QotD

Via sclerotic_rings, this gem:

"...in retrospect, it's probably a bad idea to use an art museum for any kind of all-you-can-drink event."

Exercise: 10km last night (one episode of House is nicely time for this). Total: 211km/127mi: crossed into Cardolan, heading for Great East Road.

Accidental shooting, pt. 2

Further updates on Jacob Kovco, the Australian soldier who was shot in Iraq:

* Now being reported that he did not die cleaning his gun. In Brendan Nelson's words: "It was near him in his vicinity and he made some kind of movement which suggests that it discharged."

("Near him in his vicinity"? "Suggests"? Did I hallucinate the five years where Nelson was Minister for Education, before he was promoted to Defence?)

* In an impressive feat of incompetence, they flew the wrong body back to Australia. Officially, Kovco's body is in Kuwait, held up by a public holiday, but his mother is of the not-unreasonable suspicion that if they accidentally flew a dead Bosnian to Australia, maybe her son's body ended up in Bosnia. (She also looks to be about as convinced as I was by the 'accidental shooting' story.)

T&A

(Bits cribbed from this post by vito_excalibur.)

I've told this story before, so I won't go into it now, but the background to Wonder Woman is rather intriguing. The character was created by William Marston, a rather unconventional psychologist, who based her on Elizabeth (his wife, a very impressive woman in her own right), and Olive (effectively, also his wife).

Marston had some odd social theories, some of which look as eccentric today as they must have done back then. But he was ahead of his time on some things; one of them was his belief that empowering women would be a good thing for both sexes, and that there weren't enough strong role models for girls. As he put it: "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power... The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman." So he created Wonder Woman, to show readers that combination of strength and beauty.

Having just seen Frank Miller's recent portrayal of Wonder Woman (warning: NSFW for barely covered T&A, and badly-drawn T&A at that), I'm fairly sure William Marston is spinning in his grave right now. As for Elizabeth and Olive, I like to think they've clawed their way out of theirs and are on their way to give Miller a well-deserved zombie kerb-stomping.

Some more of Miller's work here... you know, I really don't have a problem with artistic nudity. But if you want to draw a naked woman, at least have the decency to DRAW A NAKED WOMAN and don't pretend that a couple of scraps of lace make it not-porn. (This one is scripted by Miller, drawn by another artist, but if you want to know how much of it is Miller's fault you have only to read the included script.) Also, if DC really feels a need to publish Wonder Woman pr0n, could they maybe hire the Foglios to do it instead?

Meanwhile, 'inspired' by Miller's efforts: old-school Vicki Vale here (with some material from the new one pasted in for comparison, work-safe), and male superheroes drawn Frank Miller style (not work-safe).