Gravity Lens Weblog

Archive June 16 - July 7

Wednesday. July 7

This week's Science Fiction Trope-o-Rama: Characters that travel to the future via the plot device (or cliche) of stasis, hibernation, cryogenics, or other forms of suspended animation. They include Buck Rogers, Dan Davis, George Taylor, Miles Monroe, Phillip J. Fry, Vance Astro, Alcide Nikopol, Khan Noonien Singh, Frank Poole, Captain America, Norman Winters, Ellen Ripley, and Dylan Hunt from Genesis II. The Dylan Hunt from Andromeda went through a black hole, so he doesn't count. Somewhere there must be a story about Walt Disney being awoken in the future...

On the subject of lists, TV Acres has a useful directory of robots, androids, and cyborgs, as well as indexes of time travellers, aliens, and planets from the small screen.

Other Assorted Items: Michael Cassutt of SciFi Weekly looks at the nature of villainy.

Newsarama talks to the Wachowski brothers about their upcoming comics.

Christopher Hitchens gives us the history of the phrase "fuck off" at Slate.

Tuesday, July 6

Retrocrush posts a gallery of fighter plane nose art. I love this stuff. My own links page has a section on nose art, including neat sites like Luc's Photo Archive, AirVenture, and the more risque Bombergirl (with its own impressive set of links). Occasionally you can find a recent example. I remember The Betty in Alien Resurrection had nose art, and the Starfleet Museum has some nifty examples.

Technology Stuff: Be aware that we now live in a world where metal can be grown, computer networks can evolve, human skin is a peripheral, and where the first generation of very primitive shape-shifting robots has been created.

Warren Ellis gives us a list of things online he is sick of at Art Bomb.

Monday, July 5

According to The Alien Online, there will be no Daleks in the new Dr. Who series.

Today is, by a common reckoning, the 50th anniversary of the birth of Rock 'n' Roll.

Here's Bruce Elder of SMH.com about the culture that spawned it.

Richard Nilson of AZCentral looks at the rift between high and low culture.

John McWhorter wants an end to Hip-Hop.

The BBC reports on the recent tribute to Lonnie Donegan, the man who gave us Skiffle.

Sunday, July 4

Recommended Readin':

At Better Humans Philip Shropshire tells us the path to the future goes through politics.

John Podhoretz of the National Review really doesn't like comic books.

James Randi lines up a variety of charlatans for this week's column.

Friday, July 2

Don't forget that tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day.

SF Stuff: The Wooden Rocket Awards for best science fiction websites have been awarded.

SF Signal informs us if the existence of the Klingon version of Google.

Something Awful's Photoshop Phriday gives us some genre movies we'll never see.

Sign of the Apocalypse: Apparently NPR is too hip for some people...

Thursday, July 1

Space Pictures: The Astronomy Picture of the Day, the Martian Picture of the Day, the Lunar Picture of the Day, and the NASA Image of the Day.

Warren Ellis kicks off a new comics column over at The Pulse.

It is July.

The God of the Month is Ayauhteotl.

The Molecule of the Month is Atenolol.

The Fungus of the Month is Suillus Americanus.

Carry on.

Wednesday, June 30

The latest Modern Drunkard gives us a primer in current drinking slang, an overview of history's greatest blackouts, and a hysterical Jack Chick parody about MADD.

Claude Lalumière of Locus gives us A Brief History of Warren Ellis.

Barbie's new boyfriend's name is Blaine? Honey, get a real man like Captain Action. Besides, everyone knows G.I. Joe has a nicer butt...

Ah, Art Cars. Vehicles dolled up with useless accessories or bizarre paintjobs. Some are made to look like other things. They have a museum, an agency, and a festival. Some folks even deface a perfectly good BMW for the sake of art. Remember, you can make an art car.

Here's a bunch of themed chess sets: Medieval, Samurai, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Brer Rabbit, The Simpsons, The Muppets, Peanuts, Godzilla, Aliens Vs. Predator, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Will somebody please explain why there's never been a Prisoner chess set?

Tuesday, June 29

SF Author Robert Sawyer sings the praises of SpaceShipOne at the Globe & Mail.

Getting Into Space: Irene Klotz of Space Daily reports on how the X-Prize may spur the construction of spaceports, while Leonard David of Space.com tells us the idea of a space elevator is picking up momentum. Jeff Nesmith of News-Journal.com has more.

The Mondolithic Image of the Week is the sunken city of Atlantis.

Assorted Items: Five words: The Church of Spongebob Squarepants.

Figures.com has word of some upcoming Gerry Anderson die cast toys.

Henshin Online gives details of the upcoming Godzilla Film Festival in NYC (scroll down).

Jim Henley writes an interesting article at The American Spectator about the possible origin of the concept of a suicide bomber: A 1973 issue of The Avengers by Steve Engelhart.

I was afraid this might smack of Al Queda/Isaac Asimov conspiracy shit, but it doesn't.

Monday, June 28

Comic Stuff: John Byrne has begun posting a new web comic on his chatroom.

Art Bomb links to this nice resource page of rare and lost comic book pages.

Steve Chung of The Pulse will spend this week reviewing famous weddings in comics.

Reality Carnival sends us to a useful website that instructs us How to Create a Golem.

Sunday, June 27

Galactus, devourer of worlds, possessor of vast cosmic power, and soon to be a nifty Bowen Designs statue, has apparently turned his ravenous appetite toward webpages.

Recommended Readin': Dave Barry gets inspired by The DaVinci Code.

Sir Martin Rees says we have a 50/50 chance of making it to 2100 at Scientific American.

James Randi samples the international flavors of skepticism in his weekly column.

Gabe Romain at Better Humans reports on robot scouts heading to Iraq.

The 1895 8th Grade Final Exam is making the rounds again.

With the graduation season wrapping up there will be a rush of new blood eager to join such military forces as Starfleet, the Colonial Marines, the Roughnecks, Earthforce, Psi Corps, and the Royal Manticorian Navy. Or perhaps they will be recruited into secret organizations like SHADO and Spectrum. Or perhaps S.P.E.C.T.R.E. The possibilities are plentiful.

Saturday, June 26

Um, the Druids want Stonehenge back.

I've always had a weak spot for silent characters. Like Harpo Marx and Oddjob. Star Trek had Mister Hom and Morn. When you think about it, Darth Maul said less than Silent Bob usually does. Wildcats has Agent Orange. Batman Beyond had Curare. And does anyone remember Nazir from Robin of Sherwood?

Friday, June 25

Wired gives us the run down on the status of various robotic anatomy parts designed to replicate humans. It seems the military understands that advanced robotics do not need to be humanoid.

I'm completely smitten with the mythology site Godchecker.com, not only for it's growing index of pantheons, but because you can see which deities are currently fashionable with their Top Ten Gods & Goddesses list.

And here's a brilliant idea: Turn the period table of elements into a word game.

Thursday, June 24

Superpowers: In Germany, scientists have discovered that a young mutant ubermensch walks among us gifted with a "Mighty Mouse" gene. Meanwhile, National Geographic pits Spiderman against the abilities of some actual spiders.

Recommended Readin': Marcus Warren of The Telegraph tells us of some creationists who firmly believe that dinosaur bones belong to biblical dragons.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds of Tech Central Station interviews life-extensionist Aubrey de Grey.

Leonard David of Space.com looks at some future tourism destinations.

Leslie Mullen of Astrobiology makes the case for more science in our entertainment.

New Scientist informs us that decaf coffee occurs in nature.

Exclamation Mark's link to the nifty Space Art Through the Ages put me in the mood for an Eye Candy Artgasm. This time we'll look at some galleries, like Chimera, Dreamstone, Speculative Vision, Just Imagine, Spacejetters, Deviant Art, The Art Attack, POD Gallery, Epilogue, and the gallery section of the ASFA site.

Wednesday, June 23

Locus and USA Today report on the last Friday's opening of the Science Fiction Museum.

A couple of Neil Gaiman news items: Newsarama reports that the author's fantasy novel Neverwhere will be adapted as a comic, while Cinescape previews the upcoming Sandman convention scheduled for later this year.

I neglected to mention that A Blazing World, Jess Nevins' second volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen annotations, is available for pre-order from Monkey Brain Books. The esteemed Mr. Nevins' knowledge all things Victorian is truly astounding.

Tuesday, June 22

Geek Reference SItes: Here's a list of fictional planets, an alphabetical list of aliens as well as one organized by type, and an index of ficticious countries. I also found this list of Jewish Superheroes as well as this checklist of science fiction and fantasy stories set in Ireland.

Let's Get Small. I love stories about human miniaturization. There's The Incredible Shrinking Man (and Woman), the Puppet People, The Atom, The Wasp, Ant-Man, Dollman (the comic and the movie) and Inch High Private Eye. Shrunken folks enter human bodies in Fantastic Voyage and Inner Space. Scientists with a knack for reducing people include Dr. Pretorius, Dr. Shrinker and Wayne Szalinski. Star Trek has had two miniaturization stories, one on the cartoon and one on Deep Space Nine. Miniaturization has been featured in I Dream of Jeannie, Willy Wonka, and Dexter's Lab, Ah, the shrink ray: theoretically impossible but oh-so-much fun.

Science stuff: BBC Science tells us about a DJ who dabbles in physics hip hop.

New Scientist reports on dogs who can predict epileptic seizures in humans.

Technology Review looks at plans to build some very tall buildings in the near future.

The Mondolithic image of the week is this very cool space elevator for Discover magazine.

Monday, June 21

Newsarama has a story about the failure of Christian comics.

On a related note, my list of Things You'll Find in Comics has been linked to by several notable sites, and it's hit count has surpassed even that of my Comic Book Motivation page.

Sci Fi Weekly interviews author Robert Silverberg.

Sunday, June 20

Futurismic links to this Technology Research News story about using virtual reality to simulate and study hallucinations.

There will be new inductees to the Robot Hall of Fame. You will all be relieved to know that Twiki, Herbie, and Jet Jaguar are not among them.

Saturday, June 19

Space Stuff: The discussion of terraforming Mars continues at Astrobiology.

Space.com and Space Daily have coverage of Monday's SpaceShip One launch.

Jeff Krukin makes the case for a permanent human presence in space at Better Humans.

James Randi takes on invisible psychic ninjas in his weekly column.

Friday, June 18

Coudal links to an exhibit at Boston's Pepper Gallery called The Apollo Prophecies, which has neat images of astronauts finding the remains of a lost Edwardian trip to the moon.

NPR had a story this morning about an exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago tracking the creation of Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Check out the slide show at the NPR site for some of the preliminary images.

I am reminded that there is a Simpsons version of this famous painting.

Things Magazine points us to The Boombox Museum.

Thursday, June 17

Recommended Readin': Ben Yagoda of Chronicle.com tells us how to sound British.

Staci D. Kramer of Wired reports on a lot of unhappy TechTV fans.

Ed Edelson of Forbes says that youth is becoming a major cause of death.

The nominees for this year's Chesley Awards for science fiction art have been announced.

Celebrities in Comics: Spider Man teams up with the Not Ready For Prime-Time Players. Uri Geller fights side-by-side with Daredevil. The Avengers appear on the David Letterman show. KISS meets Howard the Duck. Jesse Custer sees a Bill Hicks performance. I know Jimi Hendrix was in several issues of Timespirits but I can't find pictures.

How can I forget Superman vs. Mohammed Ali?

Having recently endured (barely) the most recent Matrix and Terminator films, I've been thinking about all the Really Big Computers that have populated science fiction. There's the Krell Machine, Colossus: The Forbin Project, Deep Thought, AM, The Great Machine of Epsilon 3, H.A.R.L.I.E., and a host of others. Here's an article about how SF looks at AI, and here's one that makes the case why computer movies suck.

Speaking of movies, Hanah Metchis at Reason Hit & Run linked to this list of movies that deal with philosophical themes.

Hit & Run also links to McFarland Publishing, purveyors of sweet-looking, overpriced library edition coffee table books such as Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television, Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio, and Space Patrol.

Wednesday, June 16

New at Better Humans: Russell Blackford explains why biotechnology won't bring about a dystopia, while Gabe Romain reports on a new method for observing thoughts in real time.

"I felt thousands of blogs crying out, then being suddenly silenced..."

The SciFi.com Webguide links to The Science Fiction Cookbook, which features such unusual culinary treasures as Chicken Fried Godzilla Lips, Cucumber-Yoda Salad, and Tribble Delight.

SuperMissle points us to the Star Trek: Voyager Plot Generator.

Ned Norris writes in to tell us about RUSC.com, a subscription site of his that archives thousands of MP3s of old radio shows. The collection is impressive.

The Cartoonist (who sent along a logo) links to International Guild of Professional Butlers.

Science fiction has always adapted the trope of guilds, like the Spacing Guild from Dune who ply the gulf between stars, or the Watcher's Guild from Silverberg's Nightwing who can cast their senses into deep space. Here on Earth we have guilds for organists and trumpet players, knitting, crochet, and embroidery, hypnotists, record collectors, bread bakers, knife makers, metalsmiths, handcrafted soap makers, and TV cameramen.