Casting a giant shadow

The high Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft has captured the shadow of Phobos as it races across the surface. The amazing picture can be seen on the Universe Today site.

Visual Effects Society honours War Of The Worlds

Spielberg's War Of The Worlds took a number of prizes at the annual Visual Effects Society Awards on the evening of the 16th Febuary. Best Single Visual Effect Of The Year went to the scene in which Cruise and his family flee their neighbourhood from the alien attack. It also took the award for Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Motion Picture and Outstanding Compositing. Grab a list of the full list of awards at the VES Awards site.

Life between the cracks

A meteorite that fell to Earth in 1911 in Egypt may yet prove the existence of life on the red planet. A carbon-rich substance has been identified deep within the rock, which strongly disputes counter arguments that the material might represent contamination from Earth. The full story is here at the BBC.

Scary Movie 4 trailer is up

It looks like Scary Movie 4 is going to revolve heavily around spoofing Spielbergs War Of The Worlds. The trailer is on Yahoo, and truth be told, it looks quite funny. Love the dig at George Bush.

Grover's Mill pond in the news

There is an interesting article at nj.com about the pond at Grover's Mill. Dick Snedeker who has contributed to my website is quoted. Read all about it here.

Oscar nominations and a raspberry

The War Of The Worlds has grabbed three nominations for an Oscar. King Kong" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" share the nomination for Sound Editing, which surely has to go to Spielbergs movie for the chilling Martian calls. Its also up for "sound mixing", but I'm nore really sure what the difference is. "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," and "King Kong," duke it out for Visual Effects, which is a harder nut to crack. My money is on Kong taking this one.

Rather unfairly I think, Tom Cruise has been nominated for a razzie for worst actor. Can't say he was that bad, and in fact I think it was one of his best performances. I suspect the razzie is more for his antics after the film was made, when, and lets be honest here, he went a little strange.