Daily Cosplay (Mystique)

Simian Flu

Before its too late, protect yourself against the Simian Flu.

Knowledge is power.

If not us, then its them . . .

Crazy Bastard Theory of Evolution

M.T. Fessler and his colleagues at the University of California are putting forward a thesis that basically states that those individuals that are more inclined to take risks . . . as in Jackass type risks, not the stock brokerage type risks . . . are driving forces in evolutionary biology. They, it would appear, come across as more "formidable" than their non-risk taking brethren. 

"In Amer­i­can ver­nac­u­lar En­glish, this term [cra­zy bas­tard] is ap­plied to in­di­vid­u­als, gen­er­ally young men, who in­tim­i­date ri­vals and im­press friends through vol­un­tary phys­ical risk-taking. The un­in­formed are warned not to trans­gress against a ‘cra­zy bas­tard.’”

Their findings appear in the January issue of Evolution and Human Behavior.

In the apacolypse, they shall inherit the earth . . .

Surely not.

Frazetta

Trolls

Trolls are huge hulking beasts. Fat an ungainly, their legs seem too small to bare their weight. They have long arms, are thickly muscled and have giant, wide fingers. They have large tusks sprouting from their maws, shorter on the top and bottoms of their wide mouths. The tusks on the lower jaw continue to grow as a troll gets older and often grow into the creature’s face. They are shaped, cut and sometimes decorated with carvings. Very old trolls have very large, often bent and chipped tusks. They use these tusks in battles against one another, roaring at each other with mouths agape. Though they occasionally try to gore each other, a battle usually ends with the troll with a wider yawn and larger tusks victorious. They are ferocious creatures, bent upon destruction.

~The Codex of Aihrde

 

 

Elmore - Don't Miss Out

If you missed his Kickstarter you can still pick up copies of Larry Elmore's fantastic art book, The Complete Elmore. There are a few dozen copies left. This is a piece of gaming history you definitely want, and besides its chalk full of Elmore art, tales, history of the man himself.

Ruins of Tlos

An ancient Lycian city that stood atop a hill in what is now southern Turkey, Tlos is but an echo of er past . . . .

Armor Up (Deus Vult)

Sergey Popvichenko

Daily Cosplay (Huntress)

Water on Mars

I read about this years ago, so the idea that Mars has water trapped, frozen, in its soil, is nothing new. The idea then was to 'mine' the water, extracting it from the soil for use for colonists. This is important as weight is a huge problem in getting off the earth and water is very heavy, having to carry enough water to Mars to survive would make colonizations almost impossible. But there is plenty of water, we just have to get to it.

Well it seems a Netherland's company is laying out the groundwork to do just that. They've been experimenting for years here on earth and are now planning on sending an unmanned lander to Mars to see if it can be done on the Red Planet.

Read on.

Winter's Forest

The Tale of Aedgen

At that time a warrior-priest named Aedgen led the Ethrum. After meeting the dwarves he turned his people south, for the Ethvold seemed a welcome home to them. It harkened to their abodes in the northern forests and promised shelter from the giants and dragons that hounded them.

Coming to the headwaters of the Ardeen River he ordered his people to make camp so that he might explore further and find a good place for them to settle and build homes. He traveled by boat, bringing with him a small company of rangers led by his brother Areos and a company of solders led by his youngest brother, Kayomar. They followed the river down its southern way, exploring and mapping as they went. After many weeks they came to a bend in the river that sent them into a deep valley surrounded by stark cliffs and mountains until at last they came to the confluence of two rivers and a mighty falls.

The camped and explored the lands all about and pondered how best to master the falls. It was Areos who found a way to pass over them and he brought them to the low river safely. But there, tragedy struck for they came upon a creature of ill intent and it rose from the waters and fell upon the company, slaying the company and dragging Areos to the bottom of the river. Aedgen alone with his younger brother Kayomar, escaped, washed ashore south of the cliffs. They stood in the far south of the Ethvold, alone and unarmed, with no way to return to their people. They could not go back up the river for the course was too strong, so they struck out into the deeps of the wood, hoping to move north and return to their people. But there were no roads and the tracks of the wild beasts led him ever deeper into the long valleys.

Here Kayomar met his end for the pair stumbled upon a great tusked beast that fell upon them. They fought, with stones and clubs. But the beast caught up Kayomar in his arms and lifting him on high, crushed the air from his lungs. As his bones shattered the young warrior took the beast by the tusks and pulled with such might that he tore its head asunder. But the warrior died of his wounds and Aegden lay him to rest in the land that ever after were called the Valleys of Kayomar. Though time has swallowed much of that people it is held to be a sign that any who stumble upon the Tomb of Kayomar shall be accounted the greatest warriors of their age.

After many days, he stumbled, hungry and tired, upon another river.

Broad and swift, it cut its way through the forest in a rocky channel. Trees grew in abundance along its shores, flanked by reeds and water grasses. Coming to the river he saw the sun for the first time and learned that he was heading west and not north as he hoped. He was utterly lost for his brother Areos had been his eyes in the wild. He stood there, upon the river and glared down its length, pondering what course to take. No fear crept into him, only a determination to return to his people before they were lost.

It is here that Tefnut found him. She alone of the Val-Earhakun had had no contact with man or dwarf for all these long ages, dwelling as she did in the rivers and forests of her home. She found Aedgen upon the shores of the Tarvish River and was curious. She watched him, until at last she could bare it no further and rose from the waters without raiment and called to him. Aedgen was amazed. Her beauty was beyond that of any mortals and the light in her greater than any had ever seen. They talked upon the rivers edge and such was his speech that she became enamored of him. And her voice echoed the deep places of the forest and conjured images of safety and power and Aedgen loved her. She nursed him to health and learned all there was to learn of him, his people and their journey. She guided him then to the deep vale of country that lies between the Tarvish and empties into the Ardeen and gave him that land. It was unspoilt by any and he marveled at it. 

They dwelt there for a long season.

 

~ The Codex of Aihrde

Time Traveling Reruns

Astronomers picked up some interesting tid bits recently. Apparently old tv shows hurled into space on the VHF frequencies, hit something and bounced back, returning to earth. They attempted to track down the objects that intercepted the shows but even the old Hubble telescope couldn't manage it.

In the wave? Dr. Who!

I don't know if I believe any of this, 2009 was a crazy time and the planet consumed by madness, but here ya go!

Read on!

Movie Trailer ~ The Edge of Tomorrow

I'm not really sure what's going on here, but it looks pretty cool!

WTF?

This started out annoying the crap out of me, but about half way through I couldn't help but enjoy it. I have no idea why, what, or where, just pretty sure these kids have way too much time on their hands.

Upon the Moors

Marvel Pulling Out

Of Barnes and Noble. Well, not entirely. Mostly just comic books, leaving their large assortment of graphic novels in the halls of that very large book seller. This was a move by Marvel, not by B&N. The comic books were never a large part of the market in bookstores, usually sandwiched into the graphic novels and, I suspect largely lost to vie. Comics require a rather special frontage.

The bookseller continues to tread water, not only have sales of digital content dropped almost 21%, book sales in general have dropped about 4%. Toys, games and puzzles have managed to grow somewhat. Throw in some SEC investigations and B&N is bleeding in the water.

Armor Up (Roman Soldier)

Patrick Kaiser

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

SEASON'S GREETINGS!

May the road you are on bring you health, happiness, and joy and a kind thank you to all of you who have joined us at the table, you've all become part of our family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And That Means Comfort

Here's some interesting Hobbit Holes for hers!

Not for Astronauts!

Daily Cosplay (Dawn)

We Wish Peter O'Toole a Safe Journey

One of, if not the, greatest actor of stage or film.

Burrahobbit…Nah, Just Burr

East Antarctica played host to the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth, landing us at -135.8 Fahrenheit or -93.2 Celsius. That is so cold it would make breathing difficult, and probably rather painful. People could survive that temperature for about 3 minutes, those who have to brave it, and none have braved that temp, must wear special coats with breathing tubes.

Very cool, er and Cold! Read on.

This is Just AWESOME

Now I'm really looking forward to this movie.

Daily Cosplay (Rinoa)

Flakes of Time

So Arkansas has been blanketed with a nice thick sheet of ice for the past few days, allowing us all much leisure time. I for instance got my butt handed to me by my son in Black Ops, he for instance, got  to dance around his old man. The rest of us did other things but I can't remember what they were.

Its always a nice change for us, especially when it hits with warning and on a weekend. We get to enjoy the beauty which is the winter wonderland…before it all turns to black mush on the side of the road.

And what an amazing thing the  snow and ice actually it is.

So a fellow in Moscow has striven, and succeeded in showing us.

Check out these flakes, they are amazing.

Terminator Reboot, Rebooted

It seems the original team that brought us the Sarah Conner Chronicles has ganged together with the producers of the latest movie reboot and are, themselves going to reboot the tv series. The two reboots will diverge in different directions, however will converge in "surprising and dramatic ways."

For those who may have missed it, the whole movie franchise will be rebooted in June 2015, starting over with the 1984 story arc with Sarach, the Terminator and Kyle.

This sounds like a recipe for a complete apocalypse! Hopefully its as fun as the previous ones!

Armor Up (Count Conrad Von Landau)

Talk about the Eye of Sauron

We have some pretty striking images of the odd shaped weather pattern that has ranged over Saturn's north pole. The giant stream of wind has adopted a distinctly hexagonal shaped weather pattern, centered on the north pole of that gat giant. Within the hexagon are a dozen storms, and a central vortex that packs massive wind spends.

All in all it looks like a giant eye.  Read on.

Dragon at the Bridge

Trailer ~ Pompeii

Real Life Lego House

Well, here ya go!

Daily Cosplay

CHECK OUT OUR CHRISTMAS CAROL SALE!

Discoveries

I love discoveries like this. Apparently back in 2001 a French archeologist, Franck Goddio, was searching for the ruins of Napoleon's fleet off the coast of Egypt. What he found was far more interesting . . . well, unless your really into Napoleonic stuff . . . for he unearthed, beneath the water the ancient Egyptian city of Heracleion that the Mediterranean had consumed some 1500 years ago. Herodotus spoke of it as one of the city's that Helen of Sparta and Paris of Troy visited before the fame war of attrition between those two Greek peoples.

Full article with photos here.

Movie Preview ~ Spiderman 2

Dose of the Unreal

Clark Peterson, former President of Necromancer Games, has been getting some bad press recently, precisely because of his RPG background. Clark serves as a Judge in Idaho and it seems a few of the litigants that have passed through his court have determined that his hobby has distracted him from his duties, costing them legal fees and other various and sundry.

Its, of course,  just ridiculous. I've known Clark Peterson for well over a decade. I've worked with him on a number of projects. He's one of the most professional people I know.

So here's hoping he weathers this storm with his normal aplomb.

Steve

Full article.

Armor Up (Gallic Gladiator)

Pegasus Models

Coming Soon