More Wolverine Fine Art Variant Covers

Here are 4 more Wolverine “fine art” variant comic covers that will be released in April as part of “Wolverine Art Appreciation Month.”

 

 

In the style of a cave painting

 

 

Gustav Klimt

 

 

Alphonse Mucha

 

 

Wyeth

 

 See additional covers HERE

 

 

The Universal Record Database

The Universal Record Database is an open, participatory database for world records. They welcome the general public to get involved, whether discussing records, beating records or setting new ones of their own.  The newly formed Organization’s goal is to build an online community as well as collectively push the limits of what mankind can do. Move over Guinness World Records, there is a new site in town.

Do you think you can perform the longest “Shh”, create the largest toothpick beard or grow the longest toenail?  If so, fill out their simple submission form, upload your media and wait to see if you have what it takes to be a true record holder.

I think they should add a category for the individual that can carry the most LP’s.  Then you could be the record holder record holder. Bu-dum-bum.

Shoppers Flea From Giant Dog At Mall

Perwanal Saatchi & Saatchi in Jakarta, Indonesia, has taken interactivity and creepy-crawliness to a new, flat level with the creation of this massive “floor sticker” in an Jakarta shopping center .
 
The ad, for Jakarta’s pet emporium JAKPETZ, promotes Frontline Flea & Tick Spray  with the slogan “Get them off your dog.”
 
Viewed from the upper levels, the people walking on the ad look disgustingly flea-like, and the scene elicits constant reactions.

 

What Facebook Will Probably Look Like In A Few Years

Facebook unveiled their new design last week, and guess what: it sucks. It seems like every time they tweak their design, they end up making it more confusing and lame. So, we looked into our crystal ball to see what Facebook will probably look like in a few years.

 

 

Source: Holy Taco

Interior Art For The Art of Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King

Here are 6 pages of interior art from the forthcoming book, The Art of Darkness, Artists Inspired by Stephen King that was announced this week. The book can be pre-ordered HERE.

Plot Synopsis for Stephen King’s Under the Dome

Here is the plot Synopsis for Under the Dome as described by the publisher:

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

 

The mammoth 1,120 page novel is scheduled to be released on November 10, 2009.

 

Wearable Words

As much as they might want to, parents can’t keep their children at home all the time. Eventually, they grow up and start experiencing the world as adults — a state in which they’re likely to forget their parent’s words of wisdom. That’s what the Sound Advice Project is for, to transform your words into a visual sound wave that is worn on a plastic bracelet.

10 Books People Claim They’ve Read But Haven’t

These are the ten books that people are most likely to lie about having read, according to a survey by a pro-reading advocacy group in the UK.

 

1984 by George Orwell (42%)

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (31%)

Ulysses by James Joyce (25%)

The Bible (24%)

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (16%)

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (15%)

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (14%)

In Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust (9%)

Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (6%)

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (6%)

 

Sixth Sense Technology

Here another MIT creation, from their Fluid Interfaces Lab, a wearable gesture interface. It removes the need of a screen with a projector; everything becomes a screen. 

 

Getting Their Kirk On

There is nothing particularly unusual about the living room of the two-story town house that Scott Veazie shares with his wife in Washougal, Wash., except for one piece of furniture in a corner: a full-size replica of the captain’s chair from the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, as seen in the original “Star Trek” television series.

 

Mr. Veazie, 27, was not yet born when that show first went on the air in the 1960s; even his parents were only teenagers. During his childhood, there were “Star Trek” spinoffs on TV with more sophisticated special effects than the original, and a more contemporary sensibility, and there were also movies featuring the old show’s actors aboard updated versions of the Enterprise. But Mr. Veazie, who watched endless reruns of the original series with his mother in the 1980s, was never drawn to those later incarnations.

 

“The original show was the first one I saw,” he said. “It was so idealistic. A lot of us kids wanted to be Captain Kirk — and part of that was the chair.”

 

Mr. Veazie, a manager at Underwriters Laboratories, built the chair himself last year, and has been gratified to find, since installing it in the living room in May, that “when someone comes in, it’s the first thing they comment on.”

 

Serious Trekkies have long fashioned copies of their favorite costumes and props, and, back in the ’70s and ’80s, a few even put together homemade knockoffs of the captain’s chair, using reference materials like the “Starfleet Technical Manual” and “U.S.S. Enterprise Bridge Blueprints.”

 

But lately fans like Mr. Veazie have been building or buying more sophisticated versions of the command module from which James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner, ordered “Ahead, warp factor six.” Moreover, they are making them the centerpiece of their homes, thus conquering what is for them a final frontier of domestic décor. (Read more HERE)

 

President Obama on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno

Apple Adds HD Video Purchases to the iTunes Store

Apple’s flood of announcements this month continues today with the addition of high-def movie purchases to the iTunes Store. Although HD TV shows were previously available to buy, HD movies were rental only until now. HD flicks will cost you $19.99, and they’re the same H.264 compressed 720p quality. Purchases will come with both an HD file and an iPod / iPhone-ready SD file, which is a nice touch, and Apple’s also promising that HD rentals will now be on the store within 30 days of retail. It’s all going live today with exclusive pre-orders of Quantum of Solace and Twilight.

 

AT&T Confirms Contract-Free $599 / $699 iPhone 3Gs

AT&T has now confirmed that commitment-free iPhones are going to happen — soon, in fact. As of next Thursday, you’ll be able to walk into the AT&T store of your choice and pick up an 8GB or 16GB unit for $599 and $699, respectively; that’s a little harder to swallow than the normal $199 / $299, granted, but in exchange, you’re free and clear without two years of your commitment.

 

Go Way Back to the Year One

Columbia Pictures has released the new trailer for the Harold Ramis comedy Year One, starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross and Hank Azaria.

In the film, hitting theaters on June 19, a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) are banished from their primitive village and they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world.

 

Madonna Plans New Tracks For Hits Collection

Madonna is planning to head back into the studio to record new music for an upcoming greatest hits album, tentatively due in September.

Details on the project — which will be her last album for Warner Bros. Records — have yet to be finalized, says Madonna’s longtime publicist Liz Rosenberg. However, she says that “all different options are being explored regarding packaging and content.”

One of those options perhaps includes input from Madonna’s fans on what tunes should be included on the album. Guy Oseary, the diva’s manager, has posted missives to his Twitter account, soliciting suggestions from Madonna’s devotees about what tracks “must be on” the album.

Madonna has released two previous best-ofs: 1990′s “The Immaculate Collection” and 2001′s “GHV2: Greatest Hits Volume 2.” She also issued the ballads collection, “Something To Remember,” in 1995. “Immaculate” is tied with Patsy Cline’s “Greatest Hits” as the top-selling hits albums ever by a solo female in the U.S. — both are certified at 10 million sold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

 

Green Lantern to Start Filming in September

Warner Bros. is scheduled to begin filming The Green Lantern in mid-September in Australia, reports Production Weekly.

To be directed by Martin Campbell, the comic book adaptation is targeted for a December 17, 2010 release.

The “Green Lantern” was created in 1940 by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell. Hal Jordan introduced in 1959, a second-generation test pilot, is an ordinary man who was given the power ring and battery (lantern) by a dying alien named Abin Sur. When Abin Sur’s spaceship crashed on Earth, the alien used his ring to seek out an individual to take his place as Green Lantern: someone who was “utterly honest and born without fear.”

 

OXO Good Grips Salt & Pepper Grinder Set

A modern table deserves updated accouterments. OXO’s Good Grips Salt and Pepper Shaker Set ($30) are a great place to start. Features like a rotating tab to select the setting (slow, fast, pour, or close) and a flat top for easy refilling are complimented by a clear acrylic body and stainless steel accents.

 

Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection

Submitted for your approval: Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection ($148). Now you can watch all 156 episodes of Rod Serling’s classic science fiction masterpiece, remastered for high-definition viewing from original film transfers. Serling was a visionary years ahead of his time, and his work still shines today. The set also includes a Serling bio-documentary, interviews with the show’s writers, and the series’ original, unaired pilot.

 

Metal Gear Solid Arrives For The iPhone

Konami has released its long-awaited Metal Gear Solid Touch game for the iPhone and iPod touch. The final release version will include both halves of the game, and purchasers of the advance release edition will receive a free update to the final release, with the ability to carry over game save information. MGST is based on the Playstation 3 title Metal Gear Solid 4, and gameplay is handled via a multi-touch interface, with the ability to slide a finger for aiming, pinch gestures for zooming in and out, and taps for firing a weapon. Metal Gear Solid Touch is available now from the App Store and sells for $8.

LEGO Builders of Tomorrow Contest

Wired.com is running a great contest in association with LEGO:

 

 

Simply take a picture of your family assembling a LEGO model and upload it to the GeekDad Flickr pool. Add a 50-100 word description of why your family enjoys building with LEGO together and use the tag buildersoftomorrow.

There will be five finalists chosen by LEGO staff. The four runners-up get a fabulous LEGO prize package to be announced later. The winning family also receives the prize package but also gets their picture on the box of the 2010 version of the LEGO Builders of Tomorrow set. All winning families will be featured on LEGOFamilyTime.com. The deadline is April 30^th.

Subway Art Gallery Opening

The folks from Improv Everywhere staged an art gallery opening on the 23rd Street subway platform in Manhattan. They had all the trappings: an open bar (serving cider), a coat check attendant, a cello player for ambiance, and nicely-dressed art patrons. The “art” displayed was the signs, graffiti, and objects already found in the subway!

 

USA Sitcom Map

NYC Sitcom Map

Evolution of the Batman Logo

Watch the Batman logo mutate over forty years. Fascinating from a cultural standpoint, but also from a design aesthetics one, as well. You really get a sense of how things became sleaker through the decades.

Scenes From The Recession

The state of our global economy: foreclosures, evictions, bankruptcies, layoffs, abandoned projects, and the people and industries caught in the middle. It can be difficult to capture financial pressures in photographs, but HERE are a few recent glimpses into some of the places and lives affected by what some are calling the “Great Recession”.