Links of the Day

Disney To Buy Marvel for $4 Billion - Marvel Entertainment, home of Spider-Man, X-Men, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man and more than 5000 characters, is soon to be part of the Disney empire. The deal will net around $50 for each for Marvel stockholders making me wish I had bought some back in 1997 when it was going for less than a $1 each instead of buying Marvel comics that now just collecting dust. What this means for Marvel isn't clear as they have a lot of contracts with other businesses for movies, video games, and merchandising that has to expire before Disney can do their thing. One critical question is what will this mean for Marvel Comics - will they get "Disney-fied" or will they be allowed to run mostly autonomously?

100 Years of Visual Effects - A pretty good compilation that shows the evolution of special effects.


Bad Boys 3 Screenwriter Hired - Peter Craig has been hired to write the script for the movie that ignited the careers of Michael Bay, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. I guess all three have indicated they are willing to come back and Sony is willing to pony up the truckloads of cash as likely bringing all three on board will account for at least the first $50 million of the budget if not more. How this effects production of Transformers 3 is currently unknown since a script doesn't necessarily mean a green lit movie.

EVE Online Bank Near Failure - In a case of the online world mimicking the real world, the MMORPG's largest player run bank is on the brink of failure after its "CEO" embezzled 200 billion game credits from the virtual bank and sold it in year life. This combined with general mismanagement has resulted in a 1.2 trillion credit deficit that has resulted in player's accounts being frozen for withdrawal. What impact this will have on the game world is currently unknown but it should be interesting to see as it demonstrates how real world theories on commerce affect even the fake world of the virtual marketplace.

God of War Collection - God of War I and II will get a 720p HD upgrade with a re-release for the PS3 for $40 this holiday season. What, if any, extras are unknown except that Trophies will be added to the game.

Links of the Day

Unboxing Batman: Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition and Review - The game itself is getting universally good reviews but is it worth it to pay an additional $40 or so for the Collector's Edition? Hopefully the review below will help in that decision. For me, the plastic (rather than metal) Batarang isn't enough to pay that kind of money so I will take a pass and just get the regular edition.


Why Are Senior Citizens Crying "Socialism"? - The link provides some analysis but to me the short answer is because they are stupid. You have to be if you’re against healthcare reform because its socialism while at the same time you’re drawing from socialism programs of Medicare and Social Security. This doesn't include other socialism programs of public education, emergency services, armed services, roadways and highways, and so much more. I seriously doubt any of them would willing give up any of the many socialism acts of the US government for those anti-Socialism ideals they suddenly grew out of nowhere thanks to the GOP taking advantage of their ignorance.

Most Dangerous Celebs to Search - According to a report from McAfee, compiled in who knows what way because that would require the press doing more than rewriting a press release, Jessica Biel and Brad Pitt are the most dangerous celebs to Google as their results can lead to websites with viruses and spyware.

Why Neoconservatives Love Jon Stewart - An interesting article that claims conservatives, who usually loathe to be challenged and stick to GOP friendly places like Fox News or radio, seem to like the liberal Jon Stewart. Supposedly because he is intelligent and aware but really because he lets them speak their garbage in complete sentences rather than interrupting constantly as their GOP counterparts like O'Reilly ("cut his mic!"), Hannity, and others like to do.

How USB Flash Drives Are Made - A video that shows how a flash drive is manufactured by Kingston. I found it interesting, especially the parts that involve more human input then I would have thought. I figured it was basically a start to finish machine operation but not quite.

Links of the Day

Lego Voltron Figure - Click the link for a full gallery of Lego Voltron that has its five cat modes and robot mode. Very cool and something wish was available at a local toy store to purchase.

Roger Ebert Comments on Healthcare Debate - I am pretty much in agreement with Roger Ebert when he call providing healthcare to all a moral imperative. I just think its good fiscal policy. Rather than people waiting for issues to reach the critical range when if often very expensive to treat with a hospital stay, they are more inclined to deal with it when a visit to the doctor and a prescription would have taken care of it. Measure that by millions and the savings cost can be measured in billions. What really annoys me though is those that hate it confuse communism with socialism and don't have enough sense to recognize that socialism has been a part of America from nearly day one. What do you call the police, emergency services, Medicare, the Armed Services, education and so much more? All of those are socialistic programs. How stupid do you have to be to not know this while complaining that healthcare shouldn't be done because its "socialism"?

10 MacGyver-like Tricks - Click the link for a few cheap and easy ways of fixing a few household problems such as diffusing a camera flash, making an iPhone dock out of anything, using nail polish for a bug bite, drying out a wet cell phone, and more. My personal favorite is using canned air and hair dryer to fix car dents.

Michael Jackson Murdered? - Preliminary results indicate that Michael Jackson may have died from an overdose of propofol, a sedative he used to help him sleep. This is on top of an extensive list of drugs the singer took on a regular basis. One source indicated the coroner ruled the death a homicide but that has not been verified. Considering Jackson's love of drugs to manage his lifestyle, I don't see any attempt at prosecution being successful.

8-Bit Lego Trip - Cool video with Legos and stop motion that pays a homage to the 8-bit era of video games.

Links of the Day

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Expansion Trailer - At Blizzcon '09 today, the next expansion of the most popular MMORPG in the world is getting a new expansion that will include cap level increase to 85, new quests, dungeons, instances and more including transforming existing land and characters into something new that will probably lead to re-exploring the land. More details of the release can be found here.


Pallet Shipped for One Power Cord - The picture to the left is what HP chose to ship a 10 foot PC power cord in. Those cords could almost be tossed in a letter size padded envelope and even that might be too big. It’s pretty amazing that someone went through this level of trouble to ship such a small item.

Avatar Teaser Trailer - The new teaser trailer for James Cameron first movie since Titanic. The result is visually appealing but doesn't really tell you anything about the story or characters.

Barney Frank Nails An Idiot - This is how you handle the ignorant healthcare protestors whose knowledge of the issue essentially extends to repeating whatever Limbaugh, Hannity, or Beck said in the last few days. This one for instance apparently doesn't have any grasp of history whatsoever and Frank basically admits that talking to her is a waste of time as nothing will be accomplished anyway.


Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Trailer - The next game in the Castlevania series will be an action game in the vein of God of War if this trailer is indication. The voice cast is phenomenal, the graphics look good and hopefully the game play and story will be too.

New PS3 Slim and Starcraft II News

Playstation 3 Slim Officially Announced - The worst kept secret in video games is now official and hits stores shelves starting around September 1st with a $100 price drop. The new system, which is 33% smaller and 36% lighter is essentially identical to the current models (i.e. no PS2 backward compatibility) but with 120 GB hard drive and $299 price tag. For a video of the unboxing of the system, click here. If interested in buying the PS3 Slim from Amazon be sure to use the link to the left so my sites get some of the credit.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Hands-On - The game is probably six plus months away from release but portions of the single player campaign was made available for various game sites to play. Click the link for Joystik's first impressions of the game that looks like is going to be a must have game of the year.

Starcraft II's Dustin Browder Interview - Main lead on the development of the game, he talks about development of the game, the delay to 2010 for release, achievements, matchmaking system, Easter eggs, and much more.

Starcraft II Andy Chambers Interview - Discussion with creative director of the game as he discusses the single player story line which takes place about four years after the end of the Brood War storyline. The game has over 4000 lines of recorded dialogue.

Starcraft II Cinematic Trailer and Gameplay - Two videos, one shows off a cinematic sequence for the game and the other shows off various single player maps.

Links of the Day

Mickey Mouse Copyright - As the chart indicates, how copyright duration has changed over the last 100 years, mostly defined by how close the Mickey Mouse copyright came to entering public domain. It use to be that items would enter public domain after a certain period of time but now that is unlikely to happen as lobbyist get Congress to extend the date which is currently 70 years after the creators death. Just another example of how copyright, patents and more are broken systems.

Avatar Sneak Coming Soon - Apparently James Cameron's next epic might get a 15 minute sneak peak next Friday at Imax 3-D theatres worldwide at 6 and 6:30pm. The website is reporting that the tickets will be available at noon PDT on Monday at the Avatar website on a first come first serve basis.

Clueless Town Hall Protester - It’s amazing how a little ignorance can go a long way as the video shows below. This random housewife of clearly limited knowledge has suddenly become absolutely angry about the healthcare debate (despite her own coverage being one of the worst I have heard of). Apparently the last 20 years couldn't get her dander up but this is the final straw! How much you want to bet all her information comes from Fox News and Glenn Beck? In this day and age with the ease of getting information from multiple perspectives, her ignorance on even the basics is pathetic and inexcusable.


GOP's Real Reason for Fighting Healthcare - Let's face it. If you look at the GOP for the last 60 years their core platform is "whatever makes big business happy" + "scare the public with a boogeyman argument". In the Healthcare debate the question then is what are they protecting big business for? It turns out record profits is the motive. Based on SEC filings, during the Bush years (2000-2007) Health insurance companies have enjoyed a 428% increase in profits from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion. During this same period 19% less Americans have insurance. This is why the GOP is fighting so hard and why they are using boogeyman arguments ("death squads") to fight any reform as the insurance companies are scared to death that their will cease to enjoy record profits. When the GOP is fighting something there is always, without exception, a big business motive behind the action. They do nothing out of kindness, only out of lust for money.

Special Comment - Stop the Lies

Sadly the health care coverage has devolved into a mess in this country. With a skill that only the GOP and their followers of stupid can manage, they have changed to conversation about health care into something other than how to fix it. The concern, magically, has become about fiscal policy at least for a few that are vaguely aware. For most though the argument is become just how unfair they think the world is because their team is not in charge of things. For the last 8 years it was "Bush knows what is best, don't argue with your President in a time of war!" to basically disagreeing with a great deal of hate and anger with anything and everything that is done, often by people who themselves need the help. If check the town hall meetings, often the most angry are older white men who are probably on Medicare complaining that the government will decide their healthcare and completely oblivious to the irony.

As Keith Olbermann points out below, all this is only fueled by the Republican machine of lies led by Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck. They don't counter with truth (the costs, better alternative plans, etc); no they counter with "death camps" and pretty much anything else they can make up. Newt, when confronts with "its not in the bill" lamely responds "its 1,000 pages long" basically meaning "I can make up whatever I want to get the idiotic base fired up and mad!". God forbid a rational argument be held using actually. I honestly don't know what is worse, that the "leaders" of the GOP are essentially trying to incite their followers to violence with lies or that their base after 8 years of similar lies continue to eat it up with a grin on their face and unquestioned obedience, not much better than a dog that fetches simply because his master told him too.

Links of the Day

The Ballad of GI Joe - From Funny or Die and starring some actual stars like Alexis Bledel (Lady Jaye), Billy Crudup (Zartan), Julianne Moore (Scarlett) and more in costume in brief appearances in this music video about how the various GI Joe characters spend their off days. I think my favorite is Olivia Wilde as the Baroness; she in glasses is just fantastic eye candy.

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

InvisibleHand 1.5 - Firefox add-on that checks 50 or so US and UK retailers to make sure that the item you are looking at isn't better priced elsewhere.

Kick-Ass Trailer - As shown at the San Diego Comic Con, this trailer is for the movie based on the comic book miniseries about a boy that decides to become a real superhero (but minus the powers). This inspires a dad and daughter team to enter the vigilante business and their methods are much more violent.


Super Michael Jackson Bros - Amusing video that puts the King of Pop in Super Mario Bros. It’s actually nearly a year old and yet it remains amusing.

John Hughes Dead at 59

John Hughes, king of the 1980s teen comedies, passed away today due to a heart attack at the age of 59. He wrote and directed many beloved films that still influence the work of today including The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Beuller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, and Home Alone. There are many stars in Hollywood that owe their career and continued paychecks to his efforts. He leaves a film legacy that few others have achieved in both acclaim and box office bucks. Condolences to his surviving family of a wife, two sons and four grandchildren.

John Hughes
2/18/1950 - 8/6/2009

Click here for a great story about the director and writer that conveys his humanity from the perpective of a fan and pen pal.

Links of the Day

Journalists Freed - Two journalists have finally been freed from North Korea thanks to a visit from former President Bill Clinton. The journalists were jailed for essentially planning on writing stories that were not flattering to the country. Of course, Fox News thinks they should have served their 10 years for doing their jobs (makes you wonder what their own journalists are feeling about that right about now). Overall a good day and a sign that Bill Clinton still has the mojo that Bush will never have.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

MegaMan Game History - Click the link for a large picture diagram that shows all the Mega Man games created for the storied franchise and all its iterations across pretty much every gaming platform since the NES. Personally I miss the original Mega Man games.

Starcraft II Delayed - To probably the surprise of no one, the game has been delay. The plan now is for a first quarter 2010 release but I suspect that April to May is the more likely date.

Paula Abdul Quits American Idol - The link breaks down the likely reasons why but really everyone knew her days were numbered when that fourth judge was added as insurance in case one of them bailed. The cause comes down to money, she wanted a few million more (not clear if per episode or season) and Fox said no. Time will tell if this will impact ratings but I suspect they will not show more than a minor hiccup.

Windows 7 Review and Features - Long story short, Vista sucks, get this version instead which is what Vista was supposed to be. If you buy any machine make sure it has the free Win 7 upgrade. I haven't used it but have noticed that essentially everyone that panned Vista is universal in their agreement that 7 is a good buy.

Special Comment on Health Care

Keith Olbermann knocked another one out of the part regarding the health care debate as the American public allows themselves to be lied to be Republicans and "Blue Dog" Democrats who have been clearly bought by the health care system who are worried that a public option would create the competition of good and services that up to know they have not really had to worry about.

They like to talk about how the government can't run anything, find let’s say that is true then what is the harm of the public option? Why fight it so desperately if it’s nothing to worry about. They say "hey do you want a bureaucrat deciding your care?" Well assuming you can even afford it, don't they anyway? Who makes the decision on what is covered and what isn't? Who decided how much the insurance will pay out and how much you have to? Oh yeah corporate bureaucrats who actually get raises and bonuses for making things better for the company at the expense of your health.

They say "what about the costs?" Yes what about them? What do you think happens when a simply flu that could have been taken care of with a quick doctor visit and anti-biotics turns into a medical emergency requiring hospital care simply because the person couldn't afford that initial visit? Which is cheaper? Getting people to see the doctor when they need to or making them delay until their own bodies takes the choice away? Now imagine that scenario times millions. That is why it will be cheaper, simply because people will get the cheaper care they need rather than waiting until a much more expensive consequence occurs.

The final argument is "what about your choices of coverage?" What choices? Unless you work the government you have one choice, whatever your employer decides if that. If you have a pre-existing condition and no coverage from an employer, the "choice" is made for you - you’re just out of luck. There is no choice in medical care anymore then there is choice is cable coverage, or gas or anything else. Sure they all have different names but the "choice" of cost and extent of coverage remains oddly uniform and lacking in any real competition.

There is no marketplace; there is no proof of capitalism when it comes to healthcare. The choice people need to make is do they want the Republican solution - do nothing or the Democrat solution - do something, anything that is better the current system. To me the choice is simply, something is better than nothing and that is the choice we really have right now.