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GamesArchive for July, 2011
I don’t know how to feel about the fact that one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard for a television series found a home on the Internet, but there’s no denying that “Pop Pilgrims,” the AV Club’s “take on a travel show,” is pretty darn cool. The show’s hosts take pilgrimages to various pop culture Meccas to see if movie and television fantasy can hold a candle to reality. So far, the show has explored the Nakatomi building from “Die Hard,” the diner from “Twin Peaks” and the Initech headquarters from “Office Space,” among others. However, it took a visit to the gritty Baltimore setting of one of my favorite dramas for “Pop Pilgrims” to get my attention.
When you hear the name “Walt Disney,” chances are you think of cartoon animals, amusement parks and maybe an urban legend about a frozen head from the 1960s. But do you really know the score on Walt Disney the futurist? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I examine Disney’s dreams for a technologically-enhanced future and his “conditional optimism” for the humanity.
What’s that buzzing around the room? A bird? A plane? Nope, it’s just a robotic insect sent by some shadow government to spy on our every move. Yes, welcome to the age of the microdrone. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I check in on the current state of militarily drone technology, the rise of biomimetic bird-bots and just how the future may shake out.
I’m a little late to the party on this, but did you know there’s a newly blue village in Spain?
When Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation chose to premier its movie “The Smurfs” in Juzcar, Spain, they also decided to paint the adorable white village blue — Smurf blue. It took 12 painters and 4,000 liters of paint.
I recently mowed through the Emma Donoghue novel “Room” in all of two days, and although it warped my brain a little bit during that short time (as all intensely narrated books tend to do) I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the read. Viewing the world through the eyes of other adults is interesting, but viewing it through the eyes of a child is fascinating, in my opinion. Reading it reminded me of another book I read years ago — “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” — which is told from the first person perspective of a teenage boy on the autism spectrum. In both cases, children were called on to go above and beyond what most of us ever had to face growing up, and that inspired me to ponder what it takes to summon that level of bravery.
The Mayo Clinic’s list of the eating disorder’s side effects include abnormal bowel functioning, damaged teeth and gums, swollen salivary glands in the cheeks, sores in the throat and mouth and irregular heartbeat. And with new study findings out of the University of Colorado, brain damage might be another scary side effect to add to that list.
Yesterday’s TechStuff tackled the question, “what would we do if we found out an enormous asteroid was on a collision course with the Earth?” If you’ve listened to the show, you know the solution doesn’t involve launching Bruce Willis into space to reduce the asteroid to teeny, tiny bits using a nuclear bomb. For one thing, Bruce’s rates have gone way up since his Armageddon days. But more importantly, that approach would make things worse — not better.
When I was a kid, we discovered we could sled down the fescue grass in the front yard on pieces of plywood. But that’s not really the same as sledding down a volcano.
Except for the plywood. Darryn Webb, founder of volcano boarding (as the sport’s called), first attempted to board down the slope of the Cerro Negro volcano in Nicaragua on mattresses and refrigerator doors.
I learned of a new disorder the other day, via a tweet from SYSK listener (@SteveNovak), called mirror dystonia. Since researching the mirror neurons episode, I’ve become aware of just how much of a role mirror neurons play in allowing us to not bump one another off in order to get our hands on the last cupcake (and other things, of course).
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month doesn’t take place until October, when the pink and Halloween orange will duke it out for color supremacy (I’d put my cash on pink, FYI), but new research (via Forbes) indicates that it’s time to rethink pink.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Have a Coke and a Smile
- The Latest in Frugal Lodging: Camping in Somebody Else’s Backyard
- The Painted Beauties of Bucovina
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- Space Music: DJ Food and ‘The Search Engine’
- Stuff to Blow Your Mind: Hug it Out
- Space Music: Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Film Music Video in Orbit
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
- Tips for Using Bluetooth in the Car
How-to Stuff
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
- How to Know When It’s Time for a New Pet
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 36: Now Available in 3-D
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 35: Let’s do brunch!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 34: Play it again, Sam
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
