Interesting Bits VI

Howdy Boys & Girls. It's your Uncle Bingo. Didja miss me? Well, regardless I've found some pretty interesting links for you. Some you may have seen, and at least one or two I can guarantee that you haven't.

Let's get this show on the road, shall we?

In honor of the day that most retailers plan their 4^th quarter earning projections around Black Friday! This site either has on it or has links to over 40 stores and their sales for Nov 28^th. To those of you with money, Happy shopping!

"There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to the thief."

Below is the promo for the second half of the fourth and final season of Battlestar: Galactica. I personally believe SciFi screwed up separating the first and second half. Battlestar has constantly lost people in the middle of their seasons, but has always managed to bring the whole thing back together and blow people away by the end. I'm sure that they will do it again this time. It just seemed an asinine move and may have cost viewers. You know, not me, but maybe some people. Decide for yourselves January 16, '09. Also, if you just feel the need to speculate your lil' asses off before then, stop by IO9. They've done a two part series on what's happened in season 4 and what may possibly happen. Check 'em out.


This little tidbit of your tax dollars at work I saw last week on Countdown:With Kieth Olbermann, unfortunately I forgot which day so no video for you, but thankfully Boing Boing was nice enough to do an article on it too.
"If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history. Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined"
• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion" COMBINED!!!!

MTV's Splash Page has a great article on Neil Gaiman stepping up to the plate to help defend this poor bastard in Iowa that local authorities are trying to throw in the pokey on obscenity charges based on his PRIVATE collection. The CBLGF is one of those really worthwhile organisations, but only if you think the First Amendment was a good idea. Give til it hurts, people!

"Gaiman’s currently supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s fight to defend Handley, who was arrested in Iowa for possession of obscene material based on his private collection, which included lolicon and yaoi manga. Lolicon focuses on the Lolita complex, where yaoi features male homosexual romance for a primarily female audience."

CNN's American Morning reported this on Monday the 24^th:"CNN’s Joe Johns and legal expert Sonny Hostin reported that President Bush may issue preemptive pardons for George Tenet, Alberto Gonzales, and Donald Rumsfeld." How I loathe this little bastard. Check out the video here at Raw Replay.

One of the two spiders recently flown up to the International Space Station have apparently taken it upon itself to go walkies. Oh yeah, and the experiment itself which had something to do with arachnid life-cycles has gone tits up as well. The spiders instead of making nice neat webs that the researchers expected have been doing MC Escher meets Kandinsky type webs. "more a tangled, disorganized-looking web than a Charlotte's Web kind of web." (via ABC News)

Trapped in a cubical all day? Maybe you're an artist who listens to more movies/TV than watches? Here's a site for you. Listentoamovie.com has 1452 movies to listen to and 284 television shows. Plus, it has a stealth button in case the boss comes by to where if you click the button it looks like a spreadsheet. My-Tee-Spiffy!

New artist that I've found named Su Blackwell. She does book cut sculptures that look absolutely amazing! Can't post one here, but please click the link...they truly are one of a kind.

Anyone out there who wishes to get me a Christmas/Solstice/Kawanzaa I've found the perfect gift for the person who was everything. Which isn't me obviously, but I'm sure I can figure out some trouble to get in with it:

A Hyperion Small Modular Nuclear Power Reactor (via Warrenellis.com)

Now, onto Grant Morrison's latest story arc that has left almost every fanboy/girl scratching their heads and saying, Huh? I'm referring of course to Batman: RIP. Oh yeah, *SPOILERS BABY*

To start off here's what Wikipedia says to sum up the storyline so far: At an unknown location, a group of international supervillains gather at the behest of the Black Glove, represented by Dr. Simon Hurt, the man responsible for the isolation chamber experiment that nearly ended Batman's career and for the creation of the three replacement Batmen. ...Meanwhile Commissioner Gordon tries to stop a Gotham newspaper from running a story on a dossier allegedly compiled by a detective hired by the parents of Martha Wayne, which contains many shocking allegations: testimony that Thomas Wayne was a drunk who addicted his wife to heroin, insinuations that Alfred Pennyworth is Bruce Wayne's true biological father, and photographs depicting an orgy involving Thomas and Martha Wayne, Alfred, and the stars of John Mayhew's noir film "The Black Glove" and the theory that Thomas Wayne may still be alive, the "murder" of the Waynes was in truth an elaborate hoax, arranged by Thomas Wayne in order to kill his unfaithful wife and fake his own death.

Got all that?

Well, here's what Topless Robot had this to say about the story: "So in #681, Batman meets the Black Glove and it's...Thomas Wayne. His daddy.

Or he says he is. I have little doubt this will be retconned in the next six months, year tops. But for now, Wayne has announced that he hired Joe Chill to kill his wife and little Bruce and fake his own death, but that Chill couldn't go through with killing a kid. Which make Papa Wayne evil, Joe Chill the guy who saved Bruce's life, and Bruce's reasons for being Batman totally null and void. Oh, and then Batman appears to die in a helicopter with his dad, although Batman is wandering around "Final Crisis" like six months later. No one knows what's going on there.

Many Bat-fans are, of course, freaking the fuck out. They hate that this negates Batman's whole reason for being, but of course that was exactly the point. I think it's a hell of a cool idea, and it certainly takes Batman in a place he's never been before."

That's one POV. Here's another from Rich over at Comic by Comic (and I really think I'm more on his wavelength on this): And Dr Hurt...well, he may be Thomas Wayne, he may be Mangrove Pierce...but more likely he's the evil that men do. Or, y'know, the Devil, and Bruce has the darkness in side himself. And the Black Glove always wins. As Batman's hand smashes through the window of the helicopter. And nothing, but NOTHING is fully resolved. Honestly, I think we may all be figments of Grant Morrison right now...

Especially the bit about it being Grant's world and we're all just figments of his imagination. If nothing else, it is worth the read because the repercussions of this are going to go through all of the Bat-Books (Wait. How many are there now with all the cancellations?) in the foreseeable future.

Speaking of funny books, Details Magazine had something semi-complimentry to say about the lot of us (I would've included the cover, but it's of that ass clown Tom Cruise, you know the Whole reason I'm giving Valkyrie a pass):

The December “Power Issue” of Details magazine lists the Top 40 Most Influential Men Under 47.

Number 13 is the Comic Book Geek (whose age is given as 19), because of his potential to “make or break a potential blockbuster”. Here’s an excerpt, heavy on the cliché:

He lives in his parents’ basement and sometimes wears a cape—but the much-mocked comic-book geek possesses the ass studio execs must kiss to hit superhero-movie gold. Thanks to favorable early buzz, Iron Man and The Dark Knight banked more than $575 million and more than $990 million, respectively, making them the top-grossing films of 2008. It’s no coincidence the producers and casts of these smash hits made the same pit stop on the road to box-office dominance: the Comic-Con International festival in San Diego, where they schmoozed the nerdy throngs, sat on panels, debuted Joker-laden teaser trailers, and forced Robert Downey Jr. to smile and wave like a homecoming queen. There’s a reason that Zack Snyder, director of 300 and next year’s Watchmen, says each of these rabid conventiongoers is “worth 20 normal fans.”

The magazine is due on newsstands December 2.

BTW, I moved out of the basement at least two years ago!

I knew that Nosmokingintheskullcave's architect, Becca had a style that reminded me of someone. Paul Pope. Check her stuff out and tell me if I'm wrong. And if you're reading this Becca this is a total compliment from me.

And to round out this shitfully long version of Interesting Bits I give you:

The English Cast For Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo

(via AICN)

"GhibliWorld reports that Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy will produce the English vocalization of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, with a cast that includes Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Fankie Jonas, Noah Cyrys and Cloris Leachman.

Gake no ue no Ponyo draws from his relationship with his son, Goro to tell the tale of a five year old boy's friendship with a gold fish who wants to become a human, employing a watercolor based look inspired by time that Miyazaki spent on a rental house by sea cliff.

Speculation is abound on when the movie will hit North American treaters. GhibliWorld says that test screenings are currently being held, the final version will screen in US theaters in 2009.

ICV2 notes that there is evident that Disney may release Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea theatrically in North America in first quarter 2009. The article sites that Amazon.com is listing Viz Media’s The Art of Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea for release on March 3rd, and AAA Anime has the release of the first volume of the Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea Film Comic set for early April.

2005 when Miyazaki’s previous movie, Howl’s Moving Castle, debuted in theaters on June 10th, Viz Media released The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle on the 5th of July and The Howl’s Moving Castle Film Comic in August. In 2002 when Miyazaki’s Spirited Away premiered in theaters on September 20th, Viz Media released The Art of Spirited Away in October.

Nausicaa.net reports Fandango.com has a listing for Ponyo with a release date of July 19, 2009 (a Sunday).

Pink Tentacle's coverage of Top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2008 puts a Ponyo reference at the 20 spot.
20. “Ponyo, ponyo ponyo, the fish kid” (ponyo, ponyo ponyo, sakana no ko): This is a line from the theme song for anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.” Performed by Fujioka-Fujimaki (famous duo Takaaki Fujioka and Naoya Fujimaki) and eight-year-old Nozomi Ohashi, the song reached No.3 on the Oricon Weekly Charts in August.

Let me just say that if you don't like Hayao Miyazaki then you just don't like Anime. This man is rightfully referred to as the "Godfather of Anime." I LOVE that he let's no more than 10 % of CGI in his films. I am kinda worried that Pixar director John Lasseter isn't involved in this one of his English adaptation, but I'll be there regardless. Here's a list of Miyazaki-san's works:

• Kaze no tani no Naushika (1984)aka Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (1986) aka Castle in the Sky
• Tonari no Totoro (1988) aka My Neighbor Totoro
• Majo no takkyûbin (1989) aka Kiki's Delivery Service
• Kurenai no buta (1992) aka Porco Rosso
• Mononoke-hime (1997) aka Princess Mononoke
• Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) aka Miyazaki's Spirited Away
• Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004) aka Howl's Moving Castle
• Gake no ue no Ponyo (2008) aka Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

This man is a living genius.

Whoops. I promised a link you probably hadn't seen, huh? Okay, how about getting this for that special someone/gimp in your life?

Latex Vac-Bed bondage restraint

This Latex Vac-Bed is a bondage restraint that connects to a household vacuum cleaner. It immobilizes the individual between two layers of 14 gauge latex rubber by sucking out the air between the "sheets." It's $640. From JT's Stockroom: To use the Vac-Bed, place your bondage partner inside and check to see that they can breathe safely thru the breathing hole. (We recommend using a hollow gag so that there is no chance of the breathing hole slipping and restricting the flow of air.) Close the zipper that runs along the side of the Vac-Bed, and make sure that your bondage buddy is comfortable before attaching the vacuum cleaner to the connector at the bottom. The 1½” PVC connector will fit most household vacuum cleaners. (via Boing Boing)