King Animal

Nicolas Silberfaden's Impersonators

I think these celebrity and superhero impersonators read the last post before posing...

Cap / Bucky 2012?

If you though that Obama or Romney were your only two choices at the polls this year, think again!

Apparently, good ol' Captain America is throwing his shield hat into the ring, and makes the Oval Office his new HQ. In "The Ultimates" series, set in an alternative Marvel universe, super-soldier Steve Rogers wins the presidential election as a write-in candidate .  The issue comes out next Wednesday, and writer Sam Humphries calls it the next step in the character's long role as "America's defender".  Hmmm....as a long time geek and comic reader, I call it stupid.

"Cap is answering the call of the people. This is not the first time he's stood up for an America in crisis. This is a further evolution in his role as America's defender, from soldier to superhero to president," Humphries said. "He didn't ask for this position, but if it helps him reunite America, then he'll take on the job.  He doesn't see his place as having press conferences in rose gardens, he sees his place as out in the field - this will result in a unique and thrilling presidency we've never seen before, in history or in fiction."

Um...still pretty stupid.  I loves me some Captain America, and for well over 25 years there have been all kinds of comic story lines that bordered on the silly or strange, it never sounded this ridiculous.  Yes, we have to suspend our disbelief that a guy could get a government-sized does of steroids and survive decades in suspended animation, only to throw his shield at villains while wearing star-spangled tights, but we have to draw the line somewhere.  Even in a comic book world, having the president go kick some ass instead of, well, any other proper channel of authority and legal means of justice, I'm sorry, but that's too goddamn lame.

The farthest I'll go is to accept Vladimir Putin.

End Of Watch

Scarlett +1'd me into the End Of Watch red carpet premiere last night...quite an intense film. It has action and humor and heart, and it should get your theater dollars this weekend.

 

Grantland's True NFL Team Logos

The Cost Of Your i5

Apple received close to two million pre-orders for their iPhone 5, and are making a huge profit even with a profit margin that's not even 1/6th the cost.

UBM TechInsights estimated the cost at $167.50 to make each 16GB iPhone 5, breaking down the potential cost of each of the components. Their new 4-inch 1136x640 pixel display costs $18 to build, the touch screen $7.50, and the battery $3. The A6 processor goes for $28, while the camera costs $10 and the built-in WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS is only $4. Below they have their estimates and comparisons to other models.

Corkscrewed

Beards > No Beard

Scarlett threatened to call off our wedding if I showed up clean shaven...a good woman loves herself a beard.

The Doctor Who / Star Wars Connection

Requiem For A Squat-Thrust

Aditya 'Romeo' Dev, known as the world's tiniest bodybuilder, died today at age 23.  And no, it was not because somebody dropped a five lb. weight on him.

Early this morning, he was rushed to a hospital in Punjab, India, where doctors were unable to revive him. "He was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state," said a doctor, who later needed to clarify the unconscious state was not just sleep. "It was due to massive bleeding which had caused brain damage or aneurysm bleeding. There were very rare chances of him surviving." Oh, the Indians have a funny way of saying things!  In 2008, Dev had been diagnosed with two brain aneurysms, which is a common symptom of being a dwarf. Doctors had warned him that at any time, his aneurysm could burst and lead to a fatal stroke. I wonder if strenuous activity like, say, lifting weights could have exacerbated it?

Standing at 2 feet, 9 inches and weighing only 19 pounds, Dev said the most he ever lifted was 10 pounds - about half his weight.  The Guinness Book of World Records dubbed him the world's smallest body builder in 2006.  He used a regimen that included 3.3-pound custom-designed dumbbells from his trainer, and bulked up to the size of an average 2-year-old. Fierce!  His exercise routine included aerobics and dance, and his chest measurement was 20 inches  Dev said he never let his size stop him from doing anything, well...except reaching things higher than waist high.

Pump iron in heaven, little man!

You And Your Genome

Hollywood Magic

Hosts of The View - Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood, Sara Gilbert, and Aisha Tyler, with and without makeup. Ewww...

A Burial Fit For A King

A human skeleton with a cleaved skull was discovered beneath a parking lot in England, and may belong to King Richard III.  Think about what you may find the next time you're looking for a space to park.

Researchers are not saying they have found King Richard III's remains, but DNA test results in up to 12 weeks should clear that right up.  The remains were said to have been hidden within the choir of a medieval church known as Greyfriars, where historical records suggested Richard III was buried upon his battle death in 1485, but the location of that church had been lost.

Fast forward to the present, and two skeletons were discovered: a female, in what is believed to be the Presbytery of the lost Church; and the other, which appears to be an adult male, was found in the church choir and shows signs of trauma to the skull and back before death - consistent with a battle injury.  In addition, a barbed metal arrowhead was lodged between the vertebrae of the male skeleton's upper back, and spinal abnormalities are evident that suggest the individual had severe scoliosis - consistent with contemporary (and Shakespearean) accounts of Richard’s appearance.

University of Leicester archaeologists began excavating the parking lot of the Leicester City Council building in search of the church and the king's remains, and have turned up a Franciscan friary, a 17th-century garden, and various other artifacts. Media coverage is absent of what details led them to that site, but with the Olympics over, perhaps the English are just looking to keep themselves occupied.

Lava Vs. Ice

NHL '13 Is Here! (In Case There Ends Up Not Being A Season)

 

Another Self-Credentialed Doctor

What is it with former 90's celebs who all of a sudden think they have a PhD in medicine?

First, Jenny McCarthy rewrites the medical journals with her no-science approach to curing autism, and now Sheryl Crow is an expert on the brain.  Yesterday on Katic Couric's talk show, the singer said she believes her benign brain tumor was caused by frequent cellphone use.  Sure, Crow admits that no doctors will confirm it, but she thinks it's possible her meningioma, is related, since she used to spend hours on the "old, archaic cellphones."

Scientists say evidence linking cellphone use to brain tumors has been inconsistent, and most studies have not found a link.  About 6,000 people are diagnosed with meningiomas in the US annually according to the National Cancer Institute. And it just so happens that Crow falls into the group that is most prone to developing meningiomas - women in their 40s and 50s.

Here's a little background science for ya:  Cellphones emit radiofrequency energy, which can be absorbed by tissues, but the only known biological effect of this energy (like the kind emitted by microwave ovens), is a tiny rise in temperature.  That is not known to damage DNA the same way as the ionizing radiation in X-rays, and damage to DNA is considered a necessary step to cause cancer.

A Danish study of nearly 2.9 million people published in 2011 found that those who used cellphones for 11 years or more were no more likely to develop a type of benign brain tumor than those who used cellphones for a shorter period, or not at all. Another study from Denmark found no link between the location of brain tumors called gliomas and the regions of the brain that are exposed to the highest levels of radiofrequency energy. In addition, between the 1987 and 2007, a period when cellphone use rose rapidly, there was no increase in the incidence of brain cancer in the United States, the NCI says.

So there is no conclusive evidence that cellphones cause brain tumors.  Sheryl Crow's music however...

More Like Bob Gnarley

The Periodic Table Of Death

GoDaddy Go Down

If you're a user or proprietor of the over 5 million websites GoDaddy.com hosts, today your daddy left you.

The domain registrar / web hosting company has been working on the problem which killed access to emails and sites...but how do you fix a problem called Anonymous?  The hacktivist group was alleged to have taken responsibility via tweet, which is so de rigueur.  They take issue with GoDaddy's support of both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) legislation that has been threatening to censor and restrict the shit outta the interwebs.  Both of those are very bad, but is the answer to effectively cripple small businesses that use web titan to make a point?

Some of the websites noted in news reports who took to complaining on Twitter about the outages included MixForSale.com, which sells accessories with Japanese animation themes, and YouWatch.org, a video-sharing site. And Catherine Grison, an interior designer in San Francisco who operates the site YourFrenchAccent.com, said she had to stop sending emails with her website link in them while the outage was ongoing.  And Kenneth Borg, a Long Beach, CA screen printer, reported fresnodogprints.com and two other sites were down, along with their email addresses.  Hmmm, we lost a clone of YouTube, and the ability to get canine pictures in Central California?  Maybe they did us a favor in quieting cyberspace after all...

UPDATE:  It's now said that Anonymous was not responsible...but misinformation is one of their tools!

The Walls Really Are Closing In