Just One Note

Neanderthals sailed the Mediterranean. 

Monkey's Uncle

First feathered dinosaurs are discovered in America.

World's oldest primate was a rodent-like climber.

He played it left hand but made it too far.

Ancient fortress found in Spain. Called la Bastida, it dates from over 4200 years ago.

Spidery black things appear on Mars every Martian spring.

Title Optional

Planets orbiting pulsars may leave anomalous electric trails behind them.

Kim Boekbinder has a Kickstarter to fund The Sky is Calling, an album inspired by science and space. Phil "Bad Astronomer" Plait is on tap as a scientific advisor.

This is what happens when a black hole eats a black hole.

Divers return to the site where the Antikythera Mechanism was found.

I'm Back, But For How Long?

1600 year old papyrus refers to Mary Magdalene as Christ's wife.

Warp drive may actually be possible.

M John Harrison in the Guardian

Just what it says on the tin: A profile of M. John Harrison in the Guardian.

"If Ray Bradbury wrote to forestall a future, Harrison says he writes to 'forestall a present'; the militarised capitalism, environmental destruction and short-sighted self-obsession of his imaginary universe are only 'a description of the world we live in'. It's a brutal, soulless world where human beings see the unknowable wonder of the Tract only as a chance to make some money; people visit the 'chop shop' to genetically modify their bodies to look like Marilyn Monroe or grotesquely over-muscled fighters; and the distant war against the aliens is 'your war, to be accessed however it fitted best into your busy schedule'."

The Parisian Underground & Secret Societies

Gizmodo has an piece on Parisian underground, tunnels and the like, and cataphiles.

Wake the Snake

Gibson at the Bar

William Gibson on The High Bar on memory and atemporality.

SDCC 2012: News via CBR

Terry Moore, the creator of Strangers in Paradise, talks about his future comics plans. Looks like more SiP for it's 20th anniversary and Rachel Rising, a new horror series.

Robert Kirkman talks about the Skybound imprint at Image, including more Witch Doctor from Brandon Seifert.

An interview with Gary Whitta and Darick Robertson over Oliver!

The Image Panel featuring Matt Fraction, Joe Casey, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Howard Chaykin, Joe Casey, Jim Robertson, and people mentioned above. I'm stoked for Image in the coming year.

Dark Horse's horror panel.

Joe Keatinge and Ken Garing go Intergalactic in a new future sf series at Monkeybrain.

File Under: Recipes, sub, Mmmmm

Avocado Chili Brownies topped with Avocado Tequila Ice Cream

Playwrights, Fabulists, & WWI: AA Milne

Winnie the Pooh was inspired by a Canadian black bear that was the mascot of a WWI military unit. Winnipeg the bear, or "Winnie", sat out the war at the London Zoo. Winnie was so tame that children could feed her honey but only under the supervision of the zookeepers. Christopher Milne was one of those kids.

A listing of poets of the Great War. I forgot that Saki was in that number.

Fabulists & WWI: JRR Tolkien Edition

One of the oldest ideas in my projects drawer concerns writers, primarily fabulists, that were more known as playwrights during their lifetime but are now usually known for one thing or in one area. Most of those on my list lived during the reign of Queen Victoria and/or King Edward VII. This afternoon's project is WWI. I'm just going to slide links for research material around here:

Tolkien and WWI: He joined the Lancashire Fusiliers as a second lieutenant.

More on the Battle of Somme which Tolkien experienced before being mustered out with trench fever.

Green Man Review covers John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle Earth.

Kate Nepveu covered John Garth's "Frodo and the Great War" for Tor.com. Interesting, but it appears here that Garth goes overmuch into connections between the war and The Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien maintained one wasn't a metaphor for the other.

Or not. From a letter to Professor L. W. Forster dated 31 December, 1960: The Lord of the Rings was actually begun, as a separate thing, about 1937, and had reached the inn at Bree, before the shadow of the second war. Personally, I do not think either war (and of course not the atomic bomb) had any influence on either the plot or the manner of it's unfolding. Perhaps in landscape. The Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of Somme. They owe more to William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolfings or The Roots of the Mountains.


Picture of a WWI revolver, 2nd Lt Tolkien's, in this case.

The Pietist Schoolman covers WWI as regards Tolkien and CS Lewis.

Just Because

Wake-Up

Why I Write - Geo Orwell

"Writing is not a serious business. It's a joy and a celebration. You should be having fun with it. Ignore the authors who say 'Oh, my God, what word? Oh, Jesus Christ...', you know. Now, to hell with that. It's not work. If it's work, stop and do something else."

"And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a POLITICAL purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally."

File Under: Recipes, Vegetarian, Mini Tofu Frittatas

Mini Tofu Frittatas

Herbie Mann - Harlem Nocturne

Still Asleep

Hack the City, a quadcopter drone group, were held at London Southend Airport on suspicion of terrorism.

Hack the city uses the drones to perform a flying ballet and to create a mobile wi-fi zone. The drones were built with components originally intended for police surveillance.

Tonight's Theme

The Overfalls Railroad to Canada!

I'm sure everyone has heard that Nik Wallenda crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope on June 15, 2012. ABC required Nik to wear a harness, something that might have thrown his balance as he didn't practice with one.

The Wikipedia entry on The Flying Wallendas needs some updating. I've caught references that says the family as performers have been around for 200 years. I'm more than a little curious about this.

Crazy? Suicidally So?

POV documentary on bike messenger racing.

via BoingBoing

Untouched By Human Hands

Ganthet save us all. A pizza vending machine.

Light & Sound, What Art They Make

Archifon I. - Interactive Installation from the macula on Vimeo.

The archifon is a large interactive musical instrument played by application of laser pointers.

Don't Feed Me, Seymour

Pollution makes carnivorous plants go vegetarian.

Feed Me!

A parasitic plant in Malaysia doesn't stop with taking nutrients from it's host. It steals genes, too.

Kraven the Hunter

Vesta Vexes Veitch

NASA video reveals asteroid Vesta's complex surface

大阪駅の水時計 [ Osaka Station City ] e

Amazing fountain in Osaka, Japan

REM - Wichita Lineman - 1994

My Afternoon Wake-Up!

We Should All Be So Healthy At Our Current Age

If Grace Jones wasn't lip syncing, and I don't believe she was, she hula hooped and sang for four minutes without losing her wind. At 64. Pardon me, I'm tossing my useless carcass into the wood chipper.

You're Livin' It

"Last time I saw cyberpunk I threw 25 cents in its hat." - Jack Womack

File Under: Recipes, Comfort Food

Alton Brown's recipe for poptarts.

No, it doesn't start with "smoke a bowl."

File Under: Recipes, Veggie Chips

Recipes for kale chips, smoked paprika parsnip and carrot chips, curried sweet potato chips, salted beet chips, and chili-lime plantain chips.

Burbage, Wherefore is my Rent, Burbage?

Shakespeare's Curtain theatre has been unearthed in east London.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot

Sensory Organ, Not Brain, Differentiates Male And Female Behavior In Some Mammals

When the nose, or a sensory organ in the nose, of female mice is removed, they begin behaving like male mice. All terrestrial mammals have this organ except for the higher primates.

I'm Surprised He Didn't Mention the Oort Cloud

The evolving definition of "planet"

Stuck in the 90s

Daily Links

Flerovium and Livermorium have been added to the Periodic Table of Elements.

The Bamiyan Buddhas will not be rebuilt.

The misheard lyrics of "O Fortuna."

Jesus. Wept.

Soviet moon lander discovered water in 1976.

This could have should have been crucial. Getting water out of the Earth's gravity well for use by astronauts is expensive, almost prohibitively so. Water is part hydrogen, which can be used for fuel.

We could have had a better functioning and forward advancing space program over the past 35 years and the US government pissed it away.

Perfect Spot For a Duel

Anybody Want Some Gum?

"The best anti-spasmodic is a joke. Take a leaf from Catastrophe Theory, which is really the science of the punch line. IT's the thing that suddenly takes you out of the locks system and helps you go meta." - John Perry Barlow

Are You Us or an Extinct Them?

Following human migration. Humans traveled across Asia 50,000 years ago. Everything else is being debated.

This

The RAW publications rejection form.

I'd like to see people chain themselves to seaweed!

Mowing down seagrass meadows will cut loose carbon - environment - 20 May 2012 - New Scientist

Beck's Beginning - TRON: Uprising - Disney XD Official

Disney has released the 30 minute premiere of Tron: Uprising in advance of the series beginning in June.

This is nice. I like this, and I say this beyond just the my usual love of heroes. This is good.

How About an Idiocy Defense?

Court rejects insanity defense on "exorcism" murder.

After her son wouldn't drink oil and vinegar as part of his mother's plan to rid him of demons, the mom smothered her son until he suffocated. She says she expected him to spring back to life.

"No Research is Good Research"

Congressional panel wants to cut biofuel use by the US military.

Maybe This Will Be the Last Name Change

Do magnets repel sharks?

Scientists at Stanford University has invented a light powered "bionic eye".

"Who are you?"

Interview with Christopher Doyon, aka Commander X of Anonymous.

A Life in the Art

Alan Moore, and a few others, interviewed about the life and art and Art of Austin Spare.

The sound is deep in the dark

Am I the last to discover this?

How to describe The Wormworld Saga? This is a webcomic graphic novel, barely started it seems, that reminds me ever slightly of Jeff Smith’s Bone and the work of Wendy Pini, but that isn’t quite correct. It’s obviously storywise somewhat related to those two, while artistically reminding me of the work of Mike Ploog with his lush rural landscapes and haunting beauty.

I can easily see Studio Ghibli adapting this for animation.

This is something that I’d love to have a collected edition for the shelf, except that can’t happen with Herr Lieske’s layouts. He plays to the strength of his medium. the only other person to do this in a webcomic is Scott McCloud. 

Croczilla

Fossils found of a 27ft long crocodile around Kenya has been named crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni. It roamed the deep water lakes of the region around two to four million years ago and appears to have swallowed early humans whole.

Never Trust a Necromancer

While looking for something else, I found Steven Erikson's Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. This is a collection of novellas about a pair of completely nasty necromancers set in Erickson's Malazan series. I set the book aside some months ago having stopped at the last story, "The Healthy Dead", and for some reason, didn't pick it up to finish.

Which is odd, as I enjoy Bauchelain and Broach's, um, endeavours? Erickson is playing games with perceptions of protagonists with these two, and the manservant Emancipor Reese, in that, while they frequently are heroes and do the right thing, those two (that trio?) are villains. They're just usually better than their opponents. They are not anti-heroes. Villains.

Which seems to be the norm for Erickson. I've only read a little of his Malazan series and it seems that the golden boy, the hero, worked for the Evil Dark Lord, and the troop of thugs, barely worth calling them soldiers, fights for right?

More reading of Steven Erickson's fiction is required.

Koch-heads in the Heartland Against Wind and Sun

The usual suspects are all implicated in a memo detailing propaganda plans against solar and wind power initiatives.

Miss the 90s Jazz HipHop

And I'm sure someone will inform me it's still going on. Share the wealth. Name some bands.

New Name, New Mission, I Hope

Five For Fighting: Five science links for the afternoon of May, 2, 2012

Alpines being used to test equipment for future manned Mars mission.

Dinosaurs appear to have been plagued by pests ten times as big as modern fleas. Their "bite" would feel more like a flu shot than a flea bite.

Meteorite fragments that landed in California is of a rare type called chondrite. Chondrite contains carbon and organic materials such as amino acids and is suspected of seeding the Earth with the building blocks of life.

Spring is starting sooner than previous experiments have suggested.

And Death valley doubles for Mars as a test center for NASA's Curiosity rover.

Good Eatin'

There is evidence that the humans that inhabited the Madrid area in Spain dined on elephant, meat and marrow, 84,000 years ago.

Past Glue Factory Age

4.6m year old horse bones add to the story of the Tibetan plateau.

BP Settles While My Seafood Shrieks

BP settles with private claimants over the oil spill for a mere $7.8b.

There Goes My Best Source of Vitamin D

Marine life from the Gulf of Mexico are showing mutations and deformities following the BP oil spill and subsequent clean-up, including lack of eyes, no shell on shrimp, sores, clawless shrimp, and more.

Another Talking Mammal

The rock hyrax, a tiny mammal that lives in Africa and the Middle East, communicates in by way of "song" that shows the rudiments of language, including regional dialects and hints of syntax.

Oldest Reptile Embryos Discovered

280m year old mesosaur eggs have been discovered in Uruguay. 

Grey Goo?

From the BBC: Self-sculpting sand robots are under development at MIT.

A Tyrannosaur Named Hope

Scientists in China have evidence that a species of tyrannosaur appears to have feathers on it's body.

Past the Point of No Return

An ice free Arctic Sea in the summer may now be the new normal, says a British scientist that is setting up early warning systems for environmental "tipping points."

need coffee now

CD47, a potential anti-cancer drug that appears to shrink several different kinds of tumors, is being moved for mouse to human safety tests.

"Casanova will be your doom"

The life and times of Casanova. Presenting the legendary lover as an intellectual.

More Watery Moons

Studies of images, film, and other data sent back from the Cassini spacecraft have enabled NASA scientists to make a connection between Saturn's gravity and the geyser like jets of Enceladus.

Double Star Plus

A little on Alpha Centauri, a double* star system only 4.3 light years away.

*The third star, Proxima Centauri, is a red dwarf and yields no evidence it holds planets in it's orbit.

To Dispose of One's Holy Wife Best?

On Asherah, she of the holy tree and wife of the God of Abraham.

That's Good Eatin's!

Hunters, not climate change, took out the megafauna in Australia more than 40,000 years ago. 

Methane Rain

Areas of Saturn's moon Titan will go 1000 years between rainfall. The Titan Mare Explorer will, if launched, land in Ligeia Mare and spend three months analyzing it's depth and chemistry.

Keeps the Hot Side Hot and the Cool Side Cool

Ice on Mercury?

Yes, But What is It?

NASA scientists analyze new pictures of Vesta transmitted from the Dawn spacecraft. Preliminary studies show material on the surface that appears to be unchanged since Vesta was formed 4b years ago.

Many Possible Applications, Good and Bad

European researchers have created a device that could make things invisible to magnetic fields.

Fish come from the sea, not the store? Wow!

Pre-20th century seafood recipes.

Howzabout a Ringworld?

How to build a Dyson sphere in five easy steps.

Will Work For Wi-Fi

Sweden moves closer to becoming a cashless society.

Leaving "That Goddamned Particle" Out

An overview of the 50 year debate on what to call the Higgs boson particle.

Need More Fermented Mare's Milk

Abundant rainfall may have spurred the expansion of Genghis Khan's empire.

"Stop This Planet of the Apes; I Want to Get Off"

Tennessee Senate approves bill permitting classes opposed to science being required in their classrooms. Or perhaps I'm misreading this?

No Excuses

The Guggenheim puts 65 modern art books up online for free. 

Making It Obvious That Someone Really Didn't Understand Jazz

Gestapo regulations for jazz in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia.

Doug Adams Would Not Approve

More on the continuing problem of rhino poaching.

Starting to feel human today

Kirk Cameron appears to be upset that people are making fun of him for his homophobic comments. John Scalzi on the 1st Amendment.

urk

Homelessness in the UK jumps by 14% up to 48, 510 households in 2011.

Neil Gaiman on Writer's Block

"You turn off your inner critic. You do not listen to your inner police force. You ignore the little voices that tell you that it’s all stupid, and you keep going."

The Turnip Princess?

500 new fairy tales discovered in Germany.

Demon Bear? Didn't he fight Xavier's students?

Jess Nevins lists 24 weird films lost to time.

Home, Sweet, Home

Map of Dallas County, Texas, circa 1900.

Abracadabra

Teller reveals his secrets for the Smithsonian.

Sheep Don't Need To Hear Zippers

What appears to be the oldest stringed instrument in Europe has been unearthed in Scotland, the Isle of Skye to be specific.

Blow the Horn.

More on rhinoceros poaching. The horn is believed to be a cure for cancer and male impotence.

File Under: Try Soonest

Dick Cavett's Bread Pot Fondue

Steampunk Reference

Photo illustrated tour of the Hindenburg.

And You Get the Horn? Or Not?

Seven people arrested in the US over trafficking in illegal rhino horns.

MC Escher & DJ Repeat

Inspirations, a short film by Spanish filmmaker Cristobal Vila, focusing on M. C. Escher.

"Snakes? Why does it have to be snakes?"

A fungus common to captive animals has escaped to the wild and looks likely to kill off an endangered rattlesnake population.

Deleted as it served my purpose: permitted me to vent.

Venting's done.

So No Lard On the Salad?

Cooking oil comparison. Which is best for which?

Oh No

Virtual Reality Contact Lenses Could be Available by 2014

First multi car pileup caused by their use will be two weeks after they hit the market.

Gender Bias Literature Study, Day Three

All Things Considered looks at Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

So one more for men and a book that probably doesn't need any help at the bookseller. Maybe.

Not interview, exactly

Neko Case interviews Sherman Alexie.

Gender Bias Literary Reviews Day 2

Diane Rehm interviews Adam Johnson about his novel, The Orphan Master's Son.

So, as of day two, two women and one man.

German Electronic Musicians Go!

Interview with Dieter Moebius of Cluster/Kluster

Ammo For Fights

CBO Budget and Economic Outlook for the next ten years.

Gender Bias Literary Reviews, Day 1

A recent article in the Boston Phoenix commented on the lack of reviews on NPR for fiction written by women and strongly implied that there was a deliberate gender bias on the part of the network. As Diane Rehm and Terry Gross are two of their more popular hosts, I have a hard time accepting that they would skew more towards men. So form now to the end of February, I plan to to link to and add up NPR's literary reviews and interviews.

Margaux Fragoso reviews Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye.

Maureen Corrigan reviews An Available Man by Hilma Wolitzer.

Two literary reviews today, both women.

I see New Atlantis from here!

Where does all the junk in the oceans end up?

Which reminds me I need to buy groceries

No Robots

Losing Magnitude

Ancient astronomers appear to have accounted for atmospheric extinction.

Freshwater Within Saltwater

UK scientists have detected a freshwater "dome" within the Arctic Ocean.

Devil's Water

A journey to find the underground river of NYC, Minette Brook, called by the Dutch settlers Bestevear's Killetje (Grandfather's Little Creek) or by Native Americans Manette (Devil's Water.)

I Ordered Nine Plus a Side of Time

Why our universe has three dimensions.

Buckyballs, He Had Them

Bucky Fuller's Operating Manual for Planet Earth

Can I Have Some Sloth With That?

Tough week for the Yahoo-Yahoo Boys. Hard political times in Nigeria (strikes, the Occupy movement) has slowed the Nigerian 419 scammers.

"Let's all go to the lobby"

It appears that Peruvians were eating popcorn back in 4700BC, which is 1000 years earlier than previously thought.

For Reading Later

Superstuff: When Quantum Goes Big

Cool a piece of metal or a bucket of helium to near absolute zero and, in the right conditions, you will see the metal levitating above a magnet, liquid helium flowing up the walls of its container or solids passing through each other. "We love to observe these phenomena in the lab," says Ed Hinds of Imperial College, London.

This weirdness is not mere entertainment, though. From these strange phenomena we can tease out all of chemistry and biology, find deliverance from our energy crisis and perhaps even unveil the ultimate nature of the universe. Welcome to the world of superstuff.

"Can anybody hear me?"

The High Frequency Instrument on board the ESA's Planck spacecraft has finished observing for cosmic microwave background, an "echo" of the Big Bang.

Drill, Baby, Drill

We know that life can flourish in very hot deep sea vents. Now there is an expedition to explore Antarctica's Lake Ellsworth, a sub-glacial lake reasonable accessible, for signs of life and sediment samples to better understand the past climate.

5 Manifestos for the Creative Life

‎"Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.”

The Rookery

I am strongly fighting the urge to write a short novel or novella and "publish" it in this blog. Working title: The Rookery.

If I do this, I plan to use the Clockwork Storybook 30 Day Challenge as a pacer to force me to finish, to get something down.

On one hand, I expect it'll come a cropper, trying to put first-ish draft prose up here on a daily basis and expect it to be not good but tolerable. On the other hand, writing means BIC and getting the words down so it can be fixed in subsequent drafts.

I know better. I know better. I know better.

Bugger.



The Rookery by James O. Veitch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Skiing With Dr Strangelove

A beautiful mountain home in the Adirondacks is a cover for an abandoned Cold War missile base.

Somewhere Between Kin and Kind

Nature photographer, conservationist, and biotech entrepreneur John King had an incredibly rare encounter with a troop of mountain gorillas in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The gorillas passed through his camp and stopped to observe him, with a grooming him. 

The park is known to be home to 350 mountain gorillas, about half the number of known wild gorillas.

"The Prince and the Porpoise"

Erstwhile, a webcomic series based on the lesser known works of the Brothers Grimm.