TOR has set up their very own Steampunk Month. October is a great month for it, since the SteamCon happens towards the end of it on the left coast, while the Steampunk Fashion and Design Event happens on the other. There are already a lot of great Steampunk links, articles, and stories on the TOR site, and this is only the second day of the month! Then there is this wonderful tribute to Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking…
The National Air and Space Museum unveiled POP today: the Public Observatory Project. Another celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, the historic 16-inch telescope set up in the observatory will be available for daytime use by the public. Craters on the moon, phases of the planets, and sunspots (with appropriate filtering and/or projection optics to protect Mark 1 Eyeballs from being burned out) are just some of the things the public can see there. If you can’t make it to the Smithsonian, you might want to visit Experience the Planets instead, and see the solar system through the eyes of artists. Or perhaps you would like to read a little about NASA’s Replicator, not quite ready for an order of Earl Grey, hot, but it can make parts for aircraft and spaceships at nearly the molecular level.
If you are an aspiring writer, or just curious about the process, one useful event you should look into is Ask A Writer on Twitter. In these segments, renowned writer Lillith Saintcrow answers questions about the business, the process, her works, and anything else she feels like. There is a session coming up tonight at 7PM, but I haven’t figured out what 7PM means in TwitTime, so you can check out her Calender for details (I’m guessing Pacific time zone). While checking into that, I stumbled across Nicole Peeler’s new blog (yes, another author), where I found this fun little song.
The first trailer is out for the new miniseries Riverworld, based on the classic work of Philip Jose Farmer. There is also an extended sneak peek of Stargate Universe over at Syfy.
The Ignatz Awards were handed out this weekend, at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. The Guest of Honor for the event was Gahan Wilson, and the actual physical Awards will be handed out next Saturday at the conclusion of the expo.
Season 2 of Dollhouse rolled out this past Friday on Fox, and they also moved Smallville on the CW to Friday. It’s a good thing the Friday episodes of Eureka on Syfy have ended their season, because starting next week Stargate Universe enters the lists of end-of-the-week SciFi. The week after that Sanctuary season 2 also kicks off, again both on Friday night. CBS has moved both The Ghost Whisperer and Medium to Friday nights (more fantasy than SciFi, but still genre), and just to be different ABC is running repeat episodes of Flash Forward and The Forgotten on Friday nights as well. VOD (Video on Demand) and iTunes may carry a few of them, and a few may be watchable from their network web sites, but the Tivo, the Freevo (Linux boot-from-cd DVR) and the cable DVRs are going to be busy this fall on Friday nights.