Sure, US superheros are included, but so are Junior Woodchucks form the Disney comics done by Carl Barks, and so are Paul Bunyan and Kuloscap / Glooscap:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glooscap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bunyan_%28lumberjack%29
And then, you have this mythical Greenland Inuit hero whose spelling I can't get right: Qajarvassuq or Kjarvasuk or some other variant.
They come from a deeper place than the one you define now, although they certainly include it.
]]>And then, there's the fact that while exploring the authors named by Scalzi I discovered Amazon's new enchanted books.
They sort of wobble a bit when you do a mouse-over, and also start to lift their first page, their cover page. The wobble is because they're just begging to be turned over.
I went to a few Stross books and they didn't have that feature yet.
Then I went to Seanan McGuire's books and while the Velveteen series did not have this I finally got to one that did:
The End is Nigh (The Apocalypse Triptych) (Volume 1) by McGuire and others.
]]>http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/3/5374012/reroll-drone-sourcing-planet-earth-pixyul-pc
]]>http://wildcatjf.deviantart.com/art/Jade-Wallpaper-Beyond-Good-and-Evil-125670697
And when games which make female versions possible (like femshep)tend to spawn a lot more cosplay and fanart than machinima.
http://magicnaanavi.deviantart.com/art/Commander-Shepard-403943694
]]>For those who wish to actually handle the coins or (bathe in them) there are slightly less pure series with a bit of Titanium in them. That way you can fondle them without leaving marks.
Just try doing THAT with your precious bitcoins!
Yes, you too can jump in a money bin full of coins like Uncle Scrooge (Roope Ankka in Finland, oncle Picsou in France, Paperon de' Paperoni in Italy, etc.) and yet come out golden, if you buy Canada's finest, the gold Maple Leaf.
]]>At first you have have Witchita Taxonomics and later you have Wichita Taxonomics.
Boy, did that ever make me laugh. Witch-ita. Maybe because it focused on another aspect of the announced theme. Maybe it was the surprise factor.
]]>Oldest one I've been in were probably some parts of monasteries in Austria. They might have gone back to early medieval times.
I don't pay attention to this kind of thing, that is to precise dates, because I've studied History in general and also the History of architecture too much. I've learned that the residents of buildings overhaul and remodel them extensively through the generations, the centuries.
In the end, what's left of the original building? Say I'm visiting Vaux-le-Vicomte castle. Am I looking at walls put up when the interior was redone in the early 19th century or the original walls from the middle of the 16th century?
It's both the story of The ship of Theseus (also known as Theseus's paradox) and the question of the changes in interior decoration and external covering technologies over time.
]]>I bought my latest Dell computer two years ago. Like previous Dell PCs it came with a copy of Microsoft Word, in this case something called "Premium Family Edition". Unlike the previous Dell PCs I bought though, this version of worse was crippled in its functions and it had advertising.
Also, something which I was to forget, It had a limited life span of two years, along with Excel and the other stuff in the crippled MS Office suite that came with my PC.
So, here you are saying that Word must die, and it's actually committing suicide all over the place!
]]>I remember the ads on the back pages of US comic books back in the early 60s. They gave me fleeting glimpses of another country, another civilisation. I managed to hang on to a few of them and now they make me see an era long gone, a distant world.
The feral books will live gloriously for some years and then they will displaced by another predator. They will become museum specimens, some of them. I hope some collectors will grab them at the peak of their flashing beauty. Enjoy life when it goes by you.
]]>Just think about France and their TGV. Even though France is more densely populated than the US they still found the space for dedicated new tracks for it.
In fact the US has enough space to have both the new robotic highways and ultra high speed things like Elon Musk's Hyperloop.
Part of the secret lies in the small footprint the new robocar and roboruck highways would have. Since all of the vehicles on them would be driven by computers they would not need the present wide clearances.
Then, there's also the liability incentive. Anyone getting a vehicle on the new highways would have to sign away all liability considerations. They would not be public roads, so they would not be hamstrung by the overwhelming present of trial lawyers in the US.
Of course, in countries not hamstrung with liability concerns like the US the robotruck traffic would co-exist with normal traffic, if ubiquitous sensors grids were present.
From a geopolitical point of view this would mean that all the robotruck traffic between Canada and Mexico (and further on to central America and South America) could just speed through the US without stopping at the borders. It would be the same for Euro traffic bound (or coming from) South America when the Bering strait tunnel would be built.
Borders would not be considerations for commerce between any 2 countries on the great international highways. No need for sleep breaks or other breaks for robotrucks so you can go through a country without stopping.
]]>But the US is only one country.
The vast majority of humanity lives in nations that aren't totally hamstrung by liability laws and other such things as in the US. Even the old Commonwealth countries don't have liability law problems like the US. In those countries ubiquitous sensor grids will get built and self driving cars and trucks will become the norm, in city streets and on regular highways.
]]>Eurasiamericafrica will become a reality. People will be able to have a car drive them from Cape Town, South Africa to Santiago, Chile.
Robotrucks will make container ships disappear nearly completely,giving faster, more reliable service (not prone as much to oceanic storms) everywhere in the supercontinent. Prices will drop since it is easier to have standard robotruck fleets produced, operated serviced and maintained by robots than to try to do so with huge one-off container ships.
Commerce and peace will flourish like never before except for "off highway" places like Australia, New Zealand and other islands. Hopefully those isolated portions of the globe will once again be united fully with the rest of humanity when giant nuclear hovercraft are developed.
So much money will be made in small taxes on the bridges that income tax will be abolished everywhere!
And maybe those delicious Paarl valley fruit juices (I like the pomegranate and lime ones best) will be sold at a reasonable price instead of having luxury level stickers. I am withholding the company name since this blog is advertising for Charles Stross and not for a particular brand of South African fruit juice.
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