Wizard World '09

I have to say, in the ranking of "sexy outfits a lady could surprise me with", Harley Quinn is right up there. And yes, the top five, though I can't say I've ever taken the time to make it, is almost certainly all nerd-related.

You can tell that Joker here is really serious about his evil deeds because he rolled up his sleeves. He means business, and business is...um...bad?

Wizard World '09

Iron Fist is about to break his left wrist, assuming he's preparing to punch something.

I really wonder what the relationship between these two is. Are they father and son? That'd be pretty cool. Spring-Autumn friends that met at a Gamesworkshop over Warhammer 40k? Creepy.

Wizard World '09

"Do these shorts make me look fat?"

Also, Philly is a terrible place for parking an invisible jet.

Wizard World '09

Chewbaca gives a stirring speech on abolition on Kashyyyk. What a wookie.

Also, three "y"s? Really George Lucas? Really?

Wizard World '09

Army of Two is the most violently homoerotic game of all time. At least the one guy is Wrist Strong.

Wizard World '09

I've always wondered if the class struggle writ large ever played out between guys like Two-Face and Scarecrow (a former lawyer and psychologist, respectively) and some of the more blue collar guys in Batman's rogues gallery, say, Clayface or Killer Croc.

Wizard World '09

The crew of the Galactica, caught by surprise by a Cylon audience, engage the table's FTL.

Wizard World '09

Who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men? Carlos, the Fightin' Plaintain!

Wizard World '09

"Rahble rahble rahble!"

Yeah, Socialism Sucks!

The government can fix my roads, but healthcare should be about me, my doctor, a variety of specialists and technicians, a hospital administrator, and my insurance company! The free market works! Link.

Hat tip over to MattY.

Wizard World '09

Friend 1: "Man, I'm going to be the new Bucky Captain America! It's going to be awesome!"

Friend 2: "Oh yeah? I'm going to be Deadpool, and it's going to be totally awesome despite X-Men Origins: Wolverine!"

Friend 3: "Well I'm going to be Banshee, and it's going to be...a costume!"

I have to say though, while the Cap and 'Pool costumes are totally awesome (somehow I think that's what 'Pool would actually look like in real life), I've always had a soft spot for Banshee. I have a soft spot for lots of characters that never get any respect. Like Cyclops. He's the X-Men's leader! That's cool!

Wizard World '09

So a big black guy walks past us at Wizard World with a yellow shirt, jeans, and a chain belt and we say, "Was that guy supposed to be Luke Cage? He doesn't look really dressed up, but he'd be a bad ass Luke Cage."

Five minutes later he walked past us again, this time having gotten a silver tiara painted on his head. Result!

I think Chris here is *this close* to being Danny Rand. He's also *this close* to hugging Luke Cage and getting his ass broken in two.

Wizard World '09

Is this guy the medic for a bank robbery team? A stylish safe cracker? A medical ninja? Your guess is as good as mine.

Wizard World '09

There's an orb joke in here somewhere, BUT THIS IS A CLASSY SITE!

I think she's Evil Lynn from Masters of the Universe, but I'm not 100% on that.

Wizard World '09

Ed falls for the siren song of Commerce Batgirl. She draws nerds in for a picture and then sells them the various wares stashed in her utility belt...well, it's somewhere in there.

President Obama's Preser

It's a sad comment on our public discourse that the talking heads that I saw on both Fox News and MSNBC talked about how this wasn't a great press conference because there wasn't some big new announcement or position taken. President Obama spoke eruditely on the issue of healthcare reform and made some great points. He didn't detail a plan because he doesn't have a plan of his own. There are several bills working their way through Congress and they're all different. Bill O'Reilly was, unsurprisingly, particularly annoying in this respect.

So he was good, and he was interesting, and he was smart. I call that a win.

Lily Allen

I've listened to most of the tracks on Lily Allen's album "It's Not Me, It's You" and I have to say...I like it. It's definitely light, pop music, which isn't my usual fair, but it's really damn catchy. Plus her lyrics are kind of funny and she's got a great British accent. So am I crazy or do other people like this over their most snobby impulses?

Wizard World '09

"Who ya gonna call?"

"Some other guys!"

Seriously, do any of those guys look like they have doctorates in anything relating to ghosts or nuclear physics? Ah, I get it! They're the Ghostbusters franchise from Wichita, where the only ghost is small scale agriculture.

Wizard World '09

"SHOOT HIM!" Ben said.

Wizard World '09

Rogue makes a return appearance! It's a good thing she's got all that spandex or she'd be flooded with Ed's memories. Trust me sister, you don't want to go on that ride.

Wizard World '09

Ed does not approve of alien suit Spidey! Well, maybe it's "Black Cat made me a black suit" Spidey, who appeared after he ditched the symbiote but his superhero girlfriend liked him in black. That seems way more lame than "I got this black alien symbiotic suit on an alien world called Battleworld."

Wizard World '09

Ah, obscure without being made up. Nice. In case you're wondering, I'm attempting to cloud men's minds.

Agnosticism

There are plenty of interesting points to be made about the tension between agnosticism and atheism. Ultimately, I think Mr. Appel and I probably agree more than we disagree. Still, the passage that he quotes from Pope Benedict really irritates me. It assumes a false dichotomy between God not existing and the Roman Catholic conception of God. He offhandedly mentions the choice to live life as if God exists, but even if you narrow the field to Christian sects it'd be pretty hard to determine what is acceptable behavior in God's eyes. That uncertainty is one of the prime arguments that are made for agnosticism. It's that kind of straw man crap that instantly makes me think the person's not arguing in good faith. Link.

Jon Cohn On Fresh Air

My usual dislike for Fresh Air aside, this is a really great primer for healthcare reform if you find yourself a little confused about all the players. Link.

Hat tip, Ezra.

Wizard World '09

Ugh, bad, blurry picture taking Ben! Still, props to the woman appearing as Jubilee! One of the Marvel characters most associated with the 90s, Jubilee is also of of a small few Asian-American characters in comics, that is to say, a character who is Asian and not a ninja.

Wizard World '09

Another picture with the realest Thor I've ever seen. In this picture you can see his belt better. See that thick metal hoop by his right arm? That's because this hammer was seriously heavy.

Ed proves himself to be a true hero by being able to lift Mjolner, though he can clearly only do it with two arms, so maybe half a hero.

Wizard World '09

There were a couple Thors at Wizard World, but this guy was easily the best. Look at that hat! And that hammer was over 40 pounds of real metal! You heard that right, this lugged a huge chunk of metal around because it looked cooler than a fake plastic thing. Commitment!

Wizard World '09

This was probably the most popular costumed person at the con, with lots of pictures. I believe she also appeared in either the Philadelphia Inquirer or the South Jersey Courier Post. She also had a three year old with her that seemed to really want to be in the pictures.

Wizard World '09

Was Ed thinking we'd be confused as to who was the Imperial Guard in the picture? If you are confused, it's the fellow in red.

You know, somebody must have spent a pretty decent amount of time designing the Imperial Guard, only for us to only ever see them enter or leave a room. That must be the job that really good Storm Troopers get to ride out the last few years before they get their pension.

Wizard World '09

Like the Spaceballs, the best parts of conventions are seeing the people that go for pretty obscure characters. This guy here is Ragdoll II, from DC's Villain's United and Secret Six miniseries.

It's also always tough to come up with something to do while having your picture taken with someone in costume. Jay and Ed seem to like showing approval or disapproval. I seem to go for some kind of action shot with the person. It's weird.

Wizard World '09

One of these kids is not like the others. One of these kids is doing his own thing.

But seriously, with all the huge amounts of Star Wars nerdity at cons (Wizard World has had a light saber fighting/training area every year that I've been there), I've never seen anything from Spaceballs. I was genuinely thrilled when I saw these guys.

Wizard World '09

Boba Fett's are almost as ubiquitous at a convention as Storm Troopers and Jedi, mostly because you have been able to get really high quality replica helmets for years.

Here, it looks like Jay supports bounty hunting, but what is he doing with his other hand?

ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?!

Look, I Love Lucy was a great show and I'm as likely as the next guy to drop a "Babalooo!" from time to time. But come on, Senator Tom Coburn! Do you really think it's appropriate to say "You've got some 'splaining to do" to the first latina nominee to the Supreme Court?! Who are these people and how do they keep getting away with this crap? Link.

Wizard World '09

Ok, this guy looks enough like Blade that he might actually patrol the streets of Philly looking for vampires at night. If you're especially pale you might want to reconsider you evening plans.

The other guy...I don't know. BUT LOOK AT THAT POSE! DYNAMIC!

Wizard World '09

This guy is exactly why I'll never go to a con wearing a costume. In order to really be awesome, as he clearly is, you either have to sink a ton of money or time into a costume. Probably both. I mean, that gun probably works! I'm assuming.

Wizard World '09

This is Marina Sirtis' booth. She wasn't there because she, her mother, and boyfriend had been abducted by damn dirty Ferengis.

I've mentioned it before, but I'm pretty sure Lou Ferigno lives in the rafters of the Philadelphia Convention Center as some kind of Phantom of the Convention because he's always there.

Wizard World '09

I appear inappropriately excited to see Link, considering that I'm pretty sure that I've never actually finished a Zelda game. I came pretty close to finishing A Link To The Past on the SNES, but I never owned it so all my play time was in rentals, which makes beating any game difficult.

No, Ed was not stoned. I don't think...

The New Hottness

Auto-tuning the news. Link 1. Link 2.

Update: There are lots of other auto-tuned videos, but I must say I'm partial to MLK's "I Have A Dream". Link.

Wizard World '09

The Question. He, like several other Charlton Comics characters, was the basis for a character in Alan Moore's Watchmen; in this case Rorschach.

Actually, the Vic Sage Question recently died in the comics (cancer) and was replaced by a female version (Renee Montoya, who was created for the Batman Animated series from the 90s). I'm pretty sure this was a lady in the costume, so maybe she was going for that.

Wizard World '09

So that's why Black Manta is always bothering Aquaman. Phantom Six told him to.

Wizard World '09

When you're a Storm Trooper, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 must seem pretty small potatoes. On the other hand, these guys can't hit the broad side of a sand crawler, so I'm not so sure I want him in my multiplayer clan.

Wizard World '09

Here's K.I.T.T., though they didn't have the Mr. Feeny voice on.

And for those that don't know, K.I.T.T. stands for Knight Industries Two-Thousand. Yup, like Batman, Michael Knight has a multi-national company behind him. Why does he drive around in a car? Because the company has an officially funded and supported vigilante division. I guess that's better than Wal-Mart, but it's still pretty crazy.

Wizard World '09

I wish I could use "Because I'm holding a thermal detonator" in more situations without getting arrested.

Torchwood

So, I don't live in the U.K., so there's no way I could have seen the new Torchwood miniseries. But let's just say I heard that it's both fantastic and heavy as shit. Everyone should watch it...when it's aired on BBC America.

Meet Q

We got a new kitten tonight. The fiancee thought our 2 year old cat "needed a friend." I thought that was crap, but whatever. So meet Q.

Transformers 2 F.A.Q.

Ok, as my review tried to establish, Transformers 2 isn't a good movie, but I thought it was kind of fun. In fact, though there are certainly better examples, I occasionally really like movies that are fun when I'm watching them but can also laugh at their absurdities later. And here is a hilarious F.A.Q. on Transformers 2 that puts it in just such a category. I might disagree with some of the points on substance (I don't think the movie is nearly as confusing as people both here and elsewhere seem to think it is) but it doesn't matter because his points work great for humor. Link.

Hat tip to Ezra for the find.

Update: Eh, Transformers, G.I. Joe, same difference. Here's a video of the most ridiculous escapes in the G.I. Joe cartoon. Link.

Update the Second: Ok, there's no real link to 80s cartoons with this one, but I did get this link from Ezra and I'm too lazy to do another post. The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. Link.

Review: Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

In short: Meh.

Look, let's be honest. The original Transformers TV show and feature film are pretty crappy. Sure, they're awesome and I'll love them my whole life, but the plots were thin, the characterizations almost non-existent, and there's a thin...ok thick layer of cheesiness that's just slathered all over. But hey, it's robots that turn into other things and then back and then they fight. That's still pretty cool.

So, does Revenge Of The Fallen take the series to new levels of depth? No. Not even close. This is a movie where robots turn into other things and then back and then they fight. If you're down for that then you won't be disappointed. Would I some day like to see a really serious take on the Transformer concept, where they fought over something more metaphysical than energon and where they managed to elicit an emotion from the audience other than whatever emotion accompanies big explosions? Sure. That'd be great. On the other hand, based on the box office returns, I think I'm probably in the minority for wanting to see Transformers: Field Of Robot Dreams.

Any way, what I kept thinking as I watched the movie, however, was that this movie isn't nearly as confusing as I had heard. Yes, there are times when you might not be able to name the robots that are fighting, but most of the time it's because one of the robots doesn't have a name. Do people complain that you don't know who's getting shot in a battle scene in a war movie? No, in any battle scene there's going to be some generic fodder characters and there are indeed some here. But otherwise I really didn't have a hard time figuring out what was going on.

At the end of the day, this is a big summer blockbuster about robots fighting. If you can't sign on for that, then why complain when that's what the movie presents?

I Didn't Do It

Ezra's got a good post about people blaming the lack of speed or the quality of reform on Obama rather than the Legislature. Link.

Wizard World '09

Frequently at Wizard World, you'll run across someone who's clearly into it. They love the convention, they love the people, they love the source material, and they love the attention, so they make a very elaborate and super cool costume. Then you have their friends, who love the attention.

Here we have the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick. Not the custom Mercury's Helmet. No small feat, friend. Then you've got his friend here, who's, uh, a guy in a coat? Don't punch me Coat-Man! Just continue to bleed attention off your more industrious friend!

Wizard World '09

Ah, a cool Beaker and...and...and...people with me actually said the other guy was supposed to be Bunsen Honeydew. ORLY?! Let's look at the evidence: glasses, camera, satchel with a Spidey mask hanging out. Does that scream Bunsen Honeydew? NO SIR, IT DOES NOT!

Wizard World '09

This woman is an example of a certain type of Wizard World costume-wearer: SHE'S A LIAR! Wizard World is a place of happiness and wonder, but also commerce. And many of business people there have studied the nerds long enough to figure out that people in costumes get attention, especially pretty women. So this lady's job was to just walk around in her low-cut top, with a bat symbol all up on her boobs and then try to convince people to go to some leather working booth. I don't know, I didn't really need anything leather.

Wizard World '09

Ah, Wizard World. The happiest weekend of the year! It's like Christmas and Captain Picard Day rolled up into one! So, over the next however-long-it-takes-me, I'm going to be posting pictures that I took from our days at the 'con. Hopefully I'll think of interesting things to add to them.

Here, we have female Hush and Riddler. The Riddler must have come here after work, because you wouldn't want to rob a bank with a loosened tie. What would people think?!

Also, Jay's head!

Hot Off The Presses

Did you know you can read the script for the unmade full length feature film Grayson (likely to remain the best trailer ever)? It's true! Link.

10 Best Picture Nominees

So the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that they're increasing the number of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10 this year. Initially this may seem like a stunt. Then you might think, "Are there really 10 great films in a given year?" But after that you may come around to the idea that it could be pretty interesting.

Limiting the Best Picture group to five has, in my opinion at least, limited the nominees to a pretty narrow band of movie-types: Very serious dramas with famous celebrities in the leading (and usually supporting) roles. It's become really easy to distinguish between normal movies and movies that are trying to emulate that type in an effort to get an Oscar nod (the most obvious to me was Pay It Forward, which didn't get anything despite trying oh so very hard to seem important). Increasing the number of nominees to ten means there's room to nominate a great documentary, foreign film, or pure comedy, none of which ever get that biggest of nods. Will the big self-important dramas still win most of the time? Probably, and don't take this post to mean that I haven't liked most of the nominees in the last few years, but this allows the Academy to recognize that "best" doesn't necessarily mean most heavy, emotional, or serious; at least not for most people. Link.

Healthcare

One of the most important aspects of the healthcare debate that you almost never hear about is that it's not about making people more healthy. Genetics and lifestyle play such an important role that it's only in a small minority of cases that having good quality insurance makes a decisive difference in medical outcomes. What healthcare reform *is* about, however, is cost. The U.S. spends more than any other developed nation on healthcare for pretty bad health outcomes overall.

Ezra, who you should really be reading every day for you healthcare debate fix, has a great peace up today that makes the case that we've set up a system in America where we pay through the nose so that we can avoid having to make tough choices, but that refusal is itself a choice with very real consequences. Link.

Yeahbuhwha?

Can someone explain to me what's so great about WolframIAlpha? I've heard a news story about it, and now Ezra's talking about it at his new digs. I feel like a dumb, old man over here, but I don't get it. THESE KIDS, AND THEIR "MUSIC"!

Dollhouse Renewed

As Drew pointed out in the comments to the last post, Fox has opted to renew Dollhouse for a 13 episode second season, despite chronically weak ratings. Here's an article that has some interesting theories on the renewal. Most interesting to me was the idea that Dollhouse didn't do that great on TV, but did great on Hulu, which is also owned by Fox and where the bar for success is much lower. So Fox has a nascent web TV business (Hulu), and they want it to succeed by getting tech savvy viewers hooked on seeing their niche shows there. What better place than Hulu for a Whedon show to flourish, where Dr. Horrible made such a splash? It also helps that unlike The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox owns the actual show Dollhouse as well. So this is all corporatey goodness over at Fox, and with the added restriction of a lower budget, Dollhouse looks like a safer bet for renewal. Oh, and here's an interview with Joss.

Don't, however, take any of this as an excuse to not buy the Dollhouse Season 1 DVDs when they come out over the summer. This show needs (and deserves!) all the help it can get.

Dollhouse: Episode 12

So, I missed a post or two, but here we are, the (possible) end of the series. Honestly, I'd be fine with this as the end of the series as long as Joss Whedon did another 12 episode series next year, and another the year after that, and so on. More than anyone else that I can think of, I think Joss Whedon is uniquely in a position to bring the UK format of television series to the US. He's got a smallish but totally devoted fan base and creates shows with enough watchability to pull in a few non-devotees here and there. His shows aren't going to be the center of a broadcast network's Thursday night lineup, but they'd make decent fill ins for the summer or after the fall lineup has been culled of the dead weight. He also knows how to sqeeze impressive results from a constrained budget. This is probably wishful thinking, because a stupid reality show will always be a cheaper fill in than a scripted show. Still, it'd be nice.

What would also be nice is if Fox would give Dollhouse another chance. They hobbled it from the beginning by dropping it behind the flagging Terminator show on Friday nights, when nobody watches TV. They made it a mid-season replacement, which probably get renewed even less frequently than a new show in the fall, which have pretty short average lives to begin with.

This episode, like most of the series, made interesting use of the premise and got great performances out of every member of the cast. It was also perfect in striking the balance between "end of the season episode" and "last episode ever," unlike Firefly, which was brilliant right up until it just stopped.

At the end of the day though, there's just not much I can say about the episode. If you've been following the series, you'll almost certainly like it. If you haven't been following the series YOU'VE BEEN KILLING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL, YOU BASTARD! Ok, breathe...Anyway this leave enough open doors to pick right back up in the fall, but closes enough to not leave the fans screaming at their TVs (or computers if you've been watching on Hulu). Everyone and everything related to this show is underrated, and I can only hope that Fox gives the show a chance to catch on with a broader audience so that may be remedied.

Review: Star Trek

Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered September 28, 1987. From then until the last episode of Star Trek: Enterprise on May 13, 2005, the Star Trek franchise was continuously on the air. An entire generation grew up with new sets of characters and a history that evolved through the series. The new Star Trek film from J.J. Abrams tosses out all that history and brings us back to the original series crew.

I guess we should settle this now: there is really no right way to do this. Like with comic book movies, hewing too close to the extensive cannon of the franchise will impress fans, but will likely drive away anyone without a PhD. in the subject matter. Ignoring the franchise's history will make the film more accessible, but there's a strong chance that you alienate your base. J.J. Abrams leans more to the latter than the former, but I think he did as good a job of balancing the competing goals as was possible.

The cast is just about perfect, and they all tread the very fine line between invoking the famous traits of their characters without pantomiming Shatner, Nimoy, or the other original cast members. The only down side I see to the cast is that by the time the Trek movies of the past were released, pretty much all of the actors were typecast as their Trek character. This allowed them to do several movies with a pretty fixed cast because nobody was getting other work. For some reason I doubt that Chris Pine is going to want to spend the next 10-20 years playing Kirk, but I also doubt that Paramount is going to stop making Trek movies if this one is successful but Pine wants out. I hope that they've signed everyone to at least a three picture deal, but I've got a sinking feeling that we'll start to see new faces subbed in eventually.

The special effects were really fantastic. The newer Trek series had increased their special effects so greatly that the original Enterprise, particularly the television version, looked pretty lame by comparison. This movie restores a sense of awe to the original ship that's been gone for a long time.

It's not the most contemplative science fiction story of all time, but Trek movies have mostly been about exciting space battles, so that's not the worst criticism of all time.

All in all, this is a great (re)start to the franchise, and I'm sure we'll see more films in the next few years.

Wolverine

Short review: It's not great, but it's worth watching at some point. There are some things that are annoying, but they cast the movie well. The script is a bit bland and overly packed with fights, but it does do a good job laying out a backstory for Wolverine and tying him to several characters from the previous films. They also waste a lot of time and special effects money introducing a slew of mutants that really don't serve any function in the movie other than "Oh snap, it's Emma Frost!"

Overall, I'd give it a C, or a 70% or whatever. Not great, not terrible, worth watching.

What I *don't* understand is that I've seen several people online give essentially the same review that I just did, but say, "It's not great, but it's not Daredevil or Superman Returns bad." I still don't get what was so terrible about those movies. I don't think either was great, but though I though Superman Returns was better than Daredevil, I've seen much worse than either. Here are the main points that I remember people making against them:

Daredevil: They changed Daredevil and Bullseye's costumes. They made Kingpin black. The park scene with Electra was bad.

Superman Returns: They reused the airplane scene from the earlier Superman movies. They made Superman a deadbeat dad.

None of those were very convincing to me at the time, and I don't find them terribly convincing now. So, can anyone explain why those movies are considered at or near the bottom of the superhero barrel?

The End Is Nigh

The Mayans were right...maybe.

Uhhh...What?

It's two, two, two utterly bizarre ideas in one!

Up first, Warren Ellis is evidently working on a comic called "Supergod" and the graphic includes a crown of thorns. The only surprising thing would be if it ended up being inoffensive.

Second, we have a software company making a game where Mr. T and Will Wright (of Sim City fame) fight Nazis.

Uhhh...What?

Link 1 and Link 2.

Six Days In Fallujah

Konami recently announced an upcoming video game called "Six Days In Fallujah," which chronicled one of the most heated battles in the current operations in Iraq. After getting heat from a number of sources (veteran's groups, families of soldiers, and probably miscilaneous people from the internet), the game has been cancelled. This has led to somewhat heated discussions, though bizarrely not nearly so heated as dicussions about which video game console is the best, about the appropriateness of the game, war games generally, and whether there's a proper place for interactive software to cover real world events in a similar manner to other media. Any thoughts?

Here's my post from the above discussion:

"For me, the "too soon" argument isn't about being too emotionally close to the events. Well, at least, that's not really the point. The point is that we've had more than enough time to settle the history on WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and (perhaps) the first Gulf War. What I mean is that we can pretty much all agree that the Germans were on the "wrong" side of the war in a pretty extreme sense and few would be offended by the portrayal of Germans as the villains of a game. Similarly, Vietnam has been determined to be a morally questionable war, and most representations in modern media reflect that.

The current operations in Iraq, however, a much less settled. It'd be far too easy to fall into caricatures; to represent the U.S. characters as unambiguously morally correct and the people they fight as unambiguously evil, and all the things that come with current caricatures of Islamic peoples. And no, I'm not talking about "political correctness," which is its own caricature, I'm talking about producing reflections on war that are of real social value. The tendency to produce the shallow, simplistic works that I described earlier in this paragraph don't add anything to our understanding of conflict, war, or the specific events of our history. They're produced as entertainment; as propaganda to make one side of a conflict feel superior to the other and justified in their actions. These aren't sober reflections on history but tools to further agendas which are still all too current and relevant. They're also, frequently, crass attempts to cash in on the emotions, patriotism, and sometimes jingoism that follow international conflict.

There is definitely value in using interactive software as a tool to explore history. From what I've seen, however, this is not the product to help interactive software shed its "games" label for something perhaps more respectable."

George Will

Man, I read this article and just thought, "What an utter douche." But then, I'm the type of guy that wears jeans a lot. Link.

Hat tip, Ezra.

Almost Makes Me Like The Bruins

This ad is hereby immediately nominated to the Hall of Fame for great advertisements. Link.

Oh, Old People

I cannot calculate how much I have loved the teabagging jokes of the last few weeks. In case you haven't seen it, here's Anderson Cooper's contribution, though he clearly doesn't understand which person is teabagged and which is the teabagger. Link.

Dollhouse: Episode 9

Man, that was a good one. Anyone else catch the cameo by David Fury (aka, The Mustard Man from the Buffy musical and Framkin, the pupped guy from Angel's "Smile Time")?

Farscape

So, every nerd has to at least be familiar with Star Trek and Star Wars to even have a little cred. Buffy's probably in there too, and I wouldn't be surprised if BSG became a part of the necessary nerd knowledge as time goes one.

Then there are the other shows. The shows that only the weird nerds are really into. These are the Babylon 5s, the Hercules/Xenas, SG-1s, Andromedas, and yes, Farscapes. Well, I've been watching Farscape for a while now, and I'm closing in on the end of Season 2 (of 4 total, plus a TV movie), and it's really turned into a good show. The first season was decent, though the quality wasn't quite good enough to distract me from the fact that everyone in space is an Australian. Despite being a sometimes serious show, this made for the more humorous version of space I've seen. But Season 2 really turns the show up to 11 with the greater focus on the villain Scorpius. Yes, just a short while ago I thought he was about the dumbest looking villain in a long time, but they make it work.

Anyway, I guess the takeaway is that if I wasn't before, I'm definitely one of those weird nerds now.

Harold And Kumar Go To Washington

Just a quick blogging break from a brief I'm writing. An annoying, annoying, long brief.

Anyway, legalization of pot has quietly become one of the bigger stories of this recession. President Obama has been asked about it at town halls, legit journos are writing articles about it, and Senators are talking about restructuring our sentencing for drug crimes.

The most shocking figure that I took from those links is that 47% of all arrests in this country are related to marijuana. That's an enormous waste of money any way you slice it, particularly since it doesn't seem to be having the effect of reducing usage.

Link.

And now, sigh, back to work.

Dollhouse: Episode 7

Haven't seen it myself yet, but did anything cool happen?

Andy Hallett Is Dead

Andy Hallett, best known as Lorne on the Angel TV series, has died at the age of 33 from congestive heart failure.

What a damn shame.

Link.

Late Dollhouse

Back from a long weekend, so what'd you guys think of the new Dollhouse? There's certainly a change from the first five episodes, that's for sure.

BSG Finale

Haven't watched it yet, but I figure I should get this post up ASAP. How'd it all end? Were you satisfied? Enough questions answered? Did everyone turn out to be part of a dream of a disabled kid?

Dollhouse: Episode 6

Haven't had a chance to watch it yet. What's the verdict? Is this where Joss Whedon get a freer hand and turns the show up to 11?

Oops

Sorry I forgot the weekend posts, ladies and germs. Consider this an open thread for both Dollhouse and Battlestar Galactica.

Well, one (double length) episode left of BSG. I still can't shake the feeling that though I'm liking these last episodes they're leaving too much mystery for my taste. I mean, now you've got the Galactica going on a mission for a very important person, but they don't even really know what the person's significance is.

Dollhouse continues to truck along with good-but-not-great episodes, which doesn't bode well for a show that was already probably going to be a cult show and is airing on Friday night. The rumor is that either starting with the sixth episode or after the sixth episode the network stepped back from the show a bit and let Joss Whedon do more of what he wanted, so hopefully the next couple episodes will be great. I will say that "man reaction" was pretty good stuff.

Argh!

Marvel moved Thor, Cap, and The Avengers back a year! On the other hand, now Spidey 4 is announced to be released in 2011, making 2011 the Summer of Marvel. Link.

Resident Evil 5...Again

Man, just when I think we're going to break through the idiocy on the Resident Evil 5 debate it runs right back to the same stupid ground it's run over since the beginning. The article makes a few good points, but I think a lot of that is undercut at the end when their supposed "expert" starts ranting about the "cult of political correctness." And Heaven help you if you wade into the comments...the stupid, stupid comments.

Joking On The Square

With the Kindle 2 now released, discussion about whether old technology can survive has resurfaced. Now, I'm not saying everyone has to go out and buy a Kindle. Personally, I don't think the technology is where I'd like it to be before I take the plunge (I'd like to see it get cheaper and with a color screen that can display pictures). In these types of debates, however, you see a lot of personal preference or opinion passed off as an intrinsic property of the subjects of the debate. Plenty of people make arguments about the pleasurable qualities of holding a book, when really that's just their preference because it's what they're used to.

The thing that irks the shit out of me, however, is when people try to argue that books would be considered great or even superior technology if they were introduced after digital products. It's not just Penny Arcade, I've seen this all over TV and the internet, always made by people who love paper based books and who are usually older. I know that mostly it's played as a joke, as it is in PA, but Al Franken had an apropos phrase in one of his books that he used to describe the way conservatives get away with saying some of the ridiculous things they say. He said that they were "joking on the square," by which he meant that they were phrasing their statement as a joke, and they may even think it's funny, but that they also believe that there's a grain of truth in there as well. You also get this a lot, and it annoys me just as much, on any cold day. Somene says, "Boy, I thought we were supposed to be getting into global warming or something, eh?" This person is almost always either a Republican, a global warming skeptic, or both. Of course, that's not how global warming works, and technology progression doesn't work such that books would be considered superior to digital media if they were introduced today.

Watching The Watchmen Reviews

The Watchmen comic is among my favorite works of fiction, so obviously I've been watching the development with alternating joy and horror. This is a comic that has gone through at least four attempts at being adapted for film that ended up collapsing under either legal or creative difficulties. It's a dense, complex work that has defied simplification into a two hour story by just about everyone that's touched it.

Now that it *has* been adapted, and now finally *has* been released, the question is, did they succeed? I haven't seen it yet, and the reviews are almost as tough to parse as the film itself. There's not universal support or condemnation, which raises all kinds of questions. Did the reviewer read the comic, or did they see the film fresh? Did the reviewer expect light super-hero fair and therefore didn't like what is supposedly still a pretty complex narrative in the film? Watchmen looks to be almost as difficult to review as it was to get made, and in these situations you can either go with people whose opinion you trust or just take the plunge and see it, reviews be damned.

Dollhouse: Episode 4

And now thoughts on the latest Dollhouse? Watch out for spoilers. Boy, that Topher guy is creepy.

BSG

Thoughts on the latest episode? Spoilers on folks.

Coming This Saturday

I kinds wish the theme song was catchier, but there's very little to dislike about this. Link.

Dollhouse: Episode 3

Spoilerific thoughts on the latest? According to Drew, Eliza Dushku says that Joss Whedon had a much freer hand in producing the show after episode 6. It's been pretty good so far, but I'm hoping for a jump in interesting-ocity then.

BSG

Any thoughts on the latest episode? Be forewarned if you're not caught up, there will be no policing of spoilers.

The Best Poster Ever

There's no argument. Link.

Unsupport Of Jindal

Everybody these days is talking about how Jindal's poor performance in responding to the non-State of the Union is the "last nail in the coffin" for his presidential aspirations. Let me just say that 2012 is a long way away, and giving a boring, or even condescending speech in 2009 isn't going to stop any real contender dead in his tracks. I disagreed with all of Jindal's policies, but the content of his speech wasn't any lighter than most political speeches let alone most responses to a State of the Union.

He can work on style over the next two years before he has to start running in earnest. John Kerry has had a long career in politics despite being pretty boring on the stump and he was a hair's breadth away from being president. Don't count Jindal out yet.

How Have I Never Before Seen This?!

The aborted Buffy animated series. "The harder they what?" Link.

How not to criticise sex ed programmes

Ross Douthat links to a Jennifer Roeback Morse post from nearly two years ago claiming that a handful of studies show that sex education programmes -- and we're not talking about the abstinence-only kind -- don't work.

Except that Morse apparently doesn't understand what a control group is, and Douthat apparently didn't have his critical thinking hat on when he read her post. (Or he doesn't understand what a control group is, either.) Both of the primary studies Morse cites are from the 15 June, 2002 issue of the British medical journal. The first is a meta-analysis that aggregates data from about two dozen randomised controlled trial studies of sex ed programmes. It's actually quite methodologically sloppy, because of the wide range of differences between intervention and control groups. The control groups, for example, range from no sex ed at all of any kind to `standard knowledge based prevention curriculum' or `usual sex education programmes'. The other looks at a specific new programme, and concludes that `[c]ompared with conventional sex education this specially designed intervention did not reduce sexual risk taking in adolescents' (my emphasis). Furthermore, in the brief summary at the end, they add that `[i]mprovements in teacher delivered whole class sex education have some beneficial effect on the quality of young people's sexual relationships but do not influence sexual behaviour'. So this is actually a highly qualified success, not a failure, of the programme in question.

In short, in both studies, both control and intervention groups included students taking conventional sex ed. They are therefore irrelevant to the question of whether or not these programmes work better than no sex ed or abstinence-only sex ed.

Dollhouse: Episode 2

Ok, that was a lot better all around, including Eliza Dushku. Any thoughts?

Staying Young

I was surprised last night that some of my friends hadn't seen this clip yet, so maybe there are more people who missed it. Link.

On A Boat

I know I'm way behind the cool kids on this one, but I can't stop listening to this song. Link.

Heroes

I know I'm probably the only one still watching, but man, this new chapter of Heroes is legitimately good. After this most recent episode I'm actually back to looking forward to the next episode, as opposed to watching because it's DVRed. It's truly amazing what a difference good writing can make. After the last year and a half I was convinced that literally nobody in the cast could act their way out of a wet paper bag, but acting is better across the board. Well, except for Milo Ventimiglia, who's still pretty weak.

Still, it's sad that Pushing Daisy's had to die so Heroes could be resuscitated, but at least something good came out of losing such a unique show.

Only On The Internet

By request, here is a site comparing the sizes of ships in Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Gallactica, and others. Link.

Dollhouse

So, I just watched episode 1. It's good, but I'm still not convinced that Eliza Dushku has the range for what looks to be a pretty demanding role. Eh, maybe I'm just to used to thinking of her as Faith. I'm willing to be proved wrong. Thoughts?

Oh, and I'm starting the betting at 8 weeks before it's canceled.

Simple Pleasures

These made me laugh pretty uncontrollably. Link.

Dewey, the GOP, and moral dilemmas

Let's suppose that, like Dewey, you endorse both of the following:

deliberative democracy: All reasonable views should participate in and be satisfied with deliberation over public policy.
pragmatism: Swift implementation of the best available -- albeit imperfect -- course of action should not be delayed on the basis of purely ideological objections.

(And no, I'm not going to define `purely ideological' here.)

Due to your deliberative democratic views (and one or two auxiliary beliefs), you believe, in particular, that conservative Republican views should participate in and be satisfied with deliberation over economic stimulus. However, at the same time, due to your pragmatism, you think that implementing the best available course of action for stimulating the economy -- something like one of the three plans the Congress has approved over the past tenish days (new girlfriend + lots of schoolwork = I have no experience of the passing of time) -- should not be delayed on the basis of the purely ideological objections of laissez-faire conservative Republicans. To sharpen the example, let's stipulate that these conservatives will not be satisfied with deliberation over economic stimulus until their purely ideological objections have been met. (Much the same goes for libertarians and other fans of the free market that are not conservatives. But, for better or for worse, they don't have much presence in public deliberation in the first place. I think we should figure out what to do with the most pressing and obvious case first, and then move on to the harder cases.)

What the hell should you do? You can define `reasonable' such that the views of laissez-faire conservative Republicans turn out not to be reasonable. But that just sounds like watering down your commitment to deliberative democracy; you might as well just toss the latter, really.

This isn't just a one-time problem. Deliberative democracy and pragmatism will conflict whenever there are reasonable views that object to the best available course of action on purely ideological grounds; and this will be inevitable so long as there are reasonable views that make purely ideological objections. That is, deliberative democracy and pragmatism will come into conflict so long as there are reasonable views that reject pragmatism.

I don't have an answer to my question of two paragraphs ago. But I do think this is a good example of a genuine moral dilemma, at least for fans of Dewey.

Was Zareck right?

Duelling op-eds on the recent coup attempt here, here, and here. (Massive spoilers behind the links, of course. Don't read if you aren't completely caught up.)

A philosopher of science's top five books in epistemology of the last century

Here's the epistemologist's list of `the five most important books in epistemology of the past century':

Chisholm, Theory of Knowledge, 2nd edition (maybe should be Perceiving), Lehrer, Knowledge, Goldman, Epistemology and Cognition, Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy (maybe should be Our Knowledge of the External World), and BonJour, The Structure of Empirical Knowledge

This is all wrong. Here are mine:

1. Dewey, Logic, the theory of inquiry (or Quest for certainty for just the critical project)
   
2. Quine, Ontological relativity and other essays, especially `Epistemology naturalized'
   
3. Kuhn, The structure of scientific revolutions
   
4. Longino, Science as social knowledge

Picking out just one more is tricky. If I could get two more, I'd want something representing the Strong Programme -- say, Shapin's Interests and the growth of knowledge -- and something representing postwar philosophy -- Hempel's Aspects of Scientific Explanation and other Essays in the Philosophy of Science might be the best choice, though I'm not in love with it.

A Stimulus Bill Is Better Than No Stimulus Bill

I've been reading comments over the last several days from Dems upset over how the stimulus package has moved through Congress and the many things included or not included in it. It's all very dire talk about how Obama got played and the Republicans can claim a huge victory from all of this.

But like Matt and Ezra, I'm of the opinion that the goal was to get a sizable stimulus package passed through Congress in Obama's first month and it looks like that's going to happen. Moreover, though the House bill was imperfect and the Senate version was even less perfect, things can still be improved when the bill moves through conference committee on its way to the White House. And at the end of the day, there's lots of good stuff in this bill. There's also ridiculously dumb stuff in this bill, but I think the chances are good that when the midterm elections roll around the economy will have improved enough for President Obama and the Democrats to claim victory in their goal to stimulate the economy. It's important to remember that unless the Democrats somehow get over 60 votes there's going to be some degree of insanity in every bill so it can attrack Republican votes because they're a party that refuses to let go of failed ideas. That President Obama can get "pretty good" legislation through Congress is enough for me to take without declaring the sky to have fallen.

Moments

Full disclosure before you get too far into this...this is going to be a pretty balls out love-fest for Battlestar Galactica. It's going to get nerdy up in this piece. Be warned.

Drama isn't plot. Drama isn't characters. Drama isn't themes. All of those are important in their own ways, but true drama is moments. It's the moment when your brain *knows* that you're seeing a person faking something but you buy it anyway. It's when you accept artifice as something emotionally true. It's this moment when your personal emotional experience transcends your actual experience that drama really occurs. To put it bluntly, the best, the truest drama is tricking you into feeling things that haven't happened to you.

It's a truly unfortunate fact of our modern society that art has been so soundly categorized. There are people that are deeply affected by opera. There are people that are deeply affected by painting. There are people that are deeply affected by movies. At the bottom, however, all of these people are affected by the same thing: the feeling that something real has been shoved into their perception even though they haven't directly experienced the event which causes the emotion.

All this is to say that drama happens in the reimagining of Battlestar Galatica. This isn't a post for nerds obsessed with the tech in a show about the future. This isn't a post for people that are interested in sexy aliens. This is a post for people that look for shows that get down to something true; something real. It's here if you're looking for it. Like most shows of the highest quality Sci-Fi, the first season is merely a primer for what has turned into one of the most arresting shows on television. I'm two seasons and change in, and I'm hooked. Forget the space battles. Forget the clones and the artificial gravity. This show has made me think and it's made me feel, and that's the absolute best that a fiction can hope for.

Space ships are incidental to the emotion that is evoked in this series. It's a pity that some people will never give this show a chance because parts of it require a an environmental suit. There are moments here as emotionally true as any great piece of drama.

Roger Ebert once said that a film is not about it's subject, it's about how it's about it's subject. I wish more people would give this show a chance to see the moments where it shows how it's about.