Coming to Kindle and Smashwords

Coming to Kindle and Smashwords
November 2013

Apr 29, 2011

I want to see his birth certificate....

Superman Renouncing American Citizenship In 'Action Comics #900'

Superman

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Since he crashed down from Krypton 1938, Superman has been as American as apple pie. With the wind rippling over his red and blue costume as he flew through the air, through comic books, TV shows and movies, the Man of Steel has served as a prime representation of all things to which America aspires.
Now, in a time of great international turmoil, Superman is giving up his national identity.
In "Action Comics #900," Superman will renounce his American citizenship, rejecting the international notion that his actions are part of US policy. The shift comes after a personal visit to Iran in support of protestors leads President Ahmadinejad to believe America was declaring war against the government in Tehran.
By rejecting his citizenship, Superman will now work on a grander international scale, because, as he says, "truth, justice and the American way... it's not enough anymore"
Whether this impacts the upcoming Superman franchise reboot film "Man of Steel," remains to be seen, but it will most certainly take the legendary hero in a new direction.
For more

what the hell is this? part two.....

Odd Japanese Doritos Packaging
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One Redditor guesses the flavor as “Honey Nut Crunch.” That looks pretty accurate to

Apr 28, 2011

Pie chart of those who worship Cthulhu

really?

Mary Robinette Kowal sez, "Tennessee is trying to pass bill SB0049. The "Don't Say Gay" bill would prohibit speaking about homosexuality at middle schools and elementary schools, while talking about heterosexuality would be fine ('(2) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.') Kids at my nephew's high school protesting it. The bill goes to vote tomorrow."
We say gay for the students who won't be able to. This site is dedicated to fight against the Tennessee state bill SB0049 (Don't say gay bill), which would make it a misdemeanor to talk about homosexuality in grades bellow 9th. That is an obvious insult to our first amendment rights to free speech as well as it is a major blow to those young people who are shunned by their own parents for being gay and soon will not be able to talk to their school about it. On this site we have collected some facts about the bill. We check and update the site daily or as updates about the bill come in. If you would like to sign the petition against this bill or help the fight just email me at wesaygay@gmail.com

Battleshoe (more sh** I need)

 

Apr 27, 2011

H.P. Lovecraft + Sex Ed Class = Madness

 


I'm not sure I ever thought I'd see a combination of Sex Ed for 7th graders and H.P. Lovecraft, but here it is. It's a short film directed by Craig Macneill and Written by Clay McLeod Chapman that was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival. Enjoy the insanity

Class War: ‘Funny isn’t it?’..

Class War: ‘Funny isn’t it?’
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Nicole Belle put it nicely at Crooks and Liars:
Man, conservatives sure do want everyone to buy into the notion that the only answer to Medicare is to not have it. They go on and on about how Medicare is going to go bankrupt. But what is never mentioned is the actual end of that sentence “...under current spending levels.”
Let’s remember that there are two sides to that coin. One way to deal with rising costs is to drastically cut benefits. But that doesn’t reduce the existence of the need for those benefits, it simply transfers the costs to the individual, who is on Medicare because they cannot afford private insurance. As in our current system with those who are uninsured, if those individuals can’t pay those costs, they get passed on to everyone else in the form of increased premiums and bloated medical charges (nothing like paying for a $20 box of tissue during a hospital stay).
But the other way to deal with it—which is apparently unthinkable to George Will and Chrystia Freeland—is to increase spending, in the form of tax increases. Yes, I said the dreaded phrase: tax increases. At the time that Medicare was enacted in 1965, the top marginal tax rate was 70%. Now it’s less than 40%. Of course there’s no money…we’re too busy allowing the uber-wealthy and corporations to skate on their share of the social fabric to create huge population-sized holes in the safety net.
I do have to credit the GOP with the talking point that it won’t affect anyone currently getting Medicare or scheduled to receive it for the next ten years. *Wipes brow* whew! I guess that leaves me—in my mid-40s, with a history of cancer and without a steady paycheck for 15 years, so I’m imminent competitively hire-able—in the perfect spot to afford private insurance policies as a senior? I guess it’s a good thing I had children…I’ll need somewhere to live when my IRA (since Social Security is in the crosshairs as well) goes almost exclusively to my medical needs. Multiply that over tens of millions of Gen X-ers and Y-ers and Millennials and suddenly, that doesn’t seem so sustainable for the economy, does it?
And can we please call a moratorium on calling Medicare and Social Security “entitlements”? I’m so sick of that bull excrement. There is nothing “entitled” about having taxes taken out of every paycheck to a trust fund that will enable one to live through one’s golden years without resorting to eating catfood or wearing a Walmart greeter’s vest because the idea of a true retirement is out of the realm of possibility. The only entitlement I see is the white privilege of the Beltway establishment, unwilling to actually be honest about the consequences of such destructive Republican policies.
Below, Rep. Eric Cantor says things that will make you want to vomit on Fox News.
 

Cartoon via

Apr 20, 2011

Euthanasia coaster: assisted suicide by thrills


Julijonas Urbonas, a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art in London, designed this "Euthanasia Coaster" that will kill its riders with a series of brain-scrambling loops: "a hypothetic euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely -- with elegance and euphoria -- take the life of a human being. Riding the coaster's track, the rider is subjected to a series of intensive motion elements that induce various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness, and, eventually, death."

Apr 19, 2011

for reasons I can't explain. I find this very distrubing.

 

Inspired.....


"The Last Fiesta" is a Last Supper rendered on 12 skateboard decks, with Christ and the apostles depicted as Mexican masked wrestlers. Chris Parks, the artist, included a supper of Negra Modelo Modelo Especial, Corona, tequila and tacos.

Apr 18, 2011

Choco-Thulhu is real!


I lamented the fact that the chocolate Cthulhu was just an April Fool's joke. Now, they are real. And green!

Apr 15, 2011

love all things lovecraft...

Lego artist Mr Xenomurphy created this great Lovecraftian horror-house, complete with Lego tentacles. Tentacles have so clearly been missing from Lego for all these years, it's a wonder they aren't standard issue now

That flick was hot.....

HP Highlight - Abowitz Porn Leaks
A San Francisco man caught on fire while watching a porn movie at a private booth in a sex shop on Thursday. Police and firefighters are still trying to determine what caused the man to catch on fire. Police said the man ran out of the sex shop “engulfed in flames” and police officers and firefighters arrived quickly, but he still has life-threatening burns on 90 percent of his body. An employee said the man was watching a movie in the back of the store, and police are searching the booth for flammable materials or other accelerants

Lincoln was a Theist & a Rationalist

Abraham Lincoln

Apr 11, 2011

differences in our political views are tied to differences in brain structure

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Of course, it’s something many of us have suspected all along, but a new study published yesterday in Current Biology reveals that the differences in our political views are tied to differences in brain structure.
The next time you look at a Republican and wonder in astonishment at how small-minded, unscientific, inflexible and sometimes scarily racist their belief systems often are, well, wonder no more: They can’t help themselves…!
And the way you wince at them? It goes both ways, mate. Might be hard-coded into your gray matter as well. No wonder Conservatives find Liberals so infuriatingly condescending…
From Science Daily:
Individuals who call themselves liberal tend to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, while those who call themselves conservative have larger amygdalas. Based on what is known about the functions of those two brain regions, the structural differences are consistent with reports showing a greater ability of liberals to cope with conflicting information and a greater ability of conservatives to recognize a threat, the researchers say.
“Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual’s political orientation,” said Ryota Kanai of the University College London. “Our study now links such personality traits with specific brain structure.”
Kanai said his study was prompted by reports from others showing greater anterior cingulate cortex response to conflicting information among liberals. “That was the first neuroscientific evidence for biological differences between liberals and conservatives,” he explained.
There had also been many prior psychological reports showing that conservatives are more sensitive to threat or anxiety in the face of uncertainty, while liberals tend to be more open to new experiences. Kanai’s team suspected that such fundamental differences in personality might show up in the brain.
And, indeed, that’s exactly what they found. Kanai says they can’t yet say for sure which came first. It’s possible that brain structure isn’t set in early life, but rather can be shaped over time by our experiences. And, of course, some people have been known to change their views over the course of a lifetime.
So there IS hope for Glenn Beck?
Here’s more on this from TIME’s blog:
This is not the first attempt to locate the biological roots of party affiliation. In an October 2010 study, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, and Harvard University identified a “liberal gene” — a variant called DRD4-7R, which affects the neurotransmitter dopamine — that has been linked with a personality type driven to seek out new experiences.
Another study from the University of Nebraska found that liberals and conservatives had different reactions to “gaze cues” — whether they tended to look in the same direction as a face on their computer screen. Liberals were more likely than conservatives to follow another person’s gaze, suggesting that people who lean right value autonomy more; alternative explanations suggest that liberals might be more empathetic, or that conservatives are less trusting of others.
The thing this study doesn’t explain is why progressive women are so much hotter than Republican women

Apr 10, 2011

very cool....

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Engineering school students look at the DelFly bionic robot during a demonstration at the International Workshop on Bio-Inspired Robots in Nantes April 7, 2011. Some 200 bio-robot technicians from 17 countries participate in the three-day event to show the latest developments in robots inspired from the animal world. (REUTERS/Stephane Mahe)
The DelFly micro is only 10 centimeters from wing to wing, and weighs just a little over 3 grams. Its developers call it "the smallest flying ornithopter carrying a camera in the world." Below, more photos of the little guy in action, including the 0.4 gram camera it carries.

Apr 8, 2011

really?



Today in elf news,

Some fantasy film buffs in Arizona are taking their obsessions to new levels by actually having their ears cut open and sculpted to look like elves. The elf ears craze has many health risks but that isn't stopping sci-fi fans having the top of their cartilage sliced and sewed back together in a point. ... The elf ears craze is believed to have been brought on by films such as Lord of the Rings and Avatar, as well as HBO's comedy television series Bored to Death

Apr 7, 2011

truth....

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Apr 6, 2011

warp drive concept feasible....


Warp drive technology, as described in Star Trek, is nonsense, but there might actually be something to the idea of "warp drive" as a concept, says theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss.

Apr 5, 2011

George R.R. Martin Picks His Favorite Science-Fiction Films of All Time...

 Forbidden Planet (1956)


The Tempest on Altair IV. The only science-fiction film that William Shakespeare ever wrote (admittedly with some help from screenwriter Cyril Hume). The Bard of Avon and Robby the Robot make a combination that has still yet to be surpassed. Leslie Nielsen plays Captain Kirk a decade before William Shatner, and does it better. In fact, the C-57-D and its command trio of captain, first officer, and doctor are clear forerunners of the Enterprise and its Kirk/Spock/Bones triad, though none of Kirk’s myriad love interests could hold a candle to Anne Francis as the sexy yet innocent Altaira. It’s Walter Pidgeon who steals the film, however. His layered portrayal of the tormented Morbius is almost… well… Shakespearean. And did I mention Robby the Robot? Forbidden Planet was his first film role, but Robby went on to make numerous appearances in other movies and television episodes, a career that R2D2, C3PO, and Robocop can only envy. Forbidden Planet’s visuals and special effects were state of the art in their day, and still hold up pretty well… especially the sequence where the invisible Id monster gets caught in the disintegrator beams. The score was also amazing and unique, done in electronic tonalities that remain as unsettling as they were revolutionary. I hear rumors that they are going to remake this. Please, no.

                                                ALIENS

Once upon a time, Robert A. Heinlein wrote a classic (and controversial) science-fiction novel called Starship Troopers, which is still being read and argued about today. Many years later, director Paul Verhoeven and writer Edward Neumeier made a very bad film called Starship Troopers. Fortunately RAH was dead by then and never had to see it. In between, James Cameron made Aliens. According to Hollywood legend, when Cameron heard that they were going to film Starship Troopers, he said, “Why bother? I’ve done it.” And, you know, he had. His film was not based on the novel Starship Troopers, of course, but his Colonial Marines come a lot closer to the spirit and feel of Heinlein’s Mobile Infantry than anything in the Verhoeven movie, while still remaining true to the Alien franchise. Aliens is one of the rare cases of a sequel that was actually better than the original (no mean trick here, since the original was pretty damned good). This is probably Sigourney Weaver’s best turn as Ripley, though all of them were good. Her supporting cast was great as well: Hicks (Michael Biehn), Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), the heroic android Bishop (Lance Henriksen), and especially Newt, as played by Carrie Henn. “Will I dream?” Newt asks Ripley in the last scene of the film, just before they settle down into their capsules for a long, cold sleep. “Yes” would be my answer. If they ever put me in charge of the franchise, the next Alien film will open with Newt waking up safe on Earth, having dreamed all those later, awful Alien movies.

Blade Runner (1982)
Poor Philip K. Dick. One of the true geniuses of science fiction, he struggled all his life to find an audience, and never had two nickels to rub together. Then, after he dies, he gets discovered by Hollywood, and film after film after film follows. Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, and more on the way. But Blade Runner was the first Dick film and remains the best. Based on Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, with a title borrowed from an unrelated novel by Alan Nourse, Blade Runner gave film audiences an entirely new vision of what the future might hold, very different from the sterile universe of Star Trek and its ilk. This was a gritty, dirty, dark tomorrow where it seemed to rain day and night, brought to vivid life by Ridley Scott’s superb direction, Syd Mead’s amazing production designs, and a script by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples that even Dick might have liked. Forget the theatrical release, with its hokey voice-overs and tacked-on happy ending. To get the true impact of this one, the director’s cut is the only way to go. I still get a chill listening to Rutger Hauer’s final speech. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die.”

5.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
 Alien (1979)
Some purists will argue that Alien is really a horror film in science-fiction drag, and maybe they have a point. But it’s a great horror film in science-fiction drag. The look of the film was unique; we had never seen a spaceship like the Nostromo before, though you have to wonder about all those dripping pipes—did this starship run on steam? H.R. Giger’s alien designs made “Gigeresque” an adjective. The blue-collar down-and-dirty crew seemed like real people. The chest-burster scene is strong stuff even today, and those who saw it in the theaters without knowing what was coming, like me, will never forget it. Tom Skerritt’s death packed almost as much punch (a chorus of “Wait a minute, I thought Dallas was the hero” was heard across the land). After that, you knew that no one was safe. And then there was the life-pod scene, Ripley in her underwear and the Alien in the pipes, sex and horror mashed together. From where I sit, Ripley is the defining role of Sigourney Weaver’s career. The fact that she never won an Oscar for Ripley just underlines the sad truth that the Academy does not honor actors for roles in science-fiction or fantasy films, no matter how good they are. (The single conspicuous exception will be dealt with when I get to my Honorable Mentions.)
There have been four versions of this story filmed to date, all deriving from the original Jack Finney novel, though I doubt the makers of the three remakes are familiar with anything beyond the original film. Every time they remake it, it gets worse. The second film, the 1978 Philip Kaufman version with Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum, is not half bad. Let’s be kind and pretend that Body Snatchers (1993) and The Invasion (2007) do not exist. It’s only the 1956 original that belongs on this list. A classic tale of creeping Red Scare paranoia and alien invasion, full of fathers who aren’t fathers, husbands who aren’t husbands, wives who aren’t wives, director Don Siegel’s film made a whole generation afraid to go to sleep, and contributed the phrase “pod people” to the idiom. The ending, with a crazed Kevin McCarthy standing on the highway shouting, “You’re next,” at passing cars, came as a real shock to the filmgoers of the 1950s, who expected happy endings in their monster movies.



The Road Warrior (1981)
The second of the three Mad Max films is by far the best. The original Mad Max was utterly forgettable, and while Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome has some great parts—the Thunderdome itself, Master/Blaster, Tina Turner’s turn as Queen of Bartertown, and the wonderful language of the tribe of lost children—it also recycles some of the best bits of The Road Warrior rather shamelessly. But The Road Warrior has it all. Mel Gibson is perfect as the reluctant hero, but much of the film’s juice comes from its supporting characters: Wez and the Humungous (“the Ayatollah of Rocknrollah!”), the Feral Kid, Pappagallo, the Mechanic, the Warrior Woman (played by Virginia Hey, who would later sign aboard Farscape)… and best of all, the Gyro Captain, masterfully played by Bruce Spence (“Remember lingerie?”). You have to love the end, where the embittered loner Max remains an embittered loner, while the lecherous cigar-chomping Gyro Captain becomes the new leader of the tribe. Maybe if he’d known that Thunderdome, Tina Turner, and all those pigs were waiting in his future, Max would have made a different decision.

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The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The original version, of course. That thing with Keanu Reaves could not make a list of the top 100 science-fiction films. How do you remake The Day the Earth Stood Still and turn “Klaatu Barada Nikto” into a mumbled throwaway aside? That’s like remaking Citizen Kane and leaving out Rosebud. Jennifer Connelly, while lovely to look upon, is no Patricia Neal, and Keanu Reaves is certainly no Michael Rennie. Keanu’s acting range more closely approximates that of Gort from the first film. Edmund North’s script for the 1951 original actually improves on its source material, the Harry Bates short story “Farewell to the Master,” and Robert Wise’s direction is sure-handed and impeccable. There’s a certain sentimentality to the ’51 film that may come across as hokey to modern audiences, but I find that infinitely preferable to the sour misanthropy of the remake. And the original is intelligent from start to finish, where the remake is relentlessly stupid.



 The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
If you have to have a Star Wars film on the list, this is the one. The original Star Wars—I refuse to call it A New Hope—changed the face of movies and science fiction both, though not always in good ways. It has dated rather badly, though. Empire holds up better, perhaps because of the Leigh Brackett script. She was the best writer ever to work on the franchise. The second film gives us more of Han Solo and Darth Vader and less of Luke, which is all to the good. Alec Guinness is missed, but we get Yoda. R2D2 and C3PO are still fun, not yet the annoyances they become in the prequel trilogy. Lucas has yet to conceive of Jar Jar Binks, thank God, and those cuddly cute Ewoks remain a film in the future. The ice planet and the swamp planet and the floating city were all familiar staples of print science fiction, and had been since the heyday of the pulps, but it was a thrill to see them realized on screen for the first time.


HONORABLE MENTIONS
Well, there’s Avatar (2009). Amazing special effects, a feast for the eyes, but I liked the story better when they called it Dances With Wolves. Then you have Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), if you like watching Richard Dreyfuss playing with his mashed potatoes. I want to see the movie that starts where Close Encounters ends, the one about the people boarding that starship. Serenity (2005) has a lot to recommend it, but ultimately comes across as what is: the last episode of the ill-fated and much-mourned TV series Firefly. For those who never watched the show, the film has far less impact. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) was the best of the Trek films, but that still doesn’t earn it a place on the list. Maybe if I was doing the Top 20 instead of the Top 10. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is certainly a landmark, a film that students of the cinema, Kubrick fans, and French critics love to analyze and ponder. If only it wasn’t so bloody dull. The only memorable character in the film is the HAL 9000.
Galaxy Quest… ah, Galaxy Quest (1999). Maybe I should have put that one in the No. 10 slot, in place of Empire. It’s a Star Trek parody that’s better than any of the Star Trek films. “This episode was very badly written!” Maybe, but the film was not. A near-miss. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) had an amazing array of talent behind it. A script by Ian Watson, based on a story by Brian Aldiss, directed by Steven Spielberg, working with material that Stanley Kubrick had developed for years. They produced a brilliant, haunting, gorgeous, but ultimately flawed masterpiece. This one came close, too. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is… what? Science fiction? Horror? Musical comedy? Cult film? Act along? It is certainly in the Top 10 of whatever the hell it is, once we find a category for it.

The only science-fiction film ever to win an Academy Award for acting—science fiction and fantasy have won plenty of Oscars for special effects, makeup, etc.—was Charly (1968). Cliff Robertson took home the Oscar for his performance as Charly Gordon, a role he’d originally performed in a television adaptation of the same story, called The Two Worlds of Charly Gordon. The TV version was based on Flowers for Algernon, the classic short story by Daniel Keyes, the film version (script by Stirling Silliphant) of the novel Keyes made by expanding that story. In both cases, shorter was better.