20 World Building Questions for Authors to ask Themselves Author at work: now is the time to ask yourself these world building questions World building is the art of convincing a reader that a fictitious place exists. What do you do if you don’t know where to start creating that illusion? Well, to get you going, here’s a list of 20 world building questions you can ask yourself to get started. What is the geography like? Don’t fall into the Star Wars Trap of having mono-climate worlds (Tatooine = desert, Hoth = ice, Endor = forest). Why is that city there? Cities happen for reasons. What do people eat? If your world contains fantastical creatures, consider which of them are edible. The first person to discover a creature is either a scientist or an explorer; the second is invariably a cook. If your world is more Earth-like, take a cuisine appropriate to your climate and adapt it to your world. Who or what do they worship? Was your world made by one or more gods? How do they express that worship? Are there organized religions? What languages are there?
Massive India heat wave 'kills 350' - BBC News At least 500 people are reported to have died in a heatwave sweeping India, with temperatures reaching 48C (118F) in some areas. Most deaths have taken place in the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where more than 140 people have died since Saturday. Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh recorded 48C while temperatures rose to above 44C (111F) in the capital, Delhi. Authorities have urged people to stay indoors and drink plenty of fluids. Heatwave conditions have been prevailing in the two worst-affected southern Indian states since mid-April, but most of the deaths have happened in the past week. The worst-hit state has been Andhra Pradesh where 246 people have died from the high temperatures in the past week. "The majority of the victims are people who have been exposed to the sun directly, usually aged 50 and above and from the working classes," news agency AFP quoted P Tulsi Rani, special commissioner of Andhra Pradesh's disaster management department, as saying. Are you in India?
World Building 101 | Bark On Thursday I defend my thesis and if all goes well, I leave Eastern Washington with another liberal arts degree under my belt. It’s been in rereading the books for my defense that I realized I’m obsessively interested in World Building. I like authors who create their own self contained universes. The men and women who devise rules which govern a place where people can live for trillions of years through the formation and destruction of the cosmos. I’m fascinated by parallel universes: by places where the dead wander in and out of 24-hour convenience stores speaking incomprehensibly. In a world building story, often times our tension comes from discovering place. Most of my stories concern themselves and are driven by skewed versions of place. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Lucille Ball, comedienneGen. 7. 8. 9. 10. These are just a couple examples.
Our Extreme Future: Predicting and Coping with the Effects of a Changing Climate Editor's note: This article is the last of a three-part series by John Carey. Part 1, "Storm Warning: Extreme Weather Is a Product of Climate Change," was posted on June 28. Part 2, "Global Warming and the Science of Extreme Weather," was posted on June 29. Extreme weather events have become both more common and more intense. Are we prepared for this future? Scientists hope that rigorously identifying climate change's contribution to individual extreme events can indeed wake people up to the threat. The message is beginning to sink in. Doubts persist despite evidence Among the U.S. public, the feeling is different. And yes, 22 of Maryland's 23 counties were declared natural disaster areas after record-setting heat and drought in 2010. Many scientists share Hedin's worry. A dusty future One of the clearest pictures of this future is emerging for the U.S. That spells trouble. The Southwest is just a snapshot of the challenges ahead. Grassroots action
What Did Medieval Items Really Cost? And How Much Did An Archer Make? Tuesday, 3rd May, 2016 06:34 PM Number of Views: 34394/21852 Luminaries.org has an interesting list of prices of medieval items (compiled by Kenneth Hodges). It consisted of extracted references from books such as English Wayfaring Life in the XIVth Century, J. J. Jusserand, London in the Age of Chaucer, A. R. The image below is just the "WAGES" section -- click on it for the full thing! Hodges. List of Prices of Items in Medieval England Note: these costs will be wildly varying depending on circumstance. Note: Christopher Dyer gives as a rough rule of thumb 1 year's income for a funeral ([3], p. 85) Note: [1], pp 126-129, gives the following prices at an inn in 1331. For one day, 3 men with 4 servants spent: Bread, 4d; beer, 2d; wine 1.25d; meat, 5.5d; potage, .25d; candles, .25d; fuel, 2d; beds, 2d; fodder for horses, 10d. The four servants staying alone sleep 2 nights for 1d. Note: most of these come from inventories of peasants' belongings. Note: sheriffs of London paid 300L per year, hoping to make a profit from the fines they collected. [1] English Wayfaring Life in the XIVth Century, J. [2] London in the Age of Chaucer, A. [3] Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages, Christopher Dyer, Cambridge University Press, 1989 [4] English Weapons & Warfare, 449-1660, A. [5] The Armourer and his Craft from the XIth to the XVIth Century, Charles ffoulkes, Dover, 1988 (orig. 1912) Site copyright ©1996-2009 Anniina Jokinen.
Worldbuilding Given a planet this similar to Earth, it is not surprising that here too life arose, based on proteins in water solution, and in time developed photosynthesizing plants which formed and now maintain an oxyrritrogen atmosphere. It is unusual to have so many details duplicated. (To be sure, given the vast number of worlds in the galaxy, this must happen once hi a while.) Now it would be too improbable for every detail to be the same, considering how many are the consequence of random "choice" among numerous possibilities. And of course he can introduce his own plants and animals. After all, Cleopatra is younger than Earth. Angiosperms have not yet developed. Nothing like grass or flowers exists. No one region has all kinds. A biologist would vehemently deny that Cleopatra has insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, or anything else Terrestrial, other than what man may import. The colonists do use scientific names for the broad classes. The land is dominated by sauroids.
Dialect — Thorny Games In 'Dialect', we follow the story of a community in isolation as seen through their language. We explore how the community's speech evolves as they face challenges, establish values, and contrast themselves from the society they've left behind. We'll embody characters within the Isolation, using this emergent language to express the interactions within the community. In the end, we'll witness the decline of the language and examine how the community lost its identity. A highly modular world-building game, Dialect can be played in any setting in which a group may find itself totally isolated - be it physically or culturally. A story game for 2-5 players in 3 hours (Printable Flyer) "Dialect is fascinating and fun and innovative. "...a language-building story-telling thing of beauty”
World Landforms|List of all Landforms Alluvial fan: land formation that occurs when sedimentary materials such as rocks, gravel, and silt, are deposited onto land as a result of decreasing or stopped water flow from a river or stream source. Altitude (elevation): the height above sea level Anabranch: a flowing part of the river that is separated, usually by an island, and rejoins back down stream. Archipelago: a group of many islands. Arête: a group sharp ridges of rocks on mountain tops usually caused by melting glaciers. Aseismic Ridge: Chain of seamounts under the ocean created by a hotspot under the Earth’s crust Arroyo: a creek that is sometimes dry during the year from not having a constant water source such as rain. Badlands: barren, battered and eroded land from water and shaped with the help of wearing and wind-driven sand and rain. Barchan: is a sand dune that crescent-shape that faces the wind. Barrier Island: an island or group of island, usually in the ocean, that protects the nearby mainland coast from erosion.
CBA Research Reports List of reports The complete series of CBA Research Reports, including microfiche, has been digitised and is being made available by the CBA as a staged process. Those reports now available are linked below. They are available in PDF format, which preserves the layout of the original publication. The PDF versions of CBA Research Reports are copies scanned from the original publications. Details of all CBA publications are available on the CBA website. The CBA Research Reports Nos 1-100 were digitised by the Higher Education Digitisation Service (HEDS), as part of the JISC Fast Track Digitisation Programme.
The Medieval Farming Year @ The Penultimate HârnPage © Andy Staples, 1999 & 2011 "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted..." Ecclesiastes, ch 3, vs i-iii Introduction It is hard for us to imagine the importance of seasonal cycles to our ancestors. Not so for medieval people. This article is my attempt to redress the balance, at least in my own mind, and it is far from perfect. When using the calendar you should be aware firstly that it concerns England during the 12th to 13th centuries, although it should be fairly valid for northern France and Germany. Addendum, February 2011 Version 1.0 of this essay was written in the summer of 1999. Despite its popularity, I've delayed adding the article to the revamped Penultimate HârnPage, because I wanted to give it a drastic overhaul. Changes from v1.0 The biggest change is that the Hârnic references have been removed to a dedicated article. The Works of Spring May
A Brief History of Water and Health from Ancient Civilizations to Modern Times - IWA Water Wiki - Open Access Information for the Global Water Community Attachments( 3 files ): 3 image files Water is life – and life on earth is linked to water. Our existence is dependent on water, or the lack of it, in many ways, and one could say that our whole civilization is built on the use of water. This article examines the influence of water on public health throughout history. This article outlines the importance of water throughout history. special attention is paid to the first urbanization of ancient civilizations, particularly in ancient Greece and Rome (Vuorinen 2007). Content Table Early Systems and Innovations Modern humans (Homo sapiens) have dwelled on this earth for some 200 000 years, most of that time as hunter-gatherers and gradually growing in number. Archaeological and written sources concerning water and sanitation can, however, only be found from relatively recent times. Some 10 000 years ago, when people adopted an agrarian way of life, mankind established permanent settlements. Ancient Greece and Rome According to B.C. Figure 1.
Historical Geography of Transportation: The Emergence of Mechanized Systems Transportation is closely linked with the process of globalization. Efficiently distributing freight and moving people has always been an important factor for maintaining the cohesion of economic systems from empires to modern nation states and economic blocs. With technological and economic developments, the means to achieve such a goal have evolved considerably with a series of historical revolutions and evolutions. Before the major technical transformations brought forward by the industrial revolution at the end of the 18th century, no forms of motorized transportation existed. Because the efficiency of the land transport system of this era was poor, the overwhelming majority of trade was local in scope. Prior to the industrial revolution, it was difficult to speak of an urban system, but rather of a set of relatively self-sufficient economic systems with very limited trade. The Roman Empire grew around an intricate network of coastal shipping and roads. The scientific method.
Novelist Has Whole Shitty World Plotted Out GLOUCESTER, MA—As he neared completion this week on his latest novel, By The Water's Edge, author Edward Milligan marveled aloud to reporters how he was able to flesh out, in meticulous detail, every single corner of his book's vast and stunningly shitty world. According to Milligan, he spent seven months conducting in-depth historical research in order to conjure, as if out of thin air, the fictional and entirely bullshit universe of Connor's Cove, Massachusetts, including its utterly uninspired lighthouse, the predictably dark underbelly lurking beneath its quaint exterior, and its painfully trite main thoroughfare known as Chance Street. "I believe that, by immersing themselves fully in the story, readers will actually become a part of Connor's Cove, in a sense," the author added incorrectly. "Connor's Cove is such a fascinating world, and there's still so much left to reveal," said the author, who, at press time, had not yet been punched in the face.