Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Embedding the trailer above. It's only one of the few trailers of the film that I've seen so far. I hate to admit it but I'm looking forward to this film, even though I'm not a fan of the comic book. My brothers and I collected it at one point along with XMen and Spidey titles. When the publishers saw that multi titles and cross promotion increased readership, it became too costly to be buying and following all three comic books. It was bye-bye to FF4.

Back to the film. I didn't find the first film that interesting. The FF4 I grew up reading weren't that earthbound when it came to battling evil. Besides 4 against 1 (DR Doom) isn't really a match by any stretch of imagination. Which is why I like that Marvel pulled out the one FF4 storyline that resonates to its long time fans. At least that's what i expect from the Rise.

If I'm correct, the film will pit the Four against Galactus. Not your typical bad guy, Galactus is devourer of worlds but is also considered a force of nature much like Death is. He relies on his Heralds to seek out worlds that will satisfy his cosmic appetite. The Silver Surfer is his Herald in this particular FF4 chapter. And he has Earth on his lunch special.

SPOILER ALERT.

One of the trailers I saw alludes to this plot. In the comic book, at least, FF4 succeeds in turning back Galactus - in fact almost killing the guy - with the help of SS and Dr Strange. It is only through Reed's 'change of heart', thinking that killing a force of nature would have serious effects on the fabrics of reality, that Galactus is restored back to cosmic health. This also leads to SS getting punished and exiled on earth by Galactus and, later on, Reed getting tried by a galactic tribunal for crimes against the universe (for saving G). But I don't think the story will go this far. If anything, it opens the door for more Marvel features down the road. Secret Wars film adaptation perhaps?

Gotta buy Marvel stock now.

Google Takes Stake In Sergey’s Wife’s Biotech Company

Here’s an odd story. Google just took a $3.9 million stake in a biotech company called 23andMe Inc. The company was co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, who married Google co-founder Sergey Brin earlier this month. Other investors in the round include Genentech, MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. Read more by clicking on link below.

The author asks in the end, 'what's the connection with Google?' Pretty obvious to me. It's just Google being Google. Think of all the data stored in a person's DNA. Granted, we probably can't explain most of it at this point. But at least we've mapped it already thanks to Google and the Human Genome Project so that'll happen sooner or later. and when that happens, think of all the valuable information Google can glean from all that data. And then watch Google 'monetize' that information. In the final analysis, the initial $4M investment will be viewed as a rounding error in Google's ledgers.

read more | digg story

What Would Google Do?

What would Google do if they were our bank or credit card company, with access to our every purchase?

More on the dugg article shortly. Oh the pressure... of owning a blog. Even it's really just mostly the moral equivalent of talking to myself. Pathetic. Must. Blog. Now. As a result, I haven't been the most discriminate when it comes to blog topics. So i latch on the first topics that catches my attention. Which brings me to the digg article (link below).

Blogger O'Reilly puts forward some interesting applications to mashing massive amounts of digitized data and data mining them. O'Reilly writes:

What would Google do? What would Google do if they were our bank or credit card company, with access to our every purchase, our bank balance, our history of paying late or early, our salary and our savings rate, our preferences for where we like to eat or shop? What would Google do if they were our phone company, with access to our every phone call sent or received, how long we talk to Joe and how quickly we call Mary back? What would Google do if they ran our supermarket's loyalty card program, tracking our every purchase?

Sounds too much like Orwell's 1986? Maybe. But i say, George was two decades ahead of his time. Bring it on Google or whoever decides to run with this idea (uhm Google). I'm already suffering from information fatigue. Daily, constant multitasking is beginning to take its toll. I'm also not getting any younger, so I could use all the help i can get in offloading some decision making to technology. Like helping me determine the precise moment to buy low fat vs whole milk for household consumption. We've never gotten it right so we end up running out or throwing away spoiled milk. A rather simplistic example, i know. But Mrs Traveler and I spend waaaay too much time agonizing over this every week.

Or what would Google do if it were a sports team? All those stats finally being put to good use. Can you say moneyball? At a more mundane level, I could use all the help i can get on my fantasy teams.

I'm surprised this hasn't been dugg as much -- 4 so far including me. Before it's all over, I'm betting O'Reilly's blog will be self fulfilling. All yours, Google.

read more | digg story

Joost launches

Well, it's official, Joost just launched. there's been onslaught of news items and press releases on the launch and the various deals they've signed. Good for them. I'm still waiting for the killer content, and no SI's swimsuit edition video doesn't count. I'm watching this space closely.