“Mars is losing little water to space, according to new research, so much of its ancient abundance may still be hidden beneath the surface. Dried up riverbeds and other evidence imply that Mars once had enough water to fill a global ocean more than 600 metres deep, together with a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide that kept the planet warm enough for the water to be liquid. But the planet is now very dry and has a thin atmosphere.
Either some other process removed the water and CO2 or they are still present and hidden somewhere on Mars, probably underground, Barabash says. “We are talking about huge amounts of water,” he told New Scientist. “To store it somewhere requires a really big, huge reservoir.”
Barabash is not sure what form this reservoir – or reservoirs – would take, but he points to findings from NASA’s now lost Mars Global Surveyor. This data provided evidence that water had gushed down slopes on Mars in recent years, possibly originating from beneath the surface.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 25, 2007 in Animation
A brand new pilot for a Muppet mini-series is being passed around Disney, a spoof on mockumentary series like ‘The Office’ that has the Muppet gang getting back together to put on a new show after venturing off on their own to find new jobs:
“A fleet of exploding probes could prepare the way for warding off hazardous asteroids. Several of the small spherical robots would land on a single asteroid, some exploding while others listen for vibrations that could reveal the object’s inner structure.
NASA has a list of more than 800 asteroids considered to be potentially hazardous because their orbits carry them close to Earth’s. If one of them is found to be on a collision course, knowing its physical properties will be crucial in devising a mission to divert it.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 23, 2007 in Animation
This is a nicely designed 3D animated short from France, I like the character design of the robots and the use of typography in the animation. There’s also a nice Rube Goldberg theme going on:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 22, 2007 in Animation
The Great Gourmet Cooking Show is a humourous 3D animation from France which is set in in a 70’s cooking show. You can tell they did a great job with the voice acting even if you don’t speak French:
From Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes studios (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror) comes the next horror genre remake in The Hitcher. Based on the 1986 movie of the same name from a script by Eric Red the Hitcher hits on all cylinders for action suspense and downright creepiness factor.
Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, National Treasure) is the mysterious hitcher John Ryder in a role previously played by Rutger Hauer. On a dark rainy night a young couple almost runs over a hitchhiker and then leaves him at the side of the road. As the camera closes in on the face of the hitcher it is at that point that you can tell their fate is sealed.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 21, 2007 in Science
An old argument against aliens is that if the galaxy is filled with advanced civilizations they would have already found us. This theiry was first put out by Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi, and is known as Fermi’s paradox. Well now it looks like someone may have an answer to Fermi’s paradox:
“Rasmus Bjork of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, has calculated that eight probes – travelling at a tenth of the speed of light and each capable of launching up to eight sub-probes – would take about 100,000 years to explore a region of space containing 40,000 stars. When Bjork scaled up the search to include 260,000 such systems in our galaxy’s habitable zone, the probes took almost 10 billion years – three-quarters the age of the universe – to explore just 0.4 per cent of the stars.
So, Bjork’s answer to the Fermi paradox: aliens haven’t contacted us because they haven’t had the time to find us yet. He adds that the search could be optimised by visiting only those stars that harbour habitable planets, which could be identified by planet-finding missions such as NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder. Bjork is also “cautiously optimistic” about listening out for aliens with radio telescopes.”
“They moved to France 16 years ago, sickened, they said, by the infiltration of their once sleepy California town, Winters, by newcomers who bulldozed hilltops for McMansions. The Crumbs also wanted to shield their daughter, Sophie, from a growing conservative and fundamentalist Christian influence while continuing to educate her in what they consider the classics. They reared her on “Little Lulu” comics from the 1940s and ’50s and Three Stooges videos.
It was Mr. Crumb’s absorption of such popular culture that led to his signature style. He applied a lowbrow, all but forgotten crosshatched technique to a kaleidoscope of sexual fantasies, controversial racial topics and images of the hippy counterculture. In so doing, he laid the groundwork for adult-theme graphic novels, influencing everyone from Daniel Clowes, the creator of “Ghost World,” to Art Spiegelman, the author of “Maus.”
“He’s a monolithic presence, who rewrote the rules of what comics are,” Mr. Spiegelman said.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 20, 2007 in Animation
Hanasakemee is a popular avatar character on Yahoo! Japan created by Polygons. Here’s a well done (and very cute) animated commercial designed to introduce the Hanasakemee:
Readymechs are flatpack toys for you to print and build. They are designed to fit on an 8.5″x11″ page and printed with any printer. You ’ll need double-sided tape, thick matte paper, and 10-15 minutes for build time. And they’re 100% free:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 19, 2007 in Comic Books
This is a video clip from a documentary called ‘The Masters Of Comic Book Art’. It’s introduced by Harlan Ellison. Jack Kirby is seen talking about his cosmic Marvel comics and how those led to his Fourth World books at DC. He then says a few words about the history of comics:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 18, 2007 in Comic Books
Following his 50th town hall meeting in Massac County. U.S. Senator Obama poses in front of the Superman Statue in downtown Metropolis, IL. known as the home of the DC Comics super hero.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 18, 2007 in Animation
In the press they’re going on and on about how cell phones in Japan are as cool as the Apple iPhone. I don’t know if that’s the case, but this DoCoMo commercial from Japan does show that the Japanese are having fun with their cell phones. The advertisement below showcases a phone (the FOMA 901i and 700i) that allows you to play animated ring tones (ChakuMotion) using Disney characters:
“Disney is optioning rights to the Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi series “John Carter of Mars” as a potential franchise for the studio. The pic begins with a Civil War veteran whose retreat into a cave to avoid capture by Apache Indians takes an otherworldly turn as he’s transported via time portal to the planet of Barsoom and taken prisoner by 12-foot-tall green men. Burroughs wrote eleven volumes of Carter’s adventures and Disney is hoping the film will launch a franchise.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 17, 2007 in Star Trek
Here’s a preview of the Delta Vega station from the remastered Star Trek episode ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ which airs this weekend (click on the image to see full size):
The first rule they tech you in film school about directing a horror film is ‘never show the monster on screen, it’s more scary that way’. Well here’s a sneak preview image from the upcoming ‘Alien vs. Predator 2’ flick, and yes it looks like the director skipped class:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 16, 2007 in Comic Books
DrawerGeeks is a website where professional artists (mostly from the comic book, animation and illustration world) draw their own version of a famous fictional character. Since 2004 the site has been a showcase for quite a few little gems representing every character from Catwoman (shown above) to King Kong.
