Pop Culture

In whatever form it takes, the future zombie apocalypse, often induced by some sort of pathogen, has become something of a mainstay amongst pop culture and the entertainment industry. Granting the ability to tell the story of humanity questioned as survival and morals are tested, with the faint glimmer of hope on the horizon. Yet what of the science behind it? If it’s a pathogen, then it’s not some malevolent supernatural force. With the desperation of necessity being the mother of invention, then maybe science could find a cure and a way to save humanity? A pathogenic fungi of the Cordyceps genus has infected humanity, turning most into zombie-like creatures. Although hope exists with someone who’s immune to the infection, and perhaps a cure can be synthesised from them. Without going too Orson Welles on causing alarmism for the sake of a story, that’s actually the basic premise of the ...

“Tell me, do you work? You will.” Cosplayer Julian Checkley has remarkably managed to combine both form and function into cosplay with his fully functional gadget-equipped Batsuit. Apart from obviously sporting the mother of all utility belts, his costumed efforts also managed to secure him a Guinness World Record for the “Most functional gadgets on a cos-play suit”. Numbering 23 isn’t some cryptic clue from the Riddler, instead it’s the number of fully functional gadgets on Checkley’s Batsuit. Maybe it’s not quite as large a number as Robin’s 356 “holy something” remarks, but 23 functioning gadgets should be more than enough to take even Adam West’s version of Batman safely camping. Batman lightening up, or darkening further, the DCEU movies may be another matter entirely. Besides, Checkley’s Batsuit likely beats the homemade version of the mecha-armour Batsuit with the hammers of justice. For those wondering, yes it is equipped with ...

Celebrating 20 years of awarding and honouring the best of British art, the 2016 South Bank Sky Arts Awards were held Sunday, 5th June at the Savoy Hotel. Winners included Eddie Izzard with the Outstanding Achievement Award, and Stormzy who took out the Breakthrough Award. Amongst the nominees though, was another artist whom many were hoping to catch a glimpse of. Known with certainty only as Banksy, the artist’s 2015 Dismaland Bemusement Park artwork was nominated for the Visual Art Award. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye ultimately won the Visual Art Award for her Verses After Dusk, and congratulations are in order. But that hasn’t stopped the wondering about Banksy’s true identity. Banksy is known for having said: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Beyond Banksy’s extensive art works, which include street art and graffiti, often laced with social and political commentary on contemporary issues, little is known about the ...

In the time around the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it seems anyone capable of stringing together a few words has been devoting much of their time to punning on how the Force has truly awakened. Fact of the matter, the Force never sleeps. Rather it’s around times like these that Star Wars fans instead step out of the dark and into the light. Often choosing sides in the process, but not awakening by any means. Alhough it is rumoured a few fans have been seen inside of replica Tauntauns. But only to keep warm. Nothing else. While many other fans have been concerning themselves with vital matters such as how to make their own slave Leia bikini out of recycled metal cans – purely for cosplay purposes – one fan in particular has turned his attention to more potentially practical matters. Imbued with secret Jedi training to ...

“Great Scott!” A man drove into office buildings thinking he could apparently “travel through time”. Ignoring the fact that he was driving a Dodge Challenger, and not a DeLorean, there’s no word on whether the car was fitted with a working flux capacitor. While Ford did briefly offer a flux capacitor, sort of, probabilities here on the Dodge favour the answer is firmly no. Especially since he crashed into the wall. Unless he was playing chicken with it, possibly because the wall called him “chicken”. The crash occurred Monday 21 December 2015, but time and news of purported time travel can move in strangely nonlinear ways. Particularly around the internet, and distorted by the holiday season. The driver crashed into the office of Advanced Tax Services, in Pensacola, Florida, USA. General manager Emanuel Mores spoke about the incident to the local news: “I was mad, then eventually I was happy ...

Bhanu Prakash Racha, of Hyderabad, India, wants to hold the world record for taking selfies. As record attempts are often nothing without the journey and personal sacrifice in pursuit of the dream, Bhanu quit his job to pursue his photography goal. From hospital research assistant to practising taking selfies fulltime, such is his dedication. At 24 years old, Bhanu Prakash Racha had worked at the hospital for five months, and applied to Guinness World Records about the proposed attempt. Yes, there’s an official Guinness World Record for almost everything. In this case, it’s for the “Most self-portrait photographs (selfies) taken in 1 hour” which is currently held by American Patrick Petersen and NBC Sports. Total selfies taken in the hour officially numbered 1,449. Speaking to the Times of India, Bhanu has been preparing for his attempt. “I am comfortable clicking selfies only with my right hand, so I do exercises ...

It began with the American creators of a giant fighting robot, called MegaBot Mk.II, challenging the Japanese creator of another giant robot, called KURATAS, to a duel. Naturally if there are two giant robots, what else are they going to do but fight? Steeped in the cultural history of giant robots, as a matter of honour Japan promptly accepted the robot duel. Meaning the fight is on like Tron. So much hype, but it now needs to deliver. However, there’s a twist to the saga unfolding. MegaBots are calling upon the American people for help with this fight. Beyond patriotism alone, it’s the guerrilla warfare of donations that is crowdfunding. With MegaBots asking for an initial US$500,000, and up to US$1.5 million, via a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for fighting upgrades for their robot. Mainly because the Japanese Suidobashi Heavy Industries’ CEO Kogoro Kurata agreed to the robot duel not ...

Perhaps because it’s easier to destroy than create, there’s an attempt to destroy Minas Tirith before it can even be realised. Unrealisable. Inconceivable, as well. Whether made from the slimes of the earth or being from corrupted Elves, a group of purported Orcs are making their own crowdfunding attempt to: Destroy Minas Tirith. The Orcs want to raise via crowdfunding, £1 million to destroy Minas Tirith, the capital city of Gondor. Compared to the £1.85 billion Tolkien fans want to crowdfund the building of the White City, it’s a strange fate that they should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little amount. Now it may be that the forces of Mordor seeking to destroy Minas Tirith are not Orcs alone. Or even the Uruk-hai. They may have a cave troll. Or worse, an internet troll. They could also be Olog-hai, and able to ...

A team of Tolkien fans are taking it upon themselves, with the help of some crowdfunding, to build the fictional city of Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Called Realise Minas Tirith, the crowdfunding campaign is seeking a trivial (compared to the wealth of Smaug) £1.85 billion to create “a beautiful, inspirational and fully-functioning replica of Peter Jackson’s depiction of Minas Tirith,” as was seen in the director’s LOTR films. Two locations for building the real-life Minas Tirith, both in southern England, are currently being considered. If made, the recreated capital city of Gondor, Minas Tirith, would feature both residential and commercial properties, to span across the five tiers of the city. Those contributing to the crowdfunding campaign could buy such properties; and if the funding goal is not reached all pledges will be cancelled, with pennies and gold coins to be returned in full. Sounding the ...

Nintendo fan. Zelda fan. LEGO fan. Combining the three, which some might suggest creates some form of Golden Power, could also lead to 19-year-old Joseph Zawada. Who built the Hyrule Castle from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess entirely out of LEGO. Brick. By brick. By brick. Some two and a half years in the making, no doubt it required the combination of power, wisdom and courage to build the Hyrule Castle from LEGO. Displaying his Hyrule Castle at the recent BrickFair in Virginia, USA, Joseph Zawada talks about his creation in the Beyond the Brick interview below (Midna provided no useful instructions): Hopefully Ganondorf doesn’t revive and destroy Joseph’s LEGO Hyrule Castle in the process. And since it was based on the Twilight Princess version – Zawada’s favourite game in the Zelda franchise – playing an ocarina probably won’t reassemble the LEGO bricks like the chopped up signs in ...