Gravity Lens Weblog

Gravity Lens Archive June 21- July 14 2005

Thursday, July 14

Texas' Best Grok links to Bobby's Brane, where you can download an amazing CGI film of Neil Peart playing YYZ. Really cool.

And if you're in Toronto next weekend, you can check out RushCon 5.

UPDATE: Several of you wrote in to remind me that today is Bastille Day!

This is old news, but I just heard about it: Leon Askin, who played General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes, died last month at the age of 97. More astounding was that he got married at the age of 95.

He also played both Karl Marx and Martin Luther on Steve Allen's Meeting of Minds.

General Burkhalter, by the way, ate my balls.

Wednesday, July 13

Things Magazine shows us some trippy houses that were built in England. Here's a BBC story on them. They're not quite as alien looking as this Ecological House of the Future from China or Roger Dean's Willowater.

Let's revisit from great future houses from the past as well as some planned ones.

Tuesday, July 12

Happy Birthday to SF Signal. And while we're at it, congrats to Tales of Future Past for being Sci-Fi Weekly's Site of the Week.

Doug Donahoo of the Lawrence Journal-World has made the amazing discovery that those "geeks" he knew as a kid are, in fact, still around.

Monday, July 11

Gaze upon the McFarlane Toys Wallace & Gromit figures.

Recommended Readin': If you haven't heard, a parrot has grasped the concept of "zero."

Michael Schirber of Space.com tells us about a downloadable black hole.

Eric Brown of Technology Review explores how how the anti-war and countercultural movements in the late '60s and early '70s affected geekdom.

Bradley Mason Hamlin of Retrocrush mourns the loss of cereal box prizes.

Sunday, July 10

Editor and publisher Byron Preiss has died in a car accident. Here's an appreciation by Jim Steranko. If you have even a modest book collection, you probably own something he had a hand in.

Friday, July 8

Marvel Comics have become unreadable to me lately, so it is with a bit of glee that I learn that they are bringing back their classic monsters.

Of course, they'll probably just be more postmodern psychopathic reimaginings...

Gobs of Marvel Monster Fun at Monster Blog!

Leonard David of Space.com gives us the skinny on teleportation. Compare and contrast with these entries on what it is and how it will work.

You may remember that last year the military expressed interest in this concept.

A moment of silence, please, for Evan Hunter, aka Ed McBain.

Someone has finally invented a robot guitarist. When combined with the talents of the robot drummer, we now have reason to hope that the White Stripes will become obsolete.

We've already seen robot bands in action. Some are high-tech. Some are quite disturbing. Some are downright creepy. Some are out to destroy us. Soon they'll be marching in parades.

Thursday, July 7

Nothing screams "comic book character" more than a set of really big epaulets.

I've always suspected that the left-handed among us are part of a conspiracy. They're everywhere! And they're reshaping the world in their image!

Wednesday, July 6

Assorted Items: Voting is open for this year's World Stupidity Awards.

Until now I was unaware that an extra second is going to be added to 2005. This comes via ERNAC, who also links to the headline "Robot hand performs remote breast checks."

Bryan Schingle of Acid Logic compares the old Dr. Who with the new one.

Retrocrush gives us a list of the Top TV Shows That Aren't on DVD.

Eye of the Goof links to this cool site of Jonny Quest production art, like this cool panorama.

And I am in awe of The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form, which invites us to join in their goal "to write at least one limerick for each and every word in the English language." Yes, there's a science fiction section, as well as one for fictional characters.

Tuesday, July 5

A Russian astrologer is suing NASA over the Deep Impact comet probe, claiming it "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe," subjected her to "moral sufferings," and managed to "deform her horoscope."

Are any of my readers heading to Readercon this weekend? If so, email me.

Apparently General Martok and Chancellor Gowron have released an album of Klingon hip-hop. Those sufficiently geeky among you will remember that Voltaire did this years ago.

We live in a world where robots play poker and practice Japanese fencing.

Sunday, July 3

Regular readers know I love a good fake website. I've been seeing banner ads for Merrick Biotech popping up, a company that claims to clone people for organ harvesting. There's a degree of discussion about this online, including "news" on a site called Clonewatch. There's even a listing at Business.com. A little research (and a fond memory of the excellent Pre-Crime website) led me to the fact that this is a promotion for The Island. I Expect bio-conservatives to shriek about it anyway.

Friday, July 1

It is July.

The God of the Month is Morrigan, The Phantom Queen.

The Molecule of the Month is Quinine.

Science Magazine has an excellent feature. 125 Questions: What Don't We Know. Read the introduction by Donald Kennedy and Colin Norman, then peruse the questions.

Thursday, June 30

When Deep Impact hits the comet on Monday, it will take the names of 625,000 people with it. Very pagan. If you see anyone vanish in a burst of dirt and slush, you'll know why.

Wednesday, June 29

Futurismic points to the very sexy Carter Copter. More sexy flying machines can be found in the archives of Texas' Best Grok's Aircraft Cheesecake.

Tuesday, June 28

Robert Roy Britt of Live Science proposes curbing global warming by building a ring around the Earth.

The headline reads "scientists create robot lobster."

A few years back the Weekly World News ran a story called Robot Crab Crushes Woman!

Monday, June 27

Another voice silenced as John Fiedler has died. He'll always be Mr. Hengist in Wolf in the Fold to me.

This morning you woke up in a world where dogs are brought back from the dead.

Leonard David of Space.com tells what steps will be needed to keep space tourists happy.

Sunday, June 26

A moment of silence. please, for Mr. Paul Winchell. Everyone's mentioned his work as Tigger, but for me he will always be the voice of the Scrubbing Bubble. He also invented the artificial heart.

This has not been a good year for voice artists.

Saturday, June 25

If you're in L.A. this weekend, you can participate in (or simply watch) the race around the solar system. Sort of.

And proving once again that there is no such thing as Too Much Free Time, Exclamation Mark links to this wonderful site that chronicles and indexes all the copious drinking on the show Bewitched.

Friday, June 24

The headline reads "Robot sentinels to roam Japan." There are also stories up about robots attending nursery school, a robot building an entire house, and robotic golf.

Gaze in horror at these Japanese sex education dolls.

The Londonist interviews Warren Ellis about his book Desolation Jones.

And just in case you've been wondering if we, in fact, live in a comic book world, be aware that there are current news stories up about living through a lightning strike, the enhanced sense of touch that comes with a bionic arm, and MIT scientists creating a new form of matter.

For further research I've selected a number of pieces about useless superpowers.

Thursday, June 23

SF Signal has discovered the existence of a public access show where two girls lay in bed reading and discussing SF and Fantasy books.

Talkin' 'Bout Comics: Franklin Harris of Reason recalls the history of EC Comics.

James Merriweather of Delaware Online has discovered that there are shops where people can actually go and buy comics.

Fortunately James Sime of Comic Book Resources tells us how to open one.

Douglas Vakoch of Space.com examines what recent planetary discoveries mean for SETI.

The headline reads "Why your brain has a ‘Jennifer Aniston cell.’" I think the more pressing question is "how can we remove it?"

Wednesday, June 22

This week's edition of The Onion comes to us from the year 2056.

That will be a Chinese Year of the Rat, just in case you're wondering.

Forbes tells us how much it would cost to be Batman. It's a slide show, so keep hitting the "next" button up top.

Tuesday, June 21

Here comes a second season of Tripping the Rift.

If all goes as planned, the Solar Sail goes into space today. Ah, to see a night sky full of vast ships plying the ether...

UPDATE: SF Signal gives us a list of solar sails in SF.

The headline reads "Japan Dreams of Robot Moon Base in 2025."