The Great Geek Manual

1862
Telescope maker Alvin Clark discovers the dwarf star which is the companion of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.

1893
Thomas Alva Edison is issued two patents. (US No. 490,953 -4) The first patent is described as the “Art of Generating Electricity” for a cell made with positive and negative electrodes in a heated chamber containing dry chemicals which are sufficiently exhausted for the gases generated to become good electrical conductors. The second patent is described as the “Manufacture of Carbon Filaments for Electric Lamps.” In it, Edison describes the process of heating vegetable fibers, such as bamboo, in a furnace until the fibers are carbonized, before soaking them in a sugar syrup to fill the material’s pores before reheating them until they are wholly carbonized. This process is fundamental to the creation of incandescent bulbs.

1930
The 3M Company first begins to market Scotch Tape. Visit the official 3M website.

1936
The Green Hornet premieres on radio station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan, the same station that produces The Lone Ranger. The radio program will later spawn a television and comics series. Visit the official website of The Green Hornet franchise.

1940
The United States Social Security Board issues its first check to Ida May Fuller, age 65, of Vermont. The check, number 00-000-001, is for US$22.54. The US Social Security, which is characterized as “the largest bookkeeping operation in the history of the world” is made possible by a series of computers custom built for the purpose by International Business Machines (IBM) which track of the twenty-six million people participating in the government program with hundreds of millions of punch cards. The paper punch cards were so numerous that, there is “no building in Washington had floors sturdy enough” to hold them all. Another problem will soon presented itself. Individual paper punch cards have a very limited capacity for storing data. However, in 1955, just as the punch cards will approach their capacity for the first generations of social security recipients, they will be replaced by IBM’s first general-purpose computer. Read a history of the Social Security Administration’s use of punch cards and IBM machines.
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I often think that we are like the carp swimming contentedly in that pond. We live out our lives in our own “pond,” confident that our universe consists of only the familiar and the visible. We smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp. If our scientists invent concepts like forces, it is only because they cannot visualize the invisible vibrations that fill the empty space around us. Some scientists sneer at the mention of higher dimensions because they cannot be conveniently measured in the laboratory.

- Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, 1994.

Film

• Den of Geek counts down the Top 20 end-of-movie Explosions.
• John Scalzi fields a new theory: “Whether a movie counts as science fiction depends on whether the science fiction elements are crucial to the plot.” I wish someone send this essay to Blockbuster, so it would clean out its crappy sci-fi section.
• Popular Mechanics reviews The 5 Geekiest Sci-Fi Movies at Sundance 2009. Is it just me or is Paul Giamatti quickly becoming a fantasy genre favorite?
• Yeah, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel at this point, but here goes nothing: The 10 Worst Superhero Actors of all Time.

Internet

• Ever wondered what a sonic death ray might sound like? Try watching this video of William Shatner interviewing Fran Drescher all the way through. I dare you.
• Jessica Merritt lists The Top 100 Science Fiction Blogs, arranged by their focus.

Literature

• Free Fiction: Listen to “Singularity” by Bill DeSmedt at podiobooks. I’m listening to it now, and I have to admit that it’s a cut above what Poidiobooks usually carries. I’d definitely recommend it.
• Free Fiction: Listen to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by F. Scott Fitzgerald at Mister Ron’s Basement.
• Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog has posted a author J.M. McDermott’s choices for 2008’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy books.
• James Enge defines science fiction and fantasy.
• SCI FI Wire snarks over Which SF writer has made us wait the longest for a sequel?

Television

• Interview: Comic Book Resources interviews Wil Wheaton, who lends his voice to the Blue Beetle in the new series Batman: The Brave & The Bold.
• Topless Robot explains 5 Reasons Why the Fringe Team Is the Worst Department in the FBI.

Writing

• Beneath the Cover debunks 7 Publishing Myths.
• Chuck Dixon’s discusses the stupid gun mistakes every writer makes.

Whether its swashbuckling or supercomputer, the Spaniards just have style. I can’t help but imagine programmers in velvet pantaloons and large-brimmed hats stalking these stacks armed with swift, lethal Perl scripts, ready to defend their honor against the first scoundrel to penetrate their security.

1873
Pierre-Jules Hetzel publishes Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne in French. Download it at Project Gutenberg.

1910
Georges Rignoux of La Rochelle, France describes a primitive “television” system using a matrix of sixty-four photocells to producing a limited grey scale picture. Rignoux had developed the system over the course of several months, with several successful practical experiments, including the first demonstration of the instantaneous transmission of black and white still images in 1909.

1933
The Lone Ranger premieres on the radio WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan. The radio serial will run for thirteen consecutive years with a total of 2,956 episodes. The western adventures of the masked Texas Ranger will inspire the creation of a bevy of future super heroes, and the show’s success will pave the way for their popularization in mainstream media.

1947
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that granting CBS approval for their new color television system would be premature and that the system requires further testing.
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It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. In fact, some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it is that it is unquestionably correct.

- Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, 1994.

1595
Many historians believe that this is the date the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet is first performed.

1802
John J. Beckley became the first Librarian of the U.S. Congress. Visit the official website of the Library of Congress.

1845
Edgar Allen Poe’s poem The Raven is published in the New York Evening Mirror for the first time anywhere.

1957
General Electric (GE) and the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) meet to select a format for ERMA Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) encoding on checks. The ERMA or Electronic Recording Machine – Accounting, is a system commissioned by the Bank of America, to move towards automating check handling. International Business Machines (IBM) makes a strong case for placing the encoding along the top of a checks, but GE and SRI had conducted a series of tests that demonstrated the advantage of placing the encoding along the bottom of checks.

1959
American Airlines begins offering the first jet passenger service across the United States with a fleet of Boeing 707 aircraft. Visit the official website of American Airlines.
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In the beginning was the word and by the mutation came the gene.
[WORD-WORE-GORE-GENE].

- Michael A. Arbib in Towards a Theoretical Biology Vol. 2 edited by C.H. Waddington, 1969.