When I look at the flag of the former USSR with its hammer and sickle flowing under the star of the Communist party, I think of gentler times when the kind hands of Lenin and Stalin brought together the farmers and industrial workers to stand as a proud people and against American imperialism.

Unfortunately, the Soviet Union fell, and in the wake of that great civilization came skin-heads, rap music, McDonalds, and now TorrentReactor.  Vicious rumors that TorrentReactor has purchased the village of Gar in Russia and renamed it to Реактор словоизвержения (Torrent Reactor) are apparently true.  There is still a small chance that this is all some kind of elaborate hoax.  What’s more disturbing is that GarTorrentReactor is not that far from the Seversk nuclear reactor.  Why?  I’ll tell you why. Read more »

Airships have made their comeback, and in more than one way.  Lockheed Martin has been developing the High Altitude Airship (HAA) which can reach 60,000 feet and provide advanced tactical information.

And there’s more.  Cargo, Passenger, Satellite, and other airships. Read more »

The SteamCon II SteamPunk Convention is scheduled for November 19th – 21st, 2010.  They’ve just announced a new website (much of it still under development), which is very nicely done.

The 1st SteamCon was a huge success.  I had sent Omega7Red’s own infamous Captain Jamison Dao of the HRMAS Prometheus to the SteamCon event.  However, he failed to report back.  Apparently, he was killed in a duel, most violently.  (hit the more to read on) Read more »

Hail and well met, me lovelies!

Allow me to introduce myself – I am the infamous Jamison Dao, Captain of the HRMAS Prometheus. Adventurer, scoundrel, pre-emptive salvage operator, purveyor of fine goods and worldly wonders. At your service.

The Doc’s a good man, an old friend and a wily old bastard- we go way back. Don’t ever let him deal the cards or mix the drinks. I remember this one time, we were holed up in Tunisia during the War. Stuck in a brothel, short on ammo, out of booze and a parlour full of… well, I’m getting off track.

Doc’s asked me to help him out here, show you fine, fine folk what’s going on with Steampunk art, culture, music and fashion. Plus he hoped I’d tell a few stories of my daring exploits. Might be tricky, statute of limitations on some stories is “well after everyone is dead.” Pity that, really. My safari with the King of Cashmere is quite the tale.

Tally-ho, pip pip and all that. There’s a whole world out there, kiddies. Let’s see what it can offer us

Moving the site to the new server broke the RSS subscriber feeds.  If you were subscribed before I moved the site, then you will probably have to delete your old feed and resubscribe.  If you got this post in your RSS, then you’re ok.  Sorry for the trouble.

America’s entire science-fiction history in full of stories warning of a dystopian future where books are outlawed, art is destroyed, and the punishment for reading poetry is death.  Who ever though that having “electronics books” was a good idea?  Not me, and here’s the proof:

Talk about irony. In an Orwellian moment, owners of Amazon’s Kindle discovered that their recently purchased copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm had been deleted by Amazon. Apparently, a third-party retailer who specializes in selling public-domain books used Amazon’s self-service platform to sell copies of two Orwell titles. Unfortunately, those books aren’t public domain in the U.S.A. Read more »

I’m currently migrating the blog from one hosting company to another.  Naturally, things don’t go smoothly.  Forgive the ugliness until I get my stuff fixed.

I’m opBen to allowing someone “special” to blog with me.  And by “special”, I don’t mean that you rode the short-bus…

• Spend thousands of man-hours tearing your hair out looking for SteamPunk or other cool material to blog about.
• Enjoy vast disappointment as you realize you can’t make squat with Google AdSense.
• One-Up that Dr. Warthan idiot genius by showing us your superior intellect.
• Impress women and/or men and get laid and/or respect.
• Freely use foul language, such as [expletive deleted] and [expletive deleted].
• Get even with that Geekologie bastard writer who didn’t want you on his team (j/k, he actually does good stuff).
• Freely express yourself (freedom of expression subject to censorship).
• Get a BS title, such as Doctor, Professor, Mistress, or whatever toats your goat.
• Have a real hobby that contributes to the community so that you can finally stop playing World of Warcraft.

Since I mentioned AdSense.  The bone I will throw is this:  As the blogger, you can put your own ads into your own posts.  They won’t show on the main page, but will show up on the individual post page; and as an added bonus, I’ll throw in an ad box for you on the side-bar.  I already have a thing in that works with AdSense for multiple contributors, and I can accommodate other stuff as well.

Interested?  E-mail me at eric.warthan@gmail.com  Oh, and if you spam me or waste my time with BS, I will FIND YOU!

Fantastic video on the progression of information technology.  Example: It is estimated that a week’s worth of the New Your Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.  Example: It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0×10^19) of unique information will be generated this year, which is more than the previous 5,000 years.

It’s the 5th of May, and if you live in Mexico, you probably don’t care as Cinco de Mayo isn’t really observed there.  However, if you live in the US , then Cinco de Mayo is a day to celebrate the culture and experiences of Americans of Mexican ancestry.  However, as your enjoying your food, music, and folkloric dancing, keep in mind the origin of the holiday.  May 5th, 1862 – The Battle of Puebla, where the outnumbered Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army.

Let’s talk about Mexican’s for a bit. Read more »