Now that Expelled's producers have gained notoriety by expelling PZ Myers from a preview while failing to recognize Richard Dawkins, and reducing Jacob Bronowski's Ascent Of Man to the level of a Visine commercial, the search has begun for the missing links in the devolution of Ben Stein's dumbed down Darwin epic.
The first that has come to light, from a hard drive that survived the Y1K crisis, is this moving scene from the Bayeux Travesty --
The director of Jumper continues making the sci-geek rounds, and gives a candid interview to io9. The first thing out of his mouth is a gem of unintentional hilarity:
io9: What was the most challenging aspect of making a film that involved teleportation?Liman: We did everything for real.
Yeah, I'd imagine reconstituting the physical laws of the universe would be pretty challenging. And while staying on budget? Hell, he's Einstein and Thalberg rolled into one!
Continue reading 'Why Doug Liman deserves a Nobel Prize AND the Irving Thalberg Award' >
We've already talked about the reality of teleporting in our hallowed pages, but ScienCentral somehow managed to corner teleportation movie Jumper director Doug Liman and star Hayden Christensen at MIT to ask them what they really know about the scientific conceit of their latest flick. Check it:
Continue reading 'Video:Jumper's Doug Liman and Hayden Christensen on teleportation' >
In the film "Jumper," Hayden Christensen plays a superhero who can transport himself by wishing it so. The "I Dream of Jeannie"-like technique sounds a lot easier than Doc Brown's method of rigging up a time traveling DeLorean.
But how close is the film's teleporting to reality?
The New York Times reports on a recent panel of MIT physicists who broke down the science of teleporting. MIT's Edward Farhi said physicists have managed to teleport the quantum information of a photon for about one and a half miles, “a little less exotic than what you see in the movie.”
Continue reading 'Time traveling movie "Jumper" not that far from reality...for protons' >
Cognitive Daily points to a really cool research paper documenting the cognitive consequences of watching video with frequent cuts. Turns out that cuts may briefly disorient the viewer and make them less likely to remember details of what they just saw.
One of the commenters made an interesting note about how filmmakers use this to their advantage.
I'm thinking of one in particular. This may be the breakthrough we've been waiting for -- a blizzard of fast cuts keeps you in a suspended state of amnesia about the absolute shite constantly emanating from the screen! This certainly explains how I got through Transformers.
Continue reading 'Brain science may prove why sucky Michael Bay movies are hits' >
What, did Cloverfield start a trend of probably-meaningless-but-vaguely-cool-sounding movie titles? The new James Bond movie will supposedly be titled "The Quantum of Solace." One wonders what was left on the cutting room floor-- "007 in The Double Slit Experiment"?
Continue reading 'Either James Bond really likes science, or... I don't know what.' >
Well, not you, specifically, but if you're a gullible Christian student, get on the money train and see Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, to earn sweet cash for your Christian school. The producers of this Intelligent Design doc are offering cash donations to Christian schools in return for ticket stubs proving attendance (or at least purchased tickets). Breaks down like this (from the website):
* 0-99 ticket stubs submitted = $5 per ticket stub
* 100-299 ticket stubs submitted = $1,000 donated to your school
* 300-499 ticket stubs submitted = $2,500 donated to your school
* 500 ticket stubs submitted = $5,000 donated to your school
"Each school across the nation will be competing for the top honor of submitting the most ticket stubs with that school having their $5,000 donation matched for a total donation of $10,000!"
So is this movie, hosted by Ben Stein and featuring appearances from Richard Dawkins (man just can't resist a pissing match) and science hacks Jon Wells and Michael Eignor, worth being paid to see? Check the trailer after the jump.
Paul D. Miller, the super-prolific musical polymath aka DJ Spooky, is a fan of science. Hell, he even published a monograph with MIT Press. But I never knew he was THIS much of a fan of science.
Check out the trailer for his forthcoming film project, Terra Nova: The Antarctica Suite -- it's stuffed to the gills with nerdy factoids about ice, wave acoustics, glacier ecology, and the like.
More about the film:
Continue reading 'Trailer for DJ Spooky's new film about "the sound of ice"' >
Discover Magazine and Emory University physics professor Sidney Perkowitz have gone ahead and thrown down the gauntlet: They've compiled a list of the best and worst science-based movies. Perhaps they don't know it yet, but they've done the science-movie geek equivalent of dropping the bomb. Let the post-apocalyptic flame wars and flesh eating begin.
Continue reading '5 Best and Worst Science Movies of All Time: Where's Ghostbusters 2, dammit?' >
