A while back, I came across StarWarsUncut.com, a site that divided Star Wars (A New Hope) into 15-second segments and encouraged Star Wars fans to take one of the clips, shoot it however they deemed fit, and upload the sequence back to the site. The end result includes some pretty well-crafted shots and, well, some equally… interesting ones. Ultimately, the goal was to encourage people of all ages and cinematic aptitude to exercise their creative skills, recreate their favorite scene in the Star Wars, and show it off to the world.
Now the site has released “Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut,” an assembly of the wildly varying versions of each movie segment into a two-hour-long, full-length version of the original film. While this masterpiece of crowd-sourcing isn’t exactly screen-worthy, it’s a great display of the sheer volume and variety of creativity Internet crowd-sourcing taps. From live-action tinfoil renditions of C-3PO to action figures on the beach and even simple cardboard cutouts taped to straws these clips show just how much people love Star Wars. (My favorite so far is the purring cat-Jawa, by the way.)
I think it’s clear how much fun people had creating these clips, and it just goes to show how sites that encourage user-generated content are worth protecting. And hey, if you have time check out the full-length cut above.
The human mind can recognize patterns that remain invisible to even the most powerful computers. But we’re stuck with some nasty limitations. We can only see relatively small amount of “raw” data at a given moment. That’s where visualization comes in. By laying out data visually, we encode data into additional channels. When we look at a visualization, we see dramatically more information than when we look at a page full of numbers. And we can see new patterns.
Take, for example, the graph above. (Or better yet, take a look at the large version in its native home, VerySmallArray.com.) What do you see?
The Andromeda Galaxy as seen by Terry Hancock from Michigan (with permission)
Andromeda. Few words immediately bring forth imagery of science fiction, fantasy and real-life astronomy to me like Andromeda does. Andromeda is our heavens, Andromeda is in our history, Andromeda is in our music and literature, Andromeda is in our oceans and Andromeda is in our science fiction and fantasy. I’ll admit I am less knowledgeable about Andromedas than I am about Enterprises (see my 20 Favorite Ships Called Enterprises post), but several Andromedas are also at the root of my geekdom. Recently I decided to take some time and run through the Andromedas that I’m aware of. I’m confident that there are additional Andromedas of relevance out there. If you know of one, please let me know in the comments section below because I would greatly appreciate and enjoy learning about it. In the meantime, please sit back and allow me to take you through my tour of the Andromedas.
Part of what I love about our GWC community is that it is a place to share and learn about things you may have never heard of or would never have given a chance unless someone you knew recommended it. In that spirit I want to share with you something that I find outrageously awesome: Music Mashups.
The highest compliment I can give is to say it is clever. To be clever is to find and explore a nuance in such a way that one creates something new and unexpected. Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is an incredibly clever telling of the story behind the story of Hamlet. Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is clever for its effortless weaving together of history, myth and literature. Joss Whedon’s Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog turns the concept of a musical on its head and creates a brand new genre.
Continue reading »
A Depiction of Star Trek's Original U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Special thanks to Jeff Quan at http://www.jcquan.com for the use of the cool art!)
A few months ago GWCers The Operator, ThotFullGuy, and DawnAZ flooded my Twitter stream with references to the Starship Enterprise. While it was clearly evident The Operator and ThotFullGuy were discussing the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 from the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie, DawnAZ wasn’t nearly as specific. In fact, I listed off 10 different Enterprises off the top of my head in a reply requesting her to specify. It turned out that the exact ship wasn’t relevant to her Enterprise reference, but the conversation reminded me how fondly I regard the many ships called Enterprise. For those that have served on board an Enterprise or watched the various Enterprise versions on the movie or television screens over the years the name Enterprise has a special reverence in our hearts. If you search the internet you will find many web pages devoted to these fine ships. By no means am I attempting to duplicate the many long hours of work it took to assemble those fine resources. Rather, what follows is simply a list of my favorite Enterprises and where I’ve run into them over the years. I think even the most die-hard Enterprise enthusiast might find a surprise or two. So enjoy the tour and as always, drop a comment below. I’d love to hear what you have to say on the subject.
The 8 1/2 Foot Tall 2010 Shooter Family Geek Christmas Tree
I’m sure just about everyone reading this article has some sort of a holiday tradition. Our family has several and usually includes the boys in the family going to see whatever SciFi blockbuster is out. This year our plans are to see Tron Legacy together. One of our other long lasting traditions involve each member of the family receiving a Hallmark Christmas Tree Ornament in our stockings. My mother, Mom Shooter, has been responsible for assembling this gift each year for the past 20 or 30 years. Everyone has one or two series that they follow from year to year. My father, Dad Shooter, has received the Classic American Car series every year since 1991. The girls usually end up with a Disney series ornament. I have received the All American Trucks series off and on since 2000, but each and every year Mom Shooter makes sure I receive some sort of a SciFi Hallmark Christmas Tree ornament. In fact, our family have received so many Hallmark ornaments that we’ve had to add a second full-sized tree in our home to handle all of our favorite ornaments. For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you’ve already seen our “geek” tree, but for those of you who didn’t get the chance, here’s a little tour of the vehicle and ship ornaments on our tree.
Continue reading »
@FakeGrimlock in the Holiday Spirit
Are you a Transformers fan? Do you enjoy reading funny and/or geek-related Twitter streams? If either and/or both the answers to those questions are yes, I wholeheartedly recommend you follow @FakeGrimlock. There’s just something special about an eons-old Dinobot making his entrance to the internet through Twitter. Whether it’s his robot brain damage or semi-ambivalence to humanity, I always seem to get a chuckle from his tweets. Recently, I had a chance to catch up with @FakeGrimlock and ask him a few questions. His answers are in true @FakeGrimlock form.
A classic interview with Cybertron’s favorite son past the jump. Continue reading »
BBC's New Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson
In a time of programming uncertainty and early cancellations on American TV, the BBC has produced some of the best television currently available. BBC’s new series Sherlock is absolutely a poster child for great television. Sherlock is a modernized version of the classic Sherlock Holmes tale set in the London of today. Unfortunately, I missed Sherlock when it first aired on BBC, but due to overwhelming positive reviews, comments, and recommendations, I made sure I set the DVR to record it when it first aired on American PBS stations on October 24th. Even amidst such high recommendations Sherlock not only delivered, but amazed me in its brilliance.
Continue reading »
A Depiction of the Inner Gliese 581 G Solar System. Image courtesy of NASA as created by Lynette Cook
The GWC Crüe mentioned in podcast 239 that a new “Earthlike” exoplanet, meaning a planet orbiting a star outside our own solar system, was found around the small red dwarf star Gliese 581 G. Scientists and exoplanet hunters have been finding exoplanets since 1992 and to date have cataloged over 400 of them. Most exoplanets found to date have been gas giant planets like Jupiter or Saturn or bigger. Although with new instrumentation and refined techniques I’ll bet exoplanet hunters will be finding many more planets in the very near future. I’m excited about this and feel like I’m living in an era similar to the years just prior to Leif Erickson or Christopher Columbus. So what is an “Earthlike” planet, why will more be found in the near future, and what are the ways to find exoplanets in the first place?
Continue reading »
- A Conception of a VASIMR® Powered Lunar Tug Spaceship.
I’d have to take a poll to be sure, but judging from the reaction to last year’s five week GWC Cosmos podcast arc I’d bet that a good percentage of GWCers are interested in space travel, space colonization, or just simple weekend sightseeing camping trips around the solar system neighborhood. Unfortunately, there are millions of challenges to overcome before those activities become a reality for humankind.
Continue reading »
SyFy's New Series Haven - Check it Out!
This summer SyFy introduced a new treat for Friday viewers. Eureka and Warehouse 13 were split to plug the Tuesday and Friday summer timeslots left vacant by such names as Stargate Universe, Caprica, Merlin, and Sanctuary. So, on July 9, 2010 SyFy introduced us to a new Friday show, Haven. The show has many aspects that I know would appeal to GWCers like unexplained supernatural phenomena, Warehouse 13-like artifact powers, Sanctuary style mutants (although all in human form…so far), X-files mystery, and a town full of common Northern Lights style folks.
Continue reading »
20 Year High School Class Reunion
The GWC crüe has perfect timing. The current high school arc was spot on for me. Like Chuck last year, this summer I had the opportunity to attend my 20th High School Reunion. It was sort of a pain since Mrs. Shooter and I had to drive so far for a very short weekend, but it was worth it. Not everyone from my class of 263 decided to attend, but it was interesting catching up with those that did. Vala Mal Doran (Stargate SG-1 seasons 9 and 10) summed up the experience perfectly in the episode Bounty by saying, “Traditionally, these events entail the bringing together of large groups of people all with a common bond in the past but nothing really in common in the present. Everybody evaluates each other’s lot in life, generally by virtue of a combination of material worth and the attractiveness of one’s date, spouse, life partner.” I set out to see just how true that was.
Continue reading »
GWCers on Flickr
Recent Blog Comments
on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { I didn't skip ahead, but when the scene came up, I filled in what they failed to include.
} – Jan 27, 5:06 PMon 20 Favorite Ships Called Enterprise { I recently visited an exhibition here in Melbourne, Australia and on show was a three foot replica of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 from the original... } – Jan 27, 1:38 AM
on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { Oddball, it took all my willpower not to. } – Jan 26, 11:38 AM
on Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut { Anyone else skip ahead to see if Han shoots first or if there is a "Look a Penny!" reference? } – Jan 26, 10:22 AM