Fantasist's Scroll

Well, at least another possible Earth-like solar system.

According to this article on Wired News, scientists may have found solar system that meets the requirements for Earth-like life. All the right ingredients are there. The star is the right type and age. There’s a gas-giant at the right orbital distance. And, it’s far enough away that we can’t really tell too much else about it. Ah, well, at least there exists the possibility that life exists on other planets.

One day, I hope that interstellar travel is possible. I love the idea of going to other planets and seeing totally different ecosystems. Of course, travelling around our own world could be interesting enough, but alien life…. I guess I’m just a sci-fi junkie. The idea of aliens is just so appealing to me. Though, based on that last entry I made, maybe I should start learning Mandarin! I might well have a better chance riding a Chinese space-craft than a US one! C’mon, NASA, let’s get it in gear!!

Well, not really. But they had binary code!

No, really! According to this news story at the Independant, the Incas had a kind of knot code that was very similar to our own binary coding. They seem to have kept fairly detailed messages in a seven-bit binary code knotted into decorative textiles. So, now we know how it was they had such a detailed, complicated society and legal systems without seeming to have a written language! They just had a kind of writing that we never considered.
I guess it was too hard to imagine a “primative” culture capable of creating binary code. And, really, knotting thread is a pretty inventive and creative way of recording information. The tie-closure on a bag could describe its contents and owner. Shoot, it could even have a shipping address included in it! Such a code could have been woven into other textiles as well. Even the simplest of fabrics could have had messges in them.
Obviously, this is pretty exciting to me. The ideas that this spawns for a created culture are almost endless! And, think of how original it would seem to the average reader of fantasy fiction. After all, this has sat in front of experts for ages before they figured it out, so to we who are less experienced in such things it’s nothing short of brilliant and new and, well, fantastic!

Hmm, that’s not a bad name for a new company…

Regardless, there’s a product better than duct tape now…. Gecko Tape! Apparently, some scientists with a lot of curiosity and an eye on the tape market have figured out how geckos manage to climb walls. Now, they’ve also managed to make a tape based on this technology. The article is here.
Actually, the next application they have for this (sticky gloves, tires, etc.) are what I find interesting. Imagine a gecko suit that lets spys walk up buildings. Or cling to ceilings. Or, better yet, imagine robotic listening devices that can climb walls. Now that is what I call a bug!
Really, the possibilities are almost endless on this. There are so many applications for things that are sticky this way. Could it replace Velcro™? Could it be used for emergency seals on an innertube? So many things….

Oh, and I mentioned this for the first time on my other blog Diary of a Network Geek.

Well, I’ve really done it this time!

Yep, I made a name generator based on the Conlang Word Generator and the Conlang Generator. It’s pretty cool, if I do say so myself! Now, keep in mind, the names aren’t perfect and they’re based on the languages in the drop-down list, but they aren’t from the language. In other words, if you choose “Chinese” as your base language, you won’t get Chinese names, but conlang names based on Chinese phonology. And, if you choose “Tsolyani”, the names will be in the correct “format”, but not really quite like names from Empire of the Petal Throne. Still, it is fun. And, if you’re an author looking to crank out some names fast, it works pretty well.

In any case, I had fun doing it, so enjoy!

Who invented pickles?

I don’t really know, but I know I sure love them. And, while eating a pickle this weekend, I started to wonder about them. What does it say about a culture to have started making pickles? Lots of cultures have pickles of one kind or another, and have had them for a long time.
First of all, it indicates a certain level of agrarian culture to produce the produce that goes into the pickle. Or does it? Several Scandinavian cultures have pickled fish, like herring, so it’s not limited to a simple agrarian culture.
Secondly, there has to be a need of some kind. No one ever invented anything that has lasted without trying to solve a need of some kind. So, what need drives the invention of pickles? Simply put, the need to preserve food. Why a culture needs to preserve food is another matter. War? Famine? Seasonal hardships? All are possibilites and reasons to hoard food. Food hoarding implies some kind of preservation techniques, of which pickling is just one.
So, that covers the absolute basics, but how do pickles fit into a culture? Are they a delicacy? A staple? Or, does it depend on the time of year? Or, perhaps, what has been pickled?

As you can see, lunch is never simple at my house. Even something as simple as a pickle can generate questions and ConWorld possiblities. Worse yet, it may inspire me to do something like try to reproduce the technology myself! Come Fall, we may just find ourselves pickling any number of strange things.
But, this all illustrates a point that I try to make over and over again when it comes to writing and exploring created cultures: never stop asking questions. Question everything from how bread is made to how water is moved to how sewage is removed to how the average citizen makes their living. Anything and everything, if studied carefully, can provide information or inspiration for a conculture or conworld. Even pickles!

Engineering before engineers.

Well, at least, before engineers as we know them. Certainly, long before engineering degrees from universities!
The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention and Engineering in the Ancient World (which is an updated version of a book I bought some time ago), both lay out some interesting ideas for “modern” technology for ancient cultures. They both present some great ideas for the basics of technology in a created culture or world.
For instance, China was quite advanced. The Chinese are famous for inventing paper, but they also invented the first printing press and gunpowder. Though, they used those technologies differently than we did in the West, due to cultural differences. They also invented luminous paint and earthquake detectors.
Other ancient cultures invented other suprising things, including water wheels and complicated plumbing and sewage systems. The Romans had heated baths similar to what we’d think of as indoor, heated swimming pools!

Of course, for me, it’s all the little things that really make a world seem real. Things like, what kind of clothing was worn and why. Like, how they lit their way at night. How they prepared their food. A lot of that, though, can be found in these two technology books. Think, for instance, about how much food needed to be processed and moved to feed the ancient Roman Empire or any of the Chinese Dynasties. All things to consider when building a world from whole cloth. And, every decision has impact on the others and implications in the way a people actually live. These two books begin to explore some of those relationships. The rest, though, is up to a creative author to discover.
So, what are you waiting for? Get reading! Then, get writing!!

New and Improved!

Way back when I first put the ConLang Word Generator on this site, my ultimate goal was to have something that created an entire language via CGI. There were lots of tools available for making words and even languages, but they were all limited in some greater or lesser way. For instance, the very good LangMaker by Jeffery Henning, is for Windows only. Chris Pound’s Name/Vocabulary generators require going to the command line, and it helps if you know a bit of PERL, too. But, I wanted something that would crank out languages on the web. Originally, I have to admit, I was trying to figure out a way to charge for this, but it’s just too fun to keep it to myself, so it’s free.
My ConLang Generator is based on Chris Pound’s PERL scripts, but with heavy modification. My English source files come from a number of sources, but mainly from resources associated with LangMaker.

So, standing on the shoulders of giants, I have finally made a free ConLang Generator. Enjoy!

Did you ever wonder where the bannana came from?

What about the orange? Or nutmeg? Or coffee? Economic botany is a pretty important part of our lives, though, we might not even be aware of it consciously. I started to get interested in this aspect of herbiculture when I went looking for a replacement for coffee in a fantasy setting. I was suprised to find that there are actual classes taught about economic botany! In fact, one of the best resources is an online economic botany text book at the UCLA botanic garden’s website.
Another “quest” was to find out more about lacquer. I found several references regarding this closely guarded Chinese technology, but the basics can be summed up here. Lacquer was originally made from the sap of a tree. It’s really an amazing substance, too. It makes wood fire-proof and otherwise wear-resistant. It hardens rather quickly and completely, but the Chinese artisans that first started using the plastic-like substance found that letting a certain kind of crab “swim” in the stored mixture keeps it fluid for days longer than normal. For years, the Chinese had a strangle-hold on the trees that produced lacquer sap and, therefore, the lacquerware market. That market dominance was eventually broken, of course, but it makes for an interesting plot or sub-plot.

So, there’s something to think about the next time world creation comes up. What plants fit where and why? Who uses them and how does that effect the rest of the world? And, really, these are just the tip of the iceberg on economic botany. The limit is, literally, the author’s imagination.