Category: Geek Stuff

Geek Month in Review: February 2012

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Science

By JB Sanders

Is winter over yet?

Nightingales and Bombers
BBC sound technicians were doing an outdoor recording of nightingales in 1942, when they noticed a slight drone noise. It gradually got louder. Then 197 bombers flew overhead on their way to Mannheim, Germany. Oops. Hear the recording.

Also, if you’re into old stuff, the site where that recording can be found has a truckload of other interesting items:

A Past That Never Was
Lithographs from a history that isn’t ours.

Everything You Know About Learning is Wrong
According to this renown professor guy, who studies memory for a living. So he might know what he’s talking about.

First Science Fiction Film, Now In Color
The French are restoring a copy of Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip To the Moon) by director Georges Melies. This is a film from 1902. Although you might have seen it before, or at least clips of it, the version where the director hand-colored every frame has never been widely released, certainly not in decades. Now they’re not only restoring the rare color version, but they got the French duo Air to do an all-new soundtrack for it. It’s all very surreal. It looks like a vaudeville act, with no sound other than the very modern music playing over it. Neat!

A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors
Look upon the robot future and despair! Or, you know, cackle gleefully. Quadrotors flying in swarm formation, in and around obstacles.

Plastic-Eating Fungus Found
Which is either a lead-in for a scifi disaster flick of epic proportions, or the headline in an eco-green newspaper. However, the fungus just eats polyurethane, not every plastic out there.

Next Generation Space Suits
Or how to get all Forbidden Planet.

Great Science Visualizations of 2011
Some really cool shots in here — carbon nanotubes, cucumber skin at 800-times magnification, and more.

Antarctic Scientists Lose Contact
I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about. Russian scientists drilling into a lake buried beneath 2 miles of antarctic ice haven’t been in contact with their American colleagues in over 5 days. And it’s going from the comparatively warm summer season in Antarctica to the “cold” season there (temperatures dropping to -40 C). I’m sure it’s all fine, and not the prologue scene to:

1. A remake of The Thing.
2. A Dr Who episode.
3. An armageddon flick where some Super Disease locked for millions of years below the ice shoots around the globe and kills 99% of humans.

UPDATE: Ok, the Russians finally called back. Apparently they broke through into the lake, but because of the approaching “cold season”, they’re flying away, and will return to do the analysis when the weather is better.

Ten-year-old Discovers Energy-Storing Molecule by Accident
Yeah, the bar keeps going up on these grade-school geniuses. Last time it was a teenager who used the Fibonacci sequence to create a more efficient photovoltaic array.

North Brother Island Photos & History
You might not have heard of it, but this island in the East River near Manhattan has been basically abandoned since 1963 (the same year that Alcatraz was closed). It once housed Typhoid Mary, a small leper colony, a rehab center, a tuberculosis asylum and housing for GIs right after WWII. Now it’s one of the few wilderness areas close to the 20 Million people in the greater NYC area, and one of the few truly forbidden bits of real estate in the US. Tons of creepy photos included in the article.

Rasputin Was My Neighbor, and Other Stories
Sometimes, if people live long enough, history can seem to compress. Civil war widows, people who met Rasputin, this article has all sorts.

32 Megajoule Railgun Delivered to Navy
For testing! Yes, the US Navy now has a railgun. Projected muzzle velocities are estimated to be 4,500 mph to 5,700 mph. I wonder what the waiting period is for one of those?

The Future is Closer: Transparent Aluminum
You heard that right: transparent aluminum, just like in Star Trek IV (subtitle: space whales OR one of the good ones). It’s not metallic aluminum, more of an aluminum / ceramic hybrid, but I think that just makes it cooler.

The Man Who Hears Colors
And not because he has some sort of aphasia. Nope, he has a rare vision disorder which means he can’t see any colors at all — completely color blind. So he made a machine which let him hear the color spectrum.

LED Snowboarder
This is geeky AND weird AND fashion-related (yeah, I know). They put together an LED-embedded snowsuit, put a world-class snowboarder in it and then filmed him at night, using only the light the suit provides. It’s surreal.

Acoustic Stonehenge
A researcher named Waller thinks that Stonehenge might have been constructed based on the interference pattern created from two pipers playing in a field. Yeah, seriously, and he’s got a really intriguing theory to back it up, too. Oh, and get this: “Mr Waller is an expert in “archaeoacoustics””.

Imaginary Nukes
Historian and scholar Alex Wellerstein has created a utility online which lets you pick a spot on the map, and a size of bomb, and then see what the resulting damage would be in lovely concentric circles of nastiness.

DYI Village
I’ve linked to this project before, but it’s so cool I’m linking to it again. The article goes into more detail about the guy who is helping create a foundation with a simple goal: provide free, online instructions for building all the machines that a village would need to be built and survive. Everything. From tractors to windmills, circuit boards to bricks. Oh, and a 3D printer, of course.

Snooper Drones — Not Just for Kids Anymore!
So this animal rights group is trying to breakup an illegal live pigeon shoot. In order to catch the perpetrators in the act, they fly a spy drone over the private land where the shoot is going on — and the hunters shoot down the drone. (You know, allegedly.) Yes, we’re now in a world where we have spy drones and people shooting them down themselves.

Hackerspace Global Grid
On the subject of technology that used to be military-only, a group of hackers are putting together the technology to setup their own satellite GPS system.

Seeds from 30,000-year-old Plant Regenerated
Russian scientists resurrected seeds found buried in a squirrel’s hide-away some 30,000 years ago. The plant flowered! Next on their agenda, pre-historic squirrels and eventually the wooly mammoth.

Is There a Prize for Being Multilingual? Then This Guy Wins
The guy in question is 20, and knows 11 languages. He won a national competition in the UK for the 16 to 22-year-old who knew the most. Yeah, 11 languages. Don’t believe me? See him demonstrate all of them:

The Future is Closer: Space Elevator 2050
A Japanese construction firm has plans to build a space elevator circa 2050.

Blue People
File this under Medical Geeky. Some folks in Kentucky (Appalachia area) had a recessive genetic disorder that made their skin blue. Not kidding. It has to do with blood and hemoglobin and oxygen.

Ocean Depths
Neat info graphic showing the various depths of the ocean, the deepest points and the various inhabitants along the way.

The City of Samba Time-Lapse
Beautiful time-lapse video of Rio around the time of Mardi Gras. I’m not sure why, but whatever they did with the camera makes a lot of this look like (at first glance) some sort of giant model version of Rio with Super Tiny People. It’s not, though, it just looks like that. Highly recommend you use full-screen on this. Come for the samba, stay for the animatronic King Kong (life-sized), the dancing Darth Vader and his many Stormtroopers, the transformers costumes (that REALLY transform) and the velocoraptors (costumes, not animatronics).

Why Do Objects Have Mass? This Guy
Ok, well, “this guy” is Professor Peter Higgs, and it’s not like he’s responsible for objects having mass. However the particle he postulated should exist, the Higgs boson, most certainly (if it exists!) is. And Higgs figured out it should be there — in 1964 (without a computer or even a hand calculator).

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog: http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com

Geek Month in Review: January 2012

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Science, Television

By JB Sanders

Ring in the new year

Ghost Village
I don’t know how geeky this is, but it’s High Ranking Weird. UK Ministry of Defense evacuates a village in England and uses it for pre-Normandy Invasion training. Except the village is still “abandoned” today.

Long Exposure
Photography using long exposure times can be interesting, but usually that time is measured in seconds, at most minutes. Here’s a picture of Toronto with a 365 day exposure:

Random Band Names
I don’t know what the point of this website is, other than the obvious, but it’s cool and geeky, no doubt. John Scalzi, renown scifi author and blogger extraordinaire has created/helped with/designed (?) a random band-naming web thing:

Spiderman Silk
Scientists are genetically modifying silk worms to produce something more like spider silk, which is stronger than steel.

Money quote from the scientists, when asked about concerns that the modified silkworms might escape into the wild: “It’s hard to see how a silkworm producing spider silk would have any advantage in nature.”

Around the World in 5 Minutes
Guy quits his job, grabs his camera and travels around the world, taking pictures. Watch an amazing set of time-lapse photos from his trip.

D&D 5th Edition
Yes, Wizards of the Coast is talking about a new edition of the venerable RPG. Woo!

MakerBot
A real, available-now 3D printer that you can buy off-the-shelf, fully assembled (or as fully assembled as any printer ever is when shipped). Also, they use corn-based plastics which are fully biodegradable, so when you’re done with your doohickey, just toss in your compost heap. Still, it’s $1800 (not including shipping, I presume).

See the CES overview of it here:

And the company’s website here:

One Camera, One Picture, Infinite Focus
Imagine taking a picture, just one, and from that picture being able to refocus on anything in the picture AFTER you’ve taken it. Sound like someone drank a little too much something and then watched that scene in Blade Runner over and over again? Well, not quite. By “refocusing”, I don’t mean having an infinite zoom ability — just the ability to focus on something in the foreground or the background using the same image data. How does it work?

I’ll let the good folks at Ars Technica explain:

Oh, and a real consumer product appeared at CES this month, with a target date later this year to bring out a real product.

Want to see it in action, go here:

Digital Rug
The latest in interactive fabrics — now in a rug!

Apocalypse Later, Surf Now
It’s stunning what you can do with a waterproof camera and some digital effects software. And a boatload of talent, of course.

The Serial Killer Formula
Not a way to write novels or movie scripts. Actual scientists have developed a theory about when a serial killer is likely to kill next, or indeed in some way why they kill. Read on for the math and the neuroscience.

How to Format Your Text for Gibbering Madness
You just know this has to involve Cthulhu in some fashion, and it does! The following are the instructions for how to typeset any text so it looks like it was written by a madman.

Stuff You Don’t Know About Firefly
Infographic describing a whole bunch of fun facts about Firefly you probably don’t know:

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog: http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com

10 Questions with Avi Glijansky

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Interviews, Mythology, Television

1. For my readers who may not be familiar with it, can you tell them about “The Further Adventures of Cupid & Eros”?
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF CUPID AND EROS is a fantasy romantic comedy about two love gods (the titular Cupid and Eros) trying to set the world and their own love lives right.

While it’s commonly believed that Cupid and Eros are two names for the same god, in our world they are in fact colleagues, each the god of love in their respective pantheon. They still match up mortals and do their best to stem the tide of infidelity and divorce, but besides their common mission they are as different as night and Day. Cupid is the original “nice guy”; sweet, charming, but constantly in the “friend zone”. Eros on the other hand is sexy as hell, and irresistible to anything with a pulse—Mortal, God, or anything in between. He’s the ultimate romantic, she’s the ultimate personification of passion and unbridled sensuality.

When we first meet Cupid he’s still depressed from being dumped by his girlfriend Psyche. Eros has just about had it with his moping and her plans to help him recapture his confidence are what kicks the story off in our first season.

2. Where did the idea of Cupid and Eros doing their job in our modern times come from?
I’m a big nerd. Well OK, that’s not the entire answer, but it’s a big part of it. Ever since I was little, myths (not just Greek, but myths and legends from all cultures) were some of my favorite stories… right next to episodes of The Twilight Zone and just about any comic book I could get my hands on. I guess all that stuff kind of swirled around in my head and I found myself constantly intrigued by the idea of what these mythic figures would be like if they were walking around today.

The thing that set me off towards what would eventually become C&E was actually a panel from a SANDMAN comic by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman presented this banquet with representatives from different pantheons and folklores. I loved that idea of these different mythologies interacting directly… and I thought ‘OK, so Gaiman puts them in a palace, at a banquet… I’m going to put them in a gymnasium at what amounts to an awkward high-school reunion’ That idea, which would eventually become the Inter-Pantheon Mixer we see in episodes 5 and 6, was the beginning of Cupid & Eros.

As for why I chose focus on Cupid… At first it was simply because I thought it’d be funny to show a Cupid who can’t get a date himself… from there… well, lets just say I can relate (perhaps a bit too well) to his plight.

3. In future episodes can we look forward to them coming across competition from other love based deities like Aphrodite, Ishtar, Venus, or Qetesh?
I wouldn’t call it competition exactly, but I do want to feature a lot of those gods you mentioned. Aphrodite and Venus figure prominently in our heroes’ stories… If you go back and read some of those myths (not the least of which is Cupid & Psyche) you realize Cupid’s relationship with his mother was about as neurotic as they come.

And because in our world the different pantheons co-exist, I see different gods of the same thing as being like cops from another precinct… there’s some competition but there’s also the need for cooperation. I have a story I want to tell where Cupid ends up having to work with Kama (or Kamadeva, the hindu god of love). Kama is also an archer so there’s no way the two wouldn’t have a bit of a professional rivalry.

4. In the first episode it’s revealed that Psyche left Cupid for a dermatologist. How did you decide that out of all the occupations that would be the one of Psyche’s love interest?
Well, Psyche’s beauty is so central to her myth, but I figure if your boyfriend’s mom is Venus… after a while wouldn’t you start to worry that you might not live up? And wouldn’t you constantly look for ways to preserve that beauty both in the godly realms and on the mortal plane?

Also I lived in in NYC up until 2006 and there’s a dermatologist whose subway ads are legendary… in my mind that’s who Psyche is currently shacking up with 🙂

5. I’m a big fan of the deity Quan Yin (Kwan Yin). I think she’d be an excellent “straight man” in a comedy setting, any chance I could see her in a future episode?
Believe it or not, a version of her is actually present at the Inter-Pantheon Mixer! If you look very closely at the name tag on the young goddess who Cupid mistakenly believes is smiling at him, you’ll see it actually reads “Guan Yin,” one of the alternate spellings for Quan Yin. I liked the idea that a goddess of mercy would unintentionally shoot down our hero… and I figured she’d be the kind of goddess Cupid would be drawn to. Plus there’s a real treasure trove of legends about her and ways in which she’s been presented. I think you’re right she would be a great addition to the cast.

In fact, almost every single extra at the mixer is actually tied to a real deity that we wanted to potentially bring in to the show in the future… but we did take care to be a bit vague about it so that we would have some flexibility down the road.

6. Are there any particular deities you’re fond of that might make an appearance in future episodes?
Oh man, there are so many. As mentioned, Venus, Aphrodite and Kama all figure into stories I want to tell. And Neikea, our villain at the end of season 1, has a whole family (not least of which is her mother, the goddess of discord Eris) who aren’t too fond of love gods.

I love the Egyptian and African pantheons and would love to bring them in. As much as I love putting modern spins on the Greek/Roman pantheons part of the fun of the show is calling attention deities that most westerners really don’t think about.

7. You’re the creator, writer, and director of “Cupid & Eros”. Can you describe the process of taking your ideas and ending up with an episode?
Things changed a bit episode to episode, but the basic plan of attack remained the same.

I started by writing our scripts. In all but one case I knew who my actors would be so I could write with them in mind. It’s one of the perks of having so many insanely talented friends. What’s more, my key crew – Director of Photography Jefferson Loftfield, Production Designer Vicky Chan, Gaffer Edwin Kim and Costume Designer Tera Struck – had all come on board as I was writing our first few episodes. Because they were with me from the beginning, I knew that we were all on the same page even before we shot our first frame of footage.

I wrote all of season one in 3 episode story arcs, so after I had a draft of each arc I would send it to my co-producer Andy Wells. Andy would then look at the draft, and in addition to making any story suggestions, he would identify areas that might have been problematic for our budget. One of Andy’s strengths, and one of the reasons why I was so fortunate to have him at my side, is his ability to figure out ways to stretch every dollar to the max. He was the definition of the creative producer.

Once our scripts were locked Andy would handle most of the details organizing the shoot so I could concentrate on working with my cast and crew on the creative side of things. One of the great things about working on something episodic like a web series is that we all grew with the show as the shoot progressed.

Yes I always had final say, but I knew that my colleagues understood the show, its world and its characters just as I did. A director is only ever as good as his crew and I truly believe I worked with some of the best.

Once production wrapped I moved to the editing room. I’m fortunate to have a phenomenal editor, Matthew Smith (who also edits The Guild, a web series created by Felica Day that is largely considered the mark by which other web series are measured). I would do a first cut of each episode and then Matt would come in and take my ideas and polish them, often suggesting even better ways to structure a scene or pace an episode.

While we did our best to stay ahead of the curve, we often found ourselves working right up until the night before an episode was due to go live. All in all we were actively in production and post production from roughly February of 2010 to February of 2011.

8. Where can our readers go to see episodes of “Further Adventures of Cupid & Eros”?
Our home base is at www.cupidanderos.com There you can watch all of our first season, learn more about the show and the people behind it, and get updates on screenings, new content, etc. This month you’ll also be able to go there to buy our Season 1 DVD which is going to be filled with not just our 9 episode first season, but all our additional content, photos, and audio commentaries.

And if people prefer, you can also watch us via Hulu, YouTube, Blip, and other online networks. There’s a complete list of all the places you can go to see C&E here: http://cupidanderos.tumblr.com/watch

9. Do you have other projects our readers can look forward to? Can readers look forward to more episodes of “Cupid & Eros”?
I hope we get to do more “Cupid & Eros” but at present we’re on a bit of a break. Our first season was completely self-funded and the stark reality at the moment is that I don’t have the resources to do that again… not without either dropping the quality of the show or asking my cast and crew to work for free, both of which I’m simply not willing to do.

We’re using what we have to build our audience (which is why I’m so thankful for chances like this) and hopefully we’ll soon get to a point where we can move forward with season 2. I’ve got a lot of stories left to tell and the next two seasons are already plotted out, so it’s just a question of finances (as it often is with independent filmmaking).

To that end, if people dig what we’re doing they can help by spreading the word far and wide. Following us on twitter/liking us on Facebook. Subscribing to our channel on YouTube or Blip.tv. If people wish, they can also donate directly to the show via our website. But the most important thing people can do to help is just watch and encouraging others to do the same.

In the meantime, I do have other work out there. My other web series The Silver Lake Badminton and Adventurers Club ( – co-created and directed by my C&E Editor Matthew Smith) has it’s first episode out and can be seen at www.slbaac.com. Some of my short films are available online and can be seen at my website www.highway9pictures.com or on my Youtube page, youtube.com/user/aglijansky

10. Parting shot! Ask us here at The Magical Buffet any one question!
You already mentioned your affinity for Quan Yin, what other gods or goddesses would you like to see re-envisioned for 2012? I promise to give you credit if we steal… I mean, borrow your idea 🙂

Oh geez, don’t ask Mom to pick a favorite! Of course here on the website I’ve gotten to discuss a lot of my favorites already, that’s the joy of having your own site! We already mentioned Kuan Yin. I haven’t gotten to her on the site yet, but I have an affection for Kali. I tend to have a soft for figures who have been misunderstood or who have gotten a bad rap, so I list Set, Pandora, and Haephaetus amongst my favorites. I love Pele because in my opinion, what woman doesn’t? And I could go on, and on. But a real favorite of mine was technically an actual woman, but in my mind she is as legendary of a figure as an mythological character of her era, and that is Phryne, the courtesan of ancient Greece who lived a life larger than perhaps the Gods themselves.

About Avi Glijansky:
Avi Glijansky is an independent filmmaker living in Los Angeles, CA. He is the Writer and Director of several short films including OCEAN CITY (Haig Manoogian Post Production Award, NYU; Opening Night Film, Cape May NJ State Film Festival; Nominee Best Student Short, Ashland Independent Film Festival, First Glance Philadelphia Film Festival, Rehobooth Beach Film Festival; Nominee Best Dramatic Short, Ohio Independent Film Festival). In 2005, a draft of his feature film screenplay, 30TH STREET, took 2nd place in the “25 and Under” category of the annual Set in Philadelphia Screenplay Competition organized by the Philadelphia Film Office. In 2006, Avi and his producing partner, Adam Spielberg (Ramin Bahrani’s PLASTIC BAG), were among the final 15 filmmakers considered by Jonathan Lethem when he held a contest to give away the option to his novel YOU DON’T LOVE ME YET. Avi also adapted the novel MESSIAH, by Gore Vidal, for producers Mark Petracca (WILDWOOD DAYS) and Michael Butler (HAIR). From January 2007 through January 2009, Avi was a Production and Development Executive at Los Angeles-based Upload Films. During his time at Upload, Avi was intimately involved in all of the company’s projects including SHOTGUN STORIES, THE BABYSITTERS, PRINT, and DROOL. Avi is the Writer/Director/Co-Producer of THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF CUPID AND EROS, an original web series about the love god Cupid and his terrible love life. Season 1, which features guest appearances by Bradford Anderson (GENERAL HOSPITAL) Jeff Cannata (THE TOTALLY RAD SHOW) and Taryn O’Neill (COMPULSIONS), had its finale on Feb 28th 2011. The show was one of six winners of NYU’s Inaugural Web Series Showcase and has received great reviews from Tubefilter, Eguiders, ThoseVideoGuys, Indie Intertube PopCultureMonster and tVadio. Most recently, Avi, co-created, co-wrote and produced THE SILVERLAKE BADMINTON AND ADVENTURERS CLUB which won the judges prize at the Celebrate the Web 4: Raising the Bar Web Pilot Festival.

You can follow him on twitter @ag457 and find his work online at www.highway9pictures.com

Hey Folks! Rebecca here. I told Avi that I was going to embed the first episode, “I’m Fine”, of “The Further Adventures of Cupid and Eros” here at the end of the interview. I told him that after my readers saw the first 5 minute episode they wouldn’t be able to resist watching the rest of the series. So go ahead, give it a try. We’ll talk in the comments after you watched the rest of the series. 🙂

Copy and Seed

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Religion

Just before Christmas the Swedish government agency Kammarkollegiet registered the Church of Kopimism as a religious organization within their country. Kopimism, founded by 19-year-old philosophy student Isak Gerson, claims that “kopyacting” – sharing information through copying – is akin to a religious service.

Gerson, in a statement quoted in a January 5, 2012 BBC article says, “For the Church of Kopimism, information is holy and copying is a sacrament. Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore copying is central for the organisation and its members.”

The BBC article goes on to state, “The church, which holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V (shortcuts for copy and paste) as sacred symbols, does not directly promote illegal file sharing, focusing instead on the open distribution of knowledge to all,” But that, “Despite the new-found interest in the organisation, experts said religious status for file-sharing would have little effect on the global crackdown on piracy.”

I’m always intrigued by the idea of new religions and this one is certainly a good time. I’m not sure how I feel about the BBC applying quotes to the title of spiritual leader when referencing Isak Gerson, I mean the story is how the religion was officially recognized. On the other hand, I love how the BBC keeps thumbing their noses at Myanmar by calling them Burma, so can I get too bent out of shape when they get cheeky with a month old religion?

A trip to the Swedish website reveals a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. And a lot of stuff I can’t read! However a healthy chunk of the content is in English, and there is a link to a just starting out site for the United States. Although keep in mind that Kopimism is only officially recognized as a religion in Sweden.

Of course what you’re really asking yourself is, can Kopimism be a “real” religion? A religious philosophy founded on the idea that information intrinsically has value and that copying the information is an important task, increasing the value of the information and insuring the information’s survival in the vastness of the internet? There are certainly stranger things out there, we’ve got deities made out of pasta for His Noodly Appendaged sake!

Is it “real”? Is it teenage idealism? Is it a hustle? Only time will tell, that’s why it’s so much fun.

The Hatless Zatanna

by Administrator, posted in Art, Books, Geek Stuff

Not too long ago while at our localish comic book store I saw not one, but two graphic novels for Zatanna on their shelves. Since my usual comic book store closed I’ve lost all connection with the comic book world. So while once I would have known new Zatanna comics were coming out, now I found out by being shocked at seeing two graphic novels on the shelf. Of course I bought them both.

For those of you unfamiliar with Zatanna, Wikipedia offers the nice summary of, “Zatanna Zatara is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Murphy Anderson, Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman vol. 1 #4 (October–November 1964). The character, both a stage magician and a real magician like her father Giovanni “John” Zatara, is known for her involvement with the Justice League, her retconned childhood association with Batman, and her crossing of the Vertigo line with characters such as romantic partner John Constantine and protégé Timothy Hunter.”

I’ve always liked Zatanna. I was introduced to her when she popped up in assorted Vertigo comic titles, since Vertigo was my introduction to comic books in general. I’ve often made the argument that if Hollywood is looking for a female superhero to launch a franchise, they should forget such a divisive figure like Wonder Woman, and take a good long look at my girl Zatanna. She’s superhero enough for the Justice League, so that should be superhero enough for Hollywood. But let’s get back on track here…..

Unbeknownst to me at least two Zatanna graphic novels came out, “The Mistress of Magic” and Shades of the Past”. Had I missed more? My husband helpfully hopped onto to Amazon.com to see if there were more. The good news is, I hadn’t missed out on any others. However, while he was searching Amazon Jim had a Zatanna Halloween costume come up. He commented that it wasn’t too bad but then he noticed something, “Hey, it doesn’t come with a top hat!” I told him that had to be an error, you can’t be Zatanna without a black top hat. So he showed me.

The Hatless Official DC Zatanna Costume

What’s worse is that this is actually the official DC Comics Zatanna costume! And no black top hat! Even the official Playboy Magician costume comes with a black top hat!

Playboy gives their Magician a Black Top Hat!

Even this random Magician’s Assistant costume has a tiny black top hat with it! Full disclosure, I really kind of dig this costume.

It's not a full size Black Top Hat, but it's a Hat.

While ranting about Zatanna’s black top hat it struck me, I had really been under whelmed with the covers of both Zatanna graphic novels I had just purchased. Why? Could it be the lack of black top hat?

The Mistress of Magic - No Hat
Shades of the Past - Again, No Hat.

I just can’t help it, call me a snob, or old-fashioned, but it’s not like she has to have it on all the time, but when she’s a cover girl, when you’re recreating her iconic look, Zatanna has a black top hat.

Zatanna from Hawkman #4
Everyday Magic

Geek Month in Review: December 2011

by Administrator, posted in Books, Geek Stuff, Science

Deck the geek-halls…

The Oldest Businesses Still in Business
So there are two hotels in Japan, founded twelve years apart. The oldest is Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan, founded in (get this) 705 CE. Seriously. It’s had 52 operators since it was founded.

More interesting to me was the one founded just twelve years later: Hoshi Ryokan. This place has been run by the same family, for 46 generations. Let that sink in a moment. Forty-six generations.

Robot Hummingbirds
They fly (more or less) just like real hummingbirds — no propellers, just wings. They’ve been developed for DARPA for surveillance work.

Ice Hotel — Now with Tron Suite
So if you’re an uber-fan of the movie(s) Tron, here’s a great place to take a vacation: the TRON suite, in an ice-hotel. Featuring lights embedded in the ice.

Survive the Apocolypse Home for Sale
Worried about zombies? Don’t be, with this modest ranch-style home built over a converted missile silo and bunker. Shotguns sold separately.

Sometimes Writing Letters Works
So this guy sent a bunch of published authors and critics a survey, asking them about their use of symbolism in their work, or perceived symbols in the work of others. Dry, right? Well, the guy sent the survey to people like Fritz Leiber, Lloyd Biggle Jr., Judith Merril, A. J. Budrys, Jack Kerouac, Ayn Rand, Ralph Ellison, Ray Bradbury, John Updike, Saul Bellow, and Norman Mailer. Why did he do it? Mostly to settle an argument he was having with his high school English teacher — the guy in question (Bruce McAllister) was 16 at the time. Click on the article for the fascinating replies. More than half the people he mailed wrote back.

Visualization of a Magnetic Storm
Slap on your space boots, we’re going some place super-geeky. Scientists created a visualization of a magnetic storm interacting with the upper atmosphere. As Phil Plait said it, anyone else reminded of Forbidden Planet? Full screen it for best effect.

Methane Fountains
There’s a term I didn’t expect to hear about someplace on Earth. You’d think that’d be about some icey moon orbiting Jupiter or something. But no, apparently there are plumes of methane gas bubbling up from the Arctic ocean. Lovely!

Newton’s Marked-Up Copy
Sometimes a marked-up book can be worth more than a pristine one. Like in the case of Isaac Newton’s own first-printing copy of Principa Mathematica, where he made notes about the corrections he wanted to make for the second printing. See the full digitized copy.

Hidden Pools
Because every house should have one of these. Seriously, watch the video. It’s a Bond villain’s swimming pool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7mXLqIJXHs

Kinda Big
A consortium of 40 universities and institutes will embark on a project to build the second largest human-built structure in the world (after the Great Wall of China). What’s it do? Detect neutrinos. Yeah, I know, not very exciting. But it does cool science things. The giant detector will be a stand of vertically-tethered towers, with highly sensitive optical receptors at even intervals along it’s length. Then these things will be tied to the sea floor in the Mediterranean.

In case you have trouble visualizing what this thing will look like, here’s the money shot:

Carved Books
You won’t believe how cool these look until you see the pictures. Yes, sculptures made from books.

20 Best Visualizations of 2011
I know, lists are cheap and charts are the worst. Well, consider this the best of the worst. Actually, they’re better than that sounds. These are some cool ways of visualizing information, sometimes very complex information (like an overview of the US military or every country that has every participated in the Space Race and what they did).

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog: http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com

Geek Month in Review: November 2011

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Music, Science

By JB Sanders

Some interesting reading as the snow falls…

Stars over Crater Lake
Another amazing time-lapse video of the star-scape over Crater Lake. Watch for the vault of the heavens view reflected in the smooth surface of the lake about 2/3 of the way into the video. And for the photography geeks out there, details on equipment used at the end of the video.

They Might Be Giants Slashdot Interview
There’s a lot of Geek in this link: pre-eminent indie-rockers They Might Be Giants, Slashdot and Science! For those who might need a reminder, They Might Be Giants are an odd-ball rock band from way back in the 80’s who gave us such songs as “Istanbul (not Constantinople)”, “Particle Man”, “Birdhouse in Your Soul”, and “Boss of Me” (better known as the theme song of the TV show “Malcom in the Middle”). So why are they Geeky (capital G)? Because these guys are HUGE geeks. They used USENET groups in 1992 to send notices to their fans about upcoming gigs. They created Dial-a-Song, basically an answering machine people could call to listen to their new music (and some fake ads). They created one of the first artist-owned online music stores, selling MP3s directly to fans before most record companies knew about this Internet thing. I could go on.

This is a Good Sign
More and more kids are getting into the Maker Movement — which is basically Mad Scientist Training Camp, as far as I can see. There are more kids getting into creating things, buying circuit boards and soldering them together, for instance, or making their own marshmallow cannons. Great trend!

Electric-powered Multi-copter Manned Flight
Some German scientists/hobbyists built and flew the first manned multi-copter. What’s a multi-copter, you say? It’s a vehicle that produces lift (and flight) via multiple helicopter-like rotors. It’s like a hovercraft that flies. Watch the video to see what I mean. Interestingly, this is all done via electric motors. The folks behind it estimate that a one hour flight on the final device would cost about 6 euros of electricity to run.

Extreme Light Infrastructure
Or ELI for short! Scientists want to build a laser to “rip a hole in space-time”. Yeah, it’s another start to a scifi movie. To do this, they want to concentrate 10 lasers wielding 200 petawatts of power into one spot for a trillionth of a second. Fun!

Fake Mars Mission Returns from Fake Mars
Remember that Fake Mars Mission I mentioned a few Geek Reviews ago? Where they finally reached Fake Mars? No? Here’s the link:

Well, the Fake Mars crew is back from Fake Mars. It appears to have been a great success. No murders, for instance. When you consider that 6 guys just spent 520 days in the same space as a bus, stabbing a guy for taking the last pudding cup doesn’t seem that out there. The other great success was that they didn’t leave their fake spacecraft, even though they could at any time — so it’s at least more successful than the Bio-Dome (1 or 2).

288,000 Jelly Beans, One Singer and a Stop-Motion Camera
How to make a music video that’s both simple and amazingly artful. I never imagined that jelly beans could also do surreal sound-scapes, too. The link includes the video, and a behind-the-scenes look at how it was all done. One shocking factoid from the behind-the-scenes video: no green screen was used. The singer lay on top of a glass case over the jelly beans to make the video. Yeah.

3D Volumetric Projection
This is the very early steps towards those cool scifi holograms we’ve seen for 40 years in the theater — only for real! Right now they’re limited to just 10 rotational voxels, but the prof working on it hopes to use over 100 projectors (small ones, I’m guessing) to provide real, crisp resolution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijOK_hb18kE

Global Village Construction Set
This group has created and posted the plans for 50 different industrial machines that they consider crucial for a “small civilization with modern comforts”. It includes a 3D printer, and the ability to build a very modern village.

Video Time Machine
Pick a year, and watch what comes up on the screen. It’s a giant archive of the video culture, organized by year, and randomized for your amusement. Sports clips, commercials, video games, news casts, movies, and music.

It’s a Polaroid! Sort-of
So there’s this camera that gives you an immediate print of what you photographed? Sound familiar? Like 1948 all over again? Well, it’s not. The same company that brought you the instant film camera now is coming out with a digital camera (14MP) that’s tied to an instant printer in the same unit. I’m not sure if this is a genius move or using new technology to do something old-fashioned.

Darwin and Human Emotions
Did you know that Darwin conducted an experiment (over 150 years ago) to see whether the facial expressions of human emotions were recognized or used the same regardless of cultural background. He did! They do! And now there’s an international experiment being conducted to further study this effect, only involving as many people as can get to the online website and take the test.

An Airship That Goes Anywhere
I’m sure I’ve posted about this before, but this is the first real video of a working prototype I’ve seen. This company makes what’s called a Hybrid Airship — the hybrid part is because it’s a little like a plane, a helicopter and a regular (helium-filled, thank you) airship. It can take off and land without the need of a runway (or even land, if you’ve got the water-gear on). It can stay aloft for up to 3 weeks at a time (yes WEEKS), and the full version will be 1000 feet long and be able to carry over 1000 tons. I mean, wow! Sure, you’ve heard that all before. How serious is this? The US military has bought a few.

Acoustic Ruler Using iPhone
This is kind of wild. This guy made an iPhone app that measures distance just using acoustics. It has two modes: two phones or 1 (w/headphones). You put one iPhone where you want to measure to, and the first phone where you want to measure from, they play some tones and calculate the difference. Or the same using the headphones.

Amazing Fly-over of Earth
From the International Space Station. For best results, put on HD, full-screen it, and turn up the volume on the trippy musical score.

Raise the Ice Shields!
The capital city of Mongolia, Ulan Bator, is planning on creating artificial glaciers that will very slowly melt over the course of the summer to help cool the city. Read about how they plan on doing that:

Ghost Mountains Explained
And before you get up on your high-horse about silly paranormal photos and PhotoShop, hush. These are mountains in Antarctica, buried under 4 km of ice. Scientists have finally figured out how mountains exist where everyone thought it was just a barren flat wasteland of ice. The article includes a link to an animated explanation.

New Maps of the Moon
Higher resolution topographic maps of the moon are now available, including false-color images showing detail up to 100 meters.

Giant Robot Snake
Designers have created a giant robot snake 35 feet long (because THAT was necessary), and even better, it’s based on a 50-foot long prehistoric serpent. Watch the video so you can see the very realistic movement of the giant robot snake, and also the guy in the spider-leg car (no, I’m not kidding).

Computer Legends First Computers
Speaking of giants, this article asks several giants of the computer age about their first computer experiences. See what Vint Cerf, William Gibson and others remember.

Building the World’s Largest Tesla Coils
Or how to do man-made lightning. By “world’s largest”, they mean tesla coils 10 stories tall, and 260 feet apart. Yes, there is a video.

The 2,100-Year-Old Wrist Watch
Remember the Antikythera mechanism? So last century, right? Well how about this wrist-watch version? Watchmaker’s Hublot have put together a concept piece that replicates the Antikythera’s inner workings in miniature, with a handy time-keeping circuit to show you the time, too. It can accurately show the motions of the 5 planetary objects the Greeks knew about 2200 years ago and predict eclipses. Full video from the watchmaker’s detailing their work.

Worlds lightest material
Remember aerogel? The stuff that’s super-light and non-conductive? Weighs almost nothing? So last century.

They’re Just Cake Sprinkles
Ever wonder how many cake sprinkles you’d need to make a photo-realistic mosaic? About 221,184.

Flying Robots Build Tower
I know, it sounds soooo 2236, but really, it’s happening today.

Earthscraper Concept Taking Off
Yes, that’s “earth scraper” as opposed to skyscraper. The idea is to build down (which has happened before). In this case, the idea is to build down BIG. Like arcology big.

Not sure what an arcology is? Try this:

Miniatur Wunderland
Think you have a nifty model train set? Think you’ve seen some great miniature setups? Think again. Let’s try 12,000 meters of track (yes, that’s 12 km), 200,000 human figurines or 300,000 lights.


Those pesky time travelers, always trying “fix” things. This guy was caught outside the Large Hadron Collider and admitted to sabotage, claiming to be from the future and intent on stopping it from discovering things and destroying the world.

The priceless quote from the article? “Mr Cole was taken to a secure mental health facility in Geneva but later disappeared from his cell. Police are baffled, but not that bothered.”

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog: http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com

Geek Month in Review: October 2011

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Movies, Science

by JB Sanders

Victorian Lego mansions

And because this is Halloween Month, they’re haunted and abandoned. Yeah, that’s right — haunted LEGO houses.

Suburban life, 4000 years ago

See computer reconstructions of a town from the Bronze Age, which looks remarkably suburban to our modern eyes.

Chocolate Like You’ve Never Tasted

I don’t mean that euphemistically, because these are varieties of the cocoa bean that have been discovered in the Amazonian jungles of Peru. One of the varieties was recently developed by a Swiss chocolatier who sold them for $60/pound. And the reason it’s on the Geeky News? Scientists are sequencing the plant DNA and plotting the mineral contents of the soil where the varieties grow to figure out what makes them taste different.

Megavirus

That’s something you want see in a headline, isn’t it? Real news story, thankfully not as movie-of-the-week as that sounds.

Black Death Decoded

Speaking of tiny malicious organisms, scientists have sequenced the genome of the strain of the Black Death (y-pestis) that killed 50 million people back in the 1300’s. Hopefully to better understand it, and not to ransom the world for 1 billion dollars.

Things Science Fiction Films Have Ruined for John Scalzi

Always an amusing author, this time about things scifi films have ruined for him.

The Aurora Borealis Never Looked Better

So there’s this hotel in Finland that will rent you this cute little cabin specially designed for star-gazing and seeing the Aurora Borealis. Why are they perfect for it? Because they’re geodesic domed “cabins” made of thermal glass (remember, this is Finland, it’s a wee chill).

It’s Back to the, er, Past?

The DeLorean Car Company is releasing an electric car in 2013. Yes, a gull-winged, all-electric vehicle. No, it’s not powered by fusion. Not yet, anyway.

Actual Hobbit House, Minus Hobbits

It’s an off-the-grid, semi-buried, earth-friendly house in Wales. Not exactly a hobbit house, but strongly similar. Looks pretty cool, too.

It’s a Game AND Science!

Protein folding is part of bimolecular science trying to figure out the ideal structures of proteins, and it has possible applications to all sorts of things — HIV/AIDs research, cancer cures, Alzheimer’s. So instead of throwing a fancy screensaver at the problem (ala SETI@home), some clever bunch have come up with a game, and are letting smart-ass gamers find the best folding strategies. That’s right, it’s a video game where winning means curing cancer!
Details and science here:

Inserting Synthetic Objects Into Real Photographs

Prosaic title; amazing results. Science fiction means never believing what you see ever again. These guys have come up with a method for inserting computer-generated objects into a real photographic scene, either statically, or as part of an animation, so that they look real. Seriously real. Watch the video if you don’t believe me.

Solar-Powered Airships

Who doesn’t love airships? All the fun of flying without the jet-fuel headaches. Plus a HECK of a lot more room in the vehicle. Well, now there’s a company working on airships (actual heavier-than-air models) that are powered entirely by photovoltaic panels on the hull. They call them SolarShips. Watch the video to see what the giant-sized cargo hauler looks like.

Only Two Hands!

So this guy is juggling three Rubik’s Cubes. Not that interesting, right? Just juggling. But he’s also solving one of them at the same time as juggling the other two. See for yourself:

From SciFi to Your Wall

There have been a few scifi novels that used bioluminescence for lighting, but no one has really brought the concept to … er … light. Until now! Phillips, yes, the other light-bulb folks, have a working prototype. They power it methane and compost drawn from their concept-home microbial loop system (food waste from the kitchen, basically).

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog: http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com

Geek Month in Review: September 2011

by Administrator, posted in Books, Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Science

by JB Sanders

Falling into September

3D-Printed Self-Assembling Virus Model
So this professor of Molecular Graphics (now there’s a specialty!) designed and then 3D printed a plastic model that, once you put in the magnets, will go from a jumble of pieces to a full globular model of the virus it’s based on. And there’s video!

I Think There’s a Horror Movie in This
Folks in the Philippines capture a crocodile 21-feet big.

You Have 150 Half-siblings, and Counting
This sounds like something from a scifi novel about clones, but no. It’s modern day. Apparently some fertility clinics have let those couples seeking to have children via in vitro fertilization use “popular” sperm donors a little too frequently. Some donor-fathers have upwards of 150 biological children conceived this way, and thus those kids have 149+ half-siblings.

Self-lacing Nikes? Check!
Nike patented the self-lacing sneakers (ala Back to the Future) and are now set to bring them to market. Really. How many more items do we need to come true for Back to the Future to be Right Damn Now?

Abandoned Technology Across the World
Including a sub base! How cool is that? If it wasn’t in Albania, that might be a fun little fixer-upper opportunity.

It Eats Fridges
Because that’s what it’s designed to do. GE has this giant machine that breaks down any old fridge into it’s component parts, for recycling.

Victorian Kitchen Unearthed
So this couple is doing a renovation of their stately mansion and when clearing out the clutter discover a Victorian-era kitchen blocked off and untouched for 60 years. It’s both geeky and gothic.

Dinosaur Feathers Found in Amber
You know what comes next, right?

How the Romans Invented Atomic Theory
Not kidding, not a conspiracy theory. There’s a guy named Lucretius who came up with the idea that everything was made of really tiny particles about 200 years before the birth of Christ. Ironically enough, considering my dating scheme, he also said that the universe was created without the need of gods, spirits, angels or cosmic intelligence. The NPR story is about not only the mind-blowing nature of that theory but how his book survived 2000+ years.

How Wrong Can You Be? Pretty Damned Wrong.
Experts frequently predict things that simply don’t come true. Telephones, light bulbs, iPads — oh wait, no.

Spectrographic Analysis of a Box of Crayons
Ever wonder how blue that blue crayon in the box is? Wonder no more! With handy poster of the resulting color graphs.

One Car, Printed to Order
Not scifi anymore, this company is actually poised to produce these things en masse. Even if it looks like something a production designer for a scifi film cooked up overnight for his “future car”.

See Your Dreams on YouTube
Because that’s not a scary thought — not at all. Scientists at UC Berkley have had some success in “decoding and reconstructing people’s dynamic visual experiences”. They’re using fMRi technology and some serious computers. Wild stuff.

Electric Light Cycle
Yeah, you heard that right — those crazy motorcycle guys who created a gasoline-powered light-cycle (yours, for a mere $50k) now have an electric version, which just seems cooler overall.

Microbial Messengers
How awesome is a code made up if microbes that fluoresce different colors? Pretty damned awesome.

Trying to Find a Great Book?
Look no further than NPR’s Giant Flowchart of Scifi (and Fantasy). It’s amusing and snarky!

Flying Car? No. Flying Carpet? Yes!
So this PhD student read a paper which changed his research direction from printed circuits using nano-ink to undulating waveforms based on biomimicing manta rays. It’s a weird world, isn’t it? He’s had some success in small-scale trials in making a “flying carpet” — by using magnetics to stimulate air currents and creating the same kind of ground-effect cushion of air that a hover craft has. Neato, huh?

My City Has an Operating System
Let the jokes commence. This company is developing an OS just for running cities (traffic lights, waste systems, energy supply, etc) called UrbanOS.

The Tinyest RPG Ever
So small, it fits on the back of a business card. See it and believe it.

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog: http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com

Geek Month in Review: August 2011

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Movies, Science

By JB Sanders

Geeky in the heat…

Bubble Universes

More possible proof of parallel universes, now in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). It’s more than just math theory! Probably.

Fields of Light

Not an alien landscape on some distant planet, but an art installation using fiber optic lights.

Bavarian Tunnels

More than 700 odd tunnel networks have been discovered in Bavaria, most dating back to Medieval times. Almost nothing has been found in them, “almost as if they were swept clean”. Weird, huh?

A City Frozen in Time

For 37 years — since 1974. It’s the city of Nicosia in Cyprus, abandoned when the island was divided between Greek and Turkish parts. Wild photographs worth the stop-over.

Shadowrun, Anyone?

So some clever hackers have pieced together an interface to various cracking tools via the Microsoft Kinect — so that you can see the computer like a first-person shooter, and move around by simply waving your arms.

Mad About Metered Billing?

Welcome to 1886! Yes, back then people complained about telephone company shenanigans. Read up on the amusing details:

Smart Cast

For when you break a bone, and want the hi-tech treatment. The cast monitors the situation with your muscles, the bone’s healing progress and let’s doctors monitor everything in real-time (or later over a martini, if they want).

New Blade Runner Movie?

It could be good. They’ve got Ridley Scott directing it. What’s up in the air is whether it’ll be a prequel (blah), a sequel or just set in the same universe.

This Isn’t the Start of SciFi Movie

It really isn’t — it’s a real live news report. Here’s the headline: “Orange Goo at Alaskan Village Found to be Fungal Spores, Not Eggs”. I just can’t make up stuff that good.

Supra-Genius

So this 13-year-old kid uses the Fibonacci sequence and the pattern of leaves on trees to create a solar-panel array that is 20-50% more efficient than conventionally arranged arrays. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of this kid in the future — hopefully not as he ambles down main street in his death-ray equipped juggernaut armor.

All Pop-Culture Robots

Can you name them all? Not a quiz, just a giant picture of them all in one place.

Best Wedding Photos Ever!

Really, I’m not kidding. It’s a slow build, though. Scroll down the page slowly for best effect. (Alex, this one’s for you.)

Copper Man!

Ok, so not as exciting as it sounds, Copper Man is the name of the all-copper mannequin that US Army researchers used to gauge how well the standard flight gear insulated the crews of airplanes during WWII. Wacky, huh?

Weather Report from 1965

Or 1984, or 1384, or whatever floats your boat. Historical weather reports. Handy for those of you writing novels set in the past, rather than the future.

The Geek Zodiac

How could I not link to this? I’m apparently a Daikaiju (e.g. Godzilla, King Kong, etc).

Video Brings Portal to Life

I know, it sounds like I’m describing some kind of Lovecraft-inspired horror movie which is just a remake of a better Japanese horror movie, but no. We’re talking about Portal, the video game, and some fan’s amazing conversion of the portal gun idea into a tiny cinematic romp.

The Trans-siberian to Alaska Railway

Yes, this means a tunnel under the Bering Strait. Hooboy! Russia has set aside $65 Billion dollars for the project. Seriously.

Mindset of the Class of 1915

You may, or may not, be familiar with the Beloit College Mindset list, which is a big list of things the incoming freshman class has either always had, always known or never known in their lifetimes. Depending on your age, it’s a frightening and hilarious list. In answer to that, here’s a list of what the class of 1915 (the freshman class from 100 years ago) thought or knew:

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog: http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com