John Tuttle

Thanos Should Have Confronted Drax in Endgame. Here’s Why.
The MCU character Drax the Destroyer, portrayed by Dave Bautista, was introduced to screen spectators in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. While the Guardians movie may easily be described as a combo of Chris Pratt and music, Drax is an intriguing and noteworthy inclusion.
His lovability stems from his jovial and casual personality, his simplistic responses to shocking events, and his blunt honesty. He lacks a filter as well as common c...

“You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to…” – Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
July 4th has become almost as controversial as religious-based holidays like Christmas and Easter. The people of the United States seem to have become the most outspoken in the world when it comes to...

“Did she have any family?”
“Yeah…us”
It’s a solemn, deadening moment in Avengers: Endgame. The entire Marvel film franchise represents a significant following in pop culture. It’s evocative of past pop culture influences. More importantly, it’s a commentary on modern social activity. In this sequence following the loss of a dear companion, we are given a representation of what family means. With the influx in disjointed family units over the past few decades, particularly in the...

Once known by the name Smeagol, Gollum is an infamous and troubled trickster seen throughout the fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Featuring a sort of Jekyll and Hyde personality split, Gollum became who he is as a result of the corruption of the One Ring.
The ownership, and more so the use, of the Ring is a most severe temptation. Not only was the cursed object purchased with blood, but Gollum deifies it, raising the Ring to the utmost level of importance in his life. He loves it as he ...

When one thinks of pets or domestic animals in the sci-fi genre of cinema and television, he or she may automatically call to mind the iconic sled dogs from The Thing (1982) or the little English-speaking alien disguised as a dog in the original Men in Black (1997). However, another fond and furry animal appears in science fiction even more so than its canine contemporaries: the humble cat.

For some years now, poverty and human development have complicated the precise ranking of India in terms of the “four worlds” geopolitical archetype. With regards to population, the country carries the second largest national community, dwarfed only by the population of China. One of India’s strongest public attributes is its budding naval unit. This militaristic faction has been instrumental in dealings both of a political and economic nature. The administration is also focusing its energies...

St. Anthony of Padua, whose feast day we celebrate on June 13, was a man of many virtues who had attained that disposition sought out by those who can love genuinely: authentic humility. His was not a deliberately put-on sense of humility, an act of poverty of spirit merely when he had a captive audience. He actually had the real thing.
At 15, the youthful saint-in-the-making joined the regular canons of St. Augustine. Eventually, spiritually spurred on by the example of five friars who had b...

Niwri Found
A Work of Micro Fiction
John Tuttle

Light footfalls proceeded in rhythmic unison along the corridor. The carpeted floor displayed multi-colored, abstract, symmetrical patterns. The pair of feet traveling upon it made their way to a shut door. Pausing only a moment, the feet shuffled in as the door was flung open in silence. It closed behind them.
The feet belonged to a slender Japanese woman. The inner room was dark, but filled with an exciting presence of outstanding sound. It ...

+JMJ+
As a kid, I managed to pick up a number of odd interests. They would come to include dinosaurs, sci-fi, and philately. Many of these remain keen areas of intrigue for me as a young adult. Imagery and imagination designated much of my early musings. But I also found ancient Egyptian culture just as fascinating as fossils and stamps.
Whenever we visit the Field Museum in Chicago, situated a little over an hour away from home, I almost always take the opportunity to check out their seldom-...

Today’s social media serves as a common platform where heated virtual arguments can run amok. Wherever one stands in the political realm, a comment thread can be seen frequently and leisurely, and such threads may stir up a debate.
Recently, Viggo Mortensen, well-known for his role of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films, and who received both an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Green Book (2018), has expressed objection to a politically-charged...

In late 2018, Andy Duncan, a sci-fi writer whose works include An Agent of Utopia and On 20468 Petercook, discussed his concern regarding what he felt to be racist remarks found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s telling of The Lord of the Rings. While being interviewed on a Wired podcast, he had this to say about the acclaimed author and his portrayal of some of his villains:
“It’s hard to miss the repeated notion in Tolkien that some races are just worse than others, or that some peoples are just worse th...

Being human, we strive toward various goals in life. Most, if not all of them, are directed in search of the truth or a derivative feeling of authenticity. One of the most tender, blatantly straight-forward, and crucially philosophical questions of the New Testament is a query made by Pontius Pilate, the man responsible for permitting the Crucifixion, when he asks Christ, “What is truth?”
Christ himself had provided the perfect answer to this during his public ministry. In response to the Apo...

One of the most logically-baffling solar mysteries is the fact that the sun’s surface is close to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit while its outer atmosphere is several million degrees hotter. The body of the heat’s source itself is cooler than the atmosphere surrounding the fireball — and that’s simply against the common sense of physics.
Some physicists think that the terrific, intense heat displayed in the outer limits of the sun’s atmosphere may be explained by magnetic waves traveling to and fr...