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Peanut Butter and Chocolate: The Food of Nerds
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 16, 2009 in Television
I hadn’t realized just how geek focused the early advertising for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups was until I came across these two spots: The first advert above is from 1980 and has a bit of a Star Wars feeling to it, while 1982 commercial below is inspired by the first generation of home videogames. Habitable Planets: Upgraded from 40,000 to Billions!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 16, 2009 in Science
It was only less than a few weeks ago that we reported that Astrophysicist Duncan Forgan had boldly calculated that there are about 40,000 planets that would support intelligent life — well like a free nerd upgrade Dr. Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science now claims that our galaxy could have billions of earth-like planets! Boss’s thinking is that each Sun-like star has on average one “Earth-like” planet, although sadly he wouldn’t go on the record like Forgan and take his math to the next level to make predictions about intelligent life. In fact on the negative side (or positive?) Boss feels that many of these planets are in primitive states and are populated by less advanced life forms like bacteria. But up on the up side Dr. Boss thinks that NASA’s Kepler mission might begin to spot earth-like planets in just a few years. The Galaxy Railways: It’s Deja Vu All Over Again!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 14, 2009 in Animation
The Galaxy Railways is a 2003 anime series produced by Leiji Matsumoto which reminds me a great deal of Galaxy Express 999. What’s neat is that Funimation is starting to put full episodes of this series up on YouTube. What makes Matsumoto interesting to me is that he was the king of steampunk long before the term was invented — his work in the 70s was filled with space pirates and Victorian trains in a Star Wars universe. This latest series feels slightly xeroxed from his older work, but just the same it is neat that Funimation is putting it out there. Read more… Authentic Akihabara Karaoke Comes to Manhattan: Cosplay Singer Reni
If you’re an otaku near New York City you’ll want to reserve Sunday March 1st on your calendars: Japanese cosplay singer Reni will be performing her “Japanese Maid Show” which features anime and J-Pop songs done in an authentic Akihabara style of singing and dancing: Top Tunes, 303-305 East 53rd Street at 2nd Avenue New York Comic Con Afterthoughts: It Keeps Getting Bigger and Better!
Posted by Guest Author on Feb 13, 2009 in Comic Books, Fandom
Editor’s Note: In this column animation critic Joe Strike gives us an overview into his adventures running around the New York Comic Con this past weekend. This damn thing keeps getting bigger and bigger, not that that should be a surprise to anyone. The only surprise is why did it take so long for NYC to get a world-class con of its own. When the New York Comic Con opened for business in ‘06, four years ago, its exhibit area was a tiny (for the massive Javits Center) basement space that was overcrowded from almost the instant the con opened its doors. This year the exhibitors took over most of the high-ceilinged main floor, an enormous space that the equally pop-culturey Licensing Show used to fill before moving to Las Vegas. Read more… Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino Goes to War
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 12, 2009 in Cinema
Brad Pitt’s accent doesn’t quite cut it for me in this trailer (compare him to the performance of R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket) but I’m sure Quentin Tarantino will have enough guts-n-gore to make up for that! And of course even if QT isn’t making a great film he never commits the sin of making a dull film, you know that when you enter the movie theater you’re going on a long roller coaster ride. Read more… Mickey Mouse Dalek
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 11, 2009 in Dr. Who
I think anyone who who has found Disney a bit corporate and cold would appreciated this Mickey Mouse Dalek by illustrator Darryl Cunningham. Darryl also does an amusing web comic called Super Sam and John of the Night which is well worth checking out. Coraline Baubles Bubble Up
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 11, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
Slowly I’m starting to see the first signs of Coraline merchandise appear here and there — although what little I’ve seen so far hasn’t impressed me at all. For a film that looks so rich and has so much promise, most of the toys seem pretty unimaginative. Although perhaps the toy vendors are waiting to see if the film will be a hit. Two of the cooler things that I’ve spotted is the Coraline Lunchbox
My Aspirational Amazon Kindle 2
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 10, 2009 in Tech
The first Amazon Kindle looked like something from the 90s, you’d half expected that it would be running HyperCard with some Voyager CD-ROMs providing the content. So with the debut of the Amazon Kindle 2 I was sort of surprised to see them still sticking with the same old ugly plastic buttons, a black and white screen and that awful off white casing surrounding the display. Frankly in a recession I’m not going to drop $360 on something that looks like it should cost under $100. Read more… Reinventing NASA: Internal Video Aimed at Changing Culture
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 10, 2009 in Science
What makes this video amazing is that not only does it address what was once a taboo subject at NASA (embracing innovation) but in a bold step towards transparency NASA is making this video public and putting it on YouTube for the entire world to see. I applaud this as the agency has been facing criticism of being too bureaucratic, and this video shows the right stuff to having the correct mindset to change. Read more… |
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