Don't forget there's a total eclipse of the moon Thursday night. On a related note, thanks to Greg for pointing me towards Pink Floyd cover artist Storm Thorgerson's web site, with a complete gallery of his copious album work.Figures.com has pix of the new Hellraiser figures, as well as the Mezco mini-mate style Aliens toys. What a strange idea.Recommended Readin': George Dvorsky discusses Freedom in the Age of Technological Contraband. Robert Garmong points out the difference between liberty and democracy. Christopher Hitchens gives a moving elegy to the Death of a Ciggie.Happy Mothers Day! Bad Day salutes the young men who will spend the day, as well as the lion's share of their disposable income, on eBay trying to replace all the comics their mothers threw out years ago.Retrocrush returns to the magnificent and nightmarish landscape of 1970s home decor. Gaze upon it if you dare!Over the years I have shown the spellbinding short film Der Lauf Der Dinge to a good many of my friends. That 1987 film by Peter Fischli and David Weiss was a pretty obvious inspiration for this incredible Honda commercial (requires Flash 6). According to the news story linked from the site this piece took over 600 takes, once again proving my point that advertising directors know more about creativity, luring the viewer, and delivering plain old-fashioned intrigue than most everyone currently making movies.Last week a casino in Atlantic City decided to prohibit the mysterious Gideons from putting bibles from its hotel rooms. Here's two news items about it, from the Atlantic City Press and Fox News.There sure are a lot of severed heads in the news this week, as well as heads excised from their bodies by other, less-graceful methods.Comic Stuff: It has been announced that Sam Keith's The Maxx will finally be collected in Trade Paperback form. Tony Whitt of Cinescape provides a post- mortem to last Saturday's Free Comic Book Day. The new print issue of Comic Book Artist profiles the cartoonists of National Lampoon.I have, in the past, referred to certain unsettling science and astronomy stories as "Lovecraftian" as they seem to bode ill, marking the return of an ancient and infernal age hostile to humanity. For example: this discovery cannot possibly be good. If I awoke tomorrow to find my walls oozing a noxious, chanting yellow fluid and the sky emblazened with flourescent psychosis-inducing hieroglyphs, it would come as no surprise. Alex Lifeson of Rush will be participating in a charity fundraiser called Famous Plates, where Canadian celebrities and chefs will put on what amounts to a live cooking show. This event is put on by CTV, but I've found no evidence that it will be shown on TV. If any of my Canadian readers (yes, I have some) could learn more about a possible airdate for this I would be grateful. A man in KwaZulu-Natal sawed off his own head in a supermarket. I enjoy the fact that his name was Gumbi.I take great and profound joy in such tales of human idiocy. In the eyes of some folks that might make me a bad person, destined for all manner of damnation and eternal punishment. Fortunately now I can plan out exactly what circle of hell I'll be occupying by taking the Dante's Inferno Online Test. (Site has been going down due to traffic. Be patient.)Today the penultimate issue of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is due to come out. That means a visit to Jess Nevin's annotations page. In other Moore news Rick Veitch has recently said that we may see the wrap up of the 1963 mini series from ten years ago. If you haven't read this magnificent retro-epic, Steve Bissette still has some for sale.New Times has a story about Dita Von Teese, while Wizard brings us another batch of Photoshopped Comic Book Babes.Assorted Items: Monster Zero announces the birth of a new site: Giant Monster Movies.com. Comic Book Resources talks to Steven Grant about adapting Frank Miller's Robocop 2 script as a comic. Sci Fi Weekly reviews the first CD of Barry Gray's Thunderbirds soundtrack music.Better Humans has a new essay by James Hughes proposing a "serenity prayer" for hubristic humanists. It also has a story on stem cells effectively treating paralysis in mice.Also, a new journal called The New Atlantis takes on the job of tackling bio- ethical issues. Its first outing seems to be striving for a level playing field, featuring not only an essay by Gravity Lens' favorite punching bag Leon Kass, but a wonderful piece by Scott Gottlieb on the future of medicine, genetics and biotech.It is heartwarming to know that someone is trying to foster the talents of up- and-coming comic book artists.Speaking of thinking ahead, work has already begun on technical systems to support an interplanetary internet. Hey, Martian colonies will need porn, too.The new print issue of Discover magazine has a story on the Maximog, a mobile all-terrain research facility. This is the first step I've seen towards building something like Ark II or the Landmaster from Damnation Alley.Remember that tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day. Gather yer kin and significant others and bring them to a local comic store. SciFi is in on the action, and there's been some newspaper and library tie-ins around the country as well. There's stuff for kids and adults available. Just go already.Big kudos to the Irish theater owner who uses jamming technology to block cell phone usage. I hope he wins this case. The arguments made against him are just stupid. I plan on actually going to a movie theater this weekend (my first time in about ten months) and if a phone goes off within arm's reach it will be damaged. It is May.That is all.Last Sunday night I had dinner with friend Lee. If you have nothing better to do you can read about it, and gaze upon a frightening photo of me, on his blog.No Such Thing as Too Much Free Time: SciFi.com's Web Guide page has posted a link to Sean Baby.com's Hostess Page, an archive of old super-hero Hostess Snack Cake ads. Included are my personal favorites featuring Green Lantern, Hawkman, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel, as well as parodies of the ads, such as this Preacher spoof from Wizard. I just burned off an hour of my life reading these, now it's your turn.Assorted Items: Archeologists believe they have discovered the tomb of Gilgamesh. Ludovic Kennedy of The Guardian asks the faithful to "put away childish things." Nick Gillespie at Reason Online previews Hillary Clinton's memoir. Randy at Action Figure Times got his new Alien Queen figure and speaks at length about it. TV Guide has a story about the yummy Nigella Lawson. This weekend the Kids WB will have a preview of the upcoming Teen Titans cartoon. And all those years of urinal hockey will pay off with the advent of urinal stream-triggered video games. Bladder relief was never so much fun!Homework Assignment: Tonight I want you all to write a haiku that includes the line "Man dies after drilling head." Best entry gets posted. Send 'em here.Rowena Morrill was apparently not to happy to find out Saddam had some of her paintings in his "love pad." Upon reading this I went back and reread Jonathan Jones damnation of Saddam's taste in art in the Guardian. He refers to the work as the "iconography of psychotic porn." A reminder to Mr. Jones that Rowena does covers for sword and sorcery novels. At least Saddam didn't have a velvet Elvis.Recommended (Science) Readin': New Scientist interviews Eric Drexler about the future of nanotechnology research. Skeptic Michael Shermer takes on modern cryptozoology at Scientific American. Caitlin Hall of the University of Arizona's Daily Wildcat previews an upcoming evolution/creationism debate scheduled on campus in two weeks. And if you still wonder why I love science so much: yesterday researchers announced the search for the universe's first stars while another group of scientists declared that they could grow a fully functioning and sensitive penis. What did religion and politics achieve yesterday? Anyone?As much as I've enjoyed the news items about the fake "war hero" who is going to jail, and the recent rash of daring high-ticket art heists, you gotta love a story about a man who publicly fucks a traffic cone while spectators urge him on.Pleeeease tell me someone got this on video.Remember that Thursday is May Day, Space Day, and the National Day of Reason (unrecognized by the government, of course).Better Humans got a stylin' face lift over the weekend. There's also new essays by Philip Shropshire and George Dvorsky, a neat story on private space programs, and a link to the Robocup American Open taking place this week in Pittsburgh.Jeremy at Futurismic links to this page of robotic spiders, thus answering the prayers of countless supervillains. In other freakish technology news New Scientist reports that human proteins are being used to increase computer memory.In Print: The new issue of Barracuda Magazine features a nifty cover story on the Batmobile. If you pass by a comic shop, might I be so bold as to recommend Image's The Agents. It's a cool little black & white book that starts with the premise that James Bond, The Thunderbirds, and Green Hornet all co- exist in the same world. Neat stuff. 
