Blue Origin, the brainchild Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, goes public. Sort of. (Hey Steph, they’re hiring!)
Feel-good story of the day
No matter what your opinion on cloning is… Kittens are cute, yes?
Love robots? Read this blog.
Suicide Bots is your one-stop shop for tasty robot linkage. They grope R2-D2! Find Snow Cylons! And they do the smarty-pants science stuff, too. What’s not to love?
Who’s the fairest planet of them all?
A NASA study says that ‘Earth-like conditions’ on Mars could be achieved through the use of space mirrors. The concept makes me nervous for some reason. Oh, here it is:
Woida points out another potential problem. If not carefully designed, the mirrors could focus harmful high-frequency radiation like gamma rays onto the surface.
Mmm, cosmic rays.
Anyone up for some 3D video?
‘Bots just want to have fun
Leave it to the Japanese to come up with a wine-tasting robot. And of course, it’s adorable. Potential JadeCon guest?
Speaking of automated fun, I caught Beck’s video for ‘Hell Yes’ the other day, which features adorable dancing robots. It’s not exactly new, but can you stand the awesomeness?
Star Wars in the News
Someone has a sense of humor… Of all the animals to name after Yoda, a giraffe? He is, however, an “unusually gentle and calm giraffe,” according to the director of his former zoo.
James Earl Jones is fifth on the list of Forbes‘ most trusted celebrities.
Is the Force becoming reality? Or do science writers just really, really want you to read their story?
Umm… Lasers?
How to blow up a star. Also, I just realized how silly the name Sun Crusher really is… Also: Tycho! (via SF Signal)
No love for Pluto
Astronomers say it’s not a regular planet any more, but a ‘dwarf planet.’ Personally, I pity the science educators most of all…
While we were drinking…
Here’s some of what’s been going on in the outside world.
Revenge of the Sith won two DVD awards. Also on the official site, November 2006 Comics.
Speaking of comics, don’t bother looking for Legacy #3 in stores. It was supposed to come out today (the schedule even said so until this morning) but it’s… not. Word on the boards is that last week’s books didn’t ship either. (I don’t know: I only buy Legacy.) Dark Horse isn’t the only one: Something is rotten in the comics industry.
“May the force be with you” tops online quote poll. And I don’t think TFN linked the poll, which means it might actually have won fair and square. Cool.
Some new Star Wars miniatures debuted at GenCon. The set includes a “Mystral” Shadow Guard, but unless they came with booze and/or naked men, I don’t think any of us noticed. Also, it seems they’re restarting the RPG.
Colleen Doran witnesses The Fan From Hell. I think we’ve found one that beats the Woodtick, folks.
Those damn Harry Potter plagiarists made it all the way up the fannish blog chain to John Scalzi. Twice.
Other stuff I would have blogged:
– NASA has misplaced the original moon landing tapes. Our tax dollars at work!
– Daniel Radcliffe is down with Harry Potter dying.
– Crazy mofo has “temporary” Wolverine piercing. My hand hurts just looking at it.
– Hayden Christensen making some movie.
– Things writers have no control over. (Add to the list: Killing Chewbacca.)
– The Top 8 Shows For SF Myth Busters.
– 11 Things in Fantasy/That I Don’t Promise Not to Use (or Keep Using) in My Writing and 6 More Things I Could do Without in Fantastic Literature & I don’t plan to use except to make fun of.