Messages

[How Did This Get Made?]

One more: How Did This Get Made?

Three good comedians review terrible movies.  Episode 40 is Stallone's Dredd: be warned that they take issue with the movie for the stuff it gets from the comic, as well as its general awfulness.  Better to start with Sleepaway Camp (ep 48).

Good news, everyone!  Sony have found a way to stop people dissing the new Ghostbusters movie just because it has a female cast - by making the gender of its protagonists the absolute least of its problems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ugHP-yZXw

I've been entirely positive about this remake, right up until I watched that there trailer.

[Limetown]

Anyone got any?  My work involves a lot of being on my own listening to headphones, and my podcast intake is gargantuan. 

Not hugely interested in comicy ones (apart from the various 2000ad-related ones which I already subscribe to).  I'm looking for comedy, science, history, interesting facts, that kind of thing.

Hi -

I know you're mainly looking for fact/comment things, but any 2000AD fan should be checking out Limetown (http://www.limetownstories.com/), a fictional sci-fi series told in a Serial/This American Life format.  First episode is astonishingly good, and though there's the occasional bit of shonky voice acting the plot is enough to keep you powering through all seven episodes of season one.  Really can't wait for season 2.

You should also listen to The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a spoof of 1940's radio sci-fi, with some great contributors including Paul F. Tompkins & Paget Brewster, plus guest stars like Neil Patrick Harris, Patton Oswalt, Nathan Fillion, Karen Gillan (you get the idea).  It's worth starting at the beginning and giving both of the main stories ("Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars" and "Beyond Belief") a couple of episodes to settle down.  The series has finished, but you have about 200 hours to get through.

I've only just started listening to it, but The Black Tapes seems pretty good, if a bit too obviously derivative of the X-Files.  They're using audio in some interesting ways to create new types of monster in these early episodes, and the main character is a good twist on "grumpy scientist."

Finally, not connecting with any of my previous recommendations, try out Mystery Show.  Host Starlee Kine (yes, really) investigates weird little real-life mysteries, like where the prank being played by John Travolta in a picture on a 30-year-old lunch box comes from, or who dropped a particular belt buckle in the woods in 1970.  What makes it great is Starlee's personality: she is very good at drawing out her informants, making each episode just incredibly charming.

There's a lot of calls for more "diversity" in Agent Carter despite it being a show with a female non-American lead.  Another guy on Twitter was slagging off shows like Lois and Clark for having no diversity even though Superman was played by a Japanese actor and Lois was played by a screeching non-human she-devil.  I'm not sure what my point was originally before I got distracted by my dislike of Teri Hatcher, but generally I think if you try to consciously represent diversity, you're basically discriminating on the basis of gender or race and that's contributing to the problem rather than the solution.  Just cast the damn parts and don't make a gimmick out of someone's ethnicity already.

Problem = over-representation of white males in media overwhelmingly controlled by white males.
Solution = continue over-representing white males in media overwhelmingly controlled by white males.

That is a special kind of genius, right there.

It was OK, but I don't know where Whedon gets off calling out other filmmakers for sexism.  Beam, mote, eye.

Greatest Headline Ever...

http://io9.com/5848192/giant-prehistoric-krakens-may-have-sculpted-self-portraits-using-ichthyosaur-bones

Lovely stuff - thanks, all!

Hi -

Can anyone think of stories or scenes from comics (any comics) that involve a trip to the doctors or a trip to hospital?  I'd be particularly interested in any that either show off a futuristic space hospital environment or really deal with the weirdness of the doctor's/hospital environment.

It's for a course I'm teaching in Medical Humanities so, honestly, any and all suggestions are very welcome

J

URL is pretty self-explanatory.

http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/386357-constantines-future-is-uncertain-as-nbc-stops-production

Facebook users who, upon seeing a picture someone has posted of a famous person/ comic character, feel the need to post that person's name. "Thor.", for example. Doubly so if it lacks an exclamation mark. I can just about accept an exclamatory "Thor!", as a mark of their excitement/ appreciation of said character, but that full stop screams "I must compulsively say what I see". Keeeeeel them.

SBT

zombie judge.

Scenario A: Bad accident. The two drivers above are both injured, both cars are written off. Both drivers are treated by the NHS, although the insured driver may have the option of private care. The insured driver will have his car replaced, the uninsured driver will have to replace his own. The insured driver may receive an income during his recuperation, the uninsured driver will have state assistance. In the case of permanent disability or death, the insured driver's family might receive a large financial recompense, the uninsured driver's family would not. (There would, of course, be investigations, hearings and if necessary a trial - I'm just concentrating on the idea of insurance here.)

Two drivers hit each other. Both are insured.  The insurer of the party at fault pays the costs of both cars, and then the party at fault pays that back through higher premiums etc.

Two drivers hit each other. The one at fault is not insured. The bill has to be met somehow.  The uninsured driver can be prosecuted, but may well not have the capital to cover the high costs of a road accident. Therefore the innocent party has to cover their own costs, or additional costs have to met met by the innocent taxpayer.

Scenario C: Third Party. Our drivers run somebody over. The victim may be cared for privately or by the state (much as in Scenario A). If appropriate, compensation may be claimed from the insurance company or the uninsured driver directly.

And if the uninsured driver can't pay for the very considerable costs of damage, medical treatment, etc, then the bill has to be picked up either by the person who was not at fault or by the government (i.e. the taxpayer, who also is not at fault, ends up paying out).

Grown adults who think farting is really, really funny.

So you're a private tutor, then?

Grown men who take some kind of pride in the fact that they don't know how the washing machine works[...], as if this somehow proves your masculinity.

Really?  I'd have thought it was more of a masculine trait to know how machines work. 

Admittedly not a controversial choice, but this Dapper Laughs chap really is quite deserving of whatever fate awaits all those on the list.

People who decide to start setting off very loud fireworks at bastard 10 o'clock at fucking night.

Try living in a country where they celebrate national days by getting a bunch of schoolchildren in uniforms to march round your village with FUCKING LOUD DRUMS at FIVE FUCKING A.M.