Since my cable provider was ill-equipped to deal with someone plowing down a main line, I spent much of yesterday afternoon/evening sans Internet. In my net-deprvied madness, I made the decision to watch the Transformers movie, and it’s since become I decision I wholeheartedly regret (and for which my wife has still yet to forgive me). I’m apparently incapable of depriving my brain of enough oxygen to allow me to enjoy the work of Michael Bay, but a number of my friends have stood by their original assessments of the film being stupidly enjoyable. So question #1: What’s wrong with them? How could anyone decipher even a glimmer of enjoyment out of that juvenile mess of incomprehensible gibberish?

Question 2: Heroes: Good or bad? I’ve been watching this on DVD, and I just can’t make up my mind. There are enough elements to keep me interested, but mostly I’m thinking it’s just a need to see where the hell they’re going with all this. Personally, I think they could drop half the characters and make it a much more concise and interesting show, as I certainly think the show’s narrative suffers greatly from having to bounce around so many storylines.

Discuss (and give me some recommendations for future DVD viewing).

Where the Great Old Ones Are. Awesome.

Wired Science debuts this week. How awesome does this show look?

Wikipedia’s list of unusual articles.

Interesting Elevators

Things you should know about the vetoed SCHIP legislation

I’m a bit baffled that we expect a certain degree of artistic literacy from people in our culture, yet we have no same standard for scientific literacy. Personally I think knowing (and understanding) the laws of thermodynamics should rank a little higher than having a passing familiarity with the works of Shakespeare or The Bridge of San Luis Rey, but I’m nutty that way.

Anyway, I thought I’d share some light science reading the form of this Wikipedia entry on famous experiments, which should serve as a nice jumping off point for some full-on day wasted (but in a good way) ‘net reading that’ll leave you a little more illuminated than when you began.

Thanks to Cynical-C for the link.

Bored Night has a great collection of high quality images of our little blue marble from outside the atmosphere and above. Gorgeous stuff.

I also recommend their sweet collection of World War II color photographs.

The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester (which just so happens to be hosting an exhibition on Doctor Who and the Daleks), was party to a Dalek invasion when 67 home made metal monsters showed up in an attempt to break the world record for most Daleks in one place. (I wasn’t aware there was a record in need of breaking, but anyway…)

As with all things nowadays, there’s a great Flickr gallery to peruse.

The gang at Deputy Dog have put together a list of the top 10 physically modified people, and when the guy who’s tattooed over 90% of his body is only at number 10, you know it’s going to be good…

The super excellent comic book resource site, Cover Browser, gives a great rundown of some of the Big Blue Schoolboy’s more ridiculous secret identity-blowing moments via some great old covers. Considering the timeframe, I’m guessing most of these issues ended with Supes blowing a memory rainbow out of his belly button that made people forget what they saw. Seriously, there was just no limit to his powers back then.

And yes, that thumbnail image you see is totally worth looking at full size.

I know I used to be inordinately proud of the paper throwing stars and footballs I dedicated so much time to back in my Junior High days, but I think I would have thrown down my scissors for good had someone shown me just how nutso-choco you can get with papercraft. Like this ridiculously detailed Bumble Bee Transformer made from old KFC packaging, for example.

I don’t have much good to say about Michael Bay’s version of Transformers, but holy crap that is awesome.

As promised, links provided sans comment:

Best Lawsuit Ever.

“I’ve been thinking of leaving for almost 35 years now. I’m almost ready.” – Lou Reed

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Popping.

How Not to Govern

The Sad Tale of Jose Padilla

The Fight Over the Cross aka How To Look Like a Heartless Money Machine.

I so need this