These aren't the droids you're looking for.

The Times has a list of the 50 greatest movie/TV robots of all-time. And I'd like to have an interesting spirited discussion about it. But a list that clocks C-3P0 in at #45--only five slots ahead of Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man--can only be mocked. Mercilessly.

Spock Lives!

Yet again, no reputable media organization was willing to send me to Comic-Con to provide important coverage. Their loss. They missed out on important news like this: Spock is coming back to the big screen!

Advantage: Blogosphere

The best quarterback in the league now has his own blog. He has comments enabled.

Raise your hand if you think there's a chance this ends well.

New Hotness

Galley Friend M.G. passes us along to that: a 16-foot Lego USS Harry Truman. Follow the link for more photos, including one of it in the water.

Sunshine

Tony Lane was very unkind to Danny Boyle's new movie, but Massawyrm loves it, with this very funny caveat:

[I]f one thing is bothering me about this it is one of the lynch pins of the premise. You see, the sun is dying. And what is Hollywood's response? I know, let's strap a bunch of astronauts to the back of a bomb and launch them headlong into the sun. Um, okay. That sounds…plausible enough. Fortunately for me I'm buddies with Copernicus, our resident real life Astrophysicist. And he assured me that Hollywood actually has it right.

Wyrm, he reassured me, I understand how hard it is to understand for a layman like yourself, but we scientists are working hard every day to solve the astrophysical problems of tomorrow with the nuclear weapon technology of today. For example, say the core of the earth were to stop spinning. "Wait, the core of the Earth could stop spinning?" Sure, and when it does, we're gonna strap what we scientists refer to as a BIG FUCKALL BOMB to the back of a drill and send it straight towards the center of the Earth.

"Wait, but what if say an Asteroid were to collide with the planet?" Well then we'd have to send a drill out into space to strap a bomb to the back to. But of course, that would require oil drillers – which you'd have to train as astronauts first. Fortunately for us, their skill sets are very similar.

"But what if, say, a large comet were discovered by someone, like, Frodo? What then?" Well, then we'd have to send astronauts out with robot drills that we could strap a BIG FUCKALL BOMB to. "Wait. Do you always need a drill?" Oh, heavens no. Only when you need one. If you're gonna send a nuclear weapon into the sun, you don't need to drill down into it. That would just be silly. Wyrm, what you're failing to grasp is that there is little in this universe that can't be improved by shoving a big fuckall bomb right up its ass. I mean, sure, thirty years ago nuclear weapons were only good for commies and aliens – you'd just nuke em from from orbit. It was the only way to be sure. But could you imagine what it would be like if Disney had been aware of the advances we've made today? Do you realize what could have happened at the end of THE BLACK HOLE? "That would be fucking awesome!" Yeah, that's exactly what Stephen Hawkings said.

Jersey Love

Pajiba gives us this kind of awesome video, featuring a young lady named Chunky Pam singing--nay, rapping--about the joys of Jersey. Somehow both Toms River and Parsippany are mentioned, but Moorestown isn't. Thats whack. Wiggedy whack. Yo.

Also, I take Reihan in a rap-battle. Or pose-down. Or whatever they call it.

Buffy Season 8

Galley Hero Herc points us to an actual Pubisher's Weekly story on how the comic book Buffy Season 8 is minting new comics readers. I can't say I'm surprised--and what's really wild is that BS8 isn't even the best comic book Joss Whedon is writing right now.

Go ahead and mock me, but hear this: Whedon's run of Astonishing X-Men may be the best thing he's written to date in any medium.

Truth or Onion?

I can't tell if this story is a gag or not. I report, you decide:

Senator is a Level-70 Dwarf Priest in World of Warcraft

What if a senator was playing games instead of bashing them?

It’s already happening in Guam, where as reported by the Pacific Daily News, Sen. Ray Tenorio (left) is a serious, level-70 WoW player. Tenorio’s avatar is a Dwarf priest named Paleray on the Silverhand server. He’s a member of a guild, of course, the Knights of the Marianas.

NB: I gave up WoW so long ago that I don't even remember what level my mage was. I swear.

Bubble Watch

Galley Friend A.W. sends us this awesome link noting the eerie similarity between Baghdad Bob and the housing industry.

Weirdest Thing You'll See This Week

So it's "Thriller." Only in the Philippines. In a prison yard. Acted and danced . . . by inmates. Like 400 of them. In orange jumpsuits.

Except for the girl.

Go watch it. No. You know you want to.

It Came From the Deep

Galley Friend M.G. is trying to make sure I never go back into the ocean again. Ever. That's the only explanation for him sending us this link to a list (with pictures and discussion) of some of the weirdest, freakiest super-deep sea fish ever.

There are lots of highlights, including the megamouth shark and the tiny octopus which proved so deadly to a certain Bond villain. But I think this dude might be my least favorite:



Go look. If. You. Dare.

Colossal Squid!

Okay, not colossal, they're only jumbo. But there are a whole lot of them off the coast of central California and they're up to 7 feet and about 110 lbs.

Very uncool.

Get Snopes on Line 1

Patrick Ruffini, whom I like very much, has linked to a YouTube clip purporting to be what Gen. Patton would say about the war on terrorism.

I'm afraid Ruffini has been hoaxed--clearly that is the voice of Admiral Ackbar, not George S. Patton.

Pajiba Love

In discussing Emmy nominations, the TV Whore notes that Two and a Half Men got nearly twice as many nominations as Veronica Mars and Battlestar Galactica combined (seven to four).

Awesome.

And then Galley Friend D.R. starts a discussion on movies you've walked out on. To my eyes, his list is slightly heretical (Fellowship of the F'ing Ring?), but that's neither here nor there. The first flick I ever walked out on was Nightwatch. Best decision I ever made.

The Fresh Posh

The Fug Girls are back: "This party is OFF THE HOOK! I wonder if the DJ will play 'Willennium' if I ask."

Man vs. Fake?

Don't get me wrong, I love Man vs. Wild. Can't get enough of it. But there's always been something about Bear Grylls which reminded me ever-so-uncomfortably of Gilderoy Lockheart. I've tried to sublimate those suspicions as much as I could, but now this story is making it harder:

But an adviser to Born Survivor has disclosed that at one location where the adventurer claimed to be a “real life Robin-son Crusoe” trapped on “a desert island”, he was actually on an outlying part of the Hawaiian archipelago and spent nights at a motel.

On another occasion in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains where he was filmed biting off the head of a snake for breakfast and struggling for survival “with just a water bottle, a cup and a flint for making fire”, he actually slept some nights with the crew in a lodge fitted with television and internet access. The Pines Resort at Bass Lake is advertised as “a cosy getaway for families” with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

In one episode Grylls, son of the late Tory MP Sir Michael Grylls, was shown apparently building a Polynesian-style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo, hibiscus twine and palm leaves for a sail.

But according to Mark Weinert, an Oregon-based survival consultant brought in for the job, it was he who led the team that built the raft. It was then dismantled so that Grylls could be shown building it on camera.

In another episode viewers watched as Grylls tried to coax an apparently wild mustang into a lasso in the Sierra Nevada. “I’m in luck,” he told viewers, apparently coming across four wild horses grazing in a meadow. “A chance to use an old native American mode of transport comes my way. This is one of the few places in the whole of the US where horses still roam wild.”

In fact, Weinert said, the horses were not wild but were brought in by trailer from a nearby trekking station for the “choreographed” feature.

“If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive,” he said.

Channel 4 confirmed that Grylls had used hotels during expeditions and has now asked Diverse, the Bristol-based production company that made the programme, to look into the other claims.

This is just amazing!

For Our Friends at the National Association of Realtors

One of my pet theories is that by the end of the decade, realtors will hold a similar position in the public's mind that junk bond traders did in the 1980s and trial lawyers did in the 1990s. If the real estate market really does crash, they will bear an enormous part of the blame for the way they shamelessly and irresponsibly helped inflate the bubble which began in the beginning of the decade ("Now is a great time to buy . . . or sell!").

So how bad is the housing situation? In my neck of the woods in Northern Virginia, I wouldn't say it's apocalyptic, but it's pretty bad. Stop on any corner in Old Town Alexandria and you can see three, four, or five For Sale signs, and once properties go on the market, they seem to be staying there for a long time. But elsewhere in the VA burbs, it's worse. To that end, check out this great site on the NoVa housing bubble. The percentage price reductions are kind of terrifying--lots of listing prices off 30+ percent from their prior sale prices 12 to 24 months ago.

Of course the NAR is already claiming that housing prices are totally going to recover in 2008!

Obligatory PS3 Post

The latest numbers from Japan--Sony's big firewall for the PS3--are in. They're chilling, if you're Sony:

Yesterday, international news wire Reuters reported that Sony's PlayStation 3 had sold its 1 millionth console in Japan, nearly six months to the day after the publisher claimed to have shipped 1 million consoles to its home market. Citing numbers published by Famitsu publisher and gaming-industry tracker Enterbrain, Reuters also reported that Nintendo's Wii was at the precipice of its own milestone, having sold 2.9 million units in the Land of the Rising Sun as of July 8. . . .

However, both consoles have well surpassed Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has sold 420,000 consoles in Japan as of mid-July, according to Enterbrain.

Pay attention to the fact that it took Sony six months to sell off the number of consoles they had shipped. That doesn't say good things about demand.

Potter Watch

Is it wrong to be staked out at a table in Barnes & Noble at 8:03 p.m.?

Or rather, how wrong is it?

Bonus: This is the Geek Weekend from Heaven--HP tonight and The Buffy Horror Picture Show tomorrow night. Throw in a comic book convention and, well . . .

Geek Alert

Got my Barnes & Noble line bracelet for tonight. Number 32.

I'm just saying.