Gravity Lens Weblog

Archive January - March 2009

Wednesday, April 1

It is April.

The God of the Month is Guan Yu.

The Molecule of the Month is Retinal.

Monday, March 30

America's long nightmare is over...

Dark Roasted Blend has part 2 of their gallery of Monsterous Aviation, as well an excellent overview of the SF trope of body snatching.

And speaking of giant aircraft, check out Hotelicopter!

Io9 gives us 20 of the best physicians in science fiction. Doctors not mentioned include Doctor Spectrum, Dr. Phibes, Doctor Graves, Dr. Bombay, Doctor Strange, Doctor Fate, Doctor Strangefate, Dr. Strangelove, Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, and Dr. Howard, Dr. Shrinker, Doctor Octopus, Doc Savage, Doc Sampson, The Doctor, and The Doctor.

Monday, March 23

Yes, I have been lax in my bloging duties. I apologize. I've been in a cranky mood lately. Here's a couple things that recently bothered me:

This is old news, but when the SciFi Channel renaming news made such a stir last week (as well as renaming suggestions), channel founder Tim Brooks was quoted as saying “The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular.”

This led to some rough commentary, but nobody seemed to mention the fact that genre films have dominated the top ten for years now, not to mention video games. The man's got a right to his opinion, but that statement is pretty fucking ignorant.

Secondly, I'm certain you've read comments on Galactica's ending all over the place, but I need to ask. What's with SF shows with anti-technology messages? If there's anything to take away from that show, its the fact that making robots religious will get you killed.

George Dvorsky's Sentient Developments will be hosting guest-blogger David Brin all week. Check it out.

Monday, March 16

My double-sided map of The 'Verse from Serenity arrived this week. Sweet. Now I just need a double-sided frame.

I'm unsure why, but I suddenly find Galactus very attractive...

Marking the spot: X. Mister X. The Amazing Mr. X. Professor X. Weapon X. Doctor X. Dr. X. Agent X. Secret Agent X. Madame X. Captain X. Pilot X. Racer X. The X's. X, The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. Malcolm X.

Sunday, March 8

Wired gives us Audi's sexy new hovercraft.

Kids in Japan are getting robot teachers.

WebUrbanist shows us some trippy concept bicycles.

Sunday, March 1

It is March.

The God of the Month is The Morrigan.

The Molecule of the Month is Hydrogen Sulphide.

John DeNardo at SF Signal has written the introduction to a gallery of production sketches from The Prisoner at the AMC site.

Monday, February 23

Nerve gives us dating advice from Comic-Con attendees.

New Scientist informs us that there may be a mathematical limit to how much an entity can know. I am certain that Eternity, Q, Korvac, Deep Thought, The Beyonder, whoever currently has the Cosmic Cube and the Infinity Gauntlet, and Asti the All-Seeing may have something to say about that. (that's a lot of omniscience in the Marvel Universe, ain't it?)

The Universal AC at the end of time may agree.

Of course if we are all living in a simulation, then the point is moot.

Some omniscient entities blog.

Monday, February 16

Warren Ellis links to Chip Zdarsky's essay on why he loves comics.

Bad Bay Studio commemorates Presidents Day by honoring Super President, Prez, Lex Luthor, and all of our esteemed leaders.

Wednesday, February 11

SF Signal links to the film Klingon Nightschool.

Things Magazine sends us to mainline retro-future techo-goodness.

Geekpress links to the Top 10 Moments Caught on Google Maps Street View.

Monday, February 9

Those who know me are aware that my plans for world domination have been repeatedly thwarted due to lacking a giant mechanical spider, a phallic airship, and a midget android double.

Comic Book Resources celebrates the ramp up to Valentine's Day with Robot Love Week.

Eye of the Goof has compiled Junk Monkey's excellent How to Survive a B Movie tips.

Eternal Golden Braid links to this piece on the projected construction cost of the Death Star.

Tuesday, February 3

Newsarama celebrated Ground Hog Day with a list of ceaselessly recurring comic book tropes they wish would go away.

"According to many experts on the likelihood of intelligent life in the universe, a robotic civilization is the most likely one we will meet some day."

So reads the advertising copy for a upcoming book, one in which "a dream team of human and cyborg philosophers pursues the fascinating questions posed by humankind's encounter with a mechanical civilization driven by artificial intelligence."

It goes on to ask "Would civilizations that achieve interstellar travel be cyborg or completely mechanical? Would robotic civilization come with its own morality and artistic life, and how would these differ from those of the human world? What legal principles should control the interactions between utterly different forms of intelligent life?"

Is this a book about the ethical implications of Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep? Or Iain M. Banks Culture novels? Alistair Reynolds Revelelation Space? Greg Egan's Amalgam? Or any of the many stories about such a scenario?

No.

It's about Transformers.

Yes, the people who think that there's substantive philosophical context in Baseball, Buffy, and Harry Potter have decided to cash in on the same gimmick with a franchise of shape-shifting toy ads, exactly half of whom (conviniently) are evil.

Transformers were never cool. It's not a mythos, it's a marketing campaign.

And my new book, The Epistomological Principles of Pokemon, will be out in the Fall.

Sunday February 1

It is February

The God of the Month is Spider.

The Molecule of the Month is Indigotin.

WebUrbanist gives us retro televisions of the future.

George Dvorsky links to Michael Anissimov's essay on the benefits of mind uploading.

NASA wants your vote on where to aim the Hubble Telescope next.

New Scientist gives us 10 SF devices that could soon be reality.

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.