The Great Geek Manual

Art

• Gunaxin has posted an awesome gallery of Everything Simpsonized

Film

• At Sci Fi Wire Director Ivan Reitman on why the time is finally right for Ghostbusters 3.
• Chris Pine & Zachary Quinto look seriously frightened in this interview with Access Hollywood.
• GuideSpot lists The Most Overused Movie Quotes EVER!
• i09 name their choices for The 10 Greatest Science Fiction Comedies.
• Kevin Smith argues convincingly that Star Trek director J.J. Abrams.

Internet

• The New York Times announces that a Web Series Tied to ‘Blade Runner’ Is In the Works.
• The Nonist shares a gallery of Red-Hot and Filthy Library Pron.

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Science is wonderful: for years uranium cost only a few dollars a ton until scientists discovered you could kill people with it.

- 20,000 quips & quotes by Evan Esar.

780 BC
The first total solar eclipse reliably recorded by Chinese scholars is observed.

1896
The first road test of the first Ford car is delayed an hour because the car is wider than the door of the shed in which Henry Ford built it. With an ax, he rips out the door frame. He then makes a successful first test run with his car on a nighttime drive through the streets of Detroit. This self-propelled vehicle, the Quadricycle, has four wire wheels that looked like heavy bicycle wheels and is steered with a tiller like a boat. It runs forward in two speeds but won’t run in reverse. Although Ford isn’t the first to build a self-propelled vehicle with a gasoline engine, he will become an important automotive pioneers when he conceives the assembly line.

1907
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a “Diaphragm for Talking-Machines” that “will be readily responsive to vibrations of comparatively great amplitude.” (US No. 855,562) The invention is comprised of a duplex diaphragm made of at least two disks, each of which is radially slotted so that each disk constitutes a series of reeds. By staggering the slots of the disks, a continuous surface is presented for actuating sound waves. The disks, made of mica about one-thousandth of an inch thick, are cemented together with an elastic cement, such as a solution of gum rubber.
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From Around the Web

Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo: Feature Smackdown – PC World compares the top features of three major search engines -Bing, Google, and Yahoo – in the ultimate search engine battle royale. The verdict seems to be that Google wins, with Yahoo close behind.

FileTwt – FileTwt brings filesharing to twitter. With FileTwt you can now easily upload and tweet about your files for free. There’s a 20MB size limit.

iPhone 3 Rumors – The TGR Blog has a great graphical round-up of features expected in the next iPhone release. My question is, where’s the grappling hook?

Opera 10 beta – The latest version of Opera is available. Experience a surprising array of new features, a fresh look and feel, and enhanced speed and performance. Since the alpha release we’ve now turned our attention to features.

Search is too important to leave to one company – Cory Doctorow argues that it may seem as unlikely as a publicly edited encyclopedia, but the internet needs a publicly controlled search engine.

Thank you, Napster – The Globe and Mail looks back at a decade of filesharing technology, beginning with Napster. Read the rest of this entry » » »

Comics

• Comic Alliance names 15 Comic Book Babes Who Could Kick Your Ass.

Film

• Eerie Books Blog has a list of 42 Frankenstein Movies to See Before You Die.
• The latest “buzz” in the movie industry is Caffeinated Popcorn.
• MovieFill suggests Top 17 Situations To Avoid If You Find Yourself Starring In A Horror Movie.
• Sci Fi Wire reflects on 7 “Unfilmable” Sci-fi Books—and the filmmakers who could adapt them.

Internet

• Mike Brotherton suggests Ten Science Fiction Dream Vacations, beginning with some of the largest sci-fi conventions and ending with Dracula’s Castle.
• Total Sci-Fi names The 25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi.

Literature

• Free Fiction: Read the novel For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster at the Suvudu Free Book Library.
• Free Fiction: Read the novel Magic Kindgom for Sale–Sold! by Terry Brooks at the Suvudu Free Book Library.
• Interview: ClarkesWorld gets the opinions of Ten Fiction Editors on the magazine industry.

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1875
Alexander Graham Bell first transmits speech using the magnetic microphone of his “harmonic telegraph.” The experiment will later lead to the creation of the telephone.

1880
Alexander Graham Bell transmits the first wireless telephone message using his Photophone, which operates by translating the vibration of light reflected from mirrors rather than electrical signals into sound.

1889
Construction of the first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed. The line runs fourteen miles between a generator in Willamette Falls and Portland, Oregon.

1902
Thomas Edison received a patent for a “Reversible Galvanic Battery.” (US No. 701,804)

1940
The daily comic strip Invisible Scarlet O’Neil, written and drawn by Russel Stamm, debuts in the Chicago Times. The strip follows the adventures of Scarlet O’Neil, one of the earliest female heroes, who has the ability to make herself invisible. Scarlet, who never wears a costume, uses her ability in order to help strangers and assist the police with apprehending dangerous criminals. The strip will run until 1956.
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If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.

- Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust, 1913.

Art

• Zombie Apocafest from the 2008 BrickCon may be the greatest Lego creation EVER. While you’re checking it out, make sure to browse the rest of Dunechaser’s Photostream. It’s amazing.

Comics

• Blasphemous but funny nonetheless: 10 Reasons why Superman is better than Jesus.
• The ISS has posted an amusing compilation of The 14 Most Abominable Superhero Creations of the 1990s, Part 1.

Film

• An Alien prequel is officially on its way from the gigantic remake-factory that is Hollywood.
• Ashes to Ashes is a fan-made Batman film that looks to be completely amazing.
• Cinema Blend names 10 Geezers Who Prove Old Age Is Not For Sissies, starting with that Drag Me to Hell hag.
• The Gawno Magazine introduces 15 Movie Characters in Real Life.
• GeekDad runs down the Top Ten Things Parents Should Know About Pixar’s Up, all of which are good. The only warning here is of the Bambi-like sequence of sorrow early in the film.
• i09 has rounded up a gallery of videos of Kick-Ass Scenes That Are In Trailers, But Aren’t In The Movies. Why would anyone cut a scene featuring baby Spock?!!
• Movies Buzz has posted a list of The 10 Most Powerful Telekinetics in Movie History, but it looses all credibility when it includes Mewtwo and forgets about our favorite Telekinetic, Darth Vader.
• Victim of Culture has posted a list of demands that would improve the moviegoing experience for everyone. They’re calling their ettiquette suggestions the Moviegoers Bill of Rights.

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