Topics
News: What People In 1900 Thought The Year 2000 Would Look Like
There are few things as fascinating as seeing what people in the past dreamed about the future. “France in the Year 2000” is one example. The series of paintings, made by Jean-Marc Côté and other French artists in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910, shows artist depictions of what life might look like in the year 2000. The first series of images were printed and enclosed in cigarette and cigar boxes around the time of the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris, according to the Public Domain Review, then later turned into postcards. See the full story at The Washington Post
TRAILER: The X-Files 2016
The new “X-Files” trailer featuring the first real taste of footage for the returning series reminds us all that before there was “Mr. Robot,” “Person of Interest” and all those other cute conspiracy theory series, there was “X-Files.” No corner of the tin-foil-hat-wearing, conspiracy-theory-pontificating Internet was left unscanned for series plot details. And bless the bulbous gray heads of the gangly aliens from our past, the new trailer has it all: secret government experiments, crazy injections, alien tech, spooky security cameras and even the current hot-button conspiracy theory item, drones. The trailer also includes a sort of Indiana Jones-esque flashback, … Read more
News: The Science Behind Why Getting Kicked in the Balls Hurts
We’ve all been there. Whether it’s a good old kicking or the lightest of touches in the wrong place at the wrong time, every man knows that getting hit in the balls is a pain in the arse. TopTrending has a new explainer on the hows and whys, including the “phantom reactions” men feel when they see other men on the receiving end.
News: Dark Matter and Dark Energy Explained Through Animation
All of the ordinary matter in the universe, from stars to Cher herself, accounts for less than 5% of the known universe. About 25% of the universe is dark matter, while the remaining 70% is dark energy. But what are these dark, invisible substances? Well…we don’t know exactly, but we do have some ideas! Full Story at Towleroad.com
Me Me Monday
Welcome to ME ME MONDAY at our FB discussion group – your chance to pop in and tell us about your latest success. Have a new book or short story coming out? Let us know. Just sell something? Let us know so we can cheer you on. HOW IT WORKS: I’ll pin this topic to the top of our FB discussion page for the day. –Please post your announcement as a separate post, so I can also share it over to our FB page (as opposed to this discussion group). –If you want, send me your book announcement info at … Read more
News: Five Small LGBT Presses You May Not Have Heard Of
There are tons of LGBT publishing companies out there, and many of them are so small you might not even know you’re missing them. Here’s our list of five presses to check out and what kinds of books you can find there. 1. Red Bone Press: all genres Founded in 1997 by Lisa C. Moore, Red Bone Press publishes work from black lesbians and gay men, and according to their website also seeks to promote “understanding between black gays and lesbians and the black mainstream.” Their selection includes the classic does your mama know?, an anthology of coming out stories … Read more
Electroloom Fabric Printer Spins New World of Possibilities
Imagine being able to print your own seamless clothing. Electroloom is the world’s first 3D printer capable of creating true fabric, and its creators are looking for their first alpha testers. According to its page on Kickstarter, the Electroloom Developer Kit “is a tool for designing and manufacturing” custom-made, ready-to-wear clothing. Traditionally, textile manufacturing requires first sending raw material through multiple processing steps just to create the fabric, but the Electroloom reduces clothing creation into a single step: “When interacting with our machine, there is no need for thread, needles, or sewing. Instead, our users need only some simple CAD … Read more
Discussion: Changing Your Gender and Orientation
We’re learning more about human genetics and sexuality each year. Soon we’ll be able to make babies form the DNA of a gay couple together, and maybe someday soon we’ll be able to predict a child’s sexual orientation. What if science advanced to a point where it would be possible to change sexual orientations? Where you could flip a switch and go from being gay to straight, or bi, or…? What if you could fully change your gender (internal and external)? Would you do it? For a day or a week or a lifetime? And how would true orientation and … Read more