Heads-up displays are undoubtedly novel, and downright useful in the right circumstances. Trouble is, few of these prototypes ever make it beyond the lab, and we're stuck using these same two eyeballs to experience the world around us. General Motors is evidently tired of the almosts, and it's now working in concert with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Southern California in order to concoct one of the most advanced HUD systems that we've seen -- particularly in the automotive world. Setting out to create "enhanced vision systems," GM's R&D team has created a windshield packed with visible and Infrared cameras along with internal optics that keep a close eye on the driver's retinas. In the images and video below (hit the 'Read More' link for the real action), you'll see a solution that utilizes lasers in order to highlight road edges, speed limit signs and all sorts of other vital bits of data during a fog-filled commute. Best of all? We're told that some of these technologies "could end up in GM vehicles in the near-term future." Granted, the Volt was supposed to set sail already, but we suppose we'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt.

Gallery: GM shows off sensor-laden windshield

Continue reading GM shows off sensor-laden windshield, new heads-up display prototype

GM shows off sensor-laden windshield, new heads-up display prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Publication Date: 2010 Mar 14 PMID: 20228792Authors: Chapman, J. A. - Kirkness, E. F. - Simakov, O. - Hampson, S. E. - Mitros, T. - Weinmaier, T. - Rattei, T. - Balasubramanian, P. G. - Borman, J. - Busam, D. - Disbennett, K. - Pfannkoch, C. - Sumin, N. - Sutton, G. G. - Viswanathan, L. D. - Walenz, B. - Goodstein, D. M. - Hellsten, U. - Kawashima, T. - Prochnik, S. E. - Putnam, N. H. - Shu, S. - Blumberg, B. - Dana, C. E. - Gee, L. - Kibler, D. F. - Law, L. - Lindgens, D. - Martinez, D. E. - Peng, J. - Wigge, P. A. - Bertulat, B. - Guder, C. - Nakamura, Y. - Ozbek, S. - Watanabe, H. - Khalturin, K. - Hemmrich, G. - Franke, A. - Augustin, R. - Fraune, S. - Hayakawa, E. - Hayakawa, S. - Hirose, M. - Hwang, J. S. - Ikeo, K. - Nishimiya-Fujisawa, C. - Ogura, A. - Takahashi, T. - Steinmetz, P. R. - Zhang, X. - Aufschnaiter, R. - Eder, M. K. - Gorny, A. K. - Salvenmoser, W. - Heimberg, A. M. - Wheeler, B. M. - Peterson, K. J. - Bottger, A. - Tischler, P. - Wolf, A. - Gojobori, T. - Remington, K. A. - Strausberg, R. L. - Venter, J. C. - Technau, U. - Hobmayer, B. - Bosch, T. C. - Holstein, T. W. - Fujisawa, T. - Bode, H. R. - David, C. N. - Rokhsar, D. S. - Steele, R. E.Journal: NatureThe freshwater cnidarian Hydra was first described in 1702 and has been the object of study for 300 years. Experimental studies of Hydra between 1736 and 1744 culminated in the discovery of asexual reproduction of an animal by budding, the first description of regeneration in an animal, and successful transplantation of tissue between animals. Today, Hydra is an important model for studies of axial patterning, stem cell biology and regeneration. Here we report the genome of Hydra magnipapillata and compare it to the genomes of the anthozoan Nematostella vectensis and other animals. The Hydra genome has been shaped by bursts of transposable element expansion, horizontal gene transfer, trans-splicing, and simplification of gene structure and gene content that parallel simplification of the Hydra life cycle. We also report the sequence of the genome of a novel bacterium stably associated with H. magnipapillata. Comparisons of the Hydra genome to the genomes of other animals shed light on the evolution of epithelia, contractile tissues, developmentally regulated transcription factors, the Spemann-Mangold organizer, pluripotency genes and the neuromuscular junction.post to: CiteULike

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 12 PMID: 20230834Authors: Stocks, B. B. - Konermann, L.Journal: J Mol BiolThe current work employs a novel approach for characterizing structural changes during the refolding of acid-denatured cytochrome c (cyt c). At various time points (ranging from 10 ms to 5 min) after a pH jump from 2 to 7 the protein is exposed to a microsecond hydroxyl radical (.OH) pulse that induces oxidative labeling of solvent-exposed side chains. Most of the covalent modifications appear as+16 Da adducts that are readily detectable by mass spectrometry (MS). The overall extent of labeling decreases as folding proceeds, reflecting dramatic changes in the accessibility of numerous residues. Peptide mapping and MS/MS reveal that the side chains of C14, C17, H33, F46, Y48, W59, M65, Y67, Y74, M80, I81, and Y97 are among the dominant sites of oxidation. Temporal changes in the accessibility of these residues are consistent with docking of the N-and C-terminal helices as early as 10 ms. However, structural reorganization at the helix interface takes place up to at least 1 s. Initial misligation of the heme iron by H33 leads to distal crowding, giving rise to low solvent accessibility of the displaced (native) M80 ligand and the adjacent I81. W59 retains a surprisingly high accessibility long into the folding process, indicating the presence of packing defects in the hydrophobically collapsed core. Overall, the results of this work are consistent with previous hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) studies that proposed a foldon-mediated mechanism. The structural data obtained by .OH labeling monitor the packing and burial of side chains, whereas HDX primarily monitors the formation of secondary structure elements. Hence, the two approaches yield complementary information. Considering the very short time scale of pulsed oxidative labeling, a future extension of the approach used here to sub-millisecond folding studies should be feasible.post to: CiteULike

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 12 PMID: 20228128Authors: Faust, K. - Dupont, P. - Callut, J. - van Helden, J.Journal: BioinformaticsMOTIVATION: Subgraph extraction is a powerful technique to predict pathways from biological networks and a set of query items (e.g. genes, proteins, compounds...). It can be applied to a variety of different data types, such as gene expression, protein levels, operons or phylogenetic profiles. In this article, we investigate different approaches to extract relevant pathways from metabolic networks. Although these approaches have been adapted to metabolic networks, they are generic enough to be adjusted to other biological networks as well. RESULTS: We comparatively evaluated seven sub-network extraction approaches on 71 known metabolic pathways from S. cerevisiae and a metabolic network obtained from MetaCyc. The best performing approach is a novel hybrid strategy, which combines a random walk-based reduction of the graph with a shortest paths-based algorithm, and which recovers the reference pathways with an accuracy of ~ 77%. AVAILABILITY: Most of the presented algorithms are available as part of the network analysis tool set (NeAT). The kWalks method is released under the GPL3 license. CONTACT: kfaust@ulb.ac.be.post to: CiteULike

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 14 PMID: 20228789Authors: Hagberg, C. E. - Falkevall, A. - Wang, X. - Larsson, E. - Huusko, J. - Nilsson, I. - van Meeteren, L. A. - Samen, E. - Lu, L. - Vanwildemeersch, M. - Klar, J. - Genove, G. - Pietras, K. - Stone-Elander, S. - Claesson-Welsh, L. - Yla-Herttuala, S. - Lindahl, P. - Eriksson, U.Journal: NatureThe vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) are major angiogenic regulators and are involved in several aspects of endothelial cell physiology. However, the detailed role of VEGF-B in blood vessel function has remained unclear. Here we show that VEGF-B has an unexpected role in endothelial targeting of lipids to peripheral tissues. Dietary lipids present in circulation have to be transported through the vascular endothelium to be metabolized by tissue cells, a mechanism that is poorly understood. Bioinformatic analysis showed that Vegfb was tightly co-expressed with nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes across a large variety of physiological conditions in mice, pointing to a role for VEGF-B in metabolism. VEGF-B specifically controlled endothelial uptake of fatty acids via transcriptional regulation of vascular fatty acid transport proteins. As a consequence, Vegfb(-/-) mice showed less uptake and accumulation of lipids in muscle, heart and brown adipose tissue, and instead shunted lipids to white adipose tissue. This regulation was mediated by VEGF receptor 1 and neuropilin 1 expressed by the endothelium. The co-expression of VEGF-B and mitochondrial proteins introduces a novel regulatory mechanism, whereby endothelial lipid uptake and mitochondrial lipid use are tightly coordinated. The involvement of VEGF-B in lipid uptake may open up the possibility for novel strategies to modulate pathological lipid accumulation in diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases.post to: CiteULike

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 12 PMID: 20226048Authors: Rykunov, D. - Fiser, A.Journal: BMC BioinformaticsABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Scoring functions, such as molecular mechanic forcefields and statistical potentials are fundamentally important tools in protein structure modeling and quality assessment. RESULTS: The performances of a number of publicly available scoring functions are compared with a statistical rigor, with an emphasis on knowledge-based potentials. We explored the effect on accuracy of alternative choices for representing interaction center types and other features of scoring functions, such as using information on solvent accessibility, on torsion angles, accounting for secondary structure preferences and side chain orientation. Partially based on the observations made, we present a novel residue based statistical potential, which employs a shuffled reference state definition and takes into account the mutual orientation of residue side chains. Atom- and residue-level statistical potentials and Linux executables to calculate the energy of a given protein proposed in this work can be downloaded from http://www.fiserlab.org/potentials. CONCLUSIONS: Among the most influential terms we observed a critical role of a proper reference state definition and the benefits of including information about the microenvironment of interaction centers. Molecular mechanical potentials were also tested and found to be over-sensitive to small local imperfections in a structure, requiring unfeasible long energy relaxation before energy scores started to correlate with model quality.post to: CiteULike

There's not a lot to see here -- in fact, there's nothing at all to see at this point -- but The New York Times has it on good authority that Google, Intel, and Sony have teamed up to develop an Android-powered internet platform using Atom processors for televisions and set-top boxes. Dubbed Google TV, the apparent mantra seems to be making web app navigation (Twitter, Picasa, etc.) as easy as changing the channel. Joining the fun will be the peripheral casanovas at Logitech for, you guessed it, peripherals. It certainly isn't novel territory, from as far back as WebTV to as recent as Yahoo! widgets, but the proof will be in the pudding, and for now, mum's the word on any more concrete details. As they say, stay tuned.

Google TV: Android-based web platform for the living room, with help from Intel, Sony, and Logitech originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There's not a lot to see here -- in fact, there's nothing at all to see at this point -- but The New York Times has it on good authority that Google, Intel, and Sony have teamed up to develop an Android-powered internet platform using Atom processors for televisions and set-top boxes. Dubbed Google TV, the apparent mantra seems to be making web app navigation (Twitter, Picasa, etc.) as easy as changing the channel. Joining the fun will be the peripheral casanovas at Logitech for, you guessed it, peripherals. It certainly isn't novel territory, from as far back as WebTV to as recent as Yahoo! widgets, but the proof will be in the pudding, and for now, mum's the word on any more concrete details. As they say, stay tuned.Google TV: Android-based web platform for the living room, with help from Intel, Sony, and Logitech originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.


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Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, Vol. 30, No. 4. (1 April 2010), pp. 802-808.

Objective-- Monocyte/macrophage inflammation is an important contributor to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Studies have suggested saturated fatty acids (SFA) induce monocyte inflammation in a Toll-like receptor-4-dependent manner, but recent data suggest SFA do not directly interact with Toll-like receptor-4. The present study tests the novel hypothesis that metabolism of SFA cooperatively amplifies Toll-like receptor-4-mediated inflammation. Methods and Results-- THP-1 monocytes exposed to 100 micromol/L SFA in vitro for 16 hours followed by 1 ng/mL lipopolysaccharide demonstrated enhanced IL-6 and IL-8 mRNA and protein expression (approx3-fold higher than the sum of individual responses to SFA and lipopolysaccharide). SFA had similar effects on THP-1 macrophages and primary human monocytes. This amplified lipopolysaccharide response could be blocked by inhibition of SFA metabolism to ceramide and restored by cell-permeable ceramide. Both SFA and ceramide activated PKC-zeta and the mitogen-activated protein kinases Erk, JNK, and p38. Inhibition of these pathways prevented the SFA-induced increase in cytokine expression. Conclusion-- These results provide evidence for potent amplification of monocyte/macrophage innate immune responses by a novel pathway requiring metabolism of SFA to ceramide and activation of PKC-zeta/mitogen-activated protein kinases. These findings demonstrate how nutrient excess may modulate innate immune system activation and possibly contribute to development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Saturated fatty acids (SFA) and Toll-like receptors (TLR) are linked to inflammatory diseases such as diabetes and atherosclerosis. We demonstrate that SFA enhance inflammation by amplifying TLR-mediated responses in vitro. This mechanism depends on conversion of SFA to ceramide, activating PKC-zeta and MAPK pathways, and cooperatively enhancing TLR/NF-kappaB-mediated inflammation. 10.1161/ATVBAHA.109.201681
Eric Schwartz, Wei-Yang Zhang, Sheetal Karnik, Sabine Borwege, Vijay Anand, Phyllis Laine, Yali Su, Peter Reaven

Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Systems biology and medicine, Vol. 1, No. 3. (29 April 2009), pp. 372-379.

Significant progress has been made in identification of genes and gene networks involved in key biological processes. Yet, how these genes and networks are coordinated over increasing levels of biological complexity, from cells to tissues to organs, remains unclear. To address complex biological questions, biologists are increasingly using high-throughput tools and systems biology approaches to examine complex biological systems at a global scale. A system is a network of interacting and interdependent components that shape the system's unique properties. Systems biology studies the organization of system components and their interactions, with the idea that unique properties of that system can be observed only through study of the system as a whole. The application of systems biology approaches to questions in plant biology has been informative. In this review, we give examples of how systems biology is currently being used in Arabidopsis to investigate the transcriptional networks regulating root development, the metabolic response to stress, and the genetic regulation of metabolic variability. From these studies, we are beginning obtain sufficient data to generate more accurate models for system function. Further investigation of plant systems will require data gathering from specific cells and tissues, continued improvement in metabolic technologies, and novel computational methods for data visualization and modeling.
Jaimie Van Norman, Philip Benfey

Quite possibly one of the worst movies I have EVER seen (seriously, this is fun to watch with friends) is Douglas Aarniokoski's star-studded disaster Animals (review), the high profile adaptation starring Mark Blucas, Nicki Aycox, Eva Amurri, Andy Comeau and Naveen Andrews. Not surprisingly, the film is getting dumped on DVD June 15th from Maverick Entertainment. Adapted from co-authors Craig Spector and John Skipp's landmark 1993 lycanthrope novel, Animals is a tale about a blue-collar worker whose uneventful life receives a sudden jolt of uncontainable violence. In a dying factory town, a cursed love triangle spirals into a frenzied disaster that will consume the lives of all involved.

Judges wowed by elegant take on UK's clunky three-pin power system

Young designer Min-Kyo Choi has bagged the Design Museum-backed Brit Insurance Design Award 2010 for his novel take on Britain's bulky three-pin power plug....

Injecting a simple hormone into leeches has resulted in a novel way to study how hormones and the nervous system work together to produce species-specific reproductive behavior. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have discovered that injecting a simple hormone into leeches creates a novel way [...]

Journal of The Royal Society Interface (17 March 2010)

10.1098/rsif.2010.0063 Sequence comparison and alignment has had an enormous impact on our understanding of evolution, biology and disease. Comparison and alignment of biological networks will probably have a similar impact. Existing network alignments use information external to the networks, such as sequence, because no good algorithm for purely topological alignment has yet been devised. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm based solely on network topology, that can be used to align any two networks. We apply it to biological networks to produce by far the most complete topological alignments of biological networks to date. We demonstrate that both species phylogeny and detailed biological function of individual proteins can be extracted from our alignments. Topology-based alignments have the potential to provide a completely new, independent source of phylogenetic information. Our alignment of the protein–protein interaction networks of two very different species—yeast and human—indicate that even distant species share a surprising amount of network topology, suggesting broad similarities in internal cellular wiring across all life on Earth.
Oleksii Kuchaiev, Tijana Milenković, Vesna Memišević, Wayne Hayes, Nataša Pržulj

John A. Walsh has the first chapter of his new graphic novel, Go Home Paddy, on his website here. He will be adding new pages to the book every Tuesday and Thursday.

The book is about an Irish immigrant in Boston in the mid-19th Century.

The first chapter was strong, although be forewarned, it might be really difficult for you to see on your screen. I ended up having to just download each individual page to be able to read them myself, but maybe you'll have a better experience - I figure it's worth throwing that warning out there just so I don't have to hear the complaints here if someone has a problem.

Starting Tuesday, famous novelist John Grisham's works will be available in e-book format, according to a Tuesday release from the author. Grisham's publisher, Random House, will make all 23 of his novels available through e-book retailers. Hehas previously been reluctant to allow digitizing his work, as he believed e-books would hurt traditional book sales and make it harder for new writers to be successful....

The American Film Institute (AFI) informed its supporters late last week that it will put its Digital Content Lab on hiatus, effectively ending a long-running program that matched up broadcasters and studios with software and device vendors, as well as designers and UI experts, to develop prototypes for online television and other forms of digital media. AFI Senior Vice President of Media & Technology Nick DeMartino told me during a phone conversation that the institute was forced to this step due to a lack of funding.

AFI will still hold another DigiFest in November of 2010, and DeMartino told me that he is committed to bringing back the Digital Content Lab at some time in the future. However, it most likely won’t be quite the same as it was, as different approaches to technology will force AFI to adopt as well. Said DeMartino about the Lab: “It was a moment in time that doesn’t fit the world anymore.”

The Digital Content Lab was originally founded as the Enhanced TV Workshop to explore the possibilities of interactive television. The Lab adopted a unique approach to R&D that combined designers with developers and content producers with technologists to dive into a specific project under the guide of an experienced mentor.

Reuters teamed up with Microsoft as well as various outside designers to develop a mobile news client, AOL played with the idea of a live talk show production environment within its AIM client and Bravo got together with Cisco and Ogilvy Interactive to develop ideas for viral advertising  in the age of the DVR. All of these projects would be developed in a time frame of three to six months, after which the result was presented to the public, even if it still was an early-stage prototype. All in all, more than 90 of these prototypes were built during the Lab’s twelve years of existence.

As a reporter covering this space, I have to admit that I’ve long had a soft spot for the Digital Content Lab. One of the very first stories I wrote for NewTeeVee in early 2007 was about a showcase of the Lab’s projects that included a brilliant extension of PBS’s Design: e2 series onto the cell phones, web browsers and TIVOs. I was later invited to an internal design roundtable event to give a team working on a different PBS project some feedback on its ideas and wire frames, and I always enjoyed the fact that representatives of different companies would work together on these ideas without expecting any immediate pay-off.

Of course, the fact that most of these projects never saw the light of day may also have made it harder to win sponsors. “There’s always been the tension between the blue sky and the deployable,” admitted DeMartino, who founded the Lab in 1998. However, he also defended the approach as appropriate to get both Hollywood and Silicon Valley to participate. “The distance between mainstream filmmaking and technology was pretty large,” DeMartino said about the early days of the Lab, adding: “That’s not true anymore.”

The same goes for the willingness to experiment. The idea of open prototyping was fairly novel when the Digital Content Lab started, but nowadays even studio-owned video platforms like Hulu have their prototype playgrounds to try out new things. Of course, something like Hulu Labs is much more about actually commercial deployment, and less inclusive towards other companies in the industry.

So how do you keep the spirit of cooperation going while securing new avenues of funding? DeMartino told me that one possibility currently under consideration is a more academic model. How that could look like isn’t entirely clear yet, but one thing is: “The Lab will return,” DeMartino promised, adding that the AFI is still committed to technological innovation.

Related content on GigaOm Pro: Did We Really Learn Anything From the Dotcom Crash? (subscription required)

Twilight, Fascination volume 1, l'adaptation graphique tant attendue par les fans du 1er Twilight arrive le 17 mars 2010 chez PIKA Édition.

- Infos Bandes Dessinées - Comics

Random Thought! A special edition of random thoughts this week, people! It's random thoughts time! Get excited!

Link Thought! Quickie Reviews (Mar 10 2010) (The Unwritten makes a small comeback!). Is it Just Children? (or is it okay to kill everyone?). High Road/Low Road on Chris Jericho/Edge at WrestleMania (I really love this, but still have to argue against it... dammit). Wrestling 4Rs featuring my review of the first edition of TNA Impact in its new semi-live Monday night timespot (spoiler: I thought it was shit). Fuck Me? (people who comment on wrestling sites are much funnier than those who comment on comics sites). Wrestler of the Week (only two weeks left...). Art Discussion Month 2010 (it passes the halfway mark today... I'm mostly done! Also, check out Frank Teran's comment in my discussion of the Hellblazer issue he drew... it's all gossipy and fun!). The Splash Page Podcast Episode 8.1 (Tim swears, but I had to bleep it out to keep the podcast clean). The Splash Page Podcast Episode 8.2 (I swear, but I had to bleep it out to keep the podcast clean). An interview with Keith Champagne on WWE Heroes (yes, it's on this blog, but people miss things...).

Random Thought! I'm oddly comforted by the thought that, if I lived in Russia, comics would be reviewing me... (Taken from my Twitter feed on Sunday.)

Random Thought! I have no interest in that Young Allies book beyond how awesome the name Bastards of Evil is. That's not just a good bad guy team name, it's a Joe Casey-esque bad guy team name, and no one does supervillains who revel in their villainy as well as Casey these days, so nicely done, Mr. McKeever.

Random Thought! Because it gives me focus, the rest of the column will be my "I'ds of March" to follow-up on Brian's annual posting. Sure, that was yesterday, but I don't want to step on his toes, let him do his thing and I'll keep mine in this column. If I remember next year, the 15th will be on a Tuesday and mine will actually go up on the day. I did this previously, on my blog, two years ago. (Linking to that so I won't repeat myself...)

I'd... have ended Secret Invasion with Noh-Varr helping to turn the tide against the Skrulls and, then, turning on the heroes, because he intends to take over the planet himself and remake it in Hala's image. Not taking over then, Norman Osborn could still be in charge and Dark Reign happens mostly as planned, but Noh-Varr is set up as a threat, someone who isn't working for the same goals as anyone.

I'd... have brought Steve Rogers back in Captain America as a regular arc with Butch Guice as the artist, kicking off his run on the book. Not necessarily as smart a sales/business move, but I think it would have worked artistically better.

I'd... have not marketed Joe Casey's tenure on Superman/Batman as a follow-up to "Our Worlds at War" and would have also let people know that was writing the book when the first issue came out in October and made it clear what was going on.

I'd... hire Jim Starlin to take over one of the Marvel cosmic books. With Thanos coming back, all we need is Starlin. It would lighten the load for Abnett and Lanning a bit and also give the line a little bit more diversity in writing. I've enjoyed the unified vision, but, come on, DnA and Starlin writing those characters? That would be amazing.

I'd... have hired J.M. DeMatteis to write Spider-Man: The Clone Saga. Or, at least, a back-up strip to give the series a little more flavour and breathing room. I'd have also included some extra material like one-page interviews on the story throughout the series. Small things to make it a better experience.

I'd... have not made Wednesday Comics exclusively 12-part serialised stories. Do some one-offs and short serials, mix things up a bit, play with the newspaper format.

I'd... have released the "Final Crisis Aftermath" book in a different manner, maybe not all at the same time nor with such similar titles. They all sort of blended together that way when they might have done better by making their differences more obvious and trying to target each book's specific audience more directly.

I'd... release Paul Jenkins's Hellblazer run in trades. Plus, I do a trade or two of the remaining uncollected issues from that series. The one- and two-parters that popped up over the years.

I'd... have hired almost any other artist than Philip Tan for the second Batman & Robin arc. That arc sticks out like a sore thumb and DC could have found someone much better suited to Morrison's writing -- and someone whose work doesn't look ten times worse in the middle of Frank Quitely- and Cameron Stewart-drawn arcs.

I'd... have hounded Chip Zdarsky to contribute to Strange Tales... because he's great.

I'd... hire Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk to do a second Dark X-Men mini-series later in 2010 to explore what happens to the characters without Norman Osborn in charge. That could be very interesting and act as a nice sequel to the recently-concluded mini.

I'd... have hired a writer with sensibilities much more in common with Grant Morrison than Keith Giffen to write The Authority: The Lost Year. A cool idea for a book that went wrong by hiring the wrong writer to do it. That needed someone much more in tune with the way Morrison writes.

I'd... have chosen more Spider-Woman over the motion comics animated thing.

I'd... have made those Dark Reign: The List issues actually... you know... mean something...? Like, made them count for something lasting and important within the "Dark Reign" story rather than just coming out and... not really doing much of anything.

I'd... hound and pester Craig Ferguson until he agrees to write an Aquaman comic, dammit!

Random Thought! That was fun.

***

Random Comments! Your comments. My replies. Rather obvious. Trying something new by replying to portions of comments directly. If it's confusing or people don't like it, let me know.

Bill Reed said: People actually watched Corner Gas? Really? Did they enjoy it? Does one have to be Canadian to enjoy it? Some station or another here in God's United States aired it for a bit there, and I stumbled upon it one day... it's like some kind of terrifying black hole of quality.

Corner Gas is a decent, middle-of-the-road sitcom. It only produces a couple of chuckles in an episode, but gets the odd big laugh. Or, it did when it was on. I don't think it's a uniquely Canadian thing, but who knows with you Americans?

I'm tired of this shtick already. Deadpool isn't that overexposed. I proved it with maths. Still, he does have a surprising amount of solo titles, more than I think the market will be able to support. In a year's time, he'll probably be back to one, unless the movie comes out.

Just because other characters appear in more books, doesn't mean Deadpool isn't overexposed. Something like that is relative to the character and how much exposure is too much. Spider-Man and Batman appear in more books? Fine, but we're also used to them appearing in a lot of books. There's a longtime demand for them to appear in numerous books. As of yet, there's an apparent shortterm demand for Deadpool that could easily turn against the character like happened to Punisher and Ghost Rider. Your math, while interesting, doesn't tell the whole story.

CW said: The whole 'Deadpool overexposure' thing is really weird for me. Not because I hate the character, or I'm offended by the character being rammed down my throat, but I guess I'm from the time when Joe Kelly and Ed McGuness couldn't buy readers for his solo series. I grew up with Deadpool as a third-rate Wolverine knock-off (violent guy with an attitude) fighting second-rate characters (Black Tom?) from a second rate X-book (Leifeld-era X-Force, you suck!). That Joe Kelly was able to take the character and make something truely moving and halarious is nothing short of miraculous. The book was constantly fighting cancelation, and although it never really recovered after McGuness left the book, it was still one of the best books Marvel was publishing at the time.

Everything being published today featuring the character is a pale shadow of what was done in that first series. I don't believe that later work of any creator or of any character can diminish the original work, but what's being published as Deadpool comics these days makes me almost say he's been ruined. As it is, I see those books as being the one shining gem in a big pile of turd. And it makes me realize just how funny and vindictive the fates must be to make *now* be when Deadpool is at his most popular among the hoi poi. It's almost like something... Deadpool would come up with.

Agreed. Having read Deadpool books for reviewing purposes at CBR, I can vouch for the lack of funny. They're cute. There's maybe one funny moment per issue. Then again, humour is relative, so maybe lots of people are finding the current books very funny. I did enjoy Deadpool's recent guest-spot in Amazing Spider-Man by Joe Kelly and Eric Canete. That was great.

Mecha-Shiva said: Frisky Dingo, man... what a great show. I ran into Adam Reed at my mechanic's (I had no idea what he looked like, but he started talking to someone at the counter and I'm wondering why this guy sounds like Xander Crews then he said his name and it made sense) but lacked the balls to say hello or anything. I don't understand why Frisky Dingo (or the all-too-brief Xtacles spinoff) never got the same kind of attention as the Venture Bros. Not to take anything away from the Venture Bros., which is great, but... other than the crappy animation, I see nothing not to like about Frisky Dingo. Ka-kow.

I can understand why: The Venture Bros. do self-contained episodes. Frisky Dingo opted for episodes that told one big story, much like a comics storyarc written for the trade. That doesn't make it less good, it just makes it harder for people to get into it. That, and The Venture Bros. is better. Sorry.

Mario said: People who don't like Deadpool or constantly whine about his overexposure are simply in denial of their desire to read a comic that will have no "serious" long term effect. Deadpool comics are all about enjoyment (in the best and worse ways possible).

No, I'm all for those books. I've read recent Deadpool books and they're just not good. Not funny or entertaining.

Jason Arron's Wolvering doesn't suck.

No, Jason Aaron's Wolverine book doesn't suck. That's what made me realise that I just don't care for the character. I'd read an issue here and there and enjoy what I've read, and, yet, I felt no desire to read another issue.

FunkyGreenJerusalem said: That's because it's by an Australian director Gregor Jordan, who makes the most empty and souless films of all time. He won a big short film competition in Australia with a clever short... although apparently it's VERY similar to another short, or scene from an old film. He then made a crime film which wouldn't have gone anywhere, except it had Bryan Brown swearing a lot, and was the breakthrough (in Australia, which led to US work) of Heath Ledger. That got him signed up to a five picture film, and it's been a slow and steady output of dribble ever since. (I know his career because I keep thinking every film will be his last, and am just shocked at watching his mediocrity continue to live). Having seen The Informers the other week, don't stress Chad, just about every character in it will die of AIDS soon after the credits. (Although I think we're supposed to ignore that by combining the stories, and making them all happen at once, nearly every character had, presumably, unprotected sex with someone who had slept with another character, all leading back to the girl who dies of AIDS at the end... AIDS of course being added in, as it's not in the novel, to give the film some kind of ending).

I haven't read the collection in a while, but, yeah, I don't remember AIDS being in any of the stories. Hell, the girl doesn't even die necessarily in the book. Thanks for the background info. From what I read, the director really fucked with the script and cut it down considerably.

I loved when that book hinted that Xavier was in their heads and manipulating the X-Men the whole time. That never went anywhere.

That was very frustrating. Xavier was perfectly happy to alter Magneto's memories and mind, but wouldn't act on a larger scale to solve the problems with mutants and humanity -- or, at least, influence the minds of the right people to move things along. Again, small-scale, status quo-feeding bullshit.

So you're praising Ellis for writing a nice outline of a story, and then publishing it as a story? From memory, the book has a scene where the main characters - all of whom have nothing original or distinguishing about them - are standing in a warehouse. The police are intercut with the heroes talking, surrounding a warehouse, and they kick down the door... but they have the wrong warehouse. That's Chuck Austen level of writing.

No, Ellis wrote a conclusion to his story, but part of it was introducing ideas that could be more fully explored in the future. And that scene happened, but it, you know, made sense in context and wasn't bad. But, I'm not going to change your mind.

Willie Everstop said: Random Thought! What the hell is up with comic characters leaving the word what out of the phrase "What the hell" lately? Is it a creator quirk or just some weird way to avoid censorship? It always seems out of place to me.

I say 'the hell?' or 'the fuck?' Just a variation on the phrase that some people use.

TimCallahan said: Hey, I was an English major and I read ALL the assigned books. (Problem was: I usually didn't read them until the day before the final, and Chaucer isn't really all that great when you read him like that. He may not be great for other reasons -- the jury is still out on that.)

I did that with Moby-Dick since it was the one book in my American lit class in undergrad that we had to discuss in an essay on the final exam. By the halfway mark, I was skipping the chapters on whales, sticking to the narrative. Good times.

Rome said: BTW, did you like the new Iron Man 2 trailer? Any thoughts on the Suitcase Armor?

Looks decent. No real thoughts or judgements since the first movie was good enough to earn the sequel a viewing. So, I'm trying not to care too much, preferring to leave my thoughts until I see the finished product with everything in its proper context.

Jack Norris said: As soon as the words "hero's journey" pop up in an argument, I automatically feel less obligated to read on in a respectful manner. It's become the fans & critics (oh, and let's not forget some creators as well) version of "because, uh... because Jesus, God and the Bible, that's why!" in the way that it's just an empty appeal to authority.

Agreed. But, the endpoint of Peter's progression into adulthood is leaving Spider-Man behind and learning about real responsibility. Just the way it is.

Mike Loughlin said: My problem with JMS' better comics (Midnight Nation, Rising Stars, Supreme Power) is that he spent an awful lot of time on set-up, and very little on delivery. I read all 18 issues of Supreme Power, but got the impression that the story JMS wanted to tell would have taken at least 50 more. Rising Stars started out great (although the art was sub-par), but ended limply. Midnight Nation is a self-contained story, at least, but they seemed to spend most of the issues lurching toward a rather predictable conclusion (I liked it, despite its flaws). I think JMS is good at world-building, but falters when it comes to structuring.

Yeah, that's why Babylon 5 was so great: he had the room to set up plots and characters and world build without it cutting short the eventual payoffs. Comics are limited by page-count and the speed at which they come out and JMS seems to need more room to work. He hasn't adapted to the medium as much as he should have by this point.

That's it. Thanks for reading. Later.

by John Lees (check out John's column, Comic Book Club, at ProjectFanboy here)

Okay, so who reads Scalped? For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Scalped is a sprawling crime drama by writer Jason Aaron and (for the most part) artist R.M. Guera, published by DC Comics’ celebrated Vertigo imprint. Set on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in South Dakota, it tells the story of Dashiell Bad Horse, a prodigal son returning to his childhood home and falling under the sway of community leader turned gangster Chief Red Crow. The comic has been widely met with critical acclaim, not least from here at Comic Book Resources. As well as regularly reviewing the book, CBR has prominently featured Scalped right here on the Comics Should Be Good blog. The comic is a constant fixture on What I Bought by Greg Burgas, who offers plenty of insightful commentary on the developing narrative. Brian Cronin, meanwhile, devoted an entire week of 2009’s Year of Cool Comic Book Moments to Scalped. CBR ranked the series at #5 in its Best of 2009 list. Looking beyond this site, Jerome Maida of the Philadelphia Daily News not only ranked Scalped as the best comic of 2009, but as one of the greatest comics of all time.

But the response to the book has not been universally positive. Some detractors have accused the comic of
perpetuating negative Native American stereotypes, even going so far as to condemn those who praise Scalped as part of the problem. As readers of Scalped, are we guilty of promoting racism? Well first, I would suggest arguing on these lines takes us up a blind alley where we don’t look too closely into the facts and simply accept that Scalped and its author are racist, knowingly or otherwise. So I am going to take things back a notch, and ask: is Scalped really racist?

To answer this question, we need to take a closer look at Scalped, and see how the comic itself holds up against such accusations. The most common complaint is the idea that the comic portrays all Native Americans as criminals and lowlifes. While yes, there are violent characters in Scalped and many laws are broken, this is a crime story, and is therefore by its very definition going to focus on criminals. But it should also be noted that thoroughly decent, law-abiding Native characters such as Granny Poor Bear and Franklin Falls Down challenge the notion that the book presents all Indians as scum, while the very worst figures in the book, those most devoid of redeeming qualities – such as psychotic killer Diesel or the amoral, vindictive FBI agent Nitz – are white.

One line of criticism I have encountered demanded more balance, that for every Native American engaging in crime or wallowing in drunken despair we should see another doing good for the local community or enjoying a happy and contented life on The Rez. This to me seemed like an odd request, not only because it would be utterly incongruent with the somber tone established in this particular comic, but because it clashes with the very dynamics of the genre as a whole. Should a comedy have balance by having half its content be harrowing drama? Should a horror have balance with extended sequences devoid of any suspense or peril? Why should the crime genre not be too much about crime? Perhaps, as I shall touch on later, it is more to do with the color of the characters committing the crimes.

I think part of the problem could be that much of this criticism is based on the first few issues of Scalped, or on the first graphic novel collecting the series: Indian Country. In these early chapters, the focus seems to be less on character than action, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say the characters are presented as racial stereotypes, one could see them as noir archetypes: the outsider, the gangster, the wise old drunk, the femme fatale. While there were some glimpses of the depth that was to come – take, for example, the series of near-misses and miscommunications that prevent Gina Bad Horse from getting in touch with her son in issue #4, which in the next issue are given tragic significance - in its beginning, the series felt more like a conventional crime thriller, well told. I’d argue that it was with the collection of issues contained in the second graphic novel, Casino Boogie, that Jason Aaron really began to stretch his wings and the book’s unique voice was truly established. From this point on, the intricate experimentation with time and chronological structure made Scalped less about constant action than dwelling on a single moment, reflecting on it from different perspectives and examining its causes and consequences. Characterization came to the forefront, and those archetypes began to get a lot more complicated, turning into nuanced, multi-faceted individuals. As a result, critiques based solely on the first handful of issues don’t just seem outdated, but rather it’s like they miss the point of Scalped entirely, almost as if they were talking about a different comic.

As an example of this, one character that has been a target of particular scorn is Lincoln Red Crow. Based on his first appearance in the first issue, it might be easy to dismiss him as a one-note caricature, just a typical gangster heavy. In his first appearance, he has just finished scalping some unknown victim, so it is perhaps understandable to assume the character is to become a stereotypical Indian villain. But as the series develops, Red Crow evolves into a fascinating, tragic figure. Red Crow’s soul has been steadily eroded by the moral compromises and Faustian pacts he has made to open his casino. Driven by a desire to bring prosperity to the struggling Oglala Lakota tribe, this casino for him represents these lifelong dreams becoming a reality.

After decades of fighting to secure his people’s future, he has succeeded, but at the cost of becoming the very thing he hates the most. “You done spent too long playin’ the part a’ the poor, old pissed-off ‘skin who wouldn’t be caught dead workin’ for the man,” sneers one associate, “Cause now you are the man, and you don’t know what the hell to do with yourself.”

But still, some would continue to disregard this complexity, concluding that the book’s readers will only view him as a “savage Indian” or a “greedy Indian”. Not only is this an inaccurate appraisal of Red Crow’s story – classic themes like “the loss of idealism” and “power corrupts” are universal, not exclusively Indian - but it severely underestimates the intelligence and morality of the comic’s readers, assuming they must all be as racist as its author is imagined to be. What is the more likely scenario? That deep down, all readers of Scalped secretly hate Indians, and they were attracted to a comic with Native criminals through an insatiable desire to validate their own bigotry? Or that readers of Scalped just happen to like strong storytelling and compelling characters?

Red Crow is a mass of contradictions, with Aaron encouraging the reader to alternatively view him as a tragic hero, a monster, an optimist, a tyrant, a loving father, an abusive father, a mentor, a traitor, courageous, cowardly, spiritual, violent, a man on a downward spiral of despair. But these racially-charged arguments against the book can only see Red Crow as an Indian, with all these other aspects of his character becoming secondary, simply ways of commenting on him as an Indian. In this line of thought, it seems a white criminal can be a fully-fledged character in his own right, but an Indian criminal must be seen as a representation of all Indians. Who then, out of Aaron and his detractors, is more racially progressive?

Here is a scene featuring Red Crow from the conclusion of a 2009 storyline...

It has been said that the reader generates just as much meaning from a text as a writer does, and as such no matter how fair and nuanced writers become in their depictions of Natives, the possibility of someone (over)reading a subversive racist subtext into everything will always remain. I believe Scalped to be the victim of what I call the stereotype that wasn’t there. By this, I mean that it is easy to assert that a creator is racist, but it is more difficult for said creator to conclusively prove that they’re not, meaning a piece of fiction can be burdened with a vague stigma of racism even without any substantial evidence to actually confirm what, with Scalped, too often amounts to overreaching assertions built on skewed interpretations.

Sadly, this mindset only hinders the representation of Natives (and other minorities) in fiction. It can be a vicious cycle, with writers reluctant to tackle minority-based stories for fear of being perceived as racist and so contributing to the underrepresentation of these minorities in fiction. And when a minority character does see the light of day, are they to be portrayed in a manner more “sensitive” (some would say patronizing) than their white counterparts, so as not to offend anyone? What a regressive view of minority characters, where their loftiest aspiration should be to not be offensive! Some critiques go so far as to suggest we should only allow white characters to be featured in crime stories, to be sure no one can equate any minority to criminality. I would say this is a dangerous precedent to be setting in the name of “equality”. It seems like backwards logic to me, that because there aren’t enough minority-focused stories out there, we should further limit them by branding certain genres out-of-bounds for anything but white characters. Isn’t it a better solution to stop viewing characters as “white criminals” or “Indian criminals”, to look past their color for more substantial ways of defining them?

With Scalped, Jason Aaron demonstrates that a Native American character can be just as flawed and damaged as a white character. Far from being racist, I would suggest that is a necessary step towards that sought-after equality.

One could argue that Scalped is too violent, too foul-mouthed, too unrelentingly bleak and depressing. These are all complaints based on what is right there on the page, ready to be received by its audience in one way or another. Accusing the book of racism, however, is dependent on leaps of logic and speculation on both the writer’s intention and the response of other readers that are insulting to both writer and reader alike. For those yet to read the book, my recommendation would be to check out Scalped for yourself – there are currently five graphic novel collections available – and make up your own mind about it. But please, judge it on its merits as a crime story or a character drama rather than on its stereotypes or lack thereof, because Scalped is so much more than just an “Indian comic”.

This book came out two months ago, but I waited until I had some other stuff to review so I could do a few days of "reviews a day." I don't mind waiting a while with standalone long-form novels, though, because it's not like the Next Big Event will be spoiled if you don't read this right away! And there's some minor nudity below. You can handle it!

Naomi Nowak's latest book, Graylight, is published by NBM and costs a mere $12.95. I'm extremely torn about this book. I don't love it, but I do think it's a work that can be enjoyable. Allow me to explain!

On the recommendable side, Nowak's art is astonishing (uh-oh, I just gave away what's not recommendable about it). A quoted review on the back calls it "Pre-Raphaelite," which isn't a bad description (it's actually the coloring of the book that's called that, but it does apply to the design of the book as well, or at least what I know of the Pre-Raphaelites seems to apply) - Nowak's art is lush, almost Edenic, with a bold color palette that I hesitate to call "girlie," but I'm sorry - that's the word I thought of. Nowak uses lots of deep greens and blues and purples, and she puts her characters deep into nature, so that flowers and butterflies threaten to overwhelm the pages. She designs the book so that each page (or double-page spread) is a complete drawing, eschewing panels quite often to build a page in which the separate drawings bleed into each other, highlighting the riotousness of nature even more. She does use panels, but lays them out on the page so that they crash into each other at jagged angles, overlap each other, and generally look "sloppy" - it's not sloppy, because Nowak is going for a deliberate effect, but it's not a "traditional" design or even a frenetic design like we often see in "edgy" comics. It's much more of a melding of the panels, as Nowak uses the panels like she does the larger splashes - as ways to create a holistically pleasing scene. Nowak's attention to detail is tremendous, even though it doesn't, surprisingly, extend too much to her characters. With a few exceptions on a few pages, the characters remain inexpressive, which is rather odd. Occasionally we can see that Nowak can do more with faces, so the fact that she doesn't is a bit perplexing. Nowak is Swedish, and this book apparently takes place during a northern summer, meaning the daylight lasts most of the day - we get a sense of dreaminess from the endless light, which is a nice trick. Because we get a sense that these people just aren't getting enough sleep, we get a feel that they are somehow dreaming while they're awake, and it heightens the sense of strangeness that is pervasive in the book. Nowak's art is a true treat.

However ... the writing doesn't keep up. Nowak is going for a very impressionistic kind of comic here, which is fine, but she does have a story to tell, and she doesn't do a great job. She's telling the story of a young lady named Sasha and the unusual love triangle in which she finds herself. But Nowak, in trying to avoid overexplaining, gives us hardly any narrative whatsoever. What we get is a lot of dreamy scenes where people say things that often have no connection with what anyone else is saying. It's a tough go. It begins on the first few pages. We see a woman holding a baby, and then we see the father leaving. She then tells the baby that she'll never let a woman "capable of this devastation" come into the baby's life, and that he'll "never end up" like his father. The father then committed suicide. It's obvious that the father cheated on the mother and she threw him out, which is not a bad way to start the story, but we can already see that Nowak is going more for a mood than anything else. This becomes problematic as we move along.

In the present, we meet a girl named Sasha, who's a thief. In the woods one day, she meets a man she's seen hanging around town named Erik, who is off to interview a reclusive author for his newspaper. He invites Sasha to come along as his "photographer," but the author - the same woman we saw in the beginning - doesn't like this, and Sasha has to leave ... but not before she steals a book from a shelf in the house. The woman's son, Edmund - the same baby we saw in the beginning - then tries to track down the book, with less-than-desirable results. Sasha is romantically involved with Erik, but Edmund desires her as well. His mother, Aurora, who promised to protect him from women like Sasha, takes some extreme measures. And that's all I really want to say of the general plot, because I don't want to spoil it.

Nowak makes us work too much, however. Sasha doesn't seem to be that evil, despite her thievery. She doesn't really "act" upon Edmund too much, and Edmund doesn't seem to fall too far under her spell, such as it is. Sasha's relationship with Erik comes completely out of nowhere - on one page, they seem to have no connection whatsoever, and the next, they're naked together, and a few pages later, they're arguing about whether Sasha should tell her friends she's in a relationship. This makes the "love triangle" that forms with Edmund even more enervating, because not only do Sasha and Edmund not have much of a relationship, neither do Sasha and Erik. So when Aurora decides to take action, we not only don't completely understand her motivation (as much as we can figure it out; and Edmund is still a grown man, so maybe she should let go a bit), but we don't understand why this random girl has raised her ire. There's a vague explanation, but it doesn't help too much. This weakens the climax of the book.

Nowak, as I wrote, is counting on us to do a lot of the lifting. That's fine - more comic writers should do that. She leaves it up to us to make connections, and for the most part we can, but where the writing really fails is with the characterization. If we're going to infer major plot points, we need to have a clearer grasp of the characters. If Nowak wants Aurora to be seen not as an overbearing mother or a martyr for her child's happiness but some of both, she needs to do a better job with Aurora herself. If she wants us to care about Sasha and her odd kleptomania, Sasha needs to be more compelling. The love triangle falls apart because all three characters are ciphers, and therefore we don't feel anything for any of them. It gets back to the Nordic setting - if Nowak is matching the aloofness of the characters with the dreamlike and slightly surreal surroundings, well I guess she succeeded, but it doesn't necessarily make the book worth reading.

As I always feel when I read a comic by someone who is clearly talented and is also working outside the superhero mainstream, I hate that I don't like this more. If you're interested in Nowak's art, I would recommend it highly. If you're looking for that art to work in conjunction with a solid story, you'll probably be disappointed. Nowak has done two other graphic novels, and I'm actually interested in getting at least one to see how her writing is in those. That's how cool her art is. But on the whole, Graylight falls a bit short. It's too bad.

Up to 90,000 zombies freed

Communications within the notorious Waledac botnet have been "effectively decimated," thanks to a novel takedown approach that combined court actions with a variety of technical measures, a Microsoft program manager said Tuesday....

What is your recession sales strategy?

Molecular phylogenetics and evolution (4 February 2010)

The pantherine lineage of cats diverged from the remainder of modern Felidae less than 11 million years ago and consists of the five big cats of the genus Panthera, the lion, tiger, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard, as well as the closely related clouded leopard. A significant problem exists with respect to the precise phylogeny of these highly threatened great cats. Despite multiple publications on the subject, no two molecular studies have reconstructed Panthera with the same topology. These evolutionary relationships remain unresolved partially due to the recent and rapid radiation of pantherines in the Pliocene, individual speciation events occurring within less than 1 million years, and probable introgression between lineages following their divergence. We provide an alternative, highly supported interpretation of the evolutionary history of the pantherine lineage using novel and published DNA sequence data from the autosomes, both sex chromosomes and the mitochondrial genome. New sequences were generated for 39 single-copy regions of the felid Y chromosome, as well as four mitochondrial and four autosomal gene segments, totaling 28.7kb. Phylogenetic analysis of these new data, combined with all published data in GenBank, highlighted the prevalence of phylogenetic disparities stemming either from the amplification of a mitochondrial to nuclear translocation event (numt), or errors in species identification. Our 47.6kb combined dataset was analyzed as a supermatrix and with respect to individual partitions using maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic inference, in conjunction with Bayesian Estimation of Species Trees (BEST) which accounts for heterogeneous gene histories. Our results yield a robust consensus topology supporting the monophyly of lion and leopard, with jaguar sister to these species, as well as a sister species relationship of tiger and snow leopard. These results highlight new avenues for the study of speciation genomics and understanding the historical events surrounding the origin of the members of this lineage.
Brian Davis, Gang Li, William Murphy