Nerd HQ San Diego Comic-Con Panels

One of the fun things (at least for those that can't attend) about the San Diego Comic Con is the panels. However, while sometimes the actors and what not embrace the whole experience, most stay in "sales pitch" mode. As a result, 5th annual Nerd HQ results in much better panels as the more intimate setting (only a few hundred people in the room) along with panelists who are volunteering their time rather then completing some marketing obligation The highlights this year, besides the always entertaining Nathan Fillion and Joss Whedon, include the cast of Doctor Who, cast of The Maze Runner, Once Upon a Time, Stephen Amell (Arrow), cast of Mr. Robot and a whole bunch more. If you want to pick and choose which videos to watch, click here.

Avengers: Age of Ultron Teaser Trailer

In what was intended to be a boost to the ratings of Agents of SHIELD was foiled when Hydra leaked an early crappy copy of the teaser Wednesday night. Said video spread across the internet like wild fire forcing Marvel to release the below HD version that does a good job of revealing nothing while looking exciting.

Beautiful Time-lapse Compilations from the ISS

Take a few minutes and enjoy the grandeur of Earth from the International Space Station in the two compilation videos edited by David Peterson using footage from ISS Astronauts including Don Pettit. (via i09)

San Diego Comic Con 2013 Panel Links

About two weeks ago, the movie, TV and comic book world converged at San Diego Comic-Con 2013. Held from July 18-21, 2013, the con has essentially been taken over by Hollywood to promote upcoming movies, reveal a few tidbits of news (mostly movie titles), and talk about the next season of TV shows. The comics and toys still get their time but usually not nearly the same volume of press attention. Any case this year was chock full of panels. In the past I tried to link to all of them but frankly the effort vs read count is way to low to put that kind of effort in so instead I am linking to a bunch of YouTube channels I used to watch many of the panels that interested me. Check them out, might find some great stuff like Joss Whedon's panel, Marvel movie panel and bunch more.

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Linkfest - Batcave, Taxes, Time-Lapse, and The West Wing

This linkfest is politics heavy (election coming up after all) but to start things light there is a look at a cool Batcave. After that the politics kick in with look at why tax cuts without strings do not work, the lies of Romney/Ryan and an essay about failings of both parties. If want to skip the politics, after those links to info on the update Nook HD, a cool time-lapse video, and brief reunion of the West Wing cast. Massive Lego Batcave
Hit the link to view a gallery of a gorgeous Lego version of the Batcave. The huge structure was built by Carlyle Livingston II and Wayne Hussey over the course of six months. It took over 20,000 Lego and weighs more than 100 pounds. It has little touches like built in lighting, motors to the Batmobile turntable, rotating costume and weapon walls, and moving Batplane lift. (via Brothers Brick)

Tax Cuts Without Strings Do Not Work
The Romney/Ryan ticket is proposing a 20% tax cut, mostly for the rich, with little means to pay for it. They claim it will boost the economy. They are wrong. The human condition along is why it will fail, even if ignore the failure that the last six tax cuts had on boosting the economy. This isn't to say a tax cut can't work, but it must be done with conditions or incentives. This is not a new idea, the states do it all the time. They offer tax cuts if corporations move their headquarters, build a factory, create jobs, buy supplies from a company in the states, whatever. That has proven to work.

Linkfest - Romney Gaffes Again

Romney: 47% of Country are Lazy Freeloaders
In a video (link above) authenticated by Mother Jones, Mitt Romney said "...there are 47 percent who are with [Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. ...my job is not to worry about those people." In short, Romney said anyone who votes for Obama is a lazy freeloading victim. Last I checked, I have not freeloaded, worked full time since I was 16 and fortunately have not been a victim of anything except my own stupidity. The amazing thing is Romney held a rushed press conference where he stood by his comments brushing them off as "not elegantly stated" begging the question of the what elegant version sounds like. Amazing that for a man that can flip flop on any issue depending on what direction the wind is blowing takes stance of refusing to back down no matter what once embarrassed by a mistake. George W Bush behaved that way too often damaging results.

While that was one of the worse, those were not all of the ill-conceived, rich people matter most, comments from the governor. His belief that only the rich don't pay taxes isn't really true, turns out a whole lot of American's across the entire tax bracket spectrum have successfully gamed the system to pay no income tax (emphasis on income as that doesn't include all kinds of other taxes that pretty much everyone pays daily). He going to close their loopholes? Probably not. His disdain for anyone that isn't rich should not be surprising when he admitted in an interview that "middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less." The Census Bureau pegs the real median household income at $50,000. Remember his definition when he says he will cut taxes for the middle class because he really means the rich version of middle class and 99% of us are not in the category.

Linkfest - GOP's Legitimate Rape

It has been an interesting week for the GOP. They are coming off of the unexpected press blowup over the term "legitimate rape". A concept the party has quietly supported for decades and often spoken of by the GOP even if not quite such stark terms. Then you have the GOP convention that had the VP candidate get called out for a speech of lies by every news organization including Fox News and a speech from Romney that was remarkable for how unremarkable it was. Other topics include the Samsung vs Apple lawsuit and the end of Nintendo Power.

Legitimate Rape
It is weird how all it takes is a poor phrase to get people to wake up to a truth that has been around for a very long time. GOP's Rep. Todd Akin made the mistake of saying exactly what he thought of the idea of there being exceptions to abortion for rape or incest by saying in an interview "...from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." He later said he "misspoke" for the phrase he used but never apologized for what he meant which is if a woman got pregnant, she wanted the sex and therefore could not have been raped. The idea that pregnancy is proof of no rape has been around for literally centuries. At one time the victim by law would be forced to marry her rapist if she had got pregnant. That thinking is also shared by almost the entirety of the GOP who have made the concept of no exceptions central the the RNC platform for Romney's election and was part of a bill that his VP candidate Paul Ryan write and tried to push through Congress. Below are a few videos that illustrate just how stupid the whole concept is.

San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) 2012 Panels Links

Below are around 250 links to as little over 100 panels from the 2012 San Diego Comic Con. Even more panels were held but this is all I could from fans and studios that posted them online. The panels cover various television shows, movies, video games, comics, and more. They may include a necessary cut to remove copyrighted footage like trailers, gag reels and other fun stuff that if left in might result in the entire panel video being removed. Did try to post actual panels where comics where the subject but failed to find any.

If see "complete", that means panel wasn't broken up into parts, that is the entire panel, if see "press" that refers to any press conferences that were also held during the con, Nerd HQ refers to a podcast video on the related subject, and if just see an actor name that means a video interview. The panels I recommend most are the Firefly 10th Anniversary, anything Joss Whedon, Fringe, Powerful Women in Pop Culture, TV Guide Fan Favorites and THR Actor Roundtable. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments along with links to any panels (or better copies) that you might have found.

Linkfest - Grand Finale

This weeks linkfest includes a goodbye to a great children's author, Emmy nomininations, cool Lego builds, launch of 135 shuttles, Oz trailer and a dig at the usual GOP hypocrisy.

R.I.P. Donald Sobol
Donald J. Sobol, the author and creator of the Encyclopedia Brown children's books, died at the age of 87 around July 11th. He wrote more than 80 books with 29 of them Encyclopedia Brown books from 1963 with the final book called "Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Soccer Scheme" coming out in October. I remember reading his books as a child, always trying to find a new one that I had not read before at the library. His books are the reason I developed a love of reading. A love that continues despite the mini-war my English teachers had waged on it. I think it’s time I do some catching up on those stories, just to see what mysteries I have missed. Thank your Mr. Sobol for teaching me to love reading.

2012 Emmy Nominations Announced
Hit the link to see what favorite TV shows were nominated for the 2012 Emmy Awards. The winners will be announced on September 23, 2012. Few surprises in the list with the safe choices (those who offend least) occupying most of the categories. A few surprises include Lena Dunham for Girls (decent choice), Veep (really? not that funny a show), Don Cheadle (could do the role in his sleep), Kathy Bates (really? not enough to fill the category?), Ashley Judd (more proof that "movie stars slumming it" always get Emmy love even when not deserved) and lots of love to Sherlock (sweet). Sadly that mostly awful American Horror Story was also given lots of nominations. While a fan of the lovely Connie Britton, it doesn't deserve to win a single category. I am sure there are lots of snubs but except for Fringe, I can't think of any I care about.

Linkfest - Happy July 4th

Happy July the 4th! This week's link fest remains politics free with links to an amusing Star Wars parody music video, Atari's 40th, Snorkisms, YouTube 301 views, and SDCC schedule.

RIP Andy Griffith
An icon died today as Andy Griffith died at the age of 86. For your parents’ generation he was known as the town sheriff in The Andy Griffith Show. For me, I grew up on him as defense attorney Matlock. His 60+ year long career included movies, specials, radio, and a whole lot more. Condolences to his family.

The Star Wars That I Used To Know
Take the Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" music video, and some Star Trek fan frustration and here is the result. Pure gold, if only to hear "George Lucas" sings his response to the complaints.

Linkfest - More MPAA/RIAA Lies

Oops been a while. Here is the last few weeks of links that grabbed my interest. There is a gallery of a Lego Delorean, an end of the Encyclopedia, exercise myths, more proof of MPAA/RIAA lies used to stomp our freedom for corporate benefit, Keith Olbermann fired, and two amusing videos.

Lego Back to the Future 2 Delorean
Mimicking the style of the high end Star Wars sets, Alex Jones has re-created the Back to the Future DeLorean out of the Legos. Hit the link above too few more of the gallery.

Encyclopedia Britannica Ending Print Version
A true end of an era as the Encyclopedia Britannica is no longer printing encyclopedias after a 244 year run. The last volume will be the 2010 edition. The decision was made due to lack of sales. Sure most kids today probably barely have used a set but still a little sad to see such a thing goes away.

Star Wars, Indiana Jones Filmumentaries

Below are the "Filmumentaries" of Jamie Benning. These videos act as a one stop video for what creation of four films - Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark. They are compiled from interviews, behind the scenes material and other sources. The result is fascinating, wonderfully edited movie length videos that tell you everything about the creation of these wonderful films. They are long but worth watching if a fan. His Vimeo account with the videos is here. An interview about putting together Raiding the Lost Ark can be found here.

Raiding The Lost Ark: A Filmumentary

Linkfest - Endings

The last week has been a series of ending it seems both big and small. Libya might just experience democracy for the first in generations as Gaddafi has seemingly been overthrown, Steve Jobs steps down as CEO of Apple, a memorial finishes and a legendary hacker joins the team he often defeated.

The End of the Gaddafi in Libya
Hit the link for an interesting explanation on how Libya uprising succeeding in potentially toppling the current dictatorship. The story is how a determined people, with solid planning, ingenuity and sacrifice can overcome impossible odds. It is also a story of how true democracy must succeed. Not handed to the people as a "gift" like it was done by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan but an organic hard fought decision by the people themselves, sadly earned with the literal blood of family and friends.

Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple
One of the most successful CEO's in history has officially resigned his position, many believe due to his continued fight with cancer. It is no small exaggeration to say that Steve Jobs is one of the most important people in the history of computers, an invention that literally changed how society operates in just a few short decades. His achievements in technology development changes how we perceive information, enjoy entertainment, learn and so much more. While I may not like how Apple operates, there is no doubting that the things Jobs spearheads has literally changed the world for the better. Few people can make such a claim.

San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) 2011 Panels Links

Below are links to as many of the San Diego Comic Con Panels I could find that were posted on YouTube by people that attended the con. The panels cover topics like television shows, movies, comics, specific actors and creators and a wide variety of other topics. A panel could have actors, creators, and so forth appear from 30 minutes to an hour on stage to promote their current project often ending with fan Q&As. Usually the best panels are the ones where the participants seem to genuinely enjoy being there and interfacing with fans. Some of the many links before may seem incomplete for various reasons. They may include a necessary cut to remove copyrighted footage like trailers, gag reels and other fun stuff that if left in might result in the entire panel video being removed. Also in some cases the editing is just odd but most of the panel was there or it was the best I could find. The panels I recommend most is Castle, Eureka, Amazing Spider-Man, Game of Thrones (cause Emilia Clark is stunning), Joss Whedon (always entertaining), Kevin Smith (equally NSFW entertaining), and Torchwood: Miracle Day. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments along with links to any panels (or better copies) that I may not have found.

Links of the Week - Lots of Videos Edition

US Credit Ratings Downgraded for 1st Time Ever
For the first time in the nation’s history, the US lost its AAA credit rating which was awarded back in 1941. Yet further sign of the problems the GOP manufactured crisis on the debt ceiling has caused. Their willingness to commit literal economic suicide for the entire country demonstrated just how little confidence even investors now have in our country. Ironic, considering most of what the GOP does is to benefit Wall Street. As if often the case, too much greed has resulted in far reaching consequences. Sadly, this will be yet another way for the GOP to spin things in their favor as most people don't have the brains or understanding to recognize how easy all of this could have been avoided. Instead they have proven beyond doubt just how far gone the GOP but with a significant amount of power to back the crazy up with due to complete lack of leadership from Obama who doesn't see a position he isn't willing to cave too. The GOP spin will be the high debt caused the downgrade and thus their approach is the only way is directly contradicted by S&P's own statements on the cause.

S&P also changed its assumption that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would expire by the end of 2012 “because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues. More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating,” S&P said.

Note that "revenue increases" is another way of saying increase taxes by closing loops holes or ending existing tax cuts which the GOP refuses to do under any circumstances. In short, the GOP refusal to compromise and deal with the debt in an adult manner underlined our current leadership's dysfunction in a way that could no longer be ignored. No fake crisis, no awareness of just how bad things are.

New Spider-Man RevealedAbout a month ago Peter Parker died in a battle against the Green Goblin in Ultimate Spider-Man #160. The Ultimate SM universe is a modernized version of Marvel that takes more liberties with the characters. An example of that is this week's news that the replacement Spider-Man is a half black, half Hispanic named Miles Morales. Of course the right wing movement had a fit over this. Posts about the change were pretty much flat out racist and of course Glenn Beck diving in claiming it is some conspiracy orchestrated by Michelle Obama. In reality, the writer Brian Michael Bendis, had been considering it for a while and decided to commit to it after seeing Donald Glover in the costume for an episode of Community (great TV show). How this will play out in comic book form and how successful this change will be may take many months to determine.

Links of the Week - Rant Edition

This linkfest is a bit rant heavy, call it a two week build up. If the political stuff bores you, just skip towards the end where have videos of a Lego creation, Tesla Orchestra doing Zelda theme, and various trailers.

North Carolina GOP Attempting to Ban Municipal Broadband
An interesting thing has been occurring in North Carolina. When local telecom and cable companies such as Time Warner refused to provide affordable internet and cable service or even run the needed lines, the local government stepped up to fill the void. Now the GOP likes to sell the argument that only public companies can provide services cheaply and profitably but it turns out that in this area so can the government as multiple municipals created not only some of the fastest networks in the state, they did it for a profit and at half the cost to the customer. So what does Time Warner and other companies do about this? Do they try to compete? Do they try to make their networks better? Of course not. Instead they buy off the Republicans in the state government to pass a law that outlaws these types of companies. For now Governor Bev Perdue has refused to sign the bill but that is unlikely to last. Yet another example of the GOP policy of "Make the rich richer, to hell with the rest."

2011 Fall TV Schedule Announced
The big four networks announced the official cancellations, renewals, and new shows that will be hitting the airwaves starting next Fall 2011. A lot of shows I liked were cancelled but for whatever reason I am mostly indifferent. On the schedule isn't really anything "buzz" worthy to me but really just a collection of mildly interesting programs. Any case hit the link to see how the schedule breaks down for CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC and CW. Note that things usually get tweaked further the closer to airdate.

Links of the Week

Just realized I have not posted anything here in a while. To me nothing major has happened. Technically stuff has happened in politics with Donald Trump and Huckabee deciding not to run for President but that was a gimme anyway. That fool Newt Gingrich is running but that too is just a play for money as he has proven to be a flim-flam artist but not much else. He knows the publicity will drive book sales and his speaking tours prices up which is all that really matters to him (besides the ego stroking). Still here are a few things that grabbed my interest.

15 States Get Florida's $2 Billion
On one hand you have to give credit, Republican putting money where his mouth is. On the other hand the state is hurting for jobs, is hurting for income and just needs helps so the money isn't really his but the citizens of the state. Sadly logic never plays into GOP thinking as Governor Rick Scott cancelled a high speed rail project that would have given Florida $2.4 billion to build. The GOP's hatred of infrastructure projects (better to let things fall apart) knows no bounds. The empty gesture didn't "return" the money to the government but instead allowed 15 states to pick up the pieces and improve their own rail systems. For the GOP, if it doesn't benefit the rich, it shouldn't benefit anybody even though a rail system is a cheaper, safer, and all around better alternative to transportation for commuters compared to rush hour traffic. Just a reminder the primary goal of the GOP is "Make the rich richer, to hell with the rest."

Library of Congress' National Jukebox
"The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives." The Jukebox is streaming only with a huge collection of music, speeches, readings and more going back nearly the entire century.

Links of the Week

Legoland Star Wars Gallery
The Star Wars attraction at Legoland California which as more than 2000 Lego Star Wars sculptures on display. Hit the link for a gallery of some of the masterpieces.

25 Years of Pixar Animation
An excellent fan made video that celebrates 25 years of excellence from Pixar which brought us Toy Story, Cars, Up, Wall-E and so much more.


WonderCon Green Lantern Footage and Panel
Below is four minutes from Green Lantern along with all five parts of the WonderCon panel. Over all the footage makes the movie look much better than the teaser trailer had. Definitely going for an epic, universe spanning feel that DC movies have normally lacked.

Links of the Week - Union Busting

Wisconsin Senate Passes Anti-Union Law
For the last three weeks, the Wisconsin state Congress has more or less been grid locked. The reason was because of a requirement to have quorum (min. number of representatives) to pass bills involving the state budget. After a multitude of threats while constantly claiming the union busting was for fiscal reasons (despite common sense and evidence to the contrary), the Senate GOP decided to make an on the fly re-interpretation of the rules and removed all financial provisions of the bill leaving only the union busting portions and then passing it in the space of about 10 minutes. This bill has become the template of what GOP is attempting to do in almost two dozen states.

This sudden ability to pass the law despite what the law says proves what everyone already knows - the GOP is nothing but a group of liars that only care about the rich. They claims it was all about balancing the state budget (after giving $140 million to the rich in tax cuts) but out of nowhere they pass the bill as a non-budget bill. It can't be both. It either is about the budget or it is all about just busting unions while using the GOP caused state budget crisis as the excuse. The GOP has one goal and everything they do is in support of that goal, "Make the rich richer, to hell with the rest." That should have been obvious for years but Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker being tricked into revealing his desire to change history to someone pretending to be billionaire and huge GOP support David Koch.

What the GOP is doing is despicable but then again I have never heard or met a GOP supporter that didn't have wandering morals and are huge hypocrites. Need evidence? How about the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader appearing on Faux News to crow about his victory unintentionally let slipping a little truth, "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin." Basically the GOP is trying to bust the unions so that the Democrats have less money to run on elections with and possibly lead to defeat of Barack Obama. If you live in any of those states, is your state representative making decisions based on how it affects national politics really something you want them focused about? What happened to "jobs, jobs, jobs"? It’s been three months and so far it seems the GOP is focused on everything but that. Again, further proof of their real agenda. Jobs falls under "to hell with the rest" as do unions. Irony is I am not even a fan of unions as consider them currently no longer necessary but as corporations continue to have more and more say on our daily lives thanks to the GOP, it seems that belief needs to be re-evaluated.

Links of the Week

Verizon Score the iPhone
If you are tired of AT&T but love your iPhone, then February 10th will be a good day for you as Verizon will be caring the device. Sadly no price plans were revealed so not exactly confidence inducing, but still a good sign. Even better, Verizon will support using the phone as a local hotspot, something AT&T currently doesn't. Again no idea if that cost is built in or not. Prices for the iPhone do not change and of course your ability to switch providers may depend on whether you are on plan or not or willing to take the hit for early termination.

GOP Health Care Repeal Would Add $230 Billion to Deficit
When will people learn that the Republican Party has never been fiscally responsible? It is a myth they run on every election cycle but look at their record; they have never actually come close to fulfilling those now decades’ old promises. They have already added another trillion to the deficit by pushing through a deal to give $700 billion of that in tax cuts to the rich and now they have a plan that is an attempt to repeal health care and added another quarter trillion. Not even one month into office and already they have added nothing but debt. The reason for the increase is simple in its logic. Which is cheaper? Going to the doctor while you have the sniffles or going to the hospital because you have developed Pneumonia? Now multiple that by the current 32 million of uninsured. If people have insurance, they simply like to use the insurance to take care of medical problems before they become full emergencies. As it stands, when that care occurs as an emergency, the tax payers foot 100% of the bill. If the person is insured, then that is at least partially or mostly going to be covered by insurance companies. It really is that simple despite Fox News very effective attempts at making the idiots out there believe otherwise.