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Sunday, December 19, 2004 |
Woman in the Moon
Woman in the Moon. Fritz Lang's last silent film, Woman in the Moon, has just been released by Kino Video in a lovingly restored and remastered edition, expanded to its original running time of 169 minutes. (Prior releases of the film in the US had as much as half of the original footage removed, with altered title cards that completely changed the storyline.) Woman in the Moon is considered to be the first real attempt to depict a flight to the moon in film that wasn't completely fantastic, thanks to the technical input of Hermann Oberth, who later went on play a key role in the development of the German V-2 rocket. As a piece of futurism, Woman in the Moon gets a few things wrong (the Moon of the film has a breathable atmosphere, for one thing), but it's also surprisingly prescient as well (the rocketship that voyages to the moon has multiple stages). Its most significant contribution to popular culture is the reverse countdown to blastoff, which was invented by the filmmakers as a dramatic device. [MetaFilter]
7:40:21 PM 
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Hydrogen Solar
Sunlight into Hydrogen: "Hydrogen Solar of Guilford, England, and Altair Nanotechnologies are building a hydrogen-generation system that captures sunlight and uses the energy to break water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. .. Hydrogen Solar CEO David Auty said his company's Tandem Cell technology uses two solar cells that together capture sunlight from every part of the ultraviolet spectrum. The interaction of photons with a semiconductor material causes a photoelectrochemical reaction that excites electrons and causes water molecules to break up into hydrogen and oxygen, according to Auty. Auty said Tandem Cells are coated with a layer containing metal oxide particles that are less than 30 nanometers thick and can convert sunlight energy into hydrogen with 8 percent efficiency. .. In October, the Department of Energy awarded (.pdf) $10 million in research grants to four groups also working on producing hydrogen from sunlight -- GE Global Research, the University of California at Santa Barbara, MVSystems and Midwest Optoelectronics. " [Ken Novak: Future energy]
2:03:22 PM
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Dublin
Dublin as Wireless Silicon Valley. I'm definitely feeling that my impending move to Dublin will put me in the right place at the right time: Government and corporate leaders in Dublin are hoping to establish Dublin as a center for the wireless industry where companies form a community that develops and furthers wireless technology. Some big companies that already have offices in Dublin or Ireland are backing the idea, including Intel, Lucent, O2, Esat BT and Bell Labs Ireland. It's hard to know if this initiative is merely wishful thinking on the part of city leaders hoping to spur an increase in business, but there's no doubt that there's still a lot of high-tech work being done in Dublin as well as some cutting edge wireless development. A bit of a boost from the government and some marketing could just spur it along even further.... [Wi-Fi Networking News]
11:08:41 AM
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Illustrated London News
 Illustrated London News. From 1842 - 2003. Fab. Via !. My site will be under construction for many years to come, I expect it will take at least twenty years to complete as I have approximately 3000 original copies from an estimated 8000 printed and I need more. [The Cartoonist]
10:14:15 AM
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The Polar Express
All Aboard the Polar Express. I saw Polar Express this afternoon, and like Roger Ebert was completely floored by how good it was:
The Polar Express is a movie for more than one season; it will become a perennial, shared by the generations. It has a haunting, magical quality because it has imagined its world freshly and played true to it, sidestepping all the tiresome Christmas cliches that children have inflicted on them this time of year.
I haven't been as certain a film would become a Christmas classic since Ralphie shot his eye out with the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model in A Christmas Story.
Kids always talk during children's movies, but I can't recall one in which every single child in the theater talked out loud to the screen, urging the characters in suspensful moments.
At one point near the end, I glanced back at the projector. Four or five children were standing up in the row behind me, inches from my face, and their hands were clasped to the seats as they watched in absolute awe. [Workbench]
9:16:03 AM
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Podcasting
The Podcast Notebook. 
Eric Rice has come up with a great idea of creating a lightweight book project aimed at defining and explaining what Podcasting is. Podcasting for Dummies more or less :)
What's a podcast?
Podcast is a term used to describe an audio or video program which can be automatically downloaded to anyone who subscribes to it. These programs can be played on a computer, burned to CD, or transferred to a portable music or video player. A 'podcaster' is anyone who creates a podcast.
Right on. Keep up the good work Eric. [Northwest Noise]
9:05:46 AM
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Tucson Weather
Weather. Today's forecast Sunny. High 71 / Low 42 Saturday: High 68 / Low 37 For complete weather information, see the back page of Sports. www.azstarnet.com/weather [Front Page]
9:02:47 AM
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© Copyright 2009 Gary Santoro.
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