JMS Labs

Carbon Print Shell Game?

December 4, 2009 By Bradley Weber

As anyone who reads this (IF anyone still reads this) knows, I don’t usually jump into discussions on environmental issues or politics, at least not here. But the science part of my brain couldn’t leave this alone.

Just caught a news story about Tesla Motors new +$128K roadster: “faster than a Ferrari and with zero emissions.” Nice design, looks fun to drive — and it makes that winding-dynamo buzz, so it really does sound like the future.

But here’s something I’ve been wondering for a while:

All this talk of “zero emissions” is great, but what about the emissions from the electric plants burning coal or running nuke power to juice those cars? How much more in the way of emissions will be coming out on the front end? I never hear the greenies talking about that, do you?

Has anyone read anything about the expected increases in overall power plant emissions due to ever-higher demand for electricity?

Yeah, yeah, there’s all kind of talk from people promoting solar (a pipe dream for now) or wind (too much opposition from people who think the turbine farms are ugly or that the blades kill birds) or wanting to burn high-density grasses to fuel power plants (easily renewable resource, good for the environment, etc.). Again, sounds great, very forward-thinking, etc.

(But first someone has to get the coal and oil interests to let go the free-flowing, government-subsidized teats of their respective cash cows. For the chances of that happening, see my aside re:solar power.)

So, if we’re really planning to burn grass for power, will we then be trucking those hundreds of millions of yard waste bags full of sticks, leaves, and clippings to the plants as well? If not, why not? It’s a better alternative than the landfills.

Anyway, just wondering.

Because unless we do go with solar or wind (or tidal or geothermal, which are even longer-shots than the first two), we have to burn something to power the turbines that generate electricity. That’s just how it all works. It seems like it’s just a question of what gets torched in order to power all our stuff.

New Process Animates Night Of The Living Dead

March 3, 2009 By Bradley Weber

Over at LinkedIn‘s Illustrati group, a gentleman by the name of Christopher Panzner was asking for feedback on his new animation process. Basically, it takes rotoscoping (drawing over live-action performances) to a new level. The first feature getting the Re:Naissance treatment is none other than Romero’s original Night Of The Living Dead.

From Mr. Panzner’s Wikipedia entry: “For the first time ever in the 100-year history of animation, Re:Naissance is inverting the adaptation process by taking existing live-action films and faithfully reproducing them in animation, in a totally original graphic style unique to each film.”

While there’s no solid data on a release date, the Eye For Film site has a nice feature on it.

There are also some examples of the process on good ol’ YouTube. Well worth a look.

Enjoy!

Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone (Book Review)

November 19, 2008 By Bradley Weber

The Savannah College of Art and Design has taken the time and trouble to do something no one has previously attempted: adapting original Twilight Zone scripts to comics.

While there have been a number of earlier comic book incarnations of the seminal TV show, none could be considered faithful translations of Rod Serling’s screenplays. Many of The Twilight Zone episodes themselves are missing elements that didn’t make it from the page to the small screen –– lines, scenes, or characters edited or eliminated for running time or budget, or their provocative nature possibly troubling the sponsors and viewers.

These missing pieces –– the excised, the overlooked, the unexplored –– were what SCAD Professor of Sequential Art Mark Kneece (Hellraiser, Batman:Legends of the Dark Knight) found in each show’s original screenplay. From these pieces, Kneece et al were able to construct a “director’s cut” of the eight episodes selected for this graphic novel series.

vampire analgesics may cause dryness

November 7, 2008 By Bradley Weber

Special thanks to Webmaster MIKE for helping me reset the filters on my email account, thus reducing my daily spam intake from 300+ down to a manageable 60-ish.

Most of it was junk — the usual trolling for suckers interested in Canadian pharmaceuticals, Russian mail-order brides, on-line casinos, Rolex knock-offs and virus-laced software.

Found deep within the trash was this little gem from somebody calling himself “Young Ostaba”. There’s no way to know what he was trying to sell as Firefox blocked the image that had all the pertinent information.

What was left was this weird and almost lyrical jib-jab. While the non-sentences and mis-matched fragments tell no story they appear, somehow, to create meaning. Or maybe it’s the human brain trying to overlay meaning on something that has none.

Either way, it’s interesting. Best read aloud and with conviction, especially in front of some co-workers.

Subject: vampire analgesics may cause dryness of the mouth For temporary relief,

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Coloring book updates

May 21, 2008 By Bradley Weber

Three more pages added to the FREE! DOWNLOADABLE! PRINTABLE! coloring book.

bubbles-web.jpg

matchup-sports-web.jpg

twins-robots-web.jpg

(Having some technical difficulty with the thumbnail function. Until that’s corrected, click the file names to view, right-click to ‘SAVE IMAGE AS . . .’ and print from there.)

This is shaping-up quite nicely.

As with the rest of it, these new pages are protected through Creative Commons. (See the bottom of his post for details)

Looking for the whole coloring book? Click Here To Download. (1.507MB)

Suggestions on drawings or activity pages? Mazes, match-ups, or word finds? Post them below or send ’em via email at the address noted on the ABOUT page.

ENJOY!

Grace’s Coloring Book by Bradley Weber is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.juniormadscientist.com.