In light of me having nothing substantive to say ...

I give you "All the Deaths in Total Recall," which is ... if you think about it, QUITE substantive.

Scary: We're all walking blind ...

... No really.
According to an article published in New Scientist, the average human loses about 6 seconds of information per minute due to blinking.
That's pretty amazing considering how the numbers add up. Take, for example, a typical person with a waking time of about 16 hours. Using the 6 second rule, they're missing out on a staggering 96 minutes of visual information every day. Math nerds, feel free to check me on this, but I think I did the equation right.
So what's going on when your waking brain is on a visual holiday? Well, I'd like to think it's the special time when elves from the parallel 11th dimension visit our world, steal our shoes and Slim Jims and roast bratwurst sausages on our grills, but ... unfortunately it seems the actual answer is a bit simpler. Your brain's just trying to process all that visual data it's taking in.
And most humans process this visual data in remarkably similar ways. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Tokyo, discovered that, in groups, people tend to unconsciously adapt collective blinking patterns.
Researchers studied subjects during movies and found they tended to blink nearly in unison. They would hold back their eyelids during intense action sequences so as not to miss a moment, but when the drama died down, they'd nearly all breathe (or blink, in this case) a collective sigh of relief.
Oh and on a sidenote, if you feel scandalized about the rising price of movie tickets - here's some more salt to rub in the wound. You know that 150-minute film you paid $10.50 for? Well you're going to miss about 15 minutes of it due to blinking. Sorry.

Journal Reference: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/

Viral Flashback: The most INTENSE video you'll ever see

No more explanation is needed. From 1994's Scanner Cop.

Movies: Shane Acker's '9'

Perhaps you've seen the trailer for Shane Acker's full-length feature, 9, but it's below if you haven't.
Wow, all I can say is it looks awesome.
9 is based on Acker's award-winning 11 minute short, which premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2005. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. Now.
The film won numerous awards including the gold medal at the Student Academy Awards, "Best in Show" at the 2005 SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater and it was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006.
Producers include Acker, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov and Jim Lemley. The movie will flesh out the stories of the film's nine sentient rag dolls, who inhabit a post-apocalyptic world and are hunted by a band of soul-sucking mechanical beasts.
The release date's been set for Sept 9, 2009. This trailer, courtesy of Focus Features, premiered on G4's Attack of the Show Tuesday, May 19.

MOVIES: Hancock

Well, the summer movie season is fully upon us and that can only mean one thing -- superheroes, superheroes, superheroes!

By now, we've all come to realize how these movies about some of ink's most remarkable men in tights come so canned they start to feel noticeably unremarkable by about mid-July, but hey, they sell, so who can blame the studio execs?

And Will Smith really sells, so give him a hero's burden and say, the ability to fly, and you've got a marketing machine, right?

So the question we're all wondering ... is Hancock, a breath of fresh air, or just another summer slop-fest making you want to wrap your mouth around your car's exhaust pipe?

Not surprisingly, the answer seems to be leaning toward exhaust pipe.

I haven't seen it yet, so I won't pass judgment, but I can say I think the whole superhero thing pretty much peaked this year with the May release of Iron Man and will hit its anti-climax with The Dark Knight.

Check out "Mr. Beaks'" take on Hancock over at Ain't It Cool News and a humorous little piece on the flick at Pop Matters.

MOVIES: WALL*E

You know when a bunch of four-year-olds sit in rapt awe through an entire movie (including the credits), that you've got a hit on your hands.

And WALL*E is just that, a hit, in the truest sense of the word.

My first impressions are this is the best Pixar movie to date (and I loved Ratatouille and Toy Story). The visuals are amazing, the story is surprisingly gripping and the music is perfect (review to come on that in a few days).

I'm constantly floored by how Pixar can take the simplest of ideas (i.e. a lonely robot, a rat who wants to be a cook) and transform them into living, breathing plot lines touching on some of the most complex human emotions possible.

WALL*E is one of those refreshing movies that proves there still is some creative genius left in the increasingly stale world of Hollywood.

Oh and did I mention Fred Willard makes two cameos? Check out the preview below, or go to the official site to see it in high quality.

MOVIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I'm actually surprisingly excited about this movie, which is scheduled for a release Aug. 15.

Check out the preview here.

"Another of the summer's most closely-guarded secrets, this animated extravaganza is meant to kick off the new Cartoon Network series of the same title. It's said to be focused on Anakin Skywalker, fresh from his victory in Attack of the Clones and not yet following the path of the Dark Side. At his side is his determined female padawan Ahsoka, as well as the incomparable Obi-Wan. Together they become entangled in a plot in which the kidnapping of Jabba the Hutt's son is used to set the Hutt clan against the Jedi Knights."

3-D: List of epic fails through the years

"Some of science fiction's predictions have passed fitfully into the present; video phones and geostationary satellites for example. Others seem destined to remain forever in the hereafter, despite being almost universal in movies and literature. The list will be familiar: jetpacks, food pills, silver clothes with giant collars.

One technology, though, resurfaces every few years and makes it to market, only to disappear into the morass of nostalgia soon after. These are 3-D displays, attempts to turn boring old flat telly into a depth-charged experience. Some products failed because they were junk, others just fade from view and resurface years later. This is a list of the most notable flops."

Courtesy Wired.com

I agree with most of the list, but viewmasters? Come on, every kid had a pair of those in the 80s...