There are a handful of writers so outrageously good they make you want to give up and pretense of joining their ranks. On my  list are Alexander Dumas, William S. Burroughs, Charles Dickens, Dan Simmons and Gene Wolfe. Reading any of their novels is enough to make you question your own abilities.

Gene Wolfe is a true original. His books defy conventional classification, his writing style is elusive and challenging, complex and deeply rewarding. His imagination is unparalleled and I think it is safe to say Gene Wolfe has no contemporary equal, save for Dan Simmons.

If you’re a fan of Gene Wolfe, then you know all-too-well that interviews with the man are rare at best.  Videotaped interview are even more rare. So today is your lucky day…a day when Gene Wolfe may be revealed to you for the first time, bald head and walking cane in tow…

This was recorded in 2006 at Balticon 40.

With the release and success of the last Metal Gear game on the PlayStation 3, clamor rose to new levels for a big-budget movie about Solid Snake. How could it go wrong? Built-in fan base, world-wide recognition; just keep the budget acceptable and the movie makes money. Unfortunately for Metal Gear fans, a movie now appears all but dead, according to a recent interview with Hollywood producer Mike De Luca.

I don’t think it’s going to move forward because I got the sense that there may not be enough of a coordinated will at this point on the side of certain parties to see a movie get made. And I get it because the problem with a lot of these adaptations is it’s such a huge franchise for the video game company. A movie can only hurt. If the movie’s great, you’re probably not going to sell more games. It’s such a separate thing. The franchise being as big as it kind of helps the movie…I’m not sure the movie does the same thing for the game.

I think there’s some things…the video game companies are very protective of their property and there are certain things a studio requires freedom-wise to market and distribute a movie effectively in a global marketplace and sometimes getting those two things to match up is really hard. And in the case of Metal Gear Solid, the agendas just….not because the parties weren’t amicable, it was just kind of impossible to get the agendas to match up.

Source

There hasn’t been a group of people so misguided in their beliefs since the “NASA faked the moon landings” wackos emerged. Birthers continue to pound the conspiracy drum, shedding a light on their total lack of cognitive thinking. Recent polling suggests that 11% of Americans don’t believe President Obama was born in the United States, with 42% of Republicans on board the Crazy Train.

Sad.

Need ammunition to make the Birthers shut up? How about 8 different arguments to back you up?

From Salon:

Myth 1: Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.

This is the big one. It may also be the most easily refuted. First of all, during the presidential campaign, Obama released a certification of live birth, which is the official document you get if you ask Hawaii for a copy of your birth certificate. There are allegations that what Obama released is a forgery, but state officials have repeatedly affirmed its authenticity and said they’ve checked it against the original record and that Obama was indeed born in Hawaii.

If that wasn’t enough, two Hawaiian newspapers carried announcements of Obama’s birth in August 1961. (Read the Honolulu Advertiser’s item from Aug. 13, 1961, nine days after Obama’s birth, here.) The traditional joke that Birther debunkers make is that his grandparents must have placed those announcements because they knew that he’d want to run for president nearly five decades later. The truth, though, is that the notices are even stronger pieces of evidence than that. Obama’s family didn’t place them — Hawaii did, as it does for all births. The announcements were based on official records sent to the papers by the state’s Department of Health.

As for myself, I needn’t look any further than the following video, which depicts Orly Taitz, the main woman in charge of driving the crazy train:

During Comic Con, Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau participated in a small round-table interview where each discussed details of the forthcoming Iron Man 2.

From Collider:

Question: The action in the first one is very much character based with some good action. Is there a lot more action in this film? How would you characterize the action in this one?

Downey: Every piece of action that happens in ‘Iron Man 2? is a direct result of part of a character dysfunction, including probably the biggest sequence in the first hour of the movie. It just happens because…anyway, I don’t want to give it away. Everything is as a result of character dysfunction or mistakes made. Those mistakes when Iron Man and you’re surrounded by the kind of people he is the ramifications are gi-normous.

Twitter exploded for War Machine.

Favreau: Well, that was the big thing, up to a few weeks ago we thought that Black Widow was going to be the thing that we’d show off because the jury was out on Scarlett [Johansson] for a while. There were some rumors about who we were going to cast and if it was going to workout with this one or that one, and then when cast Scarlett and a lot of people were like, ‘Really? Her hair’s wrong. She’s not the right build.’ Then she transformed herself. I mean, she really did the work. When those pictures came out online everyone was like, ‘Wow.’ Then it was like that’s not the big one. Then with Whiplash we wanted to show a little bit more of what we’re doing with the technology of that character and explain how it fits into the story. But the big thing that we hadn’t shown at all was War Machine, especially with the re-cast of that character. I think it was important for us to really stick it with that one and say, ‘Hey, guys, here’s our guy. Here’s what he does and this is where we’re going with it.’  I’m glad it was received well.

Downey Interview

Favreau Interview