Da-Dum. Da-Dum.

Wow. This video made me feel uneasy. All afternoon.

Nothing bad or violent happens - it's just, men treating great whites like dolphins, or puppies even- it creeps me out.

I mean, remember the grizzly man.

Cool Gif of the Day

MAKE magasine! How to make everything from halloween decorations to portable electromechanical slug throwers - just in time for Quake IV.

"SERENITY NOW!"

The missus and I caught Serenity at the cinema last night, and it is a most excellent film. All round, witty, action packed, scary, adventurous, hilarious film.

And it's also a very interesting event.

You see, a long time ago there was a show called Firefly created by Joss Whedon of Buffy fame. Sadly the show got cancelled part way through it's first season for various reasons. But the show was very good - it took an episode or two for it to grow on myself- my wife took to it immediately - but the end result was the same - we were very quickly hooked.



So after the show gets cancelled, the "fan community" works and works to get the show returned - and after a few years of campaigning, cajoling, harassing, blackmailing-- they have succeeded, sort of - in the form of Serenity. Serenity continues where Firefly left off. But as Roger Ebert points out - the film is really good even if you haven't seen any Firefly episodes.

So now here I am peddling the film to my friends. Serenity has some very interesting marketing going on - and here's the challenge it's put out there - Watch the first 9 minutes of the film. It's free, and it's online. If you like it - go see it! I think you'll be glad you did. If you don't have 9 minutes, you can see the trailer on the website - it gives a more rounded idea of what the film is actually about.

"In the event of a water landing...."

I used to fly a lot with my old job. Once or twice a month.

And what I was always amused with, was the concept of a water landing.

Now, even a flight from London to Newcastle required me to be re-familiarised with the safety procedures "in the event of a water landing." I suppose, just in case we went down in the lake district. But I digress.

Have you ever heard of a water landing? We've all seen the pictures in the safety cards. Have you heard of a major airline landing in the water, the seat cushins being used as flotation device, your inflateable lifejacket (with attention getting whistle) being used from under the seat, or the ubiquitous inflatable slide/raft things?

Because, as Tyler Durden pointed out, landing on the water at 500 miles per hour probably wouldn't go so smoothly.

So let us turn to the internet for some fun and education.

Education: why not read this short article writen by a pilot about the plausability of a water landing. I particularly like the part that reads “shatter like a raw egg dropped on pavement, killing most if not all passengers on impact, even in calm seas with well-trained pilots and good landing trajectories."

Fun: why not see how internet jokesters have amused themselves with airline safety sketches. They're old as the hills, they are hilarious, and heck, why not? It's not like what they said in the first place made much sense anyhow.

Movie Trailers

And now, a word about movie trailers.

I saw something absolutely hilarious today that made me think of this.

How often do you know exactly what is going to happen in a scene- because you saw it in the trailer? How often do you watch a trailer and think - blimey - it's like i've seen the whole movie!

If there's a film coming out i want to see - depending on the type of film it is I often go out of my way NOT to see the trailer - simply because i am the kind of person that would commit the images to memory, and while i sat through the film i would know if the hero was going to make it or not, based on an image i hadn't seen yet in the trailer.

And sometimes - trailers can be so blooming misleading about the film they are representing. I remember waiting expectantly for Minority Report to come out because I had read a good deal about it - and I was hoping for something between Bladerunner and 1984.

The trailer came out and i thought - rubbish! That looks like bloomin Mission Impossible in 2068.

My brother in law, James, saw it and thought - fantastic! That looks like Mission Impossible in 2068.

Well, when the film came out - it turned out I was happy! And he was not. And somehow the studio got us both to pay to see it - so I guess they know what they are doing.

So on the topic of misleading trailers (Spanglish anyone?) I saw this little video on the internet. What if the Shining had been promoted as a comedy? Hilarious stuff.

e

So Nicolas Cage has had a son - and he's named him Kal-El.

Kal-El, as my fellow uber-geeks will know, is Superman's name he was born with on planet Krypton.

Wow. The thought that went through my head - "My wife would kill me." Clearly when you are Nicolas Cage, you don't have to worry about such things.

Kind of reminds me of my favorite novel, Catch 22, specifically the naming of Major Major Major Major.

Anyhow, it's unclear as to weather or not he'll have to kneel before Zod, we're all on the edge of our seats to find out.