Google has been gathering the data for a while now for their Google Mars project. I first linked to its early version in March, 2006, but as you can see from the current version it has come a long way. As of yesterday, they announced its integration with the Google Earth 5 App. Time to download and install this puppy! Of course, it is currently in Beta, so whether you run Google Windoze or the Mac version it has some flaws. Just remember to send your bug reports back in, so they can get it working better. Meanwhile, a few videos to give you the idea…
Big Dumb Object has a review of episode one of the new series Being Human, a new series from BBC3. Good things about the show come from Digital Spy as well; here’s hoping BBC America picks up the series, who’s official site is here.
AMV, or Anime Music Video, is one of the file types I enjoy from my time online. One of my favorite variations on it is from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi – God Knows is the song, and here it is…
If you haven’t read Chris Roberson’s The Dragon’s Nine Sons, you can now read the first three chapters online to get you started. I really like the universe he sets this story in; the two superpowers in the space race are the Chinese and Aztec empires, with the split from our timeline coming somewhere around the Black Plague. Both cultures are alien, but the people and motivations are fully fleshed out, believable and sympathetic. While Sayonara Jupiter may have gotten a few bad reviews, and even deserved them, it still contained some of the best special effects ever seen on screen in the 1980s. Like the first Star Trek movie or 2001, the effects also got more screen time than most of the actors. Still, this is a fun movie for space cadets of all variations, and especially those who love a good Godzilla/Gamera flick.
IO9 has some nice images and video of the Dr Who Special that may never air.
John Scalzi does it again, with a short list of books that should become movies. He has a good little list here, from the classic cyberpunk that spawned Second Life (Neil Stephenson’s Snowcrash) to a wonderfully strange Steampunk fantasy (China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station), and more. There are also a number of good suggestions in the comments, including an assortment of Zelazny’s works.