Eleven Things You Didn't Know About Creature From The Black Lagoon

Creature From the Black Lagoon is arguably the most famous 3-D movie - and the only to spawn a sequel.

Universal Studios claimed star Julie Adams' legs had won an award for being "the most perfectly symmetrical in the world" and that they were insured for $125,000.

Producer William Allard was Orson Wells' assistant for Citizen Kane and was inspired by the legend of a race of Amazon mermen - as told by cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (Night of the Iguana) at a dinner party.

Millicent Patrick, who designed the Gill-Man, was the first female animator to work at Walt Disney Studios - though for 50 years her boss, makeup artist Bud Westmore, would take credit. The design of the torso was partially based on the Oscar statuette.

In 1995 Peter Jackson was given the choice to direct a remake of either King Kong or Creature From the Black Lagoon. Many would argue he choose poorly.

Ben Chapman, who played the Creature when on land, was unable to sit down when wearing the one-piece suit. During the 16 hour shooting day, he swam in the studio's back lot lake to keep cool. The Creature's mask had poor visibility, and Chapman knocked Adams unconscious carrying her through a tunnel.

Ricou Browning, the actor who played the Creature when underwater, wouldn't bother to surface between takes. An assistant would lower an air tube and Browning held his breath for up to four minutes in a scene. He went on to produce the movie Flipper.

Iconoclastic director Ingmar Bergman was rumored to watch Creature From the Black Lagoon every year on his birthday.

The Internet Movie Database claims that Adolf Hitler commissioned the original script for the film, in which a Golem rises from a swamp to kill German citizens. However, corroborating evidence is sparse.

Jenny Clack a paleontologist with the University of Cambridge discovered a fossil amphibian and named it Eucritta melanolimnetes, greek for "the creature from the black lagoon".

The Gill-Man will star in Black Lagoon - The Musical, opening summer 2009 at the Universal Studios theme park in Los Angeles.

Adventure Club - Solo: Boulder Red Rocks

This adventure started as all the best ones do: seeing something in the distance and saying "I want to go to there". I had just finished the final leg of Geocache GCNR98 and looked to the west and spotted the tall rocks that make up Boulder's own Red Rocks.

"That doesn't look too far."

And it wouldn't have been, had I known how to get there. As it was, I took the long way past the big, nice Mapleton houses. The road narrowed and I had to look sharply for cars on the blind corners. I came to the Centennial Trailhead, checked the map and headed up the hill.

An easy hike. If I had been carrying a sheet birthday cake, I'd have been in good shape. A network of short trails makes up the Red Rocks trail, so Adventurers can tailor the difficulty of the hike to their liking. Ten minutes later I was in front of the huge sheets of sandstone.



300 million years ago, sediment flowed off a mountain range called the Ancestral Rockies. This formed a bed of sandstone called the Fountain Formation. More recently (only 70 million years ago) the Rockies we now know and love pushed up through the Fountain Formation which is why the striations that indicate sedimentation are now perpendicular to the ground.



The sandstone invites scrambling, though watch for areas that closed for erosion concerns. Remember the Three-Point Rule and don't forget that your bottom can count as a point. The climbs to the tallest spires will challenge Adventures, but they're not impossible. Even the stroll-up-able stones offer a panoramic views of the city of Boulder.



The sign at the trailhead warned that prairie rattlesnakes are most active in the springtime, but confine themselves to abandoned prairie dog towns. Apparently, the prairie rattlesnake is the least aggressive rattlesnake, but I didn't see any. Instead, I saw dozens of adorable lizards! Most likely the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus).



The Eastern Fence Lizard is an example of rapid evolution: it's very susceptible to the toxin of fire ants and National Geographic found that Fence Lizards living in areas with historic fire ant populations had developed longer hind legs to escape the venom of the ants. How rapid are we talking here? Fire ants were only introduced to North America in the 1930s. Go lizards!

Since I hadn't parked at the trailhead, I followed the Red Rocks trail to the Settler's Park trailhead. These paths are a bit steeper than the route from the north, but if I had a travel mug of coffee I wouldn't have spilled a drop.



To the west, through the trees, I saw evidence from the April 2008 Settler's Park Fire. Another ten minute hike: a quarter of a mile with a 300 foot change in elevation.

There are no geocaches along the Red Rocks Trail, since it falls under the purview of Open Space and Mountain Parks which prohibits non-virtual geocaches. Dogs are permitted on this adventure, with Voice and Sight Tags. There are primitive-style restrooms at the Centennial trailhead, though not at Settler's Park. For a full adventure, try taking public transportation. The 205 Bus stops at Pearl and 3rd street, just half a block from Settler's Park.

Adventure Rating: Great!
More pictures, as always, on the Flickr.

Up to No Good

Up to No Good
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

A whoopee cushion is just about the finest toy for a five year old. We spent about an hour in the yard making any animals we could find fart.

Zane's got remarkable comic timing for a five year old, by the way. Initially, it was like this:

Zane: Let's take the fish to the opera!
Erik: Okay! Alright Mister Fish, it's opening nigh-
*BRRRAAAAP!*
Zane and Erik laugh riotously.

And progressed to:

Zane: Let's pretend the pig stopped farting.
Erik: Well, my friendly pig, now that you've stopped farting I can take you on that trip to the White House we've been planning. Mister President, this is my friend the pig, and pig this is the President of the United States. I'm sure we've got a lot to talk about here at the Summit on Human/Porcine Relations. Might I say, Mister President, on behalf of the pig and myself, how much of an honor is it to be here, in these hallowed halls. What's that? Certainly we'd be happy to join you for a luncheon in the Oval-
*BRRAAAAAP!*
Zane and Erik laugh riotously.

Original Mandelbox

Original Mandelbox
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

It blew my mind that there was a specialized machine just for the sugaring of nuts.

The woman staffing the booth gave me the stinkeye because I was taking so many pictures of the Original Mandelbox - as if I were going to steal their trade secrets and set up a nut-sugaring booth of my own.

The Mandelbox is well-documented on the internet anyway. It uses propane or natural gas to roast the nuts and standard 110v power to spin the kettle. It can roast over thirty pounds of nuts every hour. If you're looking to buy a brand-new unit of your own, expect to pay around $7,000.

Autonomous Vehicle Competion

One more picture
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

SparkFun hosted an Autonomous Vehicle Competition around their Boulder, CO office. Make and Boing Boing editor Mark Frauenfelder was there covering the the event. Circuits@Home has some great closeups of many competitors.

Beatbox Workshop - Shodekeh

Beatbox Workshop
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

Professional Beatboxer Shodekeh (autoplaying sounds) leads a workshop in CU's Atlas Black Box Theater.

This was my favorite CWA event this year.
At the start of the workshop the audience (mostly high school aged) clamored into the chairs set up in the theater. Shodekeh approached the single microphone onstage and asked if there were any other beatboxers in the audience. Two brave gentlemen raised their hands and Shodekeh asked them to join him onstage as guest panelists. The two guests had a chance to show off their stuff and then Shodekeh took his turn:



Remember: single microphone on stage. All the beats, record static, record scratches, didgeridoo - everything is coming out of some part of Shodekeh's body.

After the cheers died down Shodekeh pulled everyone onstage and arranged us into a big circle. He assigned us sounds to make and then "conducted" us, wave-style. Shodekeh was clearly having a blast, hearing the sound travel around the room. He then had everyone choose the sound they wanted to make and grouped us together. I was a whistler, naturally. Once again he conducted us, beatboxing over the top of our noises. I get a certain thrill when strangers sing together, but beatboxing together was an entirely different experience - the tapestry of sounds as each person wove their own music into everyone else's, with a pro leading us all.

Jello Journalism

Jello Journalism
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

Probably the most talked about feature of today's Edible Book Show, Earl Noe demonstrates his hectographs - a Jello-based printing system.

A hectograph is made by transferring an image prepared with aniline inks to a pan of gelatin. Copies of this original can then be made by simply pressing a sheet of paper against the gelatin.

Because of the fragile nature of the gelatin, only around 100 copies of the original can be made. Therefore the hectograph lends itself to small print runs - classroom tests, newsletters and science fiction fanzines. Fragility can also be an advantage: the master copies can be completely eliminated. In World War II, Allied officers imprisoned at Colditz Castle near Leipzig melted their gelatin desserts to make a hectograph press to produce escape maps.

As arcane as a hectograph may seem you've probably had one pressed against your skin. Temporary tattoos use ink suspended in gelatin - hectographic technology!

Hoover Panorama - Nevada Side

Hoover Panorama - Nevada Side
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

When I was stitching this panorama together, I though I was missing a photo because there was a giant shadow that just stopped. Then I realized there was nothing wrong.

The Hoover Dam Bypass Project is an effort to ease congestion over the Hoover Dam by building a two thousand foot long concrete bridge supported by a 1,060 foot twin-rib concrete arch 900 feet over the Colorado River. Construction is due to be completed in 2010 - if you want to keep an eye on how they're doing there's a webcam at the project webpage.

Mojave Airplane Graveyard

Mojave Airplane Graveyard
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

The Mojave Airport is home to an aircraft graveyard, though unlike many such locations around the world, many of the planes at Mojave are destined to fly again. The high desert makes an ideal storage area and many airlines just park their aircraft here until they need them again.

For many reasons, the storage area is off-limits to the general public. Patrick Smith coaxed one of the owners into giving him a tour and wrote it up in Salon.

The airport's also used to shoot movies and TV shows: Speed, Waterworld, 24, Die Hard 2, Airwolf and a couple of episodes of MythBusters. Also the video for Berlin's Take My Breath Away.

Orbital "Stargazer" L-1011 Carrier Aircraft

Orbital "Stargazer" L-1011 Carrier Aircraft
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

Although little from the outside distinguishes this plane from the thousands landing at your local airport, this is actually a platform for launching rockets into space.

Orbital Sciences Corporation uses the Stargazer as a air-launch vehicle for Pegasus rockets. There have been 32 successful Pegasus launches from the Stargazer, the most notable being the April 21, 1997 flight that carried a portion of the remains of Timothy Leary and Gene Roddenberry into orbit.

Appropriately, the name "Stargazer" is a Star Trek reference: prior to their assignments to the Enterprise, Picard and Riker served on the Stargazer and the Pegasus, respectively.

The next scheduled mission for this aircraft is launching a Pegasus rocket containing an X-Ray telescope.



Here's what the Stargazer looks like from space.


The airplane on ABC's Lost is a dismantled L-1011. 

Parade of Hearses

Parade of Hearses
Originally uploaded by nekosoft

The Frozen Dead Guy Days photos from 2009 are up on the Flickr. This year was the best yet, although my camera died. I had to rely on the lackluster iPhone lens, but still was able to capture most of the grandeur and splendor of the event.

Happy Valentime!

As always, as a public service, I present the official Apple Sauce Brain Man valentines. Perfect if you've forgotten what day it is and need something fast to laser print and color for your sweetheart, life partner, friend-with-benefits, or person you plan to meet in the bar later this evening.

If you give your sweetie ASBM valentines this year, you probably won't have to get them anything next year!

Also, if you're a schoolchild who has to go to school on Saturday for some reason and missed the shoebox ritual on Friday. Maybe you're in some sort of breakfast club.

The text has been cleaned up slightly since last year. Right-click and save to desktop for an even bigger image.

Pikamac Network Outage

The Apple Sauce Brain Man and Get Rich Quiet websites are temporarily down.

I suspect robots.

This is a Deceptively Challenging Labyrinth

It may not look difficult, nor are labyrinthii traditionally anything but a fairly straightforward walk (so to speak), but I got lost in this particular labyrinth twice in the past 24 hours.

Ley Lines

The other day, between the labyrinth and the river, a young couple obviously very much in love decided to make some more.

About half an hour after they laughed and grinned their way home an man walking downstream chose the same spot to practice his tai chi forms.