On the left what you see above is the cover to a 288 page true Manga style comic from Japanese artists to deliver the first of 5 books that will tell the stories of the Christian bible. On the right is Manga Bible at a bible thumping 1216 pages.

It’s being delivered by Tyndale House Publishers:

Offering an eye-catching rendition of the Gospels, Manga Messiah combines cutting-edge art with a fast-paced story to deliver biblical truths in a compelling and relevant way, targeting those that might not have interest in reading a traditional Bible. Features of Manga Messiah that provide context of the four gospels include illustrated character profiles and family trees of key Biblical characters, as well as maps of Galilee, Samaria and Judea.

You can read the full press release on Manga News

Looks like Amazon already has Manga Messiah for sale and available right now at just US$10.38.

The Manga Bible can be pre-ordered for the November release at US$19.99.

OK geeks, put your testosterone back in your vials. If you’ve had an interest in taking a bow into reality TV, you’re better off sticking with ‘Beauty and the Geek‘ than this one…

According to Craig Plestis, exec VP of alternative programming, the Peacock is getting into the ring with “American Gladiators,” which has been revived for mid-season revival, possibly with all 6 episodes broadcast in a single week. 

Airing in syndication from 1989-96, ‘American Gladiators’ focused on physically fit amateur athletes who competed against the show’s regulars (action stars, stunt professionals and pro athletes) in various physical strength and endurance competitions. Some of the more popular gladiators were Wolf, Turbo, Nitro, Blaze, Lace & Sky.

The show hit it big by showcasing David vs. Goliath-style battles in events such as the Joust, the Wall, the Eliminator and Hang Tough.

Variety has all the details.

A nearly steb-by-step DIY photo guide to building a Steampunk Lightsaber over at stardestroyer.net. This is ?ber cool.

One quote from the forum link above says “This saber was inspired by the planet “Ganath” from the Dark Empire II series, a planet with lightning guns and steam-powered starships.”

(clicky)

[Found via Neatorama]

Sun’s president, Jonathan Schwartz, waxes nostalgic on Sun’s position and value to the world in his blog post the other day ‘Java is everywhere‘. In it he goes on to talk about awareness of SUN and their technologies by the public at large and that the number of people aware of Java dwarfs those that are aware of Sun or of their stock symbol ‘SUNW’.

On awareness he goes on to say:

SUNW certainly has some nostalgic value - it stands for “Stanford University Network Workstation,” and heralds back to Sun’s cherished roots (in academia). Granted, lots of folks on Wall Street know SUNW, given its status as among the most highly traded stocks in the world (the SUNW symbol shows up daily in the listings of most highly traded securities).

But SUNW represents the past, and its not without a nostalgic nod that we’ve decided to look ahead.

JAVA is a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet, and a brand that’s inseparably a part of Sun (and our profitability). And so next week, we’re going to embrace that reality by changing our trading symbol, from SUNW to JAVA.

I’m not so sure I get why they’re doing this since the ‘average joe’ that consumes Java on the PC or their mobile device doesn’t care about the stock symbol and if they needed to find it for some reason they can easily search hundreds of sites providing that information.

I don’t believe that there aren’t more important things for the president of one of the biggest, most known and respected tech companies in the world to be focusing on than the stock symbol.

With over 300 comments on Jonathan’s blog so far, it’s obvious this is an interesting topic online. Ed Burnette’s blog provides us with the Top 25 comments and categorizing them into Negative/Neutral/Positive.

Some of the most negative comments are also coming from Sun employees.

Hey, if you’re a Sun developer or tester, you ‘get things done’ and you’re looking for change, contact me.

Here are the ‘best of‘ photos from the Hubble. Many cool thumbnails leading to hi-res wallpaper size images.

This one below is pretty cool, but you really need to check out the ‘Runaway Galaxy‘ in full screen, almost unbelievable.