My Review: Week of June 5

Ignition City #3

My Reviews: Week of May 29

Ghost Rider #35




















Immortal Iron Fist #26




















Wolverine #72




















Incredible Hercules #129

My Review: Week of May 22

Wolverine: Weapon X #2

Worth Reading 2

The science of voodoo: When mind attacks body - health - 13 May 2009 - New Scientist

The idea that believing you are ill can make you ill may seem far-fetched, yet rigorous trials have established beyond doubt that the converse is true - that the power of suggestion can improve health. This is the well-known placebo effect. Placebos cannot produce miracles, but they do produce measurable physical effects.

The placebo effect has an evil twin: the nocebo effect, in which dummy pills and negative expectations can produce harmful effects. The term "nocebo", which means "I will harm", was not coined until the 1960s, and the phenomenon has been far less studied than the placebo effect. It's not easy, after all, to get ethical approval for studies designed to make people feel worse.

Worth Reading 1

Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World: Scientific American

The problem is that we did not evolve a baloney-detection device in our brains to discriminate between true and false patterns. So we make two types of errors: a type I error, or false positive, is believing a pattern is real when it is not; a type II error, or false negative, is not believing a pattern is real when it is. If you believe that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is just the wind (a type I error), you are more likely to survive than if you believe that the rustle in the grass is just the wind when it is a dangerous predator (a type II error). Because the cost of making a type I error is less than the cost of making a type II error and because there is no time for careful deliberation between patternicities in the split-second world of predator-prey interactions, natural selection would have favored those animals most likely to assume that all patterns are real.

But we do something other animals do not do. As large-brained hominids with a developed cortex and a theory of mind—the capacity to be aware of such mental states as desires and intentions in both ourselves and others—we infer agency behind the patterns we observe in a practice I call “agent­icity”: the tendency to believe that the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents. We believe that these intentional agents control the world, sometimes invisibly from the top down (as opposed to bottom-up causal randomness). Together patternicity and agent­icity form the cognitive basis of shamanism, paganism, animism, polytheism, monotheism, and all modes of Old and New Age spiritualisms.

Comic Cat

Mondo Marvel #3 is Live!

Has it been two weeks already? Yes.

Did I wait until the last minute again? Yes.

Do I suck? Yes.

Mondo Marvel #3: July-August 1962

This installment brings us looks at Fantastic Four #5, The Incredible Hulk #2, Journey Into Mystery #83 (featuring the first appearance of Thor, God of Thunder), and Amazing Fantasy #15 (featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man).

Enjoy!

Jesus Fucking Christ.

Bakersfield dad accused of biting out son's eye - Bakersfield.com

"My daddy ate my eyes."

A search warrant report said the father "was displaying symptoms of being under the influence of PCP."

Alas, SCC, We Hardly Knew Ye...

Looks like the critical combination of shitty timeslot, low ratings, and Fox not getting a big enough share of the profits has led to the demise of one of the best Science Fiction shows on television, just as it was hitting its stride.

Seriously, the last month and a half of Season Two were as good as, if not, at times, a little better than Battlestar Galactica on its better days.

But Fox renews Dollhouse? Really, Fox? You're gonna play it like that?

Shameful.

My Reviews: Week of May 15

Secret Warriors #4




















Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1

Holy Crap! I Just Had a Dream Like This Last Night...

Toilet snake attack: urban legend comes true? - Yahoo!7 News

The director, who declined to be named, said. "A snake's mouth isn't always clean."

Especially that snake's mouth.

Gah! News I Didn't Need to Hear...

Man, 30, gives 'birth' to his twin | The Sun |News

Former firefighter Gavin, of Witney, Oxfordshire, said: “Four hospital doctors had previously examined me and were all puzzled by the lump.

“Some thought it was a cyst, others an in-grown hair.

“Then one said it could be my undeveloped identical twin that I absorbed at a very early stage. I feel absolutely fine now but it has not sunk in yet that I could have had a twin brother. I have him in a jar at home and I call him little Gav. I haven’t told many people. I feel like a bit of a freak.”

or at least the place where we decide to act...

Possible site of free will found in brain - life - 07 May 2009 - New Scientist

It's actually about the consciousness of movement - where the impulse to move apparently originates in the parietal cortex, signals to the premotor cortex which then initiates the movement and signals back to the parietal cortex that a movement was made.

Not exactly "Free Will," but then whether or not Free Will even exists is a question that hasn't been answered to everyone's satisfaction.

But interesting, nonetheless.

My Reviews: Week of May 8

Legion of 3 Worlds #4 (of 5)




















Agents of Atlas #4




















Marvel Zombies 4 #2

Mondo Marvel #2 is live!

Mondo Marvel #2: January-May 1962 is up and running. This week I cover Fantastic Four 2-4 and The Incredible Hulk #1.


The column is a little long, so pop some popcorn, pour yourself a tall one, settle in and enjoy!

Samurai Princess

Directed by the writer of Tokyo Gore Police. Produced and with gore effects by the director of Tokyo Gore Police.

Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

From the director of Tokyo Gore Police.

As if that needed saying.

My Review: Week of May 1

Detective Comics #853