Fractal Hands
This is mildy disturbing, fairly interesting, and oddly hypnotic. If you start to lose control, use ALT-F4 or Apple-Q.
1 comment February 12th, 2006
Archive for February 12th, 2006
The Lego Suicides
The Lego Suicides is a morbid Flickr set of snuff pics that only sick people could create or view.
Add comment February 12th, 2006
No Needle. No Wear.
It’s the usual dilemma. You love your Foreigner LPs, you play them at least once a day - but you’re loving them to death! Vinyl is a media with a fairly limited life expectency - unlike CDs which use a non-destructive reading mechanism, the needle of a record player wears away at the grooves every time you play ‘Urgent’. That’s where the ELP Laser Turntable comes into play. This piece of genius simply scans your vinyl with five (!) laser beams instead of a needle, thereby extending the life of your vinyl to infinity! This piece of kit is a little bit expensive at $14,999, but the sound quality is probably much better than that $14.99 CD you could just buy instead *grin*.
Add comment February 12th, 2006
Anime Review: PLANETES
I checked out Planetes [more] because it had gotten good reviews on the web and seemed like an interesting story. It is a tale about the lives of space debris collectors working for a corporation called Technora. Debris orbiting Earth has become hazardous to the progress of space development, and the Debris Section’s duty is to clean up that mess. My initial reaction to the show was that it was kinda ugly compared to many of the animes out there. Character design seemed kinda weird, the drawing wasn’t as high quality as I’m used to, and initially the story seemed a little flat.
But I stuck with it because, despite those things, it held a sincerity that was quite unexpected for a space adventure show. And it definately found it’s own niche - it wasn’t copying Cowboy Bebop, it didn’t have the stale mecha fights, and no harem-fanboy-super-deformed sillyness to be found. There was something about how the show’s producers tried very hard to present what life would really be like in space, working for a living - from both social and scientific viewpoints. One episode features a newcomer to the space station learning how to do zero gravity manouveurs using bursts of air from her center of mass. I like that.
Much of the first half of the season centers around main character Tanabe Ai’s experiences learning the ropes of debris collection. The second half really moves in a more serious direction, and this is where the shows reveals its true colors - themes that are hinted at throughout earlier episodes become important factors in later episodes. No character development is wasted. And the character development is very good - you really get wrapped up in their lives, and very quikcly forget the less glamorous animation. There is much more action, conflict and plot stuff going on. And most interestingly, there is a whole slew of social commentary going on - anything from the dynamics of families, to the chasm between developed and undeveloped countries, to the understanding of self. And best of all, while I feel the endings of many other shows fall flat on their faces, Planetes has an ending that leaves you feeling satisfied.
8 outta 10 for Planetes. If it had looked amazing it woulda been 9/10.
Add comment February 12th, 2006