Sci-fi and fantasy books that “make you dumb”

I was going through the GEEKEND blog's newest entries and came across this little jewel by Jay Gamon. Jay found an article that was written by students at CalTech which purports to corelate your SATs to your favorite books. As Jay puts it:

Here is an insipid little chart published by a CalTech student that purports to correlate SAT scores with favorite books, effectively determining which are the books for the "dumb" kids, and which tomes are hallmarks of the "smart" students. Our friends at SFSignal have pared down the list to include just the sci-fi and fantasy entries. Get ready to be insulted.

Oh my, Jay rips into this like a starvin dog into a can of alpo. Really, I thought that reading the words of say Dr. Asimov and his pals went well towards improving my iq.... The article is really worth a read. Give em hell Jay!

Canada's east coast space base may land ISS contract

PlanetSpace, a Canada/US hybrid company hoping to launch rockets into space from Cape Breton, will find out early next month if it has landed a contract to launch cargo and equipment to the International Space Station.

NASA will announce Feb. 8 the successful bidder for the $174.7-million contract. PlanetSpace, an American-Canadian aeronautics company, is working to launch a demonstration cargo spacecraft named the Silver Dart to low-earth orbit from Cape Breton by late next year.

There are at least four other competitors for the contract to act as a transporter to and from the space station. PlanetSpace is looking at two unnamed sites in Cape Breton to build a spaceport. One is believed to be an area near Alder Point while the other is located near Louisbourg.

The Nova Scotia government is willing to give the company Crown land to develop the launch site.

Nova Scotia Business Inc. is in talks with PlanetSpace but the provincial agency says it’s not in a position to comment until a deal is finalized.

Graphic: PlanetSpace

A two-mile high tower to house over a million people

Hey, who has read "The World Inside" by Robert Silverberg? Remember, it was about what he called an Urban Monad - A lofty spire a thousand stories high, where over 880000 souls. Well it seems that Eugene Tsui has a design for a two-mile high, one-mile wide eco-topian tower that houses one million people and contains its own ecosystems. He suggests that the Tower will be completely non-mechanical, with air and light fed into the living areas via a central shaft. All living spaces will be 100 feet square, with at least fifty percent of that given over to ground vegetation. Floors will be full of lakes, ravines, and trees. The one-mile base of the tower will sit in a giant lake that will act as a cooling system, and later turn into precipitation on each floor.

click here for the compete article in IO9

What's The Game In Ender's Game?

In IO9 I read that Chair Entertainment Group is planning on developing a series of games based on Orson Scott Card's novel. It is unclear yet if they intend to emulate the games played by "Ender" or that they will tell the story contained in the novel in game form. The company does say that the first game will be based on one of the games that Ender plays during his training.

Humm, sounds interesting, I would be interested in trying something like that out, just to see their take on that portion of Ender's "training"

Codehunters - stunning UK CC anime short!

Thanks to Boing Boing for this excellent heads up!

Codehunters, a short animé film by UK-based director Ben Hibon of stateless films, produced with London-based Blinkink.

The port city of Lhek is on the brink of collapse. A Pacific Rim state in a not too distant Asian future with no borders, no meaningful government and little law and order.

Corruption and crime are out of control in the dark alleys of Eda, Lhek’s slum district. Most sectors of the city are controlled by the army of dictator Khaan. The most underprivileged parts of the city are infested with dark Demons, ferocious creatures that spread fear and death amongst the city’s inhabitants. Rumor has it that the Demons are controlled by Khaan in order to keep his people in check