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Movies

The Inventor of Videotape Recorders Didn’t Live to See Blockbuster’s Fall

As far as Charles Ginsberg was concerned, the video tape was “one of the most significant technological advances” since the television

Before Hollywood Had Ratings, Films Were Way Racier

In the 1934 movie Murder at the Vanities there’s a whole musical number about the pleasures of marijuana sung by half naked women

If Anyone Can Make the James Bond Submarine Car Work, It’s Elon Musk

Musk bought the Lotus Espirit car from the movie The Spy Who Loved Me for $866,000 at auction

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Ridley Scott Reused Footage From The Shining at the End of Blade Runner

From sets to props to entire sequences, Hollywood is actually really good at recycling

Newer Movies Are Less Creative

The most creative time in film history was probably the 1960’s

We Can Guess What Holden Caulfield’s Reaction to the New Salinger Documentary Would Be: LMAO

Caulfield was one of the first to employ the phrase LMAO

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Time-Traveling Time Lapse Takes the Same Train Ride in 1953, 1983 And 2013

Three time-lapses were shot on the same stretch of rail over 60 years

Can Wikipedia Edits Predict Box Office Success?

How do you quantify the buzz around a movie? One group of researchers suggests looking at Wikipedia edits

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The Only Copy of Orson Welles’ First Professional Film Didn’t Burn in a Fire After All

The only copy of the Citizen Kane director’s first professional movie was found in a warehouse

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Werner Herzog Doesn’t Want You to Text And Drive

Texting and driving kills more teenagers than driving and driving

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See the Greatest Architecture in 36 Different European Cities in This One, Gorgeous Time-Lapse

Dozens of pieces of premiere European architecture are showcased in this three-and-a-half minute video

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Watch This Mosquito’s Mouth Wriggle Around in Search of Blood

It’s easy to think of a mosquito’s mouth as a needle, lancing your flesh to find a drink. But that’s not the whole story

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These People Build Real, Life-Sized, WALL-E Robots

Forget stuffed animal replicas or little plastic figurines, this team just made a real, life-sized Wall-E Robot

Japanese Traders Believe Showings of Studio Ghibli Movies Augur Terrible Job Numbers

When beloved films like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke or My Neighbor Totoro air on television, the traders know to gear up for a loss

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Tatooine Is About To Be Reclaimed by the Desert

The Star Wars set is about to be buried, but in the mean time it’s helping scientists do real research

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Take a Ride on the New York Subway Circa 1905

Pioneering cinematographer Gottfried Wilhelm “Billy” Bitzer shot this silent film about a year after the subway’s first line opened.

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The CIA May Have Taken Cues From 1960s-Era James Bond

CIA director Allen Dulles admired James Bond creator Ian Fleming, and the two struck up a mutually beneficial relationship

2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000 Was Originally a Female

Who knows, perhaps if HAL had been a lady, we’d all be scared of disembodied female voices and Siri would be a man’s voice

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Wander Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley With Street View

The Diagon Alley set from Harry Potter has been added to Google Street View

The Lone Ranger mask from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Is the New Tonto Any Better Than the Old Tonto?

A new film revives The Lone Ranger, but has it eliminated the TV series’ racist undertones

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