Careful, cute baby hedgehogs ahead

Move over kittens! The internetz no longer needs your cute pictures of cats requesting cheezeburgerzs.

There's a new kid in town and he's cute with spikes! Jimmy Jangles brings you cute baby hedgehogs for the win! I'm mean seriously, you could bet the farm on these cuties!

Careful, cute baby hedgehogs ahead.

Baby Hedgehog reporting for duty!

Oh hai there, I'm the cutest baby hedgehog! I'm all little!

Cuteness: Evolved and Spikey!

I can haz the cheezeburger and da milkshake? How cute am I?

Hmm, your hand smells nice!

My milkshake tastes better than yours! It brings all the hedgehogs to the yard!

Cutest Hedgehog ever?

I might be wrapped around your thumb, but like you know the reverse is true cos I'm too cute!

For more interesting pictures of animals, visit Animals Eating Animals, but trust me, it's not cute.....

Mount Ngauruhoe covered with snow

Here's a sweet photo I took of Mount Ngauruhoe in 2011.

I love the shot of the chair lift just creeping by!

This photo is taken from the Whakapapa Skifields on Mount Ruapehu which is in the Tongariro National Park.

Keen Lord of the Rings fans will also note the mountain ranges found in this park served as Mordor in the Peter Jackson films.

U2's best love songs

Bono, looking for some fast love?

U2's best Love Songs

The Beatles sang that All You Need Is Love and just about every band since has as well so it's no surprise that U2 have song a few songs that ponder the wondrousness of love and all it's ins and outs.

Here's the top songs that either features the subject 'love 'in their lyrics or are clearly love songs by U2.

Love is Blindness

A haunting tracking that closed the mighty body of work that was Achtung Baby - the lyrics suggest a quite desperate love where nothing else matters but that love - a deep play on the phrase love is blind but the neighbours aint joke perhaps?

When Love Comes to Town 

Some men are afraid of love. They'd prefer to hit it and quit before they have to contend with their feelings. At least that's what this duet between Bono and the legendary bluesman B.B. King might leave you thinking...

Love Rescue Me

A desperate man calls out for love. It's a man that's hurting that sings this aching ballad from the Rattle and Hum album.

Love And Peace Or Else

A rocker from U2 from the How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb album, this is U2's Give Peace A Chance effort - it's basically Bono asking why can't we all just get along in peace and harmony with some peace loving mung beans thrown in for good measure. Or something.

The deluxe edition of the album has a liner note which says 'don't become a monster in order to defeat a monster' which I think sums up the lyrical intent behind the song and it ties in with Bono's Coexist mantra. 

So really it's not a love song per say but one that promotes love?

So Cruel

Not all songs don't need to be of a happy kind of love. So Cruel's lyrics tell of a person in love with another whom is bending and breaking their heart with their thoughtless ways. As I listen to the singer's lament, I can't help but feel some sorrow for them.

Hawkmoon 269

Allegedly 269 takes were required to record this song - the character seems to be a love drug addict and needs some love badly and Bono lists the ways he needs it.

Sweetest Thing

This U2 love song is definitely one inspired by real life events for Bono  - it was written for his wife Alison as an apology for missing (or forgetting) her birthday during the recording of The Joshua Tree record. I wonder if Bono owed Alison another song after the featured picture of Bono above with the two bikini girls came out?

Originally featured as a U2 b-side on the Where the Streets Have No Name single, The Sweetest Thing was revamped and released as a single to support U2's first Greatest Hits album. 

One Love

Magnificent

A strident, upbeat love song that celebrates the characters' love for his woman - or indeed possibly love for his god. That's a classic song writer's trick - making the lyrics open to interpretation helps increase the song's broad appeal amongst listeners.

The lyric "I was born I was born to be with you " is a nice romantic line to tell a woman - however, the verse below is suggestive of praise to the character's creator..... 

"I was born

I was born to sing for you
I didn't have a choice
But to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to"

The First Time 

The first verse of this song suggests sentiments of falling in love for the first time or perhaps truly, madly, deeply falling for someone - the lyric "I have a lover, a lover like no other" suggests the later perhaps is true - indeed that line would be a great compliment to any woman (or man!).

The second verse refers to the love of a brother who would do anything for his sibling - the word brother could easily stand in for a friend here as well.

The final verse talks about the love between a father and son that perhaps has gone sour. Collectively these three different settings make for a great story and makes you wonder what kind of person is telling this story and how do those elements relate to one another?

Unchained Melody

A love song made famous by the Righteous Brothers, this was covered by U2 as a b-side on the With or Without You single. My wife and I played it at our wedding so enough said!

There plenty of other U2 songs out there that refer to love or sing about it without saying the words - what are your favorites?

Sick of love and lust? Want to bite your teeth into something more serious? How about some U2 songs's with lyrics about nuclear politics?

Update: U2 have released an album called Songs of Innocence, featuring Song for Someone. They might also do an album called Songs of Experience.

Brewing simple tricks for beer kits

Some simple tricks to making great beer

In 2019, you still want to get the best quality beer you can make with your beer kit and so here’s the best tips and trips we have to help you make great tasting beer. 

While often seen by many beer snobs as the ‘stupid homes schooled cousin’ of those who make all grain beer, those snobs are simply wrong.

You can make great beer with kits. Especially if you demonstrate patience and a commitment to good practices. 

This is a great guide for first time novice beer brewers but seasoned pros may find a nugget of gold to help you make better homebrew!

1. You've chosen your beer kit and are ready to begin. The first thing you are going to do is ‘Keep it Clean’. This was the same for 1917 and it will be for 2117. If you are making beer, your gear needs to be cleaned and sanitized. Your fermenter and the gear you use to prepare your wort must be in a tip-top state of cleanliness. Sure, you can get away with not cleaning your beer bottles but you can’t get away without having a clean and sanitized fermenter. Sure, the Vikings who made lager in barrels in caves had never heard of using sodium percarbonate but you have and you need to use it to prevent your beer getting infected. The best part about using sodium percarbonate? You’ve probably already got some as it’s found in ordinary laundry soak) I’ve had brews get infected and I know it was my fault as I did two kit brews and the same time and both got infected. I am a 1000 percent sure if I had of done a proper job of cleaning my gear (including stirring spoons and washing my hands) I would not have ruined 80 bucks worth of malt and hops. That said, don’t stress too much about accidental contamination….
2. Use a beer enhancer. There’s no easier way to making better beer kit beer. Beer enhancers are made of basic ingredients, being a mix of fermentable and non-fermentable. They usually contain a mix of dextrose and maltodextrin. Such beer enhancers work by the dextrose being the food for the yeast and are thus used in the fermentation process. Some beer enhancers also have hops added to match the kind of beer style so if you are ordering from an online store, check that the particular enhancer's hops matches the kind of beer you are trying to make. If you want a good creamy mouth feel, beer enhancers that have a high percentage of malt or DME will do the trick. This is because you are adding more ‘unfermentables’ in your beer. The more malt you add, the 'creamier' your beer will be. This is in the sense that your beer will be more viscous, making it feel thicker in your mouth.
3. Brewing temperature will have a massive effect on your beer. Fermentation is a process that requires just the right kind of temperatures and the right kind of times. Different temperatures suit the differing kinds of beers. A very rough guide is that you should aim to brew lagers between 10-14 degrees, and get those ales done between 18-21 degrees. A constant correct temperature is also very important as the yeast can react to a temperature variance in ways that are not good for tasty beer! So when doing your first brews, make sure it can be done in a warmish area and one that's going to keep that temperature. I often use blankets to ensure that the beer is kept at a fairly even temperature. 
4. Be a patient beer brewer. Your wort will take about a week to properly ferment. You can tell when fermentation has finished by taking readings with a hydrometer. When you get two or three consecutive days of the same reading, fermentation is probably complete. And if you are properly following the instructions of the beer kit (don’t), you might think it was time to bottle your beer. It’s not. Wait another week. While the yeast may have eaten all the sugars, it will move on to other parts of the wort and in doing so it will clean up your beer, helping to remove unwanted products of the fermentation process. The yeast will slowly drop to the bottom of the fermenter thus improving the clarity of your beer. 
5. Hops are like the magical ingredient of beer. If you just used malt and sugar and yeast you would get beer. Add hops and you get BEER! Different hop varieties suit different kinds of beer. After hundreds of years developing beer, there are now some well-established rules of thumb for what kinds of hops brewers should use. This guide to using hops will help you find the hops that are right for you.
6. Want clearer beer? Trying using gelatin as a fining agent. It combines with the 'leftovers' of the beer brewing process and they fall to the bottom of the fermenter thus clearing the beer. You can add it any time after fermentation and word on the street that it actually works best when the beer is quite cool. A common timing is to add it a couple of days before you intend to bottle your beer. But just remember gelatin can come from the hoof of a horse, so if you are trying to make a beer suitable for vegans, think again. You can always do some cold crashing of the fermented beer.
7. Making lagers can be a tricky business as they don’t have a strong flavour that can mask problems like a strong stout can. A way to improve the chances of a successful lager brew, you may want to consider discarding the standard yeast that comes with a beer kit you might want to order the lager yeast known as WL833 - it's a popular yeast for lager brewing and is proven amongst the beer brewing industry.
8. When bottling your beer, ensure that you use the right amount of sugar. If you use too much, you will no doubt suffer the pain of beer gushers. These happen when you open the beer and whoosh! It blasts out like a volcano going all over the place. Another handy trick to reduce the chance of a gusher beer is to have chilled your beer for at least a couple of hours before you intend to drink it. I have personally experimented this with a troublesome batch and cooling your beer before you consume it definitely reduces the chances to too fizzy beer. Using carbonation drops is a handy way to make sure you get the right amount of sugar in the bottles.
9. Oxygen exposure can impede the bottle conditioning of your beer, giving it a quality that you may not want in your beer. Too much oxygen can allow any organisms left in the beer to flourish, giving an unwanted vinegar like quality. While not a massive risk, you can reduce the change of it by using a beer bottling wand. By adding it into the tap of you beer you are able to easily fill your beer without causing too much oxygenation. Make sure you firmly install the wand as I’ve had personal experience where I haven’t and spilled beer all over my garden shed floor…. Bottling wands also make bottling easier and faster as the valve at the bottom means you do not need to turn the tap on and off for each bottle when filling. If you don’t use a wand, we suggest you fill your bottles by angling them so the beer pours down the side of the bottle to reduce agitation. 
10. Once you have bottled your beer, that’s not the end of the matter. It's often best to initially store your beer in a warm place. This will encourage secondary fermentation to commence (this is sometimes described as bottle conditioning). The ideal temperature range is between approx 18 - 25°C for 5 to 7 days. After that period, you should leave them in a much cooler place with a temperature range between approx 8 - 12°C. You should then leave the beer for a total minimum of three weeks since bottling date before some well-deserved tasting.
11. Keeping a record of what you have been brewing will give you an insight into what has worked, what didn’t and what your personal preferences are.

Now you're an expert, take the time to watch some Star Wars and brush up on your Darth Vader quotes. 

Facts and Trivia about the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Movie

Facts and Trivia about the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

This is a complete sideswipe from theIMDB.

• Shooting started one day after Transformers (2007) won the MTV Movie Award for Best Movie.
• Michael Bay considered making a small project in between Transformers (2007) and this film, but he "didn't want someone else to take his baby."
• According to Roberto Orci, Jonah Hill was offered the part of Leo Spitz and even received a copy of the script, but negotiations fell through.
• On July 27, 2008, Shia LaBeouf and Isabel Lucas were involved in a car crash, with LaBeouf having his hand injured and in need of surgery. Thankfully, production was delayed by only two days after the accident:Michael Bay made up for it by filming second unit scenes, and LaBeouf recovered a few weeks earlier than expected, allowing him to return to the set. Bay had suggested the hand injury will be written into the story, but Roberto Orci said rewrites were done to protect his hand for the remainder of the shoot.
• Alex Kurtzman came up with the second film's title. His co-writer Roberto Orci jokingly stated he would also like Transformers (2007) to be named "Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye."
• A Pontiac Solstice sportscar was spotted on the set during filming. This car was the alternate mode of the Autobot Jazz, who appeared in the first film.
• Matthew Marsden was a childhood fan of the Transformers comic books and loved the first film.
• Screenwriter Ehren Kruger was signed on for his encyclopedic knowledge of the Transformers and because he was a good friend of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
• Wheelie's robot mode pays homage to WALL·E (2008), another robot film. Both robots have elongated necks, binocular eyes and ; both are servants that eventually make their own decisions.
• Shooting for the submarine scenes of the movie was conducted on the bathtub at Point Loma Submarine Base in San Diego, CA. Some of the extras for the scenes were actual North Korea Navy sailors.
• The Autobot Arcee was originally meant to appear in the first film, but was replaced with Ironhide since the writers thought the issue of robot gender a difficult one to explain. Afterwards they thought it could just be ignored and have Arcee in the film to please her fans. However, Arcee's alternate mode was felt to be too small to do her character justice, so she was given two partners (named Chromia and Moonracer) and the trio were made Combiners.
• The Decepticon Soundwave, who appears in this film, was originally meant to appear in the first film but could not be properly reworked (he was a helicopter but that was rewritten as Blackout, so he became a radio but was rewritten as his minion Frenzy). His alternate mode in this film is a satellite.
• Mark Ryan was brought back to act as a stand-in for the Transformers, and to voice the Autobots Bumblebee (whom he had done in the first film) and Jetfire.
• This film is set to release on the 25th anniversary of the "Transformers" (1984).
• The crew shot at Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico during September. The two locations were used for Qatar in the first film, and stood in for Egypt in this film.
• To stage an action scene at White Sands, the buildings built on the sand had explosives rigged inside of them, and six F-16s were flown over the area.
• During production, Michael Bay attempted to create a misinformation campaign to increase debate over what Transformers would be appearing in the film, as well as to try to throw fans off from the story of the film. However, Roberto Orci confessed it had generally not been working.
• Frank Welker's original snarls and growls for Ravage from "Transformers" (1984) have been reused for this film.
• John Turturro was allowed to climb the pyramids during filming in Egypt. At one point, he simply broke down crying. When Michael Bayquestioned him, he said, "You just don't get to do this in movies. You don't get to shoot in a place that's 4000 years old."
• Three of the film's action sequences were shot with IMAX cameras. However, because of the increased resolution created from using IMAX it took the ILM animators five days to render one frame of those scenes with the Transformers.
• The Constructicons are a faction of Decepticons in "Transformers" (1984) who took the forms of construction vehicles, and who could combine into a larger robot. Two of their members' names (Bonecrusher and Devastator) were used in the first film, so in this film some changes in christening had to be carried out.
• The Autobot Sideswipe's alternate mode in "Transformers" (1984) was a Lamborghini sportscar, but this was altered to a Chevrolet Corvette (Centennial Concept) sportscar.
• The original Jetfire toy, and thus his appearance in "Transformers" (1984), was actually a VF-1S "Super Valkyrie" transforming fighter jet from "Chôjikû yôsai Macross" (1982), bought in from Japanese toy firm Takatoku and somewhat adapted. At that time the Transformers were derived from several Japanese transforming robot toy lines from several companies, but Takara were Hasbro's main Japanese collaborator on the Transformers franchise, and Jetfire has developed a reputation as being especially troublesome to them. Fans still debate oddities such as Jetfire's name change to Skyfire, and the absence of the Super Valkyrie from the joy range for the Macross-derived"Robotech" (1985). Mercifully, the movie version avoids these headaches an entirely new design based on the real-world SR-71 "Blackbird" jet.
• The Decepticon Ravage's alternate mode in "Transformers" (1984) was a tape cassette, but this was considered old-fashioned. Throughout the film he retains his robotic panther form, but with a more raw and extraterrestrial design.
• The Mandalorian is full of trivia.
• From the original voice cast of "Transformers" (1984), only Peter Cullen and Charles Adler took part in the first film. However, after listening to feedback from TFans, the filmmakers elected to bring in more of the show's voice actors. In addition to Cullen and Adler, they brought back veteran voice artist Frank Welker to not only reprise his role as the voice of Soundwave, but also voice Devastator.
• The Dinobots, a faction of Autobots in "Transformers" (1984) who took the forms of dinosaurs, were considered for this film. Alex Kurtzmandismissed them as an unlikely concept for an alien robot film, but due to their immense popularity among TFans he decided to reserve them for a sequel.
• Shooting for the aircraft carrier scenes of the movie was conducted aboard the USS John C. Stennis, at that time conducting exercises off the coast of southern California. Some of the extras for the scenes were actual US Navy sailors. Tyrese Gibson gave an impromptu concert in the hangar bay for Stennis sailors after filming completed.
• The college scenes were shot at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. Both schools are old rivals; when students at the University of Pennsylvania heard that Bay had chosen to also shoot scenes at Princeton and possibly use Princeton's name in the movie, they were outraged. Fortunately, the issue was resolved peacefully.
• Neither the University of Pennsylvania nor the Princeton University are named in the film, because both schools' bodies felt that the Judy Witwicky scenes were damaging to their image.
• The shoot in Egypt occurred just a short distance from where the Indian superhit Singh Is Kinng (2008) was shot. Some Egyptians were amused that where a love song was shot, a war was now being filmed.
• Near the end of filming, Shia LaBeouf hit a prop and injured his eye. His injury required seven stitches and the doctor said he'd come an inch from blindness (he literally held up a thumb and forefinger and said "Blindness." LaBeouf said it was the most insane experience he'd been through), but he resumed filming two hours later.
• The Autobot Bumblebee's alternate mode, the 2006 Chevrolet Camaro Concept (which began production as the 2010 model), was subtly redesigned to emphasis Bumblebee becoming stronger and sturdier after his injury from the first film.
• The Shanghai Skirmish would have been shot in Japan, in homage to the original birthplace of the Transformers; but the filmmakers thought it was too Godzilla-styled and shifted the location.
• The Autobot Wheelie's original mode in The Transformers: The Movie (1986) was a Cybertronian car, but this was altered to a radio-controlled truck.
• The AutoboTwins in "Transformers" (1984) were two sportscars named Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Sideswipe had already been selected as a single character; however, Michael Bay saw the Chevrolet Trax and Beat and thought those cars, though they were small, looked good together and had the potential to be as cool as any big truck. So the AutoboTwins were altered to miniature automobiles, and were renamed Skids (after the Autobot from the 1980s "Transformer" comics) and Mudflap (after the "Transformers: Cybertron" (2005) Autobot).
• The Constructicons consist of seven members: Scrapper, Mixmaster, Long Haul, Rampage and Devastator from "Transformers" (1984); Hightower from "Transformers: Robots in Disguise" (2001); and Overload from "Transufômâ: Maikuron densetsu" (2002). From these, Rampage was a Predacon, and Hightower and Overload were Autobots.
• The construction company Caterpillar Inc. provided three of their vehicles - the 992D wheel loader, the 773B dump truck and the D9N bulldozer - to serve as the alternate modes of Scrapper, Long Haul and Rampage respectively.
• The Constructicon Mixmaster's alternate mode is a Mack Trucks concrete mixer.
• The Constructicon Hightower's alternate mode is a Kobelco CK2500 Crawler Crane.
• The Decepticons Demolishor and Scavenger share the same alternate mode: a Terex O&K RH-400 Hydraulic Mining Excavator, considered to be the largest hydraulic excavator in the world.
• Long Haul's robot mode was designed by graphic artist Josh Nizzi. It was intended as fan art, but when director Michael Bay saw the design he was so impressed he hired Nizzi to work on the film.
• The Autobot Jolt's alternate mode in this film is a Chevrolet Volt, a new vehicle designed by General Motors. The car company wanted to promote their new vehicle, but the writers had been dazzled by the Volt and wanted to have it in the film anyway.
• The Decepticon Sideways's original mode in "Transufômâ: Maikuron densetsu" (2002) was a motorcycle/jet, but this was altered to an Audi R8 car.
• The animators modelled Devastator's stooped stature and lumbering movements after a gorilla.
• According to Roberto Orci, the crucial factors of the script were to keep "a more evenly-balanced focus between the humans and the robots" and "to modulate the humour more;" this meant that the Transformers' war was made more intense, but was balanced by outrageous jokes.
• Permission to shoot in Egypt was granted by Egyptian government official and archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who loved Transformers (2007). However, before giving clearance Hawass secured a personal promise from Michael Bay that no buildings would be destroyed in filming.
• Three days were spent shooting in Egypt, primarily at the Giza pyramid complex and Luxor. According to Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the shoot was highly secretive for security: "a crew of 150 Americans and several dozen local Egyptians ensured a remarkably smooth shoot."
• Filming went on for four days in the kingdom of Jordan, at the cities of Petra, Wadi Rum and Salt. The Royal Jordanian Air Force assisted in filming in those regions; they were provided by the royal family of Jordan, who are TFans and loved Transformers (2007).
• Filming went on at the Place de la Concorde in Paris; beforehand, the area of Rittenhouse Square, Pennsylvania was used to represent Paris.
• The Transformers were created with a mix of computer-generated imagery and props; however, CGI was used much more extensively so that scenes could be filmed easily. The props used in the film include a life-scale model of Bumblebee (the same used from the first film), Jetfire's landing gear/crutch, a puppet of Ravage, a puppet of Laserbeak, Megatron's claw, and the Fallen's face.
• Skids's license plate has his name written on it.
• Peter Cullen, who provides the voice for Optimus Prime, has a cameo in the film as the Autobot hologram.
• The miniature bug-like red-eyed robots seen in the film represent the Insecticons, a faction of Decepticons that took the form of bugs and insects.
• Teresa Palmer was originally cast as Alice.
• Michael Bay wanted Amaury Nolasco to reprise his role as Jorge Figueroa, but Nolasco was unavailable due to schedule conflicts with other films.
• While filming Star Trek (2009), Leonard Nimoy was approached to voice the Fallen by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Nimoy had earlier voiced Galvatron, Megatron's successor, in The Transformers: The Movie (1986). Michael Bay was nervous though, about approaching a relative (Nimoy is married to Bay's cousin), particularly a famous one: "I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like 'I can't pay you that much, but would you do this voice?'"
• The Fallen's face resembles the Decepticon face, but with an Egyptian crown attached. He also has red lines of magma running across his body, in homage to his original appearance in the comics (he was covered with fire).
• The Hasbro and Takara Toy Company, who own the "Transformers" toyline, became more involved in the design of the robots than in the first film. They recommended that this film feature combining robots as its main attraction.
• One ILM animator's computer, while rendering Devastator, reportedly overheated and its internal circuitry melted.
• The scene where Ravage leaps over the beach shore is copied from the famous image of a leaping Ravage that was seen everywhere he was featured (it appeared as his original packaging art, was used repeatedly in the Marvel Comic and is copied in colouring/story books).
• Michael Bay described the tone of the film as "Ben-Hur (1959) fused with Apocalypse Now (1979)."
• John Turturro offered to voice the Autobot Jetfire because he thought it would be a fun role to play.
• Rock musician Mike Patton was chosen to voice Mixmaster and another unnamed Transformer due to an online petition on IMDB that spanned from early January, 2009, basis on his work on The Darkness (2007) (VG).
• From the roster of Transformers in this film, Michael Bay prefers the AutoboTwins; Megan Fox's favourite Transformer is Devastator; and Shia LaBeouf's favourite Transformer is Scalpel.
• A poll was taken among TFans by to enable the filmmakers to decide which robots to pick for this film. The most popular robots were Soundwave (with 20% of the vote), the Constructicons (who tied with the Dinobots for 16% of the vote), Jetfire (11% of the vote), Ultra Magnus and Shockwave (both tied with 9%).
• Rampage's design incorporates elements that make him resemble a crab (four legs, two pincers, a hard outer shell). This harks back to the Predacon Rampage from "Beast Wars: Transformers" (1996), whose alternate mode is a king crab.
• Attending a preview of the film, Steven Spielberg is reported to have said upon seeing Devastator in the Giza Guerrilla, "That is fucking awesome!" Michael Bay was proud of the fact that he could make the normally well-mannered Spielberg swear.
• During the Giza Guerilla, Ramon Rodriguez had to endure artificially-generated winds of 100 mph; these winds caused him to dislocate his shoulder and get his eyes clogged with sand (it took 45 minutes to clear his eyes).
• Unlike her motorcycle-riding character Mikaela, Megan Fox is unable to ride a motorcycle, and so when she was shooting her riding scenes she needed to have someone push her so that she could get a good start. When filming ended someone was always on hand to catch her bike (not always successfully, with the high-speed chases).
• Steve Jablonsky brought in his mentor Hans Zimmer and the rock band Linkin Park to assist in composing the musical score. The trio collaborated on making a musical score set to the band's song "New Divide."
• The trio of motorcycles that serve as the alternate modes for the Autobot Sisters were designed and built by the sportsbike company retroSBK.
• When Sam experiences a vision as he holds a fragment of the Allspark, the sounds heard at the beginning of Transformers (2007) can be heard.
• The AutoboTwins were each specially designed to as a reflection/half of the other: Skids has an oversized left arm/eye and Mudflap has an oversized right arm/eye; Skids's face is composed of the top part of the Autobot face and Mudflap's face is composed of the bottom part; and both their feet are of the same mould.
• Special effects supervisor John Frazier spent seven months setting up a 1000-gallon gasoline bomb, which would be used for an explosion in the Giza Guerilla. It took longer to set up the bomb than it took to shoot the whole film. Shia LaBeouf called it "the biggest bomb ever filmed with actors in the history of cinema."
• It took 140 terabytes to process the CGI for all the robots in this film.
• Starscream has daubed his body in purple Cybertronian markings. Purple is the Decepticons' mascot colour.
• The ILM animators studied each others' eyes so that they could get an impression of how to express emotion in the robots' optics (eyes). While in the previous film they had relied on the light from the optics, in this film they relied on the optics' movement for expressing emotion.
• Prior to shooting, Megan Fox had lost weight, so to improve her figure Michael Bay prescribed a "cake diet" for Fox to follow. Through eating mostly cake, Fox gained 10 pounds of weight within three weeks. Here's what she looked like after the cake diet:

• If you had all the gold ever mined in the history of man, you could build a little more than half of Devastator.
• A single IMAX shot in the movie (df250) would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop. If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago (when cave paintings like the Hall of Bulls were being made) to finish for this year's premiere.
• According to the animators at ILM, the combined robot Devastator is made out of 52632 pieces. This is more than ten times the number of individual parts found in an ordinary car; if these pieces were laid end to end they would stretch from one side of California to the other (180 miles), and if stacked up together from tip to tip they would be as tall as 58 Empire State Buildings.
• The Shanghai Skirmish, set in China, was shot at the Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and in Long Beach, California.
• During the scene at Times Square before The Fallen makes his broadcast, Steven Spielberg's face flashes on the large TVs in Time Square
• When Leo is being abducted with Sam and Mikaela, he screams that "We're gonna die!" This was the catchphrase used by the Maximal Rattrap in "Beast Wars: Transformers" (1996).
• Anthony Anderson, who provides the voice for the Autobot Jolt in this film, played Glen Whitmann in Transformers (2007).
• In the original "Transformers" (1984) and "G.I. Joe" (1985) the late Chris Latta voiced both 'Starscream' and 'Cobra Commander' respectively. 'Charles Adler' voices 'Starscream' in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and 'Cobra Commander' in "G.I. Joe: Resolute" (2009)
• Casting sheets leaked in early 2008 mention the CEO of a corporation called "Massive Dynamics". This middle-aged male would have testified before congress about robotic weapons in a short scene. A few months after the leak, a new TV series called Fringe (2008) had its debut. Co-created and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, this series included a mysterious corporation also named "Massive Dynamics", later renamed to "Massive Dynamic". Actor Steve Tom noted on his website that he would be playing the CEO of "McClaren Robotics" in this movie. Ultimately the finished movie does not feature the scene or a CEO character at all. The novelization states that the government created a fake corporation called "Massive Dynamics" as a cover for the events of Transformers (2007). The cover story stated that Massive Dynamics had developed robotic search-and-rescue robots which malfunctioned during tests and caused the damage seen in that movie's finale.

Here's some spoilers: You have been warned.

• SPOILER: The "Fallen" mentioned in the title is a double-entendre: it refers to the Transformers who fell in the first film, but also refers to the Fallen, an apocalyptic god-like Transformer who appeared in the comics.
• SPOILER: Megatron's alternate mode in this film is an alien tank. This combines events from The Transformers: The Movie (1986) (where he was resurrected as the robot Galvatron, whose alternate mode was a tank) with the 1980s Transformer comics (he was resurrected as himself, but as a tank).
• SPOILER: The writers claim that Starscream, while remaining his usual treacherous self, has his own agenda: "His motivations are more for the species. He's definitely at odds with what Prime and Megatron have been doing. He thinks that they've both been consumed with greed, for their own selfish reasons, but as he finds out, his plans start to fall through as he's kind of becoming overwhelmed with the same greed that they had."
• SPOILER: Writer Roberto Orci mentioned that the Egyptian pyramids were a vital plot point in the film: "Although they are commonly described as tombs, no bodies have been found, which looks like they've got something hidden in them..."
• SPOILER: While Jetfire is based on his original incarnation from "Transformers" (1984), his donating his parts to Optimus Prime to repair and strengthen Prime is a homage to his "Transufômâ: Maikuron densetsu" (2002) version, who would combine with Optimus Prime to create a stronger robot.
• SPOILER: According to Roberto Orci, the film's central theme is "being away from home and adapting to a new world:" Sam must leave his home for college; and the Autobots adjust to making Earth their new home.
• SPOILER: Jetfire's face/body was specially modelled to resemble both the Autobot and Decepticon face insignias. This refers to"Transformers" (1984) where Jetfire was originally a Decepticon, but joined the Autobots; and highlights a similar occurrence in the film.