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Writer's block: Stories that missed the cut

Writer's block: It's like your brain is taking a poo that's just a tad too big for your cranium, minus the blinding, searing physical pain. We've all felt mentally constipated in theory, and usually during the absolute worst times: the night before that 25-page research paper about periodical cicadas is due and you've done nothing but watch ""Hoarders"" for the past two weeks, at the altar during that vow part you were supposed to have memorized but forgot last night when Destiny at the bachelor party poured a 15th shot into your mouth using only her cleavage and when you're next up at the National-Level Articulate Thoughts Materializing Into Something Not Only Useful, But Necessary Competition. And we all know that no amount of Phillips' can loosen up the stool of your mind, but do you ever wonder where those abandoned ideas go?

Zemeckis overzealous about motion-capture animation in classic remakes

The big winner in the box office this past week was Robert Zemeckis' update of Charles Dickens' ""A Christmas Carol,"" a film that has already been made countless times. Once again, Zemeckis decided to experiment with motion capture animation, in which the actors do their scenes in front of green screens, and then animated versions of them are placed into animated backgrounds.

U2 comes to life in '3D'

U2: Although some will roll their eyes at Bono's ever-affixed pair of shades and never-ending pleas for world peace, there's more to ,U2 3-D"" than Bono's ego, if you only give it a chance.

U2 comes to life in '3D'

The foremost question viewers will probably find themselves asking before putting on their special glasses and settling in to watch U2 3-D"" is: ""Who is the intended audience for this movie?""  

'Tony Hawk' skates to PSP

Just in case you missed \Tony Hawk Underground 2's"" release on every major console last fall, the good people at Activision have ported it over for the PSP, and ""THUG 2 Remix"" is nearly identical in every way to its TV-tethered counterpart. 

Some turkeys worth sparing

At the White House each November, the president traditionally grants a pardon to the Thanksgiving turkey that would have been eaten. This shows the lighthearted, good nature of a president who would never kill a turkey that hasn't been convicted with DNA evidence. But when movie studios produce turkeys, they rarely let them live for long. Films unapproved by John Q. Public don't last long in theaters, unwatched TV shows get pulled and unpurchased CDs inspire bands to break up.  

Massive Attack shatters its '100th Window'

Opposite extremes in '02 race

Doctors get the picture

In 1895, Professor Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a strange new type of radiation. After some experimentation, he had his wife put her hand between a cathode ray tube and a piece of radiation-sensitive paper, and found that he could readily see the shadow of her wedding ring and of the bones in her hand. He called the mysterious radiation an X-ray, from the mathematical use of X to stand for an unknown, and so began the science of medical imaging.