Fanboy.com

It's great news to see that NASA might get back to the moon, not quite as cool as going to Mars but I'll gladly settle to see some real manned space exploration in the next few years. I grew up on Long Island so i would have liked to see Northrop Grumman get the project, but maybe just maybe this is the start of a new day for NASA:

Lockheed Martin to build future moonship
Team chosen over Northrop Grumman, Boeing for $3.9 billion Orion project

"Lockheed Martin on Thursday won NASA's multibillion-dollar nod to build the Orion crew exploration vehicle, a spaceship with a look and a mission that echoes the space agency's giant leap to the moon in the 1960s.

The announcement kicks off an effort to produce spacecraft that would replace NASA's fleet of space shuttles, due for retirement in 2010. NASA's timetable calls for the cone-shaped Orion ships to bring cargo or up to six crew members to the international space station by 2014, and carry up to four astronauts to the moon and back by 2020.

For 13 months, two high-profile aerospace teams — one led by Lockheed Martin, the other led by Northrop Grumman and The Boeing Co. — have worked on paper proposals to fit NASA's specifications. Now it's up to Lockheed Martin to turn the concept into a reality."

Here's some cool concept art of the project:

It seems that there will be new episodes of Babylon 5 on the way:

New Babylon 5 coming

"As many of you may already know, a few days ago as I write this, I canceled all of my convention appearances through February of next year due to the press of work, both in terms of finishing up work on my script for Ron Howard, and in order to free up room to begin the process of writing, producing, and directing the first in what we hope will be a series of new Babylon 5 anthology episodes for DVD.

The other result of this is that we are going to push back volume nine just far enough to make room for me to get these projects up and on the rails. It will not be much of a delay, it will be a September release, but the Babylon 5 scripts team and I wanted to make sure everyone knew about the delay, and that it is only a delay.

The good thing is that the delay is caused primarily by the creation of new Babylon 5 episodes, to be produced with the original cast, which is a cause for celebration on every level imaginable. We hope to follow up this with another announcement with the September publication date for volume nine as quickly as possible, so stay tuned, for as they say in the television business...there is more to come."

At long last the digital film making revolution is allowing indy film makers to go after subject matter like space opera on a low budget! A digital film company based in Scotland has just released a new film called "The Planet". What's cool is that this film looks pretty neat, but was done on on small budget of £8000 (that $16,000 American with the exchange rate). The film which took two years to make follows a group of shipwrecked mercenaries and their struggle for survival on an alien world.

stirtonproductions.com

And YES they have some cool looking space ships:

It looks like there's going to be a TV series based on the Terminator movies, maybe Gov. Arnold will take a guest spot:

'Terminator' retools
Fox TV series will breathe life back into Connor family

"The "Terminator" franchise is rising again, this time as a Fox TV series. Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar's C2 Pictures, which produced the most recent "Terminator" feature, has pacted with Warner Bros. TV and scribe Josh Friedman ("War of the Worlds") for the tentatively titled "The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Skein will focus on robo-warrior Sarah Connor and her savior son John Connor."

A Lord of the Rings website is reporting that there may be a new film in the works for next year:

THE HOBBIT in 2007?!

"The BIG news has finally hit. A Ringer Spy who was recently in the New York offices of New Line Cinema has reported that they clearly saw 'The Hobbit' on the film schedule for 2007. Here's what the spy had to say: "Please leave my email anonymous as I have some very exciting news to report. I was in New Line's NY offices to discuss upcoming projects when I clearly saw something very intriguing on a year planner. 'The Hobbit' was clearly marked on what looked like July 2007. I couldn't exactly take a moment to investigate the calendar with my audience in the room, but it definitely said 'The Hobbit'. Lets hope this is a PJ project"!"

This is a neat hybrid live-action/stop-motion animation featuring a Japanese girl dressed up in a Mario outfit, riding a claymation Yoshi through the Super Mario World landscape which is populated with bottles and cans of Kirin Lemon instead of the typical coins and pipes:

One of my favorite games of the CD-ROM era was Sam and Max put out by LucasArts. In an era of Doom shooters, Sam and Max was based on storytelling and characters. I also loved the fact that it used humor and has some very good writing and artwork as well. I was very happy to read that there is work being done on a new Sam and Max game, my only regret is that looking at the screen shots it seems like they are doing it in 3D, it would be nice to see if they went with a flat cartoon style:

Sam and Max Are Real! A Visit to Telltale Games

"You might have surmised from reading previous entries on this very blog that I am a fan of Sam and Max Hit The Road. It's fair to say that the classic LucasArts adventure game was "one of the defining events of my mid-adolescence," as I put it to one of Telltale Games' marketing gurus as he drove me from the bus station to their office in San Rafael. Oh! Did I mention that I took the bus up to San Rafael to visit the offices of Telltale Games? And saw a real live demonstration of their upcoming Sam and Max title?"

There may be plans to build a Bruce Lee theme park in Hong Kong:

Screaming rollercoaster will kick off Bruce Lee theme park

"CHINESE government officials are planning a Bruce Lee theme park, complete with a rollercoaster that emits the martial arts actor’s signature grunts and screams on high-speed bends. According to local reports, the park will be patrolled by Bruce Lee “mannequin robots”, radio-controlled from within a giant statue of the late star. The £10m theme park will be built at Shunde, a picturesque town of canals and bamboo gardens northwest of Hong Kong, which Lee’s grandfather left in the late 19th century to start a new life in America. "

But there is still a chance that this may not happen yet:

"However, all this may be brought to a halt by Shannon Lee, the actor’s only surviving child, who plans to visit Shunde for the first time later this year “to find out what else they are dreaming up over there”. The 37-year-old Californian entrepreneur has her own plans including a television series that will use computer graphics to re-create Lee. “The technology is nearly here to make it look as if he is back,” she said last week. She has authorised a Broadway musical as well and hopes to work with the Chinese government, which is also discussing with the BBC a documentary about Lee’s life and his death at 32, following an allergic reaction to a headache pill."

...I hope if they do a computer game they don't do anything too cheesy!

This is a 1975 commercial for Braniff Airways showing the future of supersonic air travel, keep in mind during that era everyone was pretty darn sure that the SST would replace those ugly looking 747 aircraft. It's sort of ironic that the Concorde has gone the way of history and there are more 747 looking airplanes than ever before. And other sad footnote is that Braniff Airways wouldn't last past 1982:

This is the very first Legend of Zelda commercial in the United States for the NES (created in Japan in 1986). The commercial is pretty funny stuff, it features a vintage hip hop beat:

Looking at the success of Nintendo's DS this might be pretty cool, of course I'm still holding out for an iPod phone from Apple:

Sony May Introduce PlayStation Phone

"Although no official announcement has been made yet, it's clear that Sony has plans to leverage its massive PlayStation brand equity among gamers looking at the phone market. The real question is whether the company intends to add phone functionality to the PSP, introduce an entirely separate PlayStation phone device from Sony Ericsson, or do something else entirely. According to an interview in Japan's Nikkei BP with Sony Computer Entertainment corporate executive Izumi Kawanishi, Sony hinted that going forward the PSP may become more and more of a network device."

Superheroes go super cute:

Marvel powers up girls and babies merch

"Playing to new parents who want to pass their love of comic book heroes on to their wee ones is Marvel Babies, a comprehensive licensed baby brand that will have a product for every infant and toddler need. Marvel has turned back the clock on superheroes including Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor and Rhino-Man, using a pastel palette to render them as roly-poly infants in diapers and sucking on pacifiers."

I found this sad story via Boing Boing, it seems there is a feud between designer Paul Frank and the company that bears his name. The designer is no longer part of the $40 million empire built on his cute animal drawings:

The Artist Formerly Known as Paul Frank

"Depending on whom you ask, late last year Frank either quit or was forced out of the company he co-founded with Oswald, the C.E.O., and Heuser, the president. To Frank's defenders, it's as if Walt Disney had been separated from his eponymous empire. That's because Frank created his own Mickey Mouse in Julius, the widemouthed monkey that adorns a substantial portion of the products sold by the company."

...after reading this it would make me think twice before buying another Paul Frank Industries product.

This is pretty funny stuff, however Shatner isn't the only sci fi guy with a fear of flying — when Issac Asimov was alive he was afraid to take airplane trips:

Captain Kirk scared of space

"Star Trek legend William Shatner has been offered a real-life space flight — but he won’t go boldly. Shatner — who plays fearless Kirk — says he is terrified of taking up Sir Richard Branson’s offer of joining Virgin Galactic’s first passenger flight in 2008. The actor fears he will throw up in space or the craft will crash. Shatner, 75, said yesterday: “I’m interested in man’s march into the unknown but to vomit in space is not my idea of a good time."

...however the article notes that Alien’s Sigourney Weaver is signed up!

Today Star Trek hits middle age and turns forty. I grew up watching the re-runs of the series, although I was a tad too young at the time for the first mega "Bring back Star Trek" conventions in the 70s. Back then the show had a cult following, but it wasn't until after the success of movies like Star Wars that Hollywood came back to the series. The show was a cultural icon even in the 70s, but I think most people had no idea that there would be not one, but four more TV series that would be created in the years to come.

Yet in my mind as much as I loved the shows and movies that followed, none quite came close to capturing the magic of the original series (although Wrath of Khan came close). There's a sort of charming magic to that show which stands the test of time, although the series is very much a product of the 60's (but like the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds perhaps that's why we love it so much).

Related article: Star Trek at 40: September 8, 1966

The British Film Institute publishes one of my favorite series of mini-books on films. It looks like they are expanding their website:

BFI expands online film archive

"Short films by Stephen Frears, the late John Schlesinger and brothers Tony and Ridley Scott can now be downloaded from the British Film Institute's website. The initiative allows users to watch rarely shown early works from some of Britain's leading film-makers. Six features are also available, among them 1974's Pressure - regarded as one of Britain's first black feature films. There are 230,000 films and 675,000 TV programmes in the BFI archive. Download costs range from £5 to £12.50."

...sadly it seems downloading the films is off limits to Americans! But it's still neat to see them taking steps in this direction,

It looks like astronomers are starting to think that there may be more Earth like planets that are out there, of course this isn't anything new as Carl Sagan was talking about this sort of thing over twenty years ago. But what is new is that we are starting to get a real glimpse at other solar systems, it's too bad folks like Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov aren't alive to see the revolution that is starting in astronomy:

Study: Earthlike planets may be common

"Earthlike planets covered with deep oceans that could harbor life may be found in as many as a third of solar systems discovered outside of our own, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. These solar systems feature gas giants known as "Hot Jupiters," which orbit extremely close to their parent stars -- even closer than Mercury to our sun, University of Colorado researcher Sean Raymond said.

The close-orbiting gassy planets may help encourage the formations of smaller, rocky, Earthlike planets, they reported in the journal Science. "We now think there is a new class of ocean-covered, and possibly habitable, planets in solar systems unlike our own," Raymond said in a statement.

The team from Colorado, Penn State University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Maryland ran computer simulations of various types of solar systems forming. The gas giants may help rocky planets form close to the suns, and may help pull in icy bodies that deliver water to the young planets, they found."

I just discovered a website that allows you to create your own comic strips online. What's cool about the website is that it features some very hip looking illustrations, not your standard comic book clip art:

Stripgenerator.com

Here's a quickie one panel that I put together in just a few seconds:

One of the rarest and most coveted comics is for sale, the starting bid is at $30k. Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1. This is the first issue of the comic book from 1939 dedicated solely to him. There are very few copies of the comic know to exist:

Original Superman #1 comic book for sale at auction

Care to play a game? After over twenty years it looks there may be a bad direct-to-DVD sequel in the works to one of my favorite early 80s geek hacker movies:

MGM Studios working on sequel to War Games

"Devoid of all originality like most hollywood studios nowadays, MGM is planning on launching a sequel aptly named “War Games 2, a thriller involving high-level computer operations, which begins filming in November."

...now what would be cool is if the sequel was set in 1984 and they had a classic new wave soundtrack and had guest star spots for Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. And if they could work the "brand new Apple Macintosh" that would even be cooler. But nooooo! I bet they'll do a lame job of it.

An exhibit of ads, cartoons, art and other popculture artifacts from the decades leading up to WWI (spotted via Metafilter):

Japan-in-America

Cartoon from the Brooklyn Eagle on the Russo-Japanese War from 1904:

To encourage folks to do space elevator research, several groups are funding a competition for people to build build the the strongest tether and the fastest moving vertical robot:

Space Elevator Games to Spur a New Generation of Space Travel

"The Spaceward Foundation recently announced the second annual Space Elevator Games to be held in partnership with NASA and the X PRIZE Foundation at the Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico, USA. Together, NASA, Spaceward, and X PRIZE are looking to jumpstart safe and efficient space exploration using prizes for private research; much like the Orteig Prize which was won by none other than Charles Lindbergh in his Spirit of St. Louis. The competitions have a total purse of $400,000 sponsored by NASA's Centennial Challenges program, quadrupling the amount of prize money of last year's event. Two prizes will be awarded to teams who can build the strongest tether, and the fastest moving vertical robot. Over twenty teams from different universities and research groups will be competing for a piece of space travel history.

Here's some wall decor for geeks:

The Most Beautiful Periodic Table Poster in the World

"After four years of collecting and photographing samples of all the chemical elements, months of struggling to select the very best example of each one, and further months of working on the best possible printing quality, I am pleased to say that you can now buy a copy of my photographic periodic table poster. The images come from my library of over a thousand element samples, many collected or re-photographed specially for this poster. (A few highly unstable elements show a picture of the person or place after which the element is named, or a mineral that contains trace amounts of the element.)"

...the above thumbnail image doesn't do the poster justice, you need to see the images upclose!

It looks like MGM is planning not one, but two Hobbit films:

MGM to Unveil New Tentpoles!

"In a Variety article talking about MGM's move back into the tentpole business, the trade mentions a few highly-anticipated projects that are in the works:

Over the next few years, MGM is planning to release half a dozen films, some in the $150 million to $200 million-plus range. Studio is ready to unveil such high-profile projects as "Terminator 4"; one or two installments of "The Hobbit," which Sloan hopes will be directed by Peter Jackson."

...but uggg "Terminator 4"!

I have to say that I wasn't sure what to put up on this website today. Five years ago on this day I was in Manhattan watching the Twin Towers smoke, and then vanish into history. Yet having watched the events of that day there is still a part of me that's still trying to make sense of it all, and whenever I look downtown in my mind I still see a gap in the skyline of a city that I love.

Over the past year a number of filmmakers have tackled the subject of 9/11, and in my mind there's something very tacky about that. As a creative person I'm all for an artistic exploration of an event, but something on the scale of a Hollywood epic or TV mini-series seems a bit insincere to me. Yes I'm sure in the minds Oliver Stone or ABC that they had "the best of intentions", but making a big budget drama at this point in time stikes me as exploiting the tragedy of others.

In stark contrast, as I was researching this subject I came across a website on 9/11 in comic books. What struck me looking at some of the titles is that while you might expect them to be tacky (ala a Hollywood epic) there's something very personal and honest about them. Marvel put together several short stories on 9/11 called "A Moment of Silence", and there's some very good storytelling relating to the event going on inside the book. To me this is more of a tribute to what happened that day.

Take look at this panel, it manages to capture the moment without any words:

I was even struck by a December 2001 issue of Spiderman which shows a bit of class when dealing with the subject. For starters the cover of the issue is all black which is a pretty stark but creative statement for a comic book. Even more amazing is that inside the book you see fleeing survivors demanding to know from our superhero "Where were you?" and "How could you let this happen?", and struggling for words Spidy can only reply that he couldn't even imagine the event taking place.

Looking back at it I think Marvel comics was able to do a class job with these books because their offices are located here in New York City. For the editors of Marvel the event wasn't some abstract movie-of-the-week that they watched on CNN, but their everyday reality. I think the gap I see from Hollywood, be it Oliver Stone or ABC/Disney is that if you weren't in New York City that day (or living here in the months that followed) you wouldn't get the same personal insights into the event.

Slate.com has a graphic novel version of the 9/11 report up. It reminds me a great deal of the old Classics comic series, and is worth a look:

slate.com/features/911report/

This is a must visit website for Lord of the Rings fans! This interactive Elvish translator converts English into into Tengwar script, which is the script used to write Elvish languages such as Quenya and Sindarin:

roo.no-ip.org/elvish/

Translation: Fanboy Elvish Translator

Well it's not exactly Mars, but as close as we can get to it on Earth:

Sign Up for a Mission to 'Mars'

"Next summer, six scientists will get to travel to the desolate permafrost desert of the Arctic, live in a two-level metal can and only go outside wearing 40 pounds of faux spacesuit. Not your idea of fun? For the scientists, it could be. The team will be the first to get a taste of what it will be like to live on Mars for months at a time, and they get to skip the half-year trip to the red planet to boot.

The research station is run by the Mars Society, a group of scientists, engineers and futurists intent on accumulating the knowledge needed for manned exploration of Mars. The goal of the four-month tour is to develop field research techniques applicable for scientific investigations of the planet, said Robert Zubrin, an aeronautical engineer and president of the society."

It looks like the "Lord of the Rings" director wants to do a dragon flick:

Lord of fantasy: Jackson eyeing 'Temeraire'

"Peter Jackson is eyeing his next fantasy series. The filmmaker has dipped into his discretionary fund to option "Temeraire," a historical fantasy series by first-time novelist Naomi Novik, as he puts the pieces together for his career post-"King Kong."

The "Temeraire" saga reimagines the world of the Napoleonic Wars with the addition of an air force of dragons and valiant aviators. It centers on British naval Capt. Will Laurence, who captures a French ship, where he discovers an unhatched dragon egg in the hold -- a gift from the Emperor of China intended for Napoleon. When the egg hatches, he is forced to give up his naval career to become captain of the dragon he names Temeraire."

Also check out this fan website for the book series:

temeraire.org

Here is a preview of the new next generation Star Wars game:

For just a mere $2400 you can own your own authentic Star Wars Stormtrooper suit! Shepperton studios, which made the originals for Lucasfilm, is now selling them to the public. These are complete suits exactly like the ones worn in the movies. The helmet is made from the original 1976 movie mold, so it is 100% authentic. Blaster not included:

Shepperton Studios Stormtrooper Armour

Here's what you get:

I love the variety of characters and backgrounds you get with this online comic maker website:

Stripcreator.com

Maybe all of those old episodes of Star Trek were right? It looks like there may be a few more planets like Earth out there:

Earth-like Planets May Be More Common Than Once Thought

"More than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside Earth's solar system may harbor Earth-like planets, many covered in deep oceans with potential for life, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder and Pennsylvania State University.

The study focuses on a type of planetary system unlike our solar system that contains gas giants known as "Hot Jupiters" orbiting extremely close to their parent stars -- even closer than Mercury to our sun, said CU-Boulder researcher Sean Raymond. Such gas giants are believed to have migrated inward toward their parent stars as the planetary systems were forming, disrupting the space environment and triggering the formation of ocean-covered, Earth-like planets in a "habitable zone" conducive to the evolution of life, according to the new study."

Having Leonard Nimoy play the father of a young Mr. Spock would be a most logical move:

Leonard Nimoy As Sarek?

"While at Creation Entertainment's Official Star Trek Convention in Sacramento Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy took the stage and got bombarded by questions about the film. One of the questions posed to him was whether he'd be interested in playing Spock's father Sarek (originally played by Mark Leonard Baker) in the new movie. Leonard's response, "get Abrams on the phone right away!" seems to indicate that he'd be up for it."

Looking at the photo on the right I think Nimoy might be too hippy looking to play his own father:

...but say what you may, Mark Lenard (on the left) was a darn good actor!

The photo below is what Saturn looks like at night. In contrast to the human-made lights that cause the nighttime side of Earth to glow faintly, Saturn's faint nighttime glow is primarily caused by sunlight reflecting off of its own majestic rings. The above image of Saturn at night was captured in July by the Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. The thumbnail doesn't do the photo any justice (you need to see all of the cool detail to appreciate the image), so you should click to the link and see the photo full scale:

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060912.html

A website about a fanboy who like to dress like Elvis and enjoys the company of the ladies:

Elvistrooper.com

"Who is the Elvis Trooper, where did he come from, is he really Elvis or a Clone, and why is he here? These are just some of the many questions that may have brought you here. Well, there are no answers to be given here, just a photographic documentation of the many Elvis Trooper sightings that are being reported across this great land of ours."

Elvis spotted at Dragon*Con 2006 in Atlanta: