Saturday, January 31, 2009

Ephemera 2009 (5)

-- Hijinks Ensue made me laugh my ass off this week.

-- In the most recent Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Aquaman and the Atom have shrunk down to cellular size to fight nanomachines killing Bats from the inside. At one point (and please, savor every moment of this sentence) Aquaman uses his telepathy to summon a lymphocyte to act as his mighty seahorse within Batman's bloodstream.

After the chase, the following exchange occurs:

AQUAMAN: (to cell creature) Good boy! You were magnificent! Yessss, big hug.
ATOM: He's not hugging you. "He" is merely interpreting you as a foreign body, to be surrounded and destroyed.
AQUAMAN: Sure FEELS like a hug to me. And since we found you in Batman's bloodstream, I think we'll name you "Platelet."
ATOM: Except that's a lymphocyte.
AQUAMAN: "PLATELET" IT IS!!

Please, make this version of Aquaman the DCU version. Pleeeeeeeease.

And for those of you who have written in: I am indeed gratified by the unexpectedly large role Jaime Reyes as Blue Beetle has played in the new kid-friendly Batman animated hit. Or, less subtly, I am gratified by the role a character whose book has just been canceled is playing on the hit animated show starring another character who's just been killed off.

Synergy: You're Doing It Wrong.

-- Courtesy Kevin Church: Backflip on a Big Wheel.



-- Scoreboard. Filthy Hollywood Sodomite Socialist Liberals = Very Fucking Good Selling Things in the Free Market. Pious Big Business Tax Break Lovin' Conservatives =Very Fucking Bad at Selling Things in the Free Market.

Capitalism: You're Doing It Wrong.

-- Mike Nelson's Guitar Fridays are inspired by one of my favorite series of posts over at Lawyers, Guns and Money, their Sunday Battleship Blogging.

-- They're also reviewing/commenting, chapter-by-chapter, Herring's From Colony to Superpower, which I'm in the middle of reading. I ... cautiously recommend it.

-- I will be installing Boxee on a Mac Mini this week and will report back.

-- D Pet Hotels: Upscale Pet Hotels: I walk by it every day. I believe we now owe the Third World one free suicide bombing.

-- I bought six of these. It's not OCD, it's simple practicality.

-- You know what? Science is really important, not just because "science" is important, but because learning to think about the world in that way -- hypothesis, experiment, review based on empirical data -- is really, really important. Having a creationist President is an actively bad thing, not because I give a shit about whether he understands evolution*, but because that sort of intellectual laziness permeates both government policy and culture.

-- Game Designer/writer Jeremy Bernstein suggests that this season of Lost requires us to come up with a phrase for a TV show that has unjumped the shark. He suggests "going back to the island." I concur and will join others in pointing out that two more seasons of The Adventures of Daniel Faraday, Two-Fisted Action Physicist, along with Snarky Sawyer and Enigmatically Hot Juliet on the Island of Pulp Time Travel woud be just fine, Jack/Kate free.

-- Seamus Heaney FTW. In the Comments, your favorite poet. And yes, even Manly Men should have a favorite poet. Especially Manly Men Who Drink.







* One does not "believe" in evolution, any more than one "believes" in atomic theory. The same understanding of science that makes your cell phone work brings us evolution. Call your mom = Australopithecus. Suck it up.

81 comments:

  1. Re: Daniel Faraday

    You know you've scored a regular paycheck on Lost when you've acquired a dark secret.

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  2. Did I miss something? What happened to Thursday Leverage pr0n?

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  3. Anonymous7:51 PM

    BatB Aquaman is indeed a font of awesome. But like Harley Quinn, I think he might suffer when translated to other media.

    And while I enjoyed the blue beetle's episodes, I maintain that Will Friedle is way to white to play Jaime Reyes.

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  4. "two more seasons of The Adventures of Daniel Fraday, Two-Fisted Action Physicist, along with Snarky Sawyer and Enigmatically Hot Juliet on the Island of Pulp Time Travel woud be just fine"

    Disillusioned over the ultimate results of the Manhattan Project, Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman walk through Joe McCarthy's America. They fight crime.

    You already have the prequel comic. Pitch it. DO IT

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  5. Glad you're enjoying HijiNKS Ensue. Thanks for spreading the word.

    -joel

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  6. Anonymous9:13 PM

    BatB Aquaman is indeed a font of awesome. But like Harley Quinn, I think he might suffer when translated to other media.

    I think the problem is simpler. BatB Aquaman already has his own comic book - it's just called Incredible Hercules.

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  7. Carl Sandburg. Also, Dylan Thomas.

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  8. Anonymous10:05 PM

    Nice comments on BatB on Salon, too: http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=96239

    First time I've heard of the series . . . now I read two raves in one evening. Great. More stuff to TiFaux.

    * * *

    Tactical cotton. Hmmm. Is there such a thing as Strategic cotton? Operational scale cotton.

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  9. I'm enjoying Batman: The Brave And The Bold myself...it's a lighter effort, and it stays on the right side of campy/silly, and is, I think, well timed. It's not perfect, by any means, but it amuses me.

    Favorite poet? T.S. Eliot. Closely followed by the late Michael Hartnett, although Michael was also a friend (and in fact, I once had the honor of reading my work on the same stage as Michael and Seamus Heaney, directly between the two of them.)

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  10. Yes, Hijinks Ensue has been rocking lately!
    Fave poet is easily Sherman Alexie. Heck, he's the only contemporary poet I really like, enjoy reading, or whose work says anything to me.

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  11. Anonymous11:38 PM

    Favorite poet is a little bit like favorite band, for me — it changes depending on who I'm reading. I've been a sucker for Quincy Troupe and Billy Collins in the past. (The Billy Collins Live audiobook on iTunes, wherein Bill Murray opens for Collins, is terrific.) I'm on a year-long haiku kick right now, so I've been reading a lot of Matsuo Basho lately.

    We'll talk later about how the fundamental failing of modern science pundits is to engage the enemy on the insane battlefield of a false dichotomy: science-vs-faith.

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  12. Anonymous2:56 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  13. Anonymous3:10 AM

    Not that anyone will ever see this under the that poorly formatted novel above me, but...

    "One does not "believe" in evolution, any more than one "believes" in atomic theory. The same understanding of science that makes your cell phone work brings us evolution. Call your mom = Australopithecus. Suck it up."

    As a scientist, and someone who gets VERY vocal about issues like science education, thank you. You made my day.

    As for poets, Pablo Neruda has always had a special place in my heart because of "Poema Veinte." Also, I've been listening to the IndieFeed Performance Poetry podcast (http://www.indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/) for a while now, and have found it to be a great place to hear new (and old) poets and pieces.

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  14. BatB was good, and Aquaman wasn't what I expected so I enjoyed it.

    Never got into LOST, but I like the idea of 'going back to the island'.

    Favorite poet is Shel Silverstein. "Put something silly in the world that wasn't there before" should be every writer's mantra.

    So, I'm really enjoying Leverage and the blog here. Thanks for the entertainment.

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  15. My favorite poets (virtually tied) are Philip Levine and Donald Justice. I also like most of the poets mentioned in Robert B. Parker's early Spenser books: Robert Browning, Keats, Yeats, Coleridge, etc.

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  16. Also, Langston Hughes

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  17. Creationist president? Who, what, where?

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  18. Anonymous7:07 AM

    Shouldn't the default favorite poet of manly men who drink be Dylan Thomas?

    And also... GAS TAX spam? It's enough to make one miss unsolicited v14gra adverts in the inbox.

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  19. The same understanding of science that makes your cell phone work brings us evolution.

    Are you saying that cell phones are the reason we don't have raptors anymore? Cause I'd give up cell phones for raptors.

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  20. Hell, I think the BaTB Batman should be the default DCU Batman. I do agree with the idea that BaTB Aquaman = Incredible Hercules.

    It was also nice to see that the Atom they used was the Ryan Choi Atom, not the Ray Palmer. Given what you know of both industries, is this (and the Jaime as Blue Beetle) just a result of long lead times in development of BaTB? In other words, are these the versions we're getting because these were the characters in the DCU when the episodes were written?

    Robert Frost, but for Road Not Taken and Stopping By Woods more than anything else.

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  21. Favorite Poet: it's a toss up between W.B. Yeats and Robert Browning (although my favorite poem is from Denise Levertov).

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  22. I can't honestly say I have a favorite poet, though I read several peoples' share of Bukowski years ago. I do own Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf and Robert Fagles' translation of The Iliad, and those kick entire buildings' worth of ass.

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  23. Couple things:

    It's Daniel Faraday, not Fraday, which makes it look like he's a relative of Jack Webb's character who can't spell. Or something.

    I just pimped this post out on my blog because it's the greatest thing I've read all weekend.

    Finally: favorite poet, without a doubt: William Blake. Brilliant poet, brilliant writer, brilliant artist, plus he hand-engraved all his poems and artwok backwards onto gold so he could print them, one of a thousand ways in which he was batshit crazy. Also, the introduction to the "Songs of Innocence" may be the most perfect bit of verse ever composed.

    "Sing thy songs of happy chear...."

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  24. (Er, that's "artwork," not "artwok." And after I gave you shit for "Fraday," too. Color me humiliated....)

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  25. "Science is really important, not just because "science" is important, but because learning to think about the world in that way -- hypothesis, experiment, review based on empirical data -- is really, really important."

    Yes! May I recommend Ben Goldacre's book 'Bad Science' (links etc via www.badscience.net) for an excellent review of why science is important and why the misunderstanding and misreporting of science leads to, well, bad thinking all round.

    Favourite poet? Hmmm... Mervyn Peake I think. A trivial choice, but I'm a pretty trivial person.

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  26. >* One does not "believe" in evolution, any more than >one "believes" in atomic theory.

    Respectfully, i disagree with you about this. At very least, i think i maybe use a different definition of 'believe' than you do, in this context.
    In general, i tend to think that 'believe' = accept and present at true. So, yes, I do 'believe' in evolution, atomic theory, and the scientific method as being a useful way of determining the the functioning of the world (in so far as i understand these things).
    More fundamentally, i believe in the evidence of my senses, and the power of my reason to determine truth, or baring that, consistency. I also believe my senses can be fooled, i believe that my reasoning can be flawed.
    I think, in the final analysis, problems arise when people get too attached too attached to what they think is true right now, and are not willing or able to re evaluate what is working or not working in light of new evidence, or new experience. I humbly submit that those who are any kind of religious are not the exclusive practitioners of this particular flaw.


    Favorite Poet? Basho (not pretending i can enjoy him in the original form, but even translated and several hundred years later, he makes me happy).

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  27. I think, in the final analysis, problems arise when people get too attached too attached to what they think is true right now, and are not willing or able to re evaluate what is working or not working in light of new evidence, or new experience. I humbly submit that those who are any kind of religious are not the exclusive practitioners of this particular flaw.

    The scientific method has that sort of review of new evidence built in.

    But we are splitting hairs here. You're using "believe" in a context 99.9% of people don't. While discussing the nature/definition of the concept of "belief" is philospophically or semantically interesting, the way the idea of "belief" -- as usually defined -- is used in the context of scientific ideas is corrosive to the public goos.

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  28. Anonymous11:33 AM

    Favorite poets:

    Michael Blumenthal to start. The impenetrability of most poetry left me insecure, where I figured that if I appreciated a poem, it must not be very good. Blumenthal cured me of that.

    Most relevant for this blog in particular -
    A. Van Jordan.

    His latest book of poems, Quantum Lyrics, marries physics and superhero comic books. It not only contains poems entitled:

    The Flash Reverses Time
    and
    The Green Lantern Unlocks the Secret of Black Body Theory

    but also has an entire section on the Atom, where both the superhero citations and the summaries of quantum mechanics, are accurate and poignant.

    Conflict of Interest alert: I was a consultant for some of poems in this section. But hey, how many poets seek out a physics of superheroes guy for their poems?

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  29. Anonymous11:56 AM

    You're officially my new hero for "Call your mother = Australopithecus."

    (Mind you, you were already my hero for Jaime Reyes and his adorable family.)

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  30. I have to second Sherman Alexie. He took it over the top with his series on the Sonics and their battle to stay in Seattle (Well, the cities battle to make them honor a contract) from The Stranger.

    Also, per another commenter, 5.11's "Tactical" shirts have hidden boobie pockets. Not so sure that they make sense for average joes but I suppose Rodgers wants to make sure his Crackberry stays in his "zone of control." My concern is that if you actually use the pockets they are just going to make you look like you have irregular shaped moobs. (Or boobs come to mention it ;)

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  31. Anonymous1:04 PM

    Just picked up "How to cheat at everything" at the local half-price books. Between "Leverage" and the new series "Lie to Me" I'm on a deep VERACITY kick.

    Tactical shirts? I'm game as long as black BDU pants with cargo pockets are on the menu too.

    Favorite Poet?
    Hunter S. Thompson
    (And i'll fight anyone who says he isn't one.)

    (Quickly waves @ Will Hindmarch, "S'up dawg!")

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  32. I am not trying to split hairs. I think there is a difference between a belief and a certainty, and the inability of some politician, religious figures, scientists, journalists, and people around the world leads to a lot of real problems. And i recognize that my assertion is largely semantic, on that level.
    What i am trying to get at is that there are just as many problems that come from badly applied science, stemming from a sense of certainty, as from wrongly held belief.
    And, not incidentally, the current administration has already demonstrated a willingness an absence of certainty, in that the president has invited people who actively, vocally disagree with him to be a part of the process. Appointing Hillary Clinton to Secretary of State (when she has demonstrated a number of differences with Obama on matters of foreign policy) is one of may examples of this idea.

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  33. My favorite poet, by far and away, is the delightful Mr. Edward Lear.

    To whit:

    "How pleasant ot know Mr.Lear!"
    Who has written such volumes of stuff!
    Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
    But a few think him pleasant enough.

    His mind is concrete and fastidious,
    His nose is remarkably big;
    His visage is more or less hideous,
    His beard it resembles a wig.

    He has ears, and two eyes, and ten fingers,
    Leastways if you reckon two thumbs;
    Long ago he was one of the singers,
    But now he is one of the dumbs.

    He sits in a beautiful parlour,
    With hundreds of books on the wall;
    He drinks a great deal of Marsala,
    But never gets tipsy at all.

    He has many friends, lay men and clerical,
    Old Foss is the name of his cat;
    His body is perfectly spherical,
    He weareth a runcible hat.

    When he walks in waterproof white,
    The children run after him so!
    Calling out, "He's gone out in his night-
    Gown, that crazy old Englishman, oh!"

    He weeps by the side of the ocean,
    He weeps on the top of the hill;
    He purchases pancakes and lotion,
    And chocolate shrimps from the mill.

    He reads, but he cannot speak, Spanish,
    He cannot abide ginger beer:
    Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
    How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!

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  34. Two questions regarding the lovely shirts from Amazon:

    1. Did you get six in the same color?

    2. When did you start modeling for Amazon?

    Favorite poet: Chris Difford

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  35. Daniel Faraday can send my brain back in time any time he likes.

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  36. Favorite living poets would be David Bottoms and B.H. Fairchild, either one of which should be acceptable to any right-thinking manly man, though David Bottoms is probably the more beer-friendly of the two, given that his first book was called Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump.

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  37. Anonymous10:08 AM

    Favorite poet is Billy Collins; that man can write. And speaking of which, it's nice to see the shout-out to Mr. Bernstein.

    - pcat

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  38. Anonymous10:27 AM

    Hmmm... BatB Aquaman sounds a whole lot like The Tick.

    Spooooon!

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  39. Unjumped the shark...

    I'll have to go with "jumped into atmo" from Battlestar Galactica. Life on New Caprica didn't do much for me until the whole rescue bit.

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  40. Anonymous6:28 PM

    I work about two blocks from the D Pet Hotel, and every time my coworkers and I walk by it we crack up. Why is that place nicer than my apartment? Why is their company car (frequently parked outside) a Cadillac Escalade? Why do we treat our pets better than ourselves? So many questions...

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  41. Anonymous5:55 AM

    Among the moderns, if not Heaney then Philip Levine.

    Non-English: Czeslaw Milosz, though if my Hungarian were better maybe Sandor Petofi.

    Because Shakespeare is too obvious: Christopher Marlowe.

    Goethe's Faust justifies however much time it took you to learn German. Just sayin.

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  42. Anonymous6:03 AM

    Poetry and the manly man:

    What Work Is
    by Philip Levine

    We stand in the rain in a long line
    waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.
    You know what work is--if you're
    old enough to read this you know what
    work is, although you may not do it.
    Forget you. This is about waiting,
    shifting from one foot to another.
    Feeling the light rain falling like mist
    into your hair, blurring your vision
    until you think you see your own brother
    ahead of you, maybe ten places.
    You rub your glasses with your fingers,
    and of course it's someone else's brother,
    narrower across the shoulders than
    yours but with the same sad slouch, the grin
    that does not hide the stubbornness,
    the sad refusal to give in to
    rain, to the hours wasted waiting,
    to the knowledge that somewhere ahead
    a man is waiting who will say, "No,
    we're not hiring today," for any
    reason he wants. You love your brother,
    now suddenly you can hardly stand
    the love flooding you for your brother,
    who's not beside you or behind or
    ahead because he's home trying to
    sleep off a miserable night shift
    at Cadillac so he can get up
    before noon to study his German.
    Works eight hours a night so he can sing
    Wagner, the opera you hate most,
    the worst music ever invented.
    How long has it been since you told him
    you loved him, held his wide shoulders,
    opened your eyes wide and said those words,
    and maybe kissed his cheek? You've never
    done something so simple, so obvious,
    not because you're too young or too dumb,
    not because you're jealous or even mean
    or incapable of crying in
    the presence of another man, no,
    just because you don't know what work is.

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  43. I... thought the Batman scene you described was parody.

    Then I saw that the show is on Cartoon Network. And that episode was. So I watched the last few minutes of it.

    It was... indescribable.

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  44. "One does not "believe" in evolution,"

    Indeed, evolution is a fact. The "theory" people keep hearing about (without understanding the concept) is trying to explain HOW it works, not THAT it works.

    Much like Gravity is a fact, but for years they had different theories about how gravity worked - but people didn't float away meanwhile.

    @Michael Clear

    "The same understanding of science that makes your cell phone work brings us evolution.

    Are you saying that cell phones are the reason we don't have raptors anymore? Cause I'd give up cell phones for raptors."

    Are you mad! You may get tumors from phones but at least they don't chase you around the living room! Or eat your lunch! (Or eat you for lunch!)

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  45. Anonymous4:59 AM

    Penyakit ini umumnya muncul karena penderita mengejan terlalu keras pada saat buang air besar. Dengan mengejan terlalu keras, maka pembuluh darah di sekitar anus dapat melebar dan pecah menimbulkan infeksi dan pembengkakan yang berakhir pada masalah wasir atau ambeien tersebut.

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  46. Penyakit kencing nanah bisa disebabkan oleh beberapa faktor seperti seks bebas, penularan, virus hpv, lingkungan, gaya hidup dan lainnya, Maka dari itu kita harus waspada dengan penyakit kencing nanah ini, karena penyakit kencing nanah sangatlah berbahaya, Namun untuk anda yang menderita penyakit kencing nanah, maka anda tidak perlu khawatir,

    ReplyDelete
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  48. Sekitar Vagina Tumbuh Daging, Berbahayakah? Kutil Pada Kepala Penis mirip bunga kol atau jengger ayam, Merupakan Penyakit Yang diakibatkan Oleh Virus.Kutil kelamin, atau disebut juga condyloma acuminata, adalah kutil atau daging berwarna kulit atau keabuan yang tumbuh di sekitar alat kelamin dan

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    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete