Old memory, Invasion of the Saucer Men

 The needles from fingers, and again when they puncture a tire.  Yep! See Atomic Snack Bars video… Top 1950s scifi Aliens. 

Needle fingers. And the detached hand flattened the tire with them. 

Detached hands don't make sense? Of course they do, this one has an eye to see where to go. Heh, I had forgotten that, too!

This site sounds great, "just screenshots": https://cultandexploitation.blogspot.com/2013/08/invasion-of-saucer-men-1957.html

D&d Roper origins from cyclops squid from The Atomic Submarine? And…

The D&D Roper, very similar to this and that other old B&W movie monster that is more a stalagmite shape (It Conquered the World).  Sure seems influenced by. Thanks to Atomic Snack Bar for showing the 1950s monster in his recent youtube. 

Shambling Mound of dnd fame is based on the monster from “I married a monster from outer space”, also came in Deiner Eraser monsters. Thanks again Atomic Snack Bar!  

Single eye, check. 

It has tentacles, hard to see here. 

OH, and when was Shuma Gorath... wikiped says 1973 (and mentions The Great Old Ones, very Lovecraftian, and Robert E. Howard made the name of the character in one of his books... remember he was buddies with Lovecraft)? How much of these is from Lovecraft or borrowing from each other I wonder?

Skinny fingers, the mouth shape, plantlike... maybe a little like the DnD shambling mound like in the 1980s cartoon. On finding Lukion's picture, now I'm not so sure. But how about Swamp Thing? 

Lukyon, turned into a Shambling Mound. 

1st ed. DnD shambling mound. 

Swamp thing, check the mouth. 

1974 Swamp Thing, check the mouth again. Seems similar. 

Deiner eraser toys:

 

BTW, this blog seems like I need to check it out, title says "homages, ripoffs, and coincidences"... well he might be a little too anti-norms, but might have some interesting movies. OK, older posts show ripoffs and whatnot, fun: 

https://shotcontext.blogspot.com/2012/04/window-at-top.html

I do enjoy this perhaps too apt description of this one movie, "Computer Chess", ... says " mumblecore background comes in handy with his cast of asocial obsessives "

Trilobytes did use a defensive posture like a Rolly Polly/Wood Shrimp/Penny Sows after all.

 

Found these on Ebay of all places. Bunch of fossils for sale, this was like $235 in May 2024. 

Here's more, and this species looks / reminds me of Giger's Spacejockey in Alien again: 

Speaking of Rolly Pollies, they can sort of get rid of bad metals like lead by crystalizing them in their body. Incredible! Just learned this:

https://www.treehugger.com/roly-poly-pill-bug-facts-important-environment-4864410

Quote:
7. They Eat Metals

Roly-polies play important roles in the environment. They are able to take in heavy metals such as copper, zinc, and lead, and then crystallize them in their bodies. This has made them an ideal test subject in studies of pollution and related environmental research.3 The pill bugs’ unique ability to remove heavy metal ions from contaminated soil allows them to thrive in polluted locations where other species cannot.4 

So many names:

"most common species is Armadillidium vulgare, and they are officially called pill bugs, but they’re also known as doodle bugs, wood shrimp, and woodlice. People in the United Kingdom refer to them as chiggypigs, penny sows, and cheesybugs"

View Article Sources

Potter, Michael F. "Sowbugs and Pillbugs." Entomology at the University of Kentucky.

Holland, Asa. "Armadillidium vulgare: Pillbug." Animal Diversity Web.

Szlavecz, Katalin, et al. "Terrestrial Isopods in Urban Environments: An Overview." Zookeys, vol. 801, 2018, pp. 97-126., doi:10.3897/zookeys.801.29580

"Pill Woodlouse." Encyclopedia of Life.

Edney, E.B. "Transition from Water to Land in Isopod Crustaceans." American Zoologist. 1968.

Twilight Zone - Five Characters in search of an Exit

 Is this the original that started all the others? Like…

The Cube.

A Star Trek TNG episode… captainn Picard trapped with others. 

All the scary movies like this. 

Battle Royale even?

Lost, the show? 

Toy Story? 

…

And Rudolf the red nosed Reindeer…maybe it was prior to this? (Regarding, what did kid2 say, the toys that needed a home right?). 

Porcupines and Cougars - Colorado?

They estimate like 4000ish adult cougars in Colorado. Wow. 

Porcupines... so cougars can kill them. They learn to flip them over, and there is a note out there than in one place 80 porcupines went down to 3 in a year due to cougars that figured them out. Apparently some bobcats and fishers (animal like a weasel) do too. Some say coyotes get them from roadkill and eat 'em. 

And there are old world and new world porcupines. 

Weird how in North America, they don't live in the south/southeast. 

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Fisher_(animal)
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Porcupine

Picture by Roger Hall apparently. 

Their range in the US via wikipedia.

Computer Keyboards originally came from Spaceships

 

And for our education, more keyboard shortcuts than you can imagine. Many useful ones like 

F6 to cycle through screen elements of a window.

Ctrl+F4, close active doc (if prog lets you have multiple docs open). 

https://www.kadvacorp.com/mind-of-manwoman/computer-keyboard-shortcuts-keys/

Alien (1979) Giger's Space Jockey, influenced by Fossils?

 I mean a lot of that stuff in the movie looks like fossils, but I was reminded of it vividly when I saw these pictures of Dinosaur National Monument, the color, the shapes smoothly flowing from rock to bone, etc. Thanks to Gavin Lockard on google maps for these:

BTW, what's up with their crazy hands and skulls? Always loved how weird the original Alien was:

While I'm at it, these queen heads are interesting. The crooked toothed version is scariest, but the transparent teeth seem right (even if the rest is a model or something that is too plasticky). 

Words - Fanfare, Echoic; Van Gogh Paintings

 So via the Wordsmith.org daily email, he talked about "fanfare". But the interesting part wasn't that word, it was another word, "echoic". As in echo. 

Fanfare ETYMOLOGY:

From French, ultimately of echoic origins. Earliest documented use: 1605. Also see fanfaron and fanfaronade. It’s not known if these two words are related to today’s word. 

Searched on my phone, and it went to "echoic memory". Talked about auditory memory... it has a special dealy where it keeps it for longer, since it's not like visual (iconic?) sensory input b/c audio is heard once then is gone, can't keep looking at it. So this special memory is needed. 

Looked up the definition of "echoic", and it said, via m-w.com -

1: formed in imitation of some natural sound : ONOMATOPOEIC

2: of or relating to an echo

To my eyes at first, using echoic in that sense doesn't line up with M-W's definition exactly. So that is weird, b/c Wordsmith... although I think he might have been born in India or his parents were from there, he's a word expert obviously. Then I thought, OK, maybe they mean the French version of the word sounds like a bunch of trumpets doing their thing "doo doo do dooooo" or something. B/c saying the English version, fanfare, sounds likes a medieval trumpeting entry in a movie doesn't line up. I mean... "fanfare" is two syllables, so that'd just be a boring "do doo". And we all know, movies displaying 500 year old traditions are always 100% accurate. ;)

So I needed an echo jpg. Hard to find a good one. But then saw "echo art". This is the stuff my 10th grade teacher made us do... apparently it's deemed for young kids says youtube. And maybe Vincent Van Gogh... cuz it does remind me of his starry night, etc. 

Speaking of, what is the deal with all these different versions of his stuff. Is this 100% just ppl making their own versions, or are there a couple of versions of some scenes he did?? And did he do dark stuff behind his head first to make it stand out better, then second b/c he was getting sucked into a Cthulhu black hole?

Ssbu the B-reverse vs. B-turnaround

 Mewtwo uses the confusion side B to fIip around and have tail face off stage opponents. 

Game and Watch uses down B bucket to flip around midair to get a back air easier. 

https://www.ssbwiki.com/B-reversing#Turnaround-B

B-reverse[edit]

B-reversing was first introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and is retained in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as well. To execute a B-reverse, the player must input a special move, then quickly tap the direction opposite the one they are facing. If performed correctly, their character will do the special move while turning around and reversing their momentum.

The momentum shift happens almost instantly and is very useful. For example, Mario can jump away from his opponent, as if to retreat, then B-reverse a Fireball to close distance while landing behind a projectile. 

Not every special move can be B-reversed, however. Some examples include Samus's Charge Shot (prior to Ultimate) and Mewtwo's Disable.

Turnaround-B[edit]

Mewtwo using a turnaround-B Shadow Ball in midair.

This technique, also known as a B-turnaround or a turnaround special, has been present in every Smash Bros. iteration. However, before Ultimate, it could only be performed in the air. In Ultimate, the new dash cancel mechanics now allow characters to perform grounded turnaround-Bs out of a full run.

A turnaround-B will cause the character to change the direction they are facing right before starting the special move. While B-reversing requires a direction to be input right after a special move, a turnaround-B is done by tapping the direction away from where the character is facing before the special move. In the case where the player wished to do a turnaround neutral special, they must be sure to let the control stick reset to a neutral position before pressing the special button.

Turnaround specials are quite common. For example, when a player reverses the direction of their up special to recover, they are performing a turnaround up special. 

Johnny Quest, the black Robot Spy spider looks like Sputnik, Omnidroid from The Incredibles

 Johnny Quest, the old 1960s cartoon with the crazy great art, had The Robot Spy episode. Just recently helping the kid with a school project, I noticed the Soviet Sputnik looks very very similar to Dr. Zin's spidery 1957 Robot Spy in the cartoon. The Space Race between the US and the USSR/Russia was no joke back then, so surely this was related/an influence because a lot of people had heard of Sputnik I bet. I mean Johnny's father is a super scientist helping out the US government and innocents around the world. The robot is an unstoppable alien spy... that is defeated by superior American technology. Kennedy announced in 1961 we were gonna put a man on the moon. And Sputnik was basically a thinly veiled spy machine. Read this: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/satellites/news/a28496/how-sputnik-worked/   quote, "On April 15, 1955, the Vechernya Moskva newspaper announced that USSR had established the Inter-agency Commission for Interplanetary Communications with a goal of developing an Earth satellite for weather forecasting by taking photos of the Earth's surface. Translation: a spy satellite."

Yeah, it's possible this influenced this cartoon. Whatcha think - take a look?

It came "from space"... not really but we thought so at first. Quite Daddy-Long-Legs-alien looking. 

It went into space, but still looked very alien. 

The size compared to a man is very similar. Forehead sucker attack!

Here's Sputnik compared to a fellow. Watch your forehead, dude!

Oh, and the Omnidroid from The Incredibles (2004) got influenced by Johnny Quest's Robot no doubt. Black with a red "eye", 4 legs, a circular body:

Speaking of Dr. Zin, while similar in vein to the 007 villains of the same era, he had guest appearances in other shows. Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, etc., says: https://jonnyquest.fandom.com/wiki/Dr._Zin_(disambiguation)

Summary of episode here, but you really should buy the DVD, it's great: https://www.thatmomentin.com/moment-johnny-quest-robot-spy-1964/

Some references below about the political stuff with NASA, the space race, etc. 
https://www.nasa.gov/history/the-decision-to-go-to-the-moon/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-sputnik-world-space-week-soviet-union-russia