Walking on the Moon

British car show Top Gear shows us the car of the future.  I want one. Link from Celeste Anderson.

My review of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition is up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Tim Buchhiem points out that Salon’s Ask The Pilot column is willing to take on the iPhone.  While I was in there poking around, I came upon this beautiful remembrance as well.  You may have to look at an advertisement or something to view the stories.

Wormwood from Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. This is really Preacher lite. It’s an interesting enough story with the usual Ennis flourishes – the road to hell paved with mimes indeed – but running only 6 issues, only a bit of the depth. It’s blasphemous, profane and often in bad taste, but also full of tart observations and occasional moments that move you in spite of all the puerile humor. Jacen Burrows art is the only thing here that’s superior to Preacher, but it’s a good story nonetheless. Try it, and if it appeals to you at all, go start in on the Preacher trades.

The Immortal Iron Fist: The Last Iron Fist Story, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja. It’s no secret how much I enjoy Brubaker’s writing, and I have a long-standing fondness for Iron Fist, so I decided to check out this collection of the new series. It’s all the fun of a late night Kung Fu movie, with a winning protagonist. More good-natured than intense, Danny Rand faces the trial of being a Billionaire Kung-Fu hero. The Iron Fist franchise has a history of mixing Blacksploitation with its chop socky, and Luke Cage drops to keep a bit of that going on. On the art side, Aja handles the tonal shifts with aplomb. His storytelling is sharp, and he does a great job of making the Iron Fist mask especially expressive. It’s fast paced, winning stuff.

All-Star Superman #9 – Morrison and Quietly. Whew, no more bizarros. Morrison continues his brilliant translation of Silver Age Superman stories into the 21st century, keeping the wonder of those stories. You can’t make a Silver Age story believable, but Morrison makes the tropes come alive. It’s a world of wonder and strangeness, but the people walking through it are humans. Strongly recommended.

My capsule on Population 485 is up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Avweb’s picture of the week is a great source of airplane pictures, but this week they came up with something different.  If you have trouble identifying it, the first link has the answer.

Boy, you’d think this kind of thing was “conflict of interest 101,” wouldn’t you. Thanks, Henry Waxman.

While Bruce Schneier is right about this not being a terrorist problem, it is a really stupid idea.

Mmmmm, Kirby monster comics. Betcha can’t read just one. Link via BoingBoing.

There’s a fellow out in (confusingly enough) California, MD, who owns a Harrier. These are the conveyances of Free Men, as P. J. O’Rourke once said. Link via AVWeb.

Radio controlled Constellation model. You know how I enjoy things like that. Link from BoingBoing.

I have a little holding entry quiz on the site that I wrote when I was writing Java more frequently.  A fellow named Ruben Pelaez pointed out a missing feature this week, so I added it.  Details are on the quiz’s home page.

I wish all my choices were this clean cut.  It kind of scares me that people still want Robertson’s endorsement.

Maybe that Wertham fellow had a point. Scans from Mike Sterling. The third panel of page 8 is particularly impressive in its political incorrectness.