This Week in Geek 1/8/2010 – Monty Python, Avatar, Total Recall, George Lucas and Twilight Dogs

[Pic of the Week by Tronguy.net]

The amazing thing about the above picture is not that we have a big fat guy dressed in a white spandex bodysuit, but that there is a big fat guy dressed in a white spandex bodysuit who’s proud of it. Jay Maynard actually does personal appearances all over the world. You have to love that kind of self-confidence. On with the news.

1. I’m going to make up a term I’m calling the “Titanic Effect” which describes the power that tween and teenage girls have on popular culture. It was this singular affect that pushed Titanic to being one of the highest grossing films of all-time and we’re seeing it again with Twilight. Twilight, for those living in a Sarlac pit, is a series of novels written for young, teenage girls (see the book category if you want to contest this) about a girl and her forbidden love for an emo vampire. Now we’ve reached the climax: the name of the main character, Bella, has beat out, “Max”, as the most popular name for dogs.  I’m tempted to get upset, but I think there’s a certain irony in people saying, “I sure do love Twilight. I know! I’ll name my smelly four-legged mutt after her!  That way, when I’m walking my dog I can say, ‘Go ahead and poop on the lawn, Bella!'” [SciFiWire]
2. A Monty Python quote – “Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.” – has topped Wired Magazine’s list of “100 Quotes every geek should know.” It’s all subjective of course, but the “unladen swallow” quote is much funnier to me.

   TOSS-UP – The best use of the term “Unladen Swallow”: Google’s Python script optimization project or Style.org’s detailed mathematical analysis of the question?

3. Since the “Underoo-bomber”, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who tried to blow up a Detroit airliner by sewing a bomb to his underwear, there has been a lot of talk about reinstating the full-body scanners in airports. The ACLU sued to stop them, but the TSA promises to blur pictures of passenger’s faces and delete all images produced. We should just scrap the whole privacy debate and go full on into Total Recall style x-ray scanners.

   ODDSMAKERS: What are the odds that we’ll still be walking through these scanners in five years?

4. ***Spoiler Alert*** News that the special edition DVD release of Avatar will have an expanded sex scene, which was deleted to get a PG-13 rating, makes me sad since the original scene was beautifully understated. [SciFiWire]

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5. This week George Lucas’ was on the Daily Show and he gave a smarmy assertion that “there is a whole new group of kids who loved [the new trilogy] and they didn’t like [the original trilogy]” and whether you like the new Star Wars movies or not depends on when you were born. I’m old enough to have watched the original and the new series and this opinion borders on the delusional. It must be nice to live in a world where your botched mistakes can be seen as success just by turning your head in the other direction.
6. TOSS-UP – Now that Sony and Sam Raimi are squabbling over the villain should be in Spider-Man 4 (Raimi wants the “Vulture” while Sony wants “Black Cat” and anyone other than “Vulture”), who would you least like to see in the movie: “Kraven The Hunter” (He wears a lion skin vest and is a really, really good hunter) or “Mysterio” (He wears a fishbowl and creates illusions)? [Empire]

   ODDSMAKERS: With the script, and possibly, shooting now being delayed, what are the odds that Spider-Man 4 will meet its original release date of May 5, 2011?

What do you think of this week’s news? Let us know in the comments!