The Great Geek Manual

1608
In the Netherlands, Hans Lippershey successfully complete the construction of the first optical telescope. Though there have been earlier telescopes, Lippershey will be the first to patent the device, though he’ll beat out Jacob Metius by only a matter of weeks. He will ultimately be credited with the invention and popularization of the telescope.

1836
Charles Darwin returns from his historical journey aboard the HMS Beagle to Falmouth, England.

1919
US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke that leaves the left side of his body paralyzed and his left eye blind. He will remain largely disabled through the remainder of his term, leaving his second wife, Edith Wilson nominally in charge of his Presidential duties. Because the full extent of Wilson’s disability and his wife’s role in his presidency won’t be revealed to the public at large until after his death in 1921, Edith Wilson will sometimes be referred to as “the Secret President,” “the first woman to run the government,” and even “the first female president of the United States.”
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Books are the windows through which the soul looks out. A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them. It is a wrong to his family. He cheats them! Children learn to read by being in the presence of books. The love of knowledge comes with reading and grows upon it.

- The Duty of Owning Books by Horace Mann, 1859.

I just discovered a great site, DailyLit.com. It provides an RSS feed of audiobooks in five minute segments, so that you can easily work the sort of lengthy novels you can never find the time to read into your daily schedule. Their selection includes classic public domain texts like Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, but they also have a good number of fantasy, horror, and science fiction titles.

Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “Fourth Person Singular” by Dale L. Sproule at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Lobos” by Shaun A. Saunders at Beam Me Up.
• Listen to “Ode To Katan Amano” by by Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Flash and Micro Fiction

• Read the flash fiction Canticles by K.C. Ball at Every Day Fiction.
• Read the flash fiction “Death Ex Machina” by Rod Drake at Powder Burns Flash.
• Read the microfiction comedy “Handy Tips for Detecting Interdimensional Travelers” by Luc Reid over at Daily Cabal.

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Art

• Check out DZine Press’ Gallery of 2D Illustration Concept Art.
• Damon, Carl and a Polorbear has some great Lost-inspired fan art, including a really trippy VW Bus.
• I think these Minimalist movie posters on Flickr are brilliant, especially the one for The Shining. One day, I am SO going to put carpet like that in my house.

Comics

• CBR has compiled a gigantic list of the Most Iconic Comic Covers and organized them by character.
• Comic Alliance names Five Action Movie Origin Stories that ought to get the same treatment as Die Hard did in the recently released “Die Hard: Year One.”
• Over at MTV, Joss Whedon confirms Buffy: Season Nine!
• Under the Giant Penny is a blog about collecting and enjoying Batman memorabilia.

Film

• Interview: Harold Ramis Talks Ghostbusters 3.
• Interview: Tarantino once again reaffirms that there will be a Kill Bill Volume 3.
• Entertainment Weekly counts down the top 25 Butt-Kicking Babes of Entertainment, starting with Summer Glau.
• The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse has come up with a list of 10 Directors who NEED to make a Zombie flick.
• John Scalzi names his picks for The Best and Worst Television Adaptations of SciFi Classics, to which I would personally add both BattleStar Galactica and Max Headroom, though those may fall under the heading of “backdoor pilot.”
• The LA Times explains How Bruce Willis got a celluloid face-lift for Surrogates.
• The SciFi Squad chooses The Top Ten Future Sports from Movies, but forgets the cult classic Robot Jox, starring Dennis Quaid!
• The Telegraph reports on The low-budget movie phenomenon and names 5 cheapies that shook the world, including The Blair Witch Project and Halloween.
• Unreality picks The Top 10 Artifically Intelligent Characters in Movies, with HAL coming in at number 1.

Internet

• G4’s Kevin Pereira & Olivia Munn’s have a great Twilight Spoof for everyone out there who’s sick of sparkly vampires.
• Gunaxin has posted a list of 10 Science Fiction Concepts Ruined by Human Nature, to which I would add Holodecks.
• With Halloween approaching, GeekDad suggests 10 Cheap & Geeky Costumes.
• Wow. Google doesn’t think a whole lot of comics. You’d think the aggregate of millions of Geeks search the web would be more positive.

Literature

• Interview: Cory Doctorow Talks About the Future of the Novel.
• Interview: Iain Banks talks with Nerd World.
• Interview: Stomping Yeti talks with Tim Pratt, author of Spell Games.
• Interview: Terry Pratchett discusses his latest work, Unseen Academicals.
• Interview: Vincent McCaffrey discusses his debut novel, Hound.
• Interview: Why Paolo Bacigalupi feels it’s time for sci-fi to change.
• News: Literary classic Little Women being remixed with werewolves.
• The ebookTest has posted a list of The Eleven Axioms of 21st Century Book Publishing that publishers should really take note of. [via Electrical Alphabet]
• Millions does an excellent job picking The Best Fiction of the Millennium (So Far).
• Publishing Perspectives offers up a suggestion on How to Turn Video Gamers into Readers (Millions at a Time).
• Simon & Schuster introduces Digital Books with Video called “Vooks“

Video Games

• I’d like to say that remember when I used to get this excited over Super Mario Bros. 2, but honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited over anything.
• Massively has posted new images from the upcoming The Star Trek MMO World.
• Unreality has rounded up a gallery of 10 Street Fighter in Real Life Vidoes.

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.

- “October” by Robert Frost

1847
Maria Mitchell becomes the first female astronomer in the United States to discover a comet. From her homemade observatory in Nantucket, Massachusetts, she discovered a star five degrees above the North Star where one hadn’t been previously located. After several nights of observation, she realized that the light was moving, and theorized that it must be a comet. For her discovery, she will be awarded a gold medal by the king of Denmark. She will also become the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

1878
Emma M. Nutt begins work Telephone Dispatch Company in Boston, Massachusetts, becoming the nation’s first female telephone operator. Nutt, who would remain an operate for thirty-three year, was hired in the hope of addressing customer complaints that many of the male operators were rude and surly.

1880
In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Edison Lamp Works, the first electric lamp factory, produces its first commercial electric light bulbs. Opened by Thomas Edison, the factory will produce more than 130,000 bulbs by the time the plant is relocated to Harrison, New Jersey on April 1, 1882.

1891
In California, Stanford University opens.

1908
The Ford Motor Company introduces the Model T, better known as the “tin Lizzy,” in America. The Ford Model T is the first car to be made on an assembly line, an it will become an instant sensation. It will initially be sold for US$850, but as production volumes rise, the price of the vehicles will decline. By 1925, a Coupe will sell for US$525 new, while a two-door Runabout went for only US$260.
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