“In mid-1998 Steve moved into what would become known as Rancho Obi-Wan. The previous occupier, a furniture equipment manufacturer had vacated and had left a large industrial warehouse and good-sized storeroom on the premises. The property itself totaled up two and a quarter acres, giving Steve the space he needed to house his collection, and additional space for storage.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 27, 2006 in Videogames
This is a very very silly game – even the opening theme song is great, it’s a parody of an 80s “Tears for Fears” song (I also love the Terry Gilliam art direction too):
“A new Gallup Poll shows more than two- thirds of respondents support the nation’s stepping-stone approach to space exploration, which includes flying the space shuttle to complete the International Space Station, building a replacement vehicle for the space shuttle, returning humans to the moon, and exploring Mars and points beyond. (Respondents support this approach if NASA’s budget does not exceed 1 percent of the federal budget.)
The most recent poll, conducted in August, is the last in a three-part series of polls commissioned by the Coalition for Space Exploration in an effort to better understand the extent of support and public attitudes toward America’s space program. The first polls were conducted in June of 2005 and March of 2006.”
“X-Men director Bryan Singer is promising fans more action, if and when Superman Returns 2 gets the go-ahead. Hopefully it will get a better name as well. “When you do a first film like X-Men, for example, you’re introducing a world and a set of characters,” Singer told TODAY. “Once those characters are introduced, once we’ve lived with them for awhile and we know them, when you get into a second film like an Empire Strikes Back or a Wrath of Khan, you can make an action-adventure film and you don’t have to bank all that time getting to know the characters. Now you can raise the stakes, raise the jeopardy and make a leaner, meaner movie”.”
“It’s not hard to sell attendees of the Space 2006 conference on permanent human settlements in space. Where those settlements should be, however, is another question. Various scientists make their case for Mars, the moon or habitats orbiting the Earth. While the question is not a pressing one for most people, for the futurists mapping the humans path to space, the destination makes all the difference in the world.
For Al Globus, senior research associate for human factors research and technology at NASA Ames Research Center, the most salient issue is one that most people take for granted on Earth: gravity. In low gravity, muscles atrophy and bones loose calcium and become brittle. If people start having children in an off-Earth settlement, those children — being adapted to the moon’s one-sixth gravity or Mars’ three-eighths gravity — may not be able to function on Earth, Globus argues.”
“Welcome to the Klingon Language Institute. That’s right, Klingon. Those bumpy headed aliens of Star Trek really have their own language, one which has far outgrown mere television and film. That’s what we’re about. We’re here to promote and support this unique and exciting language. So, whether you’ve just stumbled in here by accident, or lost a bet, or have sought long and hard for people who share your passion for the warriors’ tongue, come on in. Our site has information and resources to interest both skeptic and enthusiast alike. Join us in our exploration of the galaxy’s fastest growing language.”
My favorite Klingons are from the first Star Trek series, their makeup wasn’t as cool but they seemed to have much more fun than the Klingons in the other shows (and didn’t grunt as much):
“Although 2006 is beginning to wind down, we here at IGN Comics are just getting started. With the end of the year approaching, it’s always nice to reflect on what has come in the past 12 months. With the December solicits hitting earlier in the week, we thought it would be appropriate to pick out some fantastic art. We separated Marvel and DC to avoid fanboy tendencies, and tried to pick out the 50 best pieces of cover art that we could. Trust us, it was no easy task.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 24, 2006 in Star Trek
A new Star Trek online fan film stars Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig reprising their roles as “Uhura” and “Chekov” and takes place on “Enterprise B”. The movie’s Web site is startrekofgodsandmen.com, and looks quite impressive when you keep in mind that it’s done as a labor of love and with no budget.
“In a move that could provide a crucial boost to our robotic friends struggling up the near side of the Uncanny Valley, major cosmetics manufacturer Kao Corporation and a Keio University research team led by robotics professor Takashi Maeno have developed an artificial skin that feels just like human skin.
Skin, the largest organ of the human body, consists of a soft layer of tissue (dermis) covered by a tougher protective layer (epidermis). The artificial skin developed by Kao and Keio mimics the feel of human skin with a 1-cm thick “dermis” of elastic silicone covered by a 0.2-mm thick “epidermis” of firm urethane. Countless tiny hexagonal indentations etched into the urethane epidermis provide it with a very realistic texture.”
…what cool to me about this isn’t so much the idea of robots that look like people, but that this invention might be put to good use on artificial limb technology.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 23, 2006 in Videogames
This is the sad (or silly) tale of a reporter going “undercover” to do an expose on the virtual sex trade business, so I guess that would make this “virtual journalism”:
“Should I wear the black heels with the red stockings or the white heels with the pink lingerie? This is the type of question that plagued me in my “Second Life” as a working girl. A few weeks ago, I created a female avatar to research the booming sex industry inside this virtual world. I called her Darlene Sin. Why leave anything to the imagination, right?”
…so if the reporter (Derrick) was playing a girl online does that also make him a virtual cross dresser?
“Kurt Cobain turned down a small part in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, according to the late rocker’s wife Courtney Love. The Nirvana frontman was lined up to appear alongside Love in the 1994 movie. Cobain would have starred as a drug dealer, while Love would have played his heavily pierced girlfriend. The roles were eventually taken by Eric Stoltz and Rosanna Arquette. Love says, “If Kurt had survived we’d be taking private jets by now. He’d have loved that”.”
…it is sad to me to think that Cobain has been dead now for over 12 years. It would have been nice to see what ever creative projects he would have gotten into.
“The Cassini spacecraft has identified a faint, previously unknown ring circling the giant planet Saturn. It appears to be composed of material blasted off the surface of two saturnian moons by meteoroid impacts. The moons Janus and Epimetheus may be too small to hold on to dust kicked out by these impacts, so it escapes into space, spreading out into a ring. The tenuous, wispy ring coincides with the orbits of these two moons, mission scientists noted.”
