One time someone asked me who I thought would win in a fight:  Azathoth or Toschi the Deathless.  I said Azathoth.  I was right.

Yes, these are the kinds of discussions that come about when two fantasy/sci-fi/folklore nerds get together and don't have anything better to do.

A man in Atlanta gets "interviewed" by the FBI because someone reported he was reading something that looked suspicious:

Trippi's partner speaks up: "Any reading material? Papers?" I don't think so. Then Trippi decides to level with me: "I'll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that's why we're here, just checking it out. Like I said, there's no problem. We'd just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can't, then you may have a problem. And you don't want that."

You don't want that? Have I just been threatened by the FBI? Confusion and a light dusting of panic conspire to keep me speechless. Was I reading something that morning? Something that would constitute a problem?

Read the whole thing for his experience, or if you want to know what diabolical document he was reading at the time (or if you want to know what inspired the title of this post).

My co-worker, Craig, says that we should probably be thankful the FBI takes these things seriously; I say it seems like a dark day when an American citizen regards reading as a threat, and downright pitch-black when the federal government agrees.

You got that right.

Via EFF.

From Unspeakable Vault (Of Doom).

Check out Esquire's list of The Seven Wonders of the Totalitarian World.

The new Seven Wonders of the World are nice. Too nice. These seven wonders aren't, celebrating the greatness that men do in the name of evil.

Via Dark Roasted Blend.

The dice that I thought had been stolen many years ago have been found.  I must have stashed them away and forgotten they were there.

My wife, while looking for something else, found a plain white box which held an old USA puzzle that I used to play with as a kid, some Yahtzee scorepads and a set of standard issue Yahtzee dice, and a whole bunch of polyhedrons.

The original red dice that came with the Basic D&D set are in there--the ones made of plastic so soft that the corners rounded off as you used them.  Plus two or three full sets of other polys that I used for DMing, and my special two sets, one white and one transparent--and set apart in a small leather dice bag, that I used when I was a PC instead of the DM.

Also there are 2d6 that are black with a skull and crossbones in place of the one-dot.  I don't remember where they came from.  I probably picked them up because they looked cool or something.

Now I guess I can start teaching the kids how to play Call of Cthulhu.

This poll on gun control bypasses all the mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy gobbledygook and gets right to the heart of the matter.

Take the Poll to Take the Pulse of America About Gun Control by Bill Koehler.  Or better yet, ask these questions of the next anti you run into.