For now, a teaser JPG of my Amargasaurus that I am working on for the BlogEvolved crew - by the way, THANK YOU everyone for not running me and Scott off with pitchforks at the Blogger's Dinner for our ghastly (read "hilarious") attire. ;)
Monday, October 26, 2009
A Taste of Things to Come
More on England soon - been sick and busy since I got back...
For now, a teaser JPG of my Amargasaurus that I am working on for the BlogEvolved crew - by the way, THANK YOU everyone for not running me and Scott off with pitchforks at the Blogger's Dinner for our ghastly (read "hilarious") attire. ;)
For now, a teaser JPG of my Amargasaurus that I am working on for the BlogEvolved crew - by the way, THANK YOU everyone for not running me and Scott off with pitchforks at the Blogger's Dinner for our ghastly (read "hilarious") attire. ;)
Monday, September 14, 2009
ENGLAND!!!!
Scott and I leave Tuesday for the 69th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Bristol, England. As I type, I'm unable to contain my excitement...my fingers are almost unable to find the correct keys - and it doesn't help that my friend Chuckie showed me what his phone "typed" in his pocket (something to the effect of "LOOooooOoOOLOOOOOLLLOOLLOLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOol").
My first time in another country (Canada doesn't count). I am TERRIFIED! But very optimistic....this is the trip of a lifetime. SVP or bust, baby!
My first time in another country (Canada doesn't count). I am TERRIFIED! But very optimistic....this is the trip of a lifetime. SVP or bust, baby!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
I <3 Maxis!
So, I'm a Spore addict. I love the game, I love getting lost in the creators. Now, I have a new love of the game - the developers and Spore.com board moderators.
Maxis recently released the new asymmetry patch for the game, something that could only be accomplished previously by exploiting bugs in the Creature Creator. Alas, I am an Ubuntu user and the new patch was only available through EA's Download Manager, which has a nasty tendency to crash Spore via Cedega on launch. So, I did what any person would do and beseech the Powers-That-Be at the Spore.com forums to make it available for those of us that don't or can't have EADM installed.
Less than 10 minutes later, I received a reply to my post with a temporary direct link to the patch.
I must applaud Maxis not only for their amazing game, but for their promptness and customer service. Other companies, not just gaming companies, should sit up and take notice. I didn't notice any other posts regarding this, but nevertheless, these good people responded in a more than timely manner to a relatively niche group of gamers.
BRAVO, Maxis! You now have a customer for life through me.
Maxis recently released the new asymmetry patch for the game, something that could only be accomplished previously by exploiting bugs in the Creature Creator. Alas, I am an Ubuntu user and the new patch was only available through EA's Download Manager, which has a nasty tendency to crash Spore via Cedega on launch. So, I did what any person would do and beseech the Powers-That-Be at the Spore.com forums to make it available for those of us that don't or can't have EADM installed.
Less than 10 minutes later, I received a reply to my post with a temporary direct link to the patch.
I must applaud Maxis not only for their amazing game, but for their promptness and customer service. Other companies, not just gaming companies, should sit up and take notice. I didn't notice any other posts regarding this, but nevertheless, these good people responded in a more than timely manner to a relatively niche group of gamers.
BRAVO, Maxis! You now have a customer for life through me.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Russian Quack Claims UFOs Saved Us From Extinction in 1908
I can't make this stuff up.
Ok, for the record, I believe in some stuff that some people may deem weird or crazy. Ghosts, for one. The "energy" of places, people, and things - ley lines, chi, and the like. Karma. To some extent, UFOs.
But this goes above and beyond all of the "crazy" shit I believe.
Uh. Huh.
Riiiight.
Ok, let's think about this step by step. First, A billion ton rock blown to bits by a self-sacrificing, good samaritain alien pilot.
A BILLION tons of rock.
That's roughly, what, a mile or so in diameter? Maybe bigger? If something that big had been smashed into - and I don't care HOW FAST either object is going, you're NOT going to have total vaporization. You're gonna have some fracturing and breaking, which in turn means that many, many more smaller rocks will rain down from the sky. Where are the "sub-impact" craters to back this up?
Second, why the hell would an advanced alien species sacrifice itself for a violent, stupid, primitive race like ours??
Third...of COURSE you're going to find materials only found in space when you're dealing with a SPACE-BORNE object, such as, oh, I don't know, a METEOR? Why is that automatically evidence of a UFO?
Fourth - these quartz crystals with the "strange markings". Natural, eons long geologic processes are far more powerful than anything humans can do. Quartz grinding against quartz (or other things grinding against quartz), natural leeching of tannins from surrounding vegatation, and perhaps the impact itself are all perfectly reasonable explanations for the colored stria found on these quartz blocks. Little humans with lasers are nothing compared to the awesome forces at work under our feet.
Story Link
Story Link
Ok, for the record, I believe in some stuff that some people may deem weird or crazy. Ghosts, for one. The "energy" of places, people, and things - ley lines, chi, and the like. Karma. To some extent, UFOs.
But this goes above and beyond all of the "crazy" shit I believe.
Dr. Yuri Labvin, president of the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation, insists that an alien spacecraft sacrificed itself to prevent a gigantic meteor from slamming into the planet above Siberia on June 30, 1908.
The result was was the Tunguska event, a massive blast estimated at 15 megatons that downed 80 million trees over nearly 100 square miles. Eyewitnesses reported a bright light and a huge shock wave, but the area was so sparsely populated no one was killed.
Most scientists think the blast was caused by a meteorite exploding several miles above the surface. But Labvin thinks quartz slabs with strange markings found at the site are remnants of an alien control panel, which fell to the ground after the UFO slammed into the giant rock.
"We don't have any technologies that can print such kind of drawings on crystals," Labvin told the Macedonian International News Agency. "We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space."
Uh. Huh.
In 1908, the UFO is thought to have hit the meteorite that weighed over 1 billion tones. If the meteorite fell down on Earth, all the people would have been dead, extinct. Scientists believe the aliens had interfered and put their lives on the line to make sure there isn't a direct impact with Earth.
Riiiight.
Ok, let's think about this step by step. First, A billion ton rock blown to bits by a self-sacrificing, good samaritain alien pilot.
A BILLION tons of rock.
That's roughly, what, a mile or so in diameter? Maybe bigger? If something that big had been smashed into - and I don't care HOW FAST either object is going, you're NOT going to have total vaporization. You're gonna have some fracturing and breaking, which in turn means that many, many more smaller rocks will rain down from the sky. Where are the "sub-impact" craters to back this up?
Second, why the hell would an advanced alien species sacrifice itself for a violent, stupid, primitive race like ours??
Third...of COURSE you're going to find materials only found in space when you're dealing with a SPACE-BORNE object, such as, oh, I don't know, a METEOR? Why is that automatically evidence of a UFO?
Fourth - these quartz crystals with the "strange markings". Natural, eons long geologic processes are far more powerful than anything humans can do. Quartz grinding against quartz (or other things grinding against quartz), natural leeching of tannins from surrounding vegatation, and perhaps the impact itself are all perfectly reasonable explanations for the colored stria found on these quartz blocks. Little humans with lasers are nothing compared to the awesome forces at work under our feet.
Story Link
Story Link
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Spam The Louisiana Governor!
http://www.gov.la.gov/index.cfm?md=form&tmp=email_governor
I've written him already regarding the volcano. I suggest EVERY ALASKAN does the same.
I've written him already regarding the volcano. I suggest EVERY ALASKAN does the same.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
P. sibiricus - almost done!
So I have inadvertently posted a complete progression of a piece, from start to finish - something I have rarely done (at least online). Here is the main portion of my Psittacosaurus sibiricus drawing, ready for inking. I wasted too much time to do a digital painting for now, but maybe in the future I could be convinced to do something with it.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Now THIS is what I'm talking about!
The new LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) is go for a spring launch. This little beauty is a combination of existing NASA systems and commercially available off the shelf items.
YES! Cost-effective, efficient use of existing components to create a tidy little probe that uses it's own rocket booster to smash into the lunar surface to create a plume of debris that the probe then flies through and "tastes" the resulting cloud for water ice, before it, too commits harakiri.
Keep it up, NASA! Think smarter, not bigger...!
YES! Cost-effective, efficient use of existing components to create a tidy little probe that uses it's own rocket booster to smash into the lunar surface to create a plume of debris that the probe then flies through and "tastes" the resulting cloud for water ice, before it, too commits harakiri.
Keep it up, NASA! Think smarter, not bigger...!
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