Best of the Web.

I usually am not into compilation video's of sports and the like but this is great. It has everything from Sports, dance, science and cool stuff. Plus it is sequenced to a great piece of music. Best watched in HD, enjoy.

Photoshop Your Way to Happiness, Kind Of.

Check out the following video for a new web photo compilation application which is said to take sketches and create composite images of your liking.
I have to say that this looks pretty funky, maybe even fun. Can I be bothered trying it out, I dunno, have a look anyway and see.

Terminator Meltdown Update

It seems Christian Bales' outburst has created a lot of controversy and noise prompting many commentators on the web to express their points of view. As per norm most are BS but some do make pretty interesting reading.

Christian Bale, star of The Dark Knight and upcoming Terminator Salvation flicks was recorded losing his toys, lollies, lunch and his mind on set of TS at some poor unfortunate, in the wrong place at the right time DP named Shane Hurlbut.

Some fat guy at aintitcool.com reckons Bale may have been somewhat justified in verbally flaming the dude - read here

Tainted rock the Maiden

So my cousin Cambell is lead singer in the Christchurch Metal band Tainted.
A few weeks ago they were nominated for a comp that The Rock.fm were running to open for Iron Maiden's gig in Chch. Naturaly they won and will be on stage before Iron Maiden at the Westpac Arena Sun 22nd Feb 09.
So If you are a metal fan get down there to support them, tickets seem resonably cheap and the Maiden always rock the house.

Outstanding effort Kuz, Go hard.

therock.net.nz

myspace.com/taintednz

Terminator Meltdown

This is absolute gold!

Christian Bale, star of The Dark Knight and upcoming Terminator Salvation flicks is recorded loosing his toys, lollies, lunch and his mind on set of TS at some poor unfortunate, in the wrong place at the right time DP (whatever that is). Bale's onslaught is absolutely priceless!

!WARNING! wear headphones if at work or your mum is near by.
Click here to listen

James Cameron talks Avatar - and other stuff.

James Cameron recently did an interview and discussed his newest film AVATAR and some of the groundbreaking new techniques used to get the film made. He also discussed some of his earlier films and the impact that they have had on the movie industry and popular culture. It is a somewhat laid back interview and Cameron appears relaxed and eager to talk. A nice chat, not setup like the Arnie one he did to promote T2. Check it out after the jump.

Saturn V as you have nver seen before

This is a video that surfaced of the huge Saturn V Apollo rocket in super slo-motion. It is truly amazing. And having just watched the latest Discovery Channel doco called "When we Left Earth" about the NASA missions I have a new respect for the people that made this possible. They were thinking many years ahead of their time.

Top Gear is back - Soon

Officially confirmed to be back on the 2nd November this year. That is great news. JC, Fridge Magnet and Captain Slow will grace our screens for 8 episodes which is 2 more than last season. So get you torrents ready and have fun.

In addition to this bit of news; the Top Gear website has had a major overhaul and now feature more video and a small selection of games. One of which is based on the Robin Reliant Rocket Launch. Go have a look and a play. Wicked.

Thanks to Final Gear.

Picture of the Day -

This picture is quite amazing, and it is probably the last time that you may see this. Both Space Shuttle Atlantis and Space Shuttle Endeavour are out on launch pads together ready for an upcoming mission. Atlantis is the nearer of the two and is being prepped for the last mission to the Hubble telescope to do repairs and add additional hardware. This being the case if something is to go wrong with the spacecraft and it cannot return to Earth, Endeavour will be launched as a rescue vehicle.

Because the Hubble telescope is in a very different orbit to the International Space Station Atlantis would not be able to dock there is there was a problem with the orbiter. If any reason crops up Endeavour will be launched and the crew will transfer to the rescue ship and the damaged Shuttle will be destroyed on re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. NASA have said that this is just a contingency plan and that they do not expect to have to have two shuttles in space at the same time. What it does do is give us ordinary folk a great new wallpaper for our desktop and also the last chance to see two Space Shuttles on the launch pad at the same time, for the last time (probably).

Bigger versions are available here.

Thanks to Tom's Astronomy Blog for this.

LHC will not Destroy the World... But,

If it does it will look like this.


Here is some information about the work that the good folk at CERN will be doing with the LHC.

The World is Doomed.

Phil Plait the Bad Astronomer has frequently talked about the possibility of a major impact by an asteroid and now has a new book called 'Death From the Skies' which he goes into various scenarios that could cause the end of the World. I bet nothing he can describe looks as cool as the video that I found on Geekologie of a space station, sorry, small moon smashing into Earth. It is wickedly cool and destructive looking. Check out the video after the jump.

Hercules - gone burger.

What do you do when you are stuck in Iraq with a broken Herky bird and a shitload of explosives? Blow that shit up of course. Heres the official explanation :

The aircraft, which was carrying six crew and 58 passengers, veered off the runway after being hit by two improvised explosive devices, catching fire on its badly damaged port wing. Three people suffered minor injuries on evacuating the stricken transport, which was subsequently "deemed unrecoverable due to operational constraints", according to a Board of Inquiry investigation into the mishap.

Whatever - its probably more along the lines of "Im bored - lets blow that up."

Batman kicks ass, and so does his car.

If you are a "graphic novel" fan like myself, you probably viewed the Batman Begins movie with trepidation. The last ones, circa early 1990's, all blew goats and they were made by some weirdo who likes Johnny Depp far more than is allowed by Utah law. You probably wondered to yourself whether or not this current crop would pass muster. And then after viewing Christian Bale's performance as the psychologically maladjusted Bruce Wayne and his penchant for flying rodents you probably felt that justice had been done. But what about yet another bat-movie? They can't help themselves at the studios - "if it makes money" the studio exec law goes, " so it must have a sequel". And so Dark Knight was born.

I'm sure you've probably heard somewhere that The Dark Knight is a good movie. Hell, the freaking Martian rovers have probably heard it. And I concur - it was a marvellous movie with lots of cool shit, explosions, fights, yadda yadda yadda. I'm not going to do a review as there are probably already a gazillion others, and theres many people out there who have a better idea of the background\plot\cast\number of buttons on that chicks dress than I do. I will just say that I love what they've done with the franchise and Heath Ledgers performance was fantastic. He brought a level of insanity to the character we've not seen before, and since his untimely passing, we may never see again.

But enough of that - what about the car! Some people dislike the Rumbler, but since I think its a nice piece of kit, they can go to hell. It looks like the bastard child of an F119 stealth fighter, an Orange County chopper and a cockroach. Brilliant! But how the hell did it come about? Well wonder no more bat-fans - the lovely people over at HowStuffWorks have a 9 page article on where it came from and how it hangs together. Check it out!

Super Slo-mo Lightning

Here is a video of lightning in super slow motion. It is pretty amazing. I don't have any details about where this is or who took it but it looks great.
It will no doubt turn out to be computer generated and we will all look like the fools we are. Anyway, enjoy it while we still think its real. Do the Jump.

This is your brain. This is your brain on a computer.

Wondering what someone's brain would look like if you could view thoughts through a kaleidoscope? Well wonder no more - here are some awesome images from a new piece of software developed by neuroscientists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. It takes MRI scan data and renders it in full-colour 3D, with each visible strand representing several tens of thousands of the too-small-to-image neural pathways. It called diffusion spectrum imaging - it takes current data from MRI scans and analyses it for the passage of water molecules along the individual neuron connections in the brain. It then processes it to spit out the 3D maps. See after the jump for more pici's.

Britain from Above

We all know what the countries of the World look like from space. Italy is a boot, America has a pan handle and Australia is a big smudge. Ever wondered what a countries infrastructure would look like from space? No, well I’m sure some people have. The BBC have a new documentary called ‘Britain from Above’ which uses state of the art computer graphics combined with GPS information from Taxis, planes, ferries and other vehicles to show how the country functions. After the cut you will find some facts and a link to the video on the BBC website.

Hosted by Andrew Marr the show will present imagery of Britain and the daily heartbeat that is the countries commute and communications network. Also included in this series is a look at how the cities have changed and how technologies keep us moving.

Video link

Facts from the show.

• The English Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world: on a typical day 400 plus vessels travel through the Dover Straits, the biggest of which weigh up to 150,000 tonnes and take 3.5 miles to come to a stop.
• East London's Beckton Sewage Plant - all 280 football pitches worth of tanks, troughs and waterways - is one of the largest in Europe.
• On an average day, Britain's water pipes carry 16 billion litres of water - enough to fill 18 million bathtubs.
• In less than a week the waste sent to sewage plants is clean enough to be able to be pumped back into our taps.
• At the peak of the working day Britons send more than 5,000 text messages per second.
• 109 square miles of British countryside is just used for landfill.
• Between 7 and 10am, 36 million Britons are on the move commuting to the office or school.
• The average road user will spend more than 6 months of their life stuck in traffic jams.
• Every day more than 7,500 civilian aircraft crowd Britain's airspace, carrying more that half a million passengers.
• Over three quarters of a billion pounds in hard cash is transported around the roads of Britain every day. Driving one of the secured vans is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country with sometimes 15 attacks a week.
• Every day the nation's rubbish trucks collect more than 82,000 tonnes of refuse.

Solar Eclipse from 27000 feet.

One of the items on my list of things to do before I die is to see a full solar eclipse. We dont get many down here in NZ, in fact someone recently mentioned that we will get one in about 30 years or so, so that means I will have a bit of a wait. Anyway here is some footage of the latest solar eclipse as seen from an aircraft flying at 27,000 feet over the Canadian Arctic. It is pretty cool footage as you can actually see the shadow moving over the position of the plane. The people on board are obviously quite happy about what they have just witnessed. Have a look after the cut.

Mythbusters Moon Hoax Special

Here at RD we are firm believers in the fact that NASA and the US government successfully landed men on the Moon. There is no hoax, there is nothing fishy going on and there is an answer to every single so called 'fact' that the hoaxers come up with. Go to BadAstronomy.com to read more info about the Moon hoax.
Well it looks like our favourite buster of myths, The Mythbusters are doing a Moon Hoax special. Yay, I am supremely confident that every test, experiment they do will add weight to the truth, that we as a species landed on the Moon. I am not going to debunk the the Moon hoax stuff here as there are plenty of reality based sites out there with that info.
Check out the trailer after the jump for the Mythbusters Moon Hoax special.

Do we turn left or right after the complete and utter darkness?

Ever wondered what its like to drive into a dust storm in the outback in Australia? Well wonder no more - check the video after the jump for a lovely ride with techno accompaniment into the heart of darkness. Coooool.













Via Gizmodo

Amazing Volcano Images

The guys over at Boston dot com have done it again with their new set of high res pictures. They have compiled a selection of images of volcanoes that have erupted or are currently erupting around the world. Several of these are pictures from the international space station and orbiting shuttles. The space images really help with the scale of some of these events, it is truely difficult to know how big they are until seen from high altitude. Great stuff. Check out the samples after the jab.

Go here for the full set.