Gravity Lens Weblog

Archive August 1 - August 22

Tuesday, August 22

For a while I've been meaning to put up some pix of the inside of Bad Day Studio, and now I've finally gotten around to it. I was inspired by the great artists' space blog On My Desk.and the photos Colleen Doran posted of her new studio.

Monday, August 21

Assorted Items: Dial B for Blog tells us all we need to know about the planet Krypton.

Wil McCarthy at SciFi Weekly looks ahead to the 12 Percent Happier Future.

In our lifetimes we may see skies full of robot airships.

Saturday, August 19

SF Signal links to a couple of interesting essays, one on the social science fiction of Isaac Asimov, and one on writing pulp fiction.

Friday, August 18

Ker Than of Space.com reports that people are not impressed with the new official layout of the solar system. Meanwhile Astrobiology explains just how far out of the solar system Voyager I has gotten.

SciFi Tech tells us that heat ray technology has arrived.

Thursday, August 17

Michael Rogers of MSNBC asks What Do Futurists Really Know?

Wednesday, August 16

A moment of silence, please, for Mr. Bruno Kirby.

Space.com reports that the International Astronomical Union has released its tally of planets.

Comic Book Stuff: Dial B for Blog gives us the Top Ten Product Ads from comic books.

Henry Jenkins at the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium uses an experience at the recent Comic-Con to look at the power of niche markets (via Warren Ellis).

ZDNet reports that Vint Cerf of Google may produce a comic book for congressmen about how the internet works.

Free Comic Book Day '07 has been announced.

Tuesday, August 15

Annalee Newitz of Popular Science looks at the mystique of female robots. Yes, there's a photo gallery. Unfortunately they left out the Reubenesque Rosie the Robot, Jocasta, Andrea, Rhoda, Galaxina, Annalee Call, Bernadette Peters in Heartbeeps, and all those sexy chrome droids that Soroyama used to paint.

And let's not forget those Japanese ballroom dancing robots.

Here's a list of fictional gynoids.

Yes, I am aware of the existence of Small Wonder and the Buffy-Bot, but I choose not to recognize them.

Monday, August 14

ABC News has a piece on human echolocation.

Eye of the Goof links to this gallery site (in French, alas) for Pierre Cardin's retro-futuristic home Palais Bulles.

Sunday, August 13

I have spent this fine Sunday afternoon consuming The Affected Provincial's Companion by the esteemed Lord Whimsy. I urge you all to get your hands on a copy.

As with all proper gentlemen, Lord Whimsy has a blog.

SF Signal links to this Guardian piece on Philip K. Dick and science fictional drugs.

The government site USInfo has posted a story by Elisa Walton on how science fiction enriches society and science.

And in strange news: Meat Loaf wants to be a Dr. Who villain.

Friday, August 11

Judy Skatssoon of ABC Science Online tells us the pending demise of the Y chromosome could give rise to a whole new species of human.

A couple years ago Nick Bostrom had some words to say on the matter. And Dougal Dixon did a whole book about it. There was a recently a competition to design our future selves. Of course those of us who immerse ourselves in SF know what future man will look like.

But there are other theories.

Thursday, August 10

Assorted Items: Music Thing tells us of a new line of Blue Man Group musical toys.

And I've been meaning to link to the YouTube page for Blue Man Group.

The Pulse is reporting that Doc Savage is returning to comics at Moonstone Books.

New Scientist lists the Ten Weirdest Cosmological Theories. Strangely, the Holographic Universe Theory isn't among them.

I, for one, still believe that it's turtles all the way down.

Wednesday, August 9

A moment of silence, please, for physicist James Van Allen. Yes, that Van Allen.

Your homework is to go watch Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Meme Therapy (which has just migrated to it's snazzy new host) has posted another Brain Parade with commentary by yours truly. There's also a great piece where author John C. Wright lists his preferences for alien invasion.

Tuesday, August 8

Gizmodo shows us this weird 70's science fiction film-looking musical instrument.

The BBC tells that US researchers have reversed the process of evolution in a mouse by 500 million years. As you know the possibilities of backwards evolution played a central part in Altered States. This may also explain how Devo spawned Dev2.0.

Monday, August 7

Dwayne A. Day of The Space Review looks at a documentary about a group of scientists who want to explore, colonize, and terraform Mars.

Please direct your attention to the website of Mr. Scott Wade, an artist who chooses as his medium filthy rear car windows. If that isn't fancy enough for you, how about the city of Venice recreated in Legos?

Sunday, August 6

Apparently computer simulations of entire stars is not enought. Physicists in Japan plan on creating a baby universe in the laboratory, and then let it break off from our own.

Saturday, August 5

Another one of those questionnaire meme-thingees is being bounced around the Internet, and I've been tagged by SF Signal to participate. Sigh. Okay, here we go:

1. One book that changed your life?

Hmmm. I could go with Nightwings by Silverberg or Nova by Delany, but If I'm gonna be honest about sheer impact on my life and taste in SF I have to go with the May 1979 issue of Heavy Metal. It really altered my canon-fueled view of the genre and contained the stunning "Entropics" by Marshall Rogers and Mark Arnold, which just slapped me across the head as to what SF could do.

2. One book you have read more than once?

There's so many, but I'll go with Radix by A.A. Attanasio.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

The Absolute Edition of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. If I'm going to be on the island a while, please throw in some porn.

4. One book that made you laugh?

After Things Fell Apart by Ron Goulart. I knew for certain that rock stars would never get old.

5. One book that made you cry?

Imaginary Magnitude by Stanislaw Lem. Specifically, the lecture by Golem XIV. It made me think that maybe we're going about this futurism thing the wrong way.

6. One book you wish had been written?

A giant SF mega-crossover where Buck Rogers, Perry Rhodan, Dan Dare, Barbarella, Adam Strange, Santiago, and the Lensmen take on the Shrike, the Berserkers, the Xeelee, the Blight, and the Cthulhu pantheon. Is that too much to ask?

7. One book you wish had never had been written?

Cusp by Robert A. Metzger. What the fuck was that all about?

8. One book you are currently reading?

The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins. My pace is about ten pages a week.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

Days of Bitter Strength by David Wingrove, it's book 7 of the Chung Kuo series, and for some reason I just never read it.

10. Now tag five people.

As most of the blogs I frequent have already been tagged, I throw this over to the Gravity Lensmen at the Bar & Grill.

Friday, August 4

Another Meme Therapy Brain Parade that I partook in has been posted.

Thursday, August 3

Friend and Transhumanist George Dvorsky has published his paper on developmental and ethical considerations for biologically uplifting non-human animals (PDF file) over at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

George's writing on Transhumanism was a link on the very first day of this blog (scroll to the bottom).

Uplifting species is the central tenet of an interstellar culture created by David Brin.

Leonard David at Space.com says it's high time for rocketbelts.

Wednesday, August 2

The Mondolithic Image of the Week is a decked-out babe sporting the future of tech.

Tuesday, August 1

Eye of the Goof links to this YouTube clip of a strange Thunderbirds parody by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

It is August.

The God of the Month is Kal-El, Last Son of Another Sun.

The Molecule of the Month is yummy Cinnamaldehyde.