http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...in_page_id=1770

-R

Quote:
"Virgin empire boss SIR RICHARD BRANSON is in negotiations with British television networks to launch a talent show for aspiring astronauts. The BBC and ITV have held talks about the proposed ASTRONAUT IDOL, similar to ITV's POP IDOL, which scoured the nation for wannabe pop stars. Six contestants will compete for a spot on the Virgin Galactic project, which aims to send the first commercial passengers into space in 2009. President of Virgin Galactic, WILL WHITEHORN, says filming could begin as soon as testing on the Virgin aircraft is completed in the second half of next year (07). He adds, "The show would be a cross between DR WHO, STAR TREK and THE KRYPTON FACTOR.""

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.ns...%20idol_1009621

-R

Quote:
"A Russian spacecraft carrying two astronauts and the world's first female space tourist rocked safely back to Earth while dangling from parachutes today a few hours after casting off from the International Space Station (ISS).

ISS Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov, flight engineer Jeffry Williams and U.S. entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari undocked from the orbital laboratory at 5:53 p.m. EDT today and their Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan near the small town of Arkalyk just before dawn at 9:13 p.m. EDT.

"It was the ride of a lifetime," Williams told a NASA spokesman after extraction from the spacecraft. "

http://www.space.com/missionlaunche...13_landing.html

-R

Quote:
"NASA's Opportunity Mars rover returned its first photos of Victoria Crater at Meridiani Planum.

The robot has started to relay tantalizing glimpses of the huge impact crater after a lengthy day-by-day grind across the martian landscape that ended up being a 20-month journey to reach the destination.

Initial images show rugged walls with layers of exposed rock. The floor is shown to be blanketed with dunes, as researchers already knew. The far wall is about a half-mile away. "

http://www.space.com/scienceastrono...ria_crater.html

-R

Guys I have fallen in love with Bjork all over again.
(He, I reread that first sentence and it does sound like it cqame out of a spam e-mail)
Anyway, I know that her name somehow reminds me of something I would expect to find in Ikea,
but her talent and vision are mindblowing.


Check out her latest video with director Michel Grondy;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5nNfbTS6N4

-R

Quote:
"NASA's New Horizons probe, bound for Pluto, snapped an image of Jupiter that astronomers said serves as a promise of what's to come early next year when the craft nears the gas giant planet."
http://www.space.com/scienceastrono...iter_image.html

Mars Rover Sends First Photo of Victoria Crater

Quote:
"NASA's Opportunity Mars rover returned its first photos of Victoria Crater at Meridiani Planum.

The robot has started to relay tantalizing glimpses of the huge impact crater after a lengthy day-by-day grind across the martian landscape that ended up being a 20-month journey to reach the destination.

Initial images show rugged walls with layers of exposed rock. The floor is shown to be blanketed with dunes, as researchers already knew. The far wall is about a half-mile away.


http://www.space.com/scienceastrono...ria_crater.html

-R
"

For the people who weel nostalgia for the old Dungeons ang Dragons TV show here are some
cool news:

Quote:"
Dungeons & Dragons The Complete Series will be released on DVD December 5th according to BCI, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation which has obtained the DVD rights to the original 1983 animated series. The five-disc boxed set will feature all 27 episodes for a suggested retail price of $54.98.
http://www.animated-news.com/archives/00005531.html


& as a bonues for this hreat bit of news, here is a link to the unprouced FINAL episode, that never aired:

The Unproduced Dungeons and Dragons Finale
Quote:
"As the third season of D&D drew to a close, Karl Geurs, the series' producer and story editor, told me CBS was thinking of doing an episode that would "close out" the season. This is a fairly common practice today, but it was pretty much unheard-of back then, particularly in animation. It was decided that the episode (Titled Requiem -- I don't remember if that was Karl's title or mine, but it doesn't really fit the script as it finally came to be written. I wanted to call it Redemption, but CBS felt that that title gave too much away) should end on a note that was both ambiguous and triumphant to cover all bets, because at the time we were doing the script we didn't know if the show would be renewed for a fourth season or not. According to Gary Gygax, the series' co-creator, the plan was for Requiem to be used as a springboard for a new approach to the show, one in which the kids would be more self-reliant and not dependent on their weapons. Unfortunately, problems with TSR, the D&D parent company, ultimately killed the plans for a new season, and Requiem was taken off the production board.

"
http://www.michaelreaves.com/requiem_preface.htm

-R

Quote:
"Balloon-borne platforms developed as precursors to space elevators could be used as high-altitude relay stations for wireless communications, a 60-day field test suggests.

The hope is that one day a space elevator, comprised of a robot that will climb a strong tether about 100,000 kilometres (60,000 miles) long, will be able to send humans or other cargo cheaply into space.

Developing the technology necessary to accomplish this goal will take years, but some progress has been made so far. LiftPort Group, based in Bremerton, Washington, US, stretched a cable one mile (1.6 kilometres) into the air in Arizona, US, in January 2006 using a cluster of three balloons (see Space-elevator tether climbs a mile high).

But that test lasted for only six hours. Now, LiftPort has finished a 60-day test with a 100-metre-long tether held aloft by four helium balloons. The test was designed to see what kinds of problems would crop up if such a platform were used to transmit Wi-Fi signals. The lofty platforms would be especially useful for providing Wi-Fi coverage to rural areas, says company president Michael Laine.

Swallows and bats
Overall, he says, the test went well, but there were several unexpected encounters with wildlife. More than a dozen insect egg colonies had been laid on the tether, and in the first few days of the test, curious bats flew around the balloons, apparently attracted by the sound made by the tether's vibrations. Late in the test, swallows were also seen swooping down on the balloons, possibly to sip the morning dew on their surfaces.

"That's the difference between a 6-hour and a 60-day test," Laine told New Scientist.
"

http://www.newscientistspace.com/ar...-have-uses.html

Quote:
"Whenever my editor approaches me, I quickly size up his body language before he has said a word. If he looks genial and relaxed, he probably liked my story. If his face looks set and determined, I know a wrangle over copy is probably ahead.Human beings are exquisitely attuned to social cues and the behavior of others. Such signals tell us what is ahead and give us time to prepare. They tell us about many things that are never explicitly articulated in everyday life. Much of the time, in fact, we do not appreciate how skilled we are at reading social situations. We only realize how ingrained our ability to read social cues is when we see people with serious deficits in social awareness, such as people with autism or schizophrenia.

One of the most intriguing theories to emerge in recent years about how our brains perform these feats -- far beyond the ability of the most powerful supercomputers -- is that we have neurons in our brains that essentially act as mirrors of people around us. When we see someone scratch his head or furrow her brow, we instantly have a sense of their mental state, because those actions trigger an equivalent pattern of neural activity in our own minds and allow our brains to quickly deduce the other person's mental state"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6092400718.html

Quote:
"When the Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit reached their distant destination in early 2004, NASA scientists hoped the vehicles would probe the planet's frigid landscape for 90 days before they pooped out or were undone by the harsh Martian environment.

More than 900 days later, however, both robotic explorers are going strong -- and Opportunity is literally on the cusp of what is likely to be its greatest accomplishment.

'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...6092501112.html

Quote:
"CBS Paramount, which owns the Trek franchise, has decided to sell more than 1,000 of the tens of thousands of costumes, props, weapons and set dressings accumulated during the production of five live-action series and 10 theatrical films since 1966, when William Shatner's Captain Kirk first uttered his now-familiar "Space, the final frontier" on national television.

Trekkies, who are famous for their mania for collecting, are said to be over the moon at the chance to bid six-figure sums on Kirk's Starfleet uniform or that holy of holies, the Starship Enterprise-A model.

"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20...2MwBHNlYwM3Mzg-

Quote:
"We’re still not sure how many angels could fit on the head of a pin (that would depend how many nanometers wide an angel is, naturally), but today’s advanced micromachining techniques give scientists the ability to fabricate complex objects on a scale never before possible. And things just keep getting more interesting. See for yourself in this gallery of tiny wonders, from miniature submarines capable of sailing through your blood vessels to tiny eyeglasses for houseflies. "

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/scienc...ecbccdrcrd.html

-R

Quote:
"Harnessed to the walls, their surgical tools moored down with magnets, a team of French doctors are to attempt the world's first human operation in zero-gravity on Wednesday. It will serve as a test for performing surgery in space.

The aircraft enabling the pioneering operation is Zero-G, a plane designed and built by Europe to simulate gravity-free conditions, providing a priceless laboratory-in-the-sky to test out new technologies.

Working inside a custom-made operating block, three surgeons, backed by two anaesthetists and a team of army parachutists, will remove a fatty tumour from the forearm of an intrepid volunteer over the course of a three-hour flight."

http://www.newscientistspace.com/ar...-performed.html

Hey guys, I just had a blast of a weekend.
On Saturday I helped my good friend David Jacobs on a set, setting up lights.
It was hard work, but a ton of fun. (and ye, the director game me the OK to post some pics)


And on Sunday me and some of the folks went to MICA ofr the BIG HUGE GAMES aer exhibit.





-R

Here are som things I found web browsing:

http://www.bttf.com/cgi-bin/ImageFo...ty_McFly&img=24


& a side by side comparation of Part I & Part II


http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...he+future<br />

-R

Quote:
"Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed and built ceramic microreactors for the on-site reforming of hydrocarbon fuels, such as propane, into hydrogen for use in fuel cells and other portable power sources.

Applications include power supplies for small appliances and laptop computers, and on-site rechargers for battery packs used by the military.

"The catalytic reforming of hydrocarbon fuels offers a nice solution to supplying hydrogen to fuel cells while avoiding safety and storage issues related to gaseous hydrogen," said Paul Kenis, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Illinois and corresponding author of a paper accepted for publication in the journal Lab on a Chip, and posted on its Web site.

"

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea...a-cmd091906.php

Quote:
"A robot that glides along a layer of mucus inside the human intestine could make medical examinations like colonoscopies less painful for patients, say Dutch scientists. They are working on a snail-inspired robot that should be far gentler on the gut's delicate lining.

Several research groups around the world are working on robots that can remotely explore the intestine but most of these use using tiny legs to pull themselves along (see Worm-inspired robot crawls through intestines).

"The legs of those devices need to exert pressure to grip the slippery intestine," explains Dimitra Dodou, from Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. "We think our approach can reduce the risk of damaging the gut or causing pain because the pressure can be spread over a larger area."

http://www.newscientisttech.com/art...line-news_rss20

-R

Quote:
"The F-14 Tomcat, the dogfighting Cold War fighter jet immortalized in the movie "Top Gun," made its ceremonial final flight Friday in a display that suggested the timing was right for retirement.

Pilot Lt. Cmdr. David Faehnle and radar intercept officer Lt. Cmdr. Robert Gentry gave a final salute from inside their cockpit before aircraft no. 102 taxied down the runway and out of sight at Oceana Naval Air Station.

The plane that actually took off as thousands applauded and whistled, however, was aircraft no. 107, with Lt. Cmdr. Chris Richard at the controls and intercept officer Lt. Mike Petronis in the back seat."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/tomcat_f...HBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-
-R

Quote:
"If the planned Jan. 30 launch of Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis 2 space module on a Russian Dnepr rocket is successful, Las Vegas entrepreneur Robert Bigelow plans to send a human-rated habitat into orbit in either the second half of 2009 or the first half of 2010.

Bigelow's Genesis 1 module was launched July 12 and continues to provide data on its condition in low Earth orbit. But while it is hosting some experiments, Genesis 1 – and Genesis 2 – will not be capable of supporting low Earth orbit space tourism, Bigelow's ultimate goal.
"

http://www.space.com/news/060921_bi...lans.html<br />
-R

Quote:
"Stimulating a certain area of the brain can produce a creepy feeling that someone is watching you when no one is, scientists said Wednesday.

Swiss researchers made the discovery while evaluating a young woman for surgery to treat epilepsy. They believe their finding could help explain feelings such as paranoia which afflict patients suffering from schizophrenia."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060921...nA1BHNlYwMxNzAy

QUOTE:
"The spacecraft, which entered the orbit of Saturn in July 2004, also revealed other dazzling features of the ringed planet, including wispy fingers of icy material stretching out tens of thousands of miles from the moon Enceladus.


Cassini’s cameras took advantage of a 12-hour backlight provided by the Sun, which was directly behind Saturn. So as Cassini lurked in the shadow of Saturn, the planet’s rings were brilliantly backlit by the passing Sun. Called a solar occultation, this Sun-Saturn alignment typically lasts only about an hour, but this time it was a half-day marathon.



The lengthy illumination of Saturn allowed Cassini to map the presence of microscopic particles that are not normally visible across the ring system. This level of detail gave astronomers the sharpest view yet of Saturn’s inner system, including the new ring. "
http://www.space.com/scienceastrono...aturn_ring.html

-R

Quote:
"In a discovery sure to fuel an old debate about our evolutionary history, scientists have found a remarkably complete skeleton of a 3-year-old female from the ape-man species represented by "Lucy."

The remains found in Africa are 3.3 million years old, making this the oldest known skeleton of such a youthful human ancestor.

"It's a pretty unbelievable discovery... It's sensational," said Will Harcourt-Smith, a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History in New York who wasn't involved in the find. "It provides you with a wealth of information."

For one thing, it gives new evidence for a contentious feud about whether this species, which walked upright, also climbed and moved through trees easily.

"

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060921/D8K8U6PO0.html


-R

Relax it is legal:

http://tv.yahoo.com/feature/fall06/?d=503

Wanna talk about it?
http://robertoortiz.cgsociety.org/guestbook/

Quote:
"How much does it cost to put a rocket into space? Three engineering students at Cambridge University in the UK reckon they'll be able to do it for just £1000 ($1879). And they've just sent a lunchbox-sized aircraft, called Nova 1, into the stratosphere where it captured some very nice pictures of the Earth and the upper atmosphere.
Nova 1 was carried to an altitude of 32 km beneath a high-altitude helium balloon and snapped more than 800 images, many like the one above.
`"


http://www.newscientist.com/blog/te...t-on-cheap.html

-R

Quote:

"Discovered just 11 years ago, a class of oddball "failed stars" continues to baffle as well as enlighten astronomers. Now researchers have spotted for the first time one of these failed stars, called a brown dwarf, with a companion planet—both orbiting a Sun-like star.

"This is the first brown dwarf that has been directly imaged in an extrasolar planetary system," lead researcher Kevin Luhman of Penn State University told SPACE.com.
"

http://www.space.com/scienceastrono...arf_system.html

R

Quote:
"The quest for a new form of green energy has taken a significant step with the purchase of a 25,000-acre sheep farm in the Australian outback. The huge alternative energy project isn't driven by manure, but by a 1-kilometer-high thermal power station called the Solar Tower.

Announced several years ago, the 3,280-foot Solar Tower is one of the most ambitious alternative energy projects on the planet: a renewable energy plant that pumps out the same power as a small reactor but is totally safe. If built, it will be nearly double the height of the world's tallest structure, the CN Tower in Canada.

The Solar Tower is hollow in the middle like a chimney. At its base is a solar collector -- a 25,000-acre, transparent circular skirt. The air under the collector is heated by the sun and funneled up the chimney by convection -- hot air rises. As it rises, the air accelerates to 35 mph, driving 32 wind turbines inside the tower, which generate electricity much like conventional wind farms.


http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,66694-0.html

-R
"

Quote:
"Windmills that would float hundreds of miles out at sea could one day help satisfy our energy needs without being eyesores from land, scientists said today.

Offshore wind turbines are not new, but they typically stand on towers that have to be driven deep into the ocean floor. This arrangement only works in water depths of about 50 feet or less—close enough to shore that they are still visible.


Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have designed a wind turbine that can be attached to a floating platform. Long steel cables would tether the corners of the floating platform to a concrete-block or other mooring system on the ocean floor, like a high-tech ship anchor. The setup is called a "tension leg platform," or TLP, and would be cheaper than fixed towers."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060...neratemorepower

-R

Quote:
" Russian Soyuz rocket has blasted off for the International Space Station, carrying the first female space tourist.

Iranian-born American Anousheh Ansari has paid $20 million for the trip. Jonathan Charles reports from Moscow.

"(Video)
http://]http://www.bbc.co.uk/medias...=5355060 <br />

Quote:
" A prestigious Artificial Intelligence (AI) prize has been won for the second year running by a British company.
Icogno scooped the 2006 Loebner Prize Bronze Medal after judges decided that its AI called Joan was the "most human computer program".

The competition is based on the Turing test, which suggests computers could be seen as "intelligent" if their chat was indistinguishable from humans.

The gold medal, which goes to an AI that fools the judges, is unclaimed.

The prize is awarded after judges hold a conversation with the AI, asking questions to determine its "humanity" and the quality of its responses.
"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5355838.stm

Well as promised here is an update of the weekend..

Go invited to a body building competition in Annapolis...
And laterwnet to a party




Got invited to a metting of indie artists in DC

Quote:
"When her doctors first called her "The Bionic Woman," 26-year-old Claudia Mitchell didn't understand the reference to the 1970s TV show about the secret agent who was part woman, part machine.



Besides, the first woman to be outfitted with a bionic arm says that when the motors are running in the 10-pound device, it reminds her of another famous cyborg - Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Terminator.


"It's really cool," she says. "This is not just something in the movies. This is really happening." Mitchell, a former U.S. Marine, lost her left arm in 2004 on an Arkansas highway when the friend she was riding with lost control of his motorcycle. "


http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20...he4millionwoman


-R

Hey guys,
New house new rules!

Here is how this is going to work..
Tonight I will update this page, and add pics of what transpired today.
If you want to be added, just post your tale,(with image link if you have any photos )
in my Comments section:
http://robertoortiz.cgsociety.org/guestbook/

And stay tune, since I am going today to a bodybuilding competition.
And between today and Sunday night Ill make compilation edit of this post.

Hope to get some cool tales.
_R

Quote:
"I wrote and drew those sketches around 1975 and I'm so tickled to know that people still find them helpful today. It started as a slide presentation for my boss to show at the Disney meeting in Frankfurt. It went over so well that he asked me to expand on it when he returned. They printed 2000 copies and mailed it to all the Disney offices. My friend John Pomeroy asked for some to give to the animators at the studio. that was the time when the animation training program was going on. Frank Thomas saw it and used it for an animation class he was teaching at the Screen Cartoonists Guild. That's how some sketches wound up in the book that he and Ollie wrote, "the Illusion of Life"."

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/200...-kit-redux.html

-R

NORBERT BARRION INTERVIEWS TERRY LaBAN
Reposted with permission:


Srping Quarter 2006 -- Art Institute of Washington -- Norbert Barrion interviews cartoonist and illustrator TERRY LaBAN.

May 9, 2006

NORBERT: I really loved your story in Grendal Tales, "The Devil May Care." I re-read in horror the ending (and the rest of the 6-issue story arc) yesterday but it fit the characterizations. Do you plan do other stories like this again? I still get nightmares, but it’s so “real."

TERRY: Well, thanks. In the 16 years since I wrote it, I don't think anyone's ever commented on it at all, aside from a couple of letters Diana Schutz, my editor, got while it was coming out. But I'm not sure what you mean by more stories like it. If it's stories featuring dystopian futures and bikers, no. That was one of a kind.

NORBERT: Since you have children now, is it hard to write stories like this?

TERRY: It's hard to write stories, period. But the Grendel story was an unusual one for me, even at the time. I generally don't deal with the sort of material I did with that one, mainly because I don't like violence. In fact, I thought of "The Devil May Care" as a sort of anti-violence story--I really loathed the whole Grendel concept, as far as I could understand it, which wasn't far, because it didn't make any sense. But yes, having kids has changed the way I look at things and what I've subsequently ended up writing about--I do a family comic strip, after all, which is something I wouldn't have thought I'd be doing in 1994. But I'd say fatherhood has more affected my desire to be "outrageous", as I tried to be with my own alternative comics, than it has my desire to bum people out, which I never really had to begin with.

NORBERT: Was it hard to make a transition to the The Dreaming “Goldie Factor”? And the more recent, Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge? And why?

TERRY: Actually, I started doing Donald Duck stuff (I'm surprised you know about that) back in 1995, which was only a short time after I did the Grendel thing. As a matter of fact, Donald Duck happens to suit my sensibility perfectly, which is why I'm still doing it today (bless Egmont--they've been pretty good to me). The Dreaming was much harder, but more because I was utterly unfamiliar with the Sandman series. Plus, I felt a lot of pressure to do a good job, since it was a high-profile project. But even that was closer to what I'm naturally inclined to do than Grendel. So no--the transition wasn't difficult at all.

NORBERT: How did you get to team up with Matt Wagner?

TERRY: Sometime in the mid-90s, I decided to try my hand at writing other people's comics, as opposed to just my own. I really needed money. I went to San Diego and asked around--a lot of people knew me because they liked "Unsupervised Existence" and "Cud". Diana Schutz, who I'd met years before hawking minis at a con in Ohio and who was kind of an old friend, was editing Grendel Tales and said they were looking for writers to do guest series. I'd barely written any comics before, but, after reading all the stuff she kindly sent, I wrote up a synopsis for a 6-book series (the maximum) and she and Matt approved it. I really didn't know Matt at all, though he'd always been friendly when I talked to him at cons.

NORBERT: How has being nominated “Best New Talent” in the 1990 Harvey Awards affected the beginning of your career? Now?

TERRY: Well, for one thing, it meant I started out my career being profoundly disappointed because I didn't win. I lost to Jim Lee, of all people. I was nominated for "Best New Series", too. I lost to Dan Clowse, which I feel a little better about. I also got really sick at the con, and, on a panel that included Neil Gaiman, insulted someone in the audience so much that he wrote a letter about the experience to "Cerebus"! All and all, it kind of sucked.

After that, the main effect was to wonder why I didn't get nominated again. Actually, I did for Best New Series in '92, but that went the same way. I have subsequently had to make my way in the world as a Cartoonist Without Awards.

NORBERT: I thought writing a script would be the easiest part of story development. But following the process covered by Jeffrey Scott’s How to Write for Animation, I find that the script is the hardest. It’s a lot of start and stops. The great dialogue that I thought I had, didn’t work into the story anymore. Do you have suggestions on overcoming these hurdles? Do you follow a process similar to Mr. Scott’s process (premise, outline, and script)?

TERRY: Well, I never read Mr. Scott's suggestions, but that sounds about right to me. I don't know how else you could do it. The thing that's hardest to learn about writing for comics is that you just can't use very many words, because on a comics page, they become clutter. This was something I really didn't understand when I did the Grendel thing--it seems incredibly overwritten to me now. In fact, I think it could have easily been at least a book shorter. The general rule I follow is not to write more than 2 typed script lines for any given balloon. And that's pushing it.

NORBERT: What are the keys to your success?

TERRY: Ha! Well, given that I don't write mainstream comics anymore, aside from Donald Duck, I'm not sure you can call me a success, at least as a comic book writer. But I did make it work for a few years anyway, so...The most important thing, I'd say, is understanding how stories are structured, because that allows you to plug things in and write something. Also, I'm an idea factory--I can generate new ideas, for my stuff or someone else's, pretty much on demand. I have my techniques for doing this, but on a basic level, it's just a talent I have. Finally, I have no problem working with editors, especially regarding work-for-hire. As long as someone's rational, I'll make any changes they want. The sooner I finish, the sooner I get paid.

NORBERT: What advice can you give an aspiring writer?

TERRY: Go to cons and talk to people. When they get to know you, they'll be more likely to give you work. Take anything you can get--all experience is good. Forget your ego--if you want to be an artist, do your own stuff. And for G-d's sake, meet your deadlines!

NORBERT: What are the fallacies of getting into the industry?

TERRY: That you're going to make serious money.

NORBERT: Writing comics sounds very much like contract work. How do you cope with the “hurry-up-and-wait” or the “I’ll get back with you” situations?

TERRY: You get really anxious and depressed. You try to balance the urge to phone your editor constantly to find out what's going on with the knowledge that if you do, you'll piss him or her off and make your situation worse. Eventually, you get either get a monthly gig you can count on or say to hell with it and go draw a syndicated comic strip.

NORBERT: Onto more light-hearted questions. Any works that you are particularly proud of and why?

TERRY: Well, I like my own comics quite a bit, particularly "Unsupervised Existence". I do think the Grendel story worked well, though it could have been edited more. And I think the "Goldie" story was a fine effort. Believe it or not, I just got a royalty check for it this week, 10 years after it came out!

NORBERT: Do you plan on branching out into other media, particularly animation, movies, and (or) video games?

TERRY: Not really, though I wrote some scripts for an upcoming PBS Kids show earlier this year. I'll talk to anyone who wants to talk to me!

NORBERT: Will you be attending any comic conventions in the Baltimore-Washington area?

TERRY: Nope. With rare exceptions, I don't go to 'em anymore.

QUOTE:
"In competing for its $50 million nanotechnology research grant from the U.S. Army last winter, MIT used an allegedly pirated comic book image without crediting the original artists.

A cartoon image used in MIT’s proposal and subsequent publicity efforts appears to be copied from illustrations in Radix, a comic book created by two brothers in Montreal who recently decried MIT’s actions publicly.

The image in question depicts an armor-clad female soldier holding two weapons. The figure’s equipment and stance are almost identical to the character on a cover of Radix. The city-scape background of MIT’s image also bears a striking resemblance to those found in Radix. The image distributed by MIT was later widely-circulated in national newspapers and other media when MIT was awarded the $50 million grant last March to create the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology.

Ray Lai, who created Radix with his brother, Ben, said he began to receive phone calls in April from fans informing him that his work was being used to accompany news articles about MIT’s new research grant."

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V122/N35/35comic.35n.html

TO COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE:
http://robertoortiz.cgsociety.org/guestbook/

-R

Quote:
"The biggest and brightest manmade object orbiting Earth just got bigger and brighter.



Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) unfurled a new pair of solar energy panels that sprout out of the end of a new 17.5-ton truss section, which was brought up by the space shuttle Atlantis. They are the largest solar panels ever taken to space; fully unfolded, they reach a length of 240 feet (73 meters). They are designed to double the ISS's capability to generate power from sunlight when they go online during a future shuttle mission.


The panels are made of layers of thin gold Mylar plastic, which are highly reflective [photo].


Like other satellites, the ISS shines by virtue of sunlight reflected off of its metallic skin. The station orbits approximately 213 miles (341 kilometers) above Earth.

"


http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060...venusinnightsky

TO COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE:
http://robertoortiz.cgsociety.org/guestbook/

-R