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30 Oct 15:54

Neil Gaiman’s return to Sandman definitely won’t put you to sleep

by Rob Bricken

Neil Gaiman’s return to Sandman definitely won’t put you to sleep

Dream, Death, and the rest of the Endless are back in Neil Gaiman’s much-anticipated prequel to his classic Vertigo series in The Sandman: Overture #1. But if there’s one reason you need to read it, it’s for J.H. Williams III’s amazing art, which is perfectly suited to Gaiman’s tale. Plus Marvel gets ready for a Cataclysm, Ash of Army of Darkness returns and more, in this week’s comics!

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29 Oct 15:36

Calvin and Hobbes, the documentary

by Chris Blattman
23 Sep 15:47

Striking natural landscapes that look like works of fantasy art

by Lauren Davis

Striking natural landscapes that look like works of fantasy artSometimes the landscapes we dream up in works of science fiction and fantasy are no match for the real thing. From unusual geological formations to rare and beautiful flora, these natural landscapes seem pulled from another world.

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06 Sep 17:41

Fervor

by noreply@blogger.com (Michael Gilleland)
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), "Voltaire's Influence on Me," Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 6 (1958) 157-162, quoted by Paul Johnson, Intellectuals (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), p. 209:
No opinion should be held with fervour. No one holds with fervour that seven times eight is fifty-six, because it can be known that this is the case. Fervour is only necessary in commending an opinion which is doubtful or demonstrably false.
13 Aug 20:27

Perseid Meteors Over Ontario

Perseid Meteors Over Ontario
11 Aug 23:04

Meteors and Aurorae over Iceland

Meteors and Aurorae over Iceland
29 Jul 21:09

Atacama's Cloudy Night

Atacama's Cloudy Night Storm clouds do sometimes come to Chile's Atacama desert, known as the driest place on Earth. These washed through the night sky just last month during the winter season, captured in this panoramic view. Drifting between are cosmic clouds more welcome by the region's astronomical residents though, including dark dust clouds in silhouette against the crowded starfields and nebulae of the central Milky Way. Below and right of center lies the Large Magellanic Cloud, appropriately named for its appearance in starry southern skies. City lights about 200 kilometers distant still glow along the horizon at the right, while bright star Canopus shines above them in the cloudy sky.
29 Jul 21:06

July 25, 2013


Pow!
01 Jul 17:02

Habitable Zone

They have a telescope pointed RIGHT AT US!
24 Jun 10:45

Perigee's Full Moon

Perigee's Full Moon A big, bright, beautiful Full Moon will rise at sunset on Sunday. Its exact full phase (June 23, 11:32 UT) will occur shortly before it reaches perigee, the closest point to Earth in the Moon's orbit, and make it the largest Full Moon of 2013. But such circumstances are not very rare. The full lunar phase falls near the Moon's orbit perigee about every 14 lunar months. That means the following Full Perigee Moon will be on August 10, 2014, the 14th Full Moon after June 23. On May 5, 2012, 14 Full Moons ago, this inspired telescopic night skyscape captured the Full Perigee Moon rising over Cape Sounion, Greece and the ancient Temple of Poseidon.
21 Jun 20:34

A Solstice Sunset Self Portrait

A Solstice Sunset Self Portrait Today, the solstice is at 05:04 Universal Time, the Sun reaching the northernmost declination in its yearly journey through planet Earth's sky. A June solstice marks the astronomical beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the south. It also brings the north's longest day, the longest period between sunrise and sunset. This composite image follows the Sun's path toward the end of the June solstice day of 2012 as it approaches the western horizon in a colorful, clear sky. The scene looks north and west along the Tyrrhenian Sea coast from Santa Severa, Italy. Appearing in the well-timed sequence, the small figure of the photographer himself is illuminated against the wall of the town's medieval castle.
21 Jun 20:28

thesochillnetwork: Stay classy, Microsoft



thesochillnetwork:

Stay classy, Microsoft

19 Jun 22:01

The Pace of Modern Life

'Unfortunately, the notion of marriage which prevails ... at the present time ... regards the institution as simply a convenient arrangement or formal contract ... This disregard of the sanctity of marriage and contempt for its restrictions is one of the most alarming tendencies of the present age.' --John Harvey Kellogg, Ladies' guide in health and disease (1883)
19 Jun 22:01

Milky Way Over Crater Lake with Airglow

Milky Way Over Crater Lake with Airglow
16 Jun 16:55

The Masters

by boabner

dia16-p1
Simplesmente Épico! Meu preferido é o Yoda

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16 Jun 12:05

Delphinid Meteor Mystery

Delphinid Meteor Mystery Over a five hour period last Tuesday morning, exposures captured this tantalizing view of meteor streaks and the Milky Way in dark skies above Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. During that time, astronomers had hoped to see an outburst from the gamma Delphinid meteor shower as Earth swept through the dust trail left by an unknown comet. Named for the shower's radiant point in the constellation Delphinus, a brief but strong outburst was reported in bright, moonlit skies on June 10, 1930. While no strong Delphinid meteor activity was reported since, an outburst was tentatively predicted to occur again in 2013. But even though Tuesday's skies were dark, the overall rate of meteors in this field is low, and only the three lower meteor streaks seem to point back to the shower's estimated radiant.
14 Jun 18:38

Four Planet Sunset

Four Planet Sunset You can see four planets in this serene sunset image, created from a series of stacked digital exposures captured near dusk on May 25. The composite picture follows the trail of three of them, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury (left to right) dropping toward the western horizon, gathered close in last month's remarkable triple planetary conjunction. Similar in brightness to planet Mercury, the star Elnath (Beta Tauri) is also tracked across the scene, leaving its dotted trail still farther to the right. Of course, in the foreground are the still, shallow waters of Alikes salt lake, reflecting the striking colors of sunset over Kos Island, Greece, planet Earth. For now, Jupiter has wandered into the glare of the setting Sun, but Mercury and Venus remain low in the west at twilight.
10 Jun 21:09

"Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013

One of the giants of 20th and 21st century Scottish literature has left the building.

I can't really claim to be a friend; my relationship with Iain was somewhere between one of the faceless hordes seen at SF conventions, and "guy I run into at the pub occasionally". However, I've known Iain and chatted with him at times since, I think, 1989 or 1990 or thereabouts. And, after getting over my initial awe of the giant of letters, subsequently discovered that he was a giant in other ways: big-hearted, kind, affable, humorous, angry at injustice.

There is probably no point in my writing an obituary. The newspapers are all over the generalities (for example, here), and if I had anything more intimate to add I wouldn't care to do so in public, out of respect for his family and friends.

However, I'd like to pause for a moment and reflect on my personal sense of loss. Iain's more conventional literary works were generally delightful, edgy and fully engaged with the world in which he set them: his palpable outrage at inequity and iniquity shone through the page. But in his science fiction he achieved something more: something, I think, that the genre rarely manages to do. He was intensely political, and he infused his science fiction with a conviction that a future was possible in which people could live better — he brought to the task an an angry, compassionate, humane voice that single-handedly drowned out the privileged nerd chorus of the technocrat/libertarian fringe and in doing so managed to write a far-future space operatic universe that sane human beings would actually want to live in (if only it existed).

Last night I was talking to a friend who, with Ken MacLeod, had been invited to visit Iain last week at home. Iain was apparently gravely ill even then, and had to retire after half an hour. Purely selfishly, I hoped he'd hang on longer — long enough for me to tell him I intend to dedicate my next (first) trilogy to him. (I can't hold a candle to his versatility as a writer, but it seems to me that we badly need an SF literature that offers hope for the future, and he has provided a compass for me to set my sails by.)

I've spent about 3 months away from home (Edinburgh) this year, so the last time I saw him was back in December or January, before his diagnosis. Purely by accident, I ran into him in the St James shopping centre (up the road from where I live). He was his usual affable, cheery self: and that is how I intend to remember him.

As Paul McAuley tweeted, a big bright bold boisterous light has gone out.

03 Jun 18:41

O retorno do cosplayer de QWOP

by Joe

Quem lembra desse post?

Pois é, nem eu lembrava mais, mas O CARA ESTÁ DE VOLTA!

Huh? Não entendeu nada? Então jogue o joguinho mais difícil do universo clicando aqui.

26 May 12:11

Resumo da apresentação do novo Xbox

by Joe

Pra quem não viu a conferência de uma hora e meia, que tal um resumo de 1 minuto?

Isso era pra ser um videogame? Agora fiquei confuso…

Dica de um leitor chamado Zerando jogos sem morrer HUHEUEHUE

19 May 10:05

The Waterfall and the World at Night

The Waterfall and the World at NightAbove this boreal landscape, the arc of the Milky Way and shimmering aurorae flow through the night. Like an echo, below them lies Iceland's spectacular Godafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods. Shining just below the Milky Way, bright Jupiter is included in the panoramic nightscape recorded on March 9. Faint and diffuse, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) appears immersed in the auroral glow. The digital stitch of four frames is a first place winner in the 2013 International Earth and Sky Photo Contest on Dark Skies Importance organized by The World at Night. An evocative record of the beauty of planet Earth's night sky, all the contest's winning entries are featured in this video.
14 May 12:32

Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus

Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus
14 May 12:31

Partial Solar Eclipse with Airplane

Partial Solar Eclipse with Airplane
09 May 00:02

Pensando com portais

by Joe

portais

Não só a cabeça, explode o universo todo.

24 Apr 16:36

Comic for April 24, 2013

24 Apr 16:15

Wringing a Wet Towel in Orbit

Wringing a Wet Towel in Orbit
12 Apr 16:33

Yuri's Planet

Yuri's PlanetOn another April 12th, in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin became the first human to see planet Earth from space. Commenting on his view from orbit he reported, "The sky is very dark; the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly". On yet another April 12th, in 1981 NASA launched the first space shuttle. To celebrate in 2013, consider this image from the orbiting International Space Station, a stunning view of the planet at night from low Earth orbit. Constellations of lights connecting the densely populated cities along the Atlantic east coast of the United States are framed by two Russian spacecraft docked at the space station. Easy to recognize cities include New York City and Long Island at the right. From there, track toward the left for Philadelphia, Baltimore, and then Washington DC near picture center.
31 Mar 19:08

JOHN BUSCEMA

by Mauro A.

conan1 conan2 conan3conan4 conan5 conan6