Gravity Lens Weblog

Gravity Lens Archive October 2007 - January 2008

Thursday, January 29

io9 invites you to Make Your Own Star Trek Adventure.

New Scientist gives us the Six Biggest Mysteries of our Solar System.

Coudal links to WebUrbanist's look at futuresexy fireplace designs.

Friday, January 23

George Dvorsky writes in to send us to Cracked's 11 Most Retarded Fictional Weapons.

Prehistoric heroes: Devil Dinosaur, Moon Boy, Mighty Mightor, Anthro, Captain Caveman, Kong the Untamed, Tor, Alley Oop, Korg, and The Man Called Flintstone.

Wednesday, January 21

Newsarama celebrated inauguration day yesterday with a look at the trope of superhero as president.

New Scientist asks: how do you weigh the Milky Way? Seth Shostak at Space.com asks: is humanity a spacefaring race? Meanwhile, The Cartoonist links to The Milky Way Transit Authority, featuring a tube map of the galaxy.

Tuesday, January 13

Yesterday Wired celebrated HAL's birthday by giving us their list of the Top Ten Evil Computers. Meanwhile an Artificially Intelligent Robot Vagina was unveilled.

And in Germany, IT engineers are being taught how to flirt as a college course. Of course in Germany you can buy a robot toilet paper dispenser...

Until today I was unaware that full moons have names.

In space, black holes are starving while the Sun prepares to kill us all.

Saturday, January 10

Newsarama looks at the trope of the Female Analogue in Comics.

Monday, January 5

Assorted Items: The wonderful SF art site Sci-Fi-O-Rama links to Nost Algae which revisits the glory of Prog rock album covers.

Dial B for Blog pits the Fantastic Four against the Challenger of the Unknown.

Bar & Grill regular Moot links to this huge panoramic view of all the Handbook of the Marvel Universe covers laid side by side.

Modern Drunkard explores the mystery of drunks in space.

Things Magazine sends us to this Fantastic Journal piece on drowned buildings.

I am trying to figure out how I got through life before Coudal introduced me to the Internet Pinball Database.

Futurismic links to this unearthly trend map for 2009 (pdf). I'm certain its passing resemblence to the multiversal "snowflake" from Planetary or the ominous symbol from Heart of Empire is purely coincidental...

Sunday, January 4

Exit Mundi looks ahead one googol years into the future.

io9 asks Can Jesus Become your New SF Hero?

You know, I really thought my guest posting at SF Signal a while back about the unending cute-ification of SF&F action figures might be enough to turn the tide. But no. Look what they're doing to Dr. Who, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Freddy Krueger.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, a life-sized replica of Captain Kirk's chair is now available. Two grand.

Friday, January 2

It is January.

The God of the Month, fittingly enough, is Janus, God of January.

The Molecule of the Month is Oxytocin.

Wednesday, December 31

Let's put this year to bed.

io9 has been giving us some great features lately, like great butlers in science fiction, fantastic ways to lose weight, and today's history of Star Trek porn (NSFW).

SF Signal gives us its Top 8 Time Travel Television Episodes.

Space.com explains why 2008 was a Momentous Year in Spaceflight.

Y'all have a safe one.

Monday, December 22

Ah, Christmas week. Posting will be light this week.

Aside from my own Holiday tale, you are invited to partake of my beloved Jennifer's snarky Season's Greetings column.

Here at Bad Day, Christmas is a time for orgies and human sacrifice, alien plots to conquer Earth, singing songs to Cthulhu, hanging starships from the tree, curling up by the video fireplace, waiting for barbarian Santa and his talented wife, and caroling in the original Klingon.

I'm hoping that however you celebrate, the holidays find you happy and safe.

Friday, December 19

A moment of silence, please, for Miss Majel Barrett Roddenberry.

Monday, December 15

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great joy to present to you this year's Bad Day Studio Holiday Card, a monsterous 5300-plus word number about love, family, and alien contact called Trajectories.

For those on my mailing list, the meatspace edition has been shipped.

If you're new to the site, please feel free to partake of the previous thirteen stories, or to order the collected print edition of the first eleven.

Saturday, December 6

Spontaneous Derivation is doing a Kindle Advent Calendar, and chose my story Thrilling Holiday Tales as its Day 21 treat.

A moment of silence, please, for Mr. Forrest J. Ackerman.

Tuesday, December 2

It is December.

The God of the Month is Kurukulla.

The Molecule of the Month is yummy Taurine.

Grow-A-Brain introduces us to the Church of the Latter Day Dude.

Wednesday, November 26

Yeah, I'm still here.

I'll be spending the long weekend trying to finish off this year's Bad Day Studio Holiday Card.

Hoping you and yours have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Retrocrush has begun it's countdown of the Top 100 Coolest Pop Culture Vehicles.

Tuesday, November 18

Welcome to the future.

The headline reads: "San Francisco artist looks to replace lost eyeball with webcam."

Earth's orbit will soon host swarms of pico-satellites.

Need to know the latest in the business of robotics? Check out The Robot Report.

And who would have thought the future would bring us a vibrating toilet seat?

The most ludicrous James Bond supervillain plots of all time.

Seven Bond villain schemes that defy science.

The ten coolest James Bond cars of all time.

Five Bond girls who died after wearing a bikini.

Tuesday, November 11

I've mentioned before that I was a huge fan of the Colorforms Outer Space Men toys when I was a child. Here's the old TV commercial. I am giddy that not only is there a graphic novel coming out based on them (warning: site layout is a mess), but they have their own blog.

I've been a bit disappointed with the Captain Action comic, but can someone please get a Major Matt Mason book going?

Monday, November 10

Warren Ellis links to Ninjalistics: your top quality provider of corporate assassinations and sabotage solutions.

Friday, November 7

A moment of silence, please, for Mr. John Leonard.

I would like to state for the record, as a man who has worked in TV for over 25 years, that a major news outlet using a 70-year gimmick to pretend it has next-gen technology is possibly the saddest thing I've ever seen.

The guy behind it states "it's not technically a hologram." No shit. It's not even hypothetically a hologram. Sagan did it better on Cosmos.

Wednesday, November 5

Remember, remember the 5th of November...

The Past: Popular Science gives us a pictorial of Flying Saucers through the ages.

The Present: It is 2008 and only now are we using robots to wash high-rise windows.

The Future: New Scientist Tech informs us of the possibility of self-replicating materials.

Just when I think I've had enough of America's college students, a team of them develops cancer-fighting beer.

Don't click the links until you guess: What do the Simpsons, Superman, and Led Zeppelin have in common?

Saturday, November 1

It is November

The God of the Month is Mammon.

The Molecule of the Month is 2-Methylundecanal.

It is Election Week. Across the country anticipation builds. Who will win?

Will it be Kodos? Will it be Zod?

I won't be voting for Cthulhu. After such a poor showing in the last few elections I just feel like I'm throwing my vote away...

But I may write in Thor.

Here's a recent io9 list of Science Fiction Classics to Help You Choose the Next President.

And here's a Solar Flare piece on analyzing US presidents in Science Fiction.

Comic Book Resources gives us a gallery of election-inspired pop art.

The list of fictional US Presidents continues to grow.

Monday, October 27

Just a note to let you all know that I have been invited to blog at the illustrious SF Signal, and have posted my first geek rant there. Don't worry, I'll have GL up and running soon.

Saturday, October 11

Howdy. I've been gone longer than planned. It's been a rough year so far with little time for blogging. But things are looking up.

I just returned from a vacation, and you can learn about one of the geekier parts at Jeff Patterson Conquers the Solar System.