• David Gerrold and Robert J. Sawyer are co-editing a collection of Star Trek related essays.
• George R.R. Martin reviews Stephen King’s zombie novel, Cell. [via Jonathan Strahan]
• Robert Silverberg looks at various Terran lifeforms in an Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine “Reflections” column titled Plutonium for Breakfast.
• 100 reasons why Kirk is better than Picard.
• Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine looks at animation in films.

• Interview excerpts from the January 2006 Canadian Science Fiction issue of Locus Magazine: Geoff Ryman, S.M. Stirling and Dave Duncan. This is sad…I’m repeating myself. They say the first thing to go is the…ummmm…what was I saying?
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer article on Greg Bear and his latest novel, Quantico, a bio-terrorist thriller. [via Emerald City]
• Submitted without comment: The Bobacabana, a.k.a. “The Star Wars House”. [via Cynical-C]
• The sequel to Darth Tater: R2-Potatoo Mr. Potato Head. [via BoingBoing]
• Lord Vader reads your mind! [via Cool SciFi]

• SF author Paul Levinson’s new book, The Plot to Save Socrates, deals with time travel.
• HardSF.net explores the science behind hard science fiction. [via Locus Online]
• Interview excerpts from the January 2006 “Canadian SF” Locus Magazine: Geoff Ryman, S.M. Stirling, Dave Duncan
• SF author Robert J. Sawyer recommends reading Jack McDevitt.
• Amateur audiobooks (books read by fans) seem to be taking off.
• Tron: The Ghost in the Machine is a new graphic novel that picks up where the movie left of. [via The Comic Brief]
• Dark Horse is publishing Star Wars Legacy, set 100 years after the New Jedi Order. [via Club Jade]

• Batman fan film: Dead End, in which “Batman faces an old nemesis, and the greatest challenge of his life.”
• Building science fiction props from scratch.
• The Jim Henson Co. is getting ready film Power of the Dark Crystal, sequel to the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal [via SciFiWire]
• Star Wars goes gingerbread.
• Infinite Matrix article: Science Fiction and Race.
• Februray 11 is the deadline for SF Site’s Readers’ Choice: Best Read of 2005 survey.

• Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas discuss Snow Crash.
• Author Scott Westerfeld (The Risen Empire, The Killing of Worlds) is profiled in the Melbourne Age newspaper. [via John Scalzi's Whatever]
• SF author Jeff VanderMeer argues that activism has a place in the writing of fantasy fiction in his article Politics in Fantasy. [via Emerald City]
• Jon Courtenay Grimwood interviewed at SciFi Weekly.
• Coming February 1st: Neil Gaiman‘s new website. [via The Alien Online]
• 100 Best First Lines from Novels. [via Cynical-C]

• The Nameless One finally achieves the recognition he deserves: It’s the Cthulhu Antenna Ball!
• Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Chris Roberson and Andrew Wheeler discuss the life expectancy of books.
• Fortean Times interviews Don Coscarelli, director of genre classics Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep.
• Speaking of Bubba Ho-Tep, and we do every chance we get, this week’s SciFiWeekly names Bruce Campbell’s website as the site of the week.
• Speaking of Bruce Campbell, here’s a Bruce Campbell Soundboard.
• Along with the previously announced news that Harlan Ellison is the 2006 Science Fiction Grand Master, SFWA additionally reports that William F. Nolan (Logan’s Run) is Author Emeritus.
• Futurama heads to the small screen in 4 feature-length films.
• Turn your friend into a zombie!

• Here’s what happens when you mash Depeche Mode and Tron. [via Transbuddha]
• Showtime renews Masters Of Horror.
• The official title of the third X-Men movie is X-Men: The Last Stand. And yes, there will be an X-Men 4.
• Make holding books open easier with the plastic thumb reading aid.
• Some Fantastic #7 (PDF file) features interviews and reviews of Charles Coleman Finlay, Terry Pratchett and Kid Reed. [via Locus Online]
• Kathryn Cramer offers a peek at the cover art for the Year’s Best Fantasy 6 anthology dues later this year.
• Mech Muse offers sf in podcast format.

After realizing that the use of Roman numerals was waaaay past pretentious, I used regular numbers for SF Tidbits 70. But then Tim had an idea even more ingenious; an idea so useful that I cannot resist – use the date! Thanks, Tim!

• Without further ado: Serenity in Lego! [via Asking the Wrong Questions]
• Locus Online has the best of 2005 lists from Matt Cheney and Claude Lalumière.
• Download Empire of Satanis, a Cthulhu role-playing game, for free. [via 1KM1KT]
• Walden Media, who own the Narnia film, have bought the rights to Isabel Allende’s Alexander Cold trilogy which begins with City Of The Beasts.
• SFX Magazine is holding an SF writing competition.

• The Olaf Stapledon Online Archive. (Image shown: A painting by Olaf Stapledon of title character of his novel Odd John.)
• The Infinite Matrix’s final issue concludes with essays by William Gibson and Eleanor Arnason, stories by Doctorow & Stross and James Patrick Kelly, and more. [via Locus Online]
• Drinking and reading do mix!
• “If there is a fanboy heaven, it may be on the fourth floor of the Tomas Rivera Library at UC Riverside.”
• SlashDot: Is Science Fiction the Opiate of the Geek Masses?
• Smallville is airing its 100th episode
• The 10 Best SciFi Films That Never Existed

• One for the Darwinists: Orson Scott Card defends Intelligent Design.
• The short story “Who Put the Bomp?” by Nick Mamatas and Eliani Torres is being hosted by John Scalzi’s blog Whatever.
• Also online: The classic 1947 Theodore Sturgeon Story “Bianca’s Hands” at Son and Foe. [via Free Speculative Fiction Online]
• The Future of British Bookselling as seen in The Independent Online. [via The Alien Online Book Blog]
• The first issue of Estronomicon, a free monthly eZine in PDF, is online now at the Screaming Dreams website. [via The Alien Online]

• NYC Indymedia interviews Octavia Butler.
• Chico News and Review interviews Kim Stanley Robinson.
• DailyBulletin.com profiles UC Riverside’s Eaton Collection.
• Jon Courtenay Grimwood reviews Richard Paul Russo, Naomi Novik, Fiona McIntosh and Jeff VanderMeer.
• Library Journal’s Best books of 2005 include SF titles by Terry Bisson, Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter, Janine Cross, Andreas Eschbach and SusanPalwick.

[via Locus Online]

• Put away your wallets, ladies and gentlemen. It’s over. William Shatner sold his kidney stone for $25,000 (!) to an online casino with the money going to charity.
• Catherine Oxenberg reads Evelyn E. Smith’s 1955 short story “Dragon Lady“.
• Michael Cassut explores the reason Threshold was canceled.
• SciFi Weekly interviews Peter S. Beagle.
• Old Glory Robot Insurance [via grow-a-brain]

• SF author Paul Di Filippo will write the franchise novel The Creature From the Black Lagoon: Time’s Black Lagoon.
• This week’s podcasts from Holtzbrinck Podcasts include excerpts from Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.
• Smallvile has reached the 100 episode milestone.
• SF author Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s novella “Diving Into the Wreck” was awarded the Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficción (Spain’s UPC Science Fiction Award).
• The SciFi Channel is planning a weekly series based on The Butterfly Effect.

• SF author David Gerrold, who wrote the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles”, has joined the production team of Star Trek: The New Voyages, a fan-driven continuation of the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. [via Slice of SciFi]
• Orbit will be publishing Scott Westerfeld’s SUCCESSION series, in the U.S. comprised of The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds, as a single volume in the U.K. (bookjoining?) [via Emerald City]
• In addition to the already released stories set in William Hope Hodgson’s Night Lands (“Awake in the Night” and “The Last of all Suns“), John C. Wright will release a third story, “The Cry of the Night Hound”. [via Notes From Coode Street]
• A New Yorker article on Battlestar Galactica. [via Locus Online]
• Rick Kleffel interviews Tim Pratt, enhanced with podcast. [via Locus Online]

• Tobias S. Buckell (recently interviewed by SFF World) has posted excerpts of his novel Crystal Rain. [interview link via Locus Online]
• Here’s a list of the current nominations for the 2005 British Science Fiction Association Awards, with links to those short stories that are available online.
• Guests at the 2006 NorWescon include Lois McMaster Bujold and Robert J. Sawyer.
• Sick men like Star Wars.
• Lauren McLaughlin’s short story “Shiela” has been picked for the 2006 anthology Years Best SF 11, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer.
• Naples News has an article by sf author Ben Bova: I’ve Spent My Life Devoted to Science.

• Finally, an answer to the theater slump: a CGI-animated version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. [via Cinema Blend]
• Lucy Lawless, who played a reporter on Battlestar Galactica, will be back for at least 10 more episodes. (Spoiler link!)
• Tim Robbins wants to remake George Orwell’s 1984.
• Science fiction writer Paul Di Filippo will write a 5-issue series based on the Marvel Comics character Doc Samson, a minor player in the Hulk universe.
• Speilberg is set to produce another miniseries for the SciFi Channel, the 12-hour supernatural Nine Lives.

• Fox may pull a Family Guy and revive Futurama.
• Star Wars shines at People’s Choice Awards
• A Scanner Darkly has been delayed. This time to July.
• A very brief update on the two (count ‘em) sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean.
• J.K. Rowling reveals her post-Harry Potter plans.

• Broken Frontier reviews the zombie comic The Walking Dead.
• Aquaman is on its way to the WB network.
• David Langford’s Ansible #222 is out. [via Locus Online]
• The January 2006 issue of the Internet Review of Science Fiction is posted.
• Texas Best Grok starts the new year off right with an update on SciFi babes [dedicated to Pete]

• Read an excerpt of Felaheen by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. [via Locus Online]
• Barnes and Noble lists their Top Ten Novels of 2005. [via Lou Anders' Bowing to the Future]
• Wil McCarthy is now offering Hacking Matter as a free download. [via Chris Roberson's Interminable Ramble]
• Free fiction from Jeff Vandermeer: “Secret Life” and “Three Secret Lives“.
• Science fiction for kiddies…from Bookslut [via Emerald City]

What better way to celebrate the new year, the completion of (semi-successful but ill-fated) porting the blog to a new host and a new version of Movable Type, and the LIXth (59th) installment of SF Tidbits than with an entry that’s sure to raise our LIX Score by collecting all the bits that we missed while the site was down for maintenance? Unfortunately, as of this posting, the Lix Score site is down. (Insert heavy sigh)

Anyway, enjoy!

• Sci Fiction’s final original story: “The Dope Fiend” by Lavie Tidhar. [via Locus Online]
• New X3 villain: Psylocke – known for her fighting and telepathic skills, as well as an ability to transport herself and others through shadows. [via SciFi Wire]
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was the highest grossing movie of 2005 with $380 million (domestic box office gross).
• New website for online young adult fiction: Lee Lowe’s Into the Lowelands. [via Emerald City]
• Site closures: Eileen Gunn’s Infinite Matrix and Firefly fan site Browncoats.
• Here’s Scool Library Journal’s Best Books of 2005 [via Justine Larbalestier]
• Website at the End of the Universe has its annual Free Science Fiction Calendar. This year’s theme: Women in Peril.
• Cory Doctorow quits his day job to become a full-time writer. [via Big Dumb Object]
• Rick Kleffel is podcasting. [via Locus Online]
• SF Site interviews Kevin J. Anderson. [via Locus Online]
• Here are the winners of the Wooden Rocket Awards. [via Locus Online]