The Great Geek Manual

‘Knowledge is power’ is the finest idea ever put into words.

- Dialogues et fragments philosophiques (Philosophical Dialogues and Fragments) by Ernest Renan, 1876.

Art

• Get your own Complete and Official Map of the Verse, an accessory to the Serenity Role Playing Game, over at Quantum Mechanix now.

Film

• A brief but truthful critique of Twilight from a man’s perspective.
• CNet’s Geek Gestalt looks at the the evolution of the benevolent alien in film.
• Han Solo was raised by Wookies? WTF Damn you to hell George Lucas. Stop ruining my favorite childhood films.
• JustHastoBePlausible has compiled a great list of the Top Ten Obscure SF Films, most of which I haven’t seen (which is a good trick.)
• Newsrama nominates Mark Valley for the role of Captain America.
• Topless Robot, which already explained why Luke Skywalker is an idiot, rips into Padme Amidala for an encore, and I must say, I can’t entirely disagree.

Literature

• Free Fiction: BBC Radio 7 will have Out of the “Silent Planet” by CS Lewis posted for one more week. Listen to it while there’s still time!
• Free Fiction: Read “The Bloated Curse” by Steve Goble over at Flashing Swords.
• Interview: The Future of Science Fiction discusses the science fiction genre with Ursula K. LeGuin and George R.R. Martin.
• Pan MacMillan has released Sci-Fi ebooks for the iPhone, including titles from Hal Duncan, Peter F Hamilton, and John Scalzi.
• Robert J. Sawyer inspires jealousy by rubbing in just how many genre authors live in Toronto. Thanks for rubbing it in Sawyer! Eventually, I’ll find something Michigan has more of, then we’ll see how you like it. Guns, Lakes, or Taxes, maybe.

Television

• According to SF Signal, Heroes creator Tim Kring is eat crow and sending apologies to various bloggers after blaming television audiences for Heroes sucking so badly. Only you know what? Anyone still watching that trainwreck probably deserve to be called a “dips__s.” There are too many channels to watch crap made by writers who don’t love their job.
• io9 lists Twelve comic book TV shows that were never made. Personally, I think that Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. would have kicked 24’s ass, but what does an television-addict know about programming.

Writing

• In honor of NaNoWriMo, the Paperback Writer has posted the delightfully snarky Devil’s Writing Dictionary. (Don’t miss part two.)

1639
English astronomer and clergyman Jeremiah Horrocks becomes the first to observe the transit of Venus.

1859
British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The book details the scientific evidence supporting his theory of evolution that he had collected during and since his voyage on the HMS Beagle.

1909
The Wright brothers form a million-dollar corporation to commercially manufacture airplanes.

1966
The Star Trek episode “The Menagerie, Part II” first airs. (No. 16/12) In it, Spock is put on trial for helping his former captain, Christopher Pike, return to Talos IV. Memory Alpha entry
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Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy.
The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe.
Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, 1943.

1852
The first free public library in the UK opens in Manchester.

1889
The world’s first commercial juke box or “Nickel-in-the-Slot” is installed at the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco, California. The device consists of an Edison phonograph with four coin-operated listening tubes. Five cents buys a few minutes of music which customers listen to through the stethoscope-like tubes. The device will be a success, earning a thousand dollars in just the first six months of operation. Its name is a reference to the word “Juke,” which is slang for a a disorderly house or house of ill repute.

1959
American International Pictures releases the science fiction film The Angry Red Planet, directed by Ib Melchior and starring Gerald Mohr, Naura Hayden, Jack Kruschen, and Les Tremayne, to US theaters. In it, the first manned flight to Mars returns to Earth. After efforts to raise contact the ship, it is landed by remote control. As the two surviving crew members fight an alien infection, they retell the tale of their harrowing escape from the red planet. The film was produced on a budget of US$190,000, and the B-movie will go on to become a cult classic well known for its campy action sequences. IMDB listing

1963
The science fiction television series Doctor Who premiered on the BBC with the episode “An Unearthly Child.” However, the program is preempted by round-the-clock coverage of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and the pilot goes largely unnoticed. In the episode, two contemporary high school teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, become concerned by the unusual behavior of their fifteen-year-old student, Susan Foreman. When they follow her home, they meet her mysterious grandfather, the Doctor, and find themselves unwilling passengers on his time ship, the TARDIS. Dr. Who will later be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running science fiction television series in history, and it will widely be acknowledge as one of the most influential science fiction series in history.
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A refund for defective software might be nice,
except it would bankrupt the entire software industry in the first year.

- Computer Networks by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, 2003.

As if I weren’t already stoked about another film from Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, they keep reminding me of what’s coming. First, their promotions department reminded me of their the upcoming Coraline with a Halloween pumpkin and now they’ve sent me a Thanksgiving pie.

Not that I’m complaining! The best blog swag I ever got before this was an offer for ten percent rebate offer on Viagra left in my comments. Now, I’ve got a delicious blog pie to remind me to go to the movie I was already going to be in line for opening night. *Nom nom nom* I seriously wish more films were promoted this way.

At least now when the little kids shoot me dirty looks while we’re all waiting in line to get into the theater, I can justify myself with a “They sent me PIE!”
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Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world. No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

- Edward Hopper, American painter, 1953.