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Friday, July 11, 2008

Film A Bat-Suckhole

posted by Paul Constant on July 11 at 1:00 PM

gothamknight.jpg

I'm pretty excited about The Dark Knight. Maybe not excited enough to take part in all the 'viral' shenanigans, but still pretty excited.

I rented and watched Batman: Gotham Knight a couple days ago. Like The Animatrix that came out between the Matrix movies, B:GK is comprised of animated short films made by anime studios.

Though they can be watched separately, the six short films are linked, both by story elements and by the fact that they are all incredibly boring. There was a very good Batman cartoon in the 1990s, and I dearly missed it while I was watching this terrible mess. If, like me, you're so excited for the Batman movie that you'd consider renting this thing as a kind of placeholder, please don't.

Avoid.

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Thursday, July 10, 2008

History Bush Vs Brezhnev

posted by Jonathan Golob on July 10 at 2:55 PM

BushVsBrezhnev.jpg

Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union from about 1964 to 1982, is widely regarded as one of the worst leaders of the modern era. His bungling has served as an inspiration for other aspirant incompetents, a sort of absolute zero for national leadership of a dominant nation.

The miraculous years under W, however, bring risk to this title! Both men were/are preening, self-lauding fools, and would care deeply who holds the legacy. A pressing question awaits us!
Who wins the title of absolute zero for leadership, George W Bush or Leonid Brezhnev?

A handy comparison table:

BushBrezhnev
Personal Accomplishments before rising to power: Destroyed the Texas Rangers. Ran several oil businesses into oblivion. Fails to commit suicide due to rigorous unthinking about everything. Studied metallurgy. Successfully retreated from Germans. Survived purges through rigorous unthinking adherence to Stalinist ideals.
Wartime Service Faked Air National Guard records. Drank heavily. Drafted into Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Served only in a political capacity.
Wartime Record as National Leader: Invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Lost. Invaded Afghanistan. Lost.
Response to economic troubles: Tax cuts for the wealthy. Cuts in research funding. Promoted increased consolidation of industry. Gutted regulation. Massive deficit spending on the military, leading to the collapse of the currency. Ignored the fundamental economic problems underlying the decline. Promoted increased consolidation of industry. Massive deficit spending on the military, leading to the collapse of the currency. Ignored the fundamental economic problems underlying the decline.
Drug addictions: Alcohol. Probably cocaine. Nembutal (a narcotic)
Cult of Personality: Prone to giving out medals to himself and close political allies. Prone to giving out medals to himself and close political allies.
Overall Legacy: Lazy, short-minded, self-centered and dishonest leadership imperils the entire teetering substructure of the gluttonous American society. Inept, short-minded, dishonest and self-centered leadership directly lead to the downfall of the Soviet Union and collapse of communism worldwide.

I say, winner Bush! USA! USA!

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Nerd Speaking of Flow Charts

posted by Paul Constant on July 10 at 2:00 PM

This geek flow chart shows the hierarchy of geekdom. Here's a tiny sliver of the center of the chart:

nerdflow.jpg

Of course, lots of bloggers are responding to this with a "can't we all just get along?" kind of thing, as though these sorts of caste systems don't naturally occur. Some of these slots are much-deserved: furries, quite frankly, are more geeky than superhero nerds. And comic book nerds are much less geeky than comic book nerds who only read X-Men spinoffs. I contend that an element of shame is a healthy thing in a subculture like this.

And to prove almost the exact opposite of what I said above, I believe that this post marks the inauguration of Slog's new "Nerd" category, which I have been told was created pretty much exclusively for Jonah and I. I'm honestly a little ashamed about that.

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