Archive for July 10th, 2011
Superhero Garden Gnome Mod
Evil lurks in the shadows of our backyards. Rogue snails. Radioactive skunks. My yard has a maniacal possum that will stop at nothing until he controls the entire area behind the compost pile. That’s why every backyard needs a hero. One that can clean up the garden and make it safe for all law abiding neighborhood critters. This Instructable will show you how to turn an unassuming mild-mannered garden gnome into a tiny butt-kicking purveyor of justice.
‘Space Invaders’ Video Game Headed to Big Screen (Exclusive) – Hollywood Reporter
Get ready for the Space Invaders movie.
The classic 1980s arcade game from Taito and Midway, which is ranked as the top arcade game of all time by Guinness World Records, is heading to the big screen courtesy of producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Odd Lot Entertainment’s Gigi Pritzker.
The two have teamed up to option the rights and develop the project and are now on the hunt for a writer to come up with a story.
One of the first video games, Space Invaders is credited with taking the medium from a sideshow attraction to a mainstream obsession. The shooter game was technically released in 1978 but made its pop culture mark by the turn of the decade. It featured rows upon rows of aliens (or their ships) raining laser death upon a lone player who took cover behind slowly disintegrating blocks. There have been other rumored attempts to develop a film but none has gone anywhere.
With Space Invaders, the producers are facing an interesting challenge: The video game doesn’t have a built-in mythology, so on one hand a film won’t risk offending game fans. Conversely, coming up with a captivating universe, especially for video game adaptations, is no easy task.
For di Bonaventura, Space Invaders is the latest of a string of projects based on 80s touchstones. He is a producer on the Transformers and G.I. Joe movies, both based on popular Me Decade toys. And he is developing Asteroids, based on the classic arcade game, and a remake of 1989′s Pet Sematary.
Pritzker’s Odd Lot is one of the key companies behind Drive, the much-buzzed-about thriller from Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling, and is a producer on Ender’s Game, the adaptation of the Orson Scott Card sci-fi novel.
via ‘Space Invaders’ Video Game Headed to Big Screen (Exclusive) – Hollywood Reporter.
Japan Earthquake: Powerful Quake Strikes Off Northeastern Coast
A powerful earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast on Sunday. Tsunami advisories were issued following the Japan earthquake, Tokyo Breaking News reported. The alert was later lifted.
According to Reuters, Fukushima nuclear plant workers evacuated to higher ground following the earthquake, with no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Tokyo Electric Power said that there did not appear to be any further damage at the nuclear plant.
In March, Japan’s earthquake and tsunami devastated the country, and wreaked havoc at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
The Associated Press reports:
The quake hit at 9:57 local time (0057 GMT), and a warning of a tsunami was issued for most of the northeastern coastline. The epicenter of the quake was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan’s main island, Honshu, at a depth of about 20 miles (30 kilometers).
Japanese officials predicted the quake could generate tsunami of up to 20 inches (50 centimeters), but the initial waves were only about 4 inches (10 centimeters).
via Japan Earthquake: Powerful Quake Strikes Off Northeastern Coast.
Facebook Scam Pretends to Connect You With Video Calling [WARNING]
Facebook and Skype teamed up to bring you video calling, but at the same time, scammers are teaming up to trick you into spamming all your Facebook friends, using the lure of the new video calling feature. Here’s how to sidestep that scam.
There’s a legitimate way to sign up for Facebook Video Calling, where you’re asked to download a program from the official Facebook Video Calling page, and then the chat window asks you to configure a few Flash settings.
That looks like the graphic below. While the service is working for some lucky users, as you can see, when I tried it a few minutes ago, it wasn’t working yet for me, notifying me that “video calling will be available soon, please check back later.”
via Facebook Scam Pretends to Connect You With Video Calling [WARNING].
Two civilian planes intercepted near Camp David – politics – White House – msnbc.com
WASHINGTON — Fighter jets intercepted two civilian planes in the vicinity of Camp David on Saturday, in separate incidents that took place while President Barack Obama was there.
In both cases the planes were met by F-15 fighter jets and landed without incident at nearby airports, North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis said.
They marked the third and fourth such incidents in a month, all four of them taking place while Obama was at the Maryland presidential retreat.
The first plane, identified only as a civilian aircraft out of radio communication, was intercepted by a pair of fighter jets at about 12:17 p.m. local time on Saturday, Lewis said.
The second, a Cessna 210, was intercepted at about 6:56 p.m. on Saturday and was met by law enforcement at Carroll County Regional Airport in Maryland. No further details were immediately available.
Last Saturday, a small plane got within six miles of the presidential retreat before it was intercepted by an F-15 fighter jet.
And on June 11, fighter jets scrambled to guide another small plane away from the area without incident.
Camp David has been a presidential weekend and holiday retreat in the nearby Maryland mountains for decades.
via Two civilian planes intercepted near Camp David – politics – White House – msnbc.com.
