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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: leisnj48@****.cis.uwosh.edu leisnj48@****.cis.uwosh.edu
Subject: Tech on TV Shows
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 15:50:23 -0600 (CST)
With the introduction of that Kate Mulgrew show on fighting, I thought I'd
start a new thread...welcome.

I remember a couple shows that could introduce some interesting
technology into the Shadowrun universe, and I was wondering if any of you
put them into play.

Two shows I remember: NonLethal Weapons (Discovery Channel), and one whose
name I can't remember, but it show-cased new innovations for cops. One
that I remember was a training module that used rubber bullets (cop's
gun), a movie screen, and a 'pellet gun' (that shot little plastic pellets
at the cop to simulate the perps firing at him/her).

I just realized that they might make pretty interesting inserts into a
campaign, new ways for runners to get the job done, and stuff.

Anyone else?



-Jared Leisner
leisnj48@*****.edu
Message no. 2
From: Ereskanti@***.com Ereskanti@***.com
Subject: Tech on TV Shows
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 22:47:51 EDT
In a message dated 9/2/1999 3:51:15 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
leisnj48@****.cis.uwosh.edu writes:

> I remember a couple shows that could introduce some interesting
> technology into the Shadowrun universe, and I was wondering if any of you
> put them into play.
>
<snip>
>
> I just realized that they might make pretty interesting inserts into a
> campaign, new ways for runners to get the job done, and stuff.

I also really liked the show on "Spies" that was being done by the History
Channel with all those little gadgets and neat things used by the various
intelligence/counter-intelligence agencies world over. That poison
introduced by way of simple injection that needed a sugar coated ball to
retain in the body was AWESOME. I think the poison was Ricine or something
similar. More than 100X the strength of Cyanide.

-K
Message no. 3
From: abortion_engine abortion_engine@*******.com
Subject: Tech on TV Shows
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 22:06:28 -0400
> I also really liked the show on "Spies" that was being done by the History
> Channel with all those little gadgets and neat things used by the various
> intelligence/counter-intelligence agencies world over. That poison
> introduced by way of simple injection that needed a sugar coated ball to
> retain in the body was AWESOME. I think the poison was Ricine or
something
> similar. More than 100X the strength of Cyanide.
>
> -K
>
Ricin. Made from the castor bean. Injected or absorbed by something like
DMSO [yes, it does really exist today], it takes a week to kill. Injested it
takes about two. You start with the symptoms of a cold, move on to the flu,
and then just die of systemic shock. And it doesn't show up in a
post-mortem, because the only remaining by-product naturally occurs in
humans anyway.

Unfortunately, ricin has become popular enough that someone who "just dies"
of systemic shock after the above symptoms is going to be regarded as a lot
more suspicious today than five years ago. And there are certain post-mortem
techniques now that look [with mixed results] for elevated levels of the
by-product.

By the same token, there are ricin derivitives that work much faster, leave
less traces, etc. It's a long-running arms race. But ricin is still by far
the best poison, in my opinion, for its mixture of
time-for-you-to-find-an-alibi, lethality [virtually guaranteed, and even if
someone guesses that they've been exposed, there is no cure], and
undetectablity.

Further Reading

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Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!