# Instances of life intentionally imitating art **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116 "2023-04-24T15:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116/121 "2023-07-17T22:35:54Z")
You can also get Black Mesa mugs. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2023, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116/122 "2023-07-18T00:38:28Z")
Okay, that’s a reference I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2023, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116/123 "2023-07-18T00:46:56Z")
It began as a corporation in the Half Life video games. It got a mention in Portal, another video game. Apparently there is now a video game titled Black Mesa. I’ve never played the games, so I don’t know if they’re an evil corporation. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2023, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116/124 "2023-07-18T11:51:30Z")
> [@solost](#): > > And supposedly NASA got the idea for the rocket countdown from a 1929 Fritz Lang movie called “Woman in the Moon”: Actually, you could argue that Lang stole the idea from Jules Verne, who used a count-_up_ in his 1865 novel **De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes** (_From the Earth to the Moon_), in which they count upwards from one, firing the cannon at “forty” > [@](#): > > Murchison followed with his eye the hand of his chronometer. It wanted scarce forty seconds to the moment of departure, but each second seemed to last an age! At the twentieth there was a general shudder, as it occurred to the minds of that vast assemblage that the bold travelers shut up within the projectile were also counting those terrible seconds. Some few cries here and there escaped the crowd. > > “Thirty-five!—thirty-six!—thirty-seven!—thirty-eight!—thirty-nine!—forty! FIRE!!!” > > Instantly Murchison pressed with his finger the key of the electric battery, restored the current of the fluid, and discharged the spark into the breech of the Columbiad. > **[From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/83/pg83-images.html#chap26)** ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2023, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116/125 "2023-07-18T11:54:44Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The mention of Yoyodyne in _Buckaroo Banzai_ is a clear refence to Thomas Pynchon, who used that company name in several of his novels. As I stated in my post of July 7 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2023, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116/126 "2023-07-18T12:30:25Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I’ve never played the games, so I don’t know if they’re an evil corporation. I’m pretty sure that all major corporations in all major computer games are evil. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116/127 "2023-07-18T14:02:39Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > This one the artwork is installed centered opposite the handle. So lefty or righty, you see one tip or the other of the Yoyodyne delta shape, but never the whole logo or slogan or company name. Many years ago, at a Titanic artifacts exhibit, I bought a reproduction White Star Line coffee cup. It also has the logo opposite of the handle. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instances-of-life-intentionally-imitating-art/983116.md?page=6)