Now *that's* what I call a tattoo

Must have smarted a bit having all that done though. Ouch.

Up, up and away

Much though the Space Shuttle is a ridiculous throwback to the 1970s, much though NASA is a tarnished, bloated, stumbling beast of an organisation, much though the US space program has been in hock to the military ever since it first started, much though they should throw the whole thing away and start again from scratch...Much though all that I still can't help getting caught up in the drama of a Shuttle launch.

STS-121 coverage
here. As Rush warbled, 'Lit up with anticipation, we arrive at the launching site...'

Roll on July 1st.

Toshiba massively subsidising HD DVD

According to this Reg Hardware story, industry snoops iSuppli took apart a Toshiba HD DVD player and put it back together again, estimating how much all the little bits and widgets costed along the way. The result? $674. The cost of the player? $499.

As El Reg says; "that's before the cost of assembly, packaging, peripherals, distribution, advertising, software development and so on. Oh, and that $499 is the retail price - Toshiba will be charging resellers even less for the player."

iSuppli says that this level of subsidy is 'unusual'. Hmmm...long as I get a PS3 this Xmas free with a packet of cornflakes, I don't think I really care.

Radio Times | Big Brother Blog

Okay, so if you're lucky you haven't been infected with the madness that is Big Brother 7, which stalks the TV channels waiting to scoop up all those dazed unfortunates for whom Wall to Wall Football (tm) doesn't really do anything.

However, help is at hand with the wonderfully written, remarkably waspish Radio Times | Big Brother Blog. Read this and you'll never need to actually watch the godawful bloody programme again, as its author, Grace Dent, has got the whole thing absoloutely nailed.

"It's like The Late Review live from Rampton Secure Unit," she writes at one point. Couldn't have put it better myself.

Wired News: Fan Films Reclaim the Whedonverse

Wired News: Fan Films Reclaim the Whedonverse

Neat. I mean Whedon's not doing anything with it at the moment, is he? Article contains links to such gems as Fluffy: The English Vampire Slayer and a parody of Firefly called Mosquito.

Also a Canadian production set in the Firefly universe called Into the Black which is teetering on the verge of having its first hour in the can. Can't stop the signal...