The Great Geek Manual

1894
The first automobile race, organized by Le Petit Journal of Paris, is held on the 78 mile route between Paris and Rouen, France.

1933
Wiley Post lands at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, completing the first round-the-world solo flight. The flight, made in his single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft “Winnie Mae,” covered 15,596 miles over the course of 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes. Post made his first solo flight in 1926, the year he received his flying license, signed by Orville Wright, despite having lost an eye in an oilfield accident earlier in his life. He had made an accompanied flight
around the world in 1931.
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What causes us the most misery and pain… has nothing to do with the sort of information made accessible by computers. The computer and its information cannot answer any of the fundamental questions we need to address to make our lives more meaningful and humane. The computer cannot provide an organizing moral framework. It cannot tell us what questions are worth asking. It cannot provide a means of understanding why we are here or why we fight each other or why decency eludes us so often, especially when we need it the most. The computer is… a magnificent toy that distracts us from facing what we most need to confront — spiritual emptiness, knowledge of ourselves, usable conceptions of the past and future.

- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman, 1985.

Art

• Check out the Exclusive Cap and Thor Concept Art Posters for Comic-Con – ComicsAlliance.
• These limited-edition Star Trek posters by Olly Moss go on sale Friday on the Mondo website. Trouble With Tribbles: Spock will be in an edition of 350 prints.
• Tokyogenso imagines a Post-Apocalyptic Tokyo reclaimed by the wilderness.
• Volpin Props explains how to make a Daft Punk helmet in just 17 months.

Comics

• Interview: Stan Lee discusses the digital future of comics over at AOL.
• NPR runs down Five Great Books They Won’t Talk About At Comic-Con.

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1904
In a letter published in the journal Nature, Canadian nuclear physicist Harriet Brooks records her observations of a peculiar type of volatility demonstrated by an active deposit of radium immediately after its removal from the emanation. According to the letter, Harriet Brooks is the first person to observe the recoil of the atomic nucleus as nuclear particles are emitted during radioactive decay.

The Trans-Siberian Railway, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in history, is officially completed, linking European Russia through Siberia to the Far East with 4,607 miles through seven time zones. Its completion took thirteen years of work by thousand of workers, and its construction cost approximately 350 million rubles, all told.
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The Benedictine monks who invented the mechanical clock in the 12th and 13th centuries believed that such a clock would provide a precise regularity to the seven periods of devotion… here is a great paradox: the clock was invented by men who wanted to devote themselves more rigorously to God; and it ended as the technology of greatest use to men who wished to devote themselves to the accumulation of money. Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose. …Gutenberg thought his invention would advance the cause of the Holy Roman See, whereas in fact, it turned out to bring a revolution which destroyed the monopoly of the Church.

- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman, 1985.

Art

• An Australian Furniture site taps into the popularity of World of Warcraft.
• Fans attending Celebration V Collecting Panels will receive Star Wars-themed mini cereal boxes. [Via Geeks are Sexy]
• Geek Art Gallery points the way to a bit of graphic designer humor.
• If my grandmother owned a game console, this is probably what it would look like.
• When mathematicians scrawl graffiti on a bathroom stall.

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Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “The Association of the Dead” by Rahul Kanakia at Clarkesworld.
• Listen to The Sphinx in Thebes (Massachusetts)” by Lord Dunsany at Podcastle..
• Listen to “Taking Care of Frank” by Antony Mann at Transmissions From Beyond.
• Listen to “Wolves Till the World Goes Down” by Greg van Eekhout at Podcastle.

Comics

• PKD Media is released a number of titles for free through MyDigitalComics, including Agents of C.O.L.T. and Mercury & The Murd.

Flash and Micro Fiction

• Read the flash fiction How Pluto became a planet again. at Name Your Tale.
• Read the flash fiction Passions in Orbit, a Stirring in the Pants at the Hairy Mango.

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1872
The U.S. Patent Office awards the first patent for wireless telegraphy to Mahlon Loomis.

1903
The Ford Motor Company ships its first car.

1960
Sirimavo Bandaranaike is elected the Prime Minister of Ceylon, becoming the world’s first elected female head of state.
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