Had enough of listening to those vuvuzelas during the World Cup broadcasts?
If not, get ready for...
No, I didn't make this. Whoever did, deserves major props for such a great piece of work :-)
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO is 50 years old today
Fifty years ago today, on June 16th 1960, Alfred Hitchcock's movie Psycho - considered to be one of the greatest and most groundbreaking horror films of all time - was released...
This was on TCM not long ago and I watched it again. Five full decades later and it still holds its own against anything that has come since.
In celebration of this momentous occasion, feel free to indulge yourself in an extra-long shower tonight.
THE KING AND I: What do I look like in full makeup?
Last night was our first rehearsal in full costume and makeup for The King and I! The night before was the first time we had the costumes on and thankfully yesterday's practice was bereft (mostly) of most of the "wardrobe malfunctions" that bedeviled Monday's run-through. Mostly though this was to give us a feel for the makeup that we'll be wearing. For those of us playing Siamese characters this means full-body spray-on paint and then about 20-30 minutes in the makeup chair.
So... what does your friend and humble narrator look like as Phra Alack, the King's secretary?
This will give you an idea of what to expect...
Nice work on the eyes, aye? :-)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
England/USA World Cup match replicated in LEGO
If there's fun to be had with the World Cup and plastic toys (not those 127 decibels, unholy loud vuvuzelas) then there's no better way than to replay the match between England and the United States with LEGO!
Thanks to Paul Steinbrueck for such a delightful (and clever) find!
Inertial mass could be separate from gravitational mass
New kids on the block Endre Kajari and his crew at the University of Ulm in Germany have now arrived to bust that all up. They have shown that in the realm of quantum physics, there can be wild variations between gravitational mass and inertial mass.
From the article at MIT's Technology Review...
Their thinking begins by pointing out the important distinction between kinematics, which is concerned purely with motion not how it arises, and dynamics which focuses on the origin of motion. In the classical world, this has no bearing on the effects of inertial and gravitational mass.Dare we say "intertial drives" or at least "inertial dampeners"? Hyperspace, here we come! :-PHowever, in the quantum world, the way states are prepared has huge significance. They point out, for example, that the wave function of a particle in a box does not depend on mass at all whereas the energy wave function of a harmonic oscillator depends on the square root of the mass.
That leads to an interesting idea: that it is possible to create combinations of gravitational and electromagnetic boxes and oscillators in which inertial and gravitational mass play different roles.
It turns out that physicists already play with exactly this kind of set up: the so-called atom trampoline, in which a matter wave falls under the influence of gravity but is bounced by an electromagnetic force. They calculate that the energy eigenvalues of the atom are proportional to the (gravitational mass)^2/3 but to the (inertial mass)^-1/3.
That's an amazing result. The kind of energy spectroscopy of atoms or Bose Einstein Condensates that can spot this difference ought to be achievable, if not now, then very soon within the next few years.
If successful, these kinds of investigations will provide an entirely new way of studying the nature of mass and, perhaps more importantly, of investigating the puzzling relationship between general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Seriously though: this is very, very cool stuff and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of it.
One of the reasons why I'm waiting to buy into 3D television
At E3 today Nintendo head honcho Satoru Iwata unveiled the Nintendo 3DS. This is the latest iteration of its acclaimed DS hardware... and it does games in 3D.
But here's the kicker folks: the Nintendo 3DS pulls off three-dimensional gaming without those funky glasses!
And this highlights the biggest reason why I'm not about to buy into the 3D television "revolution" going on right now (incidentally ESPN's new 3D channel is showing up in the updated listings but it's not only not airing yet, my receiver box is snidely informing me that I need a 3D capable set in order to pick it up at all). This is such a rapidly evolving technology, it makes the least amount of sense to be an early adopter than I've seen with burgeoning new gear ever. Especially given that the glasses needed to enjoy 3D television sets are priced around $150 each.
The cost of the glasses aside, television is much more a casual experience than watching a film in a theater. People don't usually do things like eat dinner and fold laundry while at the local cinema, but they do those things all the time while a TV is going on. Who wants to keep putting the glasses on and taking them off while watching 3D television? And are there going to be enough glasses to go around when friends and family come over for a visit? Do guests get asked to bring their own glasses over for a Super Bowl party?
People by and large won't want to be hassled with things like that. And that's why 3D television isn't going to seriously take off until there is 3D screen technology that doesn't rely on wearing the glasses.
And that, Nintendo and a few other companies are on the cusp of bringing to market. Given the early raves about the 3DS coming out of E3 in Los Angeles, this could be a big factor in encouraging demand for spectacle-less 3D. Hey, Nintendo broke new ground with the Wii, and now Microsoft is rolling out the very promising Kinect for its Xbox 360 console (with Sony to follow suit on its PlayStation 3).
Good money sez that if you ain't plunked coin down for a 3D set yet, you might wanna wait a bit. There promises to be even better stuff in the pipeline and headed to store shelves sooner than later.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Musing for a Monday...
Why is it that we find no end of forgiveness from God but can barely find any beginning of forgiveness from His followers?
Witness the fiery re-entry of the HAYABUSA probe over Australia
Remember when the Mir space station came crashing and burning out of the sky nine years ago? I was watching that on TV and among friends we jokingly quoted Kirk's line from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: "My God Bones. What have I done?"
Well, this ain't the flaming destruction of a space vessel for once. This is the atmospheric re-entry of the HAYABUSA Asteroid Explorer mission, videoed from a NASA DC-8 over Australia. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched HAYABUSA in 2003. A few years later it landed on the asteroid Itokawa. Then HAYABUSA scooped up some samples and made the five-year journey back to Earth, using a high-tech ion engine to return its precious cargo.
The capsule containing the asteroid samples has been located at its calculated arrival point in western Australia (gotta love mathematics aye?). And soon the asteroid rocks and dust will be in laboratories undergoing analysis.
That is about as successful a space mission as I have ever heard of in any recent memory. Congrats to JAXA and the HAYABUSA crew on a job well done!
Introducing the solar-powered lightbulb
Nokero, a company in Hong Kong, has developed a solar-powered lightbulb with an eye toward markets in developing countries. The N100 solar LED lightbulb "is about the size of a standard incandescent bulb and has four small solar panels in its rainproof plastic housing. Five LEDs and a replaceable NiMH battery inside provide up to four hours of light when the device is fully charged. People hang it outside during the day and then turn it on at night." According to the company, using the lightbulb around the equator will give it a better charge than those in more northern or southerly latitudes. The LEDs are said to last 50,000 to 100,000 hours while the solar panels are good for 10 years.
One bulb is $15. But for $480 you get 48 bulbs.
A solar-powered lightbulb. Truly we live in the age of wonders! :-P
New trailer for STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC
Star Wars: The Old Republic is looking so good that I have quietly but seriously wondered if this is going to be a real video game at all. What if it's just a front for a "covert operation" by George Lucas to sow the ground on a fertile part of the Star Wars mythology that hasn't been done yet? So far we've seen Star Wars: The Old Republic trailers, online comics, extensive bios and background material, at least two hardcover novels to be released later this year...
What if Star Wars: The Old Republic is like what Shadows of the Empire was in 1996: everything that comes with marketing a video game, without an actual game?
(Look, Star Wars conspiracy theories are few and far between. Indulge me a bit willya? :-)
But while we're waiting for the game itself to materialize on store shelves, BioWare and LucasArts have just released a new Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer at E3 2010. Check it out!
Dang. That looks as good as anything we've seen in a live-action Star Wars flick. Maybe even better. Dare we hope for a CGI-rendered Episodes VII-IX someday?
If Lucas writes it and gives it to BioWare to animate, I'd buy a ticket for that (something I didn't even do for the Star Wars: Clone Wars theatrical release).
Sunday, June 13, 2010
THE KING AND I: 5 days until opening night (I've got a new role!)
We spent seven hours almost nonstop (braking only for a dinner break) on the technical rehearsal for The King and I this afternoon and evening! Considering that we had been told this could have gone into 10 p.m. and beyond, it went better than expected. This was sort of a "rough cut" of the full performance: with the exception of costumes and makeup, we go through everything in the show with all the props and set pieces etc. It's mostly to get the lighting and sound all right, but also to make fine adjustments on actors' blocking and such. So we scheduled for plenty of time today to get it all straightened out.
One thing that was a new experience for me is that today was the first time in four shows that I was fitted for a wireless microphone. Feels like I'm in the real big leagues now!
And I've wound up with one additional role - albeit one that will go uncredited - for this performance. What is it? Hmmm... don't wanna say here, but for those of you who know me fairly well and who might remember how long it took for me to learn how to whistle, you might appreciate this especially :-P
Five more days 'til the curtain opens for the first time. Tomorrow night: our first dress rehearsal! And having seen what some of the actors look like in makeup already, I am becoming increasingly curious about what I'll look like as a man of Siam :-)
The King and I plays this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Rockingham County High School. Click here to visit Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's website for more information.
Friday, June 11, 2010
The World Cup starts today!
The World Cup kicked off today in South Africa. Let's hear it for soccer!
I have nothing else to say. The only reason I made this post is because if made one about "World Cup" and included the words "soccer" and "sports" and "South Africa" and probably also "Uruguay" and "Argentina" and "Spain" and "Belgium" (can't forget our good friends in Belgium... yeah hey to you too Benny) then The Knight Shift blog is no doubt going to get slammed with a wazoo of hits during the next 72 hours or so :-P
Seriously though: good luck to everyone!
(And lest y'all think I'm completely clueless about the World Cup, I'll have y'all know that I not only watched the Three Tenors in Concert live during the World Cup in 1994, but I'm also a proud owner of the CD too!)
THE KING AND I: 7 days until opening night
Exactly seven days from now, Yours Truly and dozens of others will be going through a five-step makeup process to make us look Asian. An hour and a half later the curtain opens on Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of The King and I.
Between now and then lies "Tech Week": where all the wires and cables and lights and plugs and whatnot get set about and we run through this show full-strength a few times, on the lookout for "wardrobe malfunctions" and any other problems that might present themselves in the run-up to Opening Night.
Here's some of the set that the crew has put together...
Looks like something out of a Persian bordello, aye? That's the King's dais (which if you come to the show, you will see me perched on in Act I, Scene 2 :-)
Costume fittings were this morning. I got to try on my attire for the role of Phra Alack. I'm gonna look like either a Scottish Liberace, or the glitziest royal court eunuch ever. The getup that I'll be wearing for the "Small House of Uncle Thomas" ballet scene was still... ummm... being worked upon. All I really know for sure is that I'll look like a ninja. Make of that what you will.
Everyone is totally jazzed about this show! Lots of good people have been working for the past two months and more to make this happen and it's really been something to see it all come together during the past couple of weeks. We know it's gonna be awesome and we hope that you'll be able to come and enjoy the show! Click here to visit the Theatre Guild website for more information.
MONSTERPOCALYPSE to reteam Tim Burton with John August?
That's the word from no less an authority than DreamWorks Studios' website. We heard a few weeks ago that a big-screen feature based on the board game Monsterpocalypse was in very early production. That John August might be getting attached already (he previously wrote the screenplays for Burton's films Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride) suggests considerably more movement afoot than we might have previously thought.
In the meantime however, those clever and industrious folks at Team Covenant have put together this jaw-dropping fan-made trailer for a Monsterpocalypse movie. It premiered at MonCon 2010 in Tulsa a few weeks ago and it totally captures and conveys the atmosphere of Monsterpocalypse!
Well done, Team Covenant! And dear reader: if you'd like to share this with others (you know you wanna) please point 'em to MonsterpocalypsetheMovie.com (easy to remember aye? :-)
Psychologists determine Darth Vader suffered from mental illness
According to the study which will soon be published in the journal Psychiatry Research, Darth Vader was examined per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSMV IV). Of the nine borderline personality disorder criteria, Anakin/Vader fulfilled six of them. Five are required by the DSMV IV to be diagnosed as suffering from the disorder.
From the article...
For instance, the future Darth Vader showed both impulsivity and anger management issues as an overexcited, lovelorn Jedi. He went back and forth between idealizing and devaluing Jedi mentors, such as a humorless young Obi-Wan Kenobi.So Darth Vader has issues. Geez... ya think?!? I thought that was pretty obvious, personally.Abandonment issues also surfaced. Skywalker had a permanent fear of losing his wife, Padme Amidala, and he went so far as to betray his Jedi mentors and companions to try to prevent her death.
Two displays of dissociative episodes took place when Skywalker tried to distance himself from stressful events. The first episode took place after he slaughtered a local tribe of Tuskens responsible for his mother's death. A second episode occurred following his murderous rampage among young Jedi trainees, as he voiced paranoid thoughts about Obi-Wan Kenobi and his wife.
Lastly, any "Star Wars" fan would recognize Skywalker's identity issues and uncertainty about who he was. His fateful turn to the dark side and change of name to Darth Vader could represent the ultimate sign of such identity disturbance, the researchers said.
It's prolly just a matter of time before some enterprising psychology student hits the federal government up for a $100,000 grant to go to Gotham City and study the criminal insanity of the Joker :-P
5 real diseases that could turn you into a zombie
But anyhoo, io9.com has put together a list of five real-life maladies that could make you something like an undead horror. You'll have a whole new appreciation for rabies shots after you read this, along with knowing more about leprosy and necrosis than you probably ever wanted to have floating around your gray matter.
Exoplanet observed orbiting star for first time
Apologies for the absence, dear readers. Of which no less than three of you have insisted today that I must return 'cuz apparently this blog has become a daily fixture in the lives of some! I shall endeavor to do better but what can I say? I'm a busy lad, with many irons in the fire. And Lord willing I'll get to begin sharing some of those sooner than later.
But first: yay for Beta Pictoris! For at least the past two and a half decades this has been a candidate star for having a planetary system. And now thanks to the European Southern Observatory's honkin'-big 8.2 meter Very Large Telescope, we've got the first observation of an extra-solar planet orbiting a star (namely, Beta Pictoris).
Click to enjoy an extra-huge aperture of astronomical goodness!
Click on the above link for better explanation about how neat this is. And thanks to Shane Thacker for finding this story.
