Archive February 1 - 17

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Friday, February 17

Here's a rather creepy Charles Siebert story at Discover about how viruses may have been the precursor to all life on earth.

Just found out that the Diamond Comics Star Artist of the Month is Gravity Lens regular Randall Ensley. Here's some galleries of his stuff.

Technovelgy informs us that the ability to create our own evil twins may (theoretically) soon be within our grasp.

Sometimes the internet makes me laugh: Warren Ellis did a post about rooms for San Diego Comicon already selling out, which led to a funny exchange between he and Joss Whedon in the comment section.

Eye if the Goof links to this Datajunkie entry on illustrations from Galaxy Magazine, including several by Mad cartoonist Don Martin. There's also an entry from last week on science fiction illustrator Virgil Finlay.

This'll be a busy geekboy weekend, with both Boskone taking place and James Gurney's Dinotopia exhibit opening at the Rockwell Museum.

Thursday, February 16

Warren Ellis launches his new column over at Comicon Pulse.

Michael Huang at The Space Review has my favorite quote of the week: "To retain credibility with the public, anti-human-spaceflight activists must replace themselves with robots as soon as possible. I propose a prize to spur innovation in this new industry: the Forbid Humans Prize, to be known as the FH Prize. The FH Prize will be awarded to the robot most capable of replacing a human in the anti-human-spaceflight movement."

Recommended Readin':

Mark Halpern at The New Atlantis tells us the Trouble with the Turing Test.

Tony Long at Wired mourns the loss of literacy among the business class.

Leonard David of Space.com takes a realistic look at the needs of space tourism.

Wednesday, February 15

Some cool photos of the Nissan concept car The Terranaut. This would be a good time to revisit the Landmaster from Damnation Alley, Ark II, and the awesome Maximog.

Steven Grant at Comic Book Resources reflects on the lack of comic book news.

From Incoming SIgnals: The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

A moment of silence, please, for Mister Andreas Katsulas. More here and here.

Tuesday, February 14

The Mondolithic Image of the Week celebrates the age of private spaceflight with How the West was Won.

Authors and Such: The android replica of Philip K. Dick is missing. More coverage here.

Michael Cassutt at SciFi Weekly celebrates fifty years of Harlan Ellison.

Ben Bova reminds us (and himself) that truth can be as strange as science fiction.

And to illustrate that last point, there's an evil killer robot up for auction at eBay.

Monday, February 13

Via Geekpress: Fans of Garth Ennis' Preacher and Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy should appreciate this giant profanity visible from space.

A moment of silence, please, for Mr. Peter Benchley.

As we dig out from over two feet of snow in the East, we should remember that it could be worse. We could be on Hoth, or Ice Planet Zero, or Rura Penthe, or Tran-Ky-Ky, or Europa. We could be in Niflheim, or Box's Lair, or condemned to Cocytus.

Warren Ellis links to these neat photos of the first few microseconds of an atomic blast.

Sunday, February 12

Robotic Stuff: Doug Saunders of the Globe & Mail explains why you don't have a robot maid.

Currently making the rounds: the WR-07 Transforming Robot. There's also a cool video.

Here's Sister Mary, the Robot Candystriper.

And a robot car capable of driving from San Fransico to L.A. is in the works for next year.

Friday, February 10

Something Awful's Photoshop Phriday gives us A Very Star Wars Valentine.

Mike Daisey at Wired tells us about a new production of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. With robots.

The Torino Olympics kick off today. Once again the competitions will not include Kosho, Parrises Squares, Springball, Velocity, Triad, or Rollerball. There will also be no Calvinball.

Update: Thanks to Michael at the John Byrne Forum for finding the Capt. America Kill Derby cover.

Second Update: Lee Verner reminds me of Mercuryball from Tom Corbett (scroll down)

(Yes, I know none of those are really winter sports. Work with me, people.)

Thursday, February 9

Dial B for Blog shows the love for The Spider, Master of Men.

Recommended Readin': Sam Jaffe at Wired tells us of research into super vision.

Katrina Voss of Free Inquiry says Thank You, Science.

Joshua Tompkins of Popular Science looks at plans for a cool-looking flying luxury hotel.

Tobias S. Buckell of Futurismic looks ahead to the coming four-way space race.

Here's some photos of the world's larget computer keyboard being built.

Wednesday, February 8

From Metafilter comes three Flickr pages where a fan has Photoshopped himself (and friends) into a series of photographs from the Star Trek films.

Tuesday, February 7

Wil McCarthy at SciFi Weekly compares and contrasts the two Battlestar Galacticas.

Futurismic links to LiftPort, for all your spece elevator needs.

Monday, February 6

Apparently Tomatoes are Evil.

Wired tells us that an exhibit based on the National Geographic special Extraterrestrial will be touring the US in the fall. On a related note, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA will be hosting an exhibit of James Gurney's Dinotopia art in a couple weeks.

I hadn't noticed until this morning that part of SciFi.com's recent facelift was a tech blog.

Science Stuff: Technovelgy looks forward to the day when we can print bacon.

Jonathan Amos at the BBC tells us that astronomers have for the first time put some real numbers on the physical characteristics of dark matter.

New Scientist has put up a special report page on the state of robotics.

Over the weekend I went back and checked out the comparative size fun at Starship Dimensions. Other ship-centric sites include Encyclopedia Astronautica (via Cool Scifi), this neat German page of Perry Rhodan schematics (via The Cartoonist), Ship Schematics, the Starship Schematic Database, Wolf's Shipyard, and Project Rho's Advanced Spacecraft Design.

Saturday, February 4

A moment of silence, please, for Mister Al Lewis.

Friday, February 3

Paul Jenkins at Newsarama introduces us to the fine art of Klingon Hunting.

Assorted Items: In the near future, a moderate jolt of electricity could give you superteeth.

George Dvorsky considers the possible future threats of neurohacking.

Billy Baker of Popular Science looks at the growing number of discarded computers.

Technovelgy informs us of the existence of inflatable concrete.

Thursday, February 2

A moment of silence, please, for comic artist Seth Fisher.

Here's a nice notice at Metafilter about him and his amazing work.

Tariq Malik of Space.com updates us on the future of self-healing spacecraft.

Wednesday, February 1

Word is spreading that animator Genndy Tartakovsky is working with artist Brian Froud on a sequel to The Dark Crystal. I have resigned myself to never seeing a new episode of Samurai Jack, or my beloved Scotsman, again.

It is February. The God of the Month is Maria Makiling.The Molecule of the Month is delicious Hemoglobin.

Kurt Amacker of Cinescape gives us a list of Comics for People that Don’t Read Comics.

Assorted Items: We live in a world where Western Union no longer sends telegrams.

Mark R. Leeper of SF Crowsnest considers the possibility of a genetic basis for morality.

Lakshmi Sandhana  of the BBC tells us about the development of "artificial gills."

Here's a neat tutorial from Lyzrd's Stomp on how to make neat SF models using nothing but household goods.

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