Haunted Ship
On November 7, 1872, a merchant ship named “Mary Celeste” with ten people aboard set sail from New York City bound for Genoa, Italy. About a month later it would become famous…for becoming a ghost ship. A British brig spotted the “Mary Celeste” adrift in the Atlantic Ocean on December 5, 1872, about 400 miles east of the Azores. A search party investigated and found no one on board. Theories of what happened range from a crew revolt to a sea monster. Alternatively, the “Mary Celeste’s” captain may have thought the boat was leaking and ordered the crew to abandon ship near the Azores. Whatever happened, the crew was never seen again. The “Flying Dutchman” is another famous ghost ship, believed by some to have been a pirate ship cursed by the atrocities committed on board, and now forced to remain at sea forever. Others think the name refers to the ship’s captain, Willem van der Decken, whose reckless judgment led to its sinking off the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th Century. While some believe the “Flying Dutchman” never existed at all, many sailors have nevertheless reported seeing it. Some ghost ships are actually available for tourists to visit. The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California is rumored to be haunted. Room B340, where a passenger was once found dead in 1948, has a history of paranormal activity, including knocking sounds and mysterious running water in the bathroom. But there’s an upside to encountering the Queen Mary ghost: maybe he knows what happened to the crew of the “Mary Celeste.”
Coming Soon For Android
Here's To Oculus Rift Fans.One of the most exciting upcoming video game accessories is the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The Oculus Rift has been hailed as the next evolution of gaming, and at the GamesBeat conference on Tuesday the company announced that it is working to create a mobile version of the Rift for Android devices as well. Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe said that the device will only work with Android devices for now, presumably because of the open source nature of Google’s mobile platform. Oculus VR hopes to release the mobile version of the hardware at around the same time as the PC headset, although an official retail release has still not been announced for either yet.
Best Nursery Theme
Jeffery Craddock's making sure his newborn daughter old-school gaming education starts early. Really early.
When Craddock and his wife Ashley welcomed their child into the world earlier this month, they chose a unique theme for their nursery: Mario. And they went all out with the decoration.
The lamp is a Bob-omb. Mario, Bowser, Peach, Yoshi and other characters adorn the walls. Mystery boxes are scattered throughout the room. Star pillows sit in the glide rocker.
After Jeffery posted pictures of the nursery online, they quickly went viral. Within days, they had found their way to Nintendo's headquarters -- and the company quickly posted them to its official Facebook page as well as its Twitter feed, further fueling the explosion.
You have to give the couple points for committing to the theme, too. Long before their daughter came into the world, Jeffery put together Nintendo-themed baby shower invitations in the form of what appears to be an SNES cartridge with Princess Peach on the cover.
The Craddocks' Mario themed room continues to raise the bar for gaming-themed parents. Earlier this year, one Florida Father rented out a movie theater, hooked up a few game systems to the projector and let his son play games for five hours. In March, developer Mike Mika hacked into Donkey Kong to make Pauline the hero of the game -- leaving Mario stuck high on the scaffolding with the angry simian -- when his daughter didn't understand why she couldn't play the princess.
And last November, Mike Hoye reworked The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker to change Link from a "He" to a "She" to make the game more accessible to his daughter.
Simpsons' Hobbit Spoof
"The Simpsons" couch gag is the stuff of TV comedy legend. And this Sunday, it takes on one of our most enduring tales as Homer & Co. skewer "The Hobbit." Yahoo TV sat down with "Simpsons" showrunner Al Jean about this week's installment, titled "The Couch Gag: Part One of Six," and the genius that is the show's opening.
Watch for Homer as Thorin Oakenshield, Marge as Gandalf with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie as hobbits on an unexpected journey to their couch through such far-flung lands as Springfield, Shelbyville ... and Funkytown. Along the way through fantastical lands, our intrepid quintet encounters a motley crew of monsters.
There's Gollum Moe learning why you shouldn't put a ring on it just because you like it; Troll Lenny, Troll Carl, and Troll Barney getting a last call courtesy of the sun; a racist elf hotel ; Burns as Smaug (which reminds us that Benedict Cumberbatch needs to come back and do more "Simpsons" guest voices tout de suite); and Jimbo, Kerny, and Dolph as specters guarding the ultimate prize.
Don't mistake any of those barbed jokes for disdain, though. "I'm going to see the next 'Hobbit' movie," Jean is quick to point out. "All love intended. But it sums up my feelings about the first one."
That follows last week's epic — and we do not use that term lightly — EPIC Halloween couch gag directed by horror master Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth," "Pacific Rim"). It was three minutes so dense with references that Yahoo Movies made its own decoder. And even that fell short, according to Jean: "I don't think they quite got everything, it's so intensive."
"It's great to find this piece of real estate on the show — the couch gag — where we can do this stuff after 25 years," Jean says. "It's really exciting to all of us." The show plans to continue mining the new/old ground with (among others surprises Jean was unwilling to divulge) a segment directed by returning animation legend Bill Plympton in January.
There are a few fish too big for even "The Simpsons" to land, though. Studio Ghibli — the studio behind Japanese animated classics like "Spirited Away," "My Neighbor Totoro," and "Grave of the Fireflies" — was unable or didn't want to do it, so Jean and crew did it themselves. "We do a sort of homage to them also coming up in January, but that's us doing them... those movies [have] the most beautiful character design in the world."
The key to a solid couch gag parody, Jean says, is that the thing you're playing with is "iconic enough that you can make fun of it, and you know it's going to be around when you animate it a year later."
They've already done "Breaking Bad," "Mad Men," and "Game of Thrones." The latter two are a continuing obsession for the writing staff. Every Monday morning when they're both on, he says, the "Simpsons" writers' room breaks into two discussion groups: one for "Mad Men" and one for "Game of Thrones." So, probably just like your office.
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