AIPS?

[AIPS] - Artificially-Induced Psychotropic Schizophrenia, caused by being connected to the Matrix during Crash 2.0

I'm more concerned with the time machines. Damn corps already stole our future, why do they need the past, too?

Time machines? Did you mean clocks- aka time pieces?

I'm thinkin' browncoatone got it, but zarathan's idea is far more amusing

A quick search through some books turned up the following:

• Shadowrun & Shadowrun: Second Edition
  • “…magical research facilities were established at Texas A&M and MIT, with the latter adding ‘&M’ to its name (for ‘and Magic’).â€? (SR1p.16, SR2p.26)
• The Grimoire, 15th Edition (1992, set in 2053)
  • “…a doctorate in thaumaturgy from Texas A&M&M.â€? (page 10)
  • “…earned his Th.D. from MITM in 2036.â€? (page 13)
  • “The double-domed docs at MITM have…â€? (page 73)
• Target: UCAS (1997, set in 2057)
  • “If there is a magical center to the Boston Metroplex, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Thaumaturgy (MIT&T) in Cambridge is it.â€? (page 31)
• Shadowrun: Third Edition (1998, set in 2060)
  • “2025: UCLA establishes the first undergraduate program in occult studies. Within three years, similar programs are established at Texas A&M, University of Chicago, MIT (renamed “MIT&M,â€? for “and Magicâ€?), Oxford, Edinburgh University and several universities in Germany.â€? (SR3, p.26)
• Street Magic (2006, set in 2070)
  • “…some of the best magical universities in North America, including MIT&T, Harvard, and many others.â€? (page 18)

It seems clear to me that the intention of Shadowrun’s creators was for the school names to be Texas A&M&M and MITM, and that possibly the SR1/SR2 line was supposed to read “former�.
I have no idea why Target: UCAS changed it to MIT&T, although SR3’s use of MIT&M is clearly based on the published wording from SR1/SR2, and Street Magic is clearly following the Target: UCAS usage.

Shit. It's been 20 years and I remember reading MIT&M in SR1 but can't remember how to solve a quadratic equation. Well, at least I've got my priorities straight...

I Just updated it to include both in game names with the dates of change that fit published usage.

Complicating the issue, I just found:

• The Neo-Anarchists Guide to North America (1991, set in 2050)
  • “Magical studies were incorporated into the University of Chicago’s philosophy department in 2028. Less flashy than the programs at Texas A&M and MIT&T because of the lack of industrial, or “practical,â€? application, the program is actually more important because it incorporates magic into our view of the universe.â€? (page 106)

Usually a good indicator of a potential Technomancer

A newsflash bombards your team's comnlinks.

Susan Shepherd, teacher of Freshman Literature at BLANK High School, is being sued by Mothers of Metahumans for inciting racial hatred when she made "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien required reading in her class. Protests outside BLANK High School include a good old fashion book burning and degenerate into a good old fashion riot.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protests bounty on Devil Rats, claiming the Metroplex is driving the species into extinction.

When approached for comment, several local officials said "Good."

It should be noted that Devil Rats are intelligent or nearly so; their mentals:

C5, I2, L5, W3

They're at least as intelligent as Vampires and Nagas and more intelligent than Hellhounds.

Just to make the PETA people have more reason to save them (SEA KITTIES! Don't eat fish, they're the kitties of the sea!).

(9) There was nothing strange about the rain that first morning. A little warm for early spring perhaps. But then, the drains and ditches weren't overflowing yet. You could still find galoshes and raincoats at the store. We should've known something was wrong when the Devil Rats disappeared. A warning disguised as a blessing.

A few bits of entertainment news of late:

A new action/drama magic-based trid show called "The other side" is becoming very popular, and against all odds, it ACTUALLY DEPICTS MAGIC REALISTICALLY.

In a desperate attempt to find something to cram onto the airwaves, entertainment producers are returning to reality shows, which are (unfortunately) taking off like wildfire . . . again.

A new exercise trid show features a dwarf teaching carromanleg (or, at least the basics.) The shadowrunning community is collectively stumped as to why elven ghosts haven't killed this dwarf yet.

/me groans in appreciation

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip the waitstaff!

• Tir Tairngire (1993, set in 2055)
  • "Independent analysts consider UTT's programs surperior even to those offered by MITM's."
  • "That's because UTT poached away a couple of MITM's major professor emeriti from the thaumaturgy facility." (page 137)

I can't imagine trying to be 6th World exterminator -- too stressful. Too many co-workers have cracked up or died on the job (never know when a simple call to kill roaches will uncover an insect spirit hive). Phone calls all hours of the day for "emergency" jobs by a) idiots freaked out by normal ants and roaches (see also, FL woman calls 911 because local McHughs is out of McNuggets), or b) punk kids making prank calls. Oh yeah, and now you have to pull unpaid OT cause Bob just disappeared two weeks ago. The only thing you have to look forward to is tomorrow's date "consoling" Bob's hot girlfriend... <muses fondly about her sweet "Desolation Angels" tramp stamp>.

wow, you took that where i wanted it to go, and did a better job than i could have.

I have a mental image of a shadowrun plot that revolves around an awakened exterminator that is a cross of "dirty jobs" and "the dresden files"

Pacific Custom Dental runs an advertisement for their sale on Tusk-Eez (fake ork tusks fitted to snap onto a human's natural teeth without dental surgery) on 1450 AM KSUH "the voice Puyallup" the only all Or'zet language radio station in the metroplex.

Now for some gang related stuff.

It turns out that the leader of the new Ork Street Gang in Puyallup is an Ork Poser.

Tired of the stereotype, a recent all-elf Go-Gang has decided to go whole hog. They start actually EATING dandelions. . . or what appear to be dandelions. In truth, they are new oral-vector doses of Kamikaze. Soon they are feared for the superpowers they get from eating the flower.

A gang war is halted by some strange force, when the two gangs start spontaniosly (and compulsively) singing and choreographed dancing. They also (for no apparent reason) change their name to the Sharks and the Jets.

The runners are called to a meet at Nyxtomania, a hot new nightclub featuring retro-goth fashions and tunes. By the time they arrive, the nightclub is called Polygeneration, catering to transhuman and the heavily cybered. While they wait for the Johnson, the club undergoes a "set change" - stage hands and handymen tear down the old decor and install the new, the ARE updates in a wave of pixels, as the club's changed names and themes again. Aquatica, the hot new underwater nightclub, where the waitstaff wear sexy scuba, is the current incarnation when the Johnson arrives. By the time they leave, it's an open-air cafe called Brew Moon.

There is a really appropriate "Bloom County" strip that actually shows the dangers of dandelion snorting, but I can't seem to find it.

... then, just as things are winding down, a young androgynous "vodoun" appears. Suddenly the dead Sharks and Jets reanimate and spring into a fully choreographed dance attack set to a catchy retro pop song. Is this just Papa Legba stretching his legs or something darker? You'll find out... in fourteen minutes.

Better yet, an Elf Ork Poser.

They change their gang name to Inbit and call the dandelions the "Flower of Life".

Beat It, the latest in home entertainment reality shows, where gangs can battle each other by singing and choreographed dancing, for pride, and a chance to win ONE MILLION NUYEN.