Ross is love.

New Futurama on the brain.

OK, so it's Superman's anniversary and there's new Futurama tomorrow. I'm going to go ahead and stop pretending that I care about current events even one small bit today. McChrystal who?

Exactly.

Futurama	Thursdays 10pm / 9c
Recap-O-Rama: 5 Seasons in 7 Minutes
www.comedycentral.com
Futurama New Episodes Futurama New Episodes Ugly Americans

Happy Anniversary, Superman.

   

In summer of 1939, about a year after his first appearance, Superman appeared for the first time in his very own book. on Wednesday, June 23rd, he'll be celebrating 700 issues in that book. That's a whole lotta Superman, but, gosh, we need him now more than ever, don't we?  I'm a firm believer in the power of the stories we tell to shape our world and guide our actions. Our willingness to tell, retell, and nurture the story of a perfectly selfless outsider who finds his peace in helping the weak and uses his incredible power with judiciousness and sagacity gives me a good measure of hope for us. Thanks, Superman.

Wacky fun new Superman thing.

OK, who let Ross loose at the toy show?

I couldn't help it...it's got a kitty and a puppy and it spins around and everything...

Penn Point on antivax doc Andrew Wakefield.

Penn Jillette discusses the recent disbarring (disbarment?) of Andrew Wakefield, leader of the anti-vaccination movement.

For the record: there's absolutely nothing wrong with healthy skepticism directed toward the medical establishment. There's nothing wrong with questioning the multi-kajillion dollar industry that exists primarily to convince you to buy new shots, drugs, pills, and cures for a variety of illnesses that you didn't even know were problems until the commercials told you.

That all being said: vaccines are one of the great, tremendous, life-saving, miraculous inventions to come out of the twentieth century. Easy access to vaccines has saved a number of lives that is beyond calculation. Balancing that against some non-existent and/or circumstantial evidence that an infinitesimally small number of recipients of certain vaccines may be at an increased risk for autism is fairly silly. It would be a bit like telling your kids not to wear their safety belts in the car because of the risk of chafing. Blindly accepting counter-conventional wisdom is every bit as risky as buying into the opposite. I travel a lot, so at 33 I'm still getting new vaccinations. Happily.

For example, measles rates are on the increase worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (mostly due to vaccination funding cuts). That amounts to hundreds of thousands of children a year dead. Even given the dangers of sample contamination, and even if there was any evidence for a link to autism, your kids odds are way, way better with the proper vaccinations.

Incidentally, Penn puts in a plug for Discover magazine's Bad Astronomy website, which is, indeed, a fabulous blog.

Zombie Ross strikes back?

Exactly 30 days until San Diego Comic-con: aka nerdcation 2010. Of course, we all remember what happened last time...

Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant in Nerd Alert: Comic Con 2008 from Thomas Lennon

Not all that sorry, really.

On this Father's Day weekend, let's put intransigence and ingratitude behind us, shall we? It's time to stop the name calling and the kvetching. In fact...you should totally apologize to BP.

I've been trying out a new "more sincere/less snide" Ross hat. Good for the soul and all that. Some things, however, welcome nothing but derision.

BP Chairman testifies before Congress.

For the deeply interested and/or deeply bored, watch MSNBCs live feed of BP CEO Tony Hayward (he of the "small people" remark) facing Congress over the oil spill.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

BP Chairman: "We care about the little people"

Perhaps I should be sympathetic with the no-win situation that the gentleman finds himself in. I can, however, be bothered to conjure just so much sympathy for such a complete putz.

Black holes.

This is dumb:

From Bad Astronomy.

Battle Plan?

In case you missed it, President Obama's full speech on the Gulf oil spill from the White House last night: My reaction? Meh.I appreciated the strong words on the importance and impact of the skill, and the defense of the administrations response was strong. The proposals for ways forward, however, were wishy-washy and lacking. Lukewarm support for a stalled (almost dead) energy bill surely qualifies as too little, too late at this point. Others have complained, with justification, that the overall energy was off and inadequate to the horror of the situation. I don't disagree, but that's not what bothers me. I don't need him to start yelling, I need him to have an energy plan. As with health care reform, his offer to listen to any ideas, without suggesting that he stands for any in particular, came off as weak and un-presidential. He can surely do better.