Oh sure, you've heard the joke quite a few times after the game Battleship was made into a feature film. The trailer here is a joke, from Film School Rejects. But the Hungry Hungry Hippos movie is really supposed to happen.
Hasbro, the company behind the hits "Transformers" and "G.I. Joe" and the flop "Battleship," has signed a deal with independent production and finance company Emmett/Furla Films to make movies based on the board games Hungry Hungry Hippos and Monopoly and the toy Action Man.
Rhode Island-headquartered Hasbro, which has a film production office at the Universal Pictures lot, announced the three-picture deal Thursday and confirmed that the first movie will be "Monopoly," which the two companies hope to start production on in 2013.
Monopoly, under producer Ridley Scott, was already in development at Universal and will continue with Emmett/Furla Films as co-producer. Link -via Buzzfeed
Yeah, that's pretty much a question you known the answer to: no, and not many of them ever did. But the cliche came from somewhere, and Slate explains.
Before Communists, the first “card-carrying” groups tended to be members of labor unions, and often members used the cards openly to claim union jobs. Perhaps the earliest mention of “card-carrying” union members came in a 1912 Daily People article, which described how “ ‘Union-card’ carrying members” of certain labor unions were occasionally able to get elected to Congress. A 1918 New York Tribune article described members of the Industrial Workers of the World as “red-card-carrying ‘wobblies,’ ” referring to the members by their popular nickname and red membership cards. In 1927, all “card-carrying members” of the secret organization United Farmers reportedly received discounts from local merchants.
Read the rest of the article to learn how the phrase became linked to Communists of the Red Scare. Link -via mental_floss
About two dozen ducks had reached adulthood without ever having the opportunity to swim. They (along with 100 other birds) were confiscated from an animal hoarder by the Ulster County SPCA and lodged with Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. Of course, the flock was apprehensive about going into the water at first, but once one of them decided it was fun, the rest soon did as well. Read the whole story at the sanctuary site. Link -via Daily of the Day
Did you happen to go see Star Wars on its opening weekend in San Francisco in 1977? Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle found and posted photos of the crowds at the Coronet Theater waiting to see the new film Star Wars, and he wants to find those folks. Even if you weren't there, you'll want to see the pictures. Oh, and you'll definitely get a kick out of the newspaper ads for the movie -one describes Darth Vader as a metallic star creature. Link -via Laughing Squid
Hi Neatoramanauts! Ain't October great? It's the internet's fun time month, in which we get to wallow in horror and cosplay and zombies to our heart's content. But the other October holiday us this week. We Americans of a certain age grew up generation after generation hearing "Columbus discovered America." That's where our American history classes started. But that statement is not only wildly ethnocentric, it's untrue. Some places instead call the holiday Discoverer's Day, Native American Day, or Indigenous People's Day. Plus, Columbus landed on October 12th, but we take a day off on October 8th, or whatever the nearest Monday is. And that also happens to be Canadian Thanksgiving Day. So if you're not celebrating Columbus Day, you can join me in being thankful for Canadians. Meanwhile, let's take a look at some of the things that went on this week at Neatorama.
In this week's What Is It? game, the pictured object is an exact replica demonstration model of the original Telstar satellite, launched in 1962. The real satellite was only about twice as big. Craig Clayton knew that, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The funniest answer came from The Professor, who won a t-shirt when he said, "This is the Death Star's lesser known cousin, the Mildly-Irritating Toothache Star." There were a lot of other great guesses; you should read them all. See the answers to all this week's mystery items at the What Is It? blog. And thanks for playing along!
Over at the Neatorama Halloween blog, we found recipes for Monster Boogers, Meatloaf Hand, and Peanut Butter Eyeballs. We saw how one guy decorated his home with real giant spiders. And, of course, there were awesome ideas for and pictures of Halloween costumes for adults, kids, and pets. You should check out the Halloween blog every day!
The post with the most comments this week was Skull Bone Transplanted Twice, followed by Want to Encourage Cycling? Forget about Helmets. We welcome your contributions, and comments are the easiest way for us to find out what you want to see here. But you can also communicate your approval simply by clicking the ♥ at the top of posts you like.
If you see something we should know about, something really neat, tell us about it by emailing tips@neatorama.com and you might see it posted here real soon! Also, have you checked out all the new Halloween costumes, party supplies, and home decor items at the NeatoShop? You don't want to miss out on what you've been looking for!
Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadian Neatoramanauts!
You've seen the Useless Machine here before, more than once. But what if you hooked two of them together? It's been done, but this is an extensive video clip from the folks who make the machines. No, you don't have to watch the whole eleven minutes if you don't want. There are technical difficulties at about 8:30 and 9:30, but they were worked out. No word on how long the batteries lasted. -via Boing Boing
Is this the coolest-looking dog ever or what? Baffy is a bomb-sniffing dog, posted to reddit by his fellow soldier guynamedgriffin. He tells us Baffy came to him already named, so he doesn't know the reason behind it, and that Baffy has already identified about 45 bombs. He also says:
Yes the terrain can be rugged at times, so the boots protect his paws, they also help when he is kicking ass.
In the early 20th century, theaters were already showing animated films on the big screen, but the characters were usually no more than spokesdrawings for various advertisers. That is, until Winsor McCay drew his way onto the scene in 1914. The legendary cartoonist, who’d earlier become famous with his classic comic strip, “Little Nemo,” believed that animated characters could hold an audience’s attention without the help of a sales pitch. With that in mind, McCay created the groundbreaking film Gertie the Dinosaur.
The most innovative part about the movie’s animation was the way McCay interacted with it. Gertie actually started out as part of McCay’s “chalk talk” vaudeville act, and rather than having Gertie attempt talking via speech balloons, McCay spoke for both of them. Standing on stage next to a projected image of the dinosaur and holding a whip, he would bark out commands like, “Dance, Gertie!” Then, suddenly, the image would change and she would obey. In another sequence, McCay would toss an apple behind the screen and the impish dinosaur would appear to catch it in her mouth.
Eventually, McCay was ready to let Gertie loose on the big screen by herself. Using cell animation and drawing thousands of illustrations of his beloved dinosaur, he turned Gertie into one of the first successful character-based animated cartoons. With such ingenuity and style, it’s clear why McCay was often called “The Father of American Cartoons.”
2. 1920s: Charles Lindbergh and the Queen Fall for the Same Cat
Because live-action films were such a big hit with moviegoers, early cartoon characters were often modeled on popular actors of the day. One such cartoon character was Master Tom—a black feline with enormous eyes and an inviting ear-to-ear grin. His creator, legendary animator Otto Messmer, based the cat’s personality on silent-film star Charlie Chaplin. Fitting because, within a year, a slightly boxier version of the cat, now named Felix, started appearing regularly in animated shorts before Chaplin’s feature films.
The fact that cartoon characters were still speaking in speech balloons hardly affected Felix’s popularity. By 1923, the cat’s star power at the box office rivaled not only Chaplin’s, but Buster Keaton’s and Fatty Arbuckle’s, as well. From Germany to China, people were fascinated by the technology that enabled Felix to take his tail off and turn it into a pencil or a question mark or a shovel, and they couldn’t wait to see what gags Messmer would dream up next. In fact, the wily feline became such a celebrity in Great Britain that Queen Mary named her own cat after him. Back in America, Felix’s popularity continued to soar, literally, as a picture of him accompanied Charles Lindbergh on his historic flight across the Atlantic. The character’s adventures didn’t stop there, though; Felix was also the first image ever successfully transmitted by RCA during its early TV experiments.
Although Walt Disney’s impact on the world of animation can’t be downplayed, much of the credit for the studio’s trademark style belongs to animator Ub Iwerks. A boyhood pal of Walt’s, Iwerks served as Disney’s right hand man. And where Disney had the business sense, Iwerks had the technical know-how to create characters that moved with fresh elasticity. Mickey Mouse’s predecessor, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was Iwerks’ creation. Oswald had big floppy ears that appeared almost rubbery when he walked. So while characters like Felix the Cat might have squeezed themselves through telephone lines, Disney characters had a softer profile. Ultimately, it upped the hugability factor, and that paid off with a whole new audience—children.
Punctuation adds a lot of clarity and meaning to our writing. Can we add more? There are quite a few lesser-known punctuation marks we should be using to dress up our essays, correspondence, blog posts, and texts with. See those marks? Find out what they all mean at mental_floss. Link
This tiny island in the South Pacific may soon be completely uninhabitable, and it's all because the locals forgot to follow the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared. Since the turn of the 20th century, Nauru has been one of the world's prime sources for phosphate, a mineral compound formed over time from bird excrement, and an important ingredient in fertilizer. Phosphate mining quickly made Nauru rich, and at one point, the island even boasted the world's second-highest per capita GDP. But, as it turns out, basing your entire economy on dung can have its drawbacks.
For one thing, phosphate is a limited resource. By 2000, many believed the island's supply had dried up. In fact, all mining ceased until the government managed to hunt down the last few traces of the mineral in 2006. But the phosphate will soon be gone, leaving Nauru without a profitable export and without decent, farmable land. That's because phosphate runs in veins throughout the limestone and coral foundation of the island. To collect it, miners have to rip up the ground, leaving pillars and pits of less-valuable land behind. About four-fifths of the island is now ravaged to the point that no crops can grow and no one can inhabit it. Worse, the ruined landscape collects heat, which ends up creating a pattern of warm air that prevents rain clouds from forming. Currently, Nauru imports almost all its food and water, and there don't seem to be any industries poised to replace mining once the phosphate is gone.
The Dead Sea is famous for being the lowest point on Earth (an ear-popping 1,400 feet below sea level) and for being so salty that humans naturally float on top of it. But in recent years, it's also become famous for the tremendous rate at which it's evaporating. Currently, the Sea recedes about 3 feet each year, leaving ever-growing plains of salty, puckered, sinkhole-prone dirt in its wake. To really understand the phenomenon, tourists need only visit the Ein Gedi Spa. When it opened 20 years ago, you could step out the back door and be within a few feet of the salty water. But today, the Sea has receded so much that the trek to its shore amounts to a 1-mile hike.
The Dead Sea's imminent demise is also due to its neighbors' need for water. For the past several decades, Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians have been siphoning off more and more of the River Jordan -- the Dead Sea's primary water source. Growing populations and increased agriculture now require so much hydration that the Jordan is barely a trickle of its former self. Several solutions have been suggested, but the most promising is a canal that would funnel water from the Red Sea to the Middle East. The only problem is that the plan relies on Israel, Palestine, and Jordan engaging in long-term friendly relations -- something that may not happen in time to save the treasured landmark.
We've all felt that "sinking" feeling in the pit of our stomachs before, but imagine having it under the soles of your shoes -- all the time. That's part of life in Mexico City, which is built on the site of a former lake. In fact, the city was originally built on the lake, via a series of Aztec-designed aquatic platforms. Nifty as that was, the Spanish conquerors who tore through the land in the 16th century preferred a more traditional approach to urbanization, so they drained the lake and built a European-style city in the empty basin. Almost immediately, this proved to be a poor idea. Foundations sank into the soft clay and left many buildings tilting at odd angles.
That alone might have made Mexico City just a little eccentric -- charming, even. But as its population ballooned during the 20th century, the government had to search for new sources of water. Officials ended up pumping much of the city's supply out of the underground aquifer that had once fed the lake, which amounted to yet another bad idea. As the aquifer emptied, the soft clay above sank faster and deeper. In the past century, Mexico City has sunk more than 30 feet. Even worse, there's no clear, practical plan today for how to stop the droop and still provide water for the area's 22 million people. We suggest you run for the border with a camera and click some pics while you still can.
Watson is a three-legged stray that was picked up by Eldad Hagar of Hope for Paws. My dog had a leg amputated this past summer, and as much veterinary care and family support as she needed, I can hardly imagine a little dog going through that all alone. Watson is understandably frightened, but hungry for the cheeseburger he was offered. The end of this video may very make you cry. Watson is ready for adoption through The Bill Foundation. Link -via Daily of the Day
Many cities and towns around the world have a link to another city or town far away, for friendship and cultural exchanges. The village of Glenelg, on the western coast of Scotland, has announced it will “twin” with another place with the same name. Glenelg, Mars, is the designated name of the spot that the Mars Curiosity rover is headed toward.
The valley of Glenelg has been so-called for two reasons.
Firstly, the robot will visit the location twice on its journey to and from a Martian mountain, Mount Sharp, and this coming and going inspired the rover team to use a palindrome, a word which reads the same forwards and backwards.
Secondly, all features around the crater being examined have been given names associated with a place called Yellowknife in northern Canada, where Glenelg is the name of a geological feature.
Officials in Glenelg, the Scottish one, announced that an official “twinning” ceremony will take place on October 20th. Although there will be no Martian natives at the ceremony, American astronaut Bonnie Dunbar will attend. Link -via Arbroath
The Sunflower Star is a starfish with up to 26 arms -and it can grow up to a meter wide! Those little waving "feet"? It can have up to 15,000 of those, which they use to draw its prey near enough to eat. The Vancouver Aquarium tells us how it eats:
The sunflower star also uses those tube feet to pry a live clam (its favourite food) apart before pushing its stomach out of its mouth and inside the clam, digesting the hapless clam in its own shell (the sunflower star digests its food outside of its body).
On October 5, 1962, a 45rpm single was released called "Love Me Do," with "P.S. I Love You" on the B-side. It was the very first Beatles single, and it peaked at #17 on the British pop charts. The song went to #1 in the U.S. two years later. The song, written by teenagers John Lennon and Paul McCartney years earlier, was pretty nondescript compared to their later music, but it marked the beginning of a decade-long phenomenon in pop music. The Beatles reached unprecedented popularity in the music industry and are to this day the best-selling band in history. Link -via Metafilter
To celebrate this milestone, we present some of the many posts we've done on the Beatles for your edification and entertainment.
