Lots of iconic stuff is adapted from other iconic stuff – Jaws the movie from “Jaws” the novel, the Pirates Of The Caribbean skeleton monsters from Keith Richards, and the works of Terry Gilliam from full-blown dementia. But not these. These iconic works are adapted from … well, weird crap. Crap you’d never think to adapt to film,…
Author: Mike Floorwalker
The scientific method is all about getting to the bottom of questions large and small. It will be an invaluable tool for as long as there are questions to be answered. That’ll be until such time as science gives us a quantum computer that can compute the Universe. And then, said computer will still be an end…
It’s the consensus of the scientific community that not only is global climate change actually happening, but that it is a direct result of human activities; further, that its effects are likely irreversible. A recent U.N. panel warned that without a global effort to reduce emissions and implement clean energy initiatives, we, our children, our…
Sometimes, when people take their own lives, it’s not difficult to understand how it could have happened. While suicide is obviously never the answer, there are always those who we think should have been saved- those who broadcast self-destructive behavior loudly and clearly, and inevitably and unfortunately follow through. Other times it’s tougher to understand,…
Records are made to be broken. Some, however, take way longer than others. You can run the world’s fastest marathon in about two hours or so, which is nothing. Get back to us when you’ve entered the Guinness Book for something that requires COMMITMENT.
On paper, Zero Tolerance in schools sounds good. Classroom violence and brutality has gone too far, and by gum we won’t let it stand even one more time! However, in practice it fails far too often, as perfectly innocent accidents and misunderstandings get treated like major crimes, ruining lives for little reason other than “we gotta look tough, dang it.”
It’s always a horrible casualty when a police officer is forced to shoot a suspect to death. But when word gets out that the shooting might not have been necessary at all, things become even worse. And when you realize that this kind of thing happens a LOT, that pit in your stomach drops deepest of all.
Entertainment today is so advanced, and evolves at such a rapid pace, that it’s easy to take it all for granted. Here’s a tribute to the trailblazers of the past, the ones who helped make our high-tech, high-def world possible in the first place.
Exploitation films are not for the weak of heart, weak of stomach, or weak of anything really. Filled with blood, guts, violence, and horrible death, these movies are made specifically to churn stomachs and make you glad you’re not any of the characters. here are ten of the worst.
We rarely think of ice unless we’re using one to cool down our drinks, or cursing when we slip on some and fall on our butts. But there’s way more to frozen water than meets the eye, both on our world and far beyond.
Sometimes, history will unfairly relegate certain people to categories into which they do not belong, and if you’ve read the title of this article, you’ve got a great context for that random observation. It’s one thing to unfairly be labeled a serial killer or to forever be associated with appalling crimes you probably were not exactly…
Not every statue is of a heroic warrior, or is a symbol of freedom, love, and hope. Sometimes, statues are just, well, bizarre. They’re the kinds of things that, if you ever learned what the sculptor was thinking about as he chiseled away, you might never sleep again.
If you heard that someone, say, had no hands, that probably would disqualify them from being a master pianist, right? WRONG. As these people prove, anyone can be successfu at anything, even if their own bodies and minds are working against them.
The story song is one of the most difficult feats for writers of lyrics to pull off effectively. Crafting a memorable narrative with a coherently defined beginning, middle, and end is difficult enough for writers of straight fiction, without taking pesky things like rhyme and meter into account. Of course, the point of highest dramatic…
Recently, three women who had been kidnapped separately over a decade ago were found alive and well, and the brothers who had kidnapped them all were jailed. It was a shocking but welcome turn of events, as the loved ones of those who are kidnapped too seldom receive this kind of news. It’s more common than…
Major disasters involving planes, trains, buses and ocean liners get plenty of media coverage, which has a way of making us more concerned about these modes of transport than we should be, since people are generally terrible at calculating probability. This doesn’t make our hesitation to jump on a plane after seeing a news item…
Some actors are chameleons. Upon first viewing of any movie Gary Oldman has ever been in, you likely found yourself asking, “Is that- is that Gary Oldman?” Then exclaiming, “Holy crap, that’s Gary Oldman!” Other actors are whatever the opposite of a chameleon is. basically playing themselves role after role, and not always convincingly. Hey,…
There exists an odd relationship between documentarian and subject, one that some say can border on the exploitative. While the project should ideally be mutually beneficial, the nature of the medium can make it feel quite a bit less so at times for one side or the other (or both). In general, documentarians tend to…
Lots of iconic stuff is adapted from other iconic stuff – Jaws the movie from “Jaws” the novel, the Pirates Of The Caribbean skeleton monsters from Keith Richards, and the works of Terry Gilliam from full-blown dementia. But not these. These iconic works are adapted from … well, weird crap. Crap you’d never think to adapt to film,…
When most people hear the term “Hip-Hop,” they think of the musical form that, within the last twenty years or so, has slowly risen to dominate pop music. Go back any further than that, and this form was still being called “rap music” and had censors and parental groups in a serious tizzy. While “Hip-hop”…
Nobody wants to be a jailbird when they grow up, but people who do end up there for any length of time are often regular people who made a stupid mistake, and deserve to pay for it. Not these people. Sure, some of them made really boneheaded plays; some of them even deserve derision and ridicule.…
Since sixteen and three-quarter billion pro sporting contests take place each year worldwide (give or take,) weird little coincidences take place all the time. For example, it’s our understanding that two different guys named Manning have won three Super Bowls between them since 2006. What are the chances, right? The only more unlikely thing we…