First, this is a mighty handy resource: a list of not a few OSR AD&D (1e) modules you can get for free or close to it. Imagine you picked up the reprints of the original AD&D rulebooks that WoTC will be distributing in April, and you say to yourself, “well, what do I do with this crazy game?” Here. Also entries and winners of the One Page Dungeon ( Read more... )

is in my rewrite of the previous post, which I then posted rather stupidly over there. In brief:

the Haitian Revolution is the great granddaddy of most of our horror tropes - possibly the very Matter of Horror as we understand it; the spectre of our white colonialism falling down before a black Spartacus revolt, combined with the spectre of the ( Read more... )

Changing countries exposes you to different ways of thinking. Ayup.

So I'm checking through my son's homework (he's in the equivalent to 4th grade) and they're learning about the Gauls. Because it's French history and geography, and Gauls == French. And this is what they learn:

Gaul society was composed of Warriors, Druids, and Ordinary Men.
Warriors ( Read more... )

I've been noodling for years that Thomas the Tank Engine shows the mechanisms of colonial capitalism at work, and then Kosmograd blows me right out of the water with a brief analysis of it as the World of Stalinism - the source post for his comment is also thoughtful and worth a read. Makes me wonder just how much Stalin's theatre state and the Raj ( Read more... )

The whole "stolen heritage" and "repatriation" thing is a tricky issue. On one hand, property rights should really persist in perpetuity, and theft is always wrong. On the other hand, thefts happen all the time, especially during wartime; nation states are imaginary actors (albeit powerful ones); and eventually new status quos get to be as ( Read more... )

...since he moved it over here. But dammit I can't stay silent about this. Spreading rumours of a destined future emperor, an unknown army and magic flying machines in order to stir people into rebelling? It's totally a Scooby Doo plot from 1750.

Also, the human Sarlacc. Thanks Zak for turning me onto this subterranean design site.

Finally, hurrah ( Read more... )

Amazing content recently on Toynbee Convector.

1. Thames Town is one of nine new towns being built outside of Shanghai as part of the 1 city-9 towns initiative passed by the Shanghai Planning Commission in 2001. All 9 new towns are themed: Swedish, English, Italian, Spanish, American, Dutch, German, traditional Chinese, and an ecological town.

I ( Read more... )

I was totally not ready to run across Prince Rupert of the Rhine this evening in my wanderings: I happened across him while looking up brass, and it seems like he's, well, everywhere I've been thinking about and researching but just around the corner: inventing alloys for nautical instruments and expensive cannons for fighting the Dutch, fighting ( Read more... )

The thing with this digitizing business, you check in early, there's nothing there. You forget about it for a year or two and then something prompts you to go back and... yow.

INGhist, one of the major Dutch research institution/partnerships, have been busy, and they've been smart. They're putting whole archives up, Old Bailey style, for page- ( Read more... )

courtesy, yet again, of niemandsrose .

Let's watch a movement form, start to finish, in under three minutes.

Key lessons: the first follower is what turns a lone nut into a leader. Followers emulate the follower, not the leader: that first follower therefore shapes the movement. The leader must embrace the first follower as an equal.

Abu Bakr, maybe you just ( Read more... )