Geeking Out

It's become something of a long standing comic book tradition - famous super hero gets injured, crippled or even killed off, and is then replaced by a new hero wearing their famous name and costume, with the original hero eventually returning to the role after a series of struggles, not to mention fan demand for their return to their rightful place. One could say the whole concept of passing the superhero mantle to a newer,younger hero goes back to the fifties, when original Green Lantern Alan Scott and original Flash Jay Garrick let those new whipper-snappers Hal Jordan and Barry Allen take over their roles as Green Lantern and the Flash, respectively. Of course, there was a separation there of several years between Flashes and Green Lanterns, but still, you get the idea; new characters taking older heroic identities ain't nothin' new in comics. But the trope really became popular (and overused) over the past twenty-five years or so, and is now something of a tired cliche. But as much as replacing iconic heroes is a cheap gimmick, let's not forget superhero comics are nothing if not soap operas, and ongoing soap operas are full of gimmick storytelling. Doesn't mean those some of those stories weren't entertaining, or some of those gimmick characters didn't grow into something more over time. As with all things...some gimmicks (and characters) are just cheaper than others. And some cheap gimmicks can last for years before they are undone. Case in point, our entry at #11... 11. Spider-Woman Julia Carpenter Replaces Spider-Woman Jessica Drew The original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, was created out of corporate need more than any other reason; at some point in the seventies, Stan Lee realized if they didn't make a Spider-Woman spin-off character to their flagship hero Spider-Man, sooner or later another comic book company would take the name. So as a way of securing the copyright, Spider-Woman debuted in an issue of Marvel Spotlight in 1977. She was just meant to be a one-off character, created soley for that reason, but quickly Marvel saw potential in her, and within a year she not only had her own comic book series, but her own cartoon show on Saturday morning television. Despite being created to be a female version of Spider-Man, much like Supergirl and Batgirl were female analogues of their popular DC Comics male counterparts, Spider-Woman ended up being an analogue in name only. Her origins, powers, and costume were totally different from Peter Parker's, and aside from also living in the same Marvel Universe as Peter, had no other real connection to him. This was a much smarter and more interesting way to approach the character, as opposed to just making her a cheap knock-off of a popular male character (and before anyone flames me for that comment, no, I don't think Supergirl and Batgirl are just cheap copies...but they did kind of start out that way). In the late seventies and early eighties, Spider-Woman was found on most products and merchandise featuring the Marvel icons, right alongside the Hulk and Captain America. She was clearly being positioned as Marvel's top female hero. Then, in 1983, after fifty issues of her own series and an earned place in the Marvel Pantheon, her series was abruptly cancelled and her powers and costumed identity removed. Rumor has it that Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter thought a female version of Spidey (even though she really wasn't at all) emasculated Spider-Man himself. This sounds ridiculous, of course, but the fact that Jessica Drew was all but erased from Marvel gives some validity to this rumor. Nevertheless, Marvel needed to have a character named Spider-Woman floating around occasionally, otherwise they'd lose the copyright. So in the epic crossover miniseries Secret Wars, the same event that introduced Spider-Man's new black costume, Marvel introduced Julia Carpenter, the new Spider-Woman. Although not a terrible character by any means - and with enough personality traits t

Remember the double rainbow guy? Of course you do! Well geeks, Paul “Yosemite Bear” Vasquez is back, but this time, he looks like he’s in a bit of trouble. Apprently, the fire you see above shoots flames that are higher than a 100-foot tall. Also, the view we’re getting from his camera is the same as the one we saw a few years back in his memorable double rainbow video (see below.) This fire started yesterday Fathers Day June 16, 2013 around noon. I noticed it immediately and started filming. This footage was shot today Monday June 17, 2013 3 PM. I was on the phone with a CNN reporter when the flames started shooting up and this video starts. I was ordered to evacuate last night but refused the order because I have been planning for this for decades. My 2,500 gallon water tank went online two days before this fire. My well puts out a good water hose stream and my water tank puts out 2 streams and my hot tub another. I have 4 potential water hose lines, if only I had somebody here to help me man them. All the people who live here ran away like chickens. Ha. I fear nothing, I see it all as exciting, interesting and amazing! [Hungrybear9562]

At least 'nobody is listening to our telephone calls'; many people breathed a sigh of relief since first learning of the surveillance because it's just metadata, after all. Phew! Wrong. Metadata still leaves a lot to be concerned about. There's more to privacy than just the sounds of our voices: Content may be what we say, but metadata is about what we actually do. And unlike our words, metadata doesn't lie.

Facebook Home is a whole lot more than that it seems. Think of it as an "apperating system," a software platform that sits between the operating system and the apps, capturing an enormous share of the user's attention. And, Facebook hopes, an enormous chunk of advertising revenue.

Valentin Heun's projects include a door lock, desk lamps, and a small radio that bring the benefits of computation to objects without sacrificing their intrinsic, tactile pleasures.

[Source: Abstruse Goose]

Taco Cowboy writes "Most of the younger /. readers never heard of the PDP-11, while we geezers have to retrieve bits and pieces of our affairs with PDP-11 from the vast warehouse inside our memory lanes." From the article: "HP might have nuked OpenVMS, but its parent, PDP-11, is still spry and powering GE nuclear power-plant robots and will do for another 37 years. That's right: PDP-11 assembler programmers are hard to find, but the nuclear industry is planning on keeping them until 2050 — long enough for a couple of generations of programmers to come and go." Not sure about the OpenVMS vs PDP comparison, but it's still amusing that a PDP might outlast all of the VAX machines. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Geekosystem’s office is in New York City, and while I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, I’ve got to admit that we have terrible pop culture-centic statues compared to some other cities. Philadelphia has Rocky, Milwaukee has The Fonz, Palm Springs had that enormous Marilyn Monroe — heck, Detroit’s getting a RoboCop! And what do we have? A statue of Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners hanging out next to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. It’s practically a slap in the face. So the news that the Chinatown district of Los Angeles recently erected a seven foot tall statue of Bruce Lee, in all his shirtless nunchuck-slinging glory, has me a bit miffed. We have a loudmouth bus driver and they have Bruce Lee? Man, screw New York. Unveiled on Saturday to a crowd of hundreds, this statue clocks in at 7.6 feet of rippling bronze muscle and was donated by the Bruce Lee Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to honor the martial arts star’s legacy. Lee spent most of his childhood in Hong Kong, but was born in San Francisco and moved to L.A’s Chinatown in the 60s to start his acting career and open a new martial arts school. The unveiling was scheduled to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Chinatown and the 40th anniversary of Lee’s death. As of now, however, the statue is not a permanent fixture and still needs to actually be mounted to the ground in concrete, which will take another $150,000. I’d say that we should totally steal it and bring it back to Manhattan, but I have this irrational fear that Statue-Bruce would stab us in the throat with his metal fist if we tried it. While this statue doesn’t have quite the same gorgeous background scenery as the statue of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong, it’s got nunchucks, which are pretty freaking cool. Then again, so does the Bruce Lee statue in Bosnia and that one’s also much shinier. And then there’s that giant one outside of Beijing  – wait, how many Bruce Lee statues are there exactly? And we don’t have one? Why the heck not? It’s not like he ever actually went to Bosnia, so there’s really no excuse for New York to not have a Bruce Lee Statue. Get on it, Bloomberg. (via The Hollywood Reporter, image via Indian Express) Meanwhile in related links The Northlake Library is getting a Hulk statue Here’s your first look at that RoboCop statue, by the way And here’s a Buddhist Nazi statue from space

Amazon is diving into the original streaming content pool with its political comedy Alpha House sometime late 2013 or early 2014, but when it does come out it’s not going to be coming out all at once, according to executive producer Jonathan Alter. There go your plans for a 10-episode John Goodman marathon. So what is their plan exactly? In an interview with The Wrap, Alter told Sharon Waxman, “No. It hasn’t been entirely determined how they’ll put it out. But it will be a different model.” Alter remained vague about just what that model might look like, but if it’s not all at once then we can only assume it’s going to be a weekly schedule like regular television. There aren’t that many other models for broadcasting a program like this, besides the one where a network keeps moving a show to a new day and time to prevent it from building an audience. Then again, maybe it only feels that way because those are the only models we know right now? Amazon has the opportunity at least to do something novel here. It should be interesting to see what the company comes up with. The decision does beg a question, though: is Amazon missing the value of dumping content all at once like Netflix has been doing, or has binge watching lost its appeal? It does create a weird situation when it comes to talking about a show because you have to figure out how far into the season everyone has watched. I haven’t seen any of the new season of Arrested Development, but have watched from a distance as the other Geekosystem editors tried to parse out what was okay to talk about in the office. It’s also possible that the tepid fan response to all 15 highly anticipated episodes of Arrested Development left Amazon queasy about dumping an entire show into audience’s laps at once. This is TV after all — or, well, serialized comedy programming, anyway. Maybe we do need a little time to process episodes. And maybe as we move to a new medium for broadcasting these shows, we really do need to look for new models to distribute them. After all, somewhere in the vast chasm between releasing a show every week and dropping the entire series at once, there must exist a happy middle ground, right? Also of note from Alter’s interview is that the writer behind the series, Doonesbury’s Garry Trudeau, turned the four senators in the show — who are based on real-life Democrats — into Republicans because he thought the show would be “funnier,” according to Alter. The show will also see the addition of two female Democratic senators to the cast, but the parts have yet to be cast. (Note to Amazon: Please see if Viola Davis is doing anything at the moment.) (The Wrap via The Verge, image via Zen Sutherland) Meanwhile in related links Science says watching television can be good for you Binge on Arrested Development and these themed food items Dreamworks has partnered with Netflix for some original content

Rick Zeman writes "'Confidentiality is critical to national security.' So wrote the Justice Department in concealing the NSA's role in two wiretap cases. However, now that the NSA is under the gun, it's apparently not so critical, according to New York attorney Joshua Dratel: 'National security is about keeping illegal conduct concealed from the American public until you're forced to justify it because someone ratted you out.' The first he heard of the NSA's role in his client's case was 'when [FBI deputy director Sean] Joyce disclosed it on CSPAN to argue for the effectiveness of the NSA's spying.' Dratel challenged the legality of the spying in 2011, and asked a federal judge to order the government to produce the wiretap application the FBI gave the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to justify the surveillance. 'Disclosure of the FISA applications to defense counsel – who possess the requisite security clearance – is also necessary to an accurate determination of the legality of the FISA surveillance, as otherwise the defense will be completely in the dark with respect to the basis for the FISA surveillance,' wrote Dratel. According to Wired, 'The government fought the request in a 60-page reply brief (PDF), much of it redacted as classified in the public docket. The Justice Department argued that the defendants had no right to see any of the filings from the secret court, and instead the judge could review the filings alone in chambers." Read more of this story at Slashdot.