You might remember that Jackson had once planned a 50-foot mecha with a moving face that shot lasers, but it never got built.

From the eBay Listing:

The original 3D scan data of Michael Jackson. It also includes the color map from this scan in either CPV or UV maps. This data was collected using the same equipment that creates the data used to create video games and or CGI avatars to make him speak, laugh, sing or dance.

I must emphasize that the sale of this scan data is subject to the purchaser agreeing to clear the proper rights with the MJ Estate before it is publicly used in a promotional or commercial manner.

I bet you need to emphasize that. Even if the data isn't a hoax (and I'm skeptical), I can't see the Jackson Estate letting this fly without a lawsuit. We'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, an MJ fan found the auction and created this animation using only the 2D shots shown above. It's all pretty creepy...just let the man rest in peace. [Huffington Post via Techie.com.ph]

I didn't know this, because I live in a bubble, but Michael Jackson was only 8 days away from doing final rehearsals for a 50 show tour, the first in a decade, when he died. This movie, "This is It" is a cool documentary behind the scenes of the prep ahead of that tour. Since it never happened, it's all we have left of the performer. MJ has always been experimental. This documentary isn't the greatest but it's quite moving to watch the production occur in rough with rough and often amazing performances by the late star. And yes, there was enough tech to keep the Gizmodo sector of my brain engaged.

There were some big pyrotechnics, but I'm not sure they were bigger than the ones that burn down theaters or those used at hair rock band shows that play in football stadiums. There was a cherrypicker that seemed pretty nice, but no big. Same for the toaster-like human poppers that sent people flying into the air like some weird contraption you'd find in a Mario Brothers game in an alternate reality. There was even a display wrapped robot that Michael would emerge from and some light-laced costumes for when Michael sung Billy Jean. All ok, and interesting but my favorite was seeing the refilmed videos, which were to be played in the background while they were being sung. Thriller was redone in a faux cemetery and in 3D (like Captain EO). And Smooth Criminal green screened Michael into an old mobster flick. The Way You Make Me Feel didn't have a filmed segment but a sunset gotham-like skyline as seen through a lattice of iron girders with workers snapping slowly to tempo and climbing down when the song begins. The entire difference between the live and the recorded numbers are that Michael would improvise ever so slightly on catchphrases, and play with the melody, teasing out the pieces by not giving us the exact songs we remember, which at the same time would keep them fresh. He also goes through some old Jackson 5 songs, and it cannot be overstated that the musical numbers are all lifted from live rehearsal, so really fresh. You see Michael Jackson calling the shots on music composition, sets, dances, performance and as he relates to his coworkers the same as any boss, you are reminded of his talent, and in reflection, of our loss that came with his early death. Especially when he dances.

What I'm trying to say is that when you take away the pop and the celebrity scandal, what you're left with is a weird genius. Sort of a geek.

Anyhow, Thriller was my first album, so I enjoyed this movie. Maybe you will, too.

[Movie Site with short clips and trailers at Trailer]

Here are a few choice excerpts from Regretsy (NSFW); just a taste, mind you, no substitute for a visit. Be careful, though, because the amazing site is not always safe for work. Looking over the entries makes me wish it were as fictitious as Kasper Hauser's brilliant—but mercifully fake—SkyMaul.

Regarding the lovely lady and her cheese-grater clock, Regretsy says: Oh sure, it's not perfect, but you try cleaning a cheese grater with a cigarette.

Regretsy says: Whenever I hear "Michael Jackson", I immediately think "baseball". Well technically, I think "Little League", but you know what I'm saying. [Link]

Regretsy says: Usually I just use the guest towels when we're out of toilet paper. [Link]

Regretsy says: You know what goats like? They like grass. They don't like having leopard outfits strapped to their sagging haunches like Kim Cattrall. [Link]

Regretsy says: Santo trompas de Falopio! Who wouldn't want to curl up with the stuffed reproductive organs of Mexico's most famous bisexual surrealist? [Link]

It goes without saying "Santo trompas de Falopio!" is my new favorite expression of surprise. Hit the site for way more where this came from. [Regretsy (NSFW)]

Here's how messed up the Billboard rankings were in the pre-electronic days: It used rankings, not actual sales numbers, assumed all albums on the chart had equal spacing between them, no matter how big the gap really was. So, whether a number one album sold just 10 or 10,000 more copies than the number two album, it showed up the same. And on top of only tracking the US and Canada—so not worldwide figures—SoundScan has no data pre-1991.

For what it's worth, Sony and the RIAA peg Jackson's Thriller's sales at 55 million, though Jackson's management says it's more like 100 million. The RIAA says he's sold 61.5 million albums through his career. And those numbers don't include the digital explosion over the last couple weeks. (He held 9 out of the top 10 albums on iTunes after his death.) Other mythical albums sales figures are a lie too, conflating songs and albums: The Beatles haven't sold a billion albums, AC/DC hasn't topped 200 million.

What a far cry from iTunes today: It not only tracks every song and album you buy, it tells you songs you might like based on what you buy after comparing it to what everybody else is buying, and songs you might wanna listen to based on what you already have. We have far too many numbers now. [WSJ]

The arcade's been posted online as a fully explorable panorama. From Crazy Taxi to Guitar Freaks to Han Solo frozen in carbonite to the 360-degree spinning Sega R360 jet fighter cabinet, Jackson amassed a daunting collection of arcade games and general geek paraphernalia—much of which was auctioned off earlier this year.

It's notable that the collection seems to be frozen in time during the mid 90s. That's right around the timeframe of Jackson's notorious $22 million molestation settlement. Though, more fairly, it's also the same era that consoles really started to cut into the arcade experience. [Pinesane via Kotaku]

This is more than a simple survey. In the past, we've learned of major breaking news from sources that now seem incredibly reliable, like television, radio and newsprint. None of those media can be brought down by increased traffic. But while it's clear the Internet is taking over the flow of information, it's not clear that right now, it can handle such large news.

I myself heard about it from a friend, who had read it on the National Post's website, a major Canadian news network. But what did I do then? I hopped on my computer and Googled the shit out of it. Soon, when we ask "where were you when you learned of this event?", we may not be talking about geographical location, but URL.

So, readers, tell me: Was it Google? Twitter? Word of mouth? Suspicion based on the all-MJ set the DJ played at your favorite bar last night?

A Sony F900 catches his attention first, before a crew member brings by what I'm pretty sure is a Sony HVR-Z1U. Jackson ogles the camera for a moment, asks its price, then walks away. But then he can't help himself, and needs to check it out again and make a comment to his handler. He also scores some street cred by referencing the competing Panasonic of the time, what I'm pretty sure was the HVX-200.

It shouldn't be surprising that Jackson was in to gadgets, but when your only real exposure to someone is the weirdest and most controversial of who they are, a little geekdom sure makes a strong case for inner humanity. [Access Hollywood]

Trying to lean beyond one's center of gravity normally leads to a giant, awkward step forward to retain balance, so to achieve the 45-degree angle he wanted, Michael and his dancers used special shoes as well as a trick in the stage floor. When the time came for the move, a peg-like aperture would protrude from the dance floor. The heel of the dancers' shoes featured a triangular cut out that could be hitched onto the peg, anchoring the dancers to lean much farther forward, and thus blowing the world's collective mind. [Boing Boing Gadgets]

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I was only a little bit older than when I confused my father's records for frisbees that would shatter when they hit the fireplace's brick mantle.

Soon after, I got my own Fisher Price record player—since I was not allowed to play with daddy's anymore— with an indestructible needle that would always collect lots of dust bunnies before I had to clean it up. It had a cover with a handle on it, making it portable. For some reason, it was brown. I'd played plenty of Disney records on it, like disco duck, but Thriller was my first piece of pop chart Americana. The album cover folded out and showed MJ coddling a baby tiger, and the songs were written in a pink-red cursive on the back. Epic was the record label, if I recall.

Quincy Jones helped produce it, and Michael Jackson's concept was to make every song on the record a hit. I suppose that's why it's the best selling album of all time, at its height selling over 1m records a week. They wrote 300 songs for the album, whittling the list down to the final set, with Billie Jean only just making the cut. (MJ liked it, Quincy thought not so highly of it.)

I'd listen to it over and over again, but saved the Thriller for when my brother Jonathan was around. We'd queue up the song, and quickly dart under a blanket, to protect us from the zombies we'd seen on MTV. We were genuinely scared of that song, even more scared then when that dude would pull the heart out of that guy's chest in Temple of Doom a few years later at my first movie. When actor Vincent Price's voice came on with the monologue, it was fun to tear the blanket off my brother, tucking it under my sides as he tried to get back inside before the imaginary undead cracked his bones in his teeth and drank his marrow. I laughed in accord with Vincent Price's cackling, little brother Jonathan, squealing, making an easy sacrifice to the lords of the dark.

Billie Jean was an early education that women would sometimes claim you were their children's father. And that sidewalks could be backlit.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

And Beat It was the other song that was musically gripping but also fashionably inspirational.

Then, and in more recent decades.

It's just a shame the jacket's zipper pockets were totally just zippers, no pockets. Except one or two which were a mistake to put things in, because you'd lose stuff in the sea of XYZ.

[Michael Jackson's Official and Totally Not Embeddable YouTube Channel]

Listening Test: It's music tech week at Gizmodo.

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Update: MJ is being mourned with class over at BoingBoingGadgets. Here's a link to Michael's actual 1992 Smooth Criminal shoe patent, wherein the heel of the shoe latches onto a hitch built into the stage permitting "a person...to lean forwardly beyond his or her center of gravity." And no one could lean forwardly more betterly than Michael.

Also, check out io9's topical obit: Michael Jackson's Science Fictional Life

[More Michael Jackson News at Gawker]

I had to kick off this otherwise unordered list with the all-time geekiest song, Mr. Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science," a comic video that started the whole ball rolling.

The Beastie Boys, nerdy at heart, do battle with a giant boxy robot over Tokyo. Exactly.

Michael Jackson's bizarre stop-motion video from that period after he was huge but before he was really really creepy.

Ah Spike Jonze, you are the prince of Geek Video. May your army of bad dancers never want for recruits.

Speaking of Spike, here's an overly elaborate video of a smooth song. How'd they do that? ACTING! No, wait, SHOOTING IN REVERSE WITH NO CUTS!

Before he became a Hobbit, Peter Gabriel was a video pioneer, experimenting with a lot of at times kinky stop-motion photography. "Sledgehammer" is the epitome of the style.

There's stop motion, and then there's Lego stop motion, which Michel Gondry used to pretty up the White Stripes.

I may be too old to consider Power Rangers nostalgia, but there's definitely fun to be had with the Bag Raiders (Adrian says he wants more Zords).

Weird Al speaks nerd. So many gems to choose from, but "White & Nerdy" really sums it up.

Saving the best for last, here's the otherwise extra-classy Dire Straits cheesing it up bigtime—with real (primitive) computer animation!

If you can't get those MTV embeds, here's Weird Al and Dire Straits on YouTube, sadly not available for embedding.

And if you've got your own favorite geek videos, embed them below. That's what enhanced comments are all about!

Listening Test: It's music tech week at Gizmodo.

First Place — Bniel Jun
Second Place — Con Seannery
Third Place — Aaron Langeland

For this week's Photoshop Contest, I want you to create some items that Michael Jackson would sell to help pay the bills. Gadgety is good, funny is better. Molestation jokes are too easy, so if you must, they'd better be really, really good or I won't include them. Think outside the box here people.

Send your solutions to me at contests@gizmodo.com with "Michael Jackson Auction" in the subject line. Save your files as a JPG, PNG or GIF, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention, using whatever name you want to be credited as. Send in your entries by next Tuesday morning, and I'll through them and pick the winners and put the best of the rest in our Gallery of Champions. Get to it!

Though McCartney will probably make off with the lion's share of the cash sum, Ringo Starr and the families of the late John Lennon and George Harrison will also benefit. Michael Jackson, EMI and Sony will also be paid, as they each own a share in the back catalog. McCartney may actually have to pay out a little more on his divorce settlement because of the deal. How that works is anyone's guess, but you gotta feel sorry for him; having to share all those millions is just plain malicious. When the albums will actually hit iTunes is not yet confirmed, but we'll keep you up to speed with any banging of Maxwell's silver hammer. [United Press International]

The crazy, terrifying robot would be visible to airplanes landing in Vegas, which I'm sure will really hurt Vegas's tourism numbers. Talk about the last thing you want to see from an airplane window.

No word on whether there will be a 35-foot-tall little boy for him to molest as well. Hiyo! –Adam Frucci

Danger Room [via Yahoo]