Phantasmic Links 8.2.10

Things are pretty good right now. The heat wave, for the moment, has subsided, and we had beautiful weather this weekend, which helped both with a feast I played on Saturday as well as the first time I mowed my lawn in months on Sunday. There were actually a few patches where it started growing again. My dad repaired the mower, which had been running too fast for a while now, although he gave me the ominous warning before I started to “watch it doesn't explode”. Someday I might learn that my dad had a weird sense of humor and a lot of the stranger things he's said over the years weren't meant to be serious. I'm not sure if this was one of those times. In any case, I'm ready to face the challenges of a new week, which includes an annual 5K race among employees of all the companies on Long Island. I think I'm in shape, although I didn't get to the gym much this past week. No matter what, the one good thing about a bad week like the one I just had is that there's no where to go but up. Let's take that first step together, with this week's PHANTASMIC LINKS:

(1) I liked the Thor preview; this guy (hilariously)not so much. Enjoy that first link while it lasts(although the quality of every version I've seen has been too good not to be an intentional leak to promote the film....)

(2) Here's an interesting article on the latest discoveries about Quantum Entanglement and how it applies to “teleportation”. I'm still wary of the part where the original atoms are destroyed, and skeptical that the duplicate version of a teleported individual would retain the same memories and personality. I remember an episode of Eureka a few seasons back which depicted this method, and the crumbling husk of the original left behind was a little scary. However, recreating a non-biological object across the galaxy, like a camera for example, does have some intriguing applications....

(3) Enjoy some behind the scenes footage of Michael Bay filming Transformers 3 in Chicago, before a bunch of extra scenes are added that might mar a pretty cool film.

(4) Waterdrop Macros are amazing pictures of flowers, as seen using droplets of water as lenses.

(5) I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think I'd want my detergent to contain a GPS so that I can be tracked by the manufacturer....

(6) 15 seconds is the longest exposure I've ever used with my camera, which is the maximum. These photos were exposed for considerably longer, for months and years. It's like watching history unfold in an instant.

(7) How accurate are police sketches? Check out these comparisons. In New York, it seems like every sketch I see on the news has sunglasses and a hood like The Unabomber.

(8) Tarp Surfing seems ridiculous at a glance, but I bet I'd have less chance of drowning doing that....

(9) Somebody saaaaave me! Smallville's 10th and final season looks awesome. I'm glad this series is going out on a high note. It was pretty hit or miss for the first 7 years it was on....

(10) Epic Coaster can be played with only one control, either the space bar or the mouse, but is no less epic or fun. See if you can unlock every achievement!

Have a link to a game, movie, article, or anything else you think might be “phantasmic”? E-mail me and it just might appear in an upcoming PHANTASMIC LINKS!