Gravity Lens Weblog

Archive: November 17 - December 15 2004

Wednesday, December 15

I've been busy getting this year's Bad Day Studio holiday card (the tenth one) to the printer. Until I get it online feel free to peruse the previous ones.

Recommended Readin', Future Stuff Edition:

Jill Davis of Popular Science lists nine medical breakthroughs to help us cheat death.

George Dvorsky of Better Humans tells us how mental manipulation is becoming an art.

Damien Stolarz at O'Reilley.net shows us how to hack sci-fi features into you car.

Tuesday, December 14

Newsarama has an interview with artist Joe DeVito and a preview of his new book Kong: King of Skull Island.

Monday, December 13

Modern Robotics: Geekpress points to this BBC Science story about Toyota's new and very cool looking wearable robotic vehicles.

Science Daily shows us a new solar powered submersible robot.

And The Scotsman breaks the ugly truth that RoboSapien will be obsolete by February, just like every other robot toy.

Popular Science interviews life extension theorist Aubrey de Grey.

As we ramp up for the holidays, here's a 1999 NASA interview with Santa about the possible difficulties in delivering presents around a colonized solar system, a piece from 1973 pre-dicting what the space-age Christmas of 2003 might be like, and a nice piece of animation educating us on the Twelve STIs of Christmas.

Friday, December 10

Back to Nature: Why you've been shopping, monkeys have been using tools, snakes have been evolving fast, and both a whale and a sparrow are singing a different tune.

Thursday, December 9

It's beginning to look a lot like Klingon Khristmas.

Cinescape reports on the Babylon 5: The Memory of Shadows film.

"Quint" at Ain't It Cool News has posted his 2004 Holiday Shopping Guide for the Geeks, which includes such goodies as a replica of the Golden Idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark, a replica of Bruce Wayne's Shakespeare bust, and this great statuette of Comic Book Guy.

Wednesday, December 8

The mission statement of the website The Third Nipple is "to help those people with additional nipples grow and function as productive members of society through knowledge, counseling, self-empowerment, and regular encouragement."

The most important question concerning Mars exploration is, of course: What would the astronauts eat on the way?

Yesterday Reality Carnival posted to the world's biggest digital photograph, as well as this challenge to find two women among the billions of pixels. Today the Carnival posts this man's floating torso found in the photo.

Advertising Meme: Here's a parked Citroën and an office copier that transform into robots.

Tuesday, December 7

The Mondolithic Image of the Week is A Boy and His Dog on the Martian surface.

People with Wings: Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Archangel, The Wasp, Zauriel, Birdman, Annihilus, Red Raven, Swift, Winged Victory, Prince Vultan, Pygar, and Bartleby.

Honorable mention to Falcon and Vulture.

Word is spreading that DC Silver Age writer Bob Haney died on Thanksgiving.

Monday, December 6

Currently making the rounds on the Blogosphere: This great page showing us the skeletal structures of assorted cartoon characters. (site is back up.)

JunkScience.com hands out awards for the top ten “Most Embarrassing Moments” of 2004.

Saturday, December 4

A full set of photos for the second line of McFarlane Conan figures is online, worth a look if only for the very cool box set of King Conan upon his throne. If you listen closely you can almost hear the lamentation of their women...

As the holidays rapidly approach it's nice to know that there are an awful lot of Cthulhu Christmas sites on the web.

Friday, December 3

Heartbreak Eye Candy: Warren Ellis points to this short piece of demo Flash animation by Noddlesoup Productions for an unproduced Transmetropolitan web cartoon.

Recommended Readin': Jeff Taylor at Reason looks at some strange advertising strategies.

Seth Shostak of Space.com asks "what do you say to an extraterrestrial?"

Jerry Lucky of Ghostland sings the praises of the internet for progressive music fans.

Kurt Amacker of Cinescape discusses moral absolutism in super hero comics.

If you require eye candy today, there are trailers up for the second season of Carnivale as well as the new Doctor Who series.

In a strange reminder that there used to be a comic book for everything, Comic Book Resources looks back at an issue of Hee Haw.

Eat, Drink, and be Merry: Here's some science fiction recipes, the menu from Milliways, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, a selection of Star Trek drinks, and the most recent rules for the drinking game Drunk Trek.

Thursday, December 2

Author China Miéville tells us what he knows at The Guardian. My favorite line: "I could pass for a non-geek but it would be inaccurate."

Just in time for the holidays, Incoming Signals informs us of the availability of the Blue Oyster Cult Cookbook.

Just in time for me to get old: "Japan's growing elderly population will be able to buy companionship in the form of a 45-centimeter (18-inch) robot, programmed to provide just enough small talk to keep them from going senile. "

Wednesday, December 1

It is December. The God of the Month is Juturna.

The Molecule of the Month is Maleimide-Polyethylene Glycol.

The Fungus of the Month is Daldinia Concentrica.

Carry on.

Comic Book Resources informs us that Deepak Chopra is starting a comic book company. I'm having flashbacks of Uri Geller appearing in Daredevil...

Here's some cool preview pix of the second line of Conan action figures.

Tuesday, November 30

Kenn Brown of Mondolithic wrote in asking me to mark the passing of Darrin Perry, who was the Creative Director of Wired Magazine as well as Kenn's friend and mentor.

For no good reason, here is a modest assortment of space pods.

Assorted Retro Stuff: Godzilla has gotten his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The always-excellent Tales of Future Past has a great feature on Future Food, including such classic tropes as the kitchen computer and food pills.

Figures.com has pix of the upcoming Sky Captain prop toys. How sweet is that gun?

Warren Ellis links to the adventures of Athena Voltaire, who joins the ranks of such great modern pulp babes as Rosie Retrorocket and Dita in Distress.

Monday, November 29

File under "Cool:" Toronto’s Institute for Aerospace Studies has built, and will soon test-fly, Leonardo Da Vinci's original ornithopter. Viewings of Hudson Hawk and Young Sherlock Holmes may be required.

Last week's mention of the Partridge Family 2200 got me thinking about science fiction musical instruments. Aside from the strange gear on that show, you've got a couple bands in the Star Wars films, Spock's lyre, Gurney Halick's baliset, and George Jetson on the futuredrums. There's also the painful Buck Rogers episode Space Rockers.

Here's an essay on future musical instruments, and check out the strange and wonderful noisemakers in the gallery at Oddmusic.com.

"Doing it was their duty aboard the Starship Intercourse." This and other "sleaze science fiction covers" are viewable at Vintage Paperbacks.

The Mondolithic Image of the Week is from the latest issue of Wired and is called New Atlantis.

The Alien Online reports that writer Alan Moore will be participating in the BBC's interview round-robin show Chain Reaction.

Friday, November 26

I watched an odd BBC special last night called Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets. It's a fake documentary about a six-year manned exploration of the solar system. Stylistically it shamelessy apes 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Blair Witch Project, and The West Wing, the latter involving a power struggle over decision making at Mission Control. It does, however, feature an wild EVA through Saturn's ring system. Here's hoping Discovery Channel airs it.

UPDATE: Reader Joseph writes in to inform me it will air in June.

Assorted Items: Todd McFarlane is going to do a line of Twisted Fairy Tale toys (no pics yet). Given his disturbing take on The Wizard of Oz these could be fun.

Mike Bullock of Broken Frontier looks at some recent science fiction comics.

And, because we live in the future, science can now cure halitosis with lasers.

Thursday, November 25

Happy Thanksgiving.

Gaze upon the Jim Henson Action Figure.

Exclamation Mark links to this awesome site of old comic book advertising. It is maintained by Steve Conley, who also does the excellent webcomic Astounding Space Thrills.

Wednesday, November 24

Apparently a couple weeks ago Bad Day Studio was chosen by the internet radio show Daily Noise as their Click of the Day. Just curious if any readers listen to this show or know anything about it.

Transhumanist stuff: Better Humans interviews Wrye Sententia about neurotechnology and cognitive liberty, while Ronald Bailey of Reason looks at the potential future for human/animal genetic hybrids. I, for one, wouldn't mind a little animal genetics. Then maybe I could walk on water and sense the Earth's magnetic field.

Currently orbiting the Blogosphere: This space I.Q. test from Space.com.

Tuesday, November 23

I've been thinking that it's been a while since we had a good space-based team comic. I was always a big fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Starjammers, the Omega Men, Alien Legion, Dreadstar and Company, the Star Slammers, and even Atari Force. Does anyone remember Vanguard?

By the same token, it's also been too long since any pop culture icons have been inexplicably sent into space, like The Partridge Family, Josie & The Pussycats, and Gilligan.

Star Trek.com has posted a page of all things Vulcan. Meanwhile, Broken Newz has a piece with the headline Captain Kirk's Ancestor Not Born.

Apparently we really don't know how many planets are in our solar system.

Monday, November 22

Weekend Blogospherics:

Exclamation Mark links to Atlas Comics gallery of the 12 dumbest American comic book covers they could find. Worth looking at for Gabby Hayes Western alone.

Eye of the Goof points to these Celebrity Drunkard Trading Cards.

Metafilter shows us this heartbreaking site of concept art for an unproduced Dan Dare film.

Backwards City links to this really cool thing called the Zoom Quilt.

Sunday, November 21

Bob Eggleton looks back at 50 years of Godzilla at Locus.

Friday, November 19

More science fiction hardware becomes reality as Logan's Run-style individual-car mono-rails are coming to your town. "My android sidekick and I hopped a pod on the SkyWeb."

There's Something About a Comic Book Redhead: Mera, Mary Jane Watson, Lana Lang, Dawn, Red Sonja, Jean Grey (and lookalike Madelyne Pryor), Starfire, Raine Sinclair, Black Widow, Medusa, Beverly Switzler, Silk Spectre, and Nellie the Nurse.

I like those green-haired beauties like She Hulk and Polaris.

Thursday, November 18