Archive: November 11 - November 28
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Friday, November 28
Harry Knowles' holiday wish list column links to this sweet retro-looking death ray.

Cool Thing: The Target Thanksgiving sale ad featuring a drum duel between Cheap Trick's Bun E. Carlos and the girl from The Donnas. Looking for an online version.

Thursday, November 27 (Gobble Gobble)
In case you harbored any hope that there was a shread of difference between modern political discourse and professional wrestling, Hartford's Bushnell is hosting an evening with Ann Coulter and Al Franken. Fucking pathetic.

Not only can you find out who John Galt is, you can learn his address and what his turn-ons are. The Atlas Society points us to the Objectivist Yellow Pages while Nick Gillespie of Reason Hit & Run links to The Atlasphere, a chat room/dating service for Ayn Rand fans.

Krimson News informs us that Warr guitarist Trey Gunn has left the mighty King Crimson. He's posted a letter to fans explaining his reasons. This means that the Crim show I saw at Toad's in New Haven two weeks ago, the final show of the tour, was his last gig with them. Here's hoping this leads to the return of bassist/Stickmeister Tony Levin.

Recommeneded Readin': 
Charles Paul Freund of Reason looks at the forgotten world of men's adventure magazines.
Kathryn Beaumont of Technology Review tells us about John Underkoffler, the man who figured out how the Hulk changes. 
Larry Arnhart writes about human nature and the limits of biotechnology in The New Atlantis.

Oh, I told friend Tim that I'd link to the Thunderbirds trailer.

Wednesday, November 26
Recommended Readin': 
Discovery has a story about the fact that there are too many damned people on the planet.
Author China Miéville gives us his Top Ten Weird Fiction at the Guardian.
Tamar Lewin of the NY Times looks at the dying institution of marriage.
Jamie Kelly of the Missoulian weighs evidence for and against the existence of God.
Brian C. Anderson of Tech Central Station updates us on the "culture wars"
Barney F. McClelland of Butterflies & Wheels says we're close to murder being seen as entertainment. Long time Bad Day readers may remember my own dabbling on this subject.

UGO Comics talks to Tim Truman about his new series Odin the Wanderer.

Tuesday, November 25
There are rare moments that send the cool meter into the red, too-few events which stand as evidence of some form of cosmic justice. Here's one: Dr. Stephen Hawking (celebrity genius, Star Trek holodeck character, Pink Floyd narrator) has had his appearance on The Simpsons turned into an action figure. Geek reviews here, here, and here.

Monday, November 24
Recommended Readin': SciFi.com has an interview with Neil Gaiman.
Frank Smith of Ninth Art talks to author Jonathan Letham.
George Dvorsky of Better Humans continues the backlash against bad SF movies.
Cathleen Falsani of The Sun Times examines Studs Turkel's belief system.
Wendy M. Grossman of Reason has a plan for email spam.

Comic Stuff: Newsarama tells when Warren Ellis' Ministry of Space #3 is coming out.
Eric Moro of Cinescape profiles publisher Dark Horse Comics.
Last week UGO Comics posted this interview with Stan Lee.

Sunday, November 23
The world is a slightly better place today children. Opus has returned.

Here's an article about a recent Richard Dawkins speech on religion's affect on culture, ideas, and the world in general. I'm looking for a transcript.

Friday, November 21
I just found this sweet site about the ficticious Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Very nice stuff, including a well thought-out episode guide.

Assorted items:
Kimball C. Atwood IV of CSICOP warns us about the government funding of pseudoscience.
BBC Science celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Piltdown Man.
James Sime of Comic Book Resources continues his tips on in store events.
Arnold Kling of Tech Central Station looks at the impact of the Kasparov/Fritz chess match.
Frank Smith of Ninth Art explores the history of Miracleman. 
Alan Boyle of MSNBC looks at future technology that hasn't arrived yet.
Warren Ellis brings his Brainpowered column back at Art Bomb.
Retrocrush pays a visit to the bathrooms of the '70s.

Thursday, November 20
Science Stuff: Chet Raymo of the Boston Globe looks back at the mystery of the Iceman. 
Andrew Apel of Butterflies and Wheels claims science has a moral obligation to innovate. 
Colin Tweedy of The Independent wonders what happened to the Artist/Scientist. 

Comic Stuff: Newsarama reports that Jim Starlin is leaving Thanos. 
The Village Voice profiles artist Alex Ross. 
Andrew D. Arnold of Time looks at 25 years of Graphic Novels. 
Steven Grant of Comic Book Resources thinks comics should be The New Drugs. 
Cinescape looks at comic book filesharing technology. 

Wednesday, November 19
The erudite Jess Nevins, published annotator of Alan Moore's work, as well as creator of authoritative websites on Victorian and pulp fiction, wrote to correct my post from yesterday. Mr. Moore is only retiring from mainstream work, but will continue to write, including a third (and possibly fourth and fifth) volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Cory Doctorow wrote a piece for the NY Times about the exciting future of home automation technology. Long time Bad Day Studio readers will remember that a "smart house" was the protagonist of last year's holiday card. And, yes, this year's card will be online soon.
Speaking of hoidays, the Sacramento Bee had an article about the history of movie Santas.
Also, the Christmas tour of surf rockers Los Straitjackets and the delicious Pontani Sisters is about to get under way.

Tuesday, November 18
Prison officials in Australian have shown a staggering grasp of the obvious with their new plan to reduce the brutal tendencies of incarcerated murderers by teaching them "non-criminal thinking." If they act up, will they have to write "I will not ass-rape my cellmate" a hundred times, or are we talking fullout Clockwork Orange therapy? In other news, children will soon be taught how not to be such doodie-heads.

Last week the first inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame were announced.

Today is Alan Moore's 50th birthday. According to all the news sites and fan sites, today is the day the Wordsmith Supreme retires from comics. I've been rereading a lot of older annotations to his work in the last few days. Ninth Art has a tribute to the man, including a timeline and an archive of every article about him.

Monday, November 17
The limit of technology may have been found: Some voice recognition software is incapable of comprehending southern accents.

Recommended Readin': Amanda Griscom of Grist looks at Bush's science agenda.
Kenneth Baker of SF Gate wonders how much time it takes to appreciate art.
Cathy Young of the Boston Globe examines Russia's alarming retreat from democracy.
Kathleen Parker of the Orlando Sentinel reads Larry Flynt's moral compass.
Dave Barry of the Miami Herald welcomes back flu season.
Michael Kelly of The Atlantic interviews P.J. O'Rourke.
Christopher Orlet of Butterflies & Wheels tells how humanists saved western civilization.
Zev Singer of the Ottawa Citizen points out some faults with a new public map of Canada.

Sunday, November 16
If you're a Lovecraft freak like me, you should find yourself a copy of this week's episode of Justice League. 'Nuff said.

New science fiction and fantasy artist sites at the Amazing Colossal Links Page: Partick Arrasmith, Daren Bader, J.M. LaRoche, Cathy Wilkins, Randy Pollack, Victor Koen, Larry Price, and Jun-Ichi Fukushima.

Saturday, November 15
Assorted Items:  "Now pay attention 007..."
Retrocrush pays homage to the yummy Audrey and Judy Landers.
New Jersey's 105.7FM, a "classic rock" station which calls itself The Hawk, has elected to not play Jethro Tull songs because of comments made by Ian Anderson about "flag waving." Here's Mr. Anderson's thoughts on being "Dixie Chicked." Tull has a new Christmas disc out. They've also released sixteen excellent albums since Aqualung, which I'm certain is the only Tull the narrow-eared fucks at The Hawk play.

Comic Stuff: Sam Leith of The Telegraph praises a slew of graphic novels.
Newsarama interviews Alisa Kwitney, author of the guidebook Sandman King of Dreams.
Broken Frontier gives us their dream super team. I strongly disagree with their choices. My super team would consist of Wildstorm's Majestic, Amalgam's Dr. Strangefate, Dark Horse's Ghost, the Grant Morrison version of Marvel Boy, the Warren Ellis X-Man, and Doom Patrol's Crazy Jane. Oh, hell, let's throw in Flaming Carrot for a touch of absurdism. 
I will now go remind myself that I am a grown man and, I dunno, pay bills or something.

Friday, November 14
40 Holiday Shopping Days Left: I want the strangely named Bombardier Embrio, a neat motorized unicycle that looks like something from a Syd Mead painting. 

Space rockers Architectural Metaphor now have a website, and a new disc on the way.

Comic Stuff: Newsarama has nice previews of Kurt Busiek's Redhand as well as Neal Adams' Monsters Live!
James Sime of Comic Book Resources talks about the impact of in-store appearances.
The BBC has the first episode of the animated Dr. Who online.

Recommended Readin': The BBC has a story about recent trends in baby naming.
New Scientist updates us on the Kasparov/Fritz match.
Nick Gillespie of Reason wonders why sex scandals just don't shock people anymore.
David Sexton of This is London wants bad writers to stop writing.
Keith Silber of Tech Central Station ponders the odds of life in space.
Cup of Chicha points us to Dennis DeClaudio of McSweeney's list of words commonly misused by insipid brother-in-laws.
James Randi takes on junk science's role in historical revisionism.
I must wholeheartedly agree with George Dvorsky that this week's Onion story "Mom Finds Out About Blog" hit waaaaay too close to home. I bet every one of us who spew our raw, uncensored thoughts into the electronic void have felt that twinge of guilt at least once. As far as I'm concerned, that just shows that your Ma raised you right. (Hi Mom)

Thursday, November 13
"On November 13th, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence."

Tim Radford of The Guardian gives us a list of his ten favorite scientific hoaxes.

Wednesday, November 12
Today is Charlie Manson's birthday. Did you know he has his own entry on IMDB? Why?

Science Stuff: Don't forget you can watch Garry Kasparov take on "Fritz" online all week. 
Alex Epstein of Ayn Rand Institute gives us the moral argument for cloning. 
Leonard David of Space.com speculates on the possibility of interstellar computer viruses.
The New York Times Science Section celebrates 25 years with 25 important science questions. I found this a bit more in depth, relevant, and infomative than Meaning of Life.TV, which attempts to reduce the totality of philosophical thought into two-minute streaming sound bites. Worth a visit if only for Freeman Dyson's take on quantum weirdness.

Comic Stuff: Newsarama previews Patrick Neighly's new book Going Subatomic.
Tuesday's Comics Continnum had preview art from Devil's Due Publishing's upcoming adaptation of Robert Silverberg's Majipoor Chronicles. ICv2 also has a piece about it.
Broken Frontier gives us a glimpse of Joseph Linsner's sweet cover for Conan.
Slush Factory has moved and is now the UGO Comic Channel.
Figures.com has a picture of the upcoming Krazy Kat and Ignatz bendy toys.

From the Blogosphere: Tom McMahon shows us 20 Things That Only Happen in Movies.
Incoming Signals directs us to the complete scripts for The Young Ones.
Mark Vadnais found the unproduced shooting scripts for the aborted Invisibles series.
Coudal Partners sends us to the Early History of Talking Machines.
Idletype points the way to Roadie.net, featuring the great Roadie Glossary.

Tuesday, November 11
Final Fantasy is perhaps the worst title for a genre franchise ever. However I admire the psychotic design work that went into their upcoming action figures, which rank up there with the Giger and Pink Floyd: The Wall toys in my anticipation column. I also thought the movie was a beautiful yet incomprehensible piece of rubbish.
On a related note, Scott Edelman of SciFi Weekly uses the release of the latest Matrix film to remind fans that their eternal optimism is what keeps them going to see shitty movies. I await the day when science fiction as a film genre ceases to be tent-poled by shallow rehashes of irrelevant mythology. Until then, it is of no more importance than Pokemon and deserves about the same respect.
It should be noted that while writing that last sentence I asked my girlfriend to name a bad science fiction franchise. She immediately responded "Homeboys in Outer Space." I can feel you wincing just like I did.

Recent Nissan ads featuring music by Dick Dale and Morphine reminded me that it's time to visit the informative site AdTunes.com.

Retrocrush gives us the second terrifying taste of 1971 this week with a gallery from that year's Needle & Craft catalog.

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