Learn more about me at AdaPalmer.com, or about my music at SassafrassMusic.com. Meanwhile, here are links to assorted fun corners of the web.
More of My Writing Elsewhere on the Web
- Film is Alive: The Manga Roots of Osamu Tezuka’s Animation Obsession (Smithsonian Freer & Sackler Galleries, Dec 4, 2009)
- Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance (Journal of the History of Ideas, July 2012)
- Japan’s Manga Contributions to Weird Horror Short Stories (Tor.com, Feb 18, 2014)
- Happy Ragnarok! Time to Choose a Side (Tor.com, Feb 22, 2014)
- Does Thor Qualify as a Disney Princess? (Tor.com, Aug 4, 2014)
- Which 21st Century Comics Will Be Remembered in 50 years? Worldcon panel write-up (Tor.com, Sept 2, 2014)
- RECOMMENDED The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare's Historicals in the Age of Netflix (Tor.com, Nov 18, 2014)
- RECOMMENDED When Less Plot is More Play: Love's Labour's Lost vs Pericles Prince of Tyre (Tor.com, Jun 17, 2015)
- Japan’s Folklore Chronicler, Shigeru Mizuki, 1922-2015 (Tor.com, Dec 1, 2015)
- RECOMMENDED: How Pacing Makes History into Story: Shakespeare’s Histories and The White Queen
- Eating Authors: Ada Palmer on My Most Memorable Meal
- The Hive System
- Writers Read: Ada Palmer
- Renaissance Woman: Article in UChicago Magazine
Random Recommendations
- Habitica (HabitRPG) productivity tool that turns your daily tasks, habits and to-do list into a game
- Listing of other good history-related blogs
- Music - Ben Newman (folk, fandom, sci-fi, fantasy, myth, filk)
- Music - Heather Dale (folk, myth, Arthuriana, fantasy, filk)
- Music - Sassafrass (folk, fantasy, mythology, Vikings, filk)
- Music - Urban Tapestry (folk, fandom, filk)
- Tor.com - great short stories and blog articles
- Treasures of the British Library (manuscripts) released on ipad
The “cultural curiosities” below are links to real world developments which parallel some of the speculative science fiction elements in my Terra Ignota series.
Cultural Curiosities
- American Philosophical Practitioners (Councilor Certification)
- Article about "RealDoll" human-sized realistic doll companions
- Article on the "stateless people" issue
- Augmented Reality Contact Lenses in development
- Case of assault against person wearing altered reality cybernetic visor/glasses
- Congressional candidate attempting to create non-geographic nations
- Flying Car, the Terrafugia Transition, to hit market in 2012
- Mojave Air and Space Port - the latest on Earth's first civilian space port
- Passenger drone "Flying Car" unveiled in China
- Programmable pattern-changing shoes
- Scent capsule memory camera
- Strap-on tracker device monitors individual biology
- Supercomputer for predicting political and social events
- Swiss 'janitor' satellite to sweep up space junk and hurl it to a flaming death
- The Human Project (kickstarter)
- US Government attempt to test new superfast aircraft fails
- Wikipedia's article on the "Singular They" in English
Fun News Links
- Ancient curse tablet found mixing Greek, Babylonian and Gnostic elements
- Archaeologists crowdsource Oxyrhynchus papyrus translation by inviting public to help online
- City rivalries alive and well as Livorno and Pisa resist the government's attempt to merge them. At least it's not Pisa & Florence.
- Cosmoquest: participate in crowdsourced space science by surveying photos to help pick exploration sites
- Fukishima post-quake police force get official Ultraman superhero badges
- How to make bad mozzarella into good mozzarella
- Italian town of Filettino aiming to break free and become a principality (continuing the time honored Republic => Monarchy cycle.)
- Loki teaches Cookie Monster about delayed gratification
- Lone Wolf & Cub author hopes to lure more women to attend engineering schools with Puella-inspired magical girl manga about the relationship between magic & technology
- Manuscript facsimile of Chansonnier Cordiforme
- Mars Explorer Barbie
- Mars Rover "Curiosity" details in animation
- Mt. Etna is erupting again. Mt. Etna is usually erupting.
- Nearly-contemporary, freshly restored copy shows what Mona Lisa would look like w/o horrible dark varnish and bullet-proof glass in the way
- New Miyazaki anti-war film "Kaze Tachinu"
- Pieces for a newly-discovered 5,000 year old board game excavated in Turkey. (Probably older than the Mystery Game of Ur!)
- Possible tomb of Philip the Apostle found in Turkey
- Progress of the Dragon privately-funded space craft
- Research on the Prehistoric Invention of Cooking
- Roman empire glass beads found in 5th century Japanese tomb
- Roman ship carried live fish in tanks
- Romans protest museum about Alaric the Goth (who sacked Rome)
- Scientists propose introducing Elephants to Australia.
- Smithsonian investigation of Renaissance skeletons
- Swarmbot multi-unit hive robot demonstrates daring book theft
- Symbiotic relationship between sunfish and albatross. Why not?
- The Human Project (kickstarter)
- The oldest bank might go out of business (Sienna) No more ATMs founded in 1473!
- Tool-using rat coats itself with poison (because Nature is full of wonders)
