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Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

PARANOIA in the real world: Thai highway patrol smiles 

Beset by mob protests, political paralysis, a week-long takeover of the Bangkok airport that devastated the tourism industry, and a likely episode of political tumult in 2009, the government of Thailand is trying to re-establish its lost reputation as "The Land of Smiles" by making highway patrolmen wear smiley masks.
It is the latest version of the famous Thai smile - motorcycle policemen with a bright red goofy grin painted onto their white anti-pollution masks.

For the first week of the year - and longer if people seem to be smiling back - highway policemen in Thailand will wear the masks "to lift the mood of motorists," according to police officials.

"For our highway policemen, we have the policy that the police must be friendly and smiling all the time, but the problem is, when we're tired, it's hard to keep smiling," said Colonel Somyos Promnim, the Highway Police commander. [...]

The new cloth masks, which hook behind the ears and cover the mouth and nose, will help "reduce the stress from drivers when they see the police," said Somyos, the Highway Police commander.

To that end, he said, some 200 police booths would also distribute holy water, chewing gum and mints.

Just look at that photo in the article. Don't you feel better already? No? For shame, citizen. Sounds like your medication is overdue.

(Thanks to loyal citizen Jaagup Irve.)

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Posted by: Allen Varney / 8:05 PM (0) comments

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Japanese highways = Alpha Complex 

All transbot passengers, autocar drivers, and other future victims should check out Ken Ohyama's breathtaking photos of Japanese highway interchanges. They remind me of Joe Nishizawa's photos of underground Tokyo that I linked in "Alpha Complex made real" (April 16, 2008).

I'm not sure where you'd fit these overpasses and cloverleafs in an underground city -- but Alpha Complex, like any state of mind, can be a big place.

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Posted by: Allen Varney / 1:46 AM (0) comments

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