Weekly Wikipedia Find: Spear of Longinus

The spear of Longinus is the holy lance which pierced the side of Him that is Jesus Christ as he was on the cross. This piercing was undertaken by a Roman soldier, ostensibly named Longinus, like a little doe-eyed child curiously poking the body of a dead drifter he found in the woods, washed up on a bankside, beside some train tracks. "Yeah, it turns out he's dead." "So that's was a dead body looks like. Poke. Poke. Poke.

The lance was a much sought after objet for its occult value. It was said that during World War II Adolf Hitler himself was in possession of the lance, wielding its magical power and preventing Superman's entrance into the European theatre alongside the Allied Forces and affecting a quick victory for the good guys.

Wikipedia by Week

Week Forty-Nine: Moral panic
Week Forty-Eight: "The Move"
Week Forty-Seven: Cloaca
Week Forty-Six: Ship of fools
Week Forty-Five: Slattery Report
Week Forty-Four: Isolationism
Week Forty-Three: Foxy
Week Forty-Two: Young Woman with Unicorn
Week Forty-One: Cosmicism
Week Forty: Prisoner's dilemma
Week Thirty-Nine: Demimonde
Week Thirty-Eight: Haemophilia in European royalty
Week Thirty-Seven: Library of America
Week Thirty-Six: Honeypot
Week Thirty-Five: Glasgow smile
Week Thirty-Four: Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel
Week Thirty-Three: Mono no aware
Week Thirty-Two: Royal intermarriage
Week Thirty-One: Amputee fetishism
Week Thirty: Turtles all the way down
Week Twenty-Nine: The Diogenes Club
Week Twenty-Eight: E pur si muove!
Week Twenty-Seven: Unico
Week Twenty-Six: Panopticon
Week Twenty-Five: Legendary
Week Twenty-Four: Ostern
Week Twenty-Three: Kilroy was here
Week Twenty-Two: Jack Parsons
Week Twenty-One: The Wold Newton Universe
Week Twenty: Anonymous
Week Nineteen: Monty Hall problem
Week Eighteen: Brown Booby
Week Seventeen: Dieter Dengler
Week Sixteen: New Jerusalem
Week Fifteen: Technological Singularity
Week Fourteen: Numbers Station
Week Thirteen: Culper Ring
Week Twelve: Mary Sue
Week Eleven: Byford dolphin diving bell accident
Week Ten: Deep-sea gigantism
Week Nine: Bloop
Week Eight: Rat king
Week Seven: Gustave Doré
Week Six: Tomorrow
Week Five: Borscht Belt
Week Four: Swampman
Week Three: Chinese room
Week Two: Ambrose Burnside
Week One: Lolita fashion

Eugenics

I'd soon as not write this post. It would be some how fitting that way, this being the blog that it is. I first mentioned I would write this post back on Friday, August 8th, 2008. That's when I had all my inspiration and ideas. And I quickly wrote down the barest minimum of those ideas, and set it aside; I'll set the date for one week, I said, and save it as a draft. So here it is, one, nay, two, nay, three, nay, four, nay, five weeks later and here it is. Or the best I felt like writing so many days later.

The main problem with eugenics is that it has been associated in the public consciousness with "miscegenation" (what an ugly word-- clearly constructed to have negative connotations-- for such a beautiful thing) and racial cleansing/purity. I think this is another one we can blame on the Nazis.

But I subscribe to the Khan Noonien Singh theory of genetics, of which I derive the name from the character played by Ricardo Montalbán in the original Star Trek series episode "Space Seed" as well as the second Star Trek feature film The Wrath of Khan. I'll mostly focus on him as he appears in the television episode as no argument in favour of eugenics can be made with that awful hair he has in the movie.

Khan is a genetically-engineered übermensch bred free of mental and physical defects, as well as strong leadership abilities, from a pool of Latin and Indian stock. The key here is race diversity. From all accounts, while certainly ambitious (possibly wildly so), Khan was a benign ruler. Thus, I rule that Star Trek lands firmly on the pro-eugenics side. So just remove the dastardly moustache twirling and plans of world domination and we have a pretty good idea of the (theoretical) benefits of eugenics.

Then for an opposing viewpoint, we have the 1990s film Gattaca. I don't recall Gattaca ever addressing the race card, but apparently Blair Underwood was in the cast, so I think I can unequivocally declare the film not viewing genetics from an anti-miscegenation (grrrr) viewpoint. Gattaca's issue with eugenics is that it will inspire a new class system, one where the genetically-engineered will be earmarked for all the highest positions while any normal person (from now on referred to as "normies") will hit a glass ceiling. Further, these earmarks will be decided by probability calculator, so that any normies who exceed their station, any Ethan Hawkes if you will, will be put back in their place.

Of course, another real problem with eugenics is the same problem that surfaces any time one cultural group becomes assimilated into a bigger wider one. The death of the culture, language, heritage of the original group, and all the unique aspects that set it aside. See Modern China and the reason I was so politically offended by the movie Hero for more.

As a normie, among normies who have proceeded as a species for the past however many epochs, its hard to say if I am in support of any real form of eugenics, whether it be traditional or liberal, as it risks limiting genetic diversity. But I will say that I like to consider myself a Social Darwinist. Then again I consider myself a lot of things.

Reading List: Winter 2008

Here's what I read Winter Term (January-May). A lot less than expected considering I had internet for the nearly the entire time unlike the summer. Then again, there's a lot more comics bloating it to mass.

the golden age*, james robinson and paul smith
all-star superman vol.1*, grant morrison and frank quitely
catch-22, joseph heller
superman: whatever happened to the man of tomorrow?*, alan moore and curt swan
batman: year one*, frank miller
batman: the dark knight strikes again*, frank miller
jla: earth 2*, grant morrison and frank quitely
y the last man vol.1: unmanned*, brian k. vaughan and pia guerra
y the last man vol.2: cycles*, brian k. vaughan and pia guerra
y the last man vol.3: one small step*, brian k. vaughan and pia guerra
y the last man vol.4: safeword*, brian k. vaughan and pia guerra
y the last man vol.5: ring of truth*, brian k. vaughan and pia guerra
y the last man vol.6: girl on girl*, brian k. vaughan and pia guerra
jla/jsa: virtue and vice*, david goyer and geoff johns and carlos pacheco
catwoman: the dark end of the street*, ed brubaker and darwyn cooke and mike allred
special topics in calamity physics, marisha pessl
crisis on infinite earths*, marv wolfman and george perez
extremely loud & incredibly close, jonathan safran foer
u.s. war machine*, chuck austen
chronicles: volume one, bob dylan
the age of reason, jean-paul sartre
the outsider, albert camus
preacher book 1: gone to texas*, garth ennis and steve dillon
preacher book 2: until the end of the world*, garth ennis and steve dillon
preacher book 3: proud americans*, garth ennis and steve dillon
preacher book 4: ancient history*, garth ennis
preacher book 5: dixie fried*, garth ennis and steve dillon
preacher book 6: war in the sun*, garth ennis and steve dillon
preacher book 7: salvation*, garth ennis and steve dillon

*comic books

Copyright and the Superman

So there was a pretty big ruling concern the ownership of Superman (i.e. the copyright to the character). A Court of Law has reverted half of the copyright to Action Comics #1 and the character of Superman as defined therein. This to the heirs of Jerry Siegel according to a piece of copyright reform. Artist and co-creator Joe Shuster's estate (Shuster having no heirs) will have its chance at its half of the copyright according to a separate piece of copyright reform come 2013. This applies only to the U.S. DC Comics maintains its international interests.

Some thoughts:

1) I'm going to be pissed if this adversely affects All-Star Superman (it'll likely be finished before DC Comics' appeal on the ruling is even processed).

2) Copyright reform is going in the wrong direction.

3) Superman should be in the public domain.

4) Copyright should last no longer than 25 years. Even that's being generous, I think.

The origins of copyright lie in not creating a continuous cashcow for your life, and the lives of your children and their children, but to let you profit for an extended period from successful work as way of inspiring creativity and continuation thereof. Copyright has lost its way. It'd be best to scrap the whole system and start anew, except for the massive Media Conglomerate Lobbies that have already ruined copyright would still be at the forefront. As can be seen in the case of the Music Industry v. the Internet and the Advancement of Technology, copyright should be the benefit of Artists and not Record Labels.