So I have this problem with Green Lantern rings already, and now DC Direct has to go and announce this Blackest Night set for July. And these aren’t just any power rings — these have an LED that lights up when you wear it (the light can be turned off manually to save batter life, and perhaps also to look a bit less like a dork, though by the time you’re wearing this, that battle’s pretty much lost).
$60 for the set, and the batteries are user replaceable.
Strange Little Band is an interesting serialized “dark paranormal romance” written by Nancy Brauer and Vanessa Brooks (the authors reassuringly note that despite the romance tag “Fabio doesn’t make an appearance, and no bodices are ripped. Promise.”)
Clever DIY vinyl Cthulhu figures from Dreamland Toyworks. These were an SDCC exclusive but can be found for about $10 on the Interwebs.
Human Rights Watch has a disturbing report about witch hunts in Saudi Arabia where witchcraft is still a crime punishable by death. And since Saudi Arabia also lacks a penal code, what constitutes witchcraft and what evidence can be used to demonstrate that someone has practiced witchcraft is entirely up to individual judges.
In one of the cases Human Rights Watch mentions, Lebanese television psychic Ali Sabat was arrested in Saudi Arabia while making a pilgrimage to Mecca for the Hajj.
Religious police arrested Ali Sabat in his hotel room in Medina on May 7, 2008, where he was on pilgrimage before returning to his native Lebanon. Before his arrest, Sabat frequently gave advice on general life questions and predictions about the future on the Lebanese satellite television station Sheherazade, according to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar and the French newspaper Le Monde. These appearances are said to be the only evidence against Sabat.
Sabat was sentenced to death in November 2009, and is not the only person awaiting execution for witchcraft in Saudi Arabia. In 2006, a Saudi judge sentenced Fawza Falih to death for practicing witchcraft and she is still being held awaiting the carrying out of the death sentence.
Obviously bringing international attention to these cases may force the Saudi Arabian government to think twice about actually going forward with the executions, but it has no compunction against carrying out such sentences. According to Human Rights Watch, in 2007 it executed Egyptian pharmacist Mustafa Ibrahim for the crime of sorcery.
Simple Pull Quote is a plugin for WordPress that makes it easy to insert and format pull quotes into your blog entries or pages.
DC Direct continues its line of 1:6 scale action figures with this Batman Beyond figure. Personally, for $100 I think the head sculpt on this one looks awful. The rest of the figure is nice, but that’s one ugly-looking mask.
Like all the other DC Direct 1:6 scale female figure, the hair on this Zatana figure is molded plastic which is a major annoyance. But if you can get past that, this isn’t a half-bad figure. And since nobody seems to collect Zatana, this figure which has an MSRP of $99.99 and was released in November 2009 can already be found for about $60 online.
Tapping Into the World of Comics is an interesting SlideShare.net presentation on using online tools to create comic books in the classroom. Some very good ideas in there.
Occasionally, helpful relatives buy one of my kids a telescope. Telescopes marketed at children are garbage — you’d be better off burning the money you spent on it for heat. There’s a nice Epinions article from 2001, Don’t Buy a Child a Telescope!, that outlines the problems with these toy telescopes and recommends a better method of getting children interested in observing the night skies,
There doesn’t exist a telescope that is really of any value, other than for the imagination, designed for a child under 12 years.
When we get them, they may spark an interest, and certainly a night, maybe two or more of observing the moon, maybe even Jupiter or Venus, but mostly they collect dust.
Why?
a. Because department & camera store telescopes are ALL toys that are of very little use for viewing anything except the moon (“real” telescopes cost more than US$200),
b. Until you have gained some experience, there is really very little to “see” in the sky that a child can’t see with his or her own eyes, or with the assistance of a pair of binoculars,
c. It’s much more satisfying for a child to “learn” astronomy in stages than to be disappointed and discouraged by a cheap optical instrument.
The author instead recommends a good pair of binoculars and a good skywatching book geared toward children. Very good advice indeed.
