Space Bread by NASA?

From Dvice blog I read about the linchpin of civilization BREAD, that has fed civilized man for thousands of years with little change in ingredients, flour water sugars some binding fats and the living ingredient yeast. Anyone with strong arms and patience could at least feed themselves within reason. Now NASA has put the patience portion of the formula up for grabs - as part of NASA'sSpace Apps Challenges/BakerFaire: how to make bread in space. In just three hours, comes a 16 year old. Sam Wilkinson has managed to come up with a way to make bread rise instantly in microgravity without using yeast. By using CO2 Wilkinson can get his space bread to rise in 5 seconds flat! Check out the proof of concept video below.

Psychotronic Childhood - Learning from B-movies, by Colson Whitehead

reader/listener Nelson sends in a nostalgic look at formative B movies called A Psychotronic Childhood - Learning from B-movies, by Colson Whitehead, from the pages of the NewYorker. Mr. Whitehead's musings are evocative and funny, for I hazard that we have all been exactly in his situation. For me of course it was rushing home from high school to quickly slather on bread some mayo and salami, then to sequester myself for the balance of the afternoon to watch whatever fare being offered up. Mostly at that time it was Dark Shadows, but PBS wonder of wonders would often have Dr.Who or something in that ilk...one never quite knew which. Check the NewYorker story here.

Why 60

Now here is a short cut that will explain why in a base 10 system our time is base 60.  Haven't you ever wondered that?  I started noticing things like this when I was first studying digital logic and binary which, obviously, is base 2 or base 1 if you use 0 to start.  In binary 1 is one 2 is 10 and 3 is 11   see?  Am I weird or does that just give you goose bumps?  Now I am not going to ruin the short other than to say it quite obviously is still in use and it was like a light going on...  a Sextant! and if you want to explore THAT though a bit further go here

Review: HOP

Staring 

James Marsden, Russell Brand, Kaley Cuoco, Hank Azaria, Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins, Hugh Laurie

Director

Tim Hill

HOP is an Easter-themed live-action and animated comedy film from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment.

Here is what the Wiki says about HOP and to start of civil, lets go with that.

• Hop stars the voice of Russell Brand as E.B., a rabbit who does not want to succeed his father, Mr. Bunny (Hugh Laurie), in the role of the Easter Bunny; James Marsden as Fred O'Hare, a human who is out of work and wishes to become the next Easter Bunny himself; and the voice of Hank Azaria as Carlos and Phil, two chicks who plot to take over the Easter organization.

 That's nice. If I had started out, it certainly would not be so civil. First off yes, I know it meant for a younger audience, but I am sorry, that doesn't excuse them from making even a marginally watchable movie. But no, this movie is a flip off for anyone over the age of 10. I honestly have never seen so many actors blatantly go out just for the paycheck! But I have to be honest, 30 minutes was all I could take of this travesty. 

One of the first things I like to do is check the extras in case there is a different cut or options. Again, there seemed to be but it would seem that Universal has jumped on the "lets make renters second class customers" wagon by turning off all the extra features and even worse letting you know they are doing it because you are renting! So you can see the mind set I was in when I started the movie proper. I love animation...mixed media is ok in its place. But after a half hour of wooden dialog and garish CGI sets, I was pushing the stop button out the back of the remote. 

There really isn't much good to say. If you are an animation fan, run as fast as you can away from this disk, if you are a collector, well unless you have toddlers still in diapers, don't waste the shelf space. 

The movie itself is an unwatchable morass of cliches and one dimentional characters. Here it is in a nutshell - I don't want to be the Easterbunny! But you HAVE to be the Easter bunny! I don't want to work in a no where job. You don't want to be the easter bunny? I can be the easter bunny! I just don't understand my son! I love what I am doing now! I love you son even if I don't understand you. cut fade and scene. shudder..... 

I don't give out negative number ratings, because that is a bit nonsensical however this is damn close....maybe a 3 denoting the fact that they could light and shoot the movie even if calling it a movie is a stretch.  Put the DVD back in the rack and step back, now turn and run as quickly as you can away from the movie.

Creepy Shoulder Robot Wants to be Your Friend?

I found this creepy article while looking through the Komando blog which tells us about this group of Japanese researchers from Yamagata University who are developing a robot to keep you company....sort of. The "robot" consists of a wearable miniature humanoid in a controlling framework that sits on your shoulder. Creepy enough, but creepier still it can be remotely operated by your friends from anywhere, you know, like one of them good angel/devil bad angel/devil scenarios.....ick! Oh and I can just see the problems....I have five other brothers who would just LOVE to take control of this thing while I was trying to have a conversation or some sort....I know, because it is the same thing I would do....I know ASL see.... the possibilities are endless.... Nope, not going to give em the chance.....