October 2005 Archives

A Jedi! Whataya Know?

| 0 Comments

I always have fun at Halloween, because it gives me an excuse to run around in costume.


When I was in elementary school, we had a Halloween Parade every year. Back then, it seemed like for Halloween you had two choices -- either dracula makeup/vampire teeth or you could buy costumes in a box. The costumes in a box were always of a licensed character, and contained a vinyl smock and a thin molded mask which had some elastic to hold it to your face. They don't really make them like that anymore, which is probably a good thing. The masks were quite creepy now that I actually think about it, and they would cut into your face. But those costumes in a box were what seemed like every kid wore for Halloween.


Then somewhere around the 4th grade, when Ninjas and various forms of martial arts became hugely popular, kids started to actually dress up for Halloween. It became apparent that there were other choices that weren't in a box, and the following year, my mother made me a costume of my favorite G.I. Joe character at that time, Airtight. Of course despite carrying around a M-16 and wearing an army helmet everyone thought I was a yellow ninja. A week before Halloween my mother, my sisters and I would pile into the station wagon and head to the mall to the House of Fabric to pick up patterns and materials for our costumes. Any props we needed were picked up at Toys R Us and usually didn't consist of very much. It always seemed quite magical that my mother was so quickly able to transform pieces of cloth and paper into a costume.


A couple of years later, I tried to create a costume of Samus Aran from Metroid out of yellow sweats and some posterboard. It was a pretty lousy costume, and the experience really dissuaded me from costuming for many many years, but it also taught me an important lesson -- you can't throw an elaborate costume together without thinking and planning it out.


Last year, I tried making a costume for an Incredible (from the The Incredibles (given my build I'd have to be Dash), and was pretty happy with how it turned out.


"I see you becoming the greatest of all Jedi" - Senator Palpatine, Attack of the Clones.


This year, I was the Chosen One: Anakin Skywalker. This is the first costume I've made that required me to sew. It's also the most expensive costume I've ever made due to the lightsaber. (Let's be honest though -- I could do with a paper towel tube lightsaber, but it's just not as awesome as a glowing humming lightsaber). This costume (excluding lightsaber) cost about 45 dollars to make, which is 5 dollars more expensive than the Rubie's version of Anakin Skywalker, but mine looks a hell of a lot better, includes a Jedi Robe, and looks a lot more expensive than it actually is.


There's several ways to make a Jedi costume, and the internet is a wonderful resource (given that they have Tutorials on making Stormtrooper Armor, I figured Jedi knight was small potatoes in comparisson). I stumbled upon How to Make a Jedi Robe, took out the sewing machine and got to work. The robe took a couple of hours to sew (I had to learn how to use the sewing machine at the same time) and I picked up the lightsaber at Borders.


I'm really happy with the way the costume turned out (Flickr photoset). I've never liked wearing costumes grounded in reality -- I tend to enjoy the fantastical stuff more. Even if it seems odd walking around, I think it just adds to the fun.


links for 2005-10-29

| 0 Comments

New Canon Firmware

| 0 Comments

Canon just released some new firmware for the EOS20D and EOS350D (Digital Rebel XT):


  • EOS 20D Version 2.0.3
    1. Fixes a problem in color temperature information transmission that occurred when using Speedlite 430EX
    2. Improves reliability in communicaion when using CF cards.

  • EOS 350D/Digital Rebel XT Version 1.0.3

    1. Fixes the phenomenon of shots being unable to be taken when using the remote controller RC-1.
    2. Fixes the phenomenon wherein the camera continues to scroll through images being played back.
    3. Improves reliability in communication when using some CF cards.

links for 2005-10-28

| 0 Comments

links for 2005-10-27

| 1 Comment

links for 2005-10-26

| 0 Comments

Mmmmm.... Brains!

| 1 Comment

How We Spend Time

| 2 Comments

According to researchers in Germany, we spend on average 24 years of our life sleeping, and 7 years at our jobs. The time we spend eating is 5 years. Education is only 1 year and 10 months. 9 months is spent commuting. 4 months of our lives playing computer games (though I suspect that given the amount of time I spent on MMOGs and what I do for a living, I have spent far more time playing computer games than the average person at the cost of sleeping -- but that's okay -- after all, who's going to miss a month here or there when there's 24 years to account for?


Of course, another study has found that
Lack of Sleep Affects Doctors Like Alcohol Does.

links for 2005-10-25

| 0 Comments

iPodspotting

| 0 Comments

After having dinner with ota at Tamarine (see ota's review), we stopped at the Apple store to look at the 4 GB iPod Nano and the new 30 GB iPods with Video. I'm amazed at how thin and tiny these new iPods are in comparison to the older models. Sadly, they didn't have any 60 GB iPods to look at. After querying the Apple sales associate regarding this omission on the sales floor, he responded by saying that the store hadn't received any of the larger units yet.


This brings up an interesting facet of size vs. price. In the past, the lower capacity units of the iPod have tended to outsell the larger capacity units, mainly because people didn't think they had enough music to fill the iPod. With the iPod video, I almost feel like it's not worth purchasing the smaller unit, because I know how quickly video can eat up space. Still, the 30gb iPod is now very thin, and I predict that it will still sell incredibly well.


The interior of the Apple Store in Palo Alto has changed somewhat -- gone are the tall black shelves which once housed software and iPod accessories. The new shelves are shorter (about waist high), which contain products on the interior of the bookcase and iPod displays on the top of the bookcase. This configuration reminded me much more of the flagship (2 story) Apple stores. The kid's area also seemed to be missing (but it also could be my recollection is bad).

links for 2005-10-21

| 0 Comments

Worst Car Review...Ever!

| 0 Comments

I've seen my share of badly written reviews before, but this CNN/Money Review of the Z06 Corvette is just hilariously horrible. I think what bothers me most is the overuse of simple sentences such as "The Corvette Z06's 7-liter 505-horsepower engine sounds like lots of small things exploding." or maybe it's confusion causing sentences like: " Those extra pipes don't have much muffler in them, you see, so as not to use up too much power pushing out the exhaust gases."


I suppose at the end of the day Mr. Valdez-Daepena gets paid to write fine sentences such as "Acceleration is catapult-quick." and "The car feels like it can't quite handle what it's got and it needs your help, please, to hold it back a little." whereas I don't, so who am I to judge?

links for 2005-10-20

| 0 Comments

Tokyo Motorshow 2005

| 0 Comments

It's time once again for the Tokyo Motorshow. This year, the theme is on the environment, and many auto manufacturers are showcasing their eco-friendly technology and vehicles here. The one I'm looking forward to the most however isn't a fuel-cell or hybrid vehicle, but rather the Nissan GT-R Proto, a high performance sports car.


One of the problems with Motorshows these days is in the onslaught of press releases, there are no longer any surprise unveilings -- everything is announced days or even weeks again to ensure that journalists are there to cover the "official premiere event". The Pivo, one of Nissan's concept cars was previewed almost a month ago, and I suppose that's why it's refreshing to see the VW EcoRacer, a car very un-VW, environmentally friendly and fast. Hopefully in the days to come we'll see a few more surprises.


The Mazda Senku is the first rotary hybrid and looks far too futuristic to see production anytime soon.


A car with a cool story is the GG50 Ferrari. In 1955, Giorgetto Giuiaro began designing cars for Fiat. Over his 50 year career, he's designed some truly exceptional cars such as the Maserati Ghibli and the VW Golf, and while he was at Bertone, he designed 2 custom Ferraris. Last year at the Paris Auto Show, Giuiaro asked Ferrari if he could design a Ferrari to celebrate the 50 years he's been working as an auto designer. Ferrari said yes, and this one-of-a-kind car is the result.


Major Auto magazine coverage:

Road and Track

Motor Trend

Car and Driver

Automobile Magazine

WoW of the Rings

| 0 Comments

World of Warcraft: Fellowship of the Ring


Link goes to an animated gif made up of screen captures from Fellowship of the Ring with subtitles as if they were players in World of Warcraft. Some of the jokes are WoW specific, but any player of MMOGs should be able to find the humor in it.

100 Best Novels

| 0 Comments

In the October 24th Issue of TIME magazine, they list 100 Best Novels. While one would expect certain titles on there such as George Orwell's Animal Farm and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, they've also published a short list of 10 titles that are surprises. Amongst the ten? Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and Ubik by Phillip K. Dick.


It looks like I've got a new reading list.

links for 2005-10-19

| 0 Comments

Soju is the new Vodka

| 0 Comments

I was listening to NPR's Marketplace as I was driving home tonight, when I heard the following story: A new twist in that cocktail. Apparently in New York and California, Korean restauranteurs were able to successful lobby to serve soju using a beer and wine liquor license. As a by product of this legislation, many businesses that couldn't afford a full liquor license are using soju instead of traditional hard liquors for their cocktails.

Tonight I watched the The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Special Edition DVD. I'd never seen this movie before, but I've often heard Buckaroo Banzai quoted. It's a very eighties sci-fi movie, starring Peter Weller (RoboCop), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Jeff Goldblum and John Lithgow (3rd Rock from the Sun). The basic story revolves around rockstar/physicist Buckaroo Banzai as they battle evil aliens from the 8th Dimension.


It's a bad, bad movie.

1/5

links for 2005-10-18

| 0 Comments

Shooting in the Dark

| 2 Comments

My first couple of experiments with night photographs were abysmal failures, which actually encouraged me to go out and learn more about night photography. Because I was out in the darkness in the early hours of the day, I decided to make use of my tripod and camera and managed to get some nice shots of the heavens above.


The Moon and Stars

deYoung Museum Opening Weekend

| 1 Comment

Yesterday I went to the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to visit the de Young Museum on its opening day. However, the idea of standing a 4-hour+ long line in the blistering hot San Francisco sun dissuaded me, and I elected to return on Sunday.


deYoung Museum just happens to be keeping the museum open for 31 hours continuously -- from noon on Saturday until 5pm on Sunday. How many times in your life are you going to be able to see a museum or Golden Gate Park in the middle of night?


I left my house at 3 am to drive up to the city. After stopping for a impromptu moonlight photoshoot, I made it to Golden Gate Park at about 4 am. 4am just happens to lie in the zone where SFPD will ticket your car if it's parked in GGP, I was hoping there might be some leniency given the special events at the deYoung but after noticing a number of red parking tickets on the windshield of cars, I decided to exit the area and found an amazing parking spot on 18th and Irving, a mere two blocks from the park entrance.


I take some photos around the deYoung before starting to stand in line to enter the museum (even at 5am there's a line!) The line movies quickly and by 530 I'm inside. The deYoung is an incredibly massive building and its collection is spectacular and diverse. The museum is photographer friendly, with the only restrictions being the visiting exhibit.


The deYoung also has an observation tower, granting a 360 degree view of the City and the Park.


Flickr: deYoung Museum

The All Ugly 2006 Civic

| 0 Comments

A couple weeks ago, someone commented to me that they made the new Civic ugly. I glaced at the webpage on the screen and agreed. Driving today I had the unfortunate experience of being behind one. The back of the car is just as bad as the front of the car. I'm not quite sure what these designers are thinking -- the front end looks more Saturn influenced than Honda influenced, and the rear end hasa tailight cluster ripped off from Infiniti, and two double chins from the front of a Volkswagen. It's amazing to me that car manufacturers have such a hard time designing the exteriors of cars, when all their designs are derivative from what happens to be the modern trend.

It's Just a Game!

| 0 Comments

Angry Gamer (warning: explicit language)


While not nearly as funny as The Terrible Mr. Grimshaw (also explicit language) -- a recording of someone's cubicle neighbor playing counterstrike seeing the visuals on Angry Gamer adds additional comedy.


Seriously, I hope these two seek some anger management counseling.

How to: Infect something with a TSE

| 1 Comment


Mad Cow-like diseases may spread through urine



The agent that causes mad cow disease, scrapie and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk may sometimes be spread through urine, Swiss researchers reported on Thursday. They found that, under certain conditions in mice, the deformed brain proteins known as prions that transmit the disease could be found in urine. "We tested whether chronic inflammatory kidney disorders would trigger excretion of prion infectivity into urine," Adriano Aguzzi of the University Hospital of Zurich and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.


Scrapie-infected mice with kidney inflammation excreted prions in their urine, and these prions infected other mice with scrapie when injected, Aguzzi and colleagues found.


So we now have a new vector of transmission -- one which can potentially encompass all the cows that graze on a particular area.

When an accident is not an accident.

| 0 Comments


Crash victim's insurer should have a heart (Seattle Times)



Ethel Adams was driving along minding her own business last March when a pickup truck was forced into her lane, slamming into her head-on.


She had to be cut from her crumpled Hyundai Accent. She was in a coma for nine days. Doctors first debated whether she'd live, then, later, whether she'd walk. It would seem Adams was the unlucky victim of an unforeseen event -" what most anyone would call an "accident."


Not her insurance company.


Though Adams, 60, has $2 million worth of coverage, a subsidiary of Farmers Insurance has decided not to pay her a penny because they say someone caused Adams' crash on purpose.


I have no love of insurance companies. I pay the protection money because by state law I'm required to. With probablity and odds being what they are, I'd bet on the normal state of being rather than the off chance of being injured. So it's ridiculous to me that when an accident does occur, insurance companies refuse to pay up, looking for a loophole to exploit. The story above is one of those cases.


This also means that if you hit someone with the intent of hitting someone, insurance won't cover them.

Review: King Arthur

| 0 Comments

Last night, we watched the King Arthur (Unrated Widescreen Director's Cut) DVD. The movie, while long and at times a bit slow was not bad, but I can see why as a summer film, King Arthur tanked at the box office. King Arthur in this version is not the tales of the Knights of the Round Table as one would traditionally think, but retold as a historical drama. The film is more similar to The 13th Warrior (a retelling of Beowulf from a historical point of view) than a sword and sorcery tale (which is what people come to expect from King Arthur).


Watching the film, I couldn't help but think of Braveheart which has some very similar moments.

Red Comet

| 0 Comments

Japanese Space Tourist wants to wear Gundam outfit into space


More specifically, he wants to go as Char Aznable, the Zion space ace, and Amuro's nemesis. Char was always cooler than Amuro in my opinion. In the Gundam anime, Char attempted to drop an asteroid on Earth in order to force a migration into space.

DVD Movies to iPod

| 0 Comments

How to Rip DVD Movies to your iPod


Looks like it's quite a time consuming process, but it'd be great for situations where you'd bring an iPod loaded with movies instead of a stack of DVDs to a friend's place for a movie marathon.

links for 2005-10-14

| 0 Comments

links for 2005-10-13

| 0 Comments

One More Thing...

| 0 Comments

Apple unveiled their new products this morning:

* iTunes 6 with the capability to buy TV shows online.
* iPod w/ TV out.
Music, Photos and TV? I'm sold. The iPod does even more now. And it even comes in black.
* iMac
Thinner and comes with iSight, Mighty Mouse, and a wireless remote control for your Mac.
* FrontRow

I'm most excited about the iPod with TV out, and iTunes selling TV shows online -- I've often said that the best shows on TV typically make their way onto DVD where I can enjoy it commercial free. At a 1.99 a show, that's a pretty good deal, considering the price of cable or the cost of DVD.

links for 2005-10-12

| 1 Comment

links for 2005-10-11

| 0 Comments

Building a Bargain Photo Studio

| 1 Comment

I went around yesterday morning and picked up a few items to construct a photo studio with


  • Clothespins (18 count) : 1.49 at TruValue Hardware

    Useful in clamping things down, holding things in place, and for holding the showercurtain in front of the lamp

  • Shower Curtain: 2.63 Clearance at Target

    I cut this apart to create a filter to put in front of the lamp to diffuse the light.

  • 8 1/2 in. Clamp Lamp: 10.99 at OSH

    A lamp that can be easily clamped and adjusted.
  • Light Bulbs (4): 1.69 at OSH

    To put in the lamp. I may end up buying some higher wattage bulbs, but for now, these 100W will do.

  • Foam Core (White): 2.49 at Aaron Brothers

    To act as a light reflector and as a surface to photograph on.
  • White Posterboard : 0.79 at OfficeMac

    To create the infinite horizon.

And all of this for just a hair over 20 dollars.

Mountain View Public Library

| 0 Comments

This weekend, I visited the Mountain View Public Library for the first time and got my library card.


The library is medium sized (2 floors, computer area, children's room, quiet study areas, etc), and they seemed to have a good selection of books. Availability of the books seems better than San Jose (smaller borrowing pool = quicker times to get books on hold). Hopefully I'll use the library more than I did while I was living in San Jose, considering how close the library is.


Mountain View Library Bookmarklet.

93,000 miles

| 1 Comment

My Celica rolled past 93,000 miles today on the commute to work today. I've had the car almost exactly 4 years (the car was registered on Oct. 2nd if I recall correctly). This is, of course, the last year for the Celica, after 7 body styles and 35 years. I removed the GPS unit from the car last night and haven't experienced any power outages since, so I'll have to go through the wiring again and see if I can't locate the cause of the problem.


It's been 4 years since I've picked it up the lot. I've gone through 3 sets of tires, a water pump, and countless oil changes. The car is still as fun to drive as it ever was, but I feel like I want a change.

links for 2005-10-10

| 0 Comments

Review: Initial D: The Movie

| 0 Comments

I just finished watching Initial D live-action movie, which is an adaptation of the manga/anime series of the same name. The story revolves around Takumi, a high school student who delivers tofu for his father, and works at the neighborhood gas station. Having been a long time reader of the series, it was fun to see the comic come to life. There's something a bit odd about watching Chinese actors play Japanese charatcters, and some of the characters are clearly lip-sync'ed (from whatever language the actor happened to be speaking).


The road racing segments are fun to watch, and features lots of racing and drifting down Mt. Akina (it is Initial D, after all).


Since the film is basically compressing 12 volumes of Initial D, characters are cut/changed, and story events are combined or changed in order to create an adaptation that makes sense.

links for 2005-10-08

| 0 Comments

The Man is going after games

| 0 Comments

Schwarzenegger signs video game bill


*The bill, which will come into effect January 1, 2006, bans the sale or rental of "violent video games" to children. What exactly is a "violent video game?" According to the state's legal summary of the bill, a "violent" game is defined as a "game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being." That definition would seem to cover virtually every M-for-Mature-rated game and many T-for-Teen rated games as well.

Under the new law, retailers that sell such games would be subject to a $1,000 fine. It will also require "violent" video games to bear a two-inch-by-two-inch sticker with a "solid white '18' outlined in black" on their front covers. That's over twice the size of the labels that currently adorn game-box covers and display the familiar Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating.*


The definition of "violent" is far too broad. I think this is really going to hamper creativity in the games medium. The only thing that we in the games industry can hope for is that a major retailer lobbies hard against this. Hoping on Wal-Wart to save the day. What has this world come to?

Prius vs. Durango

| 0 Comments

One of my co-workers is currently thinking about getting a new car, so I, along with a couple of other gearheads in the office have been sending suggestions. Now, as an advocate for hybrid cars, I suggested the Prius, and mentioned that I had done some calculations with gas savings and that my own car vs a Prius would have resulted in a savings on the order of several hundred dollars a year.


It seems that since my Celica is quite gas economical, the gas savings isn't much. Putting up the Prius against a SUV (in this case a Dodge Durango), the numbers are quite astonishing. (I'm being generous with the numbers -- the owner of the Durango says that realistically, the MPG is closer to 12).


Prius: 20,000 miles a year @ 55 mpg = 364 gallons.

Durango: 20,000 miles a year @ 15.5 mpg = 1290.3 gallons


(1290.3 - 364) x $3 a gallon: $2778.9


That's a pretty large hunk of change saved. Of course, with a Prius, you might not be doing the things that you would do with a Durango, but $2778.90 a year might be able to cover the rental costs for the times you can't.

Traffic Woes

| 0 Comments

I always feel like such a putz when I hit a traffic jam. I think to myself, maybe I really should investigate ways of getting around via public transit. This morning, two exits from my work off ramp, I found myself ensnared in traffic that crawled. 2 miles took half an hour to traverse.


There's got to be a better way.

A $200 brick

| 0 Comments

How's this for demented? A PSP Trojan horse turns the PSP into a useless brick.


The trojan disguises itself as a firmware patch, but instead destroys the machine. It shouldn't affect the average user, but for those who use homebrew apps, they need to be careful what they patch.



LA Times also has coverage on this story.

links for 2005-10-07

| 0 Comments

links for 2005-10-05

| 0 Comments

BMW European Delivery Lesson

| 0 Comments

Roadfly Forum Post (with Photos)


I think the take home lesson about BMW's European Delivery Program is this: Make sure to get Wheel Locks.

Autodesk-Alias Merger

| 2 Comments

I felt a disturbance, as if a million frustrated artists cried in frustration at having to learn new tools...


Autodesk purchases Alias


My guess is that 3D Studio Max will now become revised into 3D Studio Maya.


The best thing that could happen is that 3D Studio gets a better UI and better animation tools. This purchase definitely follows the model of "if you can't be better than their competition, buy 'em out".

Firefly and Serenity

| 0 Comments

Joss Whedon's TV series *Firefly* was canceled by Fox in December of 2002. Fox has never been really one to give science fiction shows a real chance to build an audience, so this move by executives didn't surprise me in the least. I consider myself a sci-fan fan, and I couldn't really even get through an episode of the show without being really confused. I promise, dear readers that I will borrow the Firefly - The Complete Series DVD set and give it another try before I try and watch the movie Serenity.


What did surprise me was how the Browncoats (that's the name for the fans of Firefly) were able to garner enough attention for them to bring Firefly back to the big screen, and just how well Serenity is doing at the theaters (#2 in overall box office sales in the United States)

Super Mario Opera

| 0 Comments

*"What if, on a crowded street, you look up and see something
appear that should not, given what we know, be there. You either
shake your head and dismiss it, or you accept that there is much
more to the world than we think. Perhaps it really is a doorway to
another place. If you choose to go inside you may find many
unexpected things...."*
-Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto


Super Mario Opera, you can check out their songs and their trailer.

Apple Special Event, Oct. 12

| 0 Comments

Looks like something's in the works. Apple sent out a bunch of invitations today with the phrase "One more thing...", which Jobs has often used as an introduction to a new Apple product or service. Industry analysts are speculating on a iPod video. I'm hoping it's something more interesting than that, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head that Apple could be working on.

File this one in the bad idea department...

| 0 Comments

Screenlight develops headlight mounted LCD displays


If it's not bad enough that headlights are so bright now that they can blind you while driving, these LCD mounted displays will blind you in another way: by displaying video.


Of course, I can think of other uses for the screen than showing DVDs on the screen -- imagine if you could hook this up so that you could display messages while driving -- all those nice pieces of advice that you shout inside your own car could be displayed, like the popular "Learn to Drive, Moron!" and "Don't you know how to signal?" or my own favorite: "Get off the damn phone and drive!"

Names

| 5 Comments

Nicholas Cage's son is named Kal-el


I don't think I ever realized that Nick Cage was comic book geek enough to give his son a comic book name (and such a famous one at that).

links for 2005-10-04

| 0 Comments

Hybrids vs. Cost of Gas

| 3 Comments

NPR: Do Hybrids Save Money?


NPR talks with *Wall Street Journal* Detroit Bureau Chief Joseph White about hybrids (specifically the Prius) vs. his current Subaru. The verdict is that unless gas prices really skyrocket, the savings just don't compute. I don't quite agree with that, and my numbers in the extended entry show why.



Newsweek has also done a story on the reluctance of Americans to turn in their SUVs for hybrids
. One of the really interesting statements made is by the research group J.D. Power: *By the end of this decade, J.D. Power predicts hybrids will account for less than 4 percent of total auto sales.* Presently, hybrids account for 1.4 percent of total auto sales.


*Next year's blingy new Cadillac Escalade will get 20mpg-"what GM hopes is the new magic number for social acceptability.*


In my mind, the greatest thing about hybrids is that at city speeds, they reign supreme, which is where the most wasteful use of gasoline is -- take the Lexus RX400h, which does 31 mpg city and 27 mpg highway, which is is just phenomenal for a SUV, since mileage wise it's very close to a typical economy sedan.


I like hybrids. I wish more cars had a hybrid drivetrain. But the Prius and the RX400h just aren't the right cars for me.


Hybrid vs. Celica numbers in the extended entry.

Planet Xena has a moon - Gabrielle

| 0 Comments

10th Planet has a moon


Yes, the planet is dubbed Xena, and the moon Gabrielle. No, I'm not making this up. Where would we be without TV?


Xena is bigger than Pluto, but it too is a Kuiper Belt Object, so if Pluto's planetary status gets revoked, I suspect Xena's will be too.

Too Human

| 0 Comments

Smoking Chimp Kicks the Habit


What I really want to know is who started this Chimp up on smoking in the first place. As much as I'm a believer in Monkey See Monkey Do, someone had to teach the animal to take a drag, and someone needed to either help Ai Ai light the cigarette or teach Ai Ai to use a lighter. I'm amazed that they didn't just stop her habit as soon as they discovered it 16 years ago, as a chimpanzee in a cage isn't going to just walk down to the liquor store, plunk her change on the counter and get a pack of cigarettes.


I mean, we have "Do Not Feed Animals" posted, do we really need to post "Do Not Give Animals Cigarettes?"

Weird Promotional E-mail

| 1 Comment

I got an e-mail today from APC (the people who make Uninterruptible Power Supplies) regarding a
free complimentary screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I can't imagine why anyone would go. I am as great as Raiders is, almost anyone who is a fan of Dr. Jones has already purchased theIndiana Jones DVD Collection, or they have access to it (either through friends or rental stores).

Movie Trailers Redone

| 0 Comments

The Association of Independent Creative Editors came up with a contest as a way to publicize their organization. What's the contest? Take any released movie and re-cut a trailer for it. Some are straight trailers, while some are spoofs:


West Side Story
- recut as a horror flick

Titanic, recut as a horror flick


and the winner:
The Shining, recut as a feel-good drama, coming of age story.


New York Times Article on the phenomenon, and Tattered Coat reports all sorts of statistics on how these trailers have spread like wildfire since they originally posted the links.

links for 2005-10-02

| 0 Comments