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August 28, 2008

I'll link to anything that uses the original Mario Brothers game*

*Not a guarantee


By fnord12 | August 28, 2008, 2:29 PM | Liberal Outrage & Video Games| Link



Random Lyrics Thursday

I Talk to the Wind by King Crimson

Said the straight man to the late man
Where have you been
I've been here and I've been there
And Ive been in between.

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.

I'm on the outside looking inside
What do I see
Much confusion, disillusion
All around me.

You don't possess me
Don't impress me
Just upset my mind
Can't instruct me or conduct me
Just use up my time

I talk to the wind
My words are all carried away
I talk to the wind
The wind does not hear
The wind cannot hear.


By fnord12 | August 28, 2008, 8:50 AM | Music| Link



August 27, 2008

Wanyas delivers the goods

Speaking of comics on the web, Wanyas found literally the best comic book ever. It's like Secret Wars meets the Watchmen. Screw your head on tight before reading, though, or it'll blow right off.

Secondly, Wanyas has supplied the blueprints but it is up to you people to produce it. Feel free to go with some variations. I'm sure Cube MODOK wouldn't mind a MODAM mate, for example.


By fnord12 | August 27, 2008, 5:00 PM | Comics| Link



Alright, who let Bryan Lee O'Malley out of his dungeon?

He's supposed to be producing more Scott Pilgrim, not this Bear Creek Apartments.


By fnord12 | August 27, 2008, 4:59 PM | Comics| Link



It Got Me

As if the sprained ankle from friday and dropping my work keys down a storm drain this morning wasn't bad enough, now i have to contend with getting bit 3 times at my desk by this:

WTF??

Now i have to search for any areas of standing water that are as little as 1 oz within a 200m radius. Sonovabitch.


By min | August 27, 2008, 1:23 PM | My stupid life | Comments (3) | Link



Fact check? How about a nitpick?

AP:

The shotgun-style charges Democratic National Convention speakers fired at Republican John McCain Tuesday night weren't necessarily half-truths. But in some instances, they weren't the whole story either
...
SEN. ROBERT CASEY JR.: "John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush 90 percent of the time. That's not a maverick. That's a sidekick." THE FACTS: McCain voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time from January 20, 2001, to when Congress left Washington on its annual August recess, according to a study by Congressional Quarterly. But McCain wasn't always a staunch Bush backer. In 2005, his support for Bush's position on legislation reached a low of 77 percent; last year, when he launched his latest bid for the GOP presidential nomination, he voted with Bush 95 percent of the time.

Eight years of outrageous and false claims from the Bush administration and nothing from the AP, but a Democrat picks a (seemingly accurate even looking at the 'facts') broad statistical average while giving a speech and suddenly they're all over it.


By fnord12 | August 27, 2008, 8:47 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Iron Man #32 - There really is something to be said for continually lowering expectations to the point where you get to the fourth installment of a story arc and you find yourself saying "You know, this isn't that bad. It's just a dumb action story, and there's nothing actually wrong with that." Except that, after defeating the Braniac creature, it was a bit of an anti-climax to then have Iron Man spend half and issue fighting a guy in a wheelchair*. Sort of like defeating the Red Bull after a year+ long campaign and then having to go fight some trolls.

Hercules #120 - Suffers just the tiniest bit from not having any twists in the conclusion (basically, we fight, we take some losses, we win), but still really good. And i guess having Mikaboshi take the place of the Skrull gods in the pantheon should count as a twist. I really like how the defeat of the Skrull gods tied in directly with Reed Richard's ability to escape the Skrulls in the main Secret Invasion storyline - that was pretty much the best tie-in for these tangential crossovers i've seen. Oh, and major points for referencing the whole Deviant/Eternal angle in the Skrull history. I love writers that know their continuity.

Guardians of the Galaxy #4 - Abnett and Lanning use the Skrull paranoia angle for great character interaction and conflict to better effect than the main SI story where it quickly turned into "big fight with Super-Skrulls". Really good stuff. The Skrull storyline does feel like a bit of an interruption and/or the Astrovik/Starhawk plot is dragging a bit, but that could actually be considered realistic in the sense that life doesn't really happen in neat story arcs. I think it's a bit soon to say it doesn't deserve to be considered part of the SI crossover - we haven't heard the motivation of the Skrulls yet.

Captain America #42 - Well, i think it was my last review of this comic where i was praising it for not going the cliched "villains can't work together so they'll always lose" angle, and yet here we are. Can't complain, though, when it's so well executed. Great job delving a bit into the Red Skull/Sin relationship. And i love seeing Dr. Doom getting his props; there was a line when Zola first got Doom's time machine and when Zola was analyzing it he said something like "this is as much sorcery as science" and people thought that was somehow a mockery of Doom, but it was clearly a comment made out of respect for Doom's genius. Doom Uber Alles!









*That isn't MODOK.


By fnord12 | August 27, 2008, 7:33 AM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link



August 26, 2008

MODOK: Sex God

You all know that i love MODOK, but you've never understood why. Only now, thanks to Ms. Marvel #7, can you see him as i have always seen him:

Isn't he dreamy?!?


By fnord12 | August 26, 2008, 2:49 PM | Comics | Comments (4) | Link



August 25, 2008

I Hate Walking Fish

*shudder*

By min | August 25, 2008, 12:24 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (5) | Link



Every kind of awesome

Everyone talks about how the 70s sucked. They sure seem like they were fantastic to me.


By fnord12 | August 25, 2008, 10:40 AM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1) | Link



August 22, 2008

Animals That Shouldn't Exist

What would you say this is a picture of?

An alligator/crocodile, mebbe?

Well, you'd be wrong. It's a fish.

From Wikipedia

The alligator gar is the largest species of gar and is the largest exclusively freshwater fish in North America. It can be as long as eight to twelve feet and often weighs at least 100 pounds at maturity. The current world record alligator gar weighed 279 pounds and was caught in the Rio Grande River in 1951. Even larger alligator gars -- over 300 pounds -- have been caught by trotliners.

What the hell? Like regular alligators aren't bad enough? Look at the head on this goddamn thing!

And they're just swimming around in rivers in North America! That's not kewl.


By min | August 22, 2008, 3:03 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (3) | Link



Whoodwin?
Gary Oldman vs.Gary Oldman vs. Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman Gary Oldman Gary Oldman

Hollywood has long tried to pass off the same actor as multiple people (see also Nick Nolte/Gary Busey, Glenn Close/Meryl Streep, and the three+ Michael Keatons). It's a transparent ploy, so i don't know why they bother, but i also don't know what their motivation is. Probably something to do with Scientology.



By fnord12 | August 22, 2008, 9:14 AM | Whoodwin | Comments (1) | Link



August 21, 2008

Cribbing

For a couple of days now, i've been semi-composing a blog post in my head about why Obama is running a different sort of campaign than we are used to, and why a lot of the concerns we may have about how unwilling he seems to be to really go on the attack really don't matter. There's been a lot of anguish on the blogs and in the press about the fact that Obama hasn't been doing enough to counter McCain's attacks, and that he's really been letting McCain set the terms of the debate on the national stage. And it's all true (although he does seem to be changing his national tactics a bit, taking advantage of McCain's "I don't remember how many houses I own" flap.). But there's a reason for that - Obama isn't running a national campaign. Just like in the primaries, he's playing a numbers game and working on the ground, state by state. National ad buys and smart quips in the national press don't have much meaning in that scenario, and worrying about blips in national polls - or even state polls - aren't as important when you're engaging in a massive effort to register new voters that aren't generally contacted by pollsters.

There's obviously some major risk in doing things this way as you don't have the standard metrics (polls, national media coverage) to judge how well you are doing, but Gore and Kerry ran the "safe" way in 2000 and 2004 and it resulted in "close but no cigar".

I was going to write a post about all that, but DDay at Hullabaloo did it for me.

Also, if you (like me) are concerned about Obama's centrist tendencies, this may give you some hope:

I truly believe that the coalition Obama is building is more progressive than he is, or than he chooses to be, and the infrastructure is in place to pressure him as President, leveraging all of this support from the grassroots, the millions of people that will be out on the ground on Election Day, to push for a sensible progressive agenda.

Finally, while DDay's article has a lot of supporting links, the best one to check out is this one, which talks about Dean's conflict with the Democratic party's orthodoxy. The point to highlight is the fact that the infrastructure that Obama is setting up here is not going to disappear after election day, win or lose. This is a transformation of the way the Democratic party will operate going forward; it is Dean's 50 state initiative in action.


By fnord12 | August 21, 2008, 4:53 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2) | Link



Recap #18

Smashy Smashy


By min | August 21, 2008, 2:53 PM | D&D| Link



How'd you like to watch me play this video game?

Dungeon Escape


By fnord12 | August 21, 2008, 11:51 AM | Video Games| Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Fantastic Four #559 - Regular readers will recall that i was excited by the reveal at the end of last issue. However, this issue didn't really deliver on that reveal - it seems to be another case of "ruined by pacing for the trade" and nothing really happened. It ended with another 'big reveal' but this one is a bit of an overused yawner.

Secret Invasion: Young Avengers/Runaways #2 - I'm enjoying this, and with a skrull on each team - one with royal blood - it really feels much more integral to the main story than was probably intended. Which is a good thing.

Secret Invasion #5 - Keeping up the pace just fine. Mr. Fantastic's line about using his brains reminded me of the "Braaaains.... braaains... use your brains to help us!" line from the Simpsons, but i guess that's not really relevant to anything.


By fnord12 | August 21, 2008, 10:12 AM | Comics | Comments (5) | Link



LSS at Bandfest II



By fnord12 | August 21, 2008, 9:50 AM | Music| Link



Random Lyrics Thursday

Tales of Brave Ulysses by Cream

You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever,
But you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun.

And the colors of the sea blind your eyes with trembling mermaids,
And you touch the distant beaches with tales of brave Ulysses:
How his naked ears were tortured by the sirens sweetly singing,
For the sparkling waves are calling you to kiss their white laced lips.

And you see a girl's brown body dancing through the turquoise,
And her footprints make you follow where the sky loves the sea.
And when your fingers find her, she drowns you in her body,
Carving deep blue ripples in the tissues of your mind.

The tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter.

Her name is Aphrodite and she rides a crimson shell,
And you know you cannot leave her for you touched the distant sands
With tales of brave Ulysses; how his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing.

The tiny purple fishes run lauging through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter.


By fnord12 | August 21, 2008, 9:24 AM | Music| Link



August 19, 2008

Texans Are A Breed Unto Themselves

The small community of Harrold in north Texas is a 30-minute drive from the Wilbarger County Sheriff's Office, leaving students and teachers without protection, said David Thweatt, superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District. The lone campus of the 110-student district sits near a heavily traveled highway, which could make it a target, he argued.

"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in a story published Friday on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Web site.

...

It isn't clear how many of the 50 or so teachers and staff members will be armed this fall because Thweatt did not disclose that information, to keep it from students or potential attackers.

Link

I want to know who these people are who are on this highway looking for schools to shoot up. You'd think if it was such a dangerous area, the people of the town would get on the police and FBI to, you know, fix it? I mean, kids getting shot up on a regular basis would be the sort of bad press the state government wouldn't want getting around.

I hope these crazy, gun-toting teachers don't end up shooting the kids.


By min | August 19, 2008, 8:09 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link



Your immature giggle of the day

AP - not corrected as of posting time:

His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.

By fnord12 | August 19, 2008, 9:37 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2) | Link



Whoodwin?
Acai-Acai vs.Pomegranate
Acai-Acai Pomegranate

By fnord12 | August 19, 2008, 9:23 AM | Whoodwin| Link



August 15, 2008

Hell freezes over

Link:

"Many people on Wall Street believed they had made enough money in life and were more concerned about the war and the generational effect that Obama brings to this election," said Richard Hunt, a Washington-based lobbyist for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co.

By fnord12 | August 15, 2008, 12:05 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link



Botswana Beast

Botswana has come up a couple of times in the news lately due to the summit in South Africa. Everytime i see "Botswana," i think of


By min | August 15, 2008, 11:19 AM | Comics & Ummm... Other?| Link



August 14, 2008

Random Lyrics Thursday

My City Was Gone by the Pretenders

I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
A, o, way to go ohio

Well I went back to Ohio
But my family was gone
I stood on the back porch
There was nobody home
I was stunned and amazed
My childhood memories
Slowly swirled past
Like the wind through the trees
A, o, oh way to go ohio

I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
Said, a, o, oh way to go ohio



By fnord12 | August 14, 2008, 8:45 AM | Music| Link



August 13, 2008

And you think i'm a tough DM

Just be glad i lost my Keep on the Borderland module. That adventure was hard. It had no business being an introductory low level campaign. I think the whole purpose of it was to justify the use of the adjective "Advanced".

I wasn't too sure what a hermit was, either.


By fnord12 | August 13, 2008, 4:43 PM | D&D| Link



Who's Targeting Our Black Actors?

First Morgan Freeman's seriously injured in a car crash.

Then Bernie Mac dies from "complications" with pneumonia at the hospital.

And now, just a few days ago, Isaac Hayes dies of a stroke.

Each on its own doesn't seem like much. Anyone can get in a car accident. The chances of leaving a hospital vertically after going in for pneumonia are typically slim. And a stroke - well, he was jogging on a treadmill. That would cause anyone to have a stroke.

But altogether in such a short span of time? Seems highly suspicious to me! Morgan Freeman prolly only managed to survive cause he's older than the other two guys and therefore, more wily. Watch out Samuel L. Jackson! You might be their next target!


By min | August 13, 2008, 10:58 AM | Movies & TeeVee | Comments (2) | Link



Georgia's always on my mi-mi-mind

For those like me who can't get enough analysis on what's going on in the Russia/Georgia conflict, here's an interview between Glenn Greenwald and Charles King, a professor who is an expert on the region.


By fnord12 | August 13, 2008, 9:24 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link



August 12, 2008

Fuck them if they can't take a joke

Henry Kissinger, 1972, regarding supporting a Kurdish uprising and then abandoning the Kurds to the Shah of Iran's slaughter machine. "Promise them anything, give them what they get and fuck them if they can't take a joke."

Today:

One soldier, his face a mask of exhaustion, cradled a Kalashnikov.

"We killed as many of them as we could," he said. "But where are our friends?"

It was the question of the day. As Russian forces massed Sunday on two fronts, Georgians were heading south with whatever they could carry. When they met Western journalists, they all said the same thing: Where is the United States? When is NATO coming?

and...

Mr Saakashvilli may also have banked on support from his closest ally, US president George W Bush, whose administration is said to have given tacit support for a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in the believe that the territory could be recaptured within 48 hours.

But as events have unfolded differently, Washington has offered Georgia - one of the largest contributors of troops in Iraq - little more than lukewarm vocal support.

In a demonstration of the fact that Georgia could be abandoned by its chief ally, President Bush warmly embraced Mr Putin at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on Friday.

and...

So if I'm in the Georgian government and I see that by far the largest and most powerful NATO country wants us to be a member -- wants to extend an Article V security guarantee to us even though they are well aware that this will infuriate Russia and that we have ongoing disputes with Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- then maybe I reason that if our ongoing disputes with Russia over Abkhazia or South Ossetia heat up, that the U.S. will be willing to intervene. After all, if the U.S. isn't willing to intervene on our behalf in case of a heated up conflict with Russia, then why is the U.S. eager to support our bid for NATO membership?

and...

Saakashvili thought he was a player in the game, when really he was just the ball.

By fnord12 | August 12, 2008, 4:29 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link



Fire me, girl!

Failed DD cartoon pitch from the 80s:

As in the comics, Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer who is secretly Daredevil. (Unlike the comics, he has dark black hair, at least if the presentation drawing is anything to go by.) By day, he pals around with his teenaged niece and his seeing-eye-dog. But when evil strikes, he becomes Daredevil, his dog becomes Lightning, the Super Dog ( I love teh way, in teh production drawing, Lightning affects a pose of mild-manneredness in his civilian guise as Matt's seeing-eye dog...), and the three of them take to the streets in Daredevil's specially-equipped van.

Now, stop and think about this for a minute: who's driving the van? Is it the blind guy, the underage girl, or the seeing-eye dog?

Anyway, once they find a crime in progress among the rooftops--which is where most of the crime in New York City typically takes place--Matt moves to the back of the van to the giant cannon, which unfolds from the top. And then, his niece launches him skyward...like a Daredevil...



By fnord12 | August 12, 2008, 2:04 PM | Comics | Comments (1) | Link



August 11, 2008

Georgia

Interesting analysis/criticism at the Booman Tribune.


By fnord12 | August 11, 2008, 12:34 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link



August 9, 2008

Headline news

Top story on Yahoo News right now:

A woman who made news around the world when she had five pups cloned from her beloved pit bull Booger looked very familiar to some who saw her picture: She may be the same woman who 31 years earlier was accused of abducting a Mormon missionary in England, handcuffing him to a bed and making him her sex slave.

By fnord12 | August 9, 2008, 3:35 PM | Ummm... Other?| Link



August 8, 2008

No, add more brown!

Everyone knows i'm a fan of 'classic' video games and that i'm an old man that's resistant to change. But even i can't fathom how there seems to be a whole movement out there dedicated to taking preview screenshots of Diablo III and photoshopping them to show how they "should" look, especially when in all cases the new image is a big muddied mess compared to the original. Bizarre!


By fnord12 | August 8, 2008, 1:16 PM | Video Games | Comments (1) | Link



SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Mini-Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors - Gotta love the Mini-Marvels, even if i've read most of these already. I do wish they'd taken a few more pages to reprint all of the original three panel strips.

X-Men: Odd Men Out #1 - I bought this because it was Roger Stern and i was hoping if enough people bought this it would encourage Marvel to give him a regular series, but this seems to actually be an inventory story. And it's pretty pointless - it's a retrospective, but those never work out very well. If you have read the issues in question it's just a boring recap; if you haven't, i can't see that these little one panel summaries are of any value. It was nice to see what happened to Agent Duncan and why he basically disappeared in the 80s, but it would have been better to see that expanded on. The second story, it's the Inferno era New Mutants team, but they're fighting a robot Apocalypse who is talking a lot like Poppy did in Fall of the Mutants, so i'm a little confused as to when it takes place. Plus, it was terrible. The art also was disappointing - this looks nothing like Cockrum. Everything is flat and stiff with way-too-grinny facial expressions. You can't blame inker Joe Rubinstein, either, so i don't know what the story is.

Daredevil #109 - Continues to not be depressing, so it's good! I like the political angle, which i think may be Rucka's influence. Surely Dakota North isn't dead, though. Is her father supposed to be an Ollie North analogue?

New Avengers #43 - Bendis writes a good Spider-man. This was good; i like the fact that the Avengers books are basically giving an expansion of the main Secret Invasion series. I actually think the main series may be a little too abrupt if read without the support from these issues. I felt similarly when i re-read the main Civil War series without any crossovers, but with SI these are all being written by the same guy so i think there won't be any of those minor-but-annoying discrepancies.

Avengers: The Initiative #15 - I think the "disoriented by Devil-Slayer's Shadow Cloak" explanation ought to address some of min's complaint about Triathalon's bad approach to the Skrull problem (and did you know that they call him 3-D Man on the recap page? Whatsamatter? Couldn't decide which awful name to stick him with?). So in my review of last issue i talked about how great it was that the writers could jump around however they wanted since they had so many characters to play with. This issue shows a little bit of the downside of that, as Triathalon's plot seems more or less abandoned this issue so that we can focus on Freedom Ring. I'm also a little confused about Skrullojacket's motivation in bringing the Initiative out to fight the Super-Skrulls instead of having them wiped out one by one or something. And wouldn't Freedom Ring try and investigate or follow up on the fact that Yellowjacket is actually a Skrull? Beyond all that (and it may be a lot to get beyond) this was good.

Thunderbolts #122 - Gage inherits the main series (instead of just doing one-shot fill-ins) and starts things off perfectly. He nails the characterization and introduces some cool plot points. It's a shame this series is slotted for cancellation, and that Gage will be off writing for Crossgen or whatever. He's clearly got a lot of love and knowledge of Marvel history, and he's also an excellent writer. He should be on a Marvel book where he can put it all together (and not be saddled with Dan Slott).

Secret Wars #1 - OMFG THIS IS AWESOME!!! I guess it's a little contrived with some powerful entity just throwing all of these guys together but it definitely has some precedence in the MU (could the whole thing just be a ruse by the Grandmaster?). And the groupings are really interesting. Galactus! (and he totally just snuffs out Ultron immediately, which was hilarious). Magneto placed with the good guys, picking up on Claremont's development of the character but creating some real moral tension between the X-Men and the other heroes. Shooter's characterization is sometimes generic but often spot on (Wolverine's response to "We're under attack" is simply "Good."). Zeck's art is a little sketchy but it works. This is going to be fantastic!


By fnord12 | August 8, 2008, 7:35 AM | Comics | Comments (3) | Link



August 7, 2008

Random Lyrics Thursday

Know Your Chicken by Cibo Matto

16 years ago, one day,
I was walking down the street
I was cruising in Brooklyn
You know what I mean?
Something was cooking,
but wasn't yet a chicken.

There was a man,
Selling chicks in a box.
He said, "2 for 1,
but 3 for 2."
I said, "That's not bad,
Here's money for you."
One was magenta,
The other was blue.

I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken

One day, the blue one went away.
The other grew up fuckin' well.
She was noisy every night.
I had always chicken-bite.

Then I met a lover
One night, she made me dinner.
Licking finger, I wondered
Where she got the chicken.
Then I met a lover.
One night, she made me dinner.
Licking finger, I wondered
where she got the chicken.

I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken

Spare the rod and spoil the chick
Before you go and shit a brick.
Spare the rod and spoil the chick
Before you go and shit a brick
Spare the rod and spoil the chick
Before you go and shit a brick
Spare the rod and spoil the chick
Before you go and shit a brick

I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken

She went to college to study anatomy
I followed her father's butchery
We got 2 babies. Is it cool?
One was magenta, the other was blue.

I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken



By fnord12 | August 7, 2008, 8:34 AM | Music| Link



August 5, 2008

In which i beat a dead horse

Don't blame me; Tom Brevoort brought it up:

The marketing reason is that Spider-Man is more than just a super hero, he's Marvel's corporate icon, so doing a story in which Spider-Man gets a divorce is tantamount to Marvel endorsing divorce. And while you might not think so, that's still a real hot-button issue in certain circles (as I'm sure will become apparent at some point during this year's Presidential campaign.)

I'll do my best to not to address the larger issue, but is divorce really likely to become an issue this campaign? McCain is divorced and Obama isn't really the sort to attack him for it, so in what manner will it rear its head?


By fnord12 | August 5, 2008, 3:13 PM | Comics & Liberal Outrage | Comments (1) | Link



Marvel Sales

June.

It's worth noting that while Marvel is still the leading comic publisher, they are still not doing well enough to please Wall Street.


By fnord12 | August 5, 2008, 2:36 PM | Comics| Link



How Wall Street Journal reporters do their research.

I challenge you to read this and be able to resist the urge to self-lobotomize.

This "research" was later cited in a Maureen Dowd editorial, but that's somewhat less surprising.

Guess i'll do a little research of my own. Does anyone out there think that John McCain has had too many organs replaced by alien super-biologists to be president? Please let me know. Thanks!


By fnord12 | August 5, 2008, 12:12 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2) | Link



Whoodwin?

Bushbot
Bushbot

vs.

Medvedevbot
Medvedevbot

The Bushbot will only be operative for a few more months. We are running out of time for this epic battle by proxy.


By fnord12 | August 5, 2008, 9:11 AM | Whoodwin | Comments (1) | Link



August 4, 2008

Too inane for words

Why aren't these people laughed off our television sets?


By fnord12 | August 4, 2008, 12:22 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link



Vaccine For The Plague

For those of you who are susceptible to diseases from the Middle Ages, things are looking up. They may have developed a vaccine that works against the Black Plague.

The vaccine, which is taken orally or by injection, was given to rats at UCF and the efficacy was evaluated by measuring immunity (antibody) developed in their blood.

All untreated rats died within three days while all orally immunized animals survived this challenge with no traces of the plague in their bodies. The rats were exposed to a heavy dose of Yersinia Pestis bacteria, which causes the plague, at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland. It is one of a few labs in the world authorized to store and work with the highly dangerous agent.

The vaccine can be taken orally, so no need to mess with nasty needles. I'm sure the rats are happy about that bit.


By min | August 4, 2008, 11:01 AM | Science | Comments (18) | Link



Mortgage Defaults, Part Two

Now that the initial wave of subprime mortgage problems is tapering off, alt-A and prime mortgage holders are taking their turn.

But with the U.S. economy struggling, homeowners with better credit are now falling behind on their payments in growing numbers. The percentage of mortgages in arrears in the category of loans one rung above subprime, so-called alternative-A, or alt-A, mortgages, quadrupled to 12 percent in April from a year earlier. Delinquencies among prime loans, which account for most of the $12 trillion market, doubled to 2.7 percent in that time.

While it is difficult to draw precise parallels among various segments of the mortgage market, the arc of the crisis in subprime loans suggests that the problems in the broader market may not peak for another year or two, analysts said.

Defaults are likely to accelerate because many homeowners' monthly payments are rising rapidly. The higher bills come as home prices continue to decline and banks are tightening their lending standards, making it harder for people to refinance loans or sell their homes. Of particular concern are alt-A loans, many of which were made to people with good credit scores without proof of their income or assets.

I can't believe people were giving out loans without proof of income and assets. When i applied for my mortgage, they asked for everything. I practically had to get their names added to my bank accounts with a debit card, they were so nosy.

Alot of the problems stem from those who opted for the ARMs (adjustable rate mortages). They were able to make lower monthly payments because they were only putting money towards paying off the interest, and sometimes the payments were less than the interest accrued. The balance would be added to the principal owed. Gee, who couldn't see that was a seriously bad idea? When their principal increased by 10-15% or when their grace period ended, they had to start making payments towards the principal. This "surprise" increase in their monthly payments led to the defaults.

The reason given for the delay on the alt-A and prime mortgages becoming delinquent is that their grace period was a couple of years longer than those with subprime mortgages. And you know what the best part is? This will have a bigger impact than the subprime mortgages because most institutions hold more alt-A and prime loans than they did subprime loans.

Why people with good credit and who theoretically could afford their loans didnt' lock in when the interest rates were low and instead opted for an ARM, i don't understand. What's wrong with you people?


By min | August 4, 2008, 10:46 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link



August 3, 2008

Weird but i like it

He's a "Christian" rapper, so i shouldn't but i love the soccer moms too much.


By fnord12 | August 3, 2008, 11:12 PM | Music | Comments (2) | Link



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