Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Afghan Idol
How Afghanistan’s version of American Idol is helping to change their culture to a more tolerant one. Like I’ve said before, as inane as shows like American Idol seem, they actually have a positive impact on society by bringing people together.
Nowhere is the revolutionary impact of the show more evident than in the success of Sahar, the first woman to have made it to the final five. That is quite an achievement for an ethnic Pashtun from Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban, where women are traditionally kept behind closed doors. Religious leaders have condemned Afghan Star for allowing women to perform in public, and some have demanded it be taken off the air. But the hundreds of thousands of votes that have poured in for Sahar suggest that many Afghans are ready for change. “It is no longer possible for one man to say that we can’t have this music,” says Murtaza Mohammadi, 24, a waiter in one of Kabul’s restaurants. “Our votes prove that it’s part of our culture, and no one can stop it.”
Sahar had never sung before joining some 2,000 aspirants to compete for the title, and her performance, while it has improved over the past four months, remains wooden. What has struck a chord with voters is her raw courage in defying conservative strictures simply to be here. “Her singing skills are not as good as the guys, and the assumption was that she was going to fail fairly quickly,” says Saad Mohseni, a director of the company that owns the show. “But I think people wanted her to win. They all realized how difficult it was for her to pick up from Kandahar, and we all want to root for the underdog. For her to get so much support is quite phenomenal. This season of Afghan Star will do more for women’s rights than all the millions of dollars we have spent on public service announcements for women’s rights on TV.”
Most Inane Comic Book Cameos
Cracked has a list of some of the worst comic book cameos by real celebrities. The princess Diana one, after she was dead, was pretty bad.
I was looking through some old Superman comics I have on disk, and there’s one (Superman #67) where Perry Como steals Lois Lane’s away from Superman. That has to rank in there somewhere.
Actually, DC has both a Bob Hope comics series and a Jerry Lewis series at one time.
UPDATE: How could I forget Jimmy Olsen 141 guest starring Don Rickles?
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tissue Regeneration Coming
Science is making progress in the ability to grow organs on demand and even manufacture them. They might even be able to grow fresh limbs for people who lost them.
Dr. Atala, one of the pioneers of regeneration, believes every type of tissue already has cells ready to regenerate if only researchers can prod them into action. Sometimes that prodding can look like science fiction.
Emerging from an everyday ink jet printer is the heart of a mouse. Mouse heart cells go into the ink cartridge and are then sprayed down in a heart shaped pattern layer by layer.
Dr. Atala believes it’s a matter of time before someone grows a human heart.
“The cells have all the genetic information necessary to make new tissue,” Atala explained. “That’s what they are programmed to do. So your heart cells are programmed to make more heart tissue, your bladder cells are programmed to make more bladder cells.”
A Horrible Idea from the Past
Russian Wedding Cakes
The Internet?
A video from the early 90s describing the Internet. The part where the guy says nobody insults each other on the internet is pretty funny.
Here’s an aticle from 1995 that says “The internet. Bah!” A skeptic who didn’t think it’ll be that big.
Did Comic Books Cause 60s Radicalism?
That was the fear of some people in the 1950s, that comic books were corrupting the youth. There was an actual Senate investigation into Juvenile Delinquency in 1954 which resulted in something called the “Comics Code” which is still around till this day. It’s a kind of self censorship board funded by the major companies.
Salon has an interesting article today about how comics and the comics code may have inspired the rebellion of the 60s. I do think censorship isn’t the answer to anything. Violent comics books and video games are more of a catharsis than an inducement. And sexual innuendo is something you learned on the playground, even in my time. Comics were pretty tame when these investigations happened. They were mainly used to shut down one of the most successful publishers, EC Comics, who went on to do Mad Magazine. Because they were paying more than the other publishers, and generally treated artists better, the others saw them as a threat and did everything they could to cut them off at the knees.
Comics have the ability to reach a universal audience, as the article about teaching with comics indicates. I’m glad to see comics are still going strong, in their own way, in the 21st century. I think their future is bright.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
How Spiderman 3 Should Have Ended
If you missed this, it’s their best spoof yet.
Teaching with Comics
A teacher in Miami is using graphic novels to turn kids onto reading.
’‘I have to limit them to one at a time, but there are students who come in two to three times a day to return one and get another,’‘ Kaiser said.
Before anybody explodes about kids reading comic books when they’re supposed to be doing quadratic equations or studying Shakespeare, know that comic books have changed, and so has reading.
Under the spiffier label of ’‘graphic novels,’‘ these bound books feature every stripe of hero and story. ’‘The themes and genres can range from science to biography, and from memoirs to yes, superheroes,’‘ said John Shableski of Diamond Book Distributors, which
specializes in comics. ``Every subject is available in the format.’‘
Let’s hope more schools do this because there are many excellent graphic novels nowadays, and they’re more likely to get some kids into reading than a book. Whatever gets them reading is a good thing.
The Fall of the Jacksons
An interesting article in the NY Post about how the Jackson clan is impoverished. This part is especially interesting.
The King of Pop used his vast power and influence to prevent his siblings from plying the trade that led to such mega-hits as “I Want You Back,” “The Love You Save” and “ABC.”
Jackson, riding high in the music world, signed his brothers to his personal record label, MJJ, and refused to release any of their music.
“Michael’s mission was to make sure his family was broke, and he accomplished that through the industry, which mostly kowtowed to him,” said Bob Jones, former longtime director of communications for Jackson and the author of “Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask.”
“We were always ordered by Michael to keep his family away from his offices and out of his business,” he said. “He hated them. He wanted them broke. Michael even refused to allow Jermaine, who had come over to Europe to see one of Michael’s concerts about a decade ago, to guest on ‘I’ll Be There.’ Jermaine was devastated.”
I used to see them around Encino, Ca when I lived there. I was waiting for my car at a car wash on Ventura Blvd, and sat next to Randy as he was waiting for his. I also saw Joe Jackson in the supermarket one time, buying some antacids. He was in front of me in line. And, of course, I’ve met Michael Jackson as I recounted on my old blog a few times. That was an interesting story.
Anyway, this family is rather sad. When you read teh whole thing, you realize Michael may or may not be a crazed pedophile, but he is certainly a creep. But he learned it from Dad, because the Jackson family has run several charity shows where they kept all the money and didn’t pay any of the bills..
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