vinyarb

like, what is legit anymore?

The Potus with the Mostest

Apr
27

Here’s President Barack Obama slow jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon on the late show.

Well, if that’s what it takes to get young voters to be concerned with politics and current issues… I say bring on the jammin’.

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You wouldn’t guess who may invent asteroid mining

Apr
25

asteroid eros

Think Mark Zuckerberg  coughing up a billion dollars to buy some photo filters is something to shout about?

What about filmmaker James-Titanic-Cameron teaming up with Googlers Larry Page and Eric Schmidt to form Planetary Resources, a company aimed at mining asteroids for minerals and water?

That’s either so badass its awesome, or it could just be the start of another alternate reality game to promote Alien5? Either way… wow.

Their vision is to be able to set up a space gas-station by 2020, so that space shuttles can re-fuel in space, enabling further exploration.

Gold and platinum mining are also priorities, but hey, since we’re on the topic of mining a never-before examined object, we may as well go for broke and hope to get some really new minerals that could perhaps yield stronger metals and parts!

2020… the future is indeed looking very, very interesting! And i’ll still (touch wood) be alive to witness it!

The Googlers join Elon Musk in the tech-kings-conquering-space career path, as Elon, one of the co-founders of Paypal, is now CEO of SpaceX, a manufacturer of space launch vehicles, and working with NASA.

So look out for a future Google, selling you search results, phones, self-driven cars, rare gold and ads from space.

PS: James Cameron acts as an advisor, and the Googlers are investors.

You can read more about it at pcmag.

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mmm… you smell so.. familiar

Apr
24
ipad-unboxing

ooooh.. mmm... you smell like a sexy little brand new ipad

You probably have a macbook air at home, an iphone 4S in your pocket, and the new ipad in that stylish little tote of yours. But… there’s still something missing in that whole look right there.

Oh yes, how bout a fragrance to top it off? Something called… Apple, Unboxed, perhaps?

Yeap, some apple fanboys have apparently taken things too far, and have commissioned 3 artists to recreate the aroma of an apple  unboxing. Its currently not being planned for mass production, as it will only be used in an art show.

But you never know… with enough demand, comes the damned supply.

Here’s how it was done.

The process of creating this signature fragrance started with an initial meeting with our client to understand the concept and desired effect of the fragrance. Once this was established, the ingredients for the fragrance had to be sourced. The scent requested by our client was quite unusual so we contacted our fragrance suppliers in the South of France to send over samples of fragrances with the aroma of glue, plastic, rubber and paper. Air Aroma fragrance designers then used these samples as ingredients to create a range of signature blend fragrances. The blends, each with unique recipes were then tested in the Air Aroma laboratory until a final fragrance was ultimately selected.

To replicate the smell a brand new unopened Apple was sent to our fragrance lab in France. From there, professional perfume makers used the scents they observed unboxing the new Apple computer to source fragrance samples. On completion the laptop was sent back to Australia, travelling nearly 50,000kms and returned to our clients together with scent of an Apple Macbook Pro.

 

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The Cabin in the Woods

Apr
23

the-cabin-in-the-woods

The cabin in the woods is best watched without knowing anything prior to viewing. And it should come as no surprise that this review will be spoiler-filled.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me say that cabin in the woods is one of the best horror movies in years!

Hooking you in without ever letting up, the 2 parallel stories converge and beautifully ties up all the questions you’ve ever had about the people (usually teens, even that’s a question… why teens?) in these horror movies, namely:

  • why do teens like to have sex in the creepiest of places? (usually in densely forested areas where danger and mosquitos lurk)
  • why it seems like its a good idea to split up in situations where normally, people will want to stay together.
  • why everyone killed is a stereotype of either a jock, a stoner, a slut or an intellectual (and by extension, why the only survivor is almost always a virgin-ish)

5 college students set off on a weekend vacation to a cabin in the woods, and when they arrive a the cabin, comfortably slip into the stereotypes we all know and love so much; the jock, the stoner, the intellect, the slut and the virgin.

cabin in the woods

Underneath the cabin lies an extensive secret laboratory, watching the kids’ every move via satelite and hidden cameras, obviously up to no good (or so we think). After finding a hidden basement filled with weird and horror-inducing artefacts, they unwittingly unleash a  zombie redneck torture family (yes, its that specific) to wreck havoc on them.

Back in the secret underground facility, the curtains slowly pull back to reveal the scope of the project, the other projects taking place all over the world, and finally, the dire consequences if the projects were to fail.

The stakes are raised, and its no longer just the lives of the 5 kids on the line, but all the employees in the facility and possibly more. All this sets up the crazy finale in a free-for-all who’s who of the monster world.

After watching the cabin in the woods, all other horror movies will make sense.

Fret not if you don’t really understand the last few paragraphs. You’re not meant to read about the cabin in the woods. You’re meant to watch it, laugh and gape, and then watch it again.

It’s that good.

Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard have just levelled up as a duo in my mind.

Misoprostol to buy in canada Rating: 9/10

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Wrath of the Titans

Apr
23

As I was watching Wrath of the Titans, I felt eternal wrath at having wasted the money. It felt exactly the same as Clash of the Titans, had exactly the same beats and plot, and worst of all, the same weak last king to fight.

In Clash, they built up the Kraken to be this huge, hideous monster capable of total destruction, and he appeared for less than 5 minutes and was killed with a single Medusa stare.

In Wrath, they built up Kronos (father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) to be this huge, hideous monster capable of total destruction, and he appeared for less than 5 minutes and was killed with a single arrow to the knee, or something.

If you’ve seen Clash, you’ve seen Wrath.

They even replaced red hot Alexa Davalos with Rosamund Pike for the role of Andromeda.

Rosamund-Pike

Not anymore, it isn’t! I am Andromedaahahaha!

This, for that? Give me my fuckin money back!

apodeictically Rating: 4/10

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PM Lee Hsien Loong on Facebook and Twitter

Apr
20

Lee Hsien Loong Facebook profile

The main man of Singapore has jumped into the social media bandwagon, getting an official Facebook and Twitter account to speak with all Singaporeans keen to listen.

And, judging by the numbers on day 1, he’s looking to be a runaway hit!

Just into the end of day 1, he’s garnered an impressive 3,554 twitter followers and 12,759 Likes on facebook.

He’s also adopted a very friendly and casual tone with his accounts, and that’s sure to strike a chord with many of us.

Looks like its a great start for the man.

He’s also humbly asked for us to address him simply as “Mr Lee”.

All the best and have fun exploring this new world, Mr Lee!

PM Lee Facebook notes

 

PM Lee tweets

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Battleship

Apr
17

Its frankly a little difficult to wrap my head around the idea that an advanced species that can fly many light years in their very obviously technologically advanced ships to Earth, with the intent of invasion, could lose to Earthly ammunition.

So movies like Independence Day and Battle: Los Angeles where the soldiers inherently find an alien weakness and in the chaos, manage to relay that message to every other country and subsequently defeat the aliens simply don’t get to me. Sure, the effects are great, and I understand the need to end on a triumphant note (you can’t name a film Independence Day, and then have all of humanity die on that day, right?), but how many levels of disbeliefs do we need to suspend to swallow that?

And that’s why Battleship is a more forgivable film, because the army they inevitably defeat was not an army, but more of a recce/scout team, sent to establish communications to call for the actual fleet (perhaps after ascertaining available resources or securing of an area).

In 2005, a signal was sent to an extrasolar planet (that means a planet outside of our solar system) that had conditions similar to Earth, which could possibly harbor life. In 2012, they came. Unfortunately for the aliens, they chose to land in the sea near Hawaii, where the 2012 RIMPAC was being held, right in the middle of a live naval exercise.

The alien ships have a tremendous array of weaponry, and the aliens in their suits are also way more advanced than us. However, because of possible instructions to only disable and destroy perceived threats, and the perseverance of humanity, we always win!

Yay!

The film stars Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna and Tadanobu Asano.

I feel like Taylor Kitsch is the new Sam Worthington. Pretty good looking, zero acting skills, and the luck of being cast in several relatively big budget movies.

But I think the biggest plot hole of the film was in casting Brooklyn Decker, and then not decking her in one of these.

Brooklyn Decker

This scene should be written into her contract for any film she’s in

It just doesn’t make any sense.

Overall its a fun movie with great effects, not too terrible acting and a more believable ending to how the aliens could be defeated. But I definitely wouldn’t be hearing the fat lady singing as yet. The aliens haven’t heard from the recce team, and they have super advanced weaponry. So they may be pissed, and there’s definitely more of them where they came from! (Time to open the sequel can!)

Rating: 6/10

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The rabbit hole

Apr
12

I’m about to start reading a book called The 90-day Novel by Allan Watt. It’s supposed to help writers bang out a first draft of a novel in around 90 days.

But this post is not about the book, but the story of the discovery of the book:

It all started with a viewing of April 10th’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which featured Elon Musk as guest of the day, co-founder of Paypal, and current CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors (there will be a separate post on this marvelous man). He gave a brilliant interview detailing his exploits and the key areas that interest him: The internet, Sustainability and Space exploration (leading to multi-planetary dominance of humans).

Elon Musk

He impressed and inspired me so much I had to find out more, and so I went on to Wikipedia to find out that he only takes $1 salary at Tesla Motors, but his net worth is US$2 billion (Hell, he could have bought Instagram if he’d wanted to, but of course, he has loftier ambitions). Also, Director Jon Favreau modeled Ironman Tony Stark’s character with Elon in mind. Yeah.

No doubt a busy man, he still had the time to sire 5 kids (all sons!) with his first wife, Justine Musk, while they were married from 2000 – 2008. So I decide to check out Justine Musk, who turns out to be an author who also blogs at justinemusk. She seems like a reasonable woman from her postings, and I hope she got her Tesla Roadster she’d requested from the divorce.

Also, for 40, she’s pretty hot!

Justine Musk

source: facebook.com/justinemusk

I started reading some of her posts (all very entertaining and insightful), which lead to her recommending the book The 90-day Novel.

Which is great because I was just getting started on (really, this time) writing my novel.

And that, is the story of how I came across the book. And I absolutely loved the process of the discovery, from the daily show to Elon to Justine and finally to Allan Watt’s book. All in all, I’d say its been a most productive day.

So next on the list of things to do then: A novel in 90 days?

Fuck yeah!

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