Flatbadgers Flashbacks and Fascinations

Star Trek 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:21:00 +0000

This is my kind of press release :-)

Paramount Officially Announces Star Trek Sequel Production Start January 14, 2012

by TrekMovie.com Staff , Filed under: CBS/Paramount, Star Trek sequel (2013) , trackback

On Thursday TrekMovie reported on the beginning of production for JJ Abrams Star Trek sequel, but today Paramount Pictures made it official with a press release announcing filming start. It also includes some details on the team behind the film. See below for the full release.

Press Release

JJ Abrams Begins Production On Next “Star Trek” Movie

Paramount Pictures announced that principal photography has commenced in Los Angeles, CA on the sequel to STAR TREK from director J.J. Abrams. The film will be released on May 17, 2013 in 3D. The 2009 re-launch of the "Star Trek" franchise by Abrams was met with critical acclaim and a worldwide gross of over $385 million at the box office.

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions present a Bad Robot Production of a J.J. Abrams Film. Returning to their posts on the Enterprise are John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, and Anton Yelchin. They are joined by new cast members Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve and Peter Weller.

Based upon "Star Trek" created by Gene Roddenberry, the film is produced by J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The script was written by Alex Kurtzman & Robert Orci & Damon Lindelof.

Jeffrey Chernov, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Paul Schwake are the executive producers. The director of photography is Dan Mindel, ASC, BSC. The production designer is Scott Chambliss. The film is edited by Maryann Brandon, A.C.E. and Mary Jo Markey, A.C.E. The costume designer is Michael Kaplan. The music is by Michael Giacchino.

Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company’s labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.

ABOUT SKYDANCE PRODUCTIONS

Skydance Productions has a strategic partnership with Paramount Pictures which allows it to co-finance and produce several films per year with the studio. The first film to be co-produced under the partnership was the Coen Brothers’ “True Grit,” which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards© and has earned $250 million worldwide. Most recently, Skydance productions released the Paramount feature “Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol,” starring Tom Cruise, which has made over $460 million worldwide and growing. Upcoming films include “G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation,” starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson, set for release on June 29, 2012; “My Mother’s Curse,” starring Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen, slated for release on November 2, 2012; “World War Z,” directed by Marc Forster and starring Brad Pitt, Matthew Fox and David Morse, set for release on December 21, 2012; “One Shot,” based on the best-selling novels by Lee Child, directed by Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom

Cruise, currently in production; the Untitled Star Trek Sequel, starring Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine; and the Untitled Jack Ryan Project starring Chris Pine, to be directed by Jack Bender (“Lost”) and produced by Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld. Additionally, Skydance is producing, along with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, “Without Remorse,” written by Shawn Ryan.

ABOUT BAD ROBOT

Bad Robot was formed by filmmaker J.J. Abrams in 2001. The company has produced television series such as ALIAS, LOST, FRINGE, and PERSON OF INTEREST, and feature films such as CLOVERFIELD, STAR TREK, SUPER 8 and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL. Bad Robot is based in Los Angeles.

Ferris Bueller Returns!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:22:00 +0000

Yes!
This is cool. This year just keeps getting better and better. I just saw this video:

From the YouTube site: We hate to be such a tease, but on a day like today, we just have to. Stick it out until the Super Bowl, or take a "day off" on Monday and catch the big reveal.

Category: People & Blogs

Tags: Ferris Bueller Day off Ferris Bueller February 5 teaser sb46 big game 2012 superbowl super bowl advertising ads Super Bowl Commercial Super Bowl Ad XLVI License: Standard YouTube License

Bacon Photography! Too Sexy :-)

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Bacon Photo Gallery

Check out the Bacon Truck! Now that is bacon dedication!

Click to See Amazing Bacon Photos!

Check out this new "Gimmick": The cell phone!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:48:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

AND you were excited about the arrival of 4G phones?

Here's a nostalgic look at another major technological advancement.

It cost up to $6000, could work on Sydney Harbour and fit in your car.

Flashback to1987, and meet the first mobile phone.Check out this video here.

We've managed to dig up the first news report about mobile phones in Australia.
And there seemed to be sceptics who doubted whether this new gadget would ever catch on.

Seventies soul divas Sister Sledge and co bring disco to the catwalk

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:02:00 +0000

Cover of Sister Sledge

24 JANUARY 2012

With a little help from some of the most iconic disco queens in history, fashion house Etam launched their new collection at Paris Couture Week.

Soul divas Sister Sledge, Chaka Kahn, Grace Jones, Gloria Gaynor and the Pointer Sisters all took to the stage at the lingerie show.

Dressed up for the occasion in glittering outfits, they gave onlookers a trip down memory lane as they performed their disco hits from the Seventies.

The soundtrack clearly reflected the brand’s collection of sparkly bodysuits and pink afro wigs that screamed disco.

CLICK ON PHOTO FOR FULL GALLERY

It's just how we rolled in the 70's!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

The Big-Wheel was freedom!

Check out the history of the Big Wheel here! love it...thanks Mark!

Star Trek Online is Now FREE

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:55:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

This is a Flatbadger' Flashbacks Public Service Announcement. Play Star Trek Online

This is a new year; 2012. You already pay money for your TV, and you pay money for water (fricken water bottles), and you pay BIG money for your mobile phone. Let's add on the millions you spend on food and automobile expenses. Next, lets add my favorite word: Fees............I won't even get started on how much you spend on FEES. Fees are like a new life form created to make us pay for thing that doen't even exit. Fee is the opposite of FREE.

So, I think the time is right for something free. Hence, I must therefore recommend Star Trek Online. Next to bacon, and cola, Star Trek is the bet thing ever created........well, it's on my top 100 list anyway......so check it out. A million hours of fun, nostalgic yet current, game play awaits you...for FREE :-)

Below information from Star Trek Online Free to Play:

Welcome to the Star Trek Online free-to-play information center! Please use the tabs above to check out our detailed features matrix for a breakdown of what subscribing Gold Members and free Silver Players receive. There's also a FAQ and a Q&A board.

Here's an overview of Star Trek Online's free-to-play features and how you can engage in a number of different ways: The Universe is Your Only Limit – Play as much as you like for as long as you like at no cost. No subscription is necessary, nor is payment of any kind required. Episodic Gameplay – Experience new weekly episodes that feature story-based gameplay and put your captain's ability to command to the ultimate test. Your Captain, Your Crew, Your Destiny – Become a captain, seek out new life and new civilizations and encounter hostile beings as you advance to maximum level for free. Familiar Places, New Experiences – Travel to Starfleet Academy, Deep Space Nine, The First City of Qo'noS and many other iconic locations and notable worlds from the beloved Star Trek universe. The information you find here, like the rest of Star Trek Online's free-to-play experience, is subject to change.

Van Halen, and David Lee Roth, BACK! with Tattoo

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:15:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I don't care what this article, or anyone else says. Having Van Halen back with Mr. David Lee Roth at the vocals, is just plain cool to hear.....Video at the end of the article. Personally, I dig it when Dave talks in the middle of songs :-)

Van Halen's New 'Tattoo' Reminds Fans Of Old 'Flames'

Fans say band's comeback single appears to be a re-worked version of '70s song 'Down in Flames.'

On Tuesday, Van Halen premiered "Tattoo," the first single from their comeback album with David Lee Roth, A Different Kind of Truth. And almost as soon as they did, longtime fans couldn't help but notice that the song sounded, well, a little familiar.

In fact, the "new" song might be a re-worked version of "Down in Flames," a track Van Halen played live in the 1970s but never actually put on an album. And listening to the two side by side, you can't help but think those fans are right. From the chords to the chorus, "Tattoo" bears a striking similarity to the old song.

Then again, it's not as if this is a shocking development. At their Café Wha? show last week, Van Halen debuted another "new" song, "She's the Woman," which actually began life as a demo recorded in the '70s. And in an interview last year with Rolling Stone, former frontman Sammy Hagar claimed that Truth would be made up of "old outtakes," adding: "From what I heard, they aren't working with new material. Ed and Dave didn't actually write new songs. They just took old stuff from previous sessions, and then maybe Dave had to go in and add vocals because they just had scat vocals or even no vocal part at all."

While we can't vouch for the entire album, based on "Tattoo" and "Woman," it would appear Hagar was spot-on. Of course, as several Van Halen fans pointed out, the band have reused demos and portions of other songs in the past (their 1991 song "Top of the World" famously uses a guitar riff taken from their massive 1984 hit "Jump," to name one example), and guitarist Eddie Van Halen reportedly has a huge back catalog of riffs to draw from. Also, as many Halen-ites stated, the band did write both songs, so they can basically do whatever they want with them.

Most fans also let it be known that, frankly, they're happy the reunited Van Halen isn't messing with their tried-and-true formula for the new album. After all, if it ain't broke, why fix it?

A spokesperson for Van Halen did not respond to MTV News' request for comment on the matter by press time.

Green Bay Packers win The Superbowl! The first Superbowl that is!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:25:00 +0000

Image by Wisconsin Historical Images via Flickr

Flashback to January 15, 1967 - Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Who won the first Superbowl? My team of course :-) The Green Bay Packers. Coach Vince Lombardi and QB Bart Starr are now legendary names in Football History. Did I mention that I wore a button-down dress shirt with packer helmets all over it, for my second grade picture? I have to add that information for those that may dare to call me a "Johhny-come-lately" fan.

SUPERBOWL I

Green Bay Packers 35
Kansas City Chiefs 10

One day Lamar Hunt, architect of the AFL and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, came across his daughter's Super Ball and was given the inspiration for the name of the championship game between the upstart American Football League and the old-guard National Football League.

"Why not," he wondered, "call our championship game the Super Bowl?"

The name, however, wasn't applied to this first contest until a couple years later when it was retroactively labeled. The game itself, though, caught on quickly and thus, an American tradition was born.

The first of these "Super" contests pitted Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers (13-2) against Hank Stram's Chiefs (12-2-1) and was played before 61,946 fans in Los Angeles' 100,000-seat Memorial Coliseum. The television audience for this game is estimated to have been approximately 60 million viewers.

The game itself featured an unlikely hero in Green Bay wide receiver Max McGee. McGee was strictly a backup and did not receive much playing time. In fact, in 14 games during the 1966 season he had caught only four passes for 91 yards.

Legend has it that Max had spent most of the previous night out on the town and was in no shape to play football, especially in a championship game. But he felt safe in knowing the only way he would get into the game was if Boyd Dowler got hurt.

McGee was later quoted as saying, "I waddled in about 7:30 in the morning and I could barely stand up for the kickoff. On the bench Paul (Hornung) kept needling me, 'What would you do if you had to play?' And I said, 'No way, there's no way I could make it.'"

As fate would have it, Dowler did get hurt early in the game and McGee was suddenly thrust into a game he had no business being in.

Just moments after entering the game though, he caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Bart Starr to cap off an 80-yard drive that gave the Packers an early lead. On the day, McGee caught seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns as the Packers went on to win the first Super Bowl, 35-10.

Each player on the Packers received a $15,000 bonus for winning the game, while members of the Chiefs earned $7,500. A one-minute television commercial sold for $75,000 to $85,000; pocket change compared to the millions spent on air time now.

Race RETRO 2012 REVS UP WITH AN AMAZING LINE UP

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:25:00 +0000

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Ronel Jordaan

This year’s Race Retro is revving up to be the best ever as it brings together rare and stunning historic motorsport marques on two and four wheels when it returns to Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th February.

See rare and legendary racing cars such as the Group C Porsche 956, the 001 first prototype chassis that was raced in Rothmans livery by Jackie Ickx and Derek Bell and will be on static display. Or from rallying, the Group B Porsche 911 SCRS 1984 280bhp three litre flat six rally car that will be in action on Saturday and Sunday on the Live Rally Stage as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations.

There is a tribute to 50 years of the MGB with a foyer display of two early ex works racecars. The hardtop roadster was driven in 1963 Sebring 12-hour endurance race by Christabel Carlisle, now Lady Watson, former Mini racer and the darling of British race fans in the early sixties, and Denise McCluggage, an American motoring journalist and lady racing driver.

The roadster will be joined by the works MGB GT racer that was also driven at Sebring by Paddy Hopkirk and Andrew Hedges.

A stunning 30 years of Rallying will be marked with a static display as well as an unbelievable line up on the Live Rally Stage. Rallying with Group B will be out in force on Saturday and Sunday, putting on an amazing showcase for visitors on the purpose built course that features challenging twists and turns.

Hall & Hall will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Graham Hill winning the team’s first Formula 1 GP world Championship in 1962 by displaying the championship winning BRM P57 1.5 litre V8 GP car.

For those preferring two-wheeled motorsport, the tribute to 30 years of the Honda Racing Corporation will be led with the only known remaining example of the Mike Hailwood RC 173 500/4 cylinder motorbike on which he won every GP he rode it in during the 65/66 seasons. There will be up to ten more Honda RC 163 250/4 cylinder replica GP bikes for static display and in the popular Fire-Up Paddock. Hosted by Road Racing Legends, a charity supporting former TT riders and their families, the Fire Up Paddock is where legendary motorcycles are brought back to life as they get started up so the crowds can hear the roar of the engines.

Visitors can not only see all the action but can also become part of it with the chance to drive a rally car, thanks to Hero, the Historic Endurance Rallying organisation. For just £20, visitors can ‘arrive and drive’ in one of Hero’s rally prepared classic cars, put it through its paces and get a feel for rally driving on a purpose built course adjacent to the Live Rally Stage.

For those looking to invest in a piece of motorsport history, visit the Silverstone Auction which specialises in the sale of the finest classic cars, modern supercars, all types of competition cars, modern and historic motorcycles and automobilia. The auction will be open for viewing all day on Friday and Saturday morning. The sale will then start on Saturday lunchtime with the automobilia before moving on to classic and historic motor racing and competition cars and motorcycles. Silverstone Auctions is happy to accept entries into the auction and those interested should contact the team by telephoning 01926 691 141 or emailing enquiries@silverstoneauctions.com. Auction catalogues will be available online at www.silverstoneauctions.com.

Enjoy the interview stage, hosted by Moto GP presenter Steve Parrish, which will feature special guests and motorsport quizzes or visit the hundreds of traders selling everything needed for the coming motorsport season. For those who like to get grease under their fingernails, explore the autojumble for that elusive part or spare.

Adult tickets for Race Retro, sponsored by Peter James Insurance, start at £20 in advance with children’s tickets at £5 for Friday and Saturday and free on Sunday. Car parking is free and has been moved to a hard surface area nearer to the halls. The show is open from 9.30am each day and closes at 5.30pm on Friday and Saturday and 4.30pm on Sunday. To book tickets and for the latest updates, visit www.raceretro.com.

OMG....The Three Stooges are back! The Movie trailer!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:53:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I can't believe it LOL....I know, you either hate them or love them, but the bottom line is that The Three Stooges are back. And you know what, based on this trailer anyway, I think I am going to love this!

If you know me, you know I love the old 30's and 40's comedy styles.....heck, Abbot and Costello rule in my opinion, but The Three Stooges were just straight dumb humor and I loved them too.

You can visit the main Three Stooges site for the new movie here Then, like I always like to do, read the full Wikipedia article on them here.

I'll miss Shemp LOL.......Flatbadger

I love retro TV

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:26:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Sweet article from Mike Marin:

It has gotten much easier to stroll down memory lane with the advent of new digital channels that have sprung up since the FCC-mandated conversion away from analog television a couple of years ago.

Channels such as RTV (Retro Television Network), Me-TV (Memorable Entertainment Television), This TV and Antenna TV all focus on classic television series you rarely see on the tube anymore. Come to think of it, you rarely see a “tube” anymore.

If you miss the innocuous fare from 40 or 50 years ago, you can still find many great shows if you have the patience to locate one of these new channels on your cable lineup or converter box.

This TV offers such old chestnuts as “Mister Ed” and “The Patty Duke Show.” Remember when state-of-the-art special effects consisted of moving the lips of a talking horse and hiring an actress that looked like Patty Duke from behind to play Patty Lane’s identical cousin, Cathy?

If you miss Sally Field, you can catch her Saturday afternoons on Antenna TV with back-to-back episodes of “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun,” along with “McHale’s Navy,” “Father Knows Best” and “Dennis the Menace.”

A typical afternoon on Retro gives you such gems as Chuck Connors’ “The Rifleman” and Fess Parker donning his coonskin cap as “Daniel Boone.”

For the insomniac, Me-TV dusts off one of my personal favorites, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” every Sunday at midnight. Without the benefit of CGI, which wouldn’t be invented for another 40 years, Admiral Nelson, Captain Crane and the always-in-peril crew had to battle some of the cheesiest special effects ever seen.

The “sea monster” on a recent episode consisted of a squid sucking on a toy model of the Seaview, probably filmed in the director’s bathtub. Priceless.

Flashback to Mad Magazine!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:08:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Many of my most cherished flashbacks are from when I was a kid. Back in 1974, I met my buddy Mark. We're still great friends all these years later, and he KNOWS I'm a lunatic LOL......too bad he lives in Vegas, or maybe I should say......too bad I don't live in Vegas.

Anyway, he sent me the link to this awesome CNN story and I HAD to share it, because growing up......it was all about Mad Magazine. In fact, I really don't understand why I don't still subscribe, because the satirical humor in the magazine is GREAT! I was able to post the article below, but if you want to see the great slide show, click the link at the end of this article......Happy New Year Everyone......Flatbadger

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Al Jaffee is a longtime veteran of Mad magazine
Jaffee created the Mad Fold-in and "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions"
His early life was bumpy; he was caught between parents, continents
At almost 91, Jaffee is still active in Mad, other pursuits

Savannah, Georgia (CNN) -- "Draw something," Abraham Jaffee was told.
A school monitor had pulled young Abe out of math class and told him to report to the art room. Sitting with about 50 students, Jaffee drew the first thing that came to mind, a scene of a village square in Lithuania, where he had spent several years of his childhood.

Jaffee, by then in his early teens, had already established a talent for art. His teachers admired it; fellow students encouraged it. After a bumpy several years in which he bounced like a pinball between his parents -- moving from Savannah, Georgia, to Lithuania, to one borough and then another of New York City, back to Lithuania and back again to New York -- art was something to hold on to, a way to establish an identity. He had no idea it would lead anywhere.

"Some folks' lives roll easy," Paul Simon once sang, "some folks' lives never roll at all." Jaffee -- you can call him Al now -- has had a life that's rolled downhill and uphill and occasionally clicked into place. It's like one of the Rube Goldberg machines he enjoys so much, those fantastical contraptions for simple tasks -- wiping your mouth, say, or closing a screen door -- that require falling bowling balls, agitated parrots, dropping hammers, kicking boots and snapping strings, turning minor chores into a symphony of wacky machinery.

Jaffee moved around a lot during his youth. He said art was something to hold on to, a way to establish an identity.

Today Jaffee, who will be 91 in March, is known for his own contraptions, many designed during his long relationship with Mad magazine. There's the Mad Fold-in, the magazine's inside back page, which cleverly turns one Jaffee work into another by folding one portion over another. There's "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions," in which a humdrum question leads to several unexpected sarcasms.

And then there are his sketches of "Mad inventions," including an airbag suit and an improved beverage can. Some of them, like a smokeless ashtray or a multiroll toilet paper dispenser, have come to pass -- much to Jaffee's amusement. He's been a primary contributor to Mad for more than 50 years, one of the chief purveyors of the humor that has shaped everything from "Airplane!" to The Onion to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." (Mad is a unit of DC Comics, which -- like CNN -- is a part of Time Warner.)
His colleagues have praised him as a "genius."

See some of Jaffee's work for Mad through the years

"He picks up everything," says cartoonist Chris Schweizer, author of the graphic novel series "Crogan Adventures." Sergio Aragones, whose mini-cartoons have filled Mad's margins for almost 50 years, sounds pleasantly exasperated when he insists that many things he has done, Jaffee has done before.

"I've apologized a million times, and I still do, because I'll do a cartoon and he's already done it," he tells an audience at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he's part of a recent panel celebrating Mad's artistry.

Jaffee downplays the praise.

"People who want to do creative things are generally going to seize the opportunity to do so whenever they can," he tells the SCAD crowd. "I particularly enjoy doing something that hasn't been done before."
Draw something.

It was 1935 in New York. In the art classroom, the students worked. Jaffee was particularly impressed by the student in front of him, who composed an elaborate rendering of a Dutch peasant.

At the end of the exercise, the teacher announced that everybody could leave except Jaffee and the peasant's creator, Wolf Eisenberg. The two boys were to go to the principal's office.

Jaffee thought he was in big trouble, but Eisenberg, later to be known as Will Elder, knew differently. More than 75 years later, Jaffee still chuckles as he repeats Elder's words in his former classmate's thick Bronx accent.

"I tink," Elder said, "dere gonna send us to art school."

Across the Atlantic

You have to watch out for cartoonists. They'll catch you by surprise.

Jaffee sits on stage at the Trustees Theater in Savannah. To either side are other members of Mad's "Usual Gang of Idiots," as contributors are known on the magazine's masthead: Aragones, Jack Davis, Paul Coker Jr. and Tom Richmond, along with Mad art director Sam Viviano.

In a number of staff positions over the years including editor, Nick Meglin kept the Gang in line.

They're all in this coastal Georgia city for a weekend celebrating their work, patiently listening to moderator and former Mad editor Nick Meglin offer questions for them to bat around. Meglin usually speaks a mile a minute, incessantly cracking jokes, but right now he's reeling off a long, thoughtful query to Jaffee about original Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman.

However, Meglin has neglected to speak into his microphone, and his words have trailed off. The almost-capacity audience -- about a thousand strong -- murmurs, and finally Meglin, realizing his mistake, raises the microphone and finishes his address.

Jaffee impishly takes a beat.

"What was the question?" he asks.

Mad Facts

Founded: 1952 by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William M. Gaines.

Mascot: Gap-toothed moron Alfred E. Neuman, who's been pictured as a face on Mount Rushmore, a member of "The Godfather's" Corleone family, Uncle Sam and a perennial presidential candidate. His motto is "What, me worry?"

Contributors: "The Usual Gang of Idiots," a roster of freelancers that has included artists Mort Drucker and Angelo Torres, famed for their movie and TV parodies; Don Martin, known for his sound-effects-laden art; Antonio Prohias, creator of "Spy vs. Spy;" and dozens of others. Writers have included Emmy winners Larry Siegel and Stan Hart; Frank Jacobs, master of the poem and musical parody; and "Mad's Maddest Writer" Dick DeBartolo.

Impact: Mad has been featured in much of the pop culture it parodies. Charles Schulz used Alfred E. Neuman in a 1973 strip; "The Simpsons" frequently drops Mad references. It's long been considered a rite of passage to be parodied in the magazine: "I knew I'd made it in show business when I got drawn by Mort Drucker in Mad magazine," Michael J. Fox once said.

Minutia: At one point, staffers gave themselves silly titles. Nick Meglin, who had been "war correspondent" during a stint in the service, became "tennis editor;" Al Jaffee was "religion editor."

Sources: "Mad Art," by Mark Evanier; "Completely Mad," by Maria Reidelbach; Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site (madcoversite.com); interviews.

The audience erupts.

You have to watch out for cartoonists. They may seem quiet, but they're watching like hawks.
"He absorbs it all," says Jaffee's wife, Joyce.

For Al Jaffee, such observation comes naturally -- and not without some pain. He was actually born in Savannah but has little memory of it. When he was 6, his mother took him and his three brothers from Georgia to Zarasai, Lithuania, her hometown, leaving his father Morris behind in America. The marriage was not a happy one; Mildred Jaffee was a religious eccentric who refused to acclimate to the ways of the United States.

She told her husband she was going to visit her parents for a month. She stayed for a year, children in tow, and probably never planned to return.

As Mary-Lou Weisman writes in her recent biography, "Al Jaffee's Mad Life," the trip from urban America to small-town Lithuania was like traveling from the 20th century back to the 19th. There was no indoor plumbing, no electricity. Everybody spoke Yiddish. People were fleeing Lithuania to come to America; Jaffee's mother was going the other direction.

Jaffee adjusted. One thing that helped was the newspaper comics his father regularly sent from America, featuring such cartoonists as Goldberg, Roy Crane and Harold Gray. Another was Al's ability to re-create those comics' characters in his own hand.

"The Lithuanian children had never seen cartooning," he told Weisman. "They drove me crazy, begging me to draw the same characters over and over again."

Jaffee's father eventually lured his wife back to America, but life had turned hard. The onetime Savannah department store manager eventually moved to New York, where he took a part-time job as a mail carrier. Then Mildred Jaffee decided to move her sons back to Lithuania. Once again Jaffee and his brothers made the long trip across the Atlantic and back to the 19th century. This time they stayed for four years.

But Europe was growing darker. Morris Jaffee scraped some money together and came to Lithuania to get his family back in early 1933. Three of his four sons came with him; the youngest, David, came over seven years later. Jaffee said his father "took Hitler seriously ... (and) saved the family's life."

But not Mildred's. She stayed behind. Jaffee never saw her again. According to Weisman's book, she most likely died in a mass shooting sometime in 1941.

Jaffee addresses his departure with some sadness but clear eyes. "When the selection was made in the concentration camps, some people chose to go to the left, to stay and die with the people they loved," he told Weisman. "When the selection was made in Lithuania, I didn't stay with my mother; I went to the right."

Picture of success

There's a photograph of Jaffee sitting in the cafeteria at New York's old High School of Music & Art, the school that changed his life. His arm is around Will Elder's shoulders. They're probably 16 or 17. The two of them are making faces like little kids.

Being a cartoonist means never having to grow up. Over lunch during the SCAD weekend, Al's wife, Joyce, and Paul Coker's wife, Rosemary Smithson, are asked if living with a cartoonist is like living with a perpetual 12-year-old.

Smithson doesn't even blink. "Fourteen," she says.

Though Jaffee looks more like an elfin college professor today, he's held on to that subversive side. And why not? He's a cartoonist. Pictures have weight. According to legend, Boss Tweed, the corrupt 19th-century New York power broker, complained to his flunkies about sharp-penned satirist Thomas Nast: "Stop them damn pictures. I don't care what the papers write about me. My constituents can't read. But, damn it, they can see the pictures."

During World War II, Jaffee worked at the Pentagon, where he created and illustrated pamphlets for soldiers in rehabilitation. He also learned a lot about military protocol. Once, needing a small bottle of ink, he put in a requisition. The army sent him a case of the stuff in large jugs.

After the war he joined an old friend, Stan Lee, at Timely Comics, where he worked 18-hour days coming up with plots and sketches for such comic books as the teen romance "Patsy Walker." (Timely would eventually become Marvel, where Lee would go on to create Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.)
It was a great if exhausting business that paid enough for Jaffee, who now had a wife and children, to buy a house on Long Island and a brand new car.

And then Harvey Kurtzman called.

Kurtzman had been three years behind Jaffee and Elder at the High School of Music & Art. Years earlier, he had sworn he would run a magazine and employ his old schoolmates. Now he was helming a new humor magazine, Mad. Elder was a regular. Would Jaffee contribute?
You bet.

Except, this being Al Jaffee's life, there were some twists and turns. First, he was still devoting long days to "Patsy Walker." Then, by the time he quit "Patsy Walker" to join Mad, Kurtzman had left to start another magazine.

Over the next few years, Jaffee hitched his star to the unpredictable Kurtzman as first one, then another, of his humor magazines went bust. Jaffee, who had found dependability under Lee, was pinballing around again. This time, he loved it: "Going broke working for Harvey was the best experience of my life," he told Weisman.

But he had to try Mad again. In 1958, he called then-editor Al Feldstein.

The magazine was ready for another Idiot.

Life at Mad

Mad publisher William M. Gaines, says former editor Nick Meglin, was a "living contradiction. He was singularly the cheapest man in the world, and the most generous."

Gaines, a self-described "maniac" who looked like Santa Claus' wiseacre younger brother, was a millionaire but dressed like a bum. He shelled out thousands for exotic annual trips for Mad's staff and freelancers but forced the group to pay for their phone calls. Meglin once asked for a raise of $3 a week and was turned down, only to have Gaines continue the conversation over an expensive dinner at one of New York's finest restaurants.

"The check came, and I said, 'That's the whole raise!'" Meglin recalls. "And Bill said, 'I like good conversation and good food. I don't enjoy giving raises.'"

Gaines, living contradiction that he was, also wasn't a funny guy. Despite that, he "appreciated humor," Jaffee said, and helped build one of the most influential magazines in American history. For generations of readers, the names of the Mad Men now "exist as gods on Olympus," says art director Viviano.

Gaines also brooked no interference from his corporate bosses. He wanted the magazine to tackle the world on its own terms.

And it did. Nothing was sacred to Mad.

"It was magical, objective proof to kids that they weren't alone, that in New York City on Lafayette Street, if nowhere else, there were people who knew that there was something wrong, phony and funny about a world of bomb shelters, brinkmanship and toothpaste smiles," The New York Times wrote in 1977.

Al Jaffee meshed beautifully with this world. His "Mad inventions" were pokes at Madison Avenue hyperbole and late-night TV commercials, as well as a tip of the hat to his old comics hero Goldberg.

"Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" originated when Jaffee, on his roof fixing an aerial, had to listen to his son ask "Where's Mom?" one too many times.

Artists Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, Paul Coker and Sergio Aragones give a presentation at SCAD.

"I've killed her and stuffed her down the chimney," replied Jaffee, and a series was born.

And then there were the Fold-ins, which began in 1964 because Jaffee wanted to parody all the glossy fold-outs of magazines such as National Geographic and Playboy. The first one was so successful he was asked to do another, and to date he's done more than 400.

The feature is a layered joke in which Jaffee's elaborate art, accompanied by a cleverly spaced caption, turns into the answer to a headlined question when the right side is folded to meet the left: A colorful insect becomes Elvis Presley ("What colorful creature is being exploited even after it has wiggled and died?") or a farm scene becomes a death's-headed war hawk ("What offensive animal would many Americans like to see become extinct?"). They've taken shots at modern art, fast food, elections and celebrities -- whatever's in the news or tickles Jaffee's fancy.

Mad readers might have had the impression that Jaffee and the rest of the Gang hung around the office causing mayhem, but despite the family atmosphere cultivated by Gaines, the contributors didn't see each other much in New York. The tone was really set on a series of annual Mad junkets.

The trips began when Gaines decided to visit the magazine's only Haitian reader after he canceled his subscription. (With the entire Gang begging at his doorstep, the man changed his mind; the trip was worth it, Gaines believed, because the man's neighbor signed up, thus doubling the number of Haitian subscribers.) Later trips included an African safari and jaunts to Italy, the former Soviet Union, Thailand, Greece and Tahiti.

"On the trips we became a band of brothers," Jaffee recalls. "Even if an entire year went by without seeing each other, it was like being back with family again."

A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad world

At SCAD, Jaffee is once again among family. The Mad trips ended just after Gaines' death in 1992, and some of the legends -- Dave Berg, Antonio Prohias, Don Martin, George Woodbridge -- have passed on. Age and distance have made it harder to connect. But Jaffee relaxes with Jack Davis and Sergio Aragones as if he'd seen them yesterday, sharing stories, signing books and observing the passing crowd, as cartoonists will.

At this gathering in Savannah, Mad is the center of the world. But outside SCAD's Poetter Hall, times have changed. The magazine's circulation, which topped 2 million in the 1970s, was down to just below 200,000 as of 2010. The magazine, once printed on pulp, now uses better-quality paper, prints words it once shunned, and even takes advertising. It's the kind of stuff that gives complainers material for potshots at the magazine even though -- given Mad's influence -- you might say we're living in a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad world.

At SCAD, Jaffee is once again among family. At this gathering, Mad is the center of the world.

But the magazine remains a rite of passage, points out Viviano, a way for preteens and preteens at heart to negotiate the adult world.

"It's still a magazine for skeptics," he says. "That hasn't changed."

As for the idle chatter saying it's not as good as it once was? It comes with the territory, Viviano says -- after all, nothing is as good to anyone as when they first discovered it. And times have changed.

Previous generations may have cared about skewering Richard Nixon and Vietnam; these days, the skewer is more likely to pierce Lady Gaga ... along with the politicians and product-hawkers.

If anything, Mad is raising its profile. The magazine now has its own website -- The Idiotical -- and a tablet app is in the works. Moreover, Cartoon Network (another division of Time Warner) has recently started animating some of the magazine's material, bringing the name to a more video-centric generation.

For the students at SCAD, the magazine and the Mad Men still have their magic. Junior Meg Casey remembers having to sneak the magazine past her parents. And interactive design student Erin Christensen, who claims he "started stealing it from my dad," relishes Jaffee's Fold-ins for their wit and color.

Jaffee still impresses his colleagues, too. He won the National Cartoonists Society's top honor, the Reuben Award -- named for Rube Goldberg -- as 2007 Cartoonist of the Year.

He's quick to acknowledge others' contributions, even if all a Mad staffer did was suggest an idea. "He feels almost obligated to let everyone know you did this," Viviano says.

And Jaffee remains a regular Mad contributor despite having "essential tremor," an affliction he's coped with for decades. He controls it by using one hand to anchor the other.

"My only worry is I'll need a third hand," he says.

But after all these years, he still seems surprised by the attention.

A few years ago, he contributed a Fold-in to "The Daily Show's" "America: The Book." A producer asked if he could deliver it by hand. So Jaffee took a Manhattan crosstown bus, walked into the office and was told by a receptionist to wait.

"Every one on the staff came down to meet me," he recalls in wonder. "And they told me how they came from various places like The Onion and other humor jobs, and what a terrific influence we had on them."

Al Jaffee signed a copy of a collection of Mad art with his self-caricature.

He pauses, the bowling balls, parrots and hammers hitting home. The ball finds its slot. Perhaps there's something to be said for a Rube Goldberg life.
"I was very happy about it, but a little bit embarrassed." It's not like he and the Gang set out to create a new world, he observes.

"We were just being very silly."

Mark......THANKS! Here is the slide show and original link.

Everything you need to know about THE AVENGERS!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:34:00 +0000

I cannot wait to see this movie LOL....

The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 (Sept. 1963), and was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, following the trend of super-hero teams after the success of DC Comics' Justice League of America. Labeled "Earth's Mightiest Heroes", the Avengers originally consisted of Iron Man (Tony Stark), Ant-Man (Dr. Henry Pym), Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Thor, and the Hulk (Bruce Banner). The original Captain America was discovered by the team in issue #4, trapped in ice, and he joined the group when they revived him.

The rotating roster has become a hallmark of the team, although one theme remains consistent: the Avengers fight "the foes no single superhero can withstand". The team, famous for its battle cry of "Avengers Assemble!", has featured humans, mutants, robots, gods, aliens, supernatural beings, and even former villains. An animated television series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, premiered on October 20, 2010.

A feature film is now set to be released May 4, 2012. The titular team debuted in The Avengers #1 (Sept. 1963), using existing characters created primarily by writer-editor Stan Lee with penciler and co-plotter Jack Kirby. This initial series, published bi-monthly through issue #6 (July 1964) and monthly thereafter ran through issue #402 (Sept. 1996), with spinoffs including several annuals, miniseries and a giant-size quarterly sister series that ran briefly in the mid-1970s.

Other spinoff series include West Coast Avengers, initially published as a four-issue miniseries in 1984, followed by a 102-issue series (Oct. 1985 – Jan. 1994), retitled Avengers West Coast with #47; and the 40-issue Solo Avengers (Dec.1987 – Jan. 1991), retitled Avengers Spotlight with #21.

Between 1996 and 2004 Marvel relaunched the primary Avengers title three times. In 1996, the "Heroes Reborn" line, in which Marvel contracted outside companies to produce four titles, included a new volume of The Avengers. Taking place in an alternate universe with a revamped history unrelated to mainstream Marvel continuity, The Avengers vol. 2 was written by Rob Liefeld and penciled by Jim Valentino, and ran 13 issues (Nov. 1996 – Nov. 1997). The final issue, which featured a crossover with the other "Heroes Reborn" titles, returned the characters to the main Marvel Universe.

Relaunched with a new first issue, The Avengers vol. 3 ran 84 issues (Feb. 1998 – Aug. 2004). To coincide with what would have been the 500th issue of the original series, Marvel changed the numbering, and The Avengers #500-503 (Sept.–Dec. 2004),[8] followed by the one-shot Avengers Finale (Jan. 2005), became the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline and final issues.

In January 2005, a new version of the team appeared in the ongoing title The New Avengers, followed by The Mighty Avengers, Avengers: The Initiative, and Dark Avengers. Avengers vol. 4 debuted in 2010.

1960s "And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born—to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand! Through the years, their roster has prospered, changing many times, but their glory has never been denied! Heed the call, then—for now, the Avengers Assemble!" —Prologue from The Avengers, The first adventure features the Asgardian trickster god Loki, who seeks revenge against his brother Thor. Using an illusion, Loki tricks the Hulk into destroying a railroad track. He then diverts a radio call by Rick Jones for help to Thor, whom Loki hopes will battle the Hulk. Unknown to Loki, the radio call is also answered by Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Iron Man. After an initial misunderstanding, the heroes unite and defeat Loki after Thor is lured away by an illusion of the Hulk and suspects Loki when he realises it is an illusion. Ant-Man states the five work well together and suggests they form a combined team; the Wasp names the group "the Avengers" because it sounded "dramatic".

The roster changes almost immediately; by the beginning of the second issue, Ant-Man has become Giant-Man and, at the end of the issue, the Hulk leaves once he realizes how much the others fear his unstable personality.Feeling responsible, the Avengers try to locate and contain the Hulk, which subsequently leads them into combat with Namor the Sub-Mariner. This would result in the first major milestone in the Avengers' history: the revival and return of Captain America.

Captain America joins the team and he is also given "founding member" status in the Hulk's place. The Avengers go on to fight foes such as Captain America's wartime enemy Baron Zemo, who forms the Masters of Evil, Kang the Conqueror, Wonder Man, and Count Nefaria.

The next milestone came when every member but Captain America resigned and were replaced by three former villains: Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver.Although lacking the raw power of the original team, "Cap's Kooky Quartet" (as they were sometimes jokingly called), proved their worth by fighting and defeating the Swordsman; the original Power Man; and Doctor Doom.They are soon rejoined by Henry Pym (who changes his name to Goliath) and the Wasp, along with Hercules, the Black Knight, and the Black Widow; although the last two do not obtain official membership status until years later.

When writer Roy Thomas commenced, there was a greater focus on characterization.The Black Panther joins the team, followed by the Vision. Thomas also established that the Avengers are headquartered in a New York City building called Avengers Mansion, provided courtesy of Tony Stark (Iron Man's real identity), who also funds the Avengers through the Maria Stark Foundation, a non-profit organization.

The mansion is serviced by Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers' faithful butler, and also furnished with state-of-the-art technology and defense systems, including the Avengers' primary mode of transport: the five-engine Quinjets.

1970s The adventures increased in scope as the team cross into an alternate dimension to battle the Squadron Supreme and fight in the Kree-Skrull War, an epic battle between the alien Kree and Skrull races and guest-starring the Kree hero Captain Marvel. The Avengers also briefly disband when Skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man use their authority as founders of the team to disband it.

The true founding Avengers, minus the Wasp, later reform the team in response to complaints from Jarvis.The Vision and the Scarlet Witch fall in love, although the relationship is tinged with sadness as the Vision believes himself to be inhuman and unworthy of her.

Writer Steve Englehart then introduces Mantis, who joins the team along with the reformed Swordsman. Englehart linked her origins to the very beginnings of the Kree-Skrull conflict in a time-spanning adventure involving Kang the Conqueror and the mysterious Immortus, who are revealed to be past and future versions of each other. Mantis is revealed to be the Celestial Madonna, who is destined to give birth to a being that will save the universe.

This saga also reveals that the Vision's body had only been appropriated, and not created, by Ultron, and that it had originally belonged to the 1940s Human Torch. With his origins now clear to him, the Vision proposes to the Scarlet Witch. The Celestial Madonna saga ends with their wedding, presided over by Immortus. Englehart's tenure also coincided with the debut of George Pérez as artist. After Englehart's departure (and a seven-issue stint by Gerry Conway) Jim Shooter began as writer, generating several classic adventures, including "Bride of Ultron", the "Nefaria Trilogy", and "The Korvac Saga", featuring nearly every Avenger who joined the team up to that point. This is like explaining the movie Inception to my wife.......

New members added during this time include the Beast, a resurrected Wonder Man, Captain America's former partner the Falcon, and Ms. Marvel. Shooter also introduced the character of Henry Peter Gyrich, the Avengers' liaison to the United States National Security Council. Gyrich is prejudiced against superhumans and acts in a heavy-handed, obstructive manner, insisting that the Avengers follow government rules and regulations or else lose their priority status with the government.

Among Gyrich's demands is that the active roster be trimmed down to only seven members, and that the Falcon, an African American, be admitted to the team to comply with affirmative action laws. This last act is resented by Hawkeye, who because of the seven-member limit loses his membership slot to the Falcon. The Falcon, in turn, is unhappy to be the beneficiary of what he perceives to be tokenism, and decides to resign from the team, after which Wonder Man rejoins.

1980s The first major development was the breakdown of Henry Pym, with his frequent changes of costume and name being symptomatic of an identity problem and an inferiority complex. After abusing his wife, failing to win back the confidence of the Avengers with a ruse and being duped by the villain Egghead, Pym is jailed. Writer Roger Stern later resolves this by having Pym outwit Egghead and defeat the latest incarnation of the Masters of Evil singlehandedly, thereby proving his innocence. Pym reconciles with the Wasp, but they decide to remain apart. Pym also retires from superheroics, but returns some years later. Thanks go to Wikipedia for this info, because Flatbadger is now lost...LOL

Stern developed several major storylines, such as "Ultimate Vision" in which the Vision takes over the world's computer systems in a misguided attempt to create world peace; the formation of the West Coast Avengers; and "Avengers Under Siege" which involves the second Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil taking over the mansion and severely injuring Jarvis and Hercules,[44] "War on Olympus" in which Hercules' father Zeus blames the Avengers for his son's injuries and brings them to Olympus for trial and "Heavy Metal" in which the Super Adaptoid organizes several other robotic villains for an assault on the team.

New members during the 1980s included an African American Captain Marvel named Monica Rambeau[47] (who became the team's new leader); She-Hulk; Tigra, Namor, Starfox and Hawkeye's wife, Mockingbird, while Henry Pym emerges from retirement to join the West Coast Avengers. Stern also created the villain Nebula, who claimed, falsely, to be the granddaughter of Thanos. The team also relocated for a period to a floating island off the coast of New York called Hydrobase. The Avengers moved their base of operations to Hydrobase after the "Under Siege" storyline was completed in The Avengers #277 (March 1987) where Avengers Mansion was severely damaged.

The move to Hydrobase was undertaken in The Avengers #278 (April 1987). Hydrobase was later sunk during the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover in issue #311 (Dec. 1989).

1990s John Byrne eventually took over writing both titles and revamped the comics to allow members to be active when available and reserve when not available and merged the[volume & issue needed] two separate Avengers teams into one team with two bases. Byrne's contributions included a revamping of the Vision, and the discovery that the children of the Scarlet Witch and the Vision are actually illusions. The loss of the Scarlet Witch's children and the Vision (who is disassembled by government agents in retaliation for the "Ultimate Vision" storyline) drives her insane, although she eventually recovers and rejoins the team.

This story also revealed that the Scarlet Witch's powers include wide-range reality manipulation and she is what the time-traveling Immortus refers to as a "nexus being" setting the stage for 2004's eventual "Chaos" and "Avengers Disassembled" storylines. This played out in the "Darker than Scarlet" storyline which ran in Avengers West Coast from issues #51-62 (Nov. 1989 – Sept. 1990).

The Avengers titles were then embroiled in the major crossover event "Acts of Vengeance" wherein Loki assembles many of Marvel's arch-villains (with his inner circle consisting of Doctor Doom, Magneto, Kingpin, Mandarin, Wizard, and Red Skull) in a plot to destroy the team. Loki orchestrates a mass breakout of villains from prison facility the Vault, as part of his Acts of Vengeance scheme, but he ultimately fails in his goal to destroy the Avengers. This decade coincided with a speculators' boom, followed by an industry-wide slump and Marvel filing for bankruptcy in 1997.

During this period the U.S. government revokes the Avengers' New York State charter in a treaty with the Soviet Union. The Avengers then received a charter from the United Nations and again the Avengers split into two teams with a substitute reserve team backing up the main teams. Bob Harras and Steve Epting took over the title, and introduced a stable lineup with ongoing storylines and character development focused on the Black Knight, Sersi, Crystal, Quicksilver, Hercules and the Vision.

Their primary enemies in this run include the mysterious Proctor and the Shi'ar warrior Deathcry. During this period, the team finds themselves facing increasingly murderous enemies, and are forced to question their rule against killing. This culminated in "Operation: Galactic Storm", a 19-part storyline that ran through all Avengers-related titles and showcases a conflict between the Kree and the Shi'ar Empire. The team splits when Iron Man and several dissidents execute the Supreme Intelligence against the wishes of Captain America. After a vote disbanding the West Coast Avengers, Iron Man forms a proactive and aggressive team called Force Works.

During the team's first mission Wonder Man is apparently killed again (his atoms are actually only temporarily scattered). Force Works later disbands after it is revealed that Iron Man has become a murderer via the manipulations of the villain Kang. Together with the Fantastic Four and others, many of the Avengers apparently died stopping the gestalt psychic entity Onslaught, although it is later revealed that Franklin Richards preserved these heroes in a pocket universe.

Believing the main team gone, the Black Widow disbands the Avengers, with only butler Jarvis remaining to tend to the Mansion. Marvel contracted out The Avengers and three related titles—Captain America, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man—to former Marvel artists Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, two of the founding creators of Image Comics. The previous continuity of the Marvel Universe was set aside as the heroes were "reborn" in the pocket universe. While The Avengers was relaunched as a new series, the "Heroes Reborn" line ended after a year as planned and the license reverted to Marvel. "Heroes Return" Writer Kurt Busiek and penciler George Pérez launched a new volume of the series with The Avengers vol. 3, #1 (Feb. 1998).

Busiek also concurrently wrote the limited series Avengers Forever, a time-travel story that explored the history of the Avengers and resolved many outstanding questions. New members during this run included the revived Wonder Man, Justice, Firestar, Silverclaw, and Triathlon. Busiek's run included many of the Avengers' traditional villains such as the Grim Reaper, Ultron, Count Nefaria, and Kang the Conqueror.

"Avengers Disassembled" Main article: Avengers Disassembled Successor writer Geoff Johns dealt with the aftermath of Busiek's Kang arc, as the Avengers are granted international authority by the United Nations. Members joining during this period included Jack of Hearts and the second Ant-Man. Chuck Austen followed as writer, and added a new Captain Britain to the team. Writer Brian Michael Bendis then rebooted the title with the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline.

Titled "Chaos", the story featured the deaths of some members and a loss of credibility for the team. The culprit is revealed to be the Scarlet Witch, who has gone insane after agonizing over the memory of her lost children and who subsequently loses control of her reality-altering powers.With the team in disarray and Avengers Mansion ruined, the surviving members agree to disband.

A new Avengers team briefly formed following the events of House of M, coming together as the result of a massive jailbreak at The Raft prison facility. This New Avengers lineup was composed of Iron Man, Captain America, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Ronin, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and Sentry. In the company-wide "Marvel Civil War" story arc, Marvel superheroes were split over compliance with the U.S. government's new Superhuman Registration Act requiring all superpowered persons to register their true identifies with the federal government and become agents of same. The New Avengers disbanded, with a rebel underground opposed to the act forms in a series retaining The New Avengers in its trademarked cover logo and New Avengers in its copyright indicia.

Luke Cage led this underground Avengers team in that series. The team consists of himself, Echo, Ronin, Spider-Man, the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman, Wolverine, Iron Fist, and Doctor Strange. During the long-term infiltration of Earth by the shape-shifting alien race the Skrulls, we learn that Drew had been abducted and replaced by the Skrull queen Veranke. After the Skrulls' defeat, Drew, among other abducted and replaced heroes, was rescued. During the company-wide story arc "Dark Reign" Echo and Iron Fist leave the team and the Avengers gain Ms. Marvel, the Bucky Barnes Captain America, and Mockingbird. At the start of the "Heroic Age" storyline, the New Avengers become an officially recognized team given independence from Stark's more traditional Avengers by Captain Steve Rogers, primarily due to Cage's distrust of a government backed superhero group.

Captain America leaves the team to solely serve the main Avengers, Iron Fist rejoins the team, and Jewel and Thing are also added to the roster. Steve Rogers has an occasional presence and Victoria Hand is added with his backing, causing controversy among the other members due to her previous ties to Norman Osborn.

The Mighty Avengers In response to the Civil War, Iron Man reforms the official team under the aegis of the government's Fifty State Initiative program, taking up residency in New York City with the roster of Ares, the Black Widow, Iron Man, the Sentry, the Wasp, Wonder Man, and leader Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers). All but Ares and the Sentry leave this team (except for the Wasp, who died in the Secret Invasion) as it is taken over by Norman Osborn and the team migrates to the Dark Avengers book. In the pages of The Mighty Avengers, Hank Pym, assuming the Wasp identity of his fallen ex-wife, leads a new team of Avengers, claiming the name for his team as he is the only founding Avenger on any of the three active Avengers rosters.

His team operates under a multi-national umbrella group called the Global Reaction Agency for Mysterious Paranormal Activity (GRAMPA). This team features the roster of Hercules, Amadeus Cho, Stature, the Vision, Jocasta, U.S. Agent, Quicksilver, and Hank Pym. Scarlet Witch (actually Loki in disguise) is a recurring character. Iron Man and Hulk were briefly with them during their battle with Chthon.

Dark Avengers: After the events of "Secret Invasion", Norman Osborn assumes control of the formerly S.H.I.E.L.D.-sponsored Avengers, now under the auspices of his own agency, H.A.M.M.E.R. He retains Ares and Sentry from the previous team, and recruits Marvel Boy to pose as Captain Marvel and Daken to pose as his father, Wolverine, and brings Moonstone, Bullseye, and Venom from his previous Thunderbolts team to impersonate Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, and Spider-Man, respectively.

2010s "Heroic Age" Main article: Heroic Age (comics) The "Heroic Age" roster of the Avengers. After the conclusion of the "Siege" story arc, which ended the "Dark Reign" storyline, all four of the then-current Avengers series (consisting of The Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Dark Avengers, and Avengers: The Initiative) were canceled, and a new ongoing series titled Avengers was launched in May 2010.

Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita, Jr., serve as regular writer and artist respectively. The full Avengers roster was revealed in issue #1 as: Thor, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Spider-Woman, Iron Man, and team leader Maria Hill. At the Avengers' first team meeting, Steve Rogers comments on an unidentified hero who is missing from the meeting. The launch marked the beginning of what Marvel calls the "Heroic Age", after seven years of grim storylines, including a superhero "civil war" that pitted Iron Man against Captain America & Spider-Man, and the death of Captain America.

According to Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, "Heroes will be heroes again... They've gone through hell and they're back to being good guys—a throwback to the early days of the Marvel Universe, with more of a swashbuckling feel". A second title called Secret Avengers was released in May 2010, written by Ed Brubaker with Mike Deodato as regular artist.

The second volume of the New Avengers series was relaunched in June 2010, written by Bendis and drawn by Stuart Immonen. A fourth title called Avengers Academy was also launched in June 2010, replacing Avengers: The Initiative. Christos Gage serves as writer, with Mike McKone as artist. During an international meeting between Steve Rogers and MI13, Captain Britain was offered a job with the Avengers. Captain Britain accepted despite mixed reactions from his MI13 teammates.

Noh-Varr is asked to help the Avengers by building a time machine to save the future. After that crisis is over, Noh-Varr is officially invited to join the Avengers. The Hulk makes arrangements with Steve Rogers for Red Hulk to join the Avengers, just in time for him to assist the team in tracking down the Hood as he begins to search for the Infinity Gems to serve as a new 'power source'.

You know what? Never mind....google search Avengers :-).....or, like me....wait for the movie!

Foods So Spicy You Need A Waiver

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:16:00 +0000

Image by Craft*ology via Flickr

This one isn't really a post. It's just a quick share. However, if I did not share this with you, I would not be doing my job. This because one of my favorite obsessions is trying new hot sauces and based on the popularity of hot sauce variations around the world, I know I am not alone.

With that in mind, I must share this article with you:

Foods So Spicy You Need A Waiver

Just click the link above to check out this article/slideshow I just saw on The Huffington Post. I need that bottle of Blair's 16 Million Reserve Hot Sauce !! LOL

PS The Death Sauce listed below.......tried it.......have it........love it :-)

Today's Funnies LOL

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:04:00 +0000

Too Funny :-)

Mom makes amazing and heartfelt request!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:38:00 +0000

Shannon Stone’s mother makes a request of Josh Hamilton

By 'Duk

With 2011 drawing to a close, the Shannon Stone tragedy at Rangers Ballpark is appearing on most, if not all, of the year-end retrospectives.

And while many of those lists will simply note the accident that led to the 39-year-old father falling to his death after trying to catch a ball thrown by Josh Hamilton , the New York Times Magazine scored an interesting interview with Stone's parents. Though neither Al or SuZann Stone get into the details of the fall or its effects on young Cooper Stone — a public stance that has been m.o. since the tragedy — they relate a story about how Al once caught a foul ball from Buddy Bell when Shannon was young.

Shannon Stone liked Bell as much as Cooper likes Josh Hamilton now and the foul ball quickly became a family treasure. Because of that, Al and SuZann knew exactly why Shannon made the effort he did — and why Hamilton shouldn't think twice about continuing the practice of throwing baseballs into the stands as souvenirs.

From the NYT Magazine:

SuZann: Shortly after the accident, there was some discussion about whether foul balls should be thrown into the stands to the fans. I wrote to Josh Hamilton, and I said: "Please, don't stop throwing those balls. Because that's so important. That's why daddies bring their little boys to the ballgame is for memories like that. Please don't stop."

As someone who immediately identified with this sentiment (with the help of Gorman Thomas), I like that SuZann Stone wrote that letter to Josh Hamilton. If someone that close to Shannon Stone can identify that it was a freak occurrence, the cynics that predictably surfaced after the accident should be able to, as well.

2012 is coming. Welcome to the Jungle Baby..........

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 23:43:00 +0000

This is awesome:

2CELLOS - Welcome To The Jungle

Landscapes by Arnov Setyanto

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:13:00 +0000

Arnov Setyanto is creative and talented Indonesian Photographer. Arnov create stunning landscapes in his native country showing all natural beauties of Indonesia. Arnov currently live in Jakarta.

About Landscape Photography:

Landscape photography is a genre intended to show different spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. This popular style of photography is practiced by professionals and amateurs alike. Photographs typically capture the presence of nature and are often free of man-made obstructions. Landscape photographers usually attempt not only to convey the documentary aspect, but also an appreciation of the scenery that is being photographed.

WOW. America's Biggest Mansions for Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 22:19:00 +0000

By Morgan Brennan, Forbes.com

December 23, 2011

Since World War II, America’s homes have gotten bigger. In 2010 the average size of a newly completed single-family home was 2,392 square feet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s roughly 45% larger than the homes built in 1973, and roughly double the size of homes built during the 1950s.

As middle class Americans have steadily upsized their digs over the years, so too have the country’s richest. Starting in the 1990s, billionaires like Ira Rennert, John Kluge and Michael Dell began erecting monster mansions encompassing tens of thousands of square feet. Even in the recent economic downturn, as millions of homeowners have struggled with the burden of underwater homes, the world’s richest have been buying some of the biggest abodes in the country.

Turns out there are many more still up for grabs. The folks at Trulia.com, a San Francisco, Calif.-based real estate listing site, helped us whip up a list of the 15 biggest single-family homes currently listed publicly on the market. Every home we included in our roundup peddles a staggering 25,000 square feet of living space or more. All of them boast outrageous amenities and an assortment of specialty rooms you might not have thought could even exist in a private residence.

Some of the market’s most gargantuan homes were actually built by real estate developers on speculation. Spotting a niche market comprised of billionaire and multimillionaire home buyers, these builders secured tens of millions of dollars in funding — in most cases before the economic downturn — and set to work on dream designs they have hoped would snag moneyed real estate aficionados.

One such property is a $60 million vacation home in Indian Creek Village, Fla. Built by Shlomi Alexander of Bal Bay Development, the manse boasts 30,000-square feet of living space including a chromotherapy spa, a recording studio, a panic room and a 7-limo garage. “He didn’t want it to feel like a house, he wanted it to feel like a 30,000-square foot contemporary resort,” explains Oren Alexander, the property’s Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate co-listing agent, and the developer’s son. The Miami-area “resort” has been on the market since 2010.

The priciest property in tony Alpine, NJ, America’s most expensive zip code, is another example of developer dreams. The Stone Mansion at Frick Estate listed in 2010 for $68 million, before price chopping to $52 million earlier this year and then price-hiking back up to $56 million, where it currently stands today. The 30,000-square foot, four-level construction behemoth took more than three years to build with a 60-person crew. It touts 12 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, a ballroom with coat check closet, and an indoor basketball court equipped with locker rooms and scoreboard.

Richard Kurtz, chief executive of Kamson Corp., originally planned to build the home for himself and his wife. But in a video interview with Forbes, he explained that as he added more amenities to the design the size became too large for his purposes. “It’s just too big for us. We would have to use cell phones just to find each other!” he jokingly had remarked.

Here are America's five biggest mansions for sale - all of them at least 25,000-square-feet in size:

No. 5 - Palm Beach, FL
List Price: $74 Million
1120 S. Ocean Blvd.
Home Size: 27, 355 sq. ft.

No. 5 in Palm Beach, FL is the most expensive manse on the list.
Photo: Zillow

This 'Billionaire's Row' spec home has parking capacity for 50 cars and gardens designed for sculpture displays. The master bedroom suite is significantly larger than most people’s whole houses, encompassing 4,000-square feet of his-and-her baths, closets, dressing areas, even libraries.

No. 4 - Los Angeles, CA
List Price: $27.5 Million
330 S. Mapleton Dr.
Home Size: 27,816 sq. ft.

No. 4 is a $27.5 million manse in the Holmby Hills part of Los Angeles, CA.
Photo: Trulia.com

This Holmby Hills estate boasts a two-story library, indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, a massage room, even an underground nightclub.

No. 3 - Alpine, NJ
List Price: $56 Million
Home Size: 30,000 sq. ft.

No. 3 is $56 million in Alpine, NJ.
Photo: Trulia.com

The four-level home took more than three years to build with a 60-person crew. It touts 12 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, a ballroom with coat check closet, and an indoor basketball court equipped with locker rooms and scoreboard.

No. 2 - Indian Creek Village, FL
List Price: $60 Million
3 Indian Creek Dr.
Home Size: 30,000 sq. ft.

No. 2 is a $60 manse in Indian Creek Village, FL.
Photo: Zillow

Built by Shlomi Alexander of Bal Bay Development, the manse boasts 30,000-square feet of living space including a chromotherapy spa, a recording studio, a panic room and a 7-limo garage.

No. 1 - Beverly Hills, CA
List Price: $63 Million
Home Size: 30,000 sq. ft.

No. 1 is $68 million in Beverly Hills, CA.
Photo: Trulia.com

The 20-acre Beverly Hills compound includes seven bedrooms, 18 bathrooms, a media screening and projection room and a 17-car garage. There’s also an elevator to get you from one floor to another more effortlessly.

Click here to see more of America's Biggest Mansions for Sale.

The History of Eggnog

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:43:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

It's that time of year. Christmas time. This Christmas will be the first time in my life that I cannot afford to buy my children gifts. Yet, I cannot say this is the worst Christmas ever by any means. The reason is that even though I can say that I have lost everything, I really haven't. I still have the love of family and my love for them. I have all those great friends and family out there who I may not see, but warm my soul.

My children KNOW (really know) I love them.

That alone means a lot. In addition, this particular moment in my life makes me really appreciate all that I have had and appreciate even more all that may come in the future. God does work in mysterious ways and the blessings have been and will always be there. I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and happy holidays.

Now, on to less serious musings...........Eggnog. I think you either hate it or love it. Me.......I'm a lover :-)
Give me some Baskin -Robbins Eggnog Ice Cream and I'm in heaven. I don't need fancy real homemade eggnog, although that would be nice, I will happily settle for this:

In fact, that's what I NEED LOL....... settling does not apply

Anyway, while I sit here and think about this creamy delicious liquid pleasure, I want to share this little tid-bit of internet information I found: The History of Eggnog.....enjoy!

Eggnog! - History

Many believe that eggnog is a tradition that was brought to America from Europe. This is partially true. Eggnog is related to various milk and wine punches that had been concocted long ago in the "Old World". However, in America a new twist was put on the theme. Rum was used in the place of wine. In Colonial America, rum was commonly called "grog", so the name eggnog is likely derived from the very descriptive term for this drink, "egg-and-grog", which corrupted to egg'n'grog and soon to eggnog. At least this is one version...

Other experts would have it that the "nog" of eggnog comes from the word "noggin". A noggin was a small, wooden, carved mug. It was used to serve drinks at table in taverns (while drinks beside the fire were served in tankards). It is thought that eggnog started out as a mixture of Spanish "Sherry" and milk. The English called this concoction "Dry sack posset". It is very easy to see how an egg drink in a noggin could become eggnog.

The true story might be a mixture of the two and eggnog was originally called "egg and grog in a noggin". This was a term that required shortening if ever there was one.

With it's European roots and the availability of the ingredients, eggnog soon became a popular wintertime drink throughout Colonial America. It had much to recomend it; it was rich, spicy, and alcoholic.

In the 1820's Pierce Egan, a period author, wrote a book called "Life of London: or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and His Elegant Friend Corinthina Tom". To publicize his work Mr. Egan made up a variation of eggnog he called "Tom and Jerry". It added 1/2 oz of brandy to the basic recipe (fortifying it considerably and adding further to its popularity).

Eggnog, in the 1800s was nearly always made in large quantities and nearly always used as a social drink. It was commonly served at holiday parties and it was noted by an English visitor in 1866, "Christmas is not properly observed unless you brew egg nogg for all comers; everybody calls on everybody else; and each call is celebrated by a solemn egg-nogging...It is made cold and is drunk cold and is to be commended."

Of course, Christmas was not the only day upon which eggnog was popular. In Baltimore it was a tradition for young men to call upon all of their friends on New years day. At each of many homes the strapping fellows were offered a cup of eggnog, and so as they went they became more and more inebriated. It was quite a feat to actually finish one's rounds.

Our first President, George Washington, was quite a fan of eggnog and devised his own recipe that included rye whiskey, rum and sherry. It was reputed to be a stiff drink that only the most courageous were willing to try.

Eggnog is still a popular drink during the holidays, and its social character remains. It is hard to imagine a Christmas without a cup of the "nog" to spice up the atmosphere and lend merriment and joy to the procedings. When you try out some of the recipes on this site, remember that, like many other of our grand traditions, there is history and life behind that little frothy brew.

Try not to laugh - I DARE YOU!

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:27:00 +0000

Try not to laugh or grin while watching this pretty girl making faces!

Anxious, Fatigued or Depressed?

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:18:00 +0000

Very good article on why pills, exercise or Diet Shouldn't Top Your List of Treatments

Anxious, fatigued or depressed? You are not alone -- one in five Americans is popping pills for these issues -- but pills, exercise or diet shouldn't top your list of treatments, says Bay Area author, founder of OwningPink.com and integrative medicine physician Dr. Lissa Rankin.

"What if I told you the medical profession has it all backwards?" Dr Rankin asked in her recent TEDx Talk.

"We're suffering from an epidemic that modern medicine has no idea what to do with. People suffering from this epidemic are fatigued, anxious, depressed and suffering from vague physical symptoms..."

At a time when one in five Americans is taking prescription medication for these maladies, there is no question that there is an epidemic happening, and even more so among women.

According to a report from MedCo, a pharmacy benefit manager, one out of every four women has a prescription for some form of mental health medication.

In fact, these medications are the most widely prescribed of all medications here in the U.S. according to a Wall Street Journal article:

Psychiatric medications are among the most widely prescribed and biggest-selling class of drugs in the U.S. In 2010, Americans spent $16.1 billion on antipsychotics to treat depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, $11.6 billion on antidepressants and $7.2 billion on treatment for ADHD, according to IMS Health, which tracks prescription-drug sales.

Statistics like these make me wonder whether our ideals about "mental health" might not just be skewed. They also make Dr. Rankin's claim that she has a better solution all the more interesting. In fact, she says she has already had success in diagnosing the root cause of why her patients are depressed and anxious. She uses a wellness paradigm she calls the Whole Health Cairn, which helps patients evaluate their whole health in a paradigm-shifting way.

According to Dr. Rankin:

Cold, hard scientific evidence in reputable medical journals clearly proves that to be truly healthy both mentally and physically, it's not enough to eat right, exercise, sleep eight hours a night, see your doctor for regular check-ups and take your medicine. This is why my Marin County integrative medicine practice was full of well-intentioned health nuts who were still depressed, anxious and sick.

When asked in an interview about her thoughts on antidepressants, she told me:

At least 75 percent and in some studies, up to 100 percent, of the effect of anti-depressants has been proven to be attributable to the placebo effect -- which I believe is good news. This means that the potent cocktail of hope, positive belief, the support of a medical practitioner who cares and the physiological self-healing mechanisms that get triggered by the body when it wants to heal, are ever-powerful. Some studies even suggest that placebos work when the patient knows it's a sugar pill. So why do we need the pill? Sure, every doctor will report some case studies where it's truly a biochemical process, and once the biochemical disorder is reversed pharmaceutically, everything else falls into place. But I'd argue that most of the time, even if there is a biochemical component, it's not purely biochemical.

This is shocking to me as one of the "25 percenters." My Zoloft saved me from a bone-crushing bout of postpartum depression and I can assure you it wasn't a placebo effect. I was sure Zoloft would not work for me. I had read those reports, but with three children to care for I was willing to try anything. For my family's sake and with much grumbling, I resorted to popping my blue pill.

I remember the day I noticed it was working.

Another friend of mine also says she knows exactly when her antidepressants kicked in. She was driving in a busy mall parking lot, rushing to make a return with two yipping dogs in her car, when someone rudely rushed into the parking spot she had been waiting for. She says, she thought to her self, "Oh well" and kept looking. Then she stopped her car in shock. This kind of thing would have normally led to obscenities being screamed out the window, at the least.

So, we may be the exceptions to those reports of the placebo effect, however, could we be helped more by Dr. Rankin's approach? Would looking at the whole of my life and figuring out my root cause eliminate my need for the little blue Zoloft pill I am terrified to stop taking?

To this Dr. Rankin says, "Patients know their bodies better than any doctor. If the patient tells me taking psychiatric medications is what they need in order to heal, I'm all for it. I'm just not a fan of treating every negative emotional state or vague physical symptom with psychiatric medications to the exclusion of helping patients diagnose and treat what's underlying the depression or anxiety."

According to Rankin, to know for sure whether or not I indeed "need" my Zoloft, I would need to look at my whole life -- love life, professional life, creativity expression, spirituality, sexuality and see if there is anything out of balance. Once diagnosed and "the root cause underlying depression or anxiety" was found, her next step is "helping patients create an intuitively-driven, patient guided step-by-step action plan aimed at healing what is out of balance."

The number one question she asks patients is: "What do you need in order to heal?"

And the answers they give are often shocking. Such as:

• I need to leave my husband.

• I need to move to Santa Fe.

• I need to finish my novel.

• I need to hire a nanny.

• I need to eat a vegan diet.

• I need to switch careers.

• I need to quit drinking.

According to Dr. Rankin, "Once the patient makes the diagnosis and writes 'the prescription,' the challenge lies in implementing the changes necessary to heal from the core."

But not all doctors agree. One psychiatrist I spoke to about this subject wasn't sold on Dr. Rankin's approach, saying that "she's simply presenting a PowerPoint of the obvious."

"Yes, doctor, we would all prefer 'healthy relationships, healthy professional lives, creative expression,' but what interrupts that? It's not so easy to simply talk/wish/guilt/'whatever' ourselves into 'changing.'"

But Dr. Rankin says she has had success with her program, as paradoxically simplistic and difficult as it may be.

One of her patients credits Dr. Rankin with newfound energy and relief from both malaise and physical illness, saying:

"When I first came to Lissa I had a myriad of mysterious medical maladies and zero mojo. I had invested six years of my life into various medical tests, treatments and failed plans of action... I (now) have boundless energy... and never have I been so happy."

According to Dr. Rankin, "You can medicate someone all you want, but unless you're helping her heal what underlies her depression or anxiety, you're just putting a sad Band-aid on her soul, and the results will be limited."

Well, I'm not quite ready to tear off my sad little band-aid, but I am happy to know there is an alternative for the growing number of pill poppers like me.

Follow Christine Bronstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/abandofwives

Sex-for-World-Series-Tickets Conviction Overturned

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:51:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

by Liz LangleyPublished: December 21, 2011

Court cites spirit of the law rather than letter.

Wait…did trading sex for stuff just become legal? If it’s a barter, not a financial transaction? Or if it’s a side gig, like selling stuff on Etsy?

Maybe we’re reading too much into this and God knows we’re sounding too hopeful. But the Philadelphia Inquirer reports Susan Finkelstein, who was found guilty of attempted prostitution in March 2010 after she put an ad on Craigslist suggesting she would trade sex for Phillies World Series tickets, has had that conviction overturned. The PR specialist had placed an ad describing herself, saying her price was “negotiable,” and she was “creative,” only to wind up the victim of an undercover sting.

NBC Sports reports the court’s (no, that hat trick was not planned) note that “Finkelstein was not engaged in ‘sexual activity as a business’ and said the crime of prostitution was not intended to ‘criminalize private illicit sexual relations.’” Finkelstein denied offering favors. She was convicted of attempted prostitution but not the act of prostitution itself.

“The state Superior Court ruled Tuesday that since Finkelstein was cleared of the more serious prostitution count, she could not be convicted of attempt because the proof required to sustain both charges was the same.”

So if the crime of prostitution isn’t meant to criminalize private illicit sexual relations … What is it meant to criminalize? Couldn’t one contend that all sexual relations are private unless you’re doin’ it on the bus or something? And does anyone want to take a creative, negotiable Sex Feed writer to Cannes this year? Privately?

Possible UFO in Kansas mystery solved

noreply@blogger.com (Keith Pilat) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:17:00 +0000

Residents of Cowley County, Kansas caused a sensation last week when they captured video of the military towing a concealed object on a flatbed truck down US Highway 77. It wasn't long before a wave of speculation hit, claiming the object was a UFO.

Depending on the angle from which you spotted it, the 30 foot-wide mysterious craft appeared to be saucer-shaped. It was so large that local law enforcement had to remove roadside signage so it could pass through. But it was covered in a tightly concealed tarp, making any further examination impossible.

However, as Gizmodo points out, the craft does not technically meet the definition of UFO. For starters, even if it were an alien craft, the object was not flying. And more important, it's no longer unidentified.

Local sheriff Don Read announced that the tarp was in fact covering a flying object, but one of decidedly Earthly origins. More specifically, it was a drone aircraft manufactured by Northrop Grumman. After Read's disclosure, Northrop Grumman senior manager of public relations Brooks McKinney stepped forward to provide more details, telling Life's Little Mysteries that the "UFO" is a X-47B unmanned combat drone designed to operate from aircraft carriers. It was headed to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.

The X-47B unmanned drone (NorthropGrumman.com)

Drone technology, or Unmanned Systems (UMS) have become so commonplace, that Northrop Grumman has a section dedicated to them on its public website. There's even a page for the X-47B itself.

"Clearly people are interested in what's going through town. It's unusual to see a shrink-wrapped aircraft, especially one with that shape," McKinney said.

"We built two for the Navy, they were being tested at Edwards Air Force Base [in California] since March. One is on its way to Maryland, and the other will remain in California."

And the reason they weren't actually flying the high-tech aircraft was even simpler. "It's difficult to fly an unmanned drone through commercial airspace," McKinney said.

Finally, the question "What's the matter with Kansas?" can be answered: A painful lack of alien spaceships.

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Landscapes by Arnov Setyanto

Arnov Setyanto is creative and talented Indonesian Photographer. Arnov create stunning landscapes in his native country showing all natural beauties of Indonesia. Arnov currently live in Jakarta.

WOW. America's Biggest Mansions for Sale

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The History of Eggnog

Eggnog! - History

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Try not to laugh - I DARE YOU!

Anxious, Fatigued or Depressed?

Sex-for-World-Series-Tickets Conviction Overturned

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Possible UFO in Kansas mystery solved

Residents of Cowley County, Kansas caused a sensation last week when they captured video of the military towing a concealed object on a flatbed truck down US Highway 77. It wasn't long before a wave of speculation hit, claiming the object was a UFO.

Related articles