Sunday, March 31, 2013

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Vampire Movie Reviews: Jude Law in "Immortality" aka "The Wisdom of Crocodiles"



Immortality

Immortality, 2000

(aka The Wisdom of Crocodiles)

Rating: 5  Stars
Netflix Description:
"Steven Grlscz (Jude Law) is a cool and somber vampire living in London who's devoted to the seduction of women and committed to no one, feeding off each of his beautiful conquests in turn. After crossing paths with the gorgeous and strong-willed Anne Labels (Elina Lowensohn), he seems to have met his true love. But when a police inspector (Timothy Spall) begins investigating Steven's past, his deadly secrets could be exposed."
Review:
"The Wisdom of Crocodiles".... SPOILER ALERT!: In the end SHE was more cold-blooded than HE! Ha! I loved this movie!!! The reviewer that said Jude Law would have made a better Lestat was absolutely right. If you've read any of Anne Rice's vampire books you would agree. Tom Cruise: Great Action Hero... Not so great as the brooding vampire. Jude Law, however, was right on. 

And I must say, I really appreciated that it was so thoughtful, smart even... instead of the usual gore-fest (but that has its place as well). Jude was the perfect sexy intellectual vampire and the ending was UTTERLY SUSPENSEFUL! Had me on the edge of my seat wondering how it would play out. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! If you loved the Gothic subtleties of movies such as the original "The Hunger", you'll really appreciate this one.

POST SCRIPT: (and MAJOR SPOILER!) For those of you that didn't quite get the connection, when he was in such great pain, it was because he was passing a kidney "stone" through his urethra (urinary tract).... the crystallized emotions of his victims. That was his "Collection"... with each woman's name on it and titled with the emotion that he had consumed, ie Despair. I know, ICKY. But very clever writing.





Tags: movie reviews, vampire movie reviews, jude law movies, hot male actors, lestat, anne rice, Immortality the movie
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Friday, March 22, 2013

RAYMOND KURZWEIL NEWSLETTER: Beating Cancer & Investing in Immortality

Raymond Kurzweil, an American academicand author.
Raymond Kurzweil, an American academic and author. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

RAYMOND KURZWEIL NEWSLETTER

(For the Full Newsletter
Visit www.kurzweilai.net)

Friday March 22, 2013
Weekly edition



Latest News

How would you like to invest in immortality?
March 22, 2013

dmitry-itskov With his 2045 Initiative, Russian Internet mogul Dmitry Itskov is looking for backers for the world’s first immortality research center. The new venture sells itself: invest in his new research and development interest and the payoff could be immortality, reports Fortune. A new corporate entity that the Russian multi-millionaire will formally announce at an event … more…


IBM scientists discover new liquid molecular technique to charge memory, logic chips
March 22, 2013

ionic liquid device IBM has announced a materials science breakthrough at the molecular level that could pave the way for a new class of non-volatile memory and logic chips that would use less power than today’s silicon devices. IBM’s scientists discovered a new way to power chips using tiny ionic currents, which are streams of charged molecules that … more…


DARPA envisions the future of machine learning
March 22, 2013

PPAML_3x3 DARPA has launched a new programming paradigm for managing uncertain information called “Probabilistic Programming for Advanced Machine Learning”(PPAML). Machine learning — the ability of computers to understand data, manage results, and infer insights from uncertain information — is the force behind many recent revolutions in computing. Unfortunately, every new machine-learning application requires a Herculean effort. … more…


New cosmic background radiation map challenges some foundations of cosmology
March 22, 2013

Planck_CMB_large The most detailed map ever created of the cosmic microwave background — the relic radiation from the Big Bang — acquired by ESA’s Planck space telescope, has been released, revealing features that challenge the foundations of our current understanding of the Universe and may require new physics. The fluctuations in the CMB temperatures at large … more…


Flash memory combines graphene and molybdenite
March 21, 2013

Graphene and molybdenite combine into a flash memory prototype. Yellow balls: molybdenite; gray hexagons: graphite  (credit: EPFL) EPFL scientists have combined two materials with advantageous electronic properties — graphene and molybdenite — into a flash memory prototype that is promising in terms of superior performance, size, flexibility and energy consumption. An ideal “energy band” “For our memory model, we combined the unique electronic properties of molybdenite (MoS2) with graphene’s amazing conductivity,” explains … more…


Full-brain waves challenge area-specific view of brain activity
March 21, 2013

A still-shot of a wave of brain activity measured by electrical signals in the outside (left view) and inside (right view) surface of the brain. The colour scale shows the peak of the wave as hot colours and the trough as dark colours. (Credit: D.A.) Our understanding of brain activity has traditionally been linked to brain areas — when we speak, the speech area of the brain is active. New research by an international team of psychologists shows that this view may be wrong. The entire cortex, not just the area responsible for a certain function, is activated when a … more…


HP invents glasses-free 3D
March 21, 2013

Glasses-free 3D display (credit: HP Labs) HP researchers have developed a glasses-free, multi-directional diffractive backlight technology that allows for rendering of high-resolution, full-parallax 3D images in a zone up to 180° and up to one meter away, HP Innovation blog reports. In other words: glasses-free 3D for your mobile device. The display technology forms 3D images by projecting different 2D images … more…


Amazingly realistic digital screen characters are finally here
March 21, 2013

Zoe Meet Zoe: a digital talking head. She can express a range of human emotions on demand with “unprecedented realism” and could herald a new era of human-computer interaction, according to researchers at Toshiba’s Cambridge Research Lab and the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who created her. Zoe, or her offspring, could be used as … more…


Under the skin, a tiny blood-testing laboratory
March 20, 2013

(credit: EPFL) EPFL scientists have developed a tiny, portable personal blood testing laboratory: a minuscule device implanted just under the skin provides an immediate analysis of substances in the body, and a radio module transmits the results to a doctor over the cellular phone network. This feat of miniaturization has many potential applications, including monitoring patients undergoing … more…


DARPA seeks more robust military wireless networks
March 20, 2013

Enduring Freedom DARPA has created the Wireless Network Defense program, which aims to develop new protocols that enable military wireless networks to remain operational despite inadvertent misconfigurations or malicious compromise of individual nodes. “Current security efforts focus on individual radios or nodes, rather than the network, so a single misconfigured or compromised radio could debilitate an entire … more…


Bringing a virtual brain to life
March 20, 2013

(Credit: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) In 2009, Dr. Henry Markram conceived of the Human Brain Project, a sprawling and controversial initiative of more than 150 institutions around the world that he hopes will bring scientists together to realize his dream, as The New York Times notes. In January, the European Union raised the stakes by awarding the project a 10-year … more…


Can control theory make software better?
March 20, 2013

Foucault_pendulum_closeup Researchers from MIT’s Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) and a colleague at Georgia Tech have developed a method for applying principles from control theory — which analyzes dynamical systems ranging from robots to power grids — to formal verification,  a set of methods for mathematically proving that a computer program does what it’s … more…


A 3D-printed Moon base baked from lunar dust
March 20, 2013

sinterhab-moon-base-4 Space architects have unveiled a concept for a 3D-printed Moon base called SinterHab near the lunar south pole. Modules would be constructed from lunar dust by microwave sintering and contour crafting, built by a large NASA spider robot. Unlike an earlier, more bulky concept using a mobile printing array of nozzles on a 6 meter … more…


New system would let you take a drug by just pressing your skin
March 20, 2013

Controlled release of drug by hand pressure ( An implantable gel material that can release drugs in response to pressure applied by a patient has been developed by researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan. Oral administration of drugs may be difficult for patients experiencing nausea during cancer chemotherapy, for diabetics (to release insulin), and for other conditions. The idea … more…


Whole brain cellular-level activity mapping once a second
March 19, 2013

zebrafish_brain_cellular_resolution Neuroscientists at Howard Hughes Medical Institute have mapped the activity of nearly all the neurons in a vertebrate brain at cellular resolution, with signficant implications for neuroscience research and projects like the proposed Brain Activity Map (BAM). The researchers used high-speed light sheet microscopy to image the activity of 80% of the neurons in the … more…


Seeing a chemical reaction in real time
March 19, 2013

New experiments at the Linac Coherent Light Source took an unprecedented look at the way carbon monoxide molecules react with the surface of a catalyst in real time. (credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) The ultrafast, ultrabright X-ray pulses of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) have enabled unprecedented views of a catalyst in action, an important step in the effort to develop cleaner and more efficient energy sources. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory used LCLS, together with computerized simulations, to reveal … more…


DNA tool kit goes live online
March 19, 2013

biofab_logo BIOFAB, based in Emery­ville, California, which calls itself  “the world’s first biological design-build facility,” has announced availability of DNA sequences that allow precise control of gene activity in the bacterium Escherichia coli, Nature News reports. Launched in 2009 with a US$1.4-million grant from the National Science Foundation, BIOFAB aims to advance synthetic biology by creating … more…


Scientists transplant neural stem cells from a monkey’s skin into its brain
March 19, 2013

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have transplanted neural cells derived from stem cells from a monkey’s skin into its brain and watched the cells develop into several types of mature brain cells. After six months, the cells looked entirely normal, and were only detectable because they initially were tagged with a fluorescent protein. The transplanted cells … more…


Engineered artificial human livers for drug testing and discovery
March 18, 2013

web_IBN-Cellulosic-Scaffold Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) researchers have engineered an artificial human liver that mimics the natural tissue environment closely. The development makes it possible for companies to predict the toxicity of new drugs earlier, potentially speeding up the drug development process and reducing the cost of manufacturing. The liver is an important target organ … more…


Boyden to share prestigious brain prize
March 18, 2013

brain_prize_2013 Ed Boyden, a faculty member in the MIT Media Lab and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, was named a recipient of the 2013 Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Prize. The 1 million Euro prize is awarded for the development of optogenetics, a technology that makes it possible to control brain activity using light. The Brain … more…


Hey, at least you can be virtually immortal
March 18, 2013

ellis island Where their grandparents may have left behind a few grainy photos, a death certificate or a record from Ellis Island, retirees today have the ability to leave a cradle-to-grave record of their lives, The New York Times reports. Two major forces are driving virtual immortality. The first and most obvious: inexpensive video cameras and editing programs, … more…


A cancer gene therapy activated by a pill
March 18, 2013

ZIOPHARM_Logo A unique new cancer treatment uses gene therapy to induce a cancer-fighting immune response whose intensity can then be controlled with a pill. The combination could help tailor treatment to a patient’s individual response, MIT Technology Review reports. The treatment uses the body’s own cells or tumor cells to produce extra copies of a naturally … more…


Paramount acquires science-fiction novel ‘Nexus’
March 18, 2013

Nexus Paramount Pictures has acquired screen rights to Nexus, the science fiction novel by Ramez Naam, to be produced by Mary Parent of Disruption for Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa. The author, former CEO of Apex Nanotechnology, is the author of the nonfiction book More Than Human: Embracing The Promise Of Biological Enhancement. Here’s the plot from Amazon: … more…

New EVENTS

BollyDoll BollyDoll: A Live Cinema Experience

Dates: Mar 22, 2013
Location: Los Angeles, California

more...


The God Problem Howard Bloom’s God Problem Tour

Dates: Mar 23 – Apr 4, 2013
Location: , United States

more...


on the edge of chaos flyer_v10 ON THE EDGE OF CHAOS: Finding Flow & Resilience through Creativity & the Arts

Dates: Apr 7, 2013
Location: Los Angeles, California

more...


Long Now Seminar — Nicholas Negroponte presents ‘Beyond Digital’

Dates: Apr 17, 2013
Location: San Francisco, California

more...


UBM TECH 32 CONFERENCE E2 Conference

Dates: Jun 17 – 19, 2013
Location: Boston, Massachusetts

more...


logo_gca_13 GCA 2013 International Conference on Grid & Cloud Computing and Applications

Dates: Jul 22 – 25, 2013
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

more...


logo_gem_13 GEM 2013 International Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Methods

Dates: Jul 22 – 25, 2013
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

more...


logo_msv_13 MSV 2013 International Conference on Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Methods

Dates: Jul 22 – 25, 2013
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

more...


WISM13-AICI13 The 2013 International Conference on Web Information Systems and Mining (WISM’13)

Dates: Aug 13 – 15, 2013
Location: Guilin, China

more...

New VIDEOS

elon_musk_ted_video Elon Musk: the mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity …


stewart_brand_ted_video Stewart Brand: The dawn of de-extinction. Are you ready?


spectrum_kinect_avatar Create kinect 3D avatars using your body


avien_inspired_grasping_videeo Avian-inspired grasping for quadrotor micro aerial vehicles


ar_medical_image_segmentation_video Interactive volume segmentation and visualization in augmented reality

New books

Robot Futures
author Illah Reza Nourbakhsh

Robot Futures With robots, we are inventing a new species that is part material and part digital. The ambition of modern robotics goes beyond copying humans, beyond the effort to make walking, talking androids that are indistinguishable from people. Future robots will have superhuman abilities in both the physical and digital realms. They will be embedded in … more…


The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must...

FOR MORE 
Visit www.KurzweilAI.net



Tags: anti-cancer treatment, immortality, kurzweil, latest science news, anti-aging


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