August 6, 2013
‘Days of Future Past‘ is a popular storyline in the Marvel Comics comic book ‘The Uncanny X-Men’ issues #141 and #142, published in 1981. It deals with a dystopian alternative future in which mutants are incarcerated in internment camps. An adult Kate Pryde transfers her mind into her younger self, the present-day Kitty Pryde, who brings the X-Men to prevent a fatal moment in history which triggers anti-mutant hysteria.
The storyline was very popular at the time and was produced during the franchise’s rapid rise to popularity due to the writer/artist team of Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin. As a result of the storyline’s popularity, the dark future seen in the story has been revisited numerous times. This reality in which the story occurs is designated ‘Earth-811’ in the Marvel Multiverse.
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August 6, 2013
Weapon X is a fictional clandestine government genetic research facility project in Marvel Comics. They are conducted by the Canadian Government’s Department K, which turns willing and unwilling beings into living weapons. The project often captures mutants and experiments on them to enhance their superpowers, turning them into weapons. They also mutate baseline humans. The Weapon X Project produced Wolverine, Leech, and other characters such as Deadpool and Sabretooth.
Experiment X, or the brutal adamantium-skeletal bonding process, written by Barry Windsor-Smith in his classic story ‘Weapon X’ (originally published in ‘Marvel Comics Presents’ #72-84 in 1991), was eventually revealed as part of the ‘Weapon X Project.’ Grant Morrison’s run on ‘New X-Men’ in 2002 further revealed that Weapon X was only the tenth of an entire series of such projects, collectively known as the Weapon Plus Program. The first project, Weapon I, pertained to the Super Soldier Project that created Captain America.
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August 6, 2013
Adamantium is a fictitious indestructible metal alloy in the Marvel Comics Universe. It is best known for being the substance bonded to the character Wolverine’s skeleton and bone claws. The first use of the term adamantium in Marvel Comics was in ‘Avengers’ #66 (1969), where it refers to part of Ultron’s outer shell.
In the Marvel Universe, adamantium is a group of man-made metal alloys of varying durability, but are all nearly indestructible. Adamantium was inadvertently invented by the American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain in an attempt to recreate his prior discovery, a unique alloy of steel and vibranium (which required an unknown catalyst for its manufacture) that was used to create Captain America’s shield.
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August 6, 2013
Blockbuster, as applied to film, theater, and sometimes also video games, denotes a very popular or successful production. The term began to appear in the American press in the early 1940s, describing the largest of aerial bombs: single bombs capable of destroying a city block, also known as ‘cookies’ during the firebombing of Hamburg. Later figurative use referred to anything making a public impact:
‘Broadway reacted to the request of War Mobilization Director Byrnes to close all places of entertainment by midnight Feb. 26 as if a blockbuster had landed on Manhattan’ (1945). Some entertainment histories cite it as originally referring to a play that is so successful that competing theaters on the block are ‘busted’ and driven out of business, but the OED cites a 1957 use which is simply as a term of ‘biggest,’ after the bombs.
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August 6, 2013
Super Soaker is a brand of recreational water gun, first sold in 1990 by Larami and now produced by Hasbro under the Nerf brand. Invented by engineer Lonnie Johnson in 1982, the first Super Soaker went on sale in 1989. The Super Soaker 50, was originally called the Power Drencher. Rebranding the name to Super Soaker occurred in 1991 together with a series of TV advertisements. The first Super Soaker blasters utilized manually pressurized air to shoot water with greater power, range, and accuracy than conventional squirt pistols.
Super Soakers were popular for many years – so popular, in fact, that the term super soaker is sometimes used generically, to refer to any type of toy pressurized water gun. The brand was further popularized in the 1990s by Michael Jackson, who cited it as one of his favorite toys.
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August 6, 2013
‘Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters’ is a 2011 American documentary film that follows the lives of several gamers from around the country as they prepare to compete in the 2010 ‘Classic Tetris World Championship’ held in Los Angeles.
It recounts the development and rise of Tetris as one of the most-played video games of all-time, the role it has played in shaping the lives of the gamers it chronicles, the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of former Nintendo World Champion Thor Aackerlund, and the conception and execution of the first ever Classic Tetris World Championship by gaming enthusiast Robin Mihara.
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August 5, 2013
A megachurch is a church having 2,000 or more congregants in average weekend attendance. The Hartford Institute’s database lists more than 1,300 such Protestant churches in the United States. According to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have attendance ranging from 10,000 to 47,000. While 3,000 individual Catholic parishes (churches) have 2,000 or more attendants for an average Sunday Mass, these churches are not seen as part of the megachurch movement.
Globally, these large congregations are a significant development in Protestant Christianity. In the United States, the number of megachurches has more than quadrupled in the past two decades. The phenomenon has since spread worldwide. In 2007, five of the ten largest Protestant churches were in South Korea. The largest megachurch in the United States is Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas with more than 40,000 members every weekend and the current largest megachurch in the world is South Korea’s Yoido Full Gospel Church, with more than 830,000 members as of 2007.
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August 4, 2013
Televangelism [tel-i-van-juh-liz-uhm] is the use of television to communicate Christianity. The word is a portmanteau of television and evangelism and was coined by ‘Time’ magazine. Televangelists are Christian ministers who devote a large portion of their ministry to television broadcasting. The term is also used derisively by critics as an insinuation of aggrandizement by such ministers.
Televangelism began as a peculiarly American phenomenon, resulting from a largely deregulated media where access to television networks and cable TV is open to virtually anyone who can afford it, combined with a large Christian population that is able to provide the necessary funding. However, the increasing globalization of broadcasting has enabled some American televangelists to reach a wider audience through international broadcast networks, including some that are specifically Christian in nature, such as Trinity Broadcasting Network and The God Channel.
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August 4, 2013
A gluten-free diet is a diet that excludes foods containing gluten. Gluten is a protein complex found in wheat (including ancient varieties: kamut and spelt), barley, rye, and triticale (a wheat/rye hybrid). A gluten-free diet is the only medically accepted treatment for celiac disease (an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages).
Being gluten intolerant can often mean a person may also be wheat intolerant as well as suffer from the related inflammatory skin condition dermatitis herpetiformis (chronic blistering). A smaller minority of people who suffer from wheat intolerance alone are tolerant to gluten. Despite unknown benefits for the general population, and evidence to suggest adverse effects, a significant demand has developed for gluten-free food in the United States.
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August 4, 2013
Drift Trikes are tricycles that have slick rear wheels, normally made from a hard plastic, most often PVC. Proper drift trike wheels can also be created by sliding PVC or polyethylene pipe over deflated pneumatic wheels and then re-inflating them to lock them in place.
They are designed to drift, by intentionally initiating loss of traction to the rear wheels and counter-steering to negotiate corners. They are usually ridden on paved roads with steep downhill gradients, with corners and switchbacks. Smooth roads are preferred to coarse chip sealed roads, as coarse surfaces tend to wear rear wheels faster, create a rougher ride and reduce drifting ability.
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August 4, 2013
New York Street Games is a 2010 documentary film directed by Matt Levy about children’s games played by kids in New York City for centuries. The story is brought to the present with discussions of the current role of street games and opinions as to what kids lose by not having the freedom to play without adult supervision, most importantly the social skills developed when kids could play in the streets.
Many of the ball games featured are most often played with a pink rubber ball called a Spaldeen. Games covered include Stickball, Ringolevio, Stoopball, Kick the can, Punchball, Hopscotch, Slapball, Hit the Stick, Skully, Double Dutch, Johnny on a Pony, Boxball, Steal the Bacon, Ace-King-Queen, Red Rover, Off the Wall, and Box Baseball.
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August 4, 2013
Stoopball is a pickup neighborhood game played by throwing a ball against the stairs of a residential dwelling. The game is also known as ‘Off the Point.’
Historically, it rose to popularity in Brooklyn and other inner cities after WWII. The rules are based loosely on baseball. The object of the game is to score the most runs in 9 innings. One player is the ‘batter’ and the other players the ‘fielders.’
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