MoAr BiKiE mAdNeSs

Posted on March 26, 2009 by @ndy

Bikies.

Drugs. Guns. Violence.

The women who love the men who love the lifestyle.

In Sweden, the Hells Angels are allegedly @ war with the Black Cobras… and criminal gangs are mushrooming (according to state authorities). In Denmark, police have arrested members of the Bandidos on drugs and weapons violations. This forms the latest chapter in an ongoing crackdown on criminal gang activity: “Last year, police managed to charge and convict a record number of criminal elements within biker groups and immigrant gangs, according to the National Police Investigation Centre annual report on gang crime which is soon to be published. According to the report, police managed a record 400 convictions for serious crime involving members of the Hells Angels and its support group AK81, the Bandidos and five immigrant gangs” (Record arrests did not stop gang war, Politiken, March 17, 2009). On the same day, in the US, “Four… Hells Angels accused of ambushing, beating and stabbing [Bandidos] members… on July 29, 2007, pleaded guilty to reduced felony charges Monday and received five-year suspended sentences and $4,000 fines” (Hells Angels plead, Ginger Shiras, Harrison Daily Times).

In Geelong, “A MASSIVE weapons and drugs cache was found at the home of the grandparents whose grandsons have been charged with the murder of Bandidos bikie Ross Brand, a court heard today [March 13]”.

In Sydney…

On Saturday March 14, Abdul Qadier Darwiche was shot dead. One of the men wanted for questioning over his murder is Mohamed “Blackie” Fahda; the younger brother of Ahmad Fahda, a Razzak family associate murdered in 2003 (Suspect in Darwiche murder is named, Dylan Welch, Sydney Morning Herald, March 19, 2009).

Ahmad was linked to the Razzak family, who were fighting the Darwiche family over drug territory. Two men have been convicted for the murder and Adnan “Eddie” Darwiche, serving a life sentence for two related murders, was convicted of soliciting the hit.

A community source says Fahda spent the past six years blaming Abdul Darwiche, 37, among others, for the murder of his brother. Police have spent the past five days investigating the murder of Darwiche on Saturday and raided a house in Wiley Park on Tuesday night. They have been unable to find Fahda, whom they suspect of committing the murder.

Investigators fear the tensions between the two families will remain at dangerous levels. The situation between the Razzak and Darwiche families may also be providing a convenient smokescreen for other people to settle scores.

That may be why the Auburn home of a senior Bandidos motorcycle club member, Mahmoud Dib, was hit by about a dozen bullets on Monday morning.

According to Arjun Ramachandran and Dylan Welch, “RELATIVES of members of the bikie club Notorious may have been targeted in one of two drive-by shootings in Sydney’s west early yesterday” (Family bikie link seen in shooting, Sydney Morning Herald, March 20, 2009).

Police said the homes might have been targeted because of the occupants’ links to Notorious. “We believe there may be links between the two locations and … the Notorious criminal group,” said the commander of the Gangs Squad, Detective Superintendent Mal Lanyon.

The Herald understands the mother of Notorious’s sergeant-at-arms is the owner of the Doonside home.

The attacks may be retaliation for a drive-by shooting at the house of a senior member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club’s Blacktown chapter early on Monday. Notorious is suspected of being behind that shooting, as well as attacks on the Nomads’ clubhouse in Marrickville and the Hells Angels’ clubhouse in Petersham in recent months.

Notorious, thought to have been formed in 2007, is run by a Lebanese-Australian Christian with longstanding links to one of Sydney’s most well-known underworld families. Police and underworld sources have indicated that Notorious is relying heavily on “Islander muscle” and has opened a clubhouse in Kings Cross – an area traditionally treated as neutral by the older clubs.

“Since Notorious have been around things have been getting hotter and hotter,” an underworld source told the Herald.

“If [the Notorious president] and his crew were taken [out of the equation] things would calm down really f—ing quickly.”

On Sunday, March 22, Anthony Zervas, brother of Hells Angel Peter Zervas, was beaten to death at Sydney Airport (‘Come on boys, let’s go’- battle cry that led to a brutal killing, Dylan Welch, Rick Feneley, Bellinda Kontominas and Arjun Ramachandran, Sydney Morning Herald, March 24, 2009).

…some critical background on this conflict. On February 4, an explosion tore apart the facade of the Hells Angels City Crew clubhouse at Petersham. Police suspected Notorious, a group commonly misnamed as a bikie gang. Most of its members, while they compete for turf with bike gangs over the amphetamine trade, are not bikies in the traditional sense. They rarely ride bikes and travel in black-tinted luxury four-wheel-drives. But criminal sources say the bombing culprits were not from Notorious but the Comanchero.

Four days later, four men wearing Hells Angels colours kneecapped a 33-year-old man near a Christian motorcycle show at Silverwater. That man, sources say, was a Comanchero.

These were just two of dozens of violent attacks involving bikies in Sydney in the past year. Not all are related but all point to a growing willingness to shed blood, even when children are present. On Monday morning last week, a bullet that struck the Auburn house of Mahmoud Dib, a senior Bandido, came close to striking his four-year-old son.

Four Comanchero members have been charged with affray over Sunday’s airport brawl.

So, on the one hand, Hells Angels & Bandidos vs. Comanchero & Notorious. On the other hand, Razzak vs. Darwiche. (Plus, the rival MCs/gangs are reportedly recruiting allies. “Notorious has aligned itself with the Rebels and the Bandidos have joined forces with the Auburn-based Brothers 4 Life street gang”: Rival bikie gangs recruiting allies for war, Kara Lawrence, The Daily Telegraph, March 26, 2009.)

The bikie scene has been in flux since Notorious formed in 2007. The new club has demonstrated a violent streak that has alarmed traditional clubs.

As a result, other gangs have responded in kind. In October last year, men believed to be associated with the Comanchero gang exploded a bomb under the Notorious president’s car at Lane Cove.

Notorious is believed to be associated with a powerful Sydney crime family that controls valuable drug turf in the inner city. The drug trade is believed to be behind much of the escalating violence.

The warring gangs might take note of one of Notorious’s mottos: “Only the dead see the end of war.”

But then there’s Rebels and Nomads too [Daily Telegraph, PDF]. And Finks. And Gypsy Jokers. And Black Uhlans, Coffin Cheaters, Fourth Reich, Outlaws, and who knows what else.

Arthur Veno, probably.

Finally, in Canberra, two more murders (March 24) have been blamed on bikies. Rick Roberts, 57, a former leader of the Rebels MC in Perth, and another man, 48, were shot dead on Tuesday. Police have accused Russell Field, 20, of the murders (Accused’s court appearance cancelled over fears of revenge, Noel Towell and Victor Violante, Sydney Morning Herald, March 26, 2009).

See also : BiKiE mAdNeSs! (August 18, 2008) | Arthur Veno, The Brotherhoods: Inside the Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, Allen and Unwin, 2002 | Jay (Bird) Dobyns with Nils Johnson-Shelton, No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of The Hells Angels, Crown, 2009

Bonus!

Posted in !nataS, State / Politics | Leave a comment

Blood & Honour hacked

Posted on March 25, 2009 by @ndy

“alright there mate,im new on the forum and read your post “what a wanker” about slack bastard,would that be the prick @ndy?and is slack bastard an aus site?i told him that they should all be lined up and shot for slagging off ian stuart,hes a mouthy twat.”

“That’s the one. He’s a mouthy cunt for somebody who hides behind a computer screen.”

*sob*

Blood & Honour — sometimes also referred to as ‘Benson & Hedges’ — is an international neo-Nazi network. It is split into two rival factions. In August last year, hackers broke into the secure server of one of the factions, before dumping the data elsewhere. In March 2009, hackers have done it again, making available to the general public hundreds of private messages on the bloodandhonour.org site.

Hacked site : http://www.bloodandhonour.org/
Leak : http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Blood_and_Honour_international_Neo-Nazi_network_messages_and_passwords%2C_Mar_2009

    Blood and Honour returning very soon. . . . .

    We will NOT be Beaten!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: For Security

[Das_Renee] “Hello, I have a question. Some days ago, I read that the Antifa stole Informations from a blood and honour Forum. It was the homepage with .com. They wrote, that de swiss People which wrote “bad” things, they’ll get a punish. So I want to ask, could you maybe delete my profile? It’s just for Security. Thanks and have a good evening.”

[BlueEyedBlonde] “The forum was the C18 one, not us. Do you still want your profile deleted? Cheers BlueEyedBlonde”

Posted in Anti-fascism, Media | 5 Comments

G20 : Inner City Pressure + Global Economic Crisis = Anarchy in London

Posted on March 25, 2009 by @ndy

The G20 Summit in London in 2009 naturally brings to mind the G20 Summit in Melbourne in 2006.

As is well known by now, in Melbourne in November 2006 a group of masked New Zealanders — most of whom remain at-large — lead a mob of several hundred people in a rampage through city streets. The rioters (who chose, for reasons which remain unclear, to dress as ghosts), were armed with hundreds of balloons and condoms full of urine, which they indiscriminately threw on both police and terrified shoppers. Many of those participating were later revealed to be from overseas — England, Germany, Sweden — and interstate… and there is even some speculation that the group was actually being controlled by police from Auckland using a complex system of pipes, tubes, and string.

Both revolutionary Marxists and hardened reporters were appalled by what they saw. Cam Smith: “Halfway through the riot I began to worry that I’d never be able to write about it… I thought I was going to die out there on Russell Street”. Petite-bourgeois Working Families Party member Revolutionary proletarian socialist Bob Gould was angry. “The very act of people from outside a city invading a demonstration in another city with the clear intention of launching a semi-military attack on the cops, with their faces covered, irrespective of the consequences for the rest of the demonstrators, is a calculated political act directed against the bulk of the demonstrators.” Mick Armstrong was even more angry: “The anarchist crazies involved in the ultra-violence were in no serious sense part of the demo. Just like their black bloc mates in Europe they simply exploited the demo for their own purposes.”

Inner City Pressure

“Police have not yet finalised how many officers will be on duty during the summit, nor do they know exactly how many protesters will take part, although they say there is no indication that overseas anarchists are planning to travel.” (Anarchists warn of London G20 summit action, Reuters, March 19, 2009). Emma Alberici in London for AM: London prepares for violent G20 protests, ABC, March 24, 2009.

G20 anarchists plan wave of strikes against Canary Wharf and BT Tower
Kurt Jones
The Daily Telegraph
March 23, 2009

An anarchist group is planning to “switch off the lights” at some of London’s most iconic buildings, including Canary Wharf and the BT Tower, in the run up to the G20 summit in the capital next week, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

It is one of a series of “guerrilla-style” raids being planned by hard-core anti-capitalist protesters to cause disruption across London in the days before the key meeting of world leaders to discuss the economic crisis. The radicals hope the early raids will surprise police, who are focusing their efforts on controlling protests in the City on April 1 and 2, when the summit opens…

Global Economic Crisis, Or:

Jump! You Fuckers!

“…They will not jump, these people. They cannot easily accept that they are presiding over a system that must be replaced. They will not give way willingly to new ideas and a new reckoning with the problems facing the planet. The world will always be run by confident and impressionable men (mostly men), because they want power so badly…

I am not saying that we should push those responsible out of tall buildings to their deaths. I am not saying that. They will, if properly handled, do what is required.

But we do have to push them.”

Dan Hind, January 19, 2009 [PDF]

Nice title. Somewhat tepid conclusion. Thus while “The choice is not simply between state control and private capitalism” Hind maintains “The state needs to be more thoroughly democratised”. Then again: “Readers are welcome to revise the text and forward it with changes if you feel so moved.”

How about a little anarchy?

Anarchy in London, Or:

G20 : London’s Burning!

40 New Zealand anarchists still at large; London and Berlin tremble (March 1, 2009) Davos 2009 : Capitalism in Crisis (February 1, 2009)

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism | 6 Comments

Protect Australia First. Parties.

Posted on March 24, 2009 by @ndy
    Hitler visits a lunatic asylum. The patients give the Hitler salute. As he passes down the line he comes across a man who isn’t saluting.
    “Why aren’t you saluting like the others?” Hitler barks.
    “Mein Führer, I’m the nurse,” comes the answer. “I’m not crazy!”

In the struggle to Protect Australia and to put it First, I’m growing increasingly worried.

First, s h o c k news that, as a result of his recent massive upswing in popularity, ribald political commentary and overall fitness, John Drew (aka ‘Australia First Brisbane’ / ‘Patriotic Youth League’) has been cruelly jettisoned by the Party. Or to put it another way:

Due to ever increasing interest in myself rather than Australia First’s Brisbane Branch I have bought the domain name johndrew.net and am preparing a web site that will provide a wide array of information including a very interesting photo gallery. Estimated date of going online with this personal web site is early to mid April…

I advise that this web site will cease to be that of the Brisbane branch as of March 30 due to party member objections to some items of content and subsequent censorship by party officials. Another emerging party branch will utilise the domain name. I will be concentrating on my other interests one of which is the development of a fitness training/social group for gays. I will also be active in Brisbane Sun Boys.

As keen, sun-bronzed young men across Australia know, ‘Brisbane Sun Boys’ is a “Nudist Club for Gay and Bisexual Men, over the age of 18, in Southeast Queensland who enjoy this natural life style”.

A number of questions present themselves at this point.

For example:

In this sordid drama, is Dr James Saleam (Australia First NSW) — or perhaps even Jim Perren (Australia First Queensland) — playing the role of ‘Denise LaSalle’? And is John Drew acting out the part of ‘Long Dong Silver’?

Further:

Will the runaway success enjoyed by the Patriotic Youth League — which has attracted such prominent personalities as Stuart McBeth, Luke Connors, James Newman, Lachlan Black and John Drew — be endangered by John’s leaving?

    McBeth founded the PYL in Newcastle in 2002; he left in early 2005. Black was one of the founding members of the New South Wales branch of One Nation in 1997. He is now a member of the APP in the ACT.

Will Peter Watson, the Patriotic Youth from Warwick, now step forward and transform his powerful party machine the Stalinist League into a Nationalist Association 4 Yoof?

If Peter does join, will he get brain cancer from having the mobile phone pressed to his ear all day and all night, answering membership and media inquiries?

Only time will tell.

Elsewhere in Queensland, two AF supporters have bravely gone to the polls: Peregrine John Beverley Jewell and Peter Schuback. Neither gained an especially impressive number of votes, naturally, but their participation is (presumably) yet another giant stride forward for Australia.

Or is it?

On the other side of the White nationalist divide, the Australian Protectionist Party is… still protecting Australia. Like AF, the APP struggles with the political legacy of Dr James Saleam, who has recently denounced — again — the APP for its alleged support for Zionism. That is, The Jew.

The leading spokesperson for the APP is Darrin Hodges. Darrin is one of a number of former AF members, including Mark Wilson, to abandon Herr Doktor.

“i have some good colour footage (no sound) of Adolf Hitler at The Berghoff. PM me if you want a copy of the footage” Darrin once wrote on Stormfront, but since then he has displaced his fear and loathing of The Jew on to The Muslim, who, together with The Asian, The Black, The Greens, The Red and The Queer, now constitute the gravest threats to Australia.

Word on The Street is that The Jew, The Muslim, The Red and The Asian are led by

A Half-Human, Half-Lesbian, Half-Machine, Half-Asian, Half-Cyborg Future President of the Future United States of Asia!

Below is e x c l u s i v e footage of the Future President of the Future United States of Asia after being informed of the growing resistance to the politics of New World Order liberal-globalist-capitalism throughout Australia (and in the rest of the world) and shortly before boarding her EL AL Airlines flight bound for Toowoomba:

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism | 20 Comments

Ah Queensland. Pretty much the same as it was yesterday.

Posted on March 24, 2009 by @ndy

After tearfully waving goodbye to Warwick, there were very few reasons to take an interest in the Queensland state election. Leaving just…

The Usual Suspects

Commies

There were two socialists standing for Parliament on March 21: Mike Crook in Sandgate and Sam Watson in South Brisbane.

Mike Crook in Sandgate

Mike received 359 (1.33%) votes, coming last of six candidates. Um… so yeah.

Sam Watson in South Brisbane

“One of the most prominent Murri campaigners in Brisbane”, Sam got 306 (1.42%) of votes, placing fifth. (There were nine candidates in total, with the three voted Most Popular Vocal Performer south of Brisbane between them sharing nine of every ten votes.)

Ein volk…

Rosa Lee Long is an archaism: the last gasp of the One Nation Party. “I have no other duties other than giving Dalrymple the best representation possible” said Rosa, which if true suggests that she needs a new hobby. Still, with around 7,000 votes (1/3), Rosa will obviously have many supporters with suggestions.

In Condamine, Rod Watson thrashed the Independent Stephanie Bugg, 703 votes to 257, and proved to be only slightly less popular than The Greens.

…ein Reich…

Peregrine John Beverley Jewell failed to place his sweaty hands on the levers of Government power again in 2009. Peregrine tested his popularity at the polls in Toowoomba North and gained 438 votes (1.75%) for his trouble, 98.25% of the people apparently failing to realise the peril they are facing in the New World Order liberal-globalist-capitalist conspiracy.

In Hervey Bay, Peter Schuback proved once again that the road to Parliament is a long one for Independents, gaining 1,086 votes (4.97%), a slight drop in popularity since he last tilted at the political windmill.

As noted previously, this is not Peter’s first crack at a seat in Parliament. In 1998, Schuback got 1107 votes — outpolling the LaRouchite candidate (and thereby avoiding last place). In 2001, Peter put forward his platform in the Rockhampton electorate as a candidate for the short-lived City Country Alliance. In a three-horse race, Peter again came last, winning a respectable 2,056 votes (8.9%). (In the 2001 Federal election, Peter stood as an Independent in the seat of Capricornia. For his troubles, he received 512 votes, or 0.7%.) In 2006, again contesting Hervey Bay, he gained 1,607 votes (5.82%), coming last of five candidates.

Nein Führer?!?

Finally, The Wicked Witch from Ipswich may have blown her last chance at gaining a Government job.

Ms Hanson’s candidacy in Beaudesert, south of Brisbane, attracted national media attention but not enough voters. She secured 22 per cent of the vote to run third behind Labor and the Liberal National Party winner Aiden McLindon…

The One Nation founder blamed the media for her loss, referring to the publication of raunchy photographs of a young woman erroneously claimed to be her in the mid-1970s by News Limited Sunday newspapers.

Bonus! Long Dong Silver

Posted in State / Politics | 33 Comments

White Pride World Wide*

Posted on March 23, 2009 by @ndy

Readers,

March 21 is the ‘International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’, but Angry Aryans claim it as ‘White Pride World Wide Day’ aka ‘People Of European Origin With Pale Complexions In Calgary And Christchurch Who Choose To Celebrate Their Wise Choice Of Parents By Waving Flags In Public Day’. Thus, of a global population of over 1,000,000 people, sadly, only 100 or so (one millionth of one per cent) decided to take to the streets of cities in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Canada yesterday.

Christchurch

About 30 people gathered in Christchurch on Saturday in a demonstration of white pride. The demonstration involved a silent march from Cathedral Square to Victoria Square. It was organised by the Nationalist Alliance. The majority of participants were boneheads wearing black tee-shirts, army pants, black boots and carried placards saying “equals rights for whites”. Chairman Kyle Chapman says white people are often subject to racism but his group has no negative feelings toward other ethnicities. The march coincided with the United Nation’s international day for the elimination of racial discrimination.

Calgary

In Calgary, between 30 but perhaps as many as 60 (or even 85!) members of the Aryan Guard attempted to jackboot their way to the City Hall. In this effort, the neo-Nazis were aided by several score police. “Ultimately, the Aryan Guard made it just three blocks for their drop-off point before being put aboard city busses by police and returned to their transportation.”

Naturally, their ability to place one foot in front of the other for a sustained period is being hailed as another glorious victory for the Master Race.

Probably the best source of info on the gathering of racist schmucks in Calgary is provided by the smart alecky Anti-Racist Canada. It also got heap ’em big infos on the Aryan Guard. And ah AuntieFa has video.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 5 Comments

Toward A Radical Political Economy Critique of Transnational Economic Laws

Posted on March 21, 2009 by @ndy

Posted in !nataS, Music, State / Politics | 6 Comments

VERY Ill Bill : Neo-Nazi White asks for new judge

Posted on March 20, 2009 by @ndy

Poor old Bill. It’s hard enough trying to be a Hollywood Nazi, let alone Fuehrer, but Bill — aka William A. White — has gotten into trouble for his simply outrageous sense of humour. And for being the leader of the ‘American National Socialist Workers Party’ (July 2006–October 2008). And being a bankrupt. And ah, encouraging harm to a juror. Arrested in October, Bill is now seeking a new judge. Thus:

Neo-Nazi White asks for new judge
Laurence Hammack
Roanoke Times
March 19, 2009

A neo-Nazi who once applauded the murder of a Chicago judge’s family members should have a judge from outside that city preside over his trial, defense lawyers and prosecutors said. William A. White of Roanoke, who is awaiting trial in Chicago on a charge of encouraging violence against a juror, had asked for a new judge based on his own Internet writings from four years ago. Shortly after the husband and mother of federal Judge Joan Lefkow were found shot to death in their Chicago home, White wrote on his Web site that he didn’t feel bad about the crime. “In fact, when I heard the story I laughed,” White wrote in a post that credited white supremacists for the killings.” ‘Good for them!’ was my first thought.”

…No trial date has been set for White. Judge William Hibbler is expected to rule on the motion for a new judge by April 2, the next scheduled hearing in the case.

D’oh!

Joan Lefkow was of course the Judge that ruled against Pontifex Maximus Matt Hale‘s use of the term “Church of the Creator” in a trademark infringement case in July 2002.

Hale raged against the judge. In early December, he sent out an E-mail about the case that quoted from The White Man’s Bible. “We have every right to declare [Jews] open criminals for violating the Constitution,” he wrote. “They then obviously are the criminals and we can then treat them like the criminal dogs that they are and take the law into our own hands. This is the obvious, logical thing to do. We must then meet force with force, and open warfare exists.”

Hale went to jail in April 2005, sentenced to 40 years in a federal prison after a judge gave him the maximum sentence for plotting to assassinate a federal judge: Joan Lefkow.

The Religion Formerly Known As The (World) Church of the Creator/RaHoWa (COTC, WCOTC, WCOTR), is now known as ‘The Creativity Movement’: “The Creativity Movement is a Professional, Non-Violent, Progressive Pro-White Religion. We promote White Civil Rights, White Self-Determination, and White Liberation via 100% legal activism. We do not promote, tolerate nor incite illegal activity.”

TCM also endorse the work of Combat-18. Australian fans of Combat-18 have been accused of stealing the ashes of David Lane, which are due to be scattered by pea-brained White supremacists in Perth any day now.

In the small town of Splitsville, USA, TCM is pitted against ‘The Creativity Alliance’. In Australia, the pointy TCM hat sits on the head of Patrick O’Sullivan. (See: Creative (and c r e e p y) Australians, November 3, 2008.)

As for Bill, in September last year he gave an interview (‘Stunned’ white supremacists keep low profile in campaign, Jim Rutenberg, October 21, 2008). According to Rutemberg:

…the leadership [of the radical right in the US] is plagued by scandal and infighting in the absence of a unifying group like the Ku Klux Klan, which is no longer pre-eminent even among open racists, or figures like the former KKK leader David Duke, whose power waned after he was convicted on fraud charges early this decade. Duke has, in fact, written positively about the prospect of Obama’s being elected, though arguing it would stir a white backlash and “result in a dramatic increase in our ranks.”

“There’s a real problem,” White said in the interview last month, “in what’s called the ‘white movement.’ One, there’s a lot of people who are just mentally ill, and we deal with those a lot. No. 2, there are people who have serious sexual problems.”

White, 31, who says he has a following of at least 1,200 people, considers himself a reformer in the white movement. A landlord of low-income tenants of all races, he devotes as much of his energy to attacking rival leaders he hopes to purge from the supremacist leadership as he does attacking Jews and blacks.

1,200 followers? Um, sure.

He certainly has very few friends.

Posted in Anti-fascism | 8 Comments

Fighting Fantasy!

Posted on March 19, 2009 by @ndy

Ha!

D&D is a far out game, there’s a 4th Edition, and Cry Havoc has a dedicated site.

Now I discover that another, er, childhood favourite, has undergone a renaissance: Fighting Fantasy.

For the benefit of those who’ve never heard of them[?!?], Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks would consist of around 400 short numbered passages of text. Typically they would tell a Tolkein-like story, but the reader / player would be given options as to how they wanted the story to develop. This involved presenting a choice of numbered passages to read next.

There were also other rules, generally to do with rolling dice at appropriate moments: to determine the outcomes of fights, or the performance of difficult physical feats.

As a kid, I read several Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. Many years later, while teaching myself CGI programming, I remembered them and felt that Fighting Fantasy would make an interesting subject to practice on. As a programming exercise, I wrote the software featured on this website.

The idea is that the software should be able to drive any Fighting Fantasy Gamebook, so long as the rules don’t deviate too far from the basic system. It’s just a question of adapting the books into the correct format. I have done this with several amateur gamebooks, this website is the result.

The BBC has a neat-o summary of the history of the series here. I used to have copies of the first few titles — The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1982); The Forest of Doom (1983); Island of the Lizard King (1984) — and if I didn’t, my mates did. I also collected Warlock magazine and the Sorcery! series.

So there.

Honourable mention: Illuminati, produced by Steve Jackson Games (US not UK).

They’re all around us. Secret conspiracies are everywhere, and where can you find the only truth? Certainly not in the game of Illuminati. Fnord.

The object of Illuminati is to take control of the world. The phone company is controlled by creatures from outer space. The Congressional Wives have taken over the Pentagon. And the Boy Sprouts are cashing in their secret Swiss bank account to smash the IRS! Two to six players compete to grab powerful groups and increase their wealth and power. No ploy is too devious, no stratagem too low, as you scheme your way to victory.

dORKS aDVOCATING tOTAL @

Posted in Media | Leave a comment

Token post on (fuck) Internet censorship

Posted on March 19, 2009 by @ndy
    Update : Wikileaks is down — the Top Secret ACMA Banlist is here. Oddly, dates are given alongside URLs, and range from June 1, 2007 to August 1, 2008. When Google censors the blog, it will presumably pop up elsewhere. ‘ACMA list of prohibited and potentially prohibited overseas hosted content’, ACMA, March 19, 2009: “The Australian Communications and Media Authority is aware that a list purporting to be the ‘ACMA blacklist’ has been posted on an overseas website. ACMA does not consider that the release and promotion of URLs relating to illegal and highly offensive material is responsible…”

Dentist, tuckshop cited on web blacklist
Asher Moses
The Age
March 19, 2009

Leaked Australian blacklist reveals banned sites
Asher Moses
Sydney Morning Herald
March 19, 2009

machine-gun keyboard has moar, as can Danny Yee. “Broadband and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says a list claiming to be the communication regulator’s blacklist for a proposed internet filtering system is not the real blacklist. He has condemned Wikileaks, the website that published the list, as “grossly irresponsible”.” (Leaked blacklist irresponsible, inaccurate: Conroy, Nic MacBean, ABC, March 19, 2009).

Oh yeah:

Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day
Asher Moses
Sydney Morning Herald
March 17, 2009

“The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks. Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark’s list of banned websites…”

Wikileaks is inaccessible for this user. YOU! can test its connect-ability-ness here.

Guy Rundle whinges from London:

Rundle: there is no bigger issue than net censorship
Crikey
March 18, 2009

“With the news that communications watchdog ACMA has put some pages of Wikileaks on its list of banned links — and threatened linkers with five-figure daily fines — the fight against the compulsory internet filtering enters a new and vital stage.

Wikileaks — the document repository, no association with Wikipedia — has published the list of sites banned by the Danish government, and these pages have been put on the blacklist, presumably as part of a worldwide compact, formal or otherwise, between national web censorship authorities.

Of course, the ACMA decision doesn’t affect many people at the moment, only sites hosted from Australia. But should mandatory filtering be introduced, the pages would be blocked for everyone. As would the pages telling you which pages had been blocked. And the pages telling you the pages that tell you the … and so on, a repressive tower…”

    No Clean Feed:

    What is the ‘Clean Feed’?

    “The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access.

    Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home.”

    Electronic Frontiers Australia:

    “Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. (EFA) is a non-profit national organisation representing Internet users concerned with on-line freedoms and rights. EFA was established in January 1994 and incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act (S.A.) in May 1994.

    EFA is independent of government and commerce and is funded by membership subscriptions and donations from individuals and organisations with an altruistic interest in promoting online civil liberties…”

    Somebody Think Of The Children!:

    ‘Iron’ Mike Meloni Thinks Of The Children. He is also NetAlarmed. You should join him.

Posted in Media | 1 Comment