I'm not asking for much...but the Citadel would be nice

One question and slightly irritation that has burned away at me for some time is the lack of commercially available replicas of ships from BioWare's Mass Effect series.

I may well be showing the geekiest of my stripes here, however growing up I remember collecting the Micro Machines packs of ships from Star Wars.  These were nifty collectibles (OK, let's call a spade a spade: they were toys), available in packs of three and encompassing vehicles from every corner of the Star Wars universe.

Please remember: no one ever said I was cool. 

From fan favourite X-Wings, TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers, to rebel ships rarely seen on screen for more than a few fleeting seconds.  One pack even included the 'blink and you miss it' appearance of Luke's T-16 speeder - presumably the same one that he used to bullseye wamprats - which is visible in the background of the farmstead's garage on Tatooine.

While I'd not necessarily expect the same kind of treatment for those vessels that turn up throughout the Mass Effect series, there are still some exceedingly memorable and, lets be honest here, really cool vehicles many of which are available as in-game collectibles that Shepherd can pick up along her/his travels.

These models are then available to view in the Commander's cabin aboard the Normandy. Like this:

That's some fine collectibles you got there, Commander...wanna play?

As a grown-up with an easily disposed-of disposable income, I'm more interested these days in the larger-scale replicas. Something that would look great on a shelf or in a custom built, climate-controlled and hermetically sealed display case. *ahem*

While there are a few commercially available models out there, the range is really limited with a few iterations of the Normandy, an Alliance fighter, Alliance and Turian cruisers and a credit card meltingly expensive model of Sovereign.

And that's it.

What about the Citadel? Where are the wasp-like Geth ships? And what about the Shadow Broker's base? Or Omega? Or the Collectors' Ship?!

Even ground vehicles like the Krogan's six-wheeled tank-slash-APC or the Mako, with it's loose concept of physics would be welcome additions.

With the trilogy having now been put to bed, it's looking doubtful that I'll ever be able to build my own replica of the display case seen in Shepherd's quarters, but should Bioware ever opt to licence out these models at any point in the future, my message is clear:

Five websites to refocus your mind

We all know what it’s like: you’re sitting at your desk, eyes unfocused, staring vaguely through your monitor, one hand resting languidly on your mouse.  You’ve been concentrating on a problem for so long that it no longer makes any sense and you’re experiencing disquieting visions of the future.

This is the time to refocus your mind!

The amount of time that we spend at work has been growing steadily and significantly for the last two decades. Alongside time that we’re physically spending at our desks, we’re also working harder. 

And there really is only so much Red Bull that a body can take.

So what’s the most effective way of clearing your mind to refocus on a problem? Simply put: doing something pointless and pleasant.

The following five websites all fall into that category, providing a series of brief distractions that require very little brain power. It’s like giving your grey cells a sit-down.

Of course, everything should be done in moderation and I need to make it clear (probably for some sort of legal reason) that you should only undertake these activities for a couple of minutes.

This is not an alternative to finalising the figures for the Johnson account.

1 Fly a Line
http://www.barcinski-jeanjean.com/entries/line3d/

There’s something weirdly captivating about Fly A Line. The little line follows your mouse as you move it around, enabling you to swoop it back and around itself in intricate spirals and knots. 

2 Pointer Pointerhttp://www.pointerpointer.com/

It’s the simplicity of this website that makes it so captivating. Leave your mouse in one position on the screen and the next image that comes up will feature someone pointing at your mouse. No no, this isn’t witchcraft, just a clever algorithm.  The real beauty of this site though is the choice of photos. Go on, give it a go.

3 Koalas to the max!http://www.koalastothemax.com/

If any of these selections have got an ‘objective’, then this is it. Move your cursor over each circle to make it ‘pop’ into four more.  That’s it, keep going…

4 Paint a Nebula
http://29a.ch/sandbox/2011/neonflames/

For the more creative amongst us who just can’t find a legitimate reason to bring in their canvas and oils.  Select a colour, drag your mouse across an area of the black screen in front of you and populate a multi-coloured nebula of your own creation.  It’s sort of Bob Ross meets Brian Cox.

5 Weave Silkhttp://weavesilk.com/

Perhaps my favourite and the most complicated, Weave Silk lets you create captivating geometric shapes and patterns from a wide selection of colours. Changing the settings for how many folds in a rotation, whether the pattern is mirrored across the centre or spirals outwards adds additional design dimensions.

It’s like your Spirograph went to Woodstock and never came back.

DISCLAIMER: Please remember that this is not intended to offer you an alternative to getting up from your desk and moving around. In fact, it is highly recommended that you spend some time away from your desk during the day!

Now get back to work!

Top story of the week

My favourite story of the week so far has got to go to the Solar Death Ray that has been terrorising one (very) small section of London.

It's a very localised problem, this Death Ray

An unexpected side-effect of Land Securities' half-completed "Walkie Talkie" on Fenchurch Street in Central London is that the concave, fully glazed surface of the 37-storey building has acted like a parabolic mirror, focussing the sun's rays into one really, really small area in neighbouring Eastcheap.

Apparently reaching temperatures of 90C, the hotspot is not only hot enough to fry an egg, but is roughly the size of a Jaguar XJ...

Says the BBC:

"Land Securities, which is developing the tower with the Canary Wharf Group, says it is working on a solution and has taken the emergency measure of suspending the parking bays beneath the glare."

So that's alright then: just don't park in that superheated patch of focussed sunlight.

A Team of Top Experts has provided assurance, however, that City Boys will only be in danger of the plastic bits of their cars melting for roughly two hours a day for the next two to three weeks.

Until next year, of course.

"MY EYES!"

Reader is dead, long live Flipboard!

The news earlier this year that Google would be retiring its workhorse Reader software was met with a low-level grumbling.

This was, after all, one of the most widely-used RSS readers available on the market and people were understandably miffed, many having spent months or years searching the vastness of the internet to pinpoint the best websites and blogs on a given topic.

Reader brought all of these disparate feeds together, offering you a list of potential topics that could be browsed at your leisure.

Flipboard is the evolution of the reader. And it’s jumped straight from the primordial soup into the driving seat of a Bugatti Veyron.

OK, that may be a slight over-exaggeration, but the clumsiness and clunkiness of Reader was always a bit off-putting.  Flipboard, on the other hand, is smooth as silk and classier than Ron Burgandy’s moustache.

So what is it?

“Flipboard is on a quest to transform how people discover, view and share content by combining the beauty and ease of print with the power of social media.”

Originally created as an iPad app, the popularity of Flipboard soon saw it…er…flip over to the iPhone, before an Android version was brought to the market in 2010.

Formatted as a magazine, Flipboard brings together feeds from numerous partner sources and publications, alongside your own Twitter and Facebook accounts.  This provides you with a beautifully laid out, pictorially-driven magazine, automatically updated with fresh content every time that you open it.

In a rush? The handy Cover Stories section is the aggregator’s aggregator, pulling together the most read and shared stories from your various feeds into one place.

Lovely.

So how does it work?
As with any news app, when first configuring Flipboard you’ll be promoted to tell it what topics you’re interested in. There is a decent selection of starter-for-tens to choose from including all of the usual suspects (art, sport, business, politics, science, etc.) and the option to compile your own magazine from the searchable database of more targeted subject matter.

Opening any of the topics (which are all laid out as their own magazines, by the way) will show you a teaser of the articles within, each of which can be tapped through to the main content.

In turn, the next article is accessed by ‘flipping’ the current screen either vertically on a mobile device or horizontally on the iPad, watching one half fold over the other to reveal the next page beneath.
Clever, huh?

Articles can be saved into your own magazine, favourited or forwarded to friends, acquaintances and colleagues through the usual channels.

Sharing is caring!

Handily, Flipboard comes complete with a ‘Read it Later’ button which really comes into its own if – like me – you find yourself saving several hundred web pages a day to Pocket or Instapaper.

You can even select which web service you want to use to open links. Mind = blown.

As a die-hard Chrome fan, this feels like a step in the right direction. Apple: take note.

Even the menu is designed to enhance your experience, encouraging you to explore other topics and magazines, with a one-click subscribe function that will integrate the content you are browsing with your own magazine, or let you check out all of the content shared by individual contributors.

So is it any good?

Frankly: yes.

Flipboard has raised $60.5 million in funding from a host of financial houses and private individuals, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Dustin Mokovitz (the other Facebook co-founder) and Ashton Kutcher.

The partners providing the content aren’t particularly small-fry either, with publications of note including the Huffington Post, BBC, Telegraph, Times, NME and Economist.

The ability to incorporate your own Facebook and Twitter feeds into the magazine is a great touch and there is even a ‘Best of Instagram’ magazine available, which should fill your quota of ‘ordinary things looking arty because there’s a black and white filter on them’.

Not only is Flipboard smooth and intuitive, but unbelievably it’s also free.

Download it now from the Apple store and (presumably) from the Android thingy. Marketplace.  That’s the one.

Like nipples on the Batsuit, casting Ben Affleck could be another terrible decision by Warner Brothers

It was all going so well: Christopher Nolan had successfully breathed life back into the Batman franchise, creating an outstanding story arc that took the Bruce Wayne/Batman character neatly from cradle-to-grave, from origin story to the hanging-up of the cape and cowl.

Batman's gadgets were believable (within the context of any comic book movie), his allies and enemies were superbly crafted and the moral ambiguity of his self-appointed vigilante role as Gotham's defender was well balanced.

As with Inception, Nolan didn't pander to the audience and brought a back-to-basics approach to the character, eschewing the neon playground and nippled-Batsuit of the disastrous Schumacher years and drawing inspiration for each film from the storylines of the major comic book arcs themselves (including seminal titles such as Knightfall, The Man Who Laughs and No Man's Land).

The curtain falling on the third and final chapter of The Dark Knight Trilogy came with a sense of closure; this journey was over and it had set a remarkable precedent for all comic book movies to follow.

Then this morning it was announced that Ben Affleck will be playing Batman in Zack Snyder's next Man of Steel film, due out in 2015 (the Guardian summarised some of the Twitter comments on this topic here).

This could go either way.

Whatever your thoughts on Christian Bale, his delivery of Bruce Wayne was impressive and honest: broken and at times fragile, Wayne was trapped in a state of emotional arrested development, using the grief of the loss of his parents to focus his pain and anger at the injustice of the world around him.

As with Daniel Craig's current tuxedoed tenure as 007, The Dark Knight Trilogy offered something of a fresh start for both character and franchise, making it darker, grittier and hyper-real.

And this, I think, was part of the success of these movies: their representation of a flawed, broken and imperfect hero is zeitgeist, speaking to audiences grown cynical of the squeaky-clean image of heroes on the silver screen.

Therein lies my major concern: Affleck's previous pedigree as an actor is shaky at best and with his past so-so performances and lack of charisma hanging like a reputational millstone around his neck, it's difficult to say whether or not he will have the gravitas and depth of character to pull off a convincing portrayal of Bruce Wayne.

He has, of course, had moments of greatness, although they tend to be few and far-between. Changing Lanes with Samuel L Jackson was excellent, as were his turns in Dazed and Confused and of course Good Will Hunting. 

Whether or not this appointment is political and they're trying to woo him into directing the impending Justice League movie (as one friend pointed out this morning), my great fear is that Ben Affleck is going to bring the same level of charisma-free delivery that he did in Daredevil.

Remember this? Urgh. 

The Dark Knight Trilogy wasn't without it's flaws, of course, with plot-holes, issues with Bale's whisky-and-cigarettes delivery and the bizarre God-like voice of Bane in Rises. This was balanced against an outstanding supporting cast throughout all three films (Michael Cane, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Heath Ledger, et al) which tugged the movie along through its poorer moments and helped you to overlook its inadequacies.

In Man of Steel, Snyder's offering was everything that a blockbuster should be: big, noisy, visually impressive and above all fun, with great turns from Michael Shannon and Henry Cavill. It, too, was imperfect, littered with plot-holes, shaky dialogue and incredible leaps of faith on the part of the viewer (Zod having his ass handed to him by a scientist at the start of the film despite his assertions that he was bred to be a perfect warrior was one of my favourites). 

While we are more readily accepting of these bumps in the narrative road, the question or whether or not Affleck will be able to cut the mustard as Wayne without turning Batman into a two-dimensional, one trick pony remains to be seen.

"Is it cold in here?"

Affleck is undoubtedly a talented film-maker and since 2010's The Town, his star is once again in the ascendancy, with a number of films currently in production, however he has proven recently that his real talent lie behind rather than in front of the camera.

As with George Clooney's turn as Gotham's Dark Knight - and Val Kilmer before him - it's been proven that it takes more than a popular actor with a good jaw line to play a convincing and reputable Bruce Wayne/Batman.

I like to keep an open mind and am hoping that I will be pleasantly surprised by an impressive turn from a third-rate actor best remembered as being Mr Jennifer Lopez, rather than Warner Brothers consigning one of its most successful franchises to the scrap heap of sentimentality.

But then again I'm an optimistic soul.

Falling down

I am unashamedly a huge fan of people falling over. There is, as far as I'm concerned, very little that comes close to seeing the look on someone's face at the second they realise that gravity has got the better of them, particularly if it is also accompanied by a flailing-of-limbs.

All the better if they also disappear completely from view.

It may well be schadenfreude, but this particular incident of a Sky Sports report apparently taking a dive for no reason whatsoever is a perfectly good example of all of these elements coming together beautifully:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2013/aug/14/sky-sports-news-reporter-falls-over-video

While it may be childish, I'm clearly not alone: there's a reason why You've Been Framed endures on the Saturday afternoon schedule!

The first infographic?

This is something a bit special that I stumbled across yesterday, a history of human civilisation in a single (albeit not necessarily very easy to follow) infographic.

Created in 1931 by John B Sparks, 'The Histomap' outlines four thousand years of human history, charting  the rise and fall of cultures and civilisations. Tracing the undulating, bulging and contracting columns provides a brilliant and easily digestible visual indication of not only the size and influence, but also the longevity of these civilisations.

You can trace the Egyptian civilisation, for instance, from its broad-shouldered beginning (albeit halfway through the Middle Dynasty) at the top of the chart to a barely perceptible trickle that creeps its way down to finally meet up with the enormous bulge of the Roman Empire.

Others - such as the Ethiopians - disappear almost as soon as they have appeared, whilst the Huns remain an unassuming yellow line on the right hand side of the chart until the rise of the Mongolians around 450AD.

The clear layout and flow of the Histomap also demonstrates the evolution of different groups within a single civilisation, as highlighted through the ebb and flow of various Indian groups, all within the same, unbroken band.

Click on the smaller version below to zoom in.

See here for the full article.