AS IT STANDS - Coming Soon: a Superhero near you

 
                      By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
   Have you ever, even for just a moment, felt like you were stuck in between two worlds? You know, like you were in a Twilight Zone episode?
   Perhaps it’s because of the recent release of The Avengers movie, about a group of Marvel Comic Superheroes. I’ve seen a lot of stories about real life superheroes lately and it’s kind of strange. Case in point; have you heard of the Xtreme Justice League?
   It’s members are everyday Joes who dress up like flashy comic book superheroes and patrol the city streets of San Diego, California in search of crime. The group has an uneasy alliance with local law enforcement (that may be putting it lightly) who’d prefer they take their capes and go play video games.
   Here’s a list of current members: (taken from their website) Mr. Xtreme, Shadow Hare, Urban Avenger, Good Samaritan, Vigilante Spider, and Radnor.
    NBC's "Law and Order: SVU" featured a group similar to the Extreme Justice League recently. They were portrayed as a group of vigilantes who sometimes clashed with the police. Reality and entertainment blended once again. Seattle police have been dealing with a group of superheroes patrolling the streets at night for over two years. They call themselves the Rain City Superhero Movement and say they're part of a nationwide movement of real-life crime fighters.
  Their superhero names are:  Thorn, Buster Doe, Green Reaper, Gemini, No Name, Catastrophe, Thunder 88, Penelope and Phoenix Jones, the Guardian of Seattle. No need to stop there. Go to reallifesuperheroes.org and prepare to meet a lot of superheroes patrolling the mean streets of America.
   I recall a time, from 1964 to 1966, when I bought every Marvel Comic that came out. Spiderman was my favorite. I read some DC Comics, like Superman and Batman, but considered Marvel the home of the coolest superheroes.
   Little did I imagine how decades later, my favorite superheroes would emerge in full blown movies and cartoons on TV. And running around in real life! Maybe you can see my point about feeling like I’m in a Twilight Zone episode.
   Lately, I’ve had to pinch myself to make sure I’m not in an alternate universe. The cops in San Diego are concerned the Xtreme Justice League may take on more than they can handle when they make their next big move into the gang infested areas in South East San Diego.
  Things get a little funky when I consider superheroes who don’t have super powers. How can that be? Anyone stupid enough to dress up in tights and a cape better have super powers if they intend to take on organized gangs.  Mr. Xtreme and his peers carry some self defense weapons, like stun guns and mace, and they all study Kenpo karate. Automatic pistols and rifles trump those trinkets big time! As for getting in a karate move before being shot point blank, I think the outcome is predictable.
    I have nothing against these civic minded superheroes (they could do a better job of designing their costumes) and I wish them well. I just hope they don’t let their flashy alter egos completely take over and have a bad ending for their efforts. There are no second chances in the real world, unlike the comics.
   I was hooked on comics in my teenage years because they provided an escape from reality. Today, I don’t read comics. I don’t watch comic book cartoons characters on TV. I have to admit I may see The Avengers movie because I’m still a kid at heart, and I love how realistic the characters look. To my ever lasting credit, I understood I was reading fiction back in the sixties when I eagerly devoured the latest issues of The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, and  X-Men. 
  Today’s movie audience practically becomes part of the movie with 3-D cinema photography and stunning sound systems. Some theaters even have seats on platforms that rumble the viewer for additional effect. Disaster movies, especially ones with earthquakes, can literally be a jarring experience.
   The whole viewing experience in theatres is designed to blur reality. It seems to be working too well for some folks. Sorry Mr. Xtreme and loyal side kicks, but you appear to be a good example of what I’m talking about.
   I know, I’ve treated this subject in a somewhat whimsical fashion, but there’s nothing funny about people losing touch with reality. Especially if they, or others are hurt.
As It Stands, superheroes are cool, but I’m afraid they don’t exist in the real world.

WEBSITES THAT HAVE PICKED UP THIS COLUMN:

1) www.squidoo

2) Everything About Comics: Comics Blog

3) Comprehensive real-Time Self-Defense Newswire

Mckinleyville Cash Mob visits first local business – more planned

                          UPDATE BELOW!

I love it! You have to hand it to the Lakey family – they organized the first of hopefully many more cash mobs to support our local business owners in Mack Town.

  I’m especially pleased that Mandy Lakey was inspired to organize cash mobs after reading my column on cash mobs -

 Cash mobs: Reprieves for struggling Mom & Pop businesses.

  It’s one thing to suggest something, and quit another to actually really do it. The Lakey’s are community minded-people that make Mack Town the great place it is to live. 

Megan and Evan, owners of McKinleyville Central Market, featured with Joshua Lakey, (top photo left) owner of the Silver Lining Resturant & Gift Shop at the McKinleyville Airport. Mckinleyville Central Market was the first business to be “mobbed.”

Do you want to know more about Mack Town’s Cash Mob program? Just go to Humboldt Cash Mob and find out how you can support our local business community.

In our tough economy it’s heartening to see people get together for a positive common goal. I love living here for a lot of reasons, and the people here are one of them.

Support your local newspaper- The Mckinleyville Press – by getting a subscription and staying informed on what’s happening with your friends and neighbors.

CORRECTION ON WHO STARTED UP HUMBOLDT CASH MOB:

Mandy Lakey has straightened me out about who started the Cash Mob Movement in Humboldt – it was a gentleman named Seth Geddes. THANK YOU SETH! You can thank Seth too at: seth[at]citycardmovement[dot]org.

 

World’s richest man loses $ 4.1 billion but no big deal – he’s got plenty where that came from

Easy come, easy go?

The world’s richest people lost a combined $32.8 billion this week as concerns over a possible Greek exit from the euro area pushed the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to its biggest weekly loss since November 2011.

Mexican Carlos Slim, 72, lost the most during the week, as shares of his Mexico City-based telecommunications company America Movil SAB fell 4.38 percent. Slim, who lost $4.1 billion, remains the world’s richest person with a $65.5 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

                                    In case you never heard of him:

Carlos Slim Helú (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkaɾlos esˈlim eˈlu]; born January 28, 1940) is a Mexican business magnate and philanthropist who is currently ranked as the richest person in the world in 2012. Slim has been ranked the richest person in the world since 2010. His extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, SA de CV, have amassed interests in the fields of communications, technology, retailing, and finance. Presently he is the chairman and chief executive of telecommunications companies Telmex and América Móvil.

América Móvil, which in 2010 was Latin America’s largest mobile-phone carrier, accounted for around US$49 billion of Slim's wealth by the end of 2010. His corporate holdings as of March 2012 have been estimated at US$69 billion.

The ultimate future app for your smart phone: beam me up Scotty!

       Good Day Humboldt County!

  I was kidding with a friend about what smart phones will probably be capable of next and my wild guess turned out to be…well not so wild.

Smart phones providing transportation as in (wink wink!) …beam me up Scotty!It could happen.

Did you know teleportation is actually possible? It came as a revelation to me. The thought that a new form of travel could open up in the near future is kind of exciting. And scary. And I want to be the first on the block to get it!

“Harry Potter and Star Trek fans, rejoice! Teleportation is real. Using powerful lasers and optics to manipulate photons, or units of light, researchers in China set a record for teleporting a photon more than 10 miles (16 km), TIME reported in 2010. Now a different team of physicists at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai says it has shattered that record, claiming to have sent a photon more than 60 miles (97 km).

Quantum teleportation, which has been around since 1997, is a little different than what you see in sci-fi movies. Considered “one of the holy grails of practical quantum communication,” as the scientists write in their abstract, teleportation is the ability to essentially move one object from one place to another without traversing the space in between. But as Forbes explains, the actual object is not moving from point A to point B. Rather, the distant photon mirrors the information contained by the original photon, essentially becoming an identical twin.” (read the whole story here)

Time for me to head on down the road…

Just for Fun Friday: The Fly-On-the-Wall Illusion

If you stare at the fly sitting in the center of the yellow-blue pattern on the right for a minute or so, and then switch your view onto the fly on your left – you’ll experience one interesting effect! Normally the cow photo looks divided into two different colored surfaces, but if you follow the previously mentioned procedure correctly – the cow photo will appear perfectly normal.

source

In the ‘Dying Doing What You Love Department’ - Man Dies During a Lapdance

They say you should go out doing what you love. A 67-year-old Texas man may have taken that inspirational advice to heart Friday night when he died at a strip club while getting erotic lap dances. According to a manager at the Red Parrot, Robert Gene White was face-deep in pelvic gyrations when it came time to pay the girls and he was found unresponsive. Staff attempted CPR before calling emergency responders, who took the man to the hospital. We can only guess White's final earthly sights, but we're pretty sure he passed on to the other side with pleasant visions in tow. (News source)

Keeping it Real: sometimes lines blur when we ‘escaping’ from reality

         Good Day Humboldt County!

Fantasy and reality are clashing more every day. Theme parks transport people to alternate universes. Theatres offer more than just movies. Seats are built onto moveable platforms that coordinate movement (up and down, side-to-side) with what’s happening on the big screen. Monster sound systems coupled with 3-D clarity and graphics out of this world…and you have a surreal experience.

Entertainment often involves setting reality aside and just going with the story line. My column this coming Sunday – Coming Soon: A Superhero Near You - is about some people who are living their fantasies out by wearing superhero costumes and patrolling neighborhoods in search of crime.

One of entertainment’s dark sides is crazy fans. Actors, celebrities, and sports stars sometimes have to deal with people who worship and stalk them. Other so-called fans outright threaten them (and sometimes even their family) for imagined sins.

A recent example is what happened to basketball player, Steve Blake. He plays for the Los Angeles Lakers and comes off the bench. He missed a shot that could have won Game Two of the NBA Playoffs against the Oklahoma Thunder Wednesday. Apparently some fans (immature idiots) felt they had to take their ire out on Blake’s wife and family!    

“Various fans sent messages to the Twitter account of Kristen Blake, Steve's Blake’s wife, filled with profanity-laced death threats toward the Lakers' guard and his family.

"It's pretty disappointing that there's a lot of hateful people out there," Blake said after the Lakers' practice Thursday at the team's facility in El Segundo. "You move on. I just don't appreciate it when it's toward my family. You can come at me all you want. But when you say things about my wife and my kids, it makes me upset." (Read the whole story here)

The line between reality and fantasy is a fragile one for many people in our society. It’s no secret we have mentally ill people living in the streets of every state in the Union. But, they also can live next door to you in an exclusive neighborhood. There’s a lot of reasons why we as a society feel the need to escape. Sometimes that need turns ugly.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Gag-A-Rama: Teen finds finger in his roast beef sandwich

A customer at an Arby's in Michigan got a little more than roast beef in his sandwich last week when he bit into a piece of a finger, the Jackson Citizen Patriot reports.

Ryan Hart, 14, tells the newspaper he was almost done with the sandwich when he tasted something rubbery. He spat it out and saw the back of a finger extending beyond the first knuckle. His reaction: "I was "about to puke. ... It was just nasty."

Steve Hall, environmental health director for the Jackson County Health Department, tells the Citizen Patriot an Arby's employee had sliced her finger while operating a meat slicer and left her station without immediately telling anyone what happened. Other workers were filling an order before they became aware of the situation, Hall says. The restaurant did not close.

Coffee Lovers are Buzzing about the Good News – Drink Up, and Live Longer!

                           Good Day Humboldt County!

I had my first cup of coffee when I was a freshman in high school. Like most teenagers, I was ready to give anything a try. That included trying the bitter brew my parents loved (and still do).

It was considered an adult drink. I was in a hurry to be an adult, so drinking coffee with a couple of friends at a coffee shop before going to school was extremely cool thing to do. Oh yeah…and smoking cigarettes.

Everyone seemed to smoke back in those days. I’m glad I finally quit in 2000. But, I still drink coffee every morning. I NEED COFFEE every morning! MUST HAVE COFFEE before any decisions are made for the day…like getting dressed.

Over the years, I’ve heard some negative things about drinking coffee – which I willfully ignored – and decided that if I had to die anyway…then I’d do it with a cup of coffee in my hand. Too much caffeine be damned. Then I saw this article over a cup of steaming Joe this morning:

 “One of life's simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn't matter.

The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure any coffee lovers who think it's a guilty pleasure that may do harm. "Our study suggests that's really not the case," said lead researcher Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute. "There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking." (Read the whole story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Trio of idiots try to sell grenade launcher to undercover fed: two imprisoned, one on bail as long as he reads an hour a day and does a book report!

Growing up I use to think school was a real drag, and when it came to writing book reports …yuck! That meant I had to read a book and make some intelligent comments in an essay afterwards. Reading and writing a report wasn’t considered punishment – just part of the educational process back then.

So why would a judge sentence someone to do a book report while on bail after trying to sell a grenade launcher and pulling a gun on a cop? Doesn’t make sense to me. I wonder what’s on the list of books the judge is providing?

I’m just guessing, but I don’t think they’ll be listed on the Top 10 at Amazon. So what do you think will be on the list? I’m thinking “Crime and Punishment,” might be one of them.

“One of three men indicted for allegedly trying to sell a grenade launcher during a deal that led to gunfire in Richmond was ordered released on bond Monday by a federal judge, who allowed him to remain free so long as he reads each day and completes book reports.

Over the objections of federal prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted a request by 23-year-old Otis Mobley Jr. to be released before trial. She ordered him to "read and complete book reports," spending an hour every day on books and at least a half an hour writing. The judge said she plans to provide a reading list for Mobley as he awaits trial.” (Read the whole story here)

We call it Thanksgiving, Georgians call it Shemoedjamo, both celebrate eating massive quanities of food

          Good day Humboldt County!

  My wife and I were watching a series on obesity last night and how American eating habits are killing us slowly but steadily.

  It wasn’t a pretty picture by any means. Americans are pigs! We eat too much, and two-out-of-three are overweight or obese. Even our kids. What can be done? Americans love eating to the point they’re sacrificing future generations health.  

I was surprised to find there’s another country that celebrates gorging on food for fun just like us (Nod of the hat to Cracked). The European Georgians call the special holiday “Shemomedjamo” and it’s their version of our Thanksgiving. The word basically means: the act of eating to the point where your body says, "OK, we did it! We're all done now," and then muscling through another three steaks.

The only way to know if you're done eating on Thanksgiving is when physical pain gets involved. If you don't eat on Thanksgiving until it hurts to breathe, you're either a liar or a terrorist (you're welcome, FBI). In fact, many Americans celebrate Thanksgiving shemomedjamo every day, because they're so patriotic.

The literal translation for shemomedjamo is "I accidentally ate the whole thing," which is a charming way of saying "Oh my God, why isn't somebody stopping me?!"

Time for me to walk on down the road…