Nibiru Again?

Really, people.

THIS is not Nibiru, regardless of what the tabloids are trying to say.

It's an artifact. Basically, it's the moon's reflection, a form of lens flare. (My first thought was it was a balloon or a Chinese lantern, but then I looked a couple more times).

Smile?

A not that recent study discovered that horses can tell when you are smiling, and recognize it as a good thing. This is quite remarkable given that smiling, as a gesture, is unique to humans and in other predators it's a threat.

Now, it seems, goats have demonstrated the same ability.

For a domesticated animal, knowing when the human is happy is probably a pretty useful skill. However, until now, it's been assumed to be limited to working animals, who have to be able to read our social skills. Goats, while sometimes trained to work, generally are more like cows (although the increasing use of them as kudzu control...)

The study was a simple one. They scattered a bunch of photos in a pen full of goats and discovered that the goats spent more time looking at the smiling ones (so we know it's smiles, not any other cues).

Life lesson? Smile to your critters. They probably know what it means.

Have We Found The Previous Universe?

Scientists are now claiming tiny "points" in the cosmic background are so-called "Hawking points." If they exist, Hawking points are the ghosts of black holes from a universe that existed before the Big  Bang.

If so, it would prove the controversial cyclical universe theory but, of course, not everyone accepts that it's true.

I wonder, though. If this is true, is the ultimate fate of matter that falls into a black hole to be turned into energy in the next universe? There's a story in there somewhere...

Matt Smith to appear in Star Wars

Seems the Eleventh Doctor has been cast for some unspecified role in Episode IX. As British actors (with the exception of John Boyega) are generally cast as bad guys in Star Wars, we might expect to see him as a villain...

...but they're not releasing anything yet. It might be as disconcerting as seeing Arthur Darvill, better known as Rory, get a "promotion" as time agent Rip Hunter in Legends of Tomorrow, though...

We've Seen This Movie

Scientists have made breakthroughs on the structure of dinosaur DNA.

Which turns out to be pretty much bird DNA...and may have something to teach us about both stability and adaptation.

It doesn't mean cloned dinosaurs any time soon.

Right?

Right.

Thoughts on Colonialism and Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive (SPOILERS)

So, I just finished reading the first three volumes of Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive. (My annoyance. I now have book 1 in physical format and 2 and 3 in electronic, so if I want to continue, my OCD will force me to buy them physically...and shelf space, dang it, shelf space).

The story of the first three books follows a group of people who bond spren (spirit familiars) and develop powers. It has quite a bit of politics and it took me two readings of The Way of Kings to really get into it.

But the twist that is revealed (although I'd worked half of it out fifty pages into the first book) reveals something: This is a book about colonialism.

And, oddly, it's a book about colonialism that could only have been written by a white guy.

Up until that point - about three-quarters of the way through book three - we follow people's speculations about the mysterious Voidbringers, which are at first believed to be demons.

Then it seems that they may be the other sentient species on the planet, the Parshmen. The thing that makes the twist too obvious is that most of the life on Roshar seems to be based off of very different principles...in fact, the only "Earth-like" life forms we see are humans and, oddly enough, horses (which are hard to keep on Roshar and only very rich people have them).

The Parshmen are dull, docile slaves...but right before the start of the first book, their wild cousins are introduced. And end up at war with the humans.

So, what's the twist?

The first, obvious twist is: This is a lost colony novel. It is a purely fantastic lost colony novel - the humans come from somewhere else by magic, and are granted part of the world (Shinovar, where the vegetation acts like earth vegetation) to settle by the natives.

We know where this is going...because we know humans. Not content with part of the world, the humans spread out, conquer, enslave the natives (and even manage to affect their minds so they are little more than beasts) and build a civilization.

Guess who the Voidbringers actually are?

But the third book ends by asking a key question: How culpable are the descendants of colonizers for the actions of their ancestors?

It does not answer it...although the very beginnings of an answer might be seen in the actions of some characters.

It takes a lot of courage to actually ask that question, even in an allegorical form...

California Ho! Day Twelve - Back to San Fran

We spent the morning driving back across the central valley (the largest "We need more water" sign was by the cotton farm. Cotton. Seriously. Grow lavender or something, people).

...and back to San Francisco.

We went to the waterfront to look at some ships, although it was a bit too late in the day and too close to closing time to actually go on any of them.

Then back to Chinatown, where we found a restaurant that did not cater primarily to white tourists. Mmm.

Again, it was quite the trip. I still miss my mule!

California Ho! Day Twelve - Very Large Trees

Our plan was to go to Sequoia National Park, but we met up with Andy Pearson and fiancee Kim, and they had a slightly cheaper idea...the Trail of 1,000 Giants in Sequoia National Forest.

Yes, that's a dead giant sequoia. It gives a better idea of just how ridiculously huge these trees really are than the live ones.

People apparently used some of them as goose pens at night. Seriously. The giants were quite something and make the ash tree outside my window look like a mere sapling. Another night in Lemon Cove...

California Ho! Day Eleven - To Sequoia

A driving day. There are no passes south of Tioga until you get clear down to Bakersfield. So...we drove down to Bakersfield. It was so hot my phone battery drained at about twice normal speed.

Desert + irrigation in the Mojave. Quite spectacular. We crossed the Sierras for the last time through a gentle pass on a major road and wound up in Lemon Cove. Sadly, we didn't get the spectacular views of Mt Whitney a friend promised. It was, once more, too foggy and hazy.

Ate hole in the wall Mexican. Like...awesome Mexican. You know the kind of place, in a town where I suspected we were an ethnic minority, if you know what I mean.

Best corn chips. Ever.

California Ho! Day Ten - High Sierras Day 6

...and one last day, a ride over Duck Pass (not called that because there are any ducks up there but because late snow patterns look like the word. Or so I'm told. There were no ducks).

We eventually rode down to Mammoth Lakes, where I said goodbye to faithful Punch (and some overly-affectionate pack mules. Our lunch was not in danger from the wild animals, just the domestic ones). Spent the night at a rustic lodge.

It was an amazing trip (albeit not one for the faint hearted or the unfit) and left me eager for even more adventures.

Califiornia Ho! Day Nine - High Sierras Part Five

We gave the critters the day off and went for a hike.

...into a hailstorm. Okay, it wasn't a bad hailstorm, but we had been thinking we'd avoid any more of them.

Nope.

High Sierras. Hail.

We did, though, find this. It's apparently a snowplant, and it's a parasite, drawing energy from fungi in the soil. Common up here, but really only up here.

Back in camp, where it did not hail, we spent an afternoon relaxing and then in the evening did a reading of cowboy poetry.

California Ho! Day Eight - High Sierras Part Four

And day four - through Silver Pass. We actually went above the treeline (which is 11,800 feet in these mountains).

There were marmots.

And ice on the trail. Which Punchito decided he had to walk over when there was a dry alternate route. Why? Hot mule wanted to eat snow.

Silly mule. But he was doing most of the work...

This is, yes, what it looks like in the Sierras at, oh, 12,000 feet. I think Greg's pointing to a marmot.

Down the other side, we reached our final camp at Fish...I mean Mosquito Creek. Ahem.

California Ho! Day Seven - High Sierras Part Three

Day three and we rode up towards the Silver Pass. I had a touch of altitude sickness the evening of day two, but it wasn't severe and I felt fine in the morning. It was a bit of an easier ride up into the mountains and we ended up here.

This was taken before somebody put the outhouse in the way. Sadly, I didn't get a good one with the outhouse.

Bad part about this campsite: No fire allowed. This is also the highest place I've ever spent the night.

California Ho! Day Six - High Sierras Part Two

Day two was a layover day. Some of us saddled up and rode to Hopkins Lake.

In, as you can see, beautiful weather, but our guide was sniffing the air and looking at the sky and pulled us all back to camp...ten minutes before...

...a raging hailstorm. If you're noticing a pattern here, you are not wrong. We huddled in our tents until it was over. Some fishing was done by those who didn't ride up to the lake. Apparently, if you fly fish, this is a dream destination.

Oh, and I discovered the way to a certain mule's heart: Cantaloupe rind.

California Ho! Day Five - High Sierras Part One

And now to the meat of our trip.

Meet this little guy.

Because the absolute best way to get up a roadless mountain pass? Half-ass it. My new friend for the next few days is known as Punch (also Punchito and Tiny Dancer. He lives up to both halves of Tiny Dancer).

The trip was called the Triple Pass Ride, and they didn't believe in warm-up days. Straight up Mono Pass (simultaneous with a number of Miwuk and other natives doing their annual walk on what was one of the their major trade routes. The pack station was providing stock support for them).

And straight down Mono Pass into...

...you guessed it...

...a raging hailstorm. Punch put his ears in the specific mule position for "I Hate This Weather" and got me down safely. These were trails I wouldn't have thought a horse (and yes, some of us had horses) could manage, but everyone was okay. If wet. It had stopped by the time we made it to camp, or we rode out of it.

Sierras. Hail. It's a thing.

California Ho! Day Four - Across the Sierras

Turns out the fire wasn't our problem.

Our plan, to take a leisurely drive along the Tioga Road and through Tioga Pass.

On the way, we stopped at Tuolumne Meadows.

Everyone thinks the valley is the heart of Yosemite. Actually, the true heart of Yosemite is a spot in Tuolomne Meadows, now the Parsons Memorial Lodge...that's where the decision to fight for a park here was made. Oh, and where the Sierra Club was founded.

Then we drove over the pass...

...which is as far as we made it. A massive hailstorm triggered rock slides that closed the road for hours. (I'm still seeing contradictory information on when it reopened).

We had to drive all the way back through the park and take the next road up. This got us to the lodge we were staying at at 1am...with no on-site staff. We had to sleep in the car.

Oh and "You did Sonora Pass for the first time at NIGHT?" Imagine this in the voice of that guy from Rollerblade Seven (I think) talking about going places without your skates.

Eh.

We made it. And we had good travel luck for the entire rest of the trip, but then, we were owed.

California Ho! Day 3 - To Yosemite

And then we headed east, somewhat concerned about the Ferguson fire. We'd carefully chosen a hotel twenty minutes from the park entrance in Mariposa.

From the park entrance closed because of the fire. Arriving too early to check in, we drove to Yosemite Valley anyway. It just took us two hours. It could have been worse...the park was still open.

You can really see the smoke. We briefly wandered around the valley, then headed back to our hotel. Where they tried to send us to an expensive steakhouse for dinner.

We demurred and instead found ourselves some decent California Mexican (Cal-Mex?). Still a bit worried about the fire...

California Ho! Day Two - Big Basin State Park

So, after a night in San Francisco, we drove down the peninsular to California's oldest state park. Originally called Redwoods State Park, it's been renamed to Big Basin State Park (because lots of places have, well...redwoods).

The coastal redwoods aren't quite as big as the true giant sequoia, but they're still quite something...and large enough to kind of throw off your tree perspective. Normal trees start looking, well, spindly. After some pleasant hiking, we wound up in Los Gatos, near San Jose.

Why yes, Silicon Valley. Dinner: Somewhat pricy, but excellent, Italian.

California Ho! Day One - San Francisco

I'm being a travel blogger. Ish. Mostly just thoughts on the trip.

We had an early-ish flight to San Francisco and ended up getting there about 2pm. Our plan for the afternoon? Classic tourist fare - walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and back (biking is the obvious alternative).

Figured the freighter...and the ubiquitous fog...would give some idea of the scale. There are bigger bridges, but there's something about the art deco style of the Garden Gate.

Or maybe it's just that this is, after all, StarFleet headquarters. San Francisco itself is a city I could live in - if it wasn't so hideously expensive. Everything you could dream of in a major city, and a short bus ride and you're in Marin County where there's basically nothing.

But hideously expensive. Finding a hotel room for less than $300/night was challenging. We grabbed some food in Chinatown, eating at a randomly-chosen restaurant. Which is pretty much good enough in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Updates!

Some links to check out now I'm back:

I did a short author interview talking about "Dropping Rocks," my story in the next Mad Scientist Journal anthology Battling In All Her Finery - http://madscientistjournal.org/2018/07/an-interview-with-jennifer-r-povey/

While I was away, Rite Publishing released my first (and hopefully not last) supplement for them, co-written with Andrew Mullen - check out Demiplanes: Valhalla (only loosely Norse) here. It's a setting book that you could use for an entire short campaign or just add on to whatever you're already doing.