Sunday, December 29, 2013

Modern Technology and von Neumann Probes: And Again, the Fermi Paradox

›
Good discussion here of how modern technologies (3D printing) could be applied to building our own self-replicating space probes , which in ...

Prebiotic Source of Nucleobases Found in Comets and Molecular Clouds

›
Formamide. It's been found in warm star-forming regions in about the same abundances as on some comets . Here's the possible synth...

Franchise Gross, Per Movie Gross, and Profitability

›
Neat gadget from the New Yorker graphically showing that data . This is neat enough already, but the icing on the cake would be a way to lo...
Friday, December 27, 2013

The Burgess Shale of the Singularity

›
This is the house in Palo Alto (or rather, the detached garage ) where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built their oscillator, HP's first ...

I Wonder If They Sell Nexus Hair Products There

›
Come to think of it I wonder if they even make Nexus products anymore...(in San Francisco, a block away from this .)
Sunday, December 22, 2013

Ash the Sky, Another Chance to Kill (This Is Reality, 2013)

›
Thursday, December 19, 2013

The First Amazon Drone Delivery Should Be To Sarah Connor

›
Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Interesting Piece on Kim Stanley Robinson in the New Yorker

›
Discussions of Shaman and the Mars trilogy included . More on his Mars series here .
Sunday, December 15, 2013

Water Vapor From Europa's South Pole

›
PART I: Europa has water vapor plumes at its south poles, consistent with tidal heating ( Science paper here .) These are more easily unde...

Defiler Touring Australia With Mastodon, Dillinger, et al

›
Hasn't been officially announced yet but it's leaked online . Soundwave is kind of like Australia's Warped Tour, but mostly for...

China Lands Rover On Moon, Western Press Barely Reports

›
China has landed a rover in the Bay of Rainbows . Tonight when you go outside, look up; it's here: Bay of Rainbows is the red X, up...
Thursday, December 12, 2013

New Godzilla Slated for 2014: Score Indicates 2001 Crossover

›
Above: as it turns out, the apes at the beginning of 2001 weren't the first thing the Monoliths tried to uplift on Earth , but the ...
Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Legend of Zelda, Dungeon Theme

›
From Jabond21 .
Wednesday, November 27, 2013

New Ecosystem Appearing Around Ocean-Borne Plastic Waste

›
LA Times The idea of new replicators arising in man-made "ecospheres" is not new in science fiction - oftentimes the concept app...

Artificial Slum For Tourists Prove We Live in a Science Fiction Novel

›
One co-written by William Gibson and Umberto Eco I think. This is in South Africa. I mean come on. Article here .
Saturday, November 23, 2013

The Legend of Zelda, Overworld Theme, Metal Version (orig. Koji Kondo)

›
I don't know which I enjoy more, these metal versions of video game themes ( another one here ), or 8-bit versions of metal songs . A...
Wednesday, November 20, 2013

World-Building: Delusions and Reference in Fiction

›
I'm in the middle of my interview cycle right now for psychiatry residencies, and one of my interviewers pointed me to the article that ...
Saturday, November 9, 2013

Review: Carcass, Surgical Steel (2013)

›
Short version: it's outstanding. Get it and listen to it repeatedly or be destroyed. Long version: before we get to the song-by-so...

Abolish the Rules Made of Stone

›
Seen in the sidewalk at Church and 15th Avenue, San Francisco.
Sunday, November 3, 2013

Comet ISON Is More Weird Than Disappointing

›
No, you can't really see it as brightly as everyone thought (not yet - but wait until perihelion) but it has some very unusual character...