That's OK. Water is healthier for us anyway...

Quick! The world's supply of Coke is in dire jeopardy! Put an end to these crazy sanctions against Sudan! Let the killing continue! Please!

I'm totally kidding, but I'm not sure if it's funny or sad that this guy would actually think a threat to our Coca-Cola supply could convince the American people to overlook the genocide going on in Darfur.

Don't forget your Bono glasses...

Wow! Did anyone know that they're making a 3D U2 concert movie? They debuted a snippet of the film at the Cannes Film Festival, and expect to release the full version next year.

In an interview with the director, Catherine Owens, she reveals that the 3D technology used in the film was actually developed with sports in mind. Imagine the things you could do with football, having some 400 pound lineman barreling towards you. Or even baseball, with a screaming line drive flying right into your eyes.

Hopefully, this goes farther than the Zune...

I guess Apple sort of beat Microsoft to the punch with the iPhone, but this still looks super cool:

Star Wars Force Unleashed

The first in a series of documentaries that will be tracking the game from concept to store shelf. Pretty cool!

So I guess she's saying I've been sleeping with a man all these years...

I tend to think of myself as relatively moderate in my political beliefs with a lean to the conservative, but it's pro-life crazies like this lady that make me want to run as far away from the right as I can just so I won't be grouped in with these wackos. Speaking on the recent FDA approval of Lybrel, a new birth control pill that suppresses a woman's menstrual cycle while taking it, the president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, Leslee Unruh, pretty much has absolutely nothing intelligent to say at all other than her closing rant, "I want babies! More babies! We love babies!" Perhaps we should send all the crack babies and abandoned children from all over the world who resulted from unwanted pregnancies to her doorstep to take care of.

Unfortunately, it's the radicals that really muddy the waters of what otherwise could have been an intelligent debate of pro-life versus pro-choice.

Shadowrun Trailer

Some of you who post here may remember the Shadowrun RPG from 15 years ago. It actually bacame my favorite for some time then, and in fact I still have reams of fiction and even an attempted novel I wrote about it in my garage. The game is set in the near future, only all the things that were once myth have come back. Over night people became elves and Orcs, and ancient tribal magics once again flowed strong. But along side this ancient power, there was still the technology of the day, with cyber implants and virtual reality runs through the net to crack databases. I loved it. It was the best of everything I loved in sci-fi and fantasy. Well, two years ago the RPG relaunched, and now we have the game this trailer is for. Not only is it a Shadowrun game, but it is THE FIRST game to offer cross platform multiplay ability. In other words I can play it on my XBox 360 against an opponent playing it on thier PC. It is already revolutionizing games, as many upcoming shooters and mmorpg's like Age Of Conan are using the same coding to achieve the same capability. Brilliant! Shadowrun launches tomorrow, so you know what I'll be doing!

The Democrats are all girlie men...

The latest poll from The New York Times and CBS News finds that the approval ratings of George W. Bush are at an all-time low of 30%. 72% think the country is off track, 67% think things are going badly in Iraq, and 63% want a timetable for withdrawal of American troops. So you would think this would be a perfect opportunity for the Democrats to really flex their muscle and get exactly what they say the American people voted them into office for. So why are the Democrats backing down from the current war spending bill which doesn't include the timetable they've been clamoring about for so long?

I suppose one could argue that this is what I've been wanting all along, for the President and Congress to compromise and meet in the middle to do what's best for the country. Bush didn't give in to a set withdrawal date, but did concede to setting up benchmarks that the Iraqi government must meet to continue to receive reconstruction aid. Still, this seems like a victory for the Bush administration. I'm still left with this feeling that the Democrats, for whatever reason, seem to crumble when they have to stand up to the Oval Office.

I actually get a bit bothered by comedians commenting seriously on political issues most of the time. I think they too often hide behind their jokes to say what otherwise would be considered rather offensive. They can say some pretty mean-spirited stuff that any other "serious" commentator could never get away with all because it's hidden in the veil of humor. Still, they usually have some pretty intelligent things to say, as does Bill Maher in this clip which sums up exactly what I think of the Democratic Party right now:



On a side note, I thought it was rather humorous that Jimmy Carter of all people called Bush the worst president of all time. After all, who had the lowest approval ratings prior to George W. Bush? Why, Jimmy Carter, of course.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars series trailer--'nuff said!

Update: Oh yeah, just in case you didn't figure it out--click on the poster to get to the teaser trailer video.

New Die Hard Trailer!

Speaking of 80's action films... I won't lie, I think this trailer is AWESOME!

The U.S. legal system--the real American pasttime...

I can't imagine what it's like to lose a loved one in a car accident, but this is just ridiculous.

Back in April, Josh Hancock, a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, ran into a tow truck at high speed that had parked on the side of a highway to help another motorist, and was killed instantly. Hancock's blood alcohol level was 0.157, almost twice the legal limit here in Missouri. Add to that, they determined he was well above the speed limit based on the impact. And if all that wasn't enough, they found marijuana in his car, too. Regardless of the fact that Hancock was drunk and essentially killed himself, it's always tragic when there's a loss of human life.

The craziness, though, comes from the Hancock family who are now filing suit that everyone else was to blame for Josh Hancock's death--the bartender and the restaurant for allowing him to continue drinking after he was probably already intoxicated, the tow truck driver for having stopped on the side of the roadway with his flashers on to do his job, and even the driver of the car the tow truck had stopped to help. About the only people they haven't sued is the customers at the restaurant for not taking Josh home in their own cars, and the Ford Motor Company for not making him an Explorer that drove by itself.

I guess, in the process of trying to accept his death, the family can be excused for not logically seeing the facts of this accident. But no one can excuse the lawyers getting ready to prosecute this case. It's a shame that one of the professions that should be all about ethics gets dragged down into becoming the dirtiest game in town with lawsuits like this.

These guys are so cool...for me to poop on!

I can only imagine that the crowds at Celebration IV this year celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Wars will look something like this. Wander, I think it's cool that you may soon have Stormtrooper armor of your own, but please, PLEASE, don't go reenacting scenes like the guys at the end of this video:

Triumph The Insult Comic Dog - Star Wars
Uploaded by ZaraV

The Lost season finale--it was AWESOME!

Boy, I know you guys (well, Wild Willie, at least) pretty much thought Lost had "jumped the shark" already, but last night's season finale was AWESOME! I'm not sure if it clearly answered any lingering plot questions, but still, it was AWESOME! The 24 season finale? A little ho-hum for my tastes (although the entire season was a bit lacking from the get go). Heroes season finale? Good, but a bit anti-climactic as to how they eventually wrapped it all up. But Lost? AWESOME! Here's a lengthy recap/commentary from Entertainment Weekly with spoilers.

The Lost producers have already agreed to wrap the whole thing up in the next three seasons, and if last night's show was any indication of the direction they'll be going, all sorts of questions will be answered. Heck, just by their little format change last night, I think they revealed to two really big ones...or did they? But now I have to wait till 2008? Oy!

The end of my white-knuckling flights?

Given my fear of flying, you might think it odd that I'm getting pretty jazzed about the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner that just started its final assembly in Everett, Washington.

Made out of some sort of revolutionary graphite composite instead of aluminum, it will be the most technologically advanced passenger aircraft in the skies if it makes it's scheduled commercial service debut in 2008. Windows are supposed to be dramatically larger and electronically dimmable if the extra sunlight bothers you. Air is better circulated and retains a bit more moisture than the bone-dry cabin environments of today's planes. The cockpit is state of the art with all kinds of complicated gadgets, wires, and connections that sounds a bit scary when you think about what could go wrong if just one part of the circuit malfunctions.

But all of that isn't why I care. I could care less about the creature comforts added to the cabin space. No, I hate flying because of turbulence. Throw in just one little sudden 10 foot change in altitude, and I'm wimpering like a baby for the rest of the flight. And what's in the new Dreamliner? A top secret computer-controlled flight system that actually detects dramatic altitude changes faster than a human pilot ever could and dampens upward wind gusts "turning a roller-coaster ride in choppy air into one no more bothersome than a drive along a cobblestone street." Now if only they could stop those wings from flapping up and down. Yeah, maybe I'll keep those electronic window shades completely dimmed.

Wankmaster Scratch--ENJOY!

I remember Scratch telling us stories in college about the infamous Garbage Plate from Nick Tahou's. Well, surfing around on the web brought me to this Time magazine blog entry. One of these days, I may have to make a special trip out to Rochester just to sample one of these things:

Sometimes I think comic book artists spend way too much time looking at porn...

I've been a big fan of the the Justice League of America reboot. The writing is pretty good, and the art is fantastic, kind of harking back to classic JLA complete with the Hall of Justice. Unfortunately, I occassionally run into pages like these which have me feeling like I need to be reading these in a locked closet somewhere so no one else will know I just bought something with such a gratuitous image of jugs. Talk about providing shade for small children:


Even shopping for comics has made me feel a bit like I'm browsing through a porno shop. This was a cover for an Emma Frost mini-series, which I believe was supposed to be stories about the White Queen when she was in high school and was aimed at the adolescent female crowd. Apparently, Marvel Comics and their artists are under the impression that girls are striving to be strippers and pornstars:


Even a solid title like The Mighty Avengers has resorted to rather suggestive poses straight out of Maxim magazine:


Granted, men in comic books have been depicted with god-like physiques in tight fitting uniforms meant to accentuate every curve and bulge, and it's not that I mind similar depictions of female superheros. But someone's gotta draw the line somewhere unless they're trying to say they got breast implants with bullet-proof silicone. Power Girl's uniform in the first picture basically with a cut-out for the sole purpose of showing off her cleavage and Tigra in the last picture fighting crime in a bikini? Kind of ridiculous.

The Watchmen Update

May 22, 2007 - With director Zack Snyder gearing up to shoot Watchmen later this year in Vancouver, there are now rumors about who may have won the lead roles in the long-awaited big-screen version of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel.According to Ain't It Cool News, three stars have been aligned for the movie. The site claims that Keanu Reeves will play Dr. Jon Osterman, a.k.a. the god-like Dr. Manhattan. Reeves is a self-proclaimed comic book fan who wanted to play Wolverine in the X-Men movies and was once rumored for the Silver Surfer.Another comic book fan/movie star may be joining Reeves in the cast. Jude Law will supposedly play Adrian Veidt a.k.a. Ozymandias, which is not very shocking since Law has been publicly lobbying to be in Watchmen long before Snyder boarded the project. It is said that Law even sports a Watchmen tattoo!Finally, Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Little Children) is reportedly going to play Dan Dreiberg, a.k.a. Nite Owl II, arguably the central protagonist in the ensemble.No word yet on who may fill the other roles, particularly the masked vigilante Rorschach, but 300's Gerard Butler has long been rumored for the Comedian.

Kewl...

Still a whole year away for The Dark Knight to hit theaters, and I'm already excited. Here's Harvey Dent before he becomes Two Face, but the really big reveal? The JOKER!

Cycling in the courtroom...

Boy, this Floyd Landis case has turned into an outright circus. Greg Lemond, three-time Tour de France champion and VERY vocal critic of both Landis and Lance Armstrong, took the stand earlier this week and revealed that Landis' business manager attempted to blackmail him by threatening to reveal his history of sexual childhood abuse.

The sad stories continued with the testimony of Joe Papp, a relatively unknown American cyclist recently suspended for performance-enhancing drug use. What should have been a simple testament that low-dose testosterone may in fact be helpful to a cyclist in enhancing recovery from a day's ride instead turned into a sob story of how Papp couldn't keep up with the world's top athletes and caved to the pressures of competition.

Yesterday, Floyd Landis himself took the stand, and spent much of his time trying assure the jury that he had no part in his close friend attempting to threaten Lemond. What that has to do with the actual case of alleged doping is still a mystery, and the entire hearing seems to have gotten sidetracked off the main points of possible laboratory mishandlings and errors. Which ever way the USADA rules on this matter, it's sure to raise a lot of skeptics in the end, and I think Floyd's going to be dogged with suspicion and presumed guilt for the rest of his career.

This blog post pretty much sums up what the most prominent American cyclists have turned the sport into. I guess if you've got as much motivation as these guys to win the Tour de France, it's equally as easy to imagine that they must have some serious issues driving them.

Careful where you aim that Jeep-mounted machine gun...

Remember the glory days of the 80's when high body count action flicks ruled the silver screen? Oddly, this new trailer for Sylvester Stallone's upcoming Rambo sequel looks kind of retro in this day and age:

One of these days, I hope to not have the ability to do this...