Target Centermass

Category: Entertainment

  • Next Harry Potter Book Release Date Announced

    The author of the entertaining and highly successful Harry Potter series has disclosed the release date of the next volume.

    Harry Potter author JK Rowling gave fans an early Christmas gift yesterday by revealing her new book will be published on July 16.

    JK, 39, was not expected to unveil the date for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince until Christmas Day.

    But yesterday she said on her website, which is designed like a desk: “I was sure those of you who celebrate Christmas have better things to do on the day itself than fight your way into my study, whereas those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas would definitely prefer not to wait until the 25th.”

    Well, looks like July 15, 2005, will be another late night at Barnes & Noble with the girlfriend.

  • Peterson Jury Returns Sentence

    Who cares? Not me.

    I’ll file this one in the Entertainment category, as hopefully some TV time will soon be freed up from this circus.

  • Geek TV Alert

    Tonight at 9 p.m., 8 central, the SciFi channel is airing part one of Legend of Earthsea. This two-part show is based on the first two books in the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin. The first book, A Wizard of Earthsea, was one of my favorites from childhood.

    Unfortunately, I’ll only be taping so as to watch later with the girlfriend.

  • For the Star Wars Geeks

    Hopefully more blogging later in the evening, but now it’s Christmas shopping time.

    Just thought I’d leave you a little humor for the fans of the original Star Wars. Here it is, a page dedicated to an unsung martyr from the Rebel Alliance, Porkins.

  • New DVD Has Dual-Layered Surface

    Don’t junk that old TV and DVD player just yet.

    Two Japanese companies said Tuesday they have developed a DVD that can play on both existing machines and the upcoming high-definition players, raising hopes for a smooth transition as more people dump old TV sets for better screens.

    Toshiba Corp. and Memory-Tech Corp. said their disc has a dual-layered surface that can store both types of data on the same side.

    For consumers, that would eliminate the potential headache of having to own two types of DVD players: Both will be able to read such discs, though only the newer equipment can take advantage of the higher-resolution technology.

    The discs, which took six months to develop, will be able to hold 4.7 GB in the current format and 15 GB in high resolution, Memory-Tech spokesman Masato Otsuka said.

    Making the discs won’t cost any more than the companies now spend on producing current DVDs, Otsuka said.

    Whew! That’s a relief for the ol’ budget. Or is it?

    The new DVDs rely on the HD-DVD format, which has the backing of the DVD Forum, an international association of electronics makers and movie studios. New DVD players using the format are expected to hit stores by late 2005.

    Its competitor, Blu-Ray, is backed by Sony Corp., its Hollywood studio and News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment Group Inc. Blu-Ray has more storage space, but HD-DVD is expected to be cheaper to produce because its technology closely resembles current DVDs.

    It’s still unclear which will become the dominant technology.

    Meanwhile, Disney has thrown its massive weight behind Blu-Ray, though not necessarily exclusively.

    Disney — along with its home-video division, Buena Vista Home Entertainment — announced late Wednesday that it will release movies on the Blu-ray format in North America and Japan when the discs become available. Manufacturers and disc makers said players and discs should start hitting the market in late 2005 or early 2006.

    The announcement means consumers will be able to get movies from Buena Vista Home Entertainment on the Blu-ray Discs. Also part of the library of films are those from Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Hollywood Pictures Home Video, Touchstone Home Entertainment, Miramax Home Entertainment, Dimension Home Video and Disney DVD.

    ….

    Disney said its plans to release movies on the Blu-ray format are nonexclusive, meaning it could publish movies on other formats as well.

  • North Korea Drops Use of Most Laudatory Kim Title

    Kim Jong-il, doomed to be a nut from day one, has either chosen or been forced to have his public image presented in a more subdued manner.

    North Korean media have dropped most laudatory references to leader Kim Jong-il, just days after reports that his portrait had been removed from some public places, an analyst at Radiopress, a Japanese news agency that monitors North Korean media, said on Wednesday.

    Instead of being referred to as “dear leader of our party and our people” as had been customary, Kim has been merely called by his job titles, said Noriyuki Suzuki, chief analyst at Radiopress.

    The omission, in both radio and print media, was especially glaring in a report on Wednesday by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Kim’s visit to a military unit.

    Kim was referred to by his three main job titles — Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Chairman of the National Defense Commission.

    The change comes amid reports that portraits of Kim Jong-il, ubiquitous in homes, offices and public buildings across North Korea, had been removed from some public meeting halls.

    “It’s still hard to say, but taken in context with the reports about the portraits, this dropping of the most laudatory title may be an attempt by Kim to play down his cult of personality,” Suzuki said.

    He added, however, that the apparent curtailment of Kim’s personality cult did not suggest anything major had changed in the power structure of the reclusive communist state.

    Hmmm. Laying low for diplomatic reasons or fear of becoming a non-person? I think he’s just ronery and blame Team America.

  • Star Wars RotS Trailer Released

    And it looks pretty cool. Maybe a late-inning save for the series?

    Find the trailer here.

  • Reciprocity V (with a bonus for Tolkien fans)

    Taking a pause to thank the Llama Butchers for linking to two of my posts today.

    Also, an extra thanks for their turning me on to this quiz about J.R.R. Tolkien and his works, both interesting in its format and challenging in the latter stages’ content. It has six levels and, if you successfully complete them, you’ll get the following message:

    “Victory! Victory! Victory! Sauron has been defeated, Middle-Earth has been saved. Your quest is over and you have won! You have proven your excellent knowledge of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth…”

    Damn, I’m a Tolkien geek. I’ll admit I was rusty, getting only 88 of 111 correct. Stages 4-6 are tough. The questions span The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Tolkien himself. Don’t bother if you’ve only seen the movies.

    Also, if you’ve linked or blogrolled Target Centermass and I haven’t found you, please send an email or post a comment. No good deed should go unrewarded.

  • Rowling: Another Potter Character to Die

    First, the early info of the death of a major character in The Order of the Phoenix, book five of the Harry Potter series. Now, Potter history repeats itself.

    “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling said Friday that one of her characters will not survive the next book in her series about the young wizard.

    Asked on her official Web site whether she planned to kill off any more characters, Rowling replied, “Yes, sorry.” But she refused to identify that character.

    The sixth book in the series, “Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince,” is due to be published next year.

    Early prediction: not Harry, Ron or Hermione. Hagrid is safe, for now. Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall better be careful. Severus Snape is also playing a dangerous game.

  • Flight Diverted After Cat Stevens Tied to Watch List

    Living testament to my belief that a huge chunk of the music of the ’60s and ’70s was garbage, the former Cat Stevens hit a U.S. government tripwire and caused the diversion of an inbound international flight.

    A London-to-Washington flight was diverted to Maine today when it was discovered passenger Yusuf Islam — formerly known as singer Cat Stevens — was on a government watch list and barred from entering the country, two federal officials said.

    United Airlines Flight 919 was en route to Dulles International Airport when the match was made between a passenger and a name on the watch list, said Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration. The plane was met by federal agents at Maine’s Bangor International Airport around 3 p.m., Melendez said.

    The two federal officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the passenger as Islam. They said Islam was denied entry on national security grounds, but had no details about why the peace activist might be considered a risk to the United States.

    ….

    He was expected to be returned early Wednesday to London, the official said.

    Look, Cat Islam may or may not be much of a danger. That said, I want him kept permanently out of the country just because of “Morning Has Broken.” My hippie music teacher made us sing that crap in fifth grade and I still bear the scars.