Iron Sky (which I thought I blogged about last year, but can’t find the post now) is finally being released this year on April 4th, 2012. Check out the trailer!

Keep in mind this is an independent film from Finland, from the creators of Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, and like that film this too is a parody. I don’t know if it will be release to theaters or not (probably not), but keep your eye out for it in April!

Here’s another funny trailer, with a few words from the director at the end.

For the cost of less than a single day on the War on Terror, we could have a robust and far-reaching program to explore Mars, look for signs of life on another planet, increase our overall science knowledge, and inspire a future generation of kids.

…so explains Phil Plait, who runs the Bad Astronomy Blog, in light of the devastating cuts to NASA’s budget as proposed by the White House. It seem shocking, but as Phil Plait explains, “Over the past few years, the rate of money spent in Afghanistan and Iraq is about 20 million dollars per hour. In other words, the amount of money being cut from Mars exploration is equal to what we were spending on the War on Terror in just 15 hours.”

For more, please read Phil Plait blog is a good overview of the budget cuts and what they mean.

The sad fact of the matter is that the Presidential budget request for fiscal year 2013 cuts NASA’s budget down to a paltry $17.7 billion. Now, that may sound like a lot of money, but considering the fact that NASA’s budget is about 0.5% of the total budget of the United States ($3.7 trillion) puts that into perspective.

But if I had any say, I’d just give NASA the $300 billion it needs to really push the frontiers of space and science, and invest in our country’s future. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that space is (practically) infinite, and with infinite space comes infinite resources and infinite opportunities for economic growth. Now get with it and fix the budget right!

Well, here’s some weird and wacky war machines that never really were.

The Tumbleweed Tank:
Leave it to the British boffins conjure up this month-of-all-wacky tanks. The Tumbleweed Tank would have been pretty awesome, if it wasn’t so obviously impractical. Oh well. That, and it could easily be defeated by a quick whack from a giant enemy croquet mallet.
Continue Reading »

Here’s a neat little mnemonic tool to help you avoid some of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. All credit is due to theOatmeal.com, and to see the original post please go here.

Click here to see the full Ten Words to Stop Misspelling

Continue Reading »

Here’s my top picks of the must see movies of 2012, in no particular order. Be sure to click the HD option to 720 and go full screen!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

We all know the tale, and at long last the new movie has been revealed!

The Hunger Games

Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins, this looks to be an excellent film adaptation.

Prometheus

So, Mr. Ridley Scott… You claim Prometheus is not an Aliens prequel? I think we’ll judge for ourselves.

The Avengers

I do believe the Avengers movie will be a wild, fun ride.

Wrath of the Titans

Another wild fun ride of a movie, and clearly a special effects extravaganza.

The Expendables 2

If you want to see some legendary action heroes, I think this is the movie for you.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

I’m not saying the first G.I. Joe live action movie was awesome, but G.I. Joe: Retaliation actually looks pretty good. And more G.I. Joe like than the other film.

I hope you had a good 2011 and have a happy 2012. Google has put up a retrospective of 2011, highlighting from the search engine’s perspective the top stories and events of the past year. Sure, it’s just a promo for Google, but it’s still a great video. Enjoy!

Only 374 days! Click the HD 720 and go full screen:

From Warner Brothers press release: “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever … Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths ofguile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s ‘precious’ ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.”

Remember those old Mac vs PC commercials? Well, here’s some more — but with a new friend added!

It’s 72 and sunny on Kepler-22b! Well, maybe. The Kepler Telescope team has announced confirmation of a terrestrial planet orbiting a G-class star (same type as our star) in the habitable orbit zone. The planet, dubbed Kepler-22b, is a little over twice the size of Earth, and orbits its host star in a circular orbit at a similar distance to Earth’s orbit around the sun, and it even has a close to Earth-like 290 day orbital cycle.

Artist's depiction of Kepler 22b

The star is 600 light-years away, so there is presently no way to actual get an image of the planet or (as yet) to determine its atmospheric composition. However, if the planet has an atmosphere of similar composition and density to Earth’s, it is a prime candidate for life. William Borucki, the Kepler mission’s principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center, has this to say: “If greenhouse warming on this planet was similar (to atmospheric warming on Earth), its surface temperature would be something like 72° F,” he said.  The article at Popular Science has more details on this exciting discovery.

So exciting is this discovery, that SETI has just announced that the US Air Force Space Command has provided additional funding to reactive the Allen Telescope Array and focus its ears on Kepler-22b, and similar candidate planets, for artificial signals.

Exciting times!

Just Glue Some Gears on it and call it Steampunk, yes? And if you believe that, old chap, I fear you are outrageously mistaken. Please observe the following musical recital to educate yourself on both what steampunk is, as well as what it most assuredly is not.