Jim Rittenhouse's semidaily journal of news, commentary and reports
I’ve been asked to speak at a Wright State University forum; their Honors Institute is having a symposium on Chinese-American relations called “Connecting With China”, and I’m to talk on “Exploring Issues in Cross-Cultural Adoptions” from 2-4 pm, February 17th. The event is free to the public, but you have to register in advance to [...]
My usual noble call in the case of ‘too many of the Same Thing in the alternate history genre’ is usually responded to with ‘yeah, well, this stuff you sneer at sells, so there.’ And you can’t argue sales. People do the same old same old because they’re trained to and it’s familiar to them. [...]
I’m looking at a point in the history of the Kingdom of Qin during the Warring States period that would have most easily short-circuited the Qin efforts to conquer the other kingdoms and establish an empire. Suggestions welcome. What I’m looking at is that the idea of China as a unified imperial state is nowhere [...]
More raves and cheers for the document scanner, which is now making serious hash out of a ton of work crud that was too valuable to just pitch (My boss asked me the other day for web materials from MANY years ago) along with home stuff. I’m just bedazzled by the thing, I swear. Zip-zip-zip [...]
A good friend who has tons of cool ideas and never gets around to going much with them came over for the New Years’ party with a story treatment and basis. It’s really stirred me up as to where this could go; it’s not alternate history, but more a mix of hidden history and political [...]
“Time is an Illusion, Teatime Doubly So.”
One of the finalists: As she watched the small form swing backwards and forth from the crystal chandelier – hands on hips, sniffing the air and squeaking inaudibly – it suddenly became clear to Madame de Pompomme that she had done the wrong thing asking Jacques to find and bring back her long-lost sister: for, [...]
…on LOST (spoilers for the end of 4th season) The surprising answer, in physics, is yes … sort of. The trick is that you don’t really move the island. Rather, you change its space-time connection to the rest of the Earth.
At various times, I get into research projects; some simmer on for decades in various forms, and some break off and pick up speed because I happen to run into something that really fuels the fire, so to speak. My library here is largely one that I use for reference. I have a huge amount [...]
Still tired from the con; the entire family went minus Grandma Connie but including my visiting niece Kelbi, who decided to volunteer for the childcare room, and worked her butt off there! ( I think she racked up 15 hours…very dedicated.) She didn’t want the con, she wanted the kids! Well, chacun a son gout, [...]
The you-little-schmuck theory of history, from TIME magazine: We all know about Carlyle’s Great Man theory of history, but what about the Creepy Guy Behind the Curtain theory of history or the Meddlesome Housemaid Who Spikes the Punch theory or the Wife Who Whispers in the Great Man’s Ear theory? History is written by the [...]
…especially for Role Playing game mappers, I’m looking for thoughts on which software they think works the best for doing up maps…I just ran into my receipt for NBOS Fractal Mapper 6, and I have a full and updated Campaign Cartographer set, but I have never fooled with it to get going with the mapping [...]
Written originally for Roger Reynolds’ FUTURE FOCUS around 1979, it’s a piece I did on FTL travel, and of course, is probably wildly out of date or inaccurate. Enjoy. jar_tachy_time_travel_1979 (PDF, 1.6M)
My mom, Jackie Randolph, was a multi-talented character; she was a veterinarian, had a fine arts degree (in art, but she was an good singer and pianist) and probably the person who inspired me the most in practically any intellectual pursuit – including history, politics, being a news junkie, and so on. List is very [...]
My reading of the first five chapters of Mere’s new story, Story Traveler (about 3 minutes, 2.5 M, mp3 format). The reading’s a little rough, but you’ll get the idea.