Scientists turn wood into bone

The picture on the left shows what used to be a piece of rattan wood. It's now almost exactly identical to human bone tissue, after a battery of treatments thunked-up by some brilliant Italian scientists. It's as strong as real bone material, and what's more it transplants much better than current bone replacement procedures and is porous enough for blood and nervous tissue...

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Pornography by way of U.S. Government and two clicks of Photoshop

Need another reason to hate Transportation Security Administration (or as I call 'em "Thousands Slacking Around")? No thanks to the new "backscatter" virtual strip search machines that Janet Napolitano wants to put into more airports, the United States government will soon be the world's largest producer of pornographic images.Here's a pic that's up on Drudge Report right...

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Let's give a hearty welcome to Simon and his new blog SI-NAPSES!

Once again, your friend and humble narrator is deeply honored to have somehow played a part in inspiring others to enter the blogosphere. This time it's Simon, "a 30-something office worker from Hampshire, England... but that's not the real me!" Simon has just started up the very cleverly-named Si-Napses! And he's already hit the ground running with a review of Assassin's...

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Happy 75th Birthday to Elvis Presley!

Seventy-five years ago today, Elvis Presley was born in a tiny house in Tupelo, Mississippi.Happy Birthday to "The King", wherever he may be...

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I'd better return

Things are about to get crazy.And I found what I went off looking for anyway. Well, kinda. It's gonna require a leap of faith in a manner of speaking. But one that I'm pretty sure that I'm ready to take ...

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Off for awhile

I'm on a quest, of sorts. Will see y'all when I see y...

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Review of DOCTOR WHO Christmas/New Years special "The End of Time"

"I don't want to go!"Good (Time) Lord... it's been ages since I've done a write-up about Doctor Who! The last time one appeared on this blog was when "The Next Doctor" Christmas special aired twelve months ago.But no way was I gonna miss posting thoughts about the final adventure of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...Thankfully, BBC America aired "The End of Time" Part 1...

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Wanted fugitive found hiding inside WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Whatever the heck that thing is you see on the right ('cuz I don't play World of Warcraft) that's the on-screen persona of one Alfred Hightower, an American citizen who's been wanted since 2007 for drug dealing. But when he heard the fuzz was onto him Hightower jumped across the border and set up shop in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.Hightower didn't leave World of Warcraft however....

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Matthew Federico attempts "The Year of the 365 Movies"

Fellow blogger, good friend and unique character Matthew Federico (who calls his site "A Sane Man of an Insane World") has vowed to watch one movie each day throughout 2010. So to chronicle his effort he has created another blog called, appropriately, The Year of the 365 Movies. The first one that Matthew has viewed and commented upon is 1941's Citizen Kane: considered by...

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Less than an hour left to smoke in restaurants in North Carolina

Our "enlightened" Governor Bev Perdue and state legislators in Raleigh have decreed that as of midnight tonight, smoking will be banned in all restaurants and other places of dining in North Carolina.This new "law" sucks donkeys balls to no end.(Longtime readers will recognize that as my personal "worst possible epithet" for something.)I'm not a smoker. It's one of the nastiest, filthiest things that a person can do to himself or herself. And believe...

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A trailer for a STAR BLAZERS movie?! You read that right...

2010 is getting started with a bang already at the movies. Here's the first trailer for the Japanese-produced Space Battleship Yamato... or as it's better known stateside, Star Blazers!That looks AWESOME!! Heck it's exactly like the cartoon! Right down to a perfect-looking Captain Avatar and that mechanism on the Wave Motion Gun.It comes out sometime this year. Hopefully there'll be an English-dubbed version soon afterward ...

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So long 2009

For the second year in a row, I'm too stymied for words to describe my feelings about the previous twelve months.So all I'll say is, here's praying that 2010 will be a good one for all of us ...

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Time to reopen The Knight Shift!

Seven days since the annual Christmas post. I can't remember the last time I was away from this blog for so long with absolutely nothing on the agenda. Also can't say that I didn't enjoy every bit of it :-)Hope you and yours have been having a wonderful holiday season!(By the way, Star Trek rocks on Blu-ray! Yah thanks to Dad I have finally crossed that threshold ...

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Merry Christmas 2009

As happens every year here at The Knight Shift (or I try to anyway), I'm going to step away from the blog for a few days, and give myself a break to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. And this'll be the first serious break that I've given myself in... maybe more than a year. So for the next few days, expect the proprietor of this humble lil' blog to be off the grid.(However I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't come back in the next...

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Chris reviews AVATAR

Last night I saw Avatar for the second time. And if you are set to watch this movie, I can't but recommend that you consider seeing it more than once also. Not because James Cameron has pushed so many pretty pixels that this really is the most visually astonishing film made to date, but also because in spite of whatever you may have heard: there is a hell of a good story...

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Politics and street gangs

The only difference between Democrats and Republicans fighting and urban gangs is that the Bloods 'n Crips hashing it out never costs the taxpayer billions of dolla...

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How DUKE NUKEM FOREVER imploded

Clive Thompson at Wired has written an exhaustively-researched article that should give every software developer and game publisher pause: the twelve-year development cycle that plagued Duke Nukem Forever before the plug was finally pulled on the project this past spring. The tale Thompson relates is one rife with technical obsession, corporate money and motion-captured strippers...

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