Links for August 22nd through August 25th

This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on August 25, 2008). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

Sometime between August 22nd and August 25th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

  • Analog Meets Its Match in Red Digital Cinema’s Ultrahigh-Res Camera: …that's what makes the Red so exciting: It delivers all the dazzle of analog, but it's easier to use and cheaper—by orders of magnitude—than a film camera. In other words, Jannard's creation threatens to make 35-mm movie film obsolete. « none %raquo;
  • Fleshmap: Listen: Music: What do we sing about, when we sing about the body? The chart below, based on a sample of thousands songs, tells the story. The size of a circle corresponds to how often that part is mentioned in each genre. Click on a genre name to see a close-up that shows exactly what words were used. (Mild, but probably NSFW in most workplaces.) « none %raquo;
  • Meet Leland Chee, the Star Wars Franchise Continuity Cop: To Star Wars fans, Chee is the Keeper of the Holocron, arguably the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. His official title is continuity database administrator for the Lucas Licensing arm of Lucasfilm—which means Chee keeps meticulous track of not just the six live-action movies but also cartoons, TV specials, scores of videogames and reference books, and hundreds of novels and comics. « none %raquo;
  • Superman: Man Of Steel: Warner Brothers Takes The Time To Make A Superman That Won’t Suck: Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov told the Wall Street Journal that the Superman movie the WB is envisioning will be cut from the same dark and gritty cape as Dark Knight. He wants to explore the darker recesses of Superman's soul explaining that "We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it." (Y'know, this just doesn't sound good to me. Apparently I'm one of the few who didn't think that the last Superman film blew, though, so what do I know? The thing is, dark works well for Batman and probably many others, but — to me — it just doesn't seem right for Superman. This really sounds like the studios deciding that "dark" was the only thing that made the Batman films good, when it wasn't so much the dark tone as the realism and the care taken with the project. Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but…I'm not optimistic.)
  • Neal Stephenson’s new novel, Anathem: sneak peek at glossary: Boing Boing's found a .pdf with a look at some of the glossary from Neal Stephenson's upcoming 'Anathem'. I've had this one on pre-order from Amazon, and I'm really looking forward to it showing up on my doorstep.