CHARLES ADDAMS GOOGLE DOODLE: Spooky ?Addams Family? logo celebrates macabre cartoonist

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IT?S CREEPY and it?s kooky

Mysterious and spooky

It?s altogether ooky

The Addams annivers?ry ...

To celebrate the centennial of the late, great cartoonist?s birth, Google today features a deft ghoulish ?Doodle? in honor of Charles Addams, the longtime New Yorker magazine contributor who was a master of the macabre and a brilliant wit of the weird.

Of course, to many fans, Addams is best known for his namesake cartoon family that has leapt from page to soundstage to Broadway stage. Long after its single-panel creation, ?The Addams Family? enjoys an entertainment immortality befitting the otherworldly brood.

Addams?s inspired tribe ? headed by the wealthy, mustachioed Gomez and alabaster, raven-locked wife Morticia ? already has an afterlife of several generations. Even the spooky, ooky lyrics and finger-snapping tune from the ?60s TV show ? which featured the ?misadventures of a blissfully macabre family? ? seem destined to hum in human brains for eons, an earworm for all eternity.

To pay tribute to Addams and his Family, Google?s search homepage spotlights Gomez and Morticia in the front of the logo?s ?G?; Cousin Itt holding the ?O?; young Pugsley in the ?G? of a guillotine next to sister Wednesday (whose favorite toy was Marie Antoinette); towering butler Lurch grasps the ?L?; and Uncle Fester chomps down on the ?E.?

Besides the ?60s series, the Addams Family has spawned feature films, TV series (some animated) and video games. A Broadway musical based on Addams?s drawings opened in 2010 and closed this past New Year?s Eve (tagline: ?Come meet the family. We?ll leave the lights off for you?) .

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Portraying Morticia, Brooke Shields joined the Broadway cast of "The Addams Family" last summer ? a role originated by Bebe Neuwirth. The production closed last week. (Astrid Stawiarz / GETTY IMAGES) .

CHARLES ADDAMS was born Jan. 7, 1912, in Westfield, N.J., and by the time he was 21, the New Yorker was publishing his work. Addams became one of the magazine?s most profilic cartoonists, creating more than a thousand works ? according to the New Yorker ? over six decades.

Addams?s sly, morbid wit shined brilliantly through his sometimes darkly Gothic cartoons. He was Poe if the ?Raven? writer had been a master gag-man. Among the monikers attached to the horror-happy Addams were ?the graveyard guru,? ?the Bela Lugosi of the cartoonists? and ?the Van Gogh of the Ghouls.?

?I think he was so far ahead of his time by realizing that horror was funny,? Robert Mankoff, the New Yorker?s cartoon editor, tells Comic Riffs. ?This was his unique accomplishment. Now we accept that ? in things like campy horror movies ? but he was able to make horror fun [by] having horrible, terrible things happen in a family situation in an alternative universe.?

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BROADWAY?S PAGE TO STAGE: FAMILY PORTRAITS:

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Only a mere fraction of Addams?s massive portfolio featured the Addams Family ? but the characters took root in the popular imagination.

Addams even played up to the ?creepy? image: He reportedly was married in a pet cemetery, was fond of visiting snake farms and kept medieval armor in his New York home. The delicious lore around him grew ? including tall tales of his New Yorker editors having to seek treatment for him. ?There is the mythical story that after he?d turn in work? to New Yorker editors, Mankoff tells Comic Riffs, ?they?d periodically send him to a sanitarium.?

?Definitely not true,? emphasizes Mankoff, who met the ?charming? Addams once before the supernatural-minded humorist died in 1988.

Addams has influenced countless artists, and among his great heirs of the macabre cartoon is another New Yorker contributor: Gahan Wilson.

?We?ve have many great cartoonists in New Yorker magazine,? Mankoff tells ?Riffs, ?but Addams is one of the few who endures not just for the generation that knew him and loved him, but for the generations that were born after he died.?

And his immortal Addams Family remains a ?screa-um.?

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(The Google Doodle appears with the cooperation of the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation.)

PAGE TO STAGE: KEVIN CHAMBERLIN (Uncle Fester):

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?THE ADDAMS FAMILY? ON BROADWAY:.

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Comic Riffs? TOP TWELVE GOOGLE DOODLES OF 2011.?

1. LES PAUL:?THE PLAYABLE GUITAR

2. MARTHA GRAHAM:?THE ANIMATION DANCE

3. LUCILLE BALL:?CHANNELING THE HIGHLIGHTS

4. FREDDIE MERCURY:?THE MUSIC VIDEO

5. JIM HENSON:?THE CLICKABLE MUPPETS

6. ART CLOKEY:?THE ?GUMBY DOODLE?

7. JULES VERNE:?DEEP-SEA DOODLE

8. STANISLAW LEM:?THE ANIMATED SCI-FI GAME

9. MARY BLAIR:?THE DISNEY DOODLE

10. THOMAS EDISON:?THE ILLUMINATING DOODLE

11. MARK TWAIN:? THE HANNIBAL PANORAMA

12. LOUIS DAGUERRE: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DOODLE

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Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=f1e3df28e21d69a058483bb32616634c

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Ohio quakes directly tied to fracking

Recent earthquakes in Ohio and Oklahoma have been directly linked to deep wells used to dispose of liquid wastes for hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" of natural gas, according to geological experts.

And they expect more earthquakes to come as the industry continues to expand across the eastern United States.

A boom in gas production using hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" of natural gas has played a role in decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and coal and helped cut energy prices, but evidence is mounting that the process may come at a price.

"To the extent that our nation wants to become independent of meeting its energy needs in the coming years, the increased earthquakes are going to go along with that," said Art McGarr, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif. "The problems are only going to grow in the future."

State officials shut down all drilling around a brine-injection well after a magnitude-4.0 quake rumbled through the Youngstown, Ohio, on New Year's Eve day. That was the 11th earthquake in 2011 in the region, which is not considered seismically active. Experts are also investigating a magnitude-5.6 earthquake east of Oklahoma City that has been linked to gas drilling there, McGarr said.

NEWS: Gas Well Fracked a Big Oops

"It's reasonably clear that these Youngstown earthquakes are being caused by the disposal well activities," McGarr said. "The earthquakes started in March of last year. That's about the same period that the major injection activities started."

A team of investigators from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has been trying to figure out the connection between the earthquakes and the injection well, which takes waste fluids from nearby fracking operations, for the past few months. John Armbruster, a seismologist on the team, said the wells trigger quakes that are already poised to occur.

Armbruster compared the disposal well to a hydraulic jack that is slowly splitting an underground fault.

The well "is forcing the two sides apart and it starts to slip," Armbruster said. "The earthquake is the slip."

At least 177 similar disposal wells are located throughout Ohio, and Armbruster says it will take a while for the pressure from the fracking fluids to disperse into the earth.

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NEWS: Fracking Alternative? Or Just Hot Air?

During fracking, high-pressure water and chemicals are forced into shale rock to force out natural gas. Supporters say it's an efficient way to tap into vast petroleum resources that lay under the Eastern United States. Homeowners and environmental groups in Pennsylvania have complained that fracking fluids have poisoned underground drinking water supplies in some areas. New York officials are considering whether to allow fracking in the Marcellus and Utica shale despots that lie underneath the state.

Armbruster said a disposal well in the western Finger Lakes area of New York was shut down in 2001 because of earthquakes. He says that he's working on a model to predict which areas near drilling sites will be susceptible to earthquakes, although there's still no way to accurately predict their size and strength.

"When you operate one of these wells, you have to monitor it more carefully and see when it begins to cause earthquakes," Armbruster said. "If you shut it down, you are much more likely to prevent a damaging earthquake that would come later."

So far, the earthquakes linked to drilling operations have been relatively minor. Both experts said they don't have enough data yet to know whether the industrial drilling could spawn more destructive ones.

? 2012 Discovery Channel

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45903873/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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"Ninja Turtles" co-creator auctioning off art studio (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? How much money will be shelled out for the personal art studio belonging to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" co-creator Kevin Eastman?

The answer will be known Wednesday night, which marks the end of the 10-day eBay auction for the studio -- drawing table, rare artwork, personal effects, toys and all.

"My wife was threatening to call that TV show 'Hoarders,' " Eastman told TheWrap about his studio, which had been situated in his Los Angeles home. "Some of the stuff I've pulled out of storage, I haven't seen in 15 years. There are old comics, doodles, scraps of paper, reference books, movies ..."

Eastman will give 20 percent of the proceeds from the auction to The Hero Initiative, a nonprofit that financially supports comic book creators in need.

As for the rest of the money, "I'll put it in the bank for my kids schools or buy some new supplies," Eastman said.

Twenty-nine bids have been received so far; the highest is $8,300.

The art studio has been on display at Los Angeles' Meltdown Comics, where Eastman has been making regular visits. The exhibition -- which includes some unpublished artwork -- is part of "35 Days of Kevin Eastman," which is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the "Heavy Metal" magazine he published.

On Wednesday night, Meltdown will celebrate the end of the auction with a party, during which live footage of the eBay auction page will be projected onto a big screen.

Regardless of the amount for which the studio sells, Eastman will certainly be surrounded by fans at the shindig -- as he has been during his visits to Meltdown.

"I was in the gallery the other day and this guy came in from Italy," Eastman said. "He grew up on the Turtles -- and his name was Raphael. He was walking down Melrose and randomly discovered the exhibit. When he left the store with a signed copy of one of the comics, he had a grin so big."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120105/tv_nm/us_ninjaturtles_auction

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Samsung launches new wired and wireless headsets for mobile warriors

Samsung isn't letting CES go by without introducing a few new accessories for its mobile devices. A pair of Bluetooth headsets are on tap, the HM1800 and HM6000 (the latter of which boasts a pair of mics for noise cancellation ) but, oddly enough, it the company's "your sound" wired models that are getting the bulk of the attention. The EHS-60, 63, 70 and 71 all offer a twist on the wired stereo headset model. The high-end 70 and 71 are crafted of aluminum and include welcome features like anti-tangle cords. The most interesting, though, are certainly the asymmetrical EHS-63s which feature an in-ear bud for higher frequencies and an open-air speaker for low-end. Check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading Samsung launches new wired and wireless headsets for mobile warriors

Samsung launches new wired and wireless headsets for mobile warriors originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft awarded patent for DVR on gaming consoles (Digital Trends)

An old patent recently awarded to Microsoft may shed some light on the company?s future ambitions regarding the Xbox. The patent sums up an idea for a gaming console moving towards an entertainment center, rather than simply a gaming machine.

Back in January 2007, around the time when the Playstation 3 first came out, Microsoft was toying with an idea for a gaming console to pack a digital video recorder (DVR). The DVR application ?running alongside a television client component [would allow] users to record media content on the gaming console.?

The patent points out that the DVR application would integrate itself with the console menu, and would allow users to record media while gaming. Users could also record content while the console is turned off. Media content could mean TV programs, local or online gaming experiences, music, DVDs and more. Users would have the freedom to switch between various modes while recording.

The example in the patent highlights a gaming device with 60 GB of total space, and a plan to be able to adjust a slider to designate how much space a console would use for a DVR. Also, the patent specifies that the primary focus for the console would be gaming, and assurances would be taken into consideration to preserve the gaming experience.

Why would Microsoft bother with a DVR? The patent points out that, ?Gaming consoles provide a rich audio and visual experience that is underwritten by extensive computing resources. However, these computing resources are often times not leveraged for non-gaming uses?In short, it would be advantageous to provide systems, methods, computer readable media and the like that would allow for integrated gaming and media experience.?

Of course, every patent carries that grain of salt clause with it, though with the latest Xbox Dashboard upgrade pushing towards a better experience with streaming content, a recorder might not be such a far out idea.

Via Tom?s Guide

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This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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