ETC Magazine

Issue # 1 November 2012
Are Videogames an artform?
10 Games that try to answer this question
PSY: The man behind the moves

Exclusive Interview
Fantasy Literature
The quest of a genre
ETC... Magazine
Contents
Spell and Sword: The Fantasy Genre
Dungeons and Dragons: A Game of Dice
10
12
Skating through Downtown
14
Recipes for Students
16
Top 10 Gadgets
18
10 Video Games that Qualify as Art
20
Internet Memes: Humor or Stupidity?
24
10 Weird facts about Space
26
The wondrous properties of the Zebrafish
30
News from Mars
32
Comics Corner: The story of Dreamwave
34
Keep on trucking
38
Psychology of Colour
40
ETC... Magazine
Between the Real and the Fictional

Etc. is a new lifestyle magazine targeted to young people (as well as people who feel young!)
that are in touch with the modern pop culture as well as the new phenomenon of the 00s ,
the internet culture.
As the selling line suggests, in Etcs pages one can read about their favourite films, music,
video games, graphic novels and modern literature (the world of fiction). The reader can also
learn interesting facts about nature, the universe, science, as well as the latest developments
of technology in the market of gadgets and personal computers (the real world).
As a lifestyle magazine of course, we also feature some tips for living the life of a young
person, like trends on clothing, hobbies and even cooking tips when living on your own.
Even though the articles are likely more male oriented they could also interest a group
of women as well,a welcome phenomenon of our age where more and more girls are
interested in traditional boys stuff.
In addition our magazine will cover more obscure hobbies like pen and paper RPGs and
trading card games!
Tommy Papasolomontos,
Editor in chief
3
ETC... Magazine
The quest of a genre through the ages

Fantasy: Why is the genre so popular? by
Rowena Cory Daniells
Posted on June 17, 2010
Since the Peter Jackson film of the same
name, it would be safe to say that most
people have heard of The Lord of the
Rings, most people have a grasp of the
fantasy genre. While the popularity of
Tolkiens Lord of the Rings has grown
since it was released in 1954-55,
spawning hundreds of imitations, fantasy
has always been with us.
What is The Illiad but a fantasy quest story,
with magic, gods and monsters? Beowulf,
The Song of Roland, Nibelungenlied
(Wagners Opera The Ring of Nibelung),
all fantasy stories.
From the earliest myths and legends,
through different cultures fantasy has been
with us. Think of the Arabian Nights stories,
the Arthurian Romances, Spensers The
Fairie Queen, Shakespeares A Midsummer
Nights Dream, Lord Byrons Manfred,
Mary ShellysFrankenstein, Bram Stokers
Dracula, and the works of Edgar Allen Poe,
Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, and
George MacDonald.
Whether these stories are set in our world
or a secondary world where magical
creatures and/or people exist, they all

share a common theme: the exploration
of the human condition. Even the much
maligned medieval/quest fantasies offer
their readers the chance to vicariously
explore a wondrous world, battle evil
and restore justice. Even a lowly Hobbit
can change the course of the world by
destroying the Ring.
That is the appeal of the tolkienesque
fantasy. In our modern world where
politicians prove corrupt, large corporations
rip off consumers and terrorists kill
ordinary people going about their daily
lives, the traditional quest fantasy provides
an antidote to cynicism. Fantasy, deriving
from the word fantastic, exercises our
sense of wonder.
Tolkien coined the word Eucatastrophe to
describe this feeling:
which pierces you with a joy that
brings tears. it produces its peculiar
effect because it is a sudden glimpse
of Truth, your whole nature chained in
material cause and effect, the chain of
death, feels a sudden relief as if a major
limb out of joint had suddenly snapped
back. It perceives if the story has literary
truth on the second plane that this is
indeed how things really do work in the
Great World for which our nature is made.
Fantasy IS escapism, but wait

why is this wrong?
What are you escaping from,
and where are you escaping to?
Is the story opening windows
or slamming doors?
4
ETC... Magazine
ETC... Magazine
Thanks to Tolkien, it is the quest fantasy

that the average person is most familiar
with but there are many subgenres*
in fantasy as well as fantasy crossovers. This means readers can mine the
fantasy subgenres for just the kind of
Eucatastrophic moment they crave.
It would be true to say there are as many
types of fantasy as there are authors
writing it, and each author has
their own view of what fantasy is and the
purpose it serves.
There are many popular Australian authors
who have written in the traditional fantasy
genre, Trudi Canavan, Jennifer Fallon,
Karen Miller and Sara Douglass to name
a few. Just as there are traditional fantasy
books which promise a rollicking read,
there are also traditional fantasies which
confront. Joe Abercrombies First Law
trilogy is an example of this grittier take
on the genre. And there are fantasy books
like Kylie Chans series which have, at
their core the traditional battle between
good and evil, but they are set in the
contemporary world, where Chinese gods
are real and use human beings as tools in
their battles for supremacy.
While medieval/quest fantasies are often
undervalued by critics, some fantasy is
considered literature, such as the work
of Ursula K Le Guin and Australian writer,
Margo Lanagan. Lanagans YA book Tender
Morsels has aroused heated debate.
What does fantasy mean for these award
winning authors? On writing in this genre
Lanagan says:
I can use the kinds of thoughts and
ideas that are normally dismissed from
practical human minds because they dont
knit with reality in anything more than a
dream-logical, symbolical way.
In 2004, Le Guin gave a talk at the
Childrens Literature Breakfast, where she
described what she sees as the function
fantasy serves in contemporary society.
ETC... Magazine
Fantasy lets us believe we can make a

difference, and shows us that we can.
Fantasy is a literature particularly useful
for embodying and examining the real
difference between good and evil. In an
America where our reality may seem
degraded to posturing patriotism and selfrighteous brutality, imaginative literature
continues to question what heroism is,
to examine the roots of power, and to
offer moral alternatives. Imagination is
the instrument of ethics. There are many
metaphors beside battle, many choices
besides war, and most ways of doing good
do not, in fact, involve killing anybody.
Fantasy is good at thinking about those
other ways.
There are many subgenres of fantasy.
And there are writers who defy genre.
AustralianTerry Dowling writes across the
speculative fiction genres, (fantasy, science
fiction and horror). His work has been
described as creating a series of myths
about contemporary humanity, pleasingly
woven into Australian settings.
It would be fair to say there is a surreal feel
to his stories.
A subgenre of fantasy with a surreal
feel, sometimes called new weird, is set
in cities, where the reader can catch
a glimpse of the other through an
apartment window. The works of Jeff
Vandermeer and China Mieville are
examples of this. In a Locus interview
Mieville said: I think the high point
of fantasy is the Surrealists which is a
tradition Ive read obsessively, and am a
huge fan of, and see myself as a product of
the pulp wing of the Surrealists .
Sometimes fantasy takes the familiar, like
the Victorian era, and gives it a new twist
as in the genre Steampunk, which is very
popular with the readers.
Australian author, Richard Harland is
currently on a US and UK tour to promote
his YA steampunk book Worldshaker.
For those interested in Harlands take on
writing steampunk see this article.
Gail Garrigers books are a comedy

of manners set in Victorian London,
combining steam punk with dark urban
fantasy, (stories set in this world with a
twist, or in an invented urban society).
Then there are dark urban fantasy books
like those written by bestselling Australian
author Keri Arthur . Her books have a level
of sensuality and often contain a love story
but the protagonist doesnt end up with
the love interest. This kind of dark urban
fantasy veers towards romance until it
meets the cross-over genre, paranormal
romance. Nalini Singhs hugely popular
Psy-Changeling series would be described
as paranormal romance because, although
there is a continuing larger story unfolding,
each book ends with the resolution of the
primary love story.
For a glimpse at what is new in dark
urban fantasy by Australian authors, take
a look atTrent Jamieson and Tansy Rayner
Roberts. The first books of their new series
are due out this year. Jamiesons books are
set in an alternate Brisbane where Death
is a business. Roberts books are set in a
world which combines elements of ancient
Rome with the roaring twenties. This may
appear an unlikely combination but fantasy
gives writers the freedom to make these
connections.
As Australian fantasy and science fiction
author, Sean Williams says:
(fantasy) gives me a means to write
more closely to theme, unfettered by
the constrictions of the real world (more
or less), enabling me to make my own
constrictions that will guide the story
down thematic paths. It allows the
combining of things that dont normally
fit, like Australian landscapes, magic, and
a post-apocalyptic society in the Books
of the Change, or the same Australian
landscapes, Darwinist theism, mirror twins
and multi-world theory in the Books of the
Cataclysm. The genre of fantastic fiction
allows these things to meet in a way that
wouldnt be possible in realist fiction.
ETC... Magazine
Thanks to Tolkien, it is the quest fantasy that the average person is most familiar with
Fantasy fiction does not deny or diminish the existence
but there are many subgenres* in fantasy as well as fantasy cross-overs. This means
of sorrow
and
pain,subgenres
as so many
to think.
readers
can mine
the fantasy
for just people
the kind ofseem
Eucatastrophic
moment
they
crave.
It
would
be
true
to
say
there
are
as
many
types
of
fantasy
as there
The possibility of failure is absolutely necessary
for are
the
authors writing it, and each author has their own view of what fantasy is and the
piercing
sense
of
joy
one
feels
when
victory
is
finally
purpose it serves.
and with difficulty won. Like a candle-flame, fantasy
There are many popular Australian authors who have written in the traditional fantasy
casts
a Canavan,
shadow
at the
same
that
itDouglass
illuminates.
genre,
Trudi
Jennifer
Fallon,
Karentime
Miller and
Sara
to name aYet
few. it
is the
illumination
thatbooks
is important.
offer
Just
as there
are traditional fantasy
which promiseFairy-tales
a rollicking read,all
there
are also
traditional
fantasies
which
confront.
Joe
Abercrombies
First
Law
trilogy
is
an
example
the hope that a happy ending is possible and we need to
of this grittier take on the genre. And there are fantasy books like Kylie Chans series
believe
denies
ultimate
despair.
which
have, this.
at their Fantasy
core the traditional
battle
between good
and evil,It
butholds
they areout
set in
the
hope forworld,
a better
world,gods
and
the way.
the
contemporary
where Chinese
aresignposts
real and use human
beings as tools in
their battles for supremacy.
For the very best fantasy enlightens as well as beguiles,
While medieval/quest fantasies are often undervalued by critics, some fantasy is

passingliterature,
on thesuch
accumulated
wisdom
ofand
ourAustralian
ancestors,
considered
as the work of Ursula
K Le Guin
writer, Margo
mapping
the YA
boundaries
of behaviour,
and challenging
Lanagan.
Lanagans
book Tender Morsels
has aroused heated
debate. What doesour
fantasy
mean for these award
winning
On writing
in this genre Lanagan says:
preconceptions
of what
isauthors?
right and
true.
I can use the kinds of thoughts and ideas that are normally dismissed from practical
human minds because they dont knit with reality in anything more than a dream-logical,
symbolical way.
In 2004, Le Guin gave a talk at the Childrens Literature Breakfast, where she described
what she sees as the function fantasy serves in contemporary society.
ETC... Magazine
Best selling writer, Terry Pratchett, uses the fantasy setting of his discworld series to
parody the contemporary society. When asked if fantasy is escapism Pratchett says:
Fantasy IS escapism, but waitwhy is this wrong? What are you escaping from, and
where are you escaping to? Is the story opening windows or slamming doors? The
British author G. K. Chesterton summarised the role of fantasy very well. He said its
purpose was to take the everyday, commonplace world and lift it up and turn it around
and show it to us from a different perspective, so that once again we see it for the first
time and realise how marvellous it is. Fantasythe ability to envisage this world in
many different waysis one of the skills that makes us human.
The fantasy genre, gives writers the freedom to explore ideas unfettered by the
restrictions of writing stories set in the real world. This is the appeal for writers. But
fantasy is also very popular with readers. Tolkiens books have been selling steadily for
over fifty years now with sales over 250 million and Rowlings series about a boy wizard
going to boarding school has sales of over 400 million copies, (according to Wikipedia).
Australian author Kate Forsyth writes fantasy for both children and adults. (There are
several well researched and interesting articles on fantasy on her web site). When
discussing fantasy and its popularity she says:
For most of the latter part of the 20th century, writers have responded to a sense of
alienation and existential angst by focusing on the grim, the grungy and the grotesque.
Literary movements have had names like the lost generation, angry young men, and
dirty realists.
We have had despair and disillusionment; we have had Derrida and deconstructionism.
God is dead, and so is our innocence.
One major consequence of this ontological maze of mirrors is that somewhere in there,
twentieth century literature lost its emphasis on story and, one can argue, lost its way.
The emphasis on dismemberment and disintegration of text and character has made
much contemporary fiction dense, dull and downright depressing.
It should come as no surprise then, that heroic fantasy fiction has had a slow, inexorable
rise in both popularity and critical recognition. For several years, best selling lists have
been dominated by epic fantasies by writers.
The speculative fiction genre is also popular in movies. Of the twenty top grossing
filmsonly Titanic isnt from this genre. Fantasy and science fiction are also popular
genres in computer games. Terry Dowlings PhD dissertation The Interactive Landscape:
New Modes of Narrative in Science Fiction, examined the computer adventure game as
an important new area of storytelling. See this post by Leanne C. Taylor, for an overview
of the history of fantasy in games. Taylor, a games writer and lecturer says there are
many reasons for fantasys popularity with gamers. Among them is one that also strikes
a chord with fantasy readers. Fantasy lets us believe we can make a difference, and
shows us that we can.
The fantasy genre is rich and varied. It means different things to different people. Writers
love the freedom the genre gives them to explore themes and ideas. Readers love the
sense of wonder, and the assurance that one small person can make a difference.
ETC... Magazine
10
ETC... Magazine
Dungeons
& Dragons
A game of dice and imagination
By Mj Harnish
On Monday, Wizards of the Coast announced that work is already under way on the
5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. An article in the New York Times by GeekDad
contributor Ethan Gilsdorf details some of the recent history and philosophy that
underlies the new development, while a Legends & Lore article by Mike Mearls
reveals that part of the process will involve an open play-testing, with rules,
classes, monsters and other material being revealed through the D&D website for
playtesters to try at their own tables and provide feedback, thereby shaping the
development of the game.
I think its safe to say that this announcement doesnt come as a major surprise to
anyone following the difficulties the Dungeons & Dragons game has experienced as
of late. An excellent series of articles (past, present, & future) on The Escapist details
several of these.
Not the least of these issues is the fact that Paizo Publishings Pathfinder RPG, built on
the Open Gaming License (OGL) of D&D 3.5, is now the number-one selling RPG for the
past two quarters.
Paizo has also recently introduced plastic miniatures for the Pathfinder RPG, as well
as a new Beginners Box set for its game, and has also recently announced that both a
MMORPG and comic book series are now in development.
Add to that the fact that recent articles on the D&D website have hinted at ideas that
might form the foundation of a new edition and that Wizards has recently rehired Monte
Cook, well known for his role in developing the 3rd edition of D&D, and it seemed pretty
clear that a something new was in the works. In fact, speculation that a new edition
would be announced at GenCon 2011 was very high after Wizards had announced
the cancellation of several highly anticipated 4th Edition products (a game based in
Ravenloft, e.g.). Then there was the indication that something big was going to be
announced at GenCon but was withdrawn at the last moment. Hence, its hard to be
surprised or, at least for me personally, excited about todays announcement.
As for the 4th edition of D&D, its hard to say what its lasting legacy will be. On the
positive side, it introduced a new way to play the game, adding streamlined play,
improved ease of dungeonmaster preparation, and character classes that were
complementary and balanced. Many, including Mearls himself, have suggested that they
may have been too well-balanced. Many players felt these changes were a breath of
fresh air and ingenuity.
On the other hand, the introduction of 4E caused a major schism in the D&D player
base and publishing world alike, one that ultimately lead to the rise of the Pathfinder
RPG and a fragmentation of D&Ds player base. Go to any game store or basement table
playing D&D and you will likely discover groups playing a D&D retroclone, D&D 3.5, the
Pathfinder RPG or 4E. While you will find some groups that overlap, for the most part
these groups are mutually exclusive.
So what was once one relatively small player base, at least compared to Magic: the
Gatherings or World of Warcrafts, has now split into four groups who (as a quick look
at most forums or blogs will reveal) do not get along. The disagreements, rooted in both
philosophical and economic differences, have spawned the term edition wars.
Its hard not to predict that the announcement of 5th Edition D&D is going to have the
same effect, only this time splitting an already reduced 4E player base into 4E and 5E
camps especially considering that the current edition, which was released in June
of 2008, has had such a short life. It is also difficult for me to expect much of a change
when it comes to a new edition because most of my issues with the current edition are
not due to the system itself but the lack of support and consistent vision from Wizards of
the Coast about the game.
For the past few years, starting with the very announcement of 4E and the Virtual
Tabletop debacle, Wizards has been very poor at communicating honestly and openly
with its fan base and has put out a string of very sub-par or poorly supported products,
many of which saw errata almost immediately after their release. The inclusion of
new features, such as the Fortune Card which, regardless of what they claim,
was meant to be collected since issuing cards in randomized packs with common/
uncommon/rare designations by definition makes them collectible and putting most
of the online support material behind a paywall, also turned off many potential players.
Confusing titles and formats (for example, the adoption of the digest-size books for the
Essentials line and then subsequent abandonment of that format) didnt help the matter.
In addition, Wizards of the Coast has had a great deal of difficulty delivering on what they
have promised. The online software tools have regularly gone months without updates,
the online magazines have been up and down in quality. Its unclear what will become
of the much anticipated VTT, which is still in beta testing after years of delay, now that a
new edition is underway. Its not hard to imagine that the 4E fans who have been waiting
more than three years to play their favorite version of D&D online are out of time and
thus out of luck.
Therefore, I view this announcement with a great deal of skepticism. However, I also
cannot help but hope that perhaps the D&D developers have truly reflected on what went
wrong and right with the last edition of the game, and are going to make a serious effort
to rectify all of the shortcomings with the upcoming edition. Where they need to start is
with rebuilding the bond of trust with their fans, through open communication and an
honest effort to make a great, open-sourced game, rather than one built strictly based
on corporate profit margins. If they were to do that, I think it would be an immense step
in the right direction and perhaps begin to bring all of the disparate D&D players back
into the fold.
Because the best game graphics are

the ones that your own imagination
can produce,
for imagination has no limits
11
ETC... Magazine
Maybe youve been too preoccupied with presidential politics or incompetent NFL replacement refs to get intoGangnam Style,
the hilarious music video from South Korean rapper Psy (whose real name is Park Jae-sang), which has logged about 280
million views on YouTube since its July 15 debut. It is now the most liked video inYouTube (GOOG)history and has topped
charts worldwide. LikeMacarena, that grating global hit from the mid-1990s,Gangnam Stylehas a distinctive dance and
catchy tune that make ones inability to decipher the lyrics almost irrelevant.
The 34-year-old singer has now returned to Seoul after spending three weeks in the hit-hungry U.S. market. The fact that most of
us still know little beyond his name and that hypnotic horse-riding dance says a lot about what can happen when a foreign star gets
American-style coverage.
On hitting the 12 million-view mark, Psy caught the attention of LA talent managerScooter Braun, who responded with the
Gangnam-style yell: I have to sign a contract with him for the world! With Psy now managed by a man whose other discoveries on
YouTube include Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepson, the singer was sent off to all the usual star-making venues.
After a brief tour of the United States, Psy performed awelcome-home concert in Seoul earlier this month, which drew nearly 80,000
fans and shut down the city center. Its like the World Cup right now, he told Melena Ryzik, when they spoke a few hours before
the show. Months into it, Gangnam mania shows no signs of slowing down, spawning Saturday Night Live sketches and workout
routines. Psy, though, has even bigger rock n roll ambitions. To the U.S. and the world, Im just known as some funny song and some
funny music, some funny video guy, he said. But in Korea Im doing one of the biggest concerts; its not a dance music concert. Im
playing with the band, so I change my every song to a rock song. Im going to do some concerts later so youre going to see that.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
ETC... Magazine
When did you get a sense that

Gangnam Style would hit differently?
ET
C
ET
PS
Do you listen to much American music?

Every musician in Korea, we learn from
your pop we get inspired. I was at
the iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas and
when I walked down the hallway someone
stopped me and said, Are you Psy?
And he said, Im Jon Bon Jovi.
I grew up listening to Bon Jovi since
You Give Love a Bad Name, so this was
a really touching moment. We took
a picture and he uploaded it on his
Facebook. Its unbelievable.
PS
I released the song on July 15 and I didnt

see anything for 10 days. After 10 days
I saw some ripples on YouTube in other
languages. A lot of celebrities celebrated
my videoon Twitter. At that time I realized
this was happening.
Its also become quite a

popular wedding dance.
ET
PS
ET
PS
[laughs] I dont think this dance is suitable

for weddings. This is not a formal dance,
this is a cheesy dance! But still,
I appreciate that.
How did you come up

with the dance moves?
I studied hard to find something new. I

spent like a month to find the horse dance.
We are just at the studio, me and my
choreographers, we are spending like 30
nights and we are thinking, what is my
next dance move? Because in Korea there
are huge expectations about my dancing.
So it was a lot of pressure.
C
ET What kind of music did you listen to growing up?
PS My lifetime role model and hero is Freddie
Y
Mercury of Queen. His songwriting
skills, I cannot even approach, but his
showmanship, I learned it from videos.
Im No. 1 in the U.K. right now, so if I have
any chance to go there, I want to meet
Queen and to tell them how much I got
inspired by their music. Queen and Bon
Jovi, Aerosmith and Guns N Roses
I had a huge rock-band mania.
I play a little bit of drums.
You studied at Boston University and

TCHow did you transition from that to your sound?
E
C
College of Music.
ET Berklee
Did you graduate?
PS I tried to compose a song I was in the
PS
States and it was all about hip-hop
Y United
Y Not at all. Freshman for four years
at the time, 99-2000. I got inspiration from
that kind of music: Tupac, Notorious B.I.G.,
Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg. But my spirit
and my agenda is play its a mixture
right now, Im doing rockable dance, or
danceable rock.
class was too early for me.
C But did music school influence your taste?

ET
PS At that time I tried to be a composer, not
Y a singer. I cannot learn creation from
other people, Ive got to do it myself. Now,
honestly, I regret not studying I dont
know about harmonies, or anything, so if
Im composing a song, its really hard.
CWhat do you do when youre not performing?
ET
PS
Im drinking. Its my biggest hobby.
13
ETC... Magazine
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ETC... Magazine
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15
ETC... Magazine
Go make
me a
sammich!
4 quick and easy recipes for students and bachelors
ETC... Magazine
10 chicken wings
1 block of feta cheese
Salad:
Pasta (elbow shape (or) penne)
1 can of diet coca cola
1 bag of spaghetti pasta
1 package of pre-chopped cabbage
250ml ketchup
1 tin of tomato soup
1 carrot, grated
Bechamel / white sauce ( i will tell you

how 2 make it)
3tbsp sweet chilli sauce
Some spices ( i prefer basil )
1 granny smith apple, peeled
WHAT YOULL NEED
Coca Cola
BBQ Chicken!
Easy Feta Cheese

Pasta!
2tbsp soy sauce
Start by mixing the diet cola, ketchup,

sweet chilli and soy sauce.
WHAT TO DO WITH IT
Place the chicken wings in to a large pan.

Tip in the mixture and boil on a medium
heat for 40 mins or until the chicken is
cooked all the way through.
After 40mins the sauce should be thick
and sticky, if it isnt raise the heat and
continusly stir untill it thickens.
Best Coleslaw!
An eraser-sized piece of white cheddar

Handful of dried cranberries
Dressing:
1/2 cup mayo (not miracle whip or light
mayo - go big or go home!)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Easy Pasta!
Half a capsicum
Tomato ketchup (optional)
2 Tblspoons flour
1/2 Cupmilk
1 Teaspoon butter
A pinch salt
A pinch of white pepper
1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon honey
Salt and cracked pepper, to taste
Break up the feta into smaller pieces.

Add the feta and tomato soup into the pan
and heat it up slowly so the feta melts into
the soup to give it more flavour.
Then add the spices.
Meanwhile, fill another pan with a suitable
amount of water and add
the packet of pasta.
When the sauce is at a desired heat and
the pasta is done, drain the pasta and then
add the sauce to the pan that the pasta is
in and mix well!
* This makes enough for about 3 - 4
servings, depending on how hungry you
are! If it is too much, i stick it in the fridge
and eat it cold for a few days;
its still as yummy!!!
This recipe has converted many friends

from passionate coleslaw-haters into
huge slaw fans. Great in the summer with
barbecue food (especially on a pulled pork
sandwich), but also great served with
winter foods like chili
to freshen them up a bit.
To prepare salad:
cut the granny smith apple into
matchstick-sized pieces. (aka. Julienne the
apple) and dice the cheese into very small
cubes (i usually cut them
about a 1/2 cm in size).
Boil the pasta and keep aside.

How to make bechamel/white sauce:
Heat butter in a pan and add flour to
it,before the flour changes colour add the
milk keep stirring to make sure no lumps
form.Meanwhile add a pinch of salt and
white pepper to the white sauce.Once the
sauce becomes thick you can take it off.
Now youre white sauce is ready!!
Mix the white sauce with the pasta add
slices of the capsicum to it. If you feel
the pasta is bland,u can have it with the
tomato ketchup
put cabbage, julienned apple, carrot,

cheese, and dried cranberries into a large
bowl and toss.
in another, smaller bowl, mix together all of
the dressing ingredients (mayo, lemon,
dijon mustard, honey, salt and pepper). If
you like your dressing a little more runny,
adjust by adding more lemon.
pour dressing over salad ingredients and
toss. Best served chilled after sitting in the
fridge, tossed, for 30-40 minutes (though
this is not necessary... It just helps the
flavours meld together a bit better)
17
ETC... Magazine
It is impossible to deny, that we are now truly in the digital age. Resistance is futile.
Ambitious, if slightly extraordinary concepts in films such as Tron, Blade Runner,
Back to the Future and more recently I, Robot, gave us a glimpse of what the
future may hold, but how far away are we really from witnessing the ideas of these
over-stimulated directors come to fruition?
Unfortunately, we are still some way off being able to pop to the shop on a Marty McFly
Mattel hoverboard, but that is not for the want of trying.
Many designs and prototypes have been made, but none have come close to reproducing
the experience depicted in the film.
The idea of human-built robots uprising and attempting to overthrow their creators is
nothing new, and the Japanese are currently leading the way in designing and building
eerily life-like robots, but the threat of a rebellion is about as likely as a DeLorean
actually traveling Back to the Future.
So what gadgets are readily available to us?
10
Modern
Gadgets
that changed our lives
By Yang Li
18
ETC... Magazine
To first understand this, we must consider how they have come about. Consumerism and
the modern way of living have demanded that our gadgets operate in a certain way, as
the following are expected of them:
1. Information/Labour-saver
A gadget must either make menial tasks easier, or provide us with information.
2. Efficiency
Speaks for itself.
3. Speed
If it is going to take longer than doing it the old fashioned way, then what is the point?
4. Compactness/Mobility
No gadget can really honor that title if it does not at least have a mobile counterpart.
5. Look
It needs to look cool, futuristic, and mysterious!
The key, which has already been mentioned, is digital. Watches were digitalized, then
along came the internet, then radio and TV were given the digital treatment so below is
a list of the top 10 gadgets that can truly claim to have changed our lives or the way we
interact with our environment and other people.
ipaid
Nintendo Game Boy

Paved the way for the 3DS and PS Vitas of
today, and made school bus journeys and
rainy lunchtimes a pleasant experience
after all. Nothing like it had really been
seen before, and although the graphics
were shady (pun intended) it was the first
step of a revolution in mobile game-play.
Digital Camera
Although it must be said that photos
produced from a polaroid retain a certain
charm, it certainly was not fun when you
realized that the film was full, and a trip to
go and get it developed was required. Now,
you can take countless photos and not
only view them instantly, but have them
uploaded and printed within an instant, and
the quality of picture keeps on improving.
iPod
Sky + HD / Tivo, etc
From early models to the the latest iPod

Touch, Apple truly reinvented the way
in which we listen to and have instant
access to music. Gone are the days
of having to carry a boombox like a
bazooka on your shoulder, or a carry-case
of your favorite CDs along with an unpocket friendly walkman/CD player. The
latest Touch boasts Face Time, HD Video
Recording, Retina Display, Air Play, Music
+ iTunes, Games + Apps, iOS, iCloud, Air
Print and Voice Control.
All from the comfort of your armchair, the

remote control allows you to tell your Sky
+ HD box to pause live TV if the double
glazing salesman decides to pay a visit
just as it looks like your football team is
about to concede, then fast forward to
real time so that you dont have to witness
it. It allows you to rewind, record other
programs whilst you watch something
else, record whole series, and view it all in
spectacular High Definition.
Webcam
3D Digital TV
Perhaps not really taking off as an

individual gadget in its own right, the birth
of the webcam certainly influenced the
way modern technology is built today. Very
few laptops are now made without a builtin webcam, and the cameras on phones
are utilized to allow video calling. It meant
that computer software such as Skype
allows meetings to be held over long
distances, and friends and family can stay
in touch in a more personal way than just
being able to hear their voice.
We all remember a time when we would

visit our nan, and she would still have
an old black and white box telly. Well not
anymore. Flat screen, digital, and now
3D TV is literally staring you square in
the face. Already incorporated in most
cinemas, 3D technology, whilst perhaps
still in the early stages of development, is a
very exciting prospect indeed.
GPS
Smartphones
Satnavs and TomToms have more or less

made the road map redundant, which is
all you can ask from a modern gadget.
Gone are the days of sitting on the side of
the road whilst Dad spreads his A3 map
on the car hood. They are fun too, with
downloadable celebrity voices allowing the
likes of Homer Simpson to frantically tell
you which turn to take.
Android, iPhone and Smartphones have

literally redefined the way we live. Now, a
mobile does not simply make calls, take
photos, and allow us to play Snake.
They can talk to each other, to laptops,
to TVs to pretty much anything with
a digital pulse. You can watch films on
them, have instant access to YouTube and
Facebook, play PROPER games, store ALL
of your music, and more, and this is just
the tip of the iceberg.
Samsung Galaxy Tab
Bluetooth
Considered as a better option to the iPad,

and unlike its Apple counterpart, the 7 inch
touch screen gadget supports flash as well
as voice and video calls.
Completely re-imagining the laptop,
Tablets, Kindles and the like are becoming
more powerful and more compact with
each new release, and the possibilities and
use of them are all but endless.
A technology that almost snuck up on

us like a highly trained ninja, bluetooth
has now become so mainstream and
synonymous with the 21st Century it is a
wonder how we ever lived without it. The
applications for it are endless, allowing
us to wirelessly transmit data between
phones, PCs, TVs, and even allow us to
wirelessly use our phones whilst driving,
meaning bluetooth can help avoid an
unwanted run-in with the boys in blue.
19
ETC... Magazine
10 Video Games
That Should
Be Considered
Modern Art
By Michael Swaim
As a lifelong gamer, Ive often been in the awkward position of defending my

hobby to a roomful of sneering artsy types. Although, to be fair, I do attend a
lot of wine and cheese mixers at the New Yorker offices. Nevertheless, its an
experience weve all had to confront. Whether its coming from our parents, our
local clergymen or the critical voices in our own head, at some point weve had
to systematically justify the act of spending thousands of hours manipulating an
eight-button machine to no demonstrable effect.
Like comics, video games are a bastard medium, perpetually trapped in the
purgatory of low art. No matter how well-crafted or sweeping or gorgeous they
are, they almost never get auctioned off to millionaires with paddles. But even
comics have had some success: The graphic novel movement is giving them some
art house cred, R. Crumb drew some parents boning their kids and got a freaking
Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and I heard Jeff Koons grudgingly recognized
them as a conceivable medium for the conveyance of art-like imagery.
Well, the next time you get cornered by the Beret Patrol, or just want to flex your
gaming-snob nuts, here are 10 games that would be hanging in museums if flat
screens werent so damned expensive.
20
ETC... Magazine
10. Katamari Damacy
8. The Fallout Series
The World: Katamari Damacys world,
The World: The Fallout games are among
as near as I can tell, is a fairly accurate

depiction of modern day Japan. Theres
rice, bamboo mats, plants, animals, cube
people and massive hammer-headed
monarchs who rule the universe. And that
frightening monstrosity has tasked you
with rolling up enough of Earths material
into a ball to cause it to collapse upon itself
and turn into a star. Never mind the fact
that Earth itself is only about a millionth
the size of a modest star; when the King of
the Cosmos tells you to roll shit into a ball,
you make like a dung beetle or risk being
exiled to his velvet crotch-pouch.
the most well known on this list, primarily

because of the immense popularity of the
newest entry, and the fact that I tacitly
endorsed them at the end of last weeks
blog post (sales immediately rocketed
4000 percent). And while theyre set in
what could, at first glance, be considered a
run of the mill post-apocalyptic wasteland,
its the touches of brilliance, attention to
detail and abilities to have sex with people
and swear that truly make these games shine.
How Its Art: By drawing on the buttoned-
How Its Art: Katamaris bright colors,
simple, striking shapes and boundless

imagination ignite an ebullient joy in the
player. This is pop art at its finest; the
motifs of Warhol and the primary palette
of Pollock gone Eastern. Here we can
rediscover the unfettered creative force of
childhood, when magic was plentiful and
the impossible was just a matter of time
and patience. The cutscenes also contain a
healthy dose of absolute nonsense, which
has been a staple of modern art ever
since some douche paid Richard Prince
$1.2 million for a photograph he took of
someone elses photograph.
9. The Last Resort

The World: The Last Resort, previously
owned by your uncle Thurston Last, has

been left in your care. In a stunningly short
period of time, this turns into you trying to
oust Stephen Tyler and Joe Perry with the
help of Cher, Christopher Reeve and Jim
Belushi. Well, youre actually dealing with
the characters that they voice, although
I think the game I just described sounds
equally fun.
How Its Art: For one thing, Robert De
Niro produced it, which more than makes

up for Chers involvement. For another, its
Anything where you go from being
Wikipedia entry describes it as a game
smaller than a pencil to larger than entire
designed to represent the limits of mans
continents within a single level is like crack imagination. That may seem like a stretch,
cocaine for my delusions of grandeur. If a
but only until you play the carnival organ
Japanese crooner can sing Engrish to me
to get past the Tiki guards to the room that
at the same time, all the better.
houses the entirety of space.
How Its Still Fun As Hell:
Modern Artist To Compare It To:
Takashi Murakami, or, if youre more literal,

the sculpture ofMichel de Broin.
down iconography of the 50s and infusing

it with the paranoia and very real dangers
of the Cold War era, the Fallout series
presents a pastiche of an America that
could have been. Traces of the boundless,
wholesome optimism of the Leave it
to Beaver era barely obscure twisted,
smoldering corpses of what may have
once been human. Monuments to our faith
in the ability of science to bring us the
convenience of the future, today! dot a
landscape made scarred, barren, lifeless
by that same overgrown technology. And
all of it set to the uncomplicated music of
bygone days, like vinyl ghost voices blown
on an irradiated wind.
Last night, I blew up a super mutant with

a mine, then shot him in the face with my
sniper rifle before he hit the ground while
the Andrews Sisters sang me a vaguely
racist song about the Congo. THAT HAPPENED.

Almost certainly Ron English.
If youre a comedy fan, theres not a lot

more a video game can do to unnerve
you than have Jim Belushi continuously
heckle you from a tiny plane. And if youre
a gaming fan, this is one of the most nonintuitive and challenging adventure games
out there. Thats code for, its like trying to
play Riven drunk.
Mark Ryden. Thats kind of a shitty answer,

since the game was based on his artwork,
but its also an excellent answer if you
havent heard of Mark Ryden, because hes awesome.
21
ETC... Magazine
6. Heart of Darkness
5. Portal
The World: Pretty much the same as Ico,
The World: The same one as Half-Life,
except this time, instead of fighting the

shadow monsters with a board, the kids
got a laser gun and inexhaustible power
orbs. He also never has to deal with a
near-mute princess, although he does have
stuff trying to kill him in horrendous ways
at every possible moment, which is almost
worse. Heres a YouTube video with all 50plus lovingly animated cutscenes of the
precocious 10-year-old getting crushed,
drowned or ripped apart by shadowscorpions while screaming.
Rated E! For everyone.
How Its Art: The stunning animation
quality and uniqueness of each and every

screen and event reminds us that each day
is a concrete experience, every moment
fleeting and distinct. We must learn to live
in the now, to appreciate the thing in itself,
lest we fall pray to the devouring shadows of apathy
and banality.Also, the book Heart of Darkness.
Imagine playing through your very own

Disney movie, but add a bunch of dinosaur
skeletons and evil bats. So basically,
imagine playing through the Night On Bald
Mountain part of Fantasia.
7. Ico/Shadow of the Colossus

The World: At a time when every video
game was operating on the more is more

principle, Ico and its sequel, Shadow of the
Colossus, dared to do away with basically
everything. In the original, you got a board,
a giant deserted castle, some shadow
monsters and a princess who needs saving
and lacks any other discernible traits
except for her staggering inability to follow
directions. In the next installment, you
got a giant open field, 14 enemies (yes,
total, for the whole game) each the size
of a building and a horse that lacks any
discernible traits except for its staggering
inability to turn around.
Disneys already been mentioned, but with

this level of bloodshed and the protagonist
being a young child thrown into a fantasy
world of indescribable terror, Ive got to go
with Hayao Miyazaki.
which is basically the same one as most

other science fiction action/adventure
games. What makes Portal a work of art
isnt actually the world its set in; its the full
and rigorous use of the gaming medium
to deploy story, build tension and conjure
atmosphere. Playing Portal is like watching
someone fashion a fine Swiss watch
that then spontaneously evolves artificial
intelligence and leaps up to
strangle the watchmaker.
How Its Art: With the grace and
simplicity of a master film director, the

designers of Portalcapitalize on the unique
characteristics of the game environment,
allowing the players interaction with
their world to slowly bring about a full
comprehension of plot. Using only a single
speaking character, the game subverts a
gaming staple (the helpful robotic narrator/
tutorial), creates a complex and frightening
relationship complete with subtext-laden
dialogue and comments on the medium of
gaming itself even as it deconstructs it.
When you shoot one portal at the ceiling

and another at the ground, you can get
going really good like a train. WOO! WOO!
Also if you position them right, you can
4. The Oddworld Series
sometimes look at your own butt. And you
The World: The Oddworld games follow
get cake at the end. Or do you?
unlikely (read: deformed) protagonists as
they struggle to free their various peoples
This ones all about how they did it, not just from a slave-like existence. To accomplish
what they did. To me that makes Kubrick this noble goal, they jump a lot (except the
the obvious choice, but at times Hitchcock one in a wheelchair) enlist the aid of their
seems equally appropriate.
fellow slaves, and fart. The other twisted
combinations of amphibian and machine
that inhabit the world scuttle on robotic
claws, swing eyeless faces while snapping
hungry jaws and just generally imitate a
cross between a squid and a Terminator.
How Its Art: The cigar-chomping
and contemplative silences of this world

draw us into its eerie natural beauty, at
the same time challenging us to ponder
the brutal deaths of ancient and stately
creatures at our own hands. As we ride
over rolling hills devoid of life, we are
given time to question: Is the killing of an
innocent being ever justified? What are the
ethical limits of love?
Why did that little kid have horns?
beverage moguls who head the corrupt

slavers echo and embody the corruption
of our own plutocrats, bringing into sharp
relief the subjugation of the working class
on the grim, and often dangerous, factory
floor (whiff of an Industrial Revolution
critique?). Even the slaves themselves,
with mouths and occasionally eyes sewn
shut, confront us with the haunting visage
of a lower class that cannot see, that
cannot scream, that has had its very voice
stripped from it through the dehumanizing
processes of big business.
How Its Art: The spare lines, soft focus
You get to leap from your horse onto a

giants beard, climb up his body as he
tries to shake you off, and stab him in the
fucking head. Then come the black snakes,
and they cannot be stopped.
If Andrew Wyeth painted more castles.
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Did I mention you can fart? Like, at any

time. Seriously, you just press a button and
out it comes. Glorious.
H. R. Giger, if hed had a few more pieces

not soaked in existential horror.
3. Grim Fandango
The World: Welcome to the Land of
the Dead. Its surprisingly Latin, and

surprisingly pleasant, unless you have to
work there. A pretty staggeringly brilliant
mash-up of Casablanca, bebop, jazz,
Art Deco and the rockingest Dia de los
Muertos party ever, Grim Fandango is
probably the most overlooked Lucasarts
adventure game outside of The Dig.
1. Psychonauts
The World: Worlds is actually more
How Its Art: Few works have dared to
embrace death so fully, to question life

from the perspective of the no-longer
living. The flat, disquieting collages
depicting the living world seem to invite us
into Mannys head, and through his eyes, to
question whether our shared fear of death
is a fear simply of the unknowable, or of
the garbled and misunderstood. Is it, in
fact, the gossamer curtain separating the
two which distorts our vision of both? Truly chilling.
Vast conspiracy. A journey through the fires

of hell on a car designed by Big Daddy
Roth. A swarthy accent youd just sound
like a dick if you tried to use in real life.
This games got it all, and the chance to
seduce a hottie skeleton into the bargain.
Hey, its not necrophilia if youre dead too.
Its like reading a Dashiell Hammett novel

in the lobby of the Havana Bacardi Building
while listening to a Benny Goodman record.
2. Every Shiny Game

The World: Once, there was a time when
muppets still starred in movies, everyone

took David Bowie very seriously and Shiny
Entertainment was the wonkiest, weirdest,
most awesomely twisted game company
in the world. From Earthworm Jim to MDK
to Sacrifice, every Shiny game seemed
to exist in the same darkly comic, oozedripping, subversive and sticky quadrant
of the underworld, and even the ones that
were torture to play (Messiah) kept you
engaged with solid dialogue and voice
acting, inventive new ways to kill stuff and
backpacks full of snot.
How Its Art: As a cohesive body of work,
the Shiny collection speaks to the smirking

jester in all of us, relentlessly satirizing
everything from the petty infighting of
religion (Sacrifice) to the medium of
gaming itself (that boss fight in Earthworm
Jim where you just eat the goldfish). Its
a dark, surrealist topsy-turvydom where
the only rule is chaos, and the only valid
pursuit is that of the guiltily maniacal
chuckle of schadenfreude.
In Wild 9, you use your telekinesis gloves

to toss enemies into giant threshers. In
Messiah, you possess police and use them
to shoot other police. In MDK, your head
is a gun. Theres basically never a moment
in a Shiny game when youre not killing
someone in a way youve never killed
anyone before.
accurate. As a student at psychic summer

camp, Raz is able to dive into the brain of
pretty much any character in the game,
and each is a unique, fully developed
world with its own physics and art
design evolved from the characteristics
of the mind itself. Accordingly, the
uptight Germanic counselors brain is a
two tone neon box of ever-transforming
precision; the paranoic security guards
head is crammed with shady, faceless
men muttering about conspiracy on an
impossibly twisted version of Main Street,
U.S.A.; and the giant fish-monsters mind is
exactly what youd expect that to be.
How Its Art: Razs descent into the world
of thought is nothing short of an attempt

to suss out the true inner workings of
the human mind. As levels shift and flow,
illusory as dream, we are faced with the
manifold physical manifestations of the
metaphysical: the body of self-loathing,
the shape of fear, the dark recesses of
denial and repressed emotion. We emerge
sobered, and ready to explore our own
minds with an equal amount of depth and rigor.
How Its Still Fun As Hell: Tim Schafer,

creator of Grim Fandango and most every
other awesome Lucasarts game, made
this one too, which means its smart,
funny and theres a move that lets you set
squirrels on fire with your mind. Thus, the
fabled trifecta has been achieved, and
Psychonautsreceives the Michael Swaim
official seal of Best Platformer of All Time.
Let the rabid argument begin!
Tough, since each brain has a whole

separate visual aesthetic. Id go with Jacek
Yerka as a catchall, but Im open to other
suggestions.
The obvious choice is Doug TenNapel,

comic maven and creator of Earthworm
Jim (his graphic novels, Creature Tech and
Gear, are both masterpieces), but since
weve already established that comics dont
count, you should probably go for a mix
betweenZdzislaw Beksinski and Michel
Gagne. He still works on comics, but most
of his dont have any word balloons, which
makes them art.
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ETC... Magazine
Internet
Memes
Humor or Stupidity?
By Sue Blackmore
Instead of individuals using their limited
resources to create images, adverts, music
and songs, and then subjecting them to
a limited audience, we now have billions
of people with access to vast amounts of
human culture and the ability to change,
mix and pass on anything they like
Have you ever been Rickrolled? Someone
sends you what looks like a link to
something you want; you click on it, and
instead you get Rick Astleys 1987 song
Never Gonna Give You Up. Ha ha! You feel
an idiot and presumably someone else
feels great for having fooled you.
Rickrolling evolved in 2007 from an earlier
meme that sent a picture of a duck on
wheels ie Duckrolling. But why ducks
and why this exceedingly popular song
with its gruesome video? Looking back
we can plausibly argue that it is just
that very, yucky, gruesomeness of Astley
dancing incompetently to his slushy song
that fits the trick so well, and adds to
the embarrassment, but explanation by
hindsight is all too easy.
The web is full of internet memes. Indeed
everything on the internet is technically
a meme in that its information that is
copied, varied and selected but the
term is usually reserved for those that hit
the big time, or go viral. In themselves
these assorted quirky images, videos,
adverts, and tricks are mostly trivial in the
extreme, but their fascination lies in how
they expose what we have inadvertently let
loose in creating the internet. By making
it widely accessible to millions of people
we have created a vast, growing and
accelerating domain for the life of a new
evolutionary process.
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Meme theory explains the generalities

perfectly. What is needed for an evolutionary
process to get off the ground is information
that can be copied with variation and
selection. Our billions of interlinked
computers and servers provide precisely
this digital information is copied, stored
and beamed around the world with mindboggling accuracy and speed, and then we
slower humans delight in choosing what
to copy, what to send to our friends and
how to tinker with, add to, subtract from or
otherwise vary what we come across.
This capacity for creative tinkering lies
behind many of the best internet memes.
Take the famous Hitler Downfall parodies.
In one scene from the 2004 film Downfall,
Hitler rants about the war being lost. This
scene has now been endlessly reproduced,
with new subtitles over the original German
voice. So Hitler now rants about the failure
of the latest technology, current politics,
or indeed against the making of more
Hitler parodies. You can even join online
communities that help you make your own
Downfall parody should you wish to.
In this case there are serious issues at
stake. Did the parodies kill the film as a
serious piece of cinema? Do they trivialise
peoples understanding of the second
world war? Other tough questions apply
to those viral home videos. How will little
David after dentist feel when hes old
enough to know that millions of people
have watched him sitting in the back of the which one would take off, I am confident that
car on the way home saying: I feel funny. Id have got it wrong.
Is this real life?
Why? Not just because advertisers all over
And then there are cats! LOLcats, standing the world are trying to make viral videos and
cats, keyboard cats, box cats and my all
failing, but because this is the evolution of
time favourite Ceiling Cat. This adorable memes we are talking about. Once one idea
little ginger looks down on us wherever
is successful this changes the environment
we go and whatever we do. Starting with
in which the next generation of ideas has
Ceiling Cat is watching you masturbate, to compete. Once people are sick of cats (if
she has morphed (with human help) into
they ever do get sick of cats) something else
a surrogate Christ, the creator of the
will thrive until they once more forget they
world, and the antithesis of nasty black
were sick of cats like playground games
Basement cat. Ive even tried my own
that come and go, or indeed the common
hand at creating ceiling cat variations. I
cold or measles.
have asked many experts Why cats?,
We cant predict the specifics for internet
and their answers range from allusions to
memes but we can predict the gist. Our
Beatrice Potter and the cuteness of kittens,
species has let loose the most wonderfully
to Richard Dawkins refusal to answer
creative space that ever existed. Instead
frivolous questions.
of individuals using their limited resources
Frivolous it may be, but perhaps hes
to create images, adverts, music and
right not to answer because, as I said,
songs, and then subjecting them to a
explaining after the fact is all too easy. And limited audience, we now have billions
I believe this is all we can do. Looking back of people with access to vast amounts of
we can understand how human nature
human culture and the ability to change,
makes us want to be the first of our friends mix and pass on anything they like. New
to send out the latest meme or be the
ideas flood the world and hefty selection
one who creates the slickest parody. We
pressures throw most of them into oblivion,
can understand why those Old Spice Man
enhancing the few. This is creativity indeed
adverts swept the world. That man really is unpredictable, glorious and thriving
just so absolutely gorgeous, with his deep
creativity. These internet memes provide a
sexy voice and fabulous body, yet natural
little window into this newly evolving world.
and slightly mocking tone, Does your
man look like me?. But if youd sent me a
hundred such adverts and asked me to say
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ETC... Magazine
I5 Weird Facts
about Space
We all had to memorize that cute mnemonic solar system device in grade school that
taught us the order of the planets. Some of us even had Milky Way placemats. But for
most of us, the outer space education ended there. (Sorry guys: Star Trek and Star
Wars dont count.) Maybe thats because space feels too distant to ever be relevant to
our day-to-day routines. Or maybe its simply that the otherworldly element generally
overwhelems us and bruises our intellectual egos.
But maybe its time to start paying attention to space again. Hell, Lance Bass and Paris
Hilton went there. How complicated can it be? As those who have kept in touch with
the cosmos will tell you, space is one damn interesting place, chock-full of wacky
phenomena. And you dont even need to work for NASA to understand it. In fact, if you
ever find yourself stranded in space like the rag-tag crew of Earthlings in our hilarious
original retro SciFi series, Space Hospital, you might have a lot of fun getting to
know the weird ins and outs of the final frontier. Heres a collection of interesting and
altogether weird space facts that you probably didnt learn in school or even on TV. So sit
back, strap in, and get ready to go where few normal men have gone before.
Quasars
These mysterious starlike objects shine
from the outermost limits of the universe,
helping scientists learn about the earliest
stages of existence. Weve since learned
that a quasar is actually a black hole
at the center of a huge, distant galaxy.
Perhaps more interesting, quasars give
off 1,000 times more energy than the
entire Milky Way galaxy.
Lightweight
Planets
You may have learned that some planets
in the solar system are gaseous, but did
you know that Saturn, that blinged-out
planet with all the rings, could float in
water? The planets density is 0.687 g/
cm3 versus waters density of .998 g/
cm3. So Saturn would make an awesome
rubber ducky in the universes largest
bathtub. If only we had a prodigal
billionaire to help make that happen.
Paging Richard Branson?
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Extra Inches
All human beings are about two inches
taller in space. On Earth, gravity
compresses the spine, but in the vacuum
of space, the spring-like spine is free to
elongate. Short astronauts are thus more
confident pick-up artists when floating
around in space. The bad news? Back on
Earth, they shrink back down to normal
height. Also, girls get taller in space, too.
Diamond Star
Extra Moons?
In 1986, a scientist named Duncan
Waldron discovered an asteroid in
elliptical orbit around the sun that
seemed to mimic Earths revolution.
Because the asteroid appeared to be
following our planet, it was sometimes
referred to as Earths second moon. Since
then, at least three similar asteroids
have been discovered. Most recently, the
Earth and the moon went on Maury to
discover that, as suspected, Earth is the
father of those asteroids.
In 2004, astronomers discovered a

star composed entirely of diamond,
measuring 4,000 km across and 10
billion trillion trillion carats. 50 light years
from Earth, the diamond star is classified
as a crystallized white dwarf, the hot
core that remains after a star burns
out. Only recently have scientists been
able to study the contents of the white
dwarf, and theyve confirmed that the
crystallized carbon interior of the star is,
in fact, the galaxys largest diamond. In
other news, Elizabeth Taylor is studying to
become an astronaut.
Cold Welding
In space, pressing two uncoated pieces
of metal will eventually fuse them
together. The Earths atmosphere coats
metallic surfaces with a layer of oxidized
material, but in the vacuum of space,
that layer barely exists. NASA used to be
hyper-sensitive to cold welding, so the
metal used in many spaceships is coated
to prevent the reaction. But it takes
more than a brief bump for two metals
to fuse in space, and in the 1960s the
phenomenon of instant, accidental cold
welding was dispelled as a myth.
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Liquids in
Space
Here on Earth, liquids tend to flow
downward. But in the zero-gravity
vacuum of space, any liquid will shape
itself into a sphere. It is surface tension,
the same phenomenon that causes water
to form as a horizontal surface on Earth,
that causes liquids to form spheres in
space. Maybe frat guys should start
paying attention to this stuff.
No doubt they could convince alumni
benefactors to send a crew of
bro-stronauts up to research a
new generation of drinking games.
Goodbye,
Moon
Tidal effects cause the moon to move
about 3.8 cm away from Earth every year.
Its a process called tidal acceleration,
the aggregate of competing gravitational
forces between a planet and its satellite.
As a result, the Earths rotation slows
down at about .002 seconds a century,
and the moon casually inches toward our
sister, Venus.
Old Light
Believe it or not, the sunlight we see
today is actually 30,000 years old. Thats
when the energy of sunlight was created
in the suns core, and it has since then
been fighting to penetrate the dense
matter of the sun. Once it reaches the
surface, the light takes only about eight
minutes to reach us. Scientists have
confirmed that, due to its age, sunlight
does in fact smell like old people. More
specifically, like Magda from Theres
Something About Mary.
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Lasting
Footprints
Shrinking Sun
Solar winds are streams of charged
particles ejected from the upper
atmosphere of the sun that cause it to
lose up to a billion kilograms of mass
a second. For such an extreme dieting
regimen, the sun still looks
pretty damn enormous.
Due to the absence of air and wind on

the moon, all astronaut footprints last for
millions of years, longer than the most
permanent structures on Earth.
As long as a meteor or any other space
particle does not hit the moon, any
impressions made into its surface will
virtually last forever. Just imagine all the
penis doodles the moon would wake
up with if the aforementioned frat-boy
excursion were to go down.
Electrostatic
Levitation
During the first Apollo missions,
astronauts reported a hazy glow on the
moons horizon that looked a little like an
atmosphere. This was weird since, well,
the moon doesnt have an atmosphere.
The glow was actually the suns reflection
of floating dust particles. Because the
sunlight gives an electrostatic charge
to dust particles on the moon, some
particles float in the air, a process known
as electrostatic levitation.
Its just a matter of time until Criss Angel
claims the phenomenon as proof of his
supernatural powers.
Long Day
Amazingly, a single day on Venus is
longer than its entire year. It takes Venus
243 Earth days to completely rotate on its
axis, but just 225 days to orbit the sun.
Stranger still, Venus is one of two planets
that rotates in reverse, a phenomenon
called retrograde motion. Most theories
attribute the reverse rotation to an
ancient planetary collision.
Thats what happens when you make fun
of Plutos mom.
Galactic
Satelites
Planets in the solar system arent the only
celestial bodies with satellites in orbit.
The Milky Way galaxy itself has at least
15 satellite galaxies in orbit around it.
Just as the moon is gravitationally bound
to the Earth, these satellite galaxies are
gravitationally bound to the Milky Way,
which lovingly refers to them
as ma bitches.
Cold Steel
On the former planet Pluto (now
designated a dwarf planet), the
temperature is a brisk -390 degrees
Fahrenheit. Expectedly, temperatures
become progressively colder as you move
away from the sun, and Pluto is about
as far as you can get within our solar
system. In fact, it is so cold that Plutos
ice is harder than steel. Needless to say,
your nipples can cut glass on Pluto.
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ETC... Magazine
The wondrous properties of the Zebrafish
We think we have uncovered a general mechanism

that the body uses to respond to injury
To all appearances, the zebrafish is your typical aquarium dweller. But over the past 30
years, the tiny translucent creature has become an important research model used by
scientists to study a host of conditions, including cancers, neurological diseases and
blood disorders. As a result, today youre as likely to find zebrafish inhabiting laboratories
of biomedical research centers as you are to find them in pet stores or home fish tanks.
Early this month, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) officially unveiled its
Zebrafish Laboratory, an 1,800-square-foot facility housing more than 3,000 tanks
filled with 100,000 fish. Jointly created through BIDMCs Departments of Medicineand
Pathology, the laboratory is a veritable sea of translucent vertebrates, which are
providing scientists with important clues to a vast array of human diseases and conditions.
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ETC... Magazine
Studying Blood Disorders

Zebrafish measure less than two inches long and weigh less than an ounce. Yet in terms
of organ development, they are genetically similar to humans, making them an ideal
model to use in studying various types of anemia and other blood diseases, as well as in
understanding how the body regenerates tissues that have been damaged by disease or trauma.
BIDMCs Zebrafish Laboratory Codirectors Paula Fraenkel, MD, Division of Hematology/
Oncology and Trista North, PhD, Division of Experimental Pathology, both study blood
and related diseases, and in a coincidental turn of events, within the past month both
scientists have published key papers describing their zebrafish work.
Studying the development of zebrafish embryos enables us to identify genes and
chemical agents that affect iron metabolism and other processes, explains Fraenkel.
The zebrafish provides an excellent system for the identification and analysis of genes
involved in iron metabolism and erythroid (red blood cell) development. In this way, we
have been able to conduct large-scale screens that are providing us with insights into
hereditary and acquired iron overload syndromes, which can result in failure of the liver,
heart and pancreas.
Fraenkels laboratory investigates how iron is taken up into the body and used by red
blood cells, and, in turn, how this is related to diseases, including thalessemia. Until the
discovery of the hormone hepcidin, we didnt know how the body regulated intestinal
iron absorption and the transport of this essential nutrient into our cells. In our work,
weve found that even in embryos, iron usage is precisely regulated by this hormone.
In the March 19 cover story in the journal Blood, Fraenkel and her coauthors describe
their discovery of the molecular underpinnings responsible for the regulation of iron
absorption and utilization, using the zebrafish embryo as a model.
Zebrafish and Stem Cells

Norths research uses zebrafish as a screening tool to identify regulatory pathways
that can control the formation of blood stem cells -- which in turn develop into each of
the bodys various blood cell types. In earlier work, North and her colleagues identified
several compounds that increase the production of blood-forming, or hematopoetic, stem cells.
We knew that these compounds could be of clinical importance to enhance the success
of bone marrow or cord-blood transplantation, says North, explaining that one of the
goals of hematopoetic stem cell transplantation is to restore the immune systems of
patients whose blood cells have been depleted by cancer therapy.
In a study published March 20 in the journal Cell, North showed that the same
molecules that interact to shape embryonic development also play a role in adult
tissue regeneration. Its been very exciting, says North, explaining that their initial
analysis uncovered a novel role for the prostaglandin E2 molecule, a naturally occurring
inflammatory mediator, which plays a central role in stem cell formation.
Her recent work, conducted in collaboration with Wolfram Goessling, PhD, of Brigham
and Womens Hospital, extends those previous observations to show that PGE2
directly influences the WNT signaling pathway, known to be a central regulator of cell
proliferation. The scientists additionally found that this interaction is not specific to blood cells.
We think we have uncovered a general mechanism that the body uses to respond to
injury, says North, adding that a stabilized version of PGE2 was recently approved by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for investigational clinical use in the setting of
cord blood stem cell transplantation for the treatment of leukemia. This marks the first
example of taking a small molecule isolated from a screen in zebrafish and bringing it
into the clinic, she adds.
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Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month
mission, NASAs enduring Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on
what essentially became a new mission five months ago.
Opportunity reached a multi-year driving
destination, Endeavour Crater, in August
2011. At Endeavours rim, it has gained
access to geological deposits from an
earlier period of Martian history than
anything it examined during its first seven
years. It also has begun an investigation
of the planets deep interior that takes
advantage of staying in one place for the
Martian winter.
Opportunity landed in Eagle Crater on
Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time and
EST (Jan. 24, PST), three weeks after its
rover twin, Spirit, landed halfway around
the planet. In backyard-size Eagle Crater,
Opportunity found evidence of an ancient
wet environment. The mission met all its
goals within the originally planned span of
three months. During most of the next four
years, it explored successively larger and
deeper craters, adding evidence about wet
and dry periods from the same era as the
Eagle Crater deposits.
In mid-2008, researchers drove
Opportunity out of Victoria Crater, half a
mile (800 meters) in diameter, and set
course for Endeavour Crater, 14 miles (22
kilometers) in diameter.
Endeavour is a window further into
Mars past, said Mars Exploration Rover
Program Manager John Callas, of NASAs
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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ETC... Magazine
The trek took three years. In a push to

finish it, Opportunity drove farther during
its eighth year on Mars -- 4.8 miles (7.7
kilometers) -- than in any prior year,
bringing its total driving distance to 21.4
miles (34.4 kilometers).
winds last cleaned them -- more than in

previous winters -- the rover needs to
stay on a sun-facing slope to have enough
energy to keep active through the winter.
The rover team has not had to use this

strategy with Opportunity in past winters,
The Cape York segment of Endeavours
though it did so with Spirit, farther from
rim, where Opportunity has been working
the equator, for the three Martian winters
since August 2011, has already validated
that Spirit survived. By the beginning of the
the choice of Endeavour as a long-term
rovers fourth Martian winter, drive motors
goal. Its like starting a new mission, and
in two of Spirits six wheels had ceased
we hit pay dirt right out of the gate, Callas said. working, long past their design lifespan.
The impaired mobility kept the rover from
The first outcrop that Opportunity
maneuvering to an energy-favorable slope.
examined on Cape York differs from any
Spirit stopped communicating in March 2010.
the rover had seen previously. Its high zinc
content suggests effects of water. Weeks
All six of Opportunitys wheels are still
later, at the edge of Cape York, a bright
useful for driving, but the rover will stay
mineral vein identified as hydrated calcium on an outcrop called Greeley Haven
sulfate provided what the missions
until mid-2012 to take advantage of the
principal investigator, Steve Squyres of
outcrops favorable slope and targets of
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., calls the
scientific interest during the Martian winter.
clearest evidence for liquid water on Mars After the winter, or earlier if wind cleans
that we have found in our eight years on
dust off the solar panels, researchers
the planet.
plan to drive Opportunity in search of clay
minerals that a Mars orbiters observations
Mars years last nearly twice as long as
indicate lie on Endeavours rim.
Earth years. Entering its ninth Earth year on
Mars, Opportunity is also heading into its
The top priority at Greeley Haven is
fifth Martian winter. Its solar panels have
the radio-science campaign to provide
accumulated so much dust since Martian
information about Mars interior, said
JPLs Diana Blaney, deputy project scientist
for the mission. This study uses weeks of
tracking radio signals from the stationary
rover to measure wobble in the planets
rotation. The amount of wobble is an
indicator of whether the core of the planet

is molten, similar to the way spinning an
egg can be used to determine whether it is
raw or hard-boiled.
Other research at Greeley Haven includes
long-term data gathering to investigate
mineral ingredients of the outcrop with
spectrometers on Opportunitys arm, and
repeated observations to monitor windcaused changes at various scales.
The Mssbauer spectrometer, which
identifies iron-containing minerals, uses
radiation from cobalt-57 in the instrument
to elicit a response from molecules in
the rock. The half-life of cobalt-57 is only
about nine months, so this source has
diminished greatly. A measurement that
could have been made in less than an hour
during the rovers first year now requires
weeks of holding the spectrometer on the target.
Observations for the campaign to monitor
wind-caused changes range in scale from
dunes in the distance to individual grains
seen with the rovers microscopic imager.
Wind is the most active process on Mars
today, Blaney said. It is harder to watch
for changes when the rover is driving every
day. We are taking advantage of staying at
one place for a while.
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ETC... Magazine
Dreamwave: The rise and fall

To me dreamwave was more than just a word.
The Beginnings
Big Eighties
Its meaning to me fullfills all of what i believe in.
Dreamwave Productions was originally
In October of 2000, issue #111 of Wizard:
Success, love, friendship, hopes ans wishes. When all launched by brothers Pat and Roger Lee as The Comics Magazine ran a feature
a studio within Image Comics in 1996, at
named Big 80s, featuring various
is bad humans exclude themselves from reality only
the height of the Image boom.
popular properties of the 1980s in new
to find themselves in the realm of dreams. Because
interpretations by modern artists, such
In 1998, Dreamwave would start to publish
as Thundercats drawn by Jim Cheung,
here in our dreams we find the freedom from the
various blatantly plagiarized originally
Masters of the Universe drawn by
shackles that this society has locked us in reality
created titles such as Darkminds and
-Pat Lee
Warlands, as well as accepting work-forhire assignments for other publishers such

as the four-issue limited series Wolverine/
Punisher: Revelation for Marvel. Other
titles such as Shidima, Fate of the Blade
or Arkanium would follow. Furthermore,
Dreamwave also collaborated with VIBE
and Wizard: The Comics Magazine on
various projects, developed an advertising
campaign for the Dr. Martens shoe label
and created the production designs for
the music video to Janet Jacksons song
Doesnt Really Matter.
Initially, the hook for Dreamwaves
financial success was the drawing style of
its president, Pat Lee, which many readers
viewed as manga-like (although readers
of actual Japanese mangas had a different
opinion on this matter).
Ed McGunness, G.I. Joe drawn by J.

Scott Campbell, and Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles drawn by Joe Madureira.
Dreamwave submitted their own take on
the Transformers, one of Pats personal
favorites from his childhood days, with Pat
Lee himself and Alvin Lee handling the art.
Wizard, making suggestions for a modern
Transformers comic, named Mark Millar as
their number one choice for the writer of
the book, with Pat Lee (aka Mr. Mecha)
on art duties.
Needless to say, the modern-style
manga-like Transformers artwork
caused an uproar in the established
fandom as well as among regular comic
fans who remembered Transformers
from their childhoods. Seven months
later, Pat got another chance of drawing
Transformers characters in a feature
named How to draw Mecha for issue
#118 of Wizard.
Splitting from Image and getting the Transformers license

Still in 2000, a group of Dreamwave employees (including Alvin Lee, who had worked
with Pat on the Wizard piece) departed from their company to form their own business,
UDON Studios.
A year later, Hasbro was offering the license for new Transformers comics, which had
effectively remained unused since Marvel Comicss Generation 2 issue 12 in 1994.
Several companies, including Marvel (with UDON being supposed to handle the art), were
interested, but all of them used the piece of artwork Dreamwave had done for Wizard.
Dreamwave at one point intended to cooperate with Top Cow, but Top Cow rejected the
offer. Ultimately, Dreamwave decided to get the license themselves instead of going
through another company, claiming that Pat Lee would only handle the art if Dreamwave
got the license. Marvel ultimately backed out because of the license fee Hasbro
demanded.[1]
Dreamwave officially acquired the Transformers license in December of 2001,[2]
although Hasbro would ultimately never get the license fee in full. To commemorate
the new flagship title, Dreamwave officially cut all ties with Image and became an
independent publisher on their own.
34
ETC... Magazine
Success of the Transformers Titles Trouble On The Horizon

Dreamwaves launch title, Transformers:
Generation 1 vol. 1, written by Chris
Sarracini and drawn by Pat Lee, became
an instant hit, dominating Diamonds
sales charts for months. Back then,
rumors were circulating that Dreamwave
had manipulated the market through
a special deal with Diamond to ensure
their success, or that Hasbro had set up
an account to order large numbers of
the Transformers comics. in fact Hasbro
had ordered less than 200 copies per
issue, primarily because they were not
guaranteed free copies from their contract
with Dreamwave. Later that year, other
companies also reported high sales of
nostalgia titles, thus further challenging
those rumors.
Dreamwave would soon expand their
range of Transformers comics to include
an ongoing Transformers: Armada series
(which later evolved into Transformers:
Energon to accompany the respective
toylines), initially also written by Sarricini.
Although the second Generation 1 volume
was originally supposed to be written by
Sarracini again, he was replaced by new
writer James McDonough (who originally
worked under the alias Brad Mick),
thereby ultimately writing an entirely
different story than what was originally
intended.[4] With issue #5 of the third
Generation One volume (now an ongoing
title), McDonough was joined by his
longtime friend Adam Patyk, now forming
a writing duo, eventually shifting out his
Brad Mick alias.
Furthermore, Dreamwave hired fanfavorite Simon Furman to pen various
Transformers: The War Within mini-series,
the first official Transformers fiction ever
to be not directly based on an existing
toyline. Furman would be joined by artist
Don Figueroa, whom Dreamwave had
hired directly out of the fandom. More
fan artists such as Guido Guidi and
Joe Ng would soon follow Don into the
professional comic book world. Meanwhile,
Furman would later also take over the
Armada title as a writer.
The first problems arose in late 2002,

when it turned out that Dreamwave had
only acquired the license for distributing
Transformers titles in the USA, which
resulted in a temporary hold in the
international distribution until the matter
was settled. However, Dreamwave were
far from being the only company suffering
from that problem, as Devils Due Press
(then part of Image Comics) were also
no longer allowed to distribute their G.I.
Joe comic abroad, and other companies
encountered similar problems. The
problem was eventually resolved, and
comics were allowed to be distributed
internationally again.
Following the success of their
Transformers titles, Dreamwave put their
own titles Warlands and Darkminds on
hold, instead focusing on other licensed
books such as Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles, numerous Capcom franchises
such as Mega Man, and Duel Masters
(a Hasbro-backed Japanese import card
game/toyline). None of those titles would
last particularly long, and some (mainly
numerous Capcom titles) never even got
the first issue out. This was also when
rumors of creators not getting paid first
came up. Rumors about a rigid house
style committing other artists to draw in
a style close to company president Pat Lee
started to circulate as well, most evident
in the second War Within miniseries,
where the original pencils by artist Andrew
Wildman were drastically reworked by the
inker, with rather disappointing results.
In mid-2004, Dreamwave announced
the addition of new creators, failing
to mention that this also meant the
departure of Adam Patyk and James
McDonough from the company. Although
Dreamwave tried to contain this delicate
bit of information by asking websites to
consider any public statements by the
two regarding their current situation
with Dreamwave as private and thus
delete them, some sites ignored that
request, thereby revealing that Patyk
and McDonough were owed a significant
amount of money for their work. A worried
James Raiz would turn down an offer to
draw the next War Within miniseries, not
wanting to risk doing a lot of work for no money.
35
ETC... Magazine
The End
While other artists and writers, including
Simon Furman, at least temporarily joined
the fold of creators not getting paid by
Dreamwave, Chris Sarracini was asked to
rewrite the stories previously submitted
by Patyk and McDonough. Likewise, a
long-since announced Beast Wars title
McDonough and Patyk had previously
worked on was now supposed to be
written by Furman instead. Those stories
would ultimately never be published,
as Hasbro had already declined to
renew Dreamwaves license to publish
Transformers comics by this point.
Following numerous rumors, including one
posted by Ben Yee on his own website
BWTF.com, Dreamwave officially declared
bankruptcy on January 4, 2005, blaming
the weak United States Dollar and other
scapegoats for the companys failure,
including a vastly incorrect claim about
Dreamwave being the only Canadian
independent comics publisher. By this
time, Pat and Roger had already spent
four months secretly moving most of
Dreamwaves assets to a new company
named Dream Engine, whose website
domain was registered to Rogers name.
The existence of Dream Engine first
became public in early January of 2005.
The Aftermath
The overall amount of Dreamwaves debt
was far over a million dollars. While former
Dreamwave employees never saw a single
cent of the money they were owed for their
work, Pat Lee repeated the performance
a year later with Dream Engine, ultimately
resulting in him departing from the new
company and once again starting a new
business, Pat Lee Productions. Meanwhile,
a Canadian entrepreneur named Christian
Dery acquired the remaining Dreamwave
assets, including the name Dreamwave
and the rights to their original titles
such asWarlands or Darkminds, in August
of 2005. Ultimately, no new Dreamwave
comics would ever see the light of day,
and the new Dreamwave ended up
not paying employees either. Eventually,
Dreamwave II would close shop in
mid-2006, selling back the remaining
Dreamwave properties to Roger Lee and
Dream Engine.
Mike Costa, writer on IDW Publishings
later Transformers comics, blames
Dreamwave for damaging the franchise
in the US comics market: on top of some
stories being, in his opinion, not that
great, the business crash meant a lot
of people got burned... a lot of stores
got defaulted upon because their orders
werent being met.
36
ETC... Magazine
37
ETC... Magazine
By Joe Kernan
I expect we will put at least a few hundred books at
truck stops, said Colleen. When Grandpa started
to tell my three grandsons his truck stories and they
started asking him for them ever since, I knew this
was a good idea.
Kids have been crazy for trucks since
they first started appearing regularly
on Americas roads during and after
the First World War, and the latest
generation of kids shows no signs
of abandoning their love for trucks
anytime soon.
When the grandchildren come to visit, the
first thing they go for are the trucks, said
Colleen Kelly Mellor, the author of a series
of books intended to introduce kids to the
adventures that her husband, Paul Wesley
Gates, experienced over 30 years of
driving the big rigs across country. They
are always saying, Grandpa, tell us about
the trucks. Theyre fascinated.Gates,
whose CB handle was Gator, also fell in
love with trucks when he was a boy.
I was in the roofing business when I was
18 and we needed someone to drive the
truck, to place the truck so that they could
easily reach the nails and shingles as they
worked and I told them, I can do it, said
Gator, an Arkansas native who is now
retired and living in Warwick with Colleen,
a retired Cranston schoolteacher. I also
learned to operate heavy equipment but I
really liked driving trucks.
Gator came of age when there was still
mandatory military service and he chose
to go into the Navy Seabees, where his
experience with trucks and big machines
would be appreciated. He was stationed at
Quonset for most of his hitch in the Navy,
but his specialty sent him to a number of
places to train other drivers and equipment
operators. After the service, roofing didnt
hold much appeal for Gator and in 1968,
he bought his first truck and started to
work for Greyhound Van Lines.
It was a Ford W1000 and I used it to haul
household goods, he said.
38
ETC... Magazine
It was what happened on the road that the

kids like to hear about, as when Gator was
holed up in a motel in Biloxi, Miss., when
Hurricane Camille came ashore.
I was dead tired and I went to sleep, said
Gator. Then I woke up and the sky and the
stars were shining. I asked someone what
happened and he told me, the hurricane
took the roof off.
Gator was also on the road just in time to
get caught up in the biggest counterculture
event of the 1960s.
I was heading out on a trip and I was on
Route 17 in New York when all the traffic
stopped moving, said Gator. Traffic was
backed up in both directions because of all
the cars people just stopped and walked
away from to go to Woodstock. We couldnt
move for three days.
Gator said he didnt lose anything but time
during Woodstock, but one of the other
truck drivers was hauling 1,000 pounds of
watermelon and it wasnt in a refrigerated truck.
He knew the watermelons would spoil,
so he started giving it away, said Gator.
The kids were starving, so he just started
carving up the watermelon and handing it out.
Woodstock aside, the trucking business

was booming in those days. The interstate
highway system was still relatively new
and long distance truck drivers gave the
freight industry an economically viable
alternative to railroads that offered real
flexibility and freedom. The system is
probably the single most important
achievement of the Eisenhower presidency.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was impressed by
the network of high-speed roads he found
in Germany and was quick to recognize its
strategic importance to military and civilian
life. It enabled large amounts of goods to
be delivered to areas not directly served
by railroads. Eisenhower was determined
to build the highways that lawmakers had
been talking about since the Federal-Aid
Highway Act of 1944 had authorized the
construction of a 40,000-mile National
System of Interstate Highways. The act
authorized the system but provided no
money for it. Eisenhower got the money for
the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.
Trucks could go anywhere and trucks
now carry over 70 percent of the freight
in America. By the 1960s, the public was
about to become familiar with the truck
driving culture. By the 1970s, the world of
the trucker opened up and single-handedly
exploded the use of Citizens Band (CB) radio.
The FCC began to permit citizens a

radio band for personal communication
in 1945 for things like radio-controlled
model airplanes and family and business
communications. Technical advances
reduced the weight, size and cost of the radios.
in 1970s films such as Smokey and

the Bandit and Convoy, and popular
television shows like Movin On in 1974,
brought more people to CB radio but it also
publicized the issues of concern to truck
drivers and the industry in general.
The 1973 oil crisis brought the 55 miles

per hour speed limit and fuel shortages.
CB radio was used to notify other drivers
of speed traps and gas stations and truck
stops that had increasingly rare supplies of
fuel. They also helped organize blockades
and convoys in a 1974 strike protesting
the new speed limit. The use of CB radios
But kids didnt need CB or movies to make

them fall in love with trucks. The inherent
power of the machines and the freedom
of the open road appeal to children of all
cultures, and Colleen and Gator hope that
their series of books about Grandpa and
the Truck will be popular introductions to
the world of trucking and to give some
wholesome messages along the way.

Grandpa and the Truck books one and
two have already been published and,
according to Colleen, are beginning to
catch on with people in trucking, if not
the rest of the world. As a retired teacher,
she couldnt resist putting a Questions
for this story section in the books, or the
list of trucker terms and their meanings at
the end of each volume. But the OwnerOperators Independent Drivers Association
had some encouraging words.
The Grandpa and the Truck stories focus
on the hard-working men and women
who sacrifice time away from home and

families to make sure goods arrive on time
for others, they wrote. As such, theyre a
tribute to truckers everywhere.
With that kind of endorsement, Colleen
believes that placing the books at truck
stops would be a logical next step, but she
expects the appeal to be broader than that.
I expect we will put at least a few
hundred books at truck stops, said
Colleen. When Grandpa started to tell my
three grandsons his truck stories and they
started asking him for them ever since, I
knew this was a good idea.
39
ETC... Magazine
There are four

psychological
primary colours red, blue, yellow
and green. They
relate respectively
to the body, the
mind, the emotions
and the essential
balance between
these three.
RED. Physical
Positive: Physical courage, strength,
warmth, energy, basic survival, fight or
flight, stimulation, masculinity, excitement.
Negative: Defiance, aggression, visual
impact, strain.
Being the longest wavelength, red is a
powerful colour. Although not technically
the most visible, it has the property of
appearing to be nearer than it is and
therefore it grabs our attention first. Hence
its effectiveness in traffic lights the world
over. Its effect is physical; it stimulates
us and raises the pulse rate, giving the
impression that time is passing faster than
it is. It relates to the masculine principle
and can activate the fight or flight
instinct. Red is strong, and very basic. Pure
red is the simplest colour, with no subtlety.
It is stimulating and lively, very friendly.
At the same time, it can be perceived as
demanding and aggressive.
BLUE. Intellectual.
Positive: Intelligence, communication,
trust, efficiency, serenity, duty, logic,
coolness, reflection, calm.
Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of
emotion, unfriendliness.
Blue is the colour of the mind and is
essentially soothing; it affects us mentally,
rather than the physical reaction we have
to red. Strong blues will stimulate clear
thought and lighter, soft blues will calm the
mind and aid concentration. Consequently
it is serene and mentally calming. It is
the colour of clear communication. Blue
objects do not appear to be as close to us
as red ones. Time and again in research,
blue is the worlds favourite colour.
However, it can be perceived as cold,
unemotional and unfriendly.
40
ETC... Magazine
Psychological Properties Of Colours

YELLOW. Emotional
Positive: Optimism, confidence, selfesteem, extraversion, emotional strength,
friendliness, creativity.
Negative: Irrationality, fear, emotional
fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide.
The yellow wavelength is relatively long
and essentially stimulating. In this case
the stimulus is emotional, therefore yellow
is the strongest colour, psychologically.
The right yellow will lift our spirits and our
self-esteem; it is the colour of confidence
and optimism. Too much of it, or the wrong
tone in relation to the other tones in a
colour scheme, can cause self-esteem to
plummet, giving rise to fear and anxiety.
Our yellow streak can surface.
GREEN. Balance
Positive: Harmony, balance, refreshment,
universal love, rest, restoration,
reassurance, environmental awareness,
equilibrium, peace.
Negative: Boredom, stagnation,
blandness, enervation.
Green strikes the eye in such a way as to
require no adjustment whatever and is,
therefore, restful. Being in the centre of the
spectrum, it is the colour of balance - a
more important concept than many people
realise. When the world about us contains
plenty of green, this indicates the presence
of water, and little danger of famine, so
we are reassured by green, on a primitive
level. Negatively, it can indicate stagnation
and, incorrectly used, will be perceived as
being too bland.
VIOLET. Spiritual
Positive: Spiritual awareness, containment,
vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality.
Negative: Introversion, decadence,
suppression, inferiority.
The shortest wavelength is violet, often

described as purple. It takes awareness
to a higher level of thought, even into
the realms of spiritual values. It is
highly introvertive and encourages deep
contemplation, or meditation. It has
associations with royalty and usually
communicates the finest possible quality.
Being the last visible wavelength before
the ultra-violet ray, it has associations with
time and space and the cosmos. Excessive
use of purple can bring about too much
introspection and the wrong tone of it
communicates something cheap and nasty,
faster than any other colour.
colour that has an entirely separate name

for its tints. Tints of blue, green, yellow, etc.
are simply called light blue, light greenetc.)
Pink is a powerful colour, psychologically.
It represents the feminine principle, and
survival of the species; it is nurturing
and physically soothing. Too much pink
is physically draining and can be
somewhat emasculating.
ORANGE.
Positive: Physical comfort, food, warmth,
security, sensuality, passion, abundance, fun.
Negative: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity,
immaturity.
Since it is a combination of red and yellow,
orange is stimulating and reaction to it
is a combination of the physical and the
emotional. It focuses our minds on issues
of physical comfort - food, warmth, shelter
etc. - and sensuality. It is a fun colour.
Negatively, it might focus on the exact
opposite - deprivation. This is particularly
likely when warm orange is used with
black. Equally, too much orange suggests
frivolity and a lack of serious intellectual
values.
PINK.
Positive: Physical tranquillity, nurture,
warmth, femininity, love, sexuality, survival
of the species.
Negative: Inhibition, emotional
claustrophobia, emasculation, physical
weakness.
Being a tint of red, pink also affects us
physically, but it soothes, rather than
stimulates. (Interestingly, red is the only
GREY.
Black creates a perception of weight and

seriousness.
It is a myth that black clothes are slimming:
The truth behind the myth is that black is
the most recessive colour a matter of not
drawing attention to yourself, rather than
actually making you look slimmer.
WHITE.
Positive: Psychological neutrality.
Positive: Hygiene, sterility, clarity, purity,

cleanness, simplicity, sophistication, efficiency.
Negative: Lack of confidence, dampness,

depression, hibernation, lack of energy.
Negative: Sterility, coldness, barriers,

unfriendliness, elitism.
Pure grey is the only colour that has

no direct psychological properties. It is,
however, quite suppressive. A virtual
absence of colour is depressing and when
the world turns grey we are instinctively
conditioned to draw in and prepare for
hibernation. Unless the precise tone is
right, grey has a dampening effect on other
colours used with it. Heavy use of grey
usually indicates a lack of confidence and
fear of exposure.
Just as black is total absorption, so white

is total reflection. In effect, it reflects
the full force of the spectrum into our
eyes. Thus it also creates barriers, but
differently from black, and it is often a
strain to look at. It communicates, Touch
me not! White is purity and, like black,
uncompromising; it is clean, hygienic, and
sterile. The concept of sterility can also be
negative. Visually, white gives a heightened
perception of space. The negative effect
of white on warm colours is to make them
look and feel garish.
BLACK.
Positive: Sophistication, glamour, security,
emotional safety, efficiency, substance.
Negative: Oppression, coldness,
menace, heaviness.
Black is all colours, totally absorbed.
The psychological implications of that
are considerable. It creates protective
barriers, as it absorbs all the energy
coming towards you, and it enshrouds the
personality. Black is essentially an absence
of light, since no wavelengths are reflected
and it can, therefore be menacing; many
people are afraid of the dark. Positively, it
communicates absolute clarity, with no fine
nuances. It communicates sophistication
and uncompromising excellence and
it works particularly well with white.
BROWN.
Positive: Seriousness, warmth, Nature,
earthiness, reliability, support.
Negative: Lack of humour, heaviness, lack
of sophistication.
Brown usually consists of red and
yellow, with a large percentage of black.
Consequently, it has much of the same
seriousness as black, but is warmer and
softer. It has elements of the red and
yellow properties. Brown has associations
with the earth and the natural world. It is
a solid, reliable colour and most people
find it quietly supportive - more positively
than the ever-popular black, which is
suppressive, rather than supportive.
41
ETC... Magazine

Exclusive Interview
Fantasy Literature
42
ETC... Magazine

Exclusive Interview
Fantasy Literature
43
ETC... Magazine
44
ETC... Magazine

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Issue # 1 November 2012

Are Videogames an artform?

10 Games that try to answer this question

PSY: The man behind the moves

The quest of a genre

Spell and Sword: The Fantasy Genre

Dungeons and Dragons: A Game of Dice

PSY: The man behind the moves

Skating through Downtown

Recipes for Students

10 Video Games that Qualify as Art

Internet Memes: Humor or Stupidity?

10 Weird facts about Space

The wondrous properties of the Zebrafish

News from Mars

Comics Corner: The story of Dreamwave

Between the Real and the Fictional

The quest of a genre through the ages

creatures and/or people exist, they all

Fantasy IS escapism, but wait

Thanks to Tolkien, it is the quest fantasy

Fantasy lets us believe we can make a

Gail Garrigers books are a comedy

and with difficulty won. Like a candle-flame, fantasy

For the very best fantasy enlightens as well as beguiles,

While medieval/quest fantasies are often undervalued by critics, some fantasy is

Because the best game graphics are

When did you get a sense that

Do you listen to much American music?

I released the song on July 15 and I didnt

[laughs] I dont think this dance is suitable

I studied hard to find something new. I

You studied at Boston University and

class was too early for me.

C But did music school influence your taste?

CWhat do you do when youre not performing?

Im drinking. Its my biggest hobby.

1 block of feta cheese

Pasta (elbow shape (or) penne)

1 can of diet coca cola

1 bag of spaghetti pasta

1 package of pre-chopped cabbage

1 tin of tomato soup

Bechamel / white sauce ( i will tell you

3tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Some spices ( i prefer basil )

1 granny smith apple, peeled

WHAT YOULL NEED

Easy Feta Cheese

2tbsp soy sauce

Start by mixing the diet cola, ketchup,

Place the chicken wings in to a large pan.

An eraser-sized piece of white cheddar

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Break up the feta into smaller pieces.

This recipe has converted many friends

Boil the pasta and keep aside.

put cabbage, julienned apple, carrot,

Nintendo Game Boy

Sky + HD / Tivo, etc

From early models to the the latest iPod

All from the comfort of your armchair, the

Perhaps not really taking off as an

We all remember a time when we would