TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

I 've previously written about why I didn't see Fantastic Four in cinemas , essentially the movie being released too close to Superman  (2025), to which I gave priority. Since I have a Disney+ subscription for this exact reason (to watch Marvel movies), I've finally seen Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). I'm not disappointed I chose Superman to see in cinemas. Set during the 1960s, Fantastic Four is a cliff notes origin story for Marvel's first family before they are thrust into solving world ending events at the hands of a god-like alien, Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who is heralded in by his assistant (I guess?), the Silver Surfer a.k.a. Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner).  While this movie is definitely a step up from previous Marvel films of late (though I'll maintain Thunderbolts  (2025) is a better film than this on a character level), it's kind of a return to the Marvel Phase One Superhero formula too. That is, set up who the heroes are, bring in the threat, ha...

Image: OpenArt AI and TET. P urely as a personal observation, and with no research of any kind at all, I feel part of the problem with today's politics in general, in western countries at least, is that it's become something of a team sport. At least people seem to treat it that way. I'm aware there is such a thing as generational support, particularly in conservative households, where families have just always voted for conservative values. Likely more common with Christian, faith based families. That's fine. However, in modern politics the discourse seems to be, you pick a side. Choose the political party that you feel most aligns with your view point and then stick with them, no matter what. There is no room to look at what anyone else from outside your party is saying and think, "Yeah, they made a good point." If they're not on your team, they're just wrong. That's it. Which is not how politics work. A good politician, and by extension, politi...

1X's NEO, The Home Robot, Tends some Plants. Image: 1X website . J ust over a year ago I wrote about new robotics start up, 1X and their Plans to Build 100,000 Humanoids by 2027  in the form of their NEO Home Robot  household assistant. About a year later and NEO has undergone a bit of a makeover, and you can pre-order your own NEO in one of three stylish colours, for delivery some time in 2026. At USD$20,000.00 the price is a bit of buzz kill but 1X does offer a $499 monthly subscription plan as an alternative. Unfortunately the launch hasn't been the show stopper 1X might have hoped for because NEO isn't a fully realised, autonomous robot just yet. While it can learn to do tasks around your home autonomously, there's a bit of a learning curve between when you first receive it, and when it actually becomes useful in a meaningful way. Which was not helped by a video released on The Wall Street Journal's YouTube channel,  I Tried the First Humanoid Home Robot. It Go...

The newly-named MQ-28A during the second test flight series at Woomera Range Complex in South Australia Y ou don't really think of Australia when it comes to cutting edge military technology but in the last few years we're are emerging as a country that makes the tech that supports the big guns on the battlefield. By that I mean we don't make the killer fighter jets, or formidable tanks that lesser armies would lose against in a head to head assault, but we do make the tech that can support the main artillery and even increase it's effectiveness in the process. Case in point, Australia's new Ghost Bat Combat Drone, which I became aware of thanks to Wes O'Donnell's  YouTube channel , where he talks all about the latest military tech and specifically how much of it is being used in the Ukraine war. The Ghost Bat Drone is the first combat aircraft built in Australia in over 50 years and can be used for anything from surveillance to active combat, thanks to its...

Watch this YouTube Short video by Unstopable Gadgets. R ecently a video,  This robot has impressive body control , came up in my YouTube homepage showing a mini, realistic walking, and automatic stabilising, humanoid style robot. For a brief moment my mind got a little excited that maybe someone had cracked a consumer friendly, sized human robot that anyone could afford. Now I wasn't thinking this thing was going to be your next household chores assistant, since it was barely the height of a toddler but, to have something that good, that anyone could afford and experiment with. Maybe you've got a kid into robotics who wants to upgrade from Lego Mindstorms for example. Anyway, it turned out the video I was watching was from about 2020 and is of a robot that's been in constant development, by Dr Guero ,  since 2012/13 and could walk like a human by 2014/15. Back in around 2013 a robot that could walk, at all, on two legs, let alone one that could walk like a human was still v...

W riter/director Kevin Smith's, The 4:30 Movie plays like a prequel to his original first film, Clerks (1994). While the main cast are not the same characters as those in Clerks, if you renamed them, and squinted a bit, they're not that far removed. That and, if you've listened to Kevin's many podcasts for a long time, you'll know the central character here, Brian (Austin Zajur - who recently became engaged to Smith's daughter Harley Quinn Smith - playing Sister Sarah Wallace in this film), draws inspiration from teenage Kevin Smith, who also liked recording his thoughts randomly throughout the day - and see movies. To make the final case, it could be a prequel, you'll have to see the ending. With that out of the way, I'm getting around to reviewing this now because the film only recently came to a streaming service I'm subscribed to (Prime Video). I wouldn't have minded to see it in a theatre when it was originally released but, if it even cam...