Category Archives: Newspace

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.”

Continue reading →

Newspace

Astronomers lately have found:

Closer to home:

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

Continue reading →

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:

Continue reading →

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….

Continue reading →

Newspace

In addition to general news, I hope people here will treat this as a place for general OT comments, as well.

Today, we have Jerry O’Connell and Eddie Izzard starring in a dark, gritty, and (one imagines) wholly ill-conceived and unnecessary reimagining of The Munsters. It will be called Mockingbird Lane and premiere sometime next year.

NASA and congress arrive at an agreement concerning private space taxi service.

Meanwhile, America’s National Reconnaissance Office has just donated two spy telescopes to NASA.

Below, this week in unique uses of technology. These have to be seen to be believed.

Continue reading →

Newspace

Marvel Comics has created a sidekick for Hawkeye. A speedy knock-off, prompted by the success of The Avengers? No—it’s a plan to help a hearing-impaired child. The character may never appear in continuity, but it’s some compensation for the loss of DC’s physically-challenged super-doer, Oracle.

Virgin Galactic has received the go-ahead for the next phase in their development, as the Dragon Capsule readies for departure from the International Space Station.

Our own Crossover Comix page welcomes scans from the new Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover, and last year’s Star Trek/Legion of Superheroes shindig.

And by now we’ve all heard of the Miami cannibal attack, and doubtless made or heard the standard grim gag: is the zombie apocalypse, in fact, upon us?

Various video, and Venus, below:

Continue reading →

Newspace

SpaceX’s launch is a go for Saturday and, with that, we have reflections on the privatization of space travel. We also have new fuel for the ongoing debate about what (and who) might wait in the distant reaches of space.

A recent fossil find in China could represent a hitherto unknown species of human.

Of course, Maria Jose Cristerna, the Vampire Woman of Guadaljara, Mexico, might also be a hitherto unknown species of human.

Light clothing, Seattle ComicCon, and more of the Vampire Woman, below:

Continue reading →

Newspace

Your phone could become a digital wallet.

The self-published e-book “Wool” has garnered enough of a following that the movie studios have become interested.

George Lucas does something very cool, for the first time in a while.

Find out how you can watch SpaceX’s launch to the International Space Station on May 19 (Of course, two cosmonauts and one astronaut are en route soon).

Guess what the world oldest known cave art appears to represent?

A meteor miss of a populated planet and more, follow:

Continue reading →

Newspace

The Japanese think we need a witty, trilingual vacuum cleaner

In a what NASA calls an historic achievement, astronomers have detected the light emanating from an extrasolar world.

Wednesday May 9, Buzz Aldrin will announce the winner of the Space Race 2012 contest, the lucky person who will make a suborbital flight with Armadillo Airspace. Lauren Furgason of Seattle, Sara Cook of Washington, D.C., and Gregory Schneider of Tucson, Arizona are the final three contestants from an original roster of 50,000+.

Video of this below, plus a superheroic endorsement (with an appearance by a Bureau-crat), and yet another unique Youtube take on The Avengers:

Continue reading →