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Geek Jewelry - Engagement Ring

Jewelry should be something special, personal, and an  engagement ring even more so... So when a self confessed geek like myself wants to 'pop the question, of course I do it in my own style!

Yes I know it was valentines day last week, so I had to wait another week - because proposing on valentines day - that horrible hallmark holiday - would have been just about the most lame thing in the universe...

Click through to see to find out if she said yes... and see more photos! 

There has just been an unfortunate accident in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN

- Unfortunate that is for the protons that just had a head on collision.

Yes folks, the LHC has just had its first collision - and even though it was just a small one (in relative terms) of 900 billion electron volts they expect to have one at 1.2 trillion electron volts (TeV) early next year and then build up to some very decent collisions of 7 TeV after that.

What might we discover from the LHC?

Anything from our whole theory of physics is fundamentally wrong - and we need to go back to the drawing board.   - Or - Confirmation of new particles such as the Higgs Boson, how mass and gravity work, how to control it, other dimensions and even the currently science fiction inspired anti-gravity or the thrill of intergalactic travel. While that last one might be a long way off, however it goes, the collisions are going to be exciting!

Click through to some Odd Beat news about the LHC and it's history of accidents

100 years of amazing movie visual special effects from early silent black & white through to sci-fi, fantasy and the latest greats.

Click through to watch the clip!

The Australian Government seems hell bent on following other countries down the big-brother internet censorship route.

The Getup! Action for Australia group have put together an Ad that will hopefully be shown on all Qantas plane flights in the country during the week that parliament resumes.

That will expose all the politicians to it as they are flying back to Canberra.

Neat idea.

Getup! Action for Australia are looking for sponsors so they can ensure that the ad will screen. A worthwhile cause.

And it's bloody funny too!

Apart from the fact that internet censorship won't work and just piss people off, (that's my science-fiction angle if you are wondering - this rubbish will only work in a sci-fi world),  ...I for one do not welcome our Australian government internet censorship overloads.

Click through to watch the ad and find a link to their webpage

The Age of Stupid - Documentary that shows the results of climate change and where we are all heading.

Set in a devastated sci-fi world of 2055, Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off) stars as a man living alone looking back at "archive" footage from 2007 and asking:

Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?"

This is uncomfortably more science fact than science fiction, and is supported by some stunning visuals to bring home the point.  Oh, and I forgot to mention, the other star of the movie is YOU...

Click through to amazing futuristic artwork, movie trailer and interview with Pete.

 I have noticed that the Sci-Fi Channel / Network has had less and less science fiction over the years. - ie: Showing wrestling and the like.

What the hell?

So you could call them the "Sci-Fi Less" channel

But now they have yet again changed the logo artwork and the spelling as well. It is now spelt SyFy which would have to be be pronounced like this:   (Click through to full article to listen)

So I guess with even less Sci-Fi, that makes them now truly the syfy-less channel. ...which would be pronounced like this:   (Click through to full article to listen)

Hmmm... syphilis     nice one...

I think the executives that came up with that one really have captured the contribution that they have given to the Sci-Fi community...

Yes, I have registered www.syencefyction.com  and pointed it here - at least now THAT can have some real science fiction, not just Syence Fyction. What the hell is Syence Fyction anyway??

Click through to see the evolution of their Sci-Fi channel logo...

NASA is looking to name Node 3 of the International Space Station, and is looking for you to help.

With less than a month to go, it looks like Joss Whedon's Sci-Fi TV series Firefly is a sure bet, with the sexy sculptured ship from the show "Serenity" a sure thing with 86% of the vote.

For your reference, here are the two craft for comparison:

 

If you would like to stake your claim in prosperity, click through to the voting link and have your say!

A new form of carbon ribbon is paving the way to bring the artists science fiction idea of a space elevator from the realms of sci-fi to sci-fact.

Arthur C. Clarke, in his 1978 novel, Fountains of Paradise, depicted engineers constructing a space elevator on top of a mountain peak in the mythical island of Taprobane. (closely based on Sri Lanka, the country where Clarke resided). The builders used advanced materials such as the carbon nanofibers now in laboratory study.

NASA holds competitions similar to the x-prize to inspire people to come up with materials that can make a space elevator possible. The team behind the new ribbon material developed it for one of NASA's competitions.

According to...

January 7, 2009 - UFO Hits Wind Turbine, Reports U.K. Sun.

As you can see in the photo the wind turbine has one blade missing and a second blade crumpled after reported collision of unidentified light with the turbine in a wind farm near Louth, Lincolnshire, England.  The other turbines were unaffected by whatever the force was that mangled the damaged turbine. 

[There was a] massive ball of light with tentacles going right down to the ground over the wind farm. It was huge. With the tentacles, it looked just like an octopus.

John Harrison, Resident of Louth, Lincolnshire, England On January 7, 2009, at 4 AM in Louth, Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England, local residents were awakened by...

Where Sci-fi Art meets reality, two and a half kilometres underwater, a remote control submersible's camera has captured an eerie surprise:

An alien-like, long-armed, & - strangest of all - "elbowed" Magnapinna squid.

I have heard comments from non Sci-Fi aficionados that they dislike science fiction because "...the aliens look ridiculous, as if something would ever look like that!"

I have done a fair bit of SCUBA diving and let me tell you, on our very own planet, there is some freaky stuff down there. 

And the deeper you go, the weirder it gets...  Check out this baby - over 30 meters tall too! Click through for the video!