PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 136: PopStuff’s Mad Hattery
by Tracy V. Wilson | January 14, 2013
Holly and I both love a good hat, which is weird since neither of us wears them all that often. Today we’re indulging this love from afar with a look at some of culture’s most iconic hats.
Monster of the Week: Winged Devourers (Beastmaster)
by Robert Lamb | January 14, 2013
For a certain class of vorarephile, no fantasy is more enticing than one that ends inside a monster’s stomach. These strange fetishists crave the confinement of a Sarlac’s belly. They lust for the Rancor’s gaping maw. It’s totally a thing.
Yet vores rarely fantasize about the winged creatures of Don Coscarelli’s 1982 film “Beastmaster.” These nameless man-eaters haunt strange woods, worship the eagle and boast one of the more disgusting feeding methods in the monster world.
Tall, gaunt and bipedal, the monsters are unique anatomical specimens even among other monsters. For starters, their large bat-like wings grant them at least limited flight — an impressive feat for such a large organism.
But their wings have another purpose.
Blow Your Mind: Internet Belchings Friday
by Julie Douglas | January 11, 2013
It’s Friday, which means it’s time to take a step back and see what the Internets machine churned out this week. On tap: Dancing with the squids. Chromatophores bust a move. Did you get your flu shot? Bacteria, one step closer to world domination. Legendary pickpocket + military = strange bedfellows What a cluster#%*@ — [...]
At CES, tech journalists talk to each other. We share our opinions on stories, give each other a heads up if there’s something particularly interesting on the show floor and we make incredibly geeky jokes in an attempt to solicit the largest groan from the other people in the area. One discussion I found interesting was about how many journalists felt let down by the tech on display this year. It’s not that the technologies aren’t impressive. It’s more about how big companies are involved in so many lines of business they have little opportunity to stretch beyond their already massive product lines.
In our last episode, we took you on a harrowing journey through the anxiety-haunted halls of mazes.
Now it’s time for a rather different journey. Along the serene path of the labyrinth you’ll find no dead ends, no monsters, no enclosing walls or perplexing choices. Instead there’s only steady movement, steady breath, the peacefulness of your surroundings and complete submission to the winding path set before you.
PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 136: Grammar sticklers: Why so mean?
by Tracy V. Wilson | January 9, 2013
I get the e-mail from the correction inbox as part of my job. And the grammar mail … it is mean. Factual corrections are often just fine in terms of tone and helpfulness. Grammar corrections are often not. So what it is about grammar that brings out the meanest in people?
PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 135: TV Pregnancy: Why so stupid?
by Tracy V. Wilson | January 9, 2013
In case you’re in the dark on this: Pregnancies as shown on scripted TV are pretty dumb. They just don’t play out the way they do in real life … pretty much all the time. And a few recent episodes led me to need to talk about that a lot.
Walls press in around you.
Twists, turns and dead ends haunt your every decision.
And all the while your hear the echos of an Other stalking through these lifeless halls — some beast, some hybrid, some dire and inexorable force.
Two products that have gained some buzz on the showroom floor at CES this year are the Razer Edge gaming tablet and the Nvidia Shield handheld console system. Both are aimed at gamers, both put the playing experience in your hands, complete with screen. And both promise to deliver top-notch graphic performance along with smooth gameplay. Let’s take a closer look.
CES 2013: Sharp Touts New Film Based On Moth Eyes
by Jonathan Strickland | January 7, 2013
It wouldn’t be CES without a company making a weird announcement. For example, today Sharp announced that future television sets from the company will feature a special film that is modeled after the nanostructures in a moth’s eye. These structures are antireflective — they disperse light so that the moth’s position isn’t given away to a wandering predator. This inspired engineers to look into designing display surfaces with similar features to reduce reflections.
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