Freaky. Faceless. Japanese. Robot. Mannequin.

A Japanese firm has developed a mannequin robot named Palette that can strike a pose for customers - and spy on who they are and what they're buying. Holy crap, man.

(Here's a slideshow of seven press photos.)

New Mars photos, plus more space news...

The European Space Agency has released some stunning photos (taken by their Mars Express space probe) of Martian polar ice, as well as signs of volcanic and glacial activity - and even a frozen equatorial sea.

In other recent space news, astronomers have discovered what appears to be an invisible, star-less galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter some 50 million light-years away. And just 50,000 light-years from us in the constellation Sagittarius, a massive stellar explosion recently unleashed "more energy in a 10th of a second than the Sun emits in 100,000 years" - so powerful that it briefly altered Earth's atmosphere. "Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would have triggered a mass extinction."

Closer to home (and far more innocuously), three new moons of Saturn (discovered by the Cassini space probe) have been provisionally named Methone, Pallene and Polydeuces.

P.S.: BTW, you can download some really stunning desktop photos from the Hubble Space Telescope here. (And check out the largest, most detailed portrait of Saturn ever, comprised of 126 separate photos taken by Cassini last year.)

Battlestar Galactica premiere "33" now online

In case you missed it... 33, the (excellent) premiere episode of SciFi Channel's new "reimagined" Battlestar Galactica series, is now available online in its entirety via streaming RealVideo, along with four deleted scenes. (I previously wrote about the new series here, and you can read executive producer Ron Moore's illuminating behind-the-scenes blog here.)

Galactica was recently renewed for a second (longer) season, and airs Friday nights on SciFi. It's probably the best science-fiction show on TV right now (assuming you don't consider Lost sci-fi), and one of the ten best shows on TV, period.

The 2005 Oscar Gift Bags (& Predictions)

So it's Oscar day, and the big question isn't who will win or what they'll wear, but what they get in the gift bag.

Well, GirlHacker has done a considerable amount of detective work to reveal the contents of this year's Oscar gift bags (expanding on a recent USA Today article). I'm particularly envious of the Dyson DC11 vacuum cleaner, the $1,500 dinner party at Morton's, and the year's supply of chocolate, not to mention all the fabulous vacation getaways.

Oh, and for the record, my predictions are...
Hilary Swank (Actress, Million Dollar Baby)
Jamie Foxx (Actor, Ray)
Cate Blanchett (Supporting Actress, The Aviator)
Morgan Freeman (Supporting Actor, Million Dollar Baby)
Charlie Kaufman (Original Screenplay, Eternal Sunshine...)
Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor (Adapted Screenplay, Sideways)
...and I have a feeling Academy voters will split Picture and Director between Million Dollar Baby and Martin Scorsese (The Aviator), respectively.

I want to buy this for Guillermo...

...but Viceversa just taunts me with a phantasmagoria of exquisitely cool Italian industrial design, and won't let me buy anything on their damn website. Though I do recommend browsing. (also via Gizmodo today)

Shaq's Shoe Phone

Shaquille O'Neal has inexplicably installed a cellular phone into his size 22 shoe. But unfortunately, it fell victim to a completely unforeseen tragedy - "I stepped on it and crushed it." Fate can be so cruel. (via Gizmodo)

New Oldboy trailer online

IGN FilmForce has the new American trailer for Chan-Wook Park's Oldboy, along with a gallery of stills. You may recall the film won the Grand Prix at Cannes last year and debuted at Butt-Numb-A-Thon the year before that. It screens at SXSW next month, and opens in limited release on March 25. (And it'll seriously mess with your head.)

Dr. Thompson bids us "So long and Mahalo."

Hunter S. Thompson, the godfather of gonzo journalism, took his own life yesterday. He was 67.

His final column, Shotgun Golf with Bill Murray, appeared just last week on ESPN.com (for whom he'd been writing for the last four years), and recounts a very entertaining 3:33 am phone call. (You can find the rest of his ESPN columns archived here and their appreciation here.) He was of course most famous for his extraordinary 1972 book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which became an extraordinary film in 1998. (Photo by Christopher Felver)

TRAILERS: Tetsujin 28, New Police Story, A Scanner Darkly

If you're a fan of giant robots (and come on, who isn't?), you may get a kick out of the trailer for Tetsujin 28, the live-action film adaptation of the eponymous vintage anime series (known in the U.S. as Gigantor). Personally, I'm an even bigger fan of Giant Robo, Neon Genesis Evangelion and of course The Iron Giant (which, btw, is screening March 7 at the new Alamo Drafthouse), but this is pretty irresistible.

And poking around on the Apple Japan QuickTime Movie Trailer page, I also happened to find the trailer for Jackie Chan's New Police Story (the latest sequel in his popular Hong Kong film series). And btw, if you've never been serenaded by Jackie, you're seriously missing out.

Finally, Warner Independent has finally released a stunning teaser trailer for Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly... but sadly did so via iFilm, which is a pain in the ass to deal with. (It's bad enough it's in crappy streaming low-res RealMedia instead of downloadable hi-res QuickTime, but they also make you sit through an ad to watch what is in itself an ad). Anyway, hopefully soon it'll pop up on Apple's QuickTime Trailer page (and Warners will give the film a proper official website).

Gromit hosts Westminster Dog Show

Gromit hosted the (streaming online hightlight videos of the) Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which apparently occurred earlier this week.

(There's more coverage of Gromit's latest adventure at AICN, and two publicity photos at MCN.)

Mickey. Mouse. Musical. Toaster.

It doesn't just brand Mickey's face onto every single slice of toast it makes -- oh, no! -- it also plays the Mickey Mouse Club song when said toast is ready.

And it's shiny.

Kyoto Protocol effective today. But not in the U.S.

141 countries constituting 55% of global carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions have agreed to a 5.2% collective reduction by 2012 - starting today. But the world's top polluter (responsible for nearly 25%) is not among them.

President Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol treaty in 1997, but it was never ratified by Congress, and has since been renounced by President Bush as too costly and flawed (due to developing countries like China and India being outside its framework, for example).

Yet treaty proponents such as British PM Tony Blair warn of an impending environmental catastrophe within a generation - and assert that U.S. participation is "the only solution". Thankfully, there is also mounting domestic political pressure; Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman are preparing to reintroduce their Climate Stewardship Bill.

(For a look at the effects of global warming, check out this photo gallery, and more of Gary Braasch's environmental documentary photography here.)

SIN CITY Official Site Launched

Speak of the devil! The official website for Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez's Sin City has (finally) launched, and is one of the best looking movie sites I've seen. (The film opens April 1.)

My Top 10 Must-See Films of '05; PLUS: A Sneak Peek at Wallace & Gromit

(Since someone asked the other day...)

Off the top of my head, the ten films I'm probably looking forward to most this year are Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, Peter Jackson's King Kong, Joss Whedon's Serenity, Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit, Wong Kar-Wai's 2046, Terrence Malick's The New World, Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly*, Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez's Sin City, Mike Judge's untitled new comedy, and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. (Until I change my mind, of course.)

Anyway, while the above links should pique your interest in each respective film, I feel compelled to draw particular attention to a delightful behind-the-scenes sneak peek at Wallace & Gromit, which just fills me with glee.

*UPDATE: Since A Scanner Darkly has been pushed back to 2006, I've bumped Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven up onto the list (as it would've otherwise been my #11).

The Onion A.V. Club interviews Bertolucci

"The movies I like are always movies where cinema is reinvented like if it was the beginning of cinema.

"The problem in Hollywood is that they try to become the only kind of cinema in the world. The imposition everywhere of a unique culture, which is Hollywood culture, and a unique way of life, which is the American way of life. But Hollywood has forgotten that what made it great was the fact that Hollywood was fed with, for example, Jewish directors coming from Germany or Austria and enriching Hollywood. Still, after the war also, Hollywood was influenced by cinema coming from all over the world. In 15, 20 years, Hollywood became imperialistic. In this movement, in this kind of imperial tension, there is its own distraction. Cinema goes ahead when it is marriaged by other culture. Otherwise, it turns on itself.

"I think that Hollywood should also be influenced by directors from Hong Kong. You see how Quentin Tarantino is really the example of how you can develop if you accept the existence of different cinematic cultures. There you have Quentin playing with kung-fu. That's why the independents are the most interesting."

CephaliPod

You must have the CephaliPod! And while you're at it, you might also want to grab a Welcome Squid Overlords t-shirt. After all, "The cephalapod biomass is now greater than the human biomass. We don't know how many there are or how big they get. We are NOT ready. Play it smart." Damn straight. (From the Mule Design Feed Store.)

Doraemon iPod mini

With cool accessories, no less! But of course it's only available in Japan... like so much other Doraemon stuff I want. Dammit. :-(

So what is Doraemon, you ask? For shame! (Haven't you seen the movie?)

Robin Williams Sings Pixar's Freedom

This is pretty damn funny.

Hello Kitty Crop Circle

In celebration of Hello Kitty's 30th birthday, Sanrio commissioned a commemorative crop circle near Stonehenge from Surface to Air. It took up half the size of a football field, and 16 hours to make after a month of planning.

NYT Magazine interviews Triumph, Ebert

Ah, there's nothing like spending a Sunday morning curled up with a cup of Earl Grey, a plate of cinnamon toast waffles, and the New York Times Magazine.

Today's rather surreal issue features a Q&A with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, who's nominated for a Best Comedy Album Grammy this evening for his debut CD, Come Poop With Me.

"It's all a big sham. Remember, the voters are from the music industry."

Are you suggesting that the voters never actually bother to listen to the CDs they recommend for awards?

"Believe me, if the voters had bothered to listen to my CD, it would never have been nominated. My CD is disgusting, degrading filth, and I'm offended to be included."

Other notable features include a quite fascinating interview with Roger Ebert (including a peek inside his Chicago townhouse), and a vaguely frightening (and very long) profile of playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, who's turning Betty Boop, High Fidelity, My Man Godfrey and Shrek into Broadway musicals. (Cue nightmares.)

P.S.: FYI, over at the Sun-Times yesterday, Ebert unveiled his Oscar predictions.

Dutch Invent Color Night-Vision

The TNO Research Lab in the Netherlands has developed a revolutionary full color night-vision system for the Dutch military. (From NewScientist.com.)

"That's no moon. It's a..." Oh, wait.

NASA's Cassini space probe has taken a striking photo of Mimas, Saturn's "Death Star" moon dominated by a single massive crater 86 miles wide - almost a third of its diameter. (From NewScientist.com.)

Retro Aviation Design Gallery

Adventure Lounge has a fantastic (and fascinating) gallery of early aircraft designs from yesteryear, culled from U.S. patent applications. This one, for example, is a 1946 design by C.W. Scott. (And yes, I still need to go see The Aviator, dammit.)

Development Arrested by Fox

I hate Fox. They're bastards.

Every single year, like clockwork, they cancel one of my very favorite (and best-reviewed) shows after failing to build an audience for it. Last year it was Wonderfalls. The year before it was Firefly. The year before that it was The Tick. And now in a particularly ominous move they're "suspending production" on Arrested Development, cutting its season order from 22 to 18 episodes to make room for more of the astonishingly crappy American Dad.

Arrested Development, you may recall, has won five Emmys (including Outstanding Comedy Series), and last month took home a Golden Globe for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy (Jason Bateman). It's also won the Critics' Choice and TCA Awards for Best Comedy Series, and is I think the best there's been since Sports Night (which was cancelled by the bastards at ABC; don't get me started...).

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, 1.) shame on you; 2.) tune in this Sunday after The Simpsons; 3.) sign the Save Arrested Development Petition; and 4.) buy Season One on DVD.

(Oh, and Jason Bateman guests on Conan tonight, and hosts Saturday Night Live this weekend.)

James Cameron Working on Mars Mission

Filmmaker James Cameron, who serves on the NASA Advisory Council, is actively working with the space agency on the development of a future manned mission to Mars. "We need this challenge to bring us together," he says of the project.

(Cameron's latest film, the 3-D IMAX documentary Aliens of the Deep, is one of the best-reviewed of the year thus far.)

1939 Deluxe Reborn

As you may or may not know, I harbor a particularly devout affection for all (well, most) things 1939. So imagine the amount of robodrool generated by this refitted 1939 Ford Deluxe Cabriolet. It's a masterpiece. (Found via Jalopnik.)

Hem... and Dawn Landes

Last night I took some much-needed "me time" and headed to the Cactus Cafe, one of the very best live music venues in our fair city. My dear high school friend Roxanne had e-mailed me (from Philly, no less) that one of her favorite groups was playing, and I should check 'em out.

I'm very glad I did. Hem is a countrypolitan octet from Brooklyn that has earned considerable (and well-deserved) praise from critics and released two truly lovely albums -- Rabbit Songs (2001) and Eveningland, released just four months ago. Their music is like a warm, soft, comfy blanket that smells really good.

But the biggest revelation (and happiest surprise) of the evening for me came from opening act Dawn Landes, who also sings backup and plays the glockenspiel for Hem, but is quite an accomplished singer/songwriter on her own. She performed a mesmerizing acoustic set that left me absolutely enthralled and wanting more. She's a star. (You can buy her debut CD and sample three songs here.)

They'll all be playing (with singer/songwriter David Mead, who's a delight) St. Louis tomorrow and Pittsburgh on Friday, and then head to England for the rest of February, and Ireland in early March. I really kinda wish I was tagging along. (Tour schedule here.)

SXSW Features Announced

Yesterday SXSW announced their narrative and documentary feature selections for this year's festival. I'm particularly happy to see several of my friends included, such as Ellen Spiro & Karen Bernstein's Girl Scout documentary Troop 1500, Margaret Brown's Townes Van Zandt documentary Be Here To Love Me, and Mari Marchbanks' ensemble drama Fall To Grace. I'm also really looking forward to the Duplass Brothers' Sundance entry The Puffy Chair, Lexi Alexander's Hooligans (starring Elijah Wood), Rebecca Miller's The Ballad of Jack and Rose (starring Daniel Day-Lewis), among lots of other new films.

Plus I'll get to revisit three of Butt-Numb-A-Thon's greatest hits -- Matthew Vaughn's fantastic directorial debut Layer Cake and Stephen Chow's exhilarating Kung-Fu Hustle (which both premiered at BNAT two months ago), and last year's Cannes Grand Prix winner, Chan-wook Park's Old Boy (which premiered at BNAT '03, and blew everyone's mind).

Overall, it's a really promising line-up (though I must admit Tim and Harry and I were really hoping for Dave McKean's Mirrormask, Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 and Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, but that's just 'cause we're greedy).

The End of an Adventure

"Hello, everyone."

One of my favorite discoveries in college was the simple joy of public radio, and one of my favorite programs quickly became Karl Haas' legendary Adventures in Good Music. Almost every day I looked forward to the opening notes of the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor ("Pathétique"), followed by those two simple words of welcome that started an hour-long exploration of discovery -- and profoundly enriched my appreciation and knowledge of classical music.

Karl Haas passed away Sunday at the age of 91. He hosted Adventures in Good Music almost every weekday since 1959, and after it went national in 1970 it soon became radio's most listened to classical music program. Haas was rewarded with two Peabody Awards and the National Endowment of the Humanities Charles Frankel Award, and became the first (and still only) classical broadcaster to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Over the decades and across hundreds of radio stations (180 in the U.S. alone), he brought classical music to literally millions of people worldwide, becoming the single most important broadcaster of the genre in the medium ever. (You can listen to three sample programs online here.)

Adventures in Good Music continues to be broadcast worldwide, as his broadcasts remain timeless. (Three CDs are also available -- Romantic Piano, The Story of the Bells, and Song and Dance.)

Chocolate Kreme Doughnut Unleashed

Since it was announced last week (via the Friends of Krispy Kreme Newsletter), I have been tingling with anticipation for Krispy Kreme's new Featured Doughnut, CHOCOLATE KREME, which finally debuts today.

"We've taken a yeast-raised, unglazed shell and filled it with luscious chocolate kreme and topped it off with a dusting of confectioner's sugar. This subtle yet rich treat is sure to please even the most discriminating of chocoholics!"

(That would be me.)

Cell Microprocessor Debuts Today

At the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco today, IBM, Sony and Toshiba will announce details of their revolutionary new Cell microprocessor, which will power the PlayStation 3 and the next generation of HDTVs in 2006 -- and was designed right here in Austin.

The scalable, modular Cell design is an evolution of IBM's 64-bit G5 processor (currently used in Apple's Power Macs), but controls an array of eight additional 128-bit synergistic processing elements, or S.P.E.'s. A supercomputer on a chip the size of a thumbtack, it reportedly clocks in at 5.6 GHz, and has been optimized for broadband-rich multimedia applications and parallel processing.

(More details available via The New York Times and The Financial Times.)

Batman Begins Super Bowl Spot

The first TV spot for Batman Begins is now online and it's pretty damn cool (though there's still something about the costume design that doesn't sit quite right with me). The film opens June 17, and you can find more goodies at the recently relaunched official website.

Everything's Better With Springs

Earlier this week (via groovy gadget blog Gizmodo) I happened upon Strutz spring-loaded shoes, and can't help but ponder which of my many attractive female friends I might persuade to get a pair (or should get a pair for). Go go gadget pumps!

Then today (via Funfurde via Boing Boing) I discovered the eight-legged Broadway dining chair by Gaetano Pesce, which is made of stainless steel and epoxy resin, but has nylon springs for feet so "it will bend and sway with the sitter". It sells for a mere $1,460 at moss (the online outpost of arguably the coolest design store in Manhattan, with lots of other ridiculous stuff I actually want, like the 1954-vintage Osvaldo Borsani P40 Articulated Chair for $7,815 and the Folmer Christensen Stainless Steel Tape Dispenser for $114 -- not to mention the $15,740 Chicciola Shower).

Kinky Friedman for Governor

At a press conference in front of the Alamo, humorist Kinky Friedman announced his independent candidacy for governor and plans for the "de-wussification of Texas", which would include appointing Willie Nelson as head of the Texas Rangers.

"Don't worry about my lack of experience," he assured voters. "Trust me. I'm a Jew. I'll hire good people."

Friedman outlined his position on a variety of issues, such as capital punishment (which Texas leads the nation in). "I'm not anti-death penalty. I'm anti- the wrong guy getting executed. Two thousand years ago we executed an innocent man named Jesus Christ, and we don't want to make another mistake like that."

Friedman has over a year to collect 40,500 signatures of non-primary-participating registered voters in order to get on the November 2006 ballot. (And btw, the Stop Ashlee Petition already has over a quarter million.)

Wonderfalls = Joy

My absolute favorite (and the best reviewed) new show of last season was Wonderfalls, which was sadly killed by the bastards at Fox after just four episodes -- and one of the worst ad campaigns I've ever seen in my life. (Pretty much the same thing that happened to my beloved Firefly a season prior, actually.)

Anyway, the deliciously brilliant Caroline Dhavernas stars as Jaye Tyler, a wry Brown University grad who suffers from a chronic lack of ambition, lives in a funky trailer, and is stuck working retail at a tourist-trap gift shop in Niagara Falls. Amusingly self-absorbed (largely, we gather, due to a dysfunctional upbringing), she gets a metaphysical kick in the ass once various inanimate objects not only start talking to her, but issuing Cryptic Commands She Must Follow. Of course, no one else can hear them, so Jaye starts to seriously question her sanity as she is compelled to interfere in the lives of others -- with (of course) unexpected results.

It is a very odd, very funny, and quite brilliant little show -- at long last available on DVD today, including the nine never-aired episodes that complete its first and (sadly) only season. And according to this Associated Press article, a large measure of credit for the DVD release goes to sites such as SaveWonderfalls.com, which rallied an extraordinary amount of support from fans, who can now finally get some closure. (Happily, according to a New York Post interview with co-creator Bryan Fuller today, the 13 episodes "tell a beginning, middle and end for the character's journey. The ending ties everything up, so you're leaving the universe with a satisfying story being told.")

Have a pancake!