Kyle MacLachlan Wants to Return to Twin Peaks

Actor KYLE MACLACHLAN plans to resurrect his quirky TV drama TWIN PEAKS in short installments on the Internet.

The Desperate Housewives star played an FBI agent on the show between 1990 and 1991, working with legendary director David Lynch on the cult series.

The show was eventually cancelled after a decline in ratings, but returned in 1992 with a prequel movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

MacLachlan is desperate to reprise his role once again and hopes to utilise the web to help fulfil his ambition of a return to Twin Peaks.

He says, “I have a crazy idea to bring back Twin Peaks on the net as five minute webisodes.”

(via Dugpa)

This has to happen.

Whether it’s done as a comedy or a drama, there is nothing that could stop me from seeing it. Whatever Kyle MacLachlan has planned for this series, I’m in.

One idea I will mention. . . In the first episode of the series, when we see Agent Cooper in the Red Room for the very first time, we are told by the text that this is taking place “25 Years Later.”

That date is not too far away.

(In high school, I always thought it was interesting that the events in that scene would be happening after the hyperdimensional time shift of 2012.)

Movies, News | 2 Comments »

First Evidence of Entanglement in Photosynthesis

But a new, more robust face of entanglement is beginning to emerge from other types of experiment. For example, physicists have recently found the signature of entanglement in the thermal states of bulk materials at low temperatures. This has huge implications for biological systems: if entanglement is more robust than we thought, what role might it play in living things?

Now we’re beginning to find out. In the first rigorous quantification of entanglement in a biological system, an answer is beginning to emerge. Researchers from various institutions in Berkeley California have shown that molecules taking part in photosynthesis can remain entangled even at ordinary atmospheric temperatures.

Link (via Posthuman Blues)

Clearly the implications for this are incredible.

In the Posthuman Blues article, a question from Ray Kurzweil is quoted, asking:

Does this support the Hameroff/Penrose idea of quantum computation in brain microtubules as a model of consciousness?

If quantum entanglement is happening inside of plants, then what must be happening in our minds?

Is Quantum Mechanics Controlling Your Thoughts?

The Biocentric Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and the Cosmos Itself

See also:

Free Will and the Subatomic World

Science | 3 Comments »

Elektra’s Heroes – Jann Vorrman

Ok, so there’s this 26-year-old guy in Berlin who goes around repairing old buildings with Legos!

Sometimes people assist him, but mostly he goes about his own business of repairing cracks and old WW II bullet holes one Lego at a time!

So I say, what are you waiting for? Go get some Legos and star repairing your own neighborhood!

Link

(more…)

Art | No Comments »

Land of the Roamin’ Gnomes

The Southeast has a long tradition held among the Cherokee Indians regarding “little people” who inhabit caves and other small subterranean dwellings throughout the Appalachian Mountains. Often mischievous in nature, these beings are known to appear under peculiar circumstances, and though most are known to be helpful and benign by nature, it is advised in native traditions that one who witnesses a little person should ignore them, so as not to draw attention to their presence. The Cherokee divide these spirit folk into three categories: the Rock People, vengeful and angry dwarfs who are known for accosting lost travelers by tossing stones at them for invading their space; the Laurel People, generally regarded as tricksters; and the Dogwood People, who are the most helpful and kind-hearted of the Little People.

Though such legends are traditionally considered Native beliefs, I find it interesting that the most fascinating accounts of contact with the Little People I have collected from the region don’t originate from the Cherokee themselves, but instead were told to me by locals living in the more remote areas around Western North Carolina. J.R. Sutton, a friend of my family I had known while growing up, had lived near the Cherokee Indian reservation decades ago, and told me about an encounter with “little bearded folks of short stature” he had observed on one occasion. Sutton always used to keep horses, and one afternoon while tending to them he said he was astonished to find three small people sitting on the bare back of one of the animals. “I looked at this and thought they were kids,” Sutton said. “Then one of the little fellers looked around at me and he had a long beard.” Sutton expressed some degree of superstition about the encounter, adding that he “was familiar with the legends, and didn’t want to bother the little folks.” Were the small, bearded dwarves Sutton encountered in his pasture that afternoon the same mischievous spirit folk the Cherokee have told of for centuries?

More here!

One thing that stand out for me in this article is the mention of the Rock People, “known for accosting lost travelers by tossing stones at them for invading their space.” An earlier entry on Electric Children, Mysterious Beings in Alaska, discusses the Alaskan spirits known as the Ircenrraat, who are also said to enjoy such activities.

For instance, a few years back, on a very remote solo kayak trip in the lower Yukon region, I swear I heard rocks tossed in my direction by unseen hands or whatever. Big rocks. Whoosh. Plunk. Weird. A little scary — and not particularly on target, assuming they were trying to hit me. A close inspection of the presumed point of origin showed no evidence of anything. There was nowhere for anything bigger than a squirrel to hide. I can’t say it was an ircenrraaq, but neither can I absolutely refute those who suggest it was.

Link

Supernatural | No Comments »

The new game from the creative team behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus has finally been announced. It’s called The Last Guardian.

The game will revolve around the developing friendship between a boy and a giant feathered creature, called a “sea eagle” or “erne” in the Japanese title.

. . .

Ueda claims within the physics engine, the effect of wind is modeled separately for each of the creature’s feathers.

I cannot wait to play this!

The Last Guardian is continuing on from the last two games. . .

Ico: Melody in the Mist (Soundtrack)

Shadow of the Colossus: Roar of the Earth (Soundtrack)

Ico

Shadow of the Colossus

Ico Fan Fiction

Shadow of the Colussus Fan Fiction

. . .The Farthest Land

I first learned of the existence of The Last Guardian from this article on the new Team Ico Pack for Little Big Planet. If you’re a Little Big Planet fan you definitely need to download the Team Ico Pack.

Preview pics from The Last Guardian can be seen here.

The release date has not yet been announced.

Video Games | No Comments »

An excellent article has been posted at Twilight Language regarding the weird synchronicities and unanswered questions around the death of David Carradine, including his quest in Thailand to expose ancient kung fu secret soceities.

The mystery continues to deepen with every revelation.

Carradine killed by “Kung Fu” Illuminatus?

On Friday, June 5th, the Carradine family lawyer Mark Geragos spoke on Larry King Live and dismissed claims of suicide, stating instead that David Carradine could have been murdered by a “secret sect of kung fu assassins,” after it was revealed that Carradine had been attempting to uncover groups working in the martial-arts underworld.

The Carradine family released further comments suggesting that David Carradine was killed because he was investigating “Kung Fu crime lords’ secret societies.”

His ex-wife, Marina Anderson, who has been shopping a book contract about David Carradine, told the media, “If he was involved in secret societies, it was a secret that even I didn’t know about. But he did have some big secrets.”

Why Thailand, which would mean he was looking into the Muay Thai gangs, right? Or was he doing a more broad-based bit of research on the Hung Society (Society of Heaven and Earth), Chinese Triads and Japanese Yakuza?

The comment section for that article should definitely be read through as well.

More on Carradine:

Carradine’s body to return home, while questions remain

“I do not know if you want to call it accidental,” Chuck Binder, Carradine’s manager, told CNN’s Larry King on Thursday. He said Carradine’s career was on a roll.

Binder said a producer of the movie, “Stretch,” which Carradine was to act in, called him from Thailand to tell him what was happening there.

“I do not want to get in the middle of this whole investigation, but this guy said to me for sure there was foul play,” Binder said.

Actor Michael Madsen told King that the one thing Carradine’s wife, Annie Bierman, wanted everyone to know is, “David was not suicidal.”

Second autopsy of Carradine suggests no suicide

A forensic pathologist who oversaw a second autopsy on “Kung Fu” star David Carradine’s body at the direction of his family suggested on Friday that the death was not a suicide but declined to say why.

Dr. Michael Baden told Reuters that the actor’s family wants to withhold details until a full investigation is completed.

Video interviews:

Larry King, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Madsen, Chuck Binder, and Rob Schneider discussing David Carradine

Larry King Live – More on the death of David Carradine

One thing I think is interesting about all of this is the links people are making between the death of David Carradine and the death of Bruce Lee. There are still those who claim that Bruce Lee was killed by these same sort of groups. Some even say he was the victim of a Dim Mak strike that takes several weeks to fully manifest.

Adherents of Dim Mak say that its practitioners are capable of inflicting serious harm to an individual by disrupting their qi or energy flow throughout their meridian channels, causing stagnation of qi, which in turn can lead to injury or death.

The technique depends on the ability to strike precise locations along an appropriate meridian at an appropriate time of day during which specific points are “open” and are thus vulnerable to attack. In these circumstances, certain vital points move throughout the day, and must be struck in relation to their position in the body at that particular time of the day, taking into account the circadian rhythm and associated changes in blood flow on or near the skin surface to have the desired effect. Thus, it is an easy matter for a novice to learn the stationary vital points, but to understand and use the “fatal” moving points in combat is akin to a relatively inexperienced person who can see the electronic elements in a diagram, but without the deep understanding of what they do individually or with each other.

Whether or not Bruce Lee died from a Dim Mak, the fact that some believe it is still a perfect excuse to discuss the legendary move.

Bonus link:

The Music of David Carradine

News | No Comments »

Rival Schools, the comic book based on the classic cult fighting game from Capcom, is now available for free on the Udon Comics website.

Check it out.

Comics, Video Games | 2 Comments »

Brendan McCarthy’s Batoy

BATBOY was a pitch for a ‘Larry David’ kind of slacker approach to the superhero thing. DC Comics turned it down and also, Mark Millar’s recently released KICK ASS was a bit too close. Sometimes a good story and good character don’t make it, just because of bad timing. But I think there’s something about BATBOY that I’d still like to tinker with… and see if I can get another ‘take’ that works.

Bill Murray Could Have Been Your Batman

Before Tim Burton put his dark vision of the Caped Crusader on screen, there was a campier, more fun-loving Batman pitch on the horizon, with Bill Murray playing the lead. While we all know Bill Murray can pull off Bruce Wayne’s smarmy millionaire/likable troubled guy schtick better than George Clooney and Val Kilmer combined, I’m really interested in what Murray’s tongue-in-cheek Bats would have been like. Murray told MTV, “”I would have been a fine Batman. You know, there have been a number of Batmen. I like them… I thought Mike Keaton did a great job as Batman. It’s obviously — it’s a great role.”

Batman: Arkham Asylum

The story is being co-written by Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series, Detective Comics) while Wildstorm is crafting the appearances of the characters. Game Informer teases that Arkham Asylum will be the ultimate Batman experience and the voice cast will reflect that, featuring Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as The Joker and Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn in the game, reprising their voice roles from the long-running DC Animated Universe. Tom Kane joins the cast as “Commissioner Gordon”, “Amadeus Arkham” and “Warden Sharp”. The game will be based on the 70-year Batman franchise as a whole rather than being tied to any particular adaptation. Arkham will run on Epic Games Unreal Engine 3. The Windows version will make use of Microsoft’s Windows Live service, allowing players to earn gamerscore. In April 2009 ads began appearing in the PlayStation Home service advertising the ability to play as The Joker. IGN later confirmed that The Joker will be available at the launch of the game as a free download from the PlayStation Store, but will only be playable in the Challenge Maps. Joker is exclusive to the Playstation 3 version and is not playable on either the Xbox 360 or PC versions.

Batmen vs. Darth Vader

I had this dream where Darth Vader was turning people into zombies at the mall; I was part of this team of rookie Batmen sent to stop him. It was the nerdiest dream I’ve ever had.

Man-Bat Spotted in Mexico

“Mexico: State of Chihuahua Terrorized by ‘Man-Bat’ – A Report” by Professor Ana Luisa Cid, details that the creature is a “very tall entity, standing some 2 meters tall, with two pairs of wings (one pair larger than the other). Its face is covered in fur and has red, bloodshot eyes. Also reported are a pair of small, kangaroo type hands that it held loosely, as though it lacked any strength in them.”

. . .

There seems to be full-scale panic over the above or another Batman seen in La Junta, Guerrero, Mexico. The witnesses of this winged humanoid with a fur-covered face and a height of 2 meters are also tying the reports to local livestock deaths.

Synchronicities Surrounding Heath Ledger’s Death and The Joker

“Well,” [Jack] Nicholson told reporters in London early Wednesday, “I warned him.”

Though the remark was ambiguous, there’s no question the role in the movie earmarked as this summer’s blockbuster took a frightening toll.

. . .

The last set of pictures from the Imaginarium set include this of Ledger as a Pierrot, a sad clown and fool with, according to some claims, very early origins including this startling statement “It is also claimed that in ancient times, the broad red mouth of the character was created by physically cutting the mouth to make it larger” i.e. exactly the same a Chelsea Grin we flagged as being a feature of the current celluloid incarnation of The Joker which draws on early legends and stories (although I’d want a solid source for that claim).

And here is a cool short fan film all about Batman’s sidekick Tim Drake, the third Robin.

(more…)

Comics | 5 Comments »

Man-Made Star to Unlock Cosmic Secrets

Jonathan Fildes, BBC News: When the world’s most powerful laser facility flicks the switch on its first full-scale experiments later this month, a tiny star will be born on Earth.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California aims to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion, the reaction at the heart of the Sun and a potentially abundant, clean energy source for the planet.

Warp Speed is Not Impossible

The warp drive, one of Star Trek’s hallmark inventions, could someday become science instead of science fiction.

Some physicists say the faster-than-light travel technology may one day enable humans to jet between stars for weekend getaways. Clearly it won’t be an easy task. The science is complex, but not strictly impossible, according to some researchers studying how to make it happen.

. . .

One reason this idea seems credible is that scientists think it may already have happened. Some models suggest that space-time expanded at a rate faster than light speed during a period of rapid inflation shortly after the Big Bang.

“If it could do it for the Big Bang, why not for our space drives?” Millis said.

Former Astronaut Nominated as Next Astronaut Chief

The White House has nominated Charles Bolden to be the next NASA Administrator.

A retired Marine Corps major general and former astronaut who piloted the space shuttle that carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit in 1990, Bolden has been considered a top candidate for the job since President Obama’s election.

Chernobyl Fallout Could Drive Evolution of Space Plants

Compared to the plants grown in normal soil, the Chernobyl soya produced significantly different amounts of several dozen proteins, the team found. Among those are proteins that contribute to the production of seeds, as well as proteins involved in defending cells from heavy metal and radiation damage. “One protein is known to actually protect human blood from radiation,” Hajduch says.

For this study, his team looked at just the first generation of soya grown in Chernobyl soil, but they plan to examine a second generation of seeds. After the 1986 meltdown, it took plants several generations to fully adapt to the new conditions, Hajduch says.

Determining how plants coped with life after Chernobyl could help scientists engineer radiation-resistant plants, Hajduch says. While few farmers are eager to cultivate radioactive plots on Earth, future interplanetary travellers may need to grow crops to withstand space radiation.

Building Life from the Stuff of Stars

How this star-stuff came together to form life is still a mystery, but scientists know that certain atomic combinations were necessary. Water – two hydrogen atoms linked to one oxygen atom -was vital to the development of life on Earth, and so NASA missions now search for water on other worlds in the hopes of finding life elsewhere. Organic molecules built mostly of carbon atoms are also thought to be important, since all life on Earth is carbon-based.

The most popular theories of the origin of life say the necessary chemistry occurred at hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor or in some sunlit shallow pool. However, discoveries in the past few years have shown that many of the basic materials for life form in the cold depths of space, where life as we know it is not possible.

Astronomers Take Virtual Plunge into Black Hole

Dare to fall into a black hole and you would get vaporized in what is probably the most violent place in the universe. But the journey would yield some amazing sights, though you might need three eyes for the best view of what’s going on, new research suggests.

Sunspot Appearance Marks Beginning of New Solar Cycle

A small sunspot appeared on the sun’s northern hemisphere on Jan. 4, heralding the beginning of a new 11-year solar cycle, researchers say.

Here on Earth, it’s not obvious what that means to our everyday life. The sun will continue to rise and set as always, or – where I’m writing from – be mostly invisible behind winter clouds.

But the solar cycle, or solar magnetic activity cycle, is one of the core phenomena driving sunspots and solar weather. . .

Why is Moondust Sticky?

One of the biggest problems facing America’s space agency as it prepares to return to the moon is how to manage lunar dust. It gets into everything. Worse, it’s sticky, adhering to spacesuits and posing a potentially serious health hazard to future colonists.

Now, a scientist who has been studying the problem off and on over four decades thinks he may have untangled the mystery of why that dust is so sticky. Brian O’Brien, an Australian physicist who worked on the Apollo program in the 1960s, said the sun’s ultraviolet and X-ray radiation gives a positive charge to the dust, making it stick to surfaces such as spacesuits.

Black Hole Shoots Water Vapour

Astronomers have found the most distant evidence of water in the Universe, a major conference has been told.

The vapour is thought to be present in a jet ejected from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy that is billions of light-years away.

Baby Stars Found in Galactic Core

The baby stars at the center of the galaxy had their first pictures taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting.

How stars could form at the center of the galaxy has been a mystery. Space is generally a pretty harsh environment, but the galaxy’s heart is particularly brutal. Fierce stellar winds, black holes and shock waves all make it a tough place to get your start on stellar life.

“It is amazing to me that we have found these stars,” said Solange Ramirez, head researcher at NASA’s Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech. “The galactic center is a very interesting place. It has young stars, old stars, black holes, everything. We started mining a catalog of about 1 million sources and managed to find three young stars — stars that will help reveal the secrets at the core of the Milky Way.”

Teens Send Balloon into Space to Take Photos

Building the electronic sensor components from scratch, Gerard Marull Paretas, Sergi Saballs Vila, Marta­ Gasull Morcillo and Jaume Puigmiquel Casamort managed to send their heavy duty £43 latex balloon to the edge of space and take readings of its ascent.

Created by the four students under the guidance of teacher Jordi Fanals Oriol, the budding scientists, all aged 18-19, followed the progress of their balloon using high tech sensors communicating with Google Earth.

Team leader Gerard Marull, 18, said: “We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs, to send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible.”

Revolution, Space | No Comments »

Raquel Welch in an insane sci-fi dance number from her television special, found via Coilhouse.

The Age of Aquarius has to be seen as well.

See also:

Raquel Welch and Sammy Davis Jr.

Movies, Music | 1 Comment »