Why Did ‘Lego Movie’ Get Snubbed By Awards Season?

lego

It could be said that in many ways, The Lego Movie was the most powerful animated movie of 2014. It showed us animation in a medium we have never seen before, was smile inducing, and had a cast that would rival any major motion picture. So why the recent Oscar snub when they were so clearly the animated front-runner?

Luke Y. Thompson has some really interesting theories about this over at Topless Robot you should check out right now. He points out how Disney factors into it, and how the actual team behind the movie responded to the snub this week (below.)

Win or no win, everything is awesome! Never forget that.

[Image Via EOnline, Story Via ToplessRobot]

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Most Disappointing Games of 2014

Here’s Watch Mojo’s top 10 most dissapointing games of 2014:

#10: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
#9: Yoshi’s New Island
#8: Driveclub
#7: The Sims 4
#6: The Elder Scrolls Online
#5: The Evil Within
#4: Thief
#3: Assassin’s Creed: Unity
#2: Watch_Dogs
#1: Destiny

As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think Destiny should be at #1, even though the story line was kind of disappointing (and still is with the new expensions.) I do enjoy the Multiplayer/PVP mode quite a bit though, so maybe I’d put it at #10 instead?

Do you agree with this list? Disagree? What title would you add/remove from it? Let us know in the comments below!

[WatchMojo]


Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Meaning of Life to Six-Year-Old Kid [Video]

Listen as Neil deGrasse Tyson gives the best explanation ever on the meaning of life to a six-year-old kid. And no, the answer is not 42 unfortunately.

So — what is the meaning of life? I think people ask that question on the assumption that ‘meaning’ is something you can look for and go, ‘Here it is, I found it. Here’s the meaning. I’ve been looking for.’ That scenario, however, doesn’t consider the possibility that ‘meaning’ is something you create. You manufacture it for yourself and for others.

So when I think of ‘meaning’ in life, I ask, ‘Did I learn something today that I didn’t know yesterday, bringing me a little closer to knowing all that can be known in the universe?’ If I live a day and I don’t know a little more than I did the day before, I think I wasted that day. So the people who, at the end of the school year, say ‘The summer! I don’t have to think anymore!’ — I just don’t know. To think brings you closer to nature. To learn how things work gives you power to influence events. Gives you power to help people who may need it — to help yourself and your trajectory.

So when I think of the meaning of life, that’s not an eternal and unanswerable question — to me, that’s in arm’s reach of me everyday. So to you, at age six-and-three-quarters, may I suggest that you explore nature as much as you possibly can. And occasionally that means getting your clothes dirty because you might want to jump into puddles and your parents don’t want you to do that. You tell them that I gave you permission.

[marisa.was.here | Via TMS]

Elon Musk Plans 700 Mile-an-Hour Hyperloop Test Track

hyperloop

Elon Musk says he will be building a test track for his 700 mile-an-hour Hyperloop system. He says it will most likely be a five-mile long loop somewhere in Texas.

The basic concept of Hyperloop is that rather then trains, passengers would travel in capsules within a tube with reduced air pressure. Each capsule would be moved by switching on and off a series of ultra-powerful magnets, which would also stop the capsule hitting the side of the tube. The capsule would be a millimeter or so above the ground, travelling on an air pocket similar to the way pucks move in air hockey, reducing the problems of resistance. Solar panels above the tracks would contribute towards powering the system.

loop

The idea has concepts that no doubt many of us have thought about at some point (possibly when inebriated.) The difference is that as co-founder of PayPal, making him worth an estimated $8.3 billion, Musk has the money to do find out whether it could really work.

Musk has previously discussed the idea that the system would be most useful for travelling between cities that are too far apart for easy driving, but close enough that flights aren’t always good value and the time lost to ascending and descending is more significant. One prime example seems to be San Francisco to Los Angeles, where the Hyperloop would theoretically cut journey time to well under an hour.

If a Hyperloop system ever came to reality, it could be more efficient than flying for passengers. Musk has talked about the idea of capsules seating perhaps half a dozen people, with each capsule departing when it was full rather than having to operate to a fixed timetable.

Now Musk says he want to produce a test track, something he admitted to the Texas Tribune “sounded good last night after a couple of drinks.” He says that as well as testing his own capsule prototypes, he could make the track available to other organizations working on similar technologies.

Musk also suggests the track could host an annual race for pod vehicles designed by engineering students.

[Via]

Graphene: The Magical Bulletproof Material That Made Iron Man Give Up Iron

graph

Did you guys know that Marvel’s favorite metal man just changed up his metal? It’s true, Iron Man is no longer wearing iron, which makes his name a bit off-putting. Recently the “billionaire philanthropist playboy” shifted from his normal suit to a suit made out of graphene. So what is graphene, you ask?

WIRED has done a pretty awesome job of explaining the fascinating material in a piece covering why Iron Man changed the suit, Iron Man being shot in the face at point blank range in the suit (and being fine), and how science has some different ideas right now about what graphene can do.

So graphene, owing to its atomic thinness, is indeed invisible—but could it protect Tony Stark’s mug from a bullet? Sure enough, as if the writer of this comic book had seen an advance copy of that same week’s issue of Science, Jae-Hwang Lee, Phillip E. Loya, Jun Lou and Edwin L. Thomas of Rice and U. Mass., in “Dynamic Mechanical Behavior of Multilayer Graphene via Supersonic Projectile Penetration,” report that thin multi-layers of graphene, no more than a hundred atoms thick, are indeed ten times more “bullet-proof” than steel.

Oh yes, did I fail to mention, graphene is not like adamantium (which was made up by Marvel). Graphene is real, and has us wondering if Tony Stark will be wearing it by the third Avengers movie.

[Image/Story via Wired]

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Self-Lacing Shoes A Step Closer

shoepower

German researchers are working on self-lacing shoes for elderly people. They’ve developed what they call the most practical gadget for harnessing kinetic power from shoes.

While there have been several attempts to turn walking into a power source, they’ve usually been impractical. According to researcher Klevis Ylii, previous attempts have not only been too bulky to fit in an ordinary shoe without bits sticking out, but even with this bulk they’ve only produced 250mW, which can power a light but is well short of goals such as charging phones on the move.

Instead Ylii and colleagues at HSG-IMIT decided to keep things as small as possible and target ulta-low power applications. They’ve maximised the efficiency by using two different devices, both fitting into a modified shoe.

One harnesses the power generated by shock waves when the heel hits the floor, while the other harnesses the power of motion as the foot swings. Both use what are effectively tiny generators, using the power to move a magnet within a stationary electric coil.

The devices combine to produce just 3 to 4 mW, but the researchers say they’ve identified a couple of possible uses. One is as a motion sensor that tracks both movement and direction in the feet, which could be used for rescue workers in an unfamiliar, dark or smoke-filled building.

The other is for a self-lacing shoe for people who struggle to bend down easily. The idea would be to power both a sensor to note when a foot entered the shoe, and a small amount of force to tighten the laces.

Of course, a generation of movie lovers will be hoping they turn this into reality by 21 October:

shoes