The Great Geek Manual

Art

• The WebUrbanist takes a look at 20 Essential Works of LEGO Art.

Comics

• Fantasy Magazine deconstructs Black Superheroes.
• io9 has posted a preview of the first ten pages of Marvel’s new Enders Game.

Film

• Jay Garmon runs through a list of the geek movies you’re embarrassed you like, to which I would add Barbarella and Waterworld.
• Ridley Scott has confirmed that he’s going to remake Brave New World.

Internet

• I love this list: The 10 Greatest Evil Robot Dopplegangers.
• Popular Mechanics takes a look at the many different models of Terminator.

Literature

• Interview: In the UK’s Daily Mail author Terry Pratchett discusses his struggle with dementia.
• Interview: Over at SciFi Wire, Gene Wolfe talks about An Evil Guest.
• Six science fiction classics to help you choose the next President.

Television

• Heckler Spray counts down the 26 Hottest Star Trek Babes, starting, of course, with Tasha Yar.
• One of the Five Ways Doctor Who Made a Difference is, interestingly, the popularization of “cyber” as a prefix for anything robotic.

Video Games

• GamePro does has compiled a really excellent list of The 32 Best PC Games.
• Kotaku.com has posted a sneak-peek at the box art of Halo: The Cole Protocol, which will be hitting shelves November 25th.
• PC World looks at The 15 Coolest Games of Fall 2008.

Writing

• Ten Things to Consider Before You Sit Down to Write a Poem.

1604
Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.

1701
The Yale University is chartered

1876
The first two-way telephone conversation over outdoor wires takes place between Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson over the telegraph line linking Boston and East Cambridge. Three days earlier, in Boston, Bell’s two-way telephone test of conversation with Watson had been the world’s first two-way telephone conversation in doors.

1890
Though there isn’t any proof of the event, this is reportedly the date on which French electrical engineer Clément Ader becomes the first person to successfully fly an airplane, though it bears little resemblance to later airplanes. His steam-powered plane, “Eole,” will only fly for a fifty meter length, and unlike the Wright Brothers’ future flight, it rises only a few inches off the ground. The flight ends when the bat-like contraption collides with trees at the end of the testing field. It is certain that Ader coined the French word “avion” for aircraft. Some believe it to be an acronym for “Appareil Volant Imitant les Oisaux Naturels” (Flying Machine Imitating Natural Birds).
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The cure for boredom is curiosity.
There is no cure for curiosity.

- Dorothy Parker
Quoted in Turning Numbers into Knowledge by Johnathan G. Koomey, 2001.

As if I didn’t already have enough stress in my life with all the discount pharmacies that think I need help in bed, now Amazon thinks I should just off myself. I’m going to name my first ulcer “E-mail”.

Source: Photo Basement

1604
Johannes Kepler becomes the first to observe the supernova which will later be called “Kepler’s nova” in the constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer. He observes it from the time of its appearance as a new star, and, in 1606, it will inspire him to write The New Star.

1926
Julius Edgar Lilienfeld of New York, files for a patent for a “Method and Apparatus for Controlling Electric Currents.” The application describes an NPN junction transistor and its use as an amplifier.

1958
Dr. Ake Senning implants the first internal heart pacemaker.

1959
The general election in the United Kingdom is the first to be covered extensively on television.
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I hear there’s rumors on the internets that we’re going to have a draft.
We’re not going to have a draft, period.

- George W. Bush during the second Presidential debate, October 8, 2004.

Read the full transcript of the debate.

It looks to be another disappointing October, completely devoid of decent scares. This week, Friday, October 10th, City of Ember (PG) and Quarantine (R) open. City of Ember looks to be a decent kids’ movie, albeit one that utterly mutilates the story of the original book, while Quarantine looks to the typical HollyWood horror shtick without any surprises.

Video Releases

• The Happening (R)
• Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (NR)
• Kill Switch (R)
• Rest Stop – Don’t Look Back (NR)
• You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (NR/13)

Television

• Lexx: Season One
• Mission Impossible: Five TV Season Pack
• Robot Chicken: Season Three
• Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Season

Re-Releases & New Formats

• Drive-In Cult Classics 3

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• 50 Tools to Speed Up or Otherwise Enhance Your PC
• 100 Skills Every Man Should Know: The Instructions (With Videos!)
• Careful. If you live alone, you shouldn’t start trying The 150 Best Online Flash Games otherwise, the next time you make a bathroom run, it may be next week.
• Convert your laptop into a Teknogrimoire with a bit of leather and a hinge.
• Heap only the most eloquent of in­­sults upon your foes with the Shakespearean Insulter.
• How many people out there are walking around with your name?
• The Independent looks back at the most memorable Internet Hoaxes in history.
• Test your DIY Skills at Popular Mechanic.
• The free-to-play, browser based, online game Lords of Evil has opened for beta testing.
• Zombie Outbreak is an awesome game that plays like an interactive movie.