The Great Geek Manual

1831
Charles Darwin visits Maer Hall, home of his uncle Josiah Wedgwood II, whom he told of his father’s opposition to his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. Charles is enthusiastic about the opportunity, but his father considers it to be a waste of time, delaying his career as a member of the clergy. His father said, however, that he would might swayed if Charles found a man of high esteem who would regarded the trip as worthwhile. That man turns out to be Charles’ uncle Josiah, who writes a letter to Robert Darwin, answering all of his objections favorably, and ultimately changing his mind.

1842
The US Naval Observatory, one of the oldest scientific agencies in the US, is authorized by an act of Congress. Its primary task is to act as a depot for the Navy’s charts, navigational instruments, and chronometers, which are calibrated by timing the transit of stars across the meridian. Visit the agency’s official website.

1880
Thomas Edison is granted a patent for an “Electro-Chemical Receiving-Telephone.” (US No. 231,704)

1895
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents the rigid airship, known as the Zeppelin.
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A man said to the universe,
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”

- “A Man Said to the Universe” by Stephen Crane.
From War is Kind, 1899.

1831
Charles Darwin replies to the letter from Reverend Henslow, telling him of the offer to sail on the HMS Beagle. Darwin had learned natural history from Henslow, who had recommended him for the unpaid position as a naturalist. Darwin told Henslow that his father would not permit him to leave on such a the voyage. Meanwhile, his father had written to his brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood II, about his concerns regarding the proposed two-year voyage.

Michael Faraday demonstrates the first electrical transformer.

1963
A new telephone hotline connecting the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and the Kremlin in Moscow is first activated and tested. It will provide a direct two-way communications channel between the American and Soviet governments in the event of an international crisis. The hotline is installed in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, one year earlier. During the incident, messages sent between US President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev required five or six hours each way for transcription, transmission, translation, and delivery. This new hotline could cut down the delays in sending messages from hours to minutes, but it will only be used for emergencies. It is modeled after an emergency command system used to connect seventy US Air Force bases around the world. It consists of one full-time duplex wire telegraph circuit, routed through Washington, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Moscow, for the transmission of messages and one full-time duplex radiotelegraph circuit routed through Washington, Tangier, and Moscow used for service communications and for coordination of operations between the two terminal points. Teletype machines are used at each end of the ten thousand mile circuit, not telephones. A tape encryption system is used to keep messages secure. The hotline will be active twenty-four hours a day.
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There was one field in which man was unsurpassed;
he showed unlimited ingenuity in devising bigger and more efficient ways
to kill off, enslave, harass, and in all ways make an unbearable nuisance of himself to himself.
Man was his own grimmest joke on himself.

- “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert A. Heinlein, 1961.

75 Powerful Adobe Fireworks Extensions will have you waving good-bye to Photoshop.

GameRadar has an enormous directory of photo galleries of nothing but Sexxy Con Girls.

It’s official. Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1.

Kevin Pang has an excellent article on the Top 10 Things That Annoy Programmers.

Mathway is a brilliant website that walks you through math problems step-by-step.

PC World looks at Twenty Tech Habits to Improve Your Life.

Scientific American’s article “How I Stole Someone’s Identity“ had me resetting my passwords. You might want to read it through if you blog.

These Twenty Websites To Help You Learn and Master CSS turn out to be very useful.

What the front page of Reddit would look like during a Zombie Uprising.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. All progress depends on the unreasonable man.

- George Bernard Shaw

1831
Charles Darwin returns home from a geology field trip in North Wales to find letters from Reverend John Henslow and George Peacock informing him that he will soon be invited on a scientific voyage of HMS Beagle. He is just twenty-two years old and has just graduated from Cambridge University. The offer is to be a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle for a two year survey of South America, leaving on September 25th. Although he immediately accepts the offer, his father and sisters are opposed to the trip. They regard the trip as an idle pursuit that will delay his expected career in the clergy. His father is prepared to change his mind, but only if Darwin can find a qualified man who views the exploit as worthwhile. Darwin will spend the next two days doing just that.

English chemist Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction, the production of an electric current by a change in magnetic intensity, which is the fundamental principle behind the electric generator.

1842
The design patent, a new form of patent, is authorized by an act of Congress. The first US design patent will be issued for typefaces and borders to George Bruce of New York City on November 9, 1842.

1893
A patent is issues to Whitcomb L. Judson for a “Zipper Clasp Locker or Unlocker for Shoes.” (US No. 504,038)
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That’s right! You can now make instant coffee with your two-kilowatt laser, and if you don’t have a two-kilowatt laser, this is the perfect excuse to buy one! Of course, if I were going to abuse my access to a multi-million dollar laser, I think I could do better than instant, but hey…

Yeah. Here’s a shirt I think every gamer out there can relate to the day after the next big game hits shelves. Commemorate the willpower it took not to call in with Geometry Wars Flu by ordering yours now!

They’re available is black, as pictured, in sized ranging from small to xxlarge for US$18.95.

Get yours now at Split Reason!

These 120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power may not actually make you smarter, but they may keep stave off boredom.

As if being drunk didn’t already make you intolerable, Sloshpot suggests a new drinking game: Wizard’s Staff.

A gallery of Geeky license plates from cars that must belong to IT admins.

Cracked’s list of The 5 Scientific Experiments Most Likely to End the World is likely to keep you up nights.

Haiku Error Messages for you to add to contemplate during times of frustration.

This internet riddle will appeal to those with a hacker mentality. It’s even more fun collaborating with a friend.

MakeTechEasier lists the 28 Coolest Firefox About:Config Tricks.

The Robots have figured out the Rubik’s Cube. We are SO screwed.

Who needs Photoshop when you could just use the Pixlr online image editor.

Who Owns the Moon? Whoever does aught to trademark its lighting scheme and license images of it.

What is now proved
was only once imagined.

- William Blake, Poet.

1789
Sir William Herschel discovers Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

1830
The “Tom Thumb,” the first locomotive built in America, goes into service, running between Baltimore and Ellicotts Mill. It is the first railway service in the United States.

1844
The Count of Monte Cristo is first published in the Journal des Débats in eighteen parts. Publication runs through January, 1846. Complete versions of the novel in the original French will be published throughout the nineteenth century. The most popular English translation will be published in 1846 by Chapman and Hall.

1845
The first issue of Scientific American is published by Rufus Porter, a schoolmaster, inventor, and editor. While the paper is still just a small weekly journal with a circulation less than three hundred, he will sell it for US$800 in July 1846 to twenty year old Alfred Ely Beach and Orson Desaix Munn. Together, they will build its circulation to ten thousand by 1848, twenty thousand by 1852, and thirty thousand by 1853. Visit the journal’s current website.
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Devine Caroline’s gallery of the World’s Most Expensive Hotel Rooms leaves me thinking that there are a lot of people out there who have NO idea how to properly spend twenty-five thousand dollars.

How to Draw Absolutely Anything in one simple step.

The HotelClub Travel Blog takes a look at 7 Asian “Delicacies” You Probably Couldn’t Stomach, including monkey brains.

In the face of the escalating amounts of sexual harassment at this year’s Comic-Con, Rachel Eddin of Inside Out decided to start a letter campaign to encourage others to action.

It really shouldn’t be a surprise that “Forgot your Password” is the Weakest Link in most accounts’ security.

The New York Times talks about the adventure of Introducing Fortune Cookies to China.

Refill your old Brita Filters, don’t waste money on a new one.

These 40 Dark and Futuristic Photoshop Effects from PSDTuts.

Smashing Magazine presents 45 Beautiful Motion Blur Photos

When NPR takes notice that your Laptop initiative has Failed, there’s no need to wait for the fat lady.

Art

• 13 of the Coolest Art Installations in the History of Burning Man.

Comics

• Five Graphic Novels For Lapsed Comics Fans doesn’t include any Batman or Spider-Man because once you’ve stopped read those, you don’t deserve to return!

Film

• Bam! Kapow! tallies up The Ten Best Performances by Actors in Superhero Flicks, beginning, of course, with Heath Ledger.
• Cracked runs down the 10 Most Shameless Product Placements in Movie History.
• Movie Retriever rounds up Ten Truly Underrated Sci-Fi Movies.
• Vin Diesel Promises Two More Riddick Sequels, Thank God. Finally, a decent sci-fi series that is being axed.

Internet

• Bettie Magazine has posted a gallery of The 9 Most Badass Women of Star Wars.

Literature

• BookFinder has an interesting list of the most popular Out of Print Books, some of which I could hardly believe are out of print.
• Free Ficition: Tor has posted by “Shade” by Steven Gould.

Television

• Edward James Olmos once again predicts an emotional end for Battlestar Galactica.

Video Games

• GamesRadar previews the 8 Scariest Games this Fall.

Writing

• Mike Brotherton lists what he believes to be The Secret to Writing Novels.