Author Archives: JD DeLuzio

Newspace: Around the World

Google has released the prototype of their anticipated Internet Glasses.

In Japan (where else?), Suidobashi Heavy Industry will soon have mech-like devices available commercially.

In Serbia, at least five mammoth skeletons have been unearthed.

Bulgaria, meanwhile, is displaying a 700-year-old vampire skeleton (that item is true, from a certain point of view).1

At least forty new species of ants have been discovered in the Philippines

Italy‘s Prada has introduced a Steampunk line of clothes. Is this success– or the beginning of the end of the aesthetic?

At Pulpfest this year, in the United States, long-time collector Albert Tonik will be auctioning off his prize collection of books, magazines, pulps, dime novels, and fanzines. This sizable collection contains many rare items.

In China and aboard the International Space Station—President Hu Jintao called to congratulate the taikonauts on their successful docking.

This Thursday, astronaut Rex Walheim will be conducting satellite interviews live on NASA television. Emphasis will be on Orion, which may take us far beyond our planet.

Video for some of these stories below the cut, and for the Team Fortress 2 short film, “Meet the Pyro.”

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Newspace

Astronomers lately have found:

Closer to home:

Click for some spectacular video unrelated to any of these stories.

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Weekend Review: Rodan (1956) (Sora no daikaijû Radon)

Summertime in the Northern Hemisphere, and many big-budget genre flicks hit the big screen and get reviewed on the small one. Summer also presents opportunities for kicking back, and some of our weekend reviews will harken to drive-in and creature feature classics of the past. Today, we return to 1956, and Japan’s third kaiju film: the first to feature someone other than the Big G.

The American release of Rodan makes fewer changes than were wreaked upon Gojira, but the U.S. still managed to cheese-up an already cheesy film, draining much of the tension from it. The original Japanese film should be sought out where possible.

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Newspace

The Chinese space program launches its first human-crewed space-docking mission, and the crew includes their first female taikonaut.

SF/Fantasy icon Lucy Lawless has pleaded guity to charges stemming from her eco-activism, and could spend up to three years in jail.

Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reboot has been pushed back, and may even be shelved.

In Manitoba, Canada, a hockey-playing robot took gold at a Robotics Competition.

And from Japan comes…. The air-conditioned bra? Video below:

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Newspace

Nasa’s Nustar X-ray telescope zooms into orbit, as this week brings us a great deal of space-related items.

Are extrasolar planets commonplace, as we see in so much SF? Recent observations suggest earthlike planets do NOT need stars with heavy metal content to form. Meanwhile, this poorly-titled article suggest life may be quite common out there.

Closer to home: Titan has a lake, of sorts, but you likely wouldn’t want to swim it.

An asteroid the size of a city block will buzz by tomorrow; here‘s how you can get a look online.

Kim Stanley Robinson discusses his recent book, 2312, which returns to hard SF with a peek at the colonization of the solar system.

And below….

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