Jason Ginsburg

Live Your Life the Trojan Way

Faithful, Scholarly, Skillful, Courageous, Ambitious Faithful USC was founded primarily by Methodists and was under the jurisdiction of the Methodist Episcopal Church until 1926, four years before Tommy Trojan was "born." Faith was thus part of the…

Universal’s rejection of its movie-making past is fast and furious

Jan. 8, 2023, saw the closing of the Animal Actors Stage and the Special Effects Show at Universal Studios Hollywood, rumored to make room for a Fast & Furious-themed roller coaster. By Jason Ginsburg This is the latest move in the park’s…

Create a Great Movie Scene with Just 2 Lines of Dialogue

Recently I was having trouble with writing dialogue. Everything I put into my characters' mouths sounded either trite, obvious, or melodramatic. I started thinking about how characters, like real people, rarely say exactly what they're thinking or…

Social Media PR Disasters: Applebee's Wild Night

You probably know about the Applebee’s waitress who was fired for posting a customer’s receipt that had a derogatory statement on it. You may not be aware of the aftermath, which took place in the wee hours of Saturday, February 2. It’s virtually a…

The Science Behind "King Tut's Curse"

Amateur archaeologist Howard Carter had spent five years digging in the Valley of the Kings, looking for an intact tomb that hadn't been looted by grave-robbers. In November of 1922, as the money and the patience of his patron Lord Carnarvon was…

Social Media PR Disasters: The Kansas City Chiefs Get Tackled For A Loss

This social media disaster is a doozy. It breaks so many commonsense social media rules that it almost seems like an urban legend. But it really happened, to an NFL franchise -- which proves it can happen to anyone. The IncidentTravis Wright, a…

How Climate Change Will Ruin Your Flight

We know a warming planet affects the ground, as droughts and wildfires become more frequent. We know it affects the water, as coral reefs die and sea levels rise. Now we're learning it affects the air in surprising way -- in particular, air travel.…

The Mystery of John Titor

On November 2, 2000, someone using the name John Titor began posting on the "Time Travel Institute" online message board. He claimed to be a time-traveler from 2036, originally sent to 1975 to retrieve an IBM computer that would debug Unix computers…

The Paladins of Charlemagne

If you like King Arthur's knights, you should check out Charlemagne's paladins. One advantage the Frankish king has over the British one is that he indisputably existed. He was crowned King of the Franks in 768 and became the first Holy Roman…

Five Awful Moments of the Olympics

How bad have things been at the Games? Setting aside the terrorist acts of Munich and Atlanta, this list focuses on accidents, scandals, or weirdness that took place during the matches or right after. Taekwondo Competitor Kicks the Referee In the…

The Best Comedy Role-Playing Games

Table-top role-playing games are often serious business: War, conquest, curses, death. But there was a sort of mini-era in the 1980s of humorous RPG's that emphasized silliness. Player-characters rarely died—in some games, it was impossible—and…

Russia's Secret Space Launch Disaster

The Space Race of the 1960s saw the USSR beating the United States at every turn. The Russians achieved the first satellite, the first man (and woman) in orbit, the first spacewalk, the first lunar probe, and the first three-man crew. It seemed…

Sharks vs. Tigers: Apex Predator Showdown

Shark Week (July 24) and International Tiger Day (July 29) are both approaching. In celebration of these events, I thought I'd compare the two apex predators to see which one comes out on top. SIZE A typical male great white shark is about 13 feet…

'A Trip to the Moon' is Wonderfully Bonkers

Georges Méliès’s 1902 work A Trip to the Moon is considered the first science-fiction film. It borrows its first half from Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, and its second half form H. G. Wells’s The First Men in the…

I Love Disney, But My Bigoted Privilege is Ruining It for Everyone | Commentary

My family and I are typical Disney fans. We vacation at Disney World every year. We take a Disney cruise every year. We ride our thoroughbreds at the Disney Polo Grounds. We rent Cinderella Castle for my daughter’s sleepovers. However, I’m…

What Were Medieval Battles Actually Like?

Some of the most thrilling, memorable moments in fantasy storytelling have been battles. Think of Lord of the Rings' Battle of the Pelennor Fields or Game of Thrones' Battle of the Bastards. Massive armies clashing in a single epic combat that can…

Will We Ever See 'Empires of the Deep'?

Empires of the Deep has been billed as "The Chinese Avatar." It's a 3-D fantasy epic with the largest movie budget in China's history. Conceived and funded by Chinese real-estate mogul Jon Jiang, it tells the story of a mermaid kingdom... and…

Why Do Some Sci-Fi Sequels Rock, While Others Suck?

A sci-fi, fantasy, or comic-book film comes out and does well. That means it will get a sequel. Now everyone involved tries to figure out which elements in the original are worth keeping, heightening, or exploring, and which are weaknesses to be…

Interview with Chris Mattmann about the Dark Web

Did you know that there’s another internet? It was created by the military to facilitate anonymous communications that couldn’t be tracked by civilians or foreign enemies. It requires special software, such as Tor browsers, to access. Because it’s…

Why The Mandalorian Is Better Than Most Star Wars Movies

Recent Star Wars films have been poorly received. Look at the Rotten Tomatoes scores: Attack of the Clones: 65% Solo: 69% The Rise of Skywalker: 51%But among all the disappointment, one property has garnered almost universal love: The Mandalorian.…