Thx to Christopher Rizzo
Tipping point – estimated 1 billion more movies in 2012 will be streamed than watched via DVD
According to research from the IHS Screen Digest, we may have finally reached the point when streaming video services have become ubiquitous enough to take over American households.
The researcher forecasts that 3.4 billion movies will be legally consumed over streaming services this year, more than double the 1.4 billion that were viewed last year over the internet. The number will also beat out DVD and Blu-ray viewership, which is estimated to come in at 2.4 billion this year — a 7.7 percent drop from 2011.
…the numbers appear to be inflated by unlimited streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Such services accounted for 94 percent of all streaming viewership last year, according to the IHS, with only 1.3 percent coming from pay-per-use services like iTunes and others. The dominance of unlimited services explains why movie studios may not be so happy to see more and more of the market shift to streaming — the researchers say that customers paid an average of 51 cents per movie watched online compared to $4.72 for those purchased on physical media.
via The Verge
// Photo by Ross Catrow
A determined writer – overcomes Rheumatoid Arthritis – creates first full biography of Dennis Hopper
Readers of Peter Winkler’s new biography of the late actor and artist Dennis Hopper may not realize what a labor of love it represents. Winkler suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and cannot reach his fingers to the keyboard of his computer. Yet he was determined to write Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel, so he tapped it out one letter at a time, using a red plastic chopstick to press the keys.
The result is the first biography to cover Hopper’s entire life and career. The meticulously researched account follows him from a lonely childhood in Kansas through his days as a Hollywood bad boy, later reformed, to his rise as a notable visual artist.
Winkler’s sister helped him conduct research, driving him to the library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to copy clippings collected throughout Hopper’s career. Then at home, in bed, the author, who has been described as “a genuine Hollywood historian and that rarity, a James Dean fan with a triple-digit IQ,” painstakingly pecked out the story he was so eager to tell.
via UCLA Magazine
More about Peter at the LA Times – A disabled writer’s book unfolds a tap at a time
Oil fact – 99% of U.S. electricity generation does NOT come from oil
Transportation, not electricity, is the source of oil’s importance: since the 1970s, the U.S. has weaned its power sector off of oil. Today only one percent of U.S. electricity is generated from oil and only one percent of U.S. oil demand is due to electricity generation. Thus expansion of electricity generation from solar, wind, nuclear, and other power sources will not serve to displace oil in any perceptible manner. Plug in an electric vehicle today and 99% of the electricity its battery is charged with will not be generated from oil.
via United States Energy Security Council
Thx to Steven Witt
Keep reading – California launches a statewide network of charging stations for electric vehicles
The case of the missing fish – why local seafood doesn’t exist
San Diego’s famous spiny lobsters are disappearing from…San Diego.
It’s partially a simple case of supply and demand. Lobster lovers in other markets—from L.A. to China—have a bigger demand, and they’re willing to pay for it.
“Our home consumer is getting priced out,” explains Catalina Offshore Products fishmonger Tommy Gomes. “A couple years ago, lobsters were $7 per pound. Now it’s $17 to $19. I’ve never seen such high prices.”
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America’s high sustainability standards also drive up prices. Fishing is limited to specified areas, during specified months. Quotas are tight. Spiny lobster can only be harvested using one trap on one fishing line. “In some parts of the world,” says Paddy Glennon, vice president of sales at Santa Monica Seafood, “you can find 100 traps on one line across three miles.”
The goal of such restrictions—long-term survival of a crucial food source—is both admirable and necessary.
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Lobster isn’t the first local delicacy to hop a red-eye out of San Diego.
“San Diego used to be the tuna capital of the world, but the exodus of the tuna fleet occurred when it became dolphin safe,” says American Tuna’s Natalie Webster. “Now 84 percent of the fish the U.S. consumes is imported; we can’t compete with tuna processed in Thailand or third-world countries since we don’t pay people 25 cents a day.”
Ultimately, the consumer will decide whether keeping local food in town is worth the cost. It’s not an easy sell, especially to Americans, who only spend 9.8 percent of their income on food—the lowest, globally.
“We are a culture that relishes cheap products, including seafood,” says Gomes. “To save money, Americans are eating third-world frozen fish with phosphates and glazed with chemicals.”
The possible Galactic Core of our Universe (photo)
A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars (like our Sun) that orbits a galactic core as a satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centers.
Here is one of those globular clusters:
Messier 9, seen here in a recent image from the Hubble Space Telescope, is twice as old as our Sun, and made up of stars that are among the oldest in our galaxy.
About 8 Billion years old, the more than 250,000 stars of Messier 9 are enriched with far fewer heavier elements than the Sun. Elements crucial to life on Earth, like oxygen and carbon, and the iron at Earth’s core are rare in Messier 9.
via C|Net
Thx to Dave Shroeder
Geek and Sundry launches April 2nd! – Watch and laugh
Why is Dentistry so out of date?
Brushing, flossing, white strips and mouthwash: Thanks for all the help, but your services may no longer be required. The end of the cavity could be upon us.
UCLA microbiologist Dr. Wenyuan Shi has developed a mouthwash that completely eliminates the most malevolent of the 1,000 species of bacteria that can live in your mouth—after just one use. In a clinical study, 12 subjects who rinsed just one time with the mouthwash experienced a nearly complete elimination of the baleful bacteria, Streptococcus mutans. Four days after the first rinse, their mouths remained mutans-free.
Shi’s mouthwash is currently being tested by the FDA . If the mouthwash passes that hurdle, it will be the first cavity fighter approved since fluoride 60 years ago.
“I actually had no dental training,” Shi recalls, laughing. But once he began teaching, he was struck by how, in a country where we can reduce the risk of heart attacks and diabetes, battle cancer and lower cholesterol, dentistry remained out of date. The scientist-scholar resolved to work toward converting dentistry from a surgical model to a medical model.
“Last year in American health spending, heart disease was No. 1, cancer was No. 2 and dentistry was No. 3,” Shi notes. “We spent about $100 billion. In part, because it’s so old-fashioned. Mechanical removal is still the primary tool.”
via UCLA Magazine
Epic art work – from this weeks comics and posters
Here are 10 images from the comic books I bought this week.
I’m particularly proud of Batgirl #1, at the bottom. My first attempt at female characters written by a female; not something you see a lot in the comic book world.
The posters (Tale of Sand, Mouse Guard, Walking Dead) come from Trinity Comics. It’s their one-year anniversary and they’re giving lots of stuff away.
Continue reading “Epic art work – from this weeks comics and posters”
Dr. Seuss quotes to live by (infograph)
1. Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.
6. Think and wonder, wonder and think.
7. Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…get on your way.
9. Think! You can think any think that you wish…
13. Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
14. It is better to know how to learn than to know.
24. Teeth are always in style.
26. Will you succeed? Yes you will indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed.
The full Infograph at Holy Kaw
Thx to Michele Weslander Quaid