The Thing (roadside attraction)

The Thing is an Arizona roadside attraction hyped by signs along Interstate 10 between El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. A large number of billboards entice travelers along this sparse stretch of desert highway to stop, just to find out what the mysterious Thing might be. The object, supposedly a mummified mother and child, is believed to have been made by a creator of exhibits for sideshows named Homer Tate.

The Thing was purchased by former Thomas Binkley Prince in the mid-twentieth century, who quickly based a tourist attraction around the strange object. Although Prince died in 1969, the attraction was run by his wife Janet for many years. Today, the site is under the ownership of Bowlins, Inc. Despite its remoteness, the attraction has been popular; it has appeared in several tourist guides, and has been the subject of several news stories and reports.

Location

The Thing is located at 32°05′N 110°03′W / 32.083°N 110.050°W / 32.083; -110.050Coordinates: 32°05′N 110°03′W / 32.083°N 110.050°W / 32.083; -110.050 just off I-10 at Exit 322 on a hilltop between Benson and Willcox, near Texas Canyon, at 2631 North Johnson Road, Dragoon, Arizona.

The Thing!

The Thing! is an American horror comic book published by Charlton Comics that ran 17 issues from 1952 to 1954. Its tagline was "Weird tales of suspense and horror!" After the 17th issue it was cancelled and the series' numbering continued as Blue Beetle vol. 2.

Artist Steve Ditko provided the covers for #12-15 and 17. He also illustrated stories in issues #12-15. The cover of #12 marks this industry notable's first comic-book cover art.

In 2006, Pure Imagination released the trade paperback Steve Ditko's The Thing! that reprinted all of Ditko's stories from this title, and used the cover of #15 for its cover. The back cover shows the covers from The Thing #12, 13 and 14 and Strange Suspense Stories #22. It also included Ditko stories from Charlton's Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #5 and #11, Do You Believe In Nightmares #1, Strange Suspense Stories #36, and Unusual Tales #25.

In 2014, UK publisher PS Artbooks reprinted the entire series in a deluxe two volume hardcover collection.

The Thing (1982 film)

The Thing (also known as John Carpenter's The Thing) is a 1982 American science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter, written by Bill Lancaster, and starring Kurt Russell. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a parasitic extraterrestrial lifeform that assimilates other organisms and in turn imitates them. The Thing infiltrates an Antarctic research station, taking the appearance of the researchers that it absorbs, and paranoia develops within the group.

The film is based on John W. Campbell, Jr.'s novella Who Goes There?, which was more loosely adapted by Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby as the 1951 film The Thing from Another World. Carpenter considers The Thing to be the first part of his Apocalypse Trilogy, followed by Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness. Although the films are narratively unrelated, each features a potentially apocalyptic scenario; should "The Thing" ever reach civilization, it would be only a matter of time before it consumes humanity.

The Thing (video game)

The Thing is a 2002 third-person shooter/psychological horror video game developed by Computer Artworks, published by Black Label Games, a publishing wing of Vivendi Universal Games, and distributed by Konami for Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2. Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance versions were also planned, but both were cancelled early in development.

Set as a sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 film of the same name, the story focuses on Captain Blake, a member of a U.S. Special Forces team sent to the Antarctic outpost featured in the film to determine what has happened to the research team. The game was endorsed by John Carpenter, who voices a character in an uncredited cameo.

The Thing was a commercial success; selling over one million units worldwide across all platforms, and received generally positive reviews. A sequel was in the early stages of development, but was cancelled when Computer Artworks went into receivership in 2003.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay in The Thing is that of a traditional third-person shooter; the player character, Blake, can run and shoot, strafe, crouch, interact with the environment, interact with NPCs and use items, such as flashlights, fire extinguishers or flares. The player also has the option to enter first-person mode for more accurate targeting during combat. When in first-person mode, however, the character cannot move, except to side-step a little to the left and right. Weaponry includes pistols, grenades, sniper rifles, flamethrowers, shotguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, grenade launchers and fixed heavy machine guns. Other items featured in the game are health packs, explosives, ammunition, portable blood test-kits and adrenaline injections.

Thing

Thing or The Thing may refer to:

Philosophy

History

Film and television

Comics

Video games

The Thing (jazz band)

The Thing is a Norwegian/Swedish jazz trio, consisting of Mats Gustafsson (saxophones), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (double bass), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums).

Name

The Thing took their name from a track on Don Cherry's 1966 album Where Is Brooklyn?

Performances and recordings

The band was established in February 2000 to play a series of concerts in Stockholm and a recording of Don Cherry compositions that was released in Sweden by the label Crazy Wisdom/Universal. Melding German, British and American traditions of free music, their repertoire has later been collected from various sources such as James Blood Ulmer, Frank Lowe, PJ Harvey, White Stripes and Joe McPhee. McPhee was also a participating musician on the She Knows... album (2001). Other guests who have joined The Thing for recording and performances include Ken Vandermark, Otomo Yoshihide, Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke and Jeb Bishop.

Garage was released on the Smalltown Superjazzz label in 2004. An EP of live material performed with Joe McPhee and Cato Salsa Experience was released in 2005, as well as a live album. 2006 saw the release of Action Jazz, also on Smalltown Superjazz. The group covers material from Ornette Coleman, Lightning Bolt, Yosuke Yamashita and others in addition to original material. The group are the only free jazz ensemble working today who wear stage uniforms. They perform clad in t-shirts from Ruby's Barbecue Restaurant in Austin, Texas.

The Thing (listening device)

The Thing, also known as the Great Seal bug, was one of the first covert listening devices (or "bugs") to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal. It was concealed inside a gift given by the Soviets to the US Ambassador to Moscow on August 4, 1945. Because it was passive, being energized and activated by electromagnetic energy from an outside source, it is considered a predecessor of RFID technology.

Creation

The Thing was designed by Soviet Russian inventor Léon Theremin, whose best-known invention is the electronic musical instrument the theremin.

The principle used by The Thing, of a resonant cavity microphone, had been patented by Winfield R. Koch of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1941. In US patent 2,238,117 he describes the principle of a sound-modulated resonant cavity. High-frequency energy is inductively coupled to the cavity. The resonant frequency is varied by the change in capacitance resulting from the displacement of the acoustic diaphragm.