Norbert Cunningham is the Times & Transcript editorial page editor. His column appears here every Friday. Published Friday November 5th, 2010 Where has all the great science fiction gone? Or put another way, is it just me or is there an incredible dearth of truly imaginative and thought-provoking science fiction these days compared to times past, particularly in the realms of television and movies? This despite the fact that "space" themed shows seem to be all the rage, along with the obsession with vampires, zombies, ghosts/spirits and mediums, the latter two genres of which are thinly veiled American religious pablum for the most part. One ought not to expect much from that list given that the topics themselves are inherently one-dimensional and provide little room to take them further than they've already been taken. But science fiction, now there's a genre with a full range of possibilities for exploring a universe of themes while also entertaining us. Yet few appear to have taken advantage of [...]

Published Wednesday October 27th, 2010 RAY LILLEY, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Two $500 million "Hobbit" movies will be made in New Zealand as originally planned, Prime Minister John Key said Wednesday, after two days of crisis talks with Hollywood studio executives. Senior executives from Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema won an agreement for a change in labour law and bigger tax breaks to keep the project in New Zealand after a dispute over pay and conditions for actors threw the production into turmoil last week. The studios had warned that unless the threat of labour action was removed, production of the two movies would be moved to another country. The dispute became a national issue in New Zealand, which received a huge boost to its tourism and film-making industries after "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was made here. Hundreds of people marched in several cities Monday to show their support for keeping production in New Zealand. "The Hobbit" is J.R.R. [...]

After much gnashing of teeth and some guidance from Ray, my modern day neanderthal fingers have FINALLY figured out how to load a gallery. Muchly apprecaited Ray for the boot in the right direction. Check out the new gallery here and on our Facebook page. Always more to come. In addition plans are moving forward for March To Oblivion in March 2011. Expect to here a call for GM's shortly.

Greetings Darklings, A mere two months after Nox Arcana released the haunting Theater of Illusion, we have a brand new CD for the Halloween season. Joseph Vargo of Nox Arcana teams again with Jeff Hartz of Buzz-Works to produce the creepy horror soundscape House of Nightmares. Dark things dwell in the old house by the cemetery, lying in wait for anyone who dares to enter. Unearthly sounds echo from the shadows of the abandoned mansion as sinister incantations unleash ancient horrors to haunt the realm of the living. The CD delivers 19 tracks of spine-tingling sound effects and dark cinematic music to create an eerie atmosphere of lurking terror. Read the full story and view the video for "The Forgotten Crypt" at FEAR.net Check out the new video for "Devil's Night" at You Tube CDs are available at: http://monolithgraphics.com http://noxarcana.com http://buzz-works.com Amazon, CD Baby, and iTunes lisitngs will be appearing soon. Hope your Halloween is wicked fun!

Hi everyone. It's been a crazy two weeks for me. New classes starting, a whole world of sick rolling through the house, and getting flash drives mailed in from photo sources from the event. I'm hoping tonight to upload a new gallery of everything I've got so far. Thanks for being so patient!

Published Friday October 1st, 2010 The Associated Press SAN DIEGO - San Diego will be inundated by comic book collectors, celebrities and superheros every summer for at least five more years, following Comic-Con International's decision to stay where the event started 30 years ago despite competition from other cities wanting a piece of the sci-fi pie. San Diego city officials and the company that puts on the huge pop-culture event will announce a five-year contract Friday morning. The San Diego Union Tribune reports the contracts that Comic-Con negotiated for discounted hotel rates through 2015 were key to the decision. Other cities that tried to woo the company with offers of cheap hotel rooms and convention space included Anaheim and Los Angeles. "It's never been a secret we'd hoped to stay here, but the real challenge was that those who want to attend the event can afford to attend, in terms of size and space and cost," said Comic-Con spokesman David Glanzer. Comic-Con started in San [...]

Group vows to fill vacuum in space tourism market with orbiting facility Published Thursday September 30th, 2010 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW - A Russian firm announced an ambitious bid to fill the vacuum in the space tourism market by stationing an orbiting hotel in the cosmos yesterday. The Moscow-based Orbital Technologies has sky-high hopes that its planned Commercial Space Station can serve as a tourism hub for well-heeled travellers and offer overspill accommodation for the International Space Station and workspace for science projects. But it's unlikely to come anytime soon - the company wants to launch a seven-room station by 2016 but may increase or decrease that capacity based on customer demand. It also remained unclear whether the state-controlled RKK Energia company, named as the general contractor for the project, would have enough funds and capacities to carry out the plan. Energia builds Soyuz crew capsules and Progress cargo ships to deliver space crew and supplies to the International Space Station that would be the [...]

A NEW BASIC ROLEPLAYING SETTING Devil’s Gulch is a typical town of the American Old West from 1870 through 1885. It is a collection of buildings set along a single dirt road with side streets where private residences are found. It features saloons, a bank, a general store, and a church. Most buildings are made of wood, though some boast of a brick addition or a stone foundation). Hitching rails are found in front of most buildings, and water troughs are set sporadically along the main street. Train tracks form one of the town’s borders. On the outskirts of Devil’s Gulch are mines, ranches, and box canyons perfect for hiding desperadoes. The cast of characters includes gamblers, gunfighters, a preacher, a blacksmith, and a nymph du prairie (that’s a prostitute to those in the know). If you make Devil’s Gulch a base of operations for your Wild or Weird West campaign, the players may be interested in taking on the roles already filled by NPCs. [...]

An all-new sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green, developed by Arc Dream Publishing for publication by Pagan Publishing, and licensed by Chaosium Inc. Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity is a conglomeration of evils, many of them whispered in hints and rumors since the earliest days of Delta Green. Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity includes: Black Cod Island: An inhuman menace rises from the frigid waters of southern Alaska. Three hundred years ago the Haida Indians fought to stamp it out. They failed. Can a handful of Delta Green agents fare any better? M-EPIC: More than 100 years ago, Canada's Northwest Mounted Police established Division M to investigate unusual deaths in the far north. Over the years the division grew, slowly and quietly, as one after another of its own men died in bizarre attacks and uncanny circumstances. Today, M-EPIC is a top-secret agency with a nationwide charter. Few of its members know of its long history of using supernatural methods to battle the [...]

While we await the arrival of our next releases from the printers, we restocked our inventory of the ARKHAM HORROR boardgame and the CALL OF CTHULHU CARD GAME living card game from our friends at Fantasy Flight Games. ARKHAM HORROR For this classic co-operative boardgame comes a new expansion: THE LURKER AT THE THRESHOLD. Across Arkham, strange doors to other worlds have been opening. They seem to be a living part of an ancient and arcane creature that is reaching out, tempting the unwary with eldritch power. Now people are vanishing without a trace, and it’s up to a handful of bold investigators to confront the profane being who dwells just beyond these passages. CALL OF CTHULHU CARD GAME Erin Morai, a troubled but dedicated biology student, found herself strangely attracted to Tyler Scindere... which is why she agreed to follow him in the first place. Now, lured into darkness, will she retain her composure, and her very sanity, long enough to save herself? MURMURS [...]