Someone Miscalculated.

Watch at Youtube.

This is video of the demolition of the Ohio Edison Mad River Power Plant's old tower. It was supposed to fall to the northeast, or to the right in the video. Instead, after a couple of delayed detonations, it falls to the left, smashing through a set of power lines which run very close to the camera's position. The power lines whip up and down wildly, endangering the observers. No one was hurt.

08:15 a.m., August 6, 1945: 80,000

This atomic explosion was an underground or ground-level test performed in 1953 with a weapon that is roughly the same as the Hiroshima bomb.

Ricardo Montalban:

Less sexy in German.

2012: The Doctor Who Movie

And guess who's confirmed to play the good Doctor?

Johnny Fucking Depp.

This is like a fanboy's dream combined with a nightmare, because this is what Mr. Depp had to say about the part:

"The Doctor will absolutely have a serious romance. I can not reveal who my co-star is yet but I'm told she is a strong, lovely actress that everyone knows and is perfect for the part ... The Doc is always portrayed as this mysterious Demi-God. Russell has penned this wonderful, exciting script that humanizes this all-powerful alien. The Doctor is actually given a name in the film, I'm told he never really has one. He also acts like a Physician in more than just his title. He's called The Doctor for a reason. His mission is to journey through time and space with a crew of volunteers treating humanity's illnesses brought on by invading aliens. He cures the bubonic plague and then goes to Africa to fight Ebola. The film will be very human and relevant and have a great message."

The mystery of who the Doctor was before he started wandering the galaxy is a great source of stories and was especially played up during the last few years of the classic series.

Giving the Doctor a name nails him down. I don't suppose this prevents him from being Rassilon and/or Merlin, or the Creator of the Universe, but it just feels too concrete to me.

Perhaps someone will give him a name, rather than him revealing his own. That would actually fit in better with the whole Mystery Man angle, of a guy who's had so many identities he gets confused sometimes, himself.

Anyway, Depp is a wonderful actor and I'm looking forward to seeing the film, but there is a mantra playing in the back of my head which tempers my enthusiasm:

Tie-in movies usually suck.

Aaaahh!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhh!

Via Retrospace Zeta

Molting

If I suggested to you that this time-lapsed video looked like the classic scene from Alien, wherein one organism comes bursting from the body of another, thereby killing it, would you be able to watch it with a quiet mind?



You're welcome.

Watch at YouTube.

More Fabulous With Every Passing Column!

I have no idea.

Watch at YouTube.

Fetch Your Poetry Appreciation Chairs

William McGonagall was an astonishingly bad poet, the most famous example of whose body of work I inflict upon you below for your entertainment.



The Tay Bridge Disaster

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

'Twas about seven o'clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clouds seem'd to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem'd to say-
"I'll blow down the Bridge of Tay."

Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!

Courtesy The Annotated Pratchett File.

Late to the (Digital) Party

Okay, so there's this site, Gamecrush.com.

Its business model, at first glance, is hardly new; it provides digital entertainment over the internet for a small fee ($6.60 for the first 10 minutes, $8.25 thereafter).

The digital entertainment it provides, however, is head-to-head games with women gamers. Apparently your fee gets you 500 credits; each 10-minute session costs you 400 of those credits. GameCrush skims 160 credits off the top, the woman gets the remaining 240 credits, and you can "tip" her your remaining 100 credits ... if she has earned them by being hot, playing well, and flirting like mad.

Jesus Christ, people, I thought we were trying to squash the lonely-loser image of people who play video games. Sheesh!

You can read more about this pathetic service, which is currently down and claims to have been overwhelmed by 10,000 page requests in 5 minutes, at Wikipedia -- but hurry, I'm afraid the article has been scheduled for termination.

Superman's Forbidden Room!

You'll never get the blood off that egg, Lois.

(Seriously, could that room be any creepier? Stalkerish behavior from Kal-El: 1.)

This Time ...

... he had pushed her too far.

What The What?

I'm just going to reprint the whole of this:

A well-heeled Philadelphia school district gave out laptops to students—then used the webcams attached to covertly spy on them, both at school and at home, according to a class-action lawsuit. The case, Blake J. Robbins v. Lower Merion School District, was filed after one of the school’s vice principals disciplined Robbins’ son for “improper behavior in his home,” using a photo taken from the camera as evidence, according to the filing.

The laptops were issued to 1,800 students at three high schools in the district, each with a built-in webcam that, according to the lawsuit, administrators can activate remotely and covertly. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all the students and their parents. They’re seeking damages for invasion of privacy, theft of private information, and unlawful interception and access of electronic information.

Words fail me.

Man Attempts to Drown His Daughter, Age 4

She wouldn't recite the alphabet, so he picked her up, placed her on the countertop, and pushed her head into a bowl of water.

He'd just been awarded custody of the little girl, too.

Terrible.

Preview Panel

A sneak peek at a (very rough) preliminary version of a thing I'm doing with me mum.

Warning: I suck at the digital art right now. It will improve! but this is basically my first try.

I Have Obtained A Thing

Oh yeah, nothing's going to stop me from rocking your world with my fabulous digital art skills.



Oh yeah, I just rocked your world!

Jesus Christ!

Bill Maher interviews Jeff Sharlet about his new book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, and it turns out that the Family teaches our congresscritters that if they have amassed power, it's because God wants them there. Forget feeding the poor, afflicting the comfortable, all that rot: Hitler rose and fell at God's whim, and Pinochet, and you, and while you're up, you don't have to worry about all that morality and ethics shit; that's for the little people. That's for the Jews and the Chilean street. So go ahead, hike the hell out of that Appalachian trail; you're just like King David, indispensable.

Oh, and they also briefly mention a tank lieutenant who painted his tank up with "Jesus killed Mohammed" in Arabic and drove down a street in the Middle East somewhere, and then had the gall to claim fear of violence in retaliation. I can think of nothing else more likely to evoke a violent response out of the Muslims we are currently occupying. Bet he wouldn't have the balls to do that with Jesus, Joseph Smith, and Salt Lake City.

It Cutened The World

It... it got Dr. Myers. He didn't even slow it down.

Maybe it won't see us here. Maybe it'll pass right by.

Oh god ... what are we going to do?

Wait, wait! Do you hear something?

Oh no it's here!



SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!