Golden Age Extended Moment of the Day (63)

The most famous character from Fantastic Comics was probably Stardust (I've mentioned him a few times in the past), and in this story from #7, it's demonstrated why:

Because he and his enemies followed a truly special kind of logic.

For the record, while it would be very bad for the world to stop rotating (the H.G. Wells story The Man Who Could Work Miracles has a depiction with at least limited realism in it, though the means through which rotation was stopped didn't even bother with realism, which is just as well), it wouldn't be the sudden cessation of gravity.

Which you should probably be at least vaguely, intuitively aware of, or at least figure out from looking up gravity on Wikipedia.

-Signing off.

Subconscious Anthropomorphic Radical Character Team

I've recently been browsing through a particular website, and came upon a specific page where the webmaster makes the following remark:

"At the time, I thought a couple of pictures and one paragraph about an obscure toy line was a perfectly noteworthy addition to my sparse little corner of the internet, but little did I realize that these things were very thoroughly ingrained in my generation's subconscious, and that virtually nowhere else on the internet had ever so much as acknowledged them."

The thing about the subject, Snailiens (yes, really) is that it perfectly enmeshed itself in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles zeitgeist from roughly that era. It even took up the historical figure theme naming that so many other series dropped like a rock, though it dropped the whole food obsession thing.

It didn't so much tap into the collective subconscious of the Ninja Turtle generation so much as was the collective subconscious of that generation. That is to say, generally speaking, nobody thinks about it, but it's there.

On that note, here are some completely random links related to the subject that amuse me.

-Signing off.

Power Rangers: Pirate Guys

I don't generally talk about this subject over here (my currently very inactive second blog is what I'd normally use), but this is something which I think even non-Power Rangers/Sentai fans can appreciate.

This year's Sentai will be pirate-themed.



And how are they going to be represented as pirates, beyond frilly jackets, stylized flintlocks, and sabers?

They're not going to attack shipping and steal it (this would be a questionable method of fighting monsters of the week anyway, although a series that managed to build around the idea of monsters of the week being created to stop a pirate Power Rangers/Sentai team would be one of the most incredible things ever).

No, they're going to be the other kind of pirate-intellectual property thieves. And this will be represented by them "stealing" other Super Sentai/Power Rangers characters' abilities for their own use (though, as an anniversary series, it'll probably be rife with teamups, which is why I quoted the "stealing"-presumably the other guys won't have problems with it).

Yes, seriously.

-Signing off.

Tiny Vader

Here's a funny commercial that you might have seen elsewhere already.



There were two interesting "highly rated" comments on YouTube on this that amused me. One said "This makes me want to watch Star Wars instead..." while the other was a "Download FREE STUFFS!!!?!" spam comment. Yes, that second one was the second most popular comment at the time I looked at this video.

-Signing off.

That's Not a Language

My sister and I had a small disagreement today on which language The Three Musketeers was originally written in.

She believed for some reason that it was Spanish, while I insisted that it was French.

According to Wikipedia's infobox, we were both wrong.

I... think Wikipedia might want to get someone in there to correct that.

-Signing off.

And You Thought Bees Were Scary

I was poking around on the internet the other day, and stumbled on a description of an insect that was most intimidating. While that description was inaccurate (it involved spraying acid, which is kind of nonsensical), it turns out that the real deal is scary enough.

Aside from the fact that the Asian giant hornet has a sting which will cause the same allergic reaction as that of a bee's, attracts other giant hornets, and even has a neurotoxin whose buildup from multiple stings can be lethal, apparently the species is the sole reason why it's impossible for European honey bees to be imported to Asian countries: These monster hornets slaughter them by the thousand. (If you ever feel empathy for insects, as I do, you might find this video very uncomfortable to watch.)



And if you're wondering: That video features a group of probably no more than thirty giant hornets methodically and casually killing as many as thirty thousand bees.

They aren't invincible-the native bees have a defense against them-but they're darned scary bugs.

Not that there's anything wrong with that (though if you visit their range in Japan, watch out, because they kill something like seventy people a year there).

-Signing off.

Something Something Month

You know what my least favorite month of the year is?

It's February.

You know why?

It's not because it's generally the wintriest month-though that fact is trying my patience a bit right now. (Heavy snowfall is no longer more than a mild inconvenience to my household, ever since my dad bought himself a riding snowblower. We don't even have to rely on the neighbor bringing over his tractor with a snow plow anymore.)

First off, the name. "February" is an eternal source of frustration to young children, just like "library," and for the exact same reason.

Second off, and much more importantly, is that whenever somebody chooses a month for some kind of special cause-remembering black history, women's heart health, and who knows what the heck else-nothing comes to mind-it seems like it's always February that gets it.

Why? What's so darned special about February?

Is it because of St. Valentine's Day? Because that's a dumb reason. (Fun fact-Valentine's Day is a day not of celebration of romantic and other love in Japan-for them, that's Christmas-it's a day of personal sexual devotion.)

I hereby move that February be declared "Everything Ever Awareness Month." That'll save us all a lot of time, and it'll free up the other months to just be themselves again.

-Signing off.