Assignment: Twitter to White House

Please don't saddle our kids and grandkids with TRILLIONS

of dollars of debt that moves us closer to a socialist model.

Retro Picture Quiz of the Week

Can you name the movie from which this behind-the scenes photo was taken? Click on photo for larger image.

Hint: Domino

Web comics, Motion comics

Folks-

There was some interest expressed in posting links to some of the sites mentioned in my motion comics presentation. Here they are:

www.nishere.com — This is the Marvel/Stephen King site with sophisticated artwork.

www.thewebcomiclist.com — Large selection of web comics

www.thetalosproject.com — Sci-fi with cool designwork and 3D characters.

www.invincibleseries.com — Superhero with dynamic animation (even the word balloons!)

How about a title?

Nothing else to report except that I finished this drawing but don't have a title for it. Any ideas? Just click on it to see larger image.

Not a Christmas tree ornament

Let's put aside the subject of self-aware robots trying to kill all humans and concentrate on the subject of aliens from outer space that want to enslave humanity.

Check out the link below for cool video of a UFO over Costa Rica being filmed by a mildly drunk guy who urges his kids to bring him his rum and coke. He offers some interesting commentary as we hear his fam in the background. The real question, though, is WHAT IS HE FILMING?! Seems authentic. From January of this year. Click HERE.

Retro Picture Quiz of the Week (Feb. 19)

This beautiful actress starred in perhaps the DUMBEST television series of all time. What is her name and the name of the series? HINT: She starred in the show with six other people...

Source: Corbis photos

Lots of aliens, just very far away

Dr. Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science — speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science recently — said that there could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy.

So far, about 300 planets have been discovered in distant solar systems through special detection techniques. Boss estimates that, on average, each sun-like star has about one "Earth-like" planet.

He told BBC News, "Not only are they probably habitable but they are probably going to be inhabited.... I think that most likely the nearby 'Earths' are going to be inhabited with things which are perhaps more common to what Earth was like three or four billion years ago."

Recent studies at Edinburgh University suggest that there could be thousands of intelligent civilizations in space.

Perhaps those civilized beings look like the creature in the last Retro Picture Quiz post?

Source: BBC News

Retro Picture Quiz of the Week (Feb. 16)

This alien appeared only briefly in a classic 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry. Can you name the film? Hint: This film was remade in 2005 with a big name in the starring role (and in my opinion the aliens in the remake did not look as good as this one!).

Image ©Paramount

Retro Picture Quiz of the Week (Feb. 7)

Who is this gorgeous movie star?

Photo courtesy of Dr. Macro's High-Quality Movie Scans

EMERGENCY DOUBLE-DOG SERIOUS MESSAGE FOR STUDENTS OF GREENBERG'S MONDAY MOVIE CLASS

The entire Notorious film is on YouTube in 11 parts.

Retro Picture Quiz of the Week (Feb. 4)

In this scene from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), this ape dude is vastly improving the odds that his descendants will one day rule Earth. What is he doing?

How real is Second LIfe?

After the demonstration of Second Life during class last Thursday (Jan. 29), I've been thinking about how powerfully immersive computer environments can be. We were shown a large, complex virtual world that, despite its reputation as being for shy introverts, looked incredibly interesting.

I suppose one of the most appealing things about Second Life is that it is so empowering. A person can construct their avatar to be whatever they want, to compensate for any flaws that the avatar builder deems appropriate. And the Second Life universe is waiting for users to use it, to explore it, to build on it. Physical limitations that we face in the flesh world do not apply.

People are imagining creative ways to use Second Life. Consider this announcement found on the Chronicle for Higher Education web site on Jan. 23:

"... the director of debate at St. John's University, in New York, announced what is billed as the first tournament debate held in Second Life. It will take place on February 4 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time in the university's virtual campus. ... A two-person team from St. Johns will go head-to-head with two students from the University of Vermont. The topic will be whether or not colleges should limit tenure for professors."

The Second Life environment actually functions as a debate hall!

Second Life graphics are merely okay — not nearly as good as many cutting-edge video games. But can you imagine how real and sophisticated the graphics will look, say, 10 years from now? 

This daydreaming leads me to a bit of a thought experiment. Imagine a time a few years from now when Second Life graphics are fabulous and the virtual world offers to all of its users an incredibly rich variety of experiences — warm personal relationships, interesting places to visit, dancing, gambling, even thoughtful campus debates! Now also imagine a person who has all senses linked to Second Life. They are fed through intravenous tubes. They stay alone in a room with a comfortable bed. They choose to be plugged into Second Life 24 hours a day. They never take off their "Second Life virtual reality apparatus."

Is that person's life any less fulfilling than yours or mine? In other words, is the plugged-in life with the real benefits of the virtual world any less of a life than the life of a non-plugged-in person who experiences life in the "real" world?

I'm not sure I have an answer for that!

Retro Picture Quiz of the Week (Feb. 1)

Can you name this venerable and respected actor who played Frankenstein's monster in Hammer films' The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)? Hint: This senior actor also played characters in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lucas' last Star Wars films.

Policy Change: After meeting with several focus groups and looking ourselves in the mirror for several hours, we've decided NOT to reveal the answers to the Retro Picture Quiz of the Week until some unspecified time in the future! Ha!Ha!

Mission: Impossible

For my Aesthetics of Visual Perception Class, I have to write about one movie that is my "favorite" movie. Of course, this is nearly impossible to determine! I will write the paper, but as an extension of the assignment, here is a list of movies that I like...

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Spielberg's take on extraterrestrial encounters still seems authentic over 30 years later. One shot I especially like comes early in the film when, from an aerial perspective, we see Roy Neary's tiny vehicle traveling the country road at night as a gigantic, ominous shadow passes over Neary's truck and the entire landscape. Sure makes him look insignificant. I wonder... does Neary ever return to Earth?

Star Wars: As a card-carrying nerd, I guess I am obligated to list this film. One nice thing about this film (besides great special effects, exciting story, brilliant musical score, among other things) is the way the script and dialogue of the film hint at so much more of the Star Wars universe that we are NOT shown. Clone Wars? Han Solo's Kessel Run? Womp Rats? Of course, since this first movie, much of this hidden Star Wars universe has been revealed in other films, animations, games and novels. Seeing all of this added detail of the Star Wars universe is nice, but it almost ruins the mystery of the first film.

The Godfather: All I'm going to say about this one is that the way Michael Corleone straightens his hair in the men's room before he goes back out to the dining room somehow brilliantly shows that he is scared... but he's going to kill those two slimy bastards anyway. Brilliant scene.

Last of the Mohicans: No film has a better ending than the last 10 minutes of this movie as Hawkeye and company pursue the Indians along the mountainside. A thrilling spectacle. Great acting throughout, especially from Daniel Day-Lewis.

Children of Men: Clive Owen is a brilliant anti-hero in this sci-fi movie that doesn't have a single  spaceship or alien in it. Owen's character doesn't seem to be able to influence the events of this scary future world much, yet he emerges as the savior of humanity. Great performance by Michael Caine, too.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): Great remake of the alien invasion paranoia-fest. All-star cast (Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum). Convincing creepy  pre-digital special effects.

A Clockwork Orange: Maybe Kubrick's weirdest film. Good social science fiction with interesting questions posed about society. Kubrick actually makes you sympathize with one of the most brutal teenage hooligans ever shown on screen.

Blackhawk Down: One of my favorite directors, Ridley Scott, directs an all-star cast in a great, though troubling war movie. A director's film for sure.

Pitch Black: Vin Diesel is cool as the morally-challenged hero. Nasty monsters on a scary planet. At the beginning of the movie, maybe the best "crash-landing on a planet" scene ever filmed .

What About Bob?: Bill Murray is funny.

Toy Story, The Incredibles: Really, anything by Pixar. In Toy Story how can the creators of this movie possibly make you feel so sad when Buzz Lightyear realizes that he is a toy? But they DO make you care that much. Great stories — even more than cutting edge animation — makes these movies so good.

Yes, deciding which movie to write about will not be easy!

Retro picture of the week

Can you identify this actress AND name the 1963 Hitchcock film that this photo promotes?

Look for the answer next week!

Image from Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans, www.doctormacro1.info

Cyberethics response

ENTRY #1

Assigned discussion: 

HOW DO YOU THINK THE NEW FORMS OF COMMUNICATION VIA THE INTERNET WILL AFFECT SOCIETY? WHAT CHANGES MIGHT IT BRING?

The changes brought on by the internet are far-reaching. Some changes are being felt now and other changes may take a while longer to determine.

I can speak from experience about changes that are being felt now. I work as a journalist for a newspaper. The internet is one of the major reasons that newspaper readership has steadily declined. Newspapers all across the country have been laying off workers for years now. In fact, The Express-News just laid 5 more newsroom employees a few weeks ago.

Magazines such as the Christian Science Monitor have ceased print production and are only available over the internet. I heard a rumor that one daily for a major U.S. city — Orlando — is considering printing a paper product only on weekends... the rest of the week would be internet-only publication.

With so much information able to be easily transmitted over the internet, how might the internet change our society? Eventually, maybe no one will ever have to drive to work again, since they can complete all of their work from their computer at home, complete with audio, video and 3-D hologram connections.

Or maybe we will all become accomplished scientists, exploring other planets through thousands of remotely-controlled drones that respond to commands given by home computers.

The internet allows a vast amount of information to be shared by an enormous number of people. I don't think its effects on our society will end anytime soon. As new technologies continue to be developed that allow even more and different types of information to be shared through the internet, I think we will continue to see the internet affect our culture in ways that we haven't thought about and can't predict.