The Great Geek Manual

Look what is coming: Technology is stitching together all the minds of the living, wrapping the planet in a vibrating cloak of electronic nerves, entire continents of machines conversing with one another, the whole aggregation watching itself through a million cameras posted daily. How can this not stir that organ in us that is sensitive to something larger than ourselves?

- What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly, 2010.

Art

• Address is Approximate: “A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.”
• Lego Lightning McQueen/Millennium Falcon mashup
• Star Wars Themed Engagement Photos! Boy, did this dude hit the jackpot.

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1639
English astronomer and clergyman Jeremiah Horrocks becomes the first to observe the transit of Venus.

1859
British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The book details the scientific evidence supporting his theory of evolution that he had collected during and since his voyage on the HMS Beagle.

1909
The Wright brothers form a million-dollar corporation to commercially manufacture airplanes.
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People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It’s not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past. They are fighting for access to the laboratories where photographs are retouched and biographies and histories rewritten.

- The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera, 1979.

1644
John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.

1852
The first free public library in the U.K. opens in Manchester.

1889
The world’s first commercial juke box or “Nickel-in-the-Slot” is installed at the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco, California. The device, constructed by the Pacific Phonograph Company, consists of an Edison phonograph with four coin-operated listening tubes. Five cents buys a few minutes of music which customers listen to through the stethoscope-like tubes. The device will be a success, earning a thousand dollars in just the first six months of operation. Its name is a reference to the word “Juke,” which is slang for a a disorderly house or house of ill repute. Read the rest of this entry » » »

It is not the amount of knowledge that makes a brain. It is not even the distribution of knowledge. It is the interconnectedness.

- The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick, March 1, 2011.

Art

• 11 awesome minimalist posters of our favorite Doctor Who episodes
• Chorebot is a short film about the relationship between a dog and a robot.
• Gordon Bennett creates adorable robot sculptures out of junk: Bennett Robot Works
• Guy buys engagement ring. Guy gets dumped. Guy sells engagement ring and buys a fully armored Master Chief suit.
• Wonder Woman as a stunning Renaissance superhero

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Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “Beachcombing” by Ray Cluley at Dunesteef.
• Listen to “Bearing Fruit” by Nikki Alfar at Drabblecast.
• Listen to “Black Swan, White Swan” by Eugie Foster at PodCastle.
• Listen to “Dream Engine, Part 1″ by Tim Pratt at Journey Into…
• Listen to “Driving X” by Gwendolyn Clare at Escae Pod.
• Listen to “The God-Death of Halla” by Tina Connolly at PodCastle.
• Listen to “The New Arrival” by Bettina Borg Cardona at Schlock Magazine.
• Listen to “Red Dawn: A Chow Mein Western” by Lavie Tidhar at Fantasy Magazine.
• Listen to “Repler” by Jonathan Lowe at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Snow” by John Crowley at Lightspeed Magazine.
• Listen to “Softlight Sins” by Peter F. Hamilton at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “To the Gods of Time and Engines, a Gift” by Dean Wells.
• Listen to “The Young Workman’s Letter” by Rainer Maria Rilke at Miettecast.

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