Of course, nobody mentions that the Gemini missions used storable propellants not unlike what the North Koreans are using. Now, it's true that Gemini was launched with Titan rockets, and Titans were originally designed as ICBMs, but they were used for civilian purposes as well.

The more interesting part is that we recovered the missile parts. According to everything I read, the exact timing of the launch was somewhat of a surprise (maybe this isn't true) but nevertheless we managed to track the debris and fish it out of the ocean immediately. This tells the North Koreans that not only do they have no secrets, they never will have any.

To me, the North Korean rocket looks a lot more like a satellite launcher than an ICBM. The first nuclear weapons that North Korea will deploy will be very heavy, and this rocket (as tapered as it is, and with such a small, low-powered third stage) just will not carry it. ICBMs are also designed to burn quickly, as they are vulnerable as long as they are in the atmosphere and burning. This rocket burns for many minutes, as satellite launchers do.

RealD would supply the 3D systems, for example, for free -- splitting the 3D upcharge cost with the theater 50:50.

Among the ironies of this is that Hollywood was ecstatic about the increased dollar volume that 3D brought in, but almost none of that actually went to the studios.

I was the stereo supervisor on 30% of Transformers 3, and did a lot of research into stereo as part of that project.

It's obvious once you think about it that stereo 3D is most useful and appropriate at arm's length -- that's what our stereo perception has evolved to do for us. We want to be able to bash that wolf with a club, or pick up a glass of water, or shake somebody's hand -- all things that happen within 5 or 8 feet.

I believe you were being facetious, but My Dinner with Andre would be perfect for 3D. You would be absolutely in the world of that tabletop; many more of the natural depth cues would work synergistically. Give me 6 or 10 million dollars, and I'll prove it :)

Porn is another obvious example that would work for the same reasons. According to people in the market, though, the viewer typically wants to be at some distance from the performers -- they want that wall to be there.

And for the last 40 years Lockheed has been the world leader in jacking up costs once their "low bid" has been accepted. Now don't get me wrong, their work on the P-38, U2, SR-71 and F117 is the best of the best, but the F22 and F35 debacles are the biggest financial crimes against america ever.

Really? A gun you can purchase for $500 is worth $1,000 on the black market? That sounds like a great opportunity for exploiting regulatory arbitrage!

Yes. Most people can see the difference between 240 fps and speeds below that. Some people can perceive differences up to 360 fps. Note that these values are way above the frequencies that we can detect flicker -- around 75 fps.

I've been doing computer animation for 35 years, as long as it has existed. Back in the early 80's, I worked on some early 60 field-per-second animation; and I was a convert to high-frame-rate footage since then. (The opening to the PBS show NOVA was perhaps the first 60fps animation ever done.) When we started doing broadcast graphics (show openings, things like that) for TV, we naturally did them at 60fps, and that looked right as it worked with the rest of video. Finally, though, we moved into advertising, and TV advertising was (and still is) typically 24fps. And it bothered me!

But then, something changed my mind completely. We were doing an ad for Snacky, a Japanese snack food company. There was the required silly animated spokespuppet, and we modeled it and made it perform. Part of doing animation is doing the lip-sync, and the company gave us the dialogue in English to animate to. We did this, although it didn't seem right -- expecting them to give us the Japanese soundtrack eventually.

But no, it got to a couple of days before delivery, and the character was still speaking English, and we asked the customer when he came to review the work. "This is only going to be shown in Japan, right?" "Oh, yes, yes!", "And you're going to dub it into Japanese, right?" "Of course! Yes!" "But the lip sync is to an English sound track, the lips are not going to match the dialogue!" "YES! JUST LIKE ALL GOOD ANIMATION!"

Because in that day, lip-sync that was correct in Japanese meant it was low-quality domestic animation; where if the lip-sync didn't match it was high-quality American animation. Nobody can tell me that wrong lip-sync is in any way superior -- except that there were 150 million people in Japan who would see it that way instinctively and immediately.

So, I became a happy convert to 24 fps animation. I applaud Peter Jackson for his incredibly audacious experiment, and I hope he succeeds, but he has to fight the near-instinctive reaction from a lot of people who see 48 fps as video.

I think that part of the problem with The Hobbit at 48fps is that the screens are so terribly dark that you just can't appreciate the high frame rate. Your eye integrates dark scenes over a long period of time, and at 48 fps with the very very dark 3D screens, I believe that your eye smears the frames together. On Transformers III, I removed all the motion blur from the very dark scenes, because even at 24 fps they got smeary.

I was insulted that he thought I would make a bomb that weak...

I was traveling from LAX to New Orleans to shoot Bit Momma's House 2 (you remember that, don't you?) After some bad experiences checking baggage, I carried on my supplies, including my tracking kit.

Now, my tracking kit was a small Pelican case filled with watch batteries, short wires, and LEDs. After it went through the X-Ray machine, the TSA agent looked at the screen, looked at me, looked at the screen, then picked up the box. He carefully unlatched it, and held it out *as far as he could* as he opened it, turning his head away and looking through the corners of his eyes.

Needless to say, I was insulted.

My personal experience matches yours up until sixth grade, when I was chosen as part of the Study of Mathematically and Scientifically Precocious Youth at Johns Hopkins University. They performed a huge battery of tests on us, and offered us accelerated courses in math on weekends (which was great, because you are right, there was nothing that was at all interesting being taught in middle school/high school). I dropped out of high school after 10th grade (all A's) and entered college at 15.

And got kicked out of college at 18 for being too immature. And going to work for five years, developing some life skills, and going back to college to graduate at the age of 22 maybe a year after my high-school peer group.

It's tough to know what to do with the outliers. These days with the availability of college courses on the internet; I would suggest that these precocious kids should stay in high school taking courses like creative writing and metal shop; learning about life -- and spend half the day taking online courses. Starting college at a very early age is probably not a good idea; although starting college with a great background is.

Yesterday, for example, I opted out of the microwave scanner at Burbank airport. I do this every time I encounter a machine like this, and have the time to still make my flight. I don't do it because I feel they are unsafe (this particular machine is a ambient-microwave imager, it emits no radiation whatsoever) but as a (albiet incredibly weak) political statement -- I feel that if nobody opted out, soon enough nobody would be able to.

I think that ZaaMM is basically autobiography, and Pirsig happened to have an interesting life. And the fact that it was rejected for publication well over 100 times allowed him the time and the incentive to refine it to the point of near perfection. It is my favorite book.

Unfortunately, it's absolutely impossible to get anybody to read a book written back in the mid 70's anymore. I always recommend it to younger people, and have never ever had anybody take me up on the offer.

There's a great book called "A Guide to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" that is sort of like the extras on a DVD. It has chapters that were left out of the final book (much better for having been left out!) and a bunch of other supplementary material.

I liked Earth Abides. I can't think of a more optimistic post-apocalyptic story. Yeah, sure, civilization collapses, but people go on a do the best they can. That said, I haven't read the book since it came out 40 years ago.

It reads to me like the author tried hard to think of the best thing that could happen in the three different eras of the book, once he set things in motion with the initial catastrophe.

Read "Zodiac", it was originally released under a pseudonym, but is easily found now as a Stephenson book. It's fabulous.

It was twice as far uphill on the way, and three times as far on the way back.

Seriously though, it wasn't so much the temperature, it was getting blasted constantly the by the air conditioners. Wind chill, I guess.