Another day at the office

Here's a photo from Arnold Schwarzenegger's office. He says on Twitter:

I do still have the Conan sword, and I keep it in my office. Here's a picture.

Just Another Day At The Office For Arnold - Arnold Schwarzenegger - io9

Self-made fallout shelters

GOOD magazine shows some pictures from the book Waiting for the End of the World by photographer Richard Ross, who spent five years traveling and photographing the interiors of bomb shelters.

Picture Show: Waiting for the End of the World | GOOD

Pictures formed by soldiers

These are some astounding works of photography. The detail work that went into creating these pictures is quite incredible, considering you have to take into account the perspective tilt towards the distance (which means that a lot more people have to stand in the back than in the front). You have to view full size to appreciate the detail.

Astounding photographs taken by photographers Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas. These photos display tens of thousands of American soldiers posing as symbols of American history.

Incredible Pictures Formed by Thousands of US Soldiers | WildAmmo.com

Burning Chrome, 1986

William Gibson, Burning Chrome, published 1986. One of the classic 80ies science fiction short story collections, this was put out shortly after Gibson's successful first novel Neuromancer. Collecting his early work, some of it set in the same setting as his novels, such as Burning Chrome and Johnny Mnemonic, it also features a couple of stories written in a different style and setting.

It was hot, the night we burned Chrome. Out in the
malls and plazas, moths were batting themselves to
death against the neon, but in Bobby's loft the only light
came from a monitor screen and the green and red
LEDs on the face of the matrix simulator. I knew every
chip in Bobby's simulator by heart; it looked like your
workaday Ono-Sendai VII. the "Cyberspace Seven,"
but I'd rebuilt it so many time that you'd have had a
hard time finding a square millimeter of factory cir-
cuitry in all that silicon.

We waited side by side in front of the simulator
console, watching the time display in the screen's lower
left corner.

"Go for it," I said, when it was time, but Bobby
was already there, leaning forward to drive the Russian
program into its slot with the heel of his hand. He did it
with the tight grace of a kid slamming change into an ar-
cade game, sure of winning and ready to pull down a
string of free games.

William Gibson aleph - Sprawl series - Burning Chrome (1986)

Read William Gibson's Burning Chrome

Legend of Neil

Holy moly, there's nothing more hilarious on the internet right now than the uber-funny short clips of The Legend of Neil!

Legend of Neil: Comedy series based on The Legend of Zelda from Effinfunny

Ghanese movie posters

Yeah, I've seen some of those before, but this collection is great. Here we have some crazy-ass movie posters from Ghana.

In the 1980s video cassette technology made it possible for “mobile cinema” operators in Ghana to travel from town to town and village to village creating temporary cinemas. The touring film group would create a theatre by hooking up a TV and VCR onto a portable generator and playing the films for the people to see.

In order to promote these showings, artists were hired to paint large posters of the films (usually on used canvas flour sacks). The artists were given the artistic freedom to paint the posters as they desired - often adding elements that weren’t in the actual films, or without even having seen the movies. When the posters were finished they were rolled up and taken on the road (note the heavy damages). The “mobile cinema” began to decline in the mid-nineties due to greater availability of television and video; as a result the painted film posters were substituted for less interesting/artistic posters produced on photocopied paper.

ephemera assemblyman: Film Poster Paintings from Ghana

Zombieland fan mail

Here's Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, protagonists from upcoming movie Zombieland, answering viewers' questions on how to most effectively kill Zombies in short video clips.

Survive Zombieland with Skillets, Paper Towels, and the Buddy System - Zombies - io9

Bikini girls reading lines from Star Wars

Hilarious and ingenious--some girls in bikinis reading famous scenes from Star Wars, all for a bikini commercial.

Topless Robot - Girls in Bikinis Reading Lines from Star Wars

Mothership Zeta

Shit, you would think the last thing the thoroughly savaged post-apocalyptic Earth of Fallout 3 would need is an alien invasion, but here comes Mothership Zeta, the fifth and last downloadable add-on scenario for the game, due out on 3 August 2009.

Fallout: Welcome to the Official Site - Mothership Zeta

Darth Vader's psychic hotline

You Need Some Psychic Advice From Darth Vader - Star Wars - io9

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