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Remember Dr. Claw from the ‘80s cartoon Inspector Gadget? He was the villain whose face was never shown, only his gloved hand stroking his cat. Well, his face is now revealed, not in any lost cartoon episode, but instead in a toy action figure released last year. He’s not at all what I pictured him like, and I for one am very disappointed that they revealed his face at all…
The “history of TV-set design, development and marketing” is explored in the site Television History – The First 75 Years. The early designs and marketing methods are very interesting, but my favorites (like the one on the right) are in the last section, 1960-2000.
Old Skilwaukee sounds just crazy enough to work:
As with most crazy ideas, the Simpsons thought of it first:
Homer: “I’m feelin’ low, Apu. You got any of that beer that has candy floating in it, you know, Skittlebrau?”
Apu: “Such a product does not exist, sir! You must have dreamed it.”
Homer: “Oh. Well then just gimme a six-pack and a couple of bags of Skittles.”
OK, so this might be too nasty to contemplate, but you have to admire this guy’s perseverence…
What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth between eight different languages, “Telephone” game-style?
original English: “Any way you want it, that’s the way you need it.”
to French and back: “Any manner that you want it, that is the manner you need it.”
to German and back: Each possible way that you wish it, those is the way, which you need it.
to Italian and back: “Every possible sense that the augured ones, those is the sense, than you have it need.”
to Portuguese and back: “Each possible direction that augured, those is the direction, that you order to need it.”
to Spanish and back: “Each possible direction that augured, those is the direction, that you order to need it.”
(adding Korean, Japanese and Chinese really confuses things…)
“Babelize” something yourself; it’s addictive!
“You know the rule: If food falls to the floor and it’s in contact with the floor for fewer than 5 seconds, it’s safe to pick it up and eat it.” Well, apparently not, according to a study conducted by the University of Illinois. I guess I’ll just have to pretend that I didn’t read this then… :-p
It’s common knowledge that when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier, a sonic boom is generated. It has long been known that the sound associated with a sonic boom can be attenuated by varying the shape of the aircraft, but until now this had never been proven. Spaceflight Now reports that NASA and DARPA have completed tests with a modified F-5E aircraft in the SSBD project, changing the shape of the fuselage and wing to greatly reduce the loudness of the sonic boom. This is quite a breakthrough, and I can definitely see this affecting the design of future supersonic aircraft.
For those of you who haven’t become addicted yet, MAME is an application that allows you to play arcade games on your PC through emulation of the original hardware. In development since 1996, the current version supports several thousand different games, quite the godsend for an child of the ‘80s/arcade game fanatic like myself. Newer games are also supported, but I tend to stick with the classics. :-p Anyway, I came upon this post at waxy.org telling of a method to play MAME Online through Kaillera, an application that apparently allows you to play emulators over the Internet. I’m very excited to try this out. What do you think, shaft? Ready to get your ass whupped in Karate Champ? 🙂
Browse the Esquire magazine cover gallery, featuring all 857 covers since 1933. I love finding this kind of stuff…
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I had no idea that there were people this obsessed with Disneyland. I think the funniest, or perhaps most delusional, thing is that one “Disney Freak” considers Trekkies “lame,” because “Trekkies are devoted to some stupid pop-culture fad. Disney fans believe in the magic.” Whatever…
“Don’t worry kids; I drop him all the time.” Poor dog…
