Archive for December, 2011
When Solar gets cheaper than the grid
December 29th 2011 at 11:13 am
I’ve written about the fact that solar is getting cheaper and we’re hitting a near-parity point. The talking point that ‘green energy is too costly’ is based on information that’s a generation old at this point. It’s solar power *start up costs* that are too expensive ($10-$20K to set up a rig). And it’s getting [...]
Withings
December 27th 2011 at 3:31 pm
My old Tanita scale died (yeah, haha, very funny). I had a little extra Christmas cash that I’d been planning on squirreling away, so I finally broke down and ordered a Withings scale. I’ve been lusting after one of these since it was first introduced over a year ago, but since I had a perfectly [...]
China tests out 500 km/h super high speed train
December 26th 2011 at 2:34 pm
China just ran a super high-speed train test at 500 km/h. For those not used to the metric system, that’s a 310 mile an hour train. Of course, non-biased Western media promptly reports: China’s railway industry has had a tough year, highlighted by a collision between two high-speed trains in July which killed at least [...]
The Executioness (and The Alchemist) now available as eBook
December 26th 2011 at 1:19 pm
I’m happy to announce that you can now find my novella The Executioness available as an eBook. Tried to get this up a bit earlier than just after Christmas (didn’t want to look too opportunistic, but there you go), but other projects got in the way. About The Executioness: Magic has a price. In Khaim, [...]
Happy Holidays
December 23rd 2011 at 5:17 pm
It’s 5pm, it’s Friday, and I’m logging off for the holiday weekend. Catch up to you later, peeps! Pic: the twins outside at Easton Mall, Columbus, by the very large tree
Con plugs
December 21st 2011 at 12:55 am
Vylar Kaftan emails me to tell me that I’m *just* going to miss being in San Francisco in time for FOGcon, a neat Bay-area convention: “Friends of the Genre (FOGcon) is a literary-themed San Francisco Bay Area SF/F con in the tradition of Wiscon and Readercon. This year our theme is “The Body”, and we’ve [...]
Fireside Interview
December 20th 2011 at 1:04 pm
Fireside Magazine is a new, Kickstarter-funded magazine with above-pro rates seeking to start out. First issue contains lots of awesome authors, and then there’s me, and they’ve just posted an interview with me here.
Uncanny Timing
December 19th 2011 at 2:15 pm
A lot of people in my twitter-stream are reposting the dramatic link to that satellite photo of North and South Korea that shows North Korea with almost no light what so ever, thanks to Ezra Klein’s post today. Dave Klecha and I referenced that in the opening lines of our story “A Militant Peace,” (in [...]
Behind the secret plan to save the shuttle
December 19th 2011 at 10:17 am
A look at the very secret, but failed, attempt to save the shuttles and put them back to work is up at NASASpaceFlight: While NASA went into a public relations overdrive to try and emphasize that America’s loss of its domestic crewed launch capability was only going to be for several years, political and public [...]
Lego tries to up appeal to girls. I’m just excited about new lavender blocks
December 16th 2011 at 1:47 pm
Lego was going through a tough time recently. So they hired a new CEO and one of the things he did after getting costs back in line and righting the ship, was to figure out why kids played with Legos. Primarily, the focus was on boys, the already dominant buyers. But once they did actual [...]
