If you've ever wanted to see sf author David Brin's study (and after reading Startide Rising or any of his other books, you probably do) here's your chance. The 360 panorama is a bit flawed, but you get a good look at his setup -- beautiful windows, a great-looking desk, two excellent wooden bookshelves, a big window for natural lighting and a handy clone for all that time consuming research.

We're one step closer to Snow Crash as Reuters opens a bureau in Second Life. According to the article:

Reuters will have journalists reporting and writing financial and cultural stories within and about Second Life as part of the London-based company's strategy to reach new audiences with the latest digital technologies.

"In 'Second Life,' we're making Reuters part of a new generation," Reuters Chief Executive Tom Glocer said in a statement. "We're playing an active role in this community by bringing the outside world into 'Second Life' and vice versa."

And lo, a great many spammers visit the forums of Nuketown and The Griffin's Crier, descending like a plague of locusts upon the land. They come seeking page rankings from their great link god Google, and thus, offer endless sacrifices of strange herbs, impossible enhancements and the vast riches of Nigeria.

Yet from this plague would come some good. All of the names which follow belong to spammers. And all must die. To that end, we, the Dungeon Masters of the Blackrazor Guild, shall name the henchmen and disposable minions of our most terrible villains using the monikers of these vile scum. What had been an anonymous, meaningless death at the hands of dungeon-delving adventurers will now be steeped in meaning -- the meaning that comes from knowing that you just drove a sword through the guts of some weasley spammer.

Slow and steady wins the race, or so they tell me. I'm at 212 lbs now, down from a starting weight of 224. The promised land of wearing pants 36 waist has been reached, though my old 36 jeans remain a little tight. I expect they'll be just fine once I hit 208.

With the election season now in full force (I know this because I've started to receive phone calls from the myriad political groups and candidates) I'm going to spending more time blogging about politics, mostly in my home state of Pennsylvania, but occasionally on the national level as well. Politics and scifi don't often mesh, and I know many of the folks coming to Nuketown aren't here for that reason.

Fear not gentle readers -- the home page will not be turned into an endless stream of political diatribes. I intend to keep those posts confined to my personal Nuketown blog, with only the occasional scifi-related post percolating to the home page. Those of you who receive notifications will get updates about these posts, but even then, you shouldn't be expecting a blizzard of content. If you are interested in my political rantings, you can find them by going to the new "Politics" category.