The Great Geek Manual

Source: Photo Net

1881
A patron of Edward Berner’s drug store in Two Rivers, Wisconsin is unable to order flavored soda water for religious reasons, as it was the Sabbath. Berner compromises by offering the man ice cream in a dish with the chocolate syrup that was previously only served as flavoring in ice-cream sodas, making the first ice cream Sunday. The dish’s name will later be changed to “Sundae.”

1908
Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is demonstrated at a scientific meeting in Paris, France. The Lumière Brothers, who will go one to become two of the earliest film pioneers, are in the audience for the demonstration.

1937
Britain launches its 999 emergency services system and receives its first call at 4:20am.

1946
The University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering launches a summer program for computing that stimulates construction of stored-program computers at universities and research institutions. This free public lectures will be a guiding influence for the creators of some of the earliest computer systems.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

“I read,” I say. “I study and read. I bet I’ve read everything you read. Don’t think I haven’t. I consume libraries. I wear out spines and ROM-drives. I do things like get in a taxi and say, ‘The library, and step on it.’ My instincts concerning syntax and mechanics are better than your own, I can tell, with all due respect. But it transcends the mechanics. I’m not a machine. I feel and believe. I have opinions. Some of them are interesting. I could, if you’d let me, talk and talk.”

- Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, 1996.

The touching story of a man who suffers from First-Person Shooter Disease, commonly referred referred to as Duke Nukem’s.

Source: IGN

This weekend anime and action fans are in for a treat, as Blood: The Last Vampire opens in theaters. Enjoy it. This weekend will be the last chance you’ll have for the next two months to enjoy a film in a theater completely free of mobs of robe-wearing, wand-waving, Hogwarts cosplayers.

Video Releases

• Knowing (PG-13)
• Push (PG-13)
• The Unborn (PG-13)

Animation

• Freedom: Complete Collection

If you know of any major releases I missed, please comment below.

New Releases

This is a great week for genre fans. I’m particularly excited about the Strange Brew anthology, which is from the same editor and authors of the Mean Streets anthology released in January. Not only is Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files one of the best on-going fantasy series out there, but Kat Richardson really hit her stride in the Mean Streets anthology and I’m looking forward to her newest story, as well.

Also worth noting is that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is finally being released as a paperback this week, though I honestly can’t imagine that there’s anyone left who doesn’t know how that series ends.

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
Tor Books. (ISBN-13: 978-0765323200) Hardcover. Length: 336pp
Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by unfamiliar inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, while ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons are programmed to carry out menial tasks in the offices of lawyers, policemen, and journalists. But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side.

Queen Victoria is kept alive by a primitive life-support system, while her agents, Sir Maurice Newbury and his delectable assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes, do battle with enemies of the crown, physical and supernatural. This time Newbury and Hobbes are called to investigate the wreckage of a crashed airship and its missing automaton pilot, while attempting to solve a string of strangulations attributed to a mysterious glowing policeman, and dealing with a zombie plague that is ravaging the slums of the capital.

Blood Colony by Tananarive Due
Washington Square Press. (ISBN-13: 978-0743287364) Paperback. Length: 432pp
Acclaimed for seven novels, ranging from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction, which have garnered her a multitude of fans and awards, Tananarive Due now imagines the story of an ancient group of immortals — a hidden African clan that has survived for more than a thousand years — facing one of the most challenging issues of our time: the AIDS/HIV pandemic.

There’s a new drug on the street: Glow. Said to heal almost any illness, it is distributed by an Underground Railroad of drug peddlers. But what gives Glow its power? Its main ingredient is blood — the blood of immortals. A small but powerful colony of immortals is distributing the blood, slowly wiping out the AIDS epidemic and other diseases around the world. Reprint.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1550
Chocolate is first introduced to Europe.

1668
Sir Isaac Newton receives his M.A. from Trinity College in Cambridge.

1742
The Prussian mathematician Christian Goldbach dates a letter to Leonhard Euler in which he presents his famous conjecture (later known as Goldbach’s conjecture). Goldberg’s conjecture proposes that “Every even natural number greater than 2 is equal to the sum of two prime numbers.” The theory will remain perpetually unproven due to the infinite nature of numbers, even through the computer age, despite the fact that it can be proven for numbers up to 4 x 10¹⁴.

1936
NBC makes its first attempt at actual programming after more than six years of testing. The program is a thirty minute variety show distributed by RCA licensees. The program features dance ensemble, film clips, monologue, speeches, and vocal numbers.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

Libraries raised me….I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.

- Ray Bradbury at a library benefit, June 20, 2009.