Nobody ever gets out of there… nobody.

[Dorkly]

[Source: DHD | Via CB]

Joss Whedon has The Avengers coming out in theaters this May and it took until just this past month before we got to see a full on trailer for the film. Typically promotion is a lot more aggressive than this for a summer blockbuster, but The Avengers is a little different. This movie is riding its own hype without commercials and TV spots, and there have already been five films set to promote its inevitable arrival.

The Superbowl brought us the first full trailer, but some enthusiastic fans online (who happen to also be editors) took it upon themselves to trump it! ScreenRant and Synn Studios Inc. cut together clips to make this new trailer, edited by Nick Montgomery with help from Thomas Gofton.

Iron Man 1&2, The Hulk, Captain America and Thor were so carefully made right from the very beginning to lead up to this film. It makes perfect sense that they would use elements of those films to promote The Avengers.

This is beautifully edited and well paced and far more impacting than the existing trailers.

This is what is getting me pumped about the film!

So I was talking to a friend the other day and he said he didn’t know about xkcd. Or Cyanide and Happiness. That made me sad. I only recently discovered Nerd Rage but I’m sure many of you have already seen it – he didn’t know that one either. I love reading comics – mainly because I have always wanted to do them but can’t draw to save my life. I personally find xkcd much more intelligent and hilarious, but Nerd Rage has its moments…like this one.

 P.S. When I was complaining to someone how all the best scifi shows always seem to get cancelled (read: Firefly) they suggested something: the audience for those shows are the scifi geeks. And they all know how to download pirated copies. Buy your DVDs if you want your show to stay on the air.

I went out and bought all the box sets of Stargate, in a hope for revival.

“Will you give me two Dilithium for one Tritanium?” This might be a question you’ll be asking sooner than you think! A new edition of the classic strategy board game Settlers of Catan is primed for release in March, so be ready to get your Red Shirts on ladies and gentlemen geeks, for Star Trek Catan will soon be here!

Of course, while every Trekkie and board gamer may be clamoring for this release, it is unfortunately going to be available only in Germany for now. The good news is that because of this, you now have both the time and a reason to brush up on your German language skills! “Lebe lang und erfolgreich!”

Tags: star trek catan

Go on set in Iceland as they film Season 2 of “Game Of Thrones,” which will premiere on April 1st, 2012. Oh, and no, this is no April Fools’ day joke. :)

Oh, and for those who are interested, the box set for season 1 is coming out in just 3 weeks. You can pre-order it right here on Amazon.com (44% Off).

[HBO]

Presented without comment

[Via]

The Man Who Prints Houses is a documentary about the self-styled “stone alchemist†robotics scientist who embarks on an epic quest to achieve his ultimate dream: to 3D print an entire house.

The documentary is supposed to follow his heart-wrenching story, plagued by financial trouble and family estrangement, while he remains focused on achieving his goal.

He has built the largest 3D printer in the world, has created the largest structure in the world to be printed, and has lost so much of his life to this project that he has no choice but to finish it, or deem most of his life a failure.

I’m excited to see it, though it doesn’t seem clear anywhere on the website when the film will be released.

But think of it: one day we may be able to design our houses on The Sims and have them printed out, ready to go!

[Via The Man Who Prints Houses]

It’s not going to be the I, Robot machines, not the Cylons, not even Skynet: it’s going to be the RoboBees that will lead the AI insurgence. Inspired by the artisan’s touch in origami constructions, a new fabrication technique is allowing doctoral candidates at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) to advance ever further in the RoboBee project, to create robots that can fly and behave autonomously as a colony (shudder).

The product is the size of a U.S. quarter and only 2.4 millimeters tall, yet it incorporates complex machinery made from carbon fiber, Kapton (a plastic film), titanium, brass, ceramic, and adhesive sheets laminated together in a complex laser-cut design.

On top of that, it’s designed such that the product can be assembled all in one movement, like a pop-up book.

Previously, the method used to fold, align, and secure the teeny tiny parts of the robots was inefficient and pretty much ineffective. It was a more artistic method, for sure, where the human had to construct the device with the precision of an artist and the delicacy of a surgeon. This new method allows the machinery to construct the robots without human error, using cured carbon fiber, which is far more rigid and easy to align than the ‘wet tissue paper’ that is uncured carbon fiber.

But the method discovered reaches much further than just man-made bugs. The same technique can be used for high-power switching, optical systems, and other tightly integrated electromechanical devices that have tiny parts, since it can incorporate any material along with integrated electronics. In a device this small, no part of the mechanism can be purely structural: everything must serve an electrical function and this method now allows them to shove in sensors and control actuators all over the materials.

While it sounds scary to say that big robots are building littler robots (robot children!?) the truth is that designing how it all fits together is still up to the creative and expert human mind. CAD tools currently can’t support devices that combine flat, layered circuit board and 3D object design. But that’s all the human is required for in the process – once designed, the system is completely automated and more precise than we can even measure!

Let’s just hope that they don’t create an artificial intelligence that can learn creativity, because with a zero failure rate of the automated machines producing robot bugs on an assembly line, they’ll outnumber us in no time.

I’ll take a real mosquito any day.

Some Device Stats:

[Via Science Daily]

For today’s edition of Deal of the Day, Amazon has the GOgroove audiOHM Ergonomic Earbuds with Interchangeable Noise-Reduction Silicone Ear Pieces for just $14.99. That’s 58% off the earbuds’ usual retail price of $35.99.

-GOgroove audiOHM Ergonomic Earbuds with Interchangeable Noise-Reduction Silicone Ear Pieces – $35.99 $14.99 (58% Off)

It may be too soon to say Apple has adopted a less combative approach in the post-Jobs era, but the company has taken three steps in close succession that are at the very least conciliatory. They involve privacy policies on apps, iPad sales in China, and the labor practices of suppliers.

On the app front, Apple has said it will change its policy on allowing applications to access a user’s address book data. It follows complaints that several high-profile applications were accessing such data and uploading it the developers, sometimes without permission. That prompted two Congress members to contact Apple to ask for a response to suggestions that accessing address book data was effectively considered a given among developers.

While Apple pointed out that accessing the details is already technically banned, it’s now agreed to put a physical block on the practice. That means that, as already happens with location data, apps will need to specifically ask and receive user permission to access address books.

Meanwhile the fallout of Apple’s court defeat over the iPad brand name in China continues. As we reported in December, a company based in China and Taiwan was the first to register the name, way back in 2000 (Taiwan) and 2001 (China). The company, Proview, then sold the Taiwan rights to an Apple-controlled corporation in 2006, but no deal took place for the Chinese rights. A court case brought by Apple resulted in a ruling that Proview did indeed still have the Chinese rights.

Apple’s naturally trying to figure out a way to regain the rights and avoid or minimize any royalties or damages it has to pay Proview. However, while it continues to sell the iPad itself in China, in apparent violation of the ruling, it has now forced third-party resellers including Amazon to stop offering the device in the country. Several reports say inside sources believe this is not connected to the Proview case, though there doesn’t seem any other logical explanation.

Proview itself is having little luck persuading customs officials to block official Apple imports of the iPad into China. However, it has persuaded some local authorities to seize a small number of iPads from retail stores.

Staying with China, Apple CEO Tim Cook has addressed the latest in a long line of reports about poor working conditions among Chinese suppliers, most notably Foxconn. He’s vowed to step up monitoring of abuses with what he dubbed “probably the most detailed factory audit in the history of mass manufacturing.”

The company already published an annual report detailing working condition violations among suppliers. Cook says that will now be replaced by monthly updates to increase accountability. He also said that if any supplier is shown to have knowingly hired underage labor (underage by local laws that is), those responsible will be fired.

A great compilation of clips from 2011! Enjoy!

[Via]