Metatropolis: Cascadia cover art

October 18th 2010 at 10:30 am

Check it out, the cover for Metatropolis: Cascadia just popped up in my inbox and I think it looks pretty awesome: As a reminder, the launch date for it is November 16th. Just under a month away, and here’s the table of contents: THE BULL DANCERS by Jay Lake WATER TO WINE by Mary Robinette [...]

Using the ISS to launch a moon mission?

October 17th 2010 at 12:36 pm

The BBC reports on this early-stages idea float about using the ISS to bolt together a lunar mission and be the staging area for it. This hearkens back to the original plan some pushed for for a lunar mission. Build a station, then keep it up there. Bolt together a lunar vehicle, and keep it [...]

What I’m up to

October 15th 2010 at 12:16 pm

Africa’s Size Considered

October 14th 2010 at 1:14 pm

Boing Boing posted a visualization of Africa that fits the US, China, India, and Europe into the continent. Seriously, this map helps visualize the fact that when someone says ‘Africa is…’ and then makes a generalization, they’re straight up ignoring the size, varying differences, varying histories, and just… immensity and complexity that exists.

Habits

October 13th 2010 at 12:37 pm

Somewhere around here is a blog entry at the start of 2009 about the things I wanted to achieve. Mostly they were not specifics, but habits I wanted to internalize. I was just looking over my goals lists, and I’ve realized I’ve turned a number of those items into actual habits, a year and a [...]

[Picture] Sailing on Indian Lake

October 12th 2010 at 3:48 pm

On Saturday I went out for a nice, relaxing sail on a nearby lake (Indian Lake, not St. Mary’s, as previously stated) with my stepdad and little brother. I snapped this sunset picture from the boat.

Prediction: Brady Law for Texting While Driving

October 11th 2010 at 11:12 am

Here’s a prediction: someone, probably a teenager given a rather shocking red light run I saw recently, is going to run over and kill a kid while texting and driving. The bereaved kids parents are going to agitate politically for a law that makes it illegal to sell a cellphone data package or text package [...]

The Bitter End: A Progress Report

October 8th 2010 at 3:15 pm

The current novel in progress is Arctic Rising, my near future techno-thriller cyberpunk kinda thing that I’ve been working on, in one way or another, since early 2009. I’m awfully close to the end. Close enough to taste it. I’m working on the last 10,000 words, scenes of which I’ve been looking forward to writing [...]

Participatory budgeting democracies

October 7th 2010 at 12:16 pm

Over at Futurismic Paul Raven is excited about the idea of people being able to direct where their tax money goes. Interestingly enough, Brazil has been experimenting on the municipal level with this (participatory budgeting). People meet, are advised, spend weeks learning about the budget and costs and what’s needed, and then have created a [...]

METAtropolis: Cascadia to launch this November 16th

October 6th 2010 at 3:14 pm

Promo stuff! I’m here to announce that a novella of mine, called Byways, will be in the sequel to METAtropolis, called METAtropolis: Cascadia. METAtropolis was an audio project by Audible.com that you could purchase from Audible or iTunes featuring a shared world glimpse at the future of cities from an awesome cast of authors, each [...]