Links for 2011-05-12

“Researchers in the US have developed the world’s smallest commercial atomic clock. Known as the SA.45s Chip Size Atomic Clock (CSAC), it could be yours for just $1500. The clock, initially developed for military use, is about the size of a matchbox, weighs about 35 grams and has a power requirement of only 115 mW. Not your everyday timekeeper, the team behind the clock claim that it could have varied and wide-ranging applications, from disabling bombs to searching for oil.”

“We’re standing on a catwalk that juts out from the skin of the airship and connects to the giant propellers on either side of the mid-belly area. The large blades are still, as the captain has found us a current of air. To save fuel we’re drifting, occasionally correcting our course when engines to the rear of the whale-like lighter-than-air machine roar to life.

Underneath our feet: a mile of air. And then below that is the brown, rippling mass of the Reef.

Once upon a time, there was no Reef. The world looked vastly different. There are preserved pictures of this time, spirited away from the museums before they fell to the reef. But more than we can ever remember will always be trapped where they were stored in great cities of legend like Paris, London or Washington, where great men once had grand adventures.

What history, legend and archaeologists agree on was that something split the sky asunder. And the debris that rained down from above was not just meteorite. “

Of the 39 surefire blockbusters chronicled in this year’s two-part Summer Movie Preview, at least a third of them are either sequels in ongoing franchises, or reboots of existing properties. This strikes us as a failure of imagination: Why can’t all 39 have sequels (or prequels or crossovers)? After all, if a clear one-off comedy like The Hangover can be tortured into a comedy franchise, what’s to stop Terrence Malick from turning The Tree Of Life into a money-generating forest of spin-offs? With that in mind, we’ve thrown together a few half-baked ideas for follow-ups to this year’s summer hits. You’re welcome, Hollywood.