The Greengrass Supremacy

Who is Paul Greengrass? He is the director of two films as different as excellent: the brutally real “Bloody Sunday” and the more popular “The Bourne Supremacy”. Our target today will be the second title I’ve mentioned, perhaps the best action film (in my opinion) since “Die Hard”.

Action movies usually have a bad press, due to the dreadful quality (it´s true) of some of these products. Many of them attempt on the audience’s intelligence: We are fed up of watching bad guys killing lots of people with great precision, only to become true idiots when it´s about killing the hero. “The Bourne Supremacy” fortunately respects our capacity of thinking.

When Greengrass was hired to take up again the character of CIA agent Jason Bourne, after the great reception obtained by “The Bourne Identity”, he found himself with some questions to Continue reading The Greengrass Supremacy

The Orilamp

Some time ago my friends in the Origami Group showed me how to make a box model originally designed by Clemente Giusto. I found it interesting, especially since when folding it you have to use a “twisting” technique that afterwards, when the model is finished, allows you to open and close it without needing to make a second matching part.

The fact is that the flaps of paper on top of the box made it look kinda strange, as they were really big in comparison to the rest of the piece. Therefore, I started fiddling with it to see if I could Continue reading The Orilamp

Game Flyers Galore!

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/

a repository for arcade related promotional flyers that are used by the coin-operated amusement industry to promote the sales of their games.

The product of a fusion between two already big flyer collections, the Arcade Flyer Archive is, since 1999, an evergrowing showcase of arcade flyers and a paradise for the video game enthusiast.

In wandering through the many images available (usually there are several flyers for a single videogame,) you will find amazing artworks covering the entire story of arcades from 1971 to almost yesterday (the database is constantly updated). From an aesthetical point of view this is enough to Continue reading Game Flyers Galore!

Good night, and good luck: Afterthoughts

The smoke and the Truth

When the lights went on a sepulchral silence filled the room. I thought that most of the audience had found it difficult to digest this wonderful but complex film, not suitable for the general public (better for journalists and such), shot in a glorious black and white as the story it tells is one of those stories which can only be recalled in black and white. Some of the audience ran away most likely to smoke as soon they could, since in “Good night, and good luck”, people smoke lots and with such class, especially the main character, Edward R. Munrow (David Strathairn). The smoke itself is actually another character, so good that it would have Continue reading Good night, and good luck: Afterthoughts

The BioWall

http://www.loop.ph/twiki/bin/view/Loop/BioWall

A Synetic building is an airy and lace-like basketry of thin arcs patterned in curvilinear triangulation.

What?

The structure is based on the principle of self-similarity enabling it to work from the nano to the macro scale.

oh… that must be the wall… but, where’s the Bio?

(…) reactive surfaces inspired by botanical life that reflect and Continue reading The BioWall

We love kung-fu!

I hate fighting games. My first contact with them was the Street Fighter 2 coin-op, and already then I thought it was a ridiculous game. That’s strange, because I could finish the first Double Dragon without blinking, but there was no chemistry. It was a game without power-ups, where in order to get the control dynamics you had to Continue reading We love kung-fu!

Five remedies for sadness

Probably there are as many types of humour as there are people. Our sense of humour is like a fingerprint: it identifies us and represents us socially; it singles us out. We can think of it as a collage of circumstances that we try to match with our personal values. Due to this fact, we tend to remember comical situations and gags that fit us somehow. It’s almost an aesthetic matter (intangible, but aesthetic).

Today I would like to show you some pieces of my particular collage. This will be a movie scenes’ collage, featuring five –in my opinion- memorable moments. Continue reading Five remedies for sadness

Glest 2.0-rc4 released

http://www.glest.org/

Since rc3 and rc4 were released very close to each other, I’ll include here both versions’ features:

rc3:

– Final icons for the new units (you will not be able to see that until the data rc3 is uploaded, which should be soon).

– Shared vision for allies: This has a very nice side effect, CPU controlled factions will support each other, this will not always happen though, only when they have enough soldiers on their bases.

– Now you can play in every start location even with 2 or 3 factions in 4 player maps.

– Improved results screen, now it has a score and the team of each faction.

rc4:

This version includes increased projectile accuracy, ranged units now hit moving slow or close enemy units.

Don´t forget to share your thoughts on Glest in the Forum 🙂

The Ecosphere,

a self-sustainable shrimp tank

http://www.eco-sphere.com

(…) the world’s first totally enclosed ecosystem – a complete, self-contained and self-sustaining miniature world encased in glass(…) you never have to feed the life within.

The Ecosphere is not only a water tank with a few red shrimp, bacteria, and some algae. Actually, it is the succesful result of serious research on managing closed ecosystems.

In brief, an ecosytem is a community of living beings, plus their habitat. When an ecosystem exchanges energy, but only energy with the outside, it is said to Continue reading The Ecosphere,

The mega fish Tank!

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/totm/index.php

It is no wonder why Pieter van Suijlekom’s reef aquarium has been chosen as “tank of the month” by the Reefkeeping online magazine. With a lenght of 6 metres and weighing 8000 kg, this is the largest private aquarium I have ever seen, and I guess it must be one of the most impressive ever constructed. (My dentist has an impressive aquarium, too: a very good idea to soothen up the patient´s nerves before the torture). It is so big that a 22-mm thick safety glass sheet had to be custom made by Tetterode Glass so that it could stand the tremendous pressure of the water inside.

The number and kinds of fish and corals lodged inside this tank is by no means less impressive. To mention a few, you will find here examples of Seriatopora hystrix, Poccilopora verrucosa, one Halichoeres chrysus and three Naso literatus (naso literatus? this must be the Cyrano de Bergerac among the fish, I guess). The tank has been accomodated on the second floor of the “Open fireplace Center”, a shop in Vlaardingen, Netherlands. As you may see in the pictures, the room has been fitted with two comfortable armchairs (I have to talk to my dentist about it), and I’m sure that if I lived nearby I would grab some popcorn and go to the dock of the tank to watch the fish roll in, instead of spending my money going to the movies.

ps. I have just found the monster-megatank. Still, if not in size, I think that Pieter’s aquarium is much more impressive in terms of style.

Related Article: The minitank!

Related Article: The Ecosphere