A wonderfully creative person in Second Life by the name of Janeel Kharg has actually built a virtual version of Ankh-Morpork, with all kinds of interesting details, hidden ways, goodies and giveaways. Be sure to pick up a free map when you arrive so you can find your way around. To get there, use this SLURL. There are also some excellent Discworld Avatars available at the sim, which you can look at here.
Today is the opening ceremony at the NADWCon, or North American Discworld Con, in Baltimore, MD. Obviously Sir Terry Pratchett is the Guest of Honor, but a lot of other folks will be there as well, including another favorite satirical author of mine, Esther M. Friesner. I recommend haunting the media area, in case you might be able to see some footage of the new TV series The Watch, assuming they got the money to make it. Note this is supposed to be a full TV series, and not a miniseries like Hogfather, Going Postal, or The Color Of Magic. 13 hour long episodes!
It appears the luggage is eager and hungry to be loaded and prepared for the next expedition. Always a good sign when you are gearing up for a vacation in Discworld, or anywhere else where misplacing your luggage could be catastrophic. After all, it is difficult to lose anything which is determined to follow you around, no matter the obstacles. A friend of mine who has way more artistic talent than I do built this wonderful physical interpretation of one of Terry Pratchett’s best loved non-alive but most definitely animate creations.
The Saturn Awards are handed out by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and try to honor the best TV and Movies each year. There are some amazing programs up for consideration this year; I will be cheering on The Avengers and Joss Whedon for their multiple nominations and hope they each take home something, but there is some stiff competition. For the full list, see the Saturn Awards Nominations Page.
The new official trailer for Mortal Instruments: City of Bones has been posted, and it is looking quite good. Based on the YA series of urban fantasy novels by Cassandra Clare, I am sure Sony is hoping for the same kind of audience reaction earned by the Twilight and Hunger Games series. If they get it, they have 5 more books already written and ready to turn into films, as well as 3 Steampunk prequels set in the Victorian era. Having one of her books turned into a movie has to be pretty exciting stuff for someone who started out writing Fan Fiction.
The folks over at Academic Earth believe everyone deserves a world-class education, so they have put together a collection of free online courses from the top schools on the planet, including Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. Not content to stop there, they have also put together a wonderful little collection of short educational videos they refer to as Electives, designed to tweak your curiosity, engage your attention, and encourage you to seek out more information. The example I am embedding here is from a true literary classic, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a book named for the temperature at which books burn. I will be ransacking this excellent site for months and years to come taking advantage of the resources freely on offer, and I urge you to do the same. Thanks to the folks at Worlds Without End for the heads up on this one.