March 5 2003 RussCon Report

News

My cow-orker Greg Hewgill's Homeland Security Threat Monitor for Windows has become quite popular, linked to by USA Today and many other sites, and even appearing in Playboy magazine (March 2003, p.36)! I claim some credit for convincing him to add the undocumented easter egg (double right click on its icon to enable the secret alternate SNL 5-level system).

So at work on Friday afternoon we noticed that the Security Threat Level at www.dhs.gov was raised to Orange again (it had lowered back to Yellow on February 27) and the "read more" link goes to an error page, but we couldn't find anything about it on news sites; we speculate they had a website snafu like accidentally restoring from an old backup, or the site was hacked; as I type this Friday evening, the site is now unbrowsable (but pingable). This does not inspire great confidence in the Department of Homeland Security!

Then there's that mall which has twice arrested groups and an individual for wearing peace t-shirts. These were not noisy protesters causing disruption; they were just wearing shirts with apparently unpopular controversial sentiments like "Peace on Earth" and "Give Peace A Chance". The land of the free... or is it?

Many folks were bummed and pissed when the Arbor Theater's lease wasn't renewed (and I vowed not to eat at the national chain restaurant that replaced it). There are few theaters in town that show non-mainstream films. Now there is some good news: Great Hills Cinema will reopen as an Arbor-like theater.

I have added a google site search bar on russcon.org.

Game Results

HookOrCrook	5	Carly 4 MarkG 2 Clayton 0 Tim -2 RussW -4
Guillotine	2	Fina 1 TimG -1
Tichu	2	( Steve Whendy ) 1 ( Marty Fred ) -1
Transamerica	4	Clayton 3 Tim 1 MarkG -1 TimG -3
Exxtra	5	Dan 4 MarkH 2 RussW 0 Fina -2 Ben -4
Bluff	5	MarkH 4 Fred 2 Ben 0 Steve -2 Whendy -4
Transamerica	4	MarkG 3 Tim 1 Clayton -2 TimG -2
Settlers	4	RussW 3 Carly 1 Fina -1 Dan -3
Cartagena	5	Tim 4 JP 1 Clayton 1 MarkG -3 TimG -3
HighSociety	5	Fina 4 MarkG 2 RussD 0 Dan -3 RussW -3
RoboRally	3	JP 2 Tim 0 TimG -2
Transamerica	4	RussW 2 MarkG 2 Fina -1 RussD -3
Caesar&Cleopatra	2	RussW 1 Fina -1

OK, this was my worst game of Hook or Crook ever! I didn't even get past the 3rd castle on the board! Total hideousness! Clayton and Carly kept being psychically in tune and doing the same actions. MarkG entered the pink zone first, but Carly pulled ahead with the final large set bonus.

Nice to see RoboRally played again. They played on a single board, so it didn't take all night.

It had been over a year since I played Caesar & Cleopatra last, twice with Jeffles and once with Fina. Playing again was fun -- it's pretty cool, and it has fun flavor art and subtly wacky Latin text on the cards. Then there's that Orgy rule.

hall of shame A reminder: please write and spell clearly when recording game results, make the scores and ranks clear, and remember last initials for people with common names like Tim, thanks! (Since Tim beat TimG in 3 other games, I decided Tim probably beat TimG in Cartagena too. Cruel, but statistically defensible. I also decided this meant JP & Clayton tied for 2nd, earning 1 not 2 devil points each. Let me know if either of these assumptions made an ass out of you and me.)

Ratings

New Multiplicative Rank Ratings:   
 2.3026 10.0000 MarkH (2)
 2.1440 8.5333 MarkG (6)
 2.0149 7.5000 Carly (2)
 1.7272 5.6250 Tim (5)
 1.3863 4.0000 JP (2)
 0.9808 2.6667 Clayton (4)
 0.2469 1.2800 RussW (6)
 0.1054 1.1111 Fina (6)
 0.0000 1.0000 Steve (2)
 0.0000 1.0000 Fred (2)
-0.6931 0.5000 Dan (3)
-0.6931 0.5000 Marty (1)
-0.9163 0.4000 Whendy (2)
-1.3863 0.2500 RussD (2)
-1.6094 0.2000 Ben (2)
-4.7875 0.0083 TimG (5)

New Multiplicative Win Ratings:
 2.1032 8.1920 RussW won 3 of 6
 1.3863 4.0000 MarkH won 1 of 2
 1.3218 3.7500 Carly won 1 of 2
 1.1223 3.0720 MarkG won 2 of 6
 1.0986 3.0000 Dan won 1 of 3
 0.8755 2.4000 JP won 1 of 2
 0.6523 1.9200 Clayton won 1 of 4
 0.4700 1.6000 Steve won 1 of 2
 0.4700 1.6000 Whendy won 1 of 2
 0.4055 1.5000 Tim won 1 of 5
 0.4055 1.5000 Fina won 2 of 6
-0.4463 0.6400 Ben won 0 of 2
-0.6931 0.5000 Marty won 0 of 1
-0.9163 0.4000 Fred won 0 of 2
-0.9163 0.4000 RussD won 0 of 2
-1.8971 0.1500 TimG won 0 of 5

MarkH and I are Co-Devils! Carly and MarkG are Co-Vice-Devils. TimG is the Generous Angel.

Meta Game

Dan was the Meta Devil. Here is the Meta Game he mailed out:

Apples, Almonds, Plums

This week we luxuriate in fresh and wholesome gifts of the earth. Indulge in the crisp juiciness of an apple. Pleasure in the nutty texture of the almond. Wallow in the sweet tartiness of the plum. Bask in just one, rollick in two, or soak happily in all three.

You score one point if you bring apples, almonds, or plums (one for each group). You score one point if you trade or swap an apple, almond, or plum with a fellow RussConer (one for each group). You score one point if you eat an apple, almond, or plum (one for each group). Maximum score is 9.

Fina and Tim scored 1 meta point, JP and TimG scored 2 meta points, and 3 of us scored the full 9 meta points for going all out and bringing apples, almonds, and plums: Dan, MarkG, and myself. The tie was broken randomly and Dan is the Meta Devil again and will design next week's Meta Game!

Reminder of the new incentive to compete in the Meta Game: The Meta Devil gets full table rights, just like a regular Devil from now on, so they could stake out the dining table or the kitchen table. Of course Vice-Devils continue to get secondary dibs on the tables if no higher-ranking Devil or Meta Devil takes a table.

Dan's Meta Meta Game

The 3rd installment of Dan's Meta Meta Game!

This week: Carly, Clayton, Fina, MarkG, MarkH, RussW, Tim, TimG each win a 90c Sam & Frodo stamp!

	40c Gandalf & Saruman	80c Lady Galadriel	90c Sam & Frodo	$1.30 Guardian of Rivendell	$1.50 Strider	$2.00 Boromir son of Denethor
Ben		1
Carly			1
Clayton			1
BradS		1
Fina	1		1
JimG	1
JP	1
MarkG	1	1	1
MarkH		1	1
Marty	1	1
Matt	1	1
RussW	1	1	1
Steve	1
Tim			1
TimG			1
William		1

Evening's Soundtrack

Alex De Grassi, Deep at Night
Philip Glass, Low Symphony
Robyn Hitchcock 'n' the Egyptians, Queen Elvis
Mazzy Star, Among My Swan
Wings of Desire, Original Soundtrack

Various CDs Clayton has given me over the years... Happy Birthday Clayton, and I hope you enjoy The Hours soundtrack! :)

Links

My cow-orker Greg Hewgill's Homeland Security Threat Monitor for Windows has become quite popular, linked to by USA Today and many other sites, and even appearing in March 2003 Playboy (p.36)! I claim some credit for convincing him to add the undocumented easter egg (double right click on its icon to enable the secret alternate SNL 5-level system).

Satirical Updated Terror Alert System

Homestar Runner has lots of Flash cartoons. I recommend Dragon.

Hoogerbrugge has lots of arty interactive Flash thingies.

The Rocklopedia Fakebandica is The Ultimate Fake Band List; I have just submitted the Ace Tones from one of my favorite movies (Local Hero).

BBC's Science of Disgust: This has a few gross photos, and scientific discussion of the emotion of disgust. "The things people consistently find disgusting also make us ill. This link convinced Curtis that disgust was a biological mechanism for avoiding infectious disease... The genes for disgust probably arose by accident and then became common through natural selection. The observation that most animals avoid eating each other's faeces suggests that disgust could have evolved a very long time ago." Yeah, I guess dogs are a notable exception to that...