New trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey!

Well it's been a while since I last posted. But coincidentally, it's also been a while since Peter Jackson re-introduced us to Middle Earth in cinemas! But fear no longer, my hairy-footed friends. The first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has just been released!

Featuring stunning scenery, concerned looking wizards and a riddling bi-polar schizophrenic, you can check it out just below.

The film will be out in just under a year, on the 14th of December. Much too far away, precious....

Two times Tokyo?

Because Japanese legislators have been watching waaaay to much Evangelion, they're considering building a second Tokyo, in case the first one is destroyed. By Angels.

It's not that crazy an idea to be honest, during WW1 France built a second Paris to confuse German bombers, and China is building a number of towns reminiscent of traditional Germany and Austria.

According to World Architecture News, "the new city, code named IRTBBC, or Integrated Resort, Tourism, Business and Backup City, will stand in for the capital in the event of it being hit by a disabling earthquake. A possible location has already been earmarked 300 miles to the west of Tokyo on the 1236 acre site of the largely superseded Itami Airport."

The legislative backers of the proposal want 14 million Yen (approximately AU$175,087) to research as to whether this 'emergency city' will actually work. The city is proposed to house 50,000 residents, 200,000 daytime workers, an emergency seat of government, casinos, and the tallest tower in the world (at approximately 2,139 feet).

Although considering practically every disaster movie is set in either New York or Tokyo, this may be a good investment.

via inhabitat

The secret to Viking Navigation is a crystal!

Ancient Vikings were very good mariners. They crossed wide seas with none of the navigational equipment we have today, instead relying on their knowledge of the sun and the stars. But a question that has always plagued archaeologists, is how did they accomplish this on the Atlantic, which can often be a pretty soggy, foggy, and altogether nasty place?

According to Viking legend, they used a 'sunstone,' a magical device that allowed their navigators to read the celestial positions even in deep fog. And now, archaeologists think they've found what it was.

Researchers at the University of Rennes in France have put together all the evidence they've found, and have wound up with something quite plausible. While not magical, the device was a transparent calcite crystal, known as an 'Iceland Spar,' that ancient navigators would've used to depolarise light - meaning that the crystal was able to split light along two different axes.

In practice, that means that a sailor simply had to put a dot on top of the crystal, and then look at it from below. The incoming light would hit the dot, and create the illusion that it was duplicated. This optical effect was apparently all ye olde sailors needed to be able to locate the sun, even when it wasn't even visible. 

In case you didn't get that, (I sure didn't), lead researcher Guy Ropars has a less technical version:

"Then you rotate the crystal until the two points have exactly the same intensity or darkness. At that angle, the upward-facing surface indicates the direction of the Sun. A precision of a few degrees can be reached even under dark twilight conditions...Vikings would have been able to determine with precision the direction of the hidden Sun." 

These precursors to the compass were also used later on, being considered more reliable than the newer compass due to the fact that the presence of metal didn't affect it.

I'm still saying it's magic.

via i09, with the original report here.

Strawberries now cure alcohol poisoning?

Strawberries are delicious. In fact, they're second only to the great mango in terms of tastiness. But now they're not just delicious - they can cure the effects of alcohol poisoning!

Heavy drinking can bring serious problems. And not the 'I-got-drunk-last-night' kind of drinking, but the 'I-got-drunk-every-week-this-month' kind of drinking. It can cause long-term damage to the mucous membrane of your stomach that can give rise to all manner of gastrointestinal disorders, including ulcers, colorectal cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease. Not cool.

Now a European team has found that strawberries, or more accurately the anthocyanins and antioxidants found in strawberries, can help mitigate these effects and even improve treatment of stomach ulcers.

Sara Tulipani, University of Barcelona researcher and co-author of the study, explains that "the positive effects of strawberries are not only linked to their antioxidant capacity and high content of phenolic compounds, but also to the fact that they activate the antioxidant defenses and enzymes of the body."

TC;DR: Gastrointestinal diseases like stomach ulcers caused by heavy drinking are caused by 'free radical' atoms and molecules that are highly unstable and cause chain reactions in trying to gain stability. That's why the damage accumulates over time. Antioxidants in strawberries activate the 'defense systems' of the body, and reduce the production of these free radicals in the first place.

Life lesson here: If you plan on doing some heavy drinking during the holidays, minimise damage by loading up with strawberries in the days beforehand. It won't stop the damage, but it'll help reduce it.

via i09, while the original research paper can be found here.

Shoot first, re-focus later - New Lytro Camera!

Now this is actually pretty cool. Lytro have unveiled a new camera that's completely different to anything else out there on the market at the moment. The key? You can focus and re-focus your images after you've taken the shot.

The Lytro camera, named after the company, is about 11cm long, and 4cm square, and has a lens on one end, and an LCD touch screen display at the other. Along the sides are the shutter button, USB port, and a strip that controls the zoom function - 8x. It's a pretty different design to your standard camera, which is generally loaded with more buttons than you actually know how to use. (true story).

On the inside, is where it's really different. Conventional digital cameras use lenses to focus a subject so it's sharp on the image sensor, then it takes the picture. That means that for an in-focus part of the image, light from only one direction reaches the sensor. In the Lytro though, light from multiple directions hits each patch of the sensor; the camera records this directional information, and after-the-shot computing converts it into something a human eye can understand. This means that the focal point of the image can be re-adjusted multiple times on the computer, even after the image has been taken.

This means that you can whip it out, take a photo of a scene before it changes (a bird flying away, someone's smile, a fast-paced scene) and then fix it up later. In addition, this kind of photographic technology (known as light-field photography) allows the images taken to be shown in 3D - because you have an image with potential multiple depths-of-field.

There are three models - the $399 cameras with 'electric blue' and 'graphite' exteriors whose 8GB of built-in memory is enough for about 350 shots and the 'red hot,' 16GB camera that can record 750 shots. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like you can expand the storage space once it's purchased.
US residents can apparently order one online now, according to Chief Executive Ren Ng, and they'll be shipped in the first quarter of 2012. No word yet on a international release, but you could probably just import one if you wanted to.

via Cnet

Want to float in the clouds? "Niiiiimbus!"

I've always liked clouds. They look like a great big jumping castle in the sky. Seriously, imagine if they were bouncy? That's be awesome. Tiago Barros also likes clouds, but in a more sedate, float-amongst-them kind of way.

His 'Passing Cloud' concept allows people to float in the sky amongst the clouds, wherever the wind takes them, sitting on top of the zeppelin-like, nylon-covered and steel-skeletoned structure. It's environmentally friendly, and is completely reliant on wind-power.  

According to Barros, "nowadays, traveling is achieved with this idea of having a fixed destination and an estimated time of arrival. Passing Cloud completely inverts this system. A floating device is introduced that travels around the entire USA territory according to current predominant winds. It has no fixed time of arrival or place for arrival. The journey becomes the essence. Imagine traveling at wind speeds in a totally sustainable object that leaves no Human trace behind."

This actually looks pretty awesome. The idea of just travelling wherever, without any fixed plan or destination sounds pretty relaxing... and it reminds me of Flying Nimbus from Dragonball. Which is awesome. Although personally, I'd like to see some simple shelters on the structure, basic cabins or even tents, so that you weren't always exposed to the open air and weather.

via Dezeen

Create your own Portal 2 Level!?

Because the people over at Valve were concerned that we all weren't already in love with Portal 2, they are now working on an “a Photoshop for test chambers,”an easy way for amateurs to design their own Portal levels, and allow other users to download these created levels.

According to a report by Geoff Keighley, GTTV host, Valve are also developing a system that would allow Portal 2 players to access the new levels from within the game, without having to go outside the game to access them. “Now maps will appear on an easy to use menu, dramatically expanding the potential audience for fan-created content–and hopefully making it available on the consoles as well.”

If that doesn't seem exciting enough, Valve are also considering adding a personality to the level creator - a GLaDOS that would be watching how you did things, interjecting snide comments every now and again, and berating you if you spelt a word wrong.

Valve haven't confirmed all of this of course - they're definately working on it, but they haven't said as to whether it will actually be released, or if it's just an experiment.

For now, have a fun Cave Johnson quote. "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take back the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What the hell are these?! Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! WITH THE LEMONS! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that BURNS YOUR HOUSE DOWN!"

PS Vita Australian launch dated and priced

Sony's new handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, will hit Australian shores on the 22nd of February next year, according to Michael Ephraim, the Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and New Zealand.

It will cost $349.95 for the wifi version, and $449.95 for the 3G version.

“PlayStation Vita is a revolutionary device, which will offer the best possible portable gaming experiences available on the market," said Ephraim. “Its impressive feature set is designed to provide the ultimate gaming experiences on the go. This, combined with social connectivity means there will be not only innovative new ways to play, but also new ways to connect with others. We are incredibly excited about the upcoming launch of PlayStation Vita.”

I've got to admit, that's actually pretty tempting. The graphics far outstrip Nintendo's 3DS, but it'll come down to the games available, specifically the launch titles. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.

via Kotaku

Halo concept art is awesome.

Halo is awesome. Everyone loves Halo, right? Know what's almost as awesome? This apparently brand-new, never-seen-before concept art by Alex Chu, Ashley Wood, and Frank Capezzuto. These works, among others, are being packaged in a new book, Halo: The Art of Building Worlds, which will be chock full of pretty concept art for the entire Halo trilogy. If you're interested in the book, which is a decent $18 from Amazon, check it out here.

Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the (free) pictures here.

Happy Birthday!

So this isn't general news as such, and it's been awhile since I posted (dammit uni), but it's a friend of mine's birthday today. So I figured I'd upload this for him:

And don't worry, regular posts are coming back soon!

Laws of Physics being overturned!? "She'll make point five past lightspeed."

In news that should excite sci-fi fans all over the world, scientists at CERN have announced that they have recorded sub-atomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light.

Spokesman for the researchers, Antonio Ereditato, said that measurements taken over the course of three years showed neutrinos pumped from CERN near Geneva to Gran Sasso in Italy had arrived 60 nanoseconds quicker than light would have done.

 

"We have high confidence in our results. We have checked and rechecked for anything that could have distorted our measurements but we found nothing," he said. "We now want colleagues to check them independently."

If their work is confirmed, it could shake the foundations of physics as we know it, overturning Einsteins 1905 theory of special relativity, which states that the speed of light is a 'constant,' and that nothing can travel faster.

"I just don't want to think of the implications," said Ereditato. "We are scientists and work with what we know."

60 nanoseconds may not sound like much (and it isn't) but it's the fact that it's possible that is so astonishing.
Many different works of science fiction are based on the possibility of exceeding the speed of light, and acheiving either time-travel or faster-than-light (FTL) travel.
Lets just hope if we do get there, we don't encounter Goa'uld, or Reapers. 

via SMH.com.au

 

IRL: Running from zombies!

Gotta admit, this is one of the most original, and awesome iPhone games in development at the moment. ZOMBIES, RUN! is an indie developed game that is still a WIP over at kickstarter, and merges reality and video games.

The core premise is that you are Runner 5, a survivor of the zombie apocalypse and a scout of sorts, looking for weapons, ammo, med kits and critical supplies to keep your base of hundreds alive.

As it says on the website: "Zombies, Run! is an ultra-immersive game for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android where you help rebuild civilisation after a zombie apocalypse. By going out and running in the real world, you can collect medicine, ammo, batteries, and spare parts that you can use to build up and expand your base - all while getting orders, clues, and story through your headphones."

Essentially, by running in real life, you run in the game, picking up the afore mentioned critical supplies. You don't need to watch the screen while you're running either, the story and instructions are delivered through the headphones; you simply press a button to start and to stop.

"Zombies, Run! is about making the thrill of running even better with a game and a story delivered through your headphones. We’re making running more fun, more exciting, and more addictive for everyone from couch-to-5k newbies to weekend joggers and marathon runners. And Zombies, Run! works anywhere - in a park, along a beach, in the city, even on treadmills!"

The game is still in development, and is expected to be released around February 2012. For those wishing to donate and contribute to the games development, head over here and you can get some sweet goodies for doing so.

via Kickstarter

Terry Pratchett makes a sword out of meteorites

Showing that he's not just awesome at writing books, Terry Pratchett decided to forge himself a sword after being knighted. As you do.

But believing that to be his sword, it had to be different, he found himself a field with iron ore near his home in Wiltshire, dug up 81kg of iron ore, and smelted it himself.

The 62 year-old bestselling author said "most of my life I've been producing stuff which is intangible and so it's amazing the achievement you feel when you have made something which is really real."

After creating a makeshift kiln built from clay and hay and fuelled with damp sheep manure to smelt his iron, he then tossed in "several pieces of meteorites — thunderbolt iron, you see — highly magical, you’ve got to chuck that stuff in whether you believe in it or not."

After spending some days hammering it into bars, he then took it to a blacksmith, who helped him shape it into a blade and finish it with silverwork.

Pratchett has hidden the sword in an unknown location after finishing it last year, fearing that the authorities may not appreciate his remarkable work on account of it being pointy and very sharp.

"It annoys me that knights aren’t allowed to carry their swords. That would be knife crime," he said.

via Evan, via news.com

Gold came from space!

Gold is great for many different reasons. It's pretty, malleable, and great for electronic circuitry. Dwarves love to sing songs about it, pirates love to bury it, and evil dark lords like to make rings out of it. But according to geologists at the University of Bristol, it came from space!

Approximately 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth was a roiling ball of magma. As it cooled, denser materials with greater mass would've sunk deep into the core, creating a core mostly comprised of iron, and leaving the outer layers bereft of any of the precious metals.

And yet, we've been mining these metals for thousands of years; metals that shouldn't have been there in the sort of quantity that we've found. So where did all these precious metals come from?

Scientists Matthias Willbold and Tim Elliott, after studying samples in Greenland, believe that the metals are a result of a 200-million-year long meteor shower, that impacted about 3.9 billion years ago. These meteorites had large quantities of these metals, which were slowly stirred into the Earths mantle by big currents in the molten composition of the ancient Earth, leading to the ore deposits we find today.

The ancient rock samples contained a slightly higher ratio of the tungsten isotope 182W, an isotope produced only in the first 50 million years of the solar system, signifying that the meteor shower had altered the composition of Earth's surface.

"Our work shows that most of the precious metals on which our economies and many key industrial processes are based have been added to our planet by lucky coincidence when the Earth was hit by about 20 billion tons of asteroidal material," said Willbold.

via ibtimes, via Nature

Glowing kittens. Oh Science.

Science is good for many things. Building psychotic robots, flying into space, and bioengineering the perfect tomato for a salad sandwich. And now, its latest innovation: glowing kittens.

The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota implanted genes from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria into the eggs from which the kittens grew, which, helpfully, allows them to produce Green Fluorescent Protein, allowing them to glow under certain light frequencies.

But it's another gene inserted into the kittens that is promising a step towards a cure for AIDS. The antiviral gene, coming from a monkey, produces a protein called TRIMCyp. This protein can make blood cells that fight infections and resist the viruses that cause AIDS, according to Dr Laurence Tiley of the University of Cambridge.

"One of the best things about this biomedical research is that it is aimed at benefiting both human and feline health. If you could show that you confer protection to these animals, it would give us a lot of information about protecting humans."

So far, they've only tested it on cells extracted from the cats, not the cats themselves, which is apparently their next step. And they made the kittens glow so that their cells would be more visible. At least that's their story.


via The Guardian

Want to finish high school in a single year?

It sounds suspiciously like one of those sketchy ads that pop up at the edge of your screen at torrent sites, but it's actually a statement from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.

Speaking at the Cloud Gaming Conference in the USA, Bushnell said he’s been working for the past decade on a computer education project that takes place in the “cloud” (completely online), and that during a 40,000 student test his system is “currently teaching subjects 10 times faster” than the ordianry curriculum and teaching method.

“We believe that when we roll this up to full curriculum we’ll be able to teach a full career of high school in less than a year”, Bushnell said. “And we think we’ll be able to do that by the end of next year.”

“That’s a lot of time to chase girls and have fun.”

Clearly he's doing it for all the right reasons.

via kotaku

With the powers of a PS3 and XBOX 360 combined....

Modder 'Timofiend' has combined two hated enemies into one sweet and potentially legally explosive package. Presenting... the PSBOX 360!

Okay, I made the name up, but that's pretty much what he's done. He took an 80gb PS3 and an XBOX 360, took out the innards, and then combined them into one PC tower.

In terms of overheating, Timofiend said that he didn't use liquid cooling because it was too expensive, and apparently when both consoles are turned on at the same time, the temperature hovers at around 38-39 degrees celsius for the PS3 and 37-38 degrees celsius for the Xbox 360.

The intrepid modder is also working on revealing documentation for the building process, in case anyone else out there feels like completely voiding their warranty.

via Dvice

Scientists discover Vampirism actually works!?

Seen here in a discovery that will probably have your grandparents donning black velvet cloaks and plastic fangs, scientists testing on mice have found that injecting blood from younger mice into older mice has a rejuvenating effect. And vice versa!

Researchers at Stanford University have found that "when blood from a young mouse was injected into an older mouse, that older mouse enjoyed what could almost be termed a "rejuvenation effect": it began producing more neurons, firing more activity across synapses, and even suffered less inflammation."

"Interestingly, performing the reverse, in which a young mouse was injected with blood (or, more accurately, plasma, which is the parts of blood without blood cells), resulted in young mice with distinctly elderly attributes--increased inflammation, a reduction in the production of new neurons, that kind of thing."

So there you go. The next time grandpa offers to babysit, DON'T LET HIM. Seriously though, I'm cool with this, as long as the mice didn't sparkle.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Bunnings, they have a sale on wooden stakes.

via Popsci

New Sony OLED VR Goggles deliver a 750 inch screen!

Everyone likes big TVs right? You walk into stores and gaze longingly at the huge 60 inch plasma sitting there in all its hi-def glory.

But now Sony is upping the ante. How about a 750 inch screen? Which occupies less space than your PS3?

Introducing the "Personal 3D Viewer HMZ-T1," a head mounted goggle display that can project both 2D and 3D. The goggles consist of two 0.7-inch OLED screens (one per eye) with a resolution of 1024x720, which will appear as though you're watching a 750 inch screen. It can also support 5.1 surround sound, and has 2 HDMI ports for game consoles, Blu-Ray players, etc.

So you'll basically have a cinema style experience in one small, sweet package. But... you'll be paying for it. The goggles will be released in Japan (typically) on November 11, retailing for $780. Ouch.

To be honest, I'm still tempted. Imagine playing Modern Warfare 3 online with a cinema style display and surround sound. Awesome. Expensive. But awesome.

via Dvice

Inkling!

I figure you've all probably seen this by now - it was announced 2 days ago after all - but it's just so damn cool that I have to blog about it here too.

Wacom, designers of tablets long before Steve Jobs made them cool, have announced a new device - the Inkling.

The Inkling is a device you clip onto the top of any sheet of paper, and, with a special pen, records everything you draw on the paper. It apparently records 1024 levels of pressure, so even the line thickness recorded will change depending on how hard you press on the paper. You can then export the image as any number of different file types, even a vector, and edit it in Illustrator or Photoshop.
Here's a video to make it a bit clearer:

According to Wacom, it's designed primarily for concept art and sketches, instead of 'finished product' kind of thing. It will be released here mid October, and will retail for $219.

I still don't really know how it works - there are a couple of questions that aren't addressed in the video - but it's awesome.

via Gizmodo

A Girls Best... Planet?

The biggest diamond in the 'verse just got a whole lot bigger - think planet-sized.

Australian astronomers have discovered a planet they think is made of diamond.
And we're stuck on a planet of mud, water, and lava. *sigh*

It could be as large as 5 times as large as the diameter of Earth, and is currently orbiting a dead, spinning star, known as a pulsar, 4000 light-years away.
CSIRO astronomer Michael Keith said the planet was likely to be very hot and glowing white.
"It would probably look very pretty," he said.

It was found by an international team led by Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University in Melbourne, and its density made it likely it comprise mostly of carbon atoms, crushed together in a crystalline structure "very similar to diamond."

The pulsar, and the diamond planet have been designated PSR J1719-1438 - a pretty boring name for a planet made of diamonds.
I think Diamondia sounds good. 

via SMH

Are Nintendo redesigning the 3DS? Already?

Recently, Sony announced they were releasing a redesigned PSP, making it the 5th reiteration of that device.

Nintendo, apparently deciding that they were going to get a head start on the rereleasing biz with their still-new 3DS, are now rumoured to be working on an entirely new 3DS model that "radically tones down" the handhelds 3D.
Despite the fact that you can... completely turn the 3D off on the current model?

According to French website, 01Net,  not only this, but Nintendo are also planning a detachable second analogue stick for the current 3DS that will retail at about $US10.

While this sounds pretty crazy, according to website Eurogamer, 01Net did apparently break both the Wii U and PSVita's specs accurately before they were confirmed, so it may have some truth in it.

Also, today Bloomberg reported that Nintendo is holding a pre-Tokyo Game Show event on September 13. They used the 2005 TGS keynote to unveil the Wii Remote, so there could be a pattern here.

So is this the reason for the 3DSs' recent price cut? Is Nintendo trying to clear out excess old stock to make way for this new device? One thing is for sure, if Nintendo do rerelease the 3DS, there are going to be some seriously annoyed current 3DS owners about. Particularly as Nintendo only released it about 5 months ago.

via 01Net via Eurogamer

This Portal fan-made movie is Awesome.

When you think of a fan-made movie, you think of something done with a home video camera, cheesy lines, and Keanu Reeves-style acting.
But this fan-made Portal movie is none of those. It's awesome.
It was created by Dan Trachtenberg, a filmmaker and video podcast host from Los Angeles, who has also directed a number of ads for companies like Nike, Lexus, and Coca-Cola.

While video game inspired movies are generally something you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy, if they could do something like this - I'd be hyped for a Portal one.

via dantrachtenberg.com, and YouTube.

iPad 3 to Appear in Early 2012?

According to sources of The Wall Street Journal, the next oversized iPhon- I mean, iPad, is set to make an appearance in early 2012.

The next iPad is set to have a 2048 x 1536 high resolution screen - compared with the measly 1024 x 768 in the iPad 2 - and will be packed into a sweet, and damn expensive 9.7 inch slab of smooth brushed metal coolness. Although that said, if you recall, the iPad 2 was rumoured to have a 2048 x 1536 resolution as well, so you may not want to get your hopes up.

Apple has, as usual, declined to comment.

via WSJ

IBM Creates Computer Chip that Mimics the Human Brain - the Origins of Skynet

Because we apparently haven't learnt anything from the numerous movies in which robots learn to think for themselves and take over the world, IBM has created a computer chip that is said to mimic the human brain.

Computers that mimic the human brain's cognition, perception, and action abilities are a lot closer than you think after IBM unveiled the first generation of chips that will power them on Wednesday.

IBM developed the chips with a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the goal of which, according to IBM, is:

"to create a system that not only analyzes complex information from multiple sensory modalities at once but also dynamically rewires itself as it interacts with its environment--all while rivaling the brain's compact size and low-power usage."

While IBM haven't completely crossed over to the dark side and used biological elements in the chips, they do have digital silicon circuits "inspired by neurobiology to make up what is referred to as a 'neurosynaptic core' with integrated memory (replicated synapses), computation (replicated neurons), and communication (replicated axons)."

So far, the company has used the chips to demonstrate basic applications such as pattern recognition, machine vision, classification, navigation, and associative memory.

The chips, and new computers that will follow aren't designed to replace existing computers, but will instead supplement them. In the same way that Tim Tams and Tea go together quite nicely.




via cnet

New Doctor Who Clips! And is Arthur Darvill Coming Back for Season 7...?

I know I'm not the only one hanging out for August the 27th.

In the meantime, here are some clips from the first episode of the second half of season 6 to whet your appetite - or if your appetite is already whetted, possibly drive you insane with the wait.

 

So what's up with that right? Killer robot jellyfish? The Doctor wearing a trench coat like the 10ths? Rory getting one up on Amy in their witty repartee?

And in other news, when asked if Rory will be making an appearance in next years Season 7, he had this to say:

"I will be coming back at some point… There is an involvement in some way."

Which to me, makes it sound like he's not coming back as a regular. And the fangirls wept.

via i09

A New Terry Pratchett Book this October!

I don't know about you guys, but I love Terry Pratchett. He's one of the few readers who actually made me lol. And yes, I said lol, not laugh-out-loud. But it's ok, cause it's the internet. Right? Right?

Anyway, his new book is called Snuff! and is centered around His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Blackboard Monitor, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes. To give him his full title.

The blurb from the book reads:

"According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe, but many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, occasionally snookered and occasionally out of his mind, but not out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all..."

I'm looking forward to this. It'll be published on the 13th of October, and is the 39th Discworld novel.

via Wikipedia, and Terry Pratchett

This Carpet is Tearing Apart the Space-Time Continuum

Carpet is... carpet. It's nothing special, despite recent carpet advertisements in which models apparently wear it instead of clothes. Although I thought it was an actual fashion show, given my pathetic knowledge of fashion. At the end of the ad, I was like, whoa, that was carpet?! I couldn't tell.

My lack of fashion-sense aside, this is not normal carpet. It looks as though someone began to think about dividing by zero when they were making it. Or there are holes in the very fabric of time and space, and someone thought they'd try and hide them by putting a carpet over the top.

This carpet was snapped at a local game store, where the Redditor avoided being sucked into the resultant black hole just long enough to take a photo.
His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Although that's just cause I don't know where he lives. Probably in America somewhere.

via Gizmodo

Amoebas' are the New Zombies - Second US Victim Claimed

So it turns out its not just zombies that eat your brains - amoebas' do too. Except they actually exist.

Christian Strickland, a 9 year-old from Virginia, contracted the infection after visiting a fishing camp. He died of meningitus on August 5. This week, the health department confirmed that the deadly amoeba - "Naegleria fowleri" - was to blame.

"Usually found in warm, stagnant water in freshwater lakes, ponds, and rivers, the parasite "enters the nasal passages ... and migrates to the olfactory nerves, eventually invading the brain," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It almost always causes meningitis. Symptoms include fever, nausea, stiff neck and a frontal headache.

Thirty-two infections of the parasite were reported in the U.S. between 2001 and 2010, CDC spokeswoman Christine Pearson told The Lookout, adding that infections are almost always deadly."

 The only consolation is that there hasn't been any incidents in Australia yet - although, there's enough out here to kill us already, that it'd probably be overkill.

via Yahoo News

Sony Releasing Another PSP

Because Sony evidently thought that 4 different models of PSP wasn't enough, they're releasing yet another model minus wi-fi for 99 Euro.
Named the 'PSP E-1000,' it will only retail in Europe, and doesn't have any wi-fi feature. Games can however be downloaded via pc with Media Go, or bought on the regular UMDs.
From Sony:

Value for money is the goal with this new model that will retail at just €99.99 (RRP), accompanied by an exciting range of PSP Essentials titles that will retail at only €9.99 (RRP) and will include Invizimals: The Lost Tribe, EyePet Adventures, FIFA 12 and many more.
While PSP E-1000 does not include Wi-Fi, it will still provides access to the full catalogue of PSP games either on UMD or from PlayStation Store via Media Go. The design is also slightly different, with a Charcoal Black finish – the same as on the slimmer PS3 model – to give more of a matte feel.

 No word yet on a release date, or whether releasing a new PSP model is a good idea with the official successor - the PS Vita - being released at the end of this year. But hey. Maybe they just wanted to beat Nintendo in the 'most-reiterations-of-the-same-console' competition.

via kotaku

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword gets Release Date

Nintendo's latest Legend of Zelda title for the Wii finally gets a release date: November 20 in North America, and November 18 in Europe.

No word on Australia specifically, but its pretty safe to assume it'll be between those two.

Nintendo have described Skyward Sword as "a massive, multilayered world that takes players from dark dungeons to a diverse overworld to cloud cities in the sky, requiring a combination of puzzle-solving and swordplay to unlock all of its secrets. Link soars through the air on the wings of a majestic bird while exploring the game's sky area, providing players with unprecedented freedom of movement as they progress on their adventure. The quest lays the foundation for the events in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time."

It's pretty appropriate that it comes out this year, the 25th anniversary of the very first Legend of Zelda game, and it'll be the first LoZ that was designed purposely for the Wii - Twilight Princess having originally been developed for the Gamecube.

I don't own a Wii - but this is pretty much the only game that reeeally makes me wish I did.

via ign.com

If Blade Runner was set in Paris - Seriously Sweet Concept Art

Blade Runner is an awesome movie. So is The Matrix. In fact, lets just say all sci-fi movies are cool.
In that case, then this sci-fying of Paris is also pretty damn cool.
The art comes from a new French PS3/Xbox game called Adrift, from the French studio Dontnod. There's not much word on the game so far, but if a picture says a thousand words - well, then there are a lot of words on the game so far.

The synopsis, taken from Dotnod's website, seems pretty reminiscent of soon-to-be-released game Deus Ex: Human Revolution:

Neo-Paris 2084,
Augmented reality and memory manipulation have taken control of peoples' lives.
You can now digitize, buy, sell or trade your own personal memories. The last remainders of intimacy have been swept away, in what appears to be a simple extension of the development of social networks and geolocation at the beginning of the 21st century.
The "surveillance society" has been accepted by the citizens themselves, in exchange for a few technological benefits. It is a reality that no one even thinks of challenging anymore.
This memory-based economy gives an immense yet uncontrollable power to a handful of people…

 That said, it sounds pretty awesome. I'll sure be keeping an eye out for it.

via i09

20% of all Video Games at JB Hifi!

JB Hi Fi have just started a massive video game sale that will last to Sunday, taking 20% off every game in the whole store.

The sale does, unfortunately, exclude bundles and accessories, but that shouldn't stop you! Get in there!

Me? Oh, I'll be outside the front door looking mournfully at my depressingly light wallet. *sob*

But seriously. This looks awesome.

via JB Hi Fi

A Blog.

Oh good. A new blog. Another page on which someone pretends others care about their feelings, and mope about.
But no! Not this blog! There will be no feelings or moping here!
This will be a blog that will feature all the interesting/awesome/geeky curiosities and information I can scrounge from the interwebs! It will be updated on an infrequent basis, but let us assume that it will be updated at least once a week! More likely, daily.
Onwards!