Just another nerd.
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.
