Combat Walker

Tales of Future Past has a wonderful assortment of things-that-were-to-be-but-never-were. In the Future War section, most of the postings are old magazine covers depicting dreadnaughts with treads and armored ferris wheels, all of which look as if they could have been the inspiration for Michael Moorcock's Land Leviathan.

The exhibit that caught my eye looks more like a cross between a swift boat, a deuce-and-a-half, and the Robot Spy mechanized spider from Jonny Quest or the misbegotten child of an old WW2 DUKW and a 'mech from Battletech.

Believe it or not, this was a dead-serious project by the US Army to allow troops to carry gear over rough terrain and through jungles. They actually built a prototype that looked like an iron elephant that had tangled with a computer mainframe, but it proved impractical because of limitations of the hydraulic systems, driver fatigue while carrying out even the simplest of tasks, and the tendency of the machine to do the Hokey Cokey without provocation.



The logical goal of all this walking machine research was something like this proposed Combat Walker of 1962 that consisted of a caravan of motorised mechanical pack mules led by a manned combat unit.

One must admit it has a certain charm; the tiny cockpit, the tiny periscope, the tiny cannon, the tiny engine; all good.

The tiny armour; not so good.

$ecret $aturday$

Now some news culled from Market Watch. No, I'm not going to tell you how to save your 401K, whose at fault for mess at AIG, nor the best brand of matress to stuff your cash in when you yank it all from your bank. I'm here to talk about ratings.

When The Secret Saturdays premiered last Friday night serving as the Cartoon Network's lead-in for its all-new Friday night fantasy-action-adventure line-up, it proved to be quite a ratings booster, much like the Network's most hyped event for the night: the premier of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Jay Stephens's homage to the Hanna Barbera-school of action-adventure cartoons scored 35% more viewers agest 6-11 and 86% more boys of that age group than programming that appeared in that time slot last year. Likewise, The Secret Saturdays also saw a jump in children ages 2 to 11 by 47% and a jump in males of the same age group by 67%, kids 9-14 by 23% with 9-14 year-old boys increasing by 60%.

[ source: Market Watch ]

John Rozum reports that The Saturdays are making an appearance in issue 30 of the Cartoon Network Action Pack comic book" which is in stores now. Rozum wrote the story, Scott Jeralds illustrated, with the cover credits going to The Secret Saturdays creator himself, Jay Stephens.

[ source: JOHNROZUM.COM

This just in from Cryptid Saturdays:

October 7, 2008
The Saturdays on iTunes!

Our very most treasured show - The Secret Saturdays, is now available for download on iTunes. Currently, the entire hour-long first episode can be purchased for $1.99, or you can buy the season pass for $19.99 and have them automatically downloaded every week for the entire 1st season.

The episodes ARE in the correct aspect ratio (16:9 widescreen), unlike what is currently aired on the SD Cartoon Network ( the commercials are in widescreen, the the regular broadcasts aren’t? Is this just me?). So if you may, this is a great way to support the show AND get to view them in their full glory ( no sides chopped off) without a HD channel.
This just made Spectre’s iPod a whole lot happier.

[ source: Cryptid Saturdays ]