We discussed last year how many travels plans were cut due to the pandemic, so I thought it would be fun to check in and see if anyone has started making any travel plans yet. As I mentioned in that post, we had several cruises cancelled, and took a break from planning for at least the rest of that year. Since the cruise industry is still being shut down by the CDC, we hope that lawsuits by the state of Florida and the pressure from other governors and the industry associations will get thi...

Image courtesy of NASA Back in February, NASA's Perseverance rover landed on the surface of Mars .  Perseverance  is equipped with all sorts of amazing tools and gadgets - including the first ever Mars Helicopter,  Ingenuity . Originally, the helicopter was scheduled to attempt its first flight early Monday morning, but data that NASA scientists received late last week have caused them to postpone the flight to no earlier than April 14th (that's today - wonder if ...

I received a call last night from Mary Jane's son.  His Mom passed away yesterday. He was going through his Moms phone book to tell people.  The link goes to her Windowblinds here...when there is an obituary, if there is, I will post it here.    We never know when we will die, so be kind to others, say I love you more often.....   

The USS  Johnston - photo courtesy of Caladan Oceanic This week, in "science is cool," the main section of a ship that sunk 77 years ago during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II has been discovered off of the Philippine coast. Resting over 4 miles beneath the surface, the USS  Johnston  is the deepest shipwreck ever to be investigated. The 376-foot long  Fletcher- class destroyer was discovered in the Philippine Trench near Samar Island at a depth of 21,...

I don't know about you, but over the last year I've come to appreciate (and deeply miss!) a lot of things that I used to take for granted before. One of those things was playing tabletop games with my friends -  in person. I hope very much to be returning to that soon, but in order to help fill in the void left by not being able to gather in my basement, I've taken to playing D&D online. Apart from physically seeing my friends' smiling faces all in the same room, one of the things I...

No, it’s not science fiction - the video above is a demonstration of a new 3D printing method that can create something that would normally take 6 or more hours in just 19 minutes. Engineers at University of Buffalo say that this technology is progress toward 3D-printed human tissue and organs, biotechnology that could eventually save countless lives. This new technology is 10-50 times faster than the current industry standard and works with large sample sizes that have been pr...

I imagine that I'm probably not the only one who has inherited boxes of old photographs of dearly departed family members throughout the years. Many of the photos I have in my possession depict people I never got a chance to meet - my great grandfathers and grandmothers, for instance - and what really connects me to the photos are the loving stories that my parents and grandparents would share about them. A company that provides automatic AI-powered photo enhancements called MyHeritage has ...

In case you hadn't noticed, we really love space here at Stardock. Our fascination for space and science-fiction is obviously reflected in tons of our games, from Galactic Civilizations III to Offworld Trading Company and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. Because of our collective interest in space as a whole and in the Sci-Fi genre, we get excited about rocket launches and missions to other planets. Last March, the Mars Rover got its name ahead of its July 2020 mission launch. We w...

What started out as a mission to gather sediment from an Antarctic ice shelf ended in a bit of a surprise when researchers discovered an array of strange creatures on the footage when they began to review it. Back in 2016, a team of scientists from around the world sought to learn more about the mysterious ecosystems under Antarctica's vast ice shelves - specifically, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. The trip turned into a disaster, with the research team drilling through half a mile of ice o...

This week, in "science is cool," we have a new rocket launch from aerospace firm bluShift . Founded in 2014, this Brunswick, Maine based start-up company has devoted its research and development to creating a unique line of rockets powered by bio-derived fuels. Their goal has been to integrate multiple innovative technologies into a single motor for the first time ever, and also to use a sustainably farmed fuel that increases performance and mitigates impact on the environment. In additio...

I have a 4k wallpaper, "hearts and flowers" stuck somewhere in the system.  Thanks in advance!  

Here's mine: I have no idea why the memes that use this tend to crack me up the most but they do.

Happy 2021, everyone! Now that the holidays are over, it's back to accidentally writing the wrong year on everything for at least two weeks before everything starts to normalize and feel like routine again. Anyone have any major New Years resolutions? This is a little delayed, since it came out about a week ago, but I just couldn't stand the thought of people missing out on some dancing robots to ring in 2021. Boston Dynamics , who have become known over the last several years for their r...

Seasons Greetings, everyone! All of us here at Stardock are wrapping up our work for 2020 as we prepare to go on our holiday break next week, but that doesn't mean we haven't made sure to fit some festivity into our days.  Normally, we'd be a'wassailing at our holiday party together right now, but for obvious reasons, we're skipping that this year. Instead, we decided to share some cheer from our home offices by displaying our merriment in the form of ugly sweaters. Here are the results:...

By the time I publish this, it'll probably be "old news" and, oh, I don't know, maybe the aliens will have landed by then, but seriously: what the heck, 2020!? The monolith discovered out in the middle of Utah's Red Rock Country about a week ago disappeared on Saturday. Heck, for all we know, it disappeared before then, but Saturday is when the federal Bureau of Land Management's Utah office announced that the monolith had been removed by an "unknown party." Unknown party, huh? I'm just ...