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Archive June 23 - July 30

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Monday, July 30

George Dvorsky and Ron Bailey report on this past week's Transvision 2007 conference.

Saturday, July 28

Via Futurismic, Dr. Michio Kaku schools us in the Physics of Extraterrestrial Civilizations.

Thursday, July 26

Warren Ellis interviews William Gibson at Wired.

Gillette is giving away a trip into space.

Tuesday, July 24

Assorted Items: Wil McCarthy at SciFi Weekly ponders Homer Simpson's intelligence.

Technovelgy informs us that the Death Channel is here.

Sam Dinkin of The Space Review looks at the idea of building space elevators out of diamond.

Time Magazine has 80 Years of Robots in Hollywood.

Monday, July 23

Children's playsets have become so large they can be seen from space.

On the subject of absurd headlines, friend Henry Spencer writes in to inform me that the Weekly World News is going away.

I am deeply saddened by this news. The WWN has given us some great stories over the years, offered a peek at Headlines of Tomorrow, brought us the wisdom of Ed Anger, inspired a series of novels and a short-lived TV show. It will be missed.

Here's a quiz: Scientology vs. Weekly World News.

Fortunately, we still have the science section of India Daily.

Saturday, July 21

Thank You Technology: the One Laptop Per Child program brought the internet to the children of Nigeria, who immediately began to download porn.

Friday, July 20

John Tierney of the NY Times looks at the need to colonize space for survival of the species.

Centauri Dreams gives its analysis of the piece.

Wednesday, June 18

Assorted Items: Someone needs to explain to me why No Man's Land, a manmade island currently for sale, was never used in a movie. It was used in Doctor Who.

JP at SF Signal shares with us his favorite Space Operas. His list is pretty close to mine.

Tim Cavanaugh at the LA Times looks at the long-time claim that the comic book is dying.

Tuesday, July 17

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. Work stuff.

Recommended Readin': Cory Doctorow addresses The Progressive Apocalypse and Other Futurismic Delights in his column at Locus.

Red Orbit looks at difficulties of thrust and weight involved with landing on the moon.

Dan Lester and Giulio Varsi at The Space Review explore other destinations in the solar system besides the moon and Mars.

MIT News shows off it's sexy new skintight spacesuit design, which is as good a reason as any to revisit the Women in Spacesuits site (as if we need a reason...).

Does all this oncoming progress frighten you? Well, MIT has a cure for that too.

Apparently a few years back there was a jazz album inspired by the works of Jack Kirby.

Saturday, July 14

Dark Roasted Blend has posted two excellent galleries of unusual vehicles, from concept cars to novelty items.

Friday, July 13

George Dvorsky links to Michael Anissimov's list of the Top 10 Transhumanist Technologies.

Thursday, July 12

Steven Grant discusses the role of the comic book editor over at Comic Book Resources.

Kurt Amacker at Mania looks at DC's new web-comic imprint Zuda. Chris Arrant at News@rama compiles some creator reactions.

Popular Science shows us the Autonomous Flying Ambulance.

New Scientist tells us about a distributed PC program designed to sort out galaxies. The site for the project is here.

Wednesday, July 11

Technology Review gives us the Secrets to Living Past 100.

Here're some people who have.

Tuesday, July 10

A moment of silence, followed by a rousing rendition of Yakety Sax, for Mr. Boots Randolph.

(I decided a long time ago that Yakety Sax, Sabre Dance, and Baby Elephant Walk are the songs I want played at my funeral.)

Watchmen fans will appreciate this site for the Veidt Method. Via Warren Ellis.

Rorschach's Journal says it's a lie.

Calandar Live has an interesting piece on the people who make Star Trek fan films.

Monday, July 9

Psychology Today gives us Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature.

Word is going around that the National Research Council has concluded that alien life might be different than we suspect.

After reading this staggering news this I went to my bookshelf, pulled out Wayne Barlowe's Expedition, Karl Kofoed's Galactic Geographic, and Alec Gillis' Worlds, watched National Geographic's Extraterrestrial and a few episodes of Dr. Who, read a random selection of Marvel and DC comics, looked at some of my own creations, considered the fact that we live in a world where astrobiology is a science and has its own magazine, thought about the bizarre species created by Larry Niven, David Brin and, oh, the bulk of SF in the last 60 years, and wondered just how much fucking money the National Research Council got paid to come up with this brilliant piece of deduction.

Being a long time Dr. Who fan (who nearly creamed his jeans upon seeing the Face of Boe action figure yesterday), I laughed guiltily at the Dr Who Fan's Phrasebook.

Friday, July 6

The Speculist celebrated Independance Day with a Declaration of Singularity.

Thursday, July 5

How did man exist before the Minisode Network?

Other more corporeal necessities can be seen at Strange New Products.

Apparently old digital formats are a threat to knowledge preservation.

Dark Roasted Blend has a great pictorial of abandoned Russian high-voltage Tesla installations.

Tuesday, July 3

A moment of silence, please, for Mister Fred Saberhagen.

In the latest edition of SF Crowsnest, Mark R Leeper ponders the implications of precognitionwhile Geoff Willmetts shares his love of books and reading.

Monday, July 2

The Space Review looks at this week's centennial of Robert Heinlein and his impact on American space flight.

Michael Cassutt at SciFi Weekly also looks at the Heinlein anniversary.

Sunday, July 1

It is July

The God of the Month is Yog-Sothoth. And here's how to call him forth.

The Molecule of the Month is yummy Monosodium Glutamate.

Recommended Readin': Buzz Aldrin tells us a Mars mission is a one-way trip.

Freeman Dyson explains that the age of human Darwinian evolution is over.

Astrobiology looks at possible mental health problems that may affect Lunar workers.

Saturday, June 30

Excellent bit at TV Tropes about misuses of scale in time and space perpetrated by science fiction shows. Via SF Signal.

Thursday, June 28

And I quote: "This is roughly equivalent to the combined processing power of a 2.4-kilometre-high pile of laptop computers."

Steven Grant at Comic Book Resources gives us five "characters" to evict from the comics storytelling pantheon.

Wednesday, June 27

SciFi Tech takes to the seas with the Poesidon 180 Superyacht, and to the streets with a solar powered motorcycle.

Mars is made of chocolate.

Tuesday, June 26

Assorted Items: Popular Science looks at escaping space disasters in a re-entry suit.

Technology Review reports on one scientist's theory that artificial consciousness will never be made out of software.

Wired updates us on the supersexy Steam Car.

Monday, June 25

The headline reads: "Farms Fund Robots to Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers."

Also, check out the all-terrain HRP-3 Promet Mk-II robot.

Space Stuff: New Scientist Space tells us that the fifth dimension may be apparent around heavy gravity stars.

Leonard David of Space.com discusses a scientific call to terraform Mars by the end of the century. Meanwhile, the Mars mission simulation is seeking volunteers.

Modern Drunkard gives us The Ten Greatest Alcohol Icons of All Time.

Sunday, June 24

Here ya go: Galaxiki - a fictional galaxy anyone can edit.