I wasn’t sure a blurb would come in on time to make the Game of Cages cover, but it did! Picture this:
Move the text “A Twenty Palaces Novel” down beside the word “of” and in its place, picture this blurb:
“Connolly keeps you turning pages and wanting more.” —C.E. Murphy
Yeah. It’s a good day.
I’d post the cover flat itself (instead of describing it) but it’s not quite final yet. Soon!
1) Holy cow, but this is amazing. And here’s some poster art.
3) Creating the sociopaths of the future.
4) A teeny murder weapon. Weirdly, I was going to show this to my son, but he’d already seen it. My little boy is growing up.
1) The seven species of robots. TED Talk via Ezra Klein
2) Williams Syndrome: the disease of trust. Audio report and transcript.
3) 25 Beautiful photos of spiral staircases.
4) Do not try to bring your gay dog to this restaurant!.
5) Twetiquette vigilantes! aka People With A Brain Disorder.
6) Mass market supercar competition begins.
7) And, to round things off: Cute dancing robots
1) Can YOU crack the Zodiac Killer’s cipher? The original documents are now available online.
2) Pop quiz: Comic book character or wrestling move?
4) I hope I hope I never get a book cover like these. via genreville
5) This book on hoarding sounds fascinating!
6) Take a look at the 15th, 20th and 24th pictures. (Not to mention all the nice happy people).
1) Fantasy art or currently erupting Icelandic volcano?
2) Camera technology detects buried corpses from a plane.
3) A Choose-Your-Own Adventure, Lego Animation Style: Ronald Has A Spider On His Head.
4) Despite the URL, this link is totally safe for work: a celebration of portraiture. I love these pictures more than I should. I especially love the top one in the “Cowboys” entry.
5) I can’t see this at work; somebody please watch it and tell me if it’s cool.
6) Third edition POKETHULHU rules now available as free download.
7) A Hobbit hole too small even for Bilbo. At first I was all “Call me when you make something you can live in,” but as I scrolled through all the pictures, I was more and more impressed.
The layout is kinda funky, and why did the WW1 and WW2 planes have to be in such a dark environment? (My wife thinks it’s to preserve the planes, but I’m doubtful.) I had to take those photos w/out the flash on my little camera, so I apologize if I blurred the picture by moving during a long exposure.
But aside from that, it’s really a fantastic place. Truly awesome and amazing.
Here’s the Gossamer Albatross II, the human-powered plane from a few years ago.
Here’s a V1 rocket and cruise missile
And here’s a chart showing several different aviation maneuvers. You’ll have to click through to see it at the “large” or “original” size if you want to read it.
And there are 70+ pics in the set over on Flickr, including some shots of the mockup of a lab in the international space station, WW1 bi-planes, the lunar rover, a couple jet engines, and so on. We almost toured the inside of Air Force One (a mockup, I’m sure) but my son had had enough before we got to it. I don’t know squat about planes, but it sure was fun being there.
Post edited: This video has been deleted
1) The NYTimes (attempts to) compare the environmental impact of paper and electronic books.
2) Scrabble to allow proper nouns. Is this worse than the Designated Hitter rule? Save us Will Shorts!
3) How to write a stupid book review. “Once upon a time in a world far, far away, publishing was run by editors.” Also, it’s amazing how many people heap shit on urban fantasy because it’s perceived to be about women. I say this as an author who is uncomfortable when people praise my work as if it’s an antidote to UF about women and their sex lives.
4) Beautiful photos of the circus, circa 1910.
5) Picturesque old postcards with added alien invasion.
6) Spawn, GI Joe, Optimus Prime, and other figures done in Lego.
FB users, this is an embed. Click through to watch it.
The Chilean tsunami is expected to reach Seattle around 4:30 this afternoon. It’s also expected to be about 6-feet high according to one source, but the BBC is saying it could be either nothing or 10 meters.
Of course, Seattle is on Puget Sound, not the Pacific Ocean. We have a huge peninsula between us and the sea, and while we get waves, their tiny little lapping waves, not the relatively strong crests you can see in a place like Ocean Shores.
So how crazy would it be to go relatively close to the water’s edge and watch the wave come in? I know better than to actually stand on the shore: six inches of running water can sweep a person off their feet and two feet of water can carry away a car. I don’t want to see my son swept out to sea, obviously.
And yeah, we do live close to the water, but well uphill. Our home wouldn’t be in any danger. We could go to either a bayside spot well over six feet above the typical waterline, or we could go to a cliff-side park at the top of a hill.
It’s something I’d like to see, and that I’d like my son to see; I just don’t want my tombstone to read “He was stupid.”
edited to add: The National Weather Service says there won’t be any tsunami in this area, only slightly higher tides and “dangerous currents”. Nothing to see here. No need to head out.
Ah well. At least this means there’s no danger to the city. Maybe we’ll find some video online to show my son what a tsunami looks like.
