Star Trek Transporter Beams Patrons Across the Mall

Star Trek Into Darkness is now available on Blinkbox’s UK-based video streaming service. How did they announce it? In an awesome way of course. They hired illusionist Scott Penrose to fool a crowd in a mall into believing they were seeing a working transporter, straight from the Starship Enterprise.
star trek transporter
The trick made it look like random people were being beamed straight across the room. Some of the bystanders were truly stunned by the illusion. It’s amazing what some people will believe. Everyone knows that you need a pad full of circles to teleport. That and a Scottish engineer. That’s the only way you can really transport stuff. Seriously, it’s a fun illusion, even if it is very obvious how they pulled it off.

They do some pretty great marketing at BlinkBox, don’t you think?

Pacific Rim Kaiju Monster Stomps Through Qualcomm Stadium

I’m totally stoked that Pacific Rim is finally hitting theaters today. I can’t wait to go see it and watch giant robots battle giant monsters on the IMAX screen. While awaiting the arrival of the film on the big screen, one of the giant Kaiju monsters apparently made its presence known at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

kaiju footprint 1

 The creature left gigantic footprints around the parking lot and inside of the stadium, before returning to the ocean.

kaiju footprints 2

Obviously, the footprints weren’t left by an actual monster. At least I don’t think so. I’ve been told they were created as a promotional stunt for Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, to promote Pacific Rim and the Pacific Rim Kaiju Battle Android game. Still, the effort to create these massive footprints was gargantuan. Here are some stats on the footprints and how they were made:

  • 32,000 sq ft of industrial grade material, with 28,400 sq ft of printable area
  • Made up of scrim vinyl and 7oz poly-lined black out material
  • 56 rolls of scrim material, 150ft long each
  • 6000 ft of industrial adhesive compound tape
  • 72 hours of non-stop printing
  • 80 liters of ink (60 cases)
  • The layout of one footprint spans the length of 40 8-ft tables
  • Sewing together the footprints took 28 hours on industrial sewing machines
  • Each footprint weighed about 480 pounds, and it took 12 people to carry each one into position

There’s no sign of any Jaeger prints in the area, so you’d better keep your eyes peeled if you’re in the San Diego area.

Virgin Media coats millionth TiVo in Gold (Gold!), always believed in your soul

Virgin Media coats millionth TiVo in Gold Gold!, hires Martin Kemp to always believe in your soul

Companies might not be able to mention that big sporting event, but that doesn’t stop them from being clever. Virgin Media UK is one such enterprise, which decided to award its millionth TiVo customer with a gold medal in the form of a similarly-colored TiVo box. Rather than risk the ire of the IOC’s lawyers, the company used the moment to (perhaps sarcastically) celebrate the release of Spandau Ballet’s Gold. Bundling bassist-turned-soap-star Martin Kemp into a van, he turned up at the door of customers Allan and Christine Ward with the glistening PVR and a 3D-ready TV to surprise the couple. We don’t know if he told the husband and wife from Nottinghamshire that the HDTV market is like a high prison wall, but we hope the gift of a new home entertainment system leaves them standing so tallllllllllll…

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Virgin Media coats millionth TiVo in Gold (Gold!), always believed in your soul originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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