Sunday, April 30, 2006

Chinaman buys fighter jet on eBay

A Chinese businessman has bought a MiG-21f plane from a U.S. seller on the online auction website eBay for $24,730 and plans to use it to decorate an empty space at his offices.
The Beijing News newspaper identified the Chinese buyer as Zhang Cheng. "I like to collect valuable items. I have the buying power and my company has an empty space where I can display the plane," the newspaper quoted Zhang as saying.

The eBay website for the transaction shows the plane is currently located in Lewiston, Idaho. It said the fighter jet, last flown in 1995, has been inspected by a museum and found to be in excellent condition. The Beijing News quoted Zhang as saying he learned from the seller's son by telephone that the fighter jet was retired by the Czech military.

It wasn't immediately clear if the fighter jet can be imported into China. Zhang said he is waiting for government authorities to get back to him, The Beijing News reported. "There is the precedent of a Chinese company buying a retired aircraft carrier, but I don't know if this jet plane is a banned item," Zhang reportedly said.

Zhang was apparently referring to the Soviet-built Minsk aircraft carrier that a Chinese company bought and converted into a floating theme park in the southern city of Shenzhen. The company went bankrupt and recently put the ship up for sale.

Buying Aircraft isn't a new thing on eBay, but it appears to be getting more accessable now. The Question is, what hardware I should buy?...

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Rogue Trooper

You'll have to have read 2000 AD to know why the super soldiers of Eidos' upcoming Rogue Trooper are blue, but you'll only need a few minutes of gameplay time to see that these troops are tough as nails. Cut up with muscles and super-human soldier instincts, these bright blue genetic infantrymen are Smurfs on steroids.

2000 AD is a British institution and, thus, a perfect fit for the UK-based publisher Eidos and UK-based developer Rebellion. Basically: Humanity is at war with the evil Nort, and the battleground is the planet of Nu Earth. Rather than sending humans to do the dirty work on the hostile atmosphere of Nu Earth, the powers that be genetically-engineered regiments of Genetic Infantryman, the aforementioned blue bombers.

You control Rogue, squad leader of four G.I.s, on a drop mission from a space cruiser into Nu Earth. You and Gunnar, Bagman and Helm, and the rest of your regiment jump into drop pods like recently in Quake IV to start the incursion, but the Nort are waiting. Somehow, they knew exactly where and when the landing would be and ambushed them. Without going too deep into the story, your regiment has been betrayed and Rogue goes follows the path of vengeance for the deaths of his comrades.

Rogue Trooper handles similar to a lot of other third-person-shooters out there with a few extra twists. Rogue can take cover behind rocks and walls, similar to the mechanic in James Bond: Everything or Nothing. While taking cover, he can aim at enemy Nort, and by hitting the fire button, you'll pop out and fire several rounds with your automatic machine gun. You can also blind fire at the push of a button -- Rogue will push his gun out and fire randomly to provide cover for fellow G.I.s. Rogue will also get his hands on rocket launchers and gun emplacements, like simple machine gun turrets to anti-spacecraft flak guns.

Despite Rogue's proficiency for Nort-smashing, his three squad mates will eventually meet their own respective dooms at the hands of the Nort. A funny thing about those genetic super clones, though: these guys never really die. The personalities of the clones are encoded into bio-chips, implanted at the base of a G.I.s skull, and Rogue can cut his friends open and remove the chips. If enough time passes, the chips will power down and the personalities will be lost forever. But Rogue manages to use his three chip-slots to preserve the lives of his friends and pick up their special abilities on the way.

Gunnar's chip plugs into Rogue's machine gun, for example, and unlocks an auto targeting reticule. By aiming at the helmets of enemy Nort, a head-shot icon will also appear, indicating a one-shot, one-kill situation. Helm's chip plugs into Rogue's helmet and he'll dispense advice along the way. Bagman's chip hooks up to Rogue's backpack. Then you'll be able to grab scrap metal, process it into your backpack for upgrades to your ammunition and your weapons, which adds some minor role-playing elements to Rogue Trooper.

While Rogue Trooper was released on April 21st in the UK it hasn't got much publicity or reviews as it's US launch won't be until the end of May apparently, and as the US controls most of the worlds media, you probably won't hear anything about it until then. If it appears good to my trusted sources (and based on my appraisal of any demo) then I'll give it a go and tell you all about it. But let's face it, it HAS to be better than the last conversion of a 2000AD character to the game screen- Dredd Vs. Death doesn't it?

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Lots of Galactica News

I know some of you less technologically advanced folk watch Battlestar Galactica on Sky One, and don't worry, I'm not going to spoil the horrific and devestating surprise of the the 90min season finale. I'm just going to tell you that Galactica will return for a third season.
SCI FI Channel announced that its hit original series will return in October with a full 20-episode third season. Production on the third season began in Vancouver, Canada, only a few days ago.

Battlestar Galactica brings back the ensemble cast, which includes Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. As previously announced, Lucy Lawless will also join the cast for a 10-episode arc, reprising her role as D'Anna Biers, a Cylon and will be executive produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. Season three promises even more of the drama, intrigue and action that viewers have come to expect from the series.

The Sci Fi Channel will also delve into the backstory of Battlestar Galactica with a new series that looks at the years leading up to humanity's devastation by the Cylons. The prequel, called Caprica, will be set more than 50 years prior to the events of Battlestar Galactica and focus on the lives of two families -- the Adamas (ancestors of future Galactica commander William) and the Graystones. Humankind's Twelve Colonies are at peace and on the verge of a technological breakthrough: the first Cylon.

As Battlestar Galactica is about a lot more than space battles, Caprica will be as much family drama as sci-fi tale. Remi Aubuchon (24) is writing the pilot script; Galactica veterans Ronald D. Moore and David Eick will executive produce it.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

1000 Hits in 24 Days!

Visitor 5000 hit on April 1st but visitor 6000 hit on Monday night! I'm not going to bother congrat- ulating them or thanking them because they're French. Still, it's an impressive statistic. So much so that I'm not even going to bother giving a damn about visitor 7, 8. or 9000 but a prize will be given to visitor 10000!* or the closest visitor after that, that I can actually identify and contact. At this rate I'll need it in about 6 weeks LOL.

The pie chart figures show a dramatic and disturbing downturn from visitors here in Ireland but increased visitors from every other corner of the planet and the absence of visitors from the evil empire of Unknown Country is noted.

Good news on the browser front IE is down to 51%, Firefox at 38. Safari has dramatically risen to 6% while the dregs are shared between Mozilla, Netscape and Opera.

As for what brings people here:
  • marsoc
  • gladiatrix
  • "schmidt & bender"
  • Spiderman 3 teaser
  • adventures of briscoe county
  • secnav donald winter
A google for "sentences for cathoilc priests" found a random comment from Cubaboy.

I'm curious as to why someone in Information Systems, U.S. House of Representatives in Washington would come here too look at info on the Thunder Chickens. Maybe they were looking for info on the most recent Osprey mishap the other day ago involving the Chickens themselves. Don't worry lads I won't be reporting that another one dropped out of the sky. Only positive spin on the military here :D

Finally, a big hello to all my readers in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio (or at least the one who keeps coming back).

*Before you all start clicking incessantly after 9900, I'll be resetting the counter or not counting more than 10 individual non-consecutive visits within a 24hour period and/or more than 1 consecutive visit at a time interval less than 30 minutes in length. Meaning you can't just sit there and refresh the page.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Shatner sings to God

This is a clip from the 2005 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to George Lucas show. In it, William Shatner comes on stage and sings to him. Later on, Shatner is joined by a group of dancing stormtroopers on stage. Has to be seen to be believed.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Star Trek XI

Variety reported today that J.J.Abrams, the man behind Alias and Lost and the director of what will surely be one of the greatest movies of the year: Mission Impossible 3 will be taking the helm of Star Trek XI and it will be produced by Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk (the Lost team).

Apparently Harve Bennett's original idea for a Starfleet Academy movie has been fleshed out and will be made whole, and the movie will feature a young James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock at the Academy and going out on their first missions.

Back when the idea was first brought to my attention about 15 years ago now I guess, at first I thought it was stupid. Even today my first reaction was 'No'. However after reviewing all of the information and not just the narrow-minded vision of the man who infomed me (granted he only has access to about a third of the infomation I'm privvy to), I'm going to give this idea my full support and welcome it. This will be a new era of Star Trek and it will succeed where it has failed on the past decade. Why?

No Berman, no Braga.

This is all that was needed all along. Everything in the world of Star Trek will be allright from now on. More as it happens folks...

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

The end of the road for Connery, Yeshh indeed! *UPDATED*

It is expected that one of the greatest living silver screen legends Sir Sean Connery is to officially announce his retirement from Hollywood when he collects his Lifetime Achievement Award at the American Film Institute later this year.

Connery, 75, who is recuperating after undergoing surgery to remove a Kidney tumor in January, plans to spend his time writing books instead. He says, "I have retired for good. It's been a bit rough since Christmas but I'm perfectly OK and I feel well. In fact, I'm working on a history book."

Harrison Ford, meanwhile, is campaigning for the actor to return to the screen one last time for the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie. *Sigh* Personally I don't want the last screen appearence of Connery to be old-man-Jones calling Harrison Ford "junior" when Connery is only 12 years his senior- it was a bit silly first time round and my be even sillier now. Jesus Connery did The Rock when he was Ford's age now. No the true Hollywood send off for Sir Sean was the dignified send off in Finding Forrester (I've erased LXG from menory) so let me have that Harrison, please.

*UPDATE*

According to this Sean may not be retiring after all. The plot thickens...

Monday, April 17, 2006

Tkae a look at tihs!

I got an E-mial in ytedreasy taht swhos the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig eh? Tihs pvores slpeling is not ipmorantt!

Friday, April 14, 2006

2IGTV Episode 16

In this episode:
  • A rare insight into the "evil" 2IGTV Mirror Universe.
  • The UMD "Sony's Betamax"
  • Warner Brothers WILL do Conan III
  • Dallas director is replaced
  • Indiana Jones IV just waiting on Steve
  • News on Tom Cruise, Howard Stern, Jessica Simpson, Heather Locklear and yes, Samuel L. Jackson.
  • Also: Dreadful news on Ethan Phillips (sorry I just couldn't put his name in the same line as the others).


Tune in now! iTunes Feed / mp3

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Briscoe on DVD

It was October when I published this in which I exclusively* revealed that Bruce Campbell and the producers of Briscoe County Jr. had started nagging Warner to release the series on DVD.
Well it just goes to show that nagging someone for something constantly for several months will pay off as I'm pleased to reveal details of The Adventures Of Briscoe County Jr on DVD.

Warner Home Video at long last will release The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: The Complete Series on DVD. The eight-disc DVD collector's set will feature all 27 episodes of the series, along with a host of extras on the eighth disc including: A Reading From the Book of Bruce, The History of Brisco County - a "making of" documentary featuring star Bruce Campbell, cast and crew, Tools of the Trade - an interactive map that launches into min-featurettes about the gadgets and props used in the show and A Brisco County Writer's Room - a roundtable/ reunion discussion with show creators, writers and producers.

The Region 1 edition will be available for $99.99 (or cheaper online) from July 18th.

*May not actually have been an exclusive.

DiCaprio Star Wars Toys - Update

As previously reported, Leonardo DiCaprio put his Star Wars collection up for auction recently. What we did want to know was why? Well apparently it was to benefit his foundation devoted to environmental protection. The figures, raised just over $100,000 for the foundation, according to Dan Morphy, the auction company's chief operating officer.

DiCaprio, who was on location in Africa last week, was "very pleased with the results," Morphy said."

"I don't care about the enviornment", Colonel Creedon said in a statement "..and (DiCaprio) still can't act"

Friday, April 07, 2006

The Simpsons Movie Teaser Trailer

Safe to say that this is in the top spot for the Best Teaser Trailer for the "Whopper Awards 2006".

DOOM DVD not doomed

The DVD of the fantastic DOOM movie was released on Region 2 recently. I have had the R1 release for a few months, but I've only now had a chance to view it. It's identical to the R2 release only with a better foil embossed cover.

Read my exciting 5-Star review of DOOM here.

The features on the one-disc release are slightly above standard for a release like this- You get the full First Person Shooter Sequence which shows- restores the entire five minute sequence and includes background information by visual effects supervisor John Farhat. A "Basic Training" featurette which documents the rigorous training process for cast member The Rock and his co-stars, including weapons and physical training. In another featurette, make-up artist Jeff Dawn reveals how he created make-up effects for the climactic sequence featuring The Rock. Of great intrest was "Doom Nation", a chronicle of the worldwide, phenomenal success of the DOOM video game, most nostalgic indeed.

The Rock offered insights about the DVD bonus features on the Doom set during filming: "From day one, I was on the phone to the DVD people," he said. "They've been here every day and I've been talking shit to them every day. 'Come over and get a shot of this!' There was the one scene when they had hired real amputees with no legs and no arms… and when their prosthetics were put on, it looks like a chunk of meat is taken out of their bodies. It was surreal and tough that week to be there and I made sure the DVD people were there.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

When Baby Showers Go Bad

A baby shower is another stupid invention where the family and friends of expectant parents are "showered" with baby gifts etc. I'm sure you've all seen or heard of one from US originated movies and television.
What was intresting about this one reported on Sky News, was that a guest was shot and several other guests as well as the expectant mother herself were beaten with a stick!!!
Needless to say that this has changed my opinion of this particular event; If this is the level of excitment and violence that exist at these things perhaps I'll start producing my own children now...

Monday, April 03, 2006

I had better send them a picture of me...

The Marine Corps Heritige Foundation will open a new Marine Museum on Nov 10th 2006.

Currently under construction on a 135-acre site adjacent to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, the National Museum of the Marine Corps will be a lasting tribute to U.S. Marines -- past, present and future.

Boasting World-class, interactive exhibits using the most innovative technology will surround visitors with irreplaceable artifacts including the flag raised over Iwo Jima and immerse them in the sights and sounds of Marines in action, like the landing on Iwo Jima on D-Day in 1945, and the 1968 Khe Sanh siege during the Vietnam War. Visitors will be able to experience the intensity of boot camp...or test their rifle skills with a M-16 at the Marine Corps practice range.

Right! Who's going with me?

Sunday, April 02, 2006

New statistics and visitor 5000!!

Well I haven't published my figures for a while and I guess this is a good time as any even though there's nothing much to report. Almost the entire United States have been searching for the Spiderman 3 teaser poster, the X-Men 3 trailer, infomation on MARSOC and the Osprey all of which I covered in depth here.
All the perverts seem to have migrated here insted according to Cubaboy himself.

I did get one search for "sizemore prosthetic" which obviously linked a result to an older article and one for "multiple orgasms" which bizzarely brought someone here as did "last neighbours episode"??

I'm not going to publish browser share figures as the dominance of IE6 is too depressing and upsetting.

Elsewhere though, this caught my eye while researching bird-flu. You know you're truly famous when you do a common search for something and your own photograph appears somewhere you didn't put it.

Congratulations to the person in Santa Ana, California who on Apr 1 2006 at 7:59:01 pm GMT became visitor # 5000 after clicking to come here following a search for the "schmidt & bender 3x12 variable power day scope". Congratulations: you've won a prize. Reply here to redeem it.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Madonna will be Sith!

My God! It's all over the internet! Liz Rosenburg and a spokesperson for Lucasfilm just confirmed that the reigning Queen of Pop and God himself may in fact, soon be working together. This comes after this photo was leaked to the internet of Madonna's audition for the forthcoming Star Wars television project.

"Madonna is an admittedly unusual choice for us, but George has always been a fan and he really wants to take the saga in a bold new direction." Said the Lucasfilm rep. "Seriously, what could possibly be more unexpected?"

Rosenberg concurs. "Turns out Rocco is a huge, huge Star Wars fan and Madge initially went in just so he could tour the ranch." But, after a lengthy two hour meeting in which Lucas outlined his vision for the top secret project, she was completely sold on both her possible role and the story. "Madonna was surprised by how well this just might suit her."

Even more compelling is the long delayed start date of 2008. This gives the recently recrowned disco queen plenty of time to conduct her summer tour and even work on an album or two before turning up in the bay area for what would undoubtedly be a lengthy stay until the production moves to Australia where principle photography is rumoured to take place.

"Madonna obviously knows this is a real risk," explained Rosenburg. "And definitely wants to be around for the prelimenary planning stages if at all possible."

Just how sold is Madonna on her participation in the series? She's already sent out two assistants with camcorders to scout possible residences for Guy and the family. Moreover, she has even turned to Lucas on school advice for the kiddies. So it does appear that the "stars" may already be very much aligned for this one.

Ok, so it ain't the most convincing of April 1st jokes but it gave me a laugh.