Movie makers- A little out of touch with the pulse of children.

This week Spike TV is celebrating the “Force of July” by showing the Star Wars movies, old and new. Well as I was flipping channels I happen to pass by The Phantom Menace and its star character “Jar Jar binks”. I was immediately reminded of all the hoopla surrounding that character when the movie came out in 1999. What I remember the most is that George Lucas said the character, which had caused such controversy because of its buffoonery/coonish behavior, was made that was to relate to the kids in the audience. Such controversy that Jar Jar, a vitally important character in the first movie, was almost nonexistent in the following.


If you have read any movie reviews in the last two weeks this may sound very familiar as Michael Bay introduced two autobots in his summer blockbuster “Transformers Revenge of the Fallen” , who have re-ignited that very same storm of controversy about coonish/ buffoonery to close to comfort negative stereotypical behavior. And just like George Lucas, Michael Bay seemed to think that the jive talking semi illiterate characters would appeal to the kids.


I guess my question is, what kids are these gentlemen attempting to reach? I mean really think about it. Kids today with their own personal computers at age 7 and cellphones, there PS3’s and Wii’s. Kids who can bypass the parental safeguards on various machines and who live to download. Basically kids who are more technologically diversied than any other generation ever would find this form of slapstick and buffoonery funny. When you look at it like this the response that it was done for the children does not hold water.


So for any future movie makers out there, this is not the 70’s and these are not Saturday morning kiddie shows, in fact when was the last time they showed kiddie cartoons on a Saturday morning? Falling into characters with negative and racist stereotypes not the way to entertain the Children of the new millennium.

Future of the turntable?

Rhea Jeong's "void" turntable concept uses what would have to be incredibly strong and precise magnet control to levitate a record above its base. That little red ball on top of the vinyl is actually the needle.

We're not sure how the music would be outputted—would there be a transmitter in the red sphere? It's probably not worth worrying about that kind of minor issue as we're pretty sure the entire idea is impossible, but it's also creative and great to look at, and would almost certainly blow your parents' minds.

Practicla or not... I think it is just hot!

The Tv's are a changin!!!!!

As of writing this we are about 5 minutes away from the biggest most confusing scam I have ever seen. TV is switching from analog to digital. Normally I am all for modern tech but I am never for having to have something. You need cable or converter boxes in order to get free telelvison channels. They can’t be broadcast in both analog and digital? And when the digital goes down ( don’t say it can’t happen) what do we do then?

Well good luck everyone, this is generally the point in the sci-fi movie where the machines get the first foothold on society before the big takeover!

The EYES have it

German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems have embedded a head-mounted microdisplay into a pair of glasses—allowing the user to access and manipulate data with simple eye movements.



I can't wait for this is this not the coolest thing????

My desk says I am not in the mood!

Part of the Emotionalize Your Light competition, the Perfekt Desk is a prototype desk-slash-lamp workstation, trimmed with LEDs that change colors in order to reflect your mood. The desk includes a ceiling fixture, made up of 16 1W standard light bulbs mounted onto a square aluminum tube, and cold cathode fluorescent lamps for the lights surrounding the desk. As the creator is currently working on a computer that'll control the lights to change into different hues of the rainbow, the current mood lighting is controlled using switches, and only produces red, green and blue glows.

Today's Favorite Photo

Don't bring that noise in my White House! According to Time magazine baskets like this are scattered throughout the West Wing to collect mobile phone like devices before entering certain rooms.

Now everyone can have the corner office.

This is SOOOOOOO cool. For people who work from home and have little self control (pointing at myself) the office pod is perfect for you. Oh and it is also green.

Creating a home office greatly reduces your work carbon footprint by eliminating greenhouse gases created during travel and commuting. The 2.1m x 2.1m British OfficePOD is an inventive design that allows workers to have a home office without all the associated high construction costs.

Easy to install in your garden or larger property, the self-contained OfficePOD (except for power generation and toilet) does not require planning permission in most locations and the modular design means speedy installation. Perhaps best of all, being an OfficePOD employee means there is an estimated 46% to 67% reduction of CO2 emissions versus a traditional office employee’s work-related carbon footprint.

The POD offers a desk space, shelves, connection for telephone and internet; and each POD corner office has its own window. The OfficePOD will be available in January 2010.