Behold the iMPAMP

At a mere 4.4" x 3" x 3", the 1W per channel iMPAMP from Z.Vex is the world's smallest vacuum tube stereo power amplifier, and quite possibly the coolest $525 iPod accessory ever made. Not only is it a zinc-plated blue-glowing DC-coupled (no capacitors!) thing of beauty, it delivers a frequency response of 10Hz-20kHz +0/-2 dB at 8ohms, measured at 70 mW - with adjustable trimmers, to boot (-20dB for iPods up to +4dB for recording studios). You can order one direct, or find it at select retailers (such as Guitar Resurrection here in Austin) - but it's a limited edition, so grab one while you can. (Check out the cool demo videos for more info and robogeeky goodness.)

Paul McCartney returns to Abbey Road

Tonight on PBS, Great Performances presents Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road, a new concert recorded in Studio 2 of London's legendary Abbey Road Studios. Using a selection of vintage instruments from his own collection, McCartney revisits his back catalogue in new and revealing ways before a live audience. It premieres tonight at 10pm / 9pm CST (right after 24), and repeats at 1am / midnight CST and throughout the week.

And then there were 6.5 billion

Wired reports that Earth's human population is projected to reach 6.5 billion at 7:16 pm EST today, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and its World Population Clock. That's more than four times what it was in 1900. (Later this year, the population of the U.S. will reach 300 million - approximately what Earth's total population was in the year 1000.)

Hello Kitty TV series invading 15 countries

Hello Kitty, Stamp Village, a new 26-part TV series, will soon air in over 15 countries across Asia, Europe and North America. The $1.36 million clay animation series revolves around Hello Kitty and her companions in a forest, including the mischievous penguin Bad Badtz-Maru.

"The plan is to target a world market. So the program will be created in an easy format to dub or narrate into foreign languages," Sanrio spokesman Kazuo Tohmatsu said. God help us all.

P.S.: And yes, that's the Hello Kitty 13" TV, which is on sale at Amazon for a mere $100 (and the matching DVD player is on sale for $80).

Hubble Confirms Two New Moons of Pluto

The Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed two new moons orbiting Pluto, which were first detected last year. Additional observations will be made by Hubble on March 2, which should reveal details such as their size, shape and color. Meanwhile, NASA's New Horizons space probe (which launched last month) is due to arrive at Pluto in July, 2015, and may encounter faint, icy rings.

In other news, a group of amateur astronomers using the 2.1-metre Otto Struve Telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas have become the first people to observe the so-called tenth planet "Xena" through a telescope. (In related news, Lucy Lawless has joined the cast of Battlestar Galactica for its forthcoming third season, which starts production in April and is expected to premiere this summer.)

Bond gets a new car, loses front teeth

The other day MI6 offered the first look at the new Aston Martin DBS, which will be featured (along with the original classic DB5) in the 21st James Bond film, Casino Royale, based on Ian Fleming's first 007 novel.

Sadly, however, star Daniel Craig can't drive a standard, and recently had his two front teeth knocked out by a stuntman. Eek.

Timmer Triumphant

Watching the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, I was smitten with 23-year-old Dutch speedskater Marianne Timmer, who won two gold medals for the 1000m and 1500m - setting an Olympic record in the former and a world record in the latter. She was a goddess. But sadly, after that she won only a single world title (the 1000m way back in 1999), and failed to win any medals at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. So of course no one thought she had a chance at Torino.

Until last night.

Eight years after Nagano - and five days after being tragically disqualified from the 500m due to a controversial new rule - 31-year-old Timmer stunned the world and won the 1000m by .04 of a second. It was absolutely magnificent to watch.

On Wednesday she will compete in the 1500m, her final event.

A Scanner Darkly mental contamination

Now this is a trailer .

And that is a poster.

(I just hope someone finds the missing Philip K. Dick android soon...)

Short list of stars most likely to support life

At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this weekend, astronomer Margaret Turnbull of the Carnegie Institution unveiled her "stellar shortlist" of ten nearby stars most likely to host Earth-like, life-bearing planets. They include beta CVn, epsilon Indi A, 51 Pegasus, 18 Sco, epsilon Eridani, omicron2 Eridani, alpha Centauri B, and tau Ceti, which will be the first targets of NASA's planned Terrestrial Planet Finder - which unfortunately has been indefinitely postponed due to drastic budget cuts proposed by President Bush earlier this month (in stark contrast to his 2004 "vision for space exploration").

As Star Trek fans will attest, it should be noted that that omicron2 Eridani (aka 40 Eridani) is home to the planet Vulcan.

(Additional reports available from Reuters and New Scientist.)

Ice Dancing disturbs me

I've been thoroughly enjoying NBC's Olympic coverage - especially the daily figure skating show Olympic Ice on USA (crackling good television!) - but I gotta say... Ice Dancing freaks me the hell out. Especially Tanith, who seems to perpetually exude a psychotic glee that gives me the heebie-jeebies. And those costumes! But I do hope she and Ben win. Then we can get on with the really good stuff.

Tom Copeland joins Villa Muse Studios

This morning the Austin Business Journal reported that former Texas Film Commission director Tom Copeland has joined Villa Muse Studios as senior vice president of the film division. (Astute readers of my bio know this is the project I'm VP of strategic development for.)

Torino Olympic medals look like doughnuts

Much to my annoyance, I've been fighting an extended illness lately, and spent most of the last few days either in bed or on the couch. The only upside is that this has corresponded with such televised joy as the final(?) four episodes of Arrested Development, the return of Justice League Unlimited and the Torino Winter Olympics. (Did you see the freaky opening ceremony?)

Now, as I've previously alluded to, I generally have no interest in sports whatsoever, but I've been an Olympics geek since childhood. And happily, as usual, NBC's Olympic coverage has been a real treat. So far, it's been solidly well produced (I particularly recommend TiVo'ing the amusing Olympic Ice hour-long daily skating digest on USA), and the Dutch have been (speed) skating well.

But here's my thing. The Torino Olympic medals look like doughnuts. Granted, I love doughnuts, and I've heard the official explanation that they're supposed to represent the Italian piazza, but... they look like doughnuts (or, even worse, CDs from a distance). I mean, imagine if you've dreamed and yearned and trained your whole life for an Olympic medal - and then they hand you a doughnut! That just seems a little wrong to me.

"Maid cafes" all the rage among Akihabara otaku

Reuters has a fascinating if somewhat disturbing article about the latest blatantly sexist trend in Tokyo. At any of some 30 "maid cafes" in the electronics district, twentysomething geeks are served by attractive young women in frilly, fetishistic maid uniforms who refer to them as "Master" and, well...

At one cafe, maids get down on their knees to stir the cream and sugar into the customer's coffee. At Royal Milk, diners can follow up a meal with a range of grooming services, including ear cleanings. Maids at some of the more attentive shops even offer to spoon-feed customers at their table.

Ray Bradbury's vision of a monorail over L.A.

In 1963, a company offered to build a monorail system for Los Angeles free of charge in exchange for the right to operate it and collect tolls. City leaders turned it down, betting on highways instead. (And we all know how well that turned out.)

More than four decades after he first supported the proposal, Ray Bradbury still thinks it's a good idea - and, in a recent Op-Ed for the Los Angeles Times, makes a persuasive argument why it makes a lot more sense than another subway.

Furgles disturb me.

The Amazon is a scary place.

I'm not exactly sure how, but I happened upon something over there called a Furgle (available in Blue, Green or Pink for about $11 each) that would be plenty disturbing even if it didn't give birth by zipper-caesarian to as many as 24 CDs. What demented mind devised such a thing?

Oh, but it gets worse. You can also get Portable Furgle Stereo Speakers ($17) that, yes, have speakers for bellies (which probably sound like crap).

Similarly (and only slightly less unsettling) there's also a 24-CD Penguin Tum Tum and Portable Penguin Stereo Speakers. And Portable Monkey Stereo Speakers.

Madness.

The Lost World has been found in New Guinea

Search for New Birds of Paradise Also Yields Strange Frogs and Giant Flowers - New York Times

How Robert Zemeckis is making Beowulf

Over at Ain't It Cool News, Eric Vespe has a genuinely cool behind-the-scenes report on the making of Beowulf, the forthcoming big-budget film adaptation directed by Robert Zemeckis from a script by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman. Zemeckis is apparently taking his "performance capture" virtual cinema system (motion-capture based CG-animation) to the next level, applying lessons learned (and criticisms heard) from The Polar Express.

As in Express, he's basically recording performances (by Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, Crispin Glover, Brandan Gleeson, Alison Lohman, John Malkovich and Robin Wright Penn) digitally, which allows him to virtually "shoot" any take from any angle, in a completely CG-animated environment - even compositing different takes from different actors in the same scene. But to address the "dead eye syndrome" many faulted Express for (including myself), he's devised a process called OEG (electro-oculography) to map the actor's eye movements - and, two years later, is also now able to achieve more photoreal animation than he could previously.

Fascinating stuff, and well worth a read (not to mention perhaps the best report Eric's ever done on AICN).

Oakley founder Jim Jannard talks about RED

Last week, my pal Mike Curtis of HD For Indies published a fascinating interview with Jim Jannard, in which the Oakley founder discusses his latest venture, RED - which will unveil its revolutionary variable framerate (1-60 fps), 4K (4520 x 2540) "modular digital cinema camera" at NAB in April.

"We cannot come up with another camera that offers a slight advantage to current market offerings and expect to be successful. We need to 'skip several generations of evolution'. That's our plan. We are building this camera because, as consumers ourselves, we can't find an option we like."

(To get a rudimentary sense of how big a leap forward this camera potentially represents, look at this format comparison.)

SXSW Film Fest unveils lineup

South by Southwest Film has announced their 2006 features, and it's a pretty impressive lineup of over 100 films (about half of them world premieres).

This year's fest opens (3/10) with Robert Altman's adaptation of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, and will close (3/18) with Paul Weitz's American Dreamz. A sampling of other films that grabbed my attention at first glance are Mary Harron's The Notorious Bettie Page, Jason Reitman's Thank You For Smoking, James Gunn's Slither (starring Captain Tightpants!), Yoji Yamada's The Hidden Blade, and James McTeigue's V for Vendetta (which debuted at BNAT in December, and I've been itching to see again ever since).

I'm also pleased as punch to see premieres of films by my friends Korey Coleman (2 A.M.) and Kat Candler (Jumping Off Bridges, featuring two of my other favorite people, Savannah Welch and Michael Conway) - and of course Jacob Vaughan's The Cassidy Kids. (And I've gotta see James Marsh's The King to find out if my pal Jessy Schwartz's scene with William Hurt made the cut.)

Here's the complete lineup and the press release. (Kudos, Matt!)

Donner's Superman II being restored for DVD

Last week, Superman Homepage broke the news (via their interview with producer Ilya Salkind) that Richard Donner's long-lost (and never finished) cut of Superman II is being restored by editor (and former Donner assistant) Michael Thau, who did the excellent Superman: The Movie Special Edition restoration five years ago. This has since been confirmed by Donner himself, via interviews with IGN and Dark Horizons, in which he makes clear the project has his blessing and support, although not his active involvement beyond consultation (given how much time has passed since he was unceremoniously replaced by Richard Lester - plus the fact he's currently busy finishing his new film, 16 Blocks).

Meanwhile, it has separately been reported (by The Digital Bits) that "The Donner Cut" is being reconstructed using the original shooting script and Donner's original notes, and will feature at least 50% never-before-seen Donner-directed footage (including the lost/original opening sequence, and scenes with Marlon Brando as Jor-El), resulting in a new cut that is over 70% directed by Donner (in other words as much as possible, with the remainder presumably appropriated from Richard Lester's release version; 25 years later, I'd say turnabout is fair play).

However, the catch for consumers is that it will only be available as part of a 14-disc Superman: Ultimate Collector's Edition due out this November, which will apparently include all things Superman, including Superman Returns, the first four films, and I'm guessing the new Kevin Burns Look Up in the Sky Superman documentary, and maybe even the new Superman: Brainiac Attacks animated film.

James Cameron's next film is also an MMOG

BusinessWeek interviews James Cameron about his forthcoming 3-D sci-fi film Project 880 (which many believe is a code-name for his long-gestating Avatar), and report that it could be the first major Hollywood project that audiences will experience first as a multiplayer game on the Net, and later on the silver screen.

"If you look at the relationship with movies and games in the past, it has been unidirectional. Either a great movie comes out followed by a pretty crappy game, or some game intellectual property led to a pretty bad movie. It's gotten to the point where that isn't even happening much anymore.

"What I'm visualizing is generating in parallel a game created by top developers that takes place in the same universe as the movie. There are some of the same characters, but players are empowered with their own characters. The game doesn't run against the action of the movie, but it doesn't necessarily have to follow the same action, either. Right now, actually, I'm looking at ways to co-generate my stuff in the film with the world with the games.

"The plan is to develop an MMOG that takes place in the same universe and release it a little while before the theatrical release. That way people can start playing around and learning about this new world. Then we present a narrative in it with the movie.

An edited transcript of the interview is available here.

Prepare for Nacho Libre

The man who became a
priest.

The priest who became a
wrestler.

The wrestler who became a
legend.

Check out the new poster and trailer at AICN, and find more goodies at NachoLibre.com.

MacGyver returns this Sunday!

So on Sunday, there's this big annual football game called the Super Bowl that everyone seems to watch but no one I know (besides Jody) seems to actually care about - except for the commercials. And I can tell you right now that the one Super Bowl commercial everyone will be talking about will the latest (and arguably greatest) installment in MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign. Because for the first time in twelve years, Richard Dean Anderson returns to the role that made him famous - MacGyver!

The 30-second spot by McCann Erickson will air in the 4th quarter (and go into general rotation starting March 6), but you can watch it online right now at SuperBowl-Ads.com (along with a bunch of other spots). And starting Sunday night, you'll also be able to view behind-the-scenes footage and making-of interviews at priceless.com. (Here's the full press release with more details.)

I really love this spot, which is a megadose of pure robogeek joy (though it falls just short of perfection due to the lack of a Dennis McCarthy score).

One can only hope that Paramount will wake up, smell the coffee, and make a smart, fun, suspenseful and action-packed MacGyver movie with Anderson - not to mention Teri Hatcher and Bruce McGill (reprising their recurring roles of Penny Parker and Jack Dalton). That would absolutely rule the earth - and frankly interest me even more than Indiana Jones IV.

P.S.: FYI, on March 26, Anderson will guest star on The Simpsons in the episode "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore".

Aardman's "Creature Comforts" coming to CBS

Aardman fans rejoice! CBS has ordered its first animated series in 13 years - "Creature Comforts", an American version of the hit British stop-motion animated series (based on the Oscar-winning short film by Nick Park), wherein interviews with real people on a variety of subjects are transposed into the mouths of talking animals. (Trust me, it's brilliant.) Seven half-hour episodes have been ordered for midseason 2006-07 from Aardman Animations, the makers of Chicken Run and the Oscar-nominated Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (which comes out on DVD Tuesday).

For more info on the British series (now in its second season on ITV), check out CreatureComforts.tv. (You can also buy Season 1 on DVD.)

Cool (looking) new products from Imation

Imation - the removable data storage maker that started out as a division of 3M, and recently acquired Memorex - introduced a couple cool-looking products this past month that fall just a tad short in their execution. It's a case study in the difference between really good product design, and really great product design.

Consider the clever (if unapologetically LiveStrong-esque) rubber Imation Flash Wristband... which is a great idea and a cool design, but would be an even cooler product if it was available in capacities larger than a puny 256MB (like their existing Swivel Flash Drives, that go up to 2GB). However, it does get points for being cheap (its MSRP is an impulse buy-worthy $34.99), and sold through Target (soon if not already).

Similarly, behold the inspired padlock-esque Imation Micro Hard Drive... which gives you up to 4GB (at an MSRP of $189), but would be even cooler if it could actually be locked like a real padlock (with a physical combination dial on the bottom, for instance). Sure, it can be "digitally" locked via 128-bit encryption, but that's just not as cool!

Aurora australis viewed from space

Six years ago next month, NASA launched IMAGE ("Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration") - the first spacecraft designed to study Earth's magnetosphere. Built for a two-year mission, IMAGE continued operations for almost four extra years until it went silent on December 18, exceeding all its scientific goals and revealing the previously invisible magnetosphere to us for the first time.

Thankfully, IMAGE survived long enough to record what may be its most spectacular observations. In September, IMAGE captured a stunning ultraviolet view of the aurora australis four days after a record-setting solar flare fired plasma towards Earth.

Click here for a larger image and more info - and just wait'll you see the QuickTime video!