Categories
creative

New fiction

I just posted my latest work of fiction, the first one in a while. It’s called Ripped to Pieces by a Mob of Adoring Fans, and it’s a story i wrote last year to submit to the second Machine of Death anthology, edited by Ryan NorthMatthew Bennardo, and David Malki !, (the first one is excellent, and is available here).

Machine of Death stories all have one thing in common: they tell of people who know the means of their demise, thanks to a wonderful, horrible invention of the possibly-near future.

Anyway, i wrote it super quickly in about two or three hours, and submitted it with minutes to go by the end of the deadline for submissions. It is not too good, but it’s about the only fiction i’ve written in a while, so i posted it here.

They say “write what you know,” so i wrote about underemployment and music. And, naturally, death. But really it’s about selling out, and fame, and self-sabotage, and the creative motivation. Above all, though, it’s murky, hard to read, self-indulgent, and disappointingly uninteresting.

Ripped to Pieces by a Mob of Adoring Fans

Categories
current events internets uncategorized

X-Day X: a no-show for Xists (again)

Well, that’s weird, “Bob”… Something weird didn’t happen yesterday….

Categories
current events life media memories uncategorized

God bless you, Mr. Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
November 11, 1922–April 11, 2007

Categories
media uncategorized

Gaius Baltar = Jesus???

Is it me, or are they deliberately trying to slowly reveal Gaius Baltar as some sort of twisted, ironic Jesus figure on the new Battlestar Galactica?

If true, it’s pure, sick genius.

If false, thank the gods for lifting the crushing weight of that overly hackneyed analogy from our collective shoulders.
Gaius Baltar as "Evil Jesus"

Categories
internets media uncategorized

Spore

Will Wright is an incredible genius! The man behind the “Sim” games, his new game, Spore, is most definitely going to be the most amazing and mind-blowing game ever created. It will be a very, very, very long time before anybody ever tops this one. Watch the entire video to get a sense of the sheer godawful scope of this gargantuan thing. Mere words simply cannot do it justice.

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Categories
current events uncategorized

Cloaking Device Invented (sort of)

Scientists Take Step Toward Invisibility

Dr. [David R.] Smith warned against getting ahead of the day’s announcement and envisioning the disappearing Romulan warbirds of “Star Trek” on the horizon. The work “is really a scientific explanation,” he said, adding, “Whether it’s useful is always a question.”

Creating a cloaking device in the visible spectrum would be vastly more complex, he said, since the device would have to warp all of the wavelengths of light. The chance of creating such a device is “dim,” he said, but, “The theory doesn’t prevent it from an electromagnetic point of view.”

A real invisibility cloak? Wizard!

“Our cloak allows a concealed volume, plus the cloak, to appear to have properties similar to free space when viewed externally,” Professor David Smith, of Duke University, said. “The cloak deflects microwave beams so they flow around a ‘hidden’ object, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all. The waves’ movement is similar to river water flowing around a smooth rock.”
Categories
internets memories uncategorized

RuBot II- Rubik’s Cube solving robot

YouTube has an amazing video of RuBot II – The Rubik’s cube solving robot. I so want one. My birthday’s coming up, but the creator’s website isn’t, so I have no idea if they have a Wishlist feature. [UPDATE] I was typing in the wrong address; it’s http://mechatrons.com/.

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This is the new version of RuBot by Pete Redmond from Dublin, Ireland. It’s very different to the prototype but it has to be the coolest looking robot solver ever. There are cameras in the eyes of the head that scan the cube before the pneumatic arms solve it. It usually solves the Cube in a max of about 50 seconds (not including the scan) no matter how much it is mixed up.

The solving algorithm is taken care of by Herbert Kociemba’s Cube Explorer software and usually solves the cube in a maximum of about 20 moves. In this video, the cube wasn’t mixed up too hard so RuBot was able to find the optimum solution.

Thanks to all of those who think it is too good to be true. That is a real compliment!

Categories
current events

Teleportation

CNN reports that scientists in Denmark were able to successfully teleport a macroscopic object with billions of atoms. Forbløffende! What this means for the future of computing: Quantum computers will be able to transmit data absolutely securely. Let’s hope the government Big Brother allows us common people have privacy like that, and not just keep it all to themselves.

Don’t get your hopes up just yet, though. We still have a long, long way to go before we can teleport living matter without ending up with a pile of sticky goo at the other end.

Categories
internets

Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”/2001 A Space Odyssey

Pink Floyd Echoes Music Video with 2001 A Space Odyssey – Google Video

Very cool.

Categories
current events

Light goes backwards… faster than self?!

So, ya know how those wacky scientists have been slowing down light more and more over the past several years now? To the point where you could physically see the motion? And even to the point where it’s stopped?

Now, Robert Boyd, the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics at the University of Rochester, has actually slowed time so fucking much that it moves backwards.

That’s right. Backwards. But that’s not all!

It apparently does so faster than the god damn speed of light.

Categories
current events internets media

videos, etc.

Video: I love this terrific, mind-bending sci-fi short story. I mean, really love it. It’s one of the reasons why i’m proud to be alive on this planet Earth and why i’m so lucky to be around at this time in history. Now, there’s a short film: Terry Bisson’s “They’re Made Out of Meat”

Video: Star Wars/Lord of the Rings mashup: Starlords

Etc.: Jane Siberry‘s got it right! This is how the music business should work… and the best part about it is that her business model actually does.