Servicing Your Spaceship

Picture the scene. It’s 2575 and you’ve taken your ship out for a spin around Jupiter. There’s a light flashing in the cockpit, and you’re not sure what it means. Worried that you’ll need to ask for the space equivalent of a jump-start next time you need to take off, you decide it’s time for a service.

Not all of us have a Wookiee that owes us a life-debt and is happy to follow us around the galaxy repairing the hyperdrive. So, for those of us that have to make our own repairs, here’s a few tips:

UK: A Guide to 'Sing-a-Long' Musicals

Image via Wikipedia

This is a short guide to 'Sing-a-long' Musicals in London's West End. If you enjoy a good 'Sing-a-long' musical then these are the names to seek out! If you are traveling, the musical theatre is an amazing thing to take in, while you stay in London town. They are equally great, if you reside near or in London locally. So many are the reasons to attend the live London theatre.

These are some sound suggestions, if you are not familiar with the London West End scene. These are both for the seasoned theatre goer and the uninitiated audience member. If you enjoy a good 'Sing-a-long' musical, all of these are recommended.

There's Something About Monsters...

Throughout cinema history, our screens have been stalked by a generous selection of infamous and recognisable ghoulish and ghastly creatures. Be it the original creature of the night 'Nosferatu' or the early 1941 imagining of 'The Wolf Man', these creatures have stood the test of time and have provoked enough screams over the years to establish 'horror' as a successful genre in its own right. As time progressed, the beats did too; 'Frankenstein’s monster', 'The Thing from the Black Lagoon' and 'Liza Minnelli' terrified audiences worldwide; and giving horror fans an insatiable thirst for more.

Trade Unions in the Age of Social Media

Just as social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are changing commerce, politics, religion, and even romance, so they are having an impact on the world of labor relations, including the formation and activities of trade unions. This could, and over the next decade or so probably will, reinvigorate the flagging labor movement, but not in traditional and familiar forms.

UFOs: Lightnin' Strikin' Again!

 Merely having offered a mundane alternate explanation for a paranormal or UFO event doesn't make that explanation the correct one. Occam's razor slices differently from different perspectives. "Uncle Phaed's UFO Investigator's Handbook"

In the fall of 1965, a series of UFO sightings took place at Exeter, New Hampshire that were documented by John G. Fuller in an article in LOOK Magazine and later in a book titled Incident at Exeter.

The sightings at Exeter began with a young man named Norman Muscarello, who was hitchhiking home to Exeter on Route 150 in the wee hours of September 3, 1965. At about two in the morning, near Kensington, NH, he was startled by an object that suddenly came out of the clear sky towards him. He described it as about 90 feet in diameter, with bright, pulsating lights around what appeared to be a rim. It silently wobbled and floated towards him, and when it seemed about to hit him, he dropped to the ground on the shoulder of the road. The object then backed away, and Muscarello jumped up and ran to a nearby house and pounded on the door without results. He then ran out into the middle of the highway and flagged down a car. The middle-aged couple inside drove him to the Exeter Police Station, where he excitedly told his story to the officer on duty. The officer called in Patrolman Eugene Bertrand, who was out on patrol.

Wall Street At The Movies

Throughout 2011, Wall Street has been a household word. With the economy still in shambles, seemingly at the hands of fast and loose stock market trading, there are many opinions about the vaunted Manhattan financial center. 

For many people, Wall Street is symbolic of unchecked greed and excess at the expense of innocent people. Others see the country's economic woes as symptomatic only of people's inability to live within their means. For them, Wall Street remains symbolic of all that is good  about America's capitalistic roots. 

Fortunately, Hollywood has something for everyone in this recession no matter whether you are a Wall Street cheerleader or hater. These movies have chronicled evolutionary changes on Wall Street through modern years with mesmerizing clarity in many cases. We're not talking about Tim Syke's penny stocks, these movies are about the titans of Wall Street. The characters in these movies have been indelibly seared into the American consciousness; woven into popular culture like golden strands. 

We know you 're recession-weary, and looking for a diversion if even for just a couple of  hours. For your viewing pleasure, we've compiled some of  Hollywood's greatest attempts to make sense of Wall Street culture. 

Here are our top 5 movies about Wall Street: 

US: How To Go To College For Free

Image via Wikipedia

Right now, protesters are camped out in front of banks, financial institutions and universities to draw attention to a broken system. One of the points in their plan the fix the economy is forgiveness of student loan debt. Rather than continuing to make things easier for big banks through deregulation and tax cuts, we can stimulate the economy by giving that money to struggling college graduates who entered the workforce with massive debts at a time when good jobs are scarce. Tuition costs have steadily risen as the economy has gotten worse, and as a result the average student is now graduating college with $20,000 in student loan debt, and many have no way to pay it off.

If you don't want this to happen to you, there are still a few ways to get through college without having to take out any student loans.

Androids: Keeping Artists Inspired

More and more people are starting to wonder: Is there anything the Android can't do? With the limitless-and-still-expanding catalogue of Android apps, it seems like this little, sleek device is unstoppable. Android isn't greedy however; now, it's empowering artists all over the world. 

All artists need inspiration, especially musicians. There's enough going on around the world to keep songwriters in business for the rest of human existence, but now, thanks to Android, artists can have an easier time finding goings-on to write about.

Image via Flickr

The 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies Of The Decade (And Why)

The best sci-fi movies make you leave the theater wondering if you should sneak back in for the next showing of the same movie. The last decade has had no shortage of such movies. Below are 10 movies that topped the box offices and had critics raving for weeks.

Do American Cartoons Reflect Real Life?

5 Steps to Finding Your Inner Movie Buff

Do you find yourself regularly humming various movie theme songs or repeating famous lines – sometimes even unconsciously? If so, you may be an official movie buff. If you aren’t 100 percent sure on this, however, there are some ways to come up with a better determination. Here are just a few:

10 Musical Movies that Aren't (Too) Nerdy

Musicals have carried the stigma for years of being “nerdy”. However, Hollywood seems to have changed their mind because many Broadway shows have recently been made into blockbusters. Now that it's not so “nerdy” to watch musicals, check out these classic and new musicals you can watch on your own TV (animated musicals are not listed, that will have to be saved for their own article):