The Great Geek Manual

1901
Guglielmo Marconi attempts to transmit a Morse Code signal via radio telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean, from Poldhu in Cornwall, England to Percy Wright Page in Signal Hill, St. John’s, Newfoundland. The attempt fails, but the following night, December 12th, he will succeed.

1911
Marie Curie receives a Nobel prize in Chemistry for isolating Radium by electrolyzing molten radium chloride, becoming the first person to be awarded a second Nobel prize.

1946
Frederic Calland (F.C.) Williams patents a way to “memorize” or store digital data on the cathode ray screen screen of specially designed television sets. The Williams Tube memory is another approach experimented with by early computer engineers, which makes use of a cathode ray tube (CRT), the type commonly used for oscilloscope, radar, and television view screens, to store binary data.

1964
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers a lecture at the University of Oslo the day after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. He argues that progress in science and technology is not equaled by “moral progress”; instead, mankind suffers from a “moral and spiritual lag.”
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Art

• Inspire 76 has rounded up a gallery of Snowmen, both cute and creepy, from Deviant Art.
• Over at io9, 5 Designers Reveal Secrets Of James Cameron’s Avatar.

Film

• News: James Cameron’s next film may be a sci-fi samurai epic.
• The First Reviews of James Cameron’s Avatar Gush with Geek Giddiness.
• The SciFi Squad offers its choices for The Top Ten Sci-Fi Couples.
• SciFi Wire looks back at The 18 best bladed weapons from sci-fi movies and TV.

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1684
De motu corporum in gyrum (Latin: “On the motion of bodies in an orbit”), written by Isaac Newton and derived from Kepler’s laws, is read aloud to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.

1799
A second legal definition of the metre is made by the French National Assembly to be 3 feet and 11.296 lines of the toise of Paris, 0.144 of a line shorter than the 1795 definition. This new definition also doesn’t rely on the length of a meridian as part of the definition. The metric system is made compulsory by law in France.

1889
George Eastman receives a patent for the first flexible celluloid film, which he developed in cooperation with chemist Henry M. Reichenbach. Soon after being granted the patent, Eastman will introduce roll film, which will vault photography into the mainstream.

1899
George Safford Parker is issued a US patent for the first fountain pen he developed.
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I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.

- Bjarne Stroustrup, 1990.

Art

• Layron DeJarnette has a gallery of homemade Garbagepail Kid cards.
• Luke Skywalker meets zombies in these awesomely zombified Star Wars posters.
• Here’s a Darth Maul Mod for your iRobot Roomba 400.
• Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive at Google.

Film

• Gears of War’s writer says that the movie version of Epic’s video game franchise will focus on Emergence Day, with nods in style to Cloverfield.
• The Hollywood Reporter takes A look at the 20 animated films in contention this season for the Oscar.
• I’m not sure that Peta Wilson belongs on the list, but PopCrunch has picked The 50 Hottest Women of Sci-Fi/Fantasy.
• io9 names the Top 10 Science Fiction Disappointments Of The Past Decade.
• A poster has been released for the upcoming Tron movie.
• Premiere names 10 Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Movies.
• Six Revisions compares classic movie posters to the posters of their remakes.