The Great Geek Manual

There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace-those qualities you find always in that which the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, in the way sand trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush or the pattern of its leaves.We try to copy these patterns in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death.

- Dune by Frank Herbert, 1965.

1046
Monks record in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that “no man alive…could remember so severe a winter.” It is the first historical record of the beginning of the two hundred year period of exceptionally cold weather conditions which will follow, constituting a period which will later be dubbed the “Little Ice Age.”

1709
Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued from the desert island on which he has been shipwrecked. His story will later inspire the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

1880
The world’s first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.

1893
The first close-up, a shot of a man sneezing, is filmed at Edison studio, in West Orange, New Jersey.

1931
A rocket is used to deliver mail for the first time by Friedrich Schmiedl in Austria. The rocket is a 880cm V7 able to carry one hundred letters from Schoeckel bei Graz to Sankt Radegund, over a distance of about two kilometers, before descending by parachute.
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1884
The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, is published.

1893
Thomas Alva Edison completes the construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.

1911
Thomas Jennings is convicted of killing Clarence B. Hiller by the Criminal Court of Cook County using fingerprint evidence for the first time in the US. On December 21, the Illionis Supreme Court will uphold the admissibility of the evidence. On February 16, 1912 Jennings will be executed.

1946
At a press conference, University of Pennsylvania announces the development of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator).

1949
Radio Corporation of America (RCA) releases the first single record ever (45 rpm). The release comes in response to the rising popularity of Columbia Record’s 33 1/3 long play records.
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‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to’, said the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where…’, said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go’, said the Cat.
‘So long as I get somewhere’, Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that’, said the Cat, ‘If you only walk long.’

- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1865.

1862
Telescope maker Alvin Clark discovers the dwarf star which is the companion of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.

1893
Thomas Alva Edison is issued two patents. (US No. 490,953 -4) The first patent is described as the “Art of Generating Electricity” for a cell made with positive and negative electrodes in a heated chamber containing dry chemicals which are sufficiently exhausted for the gases generated to become good electrical conductors. The second patent is described as the “Manufacture of Carbon Filaments for Electric Lamps.” In it, Edison describes the process of heating vegetable fibers, such as bamboo, in a furnace until the fibers are carbonized, before soaking them in a sugar syrup to fill the material’s pores before reheating them until they are wholly carbonized. This process is fundamental to the creation of incandescent bulbs.

1930
The 3M Company first begins to market Scotch Tape. Visit the official 3M website.

1936
The Green Hornet premieres on radio station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan, the same station that produces The Lone Ranger. The radio program will later spawn a television and comics series. Visit the official website of The Green Hornet franchise.

1940
The United States Social Security Board issues its first check to Ida May Fuller, age 65, of Vermont. The check, number 00-000-001, is for US$22.54. The US Social Security, which is characterized as “the largest bookkeeping operation in the history of the world” is made possible by a series of computers custom built for the purpose by International Business Machines (IBM) which track of the twenty-six million people participating in the government program with hundreds of millions of punch cards. The paper punch cards were so numerous that, there is “no building in Washington had floors sturdy enough” to hold them all. Another problem will soon presented itself. Individual paper punch cards have a very limited capacity for storing data. However, in 1955, just as the punch cards will approach their capacity for the first generations of social security recipients, they will be replaced by IBM’s first general-purpose computer. Read a history of the Social Security Administration’s use of punch cards and IBM machines.
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I often think that we are like the carp swimming contentedly in that pond. We live out our lives in our own “pond,” confident that our universe consists of only the familiar and the visible. We smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp. If our scientists invent concepts like forces, it is only because they cannot visualize the invisible vibrations that fill the empty space around us. Some scientists sneer at the mention of higher dimensions because they cannot be conveniently measured in the laboratory.

- Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, 1994.

Film

• Den of Geek counts down the Top 20 end-of-movie Explosions.
• John Scalzi fields a new theory: “Whether a movie counts as science fiction depends on whether the science fiction elements are crucial to the plot.” I wish someone send this essay to Blockbuster, so it would clean out its crappy sci-fi section.
• Popular Mechanics reviews The 5 Geekiest Sci-Fi Movies at Sundance 2009. Is it just me or is Paul Giamatti quickly becoming a fantasy genre favorite?
• Yeah, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel at this point, but here goes nothing: The 10 Worst Superhero Actors of all Time.

Internet

• Ever wondered what a sonic death ray might sound like? Try watching this video of William Shatner interviewing Fran Drescher all the way through. I dare you.
• Jessica Merritt lists The Top 100 Science Fiction Blogs, arranged by their focus.

Literature

• Free Fiction: Listen to “Singularity” by Bill DeSmedt at podiobooks. I’m listening to it now, and I have to admit that it’s a cut above what Poidiobooks usually carries. I’d definitely recommend it.
• Free Fiction: Listen to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by F. Scott Fitzgerald at Mister Ron’s Basement.
• Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog has posted a author J.M. McDermott’s choices for 2008′s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy books.
• James Enge defines science fiction and fantasy.
• SCI FI Wire snarks over Which SF writer has made us wait the longest for a sequel?

Television

• Interview: Comic Book Resources interviews Wil Wheaton, who lends his voice to the Blue Beetle in the new series Batman: The Brave & The Bold.
• Topless Robot explains 5 Reasons Why the Fringe Team Is the Worst Department in the FBI.

Writing

• Beneath the Cover debunks 7 Publishing Myths.
• Chuck Dixon’s discusses the stupid gun mistakes every writer makes.

Whether its swashbuckling or supercomputer, the Spaniards just have style. I can’t help but imagine programmers in velvet pantaloons and large-brimmed hats stalking these stacks armed with swift, lethal Perl scripts, ready to defend their honor against the first scoundrel to penetrate their security.