Comic book reviews!

Lousy subscriptions. I give up. The $ saved isn't worth the hassle.

So, I gave in and swooped up issues I should've already gotten (plus new stuff):


New Avengers 9, 10: Sentry! Yay! Quite good, if a bit decompressed. Not sure how it jives the the LS though....

New Avengers 11: Ronin! A new, mystery avenger. Is it Daredevil? I'm guessing its Wolverine...

Young Avengers 6: Gosh, its been too long since I read 5. Ends about like I expected. Not sure if I like the name Stature though...

Young Avengers 7: Well, here it is folks, the comics industry first teenage gay couple. Wait till the press hears about this!

Sentry #1 of 8: Yes! This is what I've waited years for! God-like superhero thats just barely sane.

New Warriors #4 of 6: Good characterization. The newwest Warrior has a fun attitude.

Black Pather #8: This has got to be the worst editted book I've ever read. I have no idea how this book fits into the Marvel Universe. There's no conistancy. With Priest there were always more layers and subtext woven into the story than any comic I've seen since. But Hudlin references things that can't possibly have happened, or the timeline is totaly out of whack! Grr...

Defenders #3 of 5: Dripping with sarcasm and pithy remarks. Still not quite what I want from a Defenders comic though...



Lurker
(Poker Night is every Sunday after 6:30!)

Strange lights over Arizona

My sibling called me this evening and asked if there was supposed to be a comet out tonight.

She and many other dezinens of Phoenix saw some sort of lit up clouds over the western horizon for a good ten minutes at least. Looks like an odd shape.

Acording to the news it was a sattelite launch, to study atmospheric phenomenon. Huh.

I'll post more when I learn more.



Lurker
(Charcoal should join the Runaways!)

Water, water everywhere

Ceres, a minor planet in the asteroid belt, may have more freshwater than Earth...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9247925/
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050907_ceres_planet.html

This is so cool. If true, this would definately be a MAJOR destination for future space exploration. Large amounts of water in a low gravity-well is a great pit stop.

Also, Ceres is the only planetoid I know of that was given full planet status only to lose it later.

For those of you keeping track, here what I consider to be the planets of the Sol system:

Object

System

Radius km

Sid. Period

Sem-Maj. Axis

Eccentricity

Ang. Diam. arcsecs

Gas Giants (not shown)

EARTH	Sun	6371.00 ±0.01	365.256363	1.00000102	0.01670863	-	-
VENUS	Sun	6051.84 ±0.01	224.700800	0.72332982	0.00677192	9.56	65.43
MARS	Sun	3389.92 ±0.04	686.979853	1.52367934	0.09340065	3.48	25.64
GANYMEDE	Jupiter	2631.2 ±1.7	7.154553	1070400	0.0011	1.12	1.85
TITAN	Saturn	2575 ±2	15.945446	1221803	0.0291	0.64	0.89
MERCURY	Sun	2439.7 ±1.0	87.969256	0.38709831	0.20563175	4.53	13.03
CALLISTO	Jupiter	2410.3 ±1.5	16.689018	1882700	0.0074	1.02	1.70
IO	Jupiter	1821.3 ±0.2	1.769138	421800	0.0041	0.78	1.28
LUNA	Earth	1737.5 ±0.1	27.321662	384404.377	0.05554553	1766.39	1974.39
EUROPA	Jupiter	1560.8 ±0.5	3.551181	671100	0.0094	0.66	1.10
2003UB313	Sun	~ 1430 ?	556.5	67.659	0.442	0.04	0.11
TRITON	Neptune	1353.4 ±0.9	5.87685	354759	0.00002	0.12	0.13
PLUTO	Sun	1164 ±22.9	247.92065	39.48168677	0.24880766	0.06	0.11
2005FY9	Sun	~ 900 ?	309.4	45.740	0.155	0.05	0.07
2003VB12	Sun	~ 875	11274.8	502.807	0.849	0.00	0.03
TITANIA	Uranus	788.9 ±1.8	8.705867	436298	0.0014	0.10	0.13
RHEA	Saturn	764 ±4	4.517503	527367	0.0003	0.19	0.26
OBERON	Uranus	761.4 ±2.6	13.463234	583519	0.0016	0.10	0.12
2004DW	Sun	~ 759	247.8	39.453	0.218	0.04	0.07
2003EL61	Sun	~ 750 ?	285.4	43.344	0.189	0.04	0.06
IAPETUS	Saturn	718 ±8	79.330954	3561850	0.0283	0.18	0.25
2002LM60	Sun	630 ±95	286.9	43.502	0.035	0.04	0.04
CHARON	Pluto	621 ±20.6	6.38725	19636	0.0002	0.03	0.06
2002TC302	Sun	~ 602	409.4	55.139	0.293	0.02	0.04
UMBRIEL	Uranus	584.7 ±2.8	4.144176	265998	0.0039	0.08	0.09
ARIEL	Uranus	578.9 ±0.6	2.520379	190945	0.0012	0.08	0.09
DIONE	Saturn	559 ±5	2.736916	377654	0.0022	0.14	0.19
TETHYS	Saturn	529.8 ±1.5	1.887803	294992	0.0001	0.13	0.18
1996TL66	Sun	~ 479	757.3	83.085	0.578	0.01	0.04
CERES	Sun	475.5 ±3.9	1680.71	2.766412164	0.07911582	0.32	0.86

http://www.tenspheres.com/tools/largestlist.htm

Huh, 2003UB313 is the so-called tenth planet. I don't remember there being so many big sun-orbiting bodies though...



Lurker
(Listening to Coast to Coast AM)

Katrina

I'm not sure how I feel about the fallout from Hurricane Katrina. I think either that it hasn't sunk in yet, or maybe I'm numb to it. I dunno. I haven't really seen much news about it since I've been busy all week with school.

The US has lost cities before, but its been about a hundred years since the last I think. And those were from earthquakes and/or fires. It'll be interesting how people will rebuild, assuming they do.

The lawlessnes in the city shouldn't really surprise people. I'm just surprised it isn't worse. And it'll stay this bad until things get back to normal, whatever that new normal may be.

Hopefully this'll wake people up as to how powerful and undpredictable mother nature can be. Levies are dangerous. When they go the floods are fast and deep, and the remnants of the levies slow the drainage. Maybe now Louisiana will cut their losses and allow the Mississippi to change channels away from the city.


See, isn't this more fun? Well, not the hurricane, but the shift in format away from my boring life to relevant subject matters? Comment away!



Lurker
(Way too much reading this semester)