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. Continue reading →
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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. Continue reading →
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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.’ Continue reading →
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August 3, 2013
Darren Foreman (b. 1982), better known as Beardyman, is a musician from London renowned for his beatboxing skills and use of live looping technology. He was given the nickname ‘Beardyman’ because a name was quickly needed for a flyer for an early show, and he had a beard at the time.
As well as accomplished solo beatboxer, Beardyman was inspired by MC Xander to use music technology such as the Korg Kaoss Pad 3 in order to loop and sample his vocals. Through his use of looping tools he effectively produces whole DJ sets where the records are constructed live from his vocalisations, as well as live production of original material. Continue reading →
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August 2, 2013
Primary Colors is a 1998 film based on the book ‘Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics,’ a roman à clef (novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction) about Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign in 1992, which originally had been published anonymously, but was revealed to have been written by journalist Joe Klein, who had been covering Clinton’s campaign for ‘Newsweek.’
The film was directed by Mike Nichols and starred John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Kathy Bates. Bates was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance, and the film itself was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Continue reading →
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August 2, 2013
‘Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics’ is a 1996 roman à clef, a work of fiction that purports to describe real life characters and events — namely, Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign in 1992. It has been compared to two other novels about American politics; Robert Penn Warren’s ‘All the King’s Men’ (1946) and ‘O: A Presidential Novel’ (2011). The book was originally published by an anonymous author, who was later found to be columnist Joe Klein. Klein completed a sequel of sorts, ‘The Running Mate’ in 2000, focusing on the ‘Primary Colors’ character of Charlie Martin.
An early reviewer opined that the author wished to remain unknown because ‘Anonymity makes truthfulness much easier.’ Later commentators called the publishing of the book under an anonymous identity an effective marketing strategy that produced more publicity for the book, and thus more sales, without calling into question the author’s actual inside knowledge.
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August 1, 2013
Tough love is an expression used when someone treats another person harshly or sternly with the intent to help them in the long run. The phrase was evidently coined by American politician Bill Milliken when he wrote the book ‘Tough Love’ in 1968 and has been used by numerous authors since then.
In most uses, there must be some actual love or feeling of affection behind the harsh or stern treatment to be defined as tough love. For example, genuinely concerned parents refusing to support their drug-addicted child financially until he or she enters drug rehabilitation would be said to be practicing tough love. Athletic coaches who maintain strict rules and highly demanding training regimens, but who care about their players, could also be said to be practicing tough love. Continue reading →
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