Crappy Taxidermy, the latest on the ever-growing list of one-note Tumblr blogs, logs the most egregious crimes against dead animal skins. In addition to pumps made from former hedgehogs and a truly disturbing number of kitten tea parties, there are the creature-makers, who transform once-normal animals into mermen, deer people, double headed critters, and cryptozoological monsters, with varying degrees of expertise.

[via Morbid Anatomy]

Apparently the cover to Slow Train To Arcturus, by Eric Flint and Dave Freer, really does feature a guy whose space helmet sports a big condom. But the version that got posted online sanitizes out that little detail. In the process, though, they changed Arcturus to "Acturus." Oops. (Does anybody have a hardcover of this novel and a scanner? No high-res version of the actual cover is available online!)

And then there's this gem, which elicits the following description from the "Judge A Book" crew:

Giant robot chipmunks battle it out on Endor surrounded by, yes, lasers. Whosoever is shooting these lasers is a REALLY BAD SHOT! Of course, you probably can't kill your main character on your cover, where will you go from there?

Needless to say, we have a new favorite blog, especially now that we've bookmarked the "science fiction" tag.

When he's not risking his life driving in destructo-races, Ed has written a lot about tabletop gaming and miniatures for io9. Now you can get 100% pure gaming news from him every day. Not only is Robot Viking the coolest name ever, he's launched with a special preview peek at the latest tiny giant Martian to invade popular game Monsterpocalypse.

About his blog, Ed writes:

From old standbys like Magic: the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons or HeroClix, to newer games like Monsterpocalypse or slightly obscure RPGs like CthulhuTech, we’ll offer reviews, strategy guides and exclusive previews of upcoming releases.

Our goal at Robot Viking is to offer gamers something fun and interesting every weekday, whether it’s a game review, strategy article or a photo gallery of some sweet miniatures. While we will focus on games with a fantasy, sci-fi or horror theme, we’ll also have some coverage of war games and board games. If dice, cards and pencils are involved, we’re interested.

Hell yes. Put that one in your RSS reader.

Check out the power and the glory at Robot Viking.

Wired's Noah Shachtman has a great post on this over at Danger Room, explaining how it fits into the Air Force's broader strategy to engage with people online and "counter negative opinions" about the armed services. I applaud the military for encouraging its officers and enlisted people to communicate more online - nothing wrong with using blogs for public debate. But there is just something FUBAR about how the Air Force can turn anything into a rigid and overly-complicated flow chart - even the act of chatting informally online.

via Danger Room

Historian and Nerve.com columnist Ken Mondschein wrote an excerpt from his imagined 2026 history book America: The First Quarter Millennium, which reflects on the historical context of Obama’s election and the achievements of his administration:

Electoral victory, however, does not always translate into successful governance. Historians have attributed Obama's success in his two terms as President to any number of factors — his reversing the ruinous economic policies of the New Right; his use of technology to transform a patrician, republican system of representative government into a responsive, flexible direct democracy; his ability to convince a country with a frontier mentality of the value of social welfare. But Obama's success was rather due to the way he embodied transformation. The ostracism and fear of blacks was the single greatest impediment to American progress. Obama, by the simple fact of his being, breached this seemingly impregnable mental stronghold, and demonstrated the truth of the motto e pluribus unum.

Adam Cutsinger at FutureBlogger, writing from 2014, focuses on the science policies of the Obama administration. President Obama reverses Bush’s ban on stem cell research, but it’s his speech on the use of nanotubes that advances scientific research in the US, earning him the nickname "Nanobama":

“It has never been in doubt, among scientists, and engineers, since the first “harvest,” if you will, of the tiny, hollow fibers, known as nanotubes, which are smaller than hairs, and stronger than steel, that their potential to revolutionize technology, in all aspects, in science, in engineering, in industry, in transportation, for medicine, and the treatment of the many health problems we face, for the infrastructure, for computers, satellites, for the exploration of our oceans, and for the exploration of space, is beyond any major advancement in the history of science. We cannot, and must not, stand in the way of progress, toward a safer, healthier world, at a time when we face so many serious challenges. America needs to show the world, we are not afraid of the future. We still have hope. It is important for us to focus, on the problems of the present, so that when we arrive in the future, we are prepared for it. We mustn’t let fear keep us in the dark ages. Humanity can’t afford it.”

I’m sure that, as the weeks go on, we’ll be seeing more near-future science fiction from people outlining their hopes for the next several years. And, it will be exciting to see not only what social and political changes writers will conjure up, but also what possible advances in science and technology they hope to see under Obama.

Image is John Hart’s Nanobama sculpture made from carbon nanotubes.

Rawles, a former US Army Intelligence officer, believes that most first worlders’ intellectual detachment from their resources sets them up for failure in the event of a crisis:

"A huge segment of the population doesn't even stop to think of where the water comes from when they turn on the tap, or where the electricity comes from when they flip a switch," Rawles says. "That's made our whole society incredibly dependent and incredibly vulnerable."

In his Survival Blog, Rawles encourages an increased awareness of and connectedness to one’s sources of food, clean water, shelter, and energy. He offers resources not only on issues like stockpiling food, purifying water, and detecting radioactivity and toxins, but also preaches self-sufficiency and reduced reliance on modern convenience. The best-prepared future, he argues, is that both utilizes modern technology and returns to the knowledge and education of the past:

He also urges readers to develop traditional skills such as gardening, construction, livestock husbandry, food preservation and blacksmithing. "If people acquire them now, they will serve them tremendously in the future, regardless of what happens, even if they're just passing on these skills to future generations."

Surviving The Apocalypse [Forbes]

These images were created by photographer Aleksy Galushkov, who is known for his retro-styled imagery and fascination with Victorian erotica. Here he's recreated the imagery from James Whale's early-1930s Bride of Frankenstein movie, with a naughty twist. What's interesting is that Galushkov isn't the first artist to make the erotic undertones in Bride explicit: the movie Gods and Monsters, a biography of James Whale that deals a lot with the making of Bride, is about how Whale's open homosexuality fed into his depiction of an erotic monster who doesn't want to do as she's told.

The Bride Unwrapped [via Frankensteinia]

But first, the good stuff. I'm especially excited about an essay by Richard Branson about space travel, and one from brainiac Peter Schwartz on maintaining optimism about the future.

Still, it was strange to see Howe beginning this conversation about the future by talking about Indonesia when there are almost no international contributors to this blog who come the developing world. In fact, there are almost no people of color contributing at all, regardless of country of origin. And apparently there is little room for women to help save the world — only 2 out of 19 contributors represent over half the human population on this blog about the future.

Normally I wouldn't harp on something like this, but it's terrifically hard to imagine us getting from here to the future without some ideas from women, people of color, and citizens of developing nations. It's not that I don't want to hear from every single contributor listed on this blog's awe-inspiring masthead — they're all fascinating. I'd just like to hear from a bunch of non-men and non-whiteys too. Because the future is going to belong to all of us.

Nevertheless, I'll be tuning in to see what's posted. As long as the blog can bring in many more diverse voices, I think it's going to be an exciting place.

How You Can Save the World [blog]

Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor-in-chief of Tor Books, writes in an introductory post that Tor.com is embracing the subculture of scifi and fantasy fans, inviting them to join the conversations that usually only scifi editors get to have:

Much of what has driven Tor.com is our desire to more fully contribute to the great conversation that is the subculture of SF—that river of talk, in person and in print, that has surrounded and informed science fiction and fantasy (and “the universe,” and “related subjects”) since SF fans began cranking out fanzines and organizing meetups in the early 1930s. That conversation has done nothing but expand. It is a major tributary to the modern Internet. Tor.com aspires to be part of that conversation.

Reading Tor.com is like jumping into a room where a lot of my favorite scifi writers and bloggers are chatting. Can't wait for more!

Tor.com [via Tor.com]

Caveman Robot writes that you should only submit a bad Spock drawing if it meets the following criteria:

0. When some else looks at it they should ask you "is that meant to be Spock?!" with an interrobang at the end!?
1. Hackneyed, maybe you were drunk when you drew it
2. Totally Punk Rock, you should actual break your pen when drawing it
3. Ham fisted, as if you had not understanding of form
4. Half Baked, the dumber Spock looks the better
5. Sloppy, as if a chimp with metal hooks for hands dipped them in ink
7. Don't let your ability to draw (or lack there of) get in the way of drawing Bad Spocks!
8. Not Spock with a beard that is Evil Spock from the Dark Mirror Universe!
9. What happen to Number 6?
10. If you don't like Star Trek all the better!
11. YOU SHOULD CREATE IT YOURSELF, IT CAN BE A DIGITAL COLLAGE, AS LONG CREATED BY YOU!

Bad Spock Drawings via Mental Floss.