• Community / Batman Mash-Up
• DC Comics Valentines
• Love(craft) Valentines are maddeningly cute
• Posters that (almost) trick us into thinking Phantom Menace is good
• The Video Game Humans of the Future Should Look This Awesome
• The WALL-E Builders Club formed in October 2007 as an offshoot of the R2 (yes that one) builders club, to create their own WALL-E replica. This is their current progress on the project. [Via]

Comics

• Interview: Entertainment Weekly interviews Joss Whedon about Buffy season 9.
• Interview: Scott Allie on Making “Buffy” Bold.
• How Marvel Comics screwed Jack Kirby out of millions

Film

• Interview: Daniel Radcliffe: Harry Potter Oscars snub was “snobbery”
• 10 Truly Terrifying Horror Movie Jump Scares
• Boycott the Avengers? A Slate writer discusses why Marvel’s troubled history with artists has led him to boycott the upcoming project, despite his love for Joss
• Every now and then a trailer comes along that makes u remember why we love zombie movies. Osombie is a movie about the re-animated corpse of Osama Bin Laden and the mission wherein a group of military operatives go to kill him, again. Check it out after the break and get ready for what will be an amazing ride.
• If 2012′s Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth
• Is The Shining really about the gold standard? Using unpublished info from the Stanley Kubrick Archives as a key source, Kubrick’s Gold Story [part 1 of 4] is a film analysis that uncovers economic themes encoded in The Shining with regard to gold vs fiat monetary systems. Written,
  narrated and edited by Rob Ager
• The Most Influential Sci-Fi Films

Internet

• 10 Biggest Nerd Gatherings in the World

Literature

• Interview: Alan Lightman, author of Mr g, answers a few questions for Suvudu.
• Interview: Elizabeth Hand talks about her crime novel, Available Dark.
• Interview: J. Kelley Anderson of Casting Shadows on making room for genre fiction in the western literary canon.
• Interview: Michael Sullivan plugs Theft of Swords on The Skiffy and Fanty Show
• Interview: Peter Orullian talks to Robin Hobb about her novel City of Dragons
• Interview: Why William Gibson Distrusts Aging Futurists’ Nostalgia
• Fear and Loathing in e-Land by Ursula K. Le Guin
• What is the Right Price for an E-Book?

Science

• 6 Scientific Discoveries That Laugh in the Face of Physics

Technology

• EU is considering using drones to police Farms
• From the “life imitates Fallout” files comes MIT’s photonic crystals that could lead to “nuclear reactors” in every gadget.
• How do robots see the world? This is an experiment in found machine-vision footage, exploring the aesthetics of the robot eye.

Television

• Interview: Nichelle Nichols talks about breaking barriers in television. A black woman as a starship officer was outrageous enough in 1966, but when she kissed Kirk, she made history.
• News: Fox’s ‘House’ will end this season. [More]
• Infographic: 45 Years of Star Trek

Video Games

• Minecraft: Making Your Own Fun, One Brick At a Time

Writing

• Here’s a handy list of medieval occupations, though I can’t see George R.R. Martin ever typing the word “eggler.”

Want more? Check out Geek Art Gallery for more art links and eye candy. Visit Oneironomicon for more on book trailers, reviews,and writing links.

1949
The world’s first Department of Space Medicine is established at the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field, Texas, and Dr. Hubertus Strughold becomes the first professor of Space Medicine.

1967
The Star Trek episode “The Return of the Archons” first airs. (No. 21) In it, crew encounters a world with where a dysfunctional society is completely controlled by a mysterious leader named Landru. Memory Alpha entry

The Star Trek episode “Return to Tomorrow” first airs. (No. 49) In it, telepathic aliens take possession of Kirk and Spock to build new, mechanical bodies for themselves. Memory Alpha entry

1969
The Boeing 747, the world’s largest airliner, makes its first commercial flight.

1971
Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.

The BBC files for a patent on Teledata, the first teletext system, which will later be renamed Ceefax.

1975
The Gen Con South gaming convention is held February 9 – 11, 1978 at the Robert Meyer Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. Visit the official Gen Con website.

The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.

1982
The Boston suburb of Marlborough, Massachusetts passes an ordinance barring the use of video games by anyone under age eighteen during school hours or late at night. The ordinance also bans arcade games within fifteen hundred feet of a public school.

Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, publicly publishes his database of video game high scores as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard. The website will become the defacto standard for arcade records across the United States. The Guinness World Records will later recognize Twin Galaxies as the official keeper of verified world records. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Eric Ginner scores a record-setting 1,506,684 points playing the Atari arcade game Millipede at the Golfland arcade in Milipitas, California. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

Atari announces the My First Computer keyboard accessory for the Atari 2600 game system, to turn the system into into a personal computer.

1987
In the February 9th issue of Toy & Hobby World Show Daily magazine, Keith Powell, president of The Federated Group of Electronics Stores, reports that the US$139.95 Nintendo Deluxe video game set sold well in their stores over the holiday season due to the high degree of brand awareness. “The electronic games business is back,” says Powell in the article. Atari’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, Michael Katz, is quoted as saying, “We’ve had good success selling our systems, especially the 7800. We’re aware of new realities of the video game market and we’re positioning Atari to benefit from them.” An Activision spokesperson is quoted as saying that, “The only involvement we have in Atari VCS nowadays is when Toys ‘R’ Us or Child World comes to us with a specific quantify in mind.”

1989
Osamu Tezuka “The God of Comics” dies, leaving all of Japan grieving. Tezuka was the creator of more than one hundred fifty thousand pages of manga and over sixty animated movies. His work includes Adolf, Astro Boy, Black Jack, Kimba, Phoenix, Princess Knight, and the White Lion. He is often credited with taking manga from a cheap entertainment to a vaunted art form in Japan.

1990
A Chicago Task Force arrests Craig Neidorf, an alleged computer hacker better known by the web handle “Knight Lightning“. Read more about the incident in Bruce Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown.

The Galileo satellite, launched on October 18, 1989, makes its closest approach to Venus.

1993
Collabra Software, Inc., a collaborative software developer, is incorporated. In November of 1995, Netscape Communications, Inc. will acquire the company.

1995
The first British-born American to perform a spacewalk, Michael Foale and the first black astronaut to perform a spacewalk, Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., test their endurance in a modified space suit out of the open cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Together, they remain motionless for twenty minutes in the coldest part of the spacecraft’s shadow in order to test the efficiency of the suits’ new insulation as part of over three hours spent out of their shuttle at an average temperature of -92°C. The experiment is cut short from five hours after the astronauts report feeling colder than expected.

1949
The world’s first Department of Space Medicine is established at the United States Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field, Texas, and Dr. Hubertus Strughold becomes the first professor of Space Medicine.

1967
The Star Trek episode “The Return of the Archons” first airs. (No. 21) In it, crew encounters a world with where a dysfunctional society is completely controlled by a mysterious leader named Landru. Memory Alpha entry

The Star Trek episode “Return to Tomorrow” first airs. (No. 49) In it, telepathic aliens take possession of Kirk and Spock to build new, mechanical bodies for themselves. Memory Alpha entry

1969
The Boeing 747, the world’s largest airliner, makes its first commercial flight.

1971
Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.

The BBC files for a patent on Teledata, the first teletext system, which will later be renamed Ceefax.

1975
The Gen Con South gaming convention is held February 9 – 11, 1978 at the Robert Meyer Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. Visit the official Gen Con website.

The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth.

1982
The Boston suburb of Marlborough, Massachusetts passes an ordinance barring the use of video games by anyone under age eighteen during school hours or late at night. The ordinance also bans arcade games within fifteen hundred feet of a public school.

Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, publicly publishes his database of video game high scores as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard. The website will become the defacto standard for arcade records across the United States. The Guinness World Records will later recognize Twin Galaxies as the official keeper of verified world records. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

1983
According to Twin Galaxies, Eric Ginner scores a record-setting 1,506,684 points playing the Atari arcade game Millipede at the Golfland arcade in Milipitas, California. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

Atari announces the My First Computer keyboard accessory for the Atari 2600 game system, to turn the system into into a personal computer.

1987
In the February 9th issue of Toy & Hobby World Show Daily magazine, Keith Powell, president of The Federated Group of Electronics Stores, reports that the US$139.95 Nintendo Deluxe video game set sold well in their stores over the holiday season due to the high degree of brand awareness. “The electronic games business is back,” says Powell in the article. Atari’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, Michael Katz, is quoted as saying, “We’ve had good success selling our systems, especially the 7800. We’re aware of new realities of the video game market and we’re positioning Atari to benefit from them.” An Activision spokesperson is quoted as saying that, “The only involvement we have in Atari VCS nowadays is when Toys ‘R’ Us or Child World comes to us with a specific quantify in mind.”

1989
Osamu Tezuka “The God of Comics” dies, leaving all of Japan grieving. Tezuka was the creator of more than one hundred fifty thousand pages of manga and over sixty animated movies. His work includes Adolf, Astro Boy, Black Jack, Kimba, Phoenix, Princess Knight, and the White Lion. He is often credited with taking manga from a cheap entertainment to a vaunted art form in Japan.

1990
A Chicago Task Force arrests Craig Neidorf, an alleged computer hacker better known by the web handle “Knight Lightning“. Read more about the incident in Bruce Sterling’s Hacker Crackdown.

The Galileo satellite, launched on October 18, 1989, makes its closest approach to Venus.

1993
Collabra Software, Inc., a collaborative software developer, is incorporated. In November of 1995, Netscape Communications, Inc. will acquire the company.

1995
The first British-born American to perform a spacewalk, Michael Foale and the first black astronaut to perform a spacewalk, Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., test their endurance in a modified space suit out of the open cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Together, they remain motionless for twenty minutes in the coldest part of the spacecraft’s shadow in order to test the efficiency of the suits’ new insulation as part of over three hours spent out of their shuttle at an average temperature of -92°C. The experiment is cut short from five hours after the astronauts report feeling colder than expected.

As the Internet continues to expand in volume and diversity without interruption, only a relatively small percent of its total mass will be money-making. The rest will be created and maintained out of passion, enthusiasm, a sense of civic obligation, or simply on the faith that it may later provide some economic use. High-profile portal sites like Yahoo and AOL will continue to consolidate and demand our attention (and maybe make some money), while millions of smaller sites and hundreds of millions of users do the heavy work of creating content that is used and linked. These will be paid entirely in the gift economy.

- “The Web Runs on Love, Not Greed” by Kevin Kelly, January 4, 2002.
Originally published in the Wall Street Journal.

1692
A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony declares that three teenage girls are under domination of Satan. The declaration will precipitate the Salem witch trials.

1915
The silent film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, is released. The film will go on to become the highest-grossing film of the silent film era, but it will be remembered for introducing many innovations to the film industry that will later be considered fundamental film devices, including the close-up, night photography, parallel editing, and telling a story from multiple points of view. However, the film will be one of the most controversial in history due to its crass use of black face, its portrayal of racial violence, and its outright glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Anticipating the controversy, Griffin screened the film for President Woodrow Wilson, who praised the film, calling it “history written in lightening,” but the film’s release will spark riots in Boston and Philadephia and eventually be banned in eight states, largely thanks to the efforts of the newly founded NAACP.

1916
Charles Kettering receives a patent for a self-starting automobile engine.

1924
First coast-to-coast radio broadcast in the United States is made from Chicago by General John Joseph Carthy of Bell Telephone to an audience of fifty million listeners.

1928
The first transatlantic television image is received in Hartsdale, New York. The image, which shows the face of Mrs. Mia Howe, is transmitted by John Logie Baird from station 2KZ in Purley, England over short wave radio. The picture is crudely formed from a scan of thirty lines and transmitted at twelve frames per second. The signal’s successful reception caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, receiving a great deal of media attention.

1933
The Boeing Model 247, the first all-metal plane, makes its maiden voyage. Read more at AcePilots.

1945
H.H. Aiken, B.M. Durfee, C.D Lake, and F.E. Hamilton file an application for a patent on the Automatic Sequence Control Calculator, more commonly known as the Harvard Mark I, the world’s first automatic digital computer. It is capable of performing the four basic arithmetic functions and handling numbers of up to twenty-three decimal places.

1958
Two months before his fifteenth birthday, Bobby Fischer, becomes the youngest international chess Grandmaster in history. Visit the unofficial Bobby Fischer website.

1971
The NASDAQ stock market, the world’s first electronic stock market, opens for the first time. Initially, the NASDAQ is a simple computer bulletin board system designed to supplant over-the-counter trading systems. Visit the official NASDAQ website.

1974
The third and final astronaut crew of the Skylab Space Station returns to Earth, completing the mission that began on November 16, 1973. Skylab orbited Earth a total of 2,476 times during over the course of the one hundred seventy-one days of its occupation during the three manned Skylab missions. The vacant Skylab station will eventually be steered towards Earth, where it will disintegrate in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979. Visit the official website The Skylab Space Station.

1978
The proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast over the radio for the first time.

1982
The Council of Bradley, Illinois, bars children under sixteen years of age from playing arcade games. The ban comes shortly after the national Parent Teacher Association publicly denounced game arcades in a statement, reading, in part, “The PTA is concerned over the increasing number ofvideo game sites which may have an adverse effect on many of the young people who frequent such establishments… Initial studies have shown that game sites are often in close proximity to schools. In many cases there is not adequate control of access by school-age children during school hours, which compounds the problem of school absenteeism and truancy. Where little orno supervision exists, drug-selling, drug use, drinking, gambling, increased gang activities and other such behaviors may be seen.” However, in the case of Aladdin’s Castle arcade versus the city of Mesquite, Texas, the Supreme Court will later overturn a similar ban, ruling that playing arcade video games is an activity protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

1983
Texas Instruments (TI) reduces the dealer price of the TI 99/4A computer, lowering its retail price to under US$150.

1988
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Too Short a Season” first airs. (No. 116) In it, the Enterprise is dispatched on a mission to transport an extremely old admiral to negotiations. Memory Alpha entry

1692
A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony declares that three teenage girls are under domination of Satan. The declaration will precipitate the Salem witch trials.

1915
The silent film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, is released. The film will go on to become the highest-grossing film of the silent film era, but it will be remembered for introducing many innovations to the film industry that will later be considered fundamental film devices, including the close-up, night photography, parallel editing, and telling a story from multiple points of view. However, the film will be one of the most controversial in history due to its crass use of black face, its portrayal of racial violence, and its outright glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Anticipating the controversy, Griffin screened the film for President Woodrow Wilson, who praised the film, calling it “history written in lightening,” but the film’s release will spark riots in Boston and Philadephia and eventually be banned in eight states, largely thanks to the efforts of the newly founded NAACP.

1916
Charles Kettering receives a patent for a self-starting automobile engine.

1924
First coast-to-coast radio broadcast in the United States is made from Chicago by General John Joseph Carthy of Bell Telephone to an audience of fifty million listeners.

1928
The first transatlantic television image is received in Hartsdale, New York. The image, which shows the face of Mrs. Mia Howe, is transmitted by John Logie Baird from station 2KZ in Purley, England over short wave radio. The picture is crudely formed from a scan of thirty lines and transmitted at twelve frames per second. The signal’s successful reception caused a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, receiving a great deal of media attention.

1933
The Boeing Model 247, the first all-metal plane, makes its maiden voyage. Read more at AcePilots.

1945
H.H. Aiken, B.M. Durfee, C.D Lake, and F.E. Hamilton file an application for a patent on the Automatic Sequence Control Calculator, more commonly known as the Harvard Mark I, the world’s first automatic digital computer. It is capable of performing the four basic arithmetic functions and handling numbers of up to twenty-three decimal places.

1958
Two months before his fifteenth birthday, Bobby Fischer, becomes the youngest international chess Grandmaster in history. Visit the unofficial Bobby Fischer website.

1971
The NASDAQ stock market, the world’s first electronic stock market, opens for the first time. Initially, the NASDAQ is a simple computer bulletin board system designed to supplant over-the-counter trading systems. Visit the official NASDAQ website.

1974
The third and final astronaut crew of the Skylab Space Station returns to Earth, completing the mission that began on November 16, 1973. Skylab orbited Earth a total of 2,476 times during over the course of the one hundred seventy-one days of its occupation during the three manned Skylab missions. The vacant Skylab station will eventually be steered towards Earth, where it will disintegrate in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979. Visit the official website The Skylab Space Station.

1978
The proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast over the radio for the first time.

1982
The Council of Bradley, Illinois, bars children under sixteen years of age from playing arcade games. The ban comes shortly after the national Parent Teacher Association publicly denounced game arcades in a statement, reading, in part, “The PTA is concerned over the increasing number ofvideo game sites which may have an adverse effect on many of the young people who frequent such establishments… Initial studies have shown that game sites are often in close proximity to schools. In many cases there is not adequate control of access by school-age children during school hours, which compounds the problem of school absenteeism and truancy. Where little orno supervision exists, drug-selling, drug use, drinking, gambling, increased gang activities and other such behaviors may be seen.” However, in the case of Aladdin’s Castle arcade versus the city of Mesquite, Texas, the Supreme Court will later overturn a similar ban, ruling that playing arcade video games is an activity protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

1983
Texas Instruments (TI) reduces the dealer price of the TI 99/4A computer, lowering its retail price to under US$150.

1988
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Too Short a Season” first airs. (No. 116) In it, the Enterprise is dispatched on a mission to transport an extremely old admiral to negotiations. Memory Alpha entry

1915
The first wireless message sent from a moving train to a station is transmitted, marking the beginning of the era of mobile communications.

1932
The Neutron subatomic particle is first described in an article in the journal Nature by James Chadwick, who coined the name after he discovered it by bombarding Beryllium with alpha particles. In 1935, Chadwick will receive the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery.

1956
Doug Ross of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presents a paper on gestalt programming at the Western Joint Computer Conference in Los Angeles, California. Ross had experimented with gestalt programming while working for the U.S. Air Force and Emerson Electric Company. Read more about Doug Ross at Boston.com.

1958
In response to the launch of Sputnik, the United States Department of Defense issues directive 5105.15 establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The directive charges the agency with the “direction or performance of such advanced projects in the field of research and development…” Among ARPA’s highest priorities is the development of computer technology. The agency will be at responsible for the developing ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet. Visit the official DARPA website.

1973
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is introduced as a standard for the transfer of files between networked computers.

1979
Pluto moves inside the orbit of Neptune for the first time since either planet was discovered.

1981
The private plane of Stephen Wozniak crashes during take-off, near the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The accident leaves him with a loss of short-term memory for over a month.

1983
Atari seeks a legal injunction against Coleco Industries to prevent the company from selling its ColecoVision adapter to play Atari cartridges.

1984
Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the jet-propelled Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). (STS-41-B) McCandless, the first human Earth-orbiting satellite, ventures out 320 feet from the orbiter during the initial test of the MMU. Visit the mission’s official website.

1985
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office drops the case against Sysop Tom Tcimpidis for lack of evidence and in the “interests of justice.” Tom Tcimpidis had previously had his system seized for a posting of a pactel card code without the sysop’s knowledge.

1994
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Lower Decks” first airs. (No. 715) In it, several of the ship’s junior officers vie for the next big promotion, but the one choosen is asked to undertake a dangerous mission into Cardassian space. Memory Alpha entry

1915
The first wireless message sent from a moving train to a station is transmitted, marking the beginning of the era of mobile communications.

1932
The Neutron subatomic particle is first described in an article in the journal Nature by James Chadwick, who coined the name after he discovered it by bombarding Beryllium with alpha particles. In 1935, Chadwick will receive the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery.

1956
Doug Ross of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presents a paper on gestalt programming at the Western Joint Computer Conference in Los Angeles, California. Ross had experimented with gestalt programming while working for the U.S. Air Force and Emerson Electric Company. Read more about Doug Ross at Boston.com.

1958
In response to the launch of Sputnik, the United States Department of Defense issues directive 5105.15 establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The directive charges the agency with the “direction or performance of such advanced projects in the field of research and development…” Among ARPA’s highest priorities is the development of computer technology. The agency will be at responsible for the developing ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet. Visit the official DARPA website.

1973
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is introduced as a standard for the transfer of files between networked computers.

1979
Pluto moves inside the orbit of Neptune for the first time since either planet was discovered.

1981
The private plane of Stephen Wozniak crashes during take-off, near the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The accident leaves him with a loss of short-term memory for over a month.

1983
Atari seeks a legal injunction against Coleco Industries to prevent the company from selling its ColecoVision adapter to play Atari cartridges.

1984
Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the jet-propelled Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). (STS-41-B) McCandless, the first human Earth-orbiting satellite, ventures out 320 feet from the orbiter during the initial test of the MMU. Visit the mission’s official website.

1985
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office drops the case against Sysop Tom Tcimpidis for lack of evidence and in the “interests of justice.” Tom Tcimpidis had previously had his system seized for a posting of a pactel card code without the sysop’s knowledge.

1994
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Lower Decks” first airs. (No. 715) In it, several of the ship’s junior officers vie for the next big promotion, but the one choosen is asked to undertake a dangerous mission into Cardassian space. Memory Alpha entry

• Amazing Selena cosplay
• Lucas Oil Stadium, recreated in Legos
• Mass Effect Valentines
• XXIT is an absolutely amazing Blade Runner-esque short from Stargate Studios

Comics

• Interview: Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton talk about the “The Guild: Fawkes”
• Interview: A two-and-a-half hour webchat with the great Alan Moore, wherein he talks about magic, writing, creativity, Lovecraft and horror, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, philosophy, time, his new novel, Watchmen and more…
• Details about Issues 8-10 of Buffy Season 9.

Film

• Interview: George Lucas is doing a new series of interviews on Star Wars.com about the origins of…yep…Star Wars.
• Interview: The New Yorker chats with Michael Chabon about his new short story on comic book rivarlies and his co-writing of the forthcoming John Carter film
• Interview: Daniel Radcliffe admits being drunk during “Harry Potter” scenes
• In case you missed it, the extended trailer for The Avengers ran during the Super Bowl. It featured 40 seconds more footage than the trailer’s teaser had.

Internet

• Interview: Felicia Day at the Calgary Comic Expo

Literature

• Interview: Q&A with The Night Circus’s Erin Morgenstern
• Interview: Suvudu talks to Carrie Vaughn about her latest book, Steel.
• Interview: Tim Powers of Drawing of the Dark talks about his secret histories
• News: Amazon in the Process of Launching a Retail Store, because book retailers are just so hot right now… errr What?
• 10 Great Science Fiction Books for Girls
• 102 Essential Science Fiction Books for Your Kindle
• Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction
• A fanatical Hunger Games fan that goes by the name V. Arrow put a ridiculous amount of thought and effort into mapping out Panem’s 13 Districts. Her process is outlined in her LiveJournal, and she makes a compelling argument.
• Hey! Do you like books? (Yeah…) Do you like free books? (Yeah!) Do you like giving books to friends and strangers and whomever? (Hell yeah!) Are you American? (I just said “hell yeah” didn’t I?) Then sign up here! (Then what happens?) You can select from one of thirty books. (And?) They’ll send you a box with twenty copies of one book which you can give to friends, strangers or enemies. (What’s the catch?) There’s no catch, it’s World Book Night.
• John Hodgman explains how he came to love Game of Thrones.
• Why does Edgar Rice Burroughs still matter?

Television

• Interview: Q&A with Kevin Smith, Executive Producer of Comic Book Men
• “Darn Your Sinister Attraction!” an essay from The Psychology of Joss Whedon: An Unauthorized Exploration of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly
• Slate examines the many times Daffy Duck has been shot in the face — specifically the 18 instances found in Chuck Jones’ “Hunting Trilogy” of shorts.
• Why Amy Pond Must Live

Video Games

• As a valuable object lesson to why people often turn to piracy and why “always-on internet” is a bad idea for DRM on games, your legal Ubisoft games won’t work on Tuesday for an undetermined period of time.
• Skyrim: A Bookseller’s Video Game Lament
• How to get lightsabers in Skyrim
• The Skyrim Creation Kit launches Tuesday
• Video gamers are going on a non-killing spree! Wait, what?

Want more? Check out Geek Art Gallery for more art links and eye candy. Visit Oneironomicon for more on book trailers, reviews,and writing links.

The second full length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

1948
The first radio-controlled airplane is flown for the first time.

1957
The cryotron superconductive computer switch is introduced. Developed by Dudley Allen Buck at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the cryotron is the first practical use of superconductivity, the ability of some metals to conduct current with no resistance at temperatures below -420 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be hailed as a revolutionary step in miniaturizing room-sized computers.

1959
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) applies for the first patent on the integrated circuit. In his patent application, Kilby describes his new device as “a body of semiconductor material … wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated.”

1967
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) announces an advanced communications technique that could double the speed at which IBM machines are able to communication with each other over phone lines called “Binary Synchronous Communications.” Visit the official IBM website.

1971
Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first person to hit a golf ball on the Moon. Near the end of the second moonwalk and just before entering the lunar module for the last time, Shepard attaches a six-iron to the end of a sample collecting tool. Despite thick gloves and a stiff suit that force him to swing the club one-handed, he hits two golf balls. The first lands in a nearby crater. He hits the second one squarely, and, in the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, Shepard says that it travels “miles and miles and miles.” The astronauts remain on the surface for a total of thirty-three hours in total. Watch a video of the golf shot or read a transcript of the Apollo 14 crew’s second day of extra-vehicular activity at the NASA website.

1982
According to Twin Galaxies, Leo Daniels, age 20, scores a record-setting 40,101,910 points playing the Atari arcade game Asteroids, after playing the game for thirty-six hours and four minutes at the Ocean View Corporation in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

The Ormond Beach Commission in Florida approves an ordinance prohibiting electronic games from being placed within one thousand feet of a church, school, or youth activity center in Ormond Beach.

1984
Software Arts files a lawsuit against Visicorp to end its contractual rights to market Visicalc, claiming that Visicorp failed to market its product adequately.

1985
Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer, twelve years after co-founding the company, in order to pursue other interests. He officially remains on the payroll as an engineering consultant with a twenty thousand dollar salary, and he remains a major shareholder with a close, personal connection to co-founder Steven Jobs. However, prior to leaving Wozniak makes several scathing remarks regarding the company’s policy of favoring the Macintosh over the Apple II, despite the Apple II accounting for some seventy percent of the company’s revenue. Visit the official website of Apple Computer.

1989
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “A Matter of Honor” first airs. (No. 208) In it, Riker serves as first officer on a Klingon battle cruiser as part of an officer exchange program. Memory Alpha entry

1990
A Chicago Task Force raids the business of alleged computer hacker Richard Andrews. The U.S. Secret Service arrest computer hackers known as Leftist, Prophet, Terminus, and Urvile. Read more in Bruce Sterling’s “Hacker Crackdown”, available online and as a free download.

1991
Nintendo and Sony announce a joint effort to develop a compact disk player for the Super Famicom in Japan. Visit the official Nintendo website.

The second full length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

1948
The first radio-controlled airplane is flown for the first time.

1957
The cryotron superconductive computer switch is introduced. Developed by Dudley Allen Buck at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the cryotron is the first practical use of superconductivity, the ability of some metals to conduct current with no resistance at temperatures below -420 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be hailed as a revolutionary step in miniaturizing room-sized computers.

1959
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) applies for the first patent on the integrated circuit. In his patent application, Kilby describes his new device as “a body of semiconductor material … wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated.”

1967
The International Business Machines (IBM) Data Processing Division (DPD) announces an advanced communications technique that could double the speed at which IBM machines are able to communication with each other over phone lines called “Binary Synchronous Communications.” Visit the official IBM website.

1971
Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first person to hit a golf ball on the Moon. Near the end of the second moonwalk and just before entering the lunar module for the last time, Shepard attaches a six-iron to the end of a sample collecting tool. Despite thick gloves and a stiff suit that force him to swing the club one-handed, he hits two golf balls. The first lands in a nearby crater. He hits the second one squarely, and, in the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, Shepard says that it travels “miles and miles and miles.” The astronauts remain on the surface for a total of thirty-three hours in total. Watch a video of the golf shot or read a transcript of the Apollo 14 crew’s second day of extra-vehicular activity at the NASA website.

1982
According to Twin Galaxies, Leo Daniels, age 20, scores a record-setting 40,101,910 points playing the Atari arcade game Asteroids, after playing the game for thirty-six hours and four minutes at the Ocean View Corporation in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Visit the official Twin Galaxies website.

The Ormond Beach Commission in Florida approves an ordinance prohibiting electronic games from being placed within one thousand feet of a church, school, or youth activity center in Ormond Beach.

1984
Software Arts files a lawsuit against Visicorp to end its contractual rights to market Visicalc, claiming that Visicorp failed to market its product adequately.

1985
Steve Wozniak leaves Apple Computer, twelve years after co-founding the company, in order to pursue other interests. He officially remains on the payroll as an engineering consultant with a twenty thousand dollar salary, and he remains a major shareholder with a close, personal connection to co-founder Steven Jobs. However, prior to leaving Wozniak makes several scathing remarks regarding the company’s policy of favoring the Macintosh over the Apple II, despite the Apple II accounting for some seventy percent of the company’s revenue. Visit the official website of Apple Computer.

1989
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “A Matter of Honor” first airs. (No. 208) In it, Riker serves as first officer on a Klingon battle cruiser as part of an officer exchange program. Memory Alpha entry

1990
A Chicago Task Force raids the business of alleged computer hacker Richard Andrews. The U.S. Secret Service arrest computer hackers known as Leftist, Prophet, Terminus, and Urvile. Read more in Bruce Sterling’s “Hacker Crackdown”, available online and as a free download.

1991
Nintendo and Sony announce a joint effort to develop a compact disk player for the Super Famicom in Japan. Visit the official Nintendo website.

There is a hole in my heart dug deep by advertising and envy and a desire to see a thing that is new and different and beautiful. A place within me that is empty, and that I want to fill up. The hole makes me think electronics can help. And of course, they can.

They make the world easier and more enjoyable. They boost productivity and provide entertainment and information and sometimes even status. At least for a while. At least until they are obsolete. At least until they are garbage.

Electronics are our talismans that ward off the spiritual vacuum of modernity; gilt in Gorilla Glass and cadmium. And in them we find entertainment in lieu of happiness, and exchanges in lieu of actual connections.

And, oh, I am guilty. I am guilty. I am guilty.

- “Fever Dream of a Guilt-Ridden Gadget Reporter” by Mat Honan, January 11, 2012.
Originally posted to Gizmodo.

1861
A patent is issued to Coleman Sellers of Philadelphia for the Kinematoscope, which he describes as an “improvement in exhibiting stereoscopic pictures of moving objects.” (US No. 31,357) The Kinematoscope projects a series of still pictures with successive stages of action mounted on paddle blades through slits passed under the lens of a stereoscope.

1870
In Philadelphia, the first motion picture is presented to a theater audience by Henry R. Heyl using a Phasmatrope. A Phasmatrope is a converted projecting lantern with a rotating disc mounted to its front and sixteen openings near the edge, each of which carries a photographic plate. The plates hold a series of animation cells depicting dancers, who appear to move as the rotating disc spins. The demonstration marks the Ninth Annual Entertainment of the Young Men’s Society of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Philadelphia, an event held at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1879
Joseph Swan demonstrates a light bulb using carbon glow for the first time.

1897
The Indiana State House legislature passes Bill Number 246 which, in effect, assigns Pi the value of exactly 3.2. The bill states, in part, that “the ratio of the diameter and circumference [pi] is as five-fourths to four.” The bill was introduced by Representative Taylor I. Record, a farmer and lumber merchant, on behalf of a mathematical hobbyist, Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin, M.D. The politicians don’t understand that the bill is mathematically incorrect. Clarence A. Waldo, a mathematics professor at Purdue University, will eventually realize the error and notify the Indiana Senators. The bill will be indefinitely postponed on February 12, 1897.

1899
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a “Phonograph Recorder and Reproducer.”

1932
CBS affiliate W2XAB broadcasts the first educational television programming in the U.S.

1936
Charlie Chaplin releases the last movie of the silent film era, Modern Times. IMDB listing

1958
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) files a patent application for miniaturized electronic circuits. Kilby’s device connects several transistors by flying wires.

1958
A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the U.S. Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. Read more at the Tybee Bomb website.

1961
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik V, the heaviest satellite yet put into space at 7.1 tons.

1967
The NASA Lunar Orbiter 3 is launched. It will orbit the Moon, in order to photograph its far side for potential Apollo 12 landing sites, before impacting the lunar surface on command.

1971
The NASA manned lunar lander Antares of Apollo 14 lands near the Fra Mauro region of the Moon, where the crew will collect 42.9 kilograms of lunar samples using a hand cart, completing the aborted mission of the Apollo 13. The crew of the lunar lander consists of Commander Alan Shepard and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell who walk on the Moon for four hours.

1974
The NASA space probe Mariner 10 returns the first close-up photos of the cloud structure and circulation of Venus. It flies past the planet for a “gravity assist” to the planet Mercury. Mariner 10 is the first probe sent to explore two planets in a single mission, as well as the first spacecraft to be equipped an imaging system.

1985
Namco enters into an agreement with Warner Communications to acquire a controlling interest in the coin-operated game division of Atari Games for about US$10 million.

1990
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Déjà Q” first airs. (No. 313) In it, the Continuum strips Q of his powers and exiles him to the mortal plane. Memory Alpha entry

1993
The board of commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes a vote on whether or not to charge Microsoft with allegedly colluding with International Business Machines (IBM) in unfair trade practices. The vote results in a 2-2 split that results in no action being taken. Visit the official FTC website.

1861
A patent is issued to Coleman Sellers of Philadelphia for the Kinematoscope, which he describes as an “improvement in exhibiting stereoscopic pictures of moving objects.” (US No. 31,357) The Kinematoscope projects a series of still pictures with successive stages of action mounted on paddle blades through slits passed under the lens of a stereoscope.

1870
In Philadelphia, the first motion picture is presented to a theater audience by Henry R. Heyl using a Phasmatrope. A Phasmatrope is a converted projecting lantern with a rotating disc mounted to its front and sixteen openings near the edge, each of which carries a photographic plate. The plates hold a series of animation cells depicting dancers, who appear to move as the rotating disc spins. The demonstration marks the Ninth Annual Entertainment of the Young Men’s Society of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Philadelphia, an event held at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1879
Joseph Swan demonstrates a light bulb using carbon glow for the first time.

1897
The Indiana State House legislature passes Bill Number 246 which, in effect, assigns Pi the value of exactly 3.2. The bill states, in part, that “the ratio of the diameter and circumference [pi] is as five-fourths to four.” The bill was introduced by Representative Taylor I. Record, a farmer and lumber merchant, on behalf of a mathematical hobbyist, Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin, M.D. The politicians don’t understand that the bill is mathematically incorrect. Clarence A. Waldo, a mathematics professor at Purdue University, will eventually realize the error and notify the Indiana Senators. The bill will be indefinitely postponed on February 12, 1897.

1899
Thomas Edison is issued a patent for a “Phonograph Recorder and Reproducer.”

1932
CBS affiliate W2XAB broadcasts the first educational television programming in the U.S.

1936
Charlie Chaplin releases the last movie of the silent film era, Modern Times. IMDB listing

1958
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) files a patent application for miniaturized electronic circuits. Kilby’s device connects several transistors by flying wires.

1958
A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the U.S. Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. Read more at the Tybee Bomb website.

1961
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik V, the heaviest satellite yet put into space at 7.1 tons.

1967
The NASA Lunar Orbiter 3 is launched. It will orbit the Moon, in order to photograph its far side for potential Apollo 12 landing sites, before impacting the lunar surface on command.

1971
The NASA manned lunar lander Antares of Apollo 14 lands near the Fra Mauro region of the Moon, where the crew will collect 42.9 kilograms of lunar samples using a hand cart, completing the aborted mission of the Apollo 13. The crew of the lunar lander consists of Commander Alan Shepard and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell who walk on the Moon for four hours.

1974
The NASA space probe Mariner 10 returns the first close-up photos of the cloud structure and circulation of Venus. It flies past the planet for a “gravity assist” to the planet Mercury. Mariner 10 is the first probe sent to explore two planets in a single mission, as well as the first spacecraft to be equipped an imaging system.

1985
Namco enters into an agreement with Warner Communications to acquire a controlling interest in the coin-operated game division of Atari Games for about US$10 million.

1990
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Déjà Q” first airs. (No. 313) In it, the Continuum strips Q of his powers and exiles him to the mortal plane. Memory Alpha entry

1993
The board of commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) takes a vote on whether or not to charge Microsoft with allegedly colluding with International Business Machines (IBM) in unfair trade practices. The vote results in a 2-2 split that results in no action being taken. Visit the official FTC website.

When you’re scientifically literate, the world looks different to you. It’s a particular way of questioning what you see and hear. When empowered by this state of mind, objective realities matter. These are the truths of the world that exist outside of whatever your belief system tells you.

One objective reality is that our government doesn’t work, not because we have dysfunctional politicians, but because we have dysfunctional voters. As a scientist and educator, my goal, then, is not to become President and lead a dysfunctional electorate, but to enlighten the electorate so they might choose the right leaders in the first place.

- “If I Were President…” by Neil deGrasse Tyson, August 21, 2011.
First published by The New York Times.