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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Mmmm, Delicious Sleep: The Hamburger Bed

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The Hamburger bed (which is actually a cheeseburger) is a round bed that looks like a hamburger and has a Facebook fan page. I was going to become a fan, but decided I'd probably end up stalking that delicious bitch and that would bad. So, instead, I'm going to make my own taco bed.

UPDATE: So I had this weird dream about being a giant last night and, fuck, I think I ate my pillows.

Hit the jump for a few more shots and a link to the burger's Facebook page. And, while you're at it, friend me, ladies.

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The Burger Bed's Facebook Page

Thanks to Flash2000, who can show you his nuts so fast you'll never be sure if you really saw them

Comedy Central Launches Comedy Central HD

51918137 If you like Comedy Central shows but always wished you could clearly see each and every pore on Cartman's face, you'll be pleased to learn that a high-definition version of the network is hitting TVs today.

COMEDY CENTRAL HD will offer close to 200 hours of programming in native high definition, including almost 30 past episodes of the Emmy® and Peabody® Award-winning "South Park," the first two seasons of the Emmy®-nominated "The Sarah Silverman Program" and countless hours of stand-up, including the most recent season of the channel's "COMEDY CENTRAL Presents" series, and a number of original and acquired stand-up specials, as well as acquired films. In addition, upcoming new seasons of network stalwarts "South Park" (season 13, premiering March 11) and "RENO 911!" (season 6, premiering April 1) and the series premiere of the epic series, "Kröd Mändoon and The Flaming Sword of Fire" (series premiere April 9) will be presented in native high definition.

The Emmy® and Peabody® Award-winning network mainstays, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report," will initially be upconverted for COMEDY CENTRAL HD but will be broadcast in native high definition sometime in the future.


Click here for complete details.

Why Windows 7 should be a free upgrade

Opinion: Microsoft would have happy customers and still make money

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Should Microsoft offer a free upgrade to a basic version of Windows 7?

Windows Vista isn't a bad OS - now. But it's had its problems. Third parties didn't make drivers fast enough, bugs affected obscure features such as, er, copying and deleting files, and Vista Capable PCs were nothing of the sort.

Not all of the problems were Microsoft's fault, but Microsoft's name is on the box - so if people have a less than stellar experience with Vista, it's Microsoft they're going to blame.

Credit where credit's due, Microsoft appears to have got it right with Windows 7. It boots in less than a fortnight. It doesn't make our laptop shoot up to 100% CPU usage for no good reason, generating enough heat to cook a moose. It goes like lightning on machines that struggled with Vista. It's very good. In fact, it's great. Which is why Microsoft should give it away.

People paid good money for Vista expecting to receive a racehorse, and Microsoft sent them a pig in a wig instead. If that hasn't already scared them into the arms of Steve Jobs, they're still going to be wary about giving Microsoft any money ever again. So Microsoft shouldn't ask them for any.

Instead of flogging eleventy-two badly named and badly differentiated versions of Windows 7, Microsoft could easily offer two. The first, which it could call Windows 7 Essentials, would be the core OS, and it would be an upgrade for Vista SP1. The second would include touchscreen support and other sparkly things, and it would be Windows 7 Ultimate. Essentials would be free, with Ultimate as a reasonably priced upgrade.

Madness? Nope. Microsoft doesn't make that much money from OS upgrades: the real cash comes from new PCs. Giving Vista users a free upgrade wouldn't affect that much, but it would make a lot of people feel warm and fuzzy about Microsoft. Many of them would upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate. Many of them would use Windows Live, and Office, and other Microsoft products. And when it's time to buy a new PC, it might just keep them out of the Apple Store.

Microsoft won't do it. But it should.

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Now read TechRadar's Hands on: Windows 7 Beta 1 review

Another Stonehenge Discovered Under Lake Michigan?

A group of researchers using sonar to find shipwrecks on the bottom of Lake Michigan have found something far older than crashed cargo ships. They believe they've found a 10-thousand-year-old stone structure like Stonehenge, including a rock carved with the image of a mastodon. io9 pal Geoff Manaugh reports over at BLDG BLOG that the researchers' report (with cool sonar images) was released last year to surprisingly little fanfare.

And yet the possibility of a Stonehenge-esque worship site wouldn't be out of place at the bottom of Lake Michigan. The region already has its share of petroglyphs from ancient tribes and other standing stone sites. These submerged stones could have been raised by local populations at a time when part of the lake bed was dry, in the late Ice Age. More research is needed to determine whether these stones were arranged by humans, or merely look that way.

SOURCES:

Mastodon? Rock Brings History to Surface [via Associated Press]

Stonehenge Beneath Lake Michigan? via BLDG BLOG (with sonar pics!)

Jackie Chan circles 'Karate Kid' remake

Harald Zwart brought in to direct Columbia pic

By Steven Zeitchik and Borys Kit


Jackie Chan soon could be mentoring a karate kid.

The martial arts star is in negotiations to star in Columbia's remake of "The Karate Kid." He would take on the role of mentor Mr. Miyagi, made famous by Pat Morita in the original franchise.

The studio also has signed Harald Zwart to helm the picture, which possibly will begin shooting this year in Beijing.

Jaden Smith is set to star as the boy to be mentored by Chan's character. Like the original, which starred Morita and Ralph Macchio, the movie will examine the relationship between a martial arts expert and a boy who is picked on by bullies.

Will Smith, James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz's Overbrook Entertainment is producing along with the original film's producer Jerry Weintraub. The setting will be relocated from the U.S. to China. Chris Murphy has been attached to pen the screenplay.

The WMA-repped Chan, who next appears in Relativity's action-comedy "The Spy Next Door," has broad appeal overseas, which undoubtedly appealed to Columbia. His "Rush Hour" franchise has earned about $750 million worldwide.

The ICM-repped Zwart directed the tween hit "Agent Cody Banks" and Columbia's upcoming "The Pink Panther 2."

The Artistry of Star Wars on Display Down Under

Posted by Michael Pinto

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

My fellow fanboy Francis Zuccarello (who’s a talented filmmaker in his right) put together a wonderful gallery at Flickr showing off his photos from the Star Wars Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia. What follows are just a few of the fifty plus photos from the exhibit:

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

Star Wars Exhibition, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia - photo by Francis Zuccarello

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If Movie Posters Were Honest

from: http://www.holytaco.com

We wish movies posters would be honest with us, so that we know what we're getting before we fork over 11 bucks.

Adventurers travel from London to Timbuktu in flying car

A team of adventurers has launched an expedition to travel from London to Timbuktu by flying car.

A team of British Adventurers are about to begin a journey from London to Timbuktu in the world's first road legal bio-fuelled flying car. ; http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1488655367/bctid7045938001 http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1139053637

The group, led by Neil Laughton, will make the 6,000km (3,600-mile) journey by land and air in the Parajet Skycar, effectively a dune buggy with a fan motor and paragliding wing attached.

After taking off from London, the expedition will travel through France, Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara and Mali, and aims to reach Timbuktu on February 20.

The plan is to drive the Skycar where there are roads, and fly over the Straits of Gibraltar, the Atlas mountains in Morocco and the trackless wastes of the Empty Quarter of the Sahara.

A supporting group of experienced adventurers will follow the Skycar on the ground in all-terrain vehicles and on motorbikes.

The vehicle was designed by engineer Giles Cardozo in just 18 months, and the expedition team say it is the "world's first road legal biofuelled flying car".

The powerful fan propels the car forward and the "ParaWing" can give enough lift to allow the Skycar to take off from any field or airstrip 200m or more in length.

Once airborne, the pilot steers by using cables to alter the wing's shape, and should the engine fail, the Skycar would float gently to the ground, the descent slowed by the wing.

The Skycar can change from ground to flying mode in just three minutes, can reach altitudes of up to 15,000 feet, and has a normal cruising height of 2,000-3,000 feet.

On the ground the car has a range of 400km (240 miles), top speed of 180 km/h (108mph) and independent four-wheel suspension means it can cope with the toughest terrain.

Flying car facts:

Flying cars are the stuff of schoolboys' dreams, but self-taught engineer and inventor Giles Cardozo has made them reality with the Skycar.

As far back as the 1960s engineers were testing folding wings for cars to allow them to take to the air.

Mr Cardozo, the founder of Wiltshire-based firm Parajet, developed his design over 18 months using new flexible wing technology.

While on the ground, the Skycar runs off a biofuel-powered engine capable of taking it from 0-100km/h (60mph) in 4.5 seconds with a top speed of 180 km/h (108mph).

Rear-wheel drive and independent four-wheel suspension make it suitable for tough terrain - the expedition team say it is capable of "sports and rally car performance on or off the road".

Conversion to flight mode takes just three minutes - the parafoil wing folds into the boot of the car.

A powerful fan mounted on the rear of the car propels it to the take-off speed of 60 km/h (36mph) and the Skycar can reach 110 km/h (66mph) once airborne.

Cruising at 2,000 - 3,000 feet, the Skycar has a flying range of 300km (180 miles) and can reach a maximum altitude of 15,000 feet.

The engineers say it should be easier and safer to fly than any other aircraft as it has no pitch control - the pilot cannot make the nose dip or rise, making it impossible to stall or dive.

If the engine cuts out, the designers say, the pilot would be able to glide gently to the ground, the descent slowed by the parafoil.

In the event of the wing failing completely, a second reserve parachute can be deployed.


Terminator Salvation 20Min Preview & First Look At More Concept Art!!

By Ron Henriques



"He turned it around, he brought us back from the brink. His name was Connor. John Connor.


--Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in "The Terminator" (1984)

As a die-hard fan of James Cameron's original "Terminator" films, I wasn't too happy when the franchise landed in hands other than his. Cameron had not only crafted a unique sci-fi action series, but one that excelled in dramatic material. The films stood apart from most sci-fi features because first and foremost they told a great story and featured dimensional characters. I was absolutely furious when the third film landed in the hands of director Jonathan Mostow and the final result felt like nothing more than a recreation of what we'd seen earlier.

Time has actually been kind to Mostow's movie and catching bits and pieces of it on cable recently, I realized the picture ain't bad. Though it was a rehash, "Terminator 3" really had no direct effect on the story or the franchise. Released twelve years after "T2" all it did was bring the series back into public consciousness (and maybe help get Schwarzenegger elected Governor of California) and that's a good thing.

When rumors surfaced of a fourth film I was immediately against it because A: Arnold was obviously too busy to do another and B: the series had run its course. Then I heard that the film would be set in the distant future, years after "Judgment Day", the event where the machines initially attempted to destroy humanity with nuclear weapons. Former series producer Gale Anne Hurd had stated years earlier that if she and Cameron had made another film, it might be set in this time period. Okay, that's not bad. Finally seeing mankind's war against the machines might work if done right. But the story would obviously lie with John Connor and how he brought humanity "back from the brink."

Time went by and then I heard the Christian Bale had signed on to play Connor. Whoa! That's some major news. Bale is perhaps the greatest actor of his generation and though he doesn't have the star power of say Will Smith or Tom Cruise (at least not before "The Dark Knight") he's known for taking risks and taking on quality projects, sometimes at personal risk to himself. (See "The Machinist"). Either Bale has sold out and is in it for the money or director McG and the producers approached him with some quality material.

Thankfully it was the latter, though it didn't begin that way. McG admits that when he was approached for the project, he didn't want to ruin a series that meant a lot to him as a fan and initially turned it down. He didn't start his presentation by saying he never liked Terminator much like another filmmaker recently started his with the words "I never liked Star Trek." McG is a real geek and fanboy of this material. At first the story wasn't really working so he brought aboard "The Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan's brother Jonathan who had co-wrote that film and the original story for 'Memento'. Nolan has a sort of "shorthand relationship" with Bale who asked that if the script could be played straight on the stage without the aid of visual f/x he would commit to it.

McG has been getting a lot of flack since his 'Charlie's Angels' days not to mention his stage name. The guy is no dummy, he's churned out at least one blockbuster and knows his way around a movie set, its just that he doesn't have too many quality films under his belt. No one gave him credit for trying to tackle something different with the recent football drama "We Are Marshall" and though the film was no masterpiece its a nice little piece of work. Hearing that Bale and Nolan (as well as co-star Sam Worthington of the upcoming Cameron project 'Avatar') were working along with McG to craft a great story gave me confidence in his abilities long before I saw a frame of film. After seeing a few minutes of footage this week all that I will say is that my support for the director and the production has tripled.

McG is a laid back type of guy who likes to get right to the point and will tell a joke and occasionally use a little profanity to put you at ease. Though he may seem like an old college buddy you knew, it's impressive how much confidence he has in his latest film. He's a Terminator fan just like the rest of us and doesn't want to screw this up. All he is after is telling a compelling dramatic story that just happens to be hidden inside and action picture about giant killer robots hunting humans.

Beware of spoliers!

The first clip we saw, was more like and extended version of the opening moments of the latest trailer. A disorientated Marcus Wright played by Sam Worthington asking a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) what year is it and what happened here, followed by that familiar shot of John Connor shooting a crushed Terminator in the head with his assault rifle. We a get a glimpse of Connor and his troops rappelling to the ground but that's about it.

The meatiest clip presented was an action sequence involving Marcus and Kyle set at an abandoned gas station. Marcus, Kyle and a young child arrive to the seemingly abandoned location only to be confronted by humans who emerge from hiding with their guns drawn. As Marcus gives Kyle the signal to leave and old woman played by Jane Alexander says "Not before this young one has something to eat." One of the men replies with anger, gun still drawn: "You're giving them our food? That's our fuel. What gives you the right?"

Suddenly one of the men gets pulled through the ceiling, followed by another. There's a Terminator outside, and HK, Hunter Killer, only it doesn't look like anything we're familiar with. There's been controversy that it resembles one of the robots from Transformers, but McG stated that Skynet's army starts off bulky and like a sports car, gets leaner, meaner and better before becoming the streamlined T-800. The visual effects were unfinished, but this Terminator is impressive

As the giant HK rips through the gas station the entire group is flung through the air. (wearing stunt cables that will obviously be digitally removed later). It grabs humans from the ground and drops them into a holding pen containing several others inside one of the flying HK's we are familiar with. Very similar to how the tripods captured humans in Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds'. Part of the group attempt to escape by car only to be blasted to smithereens by the robot from a great distance.

Marcus and Kyle manage to maneuver a gas tanker under the robot's legs and ignite an explosion by shotgun from the back of their tow truck while speeding away. It looks like the HK is down for the count, but it quickly emerges from the smoke unscathed. The HK robot is too large and lumbering to properly pursue Marcus and Kyle in the tow truck so it's lower legs quickly open with a motorcycle HK emerging from each one. These are the new cycle Terminators we saw in the trailer and they are pretty cool. We get a couple of pov shots in Terminator vision where one of them navigates the road to avoid wreckage. Kyle manages to drop an oil drum and detonate it with the shotgun to stop one, but the other is still in pursuit. Their only hope is to drop the winch from the tow truck and use it like an anchor to get this Terminator on wheels tangled up. They manage to succeed and finally the pursuit is over. Or so they think. Just as they reach a massive suspension bridge that flying HK pops ups again, cruises ahead of them and blows out the middle of the bridge before cutting to black.


The third clip is a confrontation between Marcus and John where we get a greater glimpse of what Marcus really is or what he might be. Connor is flying a helicopter at night over a lake surrounded by burning trees. He yells "Do you see him?" to one of his men in the back, implying that maybe Marcus fell overboard. As he drops a line into the lake, a Terminator in the form of a robotic eel, pops out and pulls the man in the water. He dies rather quickly while John is under attack with many of these things bursting through the cockpit to get him. After bailing out, John searches the lake on foot with his assault rifle while we get p.o.v. shots of his legs underwater with more of those eels hunting him. John manages to get off a few rounds to evade a few, but just as it looks like one is about to get him, Marcus emerges from the water in slow motion grabbing one and destroying it.

Marcus has injuries to his face and torso exposing a metal endoskeleton much like the superficial damage Arnold would suffer from in the original films. Though at this stage of production his wounds consist of tracking markers on his face. John's ready to shoot Marcus till he says "Kyle Reese is in Skynet. You need me, I can get you in! Connor at this point knows what this guy is, but with his adolecent father now held captive by the machines must make a deal with "the devil" to get him back.

"Why should I trust you?" Connor asks. "Because I need to find out who did this to me and so do you," Marcus replies. As Marcus slowly backs away hands raised over his head, Connor still pointing his gun at him asks "What are you?" Marcus: "I don't know."

The final bit of footage is a montage of clips, some we've just seen and some seen in the trailer. One moment shows Connor apparently making an announcement over a CB radio. "This is John Connor. We are being hunted by machines working nonstop around the clock. If you are listening to this. You are the resistance!"

Another bit of footage involves Connor taking orders from his superior General Ashdown played by sci-fi vet Michael Ironside ("I'm gonna suck your brain dry!"). McG states that though Connor becomes the leader of the resistance he starts off here as a subordinate, a foot soldier just taking orders.

Ironside: "John Connor! The prophesied savior of humanity."
Connor: "Skynet is collecting humans for R&D. They are manufacturing human tissue."

McG states that all the Connors, Sarah, John and Kyle Reese have always played the outsiders in these films and are always waving their arms trying to get people to listen to their ideas to save humanity while everyone looks at them like they're loony. There is apparently a plot point involving a raid on the Terminator manufacturing facility devised by Ashdown. The T-800 that we are all familiar with is coming and Connor discovers it is ahead of schedule.

Connor over the radio to the assault team: "Abort the mission the game has changed!"

Ashdown: "Negative, do not abort. Stay the course!"

Connor: "If we stay the course we are dead! We are all dead!"

Additional clips include young Kyle Reese telling that old woman and young child: "Stay alive. Here," Points to his head. "And here." Points to his heart.

It probably takes some time for Marcus to discover he's been altered into some type of cyborg since he appears to have a romantic relationship with a girl in the form of fighter pilot Moon Bloodgood. She gets to show her skills at combat in a brawl with a few rough types as well as one or two physical stunts you may have seen in the trailer.

We also get to hear John's voice saying "This is not the future my mother warned us about." Apparently something in the timeline has been altered. As he stares at the classic photo of Linda Hamilton that Kyle Reese carried in the original film we hear his wife (Bryce Dallas Howard) say "If you saved us in another life, you can save us in this one."

In one of the final shots we hear her say "We've never seen anything like this before," followed by Bale staring past the camera at something in awe saying "The devil's hands have been busy."

A few extra tidbits I remember:

This is the first Terminator film where there is no time travel involved in the story. Marcus is apparently from the past (our present day) and has been altered somehow.

Even though this film tells the story of John Connor it is very much the story of young Kyle Reese and how he becomes a man. Many of the classic lines Michael Biehn spoke in the original are revealed to stem from Kyle's brotherly relationship with Marcus. The first film was about the preservation of Sarah Connor, the second and third about the protection of John. This one is about the protection of Kyle Reese.

This film honors the Terminator 3 storyline, but not the current television series. Judgement Day occured in 2003.

Though he hopes this film can be the start of another trilogy with a new beginning McG says that many fans may be disappointed with the ending because it makes the story "elliptical".

He reassured us that all the rumored endings we've heard about online (including the one where Connor gets killed and good Terminator assumes his identity by wearing his skin) are all fake.

McG does a killer impression of Christian Bale and playfully asked an audience member to ask his "Bale" to do something as an actor that wouldn't help the story to which he flatly replied in a cockney accent "I ain't doin' it!"

Says Bale just cares about good work and not the money and hates being famous. He loves his wife and kid and doesn't have a entourage or sports car but drives a beat down pick-up truck from the nineties.

Bale is so powerful as an actor that McG chose to hold the camera on him in unedited takes for almost entire scenes as he contols his eye movements and breathing. He's an intimidating presence and thankfully Worthington holds his own against him in their scenes.

Warner Bros. gave them their blessing to go for a hard R for this movie because the studio heads like to take risks like they did with "The Matix."

McG stated that they created their own film stock for this picture. They took an old film stock from Kodak and reprocessed it with three times as much silver to give the world a gritty post nuclear event look.

When he started the presentation at stage right was an actual full size bulky T-600 that moved it's head and had glowing red eyes. ("The 600 series had rubber skin") This was an early version of the Terminator that Kyle Reese told Sarah Connor were easy to spot because of their rubber skin.

He chose to bring the late Stan Winston aboard because he wanted as many of the robotic effects to be real and not CGI. (Much like Nolan did with his visual f/x in 'The Dark Knight.") McG said he missed a time when in the late seventies and early eighties even the big event movies were good movies and that he wanted a sense of realism with the f/x to serve the story.

Though this is a male oriented film, like the original it is full of strong female characters like those played by Bryce Dallas Howard and Moon Bloodgood.

McG wouldn't give details about how Arnold might appear in the film or whether or not he was in the movie at all. All he would say was "We're working on it."

He actually went to chat with Cameron on the set of 'Avatar' and even played around with his 3-D digital camera system. He assured Cameron he would honor the mythology and handle the story in a respectful manner. Cameron was pretty frank and said he couldn't blindly get behind the movie, but he understood that McG must feel as he did when he followed Ridley Scott with the second 'Alien' film.

Sam Worthington who also stars in 'Avatar' will apparently play Perseus in the upcoming "Clash of the Titans" remake.

Danny Elfman just signed on for the score. McG considered director Alejandro González Iñárritu's collaborator Gustavo Santaolalla for the earthy-humane part of the score and Johnny Greenwood from 'Radiohead' for the cold machine aspect. Couldn't get Hans Zimmer but actually met with original Terminator composer Brad Fiedel who know runs a surf shop. He didn't want to repeat Fiedel's work with Cameron so brought aboard Elfman who will give it a Wagnerian quality as well as use most of Fiedel's themes and ambient sounds.

The first scene (not shown to us) features Marcus in the present day, in prison and about to be executed. He cares little about the world or himself. They cut to black and he wakes up in 2018 to a world ravaged by war. During these events he re-discovers what's worthwhile about humanity. The film is a vehicle to show what's best about humanity hence the title "Salvation".

Well, all I can say is that even though I don't care much for these types of advance presentations, I didn't feel like I was at a trade show or watching an infomercial. McG made a great pitch, but didn't come across as arrogant or like he was b.s.ing you. My optimism for the final product has not only increased, but I look forward to the potential it has to become a new trilogy.

Maybe by the third film (and when his term is over) they can bring Arnold back as a special Terminator needed to assist John to destroy Skynet once and for all. Just a suggestion, but with this glimpse of material that seems promising, the possibilities for the evolution of the story seem endless.

Kellvin also ended taking a batch of photos via his iPhone of the concept art for the film, which you can check out below.

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Source:Latinoreview