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All About Machinima: Shooting Movies in Virtual Reality

Couldn't sleep. Woke up at around 4 AM. Channel surfing, I end up at a show about Machinima -- a new form of moviemaking. Here is what Wordspy says about Machinima. It's really cool stuff. Basically the idea is to use game engines such as Quake etc. for a purpose they were never designed for -- to create and produce recorded or even live dramas. Quake and other game engines allow you to create your own worlds and characters, so why not use them to make entirely virtual movies? Now there is even an Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences that sponsors a Machinima film festival. Interesting new trend...the future of film?

Reverse Speech, the First 20 Years...

According to Reverse Speech theorists the mind embeds reverse messages in ordinary speech. This is not so outlandish a claim -- it is known that the brain uses reversal at a very fundamental level in language and perception. Check out this summary of reverse speech results to see some very interesting cases -- in particular relating to speeches done by political leaders. I don't know whether this phenomenon is scientifically legit, but I have been following it for about 6 years. It is quite interesting.

From the Paranoia Department, This Just In: Paul McCartney, Imposter?

This site appears to be serious about trying to prove -- using photographic and voiceprint evidence -- that Paul McCartney is an imposter. Don't miss the site's song, Badwrong FalsePaul. If you can't get it to stream, download the Mp3 but either way, definitely read the lyrics!. Insanity can be seriously funny -- someone actually spent a lot of time on this! But I'm not sure the author meant it to be a joke...

Through The Looking Glasses?

Here's a weird find: The makers of these new sunglasses claim they are designed to specifically stimulate the right and left hemispheres of the brain, bringing the wearer into an altered state.

10 Ton Whale Lands on Family Sailboat

A British family's sailing holiday was rudely interrupted when a 10-ton whale crash landed on their sailboat.

NASA Anti-Gravity Experiment Due to Start

NASA's continuing interest in exotic propulsion will soon result in another test of the controversial Podkletnov device which consists of a spinning superconducting disc that results in .5% to 2% weight reduction of anything placed above it. The idea is that the effect is cumulative, just add more discs and you could theoretically get 100% weight reduction, or even negative weight reduction -- in other words propulsion.

The Ghost Planes of O'Hare

Flying into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport just got even stranger. Air traffic controllers are struggling to cope with "Ghost Planes" that keep appearing on their radar scopes.

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Watchu Talkin About? Former Child Star Runs for CA Governor

Finally, someone qualified is running for governor of CA! Yes folks, Gary Coleman is officially on the ballot for governor of California. Just one more reason I'm glad to be a New Yorker!

Now You Can Call Dolphins From Your Cell Phone

Quite possibly The Most Useless Wireless Service in History... Researchers will soon enable wireless callers to listen to real live dolphins on their mobile phones. They claim that wireless phone users can even call up and listen to dolphin clicks and whistles while sitting in traffic jams -- Gee, just what I always wanted! Their technology transmutes dolphinese to audible human frequencies and then pipes them into a mic that you can dial into. That's just great, if you happen to be able to understand dolphin-speak. I think this would be a lot cooler if it was a two-way channel -- If I could speak to the dolphins via my phone that might be interesting. John Lilly, one of the pioneers of dolphin research did some interesting experiments in this arena. In one notable experiment he was floating in an isolation tank that was wired up via a two-way communications link to a dolphin pool nearby. He said he experienced the dolphins using their sonar to sound out the dimensions of his floatation tank -- via the microphone -- and then he even felt them sounding out the profile of his body floating in the tank.