Strider’s Web – Page 268

Something to Watch: DVDs, 28May13

Not much in genre movies this time beyond AE: Apocalypse Earth and Battle Earth, both direct to DVD. The first at least has actors I like and an actual web page.

We do much better in TV, with Doctor Who: Series Seven, Part Two coming out. Looking around Amazon I found a listing for the complete Series 7 costing twice as much as the first two parts combined, and with no release date listed. That tends to make me wonder if they have plans to bundle it together with all the different 50th anniversary specials and bring it out in November for the anniversary itself, or possibly Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, Doctor Who: The Snowmen is also out on disk this week.

In Anime only one entry this time around: Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God: Season 1 Collection 2, bringing still more deadly puzzles along for our protagonist to resolve. Kaito doesn’t really want to solve these puzzles, but they are all deathtraps which will kill him and his friends if he fails to figure them out. This series is different in that the person with the brain is the hero, rather than the one with the biggest muscles or best school of Kung Fu, and I quite enjoy it. If you don’t know it already, bop over to Crunchyroll and watch some episodes (the link takes you to the start of the first season, so you don’t drop into the middle of the series).

Giant Robots for sale

They are a little pricy at 1.35 million dollars each baseline (options cost you more), but in the first month they went on sale they took orders for 3,000 of them. Called the Kuratas after their designer, Kogoro Kurata, when you order yours from their web page you can even have it customized with the various weapons systems they offer. They have been out for about a year now, and they do have a disclaimer on their home page that these are sold as works of art, not as combat mechas. Thanks to Rocket News 24 for the heads up on this one.

Single Pixel 3D Imaging

Science News reports that a team at the University of Glasgow has set up four single pixel detectors and used gear normal to a high school science lab to create 3D images, fully mapping the test object. Why is this important? Because unlike a 20 million pixel camera array, single pixel detectors can operate over a much greater bandwidth than visible and ultraviolet light, so you can also apply it to thing like x-rays and infrared energy. This is going to open up a range of applications not previously available, especially medical imaging and natural resources investigations.

3-D IMAGING MADE SIMPLE from Science News on Vimeo.

Carrot Crazy

This is the Senior Thesis film produced at Ringling College of Art and Design by Dylan Vanwormer and Logan Scelina. Yes, it is a bit silly, but where animation is concerned that is often the point. These kind of things inspire me to plug away at my own animation projects, even though mine never seem to look this good.

About Time trailer

There are some moments you want to last forever, and some you don’t even want to live through once. The author of About Time was also a writer on Blackadder, and did a few other RomCom flicks like Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Love Actually. This appears to be his first venture into SF/F, but it could be quite amusing. The film is due out in November, and will hopefully get an actual web page before then.

More J-Alt Rock

The song is from Simple Plan, the song Summer Paradise, featuring the vocal work of Taka from One OK Rock, one of the best Alt Rock bands from Japan. This is one of the more interesting songs since The Lazy Song sung by Bruno Mars and featuring Leonard Nimoy in the video. Come to think of it, it sounds a lot like Summer Paradise. And then, just because I can, a recent track from Rip Slyme, who’s music I can only describe as Punk/Rap/Lounge, however that actually works.