Gravity Lens Weblog

Gravity Lens Archive October 13- October 30 2005

Sunday, October 30

I'm off on a mini road trip. Probably won't post until Tuesday. Happy Halloween.

Friday, October 28

Something Awful's Photoshop Phriday pisses on our childhood with The Grown-up World of Richard Scarry.

Cinescape reports that George Takei has revealed that he's gay, which I'm certain will result in a large scale online re-evaluation of pictures like this. (UPDATE: Scant minutes after posting this, Metafilter put up a similar gag with these two photos) Your homework is to find a copy of Warp 11's song Suds Me Up, Sulu.

TV Squad gives us their list of the 5 worst sci-fi series of all-time.

Popular Science asks: Will Tourists Beat the Government Back to the Moon?

More importantly, will George Jetson lead a Scout Troop there?

Thursday, October 27

SF Signal noticed that the votes were in on the New Scientist poll about The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever. You'll notice there is no Trek product in the overall top ten, but they do show up in the TV category.

Wednesday, October 26

Bill White of The Space Review says we're going to the Moon to mine for platinum.

Currently making the rounds: The Octocube, a sculpture, which measures about six feet in every direction, presenting the three-dimensional "shadow" of a four-dimensional solid object. Neat Flash animation of it rotating here.

Obligatory Wikipedia sidebar on hypercubes in science fiction.

For your homework, watch The 4-D Man with Robert Lansing, and go read the issue of Alan Moore's 1963 Tales of the Uncanny where Hypernaut fought the 4-D invader.

We should also mention the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth dimensions.

Tuesday, October 25

The Munch Museum in Oslo is selling a board game about the armed theft of The Scream, the expressionist masterpiece taken from the gallery more than a year ago.

Nothing makes me laugh like reading the Chiller Theater guest list.

Assorted Items: Bjorn Carey of Space.com examines the new map of Mars.

Joanna Glasner of Wired looks at the top future trends in technology.

Currently making the rounds: Somebody wants to turn New Orleans into an arcology.

Learn more about arcologies here.

Monday, October 24

The illustration blog Drawn links to this great index of hidden gags in Looney Tunes

and Merrie Melodies cartoons.

Andrew October of Cape Argus tells us the home of the future is here. This news comes just as Daphne Sashin of the Orlando Sentinel sadly informs us that Xanadu, "The Home of the Future," was recently demolished due to obsolescence.

On that note, Unique Daily gives us the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Products Of The Future.

Retrocrush fondly recalls the Aurora MonsterScene Model Kits.

Friday, October 21

Something Awful shamelessly mixes SF franchises in this week's Photoshop Phriday.

Film Threat gives us the episode rundown for Masters of Horror, the anthology series coming to Showtime next week.

Thursday, October 20

Assorted Items: Three words: Edible Moon Buggies.

Discover has a neat story on one of my favorite things, the 10,000 year clock of the Long Now Foundation.

Here's a bit of useless fluff from The Sun: "Sci-fi is a fact say fans."

Also, for some reason, cows are getting retina scans.

Wednesday, October 19

Steven Grant of Comic Book Resources asks "Does anyone actually talk about comics anymore?"

Let's get Small: Technovelgy introduces us to Cellborg, the fusing of a living bacteria into an electronic circuit, while the Deccan Herald tells us of a robot the size of a speck of dust.

Matt Cody of McSweeney's nominates Doctor Doom for Homecoming King.

If you're in NYC tomorrow, you may want to check out the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company's Spring 2006 Collection fundraising fashion show.

UPDATE: And if you're in the Big Apple this weekend, you should attend LebowskiFest.

Warren Ellis links to this Mosnews story that blogging was first predicted by Prince Vladimir Odoevsky in 1837.

Tuesday, October 18

Wil McCarthy examines what is required to make a Zombie over at SciFi Weekly.

George Dvorsky sends along this Astrobiology essay by Steven Soter which looks at Drake's Equation and ponders how many technically advanced civilizations might exist in our galaxy.

The Mondolithic Images of the Week are five spectacular future visions of America.

Am I Blue (skinned or furred)?: Aside from the obvious Blue Man Group, Star Trek gives us the Andorians, the Bolians, and the thing Kirk kicked in the knee-balls. Blue Muppets include Cookie Monster, Grover, Sam the Eagle, Gonzo, and Zoot. Marvel Comics gives us Nightcrawler, The Beast, Mystique, The Kree, Yondu, Grandmaster, Champion of the Universe, and Attuma. DC has Blue Devil, the Mikaal Tomas Starman, the Blue Lama, the Guardians of the Universe, and Dr. Manhattan. Others include Moxx of Balhoon, Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan, Officer Jeff Smax, Bob from ReBoot, Aladdin's Genie, Max Rebo, Blooregard Q. Kazoo, The Bobo, the Blue Dog, assorted Hindu gods and goddesses, Gumby's friend Goo, the Traags from Fantastic Planet, the Blue Meanies, and the Gamilons.

Don't forget to visit the Church of Desslok.

And to defer any emails, I'll throw in Smurfs and that fucking thing from He Man.

The coolest thing I've seen in a while: A custom-made Eternity action figure.

Monday, October 17

Currently making the rounds: A few thousand science fiction book covers.

With first European space probe to Venus is due to blast off next week, Steve Connor of

The Independent gives us The A-Z of Venus.

Here y'go: 3D Pool!

If you loved the swashbuckling bisexual conman Captain Jack Harkness in the last season of Doctor Who, rejoice in the fact that he's getting his own show. Wait, isn't he dead?

The inevitable Captain Jack fanfic here.

"Bad Wolf."

Friday, October 14

Assorted Items: The Australian tells us of a Japanese space tourist who plans to go into orbit dressed as a Gundam pilot.

The Guardian informs us that composer Karlheinz Stockhausen is apparently an alien.

The Science Museum of London opens its exhibit on alien life tomorrow. The Museum of Science in Boston opens their Science of Star Wars exhibit in a couple weeks.

From The Onion: Nostalgic Memories Of Land Of The Lost Ruined In DVD Release.

I had the exact same experience re-watching The Banana Splits...

Thursday, October 13

Sorry for the tardiness. Had a server problem. All better now.

Assorted Items: The headline reads "Worker Stole Human Brains."

Technovelgy informs us that H. G. Wells invented the Video iPod.

A Vatican astronomer asks: "could you baptize an extraterrestrial?"

And the world's oldest noodles were uncovered by archeologists in China.