Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Old Trees on the Plant

Trees have been around for awhile and wired.com lists the top 12 oldest trees. These trees come from all over the world and are as old as 9,500 years old. One of the trees, Pando, isn’t really a tree but a colony. It is 105 acres of genetically identical trees that are Quaking Aspen. This colony is at least 80,000 years old. Another old tree is Old Tjikko in Sweden. It is 16 feet tall and 9,550 years old. Trees are nature’s souvenirs and live for a long time.
One of my favorite trees from this article Jonom Sugi. It is 53 feet wide and 83 feet tall. The tree is from Japan and has lived for almost 7,000 years old. Just from the picture when I first saw it just something about made it take my breath away. One day I would like to go there and see it for myself in person. This article shows how long some of these trees can live. It’s a miracle that they can live all natural disasters and such. They are just one more of natures fascinating creatures.

Nintendo 3DS


Nintendo has announced that they will be coming out with a 3-D gaming system called the 3DS. This gaming system will not because like a normal 3-D adventure though. The 3DS is said to not be using glasses to make the images pop out. It is expected to be backwards compatible between DS games and DSi. There will be more announced about the system at the E3 trade show.
3D games never did anything for me, so hearing that Nintendo was coming out with one did not excite me that much. The fact that you would not need glasses to see the effects is interesting. It is hard to imagine that there could be 3D games without glasses since most people are use to the glasses. They might have you put in contacts to be able to view the effects. Maybe they just might have eye illusions to make the 3D effect. This will also affect the playing the old DS games on this system and vice-versa. Some people might want to games without the pop. This system to come seems like a good idea for those who would like that extra adventure but I don’t see myself going to buy this in the future.

Monday, June 21, 2010

T-Rex of Leeches


Many Peruvian swimmer have had found leeches in their nose. Brandon Keim of wired.com explained the leeches as “pinkie-finger-sized bloodsuckers that have a single jaw, with teeth five times longer than those found in any other leech." They were name Tyrannobdella rex, which means tyrant leech king. The first instant of doctor finding this leech was in the nose of 6-year old boy in San Martin, Peru in 1997. The most interesting thing about these is that they share a common ancestor with the T-Rex.
The thing the interested me the most about this article was how these leeches could be related to the T-rex. They are two completely different organisms and yet they still share a common ancestor. Also the fact that in most cases the leech was found in its victim’s nose. If your swimming or whatever in the water, how can you not feel it go into your nose.

Geek Justice League


Wired.com has come up with something that people have thought of but never imagined. What if other billionaires used their money to become super heroes like Tony Stark. Well wired has come up with The G-Men, The Kindler, The Feature Creep, The Zen Torpedo, and The Superpoke. They each have their own catchphrase and their Net worth is listed. These ideas would be good for other movies and even maybe some comics.

Machine Orchestra


A band of robotically engineered instruments had taken the stage Southern California concert. Some of the instruments included a hacked guitar that automatically plucks the strings, a snare drum rigged with a brush that automatically circles and a glockenspiel programmed with 13 mallets. These are also connected to a to a stress censored trampoline. When one of the students jumps on the trampolines, the instruments play to the pace of the jumps.
It is pretty interesting how all the instruments are rigged. Also how they move to the pace of the trampoline. Seeing how each of these instruments can make a special noise is better than hearing it just come off a synthesizer.

Rock Band 3 Keytar


There have been reports of Rock Band 3 supporting a keytar like instrument. Because of Activision’s focus on software an outside company will be distributing the new hardware. Mad Catz with be creating all the Rock Band 3 instruments and also bundles. Different bundles will include separate ones for guitars, drums, and even a bundle for if you need all the instruments. Even if the store doesn’t want to store all the huge boxes they can just stock the game.
For Mad Catz to create and distribute a keytar for Rock Band 3 would open a new world of music. You will be able to experience new types of music and maybe even learn that you want to play a new one. The only weird thing about the keytar being made is that Mad Catz is making it instead of Harmonix. Harmonix has pretty much made instrument controllers for every musical game but I’m sure Mad Catz will do a good job.

Super Mario Crossover


Mario as been a legend throughout gaming history along with other characters such as Link from Legend of Zelda and Mega Man. What if you took all these characters and put them in to the Super Mario levels? On newgrounds.com Jay Pavlina has already come up with this idea. Super Mario Crossover takes Link (Legend of Zelda), Megan Man, Samus Aran(Metriod), Bill(Contra), and Simon Belmont(Castlevania) and puts them all into Super Mario Bros with all of their powers. Of course he kept in Mario as a character but nothing much changed with him.

Before I even read this review I had played the game with my favorite game character Link. The layout was pretty much the same and Link had used his sword to kill the Goombas. It is pretty cool how someone took the effort to recreate Super Mario Bros and add the extra 5 characters plus their powers. The creator of Super Mario Crossover gets major credits for the game.

Zombie Survival Workout


Think you’re prepared for the zombie apocalypse with all your guns and knives and such? Well you might be with that, but what about your physical strength? Well a exercise class in St. Charles, Illinois called ZombieFit helps you prepare for this. Some of the things you do are push-ups and bench dips for climbing, toe raises for free falls, air squats, push-ups, and sit-ups for hurdles, and resistance running, weighted pull-ups and push-ups to help for breakaways.
Now some people may think it is crazy to prepare for a zombie attack but you never know. It helps to prepare for the unknown. And even if the zombie apocalypse doesn’t happen it the class is still good for the work out.