The Great Geek Manual

As industrial technology advances and enlarges, and in the process assumes greater social, economic, and political force, it carries people away from where they belong by history, culture, deeds, association and affection. And it destroys the landmarks by which they might return. Often it destroys the nature of the character of the places they have left. The very possibility of a practical connection between thought and the world is thus destroyed. Culture is driven into the mind, where it cannot be preserved. Displaced memory, for instance, is hard to keep in mind, harder to hand down. The little that survives is attenuated – without practical force. That is why the Jews, in Babylon, wept when they remembered Zion. The mere memory of a place cannot preserve it, nor apart from the place itself can it long survive in the mind. “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

- Standing by Words by Wendell Berry, 1983.

Read more the essay from which this passage is quoted at Google Books.

1764
Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

1783
Frenchman Jean Pilâtre de Rozier (1754-1785) makes a tethered, captive-balloon ascent, in the gardens of La Muette. The Montgolfier-made balloon, Aerostat Reveillon, carrying PilJean Pilâtre de Roziertre, “the first man to leave the Earth,” rose to the end of a 250 foot tether and remains aloft for fifteen minutes before landing safely nearby.

1878
Thomas Alva Edison establishes the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City with a syndicate of leading financiers, including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts, who advanced him US$30,000 for research and development. Edison’s goals is to connect his lights in a parallel circuit, subdividing the current, so that, unlike arc lights, which are connected in a series circuit, the failure of one light bulb will not cause a whole circuit to fail. The company will eventually become a part of General Electric in 1892.

1910
The first air-sea rescue using radio saves the crew of the airship America.
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Hahaha! Happy Hallo… OH GOD! There are still children in there!

Source: A Precio De Robado

BBSpot runs down a list of Lies Geeks Tell Their Parents.

DCP looks the Strangest Internet Cafes Around the World.

Discover Magazine runs down 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Robots

The Photos that Changed the World gallery includes some of the most beautiful and disturbing pictures ever taken.

Sit back, relax and let your fingers reveal the inner-workings of your phyche.

SlickDeals is a service that posts links to special deals and coupons from around the web each day.

Test your knowledge of the Simpsons at The Simpsons Trivia Contest.

Yeah, posting to the /b/ channel is kinda like this every single time.

Film

• Den of Geek looks at the Top 10 Actors who Play Themselves.
• Popular Mechanics is claiming that Body of Lies’ Spy Tech is Closer to Reality than Bond. I am somewhat dubious.
• Ten fan-made trailers for Batman 3.

Internet

• Before and after photos from a guy who turned his 78 Corvette into the Batmobile… and never got laid again…
• io9 takes a look at Science Fiction’s Fiercest Sibling Rivalries, starting with Data and Lore.

Literature

• io9′s list of the The Best Collaborative Novels in Science Fiction includes Inferno and Relic.
• Get your drool cup in place, because Wired has posted a gallery of photos of Jay Walker’s Library.
• Is it just me, or if Harlan Ellison stop being a whinny little bitch would the world just forget he existed?
• Suvudu shortlists 10 Genre Writers Who Should Be Nobel Prize Winners.

Television

• ABC will be joining the re-make craze with a new version of “V” – the eighties series about lizard men come to Earth to harvest us and our water.
• CBS is finally putting episodes of Star Trek on YouTube. Too bad every trekkie and his mother have already download the series off bittorrent.

Writing

• The Eight Things to Remember When Writing Science Fiction.

Today is World Standards Day, an annual occasion honoring the efforts of the standards development organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). So get out there and party for good measure!

1863
Alfred Nobel is granted his first patent, a Swedish patent for the preparation of nitroglycerin.

1884
The first US patent for transparent paper-strip photographic film on a temporary paper backing is issued to George Eastman of Rochester, New York. (US No. 306,594) The film consists of a layer of paper and a coating of insoluble sensitized gelatin emulsion, separated by a layer of soluble gelatin to enable separation after developing the exposed film. He invent the film in February 1884 and applied for the patent the next month. It is flexible, it can be wrapped compactly on a roller, and it can be used within a roll-holder rather than in the glass plate. The method is more convenient, lighter, and less likely to break.

1888
Louis Le Prince films first motion picture, Roundhay Garden Scene.

1922
The Pennsylvania exchange in New York City opens, providing the nation’s first automated telephone service.
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What does not kill us
only makes us stranger.

- The Aeon Flux episode “Thanatophobia,” 2006.
Written by Peter Chung and Mark Mars

Art

• From the site that brought us steampunk Storm Troopers, now there’s steampunk (hawt) Leia and steampunk Yoda.

Film

• Discover Magazine runs down 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Movie Scientists.
• Five Ways To Make Star Trek More Like Star Wars makes me wonder in what way io9 thinks Star Trek fails to ignore physics. Seriously guys, they live ships that travel almost ten times the speed of light.
• Neatorama recounts the stories behind three classic Halloween movies.
• Something Awful puts a post-apocalyptic twist on some otherwise boring films.

Internet

• io9′s list of Six Sweaty Moments of Geeky Triumph includes boxing, swimming, and of course, mystery ball.
• The reason you should never submit your video game high scores to Digg.
• Worth 1000′s latest gallery of Photoshop’d wonders features Technology vs Humans.

Literature

• Free Fiction: Listen to “Northern Faerie Ring” by William A La Fleur at The Cthulhu Podcast.
• The Galaxy Express explains the 7 Reasons Men Should Read Science Fiction Romance.

Television

• There’s hardly a need to download or record your favorite television series anymore, with so many of them being streamed online.

Video Games

• The Edge looks at The 20 Best Games at Tokyo Games Show.
• Check out the trailers of Resident Evil 5 from the Tokyo Game Show.