10-18-07

DVRs for tonight:
8pm My Name is Earl
9pm CSI & Grey's Anatomy & Supernatural
10pm Big Shots

David Sutcliffe (Christopher from Gilmore Girls) is joining the cast of Private Practice.

The main writer/producer promises that Sara (Jorja Fox) will be coming back to CSI.

RIP Deborah Kerr. The actress from The King & I, The Prizoner of Zenda, Affair to Remember, etc.... has died at 86. TCM has changed their schedule to play 2 of her movies this Sunday.

The new Star Trek cast is now complete. Rumored casting of Chris Pine for Kirk and Karl Urban for Bones have been confirmed.

The 2-hour "Christmas" episode of The Closer will air on Monday, December 3rd at 8pm.

The results are in from the high tech scan of the Mona Lisa. It appears she did have eyelashes & brows at some point, but they faded or were "cleaned" off.

Comedy Central is launching thedailyshow.com with 13,000 videos covering the entire run of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. This is their challenge to YouTube.

A team from Arizona State University has found evidence of early humans along the coast of South Africa dating back 164,000 years (about 40,000 years earlier than any evidence had shown before). They've made some interesting discoveries about the development of mankind. Another article can be found here.

UK researchers have turned stem cells from fat into nerve cells and plan to use a biodegradable polymer to place these cells where they can act as an artificial nerve and bridge the gap in damaged nerves for limbs and organs. Treatment could be ready in 4-5 years.

SciFi has greenlit a movie/pilot called Revolution which is about a colony world struggling for independence. It could be good, but will probably end up being lame.

60 percent of auto combustion energy is lost as heat. There are now people looking into adding thermoelectric generators to capture that energy and make cars more efficient. More ideas along this line can be found in the Popular Mechanics article.

8-17-07

Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle is going to do a series of reports from the REAL Iraq, not the green-screen version they usually have.
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-dailyshowiniraq,0,2870000.story?track=rss

The Closer season finale will guest star Larry King, a California congresswoman, and 2 Court TV analysts, all as themselves.
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20070817tnt01

A Cancun resort tried to kick out a Nobel Peace Prize winner because she was wearing a Maya dress and they thought that meant she was a bag lady. There is some definite irony over a resort that caters to people coming to see Mayan ruins discriminates against indigenous people, and that someone honored for defending human rights should get treated like those who needed her help. Clearly there is a long way to go.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2150467,00.html

2 German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light. Others claim the results were misinterpreted, but it is still cool.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/17/1153252&from=rss

8-1-07

Joss Whedon and the BBC are finally working on the Buffy spinoff about Giles.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news07/070731k.php

ABC Family has doubled the order for Greek (season 1 will now be 20 episodes instead of 10). I don't know when the Charisma Carpenter ep will be (#10 or #20).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070801/tv_nm/greek_dc_1

Mickey might be coming back to Doctor Who. No mention of how this is possible when he's supposed to be in the parallel universe with Rose.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=42951

Jack and the Beanstalk is the first of 10 live action low-budget family films being made by an independent studio. How they manage to be low-budget with the announced cast, I have no idea. The cast includes: James Earl Jones, Christopher Lloyd, Chevy Chase, Gilbert Gottfried, Katey Sagal, and Wallace Shawn (Vizzini from Princess Bride).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070801/film_nm/beanstalk_dc_1
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-jackandthebeanstalkcast,0,3684356.story?track=rss

New style of ergonomic keyboard, curving up at the edges for shorter pinkie fingers, is being made by Logitech. Laurel: I know you use ergonomic keyboards - would this help you? Anyway, it looks kinda cool.
http://news.com.com/2300-1042_3-6200140-4.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

It looks like Battlestar Galactica is going to keep Starbuck's return a mystery for a while.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=2&id=42918

Closer has been renewed for a 4th season of 15 episodes.
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-tntrenewsthecloserfor2008,0,4001487.story?track=rss

Small (family owned) Napa wineries are being sold. The article focuses on Stag's Leap and Duckhorn.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/01/MNFBRAN0I3.DTL&feed=rss.news

Lost is adding 2 new characters (as yet uncast). This post is the character description and a lot of speculation (especially over who should play them).
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Lost-Introduces/800019665?rssDate=12345678