FORGET the politicians. Five fuzzy dingo pups have won the votes — and hearts — of visitors to the Australian Reptile Park these school holidays.

(United States First Circuit) - Affirming the district court's decision to dismiss the plaintiff's claims under Massachusetts law for libel and intentional interference, affirming the grant of summary judgment to the defendant on the remaining claims, and affirming the award of attorney fees and costs to the defense in a case where an attorney was the subject of two negative reports because the law immunized the defense for many of the complaints.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Vacated and remanded a decision of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Appeals Board (PTO Board) that certain claims relating to a wireless communications system are not patentable. In vacating and remanding, the Federal Circuit reasoned that the PTO Board did not consider portions of plaintiff’s reply.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Reinstated a patent infringement claim upon finding that the district court's grant of summary judgment resulted from an erroneous claim construction. The patentee accused several telecommunications companies of infringing its patent for an application-aware resource allocator. On appeal, the Federal Circuit agreed with the patentee that the district court construed the patent incorrectly. The panel vacated in relevant part and remanded.

(California Court of Appeal) - Affirmed the dismissal of a property owner's negligence, breach of contract, and other claims arising out of a building construction dispute.

JV Publishing Venture To Support And Expand Zync's Successful Rights Representation Business

In what is billed as an “aquatic adventure with a fashionista,” New York Magazine is running a feature with Bermudian Shiona Turini and Team Oracle USA showcasing sailing on the island. The story says, “Maybe you want to forget winter this year and disappear to Bermuda? Look chic on a sailboat? Gaze at a hot […] (Click to read the full article)

On Friday evening, the Minister of Health Kim Wilson attended a celebratory reception hosted by the K. Margaret Carter Centre [KMCC] in conjunction with the Bermuda Sailor’s Home [BSH], to recognise two KMCC clients who are about to embark on a 10-day sailing journey out of Antigua onboard ‘The Tenacious’ – one of two sailing […] (Click to read the full article)

Bermudian entertainer Janita Adderley is part of a charity initiative in the UK which is using music to raise awareness and funds for those suffering from mental health issues. Singer Ms Adderley, a member of the Bermuda group The Loquats and the all-female band Stiletto 5, studied at York College and still spends time in […] (Click to read the full article)

This past weekend in Columbus was a blast as I had one of my friends from undergrad visiting, braving the cold coming up from Atlanta. Showing him around campus and the city was a great time. Columbus makes it easy for me to be a great host and show a guest an action packed weekend. … Continue reading "Weekend Adventures in Columbus"

Revisit what it’s like to run a PDP-10 and be eaten by a grue

Source code for seminal adventure game Zork, dating back to 1977 and recovered from MIT tapes, was published this week on GitHub.…

A.P. Moller –Maersk and IBM today announced their intent to establish a joint venture to provide more efficient and secure methods for conducting global trade using blockchain technology.

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My Subterranean Press collection, The Postmodern Adventuers of Darger and Surplus,  has received quite a splendid review for Locus by Gary K. Wolfe, which has now been posted on Locus Online. Darger and Surplus are, as you probably know, gentlemen grifters in the future civilization that rises from the ashes of our own, after a failed revolution by the Artificial Intelligences we are currently hard at work creating. Humanity mostly won that war and the demons and mad gods were banished to a subterranean infrastructure too widespread and well-defended to be rooted out. But, as a result, the mechanical sciences have languished while the biological ones thrive.

All this is spelled out in the review more entertainingly than I have put it here. I encourage you to read it.

Meanwhile, here's the pull-quote I'd grab from the review if I were the sort of person who did that sort of thing:

As those Hugo voters apparently recognized nearly 20 years ago, Darger and Surplus not only join the small company of SF’s classic rogues, but the world they occupy is as complex, detailed, and morally chaotic as we’ve come to expect from the best of Swanwick’s fiction.

You can find the review in its glorious entirety here. Or you can just go to locusmag.com and poke around. Bot Locus and Locus Online make for informative, enjoyable reading


And as long as you're there . . .

Like everything else, Locus is feeling the financial stress of the lockdown. If you can afford it, and if you, like me, value the publication, consider contributing a little toward its survival.

Look what came in the mail! My contributor's copies of The Postmodern Adventures of Darger and Surplus. Which I can now honestly tell you are beautiful books. Marianne--owner, reditor, and sole entrepreneur of Dragonstairs Press, remember--especially admired the texture of the endpapers.

This is the first Darger and Surplus collection of short, and it collects everything except the two novels. But I should caution you that it is a slim book--five previously published stories, four related short-shorts, and "There Was an Old Woman..." a story written expressly for this collection.  Bloated this volume is not.

Subterranean Press has created, as I said, one lovely volume. It costs $40, because it's a high-quality collector's item, published in a limited edition of one thousand. But for a high quality collector's item, published in a limited edition of one thousand, that's pretty cheap.

Here's the table of contents:

Introduction:

• Mother Goose’s Errant Sons

Stories:

• The Dog Said Bow-Wow
• The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport
• Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play
• Tawny Petticoats
• There Was An Old Woman

• Appendix:

• Introduction to Appendix: A Little Smoke and a Mirror or Three
• Smoke and Mirrors: Four Scenes from the Postutopian Future

If you're interested, you can buy a copy of the book here.

Or you can buy an e-book version for $5 here.

Oe you can simply go the the Subterranean website and poke around here.  Mine isn't the only book there you want. Far from it.

The journey from Koh Samui to Khao Sok was pretty much a nightmare we were woke up arround 730 by someone who couldn't speak english pointing to a piece of paper that said 800 bus. We had booked on the 12 o'clock bus and had arranged to pick our washi

So when I last blogged about our wonderful stay on Phu Quoc Island I was writing from an coffee shop in Saigon on Friday afternoon. I wasn't aware at the time but we had begun what would basically be 51 hours in transit as we blundered our way to an isla

We'll continuously update this story as more news comes in.
( Photos: 10, Comments: 256 )

"1917," Sam Mendes' World War I adventure tops fellow best-picture nominee "The Irishman" along with three flashier contenders: "The Lion King," "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," "Avengers: Endgame."

Times entertainment columnist Glenn Whipp and film critic Justin Chang sat down to reminisce about their favorite movies and moviegoing experiences of the season.

"Half Life: Alyx" will transport you to an incredibly vivid science fiction world.

DuVine Adventures - Bike and Wine Tours

Chicago, Illionois

Siberia, Russia - (Mis)Adventure Travel

The Amateur Traveler talks to Diana Higuera who is a native of Venezuela who worked for a number of years as a tour guide on adventure tours to see Venezuela's wildlife and natural beauty. Diana takes us on a virtual tour starting in Margarita island, then heading to the Los Roques archipelago north of Venezuela, then in an indian canoe up the Orinoco river. From there we will head to the tepuis (table top mountains) in Canaima National Park in Venezuela's Amazon basin. There we will see the highest waterfall in the world at Angel Falls. We will also go behind Sapo falls. Along the way we will see birds, monkeys and anacondas. We will fish for piranas, pet crocodiles and eat street food in Venezuela.

The Amateur Traveler talks to Madeline Jhawar from Italy Beyond the Obvious about life as a tour guide for an adventure travel company. Madeline was previously on the Amateur Traveler talking about Travel to Sicily. Madeline talks about her misconceptions about what being a tour guide would be like and the reality of keeping a group of people happy (and not lost). She guided hiking and biking tours primarily in Italy. What skills do you need to be a successful tour guide? It might not be what you think.

The Amateur Traveler talks to Spencer Quong who is a adventure travel guide about his recent trip to Botswana in south central Africa. After reading the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency his traveling companions were drawn to this country and its incredible wildlife.

The Amateur Traveler talks about adventure travel in Costa Rica. From rafting on the Pacuare river and ziplining through the Monteverde Cloud forest to snorkeling off the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica can be a great destination for adventure travel.

Game designer and publisher Dave Gilbert founded Wadjet Eye Games in 2006.  This interview features conversation about point and click adventure games; digital game development, marketing and publishing; and the relationship between art, passion and real world commerce.

Jeffery Klaehn: How did you first become interested in point and click adventure games?

Dave Gilbert: I played King’s Quest at a very impressionable age! I typed the word “jump” and I saw Graham actually jump, and I was so blown away that I’ve been playing them ever since.

JK: You founded Wadjet Eye Games in 2006 to sell your game, The Shivah, commercially, then moved to pursue game design on a full-time basis and released The Blackwell Legacy, the first in what would become a series of five games.  What are your thoughts on these games and on the market then compared to now?

Dave Gilbert: I am Blackwell Legacy’s biggest critic. It was the first game I wrote with the intention of selling commercially – The Shivah was originally freeware, so I don’t count it – and it shows every inch of my inexperience. The gameplay is clunky, the story is told in three giant infodumps, and the main characters weren’t very likable. But that said, I know with absolute certainty that it was the very best game I could have made with the experience, resources and time I had available. So I stand by it.

As for the market, everything is different. Back in 2006, indie games in general were a very new thing. Read the rest

Aurora Australis (Ship) -- History.

Humphries, Barry, 1934-

11 startups to pitch at NEXT Canada's virtual Venture Reveal  BetaKit

Caitlin, an intern with OM, participates in African and communications orientation in South Africa before flying to Madagascar.

Nathan Schmutz of Switzerland has enjoyed the challenge of immersing himself in a whole new culture.

Two stories from the Africa Trek--an intense discipleship experience for people from different nations who travel and minister together throughout Southern Africa.

We follow Swindon Town Football in the Community Under-17 girls on their journey from England to the Gothia Cup in Sweden.

Industry observers attribute the rise to heightened interest in ed-tech initiatives, decreasing technology costs, and the move to Common Core standards.

"Folks in some foundations are quietly expressing frustration that they've been cautioned to stay in their lane and only fund things aligned with their pre-COVID strategy," says Stacey Childress.

Embarking on an outreach in another country with people you don't know. Adventurers share about their experiences in Bulgaria.

"Folks in some foundations are quietly expressing frustration that they've been cautioned to stay in their lane and only fund things aligned with their pre-COVID strategy," says Stacey Childress.