Francis hates everything

Left 4 Dead’s Francis is probably the most negative person in the world. Not exactly someone who you’d want to be with you if you manage to survive the zombie apocalypse. But he doesn’t quite hate everything, as this music video explains.

GCIDogmeat and GCITherewolf but together this video celebrating Francis’ bitterness using sound clips from the game. Enjoy!

Grab the MP3 of the song here.

First stills from Star Trek movie reveals bridge made by Apple

IO9 has a collection of still images from the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot. The images show a cast that looks way too young to be given charge of a Starship, but overall they look like a fairly good fit to replaced the iconic crew. Zachary Quinto makes a convincing Spock, but I can’t help but see Sylar in that image.

The bridge is the most annoying part of these images. It just looks too…. clean… to be the bridge of a Starship from that era (yes, I’m putting on my Star Trek nerd hat) I would have preferred a look that more closely resembled the Enterprise bridge from Star Trek 2 or Star Trek The Next Generation. Functional, realistic, and not overly stylized. I still have high hopes, and will patiently wait for the theatrical trailer.

CERN rap video eases worries that the end is near

The Large Hadron Collider, CERNs new particle accelerator, has some people worried that it might just destroy time and space as we know it by creating tiny black holes we can’t control. CERN has responced by making this rap video to describe exactly what the LHC was designed to do. Needless to say, nothing about the end of the world is mentioned.

CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo.

Hoverboard from Back to the Future II up for auction

The Hoverboard, made famous by Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly, Is up for auction on Ebay Live Auctions with a starting bid of $30,000. That might seem a little steep considering that these things are supposed to be kids toys by the year 2015 (nice work dropping the ball MATEL!) but if I had the money I wouldn’t hesitate to own this little piece of Science Fiction movie history.

957. Michael J. Fox “Marty Mcfly” hero Mattel hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II & Part III. (Universal Pictures, 1989, 1990) This is one of the hero Mattel Hoverboards used by Michael J. Fox in his most famous role as “Marty McFly” in the Robert Zemeckis classic 80s trilogy, Back to the Future. Two styles of Hoverboard were made for and employed in the film – lightweight boards of styrofoam construction and thick and durable wood-based props – this example is the latter, and is recognized as the best example of all wood Hoverboards to have survived the rigors of filming. The illusion of Michael J. Fox as “Marty McFly” hovering through the air was achieved with practical effects, with actors in rigged harnesses being “flown” via cranes, with special effects taking care of the rest.

Of the two styles of props used in the film – styrofoam and wood – the styrofoam examples in collections today have not held up as well, given the more fragile nature of the material and the abuse they endured in production. Few wood examples have survived, and the collector who obtained this specimen from the prop master chose this for his personal collection as the premiere example of those preserved following the film. It is in used but outstanding condition, and is very rare in that it is entirely complete and intact. Given the wood build and use of metal components, it looks and feels like a “real” prop. This piece has the complete fully functional and rear ballbearing-mounted footpad that rotates 360 degrees, as well as the bottom “magnet plates”. Of the two styles of stickers used for the effects, this prop has the “photoboard”-style sticker affixed. In addition, there is other textured styling and hand painting. This Hoverboard also features the hole in the top, representing where the handlebars were that “Marty” pulled off after borrowing the “toy” from the little girl in the film. $30000 – $50000

J. C. Hutchins releases 7th Son Obsidian

Author of the most famous podcast novel of all time J. C. Hutchins has released his supplementary short story collection “Obsidian”. The 7th Son Trilogy was a huge success and will be seeing it’s first print run this year. Hutchins has decided to open the world of 7th Son up to some of the biggest names in Podcast fiction such as  Michael A. Stackpole, Scott Sigler, Mur Lafferty, Matt Wallace, Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, Christiana Ellis, Evo Terra, Dan Klass, Wichita Rutherford, TD-0013, George Hrab, Soccergirl, and the cast of The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd.

The first story was given to the pioneer of Podcast fiction Tee Morris who told the story of a man desperate to get back to his family as the blackout grips the country and all the technology he had come to relay on fails him.

Along with the podcasted fiction is also a collection of fan generated content that will be featured by J. C. Hutchins as the Obsidian project rolls along.You can now view some of the 7th Son: Obsidian Blackout Videos at the youtube channel. You’ll see accounts of the fictional blackout that is the focus of Obsidian told from the point of view of the people who were trapped in it, like the internet loving Marigold:

I’ll continue to watch the project unfold as it uses the unique media resources that the internet provides to create a single massive multi-medium collaberative project.

Visit J. C. Hutchins website for more information about the 7th Son Trilogy, or jump over to the Obsidian page to learn more about this exciting project.