Siftables

Siftables are little computers, each about the size of a cookie. They interact with each other as you manipulate them!

 

Wolverine 60-Second TV Spot #2

Watch it HERE.

 

The Rubik’s Touch Cube

Techno Source recently announced the Rubik’s Touch Cube which will launch in fall 2009 for under $149.99. How does it work? Rubik’s Touch Cube features touch sensor technology on all 6 faces, a motion-detecting accelerometer and colored lights in every square. It even mimics the movements of the original 3×3 Cube—swipe a finger across three squares and the lights will follow, “turning” a side of the Cube; make an “L” shape to turn the top face of the cube a quarter turn. Rubik’s Touch Cube’s motion-detecting accelerometer only picks out moves made on the top face of the block, so that a player’s fingers won’t move the lights on other sides when holding it.

 

Dark Was The Night Charity CD

Dark Was The Night will be released on February 17th, 2009. It’s comprised of 31 exclusive tracks and it will be available as a double cd/triple vinyl/download and will benefit the Red Hot Organization – an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture. They are the people responsible for albums including No Alternative, Red Hot and Blue and many more, and this is their 20th year, and this is the 20th release!

DARK WAS THE NIGHT

THIS DISC
1 Knotty Pine – Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
2 Cello Song (Nick Drake) – The Books featuring Jose Gonzalez
3 Train Song (Vashti Bunyan recorded, written by Alasdair Clayre) – Feist + Ben Gibbard
4 Brackett, WI – Bon Iver
5 Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
6 So Far Around the Bend – The National (arrangement by Nico Muhly)
7 Tightrope – Yeasayer
8 Feeling Good (popularized by Nina Simone) – My Brightest Diamond
9 Dark Was the Night (Blind Willie Johnson) – Kronos Quartet
10 I Was Young When I Left Home (Bob Dylan) – Antony + Bryce Dessner
11 Big Red Machine – Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner
12 Sleepless – The Decemberists
13 Stolen Houses (Die) – Iron and Wine
14 Service Bell – Grizzly Bear + Feist
15 You Are The Blood – Sufjan Stevens

THAT DISC
1 Well-Alright – Spoon
2 Lenin – Arcade Fire
3 Mimizan – Beirut
4 El Caporal – My Morning Jacket
5 Inspiration Information (Shuggie Otis) – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
6 With A Girl Like You (The Troggs) – Dave Sitek
7 Blood Pt 2 (based on original song “You are the Blood” by the Castanets) – Buck 65 Remix (featuring Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti)
8 Hey, Snow White (Destroyer) – The New Pornographers
9 Gentle Hour (Snapper) – Yo La Tengo
10 Another Saturday (traditional song) – Stuart Murdoch
11 Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps
12 Amazing Grace (traditional song) – Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues
13 The Giant Of Illinois (Handsome Family) – Andrew Bird
14 Lua – Conor Oberst + Gillian Welch
15 When the Road Runs Out – Blonde Redhead + Devastations
16 Love vs. Porn – Kevin Drew

*Thanks for the tip Don Thompson

Happy Presidents Day From The Fire Wire

Please join my blog network HERE 

Facebook’s New Terms Of Service

Facebook’s terms of service used to say that when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire. Not anymore. Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want. Make sure you never upload anything you don’t feel comfortable giving away forever, because it’s Facebook’s now.

The People vs George Lucas Teaser Trailer

LINK

The Trilogy Meter

LINK

CD Recommendation Of The Week

The Annie Lennox Collection due in stores tomorrow, paints a vivid portrait in song of the most long standingly successful female British artist in pop music history.  This 14-song retrospective brings together the acclaimed artist’s finest solo work on a single disc for the first time, and includes a pair of new songs available exclusively with this release.

Spanning 15 years, The Annie Lennox Collection includes hits from her four top-selling solo albums Diva (1992), Medusa (1995), Bare (2003) and last year’s highly praised Songs of Mass Destruction. The timeless music selected for this collection uniquely reflects the essence of the singer’s instantly recognizable  brand of soul music on tracks like “Why,” “Walking on Broken Glass” and “No  More ‘I Love You’s’” — a song that earned Lennox one of her four Grammys.

The retrospective also includes two new songs recorded especially for this collection. Offering the instant Annie Lennox classic tag is “Pattern Of My Life”, written by Tom Chaplin the front man of multi award winning UK Rock band Keane. The second new track is a cover of Irish alt-rock group Ash’s “Shining  Light’, which picked up the 2001 Ivor Novello best Contemporary Song Award  and the Irish Music best Single Award the following year. Among the many highlights on The Annie Lennox Collection is “Sing,” a song that references The SING Campaign, a humanitarian organization Lennox founded to raise awareness and support for the AIDS/HIV pandemic in Africa.

Disney And LEGO Announce Partnership

The LEGO Group and Disney Consumer Products today announced a multi-year licensing agreement that gives the world’s premiere construction toy brand access to an extensive portfolio of renowned Disney and Disney Pixar properties. LEGO products are currently in development for Disney Pixar’s “Toy Story” and “Cars,” both scheduled to launch in 2010:

Toy Story

Children’s imaginations will go “To infinity and beyond” when, beginning in 2010, they will be able to re-create the adventures of Buzz Lightyear and Woody with LEGO toys inspired by the Toy Story franchise. Toy Story-themed construction sets will be available on both LEGO DUPLO and LEGO System platforms, building the adventure and fun for children ages 2-12. LEGO System products based on Toy Story and Toy Story 2 will launch in January 2010, to be followed in May by construction sets based on the new animated feature, Toy Story 3, scheduled to hit theaters in Disney Digital 3D June 2010. Toy Story-themed LEGO DUPLO products launch in June 2010.

Cars

Lightning McQueen will rev his engine at the starting line of a DUPLO portfolio that will have young builders creating and exploring the high-octane world of the Cars franchise. The Cars-themed LEGO DUPLO line will feature iconic scenes from Radiator Springs and the Piston Cup Championship raceway and will feature favorite Cars characters like McQueen, Mater and Sally. Cars-themed LEGO DUPLO products are scheduled to launch in June 2010.

Wolverine 60-Second TV Spot

20th Century Fox has begun airing the 3 60-second TV spots for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and you can check out the first one below titled “Outcasts.” The second one will air on Monday, Feb. 16 during “House” (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) and the third will air Tuesday, Feb. 17 during “American Idol” (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on Fox.

Opening May 1st, the Gavin Hood-directed prequel stars Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, Will.i.am, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan, Daniel Henney and Lynn Collins.

 

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Trailer

Ace Of Cakes LOST Cake

If you’re a fan of ABC’s hit show LOST you might want to add Jorge Garcia’s blog (He plays lovable Hurley on the show) to your list of regular reads. Yesterday Garcia posted some pictures of the cake Duff and the crew from FoodTV’s Ace of Cakes show baked to celebrate the 100th episode of the popular television series.

Click the photo for more detailed images.

Every Album Ever

99 Things You Should Have Experienced On The Internet

Greg Rutter has prepared this list of 99 things you should have experienced on the internet by now. Check out the list HERE and let me know how many you were familiar with?

 

If Abraham Lincoln Had An iPod

To celebrate Presidents’ Day, classical music commentator Miles Hoffman explored the 16th president’s musical tastes, as well as what music Lincoln might have chosen for his iPod, had he owned one.  Listen to some of the choices HERE.

 

The Michael Jackson Neverland Auction

In April, an auction by Julien’s Auctions at the Beverley Hills Hilton will provide an unprecedented look into the private world of Michael Jackson. Click HERE to see some of the unusual items.

U2 Playing Five Nights On Letterman

U2 will perform an unprecedented five nights in a row on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on March 2-6, the release week of its next Interscope album, “No Line on The Horizon.”

The last time U2 performed on the show was in 2001; prior to that Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were interviewed by Letterman in 1997.

U2 has already started making media appearances in support of “Horizon,” due March 3. The band played lead single “Get on Your Boots” at the Grammys on Sunday.

Rescue Me Returns On April 7th

The fifth season of Denis Leary’s “Rescue Me” doesn’t premiere for two months, but FX is already ordering a sixth round. The network picked up another 18 episodes of the critically acclaimed show about the lives of New York firefighters. The 22-episode fifth season, which was delayed by last year’s writers strike, starts April 7, about 19 months after the conclusion of Season 4. In addition, Leary is launching “The Rescue Me Comedy Tour,” an 11-city tour featuring the actor, fellow comedians and “Rescue Me” co-stars Adam Ferrara and Lenny Clarke.  

 

Cupcake Obama

Zilly Rosen, an artist from Buffalo, N.Y., created a portrait of Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln out of more than 5,000 cupcakes. The piece is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum until 5 p.m. on Saturday, when the public is invited to “de-install” it.

When viewed from above, the installation looks something like an exercise in large-scale cupcake pointillism — each cupcake acts as one pixel in the image.

The cupcakes contain a cream filling and are topped with a colored disc made of fondant, which is a more pliable kind of icing made with powdered sugar.

This is Rosen’s second cupcake portrait of Obama. In November she constructed one at his campaign headquarters in Buffalo. That one was about a fifth of the size.

The Best Job In The World

The Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef is a newly created position. There are a few minor tasks that need to be taken care of, but the most important duty is to report back to Tourism Queensland (and the world) and let them know what’s taking place on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.  More information and how to apply can be found HERE. (Thanks for the tip, George)

 

Underground Parking Tower for Bikes

In Tokyo you can park your bicycle underground, neatly, safely and automatically. You swipe your card, doors open, and you place your front wheel on a docking device that whisks your bike away into an underground storage facility that can hold up to 144 bicycles.

When you want to retrieve your bike, you swipe your card again and in ten seconds or less, your bicycle magically reappears.

Scarlett Johansson to Star in Iron Man 2?

Entertainment Weekly is reporting the rumor that Scarlett Johansson is in discussions with Marvel Studios to replace Emily Blunt for the role of Russian superspy Natasha Romanoff, who doubles as Black Widow, in Iron Man 2.

Blunt’s commitment to 20th Century Fox and the studio’s upcoming Gulliver’s Travels may prohibit her from co-starring in the superhero sequel.

Marvel will not confirm, but sources tell EW that Johansson has indeed met with the filmmakers and is interested in taking the role. Blunt’s reps are still trying to make both projects work, but “Gulliver’s” is further along, with a start date of April 15. Iron Man 2 still doesn’t have a shooting script and a start date has not yet been determined.

 

 

Free Presidential Marvel Digital Comics

Marvel Comics can’t seem to keep its hyper-popular Spidey and Obama team-up on the shelves, so it’s offering a free, digital version of the comic online. The fast-selling The Amazing Spider-Man No. 583, with four pages of never-before-seen prologue, went live Friday on Marvel’s digital comics site. All five variant covers are also available for viewing in the digital version.

 

“We were completely blown away by the overwhelming response to the ‘Spidey Meets the President‘ story line…. We thought it would a fitting way to celebrate Presidents’ Day by offering free online access to all fans to view and read the story line — including some exclusive new content — only at Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited,” said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Publishing, in a press release. To compound the presidential party, the publisher will give away an exclusive digi-comic Monday that celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday. Gettysburg Distress (pictured) will also be available through Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited site. In the six-page special edition, Captain America and Spider-Man are on hand to witness Lincoln’s epochal Gettysburg Address. Download the comics HERE.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

Create your own customized Valentine’s candy hearts HERE.