Disney's The Princess and the Frog online games and wallpaper

Disney's latest cartoon feature film, the traditionally animated "The Princess and the Frog", was released in the US in November last year, but it was only released in the UK last Friday. I have no idea why Disney delay UK releases like that, they do it with a lot of their films - see my post about them doing it to Pixar's "UP" last year for example. Ho hum.

Anyway, the new film is the classic "princess kisses a frog" fairy tale retold with a modern twist, and it heralds a somewhat brave return by Disney to hand-drawn animation for the first time in over 5 years after a number of successful computer-generated 3D films such as 2007's "Meet the Robinsons" and 2008's "Bolt".

The gamble seems to have paid off nicely, with the film performing very well at the box-office and being nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Animated Feature Film plus two separate nominations for Best Original Song (see my previous post about that here).

To tie in with the film, here are four free "Disney's The Princess and the Frog" online games plus two free "Disney Princess" online games for you to enjoy (which include some Princess and the Frog wallpaper and Disney Princess wallpaper in multiple sizes too):

  Princess and the Frog: Bayou Adventure

  Princess and the Frog: Tiana and the Tiara

  Princess and the Frog: Magic Gumbo Mix

  Princess and the Frog: Magic Match

  Disney Princess: Hidden Treasures

  Disney Princess: Magic Garden Mayhem

Bonus free download: "Disney's The Princess and the Frog" colouring pages

All the above fun and games, together with hundreds more Disney and Pixar games and wallpapers, can be found in the Disney and Pixar Free Online Games site.

(See also here)

Liam Gallagher renames Oasis

When Oasis, one of my favourite rock bands ever, split up last year I was quite sad about it. But it was obvious that brothers and former Oasis bandmates Liam and Noel Gallagher were not going to quit the music industry, despite the split.

Now Liam has said he is assembling his remaining bandmates to begin work on a new album, and he's promising us a new name for the new band too:

Liam told radio station XFM, "No, it's not Oasis. That was a sh*t name anyway. I'm glad to see the back of it. There's a name that we're digging at the moment, but we're going to get on with the music and see how it goes."

He's refusing to reveal the new name for the time being, but he promises we won't have to wait long to see the 'new Oasis' in action:

"We'll be on stage this year - without a doubt. We're halfway through the record - the demos, that is. We're in the studio this April to see if this producer works out. If he does, we'll crack on with the album through June and July."

Meanwhile, Noel Gallagher is set to play his first post-Oasis gigs in March for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

And the 2010 Oscar Nominees are.....

Further to my post two days ago about Pixar's "Up" being favourite for this year's best animated film Oscar, the current full list of 2010 Oscar nominations for the ceremony due to be held on Sunday March 7th is as follows (from Oscar.com - see also here):

Best motion picture of the year
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox)
"The Blind Side" (Warner Bros.)
"District 9" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
"An Education" (Sony Pictures Classics)
"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment)
"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company)
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate)
"A Serious Man" (Focus Features)
"Up" (Walt Disney)
"Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)

Best animated feature film of the year
"Coraline" (Focus Features) Henry Selick
"Fantastic Mr. Fox" (20th Century Fox) Wes Anderson
"The Princess and the Frog" (Walt Disney) John Musker and Ron Clements
"The Secret of Kells" (GKIDS) Tomm Moore
"Up" (Walt Disney) Pete Docter

Best animated short film
"French Roast"
"Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" (Brown Bag Films)
"The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)"
"Logorama" (Autour de Minuit)
"A Matter of Loaf and Death" (Aardman Animations)

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart" (Fox Searchlight)
George Clooney in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
Colin Firth in "A Single Man" (The Weinstein Company)
Morgan Freeman in "Invictus" (Warner Bros.)
Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Matt Damon in "Invictus" (Warner Bros.)
Woody Harrelson in "The Messenger" (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Stanley Tucci in "The Lovely Bones" (DreamWorks in association with Film4, Distributed by Paramount)
Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side" (Warner Bros.)
Helen Mirren in "The Last Station" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Carey Mulligan in "An Education" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Gabourey Sidibe in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate)
Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia" (Sony Pictures Releasing)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Penélope Cruz in "Nine" (The Weinstein Company)
Vera Farmiga in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Crazy Heart" (Fox Searchlight)
Anna Kendrick in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
Mo'Nique in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate)

Achievement in directing
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) James Cameron
"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Kathryn Bigelow
"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Quentin Tarantino
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate) Lee Daniels
"Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) Jason Reitman

Achievement in art direction
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (Sony Pictures Classics) Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro
"Nine" (The Weinstein Company) Art Direction: John Myhre
"Sherlock Holmes" (Warner Bros.) Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
"The Young Victoria" (Apparition) Art Direction: Patrice Vermette

Achievement in cinematography
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) Mauro Fiore
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (Warner Bros.) Bruno Delbonnel
"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Barry Ackroyd
"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Robert Richardson
"The White Ribbon" (Sony Pictures Classics) Christian Berger

Achievement in costume design
"Bright Star" (Apparition) Janet Patterson
"Coco before Chanel" (Sony Pictures Classics) Catherine Leterrier
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (Sony Pictures Classics) Monique Prudhomme
"Nine" (The Weinstein Company) Colleen Atwood
"The Young Victoria" (Apparition) Sandy Powell

Achievement in film editing
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
"District 9" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Julian Clarke
"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Sally Menke
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate) Joe Klotz

Achievement in makeup
"Il Divo" (MPI Media Group through Music Box) Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
"Star Trek" (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment) Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
"The Young Victoria" (Apparition) Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) James Horner
"Fantastic Mr. Fox" (20th Century Fox) Alexandre Desplat
"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
"Sherlock Holmes" (Warner Bros.) Hans Zimmer
"Up" (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Almost There" from "The Princess and the Frog" (Walt Disney) Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
"Down in New Orleans" from "The Princess and the Frog" (Walt Disney) Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
"Loin de Paname" from "Paris 36" (Sony Pictures Classics) Music by Reinhardt Wagner
"Take It All" from "Nine" (The Weinstein Company) Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
"The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart" (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Achievement in sound editing
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Paul N.J. Ottosson
"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Wylie Stateman
"Star Trek" (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment) Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
"Up" (Walt Disney) Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Achievement in sound mixing
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
"Star Trek" (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment) Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro, Distributed by Paramount) Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Achievement in visual effects
"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
"District 9" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
"Star Trek" (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment) Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Adapted screenplay
"District 9" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
"An Education" (Sony Pictures Classics) Screenplay by Nick Hornby
"In the Loop" (IFC Films) Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate) Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
"Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Original screenplay
"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Written by Mark Boal
"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Written by Quentin Tarantino
"The Messenger" (Oscilloscope Laboratories) Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
"A Serious Man" (Focus Features) Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"Up" (Walt Disney) Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter

Best live action short film
"The Door" (Network Ireland Television)
"Instead of Abracadabra" (The Swedish Film Institute)
"Kavi"
"Miracle Fish" (Premium Films)
"The New Tenants"

Best documentary feature
"Burma VJ" (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
"The Cove" (Roadside Attractions)
"Food, Inc." (Magnolia Pictures)
"The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers"
"Which Way Home"

Best documentary short subject
"China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province"
"The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner"
"The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant"
"Music by Prudence"
"Rabbit à la Berlin" (Deckert Distribution)

Best foreign language film of the year
"Ajami"(Kino International)
"El Secreto de Sus Ojos" (Sony Pictures Classics)
"The Milk of Sorrow"
"Un Prophète" (Sony Pictures Classics)
"The White Ribbon" (Sony Pictures Classics)

The Matrix online games and wallpaper

The other day when I bought the first 10 seasons of South Park plus the South Park movie on DVD (see my post about that here), I also bought The Matrix trilogy of movies on DVD because I didn't previously have them.

I really like the first Matrix movie from 1999, and the second one, "The Matrix Reloaded" from 2003, is absolutely brilliant. The final part of the trilogy, "The Matrix Revolutions" also from 2003, is not so good in my opinion, but it does provide an interesting end to the story arc.

For some reason I had never watched all three of the films "back-to-back" before, and it was much more fun doing that than watching them separately, highly recommended in fact. I'm going to try and get hold of the DVD of "The Animatrix" cartoon mini-series next, as that's also supposed to be quite good.

Here are three great free Matrix online games for you to play (which also include Matrix wallpaper backgrounds too):

  The Matrix: Rampage

  The Matrix: Dock Defense

  The Matrix: BulletTime Fighting

You can find these Matrix games, plus hundreds more great games, in the Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games Website. Enjoy!

(See also here)

Pixar's Up is favourite for animation Oscar

My favourite animated film from last year, Disney/Pixar's wonderful "Up" (see my previous posts about it here: Up Flash online games and here: Up is released in the UK), is seen as the clear favourite to win this year's Oscar for best animated film, according to an article in Yahoo! today:

(Quote)
The animation category at this year's Oscars ceremony presents a crowded field of singing frogs, sly foxes and spunky kids, but despite some tough competition, the high-flying adventure movie "Up" is expected to float away with the Oscar.

Disney/Pixar's "Up" this week became the only animated film apart from 1991's "Beauty and the Beast" to land a best picture nod, and the movie about a boy and an old man who fly off in a house tied to balloons is also nominated in the animated category.

There, it's up against Twentieth Century Fox's "Fantastic Mr. Fox", the Walt Disney Co's "The Princess and the Frog", Focus Features' "Coraline" and European production "The Secret of Kells", which critics say was a surprise choice, because it played in only a handful of U.S. cinemas.

Filmmakers and critics say the nominated movies are all very different, all very good, and rival the dramas in the coveted best picture category.

"Animation actually outdid the live-action movies this year, it's an extraordinarily competitive field in terms of quality," said Peter Hammond, a critic with Los Angeles Times awards tracker TheEnvelope.com.

But Hammond said "Up" is the "overwhelming favourite" in the animated category.

The five animated movies include two that came out in 3-D ("Up" and "Coraline"), two made with tiny figurines manipulated through a painstaking process called stop-motion ("Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Coraline") and two hand-drawn films ("The Princess and the Frog" and "The Secret of Kells").

"It's really cool, because I feel like a number of years ago all the films were in the same zone, all trying to do the same type of thing," said Pete Docter, co-director of "Up," which was made with computer-generated imagery.

"And now it's so many different approaches to it, that it shows that animation is in a healthy place," Docter said.

The Oscar field for animation was widened to five films this year, from its usual three, because of the amount of eligible films.

Even so, Tom O'Neil of TheEnvelope.com said some high-quality films failed to make the list, most notably Oscar winning Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo."

Henry Selick, the director of "Coraline," agrees.

"'Up' is a masterpiece and most likely will win, but there's a lot of great animated films, many of which did not get in the list of five nominees," he said.

For his part, Selick said that to compete with the likes of Disney/Pixar, he had to "take a chance on a different sort of story, a different sort of look."

"Coraline" is about a young girl who escapes mom and dad through a magical passageway in her home, but finds things were better with her real parents.

For the film, Selick hired one crew member whose only job was to knit miniature sweaters for the characters.

"The Princess and the Frog," a musical about a New Orleans waitress who falls in love with a foreign prince-turned-frog, is Disney's first hand-drawn animated film in six years.

The film has made more than $100 million (62.9 million pounds) in the U.S. and Canada since its November release, and the Oscar nomination could help as it expands its overseas roll-out, which Disney said has already brought in more than $100 million.

It looks like a success now, but in making "The Princess and the Frog" Disney was taking a chance that audiences would again go for a hand-drawn film, after years in which Pixar-style computer animation set the standard.
(End quote)

I am surprised that the highest grossing animated film of last year, Blue Sky's excellent "Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" didn't get nominated for an Oscar, or even mentioned in the above article.

You can play hundreds of quality online games, and choose from hundreds of desktop wallpaper backgrounds, related to movies, cartoons, TV shows, video games and so on by following these links:

Top 10 Movie-related Online Games of 2009

Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games Collection

Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega Online Games Collection

South Park online games and wallpaper

I really like South Park, it has consistently been one of the funniest adult TV shows since its first airing way back in 1997 in my opinion. The 14th season begins in March, and it is amazing to me that it has kept going so long considering how extremely rude, crude and often downright offensive (but always really funny) it is. I'm glad it has lasted this long.

I feel very lucky because today I bought the first 10 seasons of South Park on DVD, plus the 1999 "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" movie, all for the bargain price of $100! Although I watched the show a lot when I lived full-time in England, since I've lived here in Thailand I have hardly ever been able to watch it (it's not very well known here), so I'm really looking forward to going through each season in full as soon as possible.

Here are some great free South Park online games for you to play (which also include some South Park wallpaper backgrounds too):

  South Park: Kill Kenny

  South Park: Cripple Fight

  South Park Soundboard

And here is a game inspired by the cartoon violence of South Park:

  Skull Kid

You can find these games, together with hundreds more, in the
Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games Website. Enjoy! :-)

(See also here)

UK traffic policing is great! (NOT!!)

These two articles in Yahoo! and Sky News yesterday and last week really show how daft traffic policing in the UK has become, oh dear:

(Quote from January 28th, 2010)
'Stunned' Driver Fined For Blowing His Nose

A motorist has told Sky News of his disbelief at being fined for blowing his nose while his vehicle was at a standstill.

When he moved off, he was pulled over by police who told him he had not been in control of his vehicle.

Mr Mancini, from Ayrshire, was handed a £60 fixed penalty and given three points on his driving licence.

He told Sky News: "I thought they were joking and that it was a wind-up.

"I was stopped in traffic and had the handbrake on and thought to myself, 'Ive just got time to blow my nose.'

"Then police pulled me over and I was booked. I genuinely thought they were joking, that it was a wind-up."

The incident occurred in October, but Mr Mancini has refused to pay the penalty.

His solicitor wrote to prosecutors earlier this month explaining the offence could not have occurred because Mr Mancini's handbrake was on.

But prosecutors replied the next day warning that if the fine wasn't paid, the case would be taken to court.

Mr Mancini added: "I intend taking this all the way to court. I still don't believe it actually happened."

A Strathclyde Police spokesman said: "A 39-year-old man is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal in connection with an alleged traffic offence on October 26."
(End quote)

and.....

(Quote from January 22nd, 2010)
Speed Camera Fines Driver Of Parked Car

A man from Nottingham has been caught "driving" at 0mph by a speed camera - not once but twice.

His parked car had been snapped by a speed camera on his street, apparently as other cars sped past.

The latest incident occured on 13 December 2009.

Nottinghamshire Police claimed he was snapped while driving his Vauxhall Zafira at 37mph in a 30mph zone.

When Mr Buck demanded to see the photographs, police dropped the case.

The problem for Mr Buck is the camera is situated outside his home where his car is parked.

When speeding drivers are caught by the camera, his car is snapped too and he gets sent the fine by mistake.

Mr Buck said: "The photographs must presumably show two vehicles, with mine parked halfway on the pavement and road.

"It's amazing that whatever system is in place cannot tell the difference between a car that is motionless and one travelling at 37mph.

"I am amused by it, but also angry that I have to go to the trouble of contacting the police.

"My only option is to park the car on the road as I don't have a garage or driveway."

Police have since apologised for the mix-up. In a statement they said: "The software used to read number plates has captured his car's number plate in the image.

"On both occasions the offending vehicle number plates were similar to those of Mr Buck's vehicle registration number.

"We will examine the processes and see if improvements can be made to minimise the chance of this happening again in the future."
(End quote)

Genius! You couldn't make it up and be believed, could you?

James Cameron's Avatar is now the number 1 movie of all time!

As of yesterday, James Cameron's science-fiction technological masterpiece "Avatar" is now the worldwide number 1 movie of all time in terms of box-office revenue having so far taken $1.897 billion, beating the previous number 1 which was James Cameron's "Titanic" from 1997 with a total of $1.843 billion. It is widely expected that Avatar will go on to break through the $2 billion mark because it is still showing in cinemas all over the world.

I am so happy to see it do so well because it is my favourite movie of all time (I saw it twice in IMAX 3D in Bangkok earlier this month, my best cinema-going experience ever - see my post about that here), and as a lifelong science-fiction fan I love it that a sci-fi movie has become the most popular movie in the world ever.

I have added some lovely Avatar background wallpapers to my main website for you to use if you wish because I am an avid collector of such things myself, and one of them is a beautiful giant size one which you can see here.

And just in case you missed them before, or want to watch them again, here are the two main Avatar movie trailers plus the video game trailer, viewable in my main YouTube channel:

Avatar Teaser Trailer

Avatar Full Movie Trailer

Avatar Video Game Trailer

(See also here)

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

We just got back from an interesting trip to Cambodia where we went as part of a passport "visa run" for me. We stayed for 4 days in Siem Reap which is near Angkor Wat, the world famous 850 year-old Khmer Empire temple complex.

Siem Reap is quite a nice town with lots of quality accommodation to choose from, and it is quickly modernising. There are two great night markets to go looking around in the evenings if you want to find some bargains. And there are lots of lovely bars and restaurants in a street aptly named Pub Street that are open all day until quite late at night. There are also a few night club bars that are open until much later.

Angkor Wat is simply stunning. It is positively huge, much much bigger than I imagined, and very beautiful. There are amazingly detailed carvings in the stone all over the temple, including enormous bas-relief friezes in the large outer galleries around all four sides.

There are many other ancient Khmer Empire temples in the area around Angkor Wat dating from between about 700 to 1100 years ago, some in fairly good states of repair, others less so. There are also massive and extensive ancient city walls nearby. A number of restoration projects are currently ongoing in some of the ruined sites, which is very interesting to see.

We took a two day guided tour around the whole area, and then spent a day exploring without a guide. The area is beautiful woodland, parkland and farmland, and it makes for a spectacular trip - I personally highly recommend the journey if you're ever in this part of the world!

Update 30/01/10: Take a look at my wife's blog to see some photos from the trip, or see the photo album here: Cambodia, Jan 2010 Photos

James Cameron's Avatar film

I saw James Cameron's "Avatar" in 3D in Bangkok's Siam Paragon IMAX cinema last week. Wow! Awesome! It was by far the best movie-going experience of my adult life, the first time I have been "totally knocked out" by a cinema trip since I saw the first Star Wars film at the age of 9 in 1977! And for Avatar to have that kind of impact on me at the age of 42 shows just how very, very, very, very, very good it is..... in 3D. I guess it would still be a truly great film in normal 2D, but in IMAX 3D it is just utterly amazing.

I went to see it a second time because I enjoyed it so much. I see there are some internet rumours that there might be two more Avatar movies in the future. I hope so - an Avatar trilogy would be brilliant. And I also see from the Box Office Mojo website that Avatar is now the number 2 movie of all-time worldwide having so far earned over $1.4 billion, second only to James Cameron's "Titanic" which earned $1.8 billion in 1997/98. So James Cameron knows a thing or two about making popular movies then!

Click here for some great free Avatar movie wallpaper backgrounds.

Time for a short break

I'm going to Bangkok tomorrow for a few days. I'll update this blog with highlights of the trip upon my return.

Counting the animals at London Zoo

I really like this story, which appears in Yahoo!/Sky News today:

(Quote)
From the tallest giraffes to the tiniest spiders, London Zoo is carrying out its annual animal stock take.

Which is easy if you're in charge of the slow-moving sloths, but slightly trickier if you're Rachel Jones, the aquarium manager.

With 5,500 fish to count, it can get confusing.

"There are some that spend their lives living in the rock and occasionally you'll see a little face poking out, and you have to be quick to count it," she said.

"Others bomb all over the place and are really hard to catch up with."

It's not just the fish which are counted. Every coral, snail and starfish is also added up.

London Zoo is home to 752 species and, with several new exhibits, this year's stock take will be the zoo's biggest ever.

Last year, they counted 15,107 animals. This time around, there are giant Galapagos tortoises, aardvarks, a new Komodo dragon and newborn lion cubs to include.

And with births, deaths and even disappearances each year, the annual roll call is vital for keeping tabs on the zoo's inhabitants.

"On the whole we've got a good idea of how many animals there are, especially if they change tanks or we move them, but the count does give us a clear picture of exactly who's where," added Rachel.
(End quote)

Disappearances? That's a bit of an odd thing to slip into the article. What? Do some animals just wander off out into Greater London each year, bored of the lazy life in the zoo, setting out to see the bright lights and big city, perhaps winding up earning an honest living performing in a circus somewhere? Lol! :-)

New Mario and Sonic games for 2010

Following on from my post in this blog yesterday about new movies coming out this year, I just posted a related article about new Mario and Sonic games that are scheduled for release this year over in my MarioSonicGames.com blog.....

The films of 2010 that I am most looking forward to seeing

Here is a list of this year's movies that I will be going to see in the cinema:

March:
Alice in Wonderland - A new live action version of the classic tale, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. Click here to watch a trailer for it via my main YouTube channel.

How to Train Your Dragon - A 3D CG cartoon movie from DreamWorks Animation based on the popular children's book of the same name. Click here to watch a trailer for it.

April:
A Nightmare On Elm Street - A remake of Wes Craven's classic 1984 horror movie, intended as a reboot of the series. Click here to watch a trailer.

May:
Iron Man 2 - Sequel to the excellent first movie from 2008, to be followed by Iron Man 3 in 2012. Click here to watch a trailer.

Robin Hood - A new live action version of the Olde English legend, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe.

Shrek Forever After (a.k.a. Shrek 4, Shrek: The Final Chapter) - The last episode of the now classic Shrek series. Click here to watch a trailer for it.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - A live action movie from Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer based on the popular video game series. Click here to watch a trailer.

June:
The A-Team - The first ever movie version of the brilliant 1980's action/adventure TV show, starring Liam Neeson as Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, Bradley Cooper as Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson as Sgt. B. A. Baracus and Sharlto Copley as Capt. H. M. "Howling Mad" Murdock. Click here to watch a trailer.

Toy Story 3 - The long-awaited next installment of Pixar's flagship series with all the original main stars returning to reprise their roles. Click here to watch a trailer for it via my wife Su's YouTube channel.

July:
The Last Airbender - A live action version of Nickelodeon's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" cartoon series, directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Click here to watch a trailer for it.

November:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I - To be followed by Part 2, the last Potter movie, in July 2011.

December:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Part 3 of Disney's Narnia series based on the C. S. Lewis novels.

Tron: Legacy - At long long last, the sequel to the 1982 Disney cult classic. Click here to watch a trailer for it.

Now, all these movies are sure to be massive hits, and I really am looking forward to seeing them. But there is a bit of a worrying Hollywood trend here: with the exception of "How to Train Your Dragon", all the movies are either sequels or remakes.

Other likely big hit movies this year also follow that trend: February's The Crazies (a remake of George Romero's 1973 original film), April's Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (sequel to the 1987 first film), June's The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (part 3 of the ongoing series - click here to watch a trailer for it), July's Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (sequel to the 2001 first film) and November's Red Dawn (remake of the 1984 original). Looks like there might be some opportunities for original screenplays in the future!

Anyway, keep an eye on my Movies and Games website for future freebies related to these movies! You can already enjoy some fantastic free Shrek, Prince of Persia, Toy Story, The Last Airbender, Harry Potter and Narnia online games here:

  Shrek 4: Shrek Shreds

  Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

  Toy Story 3: Buzz Lightyear's Alien Rescue

  The Last Airbender: Bending Battle

  Harry Potter 7: Fight the Death Eaters

  The Chronicles of Narnia 3: Gryphon Attack

(See also here)

Happy New Year!

It's just after midnight here in Thailand, so all the very best for 2010 (or 2553 as it is in the Thai Buddhist calendar)!

My other personal blog

I have another blog over on WordPress that I use occasionally, and I have now decided that in the New Year I am going to start using it to write about things that I dare not write about in this here nice "family friendly" and "child safe" blog, if you know what I mean! ;-)

So perhaps you might want to check it out during the course of 2010. But please be warned in advance that it might not be suitable for persons under 18 years of age!

Top 10 Online Games of 2009 - Movie Games

Continuing the Top 10's of 2009 theme from my previous post, here is my own personal list of the Top 10 Flash online games that tie-in with movies released during 2009:

1.     UP: Kevin's Chocogobble

2.     Monsters vs. Aliens: Panic in the Streets

3.     A Christmas Carol: Ghostly Adventure

4.     Transformers: Roll Out

5.     Ice Age 3: Bubble Trouble

6.     Astro Boy: Blast-A-Bot

7.     Star Trek: Flash Trek V2.0

8.     UP: Merit Badge Mayhem

9.     Transformers 2: Starscream Showdown

10.    Monsters vs. Aliens: Video Game Demo

The Top 10 Celebrity Searches of 2009

Following on from my recent post about Top 10's of 2009, for all you celebrity followers out there Yahoo UK have very thoughtfully provided a list of the Top 10 celebrity searches for this year, which is as follows:

1. Michael Jackson

2. Jade Goody

3. Katie Price

4. Cheryl Cole

5. Patrick Swayze

6. Lady Gaga

7. Susan Boyle

8. Lily Allen

9. Oasis

10. Megan Fox

My wife has a proper web presence now

Further to my post earlier this year listing all my different places on the web, I am pleased to say that my wife Su is now on Facebook, plus she has a Blog and a YouTube channel of her own too. Top girl!

Really useful Pattaya, Thailand tourist information.....

.....can be found here: PattayaSecrets.com

Primarily it's a free-to-join discussion forum site with more information about Pattaya than you can shake a stick at. Everything you will ever want, or need, to know about Thailand's most famous tourist city will be in there. And of course, once you join you can post your own questions to the more than 16,000 other members.

Larry Niven's Known Space book series

Way, way back in 2006 I wrote in this blog about some sci-fi books I had just read, one of which was "Ringworld's Children" by Larry Niven. Well, since it's Christmas today I'm taking a break from my website work and am reading Larry Niven's latest book, "Destroyer of Worlds". It's a great read.

Both of these books are part of Larry Niven's famous "Known Space" future history series, which is my all-time favourite book series - I like it more than the Star Wars Expanded Universe series, more than the Star Trek Expanded Universe series, and even (shock, horror!) more than the Harry Potter series!

If, like me, you're a sci-fi/fantasy book lover, I highly recommend you to get hold of as many books in the series as you can - I'm sure you'll enjoy each and every one of them!

Here is a list of all current books in the series in recommended reading order, including links to Amazon.com pages for those that are still in print in case you wish to order them. There is also a free online short story which is highlighted in italicised text:

Three Books of Known Space (3 books in 1 volume: 2 novels - World of Ptaavs and A Gift From Earth, plus 1 short story collection - Tales of Known Space)

Flatlander (Short story collection)

Protector (Novel)

The Man-Kzin Wars (Shared Universe short story collection series, various authors, currently 11 books including Man-Kzin Wars IX, Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War and Man-Kzin Wars XI)

Neutron Star (Short story collection, currently out-of-print)

Crashlander (Short story collection, includes 4 stories duplicated from the out-of-print Neutron Star)

Fleet of Worlds (Novel)

Juggler of Worlds (Novel)

Destroyer of Worlds (Novel)

The Color of Sunfire (Online short story)

Ringworld (Novel)

The Ringworld Engineers (Novel)

The Ringworld Throne (Novel)

Ringworld's Children (Novel)

Merry Christmas!

It's one minute past midnight here in Thailand, so it's officially Christmas Day here now! On that basis, even though it's probably not quite actually Christmas Day yet wherever you are reading this, MERRY CHRISTMAS to you!!

I hope you've enjoyed my blogging this year - check out the rest of this blog here and my other blog here to make sure you haven't missed anything, because there are loads and loads of lovely free online games and wallpaper backgrounds listed throughout both blogs.

Christmas Online Games

I love Christmas, and even though over here in Thailand where I currently live it isn't celebrated very much, I am trying to get into the festive spirit by playing lots of Christmas music on my hi-fi, and by enjoying these great Flash online Christmas games that you can find in my www.Dan-Dare.org site:

  Jingle Ballistics

  Snow Throw

  Snowball


  The Nightmare Before Christmas

(This game also includes a Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" wallpaper background picture)


  Casper's Haunted Christmas

(This game also includes a "Casper the Friendly Ghost" wallpaper background picture)


  A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Star Ride

  A Christmas Carol: Ghostly Adventure

  A Christmas Carol: Rooftop Surfer

  A Christmas Carol: Penny Pincher

(These games also include a Disney's "A Christmas Carol" wallpaper background picture)


  The Polar Express Ticket Chase

(This game also includes a "Polar Express" wallpaper background picture)

I hope you enjoy playing them! :-)

Earth-like world discovered only 40 light-years away!

This interesting little news item in Space.com caught my attention this morning, being the space-buff that I am.....

(Quote)
Nearby Super-Earth May Be A Waterworld

A rocky and water-rich planet, not much heftier than our own, has been discovered so close to our solar system that astronomers one day may be able to study its atmosphere.

And though astronomers are pretty certain the water exists, they don't know its state, with speculations ranging from liquid water to water ice and an exotic state called a superfluid.

The extrasolar planet, now named GJ 1214b, is about 40 light-years away. It orbits a red dwarf star. It is the only known "Super-Earth" exoplanet — worlds that have masses between Earth and Neptune — with a confirmed atmosphere.

"Astronomically speaking, this [planet] is on our block," meaning it's in our cosmic neighborhood, said study leader David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Mass. "For perspective, our own TV signals have already passed beyond the distance of this star."

The planet is about three times the size of Earth and about 6.5 times as massive. It is the second smallest planet discovered outside of our solar system to date, trailing behind only CoRoT-7b, which is 1.7 times Earth's size and about five times as massive.

GJ 1214b is rare among known rocky exoplanets because it partially eclipses, or transits, its star as seen from Earth.

This fortunate alignment allows astronomers to calculate the size and density of the planet, and Charbonneau's team thinks GJ 1214b is likely a water world with a solid center. Moreover, the planet has a thick surrounding atmosphere of hydrogen and helium.

Normally, a planet located at that distance from this particular type of star would be so hot that any water on its surface would be in a vapor form.

But scientists think the thick atmosphere of GJ 1214b creates a high pressure environment that keeps water on the surface in a liquid state.

That's just speculation, however.

"It really depends on how hot the planet is on the inside, and we don't know that," Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at MIT, told SPACE.com. "I think this planet doesn't have liquid water because it is too hot on the inside. I think it goes from water ice, to a very exotic kind of water — a superfluid — and then it goes to vapor," added Seager, who just published a new eBook on exoplanets called "Is there Life Out There? The Search for Habitable Exoplanets."

(Seager was not involved in the new planet discovery.)

There are downsides to having such a thick atmosphere: First, the pressure is crushing, making life as we know it difficult. And secondly, the thick atmosphere blocks light from the feeble star from reaching the planet's surface.

"If you picture the sun as a 1,000-watt light bulb, this star is a 3-watt light bulb," Charbonneau said.

Whatever its exact composition, astronomers are excited about the finding. "We're really looking for a planet that's a big Earth orbiting in the Goldilocks zone of a small star, transiting," Seager said. "This one scores three out of four. We're excited because we're getting closer and closer to the thing we want to find." The missing piece: GJ 1214b doesn't orbit within the star's habitable, or Goldilocks, zone.

The planet was discovered using a suite of small, ground-based telescopes and is detailed in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
(End quote)

TIME Magazine's Top 10 Everything of 2009

This is absolutely brilliant, Top 10 ..... of 2009 lists for 50 different categories courtesy of TIME magazine, including:

Top 10 Video Games of 2009

Top 10 Movies of 2009

Top 10 TV Series of 2009

Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2009

Top 10 iPhone Apps of 2009

and many, many more.

Cheap but good hotels in Bangkok, Thailand - Part 3

Also: My favourite relaxing bars in Bangkok - Part 2

Amongst my favourite relaxing bars in Bangkok (see here for another one) is the Tequila Bar, which is in Soi 4 of the Nana area of Sukhumvit Road. It's just around the corner from the 7-Eleven minimart that is on the right-hand side of Soi 4, about 250m down from Sukhumvit Road and about 175m down from Nana Plaza.

It's a very relaxing, friendly, inexpensive and honest ex-pat style bar, but what I like most about it is that the amiable owner, Eddie, has over the years put together an absolutely incredible collection of over 130,000 MP3 music tracks in iTunes for customers to use as a super jukebox. It's well worth a visit for the amazing choice of music alone! Eddie runs a fun Music Challenge where if he doesn't have a song you request, no matter how obscure, if he can't get it on his computer system for you to listen to the next day, you get a free beer upon your return.

The bar also has air-con, 4 satellite TVs with full sports coverage, a pool table, some lovely relaxing sofas to lounge around on inside, and outside seating should you want it. I love going there and I visit every time I'm in Bangkok, usually with my wife who is also a big fan of the fact that it's a totally hassle-free place. It's great for chilling out, like an oasis in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the rest of Nana.

As well as being a friendly and chatty host, Eddie is also a fountain of useful Bangkok knowledge. For example recently, when I was looking for a nice but cheap hotel to stay in because all the hotels I usually use were full at the time, he recommended me to stay at the Nana City Inn hotel, which I'd never used before.

Normally I'm a bit wary of other people's recommendations because I have found over the years that what someone else thinks is good isn't always good for me. But in Eddie's case it was an excellent recommendation because the hotel has lovely double-bed rooms for only around 1000 Baht per room per night, with air-con, hot water shower, cable TV, safe and mini-bar fridge, plus free Wi-Fi on the ground floor. It's just over the road and slightly to the right from the Tequila Bar, so it's really handily placed in Nana too! The Nana City Inn's phone number is +66 (0)2 253 4468.

(See here and here for some more Bangkok hotel recommendations.)

How to sync iTunes with a Nokia N97 in Windows, perfectly

Following on from my previous post about how to make decent quality MP4 video files for the Nokia N97, Apple iPhone, iPod and so on, here now is my recommendation for the best and most reliable way to get your Windows-based iTunes music library to sync with a Nokia N97 (or any other Nokia S60 phone for that matter):

Use MediaSync for Windows, from Salling Software, which is free to try (and works fine in trial mode), and which only costs US$22 for the full version.

It is truly excellent. After running it with my N97 plugged into my Windows XP PC, I ended up with an exact clone of my iTunes music library on the N97. This includes all 3192 of my music collection's MP3 files having been automatically copied to my N97, using 16.4 GB total of the phone's internal mass storage.

Wonderfully, this also includes around 99% of the MP3 files' album artwork having been automatically converted to display correctly on the N97, which is a seriously tough thing to get to work right using any other sync method - including directly copying your MP3 files to the N97 yourself - just in case you weren't aware.

Additionally, all 104 of my iTunes playlists were automatically converted into .M3U format and copied onto the N97. The volume of each MP3 track appears to have been set to the optimum level for the N97 too, and certainly all the volume levels have been more-or-less equalised. Utterly, utterly brilliant!!

I hope that helps you as much as it helped me! :-)

How to make decent quality portable MP4 video files

I wanted to convert my DVD collection into MP4 video files on my Windows XP PC, for use on my Nokia N97 phone and my Apple iPod. It turned out to be quite a tricky job, because finding the right software tool to do the conversion work was not easy - there are so many different conversion products to choose from, and there is only so much time available to do this sort of thing. However, doing it right is, of course, of the utmost importance.

So, to save any of you out there having to go through the same trials and tribulations and time-consuming effort as I went through..... if you want to convert your DVDs into decent quality and decent sized portable files, here's what I found out:

After a great many false starts, I finally settled on Xilisoft DVD Ripper Platinum, because out of the seemingly hundreds of different DVD ripping products that are available, Xilisoft turned out to be the best for me. It is extremely good at what it does, and it is easy to use, reliable and reasonably priced.

It can convert any part of a DVD (the main feature, the special features, etc.) into any kind of video and/or audio format you like, such as MP4, MPEG, AVI, 3GP, 3G2 and so on. And it will convert and optimize for almost every type of portable video viewing device, such as the N97, iPod, iPhone, Sony PSP, HP iPAQ, Pocket PC, iRiver, Creative ZEN and most others. Genius!

So far I have converted 10 of my favourite DVDs into standard MP4 format, and it really is a great set of results - around 1 GB per full movie, with decent video and sound quality. In fact, it is a very good all-round balance of file size vs. quality, which is the eternal BIG issue for all of us digital media nuts, LOL! Job done!! :-)

Problems with www.Dan-Dare.org

My sincere apologies to everyone who likes to visit my www.Dan-Dare.org site for the fact that it has been rather unreliable over the past 3 days or so.

The outages were a result of my hosting company (Fasthosts.co.uk) suffering a major server failure in the second half of last week, which has only just now been fully resolved. Not good! Sorry.

Everything should be fine now, at last - hoorah! Thanks for your patience, you can fully enjoy the site once more.....

Disney's A Christmas Carol movie is released today

A new Disney movie version of Charles Dickens's classic 1843 story, "A Christmas Carol", is released worldwide today, following its premier in London three days ago.

The film is directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Jim Carrey in a multitude of roles, including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged and old man, and the three Christmas Ghosts who haunt Scrooge. It is a 3D computer-animated movie produced using the process of "performance capture" (digitally recording the actions of human actors, and using that information to animate 3D character models), similar in style to two of Zemeckis's previous films, "The Polar Express" (2004) and "Beowulf" (2007).

Having watched a few of the trailers for it, I have to say it looks marvellous - a very different style of computer-animated movie compared to the others released this year.

Here are some great free Disney's "A Christmas Carol" online games for you to play (which also include some Disney's "A Christmas Carol" wallpaper backgrounds too):

  A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Star Ride

  A Christmas Carol: Ghostly Adventure

  A Christmas Carol: Rooftop Surfer

  A Christmas Carol: Penny Pincher


As a bonus, here is a game based on Robert Zemeckis's 2004 3D computer-animated Christmas movie, "The Polar Express":

  The Polar Express Ticket Chase


And just in case you want to play even more movie-related online games, here are links to some collections of games based on other top family movies of the past 12 months:

Astro Boy online games

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince online games

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen online games

Disney/Pixar's UP online games

Star Trek online games

Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Disney's Bolt online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

You can find all these games, plus hundreds more, in the
Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games Website. Enjoy! :-)