Into It

Pages

Commentary
6:00 am
Tue April 9, 2013

Into It: The Rise Of The Pedestrian Joyride

Credit Sam Howzit / flickr Creative Commons
The word “escalator” was a trademark of the Otis Elevator Company, who used it to describe the wooden-stepped model they displayed at a Paris Exposition in 1900.

The idea of the escalator has been around a lot longer than a working model.

Nathan Ames first patented “Revolving Stairs” in 1859, though he didn’t specify materials or have a practical use in mind.

Read more
Commentary
7:00 am
Tue March 26, 2013

Into It: The Worst Of Super Nintendo

Shaq Fu is a 2D fighting game released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo game platforms on October 28, 1994.

Super Nintendo changed the gaming world, but not always for the better.

The 16-bit gaming boom took over the early nineties. It gave us classics like Super Mario World, but it also emboldened marketers to dream up spin-offs. In these crossovers, the best parts about pop stars, TV shows, and movies were often abandoned. The result was a string of glitchy maps and questionable plot.

Read more
Commentary
8:35 am
Tue March 12, 2013

Into It: The Strange Life Of Discontinued Breakfast Cereals

"Kids didn’t just cuddle E.T., they ate him."

The cereal aisle is run by kids. It’s their purchasing power that brings TV shows, movies, and even stranger products together with the barons of breakfast.

Mr. T cereal debuted in 1984 and was essentially T-shaped captain crunch. But it got a little more cool when it teamed up with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

When movies inspire cereals, the commercials sound like trailers. The kids become part of the action and eat like the stars.

Read more
Commentary
8:40 am
Tue February 26, 2013

Into It: The Imaginary Island Of California

Credit Wikimedia Commons
It wasn't until 1747 that the "Island of California" was decreed to not actually exist.

California’s San Andreas fault is slowly shifting LA away from the mainland. But we don’t have to look to the future to imagine a disjointed coastline. Instead we can look to the past, to the maps of the 17th and 18th centuries that share a strange discrepancy: the inclusion of the Island of California.

Read more

Pages