“Avatar” concept art perks up scifi geekmeter

First, it’s James Cameron’s return to scifi. Next, it’s being filmed specifically for 3D. Then, Cameron hopes to revolutionize human motion capture.

Now, some concept art has been revealed that really has me geeking out (film comes out in Dec 2009)…

/Film: “…Here, in the first image you see the full design of a Powersuit. It was just a couple of days back that we saw a partial photograph of a practical suit built for the film. Looking at the full representation here will give you a better sense of its scale.

It seems this particular piece of concept art was well preserved in
the final build. Also note the crashed vehicle in the background. From
what familiarity I have with the film (from talking to folk, stalking
Marketsaw as they stalk Cameron and reading the scriptment and notes)
I’d guess that this burning craft is a Samson, a light and fast transit
ship with only light armament.

The second image is all new stuff. I think its probably best that you take a look at it before I discuss any of the details.

This one appears to show action from a set piece rather near the end
of proceedings. Fleeing in the foreground is another one of the
futuristic flying machines (most likely the Dragon Gunship, I think)
and behind it is one of the native beasts of Pandora. This one, I
think, is a Bansheeray.

There great amount of Pandoran flora and fauna was dreamt up by
Cameron to create a very complex alien ecosystem and I think he’s
planning to leave it in the background, behind the drama and
characterisation. Thankfully, it shouldn’t all be so alien that we
won’t be able to understand it – and indeed, the human characters who
come to this strange world seem to mostly comprehend the otherness of
what they find by referring to it in familiar, Earthly terms.”

The Jewish Origin of the Vulcan Salute

Neatorama:

“Here’s
a trivia for all you Trekkers to talk about during the previews of the
new Star Trek movie. Did you know that the Vulcan salute – you know,
the “live long and prosper” hand signal invented by Leonard Nimoy:

Nimoy felt that there should be some kind of
distinctive greeting among Vulcans, analogous to a handshake or a bow.
Alan Dean Foster’s novelization, based on an early script, has Spock
kneeling before the Vulcan matriarch, T’Pau, who places her hands on
his shoulders, like royalty dubbing a knight. But Nimoy didn’t care for
this. Previous episodes had already established that Vulcans are touch
telepaths. Therefore, a touch on the shoulders would be an invasion of
privacy. Instead, Nimoy drew upon his own Jewish background to suggest
the now-familiar salute. Back in the 1960s, hippies who watched “Amok
Time” thought the salute was a variation of the two-fingered peace
sign. But we Jews knew better. The Vulcan salute came not from protest
marches, but from the pulpit of Nimoy’s childhood synagogue.

The Vulcan greeting is based upon a blessing gesture used by the
kohanim (koe-hah-NEEM) during the worship service. The kohanim are the
genealogical descendants of the Jewish priests who served in the
Jerusalem Temple. Modern Jews no longer have priests leading services
as in ancient times, nor do we have animal sacrifices anymore. (Yes,
people really do ask about that!) The sacrificial system ended with the
destruction of the Temple by the Romans in the year 70. C.E. However, a
remnant of the Temple service lives on in the “kohane blessing” ritual
(duchenen in Yiddish) that is performed on certain holy days.”

Link – via grow-a-brain

Did Crazy Cavemen Make Those Cave Drawings?

Neatorama:

Photos: otisarchives2 (left), modcult (right)

“Are cave paintings signs of intelligence of ancient cave dwellers or are they just scribbles of crazy cavemen?

Take a look at the two photos above. The one to the left is a painting made by a patient at St. Elizabeth’s hospital. The patient had a case of dementia praecox (eventually classified as schizophrenia) and used a pin or fingernail to scratch paint from the wall, creating pictures symbolizing past events in the patient’s life and represent a mild state of mental regression.

Jeb of Modcult made this intriguing observation:

You know, everyone assumes cave paintings were made for some sort of vaunted religious or technical purpose, but maybe in olden times they just sent their crazy people into a cave. I mean, that’s basically what we do now.”

Link – via Cliff Pickover’s Reality Carnival

Amazing Folded Paper Art by Simon Schubert

This boggles the mind….

Neatorama:

“We’ve featured a lot of cool and neat stuff on Neatorama, but I dare say this is really hard to beat. Behold, the embossed drawings of Simon Schubert: Link – via Paper Forest”

Artist, iPhone unite to literally finger paint New Yorker’s June cover

DVICE:

“When
you think of what you can do on the iPhone, painting an iconic scene
from scratch probably isn’t up there. Yet that’s exactly what Jorge
Colombo did with his iPhone for the June cover of the The New Yorker magazine, while standing outside of Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in New York City’s Times Square.

Colombo used the Brushes application, which is a cheap $4.99 app. He
said painting on the iPhone pleased him not only because it gave him a
kind of anonymity while he worked, but he also made the piece with “a
set of tools that anybody can have easily in their pocket.”

Click on through for a video of Colombo’s “Finger Painting” in
action. If you’ve ever seen videos of concept artists rolling out a speed painting, it looks a lot like that. The end result is something that’s very fluid and brushy, even though it was done on a computer.”

If the Zune HD isn’t a portable Xbox I will slap Robbie Bach in the teeth

Boing Boing Gadgets:

“Microsoft hasn’t put the Zune out to pasture yet, announcing yesterday the upcoming availability of what is known, for the moment, as the “Zune HD“. As far as portable media players go, it’s a contender: a bright OLED screen, HD video output to larger screens, and most importantly, a multitouch interface with a version of the Internet Explorer web browser that can handle Flash.

The company will also be moving the Zune video library service to Xbox, finally wedding the two services that are already under the same corporate banner.

I suspect that also means the Zune HD will be Microsoft’s foray into mobile gaming, first with casual 2D games from the likes of PopCap and other vendors that already provide downloadable games through the Xbox, as well as original titles designed to work specifically on the mobile device.

It would make sense, at least. Ever since Microsoft first dipped its toe into the gaming waters, many have wondered when the company would also try its hand at portable gaming. While idle speculation (including my own) isn’t worth the phosphors it’s written on, seeing the two biggest home entertainment brands that Microsoft owns (besides what it is arguably its biggest entertainment brand, Windows) being knit together certainly allows for the possibility. And it would be so dumb for Microsoft to let another market slip through its fingers.

Even without a do-all device like a Zune Phone to go up against the iPhone platform, the Zune HD could be a useful adjunct to those already heavily plugged into the Xbox. While I would prefer to see the full force of Microsoft’s hardware and software development unified behind a single mobile platform, the millions of Xbox gamers provide Microsoft with at least a few million potential customers—a rare few who have had a generally positive experience with a Microsoft platform.”

⌦ Would Microsoft make a handheld gaming system without a phone?

Transforminators

This. is. hilarious. Easily worth 2 watches for the visual gaffes….

Rockstar Announces GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony

1UP:

“Liberty City is about to get a little more fabulous — Rockstar Games has announced The Ballad of Gay Tony, the second episode for Grand Theft Auto 4.

“Liberty City is the most vibrant game world we’ve created yet. The episodic structure has allowed us to interweave stories, gameplay and atmosphere in a whole new way,” said Rockstar founder Sam Houser.

“The team at Rockstar North have yet again surpassed themselves, and made something that is both epic and very innovative. This episode’s focus on high-end night life contrasts with the biker gangs portrayed in The Lost and Damned, whilst giving us a lot of new gameplay possibilities.”

Modern Warfare 2 trailer

Wow, looks like the Call of Duty team has done it again…

The End of the World Begins: Cyberdyne Develops Robotic Suit

/Film:

“Did you know that Cyberdyne is a real robotics company? Have they
developed a robotic suit that will likely evolve into self-aware
robots, Judgment Day and the end of the world as we know it?

Cyberdyne, which takes its name from the fictional company responsible for creating the supercomputer Skynet within the Terminator
films, is developing a Hybrid Assistive Limb (or HAL… get it?). The
suit is s a cyborg-type robot that can expand and improve physical
capability. It was designed to help paralyzed people walk again and
participate in daily activities.

According to Cyberdyne’s website,
the suit works by detecting very weak biosignals on the surface of the
skin, after nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles via
motoneuron.

“HAL catches these signals through a
sensor attached on the skin of the wearer. Based on the signals
obtained, the power unit is controlled to move the joint unitedly with
the wearer’s muscle movement, enabling to support the wearer’s daily
activities. This is what we call a ‘voluntary control system’ that
provides movement interpreting the wearer’s intention from the
biosignals in advance of the actual movement. Not only a ‘voluntary
control system’ “HAL” has, but also a ‘robotic autonomous control
system’ that provides human-like movement based on a robotic system
which integrally work together with the ‘autonomous control system’.
“HAL” is the world’s first cyborg-type robot controlled by this unique
Hybrid System.”

The future begins…”