Did you know there’s a new television network with scifi programming? Well, there is — it’s COMET TV and it’s FREE! Some highlights for November are Return of Dracula (1958), Witchboard (1987), Mac and Me (Jennifer Aniston’s 1988 film debut… as an uncredited extra!), Red Planet (2000, starring Val Kilmer), Die, Monster, Die! (1965), and the television series Dead Like Me. In honor of this month’s programming, we’re giving away a COMET TV Swag Box that’s filled with t-shirts, snacks, and more.

One (1) Winner will receive:

• (2) Two COMET Exclusive Shirts: One – Get Skiffy “T” and the “˜We Can Hear You Scream’ Alien T.
• (1) One COMET Robot Stress Ball
• (1) One COMET Flying Saucer
• (1) Astronaut Ice Cream
• (1) Microwave Popcorn

TO ENTER: There’s just two simple steps:

(1) Subscribe* to Geeks of Doom Daily Email Digest.

(2) Fill out the entry form here below and submit. (Form is here after the jump.)

Good luck!
 

I was reminded of singer/actor Rick Springfield yesterday when I read about what’s apparently an annual Rick Springfield Cruise, with this year’s voyage taking off in November to the Caribbean. Now, I’m not even gonna front, I would totally go on this cruise if I wasn’t prone to seasickness, especially since I have about ten girlfriends who I know would go with me.

If you don’t know who Rick Springfield is, he was a popular chart-topping music artist here in the United States in the 1980s and is most famous for his hit song “Jessie’s Girl” (you totally know it). But before Springfield wished that he had Jessie’s girl back in 1981, did you know he was in the original 1970s television series Battlestar Galactica? That’s right, in 1978, he appeared in an episode called “Saga of a Star World” as Commander Adama’s younger son Lieutenant Zac Adama, a Viper pilot with the Galactica (BSG fans of all eras know the deal with Zac, right?).

Springfield’s foray into the world of sci-fi didn’t stop with his short stint on BSG. Matter of fact, the musician/actor has accumulated quite a bit of geektastic cred in his over 40-year career.

In 1983 (after leaving the soap opera General Hospital), he went back to focusing on his music, experimenting with the synth-heavy pop style of the time on songs like “Human Touch.” To go with the song was a music video — also on the rise back then thanks to the birth of MTV (back when they actually played videos). A sci-fi setting was chosen for this video, of which Springfield was front and center.

The Large Hadron Collider is a machine that essentially smashes subatomic particles together so scientists can study the outcome. The 15-year-old project has a total cost of $10 billion and has been plagued with problems that have prevented it from operating as intended.

As of March 30, 2010, scientists working on the project had something to rejoice about as the machine was able to make subatomic particles collide head-on at energies far greater than have ever been achieved before.

And rejoice they did, very excitedly and in a few different languages as anyone who was watching the live stream provided by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN.

Personally I understood about 15 percent of what was being said during this stream, but that’s probably a generous overstatement on my part. Still, there are others who would either be bored to tears with the thought of watching it or (if forced to watch) comprehend even less than I.