Miraclo Miles

One Moore twist in the Nick Berg tale? Friday was busy for me, so I'm just catching up with the news that filmmaker Michael Moore claims to have roughly 20 minutes of filmed interview with Nicholas Berg , the private contractor executed in Iraq early most likely in early May. It was reportedly part of the material Moore shot for his recent winner at Cannes Farenheit 911 , the anti-Bush administration documentary, and was an interview shot months earlier, here in the states. The only thing that throws me - and it's only ever-so-slight a throw - is that 20 minutes was spent on that. Still, I suspect that Moore routinely interviews people who are on the opposite side of any issue he's attempting to assail. While I approve of the general direction of many of the things Moore's aimed to do over the years, his style and approach tends to be too parochial and simplistic too often, and so I suspect the simplest explanation for why he didn't use any of Berg's ...

For the conspiratorially-minded, a look back... and a look ahead? Over at What Really Happened? today is a mention of some significant US naval "exercises," including a look back at a similar exercise conveniently run in September 2001. I might have passed on even noting all this, were it not that I found it all to be news to me, and it's all part of a zeitgeist that's making me edgy. I can't help but consider all the recent terror warnings, including the abusive-of-the-facts mentions of the terrorist bombing and recent election in Spain (dimwits and those who prey on the same continue to allege that this was the Spanish people caving in to terrorists, when it was, in fact, them having the strength of conviction to stick to their plans to vote against an unjust war by voting out the government that forced their nation into it), all of which is looking more and more like an attempt to win Bush the presidential election (in itself something novel for h...

Does it make it any more or less either justified or pointless? Short answer: No. Combat is confusing, employing deadly force is always risky for anyone in the area, and none of this has any direct bearing on the military action one way or the other. After all, it has no bearing on how justified the military action in Afghanistan is, nor this ranger's reasons for being there. Nonetheless, news that former NFL player Pat Tillman was likely killed by "friendly fire" is worth noting, IMHO. The actions in Afghanistan certainly had a basis in (inter-)national security concerns ( unlike the moves in Iraq), though I continue to be worried by how so many people use "Taliban" and "al-Qaida" as virtually interchangeable terms. The former is a home-grown (for Afghanistan) group of self-appointed religious police attempting to bring their country under their interpretation of the Quran (almost amusingly, a great many of them cannot even read, and...

Quick Check-In A day taken up with hospital visits, much waiting around, and several trips. The short version is that my wife went in for surgery today, and they're keeping her at least until tomorrow. Kids were off from school (though why, with Monday being a holiday, too, I'm still not sure) so I took the day off, too -- though I still found myself swinging briefly through work no less than three times, partially as a consequence of it being on the way and so making a handy pitstop. Realizing I hadn't put my Westfield (comics) order in for this month, I believe I squeaked it in under the wire this morning. It was due by 10am CST, and the official time on my order was 10:00:22 CST. I'll know when I see the confirmation. (Update: The processing confirmation came through just as I was finishing this post.) Having raced through it I only ended up ordering items from Marvel and DC, along with some of the magazines I get. I know I know... that saw me skipping som...

"...an exercise in systematic humiliation..." The header is part of the decription made by the executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, referring to a cancelled (pre-launch) two hour reality show titled "Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay." The competition was for $50K between two contestants attempting to convince people, including friends (and, presumably, family) that they're gay. It's a twist on the same schtick used in "My Big, Fat Obnoxious Fiance'", which is no surprise since it was produced by the same people. My stance is that this is a case of a group (GLAAD) being entirely too sensitive about its image. But, then again, I suppose that's largely what the group exists to be. The inference in their objections was that the show might incite some action against members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual community... whatever that really is. The show was originally scheduled to be ...

Then & Now, & Then Again The previous post wandered into Harry Potter territory, and reminded me that The Books of Magic is being adapted into film. A DC comics (well, their Vertigo imprint) miniseries of that title introduced the comics-reading portion of the world to a young, bespectacled boy who had no idea he was destined to become the world's most powerful magician. Sound familiar? Well, this lad's name was Tim Hunter, and the year was 1990, long before Harry was born in print. From the first time I'd heard a thumbnail sketch of Harry Potter I've wondered how much of an uphill battle it will be against public perception that Tim Hunter is some sort of Harry Potter rip-off. With the motion picture tentatively scheduled for 2006, it'll probably be a while yet before we find out, but it's coming. It's darkly amusing to find that almost two years ago, when the script was being refined, that they felt that had to "un-Harry Potte...

Comics Prose: Pros & Cons? Continuing to do a little catching up on items this week, I see that both Dark Horse and Marvel are launching prose publishing lines. Marvel Press will focus on producing novels based on their superheroes, with three subset, target audiences: grade school readers, young adults and adult. For Marvel it's presumably at least as much of an attempt to bring in new readers as it is to establish itself in another market. Over at Dark Horse they'll be launching both M Press and DH Press . The distinctions between material likely to be put under M Press or that selected for DH Press is still a little murky, though the general sketch given is that the former will be given to straight storytelling, even if it it might also wander into non-fiction/autobiographical material, while DH Press will focus on pop culture items, whether they're stories or focused textbooks on pop culture themes. Based on what's mentioned so far, DH a...

Fun With George & Tony Via Elayne Riggs (and, in turn, via Peter David ) it's time to watch Bush & Blair follow their noses . As Peter noted, it's almost hypnotic. They're both fun, but the wide-open eyes and open mouth on Blair make his a little more fun to play with. (The screen loaded almost instantly where I am, but I haven't tried it via a dial-up connection yet.)

Just another feelgood political move? Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has issued subpoenas to eight major oil companies concerning gasoline prices . A spokesperson for the oil lobby, as noted in the article, mentions roughly 30 other investigations of this nature that have been undertaken since gasoline prices were deregulated in the 1970s, and how none of them have uncovered wrongdoing. It remains to be seen if this is a simple statement of fact, or if, as Handsome suggested , it's a matter of tax revenues and convenience. I'd mentioned the gas prices just a little less than two weeks ago, as prices crept closer to the $2/gal mark. I hope this investigation has some pointed cause and effect analysis. As noted before, the prices seem to move up sharply on any news of increase at the crude oil end, yet when prices move down at the crude end we're reminded that we're buying gas made from the more expensive oil, bought months earlier. By this reasoning, gi...

Venting & Vigilance At first, this story of a woman who was fired for items on her blog was something I was going to pass without comment. After all, writing publicly about work (and even private life, when including people by name) is risky, and placing a link to the same in one's signature line only makes it more dangerous. Common sense. However, it does make me wonder - in an age of lawsuits - how vigilant a person, or especially an organization, has to be about public statements made by an employee, or a student, especially those of a violent nature? In the vast majority of cases it's simple venting, being done by people who'd never tak violent action. However, what happens in the case where the person does go from rant to rage? Is a fellow employee, student, boss or teacher going to be liable if he was aware of what the person was saying beforehand, and has mentioned to someone that he's seen it but not taken any action? What if it's a thinly fi...

Ah! Now it makes more sense... (Another Heroclix post) This past weekend's Wizard World East comics convention in Philadelphia, which I remarked on here , also served as the pre-release sales event for the next Heroclix set: Ultimates . Seeing that this was going to be May 21-23, I expected that the worldwide sale date for the set might be as early as June 1 -- enough time to allow the convention sale to remain special, but not so long that it would unduly irritate the fans who couldn't make it. As it turns out, the sale date is June 30th, meaning that everyone has to wait well over a month beyond that convention before being able to buy theirs at retail. This struck me as a little odd, as they'd done something like this with an earlier set and it upset quite a few people. I've now seen that sometime yesterday Wizkids announced a series of pre-sale tournaments at select, local venues . So far it's just five locations (in AZ,OR,WA,AR & MA), to ...

"People should be reassured: if there are any evil spirits, they will be dealt with." This case is probably too much for Scooby and the gang to take on. What I really want to know is how one becomes a "qualified sorcerer." Maybe this is the career move you've been looking for..?

Inconvenient heroes The efforts of the police and firefighters in New York in the wake of the 9/11 attacks have often been praised by President Bush, but the administration appears to wish many of them would just go away , presumably leaving the campaign-helpful video clips and photos. Sick heroes can be such a bummer, y'know?

Hopefully none will come in costume... While I've been to a couple of the Pop Culture Association 's affairs, where scholarly attention is paid to elements of pop culture, a huge meeting of academicians at an event centered on Buffy the Vampire Slayer is happening in Nashville this weekend. Some of the papers planned are mentioned here .

Goodbye, Dr. Franklin (Via Mike Sterling ) Actor Richard Biggs , Dr. Stephen Franklin from Babylon 5 , passed away on Saturday. Mike linked to this notice from J. Michael Straczynski , and... that's about it. Fan sites for Biggs himself all seem terribly out of date, and while there are several signed items up on eBay, none of the ones I checked was ghoulish enough to mention his passing. A search on imdb confirms that he was, indeed, 43 (same as yours truly) and that he also likely had a following amongst fans of The Guiding Light , where he's been Clayton Boudreaux since 2001.

What's that about rats & a ship? Dorian brought up some interesting information concerning stock sales by Ari Avrad and Isaac Perlmutter , this past Friday, two people heavily staked in Marvel. Their combined sales were for 6 million shares (4 million from Perlmutter, representing 12 percent of his stake in the company, and 2 million by Avrad, a hefty 29 percent of his stake) is being taken by many observers as a less than stellar sign, coming as it is before the release of Spider-man 2 . This dump of stock on the market was significant enough to cause a 5% drop in Marvel's share price. While I don't share Devon's dismal view of the first Spider-man film , I do agree that, at best, this sudden sale of stock is poorly timed in terms of public perception. For a moment I was going to play it on the optimistic side of the glass half empty/half full view, though, noting that each man retained the majority of his shares... until I looked more closely. Incl...

Free advertising -- well, except that we're paying for it... A busy weekend, sufficiently so that I might have missed an item were it not for a piece on Mark Gibson's blog concerning a series of speeches Bush is going to be giving to allow him to get as much free campaigning and spin time as possible in the near future. (Go read the piece over at and linked from the above link.) With the race in the court of public opinion (a race where we're left having to decide whose reporting to believe, which means that much reporting and rumor is often intended to affect the race in a feedback loop) each candidate is trying to decide where to spend money and when. If these speeches Bush is scheduled to give were for the edification of the public concerning the "way forward" in Iraq, wouldn't it make much more sense for him to alert the media and make an address from the White House? I agree with Mark, it's thinly disguised campaigning. Each time he speak...

Another Tale From the House of Representatives Over in the Mad House of Representatives - continuing to be the rubber stamp organization for the Rightest wing of the GOP - there's a bill to allow them to overrule the Supreme Court . That the title includes those GOP buzzwords "Judicial Activism" is a waving, red flag. So, they not only want the power to create the laws, but they want to be able to overrule the organization specifically created to judge if the laws they've crafted are constitutional? Defenders of the bill insist that the two thirds requirement raises the bar so high that objections are purely the work of alarmists. Also, they remind us that as per Article III, Section 2, Clause 2 of The Constitution : the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make . My initial, and cautiously sustained reaction to this bill (introduced back...

Post-convention post The congenial Eric G. (a co-worker of a few years) and I took a train into Philly and attended Wizard World East , following plans mentioned in the previous post. As for why I almost titled this entry "Plans are for chumps", I'll note that by the time we stepped onto the convention floor, just before noon - the event had opened at 10 - they'd already sold through at least today's allotment of pre-release Ultimates boosters. As this bade ill for the convention exclusives angle, we proceeded to walk the floor, scarfing up swag and evaluating what was there. Before moving on I want to mention that the situation with the Galactus exclusive was irritating. On the one hand, there seemed to be plenty of them, and people were walking around with them all over the place. On the other hand, their scheme to theoretcially make things easier for the Galactus-seekers, which was to canvass the people standing in the ticket line early on, seeing which o...

Ultimates list & stats released The header pretty much says it. (Each of the images above links to the dial for that figure's vet version.) They're all here . The 186 pt Thor dial , among others, looks good. The 94 pt. Xorn dial is a nice support piece, with both TK down its 8 click dial and Support for the first three. Of course, both happen to be uniques... I'm still not sold on this set. Still, it does have some nice pieces and dials. For instance, there's the vet Sidewinder , with Leadership, Super Senses, three clicks of an 8 Attack Value, and not only a built in Phasing ability, but a starting Speed of 14! He can move anywhere and do so quickly. It's especially nice to see a Hawkeye (even if the sculpt is an Ultimates version) with good stats. Compare the new veteran's dial with the one from Clobberin' Time . It's even more of an improvement than it first seems, as the new vet version has the Ultimates TA, and so he can ignore hindering te...

Nick Berg's head as a political football? The latest news is that they've made arrests in the abduction... last week . (The "they" being Iraqi police.) "'The arrests are good,' a high ranking American offical in Baghdad told NBC News, but those in custody are not believed to have killed Berg directly." The story is that those arrested were "former members of Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen paramilitary organization", and were led by Saddam's nephew, Yasser al-Sabawi, though he wasn't arrested. Further, they are supposed to have abducted Berg, but then handed him over to the other group, who executed him. It's such a tangle. That some will rush to use this as "proof" of a connection between Saddam Hussein and anyone in al-Qaida, bothers me, but people can be moronic. Just consider how many people think there's some link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks. That people would believe tha...

War crimes charges possible for Bush administration officials? Well, sure, many of us know several of them deserve it, but it's interesting to see how some legal memos and existing laws suggest this is something actionable. At the moment, much seems to depend upon how various decisions by administration officials are interpreted, and whether or not Bush's discretionary designation of various people as "enemy combatants" is judged to exempt people from the treatment guidelines of the Geneva Convention -- not to mention simple human decency.

They went down fighting I made it home just in time to catch last night's series finale of Angel , "Not Fade Away", (I missed the Smallville season finale, as I was too bound up in work concerns to remember to set a VCR), and I enjoyed the fairly tight wrap. Speculation on whether or not Wesley would have survived had season six been authorized by the WB is almost pointless, though had there been an alternate plotline by Whedon and the writers I'd be interested in seeing it somewhere down the line. Was the final episode perfect? Certainly not, but what is? There are always nits to pick, but I think they did a fine job, and certainly packed a great deal in a single hour. That the series went down strong is a good thing, though going out at their game will leave the question of whether or not a sixth season would have marked an unlikely continued rise, a reasonable plateau, or a just as likely decline. I'll never forgive the miserable bastards at ...

Human Rights Abuses Trail Leading to the Top? An investigation by Newsweek "shows that President Bush, along with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft signed off on a secret system of detention and interrogation that opened the door to such methods" of abuse and torture as documented at Abu Ghraib. This, despite continued denials from the White House. A more comprehensive overview of the situation is over at today's Daily Misleader .

Of course, they never tell you about the 9999 other guys who blew that last 75 cents and contemplated armed robbery or suicide... I can't blame the news organizations for running this sort of story . It's a natural angle to work, and it makes good filler for newspapers and news broadcasts. Still, it irks me when these jackpot stories (be it for a casino or lottery) are run, as they feed a desperate hope in so many people who should be looking for a better way out of their circumstance. That this might encourage even one person to risk all of his finances in a bid for riches troubles me. Years ago, shortly after gambling was first legalized in Atlantic City, I went with a friend's family down to a casino on an impromptu Sunday trip. One of the things I most clearly remember were a few of the faces with dark semi-circles under eyes brimming with desperation.

Crass Action Suit? Now that it's come to light that several Arabic Reuters employees had leveled complaints of abuse while detained . When these items begin to pile up, I always stop and wonder if any of them are opportunists, dogpiling on some person or organization only after they see that there might be something to gain. I don't believe this applies here - as I read it the allegations were made back when these employees were released, only to be dismissed by the military. The first of the courts martial proceedings are scheduled for Wednesday - much closer to now over in Baghdad, where they're to be held, than here on the East Coast of the US. It's likely to be an interesting set of trials, as most of the accused have hired separate, civil lawyers to help defend them, and the principal defense anticipated is reminiscent of Nuremberg: "We were only following orders," a defense that didn't stand then and isn't likely to fare any better no...

Do the WMD stretch! I'm amused by some of the attempts this week to take what is almost certainly a scavenged relic of 1980's-era chemical weapons , something that was found exploded - apparently mildly - in a bag - and turn it into a validation for the invasion of Iraq. Some reports mention this "partial detonation" as something that occurred while the jerry-rigged roadside mine was being disarmed, but I have to wonder if such a mild release wasn't more a case of an aged bit of ordnance beginning to fall apart. Indeed, the field tests only indicated sarin, and more testing is necessary to find out if that's what it contained. In the bigger picture, we were lied to. Our legislators were lied to, and in a pique of fear they turned over far too much power to people with agendas wholly their own. Our troops abroad, their families at home, and the US taxpayer (well, most of us) are left to take the beating for it.

"Indy, why does my credit card melt?" This will likely be pulled shortly , but it's fun while it lasts. Below is the text (lousy formatting courtesy of the seller), and as there's no photo the only thing missing is to note that its opening price was $10 million, and after two bids it was over $30 million -- not that anyone's taking anything seriously. I'm surprised eBay hasn't killed it already. ( Update: 4 bids and $99,999,999 million on the bidding, this'll likely disappear soon, especially if it breaks into the billions of dollars.) "This is a recreated Ark of the Covenant, the story of its recreation has been told in the Bonners Ferry Herald, 7183 main, Bonners ferry, Idaho 83805 208-267-5521. It must be noted that this recreated Ark of the Covenant is doing every thing just like the original did 3500 years ago. If a picture is needed contact the above newspaper for photo and the entire story, the first time the reporter attempted ...

"Bright future" for factory in April 2003 Bush speech proves to be headlight of oncoming freight train It's all laid out here . Approximately 1300 Ohioans put out of work as a factory Bush spoke at in April of 2003 during his push for tax cuts - proclaiming a bright future for the company and the families of the employees - is being shut down by a top Bush fundraiser ($600,000 in one night) who earned more than $2.6 million last year and is estimated to receive roughly $59,000 in new tax breaks this year.

Better living through chemistry? Here are two more choices that could be coming your way: Take this and get some the old fashioned way, or go this route around all the fuss.

Gas boycott likely not effective You've likely - as I have - received at least one mass email concerning a one day boycott of gasoline tomorrow, May 19. I've seen this before and have always wondered what made people think this would be effective. Matt Helms (if that is his real name...) of the Detroit Free Press took the time to comment on it. The only way it might possibly have any impact is if people not only didn't fuel up tomorrow, but left their car at home. Only a sudden reduction in consumption will do anything. After all, if we're using the same amount of fuel over the course of a week, what difference will it make filling the tank up on Tuesday or Thursday instead of Wednesday? None, really, aside from making the pumps more crowded on Tuesday and Thursday... Locally, we're hovering around $2.00/gallon here in SE Pennsylvania, btw., which is up from the $1.95 I noted last Friday. Walking, riding a bike or taking public transportation ...

Saluting a Flagg I'm generally pleased to see that November will see a hardcover compilation of the first 12 issues of one of my favorite series of the early 80's -- American Flagg! -- including a new story in the form of a 12-page introductory sequence. I have the original issues, and the couple of graphic novel collections, but a quality hardcover collection of what's really the best of the series would be nice. The series is set in the early 2030's and centers on Reuben Flagg, a man who went from being a pampered actor in a highly-rated tv show, living in luxury on Mars, to being an ex-actor (replaced by a computer simulation) and drafted into a sort of marshal service. Enourmously entertaining and prescient in its look at where corporate and entertainment-driven trends were headed, it was my first truly solid "Indy" comic experience, and one of a few titles that emerged in the early direct market of the 1980's that had me seeing that Marvel ...

Brief, musical interlude Here's something in the way of unauthorized Lord of the Rings media items - a Gollum rap - that Marv Wolfman , strangely enough, has brought to our attention. (It took less than two minutes to load via my dial-up connection, btw.)

"...They climb out of their underground homes en masse after 17 years of slow development with only one goal in mind -- finding a mate." No, it only sounds like Trekkies or comic book fans, but that would be more like "27 years" ...* It's more cicada madness! Judging from the antics described, had the Three Stooges not created most of these moves these kids would have . Someone's even found a way to make a little money off one of the noisy critters . (Aside from the ER staff, that is.) [* Hey! I'm a nearly life-long comic book fan, so I'm allowed to say this...] Update: Okay, now someone's tried putting the "queasy" back in "cuisine."

I... don't think so. CBS and the AP are reporting that a ringing cell phone ignited a gasoline vapor fire at a Mobil station in New York on Thursday. The problem is that the techno-myth of the ringing cell phone as a fire/explosion trigger was nicely busted in the second episode of Mythbusters , a fun show on the Discovery Channel. (That episode re-airs this upcoming Monday, May 17th, btw.) Barring a defect in the phone, a gap/fault in the circuitry to allow a strong charge to arc, I simply don't believe the phone was the likely trigger. Adam & Jamie knocked themselves out trying to get it to happen - they really wanted an explosion - but it wouldn't work.

Tortuous Affairs of State I see that the US military has now banned the previously-used (and defended, however poorly) interrogation techniques . This is one step, of course, but it's unlikely to be enough. I also wonder if these restraints are being immediately implemented not only in Iraq and Guantanamo, but in the smaller, secret prison locations where an estimated 10,000 other prisoners are being kept in this vague "war on terror"? I was interested to see on Friday that around 80% of the population of Iraq disapproved of the occupation --- and that poll was taken before the prison torture scandal came to a broad, public light. (Apologies for linking to the Washington Post, which requires a simple registration.) Keep in mind that this is the latest of the polls conducted by the occupation authority in Iraq since late last year, not some outside group with its own, counter-occupation axe to grind. That numbers that high, that negative are coming from ...

Heroclix Ultimates Update With the release of information on more limited edition sculpts (prizes to be won at tournaments in July) we have more confirmations as to which figures will be in June's Ultimates set. If he hasn't done so already, I'm sure boneyard will be updating his Ultimates list with confirmations shortly - primarily confirming that Hellcat (shown above, along with an unflattering, "Ultimates" version of Hank McCoy) is on the list.

Justice League cartoon coming to a close While much of this is old news to those who care, I know that I found this press release to be a helpful reminder, as Justice League has been into nothing but reruns for a while now and so slipped well out of my routine. The 90 minute (well, including a huge number of commercials, no doubt) series-concluding story - "Starcrossed" - will debut May 29th at 7:30 pm ET & PT. Those of you who want to know as much as possible about it - including spoilers - can go here . The replacement series, Justice League Unlimited , will debut August 7, as noted in the article. Earlier press releases stressed an element largely buried in this newer article, that emphasized the end of multi-part episodes. Each of the new series' half hour shows will be stand-alone items, which has its advantages and disadvantages. While the two-part story format often strained a story that could have been told more effectively in half the time, there ...

First Person Recruiter A program instituted almost two years ago by the U.S. Army to use PC games as a recruiting tool has proven highly successful , with over 3.3 million registered players. "Chris Chambers, deputy director of the "America's Army" project, said in an interview at the E3 gaming trade show here that prospective soldiers who contact Army recruiters after playing the game have a better follow-through rate than any other form of advertising or promotion." They went so far as to stage an event at the E3 video game show involving several soldiers rappelling from a Blackhawk helicopter to stage a mock invasion of the show . As the parent of 12 and 14 year old sons, the older of whom in particular has been attracted to war simulation video games (though, to the best of my knowledge, that hasn't included the Army's games), I have understandably mixed feelings on this. The "America's Army" project games are...

Homer's Greasy Odyssey? Wasn't this a central plot element in a Simpsons episode? If there's a break in the case, maybe we'll find out what state the real Springfield is in... Hey! If we sic the Italian cops below on their trail we'd probably have Roberto Benigni 's next movie. God, help us all.

Maybe suspects are tied to the roof? As police cars go, this latest addition to the Italian police force is undoubtedly cool , but unless a suspect's going to be squeezed in the trunk or ride shotgun, how practical are these? Even in terms of catching speeders - which is what it was provided for - sure, the police should be able to catch up to anything in these ( 192 mph?! ), but good luck trying to force someone off the road. (I wonder if Lamborghini will be providing maintenance for this...)

Industrial Age Mutants? Here's a Canadian study strongly suggesting that airborne pollution not only poses a cancer risk to those directly exposed, but are also resulting in mutations of their reproductive cells, resulting in mutant offspring. If nothing else, I expect the people marketing HEPA filters to be passing this one around vigorously, as such filters are cited as highly effective in reducing the suspected agents almost to nothing.

Portrait in Petrol Seeing that crude oil prices have reached a new record (high, unfortunately), I thought I'd toss out the change in local gas prices here this week. In the past three days I've seen the best (lowest) of the gasoline prices move from $1.88 to $1.95/gal. Seeing the price move up one or two cents between each trip past the station - on my way to and from work - has been the norm this week. Whenever these price spikes occur I'm always moved to remark how quickly the prices at the pump soar whenever crude oil prices spike, yet when the crude prices drop we're quickly told that that won't affect us for months , as we're buying fuel processed from oil purchased months earlier . I'm amazed that this simple dynamic - where they at least appear to have it both ways in their favor - doesn't result in a successful legal action against fuel suppliers. So, how have the gasoline prices been for you lately?

It's accounting, not rocket science I continue to be chagrined by what NASA has devolved into after decades as an institution, as this recent bit of accounting appears to demonstrate. Still, it appears to be such a tangle that the $565 billion dollar discrepancy mentioned could be terribly off the mark... but even if it's off by a level of magnitude -- sheesh!

"Don't send e-mail on your cell phones or read comic books in Parliament while in session" After reading this brief article , I can't help but wonder what the older legislators, sitting towards the back of the chamber, get away with.

Puttin' on the Gits Okay, so most of you have likely seen John Maynard's embarassingly-modelled Tron Costume . It made him a net celebrity of the dubious variety within hours, and soon led to radio and even at least one TV appearance. Lnks were ubiquitous by the time I saw it, so I didn't bother mentioning it here before. Overnight, Abby Exemplary passed along an item on eBay of similar bent . Being purists, I doubt that either would have considered accessorizing these outfits beyond their particular canons, but looking at these fellows I have to wonder if they'd be tempted to add this . ( Warning , that final link leads to what we euphemistically call adult content . Thanks, again, to AE, who emailed me both links and left it to me to come up with a theme.) Addendum : I do want to take the time to note that both of these guys spent a great deal of time and effort on these projects, and they deserve credit for that. Presuming the bids are genuine, the Ghostbu...

Very... French? A French doctor of literature, writing under the nom de plume "Michel Thaler" has written Le Train de Nulle Part ("The Train From Nowhere"), a novel without any verbs . Generally I've abandoned French-bashing humor ever since the Lunatic Right made that one of their standards following French officials speaking out against US military adventures in Iraq, (hoo boy, I bet that "freedom fries" bit still cuts those Frenchies to the quick, eh?!) but this is one of those instances where I have to note how cliche' the reported slant of this book is. The review (see link above) points out that the book is "filled with florid adjectives in a series of vitriolic portraits of dislikeable passengers on a train." Fairly or no, what is more stereotypically French (more specifically, Parisian) than haughty disdain? The description from critics is one of an almost misanthropic outlook, though his publisher claims that such pa...

Who's in charge? Now there's a scramble to see who held Nick Berg - US/coalition forces, or the Iraqi police acting on their own - for 13 days from late March into April, preventing him from leaving the country as he'd originally planned. Berg, a private contractor working in Iraq, was executed by beheading at the hands of an al-Qaida affiliated group, and a video of the event posted on the web. The claim from "US officials" is now that not only wasn't it the US forces that detained Berg, but that they'd advised him to leave the country and he'd refused ..? These parts aren't fitting well, and it appears this story's only getting murkier. As for the Berg murder itself, and why it happened, I liked what KOS had to say about it.

Trust In Who? An op-ed piece from Paul Krugman takes a look at how much trouble we can get into when we allow an administration to offer no more verifiable explanation than " just trust us. " (Tip of the hat, if I ever wore one, to Mark Evenier for pointing this one out in his Tuesday posting.)

Just more proof that this Jesus dude is trouble if made into an institution... To me it seems obvious that if they had to stick with someone, it should have been John Frum .

Now here's someone who should be sent to Guantanamo ( If he's guilty, which likely raises the entry requirement for that facility...) I understand the technical challenge of wanting to come up with some self-propogating code that spreads itself as far and rapidly as possible - I really do (and there may be a psych paper in there somewhere -- how much of a male impulse is this?) - but having to do it in a disruptive, destructive manner, that's over the line. If he's guilty the only way he should be allowed to touch a computer again in the next 10 years is as an indentured servant to the state, in a carefully-monitored environment.

Restorations Having hit the false, but still settling, security of Friday night - gateway to the weekend - I'm feeling momentarily calmer. Between now and Sunday morning I'm capable of ignoring the reality of an eventual Monday, though I run the risk of wearing myself out each day by refusing to go to sleep. This follows what my wife used to joke about as "it's not tomorrow until I go to sleep today." A more significant improvement is that after not sparing the time to deal with it for several days, I took care of the computer problems. As Winnie surmised, the problem was due in large part to the Sasser worm. Thanks for the streamlining of the fix goes to old pal Mr. M, who dumped the cure and some other diagnostic programs onto a disk for me. First pass trapped it and squashed it, while the second confirmed the cleansing. An extra twist had caused a change in one of the modem settings, too, but after a few minutes I found and fixed that, too, so I can ...

Little Mikey Sunshine Sadly, I cannot claim to have solved my various, pressing problems, but I’m trying to deal with them as best I can, and I need a little diversion. ( I certainly feel that I deserve a little diversion.) So… I’ll be trying to post a little here over the weekend, though I might stick to light topics. Thanks to those of you who left comments and/or dropped me supportive emails over the past week. It was appreciated.

Marvel Heroclix Updates While I wasn’t looking a great deal more information on June’s release of Ultimates the next Marvel Heroclix expansion, arose. It’s almost too much in the way of confirmations, and – as someone who’d already ordered a case a couple months ago, and so isn’t trying to make up his mind about whether or not to buy – it’s bordering on too much advance information. First, we were given the breakdown of the four new Team Abilities in this set. Morlocks, Ultimate X-Men, Serpent Society , and Ultimates . While the Ultimates TA finally brings the hindering terrain-negating Superman Ally TA ability of the DC set to Marvel – finally, there’ll be some Marvel figs who can strike from range at Stealthed figures - the built-in Phasing ability of the Serpent Society TA garnered much more immediate player interest. The Morlocks TA is one of those irritatingly contrived set-ups where one has to arrange pieces just so in order to take advantage of it. Essen...