Thursday, July 30, 2009

Why you never forget how to ride a bike...


This is an article that I found interesting from physorg.com.

I just went ahead and copied and pasted the whole thing.
Here's the link to the actual article:

http://www.physorg.com/news167053363.html

Their research, published this month in Nature Neuroscience, has identified a key nerve cell in the brain that controls the formation of memories for such as riding a bicycle, skiing or eating with chop sticks.

When one acquires a new skill like riding a bicycle, the cerebellum is the part of the brain needed to learn the co-ordinated movement.

The research team, which includes scientists from the Universities of Aberdeen, Rotterdam, London, Turin and New York, has been working to understand the connections between in the cerebellum that enable learning.

They discovered that one particular type of nerve cell -the so called molecular layer interneuron - acts as a "gatekeeper", controlling the that leave the cerebellum. Molecular layer interneurons transform the electrical signals into a language that can be laid down as a memory in other parts of the brain.

Dr Peer Wulff, who led the research in Aberdeen together with Prof. Bill Wisden at the University's Institute of Medical Sciences, said: "What we were interested in was finding out how memories are encoded in the brain. We found that there is a cell which structures the signal output from the cerebellum into a particular code that is engraved as memory for a newly learned motor skill. "

It could pave the way for advancements in prosthetic devices to mimic normal brain functions, which could benefit those who have suffered brain disorders, such as a stroke or multiple sclerosis.

Dr Wulff said: "To understand the way that the normal brain works and processes information helps the development of brain-computer interfaces as prosthetic devices to carry out the natural brain functions missing in patients who have suffered a stroke or have multiple sclerosis.

"Our results are very important for people interested in how the brain processes information and produces and stores memories. One day these findings could be applied to the building of prosthetic devices by other research teams."

Daft Punk x Tron Legacy = Smooth Electronica


Daft Punk's theme song for the "Tron Legacy"

If you haven't seen the trailer, it's SICK! You can view it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6jfm0hq0bk

(sorry, they ain't letting nobody embed. Like it's such a sacred thing))

Can't wait for this one!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Jay Electronica: Dear Moleskine

This is a rough trailer to a short film starring rapper Jay Electronica directed by Jason Goldwatch, shot by Rob Gilbert of DECON Media

www.deconmedia.com


Sunday, July 26, 2009

What Is That?

It's Hollow Man!
Made with fencing material, here's a good way to scare the shit out of your friends during a camping trip. Not sure who the artist behind this is but you can find more crazy illusion tricks here:

http://www.moillusions.com/








Saturday, July 25, 2009

"Tron Legacy" Trailer

I know, I'm on a real video posting binge here, but this looks awesome!

"Alice In Wonderland" Trailer

Thursday, July 23, 2009

This is why the upcoming G.I. Joe movie worries me

Any graphic designer can tell that these graphics are pretty amateur for the kind of budget it was made with

Wu-Tang Demo Tape from 1992

copy & paste this link to download:

http://www.zshare.net/download/62995681fc21705d/

Monday, July 20, 2009

Five Reasons To Believe That The Moon Landing Really Happened


Happy Moon Day peoplz!

Today marks 40 years since astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history for all of mankind when they set foot on the Moon. We as a people put our spirit of adventure and creative minds together to accomplish something that was literally out of this world. Granted it was driven by egotistic greed as we were in a race with the Russians, who had put the first man in space just 8 years before that. It was during the Cold War and congress was more than happy to fund anything that would oppose Russia. Hence, a well-funded space program that resulted in a successful universal outreach.

Now obviously there will always be people who will counter this accomplishment. The haters. In this case, it was people who speculated that the moon landing was fixed and that we never actually put a man on the moon. Weather or not you belive this is up to you but here I found an article from askmen.com that might hinder your opinion on this.

Here are 5 reasons we should all believe and be proud of the fact that we landed on the moon.

Click on this link to read:
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-5-proofs-that-the-moon-landing-happened.html

Friday, July 17, 2009

OMIGOD!

The Dark Flash Camera


A camera that takes photos with an invisible flash of infrared and ultraviolet light points to a smarter way to take photos in the dark.

Dilip Krishnan and Rob Fergus at New York University created the camera in an attempt to do away with intrusive regular flashes.

To make their "dark flash" camera, they modified a flashbulb to emit light over a wider range of frequencies and filter out visible light. The pair also had to remove the filters that usually prevent a camera's silicon image sensor detecting IR and UV rays.

Pretty phat. I'd like to see this come to the consumer market. For more on this check out this link:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17468-invisible-flash-takes-photos-without-the-glare.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Classic movie scenes recreated in LEGO!!!



R.I.P. Walter Cronkite

Thanks for reporting the world to us.

The full cast of Star Wars

Here you have Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and R2D2. Word... late night posting, why else would this be amusing to me ... HAHA!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

First CGI test for "Where The Wild Things Are"

I'm pretty stoked about the new, Spike Jonze helmed, "Where The Wild Things Are" movie that's about to come out. But apparently, this isn't the first attempt to turn the classic childrens book into a movie. The clip below shows an original animation test from 1983 when Disney had the rights to the film. Animators John Lasseter and Glen Keane were trying something totally new (at the time) when they tried to combine hand drawn animation with computer animation. Disney didn't approve of the idea citing that it would cost too much so this clip never saw the light of day. 

Legend has it that Mr. Lasseter was fired from Disney for trying to start the CGI animation revolution. Apparently Disney was too scared of job losses for their veteran sketch artist staff who sketched some of Disney's classic characters for decades. But Lasseter never gave up. He would go on to make "Toy Story" and co-founded Pixar. He is now Chief Creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. How the tables turn.

Anyway, here's the screen test from 1983 which I found through Latinoreview.com


New artwork

In case you haven't noticed, there is new artwork right up above. Take a look... I'll wait. 

The very talented Julia Durgee is responsible for this. To see more of her work, check out her website:
http://www.juliadurgee.com/

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Robo Insect

This picture shows an experiment conducted in Tokyo where they took a silkmoth and attached electrodes from it's brain to the vehicle. I guess the idea is to make the car move according to the patterns of the insect's brain. Pretty dope but scary the things they're trying to do with neuroscience. Makes me wonder what could be next. Imagine a world where you can control things with your mind. A world where everyone will truly have the force within them. 

My upcoming short film "Lovebug" deals with these sort of issues. Shameless plug :-P Stay tuned for more updates on that.

Teenagers like going to the movies, but don't really care what movie they see...


A new study from Morgan Stanley (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aG2UIb23pNQ0) shows that teenagers like going to the movies but really don't care what movie it is. The good news is that it seems like the movie industry is here to stay. Despite rough economic times people are still going to the movies. Thank God for escapism. It is what has kept the movie-going experience so strong: the big screen spectacle that people will always be willing to pay good money for this.

The bad news is that many bad movies will get top box office results because of this. Morgan Stanley also reported that going to the movies for teenagers is more of a social gathering. The movie itself isn't really an issue. Which means to me that if the actors are cute, and the lighting and sound is good, people will be easily entertained.

This same report showed that the opposite goes for the music industry unfortunately. Besides concerts, teenagers don't really buy music anymore. It is so easy to download a song or listen to it on an online streaming site like Pandorra.

The movie going experience is meant to be fun so I don't really mind the fact that bad movies get made and make back money. Hey, you need the bad in order to justify the good. This can only leave room for surprise hits to come through.

Go Hollywood!

What Charlie Brown would look like in real life...

Artwork by Tim O'Brien

for more of his work copy and paste this link: 
http://www.drawger.com/tonka/?article_id=8259

Monday, July 13, 2009

Deleted scene from "Watchmen"

Apparently some "Watchmen" fans were pissed because many scenes from the original comics weren't present in the film. Turns out that many of the scenes were shot but didn't make it into the theatrical cut. You can see them now in the DVD that will be out next Tuesday (July 21st) along with some more. Here is one of them:


Crazy 4 Cult Artwork


I thought these pieces of classic cult films were pretty cool. This is a part of an event called Crazy 4 Cult which will be showing newer work from different artists at the 1988 Gallery in LA starting this Thursday, July 16th.

For pics and info copy and paste this link:
http://crazy4cult.com/












Monday, July 6, 2009

"Buscón"

This is a documentary directed by Anthony Alcalde that I helped produce. Told through the eyes of a baseball buscón (scout), this is an ambitious story with beautiful imagery that deals with dream exploitation in the impoverished country of Nicaragua.

For more here is the website: 
http://www.busconthemovie.com/



Friday, July 3, 2009

New Eminem video - "Beautiful"

Bollywood He-Man Musical



Whoa! Forget a Masters Of The Universe remake, this is all I need. It appears that this is a musical number from a 1989 Bollywood gangster film called "Nafrat Ki Aandhi." The origins of the guy with the cigarette in his hand unfolds towards the end. I think this is hilarious. Enjoy.