In an attempt to not get flagged by every spam filter known to man I decided to call this post “Steamed Sponge Cake Pudding with Raisins” when there is really a better, more accurate, and funnier title out there on the horizon. Let’s just say, that this British sponge cake pudding is now called Spotted Richard by those who don’t wish to offend. That’s right, a chance encounter at a grocery store led me to have in my possession Spotted, cough, cough, “Richard” in a can! Better still, microwaveable! Oh, the wrongness doesn’t end there my friends…..
When visiting Rochester, NY my husband and I stopped in at one of the many Wegmans grocery stores in the area. I loved their international food section! After recently complaining of my inability to find hominy (dried or canned) I quickly snatched up a bag of dried hominy from their Latin section. Oh hominy, how I’ve missed you! Well as we wandered further down the aisle we came across a British/English section. And there is was…..Heinz’s Spotted Dick….in a can. Just in case that didn’t seem wrong enough, there was a proud oval on the can, proclaiming it….microwaveable! I had to have it!
Spotted Dick....in a can.
Now, as the owner of a canned Spotted Dick I set about preparing it. Let me first explain that I have never had Spotted Dick. Honestly, until seeing the can on the shelf I wasn’t even sure what Spotted Dick was! I’m going to guess that there is a proud Spotted Dick tradition in Britain, but this is America baby, so I bought my Spotted Dick in a can thanks to Heinz, and decided that the only appropriate preparation technique for this oddity would be the microwave. To the microwave!
Spotted Dick, under glass. How classy.
Preparing it was super easy. Open up the top with a can opener, turn it out onto a microwave safe plate, cover with a microwave safe bowl, cook on high for two minutes, then let it sit for two minutes.
And the big reveal!
A microwaved Spotted Dick.
It looks just awful, doesn’t it? I mean, unappealing in every way. Truth told, it wasn’t too bad. It tasted like a very moist, odd sponge cake variant of gingerbread with raisins. Also, crazy sweet. For about 5 minutes of effort, and weeks of Spotted Dick in a can jokes, it was a fantastic purchase. I’m not sure if I would pick up another one or not. Guess we’ll find out the next time I make it to a Wegmans in Rochester.
As long as we’re on the subject of British food, indulge me in a moment of BBC science fiction geekiness. I’m a big fan of the show “Red Dwarf”. While in college, I watched it every week with friends. I always tell my sci-fi inclined friends that I would suck up having to sit through “Doctor Who” so that I could watch “Red Dwarf”. And despite that my husband still married me, it must be love. Even more evidence of my husband’s love was that he bought me the whole series on DVD, which he watched with me.
One of his favorite characters, as well as mine, is Ace Rimmer, the heroic alternate universe version of Arnold Rimmer, the whiny, annoying regular character in the series. Ace Rimmer’s catchphrase is “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast!” Like the geeks we are, my husband and I now frequently tell each other, “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast!” So while on our cruise last year, when my husband saw on the breakfast menu “Smoked Kipper” he felt obligated to try it. Holy crap was it good!
So, inspired by my British food acquisition he decided to buy the things he needed to recreate his Smoked Kipper breakfast. It was tough, capers had to be bought, tomatoes had to be sliced and fried, potatoes cooked, and hardest of all was getting the smoked kipper. (In case the sarcasm wasn’t apparent, it was pretty simple.) In the end, our smoked kippers came to us from the exotic locale of Jersey City. Glad we hit the international food aisle!
Brought to you by Jersey City, NJ.
Anyway, here are the fruits of his labor. I know, it looks like the least desirable breakfast ever, but it tasted fantastic! Amazingly good! Give it a try sometime!
Make it Yourself
By “make it”, I mean print it and by “it”, I mean pretty much anything. Heard about those neat 3D printers that cost the moon to buy? Forget about them! This website has instructions for building a 3D printer yourself for about $2500 (less if you source the parts yourself). The website is the front porch of an organization trying to create personal fabrication technology for the masses.
Mmm, Airships
Here’s another link to another airship, this time in a MUCH larger prototype and looking to be in full-size vehicles by the summer. It’s not science fiction anymore! (And yes, it uses helium.)
Printed Dinner
Ok, yes, two 3D printer stories practically in a row. Too bad, this is different and cool. Researchers at Cornell University are building a food printer. Which they hope will one day be as ubiquitous as the microwave oven.
You Already Know What This Link is About
A hugely respected scientist has been conducting experiments on ESP. Nothing new, right? Well, it appears that he has (proof pending) repeatable experimental proof of people being effected by events that they haven’t experienced … yet. Spooooky!
Doctor Who: Master of Weird Connections
David Tennant (quite likely one of the best Doctor Who actors ever) is marrying the woman who played the Doctor’s clone-daughter in the series. Not weird enough for you? She’s the real-life daughter of Peter Davidson, who you may recall played Incarnation #5 of the good Doc. Life — stranger than fiction.
Once Forgotten Caves Laser-mapped
A series of caves, now thought to be a sand-mine, were recently laser-mapped, providing smoke-like maps of their winding, twisty corridors. It’s thought the “caves” were a working sand mine in the 1700’s and were re-discovered in 1892. Some basements in Nottingham actually open onto the caves. Be sure to watch the movies — there’s a virtual fly-through.
Tiny Dioramas of Weirdness
So, this artist builds dioramas of movie scenes and photographs them. That’s it. And it’s … surreal.
Odd Word of the Month: Cryptoforests
Not sure what they are? I’m not entirely sure either, but I guess they’re isolated bits of forest in an urban landscape.
Doctor Who Nesting Dolls
No, really! And no, you can’t have too many Doctor Who posts and/or links.
It’s Only Sort-of Genetic
Neurologists and geneticists have been studying genius. They’re reaching the conclusion that genetics predetermines only so much, and that each of us has a potential genius talent.
Plus there’s a sidebar about how brains change depending on activity.
Make It Better
Fun little typographic animation perfectly showcasing the geek’s need to fidget with things until they’re “perfect”. Plus it’s cool.
Voxels Make It More Fun
There’s a new shoot-em-up video game coming to the Mac/PC world, and it looks like a game that escaped from 1984 and then was hit with the 3D wand. But cooler than I just made that sound.
The Finest Men’s Fashions — from 1892
It’s a real online store that sells real Victorian-style clothing. If you’re into SteamPunk, it’s a must-have bookmark. If you’re amused by cravats, ditto.
Avoiding data charges in 1906
Text messages are hardly new to communications — just ask anyone who remembers 1906. Back then, it was called the telegram, and this farming equipment company came up with a great way for their customers to avoid additional charges for ordering: codes.
The Zen of Entanglement*
Nice little web game that feels like a cross between zen meditation and celtic knot-making. Simple and fun. Also, totally engrossing, so be sure to have a spare hour when you click the link.
You Think of It, They Print It
These folks take custom orders for 3-dimensional objects, print them and then ship them to you. Rings, electronics cases, miniatures, chess pieces, what-have-you.
Seriously, I should be getting a commission or something with all these commercial links.
You Can’t Walk Straight
No foolin’, you can’t. Well, not without some kind of reference point, anyway. Here’s the fun part: no one knows why. It’s weird!
Moral of the story? Find a fixed point to walk towards when you’re setting out, otherwise, it’ll go bad for you.
Secret Ice Fortress
The army had a secret base under the Greenland ice sheet. No, this isn’t the paranoid ravings of a conspiracy nut. Not in this article, anyway. There really was a base out there. It was called Camp Century. Unfortunately, and as any modern glacier scientist can tell you, ice doesn’t just sit there: it MOVES. And that’s a problem for permanent structures in the midst of the ice. The project only lasted 10 years. But the photos are cool. Did I mention it was nuclear-powered?
How Badass is This Engineer?
So badass, he designed his own heart-valve replacement, and is using it now! Does he need any other entries on his resume?
The History of the Graphic Adventure Game
Great article going over the whole panoply of graphic-based (as opposed to text-based) adventure games. From King’s Quest to Leisure Suit Larry, and beyond. Worth a read for the nostalgia (if you’re old enough) or for a peak at a genre that almost doesn’t exist anymore.
Every Toddler’s Dream: Exterminate!
Yes, your child can ride inside this Dalek replica and fake exterminate their family, friends and random passer-by. Be the first on your block to enable your budding despot to get a death-machine’s-eye-view of the carnage. Watch the video for the full horrifying experience.
Drilling Lake Vostok
Yeah, this isn’t the plot of a movie or anything. Russian scientists are within 50m of drilling into Lake Vostok — a body of water 4000m under the ice of Antarctica. It’s theorized that the “lake” (body of water) has been isolated from the rest of Earth’s biosphere for 15 million years.
* Links marked with this * symbol are courtesy of Alex. Thanks, Alex!
About John: John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).
Geek Credentials: RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee. Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993 Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983 His Blog:http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com
In my opinion, my husband is a genius when it comes to table top role-playing games. When it comes to ideas and variety of storytelling techniques, there are few I’ve encountered that can compare to him. (For those of you unfamiliar with the kind of games I’m talking about, I’ll direct your attention to an interview with game designer Steve Kenson who did a great job discussing RPGs for beginners.) Jim has this neat ability to see or hear a snippet of something and suddenly just whip out a great idea. Routinely I’ll sit with him in the car and just start throwing out random thoughts and ideas about something he’s considering and generally the dumber the suggestion the more likely it is that he’ll evolve it into something awesome. One example, a villain who is a master of Feng Shui that kills people by rearranging their rooms in a way that blocks the necessary flow of energies for survival. That started with me suggesting that if a game is set in modern day San Francisco you needed some kind of hippy/new age villain.
It’s that kind of awesome that made it so when one day Jim said to me, “How about a disco martial arts setting?” I knew it could be bad ass. All the fun of the 70’s, complete with disco music and dancing, but the martial arts were actually a part of the disco dances of the era. I immediately fell in love with the idea. In fact, I loved the idea so much that I instantly came up with the idea for an introduction vignette in which one of those disco warriors talks about the time in her youth spent fighting a secret war couched in disco. Of course, my fangirl levels of excitement can’t actually force Jim to create something when his head isn’t in it, so my little story has been just hanging around on my computer waiting for some love. That’s when I decided that although I’m not really a fiction writer, (or a writer, for that matter) this story was pretty fun and that I would share it with Magical Buffet readers.
So here, for your enjoyment I present to you what I’m currently calling “The Age of Disco”…… (By the way, I totally call dibs on the disco martial arts idea! Mine! Mine! Mine!)
I’d been watching her for months. Three or four nights a week I see her climbing either out of, or back into her bedroom window. The whole neighborhood is populated by the aging, those of us racing towards retirement. A veritable paradise to a 16 year-old girl looking to sneak out of the house; just wait until all the “old folks” are asleep and the night is yours. I doubt she ever realized that I’m a bit of a night owl.
Tonight I watched her climb out of the window and race off into the night. After her departure I climbed up and stuck a note to her window, “Come over tonight, or I’ll rat you out to your parents. Tina” She’ll come, I know her type.
I was once a 16 year-old you know; climbing out of my bedroom window, catching a cab, hopping the subway, and dancing my way through every disco club the city had to offer. I wasn’t out for a thrill and I wasn’t looking for love. I just wanted to dance. Fortunately, as I’m sure my young friend has discovered, when you’re a 16 year-old girl willing to show a little skin, there isn’t really a line you can’t jump to get into a club. I’ve noticed the smudged ink on her hands; she’s been stamped at a multitude of bars.
After months of dancing my way through some of the finest, and sometimes sleaziest, discos the city had to offer I finally settled on my home base. It was a small storefront club. It boasted none of the trappings of most other clubs; no velvet rope, no bouncer, no neon sign; just a small plaque by the door with the name “Tony’s”. The interior was relatively drab. There was a small bar, a wooden dance floor, and a modest raised platform where the DJ spun some of the best disco the era had to offer. Yes, good disco. I had danced there for months before I finally met Tony.
There was a rumor that Tony, despite being an African American, had actually spent 10 years in China before returning to the U.S. to open his club. I assumed it was a rumor designed to give a sense of international chic to what most people would consider a dumpy, small time disco bar. One night I was out on the floor, dancing with some schmuck who thought he had a chance, and the next thing I knew, I was dancing with Tony instead. He was older, and black, and everything my parents would fear for me if they knew I was out on my own at sixteen. If they had ever realized what had happened to me, I would have never seen the outside world again.
Disco has a hidden heart, pulsing with a secret rhythm that if tapped into can change the very fabric of reality. Tony had been to China. The monks there taught him the most secret and sacred of martial arts. Tony hid the moves and beats within the very disco music dominating the dance floors. It turned out there were dozens of factions, some good, some bad, and some neutral, infiltrating the popular culture through disco to fight a secret war with the enlightenment of mankind on the line.
I became a warrior in low rise blue jeans and platform shoes. I was Tony’s devoted disciple and he rewarded me with powers normal men could not imagine. I danced in a fury for a better world, risking my life and soul for those who could not dance for themselves. I was just a girl, but I gladly sacrificed what was left of my childhood to become a soldier, and how was I rewarded? How were we all rewarded? With ridicule. Me, and my fellow warriors of disco, became a joke, a punch line to a decade of excess. Good or evil, it didn’t matter in the eyes of the people. We were jokes, and we were done.
It’s hard to sacrifice so much only to lose so much more. Tony tried to hold onto to hope. He went to every two-bit radio station’s “disco sucks” rally to try and reason with the populace. He would dive into piles of burning LPs, trying to save the precious records of our greatest battles, all the while being jeered and pelted with beer cans. Soon enough “Tony’s” was boarded up, if you drove pass it today you would find a Starbucks. As for Tony, he disappeared. Rumor has it that he lost his life to the dark forces that worked so diligently to destroy the age of disco. However, I hope that he returned to China to work with the monks that tried so hard to enlighten humanity.
Of course, either way, he’s gone. Now I’m an unmarried, 50 year-old disco warrior, stuck waiting for a teenage girl to knock at my door. And right on time, I hear the knocking.
“All right Tina, I’m here like you asked. What’s your deal?”
“Drop the attitude missy and help me move this trunk.” Curiosity compels her, just like it did me years ago. She helps me with an over-sized locked trunk.
“Now sit down, shut your trap. You’re going to learn something tonight young lady.”
I pull the chain from under my shirt; the key dangling from the end unlocks the trunk. I pull out a record player and plug it into the wall outlet. With great care I dust off a pair of wooden platform shoes and place them in front of my young companion. Next to the shoes I set the pair of large golden hoop earrings that I unearth from the pouch they are kept in. Lastly, I pull out a single record, “Main Course” by the Bee Gees.
“These, my young friend, are our weapons. With these we fight against the oppressors. These things represent freedom, power, and potential. What we do with these things, determines our destiny.”
“Okay Tina, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you can tell my parents about sneaking out. I’m out of here.”
“You will stay right there!” I order. I put on the earrings, and slide on the shoes. I carefully remove the album from its sleeve and start it playing.
And with that, I begin to dance.
When the song ends I open my eyes and look at the 16 year-old sitting on my sofa. Her eyes gaze up into mine, with tears running down her cheeks, and she says one word, “Master.”
Strange Terrestrial Life
NASA announced that a form of bacterium that uses arsenic instead of sulphur as one of its basic building blocks has been discovered. This is odd because no other form of life on the planet — not mushrooms, not bugs, not animals, not us, not anything (even slime-mold!) — is built that way. Freaky!
Fly-over of New York City
You’re expecting this to be some footage from 1982 or something, right? I mean, come on! Who can do a fly-over of NYC in this day and age? These guys, that’s who. In an RC airplane at 7am in the morning (when regular air traffic is light). And sure, the TSA and NYC police talked to them — but no arrests or nasty exchanges. Amazing!
New Leonardo DaVinci Codes Discovered
Well, not “new” exactly. “Previously unknown” is probably a better way to put that. Sill, Leonardo was one of the biggest geeks of all time, so any new codes from him is note-worthy. This is some more of his un-deciphered mirror-writing. Good stuff!
You Got Virus in My Battery!
Scientists are working on a way to take a virus that typically afflicts tobacco plants, coat the little beasts in nano-particles of metal and stuff them into batteries. Because there are so many of them and they’re so small, the coated viruses will provide much more surface area for the electrode, dramatically increasing the battery’s storage capacity. Nifty!
Real Light Cycle
So these guys built a real working replica of the Light Cycles from Tron (and not to be confused with the flyers from Return of the Jedi, like I did the first time I heard of these things). Neat looking, but it looks about as maneuverable as their movie counterparts.
Who Started It All?
Ever wondered who created the longest running science-fiction tv show? Want to see some still pictures of them? Click away!
If Day-Old Soup is Better … How Awesome is This?
Archaeologists in China uncovered 2,400-year-old soup. That’s right, it’s been stewing for 24 centuries. That’s some concentrated awesome right there. The soup was found still liquid in a sealed bronze container.
Burning Liquid Sulfur: Blue Flames!
Ever wonder what a sulphur mine inside a volcano might look like? Wonder no more — awesome photos ahead!
Lego Antikythera Mechanism*
That’s right, you read that correctly. Combine the worlds best make-it-yourself toy (Legos!) with an ancient device discovered in clay jars in a shipwreck. What’s the result? Pure concentrated awesome!
Lovecraft eBooks*
Did you know his stuff was public domain now? No? It is! Download away!
Map of the World: Facebook Style
Fancy ray-of-light visualization of all the users on Facebook, based on geographic location on the globe. Bonus: dense math explanation about how the map was generated based on friendship relationships. Neat!
Lost Your Head? Found!
Among the types of “antiques” and “collectibles”, a mummified severed head is not one that immediately makes my “must have” list. Anyway, what a great find to discover that your mummified head is Kingly. Woo!
What Happened to the Water??
Ever wonder what Niagara Falls would look like without all that pesky water everywhere? Wonder no more!! Bonus: grainy 60’s video.
Air Condition the Whole Outside
You’ve heard your Dad say it countless times, but now it’s Real. Some brain trusts have come up with a sculpture that produces cooler air simply by the nature of it’s structure. Oh, and of course, it’s made from 3D-printed sand. The idea being you set up a few hundred of these near buildings and micro-climate those hot days away.
Changing Wallpaper
You’re expecting some kind of funky, new-fangled “paper” that users computers and gizmos, right? Nope. It’s just standard-old wallpaper with various color images overlaid on it — and then depending on what light you provide, you get different images. It’s almost Victorian!
Fish Keys
Great little stop-motion animation of underwater zen — all done using various metal implements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CWOebTREVU
You Want Real Faces? You Can’t Handle Real Faces!*
Behind the scenes of the fantastic-looking, realistic faces in the new video game LA Noir. Figure out if someone is lying to you by actually looking at the character’s face in-game. Video link is a behind-the-scenes of the tech.
A Very Zombie Holiday*
Not sure about baking etiquette during a zombie outbreak? Have no fear, this instructional 1950’s-style video is here. Best line? “Kids? It’s time to give Gammy her Christmas gift.”
Bonus points for the Serenity/Firefly reference.
About John: John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).
Geek Credentials: RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee. Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993 Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983 His Blog:http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com
Come for the Qubits, Stay for the Resonators
Lots of research being done on creating a quantum computer, by IBM and various academic laboratories around the world. The article is pretty dry until it gets to the part where they start talking about qubits and resonators, when it becomes a gold mine of (apparently) technobabble terms for a computational device that not many people completely understand. Bonus: picture of a four qubit chip.
Batman, On the Road
Used to be, traveling players put on shows with painted canvases, wooden props and fancy costumes. These days, it’s all pyrotechnics, animatronics, giant TV screens and stunts. Of course, when it’s Batman as the subject matter, you just have to go that extra mile.
Here There Be RPG’ers
I just love me some maps. This is a beauty sent in by a faithful reader (Hi, Matt!). It shows all the RPG-related forums online, in good-old-fashioned hex-map format, where 1 hex equals 1000 members, and then organized into vaguely related islands. My favorite RPG country? The Sunken Ruins of Usenet (an ancient empire).
Just Print Another Head
The article is about how 3D printers may soon run into the same intellectual property rights problems that computers, photocopiers and VCR’s did in earlier decades. Only this time, of course, it might be patent holders rather than copyright holders you have to worry about. And there is no “fair use” in US patent law.
It’s also a great quickie overview of the various 3D printers out there, with movies showing them off. There’s the RepRap, a 3D printer you can build yourself for just a few hundred dollars that can also print most of the parts it needs to build another copy of itself. That’s right — build one and print the rest!
How to Outdo Your Neighbors’ Light Displays
That string of lights? So last century. The glowing plastic Santa? Done. How about if the entire building is lit up and with far more than just 1000 tiny bulbs? Check out this “Light artist” who uses projectors and the facade of the building itself to create some seriously cool displays.
Beauty is NOT in the Eye of the Beholder
No, apparently it’s something your good genes made possible. Really! Also, this TED presentation has some great hand-drawn animation to help the narration along. How Close Are We to Dick Tracy Watches? Pretty Damned Close.
So, it’s just a funky plastic-and-metal wrist-watch thing that you can put an iPod Nano into and pop onto your wrist, yes. But think about the future. Apple has already got forward-facing cameras on it’s iPod Touch. How long before these things have cameras and wireless? Not too many years now. Of course, Dick Tracey couldn’t play music on his wrist-TV, either.
Barefoot Shoes
I don’t know if these count as Geeky or not, but they are definitely WEIRD. These are plastic, articulated shoes that have little special bits for all your individual toes. They’re molded to your feat. So the theory is that they’re like going barefoot, but with protection for your feet.
Print Your Own Roads
Here’s a video of a machine that lays a cobblestone (cobblestone!) road much like a printer puts down the printed page. Well, mostly. In this case, the “printhead” is provided by 3 guys putting the paving stones in the right places as the machine lays the road, but still — very cool.
Read by the Light of the … Trees?
Scientists have found a way to use gold nano-particles to make tree leaves bioluminescent. Interesting, but what if you turned that into a large-scale civic project to replace street lights with trees that GLOW?
Fishing in a Manhattan Basement
It’s a surrealist picture of an actual life event: in a stream bubbling through the basement of a building in Manhattan, this guy caught a fish. It’s a bit like a scene from an unlikely urban fantasy novel.
Tim Burton’s Stainboy
Collaborative story-writing the Twitter way. Tim Burton started a short story with a tweet, and is inviting other people to contribute to it, 140 characters at a time.
Package Care
Which of the big three shippers (UPS, FedEx, USPS) handles packages the nicest? Popular Mechanics decided to do a few little tests and shipped live testing equipment in a package.
The UK Geek Calendar
Sort of a pin-up calendar of UK geekdom. And by pin-up, I mean photographic portraits (all fully clothed, thankfully).
What’s That From??
Ever wonder where a particularly funny quote came from? I do, all the time. Now there’s a website which caters to my particular memory-loss. Suzbin will take a quote and tell you what movie it appeared in, what time-code the quote happened at and give you a link to the Netflix copy of the movie. How’s that for service?
Warm Up the DeLorean!
It’s a fully articulated scale model of the time-traveling DeLorean from Back to the Future. PLUS it’s a 500GB external drive. The amusing thing here is that it’s designed to work with Apple’s Time Machine program (which does back-ups automatically to an external drive).
About John: John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).
Geek Credentials: RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee. Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993 Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983 His Blog:http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com
Ptolemy Code Broken
Historians have figured out some maps of ancient Germany that hadn’t made sense until recently. Penned in 150 AD by Ptolemy, the map of what is now Germany was always believed to have wild inaccuracies, owing partly to the fact that Ptolemy never left Alexandria, Egypt. Well, it appears that when Ptolemy was wrong, he was wrong in a consistent and accurate fashion. Scientists have figured out a mathematical match-up system to correct the errors, and now the origin date of quite a few German cities has been made older by about a thousand years.
Ten Years of Smart Phones
From mega-bricks you could commit murder with to tiny plaques that we’ve long seen in scifi books and movies, the smart phone has come a LONG way in just a decade. Ars Technica has a great gallery of pictures.
Ninjas and Cowboys
Really, what more could you ask for in your epic action movie? Just watch the trailer.
Periodic Table of Swearing
A graph of all the naughty words and their relative weights. Obviously, this is so NSFW. In fact, it’s probably NSFMP (Not Safe For Most People), as they really don’t spare any of the circus of vulgarity available. Extra bonus: it’s UK English swear-words, so some of them are extra funny (to American ears).
Zombie Head Cookie Jar
Has to be seen to really get the full effect. It’s VERY cool. I think some kind of salmon-pink cookies would be best.
Remote Control Wand
This is not your standard goofy remote control redo, it’s a wand. A not-quite-real, use-gestures-to-control-things wand. For your TV. Or whatever. Watch the video at the bottom of the blurb to see it in action. Buy it, then change the channel with a mere flick.
Not Quite Dead Languages
According to the website, every 14 days a language dies. The Enduring Voices Project, a National Geographic program, is documenting as many languages as they can as quickly as they can. It has a nice interactive graphic showing the “hotspots” around the world, with info on each. Interesting if you’re into languages. Or intensely useful if you need some esoteric background stuff for a novel or gaming adventure.
And here’s a nice trivia bit: “Di’nisbaas” means ‘I’m in the process of driving a vehicle into something and getting stuck’ in Navajo.
Map of Online Communities
What if there was a map, like you get at the front of your better fantasy books, that showed the online communities sized to their relative daily bandwidth? That would be one of xkcd’s wonderful virtual maps. I should have one of these things in every monthly article.
Quadrocopter!
Do you need more than that? You do? Ok, how about is has two built-in cameras, runs a Linux flavor on-board and you can control it via iPhone software? Ok, yes, it’s $300, but it comes with games you can play through the cameras — like first person shooters where the real world is your “level”. No real guns included though. (Article includes video of the quadrocopter in action.)
It’s All Tommy Westphall’s Fault
This isn’t new, and it isn’t terribly October-y, but BOY is it geeky. If you’re just about to watch St Elsewhere on DVD for the first time or something, look away now, because I’m going to ruin it all for you. Follow along with the crazy, will you? At the end of the TV series St Elsewhere, the last scene has an autistic boy (Tommy Westphall) shaking a snow globe with a miniature version of the hospital in it. The scene right before that had snow falling on the hospital. And the two other characters in the room with Tommy idly wonder what the boy sees in that snow globe. So the obvious interpretation from this is that the WHOLE series has just been inside Tommy’s head, kind of like a giant “and then she woke up” moment.
Weird, but that’s not the Crazy part. See, several characters from St Elsewhere made cross-over and/or cameo appearances on other TV shows (e.g. Homicide). So that means, by some Law of Contagion, that those series are ALSO all in Tommy’s head, or meta-fictional (fiction within fiction). Cross-eyed yet? Wait, there’s more. If you assume that:
A) St Elsewhere was all in Tommy’s head, and
B) any TV series where a St Elsewhere character also appeared is ALSO in Tommy’s head
Then it logically follows that
C) any characters on a B tv show who themselves appear on another tv show is … yes, you guessed it, in Tommy Westphall’s head.
Which makes like 90% of TV shows in the same damned virtual imagined autistic universe.
And download the PDF for the full explanation of all the crazy connections.
It’s like a Unified Conspiracy Theory for TV.
Danny Elfman & Tim Burton Music Box
Do I need to say more? Ok, it’s the 25th anniversary music box, collecting CDs from all their wonderful collaborations over the years. It’s a limited series of 1000 and it sells for $500. Perfect gift except for that last part. But it looks cool.
Dresden Codak
It’s even fun to say! Wait, I should begin at the beginning. It’s the usual thing to do, I guess. This is a webcomic that not only has really great art, but robots, esoterica built into the narrative and funny bits. Enjoy!
The Alternate World of Marty McFly
What if Eric Stoltz had played Marty instead of Michael J Fox? Wonder no more! Actual mind-bending Eric Stoltz / Marty McFly footage!
700 Hobos
That’s it, just 700 hobos. With names and quirky illustrations. Would I make this up? Look at the URL! http://www.e-hobo.com/
Number 4!
No, not a Prisoner remake or anything. Some kind of superhero movie, maybe? Who cares, it looks cool.
Got Coal?
This is a computer that requires a handy turn of the coal shovel to operate! Mr Babbage’s Analytical Engine, not to be confused with his Difference Engine (which was little more than a calculator by comparison), is the true first computer. It’s reprogrammable, has a printer, a CPU, expandable memory and a plotter. In Babbage’s time, the Analytical Engine was never built (partly because it would be the size of a friggin’ locomotive), but all that’s about to change. Now someone is raising money to really build one. Steam Power!
Now That’s Bling
How about a phone that costs millions of dollars? I’d love for this to be some kind of super-phone that works absolutely anywhere, but no, it’s just encrusted with gems. Still, how great a job is “phone jeweler”?
This Cable Isn’t Wireless!
And other priceless quotes this Retail Hell escapee jotted down in the course of over 3 years.
Water from Water
As in, de-salination. MIT has developed a prototype for a portable, solar-powered de-salination plant capable of converting 80 gallons of water in all sorts of weather conditions. Can you say “better disaster relief”?
From the Earth to Orbit
I know, infographics are all the rage now. Well, this one is especially cool. It shows the various layers the atmosphere in scale (which means it’s TALL) and all the various phenomena that happen at each level.
Fun With Gummi Bears
What happens when you put a gummi bear (red) into a solution of potassium chlorate (with a drop of sulfuric acid)? Fun! Fun is what happens.
Evolution of the Geek
How could I pass this up? It’s a biological evolution flowchart showing how the “geek” has evolved over time, from head-biting to Elite Geekdom.
(For those of you opposed to evolution, just assume that the first geek sprang forth from the forehead of the chicken-biting guy and leave it at that.)
Spaceport Open for Business
Really. Virgin Galactic officially opened it’s spaceport. I believe this would be the very first commercial spaceport.
Drive Your Own Spaceship
Speaking of spaceports, behold Artemis, the multi-player (Windows-based) computer game, where each person (up to 6) takes one station of a simulated starship. Another person sits back, and as the game so amusingly puts it, “tells everyone else what to do”. It’s like Star Trek on your laptop! (No, not the movie, you buffoon, like YOU driving the ship around, or firing the weapons.)
Update: apparently the interface isn’t that fantastic (usability-wise), but I’m holding out hope that future versions will be better.
You are standing in an open field, west of a white house.
Ever wanted to write your own interactive fiction? You know what I’m talking about, right? Stuff like Zork, or Planetfall, or the Lurking Horror (with real screams!), or Leather Goddesses of Phobos [cough!]. Well, it’s the Modern Age, and you no longer have to know crazy complicated programming language stuff to pull it off. You just have to know mildly complicated, word-problem style stuff. No really, it’s cool.
Watch the screencast and you’ll see what I mean. If you can write fan-fiction or a blog post, you can write yourself a game.
From Dust
Did you know that “god games” is a category of simulation game now? I didn’t. This new one allows you to control terrain in a direct and interesting way, allowing you to change the course of rivers, pull up lava and form the rock like clay. It looks spectacular.
About John: John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).
Geek Credentials: RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee. Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993 Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983 His Blog:http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com
All things geek-related in September 2010. Well, all the things I thought were cool enough to mention.
Self-replicating Solar Cells
The future of power generation or one of the signs of the Impending Robot Overthrow of Humanity? You decide.
How Good is Your Geek Movie-Fu?
No, not another mindless multiple choice quiz-of-the-week. Not a rabidly obnoxious FaceBook app. Not a quiz at all. Just a seriously great bunch of t-shirts with extraordinarily obscure references to some great movies. Man, wish I was getting a cut from these guys. Note: mouse-over the t-shirt to see where the reference comes from, then smack yourself in the head for not remembering it. Or go “Huh?” because the reference is just THAT obscure.
Duke Nukem’ Forever
The longest running joke in computer game history*, born from one of the best first-person shooters ever made. Ars Technica (a tech site largely without peer) has done a detailed story on the long, twisted tale of a computer game promised since 1997. Let that sink in a moment. 1997. Bill Clinton was just beginning his second term. Pathfinder landed on Mars. Steve Jobs returns to Apple (and Microsoft bought $150M share of Apple). Titanic was on the big screen. That 1997.
* Not as old, but more long-running than the “When is In Nomine coming?” in RPG circles. And In Nomine actually did come out. Eventually.
Hugo Awards
All the year’s best SciFi. Because this stuff is just that cool. Also, Dr Who nominated for an award.
A Game So Small….
This java-script game is so small, it fits in 1k. That’s SMALL. Like, play it on your watch small. Play it on the fancy controls for your refrigerator small.
Making Stop Motion Animation With Light
Take an iPad, add some custom software to generate animation frames for you, and then a custom app on the iPad to show the frames as you move around. Result? This.
Pokè-what?
For those of you who remember this particular card-game and cartoon-based craze, this video may amuse you. It may also cause you have seizures. It’s 50/50.
Monsters Close Up
A more detailed review of that giant monsters movie I mentioned last month, only this time with more technical production info. The movie was made for very little money (comparatively), and with mostly off-screen gore.
Las Vegas Death Ray
It’s even the title of the article! Apparently some badly-planned hotel in Vegas has mirror-style windows all curved and fancy. Which is great, only … certain times of the day (and during a specific seasons), the sun hits the building, focuses it and super-heats the pool area in a very Archimedean fashion. As in? “The surface of the building acts like a parabolic reflector, concentrating solar heat into a specific target area.” Yes, Archimedes would be proud.
Social engineering with fake mold
Quick blurb about a sandwich bag (ziploc-style) that makes your home-made sandwich look moldy. How cool is that?
WWI Ends October 3rd — 2010
No, really! Apparently Germany’s debt for starting the war, set by the Allied victors in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, gets it’s last payment October 3rd.
About John: John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).
Geek Credentials: RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee. Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993 Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983 His Blog:http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com
Pictish symbols
Because few things are geekier than a language dead over a thousand years. Plus it’s got some code-decryption bits.
Pencil-tip Micro-sculptures
Geeky in that retro sort-of way. There’s a “how many angels” joke in here somewhere.
Nobody Does it Better
Where “it” is late-night talk show hosting. Thirty years of shows digitized and searchable. Pro-payment thing to get the full clips, but they’ll have a rotating selection of clips and full shows available. Wild!
When Computer Keyboards Were Made Like 1950’s Cars
You know, with steel. There are people who swear by their ancient, clunky keyboards and will get violent if someone tries to take them away. And when your keyboard is, in fact, made of steel (NOT plastic), that’s a problem.
But there are different brands of “my favorite keyboard”.
LEGO Creationary
It’s like Pictionary; only instead of drawing you build things with LEGOS. Not sold yet? How about it has difficulty settings, from things like “cactus” to “Taj Mahal”. Seriously. Buy here.
Ancient Recordings!
Well, ok, old recordings. From the 20’s and 30’s and 40’s, music and speeches not heard since they were recorded. It’s mostly an article about lost Jazz recordings, but also about a tech genius (William Savory) who recorded live jam sessions onto aluminum and acetate 12-inch and 16-inch disks at 33 1/3 before that it was fully invented (he did help create the standard). Which leads to quotes like this: “You hear some of this stuff and you say, ‘This can’t be 70 years old.’ ”
Unfortunately, although they’re hard at work digitizing (and in some cases, cleaning the records so they can be played), it’s going to take a long time to get online. And then there’s the who owns it thing. Not the records, that’s clear – the music. Woo!
Screens Under the Microscope
Kindle and iPad screens under a USB microscope, compared with newspaper, book and magazine print. Nice comparison!
Plug-in Solar & Wind
This is crazy smart, if they can make it happen. Imagine grabbing a few solar panels from the hardware store, putting them where you like and plugging them into a regular outlet. Then it just provides the house with power. The company is coming out with products in 2011 (which is a lot better than the ubiquitous “5 years”). I’ll be waiting.
Visualizing Data
David McCandless shows us how to visualize massive amounts of data. Or “knowledge compression”. Fascinating, funny, insightful. Pretty much as with all TED talks (the good ones, anyway).
And don’t miss out on his actual website, where he’s posted zillions more of these great diagrams.
Muh Ruh Ruhhh
All of Chewbacca’s dialogue from all his appearances in the Star Wars movies, on a large sticky note.
Lost 25 Minutes of Metropolis: Found!
When Fritz Lang’s epic silent-movie Sci-Fi masterpiece was released in theaters, the movie was cut from it’s original 2 and a half hours to a more palatable 90 minutes, slicing away scenes which “make so much more sense” when included. Take a look at a glimpse.
Cheeseburger Dissolved in Acid
Ever wonder what would happen if you dipped a burger in hydrochloric acid? Wonder no longer!
About John: John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).
Geek Credentials: RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee. Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993 Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983 His Blog:http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com
Crucible Design’s game “Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO” showed designer Matt Johnson’s role-playing game vision of the future. In fairness, I don’t know how much he felt would actually be coming to pass, and how much was just awesome stuff he gleaned from Anime and Manga. However, what is fascinating is just how much “fantasy” from 1997, when the game was published, is crawling towards reality.
Many, including Avery Brooks up there, want flying cars. I’m not sure why, a car accident is scary enough without crashing and then falling out of the sky. But that must just be me. What a difference 10 years can make Avery, because flying cars are on their way. Of course these aren’t your running errands in the city flying cars, but if we end up with those, these will have been their great, great, grandfathers.
The futures that Avery Brooks and I were hoping for are hovering (literally in the case of potential flying cars) on the horizon. We’re also seeing some of Matt Johnson’s future too. Remember the description from the first part of this? “A game set in a world filled with beautiful cyborgs, cute robots, superfast cyberbikes, powered exoskeletons, giant mechanoids, speed lines, comical pets, strange aliens, maniacal villains and demons with amazing groinal powers…..” Click on those links my friends! Surprisingly, the setting for Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO, is slowly evolving into reality.
Regardless of our wishes, the future always arrives. Avery Brooks’ flying cars, my electronic tattoos, and Matt Johnson’s SNCC XDO, were once our fanciful musings and now we’re seeing them newly created, to one day become the primitive ancestors of tomorrow’s common place. This isn’t an endorsement or condemnation of what seems to be blossoming on the horizon, it’s just a realization made while flipping through a role-playing game book.
I have a soft spot for independent role-playing games; particularly ones that once published are very thin in size. I always assume that a thin game book means that the game itself is simple to use. I romantically imagine that this game company, which no one has ever heard of, has managed to take on “big RPG” and build a better system. A simple system. A system that I can understand without needing my other gamer friends to explain it to me, or worse make my character for me. In defense of many well known RPG game systems that are in fact, quite simple; I am, in fact, quite slow on the uptake. Yes, I just said it’s not you; it’s me, to several role-playing game systems, satisfied? Despite never having any intention of running one of these independently released games, and that years ago I dropped out of my longtime gaming group to work on The Magical Buffet and pursue other interests, I just keep buying these damn games.
They almost universally disappoint, and because they’re not cranking thousands of these out from some print company that they have some sort of deal with (Damn you “Big RPG”!) the price points on these experimental purchases are not great. Twenty to thirty dollars is a lot to pay for a book whose contents you will never utilize. (Of course $20 to $30 can be dirt cheap compared to some big name game books.) It seems many of them are straining so hard to be different that they create a frightening Frankenstein monster, generally using the worst ideas from other systems to craft theirs. I guess my advice to any folks out there attempting to design their own role-playing system is that you can never have your game play tested enough. And you know those obnoxious kill joy gamers you put up with for any number of reasons? Definitely have them take a crack at it. Trust me.
With all this in mind, you’ll understand why when I found myself in Rochester, NY for an appointment with a new specialist; my husband and I felt obliged to check out a local game store, Millennium Games. As luck would have it, they were prepping to do an inventory so they had three long tables filled with all kinds of oddities at greatly reduced prices. You guessed it, tons of long forgotten role-playing games and their supplements for only $1 a piece. That’s right, one slim dollar.
That’s where I saw it; a pocket sized book of only 52 pages in length covered in dust; Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO. “A game set in a world filled with beautiful cyborgs, cute robots, superfast cyberbikes, powered exoskeletons, giant mechanoids, speed lines, comical pets, strange aliens, maniacal villains and demons with amazing groinal powers…..” And so I bought it, for one dollar.
Guess what folks? It’s actually a very simple game! I was shocked to find that I understood character creation and game play rather easily, and that there were no truly mind numbingly bizarre mechanics. Some recommended reading and viewing to get into the spirit of the game are: Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner, Akira, AD Police, and other things along that vein. Also, they suggested other role-playing games that the designers felt had something valid to bring to a campaign of their game Space Ninja Cyber Crisis XDO; like Over the Edge, Feng Shui, and Heretics. I’m not sure if I’ve ever encountered a role-playing game that suggested other RPGs, from other companies, as sources of inspiration. The longer I thumbed through this slender little game book, the more smitten I became with Crucible Design, the guys responsible for SNCC XDO. (Nice way to shorten the huge title, right?)
Turns out this simple role-playing send up of futuristic Anime/Manga was put together in Northern Ireland! The original retail for the book at Millennium Games was $13.99. The art for the book, which is quite good for a random RPG, was done by Paul J. Holden in Belfast. The concept and design came from Matt Johnson, presumably from Northern Ireland, home to Crucible Design. I have in my possession a crazy little independent game that traveled quite a distance to end up on a clearance table in Rochester, NY.
As I mulled over the setting I realized that the awesome high tech future they were discussing was 2019, a mere 9 years away. Obviously with this being a game inspired by Anime/Manga, they created a hyper extreme future, but I couldn’t help but wonder when this game was published.
1997, 13 years ago.
I suddenly found myself wondering, is the future what Matt Johnson thought it would be? What were his hopes as he decided what an amped up Anime/Manga future would look like? Does he find himself asking, where are the flying cars?
Join me on Thursday for part two of this story as I examine exactly where our future is in relationship to SNCC XDO.
