem_faq.html

Other places to learn about PBEMs and also find a game to play is:

PBEM2 at http://www.pbem2.com/

PBEM Players at http://www.pbemplayers.com/


The Kennel Murder Case (1933)

     Wealthy gentleman about town Philo Vance (William Powell) solves yet another case that the stupid cops led by Detective Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette) and District Attorney Markham (Robert McEwan) are too stupid to solve.  The Philo Vance series of movies set the pattern for how the police would be protrayed in cenema for the next two decades.  It was not until Dragnet came along that a correction in popular culture was made.

Fornax #6 Rough Draft

From the Editor:



Ted White's Screw-Up:

     In the March, 1970, the then editor of Amazing Stories, Ted White, wrote the following note in response to a review by Dennis O'Neil of Michael Crichton's book The Andromeda Strain:

          "Crichton made three earlier forays into our field by which one may attempt to assess
     him.  As "John Norman" he wrote Tarnsman of Gor, Outlaw of Gor and Priest-Kings of
     Gor for Ballantine Books.  He has also written mystery novels under the pseudonym of 
    " John Lange," the name in which the Gor  books are copyrighted."

     This is pretty interesting since when you look up John Norman, the pseudonym of a philosophy professor named John Lange, you will see that while Lange has written books other than the Gor books, none of them wee mysteries.  While Crichton did write mystery novels under the name of John Lange, it was simply a  coincidence that a man whose name really was John Lange was writing the Gor books under an assumed name.  In other words, White really messed up insinuating that the notoriously pornographic Gor books were written by the then 27 year old Crichton who was already one of the hottest sci-fi writers around so much so that its a dead certainty that The Andromeda Strain has sold more copies that all of Ted White's novels combined have.

     From what I can determine, White has failed to acknowledge this error, let alone apologize for it.
   



Question to Kate Paulk:

     One little problem with your concept of fandom as being a monolith under the domination of the Social Justice Warriors (SJW's) is that Laura J. Mixon won the Hugo largely because of her take down of the arch-SJW Requires Hate.  If the evil cabal that you see dominating fandom really has the kind of power that you say it has, then  Best Fan Writer would have been No Awarded.  How then do you explain Mixon's victory?

Note:  I posted the above to Kate Paulk's blog and this time the comment got through.  However, Paulk herself has failed to answer the question.  Hopefully, she will eventually see fit to answer it either on her blog or in the form of a LOC sent for publication here.



Movie Reviews:

Mark of the Vampire (1935)

   

Mark of the Vampire is a significant flick in that it was one of director Tod Browning's last movies. It was also the movie that showcased what was arguably Bela Lugosi's finest performance of all time. The most significant role that Carroll Borland ever had was also featured in this movie.      Mark of the Vampire is a good example of a B feature flick. At 60 minutes long, it was meant to be the centerpiece of a matinee bill that typically consisted of movie short(s), cartoon(s) and a chapter of a serial.      Caroll Borland was a most interesting actress. She got her start because she was a kind of Bela Lugosi groupie. She contrived to meet Lugosi backstage when she was only a teenager. Lugosi took a liking to her and got her the role of Luna Mora in this movie. She then became his understudy. Borland created the costume, look and make-up of the Luna Mora character all by herself. As such, she created the iconic vampiress. Despite the fact that Borland played this role to perfection, complete with fantastic vampire stares and looks like a goth punk of today, this proved to be the most significant role that she would ever play in a too-short acting career. One can only wonder just why she was unable to get more roles as a vampiress.      Mark of the Vampire begins with the discovery of the corpse of Irena Borotyn's father. His body was drained of all its blood through two holes on his neck. Was this the work of vampires as the common folk believe? Or is it something else? A year after the murder, the deceased man is seen wandering through the woods at night. Hysteria grips the countryside while the authorities struggle to make sense of it all while at the same time maintain basic law and order. Meanwhile, there is a creepy old Count Mora and his strange daughter Luna hovering about the scene. Inspector Neumann from Prague is called on the case, but all he can get from the local folks is superstitious talk about vampires.      The best aspect of Mark of the Vampire is the atmosphere. It is positively sturated with cobwebs, dust, fog, howling wind, shadows and Gothic architecture. The sound effects are eerie. The black and white cinematography is excellent. The whole movie plays against a musicless background, just like Browning's previous film "Dracula."      The acting in this movie is first rate starting with Lionel Barrymore as the elderly vampire stalker, Professor Zelin. Unfortunately, Barrymore was already afflicted with the rheumatism that forced him to be seated in most of his post-1930's movies. This limited his character's mobility in the flick.      Elizabeth Allan is great as the menaced young Miss Irena Borotyn. Lionel Atwill contributes a memorable turn as Police Inspector Neumann. Donald Meek does well as the frightened Dr. J. Doskil. Ivan Simpson makes for a fine butler of the manor while Leila Bennett contributes some memorable screams as a hysterical maid.      Another notable aspect of Mark of the Vampire is the twist at the end that leads to a surprise ending. At first the ending seems rather unreal and nonsensical, but when you get right down to thinking about it, it all makes sense.      Mark of the Vampire is on a par with Browning's earlier movie "Dracula." Mark of the Vampire features both a strong cast and a spooky atmosphere suitable for a horror flick. As such, Mark of the Vampire would make a great double feature with Tod Browning's 1930 movie "Dracula."

Super 8 (2011) 

     Super 8 is a ripoff by its writer/director, J.J. Abrams of some of
the movies made by its producer, Steven Spielberg.  A more charitable
reviewer would call it a "homage" or a "pastiche."  Basically, it is an
act of blatant sucking up carried out on celluloid at the audience's
expense.  Just about the only redeeming aspect of this flick is its
state-of-the-art  special effects.  Like so many other science fiction movies, it puts the
monsters and the explosions before the characters.  It is clear from
watching this movie that neither Abrams or Spielberg understand that action and
mayhem have meaning only when an audience cares about the characters in the
movie.

     Basically, Super 8 is an exercise in nostalgia for those who, while
growing up during the late 1970's & early 1980's, were inspired by  the big
budget high box office grossing special effects festivals that were marketed as
being movies.  Often kids who saw those flicks were inspired to borrow their
parents's Super 8 camera and messed around with making a movie.  For a movie
supposedly set in 1979, it misses the mark in terms of the attitudes, clothes,
music and other aspects of the popular culture of the time.

     The plot of Super 8 concerns half a dozen or so teenagers who are
in the wrong place at the wrong time.  These youngsters are engaged in making a
zombie movie that they think needs to be made at midnight to achieve
"authenticity."  They get together at a train station where they think they
can make their flick without parental interference.  All of these
teenagers are the usual cliches in Hollywood flicks.  Just when everything seems to be
going well for the poorly thought out film project, disaster strikes.  There
is a train derailment, causing a big mess.  It appears that there is more to this
derailment than meets the eye given the fact that troops under the command of one
Colonel Nelec (Noah Emmerich) swarm over the area.  There is also a
mysterious creature seen moving around the area.

     One lesson that Abrams has obviously learned from Spielberg is that
when it comes to seeing the monster, less is more.   Throughout  most of
the movie, you see only a few glimpses of the creature.  Even in the scene
where the monster attacks a bus,  the camera avoids lingering on the creature.
With  Spielberg's first blockbuster, Jaws, this was an accident, necessitated
by the fact that the fake shark had numerous mechanical problems that made it
impossible to show it too often without the movie going over budget.

     Super 8 is an obvious "homage" by the apprentice Abrams to his master
Spielberg.  This is not a good movie and as such, it is not worth your time or money.

Purge Newsletter May 7th 2003

Purge Newsletter - 7 May 2003

Well Well... Well its sure been a while since the last Purge newsletter, but now that Purge has been released and Hap has a little more time to contribute to the newsletter it should turn into some sort of bi-weekly newsletter to keep you informed to the happenings of the great game Purge. This week it is just going to be a short newsletter to basically introduce Hap's new Soapbox articles. Soapbox #1Long time no see. Since Purge has finally shipped, I am discontinuing the "By Design" newsletter articles, and replacing them with Soapbox articles. Purge should be in the stores by now. Should. Most stores still don't have Purge or any other new TSI published game for that matter. EB seems to be the only chain reliably carrying Purge. GameStop has shelf signs advertising TSI products, including Purge, but there is no Purge (or Bandits or Knight Rider) stocked. I had hoped to send out the Soapbox article after Purge reached mass distribution. But Nick has been bugging me for a new newsletter for a while now. [How to run a gaming site] Purge has been getting game reviews of varying quality. It is important that people read these reviews with a grain of salt. We've been reading reviews that are blatantly wrong. Where the reviewers just didn't read the manual and doubtfully even played Purge any longer than to take screenshots. I've read how a reviewer claimed the Android was too powerful because he could make unlimited Ion Barriers. Simply untrue. The Android can make 4. It is clearly stated in the manual. He also did not know that a Nuke/Angelfire could destroy multiple Ion Barriers/Wards nice and easy. I've read all kinds of nonsense in reviews that untrue, like the player runs too slow. They didn't know Agility could control the run speed. And then I've read conflicting reviews where one review would complain since XP is saved, people get too powerful and another review where they wish XP could be saved. These writers didn't spend the time read the manual where it explain clearly XP saving (called Persistence) is purely server optional. It this kind of half-assed game review and make you wonder what kind of reviewers they are hiring. Well I have an idea. How? We used to run content websites. We wrote hardware and software reviews and guides. This was back when dot-coms were still hot stuff and web advertising was reasonable. We started during the very peak of the dot-com boom... I think you can figure out the story there. We just came in a little too late. Fortunes, or lack thereof, aside, what it taught me was how gaming content websites are run. And how you can run your own gaming site too. During the height of the dot-com, a common phrase heard was "content is king". The higher quality your writers, the better your articles, the more visitors you got. And the more visitors you got, the more page impressions (known ambiguously as "hits") you would get. The more impressions you got, the more money you made off ads. Remember the huge Thresh Quake Bible? We were no strangers to good writing either. For example, Adam wrote System Shock 2 guide, which generated a large number of new visitors. That was the past. When web-advertising prices started falling so did quality. Now many gaming websites have unpaid writers. They take free labour as often and as possible. One Purge review on a "major" website was written by a high-sophomore. That means a 14-15 year old wrote a Purge review and this site just played it off as if a professional writer did it. And how much did he get paid for the writing the review. Zippo. Nothing. I don't think anyone can make the argument a free article by a 14 year old is going to be a quality. Another "major" US-based website got free German writer to review Purge. The writer demanded we cater a good game at 3 AM (yes our time) or he would give us a bad review. I told him that he was crazy, and his response "not my problem". So this is it pretty much how gaming websites are run now. You've probably noticed that websites lack the quality strategy guides that you saw 2-3 years ago. Those that still write strategy typically are unfinished or worse; require you to subscribe to their service. This is because writing guides are expensive for the gaming website. You can't get free labour for an un-aged kid to churn out guides. They person would actually have to play the game and want to spend days writing 20+ page articles. That means... dun dun dun... full time, paid writers. It just isn't profitable when web ad rates are floating around $1-2 CPM (cost per mille or thousand impressions). (Consider when we first started running websites, ad rates were $10-15 CPM with some big sites getting up to $25 CPM.) Now some ads only pay per unique user. The current content situation is churned out crap as fast as possible. I know all the dirty tricks to do that. I was in the business. Some people don't even write reviews. They don't review games. What they do is read the reviews from two other sites and summarize them into their own review. So they don't ever actually play the game. There are few Purge reviews that the quite suspect of being an amalgam of other reviews. I have an eye for this; I've dealt with writers who have been accused of this. Bottom line, is gaming websites are not run like CNN or Fox News. There is not professional journalism. The number 1 goal is manufacture as much crap as possible as cheaply as possible. Many high profiles, seeming big gaming sites are run with one head guy and bunch of freelance, unpaid writers that submit articles over the Internet. That wouldn't be a big problem, if maybe the site paid the workers to do it full time. But mostly, you just find anyone who will work for free and "some" command of the English language. No Journalism or Communication college degree needed. All these writers get in return a free copy of some game. (This is easy to get once you have a few PR contacts.) Now you know how to run a gaming website. Domain Name: $30. Web hosting: $30. Games: free. Writers: free. Latest News Well there really hasn't been that much news, however one thing that Hap forgot to mention in the Soapbox is that if you think there is a feature that would go well in Purge that you could in-fact request it at the request a new feature thread in the forums. Latest Files If you have not tried out Purge and would like to you can download the Purge demo, which is now version 1.4.4d. If you've bought the full version of Purge the current version is 1.4.4. If you do not have that version you can get it here. Fan site of the week Surprisingly enough there are currently no fan sites that cover purge to our knowledge. If you would like to start one up however we've put together some great images to be used that you can check out by downloading the Purge Fan Kit.