At-Ats prefer Doggy-Style

Legoland is unveiling a new exhibit at the end of this month as part of their 'miniland' attraction in California.  The amusement park will be introducing a miniland of 7 different scenes from the "Star Wars" franchise of movies, ranging from the cantina on Mos Eisley to the snow-covered planet of Hoth.  Model builders united to create all the miniature facsimiles of vehicles, characters, and locations out of LEGO bricks.  The completed scenes will become a permanent installation at the theme park.   The exact number of interlocking lego bricks used in construction of the exhibit is still under debate;  early estimates of 1.5 million bricks was a gross under-estimation in relation to the completed scenes.



http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/03/geekdad-gets-the-first-look-at-legolands-new-star-wars-miniland/

Escaping The Junk Belt of Earth.

Forty-plus years of space travel has made the orbit of earth a dangerous place.  Objects discarded during space missions have collected in a developing belt of junk around the earth.  Some of the objects naturally decay in orbit and fall to earth, but much of the debris remains, leading to the stockpile of scraps amassed in earth's low-orbit.  The U.S. military actually monitors twenty-thousand pieces of debris in orbit.  This developing belt is making it more dangerous for space travel, as the stray debris causes a critical threat of collision.  Nasa scientists have proposed using robots similar to those used in auto-manufacturing to 'shoot' the debris with low-grade laser lite in order to 'nudge' the debris out of collision courses.... Really.  I wasn't aware that you could push something with light until reading this article.    I think that every entity that has a satellite or has a space program should unite together to collaborate on removing this belt together.  The earth is ours collectively, and we will ALL suffer together if the earth actually has a HALO of JUNK.


http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/lasering-space-junk/

TSA can see your organs but not your bomb.

'Nude' body scanners being used in U.S. airports are under scrutiny again.  A lawsuit has been filed, declaring the scanners as a health-hazard.  The most interesting thing I found about the article is that research has been conducted leading to results that question the feasibility of the scanners to begin with.  The research indicates that the body scanners are less-than reliable in locating/recognizing potential threats such as a gun or explosive hidden on a terrorist.   Test results have shown that a gun or explosive can be concealed on the human body without detection by the body scanner, leading me to the question:  Why the hell are these things being used if they are essentially worthless for locating weapons on terrorists?  If a machine is designed to locate weaponry or explosives, it should do just that---- otherwise, what is the point of taking off your shoes to walk through the detector if it can't see the 9mm strapped to your thigh anyways?!??  

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/scanners-part3/

Trailer Trash-Talkin'

Deep Silver released a forty-five minute playable demo of 'Dead Island', a highly anticipated game following the release of it's counterpoint trailer.  The game allows the player to choose from 4 different characters to play as, each with their own specific style of fighting and dialogue.   The reviewer said that the gameplay is in the first person shooter genre, with many many up close and personal encounters with zombies from the island.  A good selling point for the game is the drop-in, drop-out multi-player option.  A player can join their friends to play and assist at any point in a campaign.  I have been waiting for games like 'Halo' to include this multiplayer option for several years now--- finally a developer has added the feature.  The game has a few similarities to already-released games, but left the reviewer wanting for more.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/03/dead-island-preview/