A substantial majority of my two or three regular readers (yeah looking at you Ed and Eric) are hardcore fans of Back to the Future and its two sequels. Well, all that mucking around with history can be a pain to keep up with for some people, so a smart dude named Sean Mort has put together a terrific timeline chart of the Back to the Future saga, taking into account the events of all eight different timelines! Seriously, I had no idea there were...
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Color photographs of the Great Depression
How easy it is to think of eras gone by as being more drab and subdued than our own time. Especially the Great Depression: I think imagining it as being all black and white must be the "default" setting in the minds of many.And then photos like this of a grocery store in Washington D.C., taken in 1941, show us otherwise...Between 1939 and 1943 the Farm Security Administration...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The ______Act of___ passed by U.S. Senate
That's it. I've had it. Throw the whole sorry lot of 'em out. ALL of them. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. Show them no quarter.And whoever among our legislators were so irresponsible in voting for this, should have the word "STOOPID" branded into their foreheads so that the rest of humanity will know to steer clear of them forevermore amen.Call it "The Law With No Name" (sounds like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington directed by Sergio Leone)....
A new model of quantum physics has begun formulating in my mind
It had been percolating across my gray matter for the past several weeks. It started when I found myself contemplating certain problems with the forces of gravity and electromagnetism.About 3:30 a.m. this morning a possible solution was hit upon. Doesn't look like it's the re-invention of Wheeler foam. Not yet anyway. I can't help but think it's too much like that and at the same time it's more than a tad different.I'll probably be pondering...
Monday, August 09, 2010
One state's wonky finances: Hawaii has $1.4 BILLION in unspent revenue (but the politicians want MORE taxes!)
Ten years ago this summer I went to work as a full-time reporter. It was with a... well let's just say they don't make outfits like this anymore. Probably one of the last of the newspapers with that old-school journalistic 'tude. Anyhoo, my very first assignment was to investigate the budget that the General Assembly had proposed for North Carolina's next fiscal term.A full decade later and I still get fits of anger just thinking about the crap...
Arguments to the contrary are most welcome...
One who believes a vote must be chosen between two parties in order to win has already lo...
Movie posters rendered in LEGO
Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs is one of Amusing Planet's collection of 26 movie posters recreated with LEGO bricks and minifigs. Also in the set: Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds and Kill Bill Volume 2, Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Forrest Gump.Hat tip to Chad Austin for the great fi...
BLACKSTAR WARRIOR: A Star Wars blaxploitation trailer. 'Nuff said.
"Get between this brotha and his woman, and space ain't black enough to hide from him!"About time somebody made a fan film about Lando Calrissian going up against the m...
Saturday, August 07, 2010
In memory of Mike Ashley
"The good die young."Those were the words of my grandmother, twenty-five years ago this evening. And when those words were the most semblance of comfort that an eleven-year old kid had to grasp - even if he didn't really understand what it meant at the time - on what was at the time the absolute worst day of his life......well, they kinda stick with ya, even a quarter century later.Heck, I can even still remember what I was wearing that day, what...
Friday, August 06, 2010
ABC's V next season featuring the return of Jane Badler!
Yeah you read it right. And not only that but Badler will again be playing evil Visitor baddie Diana: the role that she is still notorious for nearly thirty years later. In the relaunched series however Diana will be the mother of Anna (Morena Baccarin's character), the Visitor who's been leading the invasion of Earth. So it's two different characters, but each named Diana and each played by Jane Badler. Got it?Ain't It Cool News has more info,...
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH: Epic television we haven't seen in DECADES
Who'da thought that the story about the building of a church would make for the grandest use of the television medium since Lonesome Dove and War and Remembrance more than twenty years ago?The best thing on the tube this summer in this blogger's opinion is without a doubt The Pillars of the Earth, currently running on the Starz channels. Based on Ken Follett's bestselling...
The 367 miles per hour school bus
Sporting a jet engine from a Phantom fighter plane, this school bus that Paul Stender and his team at Indy Boys Inc. out of Indianapolis hacked together can reach speeds up to 367 miles per hour!!The downside is that top speed is sustainable only for a half-mile. And it takes 150 gallons of fuel to reach it. But that's gotta be a hella scary ride for any kiddies that might...
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Happy 80th Birthday to Neil Armstrong
The Knight Shift and its eclectic proprietor would like to join the very many other admirers of Dr. Neil Armstrong in wishing him all the best on his 80th birthday tod...
Proposition 8, states rights, and the end of jury nullification
Two things that trouble me about California's Proposition 8 - the "gay marriage" ban - being struck down yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker...The first is that a single member of the federal judiciary is empowered to render null and void the vote of more than 7 million voters in a matter pertaining to their own state of residence.The other thing is that even as this is being cheered in some quarters as a "victory" for certain individuals,...
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Huh?!? So the plot for INCEPTION was already done in a Scrooge McDuck comic book?!?
Yesterday the Internets were lit up about how Christopher Nolan's new film Inception shared some common elements with one of Bill Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.If you thought that was a honkin' big coincidence, wait'll you get a load of this 'un...Those same sharp lads at GeekTyrant have scored another find. The whole plot of Inception is eerily similar to Dream...
Darth Plagueis novel WILL be published after all!
James Luceno is a happy man: word came out a few days ago that his long-simmering Star Wars novel about Darth Plagueis is going to be published at last! Release date at the moment: February 28th, 2012.That's a year and a half from now, but given what we've gone through already to see this book happen, it ain't so bad. Around the same time that Star Wars Episode III: Revenge...
