September 4th, 2009 by Senna

Soooooo…

As some of you may know, the newest World of Warcraft patch has given Druids the rightful choice of altering the appearance of their animal forms.  Living as a druid in the realm of Akama, I have become a white bear and panther with purple markings, just like my night elf form.  It is truly refreshing to see all the aesthetic changes that have been made, as well as the new BG’s and what not.  Wintergrasp here I come!

P.S. Does anyone love Ashenvale as much as I do?  I think it’s the most beautiful land in the whole game…It’s the only place that really feels like home for me.  Amanda!!  Play with me!!!

August 31st, 2009 by Amanda

There Will Be Brawl Episode 7: Pandora’s Box is now up and running, finally! There are only two episodes left, what will I do when it’s over?! There also might be a possible appearance at MAGFEST.

They say “TWBB have been contacted by and have been pondering the idea of presenting at the upcoming Music And Gaming Festival (http://magfest.org/) just outside of Washington D.C.

It’s four days of non stop video gaming and live video game cover bands, which is kinda up our alley, and wanted to see how much interest there would be from our viewers to see us in attendance!

If you could, hop on over and check out what MAGFEST is all about, and drop them a line if you would be interested in seeing us there!”

August 6th, 2009 by Sydney

This may be a bit of old news but…

In England, surveillance cameras are being installed into a number of government-subsidized homes.   Their purpose? To watch over the children of “problem families” (whatever that means), making sure they do their homework and get to bed one time.  So parents are incapable raising their children themselves now, I guess. I mean, yeah, there are some people out there that aren’t fit to be parents but could this new system of child welfare also ultimately encourage even more parental neglect and laziness than got them put into the special housing in the first place?

Also, special security will drop by each home from time to time to check in on the kids.  With constant watch over them, the government hopes that fewer of these potentially troubled children will turn to crime or drug and alcohol abuse as ways to cope with their tumultuous family lives.

Like I said, sounds to me like the government is just putting families into a situation where they can be more lazy, knowing that someone is already always watching out for their children.  That or parents and children alike will learn, if they haven’t already, to fear the government.

I think at this point it would be too obvious mention Orwellian future, Big Brother or hey, I wasn’t aware it was still 1984.  Oh wait… I just did.

(via Gizmodo via Daily Express)

August 1st, 2009 by Amanda

Picture via The Awesomer.

Pink Tentacle says:

“The Saikyō Senritsu Meikyū (”Ultimate Horror Maze”) a 900-meter-long zombie-infested labyrinth at Japan’s Fuji-Q Highland amusement park — is billed as the world’s longest and scariest house of horror. They had temporarily shut down the facility because the zombie staff had lost their edge and were not frightening people enough. While the haunted house was closed, the undead employees were put through a rigorous training program designed to upgrade their zombie skills.

The horror house has since reopened and the camp-hardened zombies are reportedly as scary as ever.” Way to go guys!! One small step for zombies everywhere.

July 19th, 2009 by Sydney

That’s right! And just in time for that giant squidless Watchmen director’s cut screening at Comic-Con! Underwire reports:
“…Hordes of fearsome, violent Humboldt Squid have invaded shallow waters off the coast of Comic-Con International’s host city San Diego, assaulting divers and anyone else that gets in their way…

The predatory squid — which grow up to 7 feet long, have razor-sharp beaks and tentacles spiked with teeth — have been migrating northward at an alarming rate, as temperatures warm and their food stores thin out…

Comic-Con attendees might want to think about if they plan a dive near the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.”

Hey, on the bright side, at least this thing isn’t what’s attacking the shores of San Diego, though I’m sure there are a few fanboys out there that probably wish that it was.

July 17th, 2009 by Senna

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Vogue Nippon, a very special limited time only shop has been born, Vogue Nippon and Comme de Garcons Magazine Alive!

Opened May 28, 2009 on Aoyama’s Kottodori, the first floor of the store is a fantastical botique of high fashion pieces featured in the magazine that month.

The second floor beholds an art gallery featuring work from globally famous and renowned artists like Takashi Murakami.  The works will change on a monthly basis.

The first of these exhibits is called “Manga X Mode,” curated by Murakami and includes larger than life images of the girl idol group, AKB48 in “magical princess” costumes.

Check out the full report on the Murakami website here.

I wanna go! ^.^

July 16th, 2009 by Amanda

Who-Sucks.com says:

“The sea contains untold numbers of strange and bizarre creatures. It is said that we know more about our own solar system than we know about our oceans.

Indeed, some creatures of the sea can seem more alien than anything you can imagine.

But even worse, some of them can seem more frightening than your worst nightmare.

Below we have collected pictures of 24 CREATURES FROM THE DEEP!”

I personally have a fear of the ocean, especially anything that lives in it. Some of these are really cool but some I seriously cannot handle. How can we sleep at night knowing half of these are out there?! I can say one thing for sure though, these definitely do not suck.

Here are my favorites.

Read More »

July 13th, 2009 by Amanda

I stumbled upon this very interesting article today. It’s from last year which makes me wonder, why am I only finding out about it now?! Seriously though, WTF IS THIS THING?! Some people say raccoon, others say a “flightless griffin”, Sydney on the other hand thinks it’s “definitely a bird, chicken…chihuahua”, personally, I don’t think it’s any of those things.

From New York Magazine:

“Yesterday, Gawker ran what appeared to be a photo of a bloated, leathery animal corpse — only it was like no animal anyone had seen before. A stout, hairless creature with a beak, claws, and the almond-shaped eyes familiar from renderings of space aliens, it looked, in short, like a monster. Hence the headline: “Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk.”

A number of eyewitnesses say they saw the monster with their own eyes. “I saw the monster,” says Michael Meehan, a 22-year-old waiter at the Surfside Inn, which sits above the beach where the monster washed up. “I just came walking down the beach and everyone was looking at it. No one knew what it was. It kind of looked like a dog, but it had this crazy-looking beak. I mean, I would freak out if something like that popped up next to me in the water.”

“This woman kept calling animal control, she wanted to name it after herself. I think they came and got it. The carcass. Whatever it was.”

But did they? The East Hampton branch of animal control referred Daily Intel to a supervisor who did not return calls for comment. And Navitski, of Evolutionary Media Group, says her friend’s sister says animal control never came. “They say an old guy came and carted it away,” she said. “He said, ‘I’m going to mount it on my wall.’ ”

This did come out over a year ago, so I’m going to do some investigating and see if they ever did find out what it was.

The can read the original article here.

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And now for a little comic relief…

This was Christwire‘s version of the Montauk Monster:

“It’s an ABOMINATION to natural order that some geneticists created and frankly I’d like to know what else those Dr. Frankenstein’s are creating in their secret island labs. You’ve all seen Jurassic Park with the imaginary dinosaurs and you know that geneticists have been working on actual cloning some time now.

My scientific opinion is that this critter demon looks like the cross of a demon and a wild hog, with some bird of some sort in it, probably ostrich.”

View this and other hilarious article’s about “things that will kill you dead” here!

July 12th, 2009 by Amanda

The title of this article on Yahoo! News caught my eye:

“The giant Palouse earthworm has taken on mythic qualities in this vast agricultural region that stretches from eastern Washington into the Idaho panhandle — its very name evoking the fictional sandworms from “Dune” or those vicious creatures from the movie “Tremors.”

The worm is said to secrete a lily-like smell when handled, spit at predators, and live in burrows 15 feet deep. There have been only a handful of sightings.

But scientists hope to change that this summer with researchers scouring the Palouse region in hopes of finding more of the giant earthworms. Conservationists also want the Obama administration to protect the worm as an endangered species, even though little research has been done on it.”

Read the rest of the article here.

July 2nd, 2009 by Sydney

That’s right! We’ll be at Anime Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center today through Sunday. If you see us, say hi!!!! We’ll be the ones with the big blue bows taking pictures and passing out flyers!

June 26th, 2009 by Sydney

io9‘s Annalee Newitz says:

“Among the many things about Jackson that caught the public’s imagination in the 1990s was the way he turned his body into a kind of science fiction story. He became an enhanced human, using plastic surgery and pharmaceuticals to change his face and seemingly his race as well. He became whiter than most white people, and his pale bandaged skin became his trademark.

Jackson was a post-human celebrity, and nowhere was this more obvious than in his video “Black or White” (directed by John Landis). Once again, Jackson turned to one of the greatest minds in science fiction to help with the video. He used the morphing software used by James Cameron for The Abyss and Terminator 2 to create a memorable and oft-copied scene where dozens of people’s faces morph into each other, streaming through different racial identities, ages, and genders with an uncanny ease.”

Michael Jackson was living, breathing proof that if you’re driven enough (and you have the resources), you can really be anyone, or thing, you want to be.  From his body transformations to his fantastical music videos and his deep love for the kind of dreams most abandon after childhood, he was a man that truly sought to create and live out fantasy irl.

Michael Jackson’s Science Fictional Life

June 23rd, 2009 by Sydney

Nah.  Just kidding. They’re not zombies.  They’re just plain old dead.  But wouldn’t it be cool/cute if they were?

Over the last month, sources from around the world have been reporting that it’s been RAININ’ TADPOLES IN JAPAN! Wahhh??? No, seriously. It’s like The Exodus! Or Magnolia!

Typically, when it starts raining animals, scientists attribute it to strong winds and storms that form over bodies of water that, under certain circumstances, are capable of sucking up small animals, like tadpoles, carrying them inland and letting them loose on the unsuspecting citizens below.  But according to Telegraph.co.uk, local Japanese meteorologists just aren’t satisfied with this theory. Apparently, the wind at the time just wasn’t strong enough to be able to sweep up and carry hundreds of tadpoles across Japan.  Find the complete story here.

Also, Pink Tentacle has been following the story since it first broke and posts updates and photographs as new incidents of tadpole-rainfall occur.

June 15th, 2009 by Senna

Senna here, reporting for duty!

One big step for Noah and Erin, one giant leap for mankind!

Space lovers and soon to be newlyweds Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan will be the first couple to be married in space– well, almost. They will be married in a Boeing 727 zero gravity plane departing from the Kennedy Space Center, high above the surface of the Earth. Noah explains, “We would really prefer to do it in space or on Mars but living in the time that we do, this was the closest we could get to zero gravity.”  And the rock?  Nothing less than an engagement ring of meteorite fragments from 30,000 years ago.  Both of the love cadets plan to wear zero gravity wedding attire, a multi layered gown by Japanese designer Eri Matsui for Erin and a special zero gravity tux for Noah.  The price tage of the wedding is a whopping $5,200 a head, and they’re bringing friends.  But no price is too high for a once in a lifetime commitment in a once in a lifetime setting, for Noah and Erin will be two of the few earthlings to experience zero gravity.  The honeymoon will follow straight after the wedding party in Antartica.  Read the whole article here.

Congratulations to the spacey couple!

June 13th, 2009 by Sydney

Over at Pink Tentacle, they’ve posted some beautiful pictures of the Gundam stature recently erected in Tokyo.  According to examiner.com, the mech was  built by a group called Green Tokyo Gundam Project to both commemorate the 30th anniversary of the show and promote Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics.  It looks so real! I wish it was real. *sigh*

(link)