January 23, 2010
January 22, 2010
Crescent Neptune and Triton
Gliding silently through the outer Solar System, the Voyager 2 spacecraft camera captured Neptune and Triton together in crescent phase in 1989. The above picture of the gas giant planet and its cloudy moon was taken from behind just after closest approach. It could not have been taken from Earth because Neptune never shows a crescent phase to sunward Earth. The unusual vantage point also robs Neptune of its familiar blue hue, as sunlight seen from here is scattered forward, and so is reddened like the setting Sun. Neptune is smaller but more massive than Uranus, has several dark rings, and emits more light than it receives from the Sun.
Cassini Flyby Shows Enceladus Venting
What's happening on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus? Enormous ice jets are erupting. Giant plumes of ice have been photographed in dramatic fashion by the robotic Cassini spacecraft during this past weekend's flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Pictured above, numerous plumes are seen rising from long tiger-stripe canyons across Enceladus' craggy surface. Several ice jets are even visible in the shadowed region of crescent Enceladus as they reach high enough to scatter sunlight. Other plumes, near the top of the above image, appear visible just over the moon's sunlit edge. That Enceladus vents fountains of ice was first discovered on Cassini images in 2005, and has been under close study ever since. Continued study of the ice plumes may yield further clues as to whether underground oceans, candidates for containing life, exist on this distant ice world.
January 21, 2010
Conan!
It was a wild Tonight Show Wednesday, as Conan O’Brien, just hours from signing his walking papers to leave NBC, continued to rail against the network in his monologue (“Over the past week, ratings for the Tonight Show are up by 50 percent. When NBC executives heard this they told me, ‘See, you really don’t fit in around here’”), and welcomed Adam Sandler, Joel McHale, Ed Helms and the Masturbating Bear.
Watching the Masturbating Bear, who’d been absent from the air for 6 months and 29 days, pleasure himself on The Tonight Show was, arguably, the greatest eff you yet, so we’ll start there. After the jump, watch Sandler — who was a guest during O’Brien’s first week on Late Night 17 years ago — serenade Conan in an attempt to make him cry, then reveal what NBC actually stands for (the “C” is bleeped, but you can read his lips). Then enjoy clips of Helms performing a ditty he wrote for Conan and not to remind Oscar voters that his song from The Hangover is eligible, McHale suggesting Conan become cohost of The Soup, and Conan making NBC pay for a $1.5 million comedy bit featuring “the most expensive car in the world dressed up as a mouse.” (Correction: Conan seemed to enjoy that eff you even more.)
“Somethin’ that’s been bother me, and I think botherin’ all of America is we haven’t seen you cry yet,” Sandler says. “I’m nervous about the shooting rampage if you don’t.” Cue the music. Sandler also explains that the manager he had when he and Chris Farley got fired from Saturday Night Live told him NBC stood for “Nothing But C—s”. “Are you allowed to air that, Conan?” Sandler asks. “Can we air that? What are they gonna do to me?” Conan answers.
What better way to explain the ongoing late night television conflict than with a Chinese computer animation that looks like it was made for a malpractice attorney commercial in 1998? Clearly there is no better way. So enjoy this two-minute short starring CGI Jay Leno, CGI Ogre Conan O'Brien, CGI NBC President Jeff Zucker, CGI Jimmy Kimmel, and CGI Dr. Drew/Bespectacled Bill Clinton (Letterman). It actually lays out the situation pretty logically until the point where everyone turns into superhero parodies and starts killing each other with lens flares.
I always get mixed up with the terms: is this dramatic irony or just hypocrisy? Either way, it's perfect.
Most Fictional Crimes Can Be Solved with Enough Enhancement
I've made fun of CSI for this crap for years now, finally, someone put a lot of them together! Looking at raw images is for jerks. You gotta enhance that shit.
The Duplicator Series
Presenting the latest work from Meindbender Animation Studio for Cartoon Network;
The Duplicator Series. Animated in Maya, rendered with Maxwell Renderer using HDR's Rendernet.
(www.rendernet.se)
Credits vary from film to film, but over-all we have:
Olov Burman - Director, Animation
Michael Bengtsson - Lighting, Rendering
Calle Halldin - Animation, Rigging
Marcus Ottosson - Animation, Modeling
Tony Österlund - Rigging
Ola Larsson - Props
Rickard Germundsson - Intern
Music and Sound Design by Robert Lundgren (www.analogdigitalunion.com)
We hope you like them as much as we enjoyed making them!
Production Studio: www.meindbender.com
The Duplicators
Evolution
Audition
It´s Magic
Push The Button
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Download List: (Mpeg2 Right Click and Save Target as)
The Duplicators
Evolution
Audition
It´s Magic
Push The Button
The (Not so) Super Lives of Superheroes
Super Not So Super (which also has little comics made about each character)
via Albotas
This is a little gallery of superheroes in not-so-super situations brought to us by Super Not So Super. For example, this is Batman reading the foreclosure notice on his mansion/batcave. Also, his costume looks like shit. You know, I was so inspired by these superheroes doing ordinary-folk things that I decided to post a picture of myself picking up after my dog. You know, so you could see I'm just a regular guy like you. Unfortunately, neither the butler nor the maid could figure out which setting on the camera to use to best capture my BURNING LASER VISION. But don't worry, next time I'll get the gimp to do it.
January 20, 2010
Google Street View: No -- NO -- HE CAN'T BE!!!
Ah, the U.S. capital: where even a mustard sweater and your pants around your ankles about to shit on the sidewalk doesn't warrant a second look by anybody but a pervert in a green hat.
Google Street View Captures Public Defecation on H Street [dcist]
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