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The Adventures of LOLBAT

I link to this partially because it’s pretty funny, and partially because I miss when PvP did funny strips instead of long, drawn-out storylines that sacrifice good daily punchlines.

WALL-E Easter Eggs | /Film

WALL-E Easter Eggs

The pizza truck was right where I thought it’d be, yet I missed it.

Nike Finally Releasing Back to the Future Part II McFly Sneakers, Sort Of

Nike Finally Releasing Back to the Future Part II McFly Sneakers, Sort Of

The Lego Mega-Guide: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego

The Lego Mega-Guide: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego

Pull List

I try constantly to limit the number of comics I read regularly, but it’s a losing battle. If I find I’m not enjoying a series, I cut it. Strange as it may sound, most comic fans read for the character and, if the book’s not good, they just complain but keep spending money on the series. For your entertainment dollar, a comic book is just too expensive for how long you spend enjoying it to read anything that you’re not really into. (In my opinion, NetFlix provides on of the best dollar-per-hour entertainment value you can find outside of the public library.)

Here are the books I’m reading right now. The list is too long, and I wish I weren’t such a sucker for superhero stories, but then again why read comic books if not for super heroes? Other genres are well served by other media.

Regular Ongoing Titles

• Action Comics
• Astonishing X-Men
• Batman
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Captain America
• Echo
• Fantastic Four
• Green Lantern
• Green Lantern Corps.
• Invincible Iron Man
• Justice Society of America
• Mighty Avengers
• New Avengers
• Scalped
• Superman

Ending Soon

• All Star Superman
• Booster Gold
• Omega the Unknown
• Matt Fraction’s Thor One-Shots

Mini-Series

• Final Crisis

Plus tie-ins Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns, Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, Final Crisis: Resist, Final Crisis: Submit, and DCU: Last Will and Testament

• Kick-Ass

• Secret Invasion

  • Ultimate Origins

Reading in trades

• Powers (trades)
• Ultimate Spider-Man (trades)
• Walking Dead (hardcovers)

Infrequent Shipping

• All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder
• Rasl

On Hiatus

• Casanova
• Fell
• Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk
• Umbrella Academy
• Young Avengers

I’m not reading Fables, and I know I should be. I own the first two trades and will pick up the others at some point. Ditto Runaways. My basic rule is that I try to read everything as a monthly unless I came in so late that it very difficult to go back and find the singles. This occasionally leads to me finding out about a series I realize I’d really like and scrambling to find the back issues to catch up, as I’ve done recently for Casanova, Immortal Iron Fist, and Scalped.

Looking over the list, there are a few writers who are strongly represented. Artists are important, but for me I care much more about the story’s content than its pencils. I’ll read anything at all that Grant Morrison writes (and in fact own most everything he’s done). Same for Joss Whedon, excepting that I need to catch up on Runaways. I’m reading all of Geoff Johns’s current output based on the strength of his Flash a few years ago and currently Green Lantern. I’d really rather not be reading Superman, but his is good. Likewise for Brian Michael Bendis. He’s a great writer whose work I adore. I’m reading a few Matt Fraction series, but I can’t bring myself to care about Punisher so I’m skipping that, and his Uncanny X-Men will have to be amazing to make me tolerate Greg Land’s artwork. Ed Brubaker’s in a similar vein as Fraction. I don’t care much about Daredevil, so I haven’t read his work on that series, and his Uncanny stuff was too much of a love letter to an era I’m not interested in, but his Captain America is a must read.

If I had to cut things from the list, I’d lose Astonishing X-Men, as Joss Whedon’s run just ended. Warren Ellis might do great things for the series, but I’m not too into the X-Men right now so I’ll give him a try, but there’s a nice clean break after Whedon. JSA is Johns’s weakest book and Mighty Avengers is Bendis’s. Mark Millar’s Fantastic Four has been fun but nothing memorable so far. Green Lantern Corps. has been hit and miss, but it worked so well with its sister title that I’ve been keeping it around. Same thing for James Robinson’s Superman. He’s a good writer so I’m going to try it out.

Two quick recommendations. Of everything from the past year(ish), the two things are sure to become classics are All Star Superman and Casanova. Check those out if you haven’t read either.

IMDb Resume for Troy McClure

IMDb Resume for Troy McClure

Sol 30

Earth’s summer solstice (the longest day of the year) was last Friday. Today is the Martian summer solstice. Mars has 668 Sols in its year, equivalent to 684 of Earth’s Days, but its moons don’t create separate seasons. New blog The Big Picture has some amazing landscapes of Mars, including a sunset, and a breathtaking view of Earth from there.

Newsarama.com : Animated Shorts: Back to the Futurama with Billy West

Newsarama.com : Animated Shorts: Back to the Futurama with Billy West

I had no idea the next Futurama DVD was out today.

Tit-for-tat by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely

Tit-for-tat by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely

Neat, ostensibly true, story about Mark Millar’s grandfather fighting the British in Ireland.

News: Nintendo Channel Reveals Hard Truths About Wii Play, Boom Blox, More

News: Nintendo Channel Reveals Hard Truths About Wii Play, Boom Blox, More

Looks like this could be a very effective way to see what games are worth your time.

Discovery of the Planet Vulcan

I took a class in college called Philosophy of Science. One of the things we studied was how scientific hypotheses can be based on foundations that may turn out to be flawed. Over time, even the simplest things we think we know from our observations of the world can be called into question as we discover new complexities. The story of the planets Neptune and Vulcan illustrate this beautifully.

The planet Neptune was officially discovered in 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle, but its existence had already been proven by Urbain Le Verrier. Scientists had noticed irregularities in the orbit of Uranus. Using their knowledge of physics, they were able to deduce that the planet’s orbit was been affected by the gravity of another object in the sky, which turned out to be Neptune. The math told them that the planet had to be there. All that was left was for someone to look for it. (Not that it was staring us in the face of course.)

Having predicted Neptune, Le Verrier then went on to examine the orbit of Mercury. Using the same calculations, he predicted the existence of another yet undiscovered planet which he named Vulcan. Vulcan, according to the calculations, was about one-seventh the size of Mercury and orbited between it and the Sun. Its existence would make Earth the fourth rock from the sun, not the third. Except that it doesn’t exist. The math all worked out, just as it had for Neptune, yet no planet was ever observed. Decades later, Albert Einstein’s theories demonstrated that our understanding of physics had been too simple. Relativity could describe the orbit of Mercury where the sciences of Newton and Kepler could not. The numbers had all added up, but the mathematical systems themselves turned out to be inadequate. Extrapolating on this idea, one comes to the humble conclusion that any idea whatsoever can be called into question if one can poke holes in the underlying assumptions on which the idea depends. No matter how solid you think your ground may be, some jerk like Einstein can always come along and pull the rug out from under you.

YouTube - Simpsons Map for Quake III Arena

YouTube - Simpsons Map for Quake III Arena

Brilliant.

Ball Girl Makes Incredible Catch

Ball Girl Makes Incredible Catch

That’s how you catch a foul ball.

An Inside Look At The Making Of Ghostbusters | Das Gamer

An Inside Look At The Making Of Ghostbusters

I love that Rick Moranis simply retired after Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

IGN: Bringing Guitar Hero World Tour to Wii

IGN: Bringing Guitar Hero World Tour to Wii

So far it looks like GH4 for Wii won’t be an underdone port like Rock Band. I’m wondering if Harmonix will announce a sequel by the end of the summer to try to get people to hold off on buying GH4.

Story of a Peanut: The TiVo Remote's Untold Past, Present and Future

Story of a Peanut: The TiVo Remote’s Untold Past, Present and Future

A Curious Case of Serial Typesetting: Chapter One

A Curious Case of Serial Typesetting: Chapter One

FILE Magazine Project - San-Zhr Pod Village by Craig Ferguson

FILE Magazine Project - San-Zhr Pod Village by Craig Ferguson

Wild sci-fi-looking abandoned village in Taiwan.

AFI: 10 Top 10

AFI: 10 Top 10

Ten greatest films in ten different genres.

Bone: 3 Mini-Comics

Bone: 3 Mini-Comics

Three promotion strips Jeff Smith did when Bone was in publication.

in vestimentis ursum

in vestimentis ursum

Stuffed electronic animals with and without their fur.

Spore Creature Creator

Spore Creature Creator

A free version of the Spore Creature Creator is now available for download for Mac and Windows. It contains a quarter of the parts that the full version will have.

Wonder Woman on a Skateboard

Wonder Woman on a Skateboard

The Sopranos: Definitive Explanation of "The END"

The Sopranos: Definitive Explanation of “The END”

If you’re only going to read one long, detailed exegesis of the finale of The Sopranos today, let it be this one.

We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Northampton - Pádraig Ó Méalóid talks to Alan Moore

We’re off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Northampton - Pádraig Ó Méalóid talks to Alan Moore

Part one of an interview with Alan Moore. I love his point about how as things go online there’s a reverse effect where people want nice editions of books to balance it out.

Harry Potter Prequel

J.K. Rowling’s short, handwritten Harry Potter prequel sold at auction for $49,000, the proceeds of which will go to a dyslexia charity. You can view the story by going to Waterstone’s website and clicking “Read out authors’ stories”. A mirror and typed version are available here.

Mystery on Fifth Avenue - NYTimes.com

Mystery on Fifth Avenue - NYTimes.com

Architect designs a puzzle into a house for the owners to find later. Don’t miss the slideshow.

Datamancer.net -- Custom Keyboards

Datamancer.net — Custom Keyboards

Super cool custom steampunk keyboards. Pricey, though.

Countdown Continuity

In an interview the other day with Grant Morrison about Final Crisis, he spent some time discussing the differences between events in his book and in Countdown to Final Crisis. In short, he had nothing to do with Countdown, so any plot differences are editorial’s fault. The funny thing, to me, is how much the joke is on all the morons who kept buying Countdown week after week even though it was no good just because DC told them it’d feature important events. So now those events need to be ignored for important events in a book that doesn’t suck.

scans_daily: Ma Barker

scans_daily: Ma Barker

From The Big Book of Little Criminals, a story illustrated by Frank Quitely about Ma Barker.

The Cost of the iPhone: More Per Month for Data - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

The Cost of the iPhone: More Per Month for Data

New data plans cost $10 more, meaning over time the new iPhones actually cost more than the previous ones.

System specs for Spore

System specs for Spore

Looks like the MacBook will actually run it. I’m surprised.

Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat?

Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat?

“Prohibiting photography was something we used to ridicule about the USSR.”

Newsarama redesigns

Newsarama redesigns

Finally, finally, finally includes RSS feeds.

Weezer Patterns

I downloaded Weezer’s new album this morning and listened to it on the Metro. I can never tell how I feel about a new record until I’ve heard it a few times, but it’s pretty good. I loved Weezer (the green one) when it came out but it hasn’t aged as well, and Maladroit and Make Believe never made it into any lasting rotation. Really Weezer (the blue one) and Pinkerton are all I need from that band (yet I keep giving them my money).

Anyway, remember those logic puzzles from school where you’d have a pattern and have to extrapolate the next items in the series? Here’s what Weezer seems to be doing:

1. Self-titled album (blue)
2. One named album (Pinkerton)
3. Self-titled album (green)
4. Named album (Maladroit)
5. Named album (Make Believe)
6. Self-titled album (red)

So it looks like it’s a color, then either n+1 titled albums, or perhaps n*2. To stick to their pattern they need to release three or four more named albums before another color.

Charles Atlas: The Ad That Made an Icon Out of Mac

Charles Atlas: The Ad That Made an Icon Out of Mac

The Scientist : Banana: R.I.P.

The Scientist : Banana: R.I.P.

In the 1960s a disease wiped out almost all of the breed of bananas sold around the world, and now a new strain is threatening the fruit.

Cult Movie Songs: The Original Music Videos

Cult Movie Songs: The Original Music Videos

Featuring “Stuck in the Middle with You”, “In Your Eyes”, “Hip to be Square”, and more!

Soda Pop! - a set on Flickr

Soda Pop! - a set on Flickr

Images of old soda cans and bottles.

iGoogle theme by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon

iGoogle theme by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon