I saw this sign yesterday outside the Monroeton Fire Department on US 158 west of Reidsville...
Thanks to Richard Moore for getting the pic!
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain"
When good stuff like this has been out for a few months, and I'm only now finding out about it... that's when I know that I've been too absorbed in the serious and need to slow down and enjoy things more.
I love this song! It's catchy and fun and it's quite obvious that Tay is really enjoying his work. Dude's got talent.
This blog is used to post stuff that I think is cool and this is definitely up there. So here he is: Tay Zonday singing "Chocolate Rain"!
Implanted microchips may cause cancer
Many lab animals that have been given microchip implants have developed cancerous tumors, according to newly published research.
"The transponders were the cause of the tumors," said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.I thought this was pretty fascinating, in light of how there's a push from several sectors to start putting these chips in humans. And since some people are associating these chips with the biblical "Mark of the Beast", it kinda makes you wonder about Revelation 16, verses 1 and 2...Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth." The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.Whether you base your stance on religious belief or medical research or classic libertarianism, I think it's safe to say: putting these things in humans is a bad idea.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Screen burn-in on an LCD HDTV? Yup
We bought a 37-inch LCD high-definition television set last November. It's specifically an LCD screen because when I was doing research before we went out to look at sets the widespread consensus was that LCD screens don't "burn-in" like plasma screens do.
Well, guess what?
I can't show what this looks like because it doesn't show up well in photos, but there are two very fine vertical lines running down the entire height of the screen: one line running equidistant from each of the left and right sides of the image. They are exactly where the borders of the "pillars" are when you watch a standard (not high-def) image without "stretching" it to fill the screen. Since most of the interesting programming around here is standard definition and I don't like distorted images, the tendency is to watch television "pillarboxed". I guess that's how the lines got in there: with the borders always being "on".
It's supposed to not be a permanent condition of LCD screens. And technically it's not "burn-in" at all, in the sense that plasma screens can get it. It's properly called "image retention"... but that doesn't keep it from being any less a nuisance. Right now I've got the TV on with the image stretched to fill the screen, so that the pixels making up those lines will get "exercised" and start working right again. I'm hoping this will work. If not, looks like that service plan is going to turn out to have been a great investment after all.
In the meantime, if anyone's ever had any experience with this kind of an issue, I'd sure appreciate some advice. I like to try to fix things "in-house" as much as possible, without having to lug something as big as an HDTV back to the store :-)
A great voice falls silent: Luiciano Pavarotti has passed away
Why does it seem lately that we are losing so many legends?
It was in 1985 when I first heard Luciano Pavarotti sing. It was a concert on television and even as an 11-year old kid, I though there was something magnificent about Pavarotti's voice. Over the years I made sure to watch Pavarotti whenever he was on.
Probably my best memory of Pavarotti was when he did the 3 Tenors concert at the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles, where Pavarotti performed alongside Placido Domingo and José Carreras. I watched the whole thing live and bought the concert CD the day it came out a few weeks later. Before the show they were running footage of Pavarotti in the days leading up to the concert, laughing and playing with a soccer ball.
Here's the story from ABC News about his passing.
I don't know of what else that could be said about the man's talent and personality that hasn't been said elsewhere. But here's one thing that showcases it in spades, and I had no idea that this even existed until a short while ago...
Here is Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown performing "It's A Man's World" in concert!
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
The Knight Shift hits the half-million mark!
A short while ago this blog welcomed its 500,000th visitor since the meter started running almost three years ago. Thanks to everyone who has helped The Knight Shift reach this milestone, and here's hoping that it won't be long 'ere it hits a cool million :-)
TRANSFORMERS hits DVD and HD-DVD on October 16th!
Seibertron.com is reporting that this summer's smash hit movie Transformers - which has come up for discussion a few times on this blog for one reason or another - will be out on DVD and HD-DVD here in the U.S. on October 16th!
Am wondering though if this will include the "extra" footage that is going to be in the IMAX release coming out later this month. Some are already speculating that there might be a "special edition" release of the movie too with that and other things (I haven't found anywhere that there are going to be deleted scenes on this DVD release).
Still, that's going to be pretty nifty: the CD of Steve Jablonsky's Transformers score out on October 9th, and then the movie itself on DVD a week later :-)
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Something I'll never post on this blog and actually MEAN it...
"Look for the complete and factual account of the Viacom incident on this web page in the near future. The account has been delayed due to pending litigation."Yes, even now, I can't resist having some fun with this situation :-)
There is a massive update coming on this, and hopefully in the next few days. In the meantime, if you're a reasonably long-term reader of this blog you'll no doubt "get" the above joke.
JOUST: The Movie? Is this a joke?
GameDaily BIZ is reporting that a new Hollywood production company is making a full-length feature film based on Joust.
Yes, that Joust! The 1982 arcade game that had you flying around on a giant ostrich and jousting opponents around floating platforms.
The movie is being described as "Gladiator meets Mad Max" and is being set in Las Vegas 25 years in the future.
A movie where people ride ostriches... which actually fly... and fight each other. Ok-aaaaaayyy...
I'll withhold final judgment until I see the thing (and who knows, it might surprise us). And maybe it'll be a success and pave the way for other great movies like Burgertime and Dig Dug.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Steve Jablonsky thanks YOU for supporting the TRANSFORMERS score!
Here is the e-mail that arrived earlier this afternoon from Steve Jablonsky, the composer of the orchestral score for the movie Transformers.
Thanks Steve! And on behalf of a lot of people, thank you and your team for the awesome work you did on this score! We are really looking forward to having this album and enjoying your music wherever we go.Hey Chris,
My assistant forwarded your email to me a while back. I checked out your petition, and I wanted to personally thank you and everyone that signed. Support from fans like you really means a lot to me, and it makes me very happy that so many people enjoyed the Transformers score. Sorry it has taken so long to get it released. A score release was always in the works, it just took a while to pull everything together. But I'm glad it's finally coming out.
So thank you again, and a big thanks to the thousands who signed. Feel free to post this on your site or blog or wherever you like, so I can pass along thanks to everyone.
Steve
And to everyone who signed the petition and otherwise supported the release of the Transformers score: THANK YOU!! :-)
Some TRANSFORMERS goodies: IMAX poster and track listing for score CD
Look! It's the poster for Transformers in IMAX!
And lookie here, courtesy of Amazon.com: the track listing for the Steve Jablonsky score CD!
1. AutobotsSeems pretty loaded, with twenty tracks and all.
2. Decepticons
3. All Spark
4. Deciphering the Signal
5. Frenzy
6. Optimus
7. Bumblebee
8. Soccent Attack
9. Sam at the Lake
10. Skorpinok
11. Cybertron
12. Arrival to Earth
13. Whitwicky
14. Downtown Battle
15. Sector 7
16. Bumblebee Captured
17. You're a Soldier Now
18. Sam on the Roof
19. Optimus vs. Megatron
20. No Sacrifice, No Victory
Friday, August 31, 2007
Quick update on the Viacom situation
Well, this has certainly been an interesting past 48 hours.
There's been lots of activity happening on this end about the deal with Viacom and me: how they claimed I infringed on their copyright after posting a video on YouTube that Viacom made by infringing on my copyright.
It's evoked quite a bit more controversy than I had expected.
May be able to talk about this more in the next few days.
This is decisiveness? Fred Thompson announces an announcement
Fred Thompson has said he'll announce his presidential candidacy on September 6th.
Ummmm... isn't the announcement of an announcement the logical equivalent of the announcement itself?
This is part of the reason why I'm so disgusted with modern politics: it's become too much about pomp and pageantry and public bravura, and so very little about substance.
It's like this: the President of the United States is a position of service. Those who fully comprehend that won't play games with even candidacy for it. A real leader would simply say "Yes I'm a candidate", without being a protracted prima donna about the matter.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
More Viacom "infringement" insanity: Now lip-syncing to Prince is out
The story about my issue with Viacom and how they made YouTube take down a clip that I'd posted of a VH1 show which was already made with my own material is starting to get around. Now comes word of another crazy clip takedown on Viacom's orders...
Kenya Allmond received notification from YouTube yesterday that one of her videos had been pulled for "copyright infringement". The offending material? A clip of her boyfriend lip-syncing to "Kiss" by Prince!
At the rate things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if every single mash-up video using Star Trek on YouTube wound up getting zapped down the memory hole by the end of this weekend.
This blog has been Slashdotted! (And guess why?)
So I just got online for the day and guess what I saw at the top of the page on Slashdot:
It's the story about how Viacom claims I'm infringing on their copyright after they infringed on MY copyright! I just took a look at the original post that I made about this and in the last little while it's gone from 4 comments when I went to bed last night, to 20. I haven't read those yet but I'm about to.
So to all of the good folks who are finding their way to this blog from Slashdot: welcome! Thanks for coming! Hope you'll like what you find here :-)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Cover for TRANSFORMERS: THE SCORE album
The irony didn't sink in until a short while ago: all summer I've been championing the release of Steve Jablonsky's orchestral soundtrack from the movie Transformers. And Transformers was a Paramount production. Well, Paramount is owned by Viacom...
No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose.
Okay, just had to get that out of the way for sake of the irony, 'cuz I do appreciate irony (even when it's not going my way). Anyhoo, I found this on Amazon.com's page for what is apparently now being called Transformers: The Score:
Looks beautiful! I soooo can't wait to have this in my CD collection.
