Monday, April 28, 2003

In the Center of the Rosette Nebula (2003 April 29 ) [Astronomy Picture of the Day] 10:29:25 PM

Runaway Production Legislation Introduced in U. S. Congress. U. S. Congressional Representatives Howard Berman (Democrat-California) and David Dreier (Republican-California) introduced the "U.S. Independent Film and TV Act of 2003" to provide tax credits to productions budgeted at under $10 million produced here at home. Over 50 other reps have signed on as co-sponsors. So many people in Washington think that everyone gets $20 million per movie, so a lot of what's involved is educating people, says Dreier. We're trying to let people know what an important resource the industry is. Click here for more on Runaway Production. [Creative Community] [cinema minima] 5:48:11 PM

Klaatu borada nikto. Meet Gort, the silver robot from Robert Wise's movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. Nice website with lots of articles and links. "Gort, Master of the Guardians, appeared in the 1951 Science Fiction epic The Day the Earth Stood Still. The first robotic representation of alien technology to be displayed on screen, Gort was the prototype for the strange machines seen in movies today." Via Linkfilter. [The Cartoonist] 3:05:35 PM

It's not MP3??? Thank God! iTunes Music Store. An online music store that lets customers quickly find, purchase and download over 200,000 songs from music companies including BMG, EMI, Sony Music, Universal and Warner Bros. for just 99 cents per song, without subscription fees, the iTunes Music Store allows burning songs onto an unlimited number of CDs for personal use, listening to songs on an unlimited number of iPods, playing songs on up to three Macintosh computers, and using songs in any application on the Mac, including iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD. [Apr 28] [Apple Hot News] - postscript: I heard a soundbite from Steve Jobs today mentioning a "digital music ecosystem". Looks like he's adopted 'BLOGSPEAK'. - yes......definitely blogspeak. ;o) 1:15:30 PM

- After some "stage fright," he said he has found blogging deeply enjoyable, though his 20-year-old daughter was initially horrified. "I told my daughter I was going to do a blog, and it was as though I was going to take up skateboarding," Gibson said. - Gibson Kicks the Blogging Habit. William Gibson's blog has attracted a loyal following. But the author of the seminal cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer, is giving up blogging to let the 'sinews of narrative' grow. Karlin Lillington reports from Dublin, Ireland. [Wired News] 12:19:14 PM

Robbing Hood. While we're at it, here's the Robin Hood Project with everything about Robin and his merry men. [The Cartoonist] 12:17:20 PM

Excalibur. Everything about good old King Arthur, Excalibur, Merlin, The Holy Grail and all the other stuff is at The Camelot Project. Very extensive website. [The Cartoonist] 12:15:25 PM