Gravity Lens Weblog

Archive: May 15 - June 11

Sunday, June 11

Leonard David of Space.com gives us a glimpse of a space tourism-inspired fashion show.

Warren Ellis links to the Comic Book Drug Reference, which indexes assorted narcotics and pharmacueticals used in comic books. There are seperate appendices for Transmetropolitan and Jimmy Olsen.

While we're here, let's revisit Polite Dissent's archive of Comics and Medicine features.

Friday, June 9

What are You Made Of?: Scott Fields of LiveScience tells us of bone grafts made from seaweed and crustacean shells.

Rebecca Morelle of BBC Science looks at robotic hands that mimic human touch.

Quinn Norton of Wired talks to folks who sense electomagnetic fields by implanting magnets in their fingers.

Thursday, June 8

Ethan Sacks at the New York Daily News gives us Fanboy 101.

Wednesday, June 7

Alexandra Lange of New York magazine visits the Manhattan of 2016, while Jude Stewart of Metropolis shows us plans for urban apartments with room to park your car.

Technology Stuff: The headline reads "Worm-inspired robot crawls through intestines." There are video links in the second section.

The Daily Mail updates us on the strap on stealth wings I linked to last week.

Elizabeth Svoboda of Popular Science asks: Would it be possible to blow up Mars?

While we're on the subject, let's revisit the Citizen's Association to Blow Up the Moon, as well as The Lucifer Project, which wants to ignite Saturn into a sun.

Tuesday, June 6

People may worry about what this year's hurricane season may bring, but Ker Than of Space.com tells us of some combattive weather on Jupiter.

Yes, it's 06/06/06. The Nationial Day of Slayer. There's a big party in Hell, Michigan. Some believe the antichrist will be born today. Landover Baptist gives moms a checklist. My old goth club stomping ground is having a party. And a lot of people are getting married.

Most terrifying: It is National Yo-Yo Day.

Update: here's some mathematical facts about 666, via GeekPress.

Monday, June 5

SciFi Tech introduces us to Brian Walker, a man who plans to shoot himself 20 miles into the air in a homemade rocket launched from the world's biggest crossbow.

Gizmodo informs us that Yamaha has created a crotch airbag for motorcycles.

Friday, June 2

Popular Science tells us "In 2011 You'll Never Have to Clean Your House Again."

Rosie the Robot could not be reached for comment.

Thursday, June 1

It is June.

The God of the Month is The Trickster.

The Molecule of the Month is the Manganese-calcium oxide cluster of Photosystem II.

Today is the final rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This year the Championship rounds will be aired on ABC in Prime Time. You can also follow the results online.

Wednesday, May 31

Lore Sjöberg at Wired lists a few superheroes who aren't getting movies this Summer.

SciFi Tech gives us an amphibious ATV/Jet ski and some strap-on jet wings.

The New Scientist Space headline reads "Satellite could open door on extra dimension."

Tuesday, May 30

Recommended Readin': Amanda MacMillan from Popular Science asks "Can tinfoil hats actually prevent the government from reading your thoughts?"

Wil McCarthy at SciFi Weekly has some questions about intelligent design.

Ronald Bailey of Reason reports from the Human Enhancement Technologies and Human Rights conference which took place this weekend.

Geoff Willmetts of SF Crowsnest tears into attempts to link SF and violent crime.

Eric R. Hedman at The Space Review asks "Is NASA afraid to take risks?"

Seth Jones of Comic Book Resources tells us how rising gas prices affect comics.

Monday, May 29

For Memorial Day, here's Wikipedia lists for Fictional Wars, Fictional Battles, and Fictional War Heroes. The military is a major part of popular science fiction, and there's been discussion about the best fictional war.

Fortunately, some wars remain fictional.

The headline reads: "Police Seek Klingon for Questioning"

The Mondolithic Image of the Week is this neat take on The Poseidon Adventure.

Recommended Readin' (Int'l Geek Edition): Apparently John Derbyshire of The New Atlantis doesn't think Jules Verne wrote science fiction.

Rituparna Som of DNAIndia asks "Is Superman Betraying You?"

Shanghai Daily reports that China has less than 100 professional SF writers.

Brian Sabin of Radio Praha reminds us that the concept of a robot is 85 years old.

Sunday. May 28

A moment of silence, please, for artist Alex Toth.

Friday, May 26

Futurismic links to this Nature.com article about a study claiming that a space elevator is impossible, as well as several responses gathered at the Space Elevator Blog.

On the other hand, cloaking devices are possible.

Thursday, May 25

The headline reads: "Sex theme park to open in London."

Today is Towel Day.

SETI's Seth Shostak at Space.com makes The Case for Transmitting To Space. Some of you might remember Michael Michaud's argument against it.

SciFi Tech shows us the very cool personal Hover Scooter.

Wednesday, May 24

Leonard David of Space.com looks at the idea of throwing large chunks of ice at the moon.

Ladies & Gentlemen, gaze upon this really big gravity lens.

Tuesday, May 23

If you're heading to England anytime soon, check out this guide to locations where The Avengers and other classic British shows were filmed. Via The Cartoonist.

LiveScience has begun a three-day feature on the social and ethical implications of immortality. They also link to their list of the Top Ten Immortals, which doesn't include such luminaries as Vandal Savage or Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on immortality in fiction.

Monday, May 22

Comic Book History: Dial B for Blog gives us the secret origins of Mister A.

Jeet Heer of the Virginia Quarterly Review looks at the debt that comics owe to Winsor McCay's Little Nemo.

And, in strange news, the Dalai Lama will be honoring Tintin.

Friday, May 19

Assorted Items: Boing Boing links to this awesome YouTube video of a Golem costume made of foam mattresses. It looks like Monolith from The Elementals.

Erik Larsen mourns the loss of comic book sound effects over at Comic Book Resources.

From SF Signal comes this news story with the headline "Police raid science fiction sex cult."

Thursday, May 18

Assorted Space Stuff: Here's a New Scientist Space story about looking for alien artifacts on the moon, and a Weekly World News bit titled Space Station Infested with Mice. NASA to Send up Cat.

And Frankie Thomas, who played Tom Corbett, has died.

Wednesday, May 17

Eye Candy: BLDGBLOG gathers up some classic architectural SF magazine covers, while Pruned gives us a gallery of retro-future images from the wonderful website Il Futuro Visto Dal Passato. While we're on the subject, let's revisit Tales of Future Past's features on Future Cities and Future Living.

Lastly, Randall Ensley sends us this neat gallery of atomic explosions.

Back in the here & now, Leonard David of Space.com updates us on the global groundswell of support to build spaceports.

From Eve of the War comes a sizable gallery of photos from the recently completed Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds tour, featuring a full sized tripod, a giant floating narrator head, and lots of CGI background animation. They also link to this cool trailer.

Tuesday, May 16

Dr. Brainz has an excellent Gallery of Mad Scientists from books, movies, comics, and TV.

Among my favorites are Dr. Phibes, Dr. Shrinker, and Dr. Loveless.

The Michelin Challenge Design site has yielded this sexy future bike.

Here's the MySpace pages for Chewbacca, Mirror Universe Spock, and Heat Miser.

Monday, May 15

Technology Stuff: SciFi Tech shows us this neat yacht/submarine, as well as this personal wall-crawling system called the Gekkomat.

Popular Science gives us a horseshoe shaped glass walkway over the Grand Canyon, and informs us that by 2021 we'll be able to grow a new heart.

LiveScience tells us a new flexible conductive polymer.