Gravity Lens Weblog

Archive: January 17 -31 2006

Tuesday, January 31

JP Dorigo of Broken Frontier explains why comics are better when there's monkeys in them.

Scott Edelman of Science Fiction Weekly tells us what Salvador Dali thought of SF. Ann Coulter too.

Monday, January 30

The Speculist links to this page of images of a thirty foot tall robotic elephant displayed at a Jules Verne parade last summer. There's a very cool video as well.

Retrocrush celebrates the Year of the Dog with the 100 greatest dogs of pop culture history.

Assorted Items: Looks like this is the last season for Justice League Unlimited.

In the course of my browsing I stumbled across the webcomic Alien Loves Predator.

I also found this great set of heroic family trees from the Wold Newton Universe.

Friday, January 27

When I was in college I always wished I could take a course on Japanese Giant Monster Movies...

Via a thread at Grylliade, the religious affilliation of comic book characters.

Assorted Items: Here's a home theater rigged to resemble the bridge of the Enterprise.

Tom Symonds of the BBC looks at the future of British transportation.

Jack Lucentini of The Scientist lists the twelve steps to artificial life.

Robert Roy Britt at Space.com tells us that a number of stars seem to be leaving the galaxy.

Thursday, January 26

Stewie Griffin is getting a talk show. This comes on the heels of news about the Family Guy comic book.

Wednesday, January 25

Steven Grant of Comic Book Resources considers the different art styles of modern and classic comics.

Chet Raymo of Science Musings gives us a brief tour of the Signs of the Zodiac. No, it doesn't cover the Twelve Colonies of Man, the Marvel Supervillains, the names of the months in Logan's Run, the Neal Stephenson novel, the awful Japanese cartoon, or the Reign of the Zodiac.

There isn't even a mention of Steve Zodiac.

Tuesday, January 24

"Democrats and Republicans Both Adept at Ignoring Facts, Study Finds."

Assorted Items: You may have read Orson Scott Card's defense of Intelligent Design.

Here's David Brin's two-part response to it.

Will Knight of New Scientist Space looks at the idea of self-healing spaceship skin.

Theodore Gray of Popular Science tells us how to make the perfect match.

Here's yesterday's IGN Comics Daily Poll: Do writers benefit from a lack of hair?

Monday, January 23

Retrocrush sends us to the excellent Go-Go Boot Hall of Fame. (Marginally NSFW)

Sunday, January 22

Elmer L. (Bart) Forbath of Space.com calls for a global space lottery to fund flights.

The scary headline begins: China to build world's first "artificial sun."

In other news, the Illuminati planned, but failed, to ignite Jupiter into a sun in 1999.

Plans to ignite Saturn are still on track.

Metafilter links to this 1978 Japanese-produced Spider Man show featuring a giant space robot and some villainous aliens. This was apparently sub-titled by fans.

Friday, January 20

Tony Long of Wired advises cell phones users on How to Squelch Your Inner Jackass.

The first Rocket Raceway is going to be built in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Although terrestrial, it could be the pre-cursor to actual space racing. There was a Trek novel about this, as well as an episode of Voyager. Roger Zelazny's Alien Speedway was a series of books about the subject.

Update: The second episode of the new comedy Hyperdrive features a space race as well.

Thursday, January 19

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer interviews Katee Sackhoff about her role as Starbuck on the new Battlestar Galactica. Ms Sackhoff repeats a claim I've heard a lot lately: that Galactica "isn't really science fiction."

I need someone to explain to me how a show about humanity, slaughtered and driven from the twelve worlds they occupy by technology that they created, now pursued and manipulated by these same enemies, having to determine on-the-fly what constitutes "human," and preserve the remnants of the race doesn't qualify as science fiction.

A reminder that I happen to agree with Ray Bradbury that Singin' in the Rain is a science fiction film, as it's about how people's lives are changed by new technology.

Wednesday, January 18

Kurt Amacker of Cinescape looks at sex in comics.

A maverick film director. A lab mouse bent on world domination. What could they possibly have in common?

Matthew Broersma of ZDNet deepy inhales the essence of a geek.

Jesse Walker Reason sadly informs us that Loompanics Books is going out of business. So if you want books on building a backyard catapult, how to start your own country, or the Asshole Conspiracy, now's the time to get them.

With the New Horizons Probe set to head for Pluto, SF Signal links to this list of Pluto in Science Fiction. Pluto is home to Electron from the Colorform Outer Space Men toys, as well as a penal colony watched by the 853rd century Batman from DC One Million. Martinex from the Guardians of the Galaxy escaped from such a colony. Pluto is also a prison in the Cowboy Bebop stories.

Pluto is Yuggoth, home of the fungal Mi-Go, in the Cthulhu mythos.

Penguins inhabit the planet on Futurama.

Tuesday, January 17

Revisiting Some Planets: The Planet of Vampires (the comic), Planet of the Vampires (the movie), Planet of the Apes, Planet of the Dinosaurs, Planet of the Spiders, Planet of the Gods, Planet of the Robot Monsters, Planet of the Lost Souls, Planet of the Horses, Planet of Blood, Planet of the Photoshoppers, Planet of the Babes (NSFW), Planet of the Geeks, Planet of the Dorks, Planet of the Lost Things, Planet of the Blogs, Planet of the Capes, Planet of Sound, and the Planet of the Dubya.

Assorted Items: LiveScience gives us some of Ben Franklin's Quirkiest Ideas.

Godzilla is getting a commemorative plaque in March.

Geordi LaForge's visor has arrived.