Enjoyed: The Shakedown
The Shakedown by BaronBookmarked: Bjork’s Wanderlust Video
Pretty amazing....Can you be history? Force of Ribbons
June 25th 2009 sees Force of Ribbons release a more politically charged exposition including images from popular documentary upon American history. Common themes are western epistemology, western influence, culture vs. Nature, and more. Unsigned, Force of Ribbons, follows their natural evolution and progression towards an uncertain future.Enjoyed: Quantum
Quantum by KeinzweiterRead: Ron Paul: Praises Obama on Iran, Is “Dr. No” on Protestor Support Resolution
Shared by Gabriel Kent
Well put Dr. Paul...
From Rep. Paul's statement:
I rise in reluctant opposition to H Res 560, which condemns the Iranian government for its recent actions during the unrest in that country. While I never condone violence, much less the violence that governments are only too willing to mete out to their own citizens, I am always very cautious about “condemning” the actions of governments overseas. As an elected member of the United States House of Representatives, I have always questioned our constitutional authority to sit in judgment of the actions of foreign governments of which we are not representatives.....I have admired President Obama’s cautious approach to the situation in Iran and I would have preferred that we in the House had acted similarly.
I adhere to the foreign policy of our Founders, who advised that we not interfere in the internal affairs of countries overseas. I believe that is the best policy for the United States, for our national security and for our prosperity. I urge my colleagues to reject this and all similar meddling resolutions.
Unsurprisingly, he was the only "no" vote on H. Res 560.
Also unsurprisingly, the nuances of Paul's consistent constitutionalist and non-interventionist position on foreign policy, and the potential dangers of an atmosphere in which other nations democratic bonafides are being "supported" in any way by the U.S., are missed utterly over at Wonkette.
Read: Rights for Robots
Shared by Gabriel Kent
I am all for (strong AI) robot's rights, even humans that act like robots (what do I care, its their choice!). However, accountability is part of the game and humans can and should be held accountable for their actions, no matter where their freedoms take them.
I understand that in the United States there are still those who think that the machinery of government can be used as a substitute for personal responsibility on the part of the governed. This idea, as we know only too well in Britain, is the open road to disaster. It changes persons with responsibilities into robots with rights.
Read: The Case Against the Fed
Shared by Gabriel Kent
The U.S. really needs to put the merits of the Fed back on the table for discussion. This collective mist that hides the Fed from the public's careful scrutiny is just mind bending.
The Federal Reserve System is accountable to no one; it has no budget; it is subject to no audit; and no Congressional committee knows of, or can truly supervise, its operations. The Federal Reserve, virtually in total control of the nation's vital monetary system, is accountable to nobody — and this strange situation, if acknowledged at all, is invariably trumpeted as a virtue.
Read: Is Democracy for the Demos?
Shared by Gabriel Kent
To read... also, it isn't said enough: there is nothing special about 51%. Our forefather hated the idea of democracy. The structure of our government (a consitutional republic) was defined the way it was to protect the minority from mob rule. This whole democraze is insane and goes against the founding principals of our nation.
Who benefits from democracy? To believe the standard reply, the masses — the demos — benefit from majority rule. I no longer accept that notion. That's because I recently finished Étienne de La Boétie's The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. The book is powerful, indeed.
Read: Killing in War
Shared by Gabriel Kent
hmmm... this might just be worth reading.
Jeff McMahan has written a genuinely revolutionary book. He has uncovered a flaw in standard just-war theory. The standard view sharply separates the morality of going to war, jus ad bellum, from the morality of warfare, jus in bello. Whether or not a war is just does not affect the morality of how war is to be conducted. Soldiers are forbidden to violate the laws of war; but no greater restrictions are imposed on those who fight in an unjust cause than on those whose cause meets the requirements of jus ad bellum. This is exactly what McMahan rejects. Soldiers in an unjust cause have, for the most part, no right at all to engage in violent action against soldiers in a just cause. Not only do they lack moral standing to engage in aggressive warfare; they cannot legitimately even engage in defensive war, in most circumstances.
McMahan states his basic thesis in this way:
"The contention of this book is that common sense beliefs about the morality of killing in war are deeply mistaken. The prevailing view is that in a state of war, the practice of killing is governed by different moral principles from those that govern acts of killing in other contexts. This presupposes that it can make a difference to the moral permissibility of killing another person whether one's political leaders have declared a state of war with that person's country. According to the prevailing view, therefore, political leaders can sometimes cause other people's moral rights to disappear simply by commanding their armies to attack them. When stated in this way, the received view seems obviously absurd. (p. vii)"
Read: Price Fixing in Ancient Rome
Shared by Gabriel Kent
More empirical evidence for the failure of price control policy. A.D. 54-2009, price controls have a horribly long history.
Nero (A.D. 54–68) began with small devaluations and matters became worse under Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161–180) when the weights of coins were reduced. "These manipulations were the probable cause of a rise in prices," according to Levy. The Emperor Commodus (A.D.180–192) turned once again to price controls and decreed a series of maximum prices, but matters only became worse and the rise in prices became "headlong" under the Emperor Caracalla (A.D. 211–217)
Read: Chasing Down a Healthier Heart: Cryptozoology is Hard Work
Shared by Gabriel Kent
The American Heart Association's ARG progresses...
I saw a ninja rabbit this weekend.
Even for San Francisco, that’s a little out of the ordinary. But if Jane McGonigal and the American Heart Association have their way, you’ll be seeing a lot more of the elusive ninja rabbit and its cryptid compatriots over the coming months as part of Cryptozoo.
Cryptozoo (pronounced crypto ZO-oh) asks players to put themselves in the role of cryptozoologists, searching the city streets for cryptid tracks in the hope of a rare encounter with an elusive cryptid. Each cryptid has a particular method of running, and will be scared away unless the cryptid chasers match its movements. For example, cryptozoologists searching for a Slamina run backwards, making sure they don’t step on any cracks. More competitive cryptozoologists can challenge teams to a race mimicking one of the thirteen different species of cryptids. Players keep track of their steps with pedometers, and after completing 5,000 steps are inducted as official Cryptozoologists.
The first two official Cryptozoo chases occurred in San Francisco on June 5th and June 7th. Next week, the game is moving to New York City, where cryptic cryptid clues will be broadcast on the MTV screen in Times Square on June 12th from 11PM to 1AM. A second chase will occur in New York City on June 13th.
The game was spawned due to a prediction from the Institute for the Future that by 2019, the dividing line between exercise and play would erode. The American Heart Association challenged IFTF to make it happen sooner, and Jane McGonigal and her team picked up the gauntlet. Drawing heavily upon parkour for inspiration, Cryptozoo lowered the barrier for entry of the activity by focusing on simple tasks that transform urban environments into playgrounds such as running along curbs, sliding under railings, using parking meters as vaults, and spinning around trees. Natalie Cartwright created character designs and costumes for the various cryptids to add an additional layer of adventure to the experience. San Francisco cryptid chasers encountered a Slamina, Triptree, and Ninja Rabbit. Large gatherings of players organized on the Cryptozoo homepage may lead to additional appearances of wild cryptids.
Chasing cryptids is tiring work, but the experience is fun. Really fun. A number of random passerby joined the group for Friday’s late night run through the SoMA streets and gardens. And although this past weekend was the official launch of Cryptozoo, multiple groups met up in the United States, England, and New Zealand to give the game a try. Jane McGonigal explains that as people interact with their environment more in their day to day lives, there’s less of a need to go to the gym to get a workout. Her hope is that players will start to look around their communities and wonder:
Wouldn’t it be fun if I…
Read: Mazda 33 Keys - The soul has been found
Shared by Gabriel Kent
Another quite successful ARG.
On May 15th, 2009, over 60 participants in the Mazda 33 Keys ARG met in a Montreal warehouse, led by Pat Martin. Their goals: defeating the Unifos (the ARG’s bad guys), liberating Xira and, ultimately, to finally understand that the soul they were given the mission to recover by Reperio was none other than the Zoom Zoom of the new 2010 Mazda 3.
This ultimate stage in the interactive fiction (developed by Doner Canada and 1976 Productions on behalf of Mazda Canada) gathered all the players who had collected the keys — using various clues dispersed online, on television and radio broadcasts, on posters and in the field — to finally find out which of those keys would unlock the coveted car. Amélie Tremblay was the lucky owner of the winning key. Amélie and her famliy were very active players in the ARG and managed to find a total of seven keys!
It is obviously quite a satisfaction for the puppetmaster — as well as for the winner! — when that person worked really hard for the prize.
This ARG was developed exclusively for the French speaking market in the province of Quebec and was 1976 Productions’ first experience in the genre, and they got the bug! I met with Stéphane Raymond and Guillaume Bilodeau who told me the story behind the Mazda 33 Keys project.
“When we saw the amount of comments and also all the people that went looking for Pat Martin using GPS coordinates, we thought ‘This is unreal!’ I really, really loved it! The players were really absorbed by the gameplay. As the weeks went by, as soon as the White shepherd appeared, more and more people showed up, to the point where it became hard to hide the keys because we could always spot someone nearby with a cell phone ready to broadcast information about the game,” Stéphane told me.
The game started in mid-march with the distribution of flyers and other clues that led to the game’s rabbit hole, http://autocontrole.ca. Using a very rich cross-media campaign and the help of Dominic Arpin, a very well known technology and new media TV personality, the game had quite a timid start but gained momentum at a respectable pace. All in all, 20,000 players had some form of of interaction with the game and joined the “revolution” whose goal was to find a soul, with the help of an artificial intelligence named Reperio. According to official numbers, over 13% of the 20,000 players were active throughout the game play. This is a very respectable score given the restricted geographical area targeted by this campaign.
The 1976 Production team can be proud to have created a rich and exciting experience which turned out to be a very informative one, and a great success to boot. “There’s no doubt that we’re going to do more of those,” said a confident Stéphane Raymond, who is planning another immersive fiction, but a pan-Canadian one this time.
To learn more about this ARG, you can still visit Reperio’s website (www.reperio.ca) which offers a very interesting selection of the game’s archives. The follwing URLs are also still active:
patrickdeshawi.ca
twitter.com/patmartin
qik.com/patmartin
La Croix Verte (The Green Cross), an evil organization that we’ll hear more from in the future
unifos.org
Rabbit hole: autocontrole.ca
Other miscellaneous facts (including game credits) about Mazda 33 Keys:
Client: Mazda Canada
Agency: Doner
Media: Astral Média-Mix
Social Media Consultant: Ze Agence et TxT MKT
Conception: Doner & 1976.
At 1976 Productions:
Creation/Production: Stéphane Raymond
Creation/Project Manager: Guillaume Bilodeau
Creation/Director: Hoda Adra
Creation/Social Media Manager: Marie-Sophie Desormeau
Gameplay/Puppetmaster/Actor: Thomas Pintal
Executive producer: Élaine Béliveau
Actors: Eve Duranceau, James Murray, Henri Pardo. Jean Provencher
Ghost Players: Marie Milette, Bachir Sirois-Moumni, Hugo Jacques
1976 Productions is a business that evolved around two main poles of traditional production: fiction and advertising. For the past two years, they company has been specializing in interactive and immersive environments. A thorough understanding of traditional productions and new medias have allowed them to create successful ARGs, such as the one developed for Mazda.
Geneviève Cardin is part of Baroblik Productions and was kind enough to be our correspondent for this article. We can’t thank her enough for being our French-speaking expert and for arranging the interview with the team behind the game.
Read: A Particularly ARGish Summer Reading List
Shared by Gabriel Kent
Cross-media books, the future of literature?
The idea of cross-media convergence is anything but a new concept. In the introduction to Rethinking Media Change, media studies scholar Henry Jenkins noted that in the 11th century, the Bayeux tapestry “combined both text and images, and was explicated in spoken sermons–a multi-media bridge between the oral culture of the peasants and the learned culture of the monasteries.” Many novelists are rediscovering the joys of crafting stories that go beyond the book in some form.
Back in December, Dr. Jamie Campbell Naidoo predicted that “[i]n the future and especially in 2009, the books that are popular will be much more interactive between the reader and the book.” Her theory will be tested over the next few months, as a plethora of cross-media books are hitting local retailers near you. If you’re interested in exploring a potential future for the publishing industry, here are a few recommendations of books that use cross-media elements to enrich the narrative.
Cathy’s Ring, by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman
On May 4, Jordan Weisman and Sean Stewart released the third and final book in a series of cross-media novels about an ordinary teenaged girl and her not-so-ordinary boyfriend. Each book comes with an evidence packet that continues the story through a series of clues that the novel’s protagonist encountered, in addition to intricate doodles in the margins. Some clues add depth to the story, while others forshadow the shocking revelations in future books. The first book in the series came under fire from consumer activists for its cross-promotional arrangement with Cover Girl.
Personal Effects: Dark Art, by J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman
Coming out on June 9, Personal Effects: Dark Art is taking cross-media to a new level. Like Cathy’s Ring, the book includes an evidence packet that extends the narrative through a series of clues. One of the characters in the novel, Rachael Webster, has been actively blogging for over six months, and recently landed a column on the Suicide Girls website as a cross-promotional effort. JC Hutchins is promoting the release of the hardcover novel by offering a podcast novel prequel, Personal Effects: Sword of Blood, for free on his website.
39 Clues: Beyond the Grave, by Jude Watson
On June 2, the fourth book in the 39 Clues series was released by Scholastic, Inc. The 10 book series follows the adventures of Dan and Amy Cahill as they compete with family members to uncover the secret of their family’s power. Each book is written by a different author, leading Time Magazine to refer to the series as “some lab-grown genetically engineered lifeform.” Websites, collectible trading cards, and the novels themselves propel readers through the mystery. Many libraries are capitalizing on the popularity of the series by creating 39 Clues Clubs that introduce chidren to the library and bring to bear the power of collective intelligence.
Other Books Worth Noting
In addition to their involvement with both Personal Effects: Dark Art and Cathy’s Ring, Smith and Tinker will be unveiling two new cross-media series: Nanovor and Lost Souls. The former will be supplemented by a video game and animated web series, while the latter will include a board game component.
And in case you’re interested in the underlying theories behind many of these projects, be sure to check out Pervasive Games: Theory and Design, due out on July 3. The authors have created a blog to continue the conversation past the publication date. Authors Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt have continued to update their Freakonomics blog four years after the novel’s publication date.
This list focuses on cross-media books coming out in the summer months. However, feel free to leave a comment if you have any other recommendations for books of an ARGish nature, regardless of publication date.
Read: Anatomy of an Implosion
Shared by Gabriel Kent
Not a bad little write-up about what not to do when running an indy ARG.
Editor’s Note: The original byline for this article had to be changed, as have some details in this article. Please see this article for an explanation.
If you’ve been playing indie ARGs for more than a couple days you’ve probably experienced a game that started off with a bang but ended with a whimper and a quiet death rattle. Most of us take a few moments to grieve the loss of the imploded game but quickly get over it and start looking for the start of another game. As someone who is drawn to the idea of creating my own games, I dwell over the loss of a game a little longer and crave a eulogy that helps me understand why the game didn’t reach it’s full potential. One of the biggest challenges in analyzing a failed game is that the creators of failed games rarely come forward afterward to share the behind-the-scenes missteps so that the rest of us can learn from their mistakes. So, with that said, I’d like to share why I stopped playing a recently staged game Tyler Greek (also named PHH Interception) and invite the creators of the game (and anyone else in the community who’s interested) to join the discussion.
Background:
Tyler Greek was the story’s protagonist who led a group of paramilitary soldiers in an alternate timeline where the TR Corporation unleashed an army of “super soldiers” on the world and destroyed most of the major US cities. Tyler, along with his tech support guy Jacob, were trying to provide humanitarian supplies for survivors and planning a counter-offensive against the TR Corporation minions.
The story was introduced and played out primarily on Twitter, YouTube, and through instant messenger chat clients like Skype and MSN Messenger. There was an attempt to deliver story elements on a TR Corporation website and on Tyler’s MySpace page along with some leaked documents which filled in some of the backstory, but those delivery mechanisms went stale soon after they were discovered.
Personally, I was rooting for this game to be successful. The story line wasn’t all that original (Evil corporation tries to take over the world with the help of genetically altered mutants), but I liked some of the game mechanics and the opportunity it presented for players to contribute to the narrative. For example, I played as a member of a group of displaced journalists who were trying to set up an intelligence network for a burgeoning resistance. I even went so far as to provide intelligence reports to Tyler based on my travel to different parts of the country looking for survivors and tracking down rumors of “freedom fighters”.
My thoughts:
1. There has to be more than just role playing.
My first impression was that this was an interesting story that pushed the role playing aspect more than the “solve a puzzle – get a banana” methodology. There was a feeling among the players that the game was launched too early and didn’t have the requisite websites or other content ready, or that we had stumbled onto an online role playing community that didn’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end for the story. My guess is that is was a combination of the two – we discovered a role playing community that tried to introduce ARG elements and couldn’t keep up with player’s demand for content.
In my own ARG concept development this forced me to consider the fundamental differences between online role playing and Alternate Reality Gaming. Although similar genres of storytelling, I think the reason why I’m drawn to ARGs over role playing is the confidence in knowing that there will be a resolution to the conflicts presented in the plot. I may not like that resolution, but there should be some kind of planned endgame. In role playing, everything seems much too chaotic with the odds of a satisfying resolution to the narrative being extremely low. In fact, in many role playing communities the fundamental goal is to extend the narrative for as long as possible so that the role playing can continue indefinitely.
It was fun playing a role in the story world that was created, but after a while it seemed that the game designer wasn’t interested in guiding that player interaction into a clear story plot and a satisfying ending.
2. Give me a task–reward system.
After the main characters conveyed the backstory and current situation, information slowed considerably. Each chat session rehashed the information that was already provided, and when pressed for more details the characters would abruptly end their chat because of an “attack on the base”. They had presented the premise and gave us the boundaries of the story world, but didn’t carry that momentum into a well developed plot. Players were trying to think of creative ways to coax the game creators into telling them the objective of the game. Were we supposed to “Save the world”? Were we supposed to defeat the superhumans? If so, what were we supposed to do to accomplish these feats?
Setting up a reward system would have gone a long way to keep players engaged. ARG designers can learn from video games that start with a tutorial that unlocks levels with simple tasks then rewards the player with new content (cut scenes, new levels, more story, etc) as they master certain skills and complete those tasks. This game did have a few task/reward elements, but the players were constantly prodding the game to give them a “call to action” that came with a requisite reward upon completion.
Late in the game, the game designer did give the players a task that could have advanced the narrative, but at that point many of us had lost interest. In the story, the source of the superhuman’s mutant powers came from a formula created by the TR Corporation. A syringe containing some red goo was discovered at a live event location and presumably was a sample of this formula. A video was released by James Serbus (FreakonaPeach) asking the players to give him advice on what to do with the syringe. Soon after the video was released, most of the players (including myself) abandoned the game — read on to find out why.
3. Stop peeking at the audience from behind the curtain.
Most ARG players are very forgiving when it comes to ignoring the little things that break the illusion of the events in a game being real. We’ll ignore the fact that the protagonist’s twitter account was created in the last month, or that a company that has operated for years has only recently created a web domain (and registered it anonymously). I was even able to accept that Tyler Greek was communicating with me through Skype from an alternate timeline even though Tyler himself gave just a virtual shrug in response to players asking how that was possible.
So, what killed the illusion? After one canceled live event a second was scheduled, and even though a few people expressed an interest, apparently no one attended. In an attempt to get information that was supposed to be revealed at the event to the players the game creator released a video of himself claiming to be the only player to attend the live event. Upon discovering the video, the established players invited the new “player” to join the community discussion at Unfiction only to get the single word email response of “TINAG” making it clear that the new player was an in-game character.
Here’s what ruined it for me. The game creator decided to use his own YouTube account to release in-game video instead of bothering to create a new account. So when players searched through the archived video blog entries of this new character to find clues or other material relating to the story they only found the ranting of a teenage video blogger. To make matters worse, after three game related videos were released the game designer went back to his “regularly scheduled video blogging” and started the next video with an apology to his “regular viewers”:
“Hello You Tube, again. Well, actually this time it’s for real, cus uh well yeah my last video I posted the uh Hail to the Master one thats… my regular viewers can either ignore that or watch it. Its just a uh… little project I’m doing, don’t need to worry about it I’m not going to die”
It also didn’t help that he grouped the three game related videos into one playlist and labeled it “PHH ARG”. The game designer also communicated with the players overtly through the unfiction forums using the profile Liesoften, and apparently has done this in a past ARG (Bookerville).
I don’t want to sound to harsh, but this is just laziness on the part of the game creators and just ruins the experience for the players. I support the idea of game creators taking ownership of their games, but there should be a clearly defined line between what is in-game and what is in the realm of meta discussion. If the game designers want to communicate with the players on a meta level they can do what David Flor has done and set up a meta-blog. That way players have the choice to either peek behind the curtain during a game or stay oblivious to what is going on behind the scenes.
Steve Diddle is a photographer and aspiring ARG creator, and was inspired by Cross-media entertainment researcher Christy Dena to write this article.
Enjoyed: Sorry I Make You Lush
Sorry I Make You Lush by Wagon ChristEnjoyed: Bebikukorica Nigiri
Bebikukorica Nigiri by Venetian SnaresEnjoyed: Always
Always by Amon TobinEnjoyed: All His Might
All His Might by WispWardrobe Essentials
Wardrobe EssentialsEnjoyed: 4
4 by Alarm Will SoundEnjoyed: Szamár Madár
Szamár Madár by Venetian SnaresEnjoyed: Logon Rock Witch
Logon Rock Witch by Alarm Will SoundEnjoyed: Gentleman
Gentleman by Venetian SnaresEnjoyed: Baroque Hoedown
Baroque Hoedown by Perrey & KingsleyEnjoyed: Miserere
Miserere by Gregorio AllegriEnjoyed: Largo et Presto
Largo et Presto by Telemann, Purcell, Vivaldi, HandelEnjoyed: Menuet I
Menuet I by Georg Philipp TelemannEnjoyed: Sonata À Solo Facto Per Monsieur Pisendel Del Vivaldi In C Minor, RV 6: Preludio: Andante
Sonata À Solo Facto Per Monsieur Pisendel Del Vivaldi In C Minor, RV 6: Preludio: Andante by La SerenissimaEnjoyed: Grave
Grave by Telemann, Purcell, Vivaldi, HandelEnjoyed: Sonate A La Maresienne — Iii) Tres Vivement - Gravement
Sonate A La Maresienne -- Iii) Tres Vivement - Gravement by Marin MaraisEnjoyed: Air l’itali
Air l'itali by Isaac Stern and Jean-Pierre RampalEnjoyed: Corelli - La Folia
Corelli - La Folia by Emilie AutumnEnjoyed: La Violetta
La Violetta by Claudio MonteverdiEnjoyed: Ouverture
Ouverture by Georg Philipp TelemannEnjoyed: Bright Mississippi
Bright Mississippi by Thelonious MonkEnjoyed: Try a Little Tenderness
Try a Little Tenderness by Michael BubléEnjoyed: Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford by Katie MeluaEnjoyed: OAM’s Blues
OAM's Blues by Aaron GoldbergARhrrrr - An augmented reality shooter
ARhrrrr is an augmented reality shooter for mobile camera-phones, created at Georgia Tech Augmented Environments Lab and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD-Atlanta). The phone provides a window into a 3d town overrun with zombies. Point the camera at our special game map to mix virtual and real world content. Civilians are trapped in the town, and must escape before the zombies eat them! From your vantage point in a helicopter overhead, you must shoot the zombies to clear the path for the civilians to get out. Watch out though as the zombies will fight back, throwing bloody organs to bring down your copter. Move the phone quickly to dodge them. You can also use Skittles as tangible inputs to the game, placing one on the board and shooting it to trigger an explosion. One of the inspirations for this game was the game Joe Warpin, from our Handheld Augmented Reality games class (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62cbXp1rO6s ). http://www.augmentedenvironments.org/lab/research/handheld-ar/arhrrrr/ http://www.cc.gatech.edu/ http://www.scad.edu/atlanta/Augmented Reality - The Future of Education ( Ara Pacis ) - HD version
Tesi di Laurea in Grafica e Progettazione Multimediale HD version at - "www.vimeo.com\soryn" "Realtà Aumentata - Il futuro dell'educazione" "Augmented Reality - The Future of Education Technology" Facoltà di Architettura Valle GiuliaAugmented Reality - VFX Breakdown - HD version
Tesi di Laurea in Grafica e Progettazione Multimediale "Realtà Aumentata - Il futuro dell'educazione" "Augmented Reality - The Future of Education Technology"Read: The Learjet repo man
Shared by Gabriel KentIt was snowing hard when the bank called Nick Popovich. They needed to grab a Gulfstream in South Carolina now. Not tomorrow. Tonight. All commercial and private planes were grounded, but Nick Popovich wasn't one to turn down a job. So he waited for the storm to clear long enough to charter a Hawker jet from Chicago into South Carolina. There was just one detail: No one had told Popovich about the heavily armed white supremacist militia that would be guarding the aircraft when he arrived. But then again, no one had told the militia about Popovich, a brawny and intimidating man who has been jailed and shot at and has faced down more angry men than a prison warden. When Popovich and two of his colleagues arrived that evening at a South Carolina airfield, they were met by a bunch of nasty-looking thugs with cocked shotguns. "They had someone in the parking lot with binoculars," Popovich says, recalling the incident. "When we went to grab the plane, one of them came out with his weapon drawn and tells us we better get out of there." Undeterred, Popovich continued toward the plane until he felt a gun resting on his temple. "You move another inch and I'll blow your fucking head off," the gravel-and-nicotine voice told Popovich. "Well, you better go ahead and shoot, 'cause I'm grabbing that plane." A shot was discharged in the air. The gravel-and-nicotine voice again. "I'm not kidding." "Then do it already." Popovich's first rule of firearms is pretty simple: The man who tells you he's going to shoot you will not shoot you. So without so much as looking back, he got on the plane and flew it right to Chicago. "My job is to grab that plane," Popovich says. "And if you haven't paid for it, then it's mine. And I don't like to lose." Nick Popovich is a repo man, but not the kind that spirits away Hyundais from suburban driveways. Popovich is a super repo man, one of a handful of specialists who get the call when a bank wants back its Gulfstream II jet from, say, a small army of neo-Nazi freaks...
Wow...