The most ancient of trees.

Okay, so they're "new" trees, but of a variety that's been around since the Jurassic. And, soon, you'll be able to own one. Yep, that's right. According to <a target="_blank" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3139450.stm">this article on BBC News</a>, in 2005 trees that were cultivated from these most ancient of trees will go on sale. According to their growers, they're slow growing and love the shade, so they're perfect for patios. Or, dinosaur paddocks.
Okay, this just struck me as funny. I mean I hear all this talk about the extinction of species and here are these trees that we thought died out over 175 million years ago going strong. Makes you wonder a bit, doesn't it? Maybe it's Mankind that's the temporary thing and the plants and bugs that are just waiting for us to die off again. Anyway, it just tickles my funny bone when I think about the "latest thing" being ancient trees. Fun stuff.

I just finished reading <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345444388/fantasistnet/002-7694… Scar </a>by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/002-7694236-0201664?t… Mieville </a>this weekend.

It was quite as satisfying as his last book, Perdido Street Station. Quite different in character, though. In fact, The Scar, despite its name, was a bit more upbeat than Perdido Street Station. One odd thing, though... The cover mentioned a character from Perdido Street Station, namely Issac Grimnebulin, but he never shows up in the book at all, except as on off-hand reference. But, that aside, it was quite good. And, now, with spoilers in place, here's a run down of the plot.
The Scar opens with one Bellis Coldwine, a linguist, waiting for her ship to dock. She's a linguist in the sense of being a polyglot as well as someone who studies languages. In fact, she uses a kind of trance and magic to learn languages much more quickly than a normal person would. This, actually, was one of many interesting concepts thrown out.
Very quickly, though, our heroine is thrown into turmoil as her ship is hijacked by pirates and she, and her fellow crewmates, are press-ganged into a floating, pirate city called Armada. Then, the plot takes a definate turn. It gets ever more fantastic from here on. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
Our heroine is not very pleased at being assimilated into this free-booter's city, especially since her only other option is death. There is no going home for her. And, in part as rebellion against that death sentence, she gets involved in a plot. A plot, she thinks, that is meant to save her city, the New Crobuzon of Perdido Street Station, from terrible water demons, the near-mythical grindylow. Along the way, her linguistic talents are used to summon up a mythical sea-beast which is meant to pull Armada through the sea. Of course, things don't work out like anyone plans.

It's a rolling, rollicking fun-filled adventure with pirates on the high-seas! Okay, not really. It's dark, morose and about illusions shattered by soulless agents of the government in their merciless quest for a little more power and money. Very gritty. Very realistic. Very good.

Well, I've never bought one, but...

According to <a target="_blank" href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&ncid=738&e=1&u=/nm/… article on YahooNews, but from Reuters</a>, e-books are basically dead. Not quite dead, but almost. Seems that they never sold as well as they were hyped and the competing formats damaged their overall reputation. Still, there is still a small market for e-books. I know, for instance, that there's a market for e-book gaming suppliments, adventures and the like. But, overall, that's a pretty small slice of the pie, so I can see how publishers would be less than willing to layout the expense.
In any case, it's an interesting article. Just make sure to read between the lines. E-books aren't really dead, just way, way ahead of their time.

Three new additions to our conlang resources!

One of the places that I got my interest in conlangs is from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wizards.com/dragon/">the Dragon Magazine</a>. In honor of that source of inspiration, I have uploaded word lists and basic grammar of three conlangs from the Dragon. All three are originally by Sean K. Reynolds. They're pretty basic languages, but they do add flavor to a Dungeons and Dragons campaign! Actually, they could be used in <i>any</i> fantasy role-playing game, but the Dragon is mainly focused on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd">Dungeons and Dragons</a>.

In any case, <a href="http://www.fantasist.net/dwarven.shtml">Dwarven</a&gt;, <a href="http://www.fantasist.net/elven.shtml">Elven</a&gt; and <a href="http://www.fantasist.net/draconic.shtml">Draconic</a&gt; are all uploaded, so enjoy them!

No, not a car that files.

A car that runs on compressed air. Now <b>that</b> is an innovation! It sounds too good to be true, but, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,60427,00.html">this article on Wired News</a>, the compressed air car actually exists. At the moment there are some issues with regulation and drive length, but, c'mon, this is the <b><i>ultimate</i></b> green car. I mean, what's the down-side to this? Air might leak out? And, we could even use solar power to run the air-compressor to "re-fuel". I love this car. Now, if they can just get a model that runs further than 5 miles on a tank of air and get the US government to approve it....
Ah, well, a guy can dream!

A new, experiemental model may duplicate animal eyes.

At least, that's the goal. A scientist has recently created a system that he believes will let him "see" like an octopus. Or, a lion. Or, an eagle. Or, really, just about any other animal one cares to name. What's more, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,60578,00.html">the article on Wired News</a>, he hopes to simulate what it might look like if an eagle saw things through an octopus eye. And other combonations that aren't possible in nature. It's certainly an interesting look at one way science is trying to understand how animals percieve the world. And, of course, how we do, too.

Just something that touched me.

I read a lot about a lot of things. One subject that I tend to enjoy reading about online is conlanging. One of the more well known people in conlanging is Jeffrey Henning, who runs <a target="_blank" href="http://www.langmaker.com">Langmaker.com</a&gt;. But, he has a whole other side that a lot of us don't really know. I stumbled across it the other day. As an example of how deep a person he is, I offer his <a target="_blank" href="http://jeffrey.henning.com/forgivenessprayer.htm">Forgiveness Prayer</a>.

Well, actually, macadamia nuts, but still...

According to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/18/1063625128292.html">this article on the Sydney Morning Herald</a>, there's now a power plant in Australia that runs on the shells of macadamia nuts. It opened on September 18 and is the first of it's kind. The "green" facility will "...convert 1680 kilograms of waste shell into 1.5 megawatts of electricity" but "will reduce greenhouse gases by around 9500 tonnes which is the equivalent of taking more than 2000 cars off the road", and that's just in its first year.
The article says that several other countries have expressed interest in this plant, including the United States. About time. We need power that is less damaging to our environment. Way to go Australia!

Not sure where this fits, really, but it's interesting.

Ever wanted to get a close look at the inside of a prison without going to jail? Well, now, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60542,00.html">this article on Wired News</a>, you can. The state of Tennesse has a "virtual tour" of their maximum security prison. You can look in on Death Row, the Rec Yard, the Gym, and the Perimiter, among other virtual destinations. It's the real deal, so be prepared. You can check it out for yourself <a target="_blank" href="http://www.state.tn.us/correction/institutions/rmsitour.html">here</a&gt;.

What do you use to get the Job done?

<a target="_blank" href="http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/20/1812204&mode=threa…, a geek news service, has an interesting article </a>about writer's choices of tools. They mainly focus on word processors, of course, but it goes beyond that. There are some rather insightful comments about the article, too. Especially, the comment made that, basically, all we need in a word processing program is Open, Save, Bold, Italic, Underline, Spellcheck, and Print. What else do you really need to get the message accross? That's all I use in this blog, for instance. So, do we need to spend big money on the latest version of Microsoft Word? Not really. We can do just fine with the free Wordpad, if we're willing to use an actual dictionary instead of Spellcheck.
So, what are you waiting for? Go start writing!