Yes, rules like that are not uncommon. They have their uses in environments where you can't use proper encryption. However, I can see several disadvantages to your method:

For one, the dependency on a single physical storage medium (paper notebook) is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it denies remote attackers the option to download a complete list of hashes, but on the other hand, it also denies you the possibility of retrieving your passwords when you don't have the notebook with you. Notebooks can also get lost or misplaced, they can be stolen, and they can burn. There's no easy way to make automatic backups of your password list.

More relevant to your particular system is that your rules can be reverse engineered. If someone does have access to the list, they only need a few compromised accounts (or planted passwords) to decypher the rest. If they're lucky, they may get away with a single known password. A rule like "ignore all the odd digits" can easily be cracked when the attacker knows the actual password and your garbled reminder - especially when you write down which rules you applied to it.

All in all, you're better off with a digital format and strong encryption. For passwords which are so sensitive that you can't even trust something like KeePassX (and your OS, and all the drivers on your system, etc etc) - don't write them down anywhere.

I use KeePassX, myself. The database file is in a Subversion repository. But I have to admit that one part of my setup is completely insecure: I periodically print out a full list of passwords, put it in a sealed envelope, and place it in a relative's safe. This way, if something happens to me, they can access (and close, if necessary) all of my accounts.

Good point. Lack of humor would be one indication, I suppose, but I have to admit it's hard to distinguish between tongue-in-cheek and an unintentionally comic position.

Both creationism and the FES are prime examples of pseudoscience, and both claim to be serious. With the FES, I get the impression that some people are playing out a thought experiment ("Imagine the Earth was flat. How would we have to adjust the universe to make this work?"), whereas creationists sound more like, "we believe the Earth is 6000 years old, and you can't disprove it". Motivation is another indication. The Flat Earth supporters are supposedly doing to "uncover the truth, and the global conspiracy". Creationists do it because God said so.

These points don't work well with other conspiracy theories, like 9/11 truthers. If I can't find elements of satire on those pages, the only way to distinguish between trolls and a crackpots is context.

CJ

Come on, don't abuse the Flat Earth Society as an example for idiocy and denial. That website is brilliantly done. They say (in their FAQ) it's not a joke site, but that only means they're trolling you with a straight face. If you look closely enough, you find more than enough hints that the whole society is part elaborate hoax and part intellectual challenge for its supposed "proponents". The same page, the FAQ, has this gem, for example:

I rest my case.

If they weren't currently out of t-shirts I would have bought one.

CJ

Biogas generators, as in... cows?

I'm not sure how to interpret your question... I never said that the US were worse than the rest of the world, that would be ridiculous. Just as ridiculous as relocating your family because of some incompetent TSA agents. If you're unhappy where you live, you need to travel abroad and see for yourself. Just don't judge a whole nation by the behavior of its airport security staff.

To be frank, some of the staff at US airports appear to have an IQ barely above imbecility. I've been in the US four times, and nowhere else have I seen such unfriendly, unhelpful, and downright hostile personnel than at the airports. A man whose only job appeared to be holding a sign pointing to a gate refused to show us the way to the toilets. Another man went through our bags before we boarded and found the remains of a coconut which we'd intended to eat on the plane; he turned to me (I was 12 at the time), said "you must be a real idiot" and threw it in the garbage. If people like that are employed by the TSA, I'm hardly shocked that situations like the one with the little girl make the news every few weeks. If those dimwits don't know how to properly interact with passengers, put them in a position where they don't have to, or don't hire them.

Last year, we did a trip around Iceland. Before our return flight, when we waited at the security check, we found that we still had some 2 liter bottles of lemonade in our bags. So we started chugging away (don't like to waste food), and a security guy came up to us. He told us to relax and take the bottles on the plane. "This is Reykjavik, not New York. Have a nice flight."

The aren't denying reality, they were trying to shape it.
And I'm glad they tried, even if they didn't win this time.

I'm really upset by this. As an Austrian, I'm appalled that our courts would issue an order to clone the complete disk of our Mixmaster node (btw, yes, I know the maintainer personally). The Pittsburgh bomb threats are serious business, and I'd like nothing more than see these "pranksters" (as they see themselves) brought to justice for what they've done. But that doesn't mean that everybody else's secrets have to be exposed at the request of a foreign nation. Where do you draw the line? Which nations can request the data on our servers, and what reason would be strong enough to grant the request? Are the US special in some way? What if the Saudis heard of an unmarried woman having cyber-relations over Mixmaster? What if China wants to track down dissidents?

This shouldn't have been allowed.

And don't forget, so far we've heard of two compromised Mixmaster relays in two weeks. I'm sure that there are others that we'll never hear about, in addition to the ones run by the US agencies in the first place. There is a very real chance that the FBI will soon have collected enough keys to decrypt and follow a significant percentage of Mixmaster-anonymized mails.

Who gives these people the right to snoop into the affairs of thousands of unrelated people in other nations? I know, in this case the answer is: the Austrian courts gave them the right. That's why I'm so upset. The FBI can't be blamed for trying, but small as our country is, we shouldn't have bowed down so readily.

CJ

Very nice, I remember that one :)

Before someone mistakes you for a troll, I guess I'd better link to an explanation. 14 years ago, somebody at Microsoft left a dangerous backdoor in Frontpage 98, with the phrase "Netscape engineers are weenies!" as the key. People were fired over this, and so should the persons responsible for the SNAFU at Rugged.

Wish I could mod you up. I'd almost forgotten about that.

Have you ever thought about indulging yourself a little and having a beer once in a while, just to take the edge off a little? Too much of anything is bad, of course, by definition, but a little can go a long way. I've long had the suspicion that people in cultures where alcohol is completely prohibited tend to get too worked up over small and unimportant things. I also treasure the evenings where my friends and I drink a little more than we should; we get to collectively step out of our normal controlled selves for a while, bond, and do stupid, childish stuff. In an utterly unscientific way, I suspect that whatever harm the alcohol does to our bodies will be offset by the fun we have. And even if our bodies are harmed a little, and our lives shortened a little, at least we had fun.

Just my 2 cents.