The solar eclipse that took place on Friday, best visible from the Maldives, lasted 11 minutes and eight seconds, making it the longest solar eclipse that will occur for one thousand years.
The U.S. space agency NASA created a special Web site dedicated to the annular solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon passes in front of the son but doesn’t completely block it, creating a ring of sunlight surrounding the moon. The next eclipse that will exceed it in duration will take place on December 23, 3043.
Friday’s eclipse was visible on a 185-mile stretch beginning in Africa, where the shadow’s path moved east from Chad and travel across the Indian Ocean to Bangladesh, India, China, and Myanmar, according to NASA.
And the New York Times’ Tierney Lab is featuring updates from astronomers who have journeyed to Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India, and are chronicling their observations of the solar eclipse.
As NBC and Conan O'Brien are finally reaching an agreement, fans of the late night host are planning protests.
A settlement that would let former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno reclaim the job from O'Brien, and allow O'Brien to leave the network, could come as early as today, ABCNews.com reports.
NBC will reportedly pay the ousted host between $30 and $40 million, a source close to contract negotiations told ABC.
Other "Tonight Show" staffers - many who followed O'Brien from New York to Los Angeles when he left "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" to take over the "Tonight Show" from Leno – will reportedly receive severance and buy-out packages.
Negotiations began last Wednesday, a day after O'Brien announced his refusal to go along with NBC's proposal to move his "Tonight Show" later, so that "The Jay Leno Show" could occupy the 11:35 p.m. time slot.
The staff severance packages are an apparent sticking point in contract negotiations, says ABC, since O'Brien's team wants "to make sure everyone's treated really well," says their source.
O'Brien isn't the only one offended by NBC's move. Fans in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle were planning to hold rallies to "show love" for O'Brien, whom they call "CoCo."
"I don't think we're going to change NBC's stance on what they want to do with late night – I think that's already been inked," rally organizer Mike Mitchell told ABC. "I think hopefully we're going to show Conan's got a huge following and we're behind him no matter where he ends up."
Mitchell also runs the Facebook group, "I'm With COCO," which grew from 200 to more than 315,000 members in days.
"Now is just a good time to support him because he's kind of been put in a tough spot and people can relate to his situation," the 27-year-old freelance illustrator says. "Everybody's had a bad boss that has maybe put them in a position that they didn't want to be in."
Even O'Brien's crew members are part of the movement.
"Everybody on the show has 'I'm With Coco' avatars on Facebook," Mitchell says. "I know personally they want to follow Conan wherever he goes. . . They love him and they respect him."
Meanwhile, the last "Tonight Show" featuring O'Brien as host is set to air this Friday.
See how the technology had a profound influence on music production in relation to radio and more avantgarde techniques in this documentary. “The Alchemists of Sounds” revolving around the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a studio and sound effects units within the BBC which had over quite some time a great deal of artistic freedom to explore the boundaries of sound production. A lot of technological progress that later played a role in popular electronic music was pioneered in studios such as the Radiophonic Workshop or others like WDR’s Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne and Pierre Schaeffer’s experiments at RDF in Paris.
Check it out, for anyone interested in the history of sound design, this is a real treat. Via Silent Listening
With Pendleton Ward's animated series is quickly approaching its premiere... I have to mention the awesome blog they've been updating regularly for months now. Click the pic to see hundreds of production art samples, I can't wait for this show.
Usually television really shouldn't try and tackle superheroes. Here's proof why - as well as some rare examples of when it does work.
Shazam! (1974)
Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl (1976)
The Amazing Spider-Man (1977)
Legends Of The Superheroes (1978)
Those Terrible Captain America TV Movies (1979)
The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)
WHen I was a kid, I was insanely excited about this TV special, but even then it was hard to deny how out-of-place the story/characters were. (The Daredevil appearance in the next special, Trial of The Incredible Hulk, was by far the worst; especially because they seem to have gotten the character mixed up with a generic ninja who happened to be blind.)
Superboy (1988)
The Flash (1990)
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993)
Generation X (1996)
Justice League of America (1997) Possibly the ultimate proof that TV and superheroes don't mix, this is another unsuccessful pilot that aired nonetheless, and features bad writing, bad acting, bad special effects, and some of the most literal - and most embarrassing - superhero costumes ever seen on screen. It's like a landmark of fail.
Mutant X (2001)
Birds of Prey (2002) It had so much potential - Batman and Catwoman's daughter teaming up with the former Batgirl to fight crime? Hello, high concept - but the execution let it down badly with shoddy writing, lack of direction and the mistaken idea that camp was better than character development. When something makes Smallville look subtle and nuanced, you know you're in trouble.
However these ones ROCKED...
Batman (1966) Almost everything about it is wrong, and yet it worked so well - The cheap jokes! The ill-fitting costumes! Replacing Julie Newmar with Eartha Kitt! - but it was all fabulous nonetheless; Batman's 1960s incarnation may not be the best translation from page to screen, but as a weird totem of the era, it remains a classic. And the movie was one of the funniest movies ever made in the history of the universe.
Wonder Woman (1975) We love Wonder Woman as a character, and this show may be a lot to do with that. While the comic version was having identity issues at the time this series was being made, the TV show took her back to her heyday, added the "let me twirl into my costume" and fittingly made Lynda Carter the star she should've been all along.
The Incredible Hulk (1978) The Hulk show worked despite its sometimes slow pacing and dreadfully low budgets - It was like 'The Fugitive' with an occasional need for a giant silent strongman, the show offered a different take on the character from the comics.
The solar eclipse that took place on Friday, best visible from the Maldives, lasted 11 minutes and eight seconds, making it the longest solar eclipse that will occur for one thousand years.
