Shifting Gears - Neuroactivated Biometeric Key/Lock

Brain Activity Provides Novel Biometric Key

15:17 16 January 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Will Knight

An electronic security system that identifies people by monitoring the unique pattern of electrical activity within their brain is being tested by European scientists.

This novel biometric system should be difficult to forge, making it suitable for high-security applications, claim the researchers behind it. The system was developed by two companies - Starlab in Spain and Forenap in France - in cooperation with researchers at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, in Greece. It uses an established method for measuring activity in the brain, called electroencephalography (EEG).

EEG measurements identify the location and intensity of millisecond-long fluctuations in electrical activity in the brain via electrodes positioned around a person's scalp. This can help neuroscientists understand the function of different brain areas and may also be used to diagnose and monitor neurological conditions such as epilepsy and dementia.

Neural Pathways

Since an individual's brain activity is determined by the unique pattern of neural pathway in their brain, the same technique can be used for identification, says Dimitrios Tzovaras, who is the coordinator at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas. "It could be a very good security control," he told New Scientist.

The authentication system requires a user to have EEG measurements taken beforehand with further measurements for each authentication test. This is done via a removable cap, which communicates wirelessly with a computer that analyses the data gathered. The cap has fewer electrodes than are normally used for EEG measurements, but can still provide enough information for authentication, according to Tzovaras.

Currently users must sit quietly with their eyes shut during each test. "We ask them to close their eyes and not speak"," Tzovaras says, which provides "a much clearer picture".

The result of each authentication test is compared with the user's pre-recorded measurements, using signal-processing algorithms. These algorithms can be tuned to different security levels.

But users could eventually be required to perform specific tasks during each test, he suggests, as this should also produce a unique EEG "signature". The researchers envisage the set-up being used as part of a building or computer security system and plan to test it as the security control system for a laboratory in Germany in 2007.

Multiple Biometrics

The biometric system is part of a wider European project called Human Monitoring and Authentication using Biodynamic Indicators and Behavioural Analysis (HUMABIO). The aim of this project is to combine several different biometrics to create a more efficient and secure overall system. The EEG system will eventually be linked to a seat designed to identify a person by the way they sit, which is being developed at the University of Pisa, Italy.

A separate group, led by Rafal Wardziński at Warsaw University of Technology in Poland, is also working on EEG biometrics. In testing, this group found that the method could identify subjects with 88% accuracy.

However, John Daugman, a biometrics researcher at the University of Cambridge, UK, questions the practicality of the approach. He says an EEG cap could prove too cumbersome and invasive. "Wearing a wired helmet with sensors on one's scalp might change the ambiance of the workplace somewhat," he says.

Similarly, neuroimaging expert Olaf Hauk, also at the UK's Medical Research Council, believes using the system in a wide variety of situations, particularly stressful ones, could complicate the results significantly. "EEG varies greatly depending on a person's alertness, or mental operations," Hauk told New Scientist. "You might not want to be taken for someone else at the airport just because you had a bad night before."

OOC: use a photographic sensor to snap a picture of the neuroactivity of the occipital lobe, something similiar in the movie Seven days, except it measures information, miliseconds after to the initial flash.

D20 Future/Gamma World

Type: Personal
Progression Level 8/9: Gravity Age
Size: Variable
Weight: Variable to 1 Kg.
Hardness: 05
Purchase DC: 20 [Urban Centers Only]
Restriction: Bureaucratic [+02], Corporate [+03], Judical [+03], Military [+04]

Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition Revised

Biometric Psi-Key

This simple devise enables a psion or a wilder to imprint his psionic energies upon it and use it as a personal security key. With this devise, he can lock and unlock [via psionic lock and knock-psionic disciplines] physical objects as a mean of personal identification. First, personas unknown attempt to use the key with succeeding against a successful concentration check [DC = 10 + ½ ECL + charisma modifier], the key refuses to activate. Secondly, a psion or wilder can store up to up an additional 21 power points and unlock them when they are needed the most. Activating the key requires but one power point and that power point may not come from any points stored in the key.

Faint psychoportation: ML 4th
Craft Universal Item; Knock - Psionic, Psionic Lock
Market Price: 8,000 Gp
Cost: 4,000 Gp + 320 XP

For Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Ed Revised / d20 OGL

From the Bazaar of the Master of Antiquities - Occult Alchemy

In my quest to try and make the aging subschool work "better" with Golarion, I ultimately turned to alchemical power components as a possible solution. I think it worked out rather well.

By Alex Augunas

Source: Facebook

Atlan Voidstone
Price 25 gp; Weight —
Commonly used in occult rituals, it is believed that the ancient atlans devised a method to smelt this chalklike extraterrestial metal into an alloy that is more durable than steel.
Spells (M) occult descriptor; Effect +1 to the spell’s caster level for all effects and purposes.

Crystallized Pain
Price 1,000 gp; Weight —
Harvested using the Craft Crystallized Pain feat, this regent can be used to enhance spells that corrupt others or cause pain.
Spells (M) pain descriptor or evil descriptor; Effect You can spontaneously apply a metamagic feat to the spell as it is being cast without increasing its casting time. Furthermore, reduce the spell’s adjusted level by 1. This cannot reduce the spell’s level below the unmodified spell’s level. Alternatively, you can increase the spell’s effective level for all effects dependent upon spell level (such as spell turning) by 1. The spell is still cast using a spell slot of the unmodified spell’s level.

Desert Spice
Price 750 gp; Weight 1 lb.
This mystical frehmin elixir is used as a means to commune with occult spirits and enhance the effects of occult magic.
Spells (M) aging subschool or occult descriptor; Effect +1 to the spell’s caster level for all purposes.

Solar Orchid
Price 25,000 gp; Weight —
In an age long past the fabled solar orchid was nearly harvested to extinction because of its ability to amplifying aging magic.
Spells (M) aging subschool; Effect double the spell’s duration. This stacks with Extend Spell, tripling the spell’s duration if both effects are applied. If used on a permanent aging spell, the spell becomes instantaneous instead.

For the Pathfinder RPG

Shifting Gears - A Prosthetic Tale, er Tail

Mermaid dream comes true thanks to Weta
BY MATT CALMAN

WHAT A TALE: Auckland woman, Nadya Vessey wrote to Weta Workshop in Wellington asking if they would help her realise a life long dream and make her a fully functional mermaid tail so she could swim. 

Nadya Vessey lost her legs as a child but now she swims like a mermaid.

Ms Vessey's mermaid tail was created by Wellington-based film industry wizards Weta Workshop after the Auckland woman wrote to them two years ago asking if they could make her a prosthetic tail. She was astounded when they agreed.

She lost both legs below the knee from a medical condition when she was a child and told Close Up last night her long-held dream had come true. "A prosthetic is a prosthetic, and your body has to be comfortable with it and you have to mentally make it part of yourself," she said.

Ms Vessey told a little boy: "I'm a little mermaid" when he asked what happened to her legs and the idea stuck.

Weta Workshop director Richard Taylor, more used to winning Oscars for visual effects from movies such as Lord of the Rings, was delighted to make it happen.

"She was very patient. We haven't always been able to fulfil some requests. We were engaged in it pretty quickly because it was a challenge."

Weta costumer Lee Williams, who worked on the suit between film projects with seven other staff, told Close Up she "wanted [Nadya] to be beautiful and sexy".

After seeing Ms Vessey test the tail in Kilbirnie pool then frolic in the harbour, Ms Williams was stoked. "It was absolutely amazing. It's beautiful to watch Nadya swim and to see that dream come true and to be a part of that. I feel quite blessed."

The suit was made mostly of wetsuit fabric and plastic moulds, and was covered in a digitally printed sock.
Mermaid-like scales were painted by hand.

Mr Taylor said not only did the tail have to be functional, it was important it looked realistic. "What became apparent was that she actually physically wanted to look like a mermaid."

 - The Dominion Post

HAS THE TRANSHUMAN MERMAID ARRIVED? BY GABRIEL SISTARE

Has the Transhuman Mermaid arrived?

So check this out: a woman from Auckland, New Zealand has transcended humanity and become a Mermaid!

Well, Nadya Vessey is still quite human, but the double amputee asked Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop special effects studio to design a mermaid tail that would help her swim.

“A prosthetic is a prosthetic, and your body has to be comfortable with it. You have to mentally make it a part of yourself.” – Nadya Vessey Vessey’s flipper apparatus does not integrate with her nervous or muscular systems, but the mermaid tail does indicate a future in which animal hybridization might be very possible with certain technology.

While Vessey’s mermaid tail was very specific, and maybe the only time Weta Workshop will build an augmentation for an individual, it does herald a time when we might be able to useIcarus wings, just more durable, or gloves with palms made from a Gecko-like adhesive that will allow us to climb high and detach at will.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS What other kinds of hybrid, mermaid tail-like technologies would you like to have? What parts of society do you think would benefit from such technology?

Source

Shifting Gears - With a Wave of My Hand (Bio-Hacking Implant)

Want An RFID Chip Implanted Into Your Hand?

January 26, 2014

Source

Amal Graafstra snaps on a pair of black rubber gloves. “Do you want to talk about pain management techniques?” he asks. The bearded systems administrator across the table, who requested I call him “Andrew,” has paid Grafstra $30 to have a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip injected into the space between his thumb and pointer finger, and as Graafstra describes Lamaze-type breathing methods, Andrew looks remarkably untroubled, in spite of the intimidatingly high-gauge syringe sitting on the table between them.

 

Graafstra finishes his pain talk, fishes a tiny cylindrical two-millimeter diameter EM4012 RFID chip out of a tin of isopropyl alcohol, and drops it into the syringe’s end, replacing the RFID tag intended for pets that came with the injection kit. He swabs Andrew’s hand with iodine, carefully pinches and pulls up a fold of skin on the top of his hand to create a tent of flesh, and with the other hand slides the syringe into the subcutaneous layer known as the fascia, just below the surface.

Then he plunges the plastic handle and withdraws the needle. A small crowd of onlookers applauds. The first subject of the day has been successfully chipped. 

Over the course of the weekend, Andrew would be one of eight people to undergo the RFID implantation among the 500 or so attendees of Toorcamp, a hacker conference and retreat near the northwest corner of Washington State. Graafstra’s “implantation station” was set up in the open air: Any camper willing to spend $30 and sign a liability waiver could have the implantation performed, and after the excitement of Andrew’s injection, a small line formed to be next.

And why volunteer to be injected with a chip that responds to radio signals with a unique identifier, a procedure typically reserved for tracking pets and livestock? “I thought it would be cool,” says Andrew, when we speak at a picnic table a few minutes after his injection. (The pain, he tells me, was only a short pinch, followed by a “weird feeling of a foreign body sliding into my hand.”)

Graafstra’s glass-encased RFID chips, ready for implantation. 

The practical appeal of an RFID implant, in theory, is quick authentication that’s faster, cheaper and more reliable than other biometrics like thumbprints or facial scans. When the chip is hit with a radio frequency signal, it emits a unique identifier number that functions like a long, unguessable password. Implantees like Andrew imagine the ability to unclutter their pockets of keys and keycards and instead access their cars, computers, and homes with with a mere wave of the hand.

Andrew says he initially hoped to use his RFID implant instead of the HID identity card his office uses for entry, but wasn’t deterred from the injection when Graafstra told him that HID uses a proprietary system whose chips Graafstra couldn’t implant. “I don’t have anything specific in mind, now, but I didn’t know when I’d have another opportunity to do it,” says Andrew. “And it’s a good excuse to start learning more about RFID.”

Another young hacker who underwent the procedure at Toorcamp said he hopes to install an RFID access system at the door of his local hackerspace. A young woman with a small collection of rings and studs in her ears compared her new implant to aesthetic body modifications like piercings and tattoos, or even the fringier culture of erotic “needleplay.” “I guess I have an interest in my body’s response to pain and modification,” she says. “There’s a certain thrill of the new.”

For Graafstra himself, the chips are more than a novelty or a hacker hobby. Graafstra uses them to access his home near Seattle, to turn on his motorcycle, to open a safe in his house, even to authenticate into his phone, a Samsung Galaxy Nexus that’s capable of near-field communications. He had his first chip installed in 2005 by a doctor client of his IT services firm, and has since become one of a few vocal RFID body implant evangelists, chronicling his experiences with the chip on his website and in a book, RFID Toys.

 

The enthusiasm of hackers like those at Toorcamp for RFID implants may seem a bit surprising–privacy advocates have long warned that the chips could allow individuals to be tracked by governments and corporations, even when they’re merely housed in passports or clothing, not to mention injected subcutaneously. But Graafstra says that the chips he’s implanting are difficult to read from more than a few inches away. And he argues the idea of someone trying to read his chip in order to spoof its signal and access his house or other property is far less of a threat than other potential privacy invasions.

“If someone manages to read this, it’s just as if they found a piece of paper with a number on the ground,” he says. “For any kind of attack, they would have to also know me and where I live and want to gain access to the things I’ve enabled. There are easier ways to do that, like breaking into my window.”

That hasn’t stopped privacy advocates and religious types from attacking Graafstra as a harbinger of evil–Some link his hand chip with the Bible’s “mark of the beast,” a number stamped by the Devil on hands and heads in the Book of Revelations. Graafstra ignores their emails or responds politely. “Some people view the body as a sacred temple,” he says. “Some view it as a sports utility vehicle they can upgrade. I’m definitely in the second category.”

Even so, he says his Toorcamp implantation station was a one-off. Outside of the camp’s community of hacking and experimentation, he worries that the risk of unhappy customers would be too high. “I trust that the people here have put a little thought into it and know what they’re getting into,” he says. “For everyone else, I recommend you contact your local piercing artist.”

JUST WAVE YOUR HAND WITH THIS BIOHACKING IMPLANT

BY GABRIEL SISTARE

Source

Take this young biohacking fan, and you can unlock anything. Well, don’t take it, embed it. Embed the xNT Biohacking implant in you hand, and you can use its Near-Field Communication to signal to a receiver to unlock your car door, your home, and all sorts of other facilities.

Designed by Amal Graafstra, a man who refers to himself as a double RFID implantee, the xNT implant uses NFC technology that can be tailored to your specifications. You can program it to NFC-enabled home locking mechanisms, or you can set it up to share certain information on social networks.

Graafstra uses his own RFID implants to unlock his house, car, computer, and even a freight elevator that stores his servers.

Graafstra developed the xNT implant with is company Dangerous Things, and he consulted with physicians who determined that the implant would be safe, and body modifiers who knew how to insert the implant without injury.

To assist people looking to get their xNT implanted safely, Dangerous Things created a Partner Map that shows verified resources for reputable piercing and body modification experts who can install the physiological upgrade.

The xNT can be very quickly implanted with a small needle that deposits the chip in your skin with no stitching needed.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

The xNT biohacking implant is just another example of technology getting smaller, more powerful, and integrating with humanity. Maybe xNT can only be used with simple technological links like unlocking car doors and sending some social information, but how could it be expanded? What else could we enable with an RFID, NFC-based implant? What would you like to see using this technology?

Link

The Annuals of Magic: Lost Magics

Lost Magic: Blind Faith
November 13, 2013, Mike Myler

School divination [good]; Level inquisitor 2, oracle 2, paladin 2, cleric 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF, M (holy water)
Range personal
Target you
Duration rounds/level (D)
Saving Throw n/a
Spell Resistance n/a

In a moment of supreme belief, you sacrifice your visual acuity in devotion, dousing your eyes in holy water. The blessed liquid erupts into divine fire as the holy words are chanted, immolating your eyes with mystical flames. In return for this act of piety, you are blessed with an echo of the sight of the gods, granting you supernatural awareness of the area around you.

While under the effects of blind faith, you gain the blindsense ability to a range of 90 ft., and targets within range of this ability gain only partial concealment (20 percent miss chance) against your attacks. Blind faith functions even if you are deaf or within an area of silence.

For the duration of the spell, you suffer from the blinded condition but you are not required to make Acrobatics checks to move faster than half speed, you are considered aware of attacks made against you within range of your blindsense, and you do not lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against these attacks (attacks against you made from outside of the range of this ability are resolved as if you had the normal blinded condition).

After the spell ends, you continue to suffer the –4 penalty to opposed Perception checks and most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks imposed by the blinded condition, but your vision is completely restored in every other capacity. These penalties persist until you have had a full night’s rest, applying another dose of holy water beforehand (not included in the components cost for this spell) or until magically healed by a lesser restoration.

Lost Magic: Cone of Many Curses
November 20, 2013, Gary Del Balso

School necromancy [curse]; Level antipaladin 5, sorcerer/wizard 5, witch 5
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range 30 ft.
Area cone-shaped burst
Duration permanent
Saving Throw Yes (See Text); Spell Resistance yes
Spell Resistance n/a

You release a cone of a razorlike black needles from your hands that pierce into the very being of all targets in the area and places a curse on them. The targets take a –6 penalty to an ability score of your choice and –4 penalty to attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks.

The save DC is 10 + the spell level + the spellcaster’s modifier (Intelligence or Charisma).

Depending on the ability that is selected, the targets can attempt a Will save to negate the effects of Intelligence, Charisma, and Wisdom damage. The targets can attempt a Fortitude save for Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution damage. If the save fails, then the effects are permanent (see below for removal conditions). Also the cone can be split into two 15-ft. lines coming from each hand that can be aimed in different directions.

The curse bestowed by this spell cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.

Lost Magic: Metal Wind, Lesser
November 6, 2013, L. Scott Collins

School conjuration (metal) Level sorcerer/wizard 2, druid 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a coin’s weight of metal)
Range 15 ft.
Area cone-shaped burst
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Fortitude for half or none (see text)
Spell Resistance No

A sudden shower of metal slivers erupts from your fanned fingers. Any creature in the area takes 1d6 per caster level (5d6 max). At the GM’s discretion, fragile materials may be shredded to dust and surfaces scoured clean and free of rust or pigment. If a creature has any weakness to the metal used as the material component, such as a damage resistance that is overcome by it, that creature gets no save. Though the traditional material component for this spell is a silver piece, any small amount of metal may be used. When cast as a divine spell, the effect is considered to be of the same alignment as the caster for purposes of special immunities and overcoming damage resistance. At GM’s discretion this spell may be available as cleric 3 to clerics with a Metal, Forge, or similar domain.

SOURCES
Blind Faith
Cone of Many Curses
Metal Wind, Lesser

The Mechanics (Magics) of Summoning and Banishment

Friday Favorite: Summoning and Banishment
by AMERON (DEREK MYERS) on JANUARY 24, 2014 – Orignal Site and Link: Dungeon’s Master

 "On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From March 7, 2011, 
Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Summoning and Banishment. "

Generally when a character uses a summoning or banishing power there is no real though about how the power works. A creature is either summoned from a distant plane of existence to do your bidding or a dangerous foe is removed from combat for a short period of time. However, since most powers that summon or banish are arcane or psionic in nature, there is certainly room for customization that can make for some very interesting role-playing.

Without changing the mechanics of how summoning or banishing powers actually work, the players and DM still have a tremendous about of flexibility when it comes to describing how these powers function within the game itself. Think of it as flavour text, but don’t stop there. Consider for a minute the consequences and repercussions of summoning a creature to fight your battles or to banishing an incredibly deadly foe to some distant plane, even if it’s only for a very brief time period. A little imagination can add a lot of flavour to your game the next time a character uses one of these powers.

Summoning

There are almost 100 powers with the summoning keyword. The Summoner Wizard, Shaper Psion and Hexblade Warlock classes all rely heavily on summoning powers.

In a 3.5e game I played many years ago, one of the players was running a Druid for the first time. He was constantly summoning creatures to fight for him. During one game he asked this seemingly innocent question: “Do you think that every time I use this spell to summon the same kind of creature that I summon the exact same creature?” The DM at the time said no and we didn’t think much more about it. But it is something that I’ve thought of on many occasions since then.

Thinking back to previous editions of D&D there were spells that allowed you to summon a powerful creature to do your bidding. In these cases you had to actively negotiate the terms of service with the creature before it agreed to help you. I understand that this is not usually the case when creatures are summoned. For lower level powers you just summoned the creature and the magic compelled it to do whatever it was you wanted it to do (usually attack your enemies). However, the spells did mention that if you could communicate with the creature summoned you could give it commands more elaborate than just attack my enemies. You could get it to perform other nominal tasks.

We made great use of summoned creatures for non-fighting purposes. Often summoned creatures would fly us across caverns, lakes or over walls. We also used them to crash through doors. On rare occasions we even summoned creatures to run ahead of the party if we thought the corridor was trapped. Using summoned creatures in this way (essentially to send them to their death) was not something that the Druid or the DM let us do very often. We needed a really strong in-game reason to convince the Druid that the creature’s possible death was for the greater good.

In fact it was during one of the debates over “abusing” the summoned creature as nothing more than a pit-trap detector that the Druid asked his question. His thought was that if he summoned the same creature every time, it would be far less cooperative on a subsequent summoning if we didn’t treat it right.

 Nothing we ever found in the rules stated a definitive answer either way, but for characters that summon the same kind of creatures all the time, how might things be different if the summoned creature was in fact he same individual every single time. How might the relationship between the summoner and the creature develop over time? As the DM I’d never have it interfere with the way the power worked, but it does create a fantastic opportunity for role-playing.

Banishment

During our expedition into the Tomb of Horrors a few months ago one of the characters, a Bard, made great use of his level 5 daily power Timeless Trek in Mithrendain which banished the target to the Feywild. In order to make the power a little bit more interesting the player decided that whenever he used this power, the target always went to the exact same place in the Feywild.

The running joke became that the location happened to be in the centre of a village full of peaceful, fun-loving Fey creature. Every so often, without warning, a dangerous (and usually very angry) creature would appear and wreak havoc. Before the bewildered Fey creatures knew what was going on, the target would make its save and reappear in the real world, leaving the confused Fey creatures to try and figure out what just happened.

The idea that a banishment power not only sent you to a far away place, but that it sent you to the exact same far away place every time got me thinking. This actually makes a lot of sense. I’m not suggesting that the banished creature should appear in the middle of an inhabited village (although we do still joke about it), but the idea that the power is linked to a specific location seems quite logical.

After all the character using the power probably isn’t that familiar with places in the Feywild, astral plane, plane of fire, or wherever else his power allows him to send the target. I imagine that the character was so excited and please with himself for getting it to work successfully the first time he’d be unlikely to make any changes to the way he invokes the power on subsequent attempts. So if nothing else changes during the casting (since it’s usually a spell) then why should the destination?

Once the player realizes that banished creatures always go to the same location perhaps they would make an effort to find that place and scout it out. Again, without changing the way the power works, there are still some pretty interesting things a creative player could do to add extra flavour to the power. The banished creature shouldn’t be subjected to any harmful effects when it reaches the destination, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be messed with.

Maybe the character somehow located a secured location, like a prison, and when the banished create is sent away it appears inside an enclosed cell. Not only is it confused as to what happened and why it’s suddenly someplace different, but now it’s confined as well (or at least until it saves and returns to the battle).

For powers where the PCs is himself banished (or I supposed transposed is a more appropriate term for a voluntary banishment) he could appear in a lavish room full of nice things and lavish refinement. This is still nothing that has any mechanical benefit, but again just something to make for interesting role-playing.

When the Summoner Becomes the Summoned

When players choose their character’s race they usually look at the abilities that receive a +2 bonus and the racial powers. One thing that is rarely given any great consideration is the creature’s origin. Players forget that Elves, Drow, Half-elves, Eladrins and Gnomes all have the Fey origin. So any spell that says it summons a Fey creature could, in essence, summon them.

This is unlikely, I’ll give you that, but I see this making for an excellent adventure hook. Imagine an Elven character that just disappears. About a minute later he reappears with noticeable signs of injury and likely down a healing surge or two. He tells the rest of the party that he suddenly appeared in a heated battle and felt a compelling urge to help one side of the conflict. He fought as long as he could but eventually took so much damage that he collapsed. And it was at that moment when he reappeared here.

Astute players will quickly catch on to what’s just happened. Now taking into consideration all the things we talked about above, what if the Wizard that summoned our Elf friend decides to cast that spell again tomorrow? If he’s keyed to that one specific Fey creature then our companion can reasonably expect that he’ll be answering the summons, whether he wants to or not, the next time that Wizard uses that power.

Finding the Wizard and getting him to stop summoning the Elf in your party will likely become a high priority. The Wizard probably isn’t even aware that his power is causing you any inconvenience, just as you wouldn’t be aware of this detail when you used a summoning power. So the confrontation that will inevitably happen may not end up in bloodshed (although the Elf may refuse to see any other outcome after all of the indignities he’s suffered).

If I were to use this kind of hook in my game I’d rule that the damage sustained by the Fey creature during his summons didn’t actually affect his numbers in any way. What I would do is have fun with it. Every time the PC disappeared he’d eventually return with some wild tale of what happened. Usually it would be a tale of combat, but not every time. On occasion he’d be asked to taste food, pull a lever, open a door or run down a hallway ahead of the Wizard.

This kind of adventure could really open the eyes of any party that has abused summoning powers in the past. Turning the tables on a given situation and making the guy who was in the position of power suffer the hardships of those below him is a good way to teach him some humility. I’ll bet that any PC who is summoned in this way will be a lot less likely to use summoning magic in the future. And if they do you’d better believe that they’ll take steps to ensure the creature is treated fairly.

Have you had any memorable experiences with summoning or banishment magic at your gaming table? Have you had a character abuse their summoning powers in the kind of ways I described above? How did you handle it? Would you ever have a PC be the subject of another creature’s summoning? Do you think the players would find it amusing or be angry?

Gaming Journal - All Hallow's Eve

From the History Channel

Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Halloween Comes to America

Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

Today's Halloween Traditions

The American Halloween tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Halloween Superstitions

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world. Today's Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today's trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl's future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands' initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands' faces. Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.

Of course, whether we're asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will of the very same "spirits" whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.

NPCs
A Witch
An Inquisitor
A Ghost
A Druid

The Tangent Entries - HAWKMAN, HAWKWOMAN, and the STAR SAPPHIRES

The Tangent Entries - An Amazon Princess - The Ends of the Earth

Shifting Gears - Synthetic Meats

Lab-Grown Meat a Reality, But Who Will Eat It?
by KETZEL LEVINE
May 20, 2008
From NPR

Countless families are familiar with the domestic challenge of vegetarians and meat eaters living under one roof. Vegetarians often find the mere presence of meat repugnant; meat eaters prefer their wings and ribs seasoned without guilt. But these days, as "mixed" households explore their dietary options, a handful of scientists are cooking up what might be a possible alternative: meat grown in a lab.

Though the idea of growing animal parts in a lab rather than on a farm has been around for a century, it has never seemed like a good time to talk about man-made meat. But the concept has had some famous proponents, including Winston Churchill in his 1932 essay "Fifty Years Hence": "We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium."

Churchill was likely inspired by the work of Alexis Carrel, who at the time of Churchill's comment had been keeping alive a cultured piece of chicken heart tissue for 20 years. The Nobel Prize-winning scientist kept his experiment small, but it fed many an imagination, including that of author Frederik Pohl.

Pohl wrote the 1952 sci-fi novel The Space Merchants, in which tissue-cultured meat gets a starring if inglorious role — it's the starter ingredient for an ever-growing lumpen food source known affectionately as Chicken Little.

But Pohl, now almost 90, suspected the novel he wrote with Cyril M. Kornbluth wouldn't stay science fiction for long.

"Actually, when Cyril and I wrote the book, I thought we would see much of it actually happening," he says.

The Complexity of Meat

Meat isn't being cultured on the scale of Chicken Little yet, and because most carnivores don't spend much time worrying where their meat comes from, there hasn't exactly been a public demand. But there are in fact scientists who, despite little acceptance of what they do, are working this very minute to grow tissue-cultured meat.

It's happening in labs from Norway to North Carolina, and it's being done exactly the same way patches of human skin are already grown. All that takes is a skin cell marinated in a nutrient-rich concoction. Within a few weeks, it's pretty much ready to wear.

But British biologist Brian Ford, author of The Future of Food, says meat has always been a more difficult proposition.

"Meat is a complex mixture of tissue," he says. "Under the microscope, you can see all sorts of gristly bits and fatty bits and muscly bits. ... It's this sort of mosaic of different cell types that changes cells into what we know as meat — and that is a problem that nobody has successfully, as yet, addressed."

But somebody is getting close.

Food of the Future?

Vladimir Mironov, a biologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, is among a handful of scientists culturing meat from animal tissue. His work involves turning formless, textureless patches of the stuff into mass-produced form — like meat sheets, or what one might affectionately call "shmeat."

"I personally believe that this [is the] inescapable future," he says.

But standing between Mironov and shmeat right now are production models, production facilities, venture capital — and consumer demand.

"Technology, I think, is doable, and if you have reasonable investment it can be done. But ... you can't create [a] product which nobody wants to buy or is too expensive to buy. So the right timing ... is everything," he says.

So is this the right time? One unlikely nonprofit thinks so: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA recently announced a $1 million contest to create commercially viable chicken meat, sacrificing neither chicken nor egg. The deadline is 2012, the contest rules Herculean and the prize money paltry. But the thinking is pragmatic: If people must have meat, and factory farming is an animal nightmare, why not find a high-tech alternative?

Peter Singer, author of the 1975 treatise Animal Liberation, is all for it.

"I always thought it would be a good thing," he says. "The same way that I think it's good that the abuse of horses for pulling loads has ended. ... I think it would be good if the abuse of animals for raising them for meat were to end, because we had a technological solution to that. We had an alternative."

Uncertain Technologies

But molecular biologist Margaret Mellon from the Union of Concerned Scientists disagrees.

"Tissue-cultured meat just doesn't make sense to me," she says. "I think it's a very bad idea."

Mellon believes that all our food should be grown lightly on the land, using the riches of the Earth and the power of the sun — not in a factory.

"Picture it: You've got a big compound of buildings with scientists running around tending big vats of cultured cells, making sure that they're all at a constant temperature, that the cells are being kept sterile," she says. "I mean, where does that energy come from? That's a lot of fossil fuel."

So, to recap the opinions on the state of shmeat: It's animal-friendly but bad for the environment; we have the how-to, but not the how-come; unleashing unknown technologies is fodder for nightmares.

And at least one carnivore thinks it's real meat.

"If it [looks] like muscle, if it [smells] like muscle, if it tastes like muscle, that's muscle," Mironov says.

Which brings up one last point: the taste of shmeat. Like chicken, right? Not so, says a source who has sampled tissue-cultured turkey. It tasted like turkey.

Genetic Primers - Cloning Technology

Cloning method may help make personal stem cells

By SETH BORENSTEIN - AP Science Writer
Thu, Oct 6, 2011
From Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists used a cloning technique to create the type of customized stem cells that show promise for treating disease. But the first-of-its-kind result comes with a big hitch.

The newly created stem cells have too much genetic material to function properly. They include DNA from two people, not just the patient the cells were meant to match. Scientists still have to figure a way around that before they can use the cells to develop genetically-matched tissue for transplant to treat various diseases.

The research involved injecting DNA from skin cells of a volunteer into donor eggs.

Normally in cloning, the egg's genetic material is removed first, but when researchers tried that it didn't work, said study lead author Dieter Egli, a senior research fellow at the New York Stem Cell Foundation. This new method only worked when the donor's DNA was left inside the egg and the volunteer's genetic material was added. That meant the result had 69 chromosomes. That's 23 too many.

Because of that, Egli said, "I could never imagine that those cells could make a viable human being. That's simply out of the question."

The researchers were not trying to clone to create a human, however; they just wanted to produce stem cells.

Egli said he and his colleagues are trying several different approaches to overcome the "technical barrier" of too much DNA with this technique. What's important, he said, is that it shows researchers can use this method to turn a person's own cells into potent stem cells, something that has been demonstrated before in animals. The study was published online Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Researchers started with 270 eggs and eventually created two stem cell lines, according to study co-author Scott Noggle, director of the New York Stem Cell Foundation lab where the work was done.

There's also another promising method to create personalized stem cells that doesn't involve embryos. That technique reprograms skin cells to turn into stem cells. Egli says that method has problems, too.

The New York group's work "is a major step forward scientifically," but the problem of the egg's leftover DNA is a serious limitation, said George Daley of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, who wasn't involved in the research. Daley said he thinks the alternative method of reprogramming cells will end up being more useful in the long run. But Egli's finding will help the competing method improve, Daley said.

Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said this new work shows how hard it would be to use cloning to create people. That avoids a major ethical concern with embryonic stem cells, he said.

Shifting Gears - Fireball Sensor Grenade

Intel’s Fireball Sensor Goes Where First Responders Can’t, Reports Back to Your Phone
September 12th, 2011
by Avram Piltch
from LAPTOP Online

Today, at Intel’s IDF Day Zero presentations, the company showed off a number technologies designed to help communities respond to disasters large and small. Perhaps the most interesting of these is a balll shaped sensor device designed for firemen that Intel simply calls the Fireball.

Though it looks like Princess Leia’s themal detonator, the hand sized orb is designed to save lives by detecting hazardous gases in burning buildings. First responders can throw the device into a building like a factory that has a strong likelihood of releasing dangerous chemicals into the air. Once the Fireball is inside, its gas sensors test the air for carbon dioxide, ammonia, nitrogen, and other toxic gases then relay a Wi-Fi signal back to a small Atom-powered server in the fire truck. The server relays a signal to the responders’ smartphones where an app shows them a report of conditions inside the building, which they can use to decide whether or not to go in.

In addition to the Fireball, Intel is testing the technology in a number of othr which then sends them to an app on the responders’ smart phones. The fire team can then decide whether its safe to enter the building.er devices, including a toxic fumes sensor designed to detect terrorist attacks at airports and other sensitive locations. The company doesn’t plan to mass produce its devices and sell them under the Intel brand, but instead to share these reference designs with partners who will productize them.

Intel builds sensor grenade for firemen
By Jack Clark
From ZDNet UK
13 September, 2011

PHOTO Intel's Rapid Prototyping Group has been working on technologies in the field of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. On Monday, at its Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the chipmaker gave ZDNet UK a look at some of the results, including a throwable sensor for firefighters, a device for studying water quality, and a module for monitoring the stability of large structures such as oil rigs.

The prototype Fireball throwable sensor (pictured) is able to monitor air quality by studying the levels of specific gases in the air around it — ammonia, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide — along with the air temperature. Data from the sensor is sent to a server located in the fire engine, and then sent on to smartphones and other devices that display the information to the firefighters. Multiple sensors can be used at once and their data aggregated and browsed.

The Fireball is due to go into trials with a US-based fire department soon, according to Intel senior principal engineer Terry O'Shea. The device took six weeks to make, he said.

In the next generation of the device, the Fireball will be able to feed its location back to the server. This will be done via radio triangulation between the separate fireballs and their main receiver on the fire engine, O'Shea said.

Weight-wise, the device felt about as heavy as a 500g bag of sugar.

Genetic Primers - Self-Sustaining Stem Cells

Can Stem Cells Be Reprogrammed to Become Healthier?

Patient-derived stem cells reprogrammed to become healthier.

October 12, 2011
By Susan Young of Nature magazine
from Scientific American

A team of researchers has corrected a faulty gene in induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from skin cells of people with an inherited metabolic liver disease. The researchers then developed the stem cells into something resembling liver cells. Their work is published today in Nature.

Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (A1ATD) is the most common genetic disease of the liver, and is caused by a single nucleotide change in the gene that codes for alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT), an enzyme inhibitor that normally protects bodily tissues. The condition can result in cirrhosis of liver, which can be treated only with a liver transplant, and in an increased risk of lung cancer and emphysema. A genetic cure for the disease would require completely replacing the mutated gene because any remaining dysfunctional protein would continue to form damaging aggregates. "You can't just put in a normal copy because that's not sufficient to change the disease," says Allan Bradley, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, who is a co-author of the latest study.

To correct the mutation, Bradley and his colleagues used an engineered molecule called a zinc-finger nuclease to find and cleave the faulty A1AT gene in iPS cells derived from skin cells of people with A1ATD. They used a self-inserting DNA molecule called piggyBac to replace the damaged portion.

The researchers then stimulated the gene-corrected iPS cells to differentiate into cells that exhibited some traits of hepatocytes, the liver cells most affected by A1ATD. They transplanted the hepatocyte-like cells into mice; 14 days later, some of the corrected cells had integrated into the rodent liver and were able to produce human A1AT.

Although the corrected cells possessed several features of hepatocytes, it is unclear whether they would be able to act as fully mature liver cells and eventually repopulate the entire damaged organ. No one has yet been able to reprogram iPS cells into fully mature cells of any type, be they hepatocytes, cardiac cells or neurons, says Markus Grompe, who studies liver stem cells at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. "No one can make the real lookalike for any cell type that I'm aware of," he says.

Background Check

Stem cells cultured in labs are known to build up mutations (see Gene defects plague stem-cell lines), so, to check that their changes weren't making things worse, the researchers sequenced the genome of one of the corrected iPS cell lines and compared it to the genomes of the parental skin cells and the uncorrected iPS cells. Around two dozen mutations had arisen in the uncorrected iPS cell compared with the parental skin cell, but there were only a few extra point mutations in the corrected cell lines.

"The genetic correction doesn't increase the number of genetic anomalies that you can find in iPS cells," says Ludovic Vallier, a stem-cell biologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, and one of the study's co-authors. Nevertheless, Vallier is concerned about the number of changes in the reprogrammed cell lines. Before the cells can be developed into a clinical therapy, researchers must understand the biological consequences of these mutations, he says.

Such sequencing should become standard in the field, says Stephen Duncan, a stem-cell biologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Given discoveries about these cells in culture, "we have to ensure that when one takes on gene-replacement therapy in the context of iPS cells, very considerable effort is made to make sure the cells are normal", he says.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on October 12, 2011.

Character Journal - London Is Ablaze

London, 2038