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At last, William Gibson has revealed his latest novel. Zero History is a continuation of the stories Gibson started in Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. The novel is still a work in progress, but is likely to feature the characters we have been introduced in earlier books, specifically Hubertus Bigend and Hollis Henry.

From the current (rather empty) Wikipedia page:

Whatever you do, because you are an artist, will bring you to the next thing of your own. . . .

The culture of the military has trickled down to the street—Bigend knows that, and he’ll find a way to take a cut. What surprises him though is that someone else seems to be on top of that situation in a way that Bigend associates only with himself. Bigend loves staring into the abyss of the global market; he’s just not used to it staring back.

A current release date of early September 2010 has been set.

June sees the release of a rather nice addition to the current Lego airport and City themes. Proving that some minifigs are just like their real-world counterparts and insist on special modes of transport, set #3222 provides a helicopter and stretched limousine.

Whether or not the limo will make it through the tight alleys of Lego City remains to be seen…

Set #3222 is a special edition and may not be available generally available in retail outlets.

While we’re waiting for that set to be released, we’ll settle back and enjoy our copy of The Adventures of Clutch Powers.

The DVD contains the first ever, full-length Lego movie, featuring the hero Clutch Powers. Clutch makes his way through the entire gamut of the Lego universe, from the mines to the City to finally battle the evil wizard Malloc the Malign.

For the first time, Lego has publicized its official colour palette. All elements in the Lego range can now be identified by their official colour code and colour description. The palette covers solid, transparent and so-called effect elements.

If you want your Lego building experience to include the difference between transparent bright orange and transparent reddish-orange, the colour palette details for the 2010 Lego range may be of interest to you. Get the PDF from the Brothers Brick.

Lego City is an exciting place to be lately, specifically with regard to the stunning buildings that are available in boxed form. The recent fire house was yet another fine example of a building featuring a lot of interior detail and a modular design that blends in with the others available. Creating a sprawling cityscape is rather easy and indications are that further additions in this range will be available in the future. In addition to the market place, hotel, green grocer, winter toy shop, fire house and various others, Lego is releasing the Grand Emporium.

It’s a corner building with a lot of interior detail and removable sections for easy access and play.

Set #10211 includes a number of mini figures to round out the Lego shopping experience and comprises roughly 2200 pieces. It should be available locally from June this year.

The men who stare at goats are select individuals within the US army that, well, stare at goats. It’s pretty simple, though their aim is not to get a detailed look at the goat in question. Far from such a rather pedestrian activity, the US army seeks to use paranormal means to kill goats by simply staring at them. As ridiculous as going to war, staring at goats is on par with the attempt by the same US army soldiers to try to walk through solid walls. That their attempts meet with failure whenever they are observed is no surprise. The same could be said for the US armies’ success on the real battlefield, but that’s a totally different discussion…

Jon Ronson‘s book is quite fascinating. He recounts his investigations, interviews and overall impressions of the US military’s foray into the paranormal. The ability to stare at goats in an effort to kill them is simply one weapon psychic soldiers were to wield in battle. Walking through walls and attempting to become invisible to the enemy are similar abilities sought by the soldiers. On a more serious note, Ronson investigates and describes torture techniques employed by US army interrogators in Iraq. The use of the Barney song to get prisoners to spill the beans is likely to succeed: ask any parent of a three year old…

Connections between the Heaven’s Gate Cult and the US military, as well as references to the Waco fire make for interesting reading. As is usually the case, there is more to most stories than meets the eye. Uri Geller is said to have been a part of the training program provided to the military, too.

If you enjoy a bit of conspiracy, obscure references to real-world events that provide a new perspective and a good laugh at the US army, The men who stare at goats is just for you. If you’re lazy, you may wish to watch the movie starring George Clooney. Me, I’d just read the book.

Here’s another great Lego sculpture by Arvo – this time of a classic Polaroid camera.

More pictures are available on Brickshelf.

The Red Baron is a movie about the famous German flying ace. I didn’t get to watch the original language version, something that is probably far more enjoyable. Instead, we saw the English version. Never having spent too much time reading about the life of Manfed von Richthofen, the movie served as a reasonable introduction. Though factually accurate to some degree, there are a number of scenes and occurrences that are not historically true.

That doesn’t detract from the quality of the movie at all: the aerial combat scenes are spectacular and the overall depiction of World War I life one that reminds the viewer that war cannot be a good thing.

Von Richthofen is a young pilot who, together with a bunch of close friends, partakes in the sport of flying fighter aircraft. The aim is not to kill the pilot of an enemy plane; instead, it’s all about disabling that aircraft and ensuring no one comes to any harm. This ideal is slowly but surely eroded. As the war takes its toll on the German army and as von Richthofen climbs through the ranks of the airforce, it is inevitable that victory takes top priority. Through battle after battle, friends of the Red Baron die in combat, causing him to question his motives and the sense of the war.

With the enemy closing in, the German army prepares for its last stand. At the young age of 25, Baron Manfred von Richthofen is shot down in combat over France, respected as much in death as during his short life by enemy and countrymen alike.

Overall, the two hour long movie is interesting and entertaining. At times, the action shifts a bit too quickly from one scene to another, with abrupt changes from high action to serene scenes quite common.

For anyone with a passing interest in history or aviation The Red Baron is recommended viewing, in my opinion.

Lego has added another popular franchise to its existing toy line-up: to coincide with the release of a new Toy Story adventure and the re-screening of the first two movies in 3D in the next two months, a few Lego Toy Story sets are available. Aimed at smaller builders, the range includes a box with the characters from the famous Andy‘s truck chase scene in Toy Story.

Complete with Buzz, Woody and RC with a pull-back motor, these look like a lot of fun.

Simple board games are often a great source entertainment. Those adding a puzzle element that is simple yet vexing stretch brain cells during lazy holidays! The Gogetter Cat & Mouse puzzle consists of nine elements depicting pathways.

In conjunction with a square board and a book of challenges, the simple task of leading a mouse to a piece of cheese becomes quite a head-scratcher: setting the path from one to the other is reasonably easy, but the important thing to bear in mind is that the remaining pathways cannot simply dead-end.

As skill levels increase, so does the difficulty of the puzzles, often involving the connection of three or more objects and avoiding a connection to others at the same time.

Available at select toy stores, this is a great puzzler for young and old alike.

Puzzle games are not my forte – I prefer racing games and those I can start quickly and leave quickly without having to bother about a plot or strategy.

From both a technical and game-play perspective, Machinarium is an absolute gem and a game I can heartily recommend to most any computer user. First off, the technical implementation is impressive. The game has been developed, and is played, in a Flash environment. That means the game runs on any platform: Windows, Mac and Linux. Machinarium is an independent development that cost less than USD 1000 to develop!

The graphics are stunning, featuring the player’s character (a robot) and spectacularly detailed backdrops to each section of the game. Gameplay is easy: using a mouse, manipulate the behaviour of the robot by either stretching or shrinking his size, moving around and interacting with elements in the game world. It’s a puzzle game, so each screen presents a new set of challenges the player needs to solve to be able to advance. A hint is available to assist those stuck at any point in the game. Throughout each section of the game, the robot is able to collect items and is able to combine them to solve a puzzle.

Machinarium is highly recommended – the purchase price is a scant USD 10 (for a limited time) and this game will provide a lot of entertainment for both young and old. Check out the demo here.