Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
[Click to enlarge] SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. ~ This week there’s been talk of restarting the Edison International-operated nuclear reactors at San Onofre. Located between Los Angeles and San Diego, the two operational pressurized water reactors there ~ units #2 and #3 ~ have been shut down since January 2012, when an inspection found that new pipes that carry steam to and from the reactor’s generators showed unexpected corrosion less than two years ago after they were retrofitted. Any other time in the atomic age, the public might have just shrugged and accepted all the assurances of the giant utility. “Not to worry, folks.” But it’s only been 15 months since the triple meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi, and three of the Japanese reactors there are still leaking radioactive becquerels and bucky balls of toxic isotopes and a tsunami-shattered fourth reactor building houses some 1,500 spent fuel rods that some say could create another nuclear disaster that will dwarf the one that the beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Japanese government will be battling for the unforeseen future. The movement against the restarting of San Onofre #2 and #3 is growing. Warnings by the Southern California power companies that the absence of cheap and clean nuclear energy might cause rolling blackouts and limited time for junior on the Xbox don’t seem to carry the same fuzzy feelings as they did BF ~ Before Fukushima. One month after Japan’s triple 3-11 disasters, our friends over at Gizmodo published a timely story entitled “How a Fukushima-Level Disaster Would Affect You in New York, L.A. or Chicago.” The story featured some maps that were chilling then and that are even more compelling today factoring in what we didn’t know about the on-going nuclear mishaps in Japan. Gizmodo notes that while Japan opted for a 30-kilometer or 18.6-mile radius long-term evacuation zone, U.S. scientists tipped their hand last March when they advised any American citizen inside an 80-kilometer ( 49.7 mile) radius of Fukushima Daiichi to leave. If that same policy were applied in the case of meltdowns at reactors near the three top urban populations centers of the U.S. ~ New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, this would be the scenario, according to Gizmodo: ♣In the worst case of an meltdown at Indian Point Nuclear Station in Buchanan, NY, more than 20 million people in the metro area would have to be evacuated, leaving the city deserted, from Long Island to the Bronx. ♣If a Fukushima-like accident were to hit San Onofre, Southern California, although the city of Los Angeles itself would fall outside the evacuation zone, some 15 million souls would be told to evacuate from most of Orange Counnty, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes to the north; greater San Diego to the south; Fontana, Whittier and Pomona to the east; and Catalina Island and Pacific Ocean to the west. ♣A disaster at either Dresden Nuclear Power Station in Dresden, IL or Braidwood NPP, Braidwood, IL outside Chicago...
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Here’s what I’ll be driving. It’s a Mitsubishi MiEV, the MPGe has an “e” which means “equivalent”. I’ll be seeing how it’ll ride and feel. I already know, like a Prius, it starts silently. The car has “eco” written all over it. Want a ride? (imitsubishicars.com – Mitsubishi MiEV)
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GR: Did you grow up with Army Men? Jim A: Yeah I grew up with army men. As a kid I set them all up then I’d get rocks and destroy the battlefield. The ones the dog chewed up were the injured soldiers. GR: Explain how you came up with the idea of skateboarders in the Classic Army Men style? Jim A: I saw what was already out there & I thought how cool it would be to make them based off of the old school toy soldiers that I grew up with. Keep them simple & cheap, but they had to look cool & realistic. I saw other things out there and they were sort of corny. They didn’t look realistic – the characters had mohawks & the moves looked awkward. GR: Are you a sculptor and or skateboarder? Are the original sculpts that tiny? Jim A: I am a graphic designer & an old school skateboarder, my son AJ he skates all the time. He helped me design the final designs & got me up to date on the moves that they should be doing. Hence I named ‘em after my son AJ – AJ’s Original Toy Boarders. The original sculpts are just a tad larger than the final product – this way you can get a little more detailed. GR: Was this easy to get done from your idea to complete product? Jim A: No it wasn’t easy. I wasn’t familiar with the process of making moulds , but I had a friend teach me the process. Also we wanted to get each skater to balance on his board so that they would stand upright. There was always some tweaking involved so that we could maintain the style –yet keep them balanced. GR: How did you pick their poses out of an almost an infinite amount of things that a skater does! Jim A: We originally had more designs for the first series. We found out that some were not possible with a 2 part mould. Also like mentioned before we wanted them all to be able to pose upright on their board so kick flips and certain moves just weren’t gonna work. GR: Are the boarders any particular rider? Jim A: No, no boarder in particular, just based off of my son & his friends that skate. We wanted them to have style so we based their clothing off of what kids are wearing today. Within the skateboard culture there are all sorts of styles so we wanted to cover a wide range. GR: What’s next? Jim A: Series II Skate is DONE & in the Mould Process as we speak !! We are really stoked on this series –in it there is a Girl, we had lots of demands for a girl skater. Also we put a filmer in there – you know the friend that is following behind the rider with the death lens. Series 1 Snowboard is currently being designed & after that...
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Like a bunch of folks on twitter, I caught Lee Chang-hoon on KBS World News today. Very cool to hear what sounds like your average, professional and polished news anchorman, and see him reading from a braille news reader. Korea is behind on a lot of things when it comes to accepting difference, but I’ve always been impressed with the way that they have integrated the needs of the visually impaired into daily life. It’s an effort that’s apparent, but probably still has a long way to go. Regardless, this is a huge step forward, and it would be great to hear about other major television networks around the world following suit! The Korea Times as well as the The Korea Herald wrote about him when he made his debut last year. In the meantime, while Lee keeps moving up the professional ranks at KBS, I’ll be following the story of the Mongolian Paralympian who will be representing Mongolia in judo. By day he works at a felt making company (creating felt for gers) and in the evenings he trains for the Paralympics in London. Totally rad. These athletes are an inspiration.
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I don’t like the way your looking at me Mario….
by Robert Bruce
On day one Xbox’s focus, as far as I could tell, was primarily on Kinect games and Halo 4. I don’t blame them at all, but their floor area was very sparse, and most of that floor was either the gargantuan line for Halo 4, or people demonstrating a couple choice Kinect based games; including a Marvel-Avengers-esque game, a dancing game and some other games that didn’t really grab my attention (I believe one was the Wreckateer which is a sort of Kinect version of Angry Birds that certainly has some promise). Behind this section was a number of smaller XBLA games, which actually interested me more than any of the above games. Deadlight caught my eyes more than any of the other things showcased in the XBLA section. Deadlight reminded me a lot of the old-school Blizzard’s Blackthorne, only with zombies and many generations forward in graphics tech. The game is a “2d-esque” side-scroller that takes you through a zombie laden apocalypse; and I realize how boring that sounds conceptually. What’s interesting is the the lighting effects or lack thereof that contribute to the challenge and feel of the game. Lush city-scape backgrounds and a great job of atmosphere contribute to what looks to be an interesting game experience.
