Maspion Groups: February 2010

a little bit of happy

like it? click it!
i spotted this as i left my friend's office building.

tim minchin on american evolutionary beliefs

who will manipulate you today?

via.... sorry... i don't remember.... sniff

Listening to Jonneine Zapata & watching this video for "No Big Deal" is a perfect way to unwind on a Friday ev... ♫ http://blip.fm/~lte0g

From ew, The body of Growing Pains actor Andrew Koenig, who had been missing since Feb. 14, was found Thursday around noon in a Vancouver park called Stanley Park, police confirmed at an evening news conference. The 41-year-old actor was best known for playing Kirk Cameron’s friend, Richard “Boner” Stabone, on the 1980s ABC sitcom. Koenig was also the son of actor Walter Koenig, who starred as Pavel Chekov on television’s Star Trek: The Original Series.

“My son took his own life,” the elder Koenig said Thursday at the emotional press conference. “He was obviously in a lot of pain.” A police spokeswoman said that the department’s investigation will continue and that a cause of death will not be released at the moment. No foul play is suspected.

Before leaving for a trip to visit some friends in Toronto and Vancouver, Koenig, who had a history of depression, moved out of his Venice, Calif., apartment and reportedly sold a number of his possessions in a garage sale. On Feb. 16, Koenig’s parents received a “despondent” note from their son, and the actor missed his scheduled flight back to Los Angeles. Koenig’s parents subsequently reported their son missing on Feb. 18.

star trek alternate ending

mostly, i like the animation... pretty good likenesses.

via trekmovie.com

really real reel

The HHD Winner is...

There were some really great haikus this week, and I was hard pressed to pick a winner, but in the end JPX's amputee haiku edged out the competition. The last line added a nice punch and a powerful visual. Great job everyone, and congratulations JPX!

I know it's silly
but amputee's freak me out
Can't handle the stump

SOTD: Zeitmahl & Alexandria - Better Than You

Song Of The Day: This is from a while ago, & perhaps has aged like a fine wine & not like an old tuna sammich!

Click the arrow to download or use this link: http://bit.ly/zmlbty

Zeitmahl & Alexandria - Better Than You.mp3 by fdaallday

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the poetry of reality

yay! another wonderful video from melody sheep and the symphony of science!

lyrics:

[michael shermer]
science is the best tool ever devised
for understanding how the world works

[jacob bronowski]
science is a very human form of knowledge
we are always at the brink of the known

[carl sagan]
science is a collaborative enterprise
spanning the generations
we remember those who prepared the way
seeing for them also

[neil degrasse tyson]
if you're scientifically literate,
the world looks very different to you
and that understanding empowers you

refrain:
[richard dawkins]
there's real poetry in the real world
science is the poetry of reality

[sagan]
we can do science
and with it, we can improve our lives

[jill tarter]
the story of humans is the story of ideas
that shine light into dark corners

[lawrence krauss]
scientists love mysteries
they love not knowing

[richard feynman]
i don't feel frightened by not knowing things
i think it's much more interesting

[brian greene]
there's a larger universal reality
of which we are all apart

[stephen hawking]
the further we probe into the universe
the more remarkable are the discoveries we make

[carolyn porco]
the quest for the truth, in and of itself,
is a story that's filled with insights

(refrain)

[greene]
from our lonely point in the cosmos
we have through the power of thought
been able to peer back to a brief moment
after the beginning of the universe

[pz meyers]
i think that science changes the way your mind works
to think a little more deeply about things

[dawkins]
science replaces private predjudice
with publicly verifiable evidence

(refrain)

Happy 30th birthday Missle Command!

From ew, To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Atari’s Missile Command, OMGPOP has created a “remixed” multiplayer version online, which is a bit less exciting than it sounds — it’s kinda choppy (at least on my antique computer), lacks the sparse, apocalyptic feel of the original, and the missiles look like little adult toys raining from the sky. Purists will say the game can only truly be played on the arcade version using a trackball anyway. But for me, Missile Command was an Atari 2600 game. Just after my Space Invaders phase, and slightly before my brief-but-intense obsession with Yars Revenge, I spent countless hours sitting cross-legged on the floor of our living room playing the hell out of Missile Command. The fast, simple gameplay and creepy Cold War overtones (for those who don’t know, you’re protecting six cities from incoming nuclear missiles — skill can delay matters, but annihilation is inevitable) are what make this my fave 2600 game of all time

Star Trek Convention Chicago '75, full cast reunion

From toplessrobot,

Black And White Bloopers: Watch Bogart Flub His Lines

From cinemablend, When you’re watching those classic, black and white movies it’s hard to imagine anyone having any fun on the set. The work of actors like Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney is all serious men, in well appointed suits, and dashing fedoras. It’s hard to imagine anyone laughing in between takes, or for that matter even loosening up enough to make some sort of mistake. Seen through our modern lens the movies of the thirties and forties seem like serious, serious business. Maybe they were most of the time, but not always.

Warner Bros. studios used to put together an annual blooper montage of the funnier mistakes made on the set each year while filming their movies. The video below is from their 1936 blooper real and features people like Bogart, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, and Paul Muni flat out screwing up. Watch them flub and laugh and curse like real people; and remember they were more than imaginary icons, these people lived.

People of the Park

Check out more here

"Superman" Reboot Details have Leaked

From worstpreviews, It was recently announced that David Goyer and Jonathan Nolan have started working on the script for the third Batman movie, from an idea by Christopher Nolan.

This news is part of Warner Bros big announcement about what it plans to do with all the DC Comics' superheroes. And now we have another part of it. According to LatinoReview, Goyer (Blade, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) has also been hired to write the new Superman movie.

Apparently Goyer is only working part-time on "Batman 3," so he has time in his scheduled to tackle a "Superman" reboot, which is being called "The Man of Steel."

Brandon Routh will not star in the new movie, and Bryan Singer is not expected to direct. "The Man of Steel" will not be an origin story and will assume that audiences already know about such characters as Lois, Clark, Jimmy and Perry.

While story details are being kept a secret, the site claims that both Lex Luthor and Brainiac will be involved, the Daily Planet will be struggling to stay in business due to the internet, and there will be a huge Kryptonian mythology set up. Stay tuned.

Next Mascot For Ole Miss?

From geekology, Ole Miss (The University of Mississippi) has decided to ditch its old racist slave-owning mascot Col. Rebel in exchange for something a little more PC. And now there's a student movement to elect the honorable Admiral Ackbar (quite the rebel himself) as the new figurehead of the university. Tell me it's not a trap! Voting just ended to determine if students would lead the mascot-choosing process and won with nearly 75% of votes (2,510 of 3,366). Nice, Ole Miss. Now I'm not saying you should also consider Nien Nunb as a potential candidate, but he does look half chipmunk/half vagina, both of which people love and find intimidating AT THE SAME TIME. You think about it.

Nightmare on Elm Street (remake) trailer

See it here

sergey brin on google's china decision

what happened?

click pic to watch video on TED, with transcript

James Blish

See? See? This is who I was dealing with while reading those Star Trek paperbacks I discussed below. Look at the picture! Exactly the guy you want relating Kirk & Co.'s adventures, right? (It was not easy, being a sci-fi fan back then.)

VOTD: Sade & her band... I want to join!

While I am certainly more than pleased with the title track on Sade's first album in a decade, "Soldier Of Love", which has been on heavy rotation with me since it was in my hands in November... I am writing today as I declare that "instead of running away with the circus, I would choose her band, Sweetback.

Watch how much fun they have... they are silly, amazing musicians, know how to have fun and they get the job done and it is well done, for sure!

Btw, if you have NOT seen the video for "Soldier Of Love", here it is in all of its dark, militaristic, near industrial triphop exquisiteness. It is more of a Massive Attack tune than nearly any of the songs on the latest Massive Attack album. Enjoy!

I had to play it again.... I love this tune! I am not sure how many years it has been since I have played a tune so often... but perhaps Last.fm has the rough estimate. (well, often I am listening to music away from the computer)

Helen Folasade Adu is fantastic and I have enjoyed nearly all of the songs on the Soldier Of Love album. You may want to grab it today!

From my list of most anticipated albums of 2010, these are 10 songs to enjoy for years to follow until her next release! Let's hope it is not another decade!

Lastly, I am working with Boom Chick Boom for their comedy sketch show this evening at Theatre Asylum. 9pm, just west of Vine, on the south side of Santa Monica Blvd.

Tomorrow night is my FREE party, Absinthe & Magic Thursdays, at Kung Pao Kitty. Join me early for dinner or arrive a lil later for $3 drink specials and more!

Friday, David J. (Bauhaus, Love And Rockets) is djing at Kung Pao Kitty.

Saturday, I am djing again at Kung Pao Kitty and possibly singing and playing guitar too, want to join me?

Note: the new Red Light District single is a cover of a Sade song that we recorded a few years ago.

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enceladus is hawt

a forest of jets:

click either image to source

press release
all on ciclops!

rachel maddow on state del bob marshall's (R-VA) christian ignorance

repulsive

original story
via RDF

HHD: The Human Body

Everyone has one
and for better or for worse
it is yours to keep

Tall, short, strong or weak
the object of desire
or of ridicule

Powerful muscles
contracting and releasing
with grace and balance

But the parts break down
the body grows old and weak
inevitably

And on that happy note, start your engines and let the haiku goodness flow!

The Old Paperbacks! Pt. II: Complete Blish Covers

About a week ago I posted photographs of the contents of a box of old paperbacks I'd retrieved from my parents' house. Of course you all immediately noticed the glaring omission in that post: I display the ostensibly-complete sequence of James Blish books (called Star Trek 1 through Star Trek 12) with two volumes missing. That's right, Star Trek 10 and Star Trek 11 were not in the box. (Also, the quality of the "Star Trek paperbacks" picture I posted last week was really bad.)

Of course I knew I had those other two books...I just had misplaced them, that's all. I specifically remember triumphantly completing the set some time in ninth grade, way too old for it but not being able to resist the final volume off a sidewalk blanket. Anyway I had to go back there tonight (my mother's computer...don't ask) and I did some fishing around and located the two missing books. So, above, please observe brand new scans of the 12 covers of these pre-home-video, completely superfluous volumes into which weird British hack James Blish has transcribed the scripts of all 79 episodes of Star Trek, while making arbitrary changes and added his own strange details whenever he felt like it. Terrible stuff...and Blish didn't even survive the process; as you can see, the final book was finished by somebody else (somebody even more of a hack than James Blish).

But, look at those covers! They're incredible. The first book is obviously a conventional 1960s Hollywood illustration based (pretty clearly) on publicity stills from the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before (the second pilot). The second and third are just boring (except for those fantastic numerals)...but then the paintings start, and all nine of them are exceptional. Remember that this was the 'seventies and the only images we'd ever seen of the Enterprise in flight were the awful effects shots from the original show. I fondly remember staring at the covers of these books (while eating cereal after school or whatever) and grooving on the incredible images and the way they made the Trek universe so much fun to picture. Great stuff.

VOTD: Alan Wilder joins Martin Gore in Depeche Mode!!!

It is no secret that I have an affinity for the music of Martin Gore, particularly his Depeche Mode songs that were orchestrated by the handy work or Alan Wilder.

It was nearly two decades ago when they last worked together on "Songs of Faith & Devotion. Alan left the band after their extensive two year world tour. It was a sad surprise for any fan of the band and his role in the Depeche Mode music machine would be noticed in the subsequent album releases.

Last week, Alan joined Martin on stage for the first time since at their performance at the Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity series, which brings amazing bands to perform each year, raising money and awareness regarding children and young adults with cancer. This year performers include Them Crooked Vultures, The Specials, Noel Fielding, The Who, The Horrors & Suede.

Here is Alan Wilder & Martin Gore performing their soundcheck of "Somebody" together!

Below is a short overview of the show with succinct dialogue from both Martin & Alan.

Here is video from the performance!!!!

Bonus video: "One Caress" with strings!

via SlicingEyeBalls blog, which has a slew of footage from this performance posted

Have a great day and enjoy LOST this evening!

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Box Office

From iwatchstuff,

1. Shutter Island - $40.2 million, proving Scorsese films fare best when their name hints they could be a reality series.

2. Valentine's Day - With the actual Valentine's Day now passed, this week audiences returned to this romantic comedy to see how much of it came true. $17.2 million.

3. Avatar - $16.1 million, climbing back up from 4th--something Avatar historians will later refer to as "the bounce-back period."

4. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief - $15.3 million, another middling box office showing, demonstrating America's continued indifference towards lightning theft.

5. The Wolfman - $9.8 million, still leaving it $100 million from earning back its budget. I say just market the DVD as a Wolfman Jack biopic.

Michael Jackson's 'Captain EO' returns to Disney

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Captain EO and Michael Jackson are returning to Disneyland.
The park says it will show the 1986 Jackson musical beginning Tuesday and running indefinitely.

On the Disney Parks blog, Disney executive Heather Hust Rivera says the park will show a 70mm print of the 17-minute movie in the Tomorrowland theater, with enhanced sound.

However, Rivera says the showing won't feature some special effects from the original presentation that can't be replicated. She did not elaborate in her blog message.

The original presentation included lasers and smoke.

Jackson, who died of a drug overdose last year, plays the role of a spaceship captain who uses love and music to fight a witch queen played by Anjelica Huston.

The original ran at Disneyland from 1986-1997. The new showing replaces the 3-D show Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.

Elm Street remake update

From slashfilm, You may have noticed that on Monday we published our set visit report for Samuel Bayer’s remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. You will also see on set interviews with the cast and crew of the film throughout the week. The reason we’re running everything this week is because this is the week our embargo broke. And it seems to time nicely with Warner Bros’ next phase of the film’s marketing release, as a new poster has just been revealed, and a new trailer will hit later this week.

Kirk Cameron Prays For 'Growing Pains' Costar's Safe Return

From ew, Kirk Cameron has issued a heartfelt plea to his former 'Growing Pains' costar Andrew Koenig, who disappeared in Vancouver more than a week ago.

On the show Koenig played Boner, best friend of Cameron's character Mike. Cameron told Life & Style:

"I am very concerned to hear of the disappearance of my old friend Andrew Koenig. I can remember many of the fun times we had on the set of Growing Pains. I am praying for his family during this time of distress and for his safe return. Andrew, if you're reading this, please call me. Mike and Boner could always work things out when they put their minds to it. I'm praying for you, pal. Hope to hear from you soon."

Koenig, 41, suffers from depression and has not been heard from since he failed to return from a family trip to Canada on February 14. A friend of his tells Radaronline.com that he disconnected his phone and returned personal belongings to friends just before his disappearance. His parents plan to fly up to Vancouver to assist the police in their search in the next few days.

cognitive dissonance on 'for good reason'

dj grothe interviews carol travis:

'carol tavris describes dissonance theory and how self-justification and self-deception often keep people from changing their minds even in the light of compelling contrary evidence, because the evidence is often dissonant with one’s self-image. she details the implications of dissonance theory for the persistence of psychic charlatans and other peddlers of the paranormal, and how it may explain how someone like sylvia brown can live with herself, and also how it may explain how believers remain so gullible about such unsupportable claims. she describes confirmation bias as a component of dissonance theory. she talks about how dissonance theory applies to the skeptic movement, both in terms of suggesting the best strategies for engaging the credulous, and in terms of fostering skepticism about one’s own skeptical views. and she argues that skepticism should be affirmative rather than destructive in its approach, and focused on both critical thinking and creative thinking alike.'

EDIT: i really loved this, btw.

double-published

my work's appearing twice in the march 2010 issue of digital SLR photogaphy magazine. i'm featured in the reader showcase and i've also written a do-it-yourself!

click pic to source
check it out!

Superman's debut comic sells for $1M

By Jake Coyle, AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK — A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $1 million, smashing a record set just last year.

The issue sold Monday morning is a 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books. It features Superman lifting a car on its cover and originally cost 10 cents.

It was sold by a private seller to a private buyer, neither of whom released their names. The sale was conducted by the auction site ComicConnect.com.

The previous comic book record was set last year when $317,000 was paid for the same Action Comics No. 1 issue. This copy fetched a much higher price because it's in better condition.

carl sagan's message to mars

carl speaks to future martian settlers:

via sagan lives on

god fills all prescriptions....

captured by dead betty:

you know you wanna click it!

more awesome americana at her diner.

Boner is missing!

From ew, The parents of Andrew Koenig -- who has reportedly been missing for the past week -- described their son as "suffering from depression" and "not doing good" in the days leading up to his disappearance.

Judy and Walter Koenig (who played Pavel Chekov in the "Star Trek" series) tell TMZ the last time heard from Andrew was on February 9. They say his cell phone is turned off and that they have learned the last time his phone received a text was on February 16 in Vancouver.

Digital sculpting class

This was what I came up with after messing around for about two hours, starting with the Mudbox program's abstract human head (which annoyingly I can't find a picture of). At first I thought the prof wanted us to do exactly what he was doing (a real puffy head) and then realized my mistake. The ears never recovered.

Those dots and circle are the brush tool, which I forgot to move out of the way before I snapped the screencap. See how there's two dots? That's because as you sculpt one side the other side does the same thing. Nice.

there's probably no....

click image to source at science, reason and critical thinking

I forgot

I meant to post this
The list grows ever longer
So here it is now

Star Wars - Johnny Sweatpants
Christmas - JSP (Octopunk won SW, but forgot cuz of Christmas)
Abandoned Houses - Whirlygirl
Fanboys - JPX
Ninjas - HansomeStan
Superheroes - Octopunk
Zombies - Catfreeek
Original Star Trek - AC
Lord of the Rings - nowandzen
Video Games - HandsomeStan
80s Movies - JPX
Sitcoms - Catfreeek
Saturday Morning TV - DCD
Action Figures - HandsomeStan
The Future - 50PageMcGee
Heavy Metal - Johnny Sweatpants
Jiggle Television - Chris
Science - 50PageMcGee
Wizard of Oz - Octopunk
Swine Flu - Johnny Sweatpants
The Comic Strip - JPX
Armageddon - HandsomeStan
The Matrix - Octopunk
Guilty Pleasures - AC and Mr. AC
Candy - DCD
Child Actors - Julie
The Devil - Johnny Sweatpants
Chick Flicks - HandsomeStan
Toys - Catfreeek
Musicals - DCD
The Simpsons - Johnny Sweatpants
Horror Movies - Octopunk
Mental Illness - 50PageMcGee
The Mall and/or Teenagers - JPX
Rants - Johnny Sweatpants
Johnny Sweatpants - HandsomeStan
Drugs and Booze - Julie
UFOs and the Unexplained - HandsomeStan
Robots - Octopunk
The 7 Deadly Sins - Catfreeek
Pet Peeves - JPX
Ways to Die - Johnny Sweatpants
(Horrorthon hiatus)
Crap Jobs - HandsomeStan
Hair - Whirlygirl
High School - HandsomeStan
Things Our Parents Say - Whirlygirl
Pets - DCD
Driving - Octopunk

lucy and kanzi on radiolab

i just spent an hour listening to this radiolab podcast which features two stories of beings that blurred the boundaries between humans and other animals.

i remember reading about lucy temerlin, the chimpanzee, when i was a teenager in the 70s, in carl sagan's the dragons of eden. lucy grew up among humans and learned sign language.

the creators of the podcast, as always, do a great job of telling this fascinating, sweet, and ultimately heartbreaking story.

pictures of lucy:
(don't miss the final picture of... a hug...)

click image to source at the great ape trust

the second part of the podcast is all about kanzi, the bonobo... who speaks english!

the striking thing about both these stories isn't about the mechanics of eating, clothing or language... it's how humans and primates coexist and interact in a newly created intermediate culture in which the interpersonal relationships between beings matter more than the particular differences between species.

atheist spirituality

a definition of spirituality.

via the whore of all the earth

Haiku Hump Day results: Who gets the rock star parking?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Hear the Horrorthon theme song!

From geekology, CodeOrgan is a website where you can enter any website's URL, and, using a complicated algorithm, it turns the website's code into "music". Obviously, Geekologie is the most beautiful website you will ever hear, but you can try it with any other one you want. And the songs will change as the "body" content of the website changes. So you can listen to a different Geekologie song tomorrow. They are all magical! Like Link's ocarina songs, but this one won't summon your horse. Unless that's what you calling your girlfriend, in which case, she's probably cheating on you with someone nicer. LIKE YOUR ROOMMATE. Seriously, I saw them together.

Hear the horrorthon theme song here

technology's epic story

as told by kevin kelly on TED

elton

click to read at jesus&mo

precipice

like it? click it!

HHD results will probably have to wait until tomorrow

Your Uncle Octopunk is exhausted. I just had the most ridiculous freelance job building an offensive lawn fountain. Everything turned out great in the end, but it's been eight days of relentless grind. And right now I'm in my first ever Maya class learning computer animation. I can do blog posts in class!

VOTD: The iRRegular Show

This makes me miss Legion:

Hang tonight @KungPaoKitty for Alexa's bday. Apollo, Logan & I will rock a strip dance http://bit.ly/8X8Cfy

Making Of: The Classic HBO Intro From the 1980’s

From slashfilm, Everyone who grew up in the 1980’s probably remembers the classic HBO Starship intro which played before all the big picture presentations. Watching the retro intro brings back so many memories for me of watching and discovering so many new movies with my parents. MondoTees has found a great vintage 1983 making-of documentary showing how that classic intro was created.