Today we got our first snow of the season. I woke up to a back yard covered in fluffy whiteness, and more coming down ( Read more... )

When I was a child fascinated by prehistoric creatures, it was still called a "saber-tooth tiger." A few decades later, it became clear that these creatures were not only unrelated to modern tigers (Panthera tigr), they were also not even closely related to the modern Felidae, instead belonging to their own family that was almost as closely related ( Read more... )

This week's Odd Prompts writing challenge at More Odds than Ends was from Padre: The one-eyed raven flew higher, circling upward in tighter and tighter circles, before swooping off towards the horizon.It felt like fantasy, and a dark one. Is the raven a magical being, perhaps a shapeshifter, or is it a symbol ( Read more... )

I'd had both hopes and reservations about this convention, which completes this year's show season. I'd hoped that, with the election over, people might finally be more willing to spend -- but I was concerned that, with things still unsettled and the economy still not in good shape, they'd also be more careful about their spending ( Read more... )

Writing challenges will be delayed until tomorrow, due to Sarah Hoyt having problems with Amazon.com.

This seems to be the day for computer problems. We were having trouble with our hotspot being glitchy while we were trying to finish a disappointing convention.

In Norse myth, the world began in ice, and only as it began to thaw was the world we know truly created.

Interestingly enough, there is growing evidence that Earth really did undergo several total glaciations, in which the world was entirely covered in deep sheets of ice that were broken only when volcanoes erupted under the ice, melting enough of ( Read more... )

This weekend, we're at Grand Rapids Comic Con at DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids. This is our last event of 2024, and we're hoping for a strong finish.

If you're in the Grand Rapids area, we'd love to see you. We're in booths 806-810.

It’s always interesting to see how long it takes to get everything loaded in at a given convention-and how it differs both from other years of that con, and from other conventions both at the same venue and at other venues. For a business, this can make a huge difference-being ready to sell when the doors open, vs scrambling to get things out of ( Read more... )

We're growing familiar with the problem of how Big Data (the compilation of enormous amounts of statistical information) can erode privacy, often by correlating information in ways that enable to identify individuals in unexpected ways. I've often compared it to Lovecraft's famous quote about correlating the contents of our mind -- sometimes it's ( Read more... )

This week's Odd Prompts writing challenge at More Odds than Ends was from Padre: Their method of selecting their leaders was arcane and misunderstood by outsiders, but surprisingly effective.Given that I received it the day after the general election here in the US, it seemed quite appropriate. So I immediately started thinking about which of my ' ( Read more... )