Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
The makers don’t call it a lightsaber (though the internet certainly does) but the Spyder III Arctic laser certainly looks like one, and that’s prompted Lucasfilm to send the Hong Kong company Wicked Lasers a cease and desist.
I’m no lawyer, but the appearance of the laser is pretty blatantly inspired by its fictional forbearer. And anything that might keep “the most dangerous laser ever created” out of the hands of stupid geeks is fine by me.
The Star Wars kid is all grown up. Ghyslain Raza, who rose to unwilling internet fame as the subject of one of the internet’s first and most famous viral videos, hasn’t done too badly for himself. He’s pursuing a law degree (perhaps inspired by the lawsuit that he filed against the classmates who uploaded the infamous video?) and is the president of a conservation society in his hometown of Trois-Rivières.
Wedding bells. Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart got hitched Tuesday! The pair made it legal in New Mexico, where Ford is shooting Cowboys and Aliens. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, a friend of the couple, performed the wedding at the Governor’s Mansion in Santa Fe.
…And not so much. In less happy news, Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson, who also got engaged in 2009, are “taking a break.”
Don’t try this at home. No, seriously, don’t. A company in Hong Kong is selling a laser “home theater projector” that resembles a lightsaber and is strong enough to burn skin and cause “irreversable retinal damage.” It can be purchased online for a mere $200. What could go wrong?
Yes, TomTom is actually offering a Darth Vader voice for their GPS, with Threepio, Yoda and (seriously?) Han Solo coming soon.
Cnet goes into the belly of the beast at at LucasFilm’s Letterman Digital Arts Center a few years back. (Via /Film, who also has some photos of Pixar’s render farm.)
The fully-featured mobile version of The Force Unleashed is on sale in Apple’s App Store for 99 cents, down from the usual $6.99. Don’t know how it’ll last, so nab it while you can.
Sound waves made by a frozen lake sound remarkably like a (slightly dulled) Star Wars blaster, Kottke notes.
The first episode of Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible, which premieres Tuesday on the Science Channel, will take a look at lightsabers and a Stargateesque portal. Sure, the History Channel has been-there done-that, but the more the merrier. As for the ones in the pictures… I doubt those are actual plasma tubes, io9.
General Grevious these things are not. (via)
Oh, it’s on now, sparkles. Fandango’s advance ticket sales for New Moon, the second Twilight movie, have surpassed Revenge of the Sith’s record. I am resisting so many choking vs. c-section jokes right now, but mostly just thankful it wasn’t Transformers.
Oh honey, no. Someone decided that yesterday was World Wide Wookiee Life Day. Here concludes my obligatory mention of the Holiday Special for the season. Call me when Santa Maul wakes up, okay? (via)
Phone stuffs. A Trench Run game is now available in the iTunes store priced at $4.99 for those with compatible devices. (The lightsaber app is still free.) Meanwhile, those who possess a lesser device an LG Arena KM900 can get some custom Star Wars stuff, including a ringtone.
List. Star Wars is the indisputable champion of Geekdad’s top ten bad messages from good movies, at least if you don’t count Disney as a single entity.
At random. Yoda in the form of the new Twitter default icon.
If you keep an eye on mentions of Lucasfilm on Twitter, it’s pretty hard to avoid the wide range of reaction as folks spot the trademark notice on the various promotional materials for Verizon’s Droid phone. As pointless as it may be to ask on a site full of Star Wars fans, what do you think? Answer on the sidebar or under the cut. Continue reading “Lucasfilm and Verizon, sitting in a tree: L-I-C-E-N-S-E-E”