10.25.2007
Afro Samurai Creator Takashi Okazaki Confirms Sequel
He wanders the wilderness to avenge his father's death. He is a man of few words, trained in the ancient ways of the Japanese samurai. He sports an unruly Afro.
"Afro Samurai," the star of an animation series of the same name featuring Samuel L. Jackson, is headed for a second run on U.S. network Spike TV — and finally winning a following in its native Japan, where it will debut on the big screen on Saturday.
"I never expected Afro Samurai to get this huge. It started out as doodlings I made in college," creator Takashi Okazaki said in an interview in Tokyo.
"Now, I have Samuel doing Afro's voice, and lots of black kids thanking me for creating an awesome hero," he said. "I just can't believe it."
Afro Samurai's first season, aired as a five-part series on Spike TV early this year, follows the tale of a young samurai with a big Afro who seeks to avenge the death of his father at the hands of a mysterious warrior called Justice.
10.03.2007
The Shock Doctrine
Klein has just published a controversial best seller entitled The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. In it she defines shock doctrine as “the use of public disorientation following massive collective shocks—wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters—to push through highly unpopular economic shock therapy.”
The metaphor of “shock” is important because her thesis stems from a contention that what works on a person also works on a nation. Think 9/11 and fear-induced politics that have eroded some of the fundamentals of what we knew as American democracy. To peer into her thinking, check out the short film by Alfonso Cuaron, who made Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men. Klein was hoping he’d send her a quote for the book jacket, but instead he assembled a team of artists and this short film.
More Shocking Video
The metaphor of “shock” is important because her thesis stems from a contention that what works on a person also works on a nation. Think 9/11 and fear-induced politics that have eroded some of the fundamentals of what we knew as American democracy. To peer into her thinking, check out the short film by Alfonso Cuaron, who made Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men. Klein was hoping he’d send her a quote for the book jacket, but instead he assembled a team of artists and this short film.
More Shocking Video
9.17.2007
A Nature Expedition or Merely Deer Porn?
Despite it all being very natural and above board, there remains something a little weird about groups of humans -- children included -- hiding in the bushes watching animals have sex…and paying for the privilege.
9.13.2007
Fair Use Worth More Than Copyright To Economy
"The Computer and Communications Industry Association — a trade group representing Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, among others — has issued a report (PDF) that finds fair use exceptions add more than $4.5 trillion in revenue to the U.S. economy and add more value to the U.S. economy than copyright industries contribute. "Recent studies indicate that the value added to the U.S. economy by copyright industries amounts to $1.3 trillion.", said CCIA President and CEO Ed Black. The value added to the U.S. economy by the fair use amounts to $2.2 trillion."
AHH if i had not gone to Thialand with my wife i just might own a bar...
Thailand has become synonymous with crazy vacations where English-speaking tourists can find anything and everything under the sexual sun, but a lot of men who make the journey find something even wilder than they could have imagined—like a girlfriend or even a wife. This interesting mini-documentary about the tropical paradise looks at gents who get more from the nation's famous "bar girls" than a one-night stand. These ladies offer a companion, a travel partner, and in some cases a mate for life, while the guys offer loving attention and financial support (i.e.. a potential way out of the seedy bars and nightclubs.) Oh, and there's the sex, too, but that's just a bonus. Some dudes even chuck their lives back home for a new one on the beach, but you'll only have to give up half an hour to see the video. Check it out before you find some one to love you a very long time
8.30.2007
How a handful of desperate innovators took special effects to new heights in two 1977 movies--Star Wars and Close Encounters
You probably recognize this shot...
...because it's the opening shot of the most famous science fiction film ever created.
That shot almost never happened. Indeed, it was so difficult to get that the man who realized it--Richard Edlund, who did visual effects for Star Wars--procrastinated shooting it until the very end of production, when there wasn't enough money left to create this scene using a gigantic, building-wide model of the star destroyer, as he'd hoped.
Instead, he took the biggest model star destroyer he had, which was three feet long, stuck a 24mm lens on the front of his camera, and got it to within 1/32nd of an inch of the bottom of the model, almost scraping off the bottom as his motion-control rig played out the scene.
It may be hard to believe now, but immediately before 1977, the watershed year that witnessed the release of both Lucas's Star Wars and Steven Spielberg's UFO epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, big-budget effects-laden movies were incredibly rare.
Via an exhaustive history of special effects at Invention and Technology.
...because it's the opening shot of the most famous science fiction film ever created.
That shot almost never happened. Indeed, it was so difficult to get that the man who realized it--Richard Edlund, who did visual effects for Star Wars--procrastinated shooting it until the very end of production, when there wasn't enough money left to create this scene using a gigantic, building-wide model of the star destroyer, as he'd hoped.
Instead, he took the biggest model star destroyer he had, which was three feet long, stuck a 24mm lens on the front of his camera, and got it to within 1/32nd of an inch of the bottom of the model, almost scraping off the bottom as his motion-control rig played out the scene.
It may be hard to believe now, but immediately before 1977, the watershed year that witnessed the release of both Lucas's Star Wars and Steven Spielberg's UFO epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, big-budget effects-laden movies were incredibly rare.
Via an exhaustive history of special effects at Invention and Technology.
this fanny shure got a spanking
Socialist Revolutionary Attempts to Assassinate Lenin (1918)
Fanny Kaplan was a political revolutionary who was executed for attempting to assassinate Vladimir Lenin. She became disillusioned with Lenin as a result of the conflict between the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolshevik party and decided to take action, shooting Lenin three times as he exited a Moscow factory. Though she confessed to the shooting, it has been suggested that Kaplan could not have been responsible for the assassination attempt. Why not? More...
8.18.2007
8.11.2007
8.06.2007
Three ways to levitate a magic carpet
15:38 06 August 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Zeeya Merali
It sounds like a science fiction joke, but it isn't. What do you get when you turn an invisibility cloak on its side? A mini flying carpet.
So say physicists who believe the same exotic materials used to make cloaking devices could also be used to levitate tiny objects. In a further breakthrough, two other research groups have come a step closer to cracking the mysteries of levitation.
Scientists have levitated objects before, most famously using powerful magnetic fields to levitate a frog. But that technique, using the repulsive force of a giant magnet, requires large amounts of energy. In contrast, the latest theories exploit the natural smaller amounts of energy produced by the quantum fluctuations of empty space.
Force reversal
In May 2006, two research teams led by Ulf Leonhardt at St Andrew's University, UK, and John Pendry at Imperial College, London independently proposed that an invisibility cloak could be created from exotic materials with abnormal optical properties. Such a cloaking device – working in the microwave region - was manufactured later that year.
NewScientist.com news service
Zeeya Merali
It sounds like a science fiction joke, but it isn't. What do you get when you turn an invisibility cloak on its side? A mini flying carpet.
So say physicists who believe the same exotic materials used to make cloaking devices could also be used to levitate tiny objects. In a further breakthrough, two other research groups have come a step closer to cracking the mysteries of levitation.
Scientists have levitated objects before, most famously using powerful magnetic fields to levitate a frog. But that technique, using the repulsive force of a giant magnet, requires large amounts of energy. In contrast, the latest theories exploit the natural smaller amounts of energy produced by the quantum fluctuations of empty space.
Force reversal
In May 2006, two research teams led by Ulf Leonhardt at St Andrew's University, UK, and John Pendry at Imperial College, London independently proposed that an invisibility cloak could be created from exotic materials with abnormal optical properties. Such a cloaking device – working in the microwave region - was manufactured later that year.
8.03.2007
Dr Strangelove meets the Terminator 2
Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time -- the first time in any warzone -- the machines are carrying guns.
After years of development, three "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns. The 'bots "haven't fired their weapons yet," Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, tells DANGER ROOM. "But that'll be happening soon."
8.01.2007
suicide dragons bombers OH MY
AUSSIE SECURITY experts claim that Second Life and online games such as World of Warcraft are being used to train terrorists.
According to the Australian newspaper a terror campaign has been waged in Second Life which has left a trail of virtual dead and injured, and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars' damage.
Apparently there are three jihadi terrorists registered and two elite jihadist terrorist groups in Second Life and they use the site for recruiting and training. This is on top of the Second Life Liberation Army, which has been responsible for some computer-coded atomic bombings of stores on the site.
Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside al-Qa'ida, said terrorists are rehearsing their operations in Second Life because they can't practice in the real world.
Kevin Zuccato, head of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre in Canberra, says terrorists can gain training in games such as World of Warcraft in a simulated environment, using weapons that are identical to real-world armaments.
So we can expect more terrorist attacks involving broadswords and Heathrow airport to be closed due to suicide dragons.
According to the Australian newspaper a terror campaign has been waged in Second Life which has left a trail of virtual dead and injured, and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars' damage.
Apparently there are three jihadi terrorists registered and two elite jihadist terrorist groups in Second Life and they use the site for recruiting and training. This is on top of the Second Life Liberation Army, which has been responsible for some computer-coded atomic bombings of stores on the site.
Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside al-Qa'ida, said terrorists are rehearsing their operations in Second Life because they can't practice in the real world.
Kevin Zuccato, head of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre in Canberra, says terrorists can gain training in games such as World of Warcraft in a simulated environment, using weapons that are identical to real-world armaments.
So we can expect more terrorist attacks involving broadswords and Heathrow airport to be closed due to suicide dragons.
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