Tag: Movies

Robot, Heal Thyself!

Modern science has given us a substance that makes robots harder to kill. Way to go, science for giving us self-healing robots.

T-1000_002In the Terminator films, robots sent from the future to kill humans are constructed of a core of liquid metal, allowing damaged or melted robots to easily reform themselves. A group of scientists at the Cidetec Centre for Electrochemical Technologies in Spain thought that this terrifying possibility should be a reality—they’ve developed what they call a “self-healing polymer.”

The Cidetec Centre actually named their creation the Terminator Polymer, but claim their invention wasn’t made for time-travelling, human-killing robots. Instead, the goal is to improve the lifespan and durability of common plastic-and-metal consumer goods that, while expensive, frequently break, such as video game controllers, stereo speakers, and laptop computers. The Terminator polymer is reportedly the first automatically regenerating material ever designed and it’s capable of repairing imperfections in itself up to 97% in as little as

Scientists at the Cidetec Centre say that the regeneration is caused by a “metathesis reaction of aromatic disulphides, which naturally exchange at room temperature.” Or, in layman’s terms, the polymer works sort of like a combination of Velcro and a standard household sealant. In just a few years, this polymer could start popping up in everything…so watch out.

Stage Name Origins

You didn’t think his mother named him “Kid Rock,” did you? Here are some stage name origins we wrote about in the brand-new Uncle John’s Perpetually Pleasing Bathroom Reader, publishing this November.

stage name originsKID ROCK

As a teenager in Detroit in the 1980s, Robert Ritchie deejayed and breakdanced at parties in exchange for free beer. He says he often heard someone in the mostly African-American crowd remark, “Look at that white kid rock.

BRUNO MARS

The singer’s real name is Peter Hernandez. At age two, his father, a wrestling fan, started calling him “Bruno” because he resembled pro wrestler Bruno Sammartino. In 2003, when he moved from his birthplace of Hawaii to Los Angeles to make it as a singer, he added “Mars” because “a lot of girls say I’m out of this world.”

SLASH (Guns N’ Roses)

Growing up in Los Angeles, Saul Hudson’s best friend was the son of character actor Seymour Cassel (Faces, Rushmore). The actor nicknamed Saul “Slash” because, as Slash said in his memoir, “I was always in a hurry, hustling whatever it was I was hustling, and never had time to sit and chat.

Fabulous Flop: How Howard the Duck Changed Hollywood

George Lucas’ first big post-Star Wars project was an adaptation of a little-known comic book. Here’s the story of how Howard the Duck almost destroyed his career…
but led to the creation of a Hollywood goldmine.

In 1983, George Lucas released Return of the Jedi, the final movie in the Star Wars trilogy, one of the most financially successful and popular film series of all time. But how would he follow it up? In 1985, Lucas announced that he was producing a movie adaptation of the Marvel Comics cult comic book Howard the Duck.

Today, Marvel movies are hot Hollywood properties—this year’s Iron Man 3 and last year’s The Avengers are among the top 20 highest-grossing films of all time. But the very first Marvel property to be made into a movie was Howard the Duck. It was about a humanoid duck from outer space living on Earth, and he was crass, rude, and sexist. Lucas had been trying to get a movie of it made since the mid-’70s, but no studio was interested. After the success of Star Wars, Lucas could make whatever he wanted and Universal readily agreed to distribute Howard the Duck. They needed a big movie for the summer of 1986, and they were still smarting from passing on the Indiana Jones movies, which Lucas had produced and which were distributed by rival Paramount.

Iron Man vs. The Mandarin vs. Racism

Iron Man 3Surefire blockbuster Iron Man 3 gets the summer movie season going when it’s released tonight. The villain who will try to take down Tony Stark this time: The Mandarin, an original character from comic books of the 1960s. Fortunately, the blatantly racist, stereotypically Asian elements of the character have been toned down for the movies (and he’s played by Sir Ben Kingsley).

Here are couple other questionable—and offensive—comic book characters.

James Bond Exposed?

James Bond Exposed
From Flickr | By brava_67

Skyfall hit theaters in November so it should be safe to finally talk about a popular (but strange) fan theory regarding James Bond. (If you still haven’t seen the latest—and best-reviewed and highest-grossing—Bond movie ever, there’s spoilers ahead.)

Theory: There is no one real James Bond. “James Bond” and “007” are just code names used by multiple spies over the years.

A Moment of Funny

I was just doing some research for an article on—well, you’ll see in November!—when I came across a Straight Dope discussion board from February where people were talking about actors who were in the midst of making films—and died before they were finished. Brandon Lee in The Crow, Vic Morrow in The Twilight Zone, and Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 from Outer Space are mentioned. Then someone wrote this:

“Keanu Reeves died at the beginning of The Matrix, but fortunately they found a plank of wood that looked just like him.”

With all due respect to Mr. Reeves—dat funny.

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