Some Stuff: June 24, 2009

1947: The first reported sighting of Flying Saucers was reported near Mount Rainier, Washington, by airline pilot Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Idaho. He reported seeing nine UFOs traveling at 1,700 mph and described their flight pattern as similar to a saucer skipping across water.

Check our blog for: posters for Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, and Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2. The posters were revealed at Amsterdams Cinema Expo International . Also revealed first footage from James Camerons Avatar.

Here’s what those who saw it are saying: stunning, literally jawdropping. Amazing visuals unlike any before seen, with incredible detail."

George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic used 145 terabytes of disk space to create the special effects for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”. 145 terabytes is enough to fill 35,000 standard DVDs. If you were to try to do all of the effects work for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” on your home PC, it would take you 16,000 years.

Kobian, a "humanoid" robot, which can express seven human emotions, has been unveiled by researchers at Waseda University in Japan. The Emotional Humanoid Robot can express seven different feelings, including delight, surprise, sadness and dislike. In addition to assuming different poses to match the mood, Kobian uses motors in its face to move its lips, eyelids and eyebrows into various positions. To express delight, for example, the robot puts its hands over its head and opens it mouth and eyes wide. To show sadness, Kobian hunches over, hangs its head and holds a hand up to its face in a gesture of grief. Kobian can also walk around, perceive its environment and perform physical tasks. The robot features a double jointed neck that helps it achieve more expressive postures. According to Kobian’s developers, the robot’s expressiveness makes it better equipped to interact with humans and assist with daily activities.