Somali pirate interview

Wired brings us a matter-of-factly interview with a Somali pirate about their work of hijacking ships and killing people. He also gives a pretty thorough rundown on how to run a successful pirating mission, so if you're ever forced to board a ship for ransom, his advice sounds like a good starting point.

Once you have a ship, it’s a win-win situation. We attack many ships everyday, but only a few are ever profitable. No one will come to the rescue of a third-world ship with an Indian or African crew, so we release them immediately. But if the ship is from Western country or with valuable cargo like oil, weapons or … then it’s like winning a lottery jackpot. We begin asking a high price and then go down until we agree on a price.

Exclusive Interview: Pirate on When to Negotiate, Kill Hostages | Danger Room | Wired.com

Tron Legacy trailer

Promising footage for the sequel to the classic Tron movie, Tron Legacy, which will be released some time around 2011. Critics have been skeptical about the Walt Disney Pictures-produced project, ridiculing the title choice of Tron 2.0 or TR2N. However, the film has since been renamed, and at San Diego Comic Con this and the previous year the above movie segment wowed the audience. Also, The NME reported that Daft Punk have been hired to do the original soundtrack score for the movie, which is also a pretty amazing.

UPDATE: Here's also an cool gallery with concept design from the movie.

Daft Punk set for Disney 'Tron 2.0' score | News | NME.COM

The Book of Eli trailer

First offical trailer for the post-apocalyptic movie "The Book of Eli", starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, set for release in January 2010.

The Book Of Eli's Pages Are Stuck Together With Awesome Blood, Judging From The Trailer - The Book Of Eli - io9

The Wire illustrations

Wire Illustrations on the Behance Network

Experimental astronaut suits

Here's a glimpse of how much different our mind image of the moon landing could be if the astronaut suits were of another design. Check out these prototypes and experimental astronaut suits in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. Quite certainly the suit in the third picture is more befitting of the steampunk science-fiction world of Bioshock with its metal plated look.

Also noteworthy on the web page of the National Air and Space Museum is a display of 100 objects from the Apollo mission.

The Suits That Carried Our Heroes To The Moon - Space - io9

'Tetris' movie

Honestly there is not much I can think of right now that's more awesome than this mock-up trailer for the movie adaptation of Tetris.

Topless Robot - Make Your Own Videogame Movie: And the Winner Is... - Page 1

The Manhattan Project remnants

Martin Miller has created an interesting photo essay of the remnants of the Manhattan Project. These are mostly pictures from the Oak Ridge facility where the plutonium for the Nagasaki and Hiroshima atom bombs was produced. It's quite fascinating that so much of the facilities is still standing in their original state, and Fallout 3 players should feel right at home with these World War II-era military installations.

One cannot see the nuclear-explosives production facilities built during the Manhattan Project without experiencing a sense of awe at what was accomplished. The scientific, engineering, managerial, labor, and logistical challenges that were met and overcome are separately impressive but, taken together, simply astonishing. It is all the more incredible that this was done in the context of a desperate and bitter war that had already strained the nation's manpower and resources as never before. Yet appreciation of the monumental achievements of the Manhattan Project cannot be considered without a pang of regret at what it unleashed into the world.

Slouching towards Bethlehem ... :: Photography Served

Mechwarrior trailer

Being big fans of the old MechWarrior PC games from back in the day, this footage from the new MechWarrior game certainly looks exciting!

MechWarrior Video Game, Debut Trailer | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

Dynamars Corporation updates

The Dynamars Corporation Updates were started on Something Awful in 2004 as a tongue-in-cheek parody of games and movies like Doom and Event Horizon. As can be learned from the updates, the Mars settlers are busy fighting trans-dimensional doorways to Hell, out-of-control fast food restaurants, animals appearing out of nowhere, and also extremely strict company policy. Below is a list of all articles, starting with the first one.

Surviving residents are advised to ignore the ominous transmissions coming from Ares Station. In all likelihood, Resident #010 mistakenly activated a damaged subsystem, causing the station to automatically transmit dire predictions of death. DynaMars Corporation wishes to remind all residents that these predictions are the beliefs of a damaged Ares Station subsystem, and not those of the DynaMars Corporation itself.

• 06-05-2293 - 11-02-2293
  
  
• 03-12-2295 - 09-20-2295
  
  
• 05-15-2301 - 07-14-2301
  
  
• 07-15-2301 - 08-07-2301
  
  
• 03-01-2304 - 03-11-2304 [Complaint Queue Logs]
  
  
• 04-02-2304 - 04-04-2304 [Command Queue Logs]
  
  
• 04-07-2304 - 04-21-2304
  
  
• 06-23-2305 - 07-10-2305
  
  
• 08-16-2305 - 08-26-2305

District 9 new trailer

Awesome new trailer for District 9, the Peter Jackson-produced movie where aliens have landed on Earth but are kept segregated from the general population in concentration camps. Only one month till it's opening in theaters on August 14th.

YouTube - 'District 9' Trailer 2 HD

Dollhouse Epitaph One clip

Here's a very short clip from the 13th "lost" episode of Dollhouse titled Epitaph One. It's supposedly set in a post-apocalyptic world of 2019, and will be available on the Dollhouse DVD and Blu-Ray out later this month.

The creator of the series Joss Whedon says about the episode:

"It has a very different structure and feel from what we do on Dollhouse, so it would have been ridiculously startling to have aired it the week after the season finale as just this insane coda," he says. "And it is a little bit insane, except that we sort of follow everything through to its logical conclusion. As always, it's logical to conclude that people are terrible and will try to destroy each other."

YouTube - Dollhouse Season 1 - Epitaph One Sneak Peek !

Marco Brambilla's 'Civilization'

Most amazing artwork I've seen in a while: Marco Brambilla's video mural commissioned by (and on display in the elevators of) The Standard Hotel, New York. Created out of hundreds of hours of footage, it shows the ascension from Hell to Heaven (or vice versa, depending on the direction of the elevator) created from all kinds of movie clips, video clips and stock footage. The result is a breathtaking experience which warrants multiple rewatchs of the HD clip embedded above.

Marco Brambilla: Civilization | Motionographer | Motion graphics, design, animation, filmmaking and visual effects