I wonder why this never caught on

From the February 1938 issue of Modern Mechanix, via the blog of the same name:

First Star Trek, now this.

A selection from an upcoming manga adaptation of Pride and Prejudice drawn by Tintin Pantoja. (By the way, how awesome is the name "Tintin Pantoja"!)

At least something is working efficiently in Iraq

From the LA Daily News:

Every day it seemed more Iraqis woke up to death threats tossed into their carports. At first the death threats were handwritten, but as kidnappings became a daily occurrence, the kidnappers grew more brazen and organized. The terrorists now issue generic, computerized threats with the organization's name as letterhead. Only the name of the victim is written by hand.

Science proves that Bush supporters are crazy

From the New Haven Advocate:

Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.

Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

...

"Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader," Lohse says. "If your world is very mixed up, there's something very comforting about someone telling you, 'This is how it’s going to be.'"

...

"Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry," the study says.

Hope you had a happy Turkey Day

I don't need your civil war

If you haven't been following the progress of this year's Marvel Comics crossover Civil War (and, really, why should you be?) then this hysterical parody of issue 5 might not make much sense, but read it anyway. I don't read this kind of stuff anymore, but I can't help following superhero news on Die IntërWeb with the same lurid fascination that some people have reading about serial killers or looking at autopsy photos. CW is a big crossover slugfest written by schlockmeister Mark Millar in which all the Marvel superheroes get together for the 139641234th time and settle their differences with fists. The catalyst this time is the Superhuman Registration Act, which requires those with superpowers to register their badassness with the government. The cape crowd divides into two camps: pro-reg led by Iron Man, and anti-reg, led by Captain America. Online complaints abound about Millar's ham-fisted characterization, shoehorning heroes into one camp or another not based upon established personalities but by whom he wants to see fight it out. The ad campaign uses the faux-bumper sticker slogans "I'm with Iron Man" and "I'm with Captain America", prompting a parody (which I wish I could find and post here) ad "I'm with Lincoln" which had me in stitches for days.

Read this

Stan Lee meets Jack Chick:

Losing your soul, part 2

I'm sure you remember the memorable clip from this post, which featured two Bank of America drones singing an ode to their assimilation of MBNA to the tune of U2's "One". The video is so popular on Die IntërWeb now that even the New York Times is writing about it, noting that humorless lawyers from the Universal Music Publishing Group are now deploying the cease and desist letters. (See this Stereogum blog post - scroll down until you find the comment from "Raul R. Gonzalez, Esq.") The article also quotes the singer, Manhattan banking center manager Ethan Chandler, a Manhattan banking center manager, protesting "A lot of people thought it was fake, but I really do sing!" See, he's a real singer, folks, and he's even got his own album.

Already, there are the inevitable parodies. David Cross has been covering the cover in concert. The first clip is Cross at a comedy club, the second his Cross at a Modest Mouse concert accompanied on guitar by , captured by Angry Citizen before being hassled by security.

Wikipedia comics

Here's an interesting way of distributing Wikipedia's free content in a way I'd never thought of: Wikipedia comics by Greg Williams of the Tampa Tribune. Only four so far but I hope more to come. Also, here's a bonus comic from Ken Jennings' blog.

Thanksgiving reflections

...of your favorite superheroes.

What does it take?

Check out this leaked memo from The Ministry of Truth:

"Let's be on the lookout for any statements from Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled Congress."

How can there be any sane adult who doubts that Fox news is openly advocating conservative positions and acting as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GOP? How can people continue to deny the evidence of their senses?

Irony abounds!

Six years ago I saw my first pull tab on a can of soup, and was driven to rant, my sputtering rage at the indolence and laziness of the world forever preserved on Die Interweb.

Since then, pull tabs have become ubiquitous, lulling me into a false sense of security when I should have feared my impending comeuppance.

A few days ago I purchased some delicious looking cans of Walnut Acres organic soup and the giant organa-mall Wild Oats. My larder at the library is well stocked with cans of Chunky, Progresso, etc., all with the pull tabs I started taking for granted years ago. So today at lunch I was eagerly awaiting my black bean and corn soup when I found I couldn't get the can open. No pull tabs! No can opener! The universe gets its revenge - six years in the making! Damn you! *shakes angry fist*

What it's like to lose your soul - karaoke style!

one bank on Vimeo

This is a clip of a Bank of America employee celebrating the absorption of MBNA by BoA in 2005. To the tune of "One" by U2. No, I'm not kidding. Watch it all the way through, if you can.

Great, you've made some money. Congrats. But let's not pretend this represents any sort of achievement in "hiiiiger staaandards" or anything else except squeezing more money from Americans, giving them fewer choices, getting them further in debt, and making it harder for the ones in difficult financial circumstances to get out of debt by declaring bankruptcy.

If I ever choose to celebrate the merger of two gigantic banking corporations in song in a non-ironic way, I encourage and require you to shoot me in the face, repeatedly, and after I am dead, dig up my corpse and shoot me in the face again.

We live on a different planet than these people. If you are reading this, I hope you live on my planet, where people and emotions and genuine achievements are more important and more worth singing about than profits and mergers and giant corporations which have more rights than you and I. If you believe that I hope you are living your life that way instead of just muttering something to yourself on the way home from listening to some middle manager sing about how great it was to sell his soul.

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.

Lloyd Dobler, we need you more than ever.

What it's like to lose your soul - karaoke style!

This is a clip of a Bank of America employee celebrating the absorption of MBNA by BoA in 2005. To the tune of "One" by U2. No, I'm not kidding. Watch it all the way through, if you can.

Great, you've made some money. Congrats. But let's not pretend this represents any sort of achievement in "hiiiiger staaandards" or anything else except squeezing more money from Americans, giving them fewer choices, getting them further in debt, and making it harder for the ones in difficult financial circumstances to get out of debt by declaring bankruptcy.

If I ever choose to celebrate the merger of two gigantic banking corporations in song in a non-ironic way, I encourage and require you to shoot me in the face, repeatedly, and after I am dead, dig up my corpse and shoot me in the face again.

We live on a different planet than these people. If you are reading this, I hope you live on my planet, where people and emotions and genuine achievements are more important and more worth singing about than profits and mergers and giant corporations which have more rights than you and I. If you believe that I hope you are living your life that way instead of just muttering something to yourself on the way home from listening to some middle manager sing about how great it was to sell his soul.

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.

Lloyd Dobler, we need you more than ever.

Vote, stupid!

Thanks to early voting in this state, I voted two weeks ago. If you haven't voted yet, there is still time. Molly Ivins reminds us why it is important:

May I remind you what this election is about? Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, unprecedented presidential powers, unmatched incompetence, unparalleled corruption, unwarranted eavesdropping, Katrina, Enron, Halliburton, global warming, Cheney's secret energy task force, record oil company profits, $3 gasoline, FEMA, the Supreme Court, Diebold, Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004, Terri Schiavo, stem cell research, golden parachutes, shrunken pensions, unavailable and expensive health care, habeas corpus, no weapons of mass destruction, sacrificed soldiers and Iraqi civilians, wasted billions, Taliban resurgence, expiration of the assault weapons ban, North Korea, Iran, intelligent design, swift boat hit squads, and on and on.

This election is about that, but much more -- it's about honor, dignity and comity in this country. It's about the Constitution, which gives us this great nation. Bush ran on a pledge of "restoring honor and integrity" to the White House. Instead, he brought us Tom DeLay, Roy Blunt, Katherine Harris, John Doolittle, Jerry Lewis, Richard Pombo, Mark Foley, Dennis Hastert, David Safavian, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Karl Rove and an illegal and immoral war in Iraq. People, it's up to you.

Fun with pie charts

Unpublished Sylvia Plath

Well, here's a treat you don't get everyday. Last month, a student found an unpublished poem by Sylvia Plath in her archives at Indiana University. Written in 1955 while she was a depressed undergrad at Smith College, the sonnet has now been published in the journal Blackbird:

Ennui

Tea leaves thwart those who court catastrophe,
designing futures where nothing will occur:

Read the rest of it here.