Korgoth of Barbaria

Korgoth of Barbaria is a pilot TV episode for what is essentially a Conan the Barbarian show, but a lot more adult humour than the "Conan the Adventurer" cartoon series from 1992 which was made for children. Created by the same group of people who make Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, SpongeBob SquarePants and Metalocalypse only 1 episode was ever made because it was considered "too expensive".

However if you watch the pilot episode (above) you will see the production value was the same as other cartoons so it would have been roughly the same price. It seems more likely that the "too expensive" concept is just an excuse and there might be a different reason why it wasn't made.

The pilot episode first aired in the USA on June 3rd, 2006 at 12:30 AM (EST) on Adult Swim.

Korgoth (voiced by actor Diedrich Bader) is essentiallyy a parody of Conan the Barbarian and sword and sorcery stereotypes in general. The show is set in a post-apocalyptic world where sorcery and the remnants of technology exist simultaneously, similar to Thundarr the Barbarian. Even the music (heavy metal/thrash metal) is a parody of fantasy magazines like "Heavy Metal".

Despite repeated attempts by fans of the pilot episode executives are mum on the topic of ever making more episodes of the show or even a film.

The Hobbit - Coming December 2012

ITS COMING!

In December 2012 the first of the two-part upcoming epic fantasy-adventure films will be released:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The 2nd film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, will be released in December 2013.

A selection of the cast from The Lord of the Rings is returning for the film.

GM Advanced back window TECH

Got backseat boredom? DVD players and Game Boys are so five years ago, but a new concept in rear seat entertainment technology that uses the windows themselves could replace squirminess and snoozing with interactive scribbling, sweeping and pinching.

GM Research & Development team put that challenge before researchers and students from the FUTURE LAB at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel.

The task: Conceptualize new ways to help rear seat passengers, particularly children, have a richer experience on the while driving.

The Windows of Opportunity Project was inspired by psychological studies indicating car passengers often feel disconnected from their environment, GM asked the Bezalel students to turn car windows into interactive displays capable of stimulating awareness, nurturing curiosity and encouraging a stronger connection with the world outside the vehicle.

“Traditionally, the use of interactive displays in cars has been limited to the driver and front passenger, but we see an opportunity to provide a technology interface designed specifically for rear seat passengers,” said Tom Seder, GM R&D lab group manager for human-machine interface. “Advanced windows that are capable of responding to vehicle speed and location could augment real world views with interactive enhancements to provide entertainment and educational value.”

Since General Motors has no immediate plans to put interactive display windows into production vehicles, the R&D team gave free reign to the Bezalel students to create applications without concern whether they could be mass produced. Bezalel is Israel’s oldest institute of higher education and one of the more prestigious schools of its kind in the world today

Holographic TVs Good or Bad?

Since the first time I saw Star Wars and that iconic scene where R2D2 projects Princess Leia as a holographic video to Luke, I have been waiting for this to become an everyday reality. I saw this video from the BBC a while back and it promises us that the technology is here and we are at the fine tuning point. I think as an alternative to the current 3D TV options I would be willing to give Holographic TV a chance. The video below is from BBC’s (video below) program with Spencer Kelly who explains the state of play of Holographic TV.