The "Who's On First?" vaudville comedy routine evolved under various performers throughout the 1920-30s until Bud Abbott and Lou Costello perfected it in 1938, and even copyrighted it in 1944. Since then, it has inspired many imitators, as you can see in the videos below.
Seth Grahame-Smith, the man responsible for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has written a book about President Abraham Lincoln's lesser-known career (and true passion) as a vampire hunter. It will come out in March, and will provide lost documentary and photographic evidence of the true, darker war hidden behind the carnage of the Civil War.
8. The Bugs (Starship Troopers, 1997)
Approved methods of killing: Biting, slicing, dicing; rather improbably launching flaming projectiles at spaceships in orbit out of the tail end of their digestive systems.
Pros: These babies can kill 100,000 humans an hour, so you'll likely die with friends.
Cons: As you die you'll wonder if this isn't some sort of karmic retribution for that time as a kid with an anthill and a magnifying lens (answer: Oh, you betcha).
Chris Sims at Comics Alliance has a lengthy post detailing what he thinks were the most badass and most ridiculous members of the Green Lantern Corps. I agree with his last decision: that the baddest ringbearer wasn't even a member of the Corps.
Topless Robot recently held a contest asking readers to write commandments that all geeks should follow. Actually, TR prefers the term "nerd", but, like, whatever. We won't get into that debate today. Here are some of my favorites from the winners, with my comments.1) Thou must experience as many nerdy properties as possible throughout your youth (nerdy parents must assist with this). By the age of 20, you must have chosen at least two sides of the following: Star Wars or Star Trek, Kirk or Picard, Marvel or DC, Mac or PC, Trukk or Munkey, Baker or Tennant, and Joel or Mike. If these topics come up, you must argue your choice past all reasonableness.
4) Thou must try to convince your significant other to name the child after a character of nerdy importance. If thou are cut from the cloth of the nerd tribe and have managed to breed, , and bringeth into the world the Lando's, the Anakin's, the Kal-Els.
9) Thou shalt not forget to honor and give thanks to the Dice Gods for your triumphs and victories.
11) Shouldst thou hear a man proclaim, "Now you know," for whatever reason, then thou must reply in your most triumphant voice, "And knowing is half the battle!" Let he who should offend against this law be cast out from the company of his worthier fellows and be made subject to aspersions made 'gainst his improper rearing and the cuckolding whore that did sire him and perform the rearing.
14) Thy first crush must be upon an cartoon character.
Kevin T. Singer filed a lawsuit against officials at Wisconsin's Waupun prison after a policy was initiated in 2004 to eradicate all Dungeons and Dragons game materials among concerns that playing it promotes gang-related activity.
The 33-year-old Singer is a devoted player of the fantasy role-playing game that involves recruiting others to play as a group. He argued that his First Amendment rights were being violated and demanded that Dungeons and Dragons material confiscated from his cell be returned.
You can listen to a podcast of Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, the great Wil Weaton, and other geek celebrities play Dungeons & Dragons.
This Recording proposes a list of the one hundred greatest science fiction and fantasy novels. Here are the first ten:
One thing to note is Michael J. Fox is only slightly bigger than an average sized wolf. So, his wolf powers are slightly increased from a regular wolf. Still this is more than enough for Fox to dunk. If all things stay proportional, a teen wolf should be able to jump up to 13 feet, or a 77” vertical. This is calculated for a four legged spring. Two legs could be half as powerful making only a 39" jump, not enough for the Foxy one to dunk. But considering that most of the leaping power is in the back legs probably only a third of leaping strength would be lost. That's a 51" leap and more than enough to slam dunk.
At IGN, David Clayman and Ryan Geddes have compiled a list of the best non-existent video games that have appeared in movies and TV shows. Two are from The Simpsons, including this one:From: The Simpsons
Notable quote: "Tell your parents, 'Buy me Bonestorm, or go to Hell!'"
This fighting game features multi-armed creatures punching each other in the face while blood and body parts rain from the sky. It is a thinly veiled reference to Mortal Kombat, which actually has the exact same feature set. Bonestorm first came into existence during the holiday season of 1995. In The Simpsons: Episode 138, Bart sees and ad for the game on television and begs Marge to buy it for him. Upon her refusal, he shoplifts the game and enters a downward spiral of guilt. Bart's ultimate redemption results in one of our other entries, Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge (see below).
Well, duh:Specifically, the better a person is at video games, the bigger their striatum tends to be. That portion of the brain is nestled inside the cerebral cortex--the lobe responsible for higher brain functions. And the study adds ballast to the hypothesis that the striatum is linked to how well a person is able to refine their motor skills, learn new skills, and invent useful strategies for a changing environment.[...]
Here's how the study was conducted. Study participants with minimal videogame experience were asked to play a game, Space Fortress (pictured at left). Researchers then scanned two parts of the striatum, the nucleus accumbens and the putamen. The first region deals with the pleasure the brain feels at achieving a specific goal. People who were well-endowed in that region did better in early stages of the game, when they were still learning. Those that were gifted in both regions did best at both learning the game, and adapting to its changing complexity.
Lisa Courtney is listed as having the biggest Pokémon collection in the world – 12,113 items – in the new edition of the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, published today.
The 21-year-old, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, has spent 13 years building up the collection which she said has swelled to more than 13,400 since it was counted by Guinness record-checkers last year and fills most of the house she shares with mother Sharon.
I had no idea:In recent years, the 72-year-old actor has become something of a renaissance man: in 2007 he wrote, directed and scripted a film called Slipstream. Last year, his composition The Masque of Time was given its world premiere by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Now there's the painting.
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