The Great Geek Manual

Like heroin, I don’t think the internet
is one of those things that you can just do casually.

- Rory Blyth, American blogger.

• The Atlantic.com asks the very legitimate question, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Short answer: Yup.
• Deputy Dog has posted a gallery of amazing Geeky Stained Glass artwork gathered from around the web.
• Deputy Dog has posted a gallery of Photos of Irrigation Systems that look like modern art from above.
• A Livejournaler namer Absinthetic made a cool Wonderland Expedition Kit for his girlfriend on her birthday.
• Movie Moron takes a look at the Top 10 Star Wars Quotes and what makes them great.
• PlanetSurfer has rounded up the Top 10 Geeked-out Bento Boxes.
• Tag-O-Matic is a great tool for discovering sites similar to your favorite bookmarks.
• These delicious Space Invader cupcakes look too good to eat.

1596
David Fabricius discovers the first variable star, Mira, when he observes the variations in the star’s light.

1897
Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the world’s first movie camera.

1903
The New York World newspaper runs an article on Thomas Edison’s opinions on Radium and X-rays that begins on the front page. The article is entitled, “Edison Fears Hidden Perils of the X-rays.” In the article, Edison describes the injuries his laboratory employee, Clarence Dally, incurred during his research into Radium. Dally had an arm and hand amputated to remove the cancer caused by exposure to X-rays. Edison also felt that viewing the element with his own X-ray fluoroscope had harmed his eyesight two years earlier. When the focus of his left eye was disturbed he abandoned research on X-rays. Edison is quoted as saying, “I am afraid of radium and polonium too, and I don’t want to monkey with them.” Edison goes on to say, “I have had several pieces of it from Mme. Curie in Paris, and I have experimented with it. I do not see its commercial utility, but it opens up a great field of thought and scientific research. It overturns all the old theories of force and energy… I have a peculiar theory about radium, and I believe it is the correct one. I believe that there is some mysterious ray pervading the universe that is fluorescing to it. In other words, that all its energy is not self-constructed but that there is a mysterious something in the atmosphere that scientists have not found that is drawing out those infinitesimal atoms and distributing them forcefully and indestructibly.”
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The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

- Alvin Toffler, American author. 1990.

Art

• Core77 gas posted a gallery of laser-cut sculptures of Victorian/Steam Punk Construction Vehicles. The artist’s original site is currently, down, but once its back up, it’s sure to be worth a look, too.
• The UK’s Telegraph has collected some beautiful Examples of Literary Tattoos. See if you can place the quotes.

Film

• Are Geek overrated Hollywood or we really a (market) force to be reckoned with? Reuters investigates.
• In case you missed the sound of a thousand fans screaming it, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer has hit the nets this week. *Sigh* Now that damn movie is all we’re going to hear about.
• io9 believes that Scifi Movies are Finally Catching Up to Novels and Going Steampunk, and with the slate of steampunk coming to theater, I have to agree.
• Is the Foundation Trilogy finally going to make it to the Silver Screen, or are our hopes going to be dashed yet again? Seldon only knows.
• John Scalzi examines whether or not The Dark Knight is Oscar worthy.
• Robo Cop remake to be Rated R. The reason behind the rating, according to internet, is that there will be a LOT of killing.
• The Termination Salvation poster is out and as badass as fans could hope.

Internet

• Deen of Geek has rounded up The Top 10 Secret Hideouts… but can a starbase the size of a small moon really be termed a “hideout”?
• Only Topless Robot would write it: The 7 Biggest Asshole Computers in Science Fiction.

Literature

• The Crotchetry Old Fan offers up a carefully-considered list of the Top 150 Classic Science Fiction Authors.
• Free Fiction: “Dry Frugal With Death Rays” by Alex Wilson is an interesting bit of satire from Futurismic.
• Free Fiction: “Laws of Survival” by Nancy Kress is online at WebScription.
• Free Fiction: “The Wind” by Edward Willett was originally published in Dark Wisdom, but is now freely available at EdwardWillett.com
• Interview: Adventures in SciFi Publishes hosts Neil Gaiman discussing his experience teaching at the Clarion workshop.

Television

• Entertainment Weekly has post a gallery of The 24 Smartest TV/Movie Characters, which features Henry from Eureka, Lisa Simpson, and Mr. Spock.
• io9 lobbies for a Farscape Reboot. I say waaaaaay too soon. Wait for society to change, then reboot the series to fit the audience.

Video Games

• Tenton Hammer has posted a Preview of the StarGate MMO from the Comic-Con.

We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.

- Carl Bernstein, American journalist.
In an article in the United Kingdom’s Guardian, June 3, 1992.

1695
A British patent is granted to Daniel Quare for a portable portable weather-glass (barometer) “which may be removed and transported to any place, though turned upside down, without spilling one drop of the quicksilver, or letting any air into the tube, or excluding the pressure of the atmosphere. . .”

1858
The first mail boxes in the United States, which are already in use in Belgium, are installed in New York and Boston.

1870
Tower Subway, the first tube railway in the world, is opened under the River Thames in London, England. Engineer James Henry bored the 6 foot diameter tunnel near the Tower of London. It opened with steam operated lifts and a twelve seat carriage shuttled from end to end by wires powered by a steam engine. It will be closed within three months due to frequent breakdowns.

1926
The first Vitaphone sound-on-disc film program is presented by Warner Bros at the Warner Theatre in New York. The sound is recorded on a sixteen inch disc, playing at 33rpm. It’s thought that the films will eventually replace live theatrical entertainment. The demonstration film features Mary Astor and John Barrymore.
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A computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a dangerously perfect match.

- “I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away” by Bill Bryson, 1999.