You can read the full press release here, but I'll be covering all seven high-concept series down the list.

1.) Ball & Chain

After months of emotional tumult, Edgar and Mallory call their relationship quits. As they say their final goodbyes, the ex-lovers are nearly hit by a meteorite that, it turns out, imbues them with extraordinary powers. Unfortunately, the powers only work when they are in close proximity to each other. Though the last thing they want to do is stay together, they'll need to try if they hope to overcome the newly arrived other-worldly forces that threaten to destroy them and anyone else who gets in the way.

Executive Producers: Bob Cooper and J.J. Jamieson for Landscape Entertainment
Executive Producer/Writer: Andrew Miller
Studios: A Universal Cable Productions/Fremantle Media co-production

My Rating: 4/10. At first I thought Ball & Chain was a really subversive scifi show. When I saw that meteorite scream through the troposphere towards Edgar and Mallory, I thought to myself, "Wow. Here's a show that's really pushing the narrative envelope. What TV show has ever killed all of its protagonists in the pilot?!? That's fucking gutsy." Sadly, this turned out not to be case — Edgar and Mallory were the victims of a reverse Hancock. Furthermore, their origins were weirdly reminiscent of the Power Pack. Why didn't they just make a Power Pack show? Oh right, they made one in 1991 but it never aired.

Still, why didn't they just reboot the unaired Power Pack show? Just recut the 1991 pilot but dub in the words "SMS text message" whenever a character says the word "telephone" and insert the phrase "social network" whenever someone says "friends." Anyway, back to Ball & Chain. I did like Edgar's power to transform into a Shetland pony around Mallory; I was less enamored of Mallory's telepathy. Still, their ability to morph into a centaur mid-coitus was a nice touch.

2.) Me and Lee

In this 1/2-hour single-camera series, a down-on-his-luck 20-something undergoes back surgery, only to find that the procedure did not go well. Enter Lee Majors, who claims he has the perfect solution. He entices the young man into his ultra high-tech lab and makes him bionic. Now intrinsically bound together, Majors tries helping his new partner get his life back on track.

Executive Producers/Writers: Matthew Salzberg and Jenji Kohan
Executive Producer: Steven Pearl
Studio: Lionsgate

Rating: 9/10. This series left me absolutely gobsmacked. Why? Because it's a reality show. I had no idea that The Six Million Dollar Man was a documentary. No wonder Lee Majors looks so good for his age — he's a cyborg! Also, Lee Majors is a cyborg roboticist?!? That's like being a cobbler and an Olympic sprinter. Does this mean The Fall Guy was secretly one long 60 Minutes expose? In any case, I know who's got my write-in vote for the 2012 presidential election.

Also, Me and Lee indirectly confirms Bigfoot's existence...because this scene really happened.

3.) Orion

National Treasure meets Firefly in this swashbuckling space opera about an adventurous female relic hunter and her team as they hunt down - and sometimes steal - valuable and powerful objects to sell on the black market, all while staying one step ahead of the bounty hunters hot on their heels.

Co-Executive Producers/Writers: Dirk Blackman & Howard McCain
Co-Executive Producers: George Krstic & Ryuhei Kitamura
Supervising Producer: F.J. Desanto
Studio: Universal Cable Productions

My Rating: 6/10. Orion, which comes to us from two of the writers of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, wasn't a bad show, but it really didn't do much for me. For starters, it followed the National Treasure template too strongly. Naming every planet in the galaxy "Philadelphia" was unnecessary and confusing. Also, the show runners really should have announced that Orion was an official spin-off of the Underworld franchise. When all the characters turned into werewolves, I assumed that I had become delirious due to a carbon monoxide leak.

4.) Sherwood

In this "Robin Hood" story for the 23rd century, a young man of privilege teams up with a misfit spaceship crew to right the wrongs of his family.

Writer: Damian Kindler
Executive Producers: Damian Kindler, Martin Wood, and Amanda Tapping for My Plastic Badgers Productions

My Rating: 8/10. This series comes to us from Sanctuary creator Damian Kindler; it was really some crackerjack stuff. Sherwood blew everything I knew about Robin Hood tropes to smithereens. He really had me at the 50-foot mecha named LTL-J0N and a Friar Tuck who worshiped the Sun. All in all, the best scifi Robin Hood show I've seen since Q-Pid.

5.) Legendary

A 1/2-hour single-camera series in which Kevin Sorbo plays an exaggerated version of himself… a former syndicated television series star. When a fan approaches Sorbo to enlist his skills in combating the underworld mythological creatures that threaten to destroy Los Angeles, an unlikely partnership is formed. Together, they use their intimate knowledge of the myths of Hercules to defeat a myriad of beasts.

Executive Producer: David Eick
Supervising Producers/Writers: Adam Karp & Royal McGraw
Producer: Kevin Sorbo
Studio: Universal Cable Productions

My Rating: 7/10. I'll be the first to admit that I had my doubts about Legendary. I thought, "This sounds like JCVD the sitcom!" But Legendary really wowed me thanks to the writers' ability to get down to brass tacks tout de suite. Seriously, in the opening 30 seconds, Kevin Sorbo is drinking a Muscle Milk on Hollywood Boulevard when suddenly some random fan strolls up and screams, "THERE'S A MANTICORE IN THE VIPER ROOM." The show is a cannonball of action. Exposition is for suckers.

6.) Human Relations

The Office meets Men in Black in this project featuring an office Temp who slowly discovers that his off-kilter and odd-ball bosses at the strange hi-tech "ad agency" where he works are really aliens working on a plan to destroy the Earth.

Co-Executive Producer/Writer: Scott Prendergast
Executive Producers: Michael Rotenberg and Tom Lassally for 3 Arts
Executive Producers: John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky for Ternion
Studio: Universal Cable Productions

My Rating: 2/10. They should have named this show My Asshole Boss Is An Alien. Y'know, like My Teacher Is An Alien but for disaffected twentysomethings? I did appreciate the guest appearances from Mallory and Edgar...he was disguised as a police pony, of course! Good on SyFy for experimenting with a shared universe.

7.) Zeros

In this 1/2-hour single-camera satire, when the zombie population of Marshall City overcomes the 30-foot barrier separating the infected people from the rest of the city, the Zombie Extermination and Removal Operations company (the Zeros) are called in to keep the peace. When they can get out of their own way long enough to focus on a case, they are pretty effective with very unorthodox methods.

Executive Producers: David Kenin and Steve Brenner
Co-Executive Producers: Chris Provost & Dave Hales

My Rating: 5/10. I liked Zeros. But what was with all the nudity?

[Press release via TV By The Numbers]

Blowflies are desirable because their eyes are hemispherical. More importantly, within each half sphere, the surface is covered by "macroscale hexagonal eyes with nanoscale features." Basically, they have the ability to take in a whole lotta light from a lot of different angles.

In order to replicate the blowfly's eye, a group of scientists took the corneas of nine flies and filled them with a polymer to maintain its shape. Then, they mounted the cornea on glass and coated them with nickel. This process allowed them to create a mold with the exact pattern of a fly's eye. With these molds, scientists expect future solar cells to be built with fly eyes to maximize efficiency. I hope they're less gross looking. [Wired.uk]

The scientists, John Scannella and Jack Horner, believe that the Torosaurus and Triceratops are actually of the same species. According to the scientists, as a Triceratops aged, its horns and frill became more similar to that of a Torosaurus. Short becomes long, saw-edged becomes smoothed and so on. Having them be the same species would explain why there were never any young Torosaurus fossils discovered.

The duo say there is a clear transition from triceratops into torosaurus as the animals grow older. For example, the oldest specimens of triceratops show a marked thinning of the bone where torosaurus has holes, suggesting they are in the process of becoming fenestrated

Scientists sure enjoy crushing my childhood memory of The Land Before Time (they nixed Brontosaurus a while back). Hopefully they won't delete Triceratops too. [New Scientist via BoingBoing]

• Chrome Canary Build Provides Bleeding-Edge Updates Alongside Stable Chrome (Windows)
  If you're a Chrome fan and want to see the very latest in features and fixes, even if potentially unstable, you've now got a Canary Build. It's an auto-updating, near-nightly build that runs separately from your standard Chrome installation.
• Power Strip Adds a Customizable Shortcut and Widget Dock to Android (Android)
  While Android has a few multitasking tricks built-in, Power Strip re-assigns your Home button to bring up a dock containing app shortcuts, folders, and even widgets that you can launch at any point, without returning to the home screen.
• DropFolders Watches Folders and Converts Media with HandBrake (Windows)
  HandBrake is consistently voted the best media converter and DVD ripping tool. DropFolders automates HandBrake slightly, having it watch a folder, convert what it finds, and drop it wherever you'd like.
• Freemake Is a Remarkably Simple, Yet Feature-Filled Video Converter and Editor (Windows)
  With all video converting apps out there, it can get a bit overwhelming. Freemake combines almost everything you need into a clean, simple, one-stop-shop for all your video converting, editing, and burning needs.
• Firefox 4 Beta 2 Adds App Tabs for Keep-Open Sites (Windows/Mac/Linux)
  Firefox is out with another beta of its improved and redesigned Firefox 4. This second early release gives Macs the same tabs-on-top look as Windows, and adds an "App Tabs" mode for sites you want to keep an eye on.
• Start! Is a Polished Start Page Alternative for Google Chrome (Chrome)
  If you're not enamored with the default Chrome start page, Start! offers a polished and customizable alternative.
• Edwin Speech-to-Speech Android App Expands Android's Speech Recognition Skills (Android)
  Right out of the box Android phones sport some impressive voice command tools. If you want to take voice command of your phone to the next level, however, Edwin supercharges your voice commands and gives you verbal responses to your queries.
• ChompSMS Is a Handy Replacement for Android's SMS App (Android)
  The SMS messaging app included with standard Android phones is decent, but it could do so much more to make texting easy. ChompSMS does those things, including quick replies from home or lock screens, a clever widget, and more.
• Radian Is a Radial Mouse-Centered Application Launcher (Windows)
  If you'd like to keep your shortcuts and favorite applications close at hand without jumping back to the Start Menu, Radian is an open-source application launcher that centers your favorite and frequently launched applications right around your mouse.
• uTorrent 3.0 Alpha Adds Web Interface Support for iPad, Android (Windows)
  Popular BitTorrent client uTorrent added a web interface, so you can remotely access your transfers from a web browser. Since then, they've added support for the web interface to the iPhone, and, more recently, iPad and Android devices.

The installation is being used to display clothing and merchandise at the Diesel Denim Gallery Aoyama in Tokyo. The flexibility of the aluminum material aims to form a bridge between the rigidity of architecture and the softness of the merchandise on its tables. [Dezeen]

Seepheart proved that sometimes the best ideas are the simplest. Pojodin sent in two old-school BHM's; his Space Invaders concept was the best. mrjoeyyaya's take on Pac-Man was a better take than MuZikiNjecTioN's, who makes it in thanks to the @_@ meta-thread of JaseDH, Bobosaurio, Jimmy_Jazz and data_enabler, which is like a combined no-hitter of awesome.

jungletoad wins points for literal-mindedness; kicking222 debuts despite having no Photoshop and playing Fallout 3 for all of 15 minutes. Lots of folks blew Kotick, Bleszinski, Molyneux et al., but xmywreckingballx put in the best effort.

xXezbadfishXx and kung_fu_jesus both went the bobblehead route. And as much as OrbitofGlass' Kool-Aid Man is an instant win for me, and personifying him as Master Control is even better, CoreyandTrevor, by any sane measure, wins for timeliness, cleverness, and overall quality.

Congrats to all who made the gallery. Enjoy.

boopadoo
CoreyandTrevor
Deadend
Jimmy_Jazz
jungletoad
kicking222
kung_fu_jesus
MetalHeart210
mrjoeyyaya
MuZikiNjecTioN
JaseDH, Bobosaurio, Jimmy_Jazz and data_enabler feat. MuZikiNjecTioN
OrbitofGlass
Pojodin
PunsherAB
Quest
Rokeden
seepheart
strikephoenix
xmywreckingballx
xXezbadfishXx

The game, which was made by Channel 4 and Littleloud studio, takes place after a failed nuclear detonation in London brings the pro-security Shepherd Party into power. The Shepherd Party implements a nationwide curfew at 9 PM. Your character is on the run from the police for clandestine reasons and must take refuge in a safe house with other misfits. Here's the game's backstory in a mock informational film for the Shepherd Party and a character testimonial.

Overall, the game is nifty and has strains of Orwell and V for Vendetta that should appeal to fans of the UK dystopia genre. Also, the character acting occasionally veers towards the melodramatic, but I find such hamminess weirdly endearing. It brings back fond memories of old film footage games for the Sega CD, namely Night Trap.

[Via Bleeding Cool]

Nigel, of the DIY blog Zone 12 Project Gang, had some delicious BBQ over at his friend's house courtesy of his friend's Big Green Egg. The Big Green Egg is the commercial product that Alton Brown was emulating with his clever flower-pot smoker, a design further refined by another DIYer we featured last month.

In light of the $1000+ price tag on the Big Green Egg it's no wonder people try to build DIY versions on the cheap. While the previous recreations we've shared with you were functional they left a lot to be desired as far as looks were concerned. Nigel's recreation is by far the most polished we've seen. It's a beautiful shade of blue, it has a nice butcher block stand, and the extra thick pots make it extra sturdy and excellent at containing heat.

Check out his build guide at the link below for step-by-step build instructions and lots of pictures. Be forewarned, however, that his project is more involved than the previous "throw a hot plate in a flower pot" versions we've shared. The final product, however, really showcases what a great smoker you can build for a fraction of the price of its commercial sibling.

Have a favorite grilling or kitchen hack to share? Let's hear about it in the comments below.

It's showy and little into YTCracker's own cult of personality, but that's the style of the music. There's no NSFW lyrics, but the music's loud enough that you might want to listen with headphones on if others might be bothered.

YTCracker [YouTube]

The libraries' 2.1 million a day eeks past Netflix, which ships 2 million movies/day, and is clearly ahead of Redbox which manages 1.4 million and sad ol' Blockbuster who's at 1.2 million. It's sort of crazy that public libraries are such a hot bed for movie rentals, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised: nothing beats free. [Consumerist]

Remember 1959? You were just 9 years old, with not a care in the world (except maybe nuclear winter). You spread the Sunday paper out across the living room floor of your suburban Chicago home, and excitedly flipped to the funny pages. Closer Than We Think! Your favorite!

What fantastical promise from the future did Mr. Radebaugh have for you this week? Cars that run on sunshine? Tomatoes as big as Verne Gagne's head? Underseas highways to the land of godless commies? No, something even more ridiculous! A home library of electronic media! What a weird futuristic world that would be! Gosh golly, what will they think of next!

Some unusual inventions for home entertainment and education will be yours in the future, such as the "television recorder" that RCA's David Sarnoff described recently.

With this device, when a worthwhile program comes over the air while you are away from home, or even while you're watching it, you'll be able to preserve both the picture and sound on tape for replaying at any time. Westinghouse's Gwilym Price expects such tapes to reproduce shows in three dimensions and color on screens as shallow as a picture.

Another pushbutton development will be projection of microfilm books on the ceiling or wall in large type. To increase their impact on students, an electronic voice may accompany the visual passages.

Eternal thanks to my Closer Than We Think pusher Tom Z., without whom I would be living in a cold, dark world of black and white comic strips.

This post original appeared on Paleo-Future Blog.

It's certainly not everyone's style, but if you've got a taste for cool, geeky decor, this table is sure to make for an interesting living room centerpiece. It's essentially two tables; one to which all the circuit boards are screwed, and the outside casing, which consists of a wooden frame and glass covers. You could also throw some lights in around the edges to accent it all, as shown above (if you're feeling really geeky, you could go for some nice blue LEDs). Hit the link to check out the schematics, and share your fun circuit board-recycling projects in the comments.

How it'll be awarded, more or less, is that those who have authenticated a key for Halo: Combat Evolved on a Bungie server sometime before May 26 will be able to use that key to get the flair, whose looks are presently unknown.

Bungie picked May 26 to keep folks from using programs to generate a key and cash in for the flair. So that means you can't run right out now and by Halo: CE just to get the treat. But if you did before May 26, you're good to go.

Halo: Combat Evolved PC Owners To Get a Halo: Reach Treat [Giant Bomb]

Geting a pair in Dvorak would probably be asking for too much. [DeviceMAG via Geekosystem]

We try to keep nostalgic "When I was a kid!" rants to a minimum but sometimes we can't help it. Raptr is a service we couldn't have even dreamed of back when we were using dial-up modems to connect to our friends for a remote game of Command and Conquer—often unsuccessfully, at that.

After signing up for a Raptr account and installing the client you start adding accounts from your social and gaming networks. Raptr supports AIM, Yahoo! Chat, MSN Chat, Gtalk, XFire, ICQ, Facebook, and even scan your list of Twitter contacts for fellow gamers. Not only does Raptr connect you to all your gaming friends on all those networks and give you status updates on what they are playing—and the ability to join in—but once you're in a game you can still use Raptr to communicate with people in and outside of that game. On top of all that you can even use Raptr to organize your games and download new freeware and demo games right from Raptr. Check out the video above for an overview of many of the great features in Raptr.

Have a favorite tool for keeping in touch with fellow gamers and coordinating your games more effectively? Let's hear about it in the comments.

The attendees had to leave the building for about an hour while the fire marshal certified the premises were safe. One panel continued in a hotel lobby nearby, but some had to be rescheduled after the convention began letting attendees back in at 3 p.m. Otakon extended the operating hours for a couple of functions on Saturday.

An Otakon 2010 organizer told Anime News Network that someone pulled a fire alarm, stressing that there was no fire at all.

Otakon's Convention Center Evacuated Due to Fire Alarm [Anime News Network, thanks Alberto. Image from ANN.]

Honestly, this felt like a sort of minor episode, perhaps because so many of the characters and ongoing plots seemed sidelined. (The fact that the big crossover event is coming up next week probably doesn't help.) As much as I'm enjoying what James Callis is doing with Dr. Grant, he hasn't been given a lot to do since coming back from 1947, and this episode was his smallest role yet. Henry's ongoing acclimation to married life was dismissed for the episode with his wife off to at a conference - honestly, it probably would have been more interesting to see how Henry would have dealt with that hotel room.

Fargo seemed a bit useless as head of GD, and although we got another big hint about how he got there - is he really just General Mansfield's puppet? - it would have been nice for him to play a more active role in the proceedings. I realize sending Carter off to Harvard was a necessary byproduct of the fact that Colin Ferguson was directing, but it still felt a bit weird to see Eureka without its sheriff. Oh, and though I've actually liked Jamie Kennedy in one or two things I've seen him in, his guest appearance highlighted everything off-putting and obnoxious about his persona.

That said, there was a ton of great character stuff going on that papered over a lot of these other flaws. As much as I think the challenging of giving everyone in their cast something to do and moving the master narrative forward at a reasonable clip defeated the writers here, they're still doing a superlative job at wringing the emotion out this altered reality, and perhaps only spotlighting a few relationships at a time is the best way to go.

It probably helps when there's some sort of thematic connection linking them together, and "The Story of O2" definitely had that: it was all about how three of our time-lost heroes - Allison, Jo, and Jack - deal with changes to the most important person in their world. One has changed for the better, one for the worse, and one not at all. Or, as the episode asked, are we sure that's all true?

First, there was Allison and her no longer autistic son Kevin. Releasing her son from such a debilitating condition is unquestionably a good thing, and I doubt anything could happen that would make Allison question that. But the fact remains she has no idea how to raise a "normal" teenager (and even in this reality, Kevin is far from normal), and that became very clear here. Allison unwittingly placed the entire town in mortal peril because she couldn't bear to watch Kevin lose the rocket race, even though Kevin was clearly OK (if not exactly thrilled) with that possibility.

Although she will one day be able to properly connect with her son, for now she's stuck with somebody almost as difficult and uncommunicative as the son she left behind: your average teenage boy. (And as someone with relatively recent experience with the condition, it doesn't get better anytime soon.) There's a cruel irony that she would go from a child completely dependent on her to one so clearly desperate to be independent, and neither provide her with a clear maternal role. And I guess that's how you end up stealing self-propagating oxygen and cheating your son to victory.

Next there's Jo and her newly unreformed non-fiance Zane. (I guess he's doubly her non-fiance, since she never even accepted his proposal in the old reality.) This was probably the most effective part of the episode, and that's partially down to the strength of Erica Cerra's performance. Nobody else has lost quite so much in this new reality - the destruction of her house was a seriously cruel topper - and Cerra really expresses that sense of loss without Jo ever quite coming out and stating it outright. The range of emotions she goes through when Zane calls her Jo-Jo again was probably the best little moment of the episode, and it really spoke to the complicated emotions one has to deal with when faced with a world that isn't quite your own.

Finally, there's Carter and his daughter Zoe. Although their subplot wasn't that interesting, again the character moments and larger themes held their b-story together. Carter visited her at Harvard because he was afraid the timeline shift had changed her, but he ended up dealing with far more mundane changes - those that come when your child moves on and grows up. She wasn't the Zoe that we knew, but that had nothing to do with the altered reality. Carter's recognition that things never stay exactly the same anyway is probably a big part of how he and the other four will eventually accept their changed lives. Let's just hope he's not trying trying to get a substitute Zoe by inviting Jo to stay with him, but I guess time will tell on that one. It always does.

Greening your home or building can have a host of benefits. For Anthi Grapsa and Konstantinos Chalaris' entry in the Piraeus Tower Competition 2010, modern agricultural techniques are incorporated on the upper floors in order to resolve the problematic green space to inhabitant ratio of the town. In MVRDV's "Pushed Slab" energy efficient office building, balconies and terraces will house potted trees, offering employees a relaxing place to socialize.

An expansive green roof like that of Studio Shift's Stadt Krone concept provides a vast area to utilize for agriculture, below which thousands of city inhabitants can reside. Other green roofs, like the Vivanta Hotel's, are more economical, providing reduced heating and cooling needs for the building below, along with a mechanism for capturing rainwater to later be used for irrigating the grassy roof.

Above is a taste of some current and possible future designs that embrace nature as much as they do technology and functionality. [Arch Daily]

While you obviously can't buy a whole iMac to get the parts for this, you could certainly look around on eBay for a replacement iMac stand—you should be able to find them pretty cheap. Other than that, you'll just need some basic tools like a saw, drill and hot glue gun to create a small, iMac-mimicking mount for your iPad

It's the perfect set-up for when the iPad keyboard just doesn't cut it. You can place it on a small desk and turn it into an instant messaging portal, type up some documents without firing up your computer, or even as a second monitor for your existing iMac. Hit the link for the full instructions.

Discontinued when 2K Sports won the exclusive third-party license from Major League Baseball, the game still retains a relatively sizeable fan base in its exile, thanks largely to a strong modding culture for the PC version. And through this, MVP is now something of an unofficial national baseball video game in countries like the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Mexico.

That's thanks to "MVP Caribe," the largest and best known of the game's "Total Conversion Mods," the full-featured remakes that completely change the game's rosters, teams, uniforms, ballparks and even its audio. Downloaded more than half a million times since it was first released in October 2007, it's the product of 10 modders, using a tool set developed and used by the robust MVP modding community.

One's from the Dominican Republic, eight from Venezuela, and Héctor Rivera, Mexico's lone representative, (that's him at right with Agustin Morillo of his hometown team, the Yaquis de Obregon). He's an 18-year-old university student who's gotten some amazing features into the game, and remarkable exposure for it.

"We had a very funny situation in the 2009 (Caribbean League) Series, in Mexicali, while the Dominican Republic and Mexican game was being played," Rivera recalls. "Adrian Gonzalez hit a home run, and the camera points to the crowd, and there's a fan with an MVP Caribe sign. It also got on our SportsCenter. I don't know why or how that guy got the sign, but it was really cool."

MVP Caribe, which has been updated annually since its first release, swaps the National and American Leagues for the clubs from the four nations of the Caribbean winter leagues (Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and since they total 28, two sides from Cuba are included for scheduling balance.) Rivera's responsible for the Mexican Pacific League (LMP is its Spanish abbreviation), which replaces the National League East and West divisions in the game.

In the game, players take control of one club and play a full schedule, hoping to win out in their league and make the Caribbean Series, which serves as the game's playoffs mode. It's much more than a roster or jersey swap. The mod team builds stadiums to reflect their real life counterparts, and carefully scrutinizes players who are in, or might be headed to the winter leagues, to make sure their in-game models look like them, and adopt their same batting and pitching motions.

And MVP Caribe even has an announcer, thanks to Rivera's work.

Oscar Soria, the Spanish play-by-play man for the Arizona Diamondbacks, introduces all 30 stadiums at the beginning of each game in MVP Caribe, recording the audio for free at Rivera's request. Rivera got Soria's email address from a Mexican baseball forum and sent him an email. "We had a little chat and I said I wanted him to help me with the audio, and he said yes," Rivera says. "When I told him what I was doing, he said he knew about the game already, because another ESPN announcer had played it and told him about it." One of the mod team's strong Venezuelan contingent went to a Carribbean Series game there and got a picture with the ESPN announcing team there, all of them big fans of MVP Caribe.

Getting actual Spanish-language play-by-play into the game is a prohibitively large task, with more than 16,000 sound files in the game. So after the intro, it's back to Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow calling the action, unless they're deactivated.

In Mexico, MVP Caribe is especially well known (that's a newspaper feature on the game at left) and even gets promoted in LMP parks. It's a free mod, of course, and a free ad, but LMP president Omar Canizalez himself took an interest in Rivera's work, seeing it as a powerful way to extend the league's exposure, especially to young fans. Rivera isn't paid by the league, but he does get media credentials and press access to conduct research for his work on MVP Caribe.

"In my country, baseball is a secondary sport," Rivera says. But in Obregon, which is in the country's northwest, by the Gulf of California, baseball has a strong following, and the sport's most popular league is the LMP, rather than the 16-team Mexican League that plays in the summer, often overshadowed in cities with large soccer franchises and passionate followings.

"Since I was a kid, and many people have said the same thing on our website, we have dreamed of a video game with the Carribbean League teams, playing in our hometowns' ballparks, with our players and our passion," Rivera said. "The closest we had before was to play an MLB video game, like Triple Play ‘99, choose a bad team and then get all the Mexican, Venezuelan or wherever-you're-from players and try to win the championship with that team. Now I'm proud to say we have made those dreams come true for thousands of people."

How much longer Rivera will remain with the project is sort of an open question. He's just enrolled in Universidad La Salle del Noroeste and knows his studies will require time that he's been able to give to MVP Caribe. He plans to stay "until I notice it's getting harder to continue with all the stuff," Rivera said. "I'll think about it in university. Let's see what happens."

But if he had a choice between continuing with the mod, and all of the fun, notoriety and friendships he has acquired through that, or having a bona fide Carribbean League video game, or the leagues fully represented in one, Rivera is like all gamers and sports fans. He'd choose the real game, for the affirmation it would provide not just of his team or league, but his and others' nations.

"Even if a video game creator like EA Sports someday makes one, I know that the Caribe modders were the ones that started it, and that will never change," Rivera said. "I will always know that we were the ones that started it, and helped make the leagues more known in other countries."

Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays at 2 p.m. U.S. Mountain time.

From Atlas Obscura:

Caño Cristales is a succession of rapids, waterfalls, and manholes with a water of such purity that allows see the bottom easily. The Macarena Reserve which is about 130 kilometers long by 30 kilometers wide is also home of a rich and large variety of flora and fauna and a scientist at the Smithsonian Institute in the U.S., argues that the Serrania de la Macarena is one of the richest place in the world in forms of animal and plant life.

Kind of reminds you of the sewer scene from Ghostbusters 2, no?

[Spotted on Environmental Graffiti]

Ars Technica thought the Magic Trackpad matched perfectly with Apple's Wireless Keyboard:

There's not much in the box besides the trackpad and a manual. The enclosure is made of aluminum with a thin layer of glass on the tracking surface, though you wouldn't know it from the touch. The Magic Trackpad is designed to mirror the functionality and feel of the trackpads built into Apple's MacBook Pros, but to look like a partner to Apple's Wireless Keyboard. The top and bottom align with the keyboard perfectly, and they match each other aesthetically.

Slash Gear discovered some new options in the Trackpad's settings:

Thanks to the new settings pane, however, you can selectively shut off certain gestures if you don't use them, adjust tracking, double-click and scrolling speed (including optional inertia), and change the behavior of three-finger use. Rather than flipping pages, you can set it to drag windows around the screen (a new software update adds the same optional functionality to MacBook trackpads).

CNET found the Magic Trackpad offered limited multitouch for Windows:

Though the wording on the box claims a Mac is necessary, we successfully paired the Magic Trackpad with a Windows PC. Unfortunately, Windows functionality is limited to single-touch and click functions only—we couldn't get multitouch settings such as pinch-to-zoom and tap-to-click to work on the Magic Trackpad. A Windows support download from Apple wouldn't install on a Windows PC, and is intended for Boot Camp users running Windows on their Macs.

MacWorld didn't think you could use the Magic Trackpad on your lap:

One place the Magic Trackpad doesn't sit especially well is on your lap with a keyboard. If you're using Apple's Wireless Keyboard with, say, a Mac mini in your home entertainment system, you'll likely wish for a version of the keyboard with the trackpad permanently attached. I suspect it won't be long before an enterprising third party announces a convenient tray that holds the Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad together.

Engadget managed to make the trackpad register 10 touch points and touched on its usefulness as a HTPC remote:

As you would expect, the trackpad is multitouch and responds to gestures using up to four fingers, though the trackpad registered far more touch points in my testing, even up to all ten of my fingers (tested using the third party Better Touch Tool)...One of the best uses I found for the Magic Trackpad was as a control surface for my HTPC setup. Normally I use something called Air Mouse on my iPhone to control the Mac Mini I have connected to my TV — but the Magic Trackpad did excellent stand-in work for it during my testing.

PC Mag wanted to see it offered with the new iMacs:

Too bad you can't replace the Magic Mouse with the Magic Trackpad in an order for a new iMac, seeing that they cost the same.

Photo by Eli Duke.

As with most things, buying in bulk will usually get you the most bang for your buck. Instead of buying meat by the cut at your local mega mart, you can save some money by buying an entire animal from a local butcher. Of course, if you do this, there are two things you'll need: a well thought out plan on how to use all the meat, and a lot of room in your freezer.

Iowa State University has created a helpful guide for beef and pork, laying out how to buy, store, handle, and use all of the meat that you get by buying whole animals. Not only will you save money, but you'll reduce waste and support local food in the process. Hit the link to check it out. Note that the page is a bit confusing; it says that the guide costs $6.50, but that's only if you order it in print form. Click the "Available to download in PDF Format" button to get the free, digital version.

That poster is all of the game's 49 achievements. Below, you'll find the conditions for winning them, according to their number on the image. Happy cheevin'!

1. Completed the Campaign on Normal difficulty.
2. Completed the Campaign on Heroic difficulty.
3. Completed the Campaign on Legendary difficulty.
4. Completed every mission in Halo: Reach alone, on Legendary.
5. Completed the 2nd mission on Normal or harder.
6. Completed the 3rd mission on Normal or harder.
7. Completed the 4th mission on Normal or harder.
8. Completed the 5th mission on Normal or harder.
9. Completed the 6th mission on Normal or harder.
10. Completed the 7th mission on Normal or harder.
11. Completed the 8th mission on Normal or harder.
12. Completed the 9th mission on Normal or harder.
13. Completed the 10th mission on Normal or harder.
14. Cleared the 2nd mission without setting foot in a drivable vehicle.
15. Killed 2 vehicles at once with the Target Locator in the 3rd mission.
16. Hijacked a Banshee during the Reach Campaign.
17. Killed the Elite Zealot before he escaped during the 5th mission.
18. Performed an Assassination against an Elite to survive a fall that would've been fatal.
19. Destroyed the Corvette's engines & escort in under 3 minutes in the 6th mission on Heroic or harder.
20. Finished the 9th mission on Legendary with the Scorpion intact.
21. Earned a Triple Kill while Jetpacking in Campaign, Firefight or Matchmaking.
22. Killed 7 Moa during the 2nd mission of the Campaign.
23. Killed 3 of the anti-aircraft batteries during the 8th mission.
24. Used a Health Pack to replenish life after taking body damage.
25. Performed an Assassination on an enemy.
26. Killed 10 enemies in a Firefight or Campaign session with the M6G pistol.
27. Killed 10 enemies in a Firefight or Campaign session with the DMR.
28. Traded weapons with an AI ally in Campaign.
29. Killed 10 enemies in Firefight or Campaign with a supercombine explosion.
30. Let a teammate spawn on you 5 times in an Invasion Matchmaking game.
31. Earned a First Strike Medal in a Matchmaking game.
32. Won a game of Invasion in the 1st phase.
33. Earned a Killing Spree in multiplayer Matchmaking.
34. Earned a Killionaire medal in Firefight.
35. As an Elite, killed 5 Spartan players in Matchmaking.
36. Scored 15,000 points in Score Attack Firefight Matchmaking.
37. Scored 50,000 points in a Firefight game.
38. Scored 200,000 points in a Firefight game.
39. Scored 1,000,000 points in a Firefight game.
40. Completed a Firefight set on Legendary without dying.
41. Purchased an item from the Armory that required the rank of Lt. Colonel.
42. Reached the rank of Corporal in the UNSC.
43. Reached the rank of Captain in the UNSC.
44. Used the File Browser to upload a file to your File Share.
45. Completed all of the Daily Challenges in a given day.
46. Purchased an item from the Armory.
47. Recommended a file to someone.
48. Advanced a Commendation to a Silver state.
49. Completed a Weekly Challenge.

Bungie Weekly Update [Bungie, thanks Joey D.]

(And what I mean by that, Morgan Freeman, is that if your plans ever get back on track, PLEASE CALL ME. Longtime Easy Reader fan.)

[FADE IN to a shot of OUTER SPACE, inside the Earth's orbit around the sun]

NARRATOR: For years, humanity has wondered whether it was alone in the universe.

[In the center of the screen, a LARGE CYLINDRICAL OBJECT, looking almost like an ordinary household boiler and spinning speedily on its axis, glides gracefully and rapidly into view.]

NARRATOR: In 2130, we got our answer. But like most answers, it only raised more questions.

[FADE IN TITLE CARD]

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA
[FADE OUT TITLE CARD]

[FADE IN EXT. SPACEGUARD HEADQUARTERS]

NARRATOR: Dr. William Stenton is an astronomer with Project Spaceguard, which tracks the trajectories of asteroids entering our solar system.

[INT. STENTON'S OFFICE. He is seated at his desk.]

STENTON: To be honest, we almost missed it. We watch about half a million asteroids, and consequently, most of the work is done by computers. So they keep on eye on things, and we don't get alerted unless anything weird happens.

The computers first noticed Rama — it was actually called "Object 31/439" at the time — because it was on a very unusual path. Most asteroids, like planets, have an elliptical orbit.

[GRAPHIC of typical asteroid orbits contrasted with RAMA's orbit onscreen]

But 31/439 was on an entirely different path — and it was moving very, very fast.

And then there was the light curve. Now, a light curve is basically a graph.

[GRAPHIC of graph showing light curve]

Every celestial object has a certain brightness, thanks to the light it reflects from the sun, and the level of brightness will vary depending on what side of the object is facing the sun. Because every side is going to have at least a slightly different shape — you don't get perfect symmetry in nature. So you chart the different levels, and you've got your light curve.

[CUT back to STENTON]

Well, Rama didn't have a light curve.

So we knew something odd was going on. And this is the part where people always say, "Well, why didn't you just look at it through your telescope." Because it seems very simple! "You've got a great big telescope. That's what it's for — just look at the thing!" But it costs thousands of dollars per minute to get time on one of the big scopes.

[CUT to panning shot of FARSIDE 200-METER REFLECTOR TELESCOPE]

People think I can just walk over and look through the lens like with a telescope in your backyard, but it's very expensive, and time is scheduled months and months in advance. And remember, we didn't know what we were looking at with Rama. We thought it was odd, but we didn't know how odd. And unfortunately, you can't just say, "Excuse me, I don't know what exactly I'm going to be looking at with it, but I'd really like to use the telescope today."

[CUT back to STENTON]

But fortunately — and this is just one of those strange instances where things come together perfectly; it makes you wonder if there isn't some kind of order to the universe — basically, a 50-cent piece of equipment failed on someone else's experiment. And so they couldn't use their time on the telescope, and I got fifteen minutes.

And later, when we looked at the images — well, it was very clear that Rama had been made by some intelligent entity.

And that there was something inside of it.

The impulse to turn any half-decent book into a movie is understandable, especially in the case of science fiction. As rewarding as it is to envision characters and settings and the various trappings of a story in one's own head, there's something wonderful and delightful about having them made manifest for you. Basically, a movie version of Alex and his droogs or the giant sandworms or Doctor Manhattan is the closest you're going to get to meeting them in the flesh.

Now, that said, that impulse to adapt a book for the big screen has become so automatic that it needs to be questioned, especially given Hollywood's track record. Once in a while, you end up with A Scanner Darkly, but more often it seems like you get either The Running Man (perfectly entertaining, but disappointing to anyone who wanted to see the brilliantly grim Stephen King story brought to life) or worse, I, Robot (neither enjoyable as cinema nor faithful in any substantial fashion to the literature that inspired it).

Rendezvous With Rama, however, not only deserves to be a feature-length motion picture, it pretty much demands it. I mean, 90 percent of the story centers on the crew of the spaceship Endeavour's exploration of a small world built along the inner wall of a cylinder 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers in diameter. That's a reasonably easy concept to grasp in the abstract, but just about impossible to visualize. If any one of science fiction's Big Dumb Objects deserves the grandeur of the silver screen, it's Rama.

The trick, as anyone who's read the book knows, is that Rendezvous With Rama doesn't provide the sort of page-turning thrills that make studio executives' eyes light up. Technically, it's a novel, but in point of fact it reads more like a drawn-out thought experiment with some narrative embellishments. There are no heroes in a Campbellian sense, no villains except for some disgruntled politicians on Mercury, and there's no central conflict at all. There's just a team of highly competent explorers sent in to unravel any mysteries of Rama they can, who are so able and professional that they get the job done and get out with barely a scratch.

The obvious solution here would be for Hollywood to do as it always does, and rejigger the source material not simply to fit the needs of a different medium but to meet the low expectations it projects onto the viewing public. Rather than just the expedition's leader, Commander William Norton of the Endeavour would become a full-on protagonist, and presumably would wind up in a torrid romance with Surgeon Commander Laura Ernst, who gets maybe a dozen paragraphs in the book, total. Some crew member would have to be a bad guy. Maybe mildly wise-ass Lieutenant Joe Calvert? Or Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo, perhaps? Since even though he's about the nicest guy in the whole novel, he's a member of the Fifth Church of Christ, Cosmonaut, and religion in blockbuster SF films is almost always the opposite of science and thus bad? Possibly he could be working with fanatics based on Mercury, led by the wicked Hermian Ambassador, and would aid them in their misguided attempt to blow Rama up.

It would be irritating if the movie went that route — or if it tried to work Earth's Pandoran protesters into the story line, or worse yet, featured a scene in which the cute antics of Endeavour's "simps," or super-chimps, saved the day. But more to the point, it would be a tragic missed opportunity.

Rendezvous With Rama's brilliance stems from how hard Arthur C. Clarke worked to make it feel real. Besides the fact that there's so much science in it and that the science holds up, there are a host of understated elements and touches — like the brief mentions of the Pandorans and the simps — that create a sense that the events of the book take place in a larger world while still inhabiting a microcosm of their own. Which is pretty much how our own lives usually are.

And since the whole point of a documentary film is to home in on one small corner of life and show why it's relevant to the rest of the world, I can't see how any other format would be better suited to telling Rama's story.

Why bother devising a love story or a battle of good versus evil that's just going to infuriate fans of the book and seem hackneyed to newcomers, when instead of trying to force the source material to fit the format, a good director could just go with a format that fit the material? Documentary, after all, is the form of choice for telling stories about teams of hardworking professionals doing all sorts of amazing jobs, and for making scientific findings accessible to a mass audience. And the book would lend itself so well to repurposement as a pseudo-doc made shortly after humanity's encounter with the spacecraft — most of what the Endeavour crew does is film or photograph what they find on Rama.

Plus, a documentary format would actually add something to the story. We already know the names of nearly all the characters involved in Rama's story — now, instead of relying on Clarke's narration, we'd get to hear them tell it in their own words. And whereas science can be dry subject matter when it's conveyed via pure prose — the ins and outs of Raman geography are where my eyes tend to glaze over, anyway — it really does come alive when it's being explained out loud, especially when the explanation is accompanied by video and graphics.

The toughest part of the job would be maybe building bit more of a story arc into the screenplay, but that should be doable, and in the meantime, the individual segments of the plot aren't hurting for filmable action: Jimmy Pak's flight to Rama's South Pole; the abrupt start of the hurricane as the spacecraft is warmed by the sun; the tidal wave on the Cylindrical Sea; and of course, the transition from the darkness in which the explorers find Rama shrouded to its glorious artificial daytime. The climax, of course, would be the crew's long-delayed forced entry into one of the buildings on Rama — if it were part of a traditional SF action movie, their discovery would be a bit of a letdown; in a documentary, it would feel magnificently monumental.

As for the marketing of such a movie, I for one think people would be interested in seeing a documentary from the year 2130. The approach is already a familiar one — it's a big chunk of District 9, right? and that's done awfully well — and the sheer scale of the necessary special effects would beat the hell out of the ones that earned Avatar so much attention.

The end result would definitely be something very different from most of the big SF movies out there, but since Rendezvous With Rama is so very different from most of the big SF books out there, that would be rather fitting, wouldn't it?

"Blogging the Hugos" appears every other weekend. In the next installment: The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin, from 1975.

Josh Wimmer is a freelance writer in Madison, WI. He can usually be found here.

This is where William C. Dietz's StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils begins. 18-year-old Raynor is plucked from his world by a recruiter and thrust into the middle of the Guild Wars, with only his uncanny grasp of military strategy and a group of the most highly-skilled soldiers the Confederacy has ever seen keeping him alive. As you can imagine, there isn't much in the way of tension here. We know Jim survives. We know his newfound friend Tychus Findlay makes it as well.

This is a story about getting there, and I've read through it to see if it's worth the trip.

Loved

Reliving History: Fans of the StarCraft games are the key audience here, and they'll get their fair share of fan service over the course of the book's 307 pages. You've got Jim and Tychus, the introduction of some of the specialized powered armor you get to play with in the game, the birth of Raynor's special skull-face suit, and our hero's first disastrous attempt at riding a Vulture, which would later become his signature vehicle. Everything is wrapped up at the end with a multi-page history of the StarCraft universe, with listings of the books and games that cover each entry.

Combat Ready: William Dietz is at his strongest when describing battle scenes, and there are plenty of battle scenes in Heaven's Devils. The author manages to inject realism and a strong sense of tension in these moments, even though we know that Jim and his squad mates are so adept at their various jobs it borders on the supernatural.

Character Interaction: The characters in Heaven's Devils are pretty one-dimensional. Perhaps that's why they mesh together so well. Jim, Tychus, Ryk, Zander, Harnack, and Ward banter with the easy familiarity of brothers bonded by combat, exchanging jibes and insults as easily as they exchange shots with the enemy.

Hated

Same Old Song: There is nothing original about this story. If you've ever seen a movie or read a novel about a rag-tag group of soldiers who happen to be the best at what they do facing overwhelming odds to prove themselves, then you've already read most of Heaven's Devils. Aside from a few side capers and a sub-plot about reconditioning unruly soldiers that is never resolved, the book is formulaic through and through.

Cardboard Cutouts: If you're looking for a deeper understanding of Jim Raynor or Tychus Findlay you won't find it here. For the most part, the characters in Heaven's Devils are presented as-is. You don't get much insight into why they are the way they are or why they do the things they do, they simply are, and do. Why is Jim Raynor such an amazing strategist? He was just born that way. Why is Tychus Findlay such a scoundrel? Maybe his parents were scoundrels. Who knows? With few exceptions, the little glimpses we're given into the personal lives of the characters are trite, only serving to make them more generic.

Tychus Having Sex: This is not something I should have to picture in my head. I will never be clean.

From humble beginnings comes a man who would one day be one of the most important beings in the universe. Before he can ascend to such lofty heights, he must first makes his way through a collage of every military buddy story ever written. This is that story. StarCraft II: Heaven's Devil's has its moments, and it's certainly an easy read, but if you're looking for depth, play StarCraft II instead.

StarCraft II: Heaven's Devils was written by William C. Dietz and published by Pocket on April 6. Retails for $25.00. A copy of the book was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Read through entire book on easy mode.

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