The original Star Wars logo from 1976, which was suddenly dropped before the official theatrical release.
Here’s what 20th Century Fox went with instead in 1977:
And here’s the Star Wars worm-like logo we know and love today:
h/t 1000logos.net
hypertext, words and more
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The original Star Wars logo from 1976, which was suddenly dropped before the official theatrical release.
Here’s what 20th Century Fox went with instead in 1977:
And here’s the Star Wars worm-like logo we know and love today:
h/t 1000logos.net
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In 2004, photographer Michael Wolf traveled to Southern China to document the lives of the toy factory workers that live there: their days consisted of sewing, painting, and other repetitive tasks. He documented how they slept, ate, and live under the often brutal conditions and demands of global consumerism and capitalism. (h/t gessato.com)
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Peter Cullen is a legendary voice actor. Notably, he’s voiced Optimus Prime of The Transformers since 1986. Some of his other voice acting credits include Gremlins, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, Winnie the Pooh and literally hundreds of others. My personal favorite are his epic narrations from the fabled Toonami Promos of the early 2000s. These promos would be used as bumpers between regular programming and often would promote special films to be featured during the Toonami programming block on Cartoon Network.
The Big O promo easily sits at the top of my list. Not only is Big O one of the best animated series ever created, but this Toonami Promo is slammin’. The duet of Peter Cullen’s deep but stoic concentrated voiceover and the electronic flat beat-esque house background track gets me amped every time. These kinds of bumpers just don’t get cut like they used to. It’s an absolute banger of a promo:
I would never advocate for piracy but if you’re curious what Toonami programming was like back then, visit here to get a sense for the nostalgic vibe of Toonami.
I’m fairly sure Peter Cullen even voiced other Adult Swim promos as well. Surely there’s some Cullen VO just sitting in the Williams Street video archives. If you have access to these or know someone who does, please email me. Until then, here’s some other Cullen Toonami Promo gems I have saved:
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History was made this past summer. The first inmates to graduate from Yale x University of New Haven have earned their degrees while incarcerated at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution. Yale partnered with UNH in 2021 to give these inmates a path to two and four year degrees. It’s a transformative idea, and this program extends to the men’s and women’s federal prison in Danbury Connecticut.
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Hidden messages or easter eggs on circuit boards, often referred to as “silkscreen easter eggs,” are fun and deliberately secretive messages hidden on the silkscreen layer of printed circuit boards (PCBs). The silkscreen layer is the topmost layer of a PCB, typically used for labeling components, indicators, providing assembly instructions, or other information. Normally these are lighthearted messages. The creative origin of these easter eggs could be from anyone involved within the manufacturing chain: engineers, designers, or even directly from the manufacturers.
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I found myself going down a rabbit hole of NASA photography today. Gemini XII was part of the Gemini Space Program that ran between 1961–1966. Gemini XII specifically was a crewed mission, commanded by James A. Lovell (who flew on Gemini VII previously). Buzz Aldrin was the co-pilot. Gemini XII was a special mission. It was the concluding mission of Gemini. Objectives included: docking, extra-vehicular activity (EVA), using propulsion systems to change orbit in order to demonstrate automatic reentry.
If you think about it, all three of those objectives are tantamount to every orbital mission. But Gemini XII was only the 18th crewed American spaceflight ever. So, this was considered early days! We were still figuring out the kinks to manned spaceflight.
Now, the Gemini XII was equipped with several cameras. One of which was the Hasselblad Super-Wide Camera 70mm. The other was a Maurer Space Camera 70 mm. Here’s some of the Super Wide photography Buzz and Lovell shot from within the Gemini spacecraft and several photos from outside the craft while conducting EVA.
I’m particularly taken by the refracted sunbeams visible through Earth’s atmosphere. What a beautiful sight.
View the rest of Gemini’s (and Mercury or Apollo’s for that matter) photography here.
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The One Ring, is a singular, one-of-one Magic: The Gathering card introduced in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set that launched on June 23rd. This whole LOTR/MTG quest for The One Ring has serious Willy Wonka vibes. Apparently, it’s already been graded and the ring bearer has already retained an attorney:
Should the bearer of The One Ring choose to accept it, a reseller in Spain is offering more than $2 million, plus a trip to Europe, in exchange for the card. On Friday, a New York-based reseller called Dave & Adam’s had reportedly taken receipt of the card, but is not able to exceed its previously offered bounty of $1 million. The owner is accepting serious offers via its attorney through an email address, hello@thenotablegroup.com, which appears to be managed by a Canadian marketing firm.
I have to say, it’s pretty sick to look at. Also, the Artifact’s abilities aren’t half-bad.