In between my once-yearly excuses for not writing (cleaning out meat drawers, shampooing carpets, lemon oiling the cabinets) I've been scouring the time travel google alert archives for some delicious time-suck links to pass along. Do you smell that? No, not the meat drawer. It's the ripe scent of fictional inspiration:
Eighteen years ago, Russell Barnes acquired a box of records through an advertisement. He expected to find music recordings from the Great War era, but was amazed to discover domestic recordings from a family in Salisbury in Wiltshire, who sang holiday carols and discussed "daddy being away at war." These eight phonographic cylinders, made from beeswax and soap, were so fragile, Barnes waited until technology came along in 2008 to convert these recordings to a digital format without damaging them. The result is an mp3 that is true time travel magic to listen to. Article. MP3.
Archaeologists discovered a 100 year old minature Swiss watch in a Ming Dynasty tomb thought to be sealed for 400 years. Theories abound, running the gamut between rodent relocation and hoax to, naturally, time travel. The face reads 10:06. Oh, what story I could weave with that nugget. Photo and article.
Attention all wannabe-Virgin Space Tourists! The UK Space Agency is looking at an ideal strip of land in Scotland for its projected inaugural flight in 2012. Having already taken $65 million in advanced bookings, a reservation will set you back $200,000. My luck? My seatmate would not be the awe-inspiring Stephen Hawking, but prank-punk Russell Brand. I think I'd rather sit next to Russell Barnes.
Telltale games will turn the Back the Future and Jurassic Park media empires into interactive video games to be released Winter 2010/11 in Wii/X-box/Playstation and PC formats. Squee! Another excuse far more enticing than the meat drawer.
Your turn: Would you pay $200,000 to be a space tourist? What's your theory on the Swiss watch? What is your scent of fictional inspiration?
7 comments:
You have such a busy, busy mind! That one about the supposedly sealed tomb is unreal.
if i HAD $200 large, i would not spend it on a trip into almost space
the swiss watch thing is a hoax
as for inspirational scent, it i had any, i'd bottle and sell it... to take a REAL trip, perhaps on the mars expedition...
good stuff lam, now... clean out that nasty meat drawer ;) lol
That watch story is very cool. I'll have to look into that more.
Hi, L.A.! Since I suffer from motion sickness, I'm thinking a trip to space might not be the best plan for me. Although I just found out that ginger helps with motion sickness so maybe if I ate a ton of that first I'd be okay, because if I had an extra $200,000 lying around and MacGyver wanted to go too, I'd be all for a trip to space!
Hope your summer's off to a great start!
@Rick-I know it was awhile back. Finding updated info on it made it lose the mystique, so I keep on pretending... ;)
@LW-I'm with you. If I had THAT much money lying around, I think I'd use it to make the here, the now, the Earth, a better place. And you'll be happy to know the meat drawer would put Mr. Clean to shame ;)
@Charles-makes you want to write a story, doesn't it?
@Robin-I have the whole motion sickness thing, too! Such a wimp am I. FYI: Ginger did not help me and the patches on my cruise gave me serious eye issues. Happy summer to you, too :)
mr clean is just so mean ;) lol
grats on completing that onerous task!
I, too, find plenty of time sucks, without the benefit of time travel. Namely, playing on the Internet and reading email. So shoot me. I'm an addict. lol
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