Brilliant!

• Prometheus, Viewed as a Roleplaying Game (contains spoilers; but seriously good fun read)
• What If Beethoven Gave Your Commencement Speech?
• ‘I Just Want to Feel Everything’: Hiding Out With Fiona Apple, Musical Hermit
• Anatomy of CGI: A Scene from “Tangled”
• 20 Things Fantasy Characters Should Do More Often
• Germany’s Ambitious Energy Plan (here’s hoping it works)
• Most Internet trolls are probably trolls in real life, too
• Photos: Behind the scenes of The Empire Strikes Back

I keep telling myself that the last post about Prometheus would, well… be the last post about Prometheus, but this concise list of 43 ‘lessons’ learned from the science from the film, then led to this post-viewing analysis that is now my official favourite response to the film.

Caution: spoilers somewhat ahead.

• So Long Judy Freudberg, Sesame Street Veteran; Writer Behind Land Before Time and American Tail
• Goddamnit… 35mm Film is About to Die – Studios Plan to Go With All Digital Projection by 2014
• Oh please fucking yes: HBO Considering Bored to Death Movie
• Video: a very brief online peek at upcoming Life of Pi adaptation
• The Evolution of Aesthetics: The Origins Of Music And Visual Art
• Bad astronomer on Will we ever… live on the Moon?
• Concerned Scientists Fight Back Against Ignorance in Washington DC by building a Center for Science and Democracy
• Opinion: Obama Might Lose (And He Might Win)
• Why Are Traffic Lights Red and Green? (sorta explained)

And today’s trailer is Julie Delpy’s sequel to 2 Days in Paris, now with more glasses…

So, this weeks internet appears to have been brought to you by the letter ‘Prometheus’ as pretty much every site or blog I go to has some opinion, or reference to an opinion about it.

I’m definitely a fence sitter in that I love pretty much every single technical/design aspect of the film, while finding the story and thematic concepts wholly underwhelming in contrast. I also just realised that on reflection, I could also be disappointed with the ‘science’/realism of the film (like the fact the entire plot revolves around journeying to a star formation that in all probability, has shifted position/alignment since being first painted 35,000 years ago); but now I’m slowly realising that my new understandings of physics has ruined the potential to ever fully enjoy another action (or sci-fi) film.

Anyhow, the online reactions and discussions have been quite illuminating; from literary analysis and theological allusions to simple hilarious hate, but my current favourite is probably this video where a group of friends decided to watch the entire Alien/Predator chronology of films and record their ratings before heading off the Prometheus itself. Good fun.

Must also add this short making-of featurette on the fantastic soundscape of Prometheus.

• The only honest revenue based sites out there are porn
• Scientists Closer than Ever to Discovering Higgs Particle
• Is Earth at an Environmental Tipping Point?
• Inside the Troubled ‘World War Z’ Production
• The heartwarming story behind the ugliest man on YouTube
• It’s Gettin’ Hard Out There For A Troll
• “I’ve been playing the same game of Civilization II for 10 years”
• ‘Game of Thrones’ Director Explains All the Rampant Nudity
• Brain Scans Show Specific Neuronal Response to Junk Food When Sleep-Restricted

Also, Conan teaching the blues to school kids:

Say what you will about the newly released Prometheus (and pretty much everyone does), but this parody of the Happy Birthday David video by Joel McHale of Community fame is just great fun…

Shit, guess this is what happens when I don’t update regularly; all the left over tabs and bookmarks get to be so numerous, they have to be herded into a single, over-sized aggregated post. My bad. Good stuff to read and check out though. Honest.

• Boston teacher’s incredible speech to graduating class: ‘You are NOT special’ (brilliance)
  

  In a moment of pure untamed brilliance English teacher David McCullough went off on the graduating class of 2012 at Wellesley High, critiquing modern parenting techniques by saying that children are “pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble wrapped… nudged, cajoled, wheedled .. feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie.”
  (transcript here and video here)

• Being the ‘good’ kind of narcissist
• P-p-p pick up a perverted penguin
  

  Newly discovered documents from Captain Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic have revealed their shock at the “astonishing depravity” and sexual habits of the Adelie penguins they encountered around the South Pole.

• Scientists to Use Venus Transit to Hone Alien Planet Search Techniques
  Plus: video observations from the SDO and collected photos on the Big Picture.
• Toward a Dissident Architecture?
  

  The question posed by Wang’s Pritzker selection could be articulated like this: If you provide a particularly humane or humanist built environment within the context of occasionally inhumane political or economic conditions, to what extent are you reinforcing or resisting those conditions? Are you offering a tangible alternative or a mere respite?

• The Pirate Bay evades ISP blockade with IPv6, can do it 18 quintillion more times
• How search engines will develop sentient responses?
• Radiolab: The Art and Science of Digital Shamanism
• Why Great Television Is More Like A Novel Than A Play
  

  Why do still watch plays by Euripides, born some 2,500 years ago, or Shakespeare, who is nearly 450 years old? Writer orthodoxy says it’s because the fundamental rules for drama have never changed, since they are eternal, rooted in human nature.

• Why Americans See Racism Where The French See No Problem
• Wes Anderson: Whimsical Like a Fox
  See also: his collaborator’s radio interview on how he soundtracks his movies.
• Francis Ford Coppola: On Risk, Money, Craft & Collaboration

Finally, was pointed to an upcoming Ubisoft game titled “Watch Dogs”. Not much details have been released yet, but based on this E3 trailer, it looks to be one of those rare high concept, modernist thinking games that only get produced once in a blue moon. Plus the trailer itself is a magnificently designed video.