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Archive December 1 - 15 2002

Sunday, December 15

The next season of Cartoon Network's Justice League will feature the return of Lois Lane, Alfred, Kalibak, and Volcana. How do I know? Why, its all on JLAnimated.com.

If you like your science fiction comics in the weird/freaky vein, like, oh, let's say my Visions of Xenolympus site, might I refer you to Karl Kofoed's wonderful Galactic Geographic. I've been a fan of this feature in Heavy Metal for years and am happy that it is soon getting its own book.

Christian iconography has given us some wonderful and breathtaking works of art. It has also given us Jesus on black velvet. Now it brings forth its newest horror: The Weeping Santa.

Gee, do you think this will cause trouble?

Coming soon: Exoskeletons. I always thought we'd have these before we could grow human teeth inside a rat's stomach. Shows how much I know.

I just learned that the yummy Finola Hughes was on the cover of the last issue of Atomic Magazine. Must find one...

Saturday, December 14

Scientists had a busy week. First they completely re-grew a fish's heart, which could to lead to all kinds of fun life extension. With this achievement behind them they went on to design the perfect pizza, pinpoint the spot in the brain where songs get stuck all day, and, in preparation for the upcoming Daredevil film, found the gene that controls the ability to learn fear.

T-Shirt Hell has been my favorite offensive t-shirt site for a while. But lately I've been checking out Rotton Cotton.com.

I am not a "gamer" but this story is just too cool to pass up. Many months ago I heard that the fictional country in the online game Everquest was "the 77th richest country on Earth and ranking it between Russia and Bulgaria" due to spells, weapons, and virtual real estate being sold between players (against Sony's wishes). Then I heard that its economy was in danger of collapse due to the dark forces of inflation. Well, here comes Project Entropia, a virtual fantasy game with a "built in" economy based on actual market forces. Libertarians like myself have considered a capitalist economy part of a fantasy world for a looooong time. Just watch, as soon as a class system arises with superior players faring better than uneducated imbiciles, some fuck will come along with a "redistribution spell."

It's official: Gravity Lens is the the only news source for Attorney and bassist Robert Gelinas.

Friday, December 13

To my great relief I am finally finished with this year's holiday card and have delivered it to the printer. This one was a bitch. I think I redid the whole thing four times. Jen kept picking at the story. It was endlesly frustrating but I think the result is worth it. I am so glad its finished. I seem to put my life on hold while doing these cards. I become another person. Very weird. It's my last big pre-holiday task out of the way, so tonight I can enjoy a Boy's Night Out without distraction.

Mark Vadnais sends a site about web-based Feng Shui.

The folks at American Humanist.org aren't too happy with Dubya.

On my list of preferred ways to die (what, you don't have one?) total neural system collapse brought on by a toxic excess of caffine ranks at number three, after drowning in beer and sex.

This week's Photoshop Phriday is an odd little number with parodies of those O'Reilly computer books. Obscure but funny.

Wednesday, December 11

We are almost halfway through the month and and Reverend Rose has yet to release this year's Warped Toy List. What's the hold up here? People are waiting.

And speaking of christians, here are some obvious findings.

It is depressing and disheartening when the real news stories are funnier than the ones in The Onion.

James Hughes new column at Better Humans deals with how democracy can be helpful against ignorant reactionist shrieking about advancing technology. You know, the way Michael Crichton is wont to do.

Cinescape has posted part three of its interview with Gerry Anderson. These installments are very short and I cannot figure why this wasn't posted as one interview.

And if anyone is still shopping for me...

Monday, December 9

People have been generously sending site links and I am woefully behind in posting them. My mother sent me License Plates of the World which is a surprisingly informative archive of strange designs. Jon Morris suggests Recipes of the Damned, and I recommend perusing it at your own risk, and only after several hours have passed since your last meal. I'll be putting these, and others, on the link page (which recently exceeded 1800 links) soon.

Pie Fights. Gotta love'em. They are violent, messy, and relatively harmless. Some folks still stage them. There are comics about them. There are role-playing games. There are virtual pie fights. One production company is named for them. There are also, of course, downloadable films of naked women having pie fights. And we wonder why the third world hates us...

A couple of exciting music news items:

Ghostland is reporting that Tony Levin may join King Crimson for some shows when they tour the US next year. I have yet to read any confirmation of this from official sites or other news outlets, but it's an exciting prospect nonetheless.

A visit to the Hawkwind site revealed that the band is participating in a live stage production of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds which is touring the U.K. next spring. I would love to see that. Perhaps if we all believe hard enough the tour will come to the US.

Sunday, December 8

Someone posted the following message on Fark.com: "Farscape saved - Geeks rejoice." Turns out that declaration was a bit premature, and now the beatings have begun.

Friday night someone stole two Van Goghs through an Amsterdam museum skylight. The museum will likely sue the producers of at least three dozen movies involving art thefts for inspiring the idea.

BBC Science reports the creation of a real-life bionic eye, which should go nicely with the bionic eyelid they created a few years back. I've also seen several articles in the last week about wearable computers. The gradual mechanization of the human form seems pretty damned apparent to me, why aren't all the bioethical fucks up in arms about this? I don't recall any biblical passage about "if your eye offends thee, pluck it out and replace it with a neural chip implant."

Friday, December 6

I will be spending most of my free time this weekend tying down my frisky muses and racing to finish this year's holiday card, so I'll probably not post a lot.

Candidate for Super-Villain: Theo Jansen is a physicist/artist/madman who designs and builds giant, multi-legged, wind-powered leviathans. I await the day I see these things lumbering down the street.

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY it's the battle to the finish between two titans! One day only it's Atheism vs. Christianity! Place your bets!

Since there is nothing of any interest being released before the year's end I've put up my 2002 music list.

There's new content at Warren Ellis.com

Thursday, December 5

Reason's Ronald Bailey has posted a piece about recent advances in regenerative medicine. Simon Smith of Better Humans.com has a creepy article about Leon Kass of the National Committee of Bioethics and his psychotic view of what mankind should strive for. This is the man who said that "we must avoid runaway scientism." If the democrats had a clue they would be gunning for this guy's head on a plate. He is a generator of ignorance and should be publically referred to as such loudly and often.

The Post Office is putting out a series of stamps commemorating the craft of filmmaking. Stamps feature cameramen, editors, and even a guy being done up in Frankenstein make up. Quite cool. I am wondering if other trades will be honored. Butchers and proctologists leap to mind.

The body of a woman that had leapt off an art gallery in Berlin lay on the ground for hours while people thought she was part of the exhibit. People thinking you're a performance artist is one thing, but when you're performance consists of complete inaction...

Wednesday, December 4

If you play surf rock, and you perform on stage wearing well-made Star Trek uniforms, you must be The Nebulas.

A man known only as Ken R. has written a book about the history of radio jingles. Best part: It comes with an hour-long CD.

Some geek stuff to go read: this week Comic Book Resources has an interview with Mike Carey who recently took over the writing chores on Hellblazer. It also has Steven Grant's annual list of comic gift ideas. There is a chat with the legendary Carmine Infantino at Sequential Tart and Cinescape has a two part interview with Gerry Anderson.

And just in case you doubt that geeks have complete and total domination of the world: Scientists at Los Alamos, who obviously wanted to be Spider Man villians when they were kids, are working on a sonic refrigerator that uses sound waves to lower temperatures. Meanwhile, someone was watching Things to Come a little too much when designing this computer monitor.

Tuesday December 3

A frightening collaboration between Adrian Belew and Les Claypool has resulted in a song called "Incompetance and Indifference." It's available as a free download at Adrien Belew.net.

Marc Weidenbaum of Read Comics in Public.net has posted my comments about his site in his latest essay. Also want to thank "Robin Fields" of Feathered Back for putting me on the site's link page. Also a big welcome to any new readers coming from those sites.

Assorted surreal religious news stories:

Nativity scenes may come with disclaimers.

Scientologists want their "beliefs" taught in British schools.

Apparently there is a problem with pagans in the military.

And Christians in Alabama are protesting a statue of Vulcan in a park.

Monday, December 2

Star Trek's universal translator was a dramatic, if not dubious, shortcut in telling stories about first contact situations. Here, in the lowly 21st century, we get closer to it every day.

Reccomended reading: Dr. Marty Klein has written an article in the print edition of Playboy concerning the harmful sexual attitudes and advice of Oprah and Dr. Phil. Buy it or borrow it. There's also the oldest centerfold ever (35), but get it for the articles.