Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
We are featured in UCLA Magazine. Thanks to writer Scott Fields and photographer Mathieu Young. Yes, come and visit us. UCLA’s support has always been great. Actually, not just UCLA, but most of the Southern California Schools have been great to us. Thanks much. “Visit one of three Giant Robot locations on the Westside opened by a former UCLA East Asian Studies major and get a dose of Japanese pop culture. There’s a store, a restaurant and a gallery space that promotes local artists. All three are hip, urban, international and different.” (UCLA Magazine - Bruin Guide to L.A.)
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“It uses at 9.9 megawatts of power, running up an electricity bill of about $10m a year — that’s enough electricity to power about 10,000 homes a year.” It boasts a processing speed of 8.16 petaflops, which translates into 8.16 quadrillion operations per second. Wow, that is a LOT of inaccurate weather pattern forecasts. Still, the K, as it is known, is now the fastest supercomputer on the planet. In fact, it is three times faster than the Chinese Tianhe-1A, which had been the most powerful computer on the planet for the last seven years. The K is a collaborative effort between technology giant Fujitsu and a Japanese government-funded research think tank called Riken. And in an ironic twist, K’s development was hindered just a bit by the Marth 11th disaster in Japan, where the machine with the computing power equivalent of one million desktop PCs will be used to create models to predict the impact of earthquakes and tsunamis. Pretty noble goals for this very powerful computer. Still, we can’t help but wonder if some little part of this computing monster is being used as a server for multi-player games of Left 4 Dead 2 (The Guardian UK – Japan’s New Supercomputer)
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Link to GR Time 6.17.11
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[youtube]PdnnC43Cotw[/youtube] In our age of Green Lantern, X Men, and the upcoming Avenger series, Japan has their own super hero redo, and it’s Zaborgar, a 70s kids superhero known as “Denjin Zaboga” which was a motorcycle that transformed into a robot to fight enemies using the commands by his helmet wearing “master”, Yutaka Daimon. But unlike the superhero movies produced by Hollywood that are now focusing on perfect CG and reality, this film is sort of an Austen Powers version that spends a good deal of time poking fun at the fiction and glorifying the groovy 70s. Some of the jokes are loud but some are so subtle, they challenge you to find more. The beginning half puts the character in it’s heyday it’s the 70s, where the technology is throw back future. Lit up buttons, rivets, and stainless steel paneling made for the right look. The lead good guy, Daimon is the product of a crappy upbringing. When the enemies, led by Dr. Akunomiya and the testicle bag of a ship invade Earth along with the heroine Miss Borg. She’s clad in a metal bra and is often fighting but also crushing on Daimon. The movie takes a comedic turn when it beams forward 25 years and the stars are now of a different generation. Daimon now is a driver, the secret police force are out of work, and the diabolical Dr Akunomiya is still up to no good. The results of the 25 year leap quickly turn into focus. Love children, robots, children turning into robots, cell phone babbling, and more. Noboru Iguchi, known for his low budget girl exploitation movies, adds a little bit of his boob funk to the henshin redux. See this at Los Angeles Film Festival. Sponsored by us (Giant Robot) *It was a live action show that’s been long forgotten and put away. It did air in Hawaii, and I’m pretty sure it aired in the mainland, as I recall seeing it.
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