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« September 2016 | Main | November 2016 » October 31, 2016Spooks Arrrghathon Just some of the movies from our horror marathons this month: By fnord12 | October 31, 2016, 10:41 AM | Music & My stupid life| Link
No Chinaman Cause clearly, if one appears in your detective story, everyone would know right away who committed the crime. Der. Ronald Knox's 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction Also, #8 - i'm looking at you, Agatha Christie! *shakes fist* h/t wnkr By min | October 26, 2016, 11:08 AM | Boooooks| Link
It's not you, it's... not me. It's the Inhumans. Justin Zyduck at MightyGodKing comes to the conclusion that Marvel's output may or may not be any good but the real issue is it's just not for him anymore. I bounced back and forth on this quite a bit myself before i decided to stop following Marvel. Since "no good" or "just not for me" ends the same way in terms of my personal collecting, it was really a moot question. But Zyduck had me leaning towards the latter. But then i read Paul O'Brien's review of (heh) Civil War II: X-Men, or, as he puts it (double heh) Event Crossover: Non-participating Series. (As an aside, i actually thought World War Hulk: X-Men was pretty good; a better introduction to the new young X-characters than i'd seen anywhere else.) And in that review he gets to a larger point about the fact that Marvel keeps trying to make the Inhumans "happen" even though it clearly isn't going to: And it's like, oh yeah, that's why i got sick of Marvel. Certainly not the focus on diversity, which i applaud. A lot of the writing and art was bad, but hey, i'm working through 1993 on my project right now, and nothing's worse than that. The overreliance on perpetual line-wide crossovers? See again 1993. Combine those two things with modern decompression and it's more of a problem, granted. But my investment in the Marvel universe was so ingrained that i don't think that alone would have been enough. The breaking factor for me was the disregard for continuity, especially when it was obvious that the continuity changes were to reflect the cinematic universe rather than because someone had a great idea that just couldn't be told in current continuity. I don't know why i'm beating this dead horse at this late date anyway, but Zyduck and O'Brien's posts converged in my head. And i admit to a perverse and rude satisfaction in seeing Marvel's attempts to promote the Inhumans failing. I don't know why. I'm not a huge X-Men fan and i never got as outraged about Marvel downplaying the X-Men as others did. Maybe it's the way the Inhumans took over the SHIELD TV show; made me never want to see an Inhuman again. I could hear Paul O'Brien's voice in my head as i read his quote. That's just weird. By fnord12 | October 25, 2016, 9:46 AM | Comics| Link Organic Gardening I saw mention of this in the lettercol for FF #377 and figured i'd blog it. Art is by Ron Frenz and Al Milgrom. Then i found Chris Tolworthy's page with over 200 tributes to Fantastic Four #1's cover. I like the Mr. Men best. By fnord12 | October 25, 2016, 8:12 AM | Comics| Link
Wouldn't You Rather Talk About Monkeys Than all this politics crap? Of course you would. Only people with no souls would choose politics over monkeys smashing rocks. Uh oh. Was it monkey or was it man? Although the capuchin discovery demonstrates that nonhuman species can accidentally produce fragments of rock that look just like human-crafted cutting tools, that does not mean the human-made tools are not special, Harmand cautions. Even if human ancestors started creating flakes by mistake like the capuchins do, there was something that made them realize they could put them to use and even make new tools to suit their purposes. Mebbe the monkeys are just getting smarter. I've seen lots of Planet of the Apes thanks to fnord12. I know what happens when primates get smart. Now we can have our choice of apocalyptic futures: Dr. Strangelove or The Ape Uprising. By min | October 21, 2016, 8:27 AM | Science| Link
Mandatory privatized retirement accounts David Sirota & Avi Asher-Schapiro: The proposal would require workers and employers to put a percentage of payroll into individual retirement accounts "to be invested well in pooled plans run by professional investment managers," as James put it. In other words, individual voluntary 401(k)s would be replaced by a single national system, and much of the mandated savings would flow to Wall Street, where companies like Blackstone could earn big fees off the assets. More from Yves Smith. By fnord12 | October 20, 2016, 4:54 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link "Centrist Internationalism" Here comes the goddamn apocalypse: The Republicans and Democrats who make up the foreign policy elite are laying the groundwork for a more assertive American foreign policy, via a flurry of reports shaped by officials who are likely to play senior roles in a potential Clinton White House. By fnord12 | October 20, 2016, 4:51 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link Wish Twitter was around in the 90s I don't disagree with any of the criticism of the Campbell Riri Williams cover. But i have to admit that my initial reaction was "People are upset about that?!". Again, it's not that i disagree. I've just become so inured to it all. By fnord12 | October 20, 2016, 11:59 AM | Comics| Link Chickensaurus While double-checking my bird science for a comics entry, i came across this: Min will complain about scientists and their penchant for delving into the unknown without the safety of the world being taken into consideration, but i for one will welcome the day when you have to bring a spear out with you when you sit on your patio, just in case. By fnord12 | October 20, 2016, 9:57 AM | Science| Link
Next: We torture puppies Not feeling depressed for some reason? Time magazine has you covered: By fnord12 | October 17, 2016, 6:46 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link Peak Television Following up on some older posts about the state of Netflix, here's Atrios, and it's worth following through to the Guardian article. By fnord12 | October 17, 2016, 10:01 AM | TeeVee| Link
Your lying eyes, etc. I hear we are not at war in Yemen. Which is good. Because even if we have been supporting a country that is at war in Yemen both financially and logistically, and even though we may have had a ship fired at, and even though we've bombed Yemen and may "have to" do so again, it would be terrible if we were at war. We'd also like you to know that what we're doing in Yemen is very different than what Russia is doing in Syria. And as soon as the State Department official can figure out why it's different, he'll let you know. By fnord12 | October 14, 2016, 11:00 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link
Maybe not forever after all Found on Naked Capitalism: The campaign, according to Adweek, is designed to motivate Millennials "to commemorate their 'real,' honest relationships with diamonds, even if marriage isn't part of the equation." Would an honest relationship with diamonds include talking about slithering into a recession. Good thing we have such promising choices in this next election. By fnord12 | October 12, 2016, 2:56 PM | Liberal Outrage| Link Bumble The study consisted of hepping the bees up on sugar water and seeing how fast they fly towards flowers they were trained to associate with having sugar water. Then the researchers tested the bees on ambiguously colored flowers at intermediate locations. Half of the insects were given a 60 percent sugar solution prior to the test, and those bees flew faster toward the ambiguous blue-green flower. The remaining bees that were not given the sugar flew more slowly. The assumption that an ambiguous stimulus contains a reward despite the lack of evidence is called an optimism bias. Perry's experiment suggests that a bit of sugar amped up the bees into a positive emotional state, making them more optimistic that the flower would contain a sugary treat. SUGAR NOM NOM NOM!!!!!!! By min | October 12, 2016, 8:50 AM | Science| Link Not that it'll mean much I'm unsure if the things being revealed about Hillary Clinton in the latest Wikileaks drop (here, here, and elsewhere) are new awful, confirmation of old awful, or if i'm just suffering from confirmation bias, but, regardless, i love the response from Bernie Sanders (from the second link): Sounds like he's acting like he has a contract and he's all ready to turn against her if she drops the ball on the things that (he thinks) she's agreed to. By fnord12 | October 12, 2016, 7:23 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link
Return of the Commies Everything is a plot by the Kremlin. I hope we're at least gonna get some Super Apes out of this. By fnord12 | October 11, 2016, 9:38 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link I Love Zhang Yimou, But I'm not seeing this white savior movie. Sorry, Matt Damon. Damon addressed the controversy himself on his panel about the movie at NYCC, but it doesn't seem as though he fully understands the problem at hand, let alone how prevalent it actually is. According to Coming Soon's transcript of Damon's words at the panel, he said: To point out the white savior problem that seems to be exactly what they're marketing is apparently undermining our credibility because we've only seen the teaser and trailer and not the entire film. Well, if it's not a white savior movie, then mebbe you should try not marketing it that way and then we wouldn't have to have this discussion. And to add salt to that wound, The Great Wall won't be passing the Bechdel-Wallace Test. There appears to be only one woman in the movie's main cast, to be played by Jing Tian. In this trailer, she appears to be the only woman fighting on the battlefield, but for some reason, the movie isn't about her experiences becoming a warrior woman in ancient supernatural-universe China... even though that sounds way more interesting than whatever Matt Damon's character does, which is show up, steal stuff, and shoot arrows. In this trailer, Jing Tian's character looks like a by-the-books "Action Girl", the only woman on the team. I'm willing to stake money that she'll end up as someone's love interest and, also, end up getting captured by baddies and rescued at least once. Oh, she's totally going to end up a love interest. Most likely Damon's. Blech. By min | October 11, 2016, 9:26 AM | Liberal Outrage & Movies| Link
Where's My Juice? Apes from all three species consistently passed the test; even though the animals knew King Kong or the rock was gone, when the researcher returned to search for it, they consistently looked at the hay bale or box where the person had last seen the object and presumably still thought it was hidden. I think i could pass this test. It's way easier than the one fnord12 gave me during our last D&D session. fnord12: I'm going to name something and you have to say what beats it. You have to answer immediately. Ready? Sheep. By min | October 7, 2016, 9:02 AM | Science| Link
NJ Poll Link (PDF). Seems pretty safe to vote third party, if one were inclined to do so. By fnord12 | October 6, 2016, 7:22 AM | Liberal Outrage| Link
Dynamite trolls Min Sometimes i feel like Dynamite's publishing model is to put out a comic series for each individual on the planet. This time it's Min's turn. I'm still holding out for the Smurf/Snork Wars. Found via Mike Sterling's latest End of Civilization post, which has plenty more fun. OOH OOH OOH OOH OOH! There's no way this can be good, is there? By fnord12 | October 3, 2016, 1:00 PM | Comics & TeeVee| Link Boba Fett: Double Bass Champion This has been brought to my attention. For those not interested in the (really great) cover, there's a funny bit in the middle. By fnord12 | October 3, 2016, 10:31 AM | Star Wars| Link
No one will be seated during the thrilling Luke Cage preach-off So this latest Marvel Netflix series is a little... slower and talk-ier than i would have expected. The writers of this show have an amazing ability to strip out all tension and any sense of urgency from every scene. I've never seen a more prolonged and boring "dying from a gunshot wound" setup. By fnord12 | October 2, 2016, 7:12 PM | Comics & TeeVee| Link |