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Firefly Novel from Steven Brust is Action-Packed and Fun [Must Read]
via io9 by Annalee Newitz on February 06, 2008
Firefly fans and the Browncoats at Whedonesque are rejoicing this week because they have a free ebook set in the Firefly universe from author Steven Brust. Yes, My Own Kind of Freedom is today's lunchtime reading (and, depending on how quickly you read, possibly tomorrow's and the next day's too). Brust, best known for his fantasy/scifi Dragaeran series, has done a great job capturing...
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Instant, Inflatable Housing For San Francisco's Next Quake [Disaster]
via io9 by Annalee Newitz on February 06, 2008
These modular, snap-together housing units were developed to aid in disaster relief for a potential hurricane in New York City. But to us they look a lot more like something we'd use in San Francisco after the next Big One. After San Francisco's devastating 1906 earthquake, people moved into tiny shacks in Golden Gate Park (a few of the shacks still exist). These habitats are this...
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Murakami's Freaky, Posthuman Technicolor Visions Coming to New York [Takashi Murakami]
via io9 by (author unknown) on February 11, 2008
If you've been wondering what might happen if you dropped two hits of acid and then wandered into an anime shop, you'll want to check out Takashi Murakami. Yesterday we caught the last day of the months-long @ Murakami exhibit at the MOCA in downtown Los Angeles, and saw the bizarre cute/scary creatures in artist/designer Murakami's work, which you may have seen emblazoned on...
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Biodegradable Containers for the Dead [Funereal Futurism]
via io9 by LISA KATAYAMA on February 11, 2008
One thing we know for certain about death is that we will definitely run out of room to bury people in the very near future. The switch to universal cremation is inevitable. But even after we switch to cremation, we're bound to run out of room on earth for all the urns. Funeral services, too, are heading towards obsolescence. Luckily Swedish firm Lots Design has a novel concept for the...
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A Video Peek Into Batman Gone Anime [Batman: Gotham Knight]
via io9 by Kevin Kelly on February 14, 2008
The animated Batman DVD will look amazing, judging from the clips you can see in this promo reel. Batman: Gotham Knight will come out when Batman: The Dark Knight hits the big screen. Click through for details.Sadly, the above video contains a few boring interviews, saying things like "Most of Batman's adventures take place at night." But the animation itself is great. The direct-to-DVD...
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A Holy War Against Nanotech? [Nanotechnology]
via io9 by Charlie Jane Anders on February 17, 2008
Only 29.4 percent of Americans believe nanotechnology is "morally acceptable," compared with 62.7 percent in Germany and 72.1 percent in France. The difference has to do with religion, says a University of Wisconsin professor: Americans believe nanotech researchers are "playing God" by trying to extend humans' capabilities. With nanotech poised to give sensation to artificial skin, cure brain...
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A Second Earth in Our Solar System [Life On Other Planets]
via io9 by Annalee Newitz on February 18, 2008
Traveling to another Earth-like world just got a lot easier. It turns out that there may be many other dirt-and-water planets lurking at the edges of our solar system in places like the Oort Cloud. These planets, which could be roughly the size of our own, would contain all the elements we need for life. They're just sitting in a cold, dimly-lit part of the solar system, waiting to be...
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Your Favorite Scifi Films As Russian Woodcuts [Reinterpretations]
via io9 by Kevin Kelly on February 18, 2008
As Chancellor Gorkon from Star Trek VI would say, "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon." We'd reply by telling him that unless he'd seen Star Wars in the original Russian folk art version, he was a pansy. Russian artist Andrey Kuznetsov has created some pretty impressive versions of films like The Matrix, The Terminator (or maybe that's...
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TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials [Retro Futurism]
via io9 by Lynn Peril on February 19, 2008
Eugene F. McDonald, Jr., hated TV commercials. Television was a new medium in the late 1940s, with few shows and still fewer channels, but McDonald already felt it was being ruined by advertisers. Unlike the untold legions who have shared his opinion, then and now, McDonald was in a position to do something about it. He was the president of Zenith Electronics Corporation. McDonald ordered his...
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