Global
Ordinarily I wouldn't be recounting my adventures in geekdom, but recent events force me to come clean.
Trust me, this is one for the books.
A good friend approached me recently with a busted laptop.
I should explain, friends and associates often come to me when they are experiencing computer problems.
I've been building computers for years and fixing them even longer. When people who know me get the “blue screen of death” they come to me. When their ding-busted machine freezes up and starts acting like a Commodor64 with pneumonia, they come to me. When a certain someone had his motherboard fried by the detectives trying to mine his hard drive for child pornography, and he wanted to retrieve those actually mild images, he came to me. And I'll tell you, I have a hell of a batting average.
So there's my bona fides, such as they are.
This past weekend, September 20-22, the Greater Columbus Convention Center was host to what is now known as Ohio Comic Con, formerly Mid-Ohio Con. The list of Featured Guests for the show is an impressive who's-who of pop culture, including Star Trek's William Shatner, The Lord of the Rings' Sean Astin, Ghostbusters' Ernie Hudson, and even some WWE professional wrestlers. If you look through the whole list you might actually find the one Featured Guest who has ever had anything to do with creating a comic book: Stan Lee, who has the co-creation of most of the Marvel Universe to his name.
And while Stan Lee, who more recently has been known for cameos in every movie based on Marvel's characters, is quite an impressive draw, the fact that he's the only comic creator among the top-billed guests is a sign of something that's become a chronic problem at comic book conventions across the country: A focus on celebrities who have nothing to do with comic books.
The fall television season is upon us and there is a bevy of nerd-tastic shows to make your geek radar buzz with excitement. There are always a ton of choices when it comes to the list of shows the networks will roll out each year, and the key is figuring out which ones are worth your time and which should be shelved immediately. Of course, as word of mouth spreads, some will live while others will go the way of dozens of probably best forgotten shows of the past.
Let's look at a few of the top selections to hopefully narrow down the viewing experience and make sure your screen is filled with the best of the best while avoiding the worst attempts at a science fiction/fantasy show.
At the top of the list is the show that has the most promise, the most push and the best team behind it — ABC's new series “Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” There's so much to like about this show that if it doesn't end up being the new big hit of the year, more than a few network executive's heads will roll. None other than the godfather of nerds himself Mr. Joss Whedon, is behind the series.
Like it or not, we’re forced to think about it these days, since it’s still an enticing pretext for war. And the more I think about it, the more I marvel at the persistent insanity of its existence. The “red line” that the so-called civilized world crossed over a century ago was not in the use of poison gas but in its creation, because it’s lethal whether it’s used or not. Attempting to get rid of it — by burying it, burning it, dumping it — has consequences almost as deadly as firing it off in battle.
The enormous toxic mess that encircles the globe needs serious and sustained attention, something present-day governments are, seemingly, incapable of. The fact that this mess of our own making exists at all ought to inspire not missiles and self-righteousness but the deepest questions we know how to ask. And the first question is this: How in God’s name do we untangle ourselves from this mess collectively?
Welcome to the Obama Justice Department.
While mouthing platitudes about respecting press freedom, the president has overseen methodical actions to undermine it. We should retire understated phrases like “chilling effect.” With the announcement from Obama’s Justice Department on Monday, the thermometer has dropped below freezing.
"We were never against Jews. We oppose Zionists who are a small group," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the semi-official Tasnim news agency in September, according to Tehran Times.
"We do not allow the Zionists to represent Iran as an anti-Semitic country in their propaganda so they can cover up their crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese people," Zarif said.
Zarif is a U.S.-educated former ambassador to the United Nations and posted on his Twitter account "Happy Rosh Hashanah" on Sept. 5 to welcome the Jewish New Year.
Twitter link
Christine Pelosi -- daughter of U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi -- responded to Zarif on her Twitter by writing, "Thanks. The New Year would be even sweeter if you would end Iran's Holocaust denial, sir."
Twitter link
2. "It took the awful carnage of two world wars to shift our thinking." Actually, it took one. The second resulted in a half-step backwards in "our thinking." The Kellogg-Briand Pact banned all war. The U.N. Charter re-legalized wars purporting to be either defensive or U.N.-authorized.
3. "[P]eople are being lifted out of poverty," Obama said, crediting actions by himself and others in response to the economic crash of five years ago. But downward global trends in poverty are steady and long pre-date Obama's entry into politics. And such a trend does not exist in the U.S.
Since his election, Rouhani has used the podium in Tehran to promote a contemporary relationship between Iran and the West. Whereas Ahmadinejad preferred anti-Semitic hyperbole and diplomatic posturing, President Rouhani has suggested over the past month that he sees a somewhat different path ahead for Iran. For Rouhani positive relations with the United States appear to be atop his agenda. Before we break out the champagne, however, there are some inconvenient truths that qualify this reality.
