Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Here’s a beautiful computer reconstruction of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, focusing on the riverfront and the great ziggurat, created by Zero One for the Melbourne Museum.
The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia by Zero One
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
A new Mars video is out, and it’s incredibly beautiful. The compilation was created on the basis of images captured by three Mars rovers. The imagery was turned into a 10-minute video with amazing detail.
Yoinked from the description by ElderFox Documentaries on YouTube:
“A world first. New footage from Mars rendered in stunning 4K resolution. We also talk about the cameras on board the Martian rovers and how we made the video.
“The cameras on board the rovers were the height of technology when the respective missions launched.”
New: Mars in 4K by ElderFox Documentaries on YouTube
It’s amazing enough to think that we, ugly bags of mostly water, have sent probes into the far reaches of our solar system to capture high-definition photos and send them back. Now we also have rovers on multiple planetary bodies. (Two counts as multiple in my book, LOL!)
Found via Colossal.
Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.
This video by Nick (who posts as yeti dynamics) has been out for over a year at this writing, but it’s still very impressive: what would it look like if, as impossible it was, all of the planets (plus Pluto) in our solar system were between the Earth and our moon?
What would it Look like with all the planets between the earth and the moon? by yeti dynamics on YouTube
Wow. Great job, Nick!
Found via File 770.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Anybody else who grew up in the 1980s and remembers the song “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins? Here’s a treat: Jackson McKay mashed it up with X-wing clips from Star Wars movies for a really thrilling video.
Danger Zone: X-Wing Tribute (Ep IV-IX & Rogue One) by Jackson McKay on YouTube
What a blast! 😀
Found via Tor.com.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
To ease some of the covid-19 cabin fever, Wendy and Richard Pini have released a pdf version of an ElfQuest coloring book that was included in a past Kickstarter project of theirs.
The coloring book is free to download for private use, with one catch. In their words:
“One condition: You may not post images of the uncolored line art from the coloring book publicly online anywhere. The art is still copyright Warp Graphics. Thanks for your understanding. Bootleggers already steal ElfQuest images for unauthorized t-shirts and such; we don’t want to give them any more access than they’re already thieving.”
Thank you for sharing!
Image by Wendy Pini
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Under two months to go to the Black Widow movie, and we have a second trailer.
Marvel Studios’ Black Widow | Final Trailer by Marvel Entertainment on YouTube
There are a few more clues of the Taskmaster character. He apparently has taken over the Red Room and somehow brainwashed / controlled a number (a class?) of Widows. Nat is shown connecting with her first found family, with some amusingly (and painfully) familiar bickering at the dining table. Since trailers always lie, I’m hesitant to call the writing good on the basis of what we’ve seen so far, but I’m cautiosly optimistic. Just, please, let it not be utter crap (like so many female-lead superhero movies of yore have been).
Otherwise, from the filming or type of action shown, somehow I get a similar wibe as Winter Soldier. As that’s one of my favorite MCU stories, this is a good thing. 🙂 Also, I’ll be glad to see northern European neoclassical cityscapes; it reminds me of home.
Black Widow opens May 01, 2020.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Have you guys heard of the LightSail project?
Run by The Planetary Society (the world’s largest private non-profit space organization), LightSail is a crowdfunded project that successfully launched a solar sail driven spacecraft into Earth orbit in June 2019 in an effort to lower the cost of space exploration.
While not the first spacecraft to successfully use solar sails, LightSail 2 has managed to slow down the deterioration of its orbit and on occasion to reverse drag created by the atmosphere and correct course. Indeed: one of the mission’s functions is doubling as a probe of far-atmospheric thickness.
LightSail 2 deployed its solar sail in July 2019, and has been sending data down to Earth since then. Access the LightSail project page or LightSail 2 mission control for some interesting browsing.
Really cool, isn’t it?
Image: Australia and New Guinea from LightSail 2 by The Planetary Society (CC BY-NC 3.0)
Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.
A new Netflix young adult fantasy The Letter for the King has a trailer out:
The Letter for the King | Official Trailer | Netflix on YouTube
The Letter for the King is based on a novel by Dutch author Tonke Dragt and, according to IMDB, filmed in Czech Republic and New Zealand. (I thought I recognized the Southern Alps from Peter Jackson’s LotR films!)
Apart from what Tor.com has to tell, I don’t know anything about the series except that it reminds me of The Shannara Chronicles (both in the good and the bad). Of the writers I know nothing; of the cast, I’ve only seen two of the adults (David Wenham, Andy Serkis), so neither helps me decide whether it might be worth tracking down. Anyone know anything interesting about this project?
The series will be available on Netflix March 20, 2020.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Just over a month to go, and the final trailer for live-action Mulan is here:
Disney’s Mulan | Final Trailer by Walt Disney Studios on YouTube
More character moments and more action than in the previous two trailers, that’s for sure! There is apparently going to be a woman in a major protagonist role, which is perhaps tiresome, but then again, it’s a Disney production so it’s not likely the story will be something new and astounding. I’d also ditch the most egregious wirework stunts, but that’s another highly personal preference.
An interesting choice was to show Mulan’s parents discussing her choice and have them wrestle with the implications, but I’m guessing there won’t be too much of that in the movie. And it is still incredibly beautiful.
Mulan is released March 27, 2020.
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
The Black Widow movie is released in just under two and a half months, and a special look trailer is out.
Marvel Studios’ Black Widow | Special Look by Marvel Entertainment on YouTube
We see more action, but still relatively few plot points are added to the first trailer: for example, the character I assume to be the Taskmaster remains officially unnamed in the clip. We do hear that a new class (a “vault”) of widows has been trained, which has lots of spin-off potential.
What I really enjoy the most, though, is that we see at least three women being pals (well, for certain values of pals at least) and kicking ass while at it. Sure, some of the stunts look a bit ludicrous, but show me a superhero movie that doesn’t have overdone action in it. The point is, women get to do it, too, and not just the lone Smurfette pasted in to flash cleavage. These women—like the other characters in the story—are highly trained and they are finally allowed to act it. Fucking finally!
Black Widow opens May 01, 2020.
Image: screencap from the tv series Leverage (“The Office Job”, season 4 / episode 12) via Oui, Mais Non (insertusernameici) on Tumblr
Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.
Co-Geeking 