In five years, this is the fifth or sixth time my account has been hacked and the second time this character has been stripped naked and my bank emptied. Other times weren’t as severe or they never actually logged in. It must be said that each time this has happened, Blizzard replaced all my gear an gold in full. Once I accidentally in-game emailed about 3000 gold worth of enchanting mats to a misspelled character and they had my stuff back to me that night.

But if you read the last two paragraphs, the two horrible stabbing pains I feel are the fact that all my thousands of gold worth of manditory enchants are gone, and items with random stats may be totally useless now. Ugh, that means there’s now a 100% chance I won’t play again till Cataclysm because the character is useless as-is. Le Sigh.

Hello there!

Account Name:
Realm:
Character Name:
Item(s) Restored: Aged Winter Cloak
Annhylde’s Ring
Bandit’s Insignia
Belt of False Dignity
Belt of Potent Chanting
Blistered Belt of Decay
Bone-Linked Amulet
Boots of Forlorn Wishes
Bracer of Worn Molars
Bracers of the Forgotten Vanquisher
Breastplate of the Lost Vanquisher
Cape of the Unworthy Wizard
Ceaseless Pity
Chain of Latent Energies
Charmed Cierge
Chestguard of the Recluse
Chestpiece of Suspicion
Circle of Arcane Streams
Cloak of the Shadowed Sun
Concealment Shoulderpads
Cowl of the Perished
Crown of the Lost Vanquisher
Deathchill Cloak
Defender’s Code
Dislocating Handguards
Dragon Hide Bag
Embrace of the Spider
Engraved Gargoyle Femur
Esteemed Bindings
Eye of the Broodmother
Fool’s Trial
Frayed Scoundrel’s Cap
Gauntlets of the Lost Vanquisher
Gaze of the Somber Keeper
Ghostly Wristwraps
Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets
Greensight Gogs
Headpiece of Fungal Bloom
Headpiece of Reconciliation
Hood of the Exodus
Hood of the Exodus
Ice Spire Scepter
Inevitable Defeat
Keystone Great-Ring
Leggings of the Lost Vanquisher
Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster
Legwraps of the Defeated Dragon
Lost Jewel
Mechanist’s Bindings
Noth’s Curse
Pants of the Soothing Touch
Polar Boots
Polar Cord
Polar Vest
Punctilious Bindings
Robes of Mutation
Ruthlessness
Sandals of Crimson Fury
Sash of the Parlor
Serene Echoes
Seven-Fingered Claws
Sharp-Barbed Leather Belt
Shawl of the Old Maid
Signet of Manifested Pain
Signet of the Malevolent
Spaulders of the Monstrosity
Spire of Sunset
Staff of the Plague Beast
Swarm Bindings
Sympathy
The Impossible Dream
Thrusting Bands
Tunic of Prejudice
Vest of the Glowing Crescent
Wraith Strike
Wyrmrest Necklace of Power

Thank you for your patience and understanding while we investigated the situation that you reported. We have concluded our investigation of the above account, and we were able to restore as much missing items and gold as possible. We do apologize for any inconvenience this situation may have caused you.

Please note that items with random modifiers (of the Bear, of the Eagle, etc.) are randomly generated; therefore we are unable to guarantee that you will receive the same modifier you had on your original item. We are also unable to guarantee the restoration of trade skills, as well as enchantments or add-ons (such as gems, scopes, etc.) that your character’s items may have possessed. While we will make every effort to provide assistance in cases of loss, please keep in mind that the decision to go forward with a restoration is entirely at Blizzard’s discretion.

Thanks to DAYoung for this awesome picture.

Sleeping Puppy

Pens: Pelikan 140, Namiki Vanishing Point, Reform 1745, Esterbrook J
Ink: Private Reserve Midnight Blues, Private Reserve Orange Crush, Noodler’s Bulletproof Black
Paper: Rhodia #16 80 g/m^2, various sketchpads.

To see all my letters and postcards, choose the “Letter Exchangeness” category.

Ideas flowing.

After a few tries I got what I wanted.

Other Ideas.

Cut-outs for the envelope.

Basic outline.

Inked pages.

Four pages.

Envelope front.

Envelope back.

Finished Letter!

And I brilliantly didn’t take a photo of it before I sent it.

Using my Esterbrook J 2968.

Looking exactly like a madman at Beth's at 2:00 A.M.

Going seismic.

Erase the base.

Um, and I have to again praise my trust Panasonic Lumix LX-3 camera for being so freaking awesome.

Click here to see the whole set on flickr, where you can zoom into thhttp://Spacewater.us/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=752e full size huge originals too.

My personal collection is mainly with workhorse type of daily-use pens from the 40s and 50s and there were plenty of great examples to touch and write with. I didn’t know about the theme beforehand, being such a new member, but I thought it would be a safe bet to bring the first fountain pen I ever bought for myself — and Esterbrook J with a 2968 Broad Medium Writing nib that I’ve had over 25 years — as well as my most recent pen: a 1994 Namiki Vanishing Point. It’s ironic that both of my mens were red.

17 People came and visited with us to trade pen stories and meet up, and it was a pleasure to meet George Long, Michelle B, Diane (Emily), Saul, Al, the several Johns that regular the meetings, and everyone else whose names I’ve forgotten. This was my first time and I was so glad everyone was so nice and enthusiastic about talking about and playing with pens and ink, and welcomed me so warmly.

I’m looking forward to next month! I hope the theme is working-class pens. hehe

Here are some pictures for fun:

As a prelude I would like to make sure everyone knows I love these little workhorse pens and I’m happy. The review comes across as a bit critical, but I use the same eyes to measure this pen as I would any other one and I am just trying to be thorough, and hopefully helpful to anyone considering getting one. Ok, resume your review now.

I truly love an inexpensive little workhorse pen, so you can imagine how excited I was to order two of these New Old Stock German Piston-fillers from the Fountain Pen Network’s own Smeden (a.k.a. Peter). Reform is a strange company. You can buy 1745s and P120s by the freight car but finding anything out about their history is tough indeed.

I did find some things out: for anyone interested in the detailed history of Reform, our own Fountain Pen Network user “Kaweco” posted a brief summary just about three years ago in 2007, click here to read his original post and a quote follows.

During the second half of the 20th the KAWECO, one of the world`s greatest writing equipment producers in Heidelberg, Germany, immediately went down and Philipp Mutschler and some of his co-workers decided to leave the firm in 1928 to build up their own factory. 1929 the Kaweco actually went to bancrupty and the “Badische Federhalterfabrik Knust, Grube & Woringen” bought the Kaweco trade mark.

The first calculation of the new Mutschler works sounded fantastic. They had a small building, similar to a shed, 5 turnery machines, a chasing- and a polishing machine and 10 workers. The first real cash flow was expected after 6 weeks! (Today it sounds like: somebody had invented a money printing machine). But they managed it.

1932 was the worst economic year because the world monetary crisis swapped across the pond, but Mutschler expanded and had to build a new factory hall in 1938. They cooperated with the “Reform” works from Nieder- Ramstadt, which had a daughter firm in Heidelberg. After a fusion they changed their trademark from “Certo” to “Reform” with an “R” with wings. Mutschler was one of th first who used the injection moulding process for FP production and therefore they constructed their own machines. Reform delivered complete writing systems and parts to several other well known firms like Geha, Herlitz, Rotring, AT Cross, Elysee, Dunnhill, Dupont, Cartier, Caran d Ache or Christian Dior. They bought the “DEGUSSA”- and the “RUPP” nib factory and produced excellent nibs. Alas, after all nearly nobody knew “Reform”.

1963 Otto and Peter, the sons of Philipp Mutschler took over the firm. 10 years later they went to the large old building which once was a part of the Kaweco factory. But in 1999 they had to leave and to sell the house. Reform, a trade mark with its best reputation, which had produced 10 Million fountainpens per year in the early 90th (4 times as much as Lamy) went down. The rescues of Sanford and Ullrich Mutschler failed and the firm went to bancrupty in the late 2003.
The Machines were sold to far east, but the quality of the once produced “Iridium Point Germany” nibs is today only a shadow of the old stuff from Heidelberg. And I am also not sure which of the today sold fountainpens is actually “Reform New old stock”

A. Appearance & Design ( 8 / 10 )

First glance at these pens was just about what I expected — green plastic barrels with black plastic cap and section, with two-tone steel nib, size unmarked but most certainly a fine point. Compared to my Pelikan or even my Vanishing Point the first word that comes to mind is definitely “cheap” but I never expected these pens to last a lifetime for this price. The pens came well packaged in a simple envelope from Smeden (a.k.a. Peter) in Finland, wrapped to avoid scratching each other. The pens came to me in pristine condition, truly new old stock. The barrels were shiny and unused, stickers and all, and all the gold-colored plating was unmarred, as were the nibs. The overall fit and finish is very good for pens this inexpensive. I daresay overall a Kaweco Scout is not made nearly as well, notwithstanding manufacturing problems with some of the Reform nibs (see below).

The 1745’s design is classic Pelikan-style piston filler, with straight lines and a vaguely Pelikan-shaped clip on the very narrow  pen. Overall these pens look good, although the plastic is a bit slick in the hands with prolonged writing.

B. Construction & Quality ( 6 / 10 )

For eight dollars you can’t expect too much from a pen, and that definitely holds true with the Reform 1745 as well. I originally ordered two Reform 1745s but when they arrived I saw quickly that neither one would write for any significant amount of time. In fact, one of them wouldn’t even write when dipped. The short answer reason for this is that the nibs were faulty. Click on the “Nib and Performance” picture below and view the original magnification to see that the nibs were not split down the middle as you might expect. When Peter (FPN’s Smeden) found out, he immediately posted me two new pens (that he had obviously tested himself before they left, judging from the water droplets left in the barrels), as well as a bonus Dollar Student Pen for my trouble. Thanks Peter!

I eventually ended up with two working pens out of four complete pens sent to me (see below), but other than manufacturing problems with some of the nibs, the fit and finish of the pens is good, all the parts worked smoothly, and everything fit together as it should. I have a bit of a problem sometimes with the posted caps sticking to the blind cap and partially unscrewing the piston, but I soon learned not to post them so hard! Also, the clips tend to unscrew from the end cap as you unscrew them from the barrel or unpost them from the end. Not a huge deal, but I had to get used to grabbing the whole cap to unscrew or unpost it.

C. Weight & Dimensions ( 7.5 / 10 )

The pen is 12.95 cm (little over 5 in) capped, and 14.88 cm (5.86 in) posted in length, and the diameter is 1 cm (.390 in) at the body, and .86 cm (.340 in) at the section. It is a small pen, but not uncomfortable to my big hands. The Reform 1745 is a thin pen but not very short. It would be most comfortable in a smaller hand, but this pen is the perfect size for carrying in your organizer or slip in your pocket. Ergonomically, I always feel like I have good control of the pen — but as I mentioned before the plastic is a bit slippery compared to Ebonite or Celluloid. I have written for extended periods of time with this Reform and I not only enjoy it, I keep coming back to it, even if it is a bit thin.

D. Nib & Performance ( 6 / 10 )

It must be said that the nibs on these N.O.S. Reform 1745s are hit-or-miss. A good long soaking, with the pens completely disassembled goes a long way to improving ink flow, but obviously from my experience it’s about a 50/50 proposition. Of the four pens I eventually received, I was able to Frankenstein two complete pens ultimately. A nice side effect of this is that I have extra barrels, caps and clips for these two as they wear out from use.

Of the two rescued nibs, my favorite one turned out to write a wet fine, with good flow. The pen glides across the page with the perfect amount of tooth and it’s a pleasure to write with. The second nib ended up writing a fairly dry extra-fine line. It’s not suitable for long writing sessions but it’s absolutely perfect for sketching and fine lettering, and so I’m very happy about it.

E. Filling System & Maintenance ( 9 / 10 )

It should come as no surprise that the tried-and-true German Piston filling system in the Reform 1745 works exactly as promised. Of the four barrels I have, only one of them was a little faulty — only drawing up half a cylinder of ink at a time — so I swapped it with one of my spares. I don’t have any way to measure the exact ink capacity of these pens, but it is certainly larger than any converter or cartridge. Piston filling pens really deliver when you have to write a lot, and this pen does the job very well.

Maintenance on these pens is beyond easy for such an inexpensive instrument. The ability to fully clean your pens as a feature gets swept under the rug sometimes by pen designers, but the Reform 1745’s nibs and feeds are fully removeable from the section with a twist a la Pelikan and Esterbrook. It’s hard to see anyone letting these get very dirty of clogged. In fact, the ease of disassembling and cleaning these runs at the head of the pack of reason for my delight with the 1745 because that’s why I was able to piece together these two examples.

F. Cost & Value ( 10 / 10 )

Here is another area where these pens really shine like gems. I paid us$8 each for these, and when Peter (again, FPN’s own Smeden) found out my first two were duds he immediately posted two replacements to me, free of charge, from Finland. I can’t say enough nice things about Peter, but I will say at least his primary concern was making sure I had working pens that I was happy with. Mission accomplished, thanks Peter!

Conclusion ( 7.75 / 10 )

If you’re reading this review, you’re probably considering picking up a couple of these for spares, school, loaners, fun ink colors, or just curiosity. In any case, even with the trouble I had it’s hard to argue with the price tag of these well-made, if inconsistent, German piston-fillers. Aside from simply faulty nibs, the only lasting problem I had with these pens was one aenemic plunger, which didn’t even interfere with the use of the pen. I would recommend anyone interested pick up several of these. At the prices these go for, they’re easily within reach of any curious Fountain Pen user, and for the budget-minded, although it’s true that you could spend more and get something 100% reliable out of the box, you will be spending a lot more, not a little more. With a careful initial cleaning and a little luck, you could hardly lay your hands on a more reliable daily writer to toss in your bag.

So I give the Reform 1745 a strong buy, but Caveat Emptor, you might have to give it a couple of tries to get one right for you.

I welcome your comments and corrections. Thanks.

Spokanistan was no team in particular, just one of the names I thought was funny and used for my scorecard rivalry fun.

I made a little scoreboard while I was there tonight:

Sorry, it was taken with my iPhone, so it sucks. But I’m excited for the season!

GO AWKWARD SPOONING!

The inscription “PELIKAN 140 GERMANY” is visible on the cap band, although there is some brassing along the cap band and on the clip, to be expected on all pens of this era. The Clip also has a small perpendicular scar, visible in the pictures, and the body has some compression marks from normal use on the rear end, totally invisible in any photograph and only obvious if you really really feel this pen a lot. Which I do, haha.

This pen is seriously a treasure to own. It’s 58 years old and it writes like it’s brand new. It feels perfect, looks beautiful, and I just hate putting it away when I’m finished. The nib is a bit wet, though, and I think a new F-nib will be in order eventually.

The Box!

The Box opens!

A couple of small flaws

Original beautiful and perfect Pelikan 14K 585 M-nib

Totally 100% transparency

Took it apart to clean it. That is dust not mars.

Looking down the barrel…

It’s resting before I re-ink it

The original (slightly misleading) ebay photo

I’ve been wanting a Namiki / Pilot Vanishing Point Capless fountain pen since I first heard of them, but I had never pursued it very seriously, priorities being what they are. But one day during a visit to World Lux (nee Seattle Pen) I struck up a conversation with Todd Craver — an enthusiastic FP writer from way back — about this and that and what pens I have on my lists. I must have seemed excited about the VP because at one point he offered to sell me a ‘94 Vanishing Point from his personal collection at a great price. Obviously I said Yes!

This pen came in a nice Pilot box with the manual and even the original ink cartridge and cartridge cover. The box itself isn’t going to win any design awards, but it has a pleasing rubber cover and does the job just fine. In fact, I can’t criticize the packaging, you’d hardly expect a Mahogany box for a shirt-pocket People’s pen, would you?

I suspect the box is from a new VP, as the instructions are dated 12/08, fourteen years after this pen was made, so that made it especially nice that Todd threw that in. When I picked it up I was so excited to own my own Capless that I actually left the store and made it to the end of the street before I realized I’d left the pen in it’s box on the counter back at World Lux. We all had a good laugh about that.

Appearance & Design ( 9 / 10 )

My Namiki VP was made in 1994, and these pens have the colest retro-60’s look that I absolutely love. The faceted plastic body is a bit dated-looking now, but you can’t help but want to high-five the designer of this pen for that fantastic clip covering the section and the overall look of the pen.

I gave this pen a 9 here because of my personal predelection for it’s ingenoius design and just pure utility. It looks cool and people do a double-take when I hand it to them befcause after they click that big button they’re expecting a ballpoint in there.

Construction & Quality ( 7 / 10 )

This pen is just about exactly what you’d expect from an inexpensive pen in the ’90s. It’s well-made and works beautifully but the faceted barrel feels cheap and I worry about the barrel cracking around the screws holding the body together.

One small flaw in my particular pen is that there are two or three scratches on the barrl alongside the clip in parallel. I’m not concerned at all about the fact that they’re there, but rather it makes me question the longevity of this pen. Can it last thirty more years? Under normal use, most certainly, but it’s not going to look very good.

So I definitely will be avoiding dropping this pen, for it would surely mar. And accidentally stepping on this pen would almost certainly crack the barrel.

Weight & Dimensions ( 9 / 10 )

The VP is a lightweight pen and very comfortable to write with. I have large hands and the gentle taper of the barrel makes it very easy to hold. Later VPs got a wider barrel circumference, and that’s about the only thing I would wish for.

Some have complained about the clip placement on these pens interfering with the way they hold the pen but I don’t have a significant problem with it. The takeaway point here is make sure to think about holding one of these and writing a whole page before you buy one.

I scored the pen a 9 in this category because the size and design are nearly perfect for it’s intended use — a carry-around pen you can throw in any bag or clip to any pocket.

Nib & Performance ( 8.5 / 10 )

My particular VP came with a rarely-seen-in-the-wild B nib, and writes what I would call medium-wet. I feel like the nib has a bit of a sweet spot that’s minutely opposed to my natural writing angle but it’s so minor I am only mentioning it because I think it’s possible it could drive some writers crazy.

Writing is smooth and the pen easily keeps up with my most furious scribbling. This wasn’t the case initially, as you can see from the photo below, but soon enough the pen smoothed out for me after a few more pages. The pen also starts up every time I click it out of it’s little rabbit-hole, which is something I can’t honestly say about even my beloved Estie J.

I rated the pen an 8.5 in this category because it works exactly as I hoped it would — medium wet, teeny bit of tooth, and it’s a one-handed click away from gliding across any page.

Filling System & Maintenance ( 8 / 10 )

The VP comes with the ability to use cartridges or a cheap but functional standard-issue plate-press type converter that is simple to use and easy to clean.

One could certainly find fault with the small amount of ink the converter holds relative to a piston filler, but to me this is a necessary trade-off because of the one-handed design. I write quite a bit and I only have to fill up the pen every other day or less, so it holds plenty of ink for daily use. My cell phone requires a lot more maintenance than this pen.

Cost & Value ( 8.5 / 10 )

This pen cost me us$80 and I feel like I got a great deal. That is just about the lower end of the going rate for these and because I bought it from a private local seller, I was able to save tax and shipping.

I must point out thought that if I were buying a new pen today, and not a vintage one, the plastic-y barrel would probably not be acceptable at that price. In fact that’s the only reason I rated the VP an 8.5 in this category instead of a 9.

Conclusion ( 8.5 / 10 )

My only real complaint about the Namiki Vanishing Poing is the plastic barrel. Taken as a whole, this pen delivers exactly what it advertises: an extremely stylish, ingenious, one-handed retractable fountain pen that is a pleasure to write with and never seems to leak or fail me.

So not only was I able to ink up my old daily workhorse Estie J with Orange Crush (it has a broad-writing medium 2968 nib!), I got to use my new VP with the Midnight Blue too. I thought I would share a few pictures I took of the goods, and finally a letter I wrote to a dear friend with my new pen.

Click to jump to the larger flickr pages for these shots (cilck the [i]All Sizes[/i] button on the page for the two largest versions).

Sitting at Bauhaus Coffee Seattle inking my VP and Estie

New Vanishing Point and my Estie J

Last Midnight Blue for the Estie

Esterbrook J Nib closeup

Test page with my new Pilot / Namiki Vanishing Point and Private Reserve Ink’s Midnight Blues

Private Reserve’s Orange Crush, about to go into my Esterbrok J

This is how I know I’m having fun!

Forgive the quality of this one, it’s not from my LX-3, it’s my iPhone.
New color ink for my 1950 Estie J – Orange Crush by Private Reserve

A letter to my friend in Sacramento.

In the words of the designers:

A strong, dominant exterior that conceals a fragile, personal interior.

An ornament that can be worn.
A gesture to transform it.
A secret place for personal intimacy.
A reminder of our exterior aspect. 

[via Fubiz]

Ever wonder where all those moving boxes go once you leave them by the dumpster?  Created by Taiwanese designer,  Chishen Shiu, the “Flexible Love” love seat  is made of cardboard and can be drawn out like an accordion.  Shiu stumbled upon a small factory producing ‘honeycombed’ sheets of recycled paper in suburban Taipei one day. 

It’s flexibility allows the piece to transform from a small package that can be easily stored under the bed into a chair or bench seat fitting up 8 people or the extended version which seats 16. It comes in one color – cardboard brown.   No longer do you have to store all those foldable chairs for unexpected or even expected visitors.   Best of all, it’s entirely environmentally friendly, made from 100% recycled material.  As they say fashion forward and environmentally smart.   

See it in action or rather video. 

Have an infinitely modern day!

UPDATE::  Sorry I forgot to include the link to where you can grab these. Go get one here.

–Ff–

BioWare’s space opera epic, Mass Effect 2, is Amazon’s “Deal of the Day.” The Xbox 360 version is currently $40, which is $10 cheaper than you’d pick it up at your local Quarian pawn shop. A PC copy is 40 percent off, with a $30 price tag.

At that price, one could pick up Mass Effect 1 and 2 for the regular retail price of the sequel. For those who like their sci-fi soapy and their shooters refined, this is a deal worth going through the Omega 4 Relay for — see, if you play the game, you’ll know what that means.

[Thanks, Russ P!]

Amazon’s galactic deal of the day: Mass Effect 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Straczynski, who’s been with DC Comics since finishing up a long (and occasionally controversial) run on Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man in 2008, has never hidden his desire to write the Man of Steel, and he plans to live up to the opportunity:

When I first came over to DC, that dream was realized in part by [then executive editor, now co-publisher] Dan DiDio’s gracious invitation to write the first of potentially many Superman original graphic novels. Now the dream has come fully true with the opportunity to write for the mainstream title, in a story that returns Superman to his roots in a way that will have the whole country talking about him in ways that we haven’t seen in a long time.

He plans a similarly attention-grabbing approach for Wonder Woman:

She’s a vital, powerful character, and we hope to bring a more contemporary sensibility to her character will retaining everything that makes her unique.

Stracynski’s debut on both titles comes with contributions to June’s Superman #700 and Wonder Woman #600, with his taking over full writing duties of both series with July’s following issues.

J. Michael Straczynski To Write Superman And Wonder Woman Starting In July [DCU The Source]

As part of its latest financial results report today, Take-Two delayed Red Dead Redemption by several weeks. Previously scheduled to arrive on April 27, the game is now slated to release in North America on May 18 and internationally on May 21. The announcement doesn’t specify a reason for the move, though it’s worth pointing out that the new date moves Red Dead Redemption out of the publisher’s fiscal Q2 (February-April) and into its third quarter (beginning May 1). [Update: During an investor call corresponding with the financial report, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick clarified that the delay was issued to extend the game's pre-release marketing period.]

Take-Two also notes that financial guidance for its fiscal 2010 has been adjusted to take the date change into account. While Read Dead Redemption was at the center of a controversy concerning developer Rockstar San Diego, a barrage of recent media assets and confirmation of retail pre-order bonuses seems to indicate that development is on track.

From Richard Grayson’s catalogue essay published by Annely Juda Fine Art:

In A Timeline of Science Fiction Inventions: Weapons, Warfare and Security Treister has drawn up a history documenting innovations of imaginary and fantastic military technology. These include the ‘Raytron Apparatus’, a form of aerial surveillance, which was described in ‘Beyond the Stars’ by Ray Cummings in 1928, or the ‘Control Helmet’, from ‘Easy Money’ by Edward Hamilton in 1934. The timeline starts in 1726 with the ‘Knowledge Engine’ in Gulliver’s travels and carries on up to the present day. It allows us to see the meetings of worlds as these weapons sometimes travel from the fantastic to manifest themselves into the real, like the ‘Atomic Bomb’ described in ‘The Crack of Doom’ by Robert Cromie in 1895. The format in which she organises this information is the schema of the connected circles of the tree of life or the Sephirot, from the Jewish mystical traditions of the Kabbalah, a representation of linkages between the worlds above and the physical world below and which map stages of transformation between these realms.

Along with your average scifi armaments, Treister also includes such security and defense innovations as the Invisible Man’s invisibility and Orwellian Doublethink. A Timeline of Science Fiction Inventions: Weapons, Warfare and Security can be seen at the Documentalist exhibit at Edinburgh’s Collective Gallery until March 28.

[via Ensemble and The Journal]

<img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/io9/2010/03/s13" width="397" height="709" /

Why so large a range? Most important have been clear skies and our strengthening sun. You feel the warmth? Remember the sun right now is as strong as in mid October, with much longer days than two months ago. And the clear skies associated with high pressure aloft allow maximum heating during the day and maximum cooling at night as the earth radiates infrared energy to space.

But why no clouds and fog…which often occur in midwinter? The secret is that we have a modest east-west pressure difference (higher pressure to the east), which is producing easterly flow across and down the western Cascade slopes. Such downslope air produces drying and warming. Check out the latest profiler data from north Seattle…you can see the easterly flow.

But too much easterly flow would cause warming due to compression and keep our temperatures up at night. But fortunately for diurnal temperature range lovers the easterly flow is strong enough to keep us clear, but not strong enough to cause too much warming.

These conditions will continue through the weekend…warm enough for tee shirts during the day, but cold enough for frost in the morning at many locations.

Today’s Contest: WHO HAS THE LARGEST DIURNAL RANGE?

PSS: There is an article in the Seattle Times today (Saturday) on the early spring.

It’s a great little trick, and one worth adding to your development arsenal. Be aware that UIGlassButton is a private class, and one that has long since been relegated away from the official SDK development path. Although it continues to work on the Simulator, it’s not for use on the iPhone itself or in App Store projects.

Continue reading on to find the code. Don’t forget to substitute your own user folder into the code (in my case, “ericasadun”) for Jonathan’s (“schwa”).

// Code to create a "Glass" button and render it to a png on your desktop.
// Run this from the SIMULATOR and change my username to yours.
// Update: This uses a private iPhone SDK. Do not use this code in your shipping app.
// Use it merely to generate the PNG file for you to use in a fake button.