Eddie Izzard
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Netflix has an all-star cast for 'Green Eggs and Ham' animated series
Netflix would really like for you to try some Green Eggs and Ham. The company has secured the rights to the classic Dr. Seuss tale and is turning it into a star-studded animated series that will be packed with familiar voices. The show, which is being executive produced by Ellen DeGeneres and will join Netflix's growing list of animated originals, will debut on the streaming service this fall.
Epix HD queues up Iron Man, Madonna and Eddie Izzard for online & FiOS launch October 30
Epix HD has locked down a launch date and lineup, confirmed for Verion FiOS subscribers so far, the festivities will kick off October 30th with television and online premieres of Iron Man, Madonna "Sticky & Sweet: Live from Buenos Aires," and Eddie Izzard: Live From Wembley. Other titles set for launch weekend are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Madea Goes to Jail, Pink Panther 2, the Indiana Jones movie that sucked, Cloverfield, The Duchess and more. Epix has previously stated a goal to build the largest stable of movies online with a planned 3,000 titles available in the Epix Megaplex, you'll see if this whole new way of delivering a premium movie experience is all it's appeared to be very soon.Update: Epix just passed along the launch weekend schedule so check after the break for all the times (EST)
Majority of women, men swap gender in MMOs
Smirk all you want at Eddie Izzard, but keep in mind that some of your closest gaming cohorts are likely e-transvestites, if they're in to MMOs. A recent study called Gender Swapping and Socialising in Cyberspace revealed that 70 percent of women and 54 percent of men swap their genders when playing online games. For men, it's reportedly a way to get special treatment from males. On the other hand, women prefer to play as men so their characters aren't so frequently distracted by handbag sales and America's Next Top Model marathons. We kid.For our part, we play World of Warcraft as a gnome warlock who looks exactly like former presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich. His name is "Kucinich." ... We have no idea what that says about us.[Via MEGATONik. Thanks, Zizzy]
"Audio telescope" could help mitigate bird strikes
Bird strike has always struck us (har) as a bit of a misnomer. As British comedian Eddie Izzard once pointed out, birds don't exactly fly around looking for planes to go after -- the act of a bird hitting a plane's body or engine should be more adequately described as "engine suck." Either way, it's caused $2 billion worth of damage to US-based aircraft since 1990, according to the FAA. So, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology is currently working on a solution that involves a terrestrial setup of 192 microphones (an "audio telescope," if you will) that aims to pick up on bird sounds and detect what type of bird is approaching oncoming aircraft. The idea is that while a smaller sparrow isn't usually much concern, a larger hawk or Canada goose would be a problem when colliding with planes. One big problem though: currently the audio telescope can only detect birds at distances of a few hundred meters; Vincent Stanford of the NIST says that to really be effective, the telescope would "need to be up to around 2.5 kilometers." So get crackin' fellas, looks like your work is cut out for you.
