Saelt-Marae and J'Quille - Together Again

date posted: Dec 30, 2005 5:30 PM edit
Saelt-Marae and J'Quille - together again
Hi everyone!

Sean Crawford (Saelt-Marae - Yak Face) emailed me this afternoon to wish me a Happy New Year and to let me know about Tik and Tok - Slightly Deranged, a 4-song CD that he and Tim Dry (J'Quille) produced in anticipation of next year's full album.

You can hear a sample and purchase the CD HERE. The sample is awesome.

Mr. Crawford tells me that this is the first time in 20 years that a new work from Tik and Tok has been produced and we have Celebration III to thank for expediting this reunion. yay!
He says of the music:
"...Sounds like two androids in an out of control spaceship about to crashland on a planet populated only by sex-starved female aliens!"

To learn more visit Tik and Tok and see how it all got started.

Enjoy!
LM

How Lightsabers Work

date posted: Dec 28, 2005 2:32 AM edit
How Lightsabers Work

Hi all!

Springing from this blogger's entry asking how the lightsabers work, I decided to ask my friend, **Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, Ph.D, about the lightsaber. Does it exist in the real world, not the actual device in the form seen in the films but an equivalent. This was her response:

"Hi Leah,

I miss you too! I've actually had to look up some of my own answers without your usual copious input! Hurry back.

Hope your holidays calm down and you get some R&R.

As far as lightsabers go, yes and no about do they exist. Lasers are actually light sabers, you just don't see the beam. That's the catch. Lasers can cut things in half if they are powerful enough, of course they can burn wood and cinder block etc. It's just that unless the light reflects off something you don't see it. You can't see a beam of light just sticking in the air unless it's in a smoky room and the light can scatter off the dust and smoke particles. Even so the beam will either dissipate in the smoke as the light gets scattered out of it or it will reflect off the nearest wall. It won't have a well defined end or edge like a real saber.

A laser that strong would also not be portable or else it would be so small that the beam coming out of it would also be small (but still very powerful).

So, yes and no. Light sabers do exist, they just aren't sticks of light you can wield around like they are swords.

Colleen"


I'm sure there are some of you out there who, scientifically inclined or not, already knew this information or had a basic idea, as I did, about how they worked, but it was nice to get a short, understandable answer.
I want to thank Dr. Fitzpatrick for taking the time to answer my question.

If you want to learn a little more about lasers themselves you can visit How Stuff Works.

As usual, enjoy!
LM


**Dr. Fitzpatrick developed innovative technologies for NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense as well as being an avid +genealogist (an area of great personal interest for me). She is an expert on optical laser measurement techniques (part of the optoelectronic field I believe)
+She wrote a book called Forensic Genealogy which has been a very helpful resource for me and other genealogists/family historians in picking apart older photographs to cull valuable genealogical information, researching and decoding written databases and utilizing DNA analysis to decipher and track familial (genealogical) relationships.
EDIT: Dr. Fitzpatrick and my cousin, Andrew Yeiser, wrote another book recently called, DNA & Genealogy which is another terrific read and a great help.

lm

This Day in the UK

Nice nostalgia for our British friends!
There's a short video available too.
HERE.

Enjoy!

I hope that everyone's holidays are going well.

LM

Actor Updates!

Before I head on out for the holidays I'd like to get in a quick actors update.

Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi - PT) was looking over the new BMW motorcycle with friend and fellow world traveller, Charley Boorman. See two pics HERE.

~~Perry King (Han Solo - Star Wars radio dramas), the Olive Crest National Spokesperson and contributor to the Olive Crest Homes for Abused Children in Orange County, CA since 1985, was a guest speaker at their luncheon here in Rancho Mirage, CA (a few miles from where I am here) on December 18. Here's the article.

~~Just in time for Christmas! James Earl Jones (voice of Darth Vader) stars as one of The Three Wise Men in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth. This came out on TV in 1977 in four parts. All four parts will be aired on The History Channel on December 25th starting at 8am (Eastern time US) and ending around 4pm. Check The History Channel for the details.
Part 1: 12/25, 8am; Part 2: 12/25, 10am; Part 3: 12/25, 12pm; Part 4: 12/25, 2pm

~~Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba recently visited a children's hospital to hand out presents. They are filming Awake. And..If you'd like to see Mr. Christensen in a cross-country race (recorded earlier this year) then you can watch Cops, Cars & Superstars: Bullrun II which airs on Saturday, December 24th at 9:30 pm ET on Razer TV.

~~The following actors were added to the SWAD:
Colin Higgins (Thanks to Pablo Hidalgo)
Adam Smith (Thanks to Convention-Guests)
Nick Chilvers
Elizabeth Conboy
Brian Deacon
Tish Hicks
Lorri Holt
Colin Skeaping
Vic Armstrong

~~There are several new references that were sent in this week, and plenty of other updates. To see what they were click HERE.

Happy Holidays everyone!

See you next week!

LM

Visual Effects Oscar Nominations

The Visual Effects Award nominations for the Academy Awards were announced on Friday:

For Revenge of the Sith:
John Knoll, Roger Guyett, Rob Coleman and Brian Gernand (TPM, AOTC).

War of the Worlds:
Dennis Muren (worked on - TPM, AOTC, IJTD, ROTJ, ROTLA, ESB, ANH, etc, etc), Pablo Helman (TPM, AOTC), Randal M. Dutra (ROTJ) and Daniel Sudick.

Batman:
Janek Sirrs, Dan Glass, Chris Corbould and Paul Franklin.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:
Nick Davis, Nikki Penny, Chas Jarrett and Jon Thum.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:
Jim Mitchell, Tim Alexander (TPM), Tim Webber and Jon Richardson.

Chronicles of Narnia:
Dean Wright, Bill Westenhofer, Jim Berney and Scott Farrar (ROTJ, TPM).King Kong:Joe Letteri (visual effects supervisor on ANH), Christian Rivers, Brian Van't Hul and Richard Taylor.

Any bets?

LM