Category: Video

Idiocracy

I’ve said it before, and it feels like I’ve said it a lot lately. The stupid are breeding faster than the rest of us! Intelligent people of the world, those who are well-read, well-traveled, well-educated and don’t believe in a faked Moon Landing, get on it! You don’t want to end up like this!

Yes, this movie is worth check out. Made by Mike Judge, the same guy who brought you King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead (kind of ironic, I know), Idiocracy explores a future where the gradual dumbing down of American civilization results in a world where the dumb rule and the intelligent are seen as limp-wristed little pussies.

Part comedy, part cautionary tale, it’s actually quite funny and makes something of a point, especially with its little mock “case study” at the beginning. Check it out, have a laugh, then feel terrified for the future of humanity. And to those of you whom I know personally, with significantly high IQ’s, a sense of wonder about the world, sensitive spirits and open minds, and who have chosen to pass these traits onto others, BLESS YOU A THOUSAND TIMES OVER!

And here’s the next minute or so. Don’t know why they cut it up like this!

Evil Clown Commercial!

Ever wonder where Stephen King got the idea for the evil clown from IT? I’m betting it was watching commercials like this as a child. Perhaps his mother made the mistaken decision to hire one for his eight birthday… Who knows? Point is, I’m glad we don’t make our kids suffer through this kind of creepy crap anymore.

Clowns… shudder!

Via Anarchist Coloring Book

Seth Green’s New Star Wars Show!

George Lucas would surely fume over this, were it not for the fact that he’s probably getting massive royalties! And as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So I suppose he is taking the news that Seth Green, creator of Robot Chicken and the voice of Chris in Family Guy, will soon be releasing another Star Wars parody.

That’s the premise behind Star Wars: Detours, a new animated show that takes the Star Wars universe and does pretty much what Robot Chicken did. Mock it, celebrate it, and just have a lot of fun playing with the characters and storyline. And much like its predecessor, anyone who grey up in the 80’s and loves having their retro/nostalgia sense played to will love it!

However, unlike its predecessor, this one isn’t likely to get all raunchy and gross. Whereas RC appeared on Adult Swim, this is one will be premiering on the Cartoon Network, meaning mainstream audiences will be watching it. Meh, I guess it pays to hedge your bets! No indication on when it will be premiering, but that news is sure to follow! In the meantime, check out the trailer for this new show.

Source: g4tv

How TDKR Should Have Ended…

HISHE has done it again, this time with the latest in the Dark Knight franchise. I rather approved of what they did with the last one, not to mention Superman, Prometheus and just about any other movie that, while awesome, had a plot hole or two! Check it out, funny as hell!

Mars Lander Mission, 2016

With all the news coming back from Curiosity rover since its deployment, one would get the impression that Mars is a pretty happening place. Blue sunsets, wide open vistas, tall mountains and extensive plains. All the while, our collective fascination with the planet has been growing apace. And it seems that this trend is destined to continue…

After looking at several low-cost options for their next major mission, NASA scientists decided to once again return to the Red Planet, this time to do some interior planet studies to determine whether Mars has a solid or liquid core, and determine the planet’s basic structure.

Known as the InSight lander, this mission won out over two equally enticing proposals. The first called the for the deployment of the Titan Mare Explorer (TiME), a floating high-tech buoy which would be sent to Saturn’s moon Titan. Once there, it would study the methane lakes of Titan, examining their composition and interaction with the atmosphere. Thanks to the Cassini probe, these lakes have attracted a great deal of interest of late, particularly since they may be able to support life. Understandably, many can’t wait to study them up close and see if this holds true.

The second potential mission called for the deployment of “Chopper”, a proposed Comet Hopper mission that would put a lander on comet 46P/Wirtanen where it would study the comet’s composition. This comet, which was originally discovered in 1948, belongs to the Jupiter family of comets and orbits the Solar System once every 5.4 years. Studying its make-up would go a long way to helping scientists understanding how Solar comets behave and provide clues as to the early formation of our Solar System.

But scratch those! With 2016 on the way, budget limited and Mars the happening place, InSight will be the one to go. What’s more, it’s research is likely to prove very useful in settling some ongoing arguments, not the least of which is whether Mars possesses liquid water beneath its surface. If this should prove true, it might mean terraforming could be a go sometime down the road…

People can dream! And speaking of which, check out the NASA simulation of what InSight will look like once deployed.


Source: Universe Today

The Martian Chronicles, Finally!

A funny thing happened to my wife and I while we were vacay-ing on the Sunshine Coast. After our walk in the wilderness – we asked for a Swiss Family Robinson-style vacation, we got the Hunger Games! – we put in at the town of Powell River for a little rest and recoup. In addition to drinking plenty of Townsite beer (brewed locally), we sampled local food, basked in the sun, and waited on the Blackberry Festival, which is celebrated every August.

And of course, on our first afternoon there, we did a little shopping. Our first stop took us to a second hand bookstore where we perused old titles for something to flip through over the course of the next few days. Yes, we both brought a handful of books with us for our vacay, but for some reason decided to leave them with my folks in Comox. I don’t know, I guess we figured we wouldn’t have time. But let me tell you… when you’re between pumping creek water, nursing sore muscles, and cooking dried food in your rocky, buggy campsite, a good book comes in handy. And not just for swatting!

Anyway, one of the fruits of our bookstore search was a copy of the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Already I had mentioned this book as part of my tribute to Ray Bradbury, but in truth, I never really read it. And since it’s style and format were part of what got me thinking about my group’s latest anthology, I thought it was high time I read it and saw what all the hub-bub was about. I am now half-way finished and it’s top of my current vacay reading pile, which includes Mona Lisa Overdrive, Second Foundation, and We… ambitious maybe?

I hope to do a full review in the coming weeks and paying this timeless book its due. I also hope to truly adopt some of the themes and stylistic touches to my own work, as they were certainly most effective at capturing the travails of colonization and the settlement on a new world. In the meantime, here is the hilarious video entitled “F*ck me Ray Bradbury”, comedian Rachel Bloom’s own tribute to the venerated author. I hope the master takes no  offense 😛

Time-Lapse Footage of Curiosity Rover Landing

Amongst the awesome footage which is coming back from Mars, courtesy of the Curiosity Rover, is this lovely compilation. Using the many photos snapped by the rover as it made it’s decent, the enterprising folks over at Spaceflight 101 have created a time-lapse video of what the landing looked like.

Taken by the the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI), the images capture the separation of the heat shield from the rover and then its powered descent. Well worth watching, and stay tuned for more updates from Curiosity as it continues its journey across the Martian Landscape.

Red Dawn Relaunch

Oh boy, I thought as when I heard about this preview. Another reboot of a cult-classic huh? As I’m sure I’ve said a million times before, why doesn’t Hollywood just admit that they are out of ideas. Sure, this relaunch of the movie about a possible Soviet Invasion will star Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and sure they are taking a slightly more realistic take by making at least one of the “Wolverines” an actual combat veteran (as opposed to say, a bunch of teenagers and Patrick Swayze).

However, beyond that, there doesn’t appear to be anything new or remotely realistic about this movie. For one, the plot has been updated so that small town America is invaded by Cuba and North Korea. Really? Two tottering Soviet-era dictatorships that can’t even feeds their own people and are on the brink of collapse manage to circumvent America’s coastal defenses and occupy the United States? Really? This movie sounds like Cold War propaganda, sans the actual Cold War!

At first, I thought I saw some meager potential here. But that was before I read the actual description of the plot. After that, I felt like grabbing the producers and execs who thought this was a good idea and giving them a good shake. “This is why you can’t reboot Cold War Era ideas in the post-Cold War world!” I’d say. The first movie made sense in that it resonated with Americans who were hearing about Russia’s fortunes in Afghanistan. Red Dawn played to the imagery coming out of that war, where young fighters were running around, their heads wrapped in bandanas, and taking out Russian tanks and helicopters with Stingers and RPGs.

But this? This just seems like another excuse by Hollywood producers to do something that’s been done, throw in some cool new action sequences, and sit back and count their money. If they had any guts, they’d have made it China invading instead of Cuba and North Korea. But then again, you gotta hedge your bets right? Can’t piss off the real threats if you’re currently tied at the hip economically. Better to talk about the marginal countries that are under embargo and no one worries about anymore.

Ah well, at least the trailer looks cool. Might even be a good candidate for download.

The Blue Martian Sunset

Ever since the Curiosity rover landed, NASA had been awash with new photos of the Martian landscape. Naturally, most have been black and white picks of the oxidized soil immediately around the rover’s landing area. But more have been arriving lately that show a feature unique to Mars. That feature is the Blue Sunset.

Scientists working for NASA claim that this phenomena is due to the particulate matter that is present in the Martian atmosphere. This red dust – which is composed of oxidized minerals, mainly iron – is what gives Mars its distinct color, but also provides for a fractal effect which shifts light towards the blue end of the spectrum. The same basic principle is true for sunsets seen from Earth, where our oxygen and nitrogen and ozone atmosphere causes the light to shift to the red end of the spectrum.

These patterns of Red Shift and Blue Shift are actually a very common element when it comes to astronomy. When observing galaxies in the night sky, scientists are able to tell that they are moving away because the light that they emit, and which is intercepted by our telescopes is shifted to the red end of the spectrum. Based on how much shift is occurring, scientists are bale to measure just how fast they are moving, relative to us.

When it comes time to hurl some objects into space ourselves, such as interstellar space craft, we can expect to see some of this close up. Out there, relativistic effects caused by high speeds will make the stars ahead of the ship look reddish, while stars seen to the rear will appear blue. Cool how that works huh?

To illustrate this Blue Sunset, NASA has released a compilation, time-elapse video which was taken two years ago by the Exploration Rover. It shows the sun setting in full, all the while emitting that cool, blue glow. Enjoy and stay tuned for more news on the Martian front!

Scientifically Inaccurate Mars Movies

In honor of the Mars Curiosity Rover’s recent landing, the good folks over at IO9 ask the question: “Why is it we can land a rover on Mars, but Hollywood still can’t make a scientifically accurate movie about Mars?” Yeah, I’d say that ranks right up there with Homer Simpson’s age old question: “How come you guys can put a man on the Moon but you still can’t make my shoes not stink?”

While the hosts go through a list of famous Hollywood movies that feature Mars, they ask guest host Phil Plait, the blogger behind the site Bad Astronomy (a segment at Discovery Magazine online), to debunk the junk science upon which so many of them are based. The list is long, but I’m thinking Mission to Mars for the win! Boy that movie sucked!

In between all that, there’s even some helpful tips for how to go about terraforming a planet like Mars for real. I’m thinking my group and I would do well to listen since our project concerns just that. Also, the image they put up when discussing the lengthy process terraforming would actually involve was taken from the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson! A psychic moment happened for me there because I swear that it was as they were saying “We need a miniseries where that’s done” (i.e. gradual terraforming), I was thinking of that exact series!

So yeah… HBO, Netflix, one you other cable providers, get on that!