Month: August 2003

I received a box from Wizard via Fed Ex today. I cracked it open and, much to my surprise, discovered that I’d won the 10th Annual Wizard Fan Award for Favorite One-Shot (Hulk: The End.) Shows how much attention I was paying. I didn’t know I’d won, or even that I was up for it. And it was given out at Chicago, a convention I hadn’t been invited to, but would have gone to if they’d asked.

It’s a really nice award. A statue of a little boy reading a comic book. Much nicer than the old ones.

Thanks to everyone who voted.

PAD

Was I the only one who, yesterday afternoon, upon learning that power was going out all over the country and that cell phone systems were down, thought, “Ðámņ. Skynet’s gone active.”

PAD

The lights went out around here at approximately 4:03 PM. Thirty seconds later, the lights came back on. For the first time since I had it installed ten years ago, the heavy duty emergency generator outside the house got a major workout. Not only did we have lights, phones and a working refrigerator, but even the cable stayed on. We had more neighbors coming over in one night than in the last month as folks came by to make calls, watch the news, and just look up at the lights with about as much amazement as Edison’s neighbors must have done when they swung by to see what the latest invention he (or his people) had come up with. The amusing thing, as darkness fell, was watching cars cruise by and slow when they passed the house as the drivers must have thought, “Oh, the power’s back on…wait…”

I admit I did keep worrying about that “Twilight Zone” episode, but fortunately the generator is loud enough that neighbors would attribute the continuing power to that rather than aliens.

The thing that bugs me is imagining bin Laden watching CNN in a cave somewhere, snickering over the continual reassurances that it wasn’t terrorists. Before 9/11 I doubt it even would have occurred to anyone; no one shouted “Terrorists!” in the previous NYC blackouts. But concerns have so insinuated our culture that terrorism has become the first line of panicked reaction.

This has been another fair and balanced blog entry.

PAD

From a newspaper called “The Scotsman”:

Arms race fear over new bomb

by JOHN INNES

US SCIENTISTS are working on a space-age weapon that experts fear could trigger a new arms race, it was claimed last night.

The gamma ray bomb blurs the line between conventional and nuclear explosives. It produces an enormous burst of energy from atoms without involving nuclear fission or fusion.

Just one gram of the explosive could store more energy than 50 kilograms of TNT.

A gamma bomb would produce little fall-out compared with a normal nuclear weapon, although undetonated particles could cause long-term health problems for anyone breathing them in.

Despite the fact that research is at an early stage and a practical weapon may not be built for many years, some experts are already worried.

Dr Andre Gsponer, the director of the Independent Scientific Research Institute in Geneva, believes countries without such weapons would not be able to fight ones that possessed them.

The result could be a arms race – or, worse, a decision to resort to nuclear weapons, he claims.

Third issue of the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is out this week. One more issue and then #5 starts the original stories, albeit still drawn in the style of the animated series.

So whad’ja think?

PAD

Out this week. Whad’ja think?

Consider it support for the First Amendment– or, if you prefer, a minor blow against frivolous lawsuits against litigious corporations. Al, you’re fair, you’re balanced, and gosh-darn it, people like you. Would we tell people to go buy the book if we didn’t like you? (Inspired by Atrios.)