The Great Geek Manual

1790
The very first United States patent is granted to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a process for making potash and pearl ashes for use in in soap and fertilizer. (US No. 1) The patent is granted for a term of fourteen years and signed by President George Washington, who signed the first US patent statute into law on April 10, 1790.

1930
The radio program The Shadow airs for the first time on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Listen to original episodes of The Shadow at the Internet Archive.

1964
The American space probe Ranger 7 transmits the first photo moon’s surface ever taken by a US spacecraft, mapping the surface for a future lunar landing. Ranger 7 carries six slow-scan vidicon TV cameras capable of transmitting high-resolution television pictures of the lunar surface. A total of 4,308 photographs before Ranger 7 crashed in Mare Cognitum (Sea of Clouds).
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Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…

- Neuromancer by William Gibson, 1984.

Devious, intelligent, and obsessive as we may be, it’s a fact that Geeks will just never overrun the world. We’re just a bit too oblivious.

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1898
Scientific American runs the first magazine advertisement for an automobile, place by the world’s largest automobile factor The Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The ad invites readers to “dispense with a horse.”

1930
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) installs a large-screen television system at an RKO cinema in Schenectady, NY. The screen is five feet high.

1932
Walt Disney releases the film Flowers and Trees, the first short film to use the full-color three-strip Technicolor process. It will go on to become the first animation to win an Academy Award.
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Though here at journey’s end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell.

- The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien, 1954.

Art

• Worth1000 features a gallery of Star Wars characters incorporated into Renaissance art.

Comics

• Neil Gaiman will be writing two issues of Batman coming out this January! Dimes to Dollars, it’ll be the fastest selling comic since the death of Captain America. The are is titled “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?”
• Are comics being squeezed off the floor of the Comic Con? Sadly, it looks to be the case.
• Check out the cover of the new Captain Marvel comic.
• Wired grades more of Batman’s gear.

Film

• Den of Geek asks, Is it possible to watch a film spoiler-free any more?
• Den of Geek shares 10 great geek moments in movies.
• Five facts about the upcoming Terminator film that debunk many of the rumors circulating around the internet.
• It’s official. All six Star Wars movies will be re-released in 3D!
• Watch a four minute clip from The Clone Wars over at Yahoo!, just to whet your appetite.
• The first photo of the young Voldemort from the upcoming Harry Potter film have surfaced. Verdict? Dumbledore look like some sort of crazy hippie-turned-business man.

Internet

• If you still haven’t watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, go watch it now! All three episodes are now available on Hulu.
• WebUrbanist rounds up a fairly sweet gallery of Creative Steampunk Art, Design and Fashion.

Literature

• Free Fiction: King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard is a classic any fan of Indiana Jones or the English classics should read. [MP3 Download]
• Gwyneth Jones of the Guardian share a list of the Top 10 Science Fiction Books written by Women.
• io9 lists Great Opening Sentences From Science Fiction, including Ender’s Game and Neuromancer.
• Science fiction master Ray Bradbury sits down to talk with LA Times editor Steve Wasserman, together they talk in-depth about Bradbury’s work.

Television

• Check out the recap of all things Joss Whedon taking place at the Comic-Con.
• Topless Robot has compiled a list of Mark Hamill’s 10 Greatest Post-Star Wars Roles that leaves you feeling a great deal of pity for our old friend Luke Skywalker.

Writing

• Cryptic Studios have officially announced they are the new developer of the Star Trek Online MMORPG.

This week, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (PG-13) opens in theaters this Friday, August 1st. How well it’ll do in the face of The Dark Knight and X-File is uncertain, but there you have it.

New Video Releases

Doomsday (unrated)

Lost Boys 2 - The Tribe (R)

War Games: The Dead Code (PG-13)

Television

Birds of Prey: The Complete Series

Witchblade - The Complete Series
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Video Games

This week, the fourth installment in the weapons-based 3D fighting series Soul Caliber hist the shelves for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. To the joy of fans everywhere, this will installment will allowing online matches against other players for the first time. And, as if that weren’t enough, the icing on the cake is the inclusion of three Star Wars character: Darth Vader, Vader’s apprentice from The Force Unleashed, and Yoda.

That alone would make this a good week for gamers, but Soul Caliber won’t be the only game dropping this week.

Tuesday, July 29th

Art of Murder: FBI Confidential (PC)
A point-and-click murder mystery that cast player in the role of an FBI agent.

City Life 2008 Edition (PC)
Another city-building sim featuring new graphics, maps, and more.

Enigma 7 (PC)
Rave to save you girlfriend, completing a series of challenges in the magical world of Enigma 7 along the way.

Everlight (PC)
A fantasy game with a intricate plot in which players must accomplish a series of quests in over thirty locations.

Ford Racing Off Road (PS2, PSP, Wii)
Choose from an array of Ford trucks and a series of rugged off-road track in this racing game. Read the rest of this entry » » »

“Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century. What the writers of modern science fiction invent today, you and I will do tomorrow…”

- J. G. Ballard, in the essay Fiction Of Every Kind, originally published in Books & Bookmen, February 1971.

Read the essay online at the website of Rick Mcgrath.

1914
Transcontinental telephone service begins with a telephone conversation between Thomas A. Watson in San Francisco and Alexander Graham Bell in New York City in which they repeat their historic conversation from 1876.

1958
President Dwight Eisenhower signs the the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The act was introduced very soon after the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1. Visit the official NASA website.

1985
Bill Gates of Microsoft sends John Sculley of Apple Computer a memo suggesting the licensing of the Mac OS and prospective companies who might create Mac clones.
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If you know of any other demotivational posters taking pot-shots at D&D Fourth Edition, drop the link in the comments below!

Because we feed on information.
Information is necessary for our
survival.Without information we die.

1851
A total solar eclipse is first captured on a daguerreotype photograph by Busch and Berkowski, at the Royal Observatory in Königsberg, Prussia. It shows a slight but distinct impression of the corona during the total eclipse. Berkowski, a local daguerrotypist whose first name is never published, observed the eclipse at the Royal Observatory using a small 6cm refracting telescope attached to a 15.8cm Fraunhofer heliometer camera. The daguerreotype uses an 84 second exposure and is taken shortly after the beginning of totality.

1858
For the first time fingerprints are used as a means of identification.

1896
Using an Edison Vitascope projector, a film is exhibited commercially for the first time anywhere in Canada at the West End Park, in Ottawa.

1930
John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of his large screen television in the UK at the London Coliseum Variety Theatre. The television’s screen displays an image thirty by seventy inches, created by 2,100 lamps which are operated by a mechanical commutator switch. The entire device is built into a small, wheeled trailer that can be moved on and off stage. The exhibition will continue for three weeks.
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