Geektionary

"The last WoW module was clunky and a bit slow on my rig but it had a great toolset for building adventures for my avatar. Now I'm at sixtieth level! Awesome!" Whether it's about science fiction, Star Trek, sports, comics, or computers, geekspeak is full of mysterious words and phrases. But now there's an easy way to understand what it's all about. With this book you can dork out with the best of 'em. Here are more than 1,000 words and their definitions, including such gems as: LARP Red Shirt Wilhelm Scream Xenomorph Munchkin* So don't worry if you don't know what a midochlorian is or what to do with a proton pack. With this book, you'll never be confused again. Which doesn't mean what you think it means, unless you're a fan of roleplaying games.

"The last WoW module was clunky and a bit slow on my rig but it had a great toolset for building adventures for my avatar. Now I'm at sixtieth level! Awesome!" Whether it's about science fiction, Star Trek, sports, comics, or computers, geekspeak is full of mysterious words and phrases. But now there's an easy way to understand what it's all about. With this book you can dork out with the best of 'em. Here are more than 1,000 words and their definitions, including such gems as: LARP Red Shirt Wilhelm Scream Xenomorph Munchkin* So don't worry if you don't know what a midochlorian is or what to do with a proton pack. With this book, you'll never be confused again. *Which doesn't mean what you think it means, unless you're a fan of roleplaying games.

Learn everything about the Star Wars universe in this amazing A-Z! Discover all the characters, ships, planets, aliens, weapons and much more!

"The last WoW module was clunky and a bit slow on my rig but it had a great toolset for building adventures for my avatar. Now I'm at sixtieth level! Awesome!" Whether it's about science fiction, Star Trek, sports, comics, or computers, geekspeak is full of mysterious words and phrases. But now there's an easy way to understand what it's all about. With this book you can dork out with the best of 'em. Here are more than 1,000 words and their definitions, including such gems as: LARP Red Shirt Wilhelm Scream Xenomorph Munchkin* So don't worry if you don't know what a midochlorian is or what to do with a proton pack. With this book, you'll never be confused again. Which doesn't mean what you think it means, unless you're a fan of roleplaying games.

Revenge of the robots in only 17 syllables! Droid makes sausages Spicy new taste sensation. Hey! Where is the cat? Cyborgs, Androids. Drones. T-800. HAL 9000. R-4-P17. Fembots. Autobots. Robots are everywhere--and don't let them fool you. Even if they were made to sweep your floors, they won't be happy until they've left you in the dust. In Robot Haiku, readers learn the truth about the robots that inhabit our world. From wood chipper droids to lawyerbots, these are the robots that will destroy you when you least expect it--one punchy, pithy, paranoid poem at a time!

Geeks, hackers and gamers share a common ‘geek culture’, whose members are defined and define themselves mainly in terms of technology and rationality. The members of geek culture produce and circulate stories to express who they are and to explain and justify what they do. Geek storytelling draws on plots and themes from the wider social and cultural context in which geeks live. The author surveys many stories of heated exchanges and techno-tribal conflicts that date back to the earliest days of personal computing, which construct the “self” and the “enemy”, and express and debate a range of political positions. Geek and Hacker Stories will be of interest to students of digital social science and media studies. Both geeky and non-technical readers will find something of value in this account.

Science and science fiction have become inseparable--with common stories, interconnected thought experiments, and shared language. This reference book lays out that relationship and its all-but-magical terms and ideas. Those who think seriously about the future are changing the world, reshaping how we speak and how we think. This book fully covers the terms that collected, clarified and crystallized the futurists' ideas, sometimes showing them off, sometimes slowing them down, and sometimes propelling them to fame and making them the common currency of our culture. The many entries in this encyclopedic work offer a guided tour of the vast territories occupied by science fiction and futurism. In his Foreword, David Brin says, "Provocative and enticing? Filled with 'huh!' moments and leads to great stories? That describes this volume."

How Hollywood biopics both showcase and modify various notions of what it means to be an American. Biopics—films that chronicle the lives of famous and notorious figures from our national history—have long been one of Hollywood’s most popular and important genres, offering viewers various understandings of American national identity. Invented Lives, Imagined Communities provides the first full-length examination of US biopics, focusing on key releases in American cinema while treating recent developments in three fields: cinema studies, particularly the history of Hollywood; national identity studies dealing with the American experience; and scholarship devoted to modernity and postmodernity. Films discussed include Houdini, Patton, The Great White Hope, Bound for Glory, Ed Wood, Basquiat, Pollock, Sylvia, Kinsey, Fur, Milk, J. Edgar, and Lincoln, and the book pays special attention to the crucial generic plot along which biopics traverse and showcase American lives, even as they modify the various notions of the national character. William H. Epstein is Professor of English at the University of Arizona. His previous books include Recognizing Biography and Contesting the Subject: Essays in the Postmodern Theory and Practice of Biographical Criticism. R. Barton Palmer is Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature and Director of Film Studies at Clemson University. His previous books include Shot on Location: Postwar American Cinema and the Exploration of Real Place and (with William Robert Bray) Hollywood’s Tennessee: The Williams Films and Postwar America.