The Hobbit green-lit to begin production

Like this is a surprise. I had no doubt, there's too much money to be made on it.

And it looks like it will be in 3-D.

There are three things that I find interesting about 3-D (in a negative way). 1: it doesn't seem to be making the transition in to living rooms. Apparently 3-D TV sales are extremely low, and I didn't know this: they aren't mutually compatible. So if you have a Sony 3-D TV and I have a Panasonic 3-D TV, your glasses (currently) won't work on my TV. 2: very little material is being released for it, some of the best material is only available when you buy a 3-D set. And 3: you need an upright viewing position to watch it. That last one, in and of itself, is a deal-breaker for me. I frequently watch TV laying sideways in my chair, horizontal is a favored viewing position for me.

Not that it matters, I'm not going to buy one. My TV is over a decade old, weighs a ton and a half, but only costs about $75 to repair. I'm planning on running it in to the ground.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4241119/Jackson-to-direct-The-Hobbit-in-3-D

Chrysler's Turbine Car

In the 60's, Chrysler made a car with a turbine engine. A jet turbine. 60,000 RPM. 5,000 hours life compared to 3,000 for a piston engine. 1,800 degrees F.

And it destroyed almost all of them after an amazingly successful pilot program that ran over a million miles in 50 prototypes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703369704575462133272933798.html

http://jalopnik.com/5662006/the-rise-and-fall-of-americas-jet+powered-car

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/17/1213207/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Americas-Jet-Powered-Car

Pretty cool, I'd love to see one. Apparently Leno has one of the four that wasn't destroyed, I have no idea if the other three still exist. The Jalopnik article has three videos of the car driving. I'd love to know what the interior noise and heat levels were like, air conditioning in cars wasn't too common in those days.