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Treknobabble
The Random Treknobabble Generator creates lovely long sentences that sound wonderfully technical and obscure. Will modulating the configuration of the prototype generator calibrate the strength of the malfunctioning Heuseberg compensator, Captain? Sir, the polarity of the photonic inversion has been synchronized. Reconfigure the fluctuation of the distortion field. Link (via Wil Wheaton)
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Green Mars
Scientists are looking at trees that grow at unusually high altitudes in a first step toward someday growing them on Mars. The general idea is to pump in lots of highly-insulating gases like methane, warm the Martian temperature up into the 40s, and let the trees do the rest. Link
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The Coolest Thing You’ll See All Day
BoingBoing posted this article about a building made from walls of water, but the way they titled their post (“Building made from water walls”) suggests that they aren’t focusing on what seems to me to be the coolest part of the whole idea. At first glance, this seems pretty straightforward: Researchers at MIT are designing…
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List of SF/F Writers’ Blogs
SFSignal maintains a large list of science fiction and fantasy writers’ blogs. Time to update the ol’ blogroll.Link (via BoingBoing)
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Great Bounty Hunters Have Great Trophies
Another beauty from ThinkGeek, leading me to regret once again the fact that I work in an environment so staid, even a simple rubber iguana causes comment. Nothing says “Hey, respect me” like a collection of skulls. Dragons, Aliens, and Androids – all are worthy adversaries. To have their skulls as souvenirs on your desk…
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The Doo-Dah News Generator
This isn’t even tangentially related to science fiction, other than the fact that it uses a computer and illustrates the vast power of the Internet. As nearly as I can tell, the vast power of the Internet is more or less entirely centered around conferring unlimited opportunities to be silly. The Doo-Dah News Generator monitors…
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Stross on the Future of History
Charles Stross has an interesting op-ed piece about the future of history. I particularly like his notion that we’re on the verge of losing the ability to forget. Sixty to a hundred kilograms is all it takes to store an entire 21st Century of human experience. And some time after our demise, this information will…
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Put Yourself in Springfield
The Simpsons movie site has a game which allows you to create an avatar of yourself as a Springfieldian. The site is all Evil Flash, so I can’t link directly to the page, but it’s one of the links at the top of the screen.Link (via Neatorama)
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The Stamp Collector’s Guide to the Galaxy
Fortean Times is featuring a neat gallery of postage stamps with extraterrestrial themes. Seen here is a 1999 stamp from Turkmenistan.Link (via BoingBoing)
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Holographic Fashion Show
Here’s something that sounds like an excerpt from Stephenson: The Diesel Spring/Summer 08 fashion show features models “accompanied” on the catwalk by ghost-like CGI holograms. I assume it would distract watchers from the clothes just a tad, but the images are awesome.Link (via Neatorama)