Mistaken Quotes

"Don't let it end like this.  Tell them I said something."
-Citizen Kane

"I say nuke them from orbit.  It's the only way to be sure."
-Gargamel

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."
-Napoleon

"Good?  Bad?  I'm the guy with the gun."
-Mohandas Gandhi

"I ask you to judge me by the enemies I've made."
-Julian Assange

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
-The Road Runner

Extreme Rice

This one caught my eye.

Merry Christmas, Everybody

Charges Laid in G20 Abuse Scandal

But don't get too excited, it's just one officer of the however-many who were caught abusing protesters.

A Toronto police officer has been arrested and charged with assaulting a protester during the G20 summit in June.
It is the first arrest of a police officer in connection with allegations of the use of excessive force during the summit.
Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani was charged Tuesday with assault with a weapon. The charges relate to the treatment of Adam Nobody by police on the evening of June 26, said a statement released Tuesday by the province's Special Investigations Unit.
Nobody was one of about 1,000 people arrested during the two-day summit.
During his arrest at Queen's Park, Nobody suffered a fracture below his right eye and a broken nose.

So far, police have been "unable" to identify anyone shown in the video - even themselves.

The blue wall at work.

You know, cops must absolutely hate technology. In this day and age, everyone and their brother is carrying around cell phones with built-in cameras and video recorders (even my bottom-rung phone comes with these features), which makes abuses of authority much more likely to be caught. Once upon a time, it was a lot easier to get away with this sort of thing - someone gets beaten by the cops, all they really had to do was deny it. The vast majority of the time, any ensuing investigation by any of the toothless oversight agencies would simply find no wrongdoing.

Cops don't snitch on their own, after all. Without video evidence, there's not much to be done.

That simple denial would be enough. I know in times past, I would have given the police the benefit of the doubt. I mean, they're police. Why would they go around beating people utilizing their lawful right to protest - a right the police are supposed to protect for all citizens?

Certainly, tales of abuse seem a lot more common these days. From beating off-duty soldiers outside a bar, to repeatedly stun gunning a Polish immigrant, to the many, many reports of the G20 abuses. But here's what I suspect - police abuses of power aren't any more common these days than they ever have been. It's just that police are that much more likely to get caught in the act.

And even with video evidence - blatant proof of wrongdoing that's plain for everyone to see - it's often not enough. The police playbook is pretty established by this point:

-Abuse somebody because it makes you feel like a big man
-Ignore the inevitable complaint (usually by claiming it never happened)
-Backpedal when the video gets put up on Youtube
-Claim the video has been edited or otherwise doesn't show what actually happened

Usually, it doesn't get past that fourth stage. Even with this latest incident, charges weren't laid until two other corroborating videos found their way into the SIU's hands. At that point, some cops finally started to talk - probably because they felt they had to.

So, all of those people who were abused and humiliated while in detention during the G20 summit... Well, don't hold your breath waiting for justice to happen there. After all, cell phones get confiscated (with their memories usually wiped) when their owner gets arrested.

Mimic Octopus

Us pathetic humans don't stand a chance, mark my words.  The Octopodi will rule the earth yet.

Politics and Self-Fellation

Every year the Hill Times runs a poll of various politicos where they nominate themselves as the most "effective" and "valuable" politicians at work today.  It's mostly a farce, of course, a way for those in power (since the ones in power tend to have the most votes available) to pat themselves on the back and try to dredge up some publicity.  It's also something for die-hard party supporters to point to when making arguments over whether so-and-so is an effective politician.

This year, surprising nobody, Stephen Harper came in first place.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who dazzled Cabinet ministers, MPs, Senators and staffers last Wednesday night in Ottawa when he held an impromptu rock concert for the Tories' Christmas party, was voted the year's most valuable politician, according to this year's 14th All Politics Poll: The Best and Worst of Politics in 2010.

Notice the language here? Harper "dazzled" cabinet ministers, resulting in 21% of the votes cast in the poll. This, the article claims, "in spite of an uneven year, as thousands of Canadians took to the streets to protest the decision to prorogue Parliament, academia, and NGOs slammed the modifications to the census, and the government took a battering during the fall on how it decided to buy $16-billion worth of F-35 fighter jets." But of course, the PM was nevertheless "respected by respondents of all political bents" for his economic policies and the like.

Contrast that sort of language with the article's write-up of the third place winner, Jack Layton.

In third place, and after a concerted campaign by NDP staffers who strategically voted in this year's unscientific survey, is NDP Leader Jack Layton (Toronto-Danforth, Ont.). While it may have been a whipped vote for the New Democrats, respondents had a variety of reasons for nominating their leader, including not whipping his party's vote last fall on repealing the long-gun registry.

Emphasis mine.

Harper won first place! What a wonderful survey that reflects reality as we know it.

Layton won third place. Well, that's just because of strategic voting. Also, it's an unscientific survey so, you know, whatevs.

(Harper also came in as the third least-valuable politician according to the poll, but the article doesn't really bother explaining why or how. Modern journalism, folks!)

An eye-opening commentary on the whole spectacle came from Megan Leslie, NPD-Halifax, who won "Favourite up-and-comer" with 21.6% of the votes:

"Whether it's The Hill Times or other polls, we have always seen women in up-and-coming categories because women who are up-and-comers are not threatening, right? If you look at who are the 'powerful people,' who are the 'skilled ministers,' it isn't women. And that's because we're talking about positions where there actually is power.

"To be an up-and-comer, you know, it's nice, it's cute, you get a pat on the head, and 'Isn't that great to see Megan rising up the ranks,' but it's still not threatening. So I think we still need to have a gendered lens when we're looking at these kinds of polls," she said. "It doesn't mean we've broken through."

Anyway, the first link in this post goes to the article reporting the circle-jerk in question. Go ahead and read it, it's worth a laugh.

Why Haven't I Heard About Rap News Before?

Because guys.  Seriously, guys.  This shit is awesome, guys.



Catchy, funny, informative, and relevant.  I think I'm in love.

So, Iggy's approval rating is now sitting at 14%.

Dion's rating, three days after leading the Liberals to defeat in the 2008 election, was 23%. That was considered bad enough that they gave him the boot.*

So, when's Iggy tendering his resignation?



*Okay, that's not quite true. He was given the boot as much because the "natural governing party of Canada" felt they shouldn't stoop so low as to enter into a coalition with the NDP as any other reason. In other words, they're delusional.

Double Standards

Paypal: "We cannot in good conscience support the whistleblower site Wikileaks. But the KKK is fine in our books."
Visa, Mastercard: "We concur. The poor governments of the world need protecting, but what's a few lynchings between friends?"

I know satire's been dead for a while now, but damn.

Hey, Remember Kyoto?

...because Harper sure doesn't!

From the Globe and Mail:

Federal Environment Minister John Baird arrives at the global climate summit Tuesday looking to administer last rites to the Kyoto Protocol, at least in its current form. But the funeral may have to wait for next year’s session in South Africa.

For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the end of Canada’s commitment to Kyoto would achieve a long-standing goal, as he has opposed the accord since its inception in 1997 and distanced his government from it since taking office five years ago.

Harper refuses to support Kyoto because it's destined to fail. He knows this, because he does his level best to sabotage it. But don't worry, Harper knows that environmental issues are important to Canadians, so he'll make sure to come up with something better later... Maybe even something his big buddy the U.S. will sign onto!

Officially, the government denies it is aiming to kill Kyoto. However, it vocally supports the political deal reached last year in Copenhagen that would change key elements of Kyoto by demanding binding emission targets from major developing countries.

“We are seeking a legally binding treaty that includes all major emitters, which is what the Copenhagen Accord was all about last year,” Mr. Baird’s spokesman, Bill Rodgers, said. “That includes the emerging economies of China and India. It also includes the United States, which did not ratify Kyoto and has no intention of doing so.”

See, it's really important to get the U.S. on board because without the U.S. it's really just an empty gesture, so we'll follow their lead in whatever they OH WAIT!

The Harper government has no plans to follow a U.S. initiative to slash the greenhouse gas emissions of big polluters — even though Ottawa has pledged to harmonize its climate policies with the Americans.

The White House, stung by its failure to legislate a cap-and-trade bill before the recent congressional elections, has a Plan B set to be implemented within weeks.

The new U.S. rules — passed by executive order — are aimed at curbing emissions from large industrial facilities like refineries and cement factories. They go into effect Jan. 2.

Canadian climate experts say this country could contain the pollution growth from its own industries, notably the oilsands, by introducing similar standards north of the border.

But newly minted Environment Minister John Baird downplayed the plans from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as “patchwork.”

Baird goes on to say that the Plan B south of the border is just too weak so we won't be bothering with it. They'll do something better, for sure. They just won't say what their better plan actually is.

They'll say what it isn't, though! Like the Kyoto protocols. Because the U.S. isn't bothering with that, so we shouldn't, either. But they're very serious about this issue, for reals. They really aren't just waffling and stalling as long as they can in the hopes of getting out of even limp-wristed emissions standards.

Promise.

Tories Boost Liberals in Byelection?

From the Hill Times:

A top Tory from Winnipeg told The Hill Times that had the Conservatives mounted the same candidate who ran in Winnipeg North in the 2008 election, Ray Larkin, whose daughter Marni Larkin is a senior director and organizer for the federal Conservatives in Manitoba, NDP candidate Kevin Chief would likely have won.

Instead, late last summer, after Mr. Lamoureux defeated a prominent member of the large Filipino community in the riding for the byelection nomination, the Conservatives dropped Mr. Larkin and selected a little-known member of the Filipino expatriate population, Julie Javier, who barely ran a campaign, avoided candidate debates and media interviews, featured a mobile poster mounted atop an automobile that sporadically appeared in the riding, and drew criticism from even Conservative party members for her lacklustre effort.

The end result gave Ms. Javier a paltry 1,647 votes, which NDP MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, Man.) says came largely from a diehard knot of Filipino Conservative supporters who supported the tough-on-crime agenda Prime Minister Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) drew attention to on his only low-profile visit to the riding. Had Mr. Larkin been the Conservative candidate, after having won 5,033 votes and 22 per cent of the vote in the 2008 election, Liberal candidate Kevin Lamoureux, who resigned his provincial legislative assembly seat to contest the byelection, would have lost, the senior Conservative said.

It appears that despite allegations the Conservatives put up Ms. Javier to draw votes from the Liberals, the opposite was the case—Prime Minister Harper and the Conservatives wanted Mr. Lamoureux to win.

Party insiders say there is one main reason: They want Mr. Ignatieff to be leading the Liberal Party into the next general election. Mr. Ignatieff has the lowest personal voter support ratings on the federal scene, perhaps since Brian Mulroney, although not for the same reasons, and he has been unable to bring the party's support above the 30-per-cent threshold in public opinion polls.

More at the article. This is really getting pathetic. Really, they traded Dion for this guy? And yet, they're still convinced they're the natural party of Canada, that all they have to do to win a majority is wait it out.

I wish it were true, but it isn't. You really do need to give people a reason to vote for you (besides "ooga booga scary tories," I mean.)

Craig Ferguson explains Dr. Who

In song!

Harper Advisor Calls for Assange's Assassination

Why are conservatives so hateful of transparency that they'd rather see people murdered than know more about what world governments get up to when they think the plebs aren't watching?

Mr. Flanagan, it's not "being manly" to call for such. It's being so incredibly insecure that you can't face the idea of an independent media revealing the truth.

Either that, or it's having a tremendously small penis and needing to call for assassinations on public television to compensate. But I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, here.

UPDATE: I really have to wonder... All those people (some of whom are in powerful positions in the media) calling for Assange's death, what was their stance on the fatwa against Salman Rushdie? Or are such calls okay when it's a white guy making them?

And Another Liberal Myth Bites the Dust

Ever since the Ignatief and Rae came out in favour of an extension to the Afghanistan mission, LPC apologists have been claiming that there's tons - tons, I tell you! - of Liberal MPs who are up in arms about the stance the party leaders have taken. These anonymous MPs, so the apologists say, vehemently oppose the measure.

Warren Kinsella, whose web page I've linked to before, would be one such apologist.

This claim may, in fact, be true. Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter because these anonymous Liberal gainsayers never bother to actually speak up. Not even when it comes to the Bloc's largely toothless Afghan motion, which has been defeated 209-81.

Every single Liberal MP present voted against the motion.

Every. Single. One.

The Liberal Party of Canada is a bunch of useless twats, no matter what their apologists might claim. If they can't even manage a largely meaningless moral stance on this issue, then there's really not much point in making any "big tent" claims, because the only opinion that matters is Iggy's.

UPDATE: There were four Liberal MPs absent from the vote: Cuzner, Fry, Volpe, Folco.

Really, guys? Really?

This is the best you can do?



Ugh. Really, NDP, I'm embarrassed for both of us.

Sweden: Unable to Diplomatize

So another big infodump is going on at Wikileaks and several associated newscorps, this time involving reams and reams of diplomatic cables.  Unlike previous infodumps, this one is set to be released in a staggered fashion throughout the week, with each day getting its own focus.

Cables related to Canada is scheduled for Thursday.  Personally, I can hardly wait, though I fear there may not be anything particularly juicy - all I've heard so far is rumours about U.S. diplomats talking about Canada's "inferiority complex."  We don't have an inferiority complex, not really (our cultural problems relating to the U.S. are worse than that), but I can see how some who might not quite understand Canadian culture might mistake our identity issues for such...  So that's not really such a big deal for me.  As I said, hopefully there's something more interesting related to Soviet Canuckistan, but we'll see.

Already we've hearing the bleating objections of the powers-that-be, who are once again terribly butthurt over the whole ordeal of their secrets being revealed for all and sundry.  These leaks, they claim, stand to get a lot of people hurt or killed (where have we heard that objection before?  It's crying wolf at this point, really) and to impede the U.S. government's ability to engage with other nation-states in a diplomatic fashion, since frank diplomatic statements cannot be made without fear of public exposure.  Negotiations between nations, so the argument goes, need to be kept secret until they've reached their completion, at which point the public can hear a press release about it.  Breaking down the logic, the argument goes like this:

-Diplomacy needs secrecy to work.
-Diplomacy prevents wars.
-Transparency and secrecy are mutually exclusive.
-Therefore, transparency will prevent diplomacy from being an effective tool.
-A nation will be disinclined to use an ineffective tool.
-Thus, diplomacy will be shunned in favour of other methods.
-Ergo, transparency will cause more wars.

It's a fairly decent logical construction, but like all logical constructions it's only true if you buy into the premises.  Here's where Sweden comes into the picture.

See, there's a law in Sweden that makes the vast majority of government records and documents public.  And when I say vast majority, I mean it - to the point that every government e-mail is free for any citizen to read.  At one point, a secret Scientology document was basically made available to the public because it was sent to a high-ranking government official, which thereby made it available to Swedes at large.  Another time it got evil biotech corp Monsanto's panties in a bunch because this policy of transparency allowed Greenpeace to get its hands on a document relating to one of their evil biotech corp products.

Sweden is ranked by Transparency International as the most transparent government on the planet thanks to these and other policies (it's followed by New Zealand and Denmark.)  According to the argument laid out above, these countries would be unable to engage in any sort of diplomatic relations.  This is clearly an absurd claim.

That means the first premise in that logical construction I detailed above is untrue, and as a result the entire argument falls apart.

But all that's really besides the  point, because here's the bottom line:  Voters, citizens, have responsibilities.  These responsibilities include overseeing the people we put into place to represent us as our government.  This requires us to inform ourselves as best we can not only the things our governments do on our behalf, but also the relationships they form with other governments.  It is ludicrous to expect a governmental body to police itself.  Therefore, we need as much transparency as we can scrape together in order to hold them to task for the things they do.  There should be little to no privilege of secrecy here, because time and time again it has been proven that governments use any secrecy they can achieve for unethical behaviour.  Even if heightened transparency makes some tasks more difficult it's a small price to pay.

More nations should follow Sweden's example.  More citizens should demand their governments do so.

UPDATE:  There's a really great article at the Guardian over the whole ethical argument of leaking that I recommend reading. It lays out the same basic argument that I've been making for months in a very succinct manner:

Anything said or done in the name of a democracy is, prima facie, of public interest. When that democracy purports to be "world policeman" – an assumption that runs ghostlike through these cables – that interest is global.

Cookies > Media

Here's Steve Duckett ducking questions by reporters by eating a cookie.


"I'm Eating My Cookie!" - Watch more Funny Videos


For context, this is the conservative hatchet-man who was responsible for bringing in private health care during his time in Australia.  Now he's President and CEO of Alberta Health Services, and is no doubt planning to drown that province's health care system in the tub in the name of profit.

His contempt for the public really couldn't be any more palpable, could it?

My Pet Rats (w/ Illustrations)

I've often told my friends and family that I own the most cowardly pet rats in the world. I still firmly believe this is the case. It's not that they're stupid - they're not the brightest rats I've ever owned, but I've seen them figure enough stuff out that I know they're not dumb by rat standards. No, it's purely a matter of cowardice.

Most pet rats bond with their owner rather quickly - but with Othello and Iago, it was like pulling teeth... A tremendously slow spiral of increasing trust. It was literally months before they learned that it's safe to approach me during play time, even if I'm busy doing something else.

But even beyond their interactions with me, they still get frightened of just about anything. Particularly strange noises - "strange" being defined very loosely. At one point, Othello completely freaked out at the crinkly sound a plastic bag was making while he was in the midst of walking over it.

An object that's out of place - or that they're not used to seeing - is enough to make them wary. This goes for objects that I happen to be holding, in fact, and they're still getting used to the idea that even when I'm doing unfathomable things I'm safe for them to be around.

And yet, despite this fear of strange objects and situations, once we started to make friends one of the first things they decided it was safe to explore was the interior of my mouth.

 

When they started doing this, they were still at the point where any unexpected movement on my part was considered a potential threat.  Moving my hands too quickly?  Oh, no!  But apparently sticking their heads in my mouth was a-ok.

I'm still trying to figure out how any animal, domesticated or not, could develop that as a survival instinct.

Despite their mutual cowardice, Othello and Iago are almost as different from one another as their Shakespearean namesakes.  Othello is the explorer - the better climber and jumper, and always the first to overcome his fear (however briefly) to look around something new.  Iago, on the other hand, is more curious about people.  They terrify him, make no mistake, but he can't help but spend a lot of his time trying to figure out what these big pink-fleshed ape-things are going to do next.

Another example of the contrast in their personalities is the way they handle treats.  Othello is a pretty typical rat in this regard - show him some food, and he'll cautiously approach it in an effort to establish its status as food...  And then he'll quickly snatch it away and run off to devour it in peace, lest someone catch on to his diabolical scheme of taking the food he was offered.

Like I said, that's pretty typical for rats.  But Iago's very different - in fact, he's fairly unique in my experience in this respect.  He's quite slow and careful in taking food from me, as if he were trying to make absolutely sure that yes, it really is okay for him to take what I'm offering.

Sometimes he'll sit there looking at me upwards of a full minute, the food in his mouth, reluctant to actually start eating...  Maybe he's afraid he's going to offend me or something if he chows down.  Or maybe he's worried that the whole thing is a bureaucratic mistake and he wants to give me a chance to correct it before he passes the point of no return.

I dunno.  But I find it kind of weird.

That Was Interesting, But...

I've got no art to show off this week, nor has anyone else's work grabbed my attention... So, instead, I'll use this opportunity to announce my abandoning my blog's schedule.

I started it as an experiment - and I think it's run its course. Continuing it is starting to be a pain, and I've learned just about everything I was going to by this point, namely:

-People seem to like my political posts a lot more than anything else.
-Nerdy stuff comes in second.
-Everything else I blog about tends to generate very few hits.

I'll continue to try to keep a M-F schedule, but from now on I'll just blog about whatever grabs my interest.

Spacetime Invisibility

Yesterday, I was linked to by Warren Kinsella's blog. That lead to an extra 250 or so visitors than I normally get each day. I don't expect many (or, really, any) repeat visits - but it was still pretty cool. Even if I did call Mr. Kinsella a hack. (For the record, I meant it in the nicest possible way, just to highlight how big a deal it is that he's speaking out against Iggy's policy on Afghanistan.

If any of you did come back after yesterday - welcome! I really wasn't expecting that, but it's neat having you back.

Anyway, for today's topic... I thought this was pretty cool, so I figured I'd share: Theoretical Spacetime Invisibility Cloaks.

The basic idea is surprisingly simple. We see things because our eyes are able to interpret information from visible light. That light travels at, obviously enough, the speed of light, which means we see things once light has traveled from them to our eyes. Technically speaking, we never see anything the exact instant happens - there's always a time lag between the object and when we see it.

This is fairly well-known for anyone with an interest in astronomy. The Moon is one light-second away, the Sun a little over eight light-minutes away, the nearest star 4.3 light-years away, the nearest galaxy , and so on. There are time lags on even everyday distances, however impossibly slight. For something a meter away, we see it as it was about 1/300,000,000th of a second ago.

Here's how you use that information to build a spacetime cloak. All those times are for the speed of light in a vacuum, but light can slow down depending on what material it passes through. Researchers have slowed down light to as little as 38 miles per hour by sending it through a special, super-dense form of matter. And it's through carefully slowing down and speeding up light that we can create a temporal void.

Let's say you're standing a mile away from an observer. You start slowly decreasing the speed of the light traveling towards the observer so that it's only traveling at 60 miles per hour, or a mile per minute. Since you're slowing the light down gradually, the observer won't be able to perceive the change. Once the light has reached 60 miles per hour, the observer is now seeing you as you were one minute ago. You've now created a one minute spacetime corridor. You've now got a minute to do whatever you want without the observer having any idea what you're up to.

The Afghanistan Mission and the Liberal Party

 It's been quite a week for the Liberal Party.  It's also been quite a week for anyone who, like me, grows increasingly sick of Ignatief's weak, half-arsed "third way" leadership.

Now, like most Canadians I've never been particularly fond of Dion as the party leader, but Iggy's making me look back at Dion's brief days with nostalgia.  Thanks to Ignatief, the Liberals have come to be some of the Conservative Party's staunchest allies.

Oh, I know it doesn't look that way on paper.  At least, not with a cursory glance.  Pay attention, though, and you'll notice a pattern of Liberals being conspicuously absent from strategic votes - witness the way the vote for Bill C-300 went down (and that was their own bloody bill!) - making their efforts to battle Conservative policies highly disingenuous.  They're letting the CPC basically get their way with everything, from privatizing Crown corporations, to weakening environmental laws (even those related to offshore drilling, of all things), to killing important progressive legislation, and now their efforts even include extending the Afghanistan mission by a good three years.

Last week, I blogged about this last issue briefly, but I feel the need to return to the topic for a variety of reasons - one of which is the fact that even Warren Kinsella has come out against the Liberal handling of the Afghanistan issue:

You know, I was busy with last night’s gig (and a big shout out to my buddy BCL, who came by to take in the show) and feeling sorry for myself for my Man Cold©, so I didn’t get a chance to fully reflect on the following:
1.  The Prime Minister said last Fall that our combat mission in Afghanistan would end, and would be “a civilian humanitarian development mission after 2011.”
2.  The Liberal Party’s leader said this Spring that his party also favoured “a different role focusing on a humanitarian commitment” after 2011.
3. “Humanitarian.” They both used that word.
4.  After the Liberal leader abruptly changed his mind about all this “humanitarian” stuff, so did the Prime Minister.  Both of them now favour extending the war, and yet more combat roles for at least 1,000 troops.
5.  There’ll be no debate about any of this in Parliament, which is, you know, the Supreme Legislature of the People.  No one seems to give a shit about that.
6.  To drive in the final nail in democracy’s proverbial coffin, the Prime Minister emasculates his Minister of Defence, and sends out his press secretary to tell the rest of us that we’ll be at war for a few more years.  On political info-tainment shows.
7.  Got all that?  Whiplash-inducing reversals on all sides, open contempt for the legislature, cabinet ministers neutered in public, unelected hacks wielding the power of the executive.  Oh, and, more war.
8. More war.  Just like that, in the week where we are all supposed to be remembering why war is a bad thing.
9.  And political people actually wonder why both the Liberals and the Conservatives are dropping below 30 per cent in the polls, and why the NDP is moving up.  And they wonder why people are growing more and more cynical about democracy, and democratic institutions, and are angrily lashing out at politicians.
10.  Wonder no more.

For context, this is the same Warren Kinsella who's long been a Liberal party hack and even a high-ranking campaign coordinator.  Him coming out so strongly against a party's stated position is very rare.  So rare that I don't think it's ever actually happened before.

So, why would the Liberals stake out such a terrible position?

Basically, because Iggy, much like his "third way" liberalism, is stupid.  I strongly suspect Iggy was trying to stake out a position that would attract Red Tories of the CPC (the old guard who are supposedly non-crazy) away from Harper's neoconservativism and toward the Liberals.  Basically, they wanted to out-conservative - or at least pre-empt - Harper.  "Extend the mission with 400 troops?" they asked, scoffing, "Why, stop being such a girly man, Prime Minister!  You should have a full thousand!"

The problem with this plan is that it can't possibly work.  Harper's the one who made the announcement of the extension - trying to impress the less-than-30% of voters who actually like the idea by throwing a larger number out isn't good enough to attract them away from the CPC, because pro-War has long been the CPC's territory.  Harper basically has two choices at this point - he can say, "Nah, 400 will manage," at which point the pro-War crowd will continue licking Harper's feet and praising him for his wisdom, or else he can say "Sure, a thousand's even better," at which point he'll have conquered the idea as his own and the Liberals don't get any credit for it.  (Turns out, Harper actually said both, in the order I listed above.) 

 But by even making the suggestion in the first place, the Liberals can't speak out against the idea of the extension without coming across as a bunch of waffling wimps.

Which, of course, they are.

Which is why, of course, this is exactly what they did

“How many trainers? Where are they going to be? Are they going to be out of combat? How much is it going to cost? Why is it impossible for this government to give simple answers to clear questions that Canadians need to have answers to before they can approve any mission by this government,” Michael Ignatieff demanded.

These are meaningless and weak questions, and Ignatieff doesn't actually expect any answers - at this point it's just flailing.  Even NPD turncoat and third-way liberalism champion Rae admits that the Liberals can't do anything to really fight the CPC on this issue:

But, for now, they are hostages to Conservative policy, as Mr. Rae admitted. "We have done an unusual job for an official opposition and we are not -we are not in a position to negotiate a plan, we are not in a position to do anything...," he said after Question Period.

I've seen it speculated that the real issue here is the Liberal war chest.  Namely, that it's empty - if they were to go to election too soon, the party would implode from lack of funding.  So, they move politically rightward at every chance, hoping to eat away at CPC support, while biding for time to refill the war chests.  This hasn't been working, of course, because war chests get filled through strong leadership and brave ideological stances - something good leaders like Layton and Harper* have understood for some time.

Honestly, the state of the Liberal party, the poor leadership Iggy's giving them...  It really makes me miss Cretien.  Pepper-spray and all.

*Here I use the term "good" to mean "effective," not "kind" or "righteous" or the like.  Which should be obvious, since Harper's one of the few politicians in North America I'd unironically describe as evil.

Shower Products for Men

"It's the closest your face will ever come to being shaved BY A SPACESHIP!"

The Making of Tron

Anyone who knows me knows how excited I am about the upcoming Tron sequel.  The original hasn't particularly aged well, but as a kid I absolutely adored it - not just for the special effects, but also for the glimpses of the society inside the computer that the movie depicted.

Years ago I was lucky enough to see the Making of Tron feature in the anniversary edition DVD of the original movie.  For those who aren't so lucky, though, the entire feature is available on Youtube.  Watching it really drives home just how huge an undertaking the movie was at the time, and how far special effects technology has come in only thirty years.

Here's the first part (of 9).  The rest can be found going to Youtube directly.

Ghost Town completed

I finally finished Ghost Town, and you can find it here.  It's not quite what I was going for, but it's fairly close and honestly I was losing patience.  I doubt the rest of my buildings and neighbourhoods will have quite that level of detail.

To cleanse my palette, I also did a character design of Boss Lyubochka.

I think I'll try to tackle a bar interior next.

Samsung Unveils See-Through Monitor. Also, Japan is Still Weird.

That's cool, I guess.  But where's my rocket car?

Also!  A friend of mine, currently living in Japan, pointed out this video (or rather, a related one, but I like this one better) that I felt I had to share.  This is Hatsune Miku, a character mascot from a music software program called Vocaloid...  And she's giving a live concert here.  In holographic form.



S1m0ne is getting more and more prophetic every year.  Incredibly, I find myself wondering if Jem was similarly prophetic, but down that road lies madness.

And yet, I can't help but admit that this is kinda awesome.

The Afganistan Withdrawal Hornswoggle

For years now, we the public have been told that 2011 will be our last year of involvement in Afganistan.  As most are likely aware, this is no longer the case - Harper has announced that we'll be keeping 400 Canadian soldiers there to operate in a training capacity, and the Liberals countered his announcement with the suggestion that we should increase that number to an even thousand because...  well, because they're Liberals and the Liberal party is pretty shit right now.

Of course, this move surprises no one who's been paying attention.  Pogge pointed out, way back at the beginning of October, that the official line from both U.S. and Canadian governments weren't really meshing well with their own message:  namely that our planned withdrawal was putting the mission at jeopardy, that "it will be impossible to replace Canada's more than 1,000 combat troops without diminishing forces elsewhere in the country."  The reason this objection didn't make much sense is that our withdrawal was meant to occur at the same time as the planned drawdown of American troops in Afghanistan - which suggests that, in truth, the U.S. Government has little intention of actually reducing their forces.

The number of troops we're going to be keeping there during this farce of nation-building is yet to be determined - don't think for a second that the four hundred number Harper gave is in any way accurate, not with the Liberals giving him ample opportunity and excuse to boost that upwards considerably, nor with the concerted campaign to convince us that we really actually don't want to pull out anyway.  Our withdrawal may not even end up as a drawdown, at this rate.

Let's see... Tuesday? It's grey. I'll stay in bed.

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The Tim Burton Movie That Almost Was...

Back in the 90's, there were persistent rumours of a Tim Burton-directed Superman movie. Few details were known, but I recall one of the theories was that it would involve the electric Superman (dubbed Superman Blue) rather than the more classic supes, since that's the version that was in the comics at the time.

Turns out the rumours were pretty much spot on, as a gallery has recently been unveiled for what would have been Tim Burton's Superman Lives. You can view it here for epic lulz.

Really dodged a bullet on that one.

Tracy Butler is an Art Goddess

For she has done a thing! And much like most things she does, it is a beautiful thing!

Very illuminating to see her process, not the least because it really shows you exactly why so much time passes between her webcomic pages.

Retinal Chip Helps the Blind to See

Some smart folks in Germany figured out that they could help people with a certain kind of hereditary blindness see by inserting a subretinal implanted chip beneath the retinas of the blind.

One of the patients surprised researchers by identifying and locating objects on a table; he was also able to walk around a room unaided, approach specific people, tell the time from a clock face, and describe seven different shades of gray in front of him.

The particular type of eye disease this alleviates affects 200,000 people worldwide. The chip functions by "[replacing] the retina's cones and rods - its light receptors - which were lost in retinal degeneration."

The down side is that the test worked with 11 subjects; only three of them received any benefits, the others' conditions having progressed too far.

Still, it's a pretty major breakthrough in the fight for vision.

Hal-Con Report

This is a bit overdue, but I've been recovering from the trip.  Better late than never, though - regular posting returns tomorrow.

So, my thoughts about Hal-Con...

1.  It was way, way too crowded.  I think the organizers either were locked into the location after it became clear how many people were going to show up, or else they really didn't know what a thousand people would really be like.  At any rate, they needed at least twice the area they had.

2.  They were understaffed.  By 2 PM on day one I was already seeing Hal Con staff getting incredibly frazzled and short-fused.  Things only got worse as time went on, and sometimes innocent Con-goers would get on the wrong side of the volunteers' exhaustion.  They needed at least twice the staff they had to keep things working.

3.  Special mention for the security staff.  From what I could see, they had it worst of all of the volunteers, and it wasn't uncommon to find them yelling angrily at each other into their walkie-talkies, usually over something that's gone wrong.  But I'd neither seen nor heard about any of the security staff acting short-tempered with any of the Con-goers, so kudos to them.

4.  There weren't enough programs by a pretty huge margin.  In fact, they didn't even have enough programs for all the pre-registered guests.  Really, there's no excuse for this - why wouldn't they at least make sure they have enough for the people who'd paid for their tickets in advance?  They ran out of programs before the first day was half-over, and had to print out emergency single-day schedules - which they also ran out of quickly.  People who were showing up only for Saturday or Sunday weren't even given anything, despite paying $32 dollars.

5. The events themselves could have used more thought; the costume contest, for example, allowed so many last-minute entries that hardly any non-contestants were able to watch.

6. A number of the workshops and seminars were pretty cool, but were placed poorly.  About eight people had to walk out of the Writing Comics workshop, for example, because there weren't enough seats and they didn't feel like standing for the whole hour.

It was a rather poorly organized event, really.  Some of the things I'm willing to cut the organizers some slack with because this was their first Con and it was a learning process for them, but other things (like the lack of programs) are really inexcusable.


Now, despite all this, I did have fun...  But it was often in spite of the Con, rather than because of it. 
The real test will be next year - if the organizers have learned from their mistakes and avoid them next time around.

I thought this cartoon was quite amusing.  Done by that rapscallion animator Happy Harry.


This will be my last blog post for a while; I've got to spend time getting ready for Hal-Con.  My next blog post will be (late) Monday, where I'll hopefully a pictures and the like to share.

Legion Election

Apparently it's a bit of a tradition in the Legion of Superheroes to have a fan-vote election for the next leader of everyone's favourite teenagers-in-the-future superteam. Prior to a few days ago, I had no idea this was the case, despite having read the series off-and-on over the years.

You can cast your vote for the candidate of your choice here.

And you should definitely go and vote! Why? Because, as Mightygodking points out, one of the candidates is a forward-thinking, charity-minded, red-blooded socialist! And he's even a half-slug-caterpillar-bird thing from the planet Vyrga. With teleportation powers.

So vote for Gates today!

100 Posts!

This is the hundredth post I've made on my blog.

Um... Yay, me?

Sadly, I still don't have any completed arts... But I can show off the stages I've gone through with my current art project, trying to design a neighbourhood I call Ghost Town:

Here's the initial sketch.

After that, I decide on my palette and get all my flat colours set down.  (This one I've shown before...)

Next, I start adding the big details.  (You may notice I've changed the dimensions of the barber shop and lamp post on the left side of the painting.)

And then I start zooming in on the little details (at this point, mostly the brick-work in the buildings.)

And that's where I am now.  I've still got a long way to go before it's done, though.

* * * *

And in other news, the premier is already starting to talk about school-related cutbacks - and has already frozen the Early Adopter School Initiative.  That's the program for getting laptops into classrooms throughout the province.  Ain't that just swell?

Finger-Licking Ugh

This is mechanically separated chicken.

 

If you've ever eaten a Chicken McNugget, or bought pre-fab chicken nuggets from the grocery store, then you've had some of this before.

It contains:

-All sorts of parts of the chicken people don't normally eat.

-Ammonia (to kill the massive amounts of bacteria).

-Artificial flavouring (hence the pink colour).

Next they'll add food colouring so it doesn't look pink anymore.

For the record, this is also available in beef, turkey, and pork versions.  Pre-fab burgers anyone?

Guys?  Meat shouldn't look like ice cream, guys. 

UPDATE:

Found this video on the topic:

Also this one, which is less catchy but has better visuals:

Omar Khadr set to Plead

Omar Khadr, a young man who was taken prisoner in Afghanistan while fighting NATO forces alongside the Taliban in 2002. He was 15 at the time; he captured while wounded, probably tortured, interrogated at length, intimidated and threatened with many things including rape and murder, and held for years without access to a lawyer. He was eventually given not a trial, but a tribunal, and is currently in the midst of his second military tribunal to determine his guilt or innocence.

He's also a Canadian citizen, albeit one whose plight has been largely ignored by Canada's reigning governments.

Indeed, successive Canadian governments have refused to seek extradition or repatriation despite the fact that groups like Amnesty International urged doing so. In fact, not only did Canada fail him - as established by the Canadian Cabinet, the Federal Court of Canada, and then the Supreme Court of Canada, resptively - we've spent $1.3 million making sure that he stays in Guantanamo... Rather than fighting for his Charter Rights.

According to the buzz in the media, he's about to plead to a lesser charge. As a result, he'll serve eight years, and will likely be made to withhold any formal accusations of torture - much like what happened with John Walker Lindh's own plea bargain.

I'm not going to talk about this, though, because I'm sure there are plenty of news sites, and plenty of other blogs, where you can hear all about this stuff. Instead, I'm going to focus on a narrative I fear is about to grow through certain media sources - one which I find incredibly ugly, particularly given everything this young man has already been forced to endure.

There are certain groups who are doing their level best to make sure Khadr's repatriation won't happen. This includes one purported "expert on evil" by the name of Dr. Michael Welner:

In an exclusive interview, Dr. Michael Welner says Khadr is known to have expressed peace-loving intentions only to "those advancing his public image" from behind the razor wire at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Welner also discounts much-cited comments by some U.S. guards at Guantanamo that the Toronto native is a "good kid" and "salvageable" - calling them "shallow in their prognostic significance."

"When one leaps to the conclusion about Omar Khadr's future because he is friendly, one might recall that Osama bin Laden has always been described as gentle, likable and charming," New York-based Welner told Postmedia News.

"There is no record of (Khadr's) publicly repudiating al-Qaida, as civilized Muslims should, not even a letter composed for him by Dennis Edney," he added in a reference to one of Khadr's two Canadian lawyers. There is "no call . . . to radical Islamists to mature beyond their elemental intolerance."

Welner, 46, spoke as the Canadian government faces the prospect of soon receiving a call for Khadr to be transferred to a Canadian jail in the event he is convicted of war crimes charges he faces in a Guantanamo military commission.

This Doctor, and I use the term loosely, has created what he calls "the Depravity Scale," purportedly a "achieve a scientific-legal standardization of evil." I expect this Doctor, again a term I'm using loosely, will get a lot of face-time from certain news sources.

Let's be clear, though: The man's a quack. There's no such thing as a scientific measure of evil. The whole idea doesn't even make any sense.

Looking through the sources Welner used to build his scale reveals all of a single reference to an actual, academic journal (Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law). His scale never went through any sort of peer-review process, either - it was an editorial. This is exactly as scientific as measuring someone's skull to determine whether they're likely to commit murder. Or, to use a more modern example, diluting medicine to make it more effective.

And yet Dr. Welner is trying to use this system he invented whole-cloth from his imagination to make Khadr's situation even more miserable.

This poor man has spent a third of his life in prison, terribly mistreated, denied a fair and open trial, and now is likely to spend yet another eight years behind bars. But this still isn't enough Dr. Welner.

For shame, Dr. Welner. For shame.

This is the Best Campaign Attack Ad

Well, it is.

Is Your Kung-Fu Strong Enough?

A pair of martial artist sisters in China have been having trouble finding a suitor whose kung-fu is strong enough to be worthy of them, it seems, so they've arranged a tournament for would-be suitors.  Only those strong enough to make it through the tourney, and then best them in one-on-one combat, win their masks...  And their hands in marriage.

Avoid, rather than hug.  Hug, rather than kiss.  Kiss, rather than fondle.  Fondle, rather than...  well, you get where I'm going with this, oui?

As unbelievably awesome as this sounds, I'm not making any of this up.


And what might be the best typo of all time:

Marital arts experts Xiao Lin, 22, and little sister Yin, 21

Then again, maybe it wasn't a typo?

BONUS POST! That Sure Didn't Take Long...

Argh!  I just couldn't wait until Wednesday to blog about this one...

The PCs have barely gotten into power, and they're already talking about selling off Crown property.  Y'know, like how the Libs tried to sell off NB Power, and it got everyone all pissed off about it?  And then of course the Tories utilized that anger in their campaign...

It's not NB Power this time, though.  No, it's NB Liquor that they're talking about selling off.

Allain said the corporation is well run and profitable and that employees do a good job. But given New Brunswick's $749-million deficit, he'll look at whether privatizing it makes sense.

I can save you some time there, Allain. It doesn't.

This makes even less sense than the sale of NB Power, since NB Liquor is, by their own admission, an even better-run company.  And unlike NB Power, there's little to no chance of NB Liquor ever running in the red anytime soon.  It is, and shall remain, a viable source of income for funding government works and paying down the deficit for decades to come...  AS LONG AS YOU BASTARDS DON'T SELL IT.

The fact that this is even under discussion, particularly after the last NB Election, should scare New Brunswickers.

It's just so maddeningly stupid, and so very much against the tone of their campaign ("Don't vote Liberal, they tried to sell off Crown property!  Crown property that belongs to all of you!") that I cannot help but feel lied to.  Of course, they didn't campaign specifically on the promise of not selling off NB Liquor, so I guess that will give die-hard Tory voters a talking point to fall back on should they ever be called on putting these jerks in power.  Allain doesn't even officially start the job until Monday and he's already pissing me off!

Oh, and get this:

Earlier this month, the Crown corporation refused to release the internal report on NB Liquor's compensation packages for executives.

Allain said he doesn't approve of witholding information.

"New Brunswickers own NB Liquor right now, so the owners should have access to transparency. That's one of the fundamental beliefs that this government has and we're certainly going to be doing that."

However, Allain would not commit to releasing the report.

Emphasis mine.  It's like they're not even trying! It just makes me want to... want to...

GRRR!  ANGRY!

Project Rooftop

Project Rooftop is a really fun site frequented by an assortment of artists (professional and amateur) who are all head-and-shoulders better at the craft than I am.  The site is dedicated to remixing/redesigning classic superhero costumes - trying to get something new and fun for an established hero or villain without losing the essential qualities that made the character's original costume unique and recognizable.

Each entry is judged by the site's panel of judges, who discuss their own particular philosophies about what makes a good costume in doing so.  I don't always agree, but it's usually very insightful.

All in all, it's a site I keep going back to in order to, both for learning and inspiration.

That's a redesign of Luke Cage by Ray-Anthony Height.  Luke Cage hasn't really had an actual costume since the eighties (which was this).  Check out the PR page itself for many, many more.

How To Decipher a CPC Press Release

From here.

On Tuesday, Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, and Christian Paradis, Minister of Natural Resources, released an update on our Government’s economic and fiscal projections – for the first time showing a return to a balanced budget.

...by "balanced budget" they mean "largest deficit in history."

(In the interest of fairness, and to make sure I'm not misleading my readers, this is true in terms of raw numbers. As a percentage of the GDP, though, Mulroney's deficit was larger. So depending on how you look at it, this might only be the second-largest deficit in Canadian history. NOICE!)

With help from Canada’s Economic Action Plan, Canadians are recovering from the economic recession, and getting back on their feet. In fact, since July 2009, our Conservative Government has helped create over 400,000 new jobs across the country.

Notice they don't mention anything about all the jobs that Canada's been bleeding out lately. Nor does it point out how many of those 400,000 jobs are full-time, how many are part-time, and how many are seasonal. I won't go into any spoilers here, but here's a hint: Knowing these things makes that 400,000 figure a lot less impressive.

And while we continue to help Canadians make ends meet, our Government is looking ahead to balanced budgets, and building a strong foundation for future economic growth.

Help Canadians make ends meet... Except for all those Canadians who are unemployed. Or underemployed. Or having trouble with the rising costs of food or education or whatever. But it's not like they count.

Today’s update shows that our Government’s plan is on track. The federal deficit will be lower this year than previously forecasted.

This is really easy to do. I can do it myself, in fact. Watch.

Me: "I predict that I will lose $200 at this casino."

*enters casino, bets $150 at the craps table, loses it all*

Me: "My losses are much less than was previously predicted. Yay me!"

And for the first time since the global recession, we are forecasting a balanced budget.

"Forecasted." This means that they're really, really hoping the economy will grow enough that they can keep doing what they're doing and then, maybe, by 2015, everything will just magically fall into place.

I'm not kidding. 2015 is the year that they're talking about when they say

While Canada is on the right track, our recovery remains fragile. That’s why our primary focus must remain jobs and growth.

*cough* seasonal, part-time jobs... *cough*

Clearly, the Harper Government is helping solidify Canada’s recovery. By contrast, the Ignatieff/ NDP/Bloc-Québécois Coalition plans to raise job-killing taxes such as payroll taxes, by bringing in a 45-day work year. This would halt our recovery in its tracks and, according to experts, kill almost 400,000 jobs.

Ah, yes, the coalition boogeyman.

"Beware the Coalition!  It comes to devour your child-folk!  Ooga-booga!"

 Our Conservative Government will not put the economic recovery in jeopardy.  We will continue to prioritize the economy and the implementation of Canada’s Economic Action Plan.

This is the same Action Plan that I've previously made fun of. Well, aspects of it at least. To be fair, there are significant parts of the CEAP of which I'm in favour, even if I suspect it's not really being implemented in the best way.

* * * * *

By the by, if you're wondering what the 45-day work year this press release was talking about, it's a reference to Bill C-308. This was a Bloc bill that reduced the number of days required to qualify for EI benefits to 45. There's a bit about it here.

That evil coalition obviously doesn't have much of a united front, since Ignatief's Libs killed it.

Said Ignatief:

Ignatieff said upgrades of the EI benefits, an idea he once supported and an issue over which he threatened a year ago to force an election, are too expensive and no longer needed.

Just so's you know how big a shitheel Ignatieff is, when he supported the bill unemployment was at 8.3%. It's currently at 8.1%. WHY YES IGGY THAT IS ONE HUGE POLICY-CHANGING DIFFERENCE THERE.

To this unexpected change of vote, Layton rejoined:

"I guess there's not much room for the unemployed in the big red tent."

Oh, snap!

Alward and Voting Reform

Yesterday, our new Premier David Alward unveiled his cabinet accompanied by some very strong words on the New Brunswick economy. Or perhaps they just seemed strong to me; it's pretty standard for a new government to remark in a slightly-optimistic way on the great challenges that lay ahead and how it will require solidarity with the voting public to meet them and blah blah blah. Still, when you use the word "despair" in your speech? I dunno, that doesn't strike me as a terribly good sign, even if it's as part of a sentence not asking people to fall into it.

Still, reading about his cabinet team and the overwhelming majority government they'll be heading up brings to mind the sad state of affairs found with our electoral process, which has been getting a lot of attention in the press lately.

In 2006, Bernard Lord claimed he was going to initiate a referendum on voter reform as a result of the 2005 report by the Commission on Legislative Democracy. He promised to do this once he was elected, Scout's honour. I have my doubts as to whether he would have gone through with it or if it would have become part of the PC government's traditionally high number of broken promises,* but it's all academic because the fact remains he wasn't elected. Instead, we received a Liberal majority with a minority of votes.

This last election was even worse, with 76% of the seats going to the PC party, while only receiving 49% of the votes. Of course, nothing will ever quite match the hilarity of 1987's election, where the Liberals managed to turn 60% of the popular vote into 100% of the seats in the Legislature. That was really something.

And yet, it still wasn't enough to get New Brunswickers to agitate for a change to the system.

Credit where it's due - I had no idea that Lord had promised any such referendum until it was pointed out to me recently. It still surprises me... And even if it was an empty promise, that's more than I would have expected from either of our big two.

I wish that Alward would follow in Lord's footsteps and call for a Referendum on the Commission's recommendations.** I'm not going to be holding my breath, though. While the system as it stands is pretty fundamentally broken, it's broken in a way that works for both the Grits and the Tories. They've both been bitten by the system, but it's also benefited them greatly in turn. Fundamentally, neither party likes having to compromise - governing from common ground, making deals with other parties to form and enact legislation, these things are much harder than just holding out until you get the majority (which you'll do eventually, you just have to be patient). Then you can get all the stuff you want pushed through without much problem.

What's the answer? Well, amazingly, the papers I've been seeing lately have been helping - a number of editorials have been calling for Proportional Representation. But that's not enough. I tend to think that, absent a sudden NDP/Green welling of support in New Brunswick (two parties that support PR and the Commission's recommendations), Elsie Hambrook is correct in that it really needs a champion.

I'd be ecstatic if it turned out to be the current Tory government, or even elements within it, that became that champion. It would prove most of my thoughts about them wrong. Like I said, though... I'm not holding my breath.

If you feel like I do, you might want to consider joining the Facebook group New Brunswickers for Proportional Representation.  Not that Facebook groups count for much, but at least it's somewhere to start.

* = Not that the Liberals are much better. About the only major party in New Brunswick that's never broken its promises is the NDP, by virtue of never having won more than a single seat at a time. Ugh.


** = For those interested, Elsie Hambrook wrote what those recommendations were:

In the mixed-member proportional representation that was recommended for New Brunswick by the Commission on Legislative Democracy in 2005, about 35 MLAs would be elected as per usual, from ridings, and 20 regional seats would be filled from a list of candidates presented by parties, according to each party's share of the vote. Voters would cast two ballots, to elect a local MLA and to choose a party.

I Guess Sesame Street Isn't Completely Worthless These Days...

At least, I laughed pretty hard at this.



(In case anyone reading this has been living under a rock and has no idea what Grover's doing, look here.)

I've Never Been a Big Avengers Fan...

So I guess I never quite realized just how silly Ant Man's history got over the years.*

That's just the first panel of several.  You can see the rest here.

* Still nothing compared to Hawkman's, but for a completely different meaning of the word "silly."

Space Cadet

I don't have anything to show of my own, so here's a couple of videos I find pretty inspirational.  They're by Joshua Middleton, who's one of the best cover artists in the comic business.  He's pretty much a master of the craft.  Part 1 is here:


And part 2 is here:



Pretty cool music, too.