AVATAR

Peter Diamandis and James Cameron Go AVATAR, Launch the First Asteroid Mining Company

by Socrates
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Planetary Resources - the first asteroid mining company, has been mostly a secret up until now. The company is backed by a number of billionaires and space enthusiasts. Director James Cameron, Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis and billionaire Ross Perot Jr., along with a number of other incredible minds, plan to mine the heavens and get rich beyond comprehension. Even before the official news has broken there are already over 200 reports on the front pages of the Huffington Post, Drudge Report, Wall Street Journal and coverage has been growing exponentially. However, the official launch is later on today (April 24th, 2012) when Planetary Resources co-founder & co-chairman Peter Diamandis will make the announcement via a live webcast at 10:30am Pacific Time. You can watch the webcast here: In the meantime, here are a couple of fun [...]

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Ray Kurzweil’s Review of Avatar

by Socrates
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Some time ago I posted a few trailers, interviews and short docs together with a brief review of AVATAR. Today I happened to fall onto a very detailed and highly critical review written by Ray Kurzweil. I thought that it is worthwhile to republish Ray’s review in its totality for it does raise many good points that may be worth considering. The review was copied from KurweilAI.net and its orginal URL page is: http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=news_single.html?id%3D11907 Reflections on Avatar by Ray Kurzweil from KurzweilAI.net, Mar. 8, 2010 I recently watched James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D. It was an enjoyable experience in some ways, but overall I left dismayed on a number of levels. It was enjoyable to watch the lush three-dimensional animation and motion capture controlled graphics. I’m not sure that 3D will take over — as many now expect — until [...]

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Voyage to Pandora video

by Socrates
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After reviewing AVATAR, I happened to discover this documentary called Voyage to Pandora. The video is from the Cosmic Journeys series and examines the cosmic neighborhood of Alpha Centauri in which James Cameron‘s fictional planet Pandora is situated. It does a great job at describing the actual science and technological challenges of locating and traveling to any of the planets in the Alpha Centauri quadrant. The video may be played in High Definition and has some spectacular images of actual space telescopes and the movie AVATAR. If you enjoy documentaries about space exploration or the universe you will probably love this one. Related articles by Zemanta Moons like those in Avatar film ‘could become real’ (telegraph.co.uk) Avatar’s Moon Pandora Could Be Real (spacefellowship.com) The Real Science of ‘Avatar’ (space.com) Avatar’s moon Pandora could be real (scienceblog.com)

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