Reading 2023

AMOK: A Dox Thriller by Barry Eisler

No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories by Lee Child 

The Return of the Pharaoh: From the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D.by Nicholas Meyer

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin

Body for Life by Bill Phillips

Plague of Strength’s Bite-Size History V1 by Jamie Lewis

America and Japan: Two Countries Meet by Jack Seward

Finally Fit at 50 by G. Porter Freeman

The Last Orphan: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz

Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik

Westside Connection by Jamie Lewis

The Training Secrets of John Grimek by Brooks Kubik

Never Let Go by Dan John

A Lifelong Approach to Fitness: A Collection of Dan John Lectures Kindle Edition by Dan John

The Perfect Assassin: A Doc Savage Thriller by James Patterson and Brian Sitts

Five Years After: A John Matherson Novel by William R. Forstchen 

The Puppet Show (Washintgton Poe Book 1) by M. W. Craven

Black Summer (Washington Poe Book 2) by M. W. Craven

The Curator (Washington Poe Book 3) by M.W. Craven

It Works by Roy Herbert Jarrett

Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success by Scott Adams 

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life - Second Edition - by Scott Adams

Easy Strength Omnibook by Dan John

Dead Ground (Washington Poe Book 4) by M.W. Craven

The Botanist (Washington Poe Book 5) by M.W. Craven

Monster Hunters Memoirs: Fever by Larry Correia and Jason Cordova

Radical Love by Zachary Levi

Robert B. Parker's Broken Trust (A Spenser Novel) by Mike Lupica

Fearless by M.W. Craven

The Momentum Theorem by Dave Ramsey

Redefining Anxiety by John Delony

Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

The Secret - A Jack Reacher Novel - by Lee Child and Andrew Child

The Lucas Davenport Series by John Sandford, Books 1-5, Rules of Prey, Shadow Prey, Eyes of Prey, Silent Prey, Winter Prey

Night Owl by Andrew Mayne

Born in a Burial Gown (Avison Fluke #1) by M.W. Craven

Body Breaker (Avison Fluke) by M. W. Craven

-----

Lazarus Vol. 6: Fracture by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark

Department of Truth, Volume 4: The Ministry of Lies by James Tynion IV & Martin Simmonds 

Lazarus, Volume 7 Fracture II by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark

Nemesis: Reloaded by Mark Millar, Jorge Jimenez 

All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder by Frank Miller and Jim Lee

Green Arrow: Archer's Quest by Brad Meltzer and Phil Hester

Wolverine, Deluxe Edition by Chris Claremont , Frank Miller

Superman/Batman: Absolute Power by Jeph Loeb , Carlos Pacheco

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness 

Power & Glory by Howard Chaykin

Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye Vol. 1: Going Underground by Gerard Way, Jon Rivera, Michael Avon Oeming

Wolverine: Enemy of the State by Mark Millar , John Romita Jr.

Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis by Warren Ellis and Kaare Andrews

Batman/Superman World's Finest: The Devil Nezha by Mark Waid, Dan Mora

The Waiting Place: The Definitive Edition Paperback by Sean McKeever (Author), Mike Norton (Illustrator), Brendon Fraim (Illustrator), Brian Fraim (Illustrator), David Yurkovich (Illustrator)

Junkyard Joe, Volume 1 by Geoff Johns (Author), Gary Frank (Artist)

PUNISHER PRESENTS: BARRACUDA MAX by Garth Ennis (Author)

Kick-Ass: The New Girl Volume 1 by Mark Millar (Author), John Romita Jr. (Artist)

Kick-Ass: The New Girl Volume 2 by Steve Niles (Author), Marcelo Frusin (Artist)

Down by Warren Ellis (Author), Tony Harris (Artist), Cully Hamner (Artist)

Flashpoint by Geoff Johns (Author), Andy Kubert (Illustrator)

The Chosen One: The American Jesus Trilogy by Mark Millar (Author), Peter Gross 

Geiger, Volume 1 by Geoff Johns (Author), Gary Frank (Artist), Brad Anderson (Artist)

Batman: Creature of the Night by Kurt Busiek (Author), John Paul Leon (Illustrator)

Reading 2022

Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual Mk1-MOD1 by Jocko Willink 

Redemption (Ryan Drake Book One) by Will Jordan

Knee Ability Zero by Ben Patrick

Peaceful Heart, Warrior Spirit: The True Story of my Spiritual Quest by Dan Millman

Robert B. Parker's Bye Bye Baby (Spenser Book 50) by Ace Atkins 

Behind the Mask: My Autobiography by Tyson Fury 

Demolition Man by Richard Osborne

The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith

Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga by Benjamin Lorr 

The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance by Tom Brady

Dark Horse: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz  

Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette 

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by Carlo M. Cipolla

The Size of Your Dreams: A Novel that Transforms Lives by Dave Mason and Chana Mason

Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth-- and How You Can Too by Dave Ramsey

Colonel Sanders and the American Dream by Josh Ozersky

Monster Hunter Bloodlines (Monster Hunters International Book 8) Larry Correia

Stress Less, Accomplish More: Meditation for Extraordinary Performance by Emily Fletcher  

Better Off Dead: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Killing Floor by Lee Child

Monster Hunter Nemesis by Larry Correia

The Lightning Rod: A Zig and Nola Novel by Brad Meltzer

The Cutting Season by M.W. Craven

Doctor Ice Pick by Claire Prentice

Chemical Pink by Katie Arnoldi  

Radical Love: Learning to Accept Yourself and Others by Zachary Levi 

Zero Negativity: The Power of Positive Thinking by Ant Middleton

You2: A High Velocity Formula for Multiplying Your Personal Effectiveness by Price Pritchett

The Last Moriarty (A Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Mystery) by Charles Veley  

The Complete Keys to Progress by John McCallum

The Toynbee Convector by Ray Bradbury

No Plan B by Lee Child and Andrew Child

--

Prodigy Volume 1: The Evil Earth by Mark Millar and Rafael Albuquerque

Nemesis by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven 

DC's Greatest Detective Stories Ever Told by Various 

Batman vs. Deathstroke by Christopher Priest & Carlo Pagulayan 

Black Summer by Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp

Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 1 by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette

One Bad Day by Steve Rolston 

The Mystery Play: A Graphic Novel by Grant Morrison & Jon J. Muth 

Wild Children by Ales Kot and Riley Rossmo

Secret by Jonathan Hickman, Ryan Bodenheim, et al.

Kill Your Boyfriend by Grant Morrison, Philip Bond

Planet of the Capes by Larry Young and Brandon McKinney

Yoga Joe by Dan Abramson and Chris Mead. Illustrated by PK Olson

The Order Vol. 1: The Next Right Thing by Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson

Nowhere Men Volume 1: Fates Worse Than Death by Eric Stephenson , Nate Bellegarde, et al.

The Tithe Vol. 2 by Matt Hawkins and Rahsan Ekedal

Leaving Megalopolis by Gail Simone, Jim Calafiore

Holmes by Omaha Perez

Captain Carrot and the Final Ark Paperback by Bill Morrison, Roy Thomas, Scott Shaw 

Badlands by Steven Grant, Vince Giarrano 

Absolute Authority Vol. 1 & 2 by Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch 

Doc Savage: The Silver Pyramid by Dennis O'Neil, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert 

Challengers of the Unknown: Stolen Moments, Borrowed Time Paperback by Howard Chaykin 

Checkmate (Event Leviathan) by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev 

Event Leviathan Paperback by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev 

U.S.Agent: The Good Fight by Various

Animal Man 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Book One & Two by Grant Morrison  (Author), Chas Truog

Absolute Batman Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

Reading - MAR > DEC 2020

Kept up with tracking, but not publishing out into the ether, what I've read this year. Last time was in February, apparently. Wild ride in 2020, many distractions. Not to mention moving back overseas and related complications. Regardless, something like a book a week, give or take. On average. Plus comics. And OCD surfing of the internets. Lot of fiction this year, apparently. Coping mechanism for the stresses of the 'real' world? Possibly. Reread a bunch of Crichton this summer. Reminded me of my dad, who I got the 'reading habit' from - and who got it from his mom - and who used to read all the Crichton, Clancy and Griffin he could get his hands on. A handful of biographies, some financial literacy, some positive psych. We'll see if in 2021 I can post up more often, maybe monthly. Onwards.

Gladiator by Philip Wylie

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman

Anno Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha by Kim Newman

Helltown by Dennis O'Neil

Richard Dragon: Dragon's Fists by Jim Dennis (Dennis O'Neil and James R. Berry) 

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks

The Stranger by Harlan Corben

Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard by Kim Newman

Peace Talks (Dresden Files Book 16) by Jim Butcher

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks  

Rising Sun by Michael Crichton

The Greatest Miracle in the World by Og Mandino

Travels by Michael Crichton

Congo by Michael Crichton

Timeline by Michael Crichton

A Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife: On the Other Side Known Commonly as The Little Book by Daniel Quinn and Tom Whalen

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman

The Mystery of the Iron Samson: The Life and Training of Strongman Alexander Zass by Yuri Shapshnikoff (Author), A. Drapkin (Author), Logan Christopher (Editor), Professor "Stone" Paul (Translator)

A Feast Unknown (Secrets of the Nine #1 - Wold Newton Parallel Universe) Book 1 of 3: Secrets of the Nine by Philip Jose Farmer 

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Resurrected Destiny (The Last Witness Book 1) by Gerald Welch

Ballistic Kiss: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey

Playing with FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early): How Far Would You Go for Financial Freedom by Scott Riecken

The Holy by Daniel Quinn

Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined by Drew Carey 

Battle Ground: The Dresden Files 17 by Jim Butcher 

8 Mins: An Anthology of the Last Eight Minutes of Earth by Victor Dandridge 

After Dachau by Daniel Quinn

The Sentinel: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child & Andrew Child 

Levon's Home by Chuck Dixon

Art in the Blood (A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, Book 1) by Bonnie MacBird 

Unquiet Spirits: Whisky, Ghosts, Murder (A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, Book 2) by Bonnie MacBird

Uncaged: My Life as a Champion MMA Fighter by Frank Shamrock 

Shamrock: The World's Most Dangerous Man by Jonathan Snowden 

The Devil’s Due (A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, Book 3) by Bonnie MacBird

The Size of Your Dreams: A Novel that Transforms Lives by Dave Mason and Chana Mason

The Cash Machine: A Tale of Passion, Persistence, and Financial Independence by Dave Mason and Chana Mason

The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver 

The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver

--

The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 1 & 2 by Kousuke Oono

Savage Wolverine Vol. 1: Kill Island by Frank Cho

Second Coming: Volume One by Mark Russell, Richard Pace, Leonard Kirk, Andy Troy

Skybourne by Frank Cho, Marcio Menyz

Black Hammer Volume 4: Age of Doom Part Two by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston, Dave Stewart

Green Arrow: War of the Clans by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino

Secret Volume by Jonathan Hickman, Ryan Bodenheim, Michael Garland 

Punisher: Soviet by Garth Ennis, Jacen Burrows, Paolo Rivera

Wonder Twins Vol. 1: Activate! by Mark Russell , Stephen Byrne 

Captain America: White by Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale 

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 (of 6): Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley & Nathan Fairbairn 

The Complete Jon Sable Freelance Volume 1 by Mike Grell

Absolute Planetary V1 by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday

Green Lantern: Legacy by Minh Le & Andie Tong

Doomsday Clock: The Complete Collection Paperback by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank 

Jacked by Eric Kripke & John Higgins 

Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale by Zack Whedon, Joss Whedon, Chris Samnee 

Batman: Three Jokers by Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok 

Reading, Summer '16.

Double Play by Robert B. Parker
Becoming Holyfield: A Fighter's Journey by Evander Holyfield and Lee Gruenfeld
President Me: The America That's in My Head by Adam Carolla
Daddy, Stop Talking!: And Other Things My Kids Want But Won't Be Getting by Adam Carolla
The Perdition Score: A Sandman Slim Novel by Richard Kadrey
Natural Born Heroes: Mastering the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance by Christopher McDougall
Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla
Hot Naked Kittens: Stories by Delicious Tacos
Eat Bacon, Don't Jog: Get Strong. Get Lean. No Bullshit by Grant Petersen
Superfolks by Robert Mayer 
The Return of Moriarty: Sherlock Holmes' Nemesis Lives Again by John Gardner
Normal: A Novel by Warren Ellis

The Tithe Volume 2: Islamaphobia by Matt Hawkins & Rahsan Ekedal

Black Magick Volume 1: Awakening, Part One by Greg Rucka & Nicola Scott 

Postal Volume 2 by Matt Hawkins, Bryan Hill & Isaac Goodhart

Hercules: Still Going Strong Paperback by Dan Abnett & Luke Ross 
Secret Six Vol. 1: Friends in Low Places by Gail Simone, Ken Lashley & Dale Eaglesham
Grayson Vol. 3: Nemesis Paperback by Tom King, Tim Seeley, Mikel Janin & Jeromy Cox
The Legacy of Luther Strode Volume 3 by Justin Jordan, Felipe Sobreiro, Tradd Moore
Injection, Vol. 1 & 2 by Warren Ellis, Jordie Bellaire and Declan Shalvey 
The Totally Awesome Hulk Vol. 1: Cho Time by Greg Pak and Frank Cho

"Nothing made me. I made me."

"You're Sherlock Holmes.  Wear the damn hat."

'...when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:

"Miss me?"

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment."

That mustache... powerful.  New Sherlock Image From Upcoming Special - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News:

"If Your Favourite TV Shows Were "Game Of Thrones" Houses."

VIA:

 

"Seen a lot of injuries then? Violent deaths?"

Where they really defined Freeman's Watson.  Nailed it, indeed.

"You get the idea. Easy, right?"

Florida police officer: 'Planting evidence and lying in your reports are just part of the game': "In a confidential interview with a man identified as a confirmed 15-year veteran of Florida's Palm Beach County Sheriff's department, The D.C. Post has uncovered shocking details about allegedly common practices of dishonesty among law enforcement. 

An excerpt: 

I work nights on the Road Patrol in a rough, um, mostly black neighborhood. Planting evidence and lying in your reports are just part of the game. [...] 

 The interview was initiated after a Post reporter came across the deputy describing how he frames "Mouthy drivers, street lawyers, assholes and just anyone else trying to make my job difficult" on an online law enforcement discussion board: Under my floor mat, I keep a small plastic dime baggie with Cocaine in residue. [...] The residue is the key because you can fully charge some asshole with possession of cocaine, heroin, or whatever just with the residue. How to get it done? “I asked Mr. DOE for his identification. And he pulled out his wallet, I observed a small plastic baggie fall out of his pocket…” You get the idea. Easy, right?"

 

So awesome I can't even...

First Photo of Jason Momoa as Aquaman from "Batman V Superman" Released - Comic Book Resources:

Reading, Jan 2015 - "It is a cardinal error to theorise in advance of the facts."

Golden Son (The Red Rising Trilogy, Book 2) by Pierce Brown

Die Trying by Lee Child

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. edited by Nicholas Meyer

Sorcery at Caesars: Sugar Ray's Marvelous Fight by Steve Marantz

Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength and Development by Brooks Kubik

Convict Conditioning 2: Advanced Prison Training Tactics for Muscle Gain, Fat Loss and Bulletproof Joints by Paul Wade

THE OFFICIAL TESLADYNE ACTION SCIENTISTS FIELD GUIDE: Essential Subjects for Survival, Evasion, Maintenance & Combatives by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener

Aquaman Vol. 3: Throne of Atlantis by Geoff Johns, Paul Pelletier & Ivan Reis

Aquaman Vol. 4: Death of a King by Geoff Johns, Paul Pelletier & Sean Parsons

Captain Carrot and the Final Ark by Bill Morrison, Roy Thomas and E. Nelson Bridwell.  Art by Scott Shaw, Ross Andru, Rick Hoberg, Al Gordon and others

Excerpts:
Golden Son

This is so far from the future I imagined for myself as a boy. So far from the future I wanted to make... I thought I would change the worlds. What young fool doesn’t? Instead, I have been swallowed by the machine of this vast empire as it rumbles inexorably on.

We’re all just wounded souls stumbling about in the dark, desperately trying to stitch ourselves together...

There is no greater plague to an introvert than the extroverted.

‘Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark.’

We are not our station in life. We are us—the sum of what we’ve done, what we want to do, and the people who we keep close.

“I will die. You will die. We will all die and the universe will carry on without care. All that we have is that shout into the wind—how we live. How we go. And how we stand before we fall.” He leans forward. “So you see, pride is the only thing.”

I would not have raised you to be a great man. There is no peace for great men. I would have had you be a decent one.

Sad to see how weak and petty the demons of my youth really were. As though I come from some hollow fantasy past.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
I never guess. It is a shocking habit, destructive to the logical faculty.

It is a cardinal error to theorise in advance of the facts.  Inevitably it biases the judgement.

Tell them I was murdered by my mathematics tutor, if you like.  They'll never believe you in any case.

Convict Conditioning 2
The mind controls the body. No matter how physically fit we may be, or how much we should be gaining from consistent training, if our minds are not in the right place training falls by the wayside. Who cares if your muscles are strong? If your mind is weak, corrupted by destructive self-talk, you won’t be breaking any personal records.

Our “demons” are largely the result of wrong ideas. We acquire many of these ideas tacitly, almost by accident. It’s certainly not deliberate. But once a bad idea gets lodged in your brain—maybe from something you’ve been told by somebody who should have known better—it’s virtually impossible to shift. Good thoughts practically fly out of the mind, but bad thoughts dig their heels in. They want to stay forever. Don’t let them. Confront your demons and challenge them—every day, every night if you have to. If you let your negative ideas and destructive self-talk have free reign, the darker sections of your mind will grow larger and larger until they take control of your spirit and destroy you entirely. The only way to battle the negative ideas that attack your training life is to become conscious of them, and challenge them.

DEMON # 4: …AGING “I’m getting too old for all this.” Ah, this is a biggie—although you may not realize it. Yet. If you are in your teens, you probably don’t think about aging at all. Training is new, and so are you. In your twenties, you have a dim awareness that aging exists, but you don’t truly believe it’ll happen to you the way it happens to others; almost all the great athletes are in their twenties anyway. Suddenly you are thirty and your attitude changes. The pros are looking younger. Hey—where are all the champs in their mid-thirties? Guys you played football with in high school with are fat and bald. A few years pass and that big milestone—forty—is around the corner. You become aware that less and less of the people you see in fitness magazines, or working in the gym are your age. Then you are fifty. Old. Before long you will be sixty, and by then it’s positively foolish to be seen training seriously. The big 7-0 comes next. By now—if you have been paying attention—you understand just how quickly time slips through your fingers. This is how the average person thinks. You know what? It’s all total bulls***!

Scientists are only now coming to understand what Victorian strongmen knew only too well; that much of the decline seen in elderly people isn’t down to aging—it’s down to disuse.

Far from being dangerous, strength training is positively essential to health as you get older (past seventy-five). Osteoporosis, arthritis and immobility can’t be cured by chemical drugs—the best way to combat them is by resistance training. You gotta move that bodyweight. Keep training as long as you live. You never really appreciate how quick the years pass until you are standing at the end of them. Please don’t waste any more precious time.

Sorcery at Caesars: Sugar Ray's Marvelous Fight
On the night of April 6, 1987, Sugar Ray Leonard stole a fight. A couple of million witnesses saw him get away with it. Leonard's theft was so slick that the victim, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, didn't know until it was too late. His middleweight title was picked clean and gone, forever.

"It is dangerous to understand new things too quickly." - Josiah Warren

"Lately it seems as if it's me against the world 

Like it was before my life became a movie..."

After 37 Years in Prison, Innocent North Carolina Man Freed - ABC News: "For the first time in nearly 40 years, Joseph Sledge woke up behind bars with a chance of becoming a free man. The 70-year-old man needed one more win at an innocence hearing. As three judges listened to closing statements Friday about how Sledge was wrongfully convicted in the 1976 stabbing deaths of a mother and her adult daughter, he wrote down a few words on a yellow Post-it note — "closure," ''please" and "exonerated." A few hours later, carrying his belongings in plastic bags, Sledge emerged from a North Carolina jail, saying he was looking forward to what most people consider the most mundane of activities: "Going home. Relaxing. Sleeping in a real bed. Probably get in a pool of water and swim for a little while...

In 2013, the case was referred to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run investigative agency of its kind. So far, Sledge is the eighth person exonerated after an investigation by the commission, which started operating in 2007. It has reviewed about 1,500 cases. Nationwide, The Innocence Project said there have been 325 post-conviction DNA exonerations. The North Carolina commission found there was enough evidence of Sledge's innocence to refer it to a panel of three judges, who were appointed by the state Supreme Court. The judges considered the commission's investigative file, and a DNA expert highlighted lab tests in her testimony Friday. Meghan Clement of Cellmark Forensics said none of the evidence collected from the scene — hair, DNA and fingerprints — belonged to Sledge. The key jailhouse informant, Herman Baker, signed an affidavit in 2013 recanting trial testimony. Baker said he lied at the 1978 trial after being promised leniency in his own drug case and he said he'd been coached by authorities on what to say. Testimony from another jailhouse informant was inconsistent, according to the commission documents. That informant died in 1991...

The only thing that's shown me US politics isn't completely worthless is the insanity of the politics of the last two countries I've lived in.  Politics in Thailand: Groundhog day | The Economist: "SINCE seizing power in a coup last May, Thailand's ruling junta has promised to promote reconciliation over revenge. That went out the window on January 23rd, when members of Thailand's rubber-stamp parliament voted to impeach Yingluck Shinawatra, the former prime minister, for alleged impropriety during her three years in office. The ruling bans Ms Shinawatra, who was Thailand's first female leader, from political office for five years. Government prosecutors are now saying they will pursue criminal charges, which could eventually lead to a jail sentence of up to a decade. It makes a faint hope—that Thailand might swiftly return to democracy—look even more fanciful."

"Everybody abstracts a different reality. When you come through a room, you abstract the reality you're prepared to abstract. You pick up the signals that interest you. Your brain records them and organizes them. We all have our own reality tunnel, and in our reality tunnel we pick out some things and ignore other things. And we got 10 billion cells in our brain receiving hundreds and hundreds of millions of signals all the time. We just pick out the ones that fit into the established grooves in our brain, the reality tunnel that's been laid down by past experience. We all have our own belief system, and the signals that fit our belief system get in. The signals that don't fit our belief system get ignored, or if they keep coming back we go to a psychiatrist to get cured and make them go away." - Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson 

 5 Reasons the '60s Batman TV Show Is Better Than You Think | Cracked.com: "It would've been easy to hire a Batman that was simply content with letting Cesar Romero's Joker laugh in his face while he spoke random generalizations about justice. But those generalizations become effortlessly quotable when spoken by West, with his smugly cool way of letting the mentally unstable know that they'll be spending the night in the Gotham Penitentiary, and with his whiskey-smooth voice. Unless they're pesky Aunt Harriet, the show makes a habit of letting you know that the ladies of Gotham have a Top 2 list for whom they'd like to bang, and it's: 1) Batman, and 2) Bruce Wayne, but if he's not available, then Batman. Adam West's pheromones have not yet been properly researched, but that's because no scientist can be in the same building as him without asking if he's seeing anyone."

"No matter what proof you show them, and I mean documented proof, hard-nosed proof, there are always going to be skeptics who are going to call this a fraud, a hoax, a gigantic put-on. The world is full of people with a kind of deep-seated masochistic pessimism. They have an unconscious hatred and fear of life and a deep wish for its permanent cessation." -Max Ehrlich

Fantastic.

American student arrested for Arabic flash cards in airport after TSA freaked out settles lawsuit - Boing Boing: "“Five years ago, the Philadelphia police thought that carrying Arabic-language flashcards was enough to warrant the arrest of an innocent traveler,” writes that traveler, Nick George. With help from the American Civil Liberties Union, he reached a settlement today in a lawsuit brought against the Philadelphia police department. America is safe once again for people who like to study foreign languages and read books on foreign policy in airports. Here's the text of the settlement [PDF] which awards him $25,000 and ends the long-running legal battle. Nick was heading off to start his senior year at Pomona College in California, back in August 2009, when cops detained, aggressively interrogated, handcuffed, and locked him in a jail cell for nearly five hours at the Philadelphia International Airport. Why was he targeted? Because Nick, a dual major in physics and Middle Eastern studies, was carrying a set of English-Arabic flashcards in for his language class--and Rogue Nation, a book critical of U.S. foreign policy that was written by a former Reagan administration official. “It should go without saying that this is perfectly innocuous, First Amendment-protected activity,” says Nick. “Turns out, it doesn't.”"

King Abdullah's Moderate Beheadings - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "From The New York Times' obit for King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who just died at age 90: Still, Abdullah became, in some ways, a force of moderation. He contested Al Qaeda's militant interpretations of the faith as justifying, even compelling, terrorist acts. He ordered that textbooks be purged of their most extreme language and sent 900 imams to re-education sessions. He had hundreds of militants arrested and some beheaded. It's supposed to be "moderate" because he was doing it to "militants," I guess."

Lying and/or willful ignorance and/or utter lack of self-awareness & understanding.  Or, to sum up, politics.  GOP senator who boasted about her family's self-reliance received $460K in federal subsidies - Boing Boing: "Iowa Republican senator Joni Ernst gave her party's official response to the State of the Union address by boasting self-righteously about her humble origins and how her self-reliant, heartland-state family pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, but conveniently failed to mention that her family's farm was the beneficiary of nearly half a million dollars in federal subsidies.  Senator Ernst's speech stressed how her family had "lived within its means" and she campaigned on a promise to "cut the pork" out of government.

The truth about her family’s farm roots and living within one’s means, however, is more complex. Relatives of Ernst (née: Culver), based in Red Oak, Iowa (population: 5,568) have received over $460,000 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009. Ernst’s father, Richard Culver, was given $14,705 in conservation payments and $23,690 in commodity subsidies by the federal government–with all but twelve dollars allocated for corn support. Richard’s brother, Dallas Culver, benefited from $367,141 in federal agricultural aid, with over $250,000 geared toward corn subsidies. And the brothers’ late grandfather Harold Culver received $57,479 from Washington—again, mostly corn subsidies—between 1995 and 2001. He passed away in January 2003. The Sentinel cross-referenced the Environmental Working Group farm subsidy database with open source information to verify the Culvers’ interest in the Department of Agriculture’s crop support program. Sen. Ernst’s family’s financial interest notably came up once during her campaign. In October, Salon reported that Richard’s construction company was awarded $215,665 in contracts from the Montgomery County government in 2009 and 2010, while Ernst was the body’s auditor. The bids won by Culver included Federal Emergency Management Agency projects worth $204,794."

  

 Cumberbatch Displays The Full Sherlock - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News:

Heh. Sexist double standards? | judgybitch: 

"I don’t really believe in authenticity as opposed to artifice..."

aboycanakwqysdream: sarpedom: ...: " I don’t really believe in authenticity as opposed to artifice, but that’s a philosophical distinction...

The point is not about the look or the makeup. It’s about the effort. Why should I work out? My muscles aren’t authentic, I didn’t get them sitting at my office job. Why should I learn a second language? It’s not authentic, I didn’t learn it growing up, I studied it in a classroom. See, when you apply that logic to literally anything else, it becomes transparently false. Sure, there are women who can be gorgeous without makeup. And men who can be ripped without spending a day in the gym. And people who can start a successful business without ever going to college. But let’s be real - you and I, we are not those people. They are the exception, not the rule."

Seems Legit.  

Insectoid preying mantis machines told me that everything is made out of magic. — SUPERNATURAL RIVER

Secret Law is Not Law - Boing Boing: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cindy Cohn is on fire: "Let’s be clear: Under international human rights law, secret “law” doesn’t even qualify as 'law' at all." The US Government and agencies like the DEA, NSA, TSA and FBI conduct mass-scale domestic surveillance on the basis of laws whose interpretations are held to be state secrets and matters of national security. From No-Fly lists to the FISA court, the US has adopted the principle that you are not allowed to know the law, but if you break it, you will be punished under it...

The breadth of the secret law is astonishing. For instance, only after the Snowden revelations did the government first admit its legal theories -- that its mass spying relied on outrageous secret interpretations of section 215 of the PATRIOT ACT and section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act -- neither of which even mentions mass surveillance much less authorizes it. We also now know about the NSA’s domestic telephone records collection and a past program that collected cell location information but we still don’t know the NSA’s full use of section 215...

Sometimes there’s no “law” at all. The NSA’s foreign collection processes, which are much more extensive than their domestic collections, are only ostensibly justified by an Executive Order, currently Executive Order12333. While E.O. 12333 is public, it’s not law at all and it certainly does not mention mass surveillance of millions of innocent people around the world. None of the government’s legal interpretations of it are public either. We've now seen evidence that this non-law with secret interpretations is the basis for the NSA's mass surveillance of communications not just in one place, but at nearly every step of their journey: from remote access to computers, to man-in-the-middle attacks on messages in transit, to attacking direct service providers like Google, to tapping into the undersea cables." 

Darwyn Cooke Returns To Draw Harley Quinn, As He Covers Everything In Sight - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movie, TV News

Stereotypes exist for reasons.  Studies show:  Men are superficial, attracted to beauty, youth & cheerfulness.  Women are attracted to bad boys, guys who don't like them back, married men and status.  It's worldwide/cross-cultural and lasts until you die.  The science of sex: 4 harsh truths about dating and mating - The Week: "To make the best decisions, we cannot delude ourselves. I've posted many studies offering hope and inspiration but to be honest and fair, we also need to look at facts about people many like to deny. And that's where the science of sex comes in. If you wish to retain illusions that the realm of sex and relationships is pure as the driven snow or that outside of physical dimensions there are no fundamental differences between men and women, turn back now as I am about to open a large can of peer-reviewed whoop-ass. Naive romantics, I warn you one last time: ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE...

Those things we say we hate actually make us more attracted to people. When someone plays hot-cold, keeps you guessing, makes you constantly uncertain? Yeah, that makes you even more attracted: Participants in the uncertain condition were most attracted to the men — even more attracted than were participants who were told that the men liked them a lot. Uncertain participants reported thinking about the men the most, and this increased their attraction toward the men. [Psychological Science] Playing hard to get? It works. Had it up to here with narcissists? No, we haven't because they really are more attractive. You know what we like about them the most? The worst parts — their entitlement and exploitativeness: …narcissism leads to popularity at first sight. Second, the aspects of narcissism that are most maladaptive in the long run (exploitativeness/entitlement) proved to be most attractive at zero acquaintance. [Journal of Personality and Social Psychology]

...The science of sex tells us that the romantic comedies lie. Sex is an area where nice guys do finish last: In one survey of men, Trapnell and Meston (1996) found that nice guys who were modest, agreeable, and unselfish were disadvantaged in sexual relationships. Men who were manipulative, arrogant, calculating, and sly were more sexually active and had a greater variety of sexual experiences and a greater number of sex partners. [Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy] Women are very often attracted to bad boys like James Bond. In fact, research shows young women sometimes prefer out-and-out jerks: In the end, young women may continue to claim that they find certain qualities in a "good guy" nice guy as highly desirable and that they want to be in a committed relationship with one man as their ultimate goal, but, at the same time, they seem content to spend "the meantime and in-between-time" going out with fun/sexy guys who may or may not turn into "jerks."

...Happy guys, it seems, can be a turn-off: …happiness was the most attractive female emotion expression, and one of the least attractive in males. [Emotion]

...What do studies say can make a man more attractive? Among other things, a flashy car and throwing money around. Yes, that works. Women find married men more attractive than single men: …a group of women again rated photographs of men for attractiveness. The photos were accompanied by short descriptions, and when the men were described as "married," women's ratings of them went up. [Connected] And they find sexist men more appealing than non-sexist men, too...

Little of the above will be changing anytime soon. This is the science of sex, not the culture of it. Most, if not all, of these things are true around the world. In a study of over 1000 participants in three dozen cultures it was consistently found that men are focused on looks and women on status: Several standard sex differences replicated across cultures, including women's greater valuation of social status and men's greater valuation of physical attractiveness. [Personality and Individual Differences] 

But we grow out of it, right? Nope. Our tastes do not mature as we get older:  In fact, when men and women are in nursing homes, the guys are still looking for hot younger women and the ladies are still interested in men of high status: Across the life span, men sought physical attractiveness and offered status-related information more than women; women were more selective than men and sought status more than men. [Psychology and Aging]"

Sen. Lindsey Graham: 'They will open the gates of hell', 'This is ISIL versus mankind': "It's not just that ISIS is a threat to the region. It's not just that ISIS is a threat to America. ISIS is now a threat to all life on earth, or at least all human life. They are the hell-bringers. They are Ebola, plus the Nazis, plus a comet strike.They are catastrophic climate change, except Sen. Lindsey Graham believes in them... 

It's like the Lindsey Grahams of the world cannot exist without the Next Hitler. There always has to be another Hitler, at every moment, and we are always on the cusp of national or worldwide defeat by that Hitler if we do not respond with military resolve to every last thing, except the things we are not supposed to respond to because that would be interventionism, and if you have been able to discern a pattern between the two other than "does a Democratic leader support the thing?" then you need to write your theory up as a comprehensive explanation so that the rest of us can award you an applicable Nobel Prize."

 Texts from Star Trek: The Next Generation: