What have they DONE to the Hulk?!

By Mark O’Neill

I was starting to enjoy the anticipation of the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie but having now seen some new pictures that have just been released, I am horrified!

What have they done to him? He looks like he has caught a severe dose of leprosy!

Bill Bixby must be turning in his grave and Lou Ferringo must be getting ready to smash something!

What is it with Hollywood that they can’t turn a classic TV series into a movie without royally screwing it up?  Why do they have to make a stupid CGI version of the Hulk anyway?   What’s wrong with the perfect Lou Ferringo method of getting a big muscular guy and painting him green?   Oh wait, that would be too realistic-looking.



Take a Walk on the Keyboard Carpet

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Wii Fit, meet your match. A creative guy has come up with a room-sized, foot-controlled keyboard carpet.

The strip, as you’d expect, lets you step on letters to control your computer. Active, productive, and a lovely addition to any home. I’m sure every woman in the world will be thrilled when her significant other brings one of these into the living room.

Hackaday has a step-by-step look at the construction, and you can see more photos at the developer’s Flickr site. The guy’s got some other interesting-looking projects in the works there, too, including a glove with some kind of built-in switches and an odd invention I can’t quite figure out called the “Dog and Gong.”

Missed The Andromeda Strain? Catch it Again on Saturday Night

By Patrick Biz
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

This week, A&E broadcasted its awaited mini-series, The Andromeda Strain, featuring Benjamin Bratt, Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Rick Schroder (24). The 2 two hour episodes aired on Monday and Tuesday night, but if you’ve missed the show, you can watch the rerun this weekend.

The Plot

Following the crash of a US satellite near a small town in Utah, a micro-organism, codenamed Andromeda, kills virtually all citizens as their blood instantly coagulates. Mysteriously, two survivors are found alive and may hold the key to a possible cure. A team of highly specialized scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Benjamin Bratt), is running against time to stop the spread, while a reporter investigates a possible government conspiracy to save a sample of Andromeda.

5 Million Viewers

The Andromeda Strain is the second most-watched A&E show ever, reaching 5 million viewers for part II. If you’ve missed this great mini-series, catch it again on Saturday night, or make sure to set your PVR from 8:00pm to 12:00am EST. The show is also available in HD.



Introducing the “Luke Skywalker” Prosthetic Arm

Researcher Dean kamen was recently interviewed at the All Things D conference concerning his new “Luke” robotic arm (Yes, that’s Luke as in Luke Skywalker.) This new revolutionary arm can do a lot more than what all current prosthetic arms can do right now. I invite you to check it out in the following video. The possibilities this new thing offers to disabled people are truly mind-blowing.

Could a Polish monastery hold missing Mozart works?

By Mark O’Neill

Being a classical music fan, I am excited at the thought that there may be the chance of some previously unknown musical works of Mozart being found at a monastery in Poland.

Musicologists there are reviewing various musical scores to determine if they do indeed belong to the genius Austrian composer. Some of the scores have already been dismissed as being “misattributions” (is that a polite word for “fakes”?) but there are nine others that are still being looked at.

I live in the German city of Würzburg which holds an acclaimed annual Mozart music festival in the summer, attended by thousands of international visitors. If indeed lost Mozart works are found in Poland, this will set the festival alight. It’ll be standing room only with no tickets to spare – and I will be stampeding to the front.

Who wants to be an astronaut?

By Mark O’Neill

The Canadian Space Agency is looking for worthy candidates to join up as astronauts and blast off into space for them. Interested?  Well, here’s the job description :

“Astronaut trainees will train for tours of duty on the International Space Station (ISS), the largest human spacecraft ever built.

Astronauts are involved in robotic operations using the Canadian remote manipulator system and regularly perform inside or outside maintenance tasks of the ISS. Therefore, astronauts are required to possess a detailed knowledge of the ISS systems, as well as a detailed knowledge of the operational characteristics of their missions, their requirements and objectives, and all supporting systems and equipment for each experiment on their assigned missions. During space missions, astronauts may also conduct experiment operations or act as subjects in physiological experiments.

Long-duration missions aboard the ISS generally last from three to six months. Training for long-duration missions is very arduous and takes two to three years. This follows basic training of about one year. This training requires extensive travelling, and includes assimilation of the ISS assembly sequence and its on-orbit operations. Travel to and from the ISS will be by Space Shuttle until its retirement in 2010. Following the Shuttle retirement, all trips to and from the ISS will be aboard the Russian Soyuz vehicle.”

Wow! But before you get all excited and start shaving your head to look like Bruce Willis in Armageddon, you need to be a Canadian citizen or a resident of Canada in order to be eligible for the position. No, not you Kiltak. We need you to run this blog! Get back here!

Via Canadian Space Agency

Robert Scoble and his productivity problem

By Mark O’Neill

It’s not often that I read anything by Robert Scoble. It’s not that I dislike the man or anything. I’m sure he’s a very pleasant guy. It’s just that his output is so staggeringly huge that I can’t keep up with him! Reading his Twitter feed for example is like trying to push back an avalanche with your bare hands. I sometimes wonder how he manages to fit a day job in between all his social networking.

But one of his blog posts caught my eye last night and once I started reading it, I just couldn’t stop because it addresses a problem most of us have these days. The post starts off with a letter that Mr Scoble received from a man who said to him :

“It seems to me that all these things — Twitter, Facebook, iPhone, Flickr — are a thundering bore and an utter waste of time.

I don’t have any of it — for that matter, I don’t own a Blackberry, iPod, wireless laptop, or even a cell phone — and I get along fine without them.”

And basically he wanted Mr Scoble to explain why they were so great, why he got so excited about it all and why they were so relevant in today’s world.

I have exactly the same problem and I’m sure you do too. You go to your parents, elderly relatives, non-tech friends and you start chatting about computers, the iPhone, the latest Apple product, and their eyes glaze over with utter indifference. They then start to ask you why you get so excited about something so pointless.

Mr Scoble’s answer is a quite long and sometimes rambling one but it mostly hits the mark. Do you agree with it? Or would you have answered the letter differently?

Viking DNA extracted from 1,000-year-old skeletons

By Mark O’Neill

Researchers on the Danish island of Funen have successfully managed to extract authentic DNA from the 1000 year old skeletons of Vikings.

According to Science News, they will be able to use this DNA to answer questions such as “the origin of genetic diseases, migration patterns of our forefathers and tribal and family patterns.”

But this has led to the inevitable jokes on many forums and blogs, especially Slashdot, about cloned Viking warriors and theme parks (Richard Attenborough saying “Welcome to Nordic Park!”).

While it is unlikely that we are going to see Hagar walking around the streets anytime soon, it’ll nevertheless be very interesting to see what results come out of these DNA sequences and what we learn from them. I for one will be keeping a close eye on it.

New Cushion Promises Cooler Rear

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Japanese researchers have come up with another cool way to keep you cool.

The same guys who brought us the USB Air-Conditioned Shirt have now developed a seat cushion that can keep you comfy down below. Kuchofuku’s new Suzukaze Air-Conditioned Cushion brings delight to your derriere with a fan-powered blast of air that, evidently, “dissipat[es] the heat and moisture accumulated around the buttocks.” Now that’s a winning slogan if I’ve ever heard one.

This half-pound gadget is also quite energy-efficient. Its low-power fan, according to company estimates, will only hike up your electric bill by five cents a month — and that’s with eight hours a day of use.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall during the marketing meetings for this thing.