After looking at my old 1st attempt at a fossil mammoth-ivory needle, I decided to re-create the second needle I made back in the mid-80s. Ergo, the new needle is here: This is a fossil mammoth ivory needle 62 x 4 x 3mm, hole 4 x 1.5mm. Inlaid plug of stabilized turquoise. Anchored with DevCon…
Read More A new needleI thought I’d step back from dire politics, horrendous wars, and unimaginable natural disasters for a look at an amazing artifact just announced to the world. This bone needle. Of probable Denisovan origin, it dates to around 50,000 years old, and was found at a very information-rich cave site in Siberia. What’s so cool about…
Read More The oldest known bone needleFaith and Freedom Coalition Survey, Part 2 of 2. Question 8: What is your opinion of the fact that Hillary Clinton says she wants to use the full force of the government to change the beliefs of Christians to conform with support of same-sex gay marriage and support for abortion-on-demand? I’m given, predictably, the choice…
Read More Faith and Freedom Coalition Survey Part 2 (political rant)Part 1 of 2. Summary and warning: I get harsh with certain evangelical Christians. Why did Dr. Ralph Reed and his evangelical Christian Faith and Freedom Coalition send me an advertising pitch disguised as a voter survey? Maybe because I was a registered Republican for many years? I’m a 50ish female Independent voter in Arizona, which…
Read More Faith and Freedom Coalition Survey, Part 1 (political rant)A subtweety primer, for folks who ship stuff from online sales: If you are selling glass jars of honey over international borders, it doesn’t matter if you carefully wrap all jars in bubble wrap…if you push them against one side of a too-small cardboard box! Nor does the amount of air-packs and newspaper you stuffed…
Read More Packing and shipping for dummiesTaking a break from the Tour for a quick rant, brought to you by too damn many news items. ‘Offensensitivity‘ is the punchline of a brilliant Bloom County cartoon from back in 1982. It could also be the chilling tagline for a recent host of social actions, from both right and left sides of the…
Read More Offensensitivity, part whatever (adult language)Turkish has a whistled version, used often in the mountains of northern Turkey. It’s eerie and lovely, and seems to do interesting things to the brains of people who listen to & understand it. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/whistled-language-uses-both-sides-brain?tgt=nr Why am I excited to blog about it? I have another data point for ‘singspeech’, my made-up Sonnaroi constructed language.…
Read More Cool whistled language article“I think the rules are crumbling and I think the barriers are breaking.” – Neil Gaiman “Good.” – me In the New Statesman, Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro share a fascinating discussion about the past, present, and possible future of speculative fiction. I find it a wistful, slightly cynical, but ultimately hopeful field trip shepherded by…
Read More Machines cannot imagineWarning: I rant about publishing stuff. Note: by SFR I mean ‘Science Fiction Romance’. In 1992 a well-meaning relative (who knew I loved romantic science fiction and space opera) sent me a new romance novel. I won’t name it or its author: the book spawned a series and the author is still widely published. Fine.…
Read More The SFR ghetto: why 1992 stalled my writing careerWhile browsing for out-of-copyright quotes about maps, journeys, and wanderlust (for an upcoming book art project), I stumbled across some incredible wooden bathymetric charts. ‘Below The Boat’ creates unique, breathtaking maps of laser-cut, stained, and layered birch plywood, each following a coastal area’s underwater terrain. It’s a deceptively simple concept, brought to reality by skilled…
Read More Below The BoatI tend not to read much commercial mainstream fiction, for many reasons. I certainly avoid it if the Hype Machine insists I read it. So I was unfamiliar with ‘The Rosie Project’ until this morning. I can’t give a full review of a story unless I read all of it, and I managed only a…
Read More The Rosie Project: fail…has really been going on since Wednesday night, for a lot of people. I plan to be there sometime tomorrow, Saturday June 7. I’m not on panels, I’m not pitching my book, I’m not in the dealer’s room. I’m just going for fun. Here’s the main page: https://www.phoenixcomicon.com/page/1 So, it’s not as huge as San…
Read More 2014 Phoenix Comic ConPart 1. Last Saturday I was fortunate enough to attend another one of the Origins Project presentations at Arizona State University’s Gammage theater. ‘Transcending Our Origins’ was a wonderful group presentation across many scientific fields of expertise, including astrophysics, political science, human evolutionary medicine, criminology, biological anthropology, business, and genomics. The presenters were Lawrence Krauss,…
Read More The Origins Project, and more good newsI am a total sucker for architecture at its bleeding edge, when it leaps beyond the ticky-tacky houses and strip malls that many architects have to suffer through at some point in their careers. The future of architecture, like everything else, is likely to be something most of us would never guess right now. Check out these…
Read More Sand skyscrapersAs I flirt more and more with the idea of self-publishing at least one novella in my Lonhra Sequence fantasy arc, I’m paying more attention to cover designs and fonts. All stuff I learned to use one way in commercial art, but the applications for print and e-book publication are slightly different. Once I had…
Read More The science of fontsThis started as a simple review of Alfonso Cuarón’s new movie Gravity. As usual with my posts, it morphed into something else. In this case, a study of three very different sci-fi films, and only one that lived up to its potential. First: Gravity. The commercials had to be dumbed-down for a general audience, I’m afraid.…
Read More Gravity, Elysium, and Titan AEHey, have you heard the one about the Ancient Egyptian statue that moves by itself? This, courtesy of an alert from a friend of mine and an io9 article. Basically, the 10-inch-tall statue of Neb-Sanu is slowly spinning around on its glass shelf over many hours – but only in daylight, and in a perfect…
Read More Creepy Science Is Still ScienceAnother writing-and-reading PSA. Go here to check out author Brenda Novak’s annual online charity auction. She’s been doing this for a number of years, and the prize board this year looks amazing. Forget the antique jewelry, art, and unique vacation packages you might win – check out some of the professional services available. Query-writing assistance.…
Read More Brenda Novak’s Annual Online Auction for Diabetes ResearchAndrew Piper says that e-readers will doom the act of reading. He even has a new book out about it, from the University of Chicago Press, which I am fairly certain will also be available in digital form. Edited to add: yep, it’s on Kindle. He wrote a Slate article about it, too. I call…
Read More The death of reading?