July was an interesting month for all things geeky. Here are some of my favorite stories from the last month.
Astronomy:
Jupiter got smacked by something big, probably an asteroid (because we probably would have seen it if it were a nice, bright comet). That thing left a black spot on Jupiter roughly the size of the Earth. Wow. The Bad Astronomer has been keeping me up-to-date on exactly what happened.
Jupiter got smacked by something big, probably an asteroid (because we probably would have seen it if it were a nice, bright comet). That thing left a black spot on Jupiter roughly the size of the Earth. Wow. The Bad Astronomer has been keeping me up-to-date on exactly what happened.Entertainment:
Information came out last month about three big geek movies. First, Disney released details and clips from Tron Legacy, the sequel to Tron. I'm sure it's going to be cheesy and terrible, but it may also be awesome.
Information came out last month about three big geek movies. First, Disney released details and clips from Tron Legacy, the sequel to Tron. I'm sure it's going to be cheesy and terrible, but it may also be awesome.
Second, the announcement came out that Sam Raimi is set to direct a World of Warcraft movie. I will cringe when they make the obligatory Leeroy Jenkins joke (those non-funny bastards were on my server, and I hated them before they made the lame movie and somehow got famous for it), but the possibility of Raimi making a videogame movie is... intriguing.
As if that wasn't enough, at the end of July it came out that Ridley Scott has signed on to direct a prequel to Alien. Ridely Scott, not just some random schmoe. Wow.
Technology/Geek Culture:
A firm in Abu Dhabi has ponied up money to Virgin Galactic. Part of the deal is to build a spaceport in Abu Dhabi (in the UAE), making it the second commercial spaceport (after the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California). I'm guessing that one will get quite a bit of use. Note to science fiction authors: Arabic will likely be spoken in space roughly as much as English, at least in the early days of space tourism.
Politics/Morality:
The UK Quakers are going to extend marriage services to same-sex couples. If that bleeds to the US Quakers, that would mean, when a state accepts one religious marriage ceremony as valid but not another, they are denying the religious freedom of that same-sex couple. I've often wondered what would happen if that tack were taken on the gay marriage issue. We might get to find out. Of course, the consequences could be dire.
I'm sure there were a number of geek stories that I didn't cover here. Let me know in the comments if I skipped any big ones.
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