The Great Geek Manual

I have read somewhere that the resistance offered by a wire … is affected by the tension of the wire. If this is so, a continuous current of electricity passed through a vibrating wire should meet with a varying resistance, and hence a pulsatory action should be induced in the current … [corresponding] in amplitude, as well as in rate of movement, to the vibrations of the string … [Thus] the timbre of a sound [a quality essential to intelligible speech] could be transmitted … [and] the strength of the current can be increased ad libitum without destroying the relative intensities of the vibrations.

- Alexander Graham Bell in a letter to Gardiner Greene Hubbard, May 4, 1875.
Quoted in “Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude” by Robert V. Bruce, 1973.

1860
The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California begins.

1934
Famous Funnies, the first comic book to go on sale in the United States, hits newsstands.

1938
Television station W2XBS in New York broadcasts the first book review program in the US.

1953
The TV Guide magazine debuts. For year, it will be the most read magazine in the United States.

1955
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announces that it will defend Allen Ginsberg’s book Howl against obscenity charges.
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The life and soul of science is its practical application, and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in the earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.

- Baron William Thomson Kelvin
“Electrical Units of Measurement,” a lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers,
May 3, 1883.

Computer programming is tremendous fun. Like music, it is a skill that derives from an unknown blend of innate talent and constant practice. Like drawing, it can be shaped to a variety of ends – commercial, artistic, and pure entertainment. Programmers have a well-deserved reputation for working long hours but are rarely credited with being driven by creative fevers. Programmers talk about software development on weekends, vacations, and over meals not because they lack imagination, but because their imagination reveals worlds that others cannot see.

- Thinking in C# by Larry O’Brien and Bruce Eckel, 2002.

1519
Architect, artist, engineer, and natural philosopher Leonardo da Vinci dies at the Clos Lucé manision in France. Visit the official website of the Clos Lucé

1880
The S.S. Columbia becomes the first ship to install lights, using an Edison “A” type dynamo and the first commercial order of Edison lightbulbs. The one hundred fifteen cardboard filament bulbs will be used to light the steamboat’s quarters and salons during its two month voyage from New York CityNew York City to San Francisco, California, which will depart on May 8th.

1944
W2XWV in New York City becomes the first commercial television station in the US and changes its call sign to WABD. At 9pm, the station broadcasts the thrity-minute program “Your World Tomorrow,” which features news of the wars and entertainment.

1952
The world’s first jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1, makes its maiden flight between London and Johannesburg.

1957
Warner Brothers releases the horror film The Curse of Frankenstein, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Hazel Court, and Robert Urquhart, to UK theaters. It is the first in a series of seven Frankenstein films. Produced on a budget of US$500,000, the film will become a cult classic among horror aficionados. IMDB listing Running Time: 1 hr 23 mins
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Art

• Check out the latest Star Wars marketing posters for Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Film

• Movie Buzz names 50 Movies That All Guys Should See Before They Die, including such testosterone-laden classics as Die Hard and Fight Club.
• Sci-Fi Wire explains 10 things you need to know about Wolverine before seeing X-Men Origins.
• Yikes. Talk about long-term marketing. Joseph McGinty is already dishing out plot points of the fifth Terminator film.

Internet

• Cracked.com demonstrates Why Having Wolverine’s Claws Would Suck.
• Fox’s Terminator Wiki asks Who would win if they battled it out in real life – the Terminator or Wolverine?
• The Hunt For Gollum, a forty minute fan-made prequel to The Lord of the Rings, is now available for online! (And it kind of kicks ass.)

Literature

• In what world does Saphira from Eragon beat out Falkor from The Neverending Story in a countdown of the coolest dragons of fantasy?

Television

• IGN counts down Star Trek’s Best Villains, but surprisingly, the Borg do not take the number one slot.

Video Games

• AI Game Dev points out 18 Embarrassing Game AI Bugs Caught On Tape and explains how they ought to be fixed.
• New Video Game Technology Finally Allows Rendering Of Smaller Breasts.

Writing

• Author Jeremiah Tolbert offers some advice on Getting Started Writing Science Fiction.

1543
Copernicus circulates “The Little Commentary,” which demonstrates the heliocentricity of the solar system.

1753
Swedish botanist and explorer Carolus Linnaeus publishes the first edition of his two volume work Species Plantarum in which he systematically names plants. He is the first person to frame principles for defining genera and species of organisms in order to create a uniform system for naming them. Thus, he is often called the father of classification. The Species Plantarum will be adopted by international consent in 1905 as the starting point for modern botanical nomenclature.

1849
A telegraph register is patented by Samuel F. B. Morse. (US No. 6,420) However, Morse won’t construct the first practical system until 1844.

1869
A horse is reportedly killed by a meteorite near New Concord, Ohio.
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