Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 16, 2007 in Science
Dr. Charles Simonyi (the guy who invented Microsoft Word) is not only heading off into space, but is blogging the whole experience to share with us. He’s set to launch on April 7th, and his site is worth checking out:
…man when I was a kid I always heard that you needed “the right stuff” to become an astronaut, little did I know that the right stuff was having a spare $25 million in your bank account.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 16, 2007 in Star Trek
Richard Arnold, onetime assistant to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and a frequent writer and convention speaker on the franchise, said that his contacts have told him that J.J. Abrams will likely not direct Star Trek XI, but the film’s budget has been increased, and the release date is postponed to autumn 2008.
“The Star Wars saga continues this November in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a videogame developed by LucasArts, which casts players as Darth Vader’s “Secret Apprentice” and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In it, players will assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi – and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.”
Thomas Harris returns with the fourth part of the Hannibal Lecter story this time with a Prequal aptly named Hannibal Rising. The Author who penned Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal chose this time to take us back to Lithuania (and later to Paris) during World War II. There we see a young Hannibal (Aaron Thomas) and his little sister Mishca (Helena Lia Tachovska) are running from their castle home with their family into the woods to hide from the approaching Russians from the East and Germans from the West.
Things don’t go well and soon young Hannibal and Mischa find themselves alone and in the clutches of 6 rather evil men who are traitors to the Germans and are hiding from both them and the Russians. These men hold Hannibal and Mischa captive and plan to use them to show they are ‘taking care’ of them should a patrol stop by the cabin. One problem arises almost and becomes grave very quickly. There is no food and the men are starving.
I just discovered this cute hobby kit from japan called the Hakoanime (Box Anime). The Hakoanime allows you to draw four frames of animation onto special paper, and then uses four LED lights to display your mini-epic on a mini-movie screen. The kits will go for about $17 each and are sold through elekit.co.jp.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 15, 2007 in Animation
This is a music vdeo from France for the punk/surf rock group Dorothy Sanchez, even though it was done in Flash I love the scratchy hand drawn quality to it:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 14, 2007 in Comic Books
Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity for fanboys (and fangurls) to explore those heart breaking comic books of yesteryear! This is a great website on the topic with tons of great cover art:
When a technology is new there’s always a bit of glamour associated with it, and that sparkle is also represented in the look of the industial design. The first generation of television sets feature some amazing design work, from a glance you can can almost taste the excitement that people were experiencing for ‘radio with pictures’. This website features some great restoration work on TV sets from the golden age of television:
“I started this page several years ago so I could share some pictures of my collection of 1950’s portable TV sets. Since then I have accumulated many more sets including quite a few sets from the late 1940’s, some Electrostatic sets and also a 1958 RCA COLOR set. My interests include any set built between 1946 and 1959 with my main focus on the smaller table-top sets… ”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 12, 2007 in Comic Books
According to Wizard Universe, it looks like Captain Marvel and friends (Capt. Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, Dr. Sivana and Billy Batson with silly sidekick Hoppy) have been spotted in action at the American International Toy Fair in New York City.
If you’ve never gone to it the Toy Fair is always tons of fun for anyone is a kid at heart, not only can you see the latest and greatest but you can walk for what seems like miles and see nothing but new toys that you’ve never seen before. This year one of the hot franchises is the new Transformers film, and of course you can’t have a film like that without having a ton of new toys come out:
“New York’s annual American International Toy Fair this week is truly “More than Meets the Eye” with the first official look at some of the exciting products based on the live-action Tranformers feature film in theaters July 4, 2007.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 10, 2007 in Animation
Potato and Dragons (Patates et Dragons) is an animated tv series from France which went on the air in 2001. The show is set in ‘the Kingdom of Potatoes”, and features the exploits of King Hugo III, his daughter and a cute looking dragon. The character designs in this show have a very hip and cartoony look to them:
“Mars’ moon Phobos could be the target for a technology trial that would seek to return rock samples to Earth. A UK team is developing a concept mission that aims to land a spacecraft on the potato-shaped object and grab material off its surface.
These small rock fragments would then be despatched to Earth in a capsule. “It is being seen as a technological demonstrator for an eventual Mars sample return,” said Dr Andrew Ball from the Open University. Those aspects of the mission that worked well could be incorporated into a full-scale assault on the Red Planet.”
…and interesting fact I read in the article is that Phobos will one day (well millions of years from now) crash into Mars or be torn into little bits.
“A week ago we thought it had been scrapped. Earlier this week we heard it may not have been. So to end the rumours and confusion, SFX went straight to the source on this and have obtained an official statement from The Henson Company about The Power of the Dark Crystal. And it’s good news: it’s definitely on! This morning we received the following statement from Lisa Henson, the company’s co-CEO and producer of the film:
“The Jim Henson Company remains committed to producing Power of the Dark Crystal. The film has not been ‘cancelled’ or ‘put on hiatus’ or any of the other rumored status changes that have been floating around. This film is an ambitious undertaking for us and it continues to move forward as we work to secure the financing and distribution that a project of this scope requires; and yes, these are factors that will most likely have an impact the production timeline. We are grateful to the fans who support Power of the Dark Crystal and we are excited to make this new chapter in the Dark Crystal story a reality”.”
“The head of the Cartoon Network resigned Friday following a marketing stunt that caused a security scare in Boston. The announcement about Jim Samples resigning was made in an internal memo sent to Cartoon Network staffers.
In a statement to employees, Samples said he regrets the stir that the stunt caused. “It’s my hope that my decision allows us to put this chapter behind us and get back to our mission of delivering unrivaled original animated entertainment for consumers of all ages,” Samples said.”
…by the way check out this great game making fun of Boston:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 9, 2007 in Pulp Fiction
We found a fun gallery of covers from Fate magazine which was focused on the occult and supernatural. The cover designs get sort of dull in the 60s, but the illustrations from the 50s have a quirky kitschy quality to them:
“Sony is bringing hit vidgame franchise “Metal Gear Solid” to the bigscreen.
Michael De Luca will produce the adaptation, with vidgame creator Hideo Kojima as exec producer. A bigscreen adaptation of the futuristic vidgame has been rumored since last May’s E3 confab, but negotiations with Konami Digital Entertainment have been ongoing. Sony chair Yair Landau confirmed it was in the works following his keynote speech Thursday at the DICE vidgame confab in Las Vegas.”
I’ve been watching the current media circus with dread these last few days, and the 24 hour cable news cycle has a nasty way of chewing up people and spitting them out. And any topic connected with crime also has a vengeful kangaroo court feeling to it, which is why my heart goes out to Lisa Nowak and her family.
The fact is that there are very few who get to have the title of “astronaut” in any given genertion, only a very small group of people get to go through this high pressure process. In fact in terms of statistics your chances are much better of being a rock star or becoming a Senator than getting to fly into outer space for a living. So while Lisa is being mocked in the media, I’d like to ask everyone to remember that she is a real person, and to give her the benefit of the doubt before passing judgement:
“US astronaut Lisa Nowak’s fall from grace – she is accused of trying to kidnap and kill a woman she considered a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut – has raised a plethora of unanswered questions from a shocked public. Chief among them: how someone who passed the stringent psychological screening required to become an astronaut could have snapped like this.
But scientists aren’t nearly as shocked as the general public. “It doesn’t surprise me that this might happen occasionally,” says psychiatrist Nick Kanas of the University of California in San Francisco, US, who studies astronaut behaviour on long-term space flights. NASA takes medical histories to screen for psychiatric problems that tend to run in families, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. But no battery of tests will reveal how well astronauts will cope with the ups and downs of daily life.
“Astronauts are very capable people, among the stars of our society. But they have changes in their lives, have issues with their spouses and kids just like you and I might,” Kanas says. “They might be superhuman in their jobs, but not in terms of relationships and their potential for emotional problems”.”
