this is pretty fascinating to think how much effort is being put into this. not just to avoid sounding like dumb gibberish, but to actually have different dialects of the same artificial language for different cities.
Peterson created the grammar and vocabulary for all of the languages in HBO’s Game Of Thrones, using material from George R.R. Martin’s books and filling in the substantial gaps on his own. The A.V. Club sat down with Peterson to ask him about the process of creating Dothraki and Valyrian, as well as Grey Worm’s particularly wonderful Low Valyrian accent
The award-winning Australian television series McLeod’s Daughters aired from 2001 – 2009. A drama, the story begins by following the lives of half sisters Claire and Tess McLeod, reunited after they inherit a vast outback cattle farm (“Drover’s Run”), that has been handed down through the men in their family for generations. 224 episodes were produced, and all are available on YouTube.
Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuaron (“Children of Men”) originally shot an opening scene for Gravity that would have radically changed the film. Too bad the brass at Warner Bros. rejected this version.
So how believable is the whole House of Cards storyline? There are no egregious technical howlers, thanks to the technical advice of Internet activist Gregg Housh, whose participation can be seen part of a trend toward better technical accuracy since the days of Sneakers and Independence Day (in which the remarkably hackable alien computer features a giant status dialog that reads “UPLOADING VIRUS”). The Fifth Estate had more detail, but on purely technical terms, House of Cards holds up pretty well. As for the actual storyline, let me put it this way: It’s just as believable as House of Cards’ politics.
Japan’s space agency will launch a space trawler that will drag a giant aluminium and steel net while orbiting Earth, hoping to bag itself some space junk.
there are 100m pieces of space junk. 2014-04-10:
Asteroids and comets that cross Earth’s orbit pose a credible risk of impact, with potentially severe disturbances to Earth and society. Numerous risk mitigation strategies have been described, most involving dedicated missions to a threatening object. We propose an orbital planetary defense system capable of heating the surface of potentially hazardous objects to the vaporization point as a feasible approach to impact risk mitigation.
Abandoned artificial satellites. Tanks jettisoned from shuttles. Refuse generated during space station construction. This junk, space debris, is traveling around the Earth at speeds approaching 8 km/s. This is a story of 2075, a time in which this space garbage has become a serious problem. This is Planetes, a near-future hard scifi story that focuses on a small group of debris collectors who are part of a larger company. Both the original manga and the anime adaptation set small personal stories and dramas in the realistic context of near-future space exploration, complete with radiation sickness, impacts of growing up on the moon, and of course, the dangers of space debris.
2015-11-03: this is why we need giant lasers to vaporize that shit.
2019-04-24:
There are 130m tiny bits of debris floating in orbit that, due to their high velocity, can cause catastrophic damage to space vehicles and satellites. Researchers are developing a compact orbiting device to semi-autonomously seek out the debris and catch it in a net.
Creating a tool for designing well-sculpted, appealing protagonists who fit into the same consistent art style is surprisingly complex. However, the number of people out there who want to play an AAA computer game is massive – easily enough to justify the investment in a tool capable of churning out almost infinite numbers of beautifully sculpted, world-consistent protagonists. And so, suddenly, for an independent storyteller, the projected costs of any independent animated project plummet if they’re willing to use a “Machinima” approach.
It would be possible to tell almost any low to mid-fantasy story using Skyrim or World of Warcraft, with some minor modifications. The genre of science fiction, at least in its mainstream film-friendly incarnation, is similarly well-covered by EVE Online, Half-Life 2, Dead Space and 10s of other games. (It would take some thinking, but I could probably make a fair stab at adapting any of Charlie’s SF works using one, another, or a combination of game engines.) And of course, modern-day stories are thoroughly covered by everything from The Sims to Call of Duty.
the most unrealistic elements of the film are the ones that involve flesh-and-blood human beings. Whenever they are trotting out the vapid biographical anecdotes that the screenplay saddles them with, they bring the film back to earth with a bump. But when their mouths are shut, “Gravity” soars off to astonishing new cinematic territory.
agreed, the blather was annoying, but otherwise it was amazing.
A very clever circumvention of the security state in Iran.
This clandestine documentary, shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, depicts the day-to-day life of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi (Offside, The Circle) during his house arrest in his Tehran apartment.
Gravity shows the great allure of the Final Frontier. Its explorers must bear the same skill and courage and honor of war… without the evil deeds or vile consequences.
Gregor J. Rothfuss 