Pre-golden Age: The Coolest Robots of Pre-Golden Age SF

Forget WALL-E and GORT. Forget sexy Summer Glau and Tricia Helfer in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Battlestar Galactica. OK, don’t forget them. But check it out: Long before Autobots, Fembots, and the Urkelbot, PGA SF authors obsessed over electricity-, steam-, and clockwork-powered machine-men or “robots” (a term introduced in 1921) that might free…

Star Wars One Line at a Time

Nick Montfort just e-mailed a link to his brilliant textual interpretation of Star Wars. Great use of characters in a purely linear narrative environment. Similar:Washington Post Cartoonist Who Quit Over Bezos Cartoon Wins Pulitzer PrizeA.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting WorseDoctor Bashir, I Presume #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 16)…

"Star Trek" Creator's Spouse, Actress Dead at 76

Sad news for Trek fans. Majel Barrett Roddenberry, wife of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and the actress who portrayed Nurse Chapel on the original science-fiction television series, died Thursday of leukemia, according to the family. —NBC For more, see her biography on Wikipedia. Similar:Washington Post Cartoonist Who Quit Over Bezos Cartoon Wins Pulitzer PrizeDoctor…

It's Trek, but not as we know it, Jim.

I’m willing to give the new Star Trek a chance. I loved Babylon 5 during its initial run, and I’m intrigued by the possibility of a re-imagined Trek. Similar:Washington Post Cartoonist Who Quit Over Bezos Cartoon Wins Pulitzer PrizeA.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting WorseDoctor Bashir, I Presume #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch…

"Star Wars" – an a capella tribute to John Williams

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Our Readers' Coolest Geek-o'-Lanterns

From Wired: Similar:Washington Post Cartoonist Who Quit Over Bezos Cartoon Wins Pulitzer PrizeA.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting WorseDoctor Bashir, I Presume #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 16) Smarmy hologram des…Had a great time with AmLit students at the August Wilson block partyShakespeare did not leave his wife Anne in…

Introducing Kids to Role-playing

At the beginning of last semester, when I called roll in a class that included a student with the last name “Gearhart,” I have been telling steampunk bedtime stories to my kids (Peter, 10; and Carolyn, 6). Each night, after my daughter has finished the tooth-brushing and prayer-saying, in total darkness I try to advance…

Wookie Apostrophe

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We’re Teaching Books That Don’t Stack Up

Our provost sent this link to English faculty members this morning. One of my recent juniors was particularly eloquent on the subject. After having sat in my classroom for a year forcefully projecting his boredom, he started an e-mail dialogue with me over the summer. “The reason for studying fiction escapes me,” he wrote. “Why…

Check it for Tribbles First

I need a new office chair. Similar:Doctor Bashir, I Presume #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 16) Smarmy hologram des…Pater Noster Passenger ElevatorsBy Inferno's Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 15) Dominion / Cardassian edg…In Purgatory's Shadow #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 14) Garak answers a coded …My crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule…