Pat Boyette: Carrion of the Gods

An on-line article HERE wondered if Pat Boyette and Steve Ditko were the same person. A quick search of the web would show that Boyette produced a lot of great work, most of which was for the ‘smaller’ publishers (e.g. Charlton) and included a lot of nifty gothic horror and Sci-Fi material like this fondly remembered tale:

CLICK TO ENLARGE AND READ














From Tales of the Macabre #2. Story & Art © Estate of Pat Boyette.

Read a nice interview with Boyette.

A short bio of the man is HERE

Bigger Is Better (& Smarter)

When it comes to estimating the intelligence of various animal species, it may be as simple measuring overall brain size. In fact, making corrections for a species' body size may be a mistake.

"It's long been known that species with larger body sizes generally have larger brains," said Robert Deaner. "Scientists have generally assumed that this pattern occurs because larger animals require larger nervous systems to coordinate their larger bodies. But our results suggest a simpler reason: larger species are typically smarter."

Deaner said the findings imply that a re-evaluation may be in order for many previous studies that have compared brain size across different animal species, including ancestral hominids.

The new results showed that some primate species consistently outperform others across a broad range of cognitive tasks. It compared how well eight different brain size measures predicted the domain-general cognition variable generated in the earlier study. To the researchers' surprise, overall brain size and overall neocortex size proved to be good predictors, but the various measures that controlled for body size did not. The results did not change even when various statistical assumptions were altered.

Another unexpected finding was that the overall size of the whole brain proved to be just as good a predictor of intelligence as was the overall size of the neocortex. Scientists making cross-species comparisons have often assumed that the neocortex would be more closely linked to intelligence, since it is considered the "thinking part" of the brain. link

Overall Brain Size, and Not Encephalization Quotient, Best Predicts Cognitive Ability across Non-Human Primates. 2007. R. O. Deaner, et al. Brain, Behavior, and Evolution 70: 115-124.

Crashed This Day: The Hindenburg

In 1937, at 7:25 pm, the dirigible The Hindenburg burned while landing at the naval air station at Lakehurst, N.J. On board were 6l crew and 36 passengers. The landing approach seemed normal, when suddenly a tongue of flame appeared near the stern. Fire spread rapidly through the 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen that filled the balloon. Within a few seconds the Zeppelin exploded in a huge ball of fire. The ship fell tail first with flames shooting out the nose.

It crashed into the ground 32 seconds after the flame was first spotted; 36 people died. Captain Ernst Lehmann survived the crash but died the next day. He muttered "I can't understand it," The cause remains the subject of debate even today. From Today In Science History.

The Crash...

Why Mothra Doesn’t Exist

Scientists in Sweden asked why insects such as butterflies that have a very high capacity for rapid growth during the larval stage do not continue growing just a few more days. This question is prompted by the common laboratory observation that larger bodied females have the capacity to produce many more eggs than smaller females. Since growing larger seems to be relatively easy for these butterflies, it is difficult to see what keeping them from doing so!

image

In the paper the researchers report on experiments performed on a Swedish population of the Speckled Wood Butterfly, Pararge aegeria. They show that large females lay more eggs than smaller females if they are allowed to lay eggs throughout each day, but in a situation where only part of the day was suitable for egg-laying the size of the female did not matter for the number of eggs laid.

This exercise suggests that growing to a much larger size typically doesn’t pay off in more eggs laid, and the optimal female size predicted by the model is relatively close to what is actually observed.

The paper concludes that one important reason why insects with a high capacity of larval growth do not evolve towards larger sizes may be that the fecundity [# of offspring produced] benefit is in fact relatively limited under natural conditions.

Mothra To the Rescue!

What Keeps Insects Small? Time Limitation during Oviposition Reduces the Fecundity Benefit of Female Size in a Butterfly. 2007. K. Gotthard, D. Berger, and R. Walters. The American Naturalist, volume 169 (2007), upcoming paper.

Atlantis Destroyed By Giant Tsunami

A group of scientists have uncovered new evidence that the island of Crete was hit by a massive tsunami at the same time that Minoan culture disappeared.

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Until about 3,500 years ago, a spectacular ancient civilisation was flourishing in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ancient Minoans were building palaces, paved streets and sewers, while most Europeans were still living in primitive huts.

But around 1500BC the people who spawned the myths of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth abruptly disappeared. Now the mystery of their cataclysmic end may finally have been solved.

"The geo-archaeological deposits contain a number of distinct tsunami signatures," says Dutch-born geologist Professor Hendrik Bruins of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

"The latter can only have been scooped up from the sea-bed by one mechanism - a powerful tsunami, dumping all these materials together in a destructive swoop," says Professor Bruins. The deposits are up to seven metres above sea level, well above the normal reach of storm waves.

"An event of ferocious force hit the coast of Crete and this wasn't just a Mediterranean storm," says Professor Bruins. Link

Wave of Mutilation:

Born This Day: Immanuel Kant

April 22, 1724 – Feb. 12, 1804

Kant was a German philosopher, trained as a mathematician and physicist, who published his General History of Nature and theory of the Heavens in 1755. This physical view of the universe contained three anticipations of importance to astronomers;

Metaphysics explained by Robert Williams.

1. He made the nebula hypothesis ahead of Laplace.

2. He described the Milky Way as a lens-shaped collection of stars that represented only one of many "island universes," later shown by Herschel.

3. He suggested that friction from tides slowed the rotation of the earth, which was confirmed a century later. In 1770 he became a professor of mathematics, but turned to metaphysics and logic in 1797, the field in which he is best known. link

His theme song:

Medusa's Deep Sea Vent

Art © Barry Smith; Medusa © Marvel Comics

A new "black smoker" -- an undersea mineral chimney emitting hot, iron-darkened water that attracts unusual marine life -- has been discovered at about 8,500 feet underwater by an expedition and dubbed the Medusa hydrothermal vent field.

The researchers picked that name to highlight the presence of a pink form of the jellyfish order Stauromedusae as well as numerous spiky tubeworm casings that festoon the vent chimney and bring to mind "the serpent-haired Medusa of Greek myth," said expedition leader Emily Klein.

"It's astonishing that a rich ecology thrives in these extreme environments," Klein added. She noted, however, that while all the organisms near vents are adapted to the high pressures at these depths, not all experience extremely high temperatures.

"The temperature of the ocean floor is about 2 C and there is a strong temperature gradient as you move away from the vent, so animals living a few inches away may experience temperatures only a few degrees above normal for the ocean floor."

"Despite the great tempeature of the vent water, it doesn't boil until 390 C because pressures on the ocean floor are so great, about 200 times the pressure at sea level," Klein said. The tremendous pressures result from the weight of almost two miles of seawater pressing down from above. link

Colours Out of Time & Space

Scientists studied light absorbed and reflected by organisms on Earth, and determined that if astronomers were to look at the light given off by planets circling distant stars, they might predict that some planets have mostly non-green plants.

Cover by Pete Von Sholly

"We can identify the strongest candidate wavelengths of light for the dominant color of photosynthesis on another planet," said Nancy Kiang, lead author of the study.

On Earth, Kiang and colleagues surveyed light absorbed and reflected by plants and some bacteria during photosynthesis, a process by which plants use energy from sunlight to produce sugar. Organisms that live in different light environments absorb the light colors that are most available. For example, there is a type of bacteria that inhabit murky waters where there is little visible light, and so they use infrared radiation during photosynthesis.

link

According to scientists, the Sun has a specific distribution of colors of light, emitting more of some colors than others. Gases in Earth's air also filter sunlight, absorbing different colors. As a result, more red light particles reach Earth's surface than blue or green light particles, so plants use red light for photosynthesis. There is plenty of light for land plants, so they do not need to use extra green light. But not all stars have the same distribution of light colors as our Sun. Study scientists say they now realize that photosynthesis on extrasolar planets will not necessarily look the same as on Earth.

link

"It makes one appreciate how life on Earth is so intimately adapted to the special qualities of our home planet and Sun," said Kiang. link

Spectral Signatures of Photosynthesis. I. Review of Earth Organisms. 2007. Kiang, et al. Astrobiology 7: 222 -251. N.Y.

Spectral Signatures of Photosynthesis. II. Coevolution with Other Stars And The Atmosphere on Extrasolar Worlds. 2007. N.Y. Kiang, at al. Astrobiology 7: 252 -274

Bill Nelson Asks Max Headroom: Do You Dream In Colour?

The Hyborian Age: Chapter Six

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Script by Roy Thomas; Art © Walt Simonson; The Hyborian Age and Conan © their current copyright holders.

Read:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

The Why of Fly Flying

Armed with a computer video tracking system and an array of mathematical techniques researchers have revealed how the flight patterns of starved fruit flies constitute an optimal scale-free searching strategy – like the fractal patterns of a snowflake, a fly flight path appears similar whether viewed up close, or from a distance.

link

The researchers also found that searching is intermittent, such that flies actively search by making tight turns, and fly straight some distance to begin searching again. Scale-free movement patterns have been found in diverse animals including zooplankton, wandering albatrosses, jackals, and even human hunter-gathers. Intermittent searchers include octopi, graylings, and mating crickets.

Andy Reynolds says, "Our results with freely flying Drosophila appear to be the first reported example of searching behaviour that is both scale-free and intermittent. This suggests that these behaviours are not part of two different searching strategies, but rather represent a single very effective and perhaps widely adopted strategy." link

Fly on the Windshield:

Free-Flight Odor Tracking in Drosophila Is Consistent with an Optimal Intermittent Scale-Free Search 2007. AM Reynolds and MA Frye. PLoS ONE 2(4): e354.

Irrational Fashion Changes Explained

New research reveals that trends in popular culture (music, fashion, baby names) come and go at surprisingly regular and predictable rate, which is fueled by very few innovators amidst millions of people copying each other.

To come up with a template of the trend-setting machine, the scientists developed computer simulations based on a system of random copying in which hundreds or thousands of individuals copy each other with 2 percent or fewer being innovators. The model predicted regular and consistent turnover rates that matched the real-world data.

Bentley found that how quickly something comes into fashion and then fades out depends on the size of the list, with a top-100 list changing much faster than a top-40 list. However, the population number had no effect on turnover rate. The scientists suggest a larger population does mean more new ideas but it also means more competition for a top spot and they balance each other out.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the study also found that the more trendsetting innovators there are in a society, the faster one trend will replace another within a particular sector. “Innovators are the cool ones who ‘pump’ new fashions into our world,” Bentley said.

Wonder Woman © DC Comics

The results suggests that the practice, common among captains of the fashion industry, of trying to handpick the next consumer “gems” amongst millions of proposals is a hopeless undertaking.

Regular rates of popular culture change reflect random copying. 2007. R.A. Bentley, et al. Evolution and Human Behavior, published online 17 January 2007.

So many fashions...spinning...dizzy...

Steve Hickman's Kong

Art © Steve Hickman

CLICK TO ENLARGE AND READ

Scanned from The Monster Times #7, 1972.

Brewed This Day: 1st Batch of Coca-Cola

In 1886, the first batch of Coca Cola was brewed over a fire in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. John Pemberton had created the concoction as a cure for "hangover," stomach ache and headache. He advertised it as a "brain tonic and intellectual beverage," and first sold it to the public a few weeks later on 8 May. Coke contained cocaine as an ingredient until 1904, when the drug was banned by Congress. link

Who Is Hoverboy?

Only in South America would you get this:

Born This Day: Surf Board Pioneer

Tom Blake (March 8, 1902 – May 5, 1994) was the American inventor of the hollow-core surfboard. Following his first experimental hollow surfboard in 1926, his innovative, hollow-core surf/paddle boards dominated the surfing world until the late 1940's. It became standard rescue equipment in California's early lifeguard corps.

Early surfboard designs consisted of solid wooden boards dating back to the ancient Hawaiians, these new-concept, lighter boards were an immediate success and became extremely important in the evolution of the modern surfboard. In the 1930's he made the first major design advancement with the invention of fins. Before this, a surfer had to use his back foot to make the board turn. link Images © Rick Griffin

Journey To The Center of The Sinkhole

Cave Carson © DC Comics

Scientists return this week to the world’s deepest known sinkhole, Cenote Zacatón in Mexico, to resume tests of a NASA-funded robot called DEPTHX, designed to survey and explore for life in one of Earth’s most extreme regions and potentially in outer space. Sinking more than 1,000 feet, Zacatón has only been partially mapped and its true depth remains unknown.

The system’s unusual hydrothermal nature is analogous to liquid oceans under the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Technology developed to explore the sinkholes could be applied to future space probes of Europa, where scientists believe that deep cracks and holes in the ice offer a chance of finding extraterrestrial life.

Microbes which appear to be new to science have been discovered floating in deep water and lining rocks in Zacatón. Far below sunlight’s ability to penetrate, they may get their energy from nutrients welling up from hot springs. Gary and others speculate that previously undocumented life may await discovery in the murky depths.

Unique in the world of robotic explorers, DEPTHX is autonomous. The probe does not rely on instructions from humans to decide where to go or what to do. It creates 3D maps of previously unexplored areas as it swims along and then uses those same maps to navigate back to the surface.

Doctoral student Marcus Gary SCUBA dives with the DEPTHX probe during initial in-water tests at The University of Texas at Austin Applied Research Laboratories wet test facility.

Cenote Zacatón first achieved notoriety when two divers attempted to reach the bottom in 1994. One of them, Sheck Exley, died in the attempt. The other, Jim Bowden, survived, descending to a record depth of 925 feet. The outcome caused scientists to rethink ways that Zacatón could be explored safely. link

Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1959)

Watching The Brain See The Future

Scientists can now "read" a person’s intentions from their brain activity. This is made possible by a new combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging and sophisticated computer algorithms. The researchers were able to recognize the subjects intentions with 70% accuracy based alone on their brain activity - even before the participants had seen the numbers and had started to perform the calculation.

Saturn Girl & Superboy © DC Comics

The trick by which the invisible is made visible lies in a new method called "multivariate pattern recognition". A computer is programmed to recognize characteristic activation patterns in the brain that typically occur in association with specific thoughts. Once this computer has been "trained" it can be used to predict the decisions of subjects from their brain activity alone. An important technical innovation also lies in combining information across extended regions of the brain to strongly increase sensitivity.

In the future it will be possible to read even abstract thoughts and intentions out of a person’s brain.

Brain regions from which it was possible to "read out" peoples' intentions. In specific regions fine-grained patterns of brain activity showed slight differences depending on whether a person was preparing to perform an addition or a subtraction. From activity patterns in the green regions it was possible to read out covert intentions before subjects began to perform the calculation. From the regions marked in red it was possible to read out intentions that were already being acted upon.

Ref.: Reading hidden intentions in the human brain. 2007. John-Dylan Haynes, et al. Current Biology, February 20th, 2007 (online: February 8th).

Empire State Humans

LSH © DC Comics


poster

The Human League.... get tall:

Empire State Human

Since I was very young I've realised
I never wanted to be human size
So I avoid the crowds and traffic jams
They just remind me of how small I am
Because of this longing in my heart
I'm going to start the growing art
I'm going to grow now and never stop
Think like a mountain, grow to the top

Tall, tall, tall, I want to be tall, tall, tall
As big as a wall, wall, wall,
as big as a wall, wall, wall
And if I'm not tall, tall, tall,
then I will crawl, crawl, crawl
Because I'm not tall, tall, tall, tall, tall, tall, tall

With concentration
My size increased
And now I'm fourteen stories high
At least
Empire State Human
Just a bored kid
I'll go to Egypt to be
The pyramids

Brick by brick
Stone by stone:
Growing till he's fully grown
Fetch more water
Fetch more sand
Biggest person in the land


Avengers © Marvel Comics


Avengers © Marvel Comics

UFOs Key To Global Warming

A former Canadian defence minister says be believes advanced technology from extraterrestrial civilizations offers the best hope to "save our planet" from the perils of climate change.

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From The Ottawa Citizen:

Paul Hellyer, 83, is calling for a public disclosure of alien technology obtained during alleged UFO crashes -- such as the mysterious 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico -- because he believes alien species can provide humanity with a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Mr. Hellyer has been a public UFO advocate since September 2005 when he spoke at a symposium in Toronto. But with concern over global warming at an all-time high, and Canadian political parties struggling to out-green one another, Mr. Hellyer said governments and the military have a responsibility to "come clean on what they know" now more than ever.

"Climate change is the No. 1 problem facing the world today," he said. "I'm not discouraging anyone from being green conscious, but I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet."

Better Sunday Comics

There’s really no good reason why the Sunday Comics should be as bad as they are. Even the big syndicates distribute some good strips including—wait for it—Judge Dread.

Here are some of the more interesting ones. The text is from the PR hype. CLICK EACH IMAGE TO ENLARGE AND READ.

MYTHIC LEGENDS
An exciting adventure strip drawn in cutting-edge artistic style, MYTHIC LEGENDS brings alive periods of history that have long been forgotten. Stimulating, but never too violent, this series holds the attention of young readers and leaves them yearning for more.



Judge Dredd
Holy Smokes! Judge Dread in the Sunday Funnies?!





Ink Pen
Ink Pen is an irreverent slice of comic life centered on an employment agency for cynical, out-of-work cartoon characters. Ink Pen is a well-written and well-drawn workplace comedy, a "retro" look at the Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and an expose on the trappings of advertising and corporate sponsorship.




Modesty Blaise
If James Bond epitomizes a gentleman hero with killer elegance, then Modesty Blaise is his female counterpart. This adventure series, begun in the '60s, has inspired numerous film adaptations, television programs and novels, and continues to be fresh and popular for readers around the world. Love her, but don't get in her way!



James Bond
The world's most famous secret agent is now in daily newspapers. Follow every move of Ian Fleming's hero as he dives headfirst into international intrigue, scandal, romance and more.



Fisher by Philip Street

Fisher is an anomaly in the world of comic strips in that it only runs in one newspaper, albeit nationally—The Globe & Mail out of Toronto.





Mail Order Ninja
TOKYOPOP is the largest English-language publisher of manga in the world. TOKYOPOP scores again with MAIL ORDER NINJA, the story of young Timmy McAllister from Indiana, who orders his very own ninja through the mail! When Yoshida Jiro arrives in a shipping crate, Timmy and his family are thrown into a whole new world of adventure!



Prince Valiant


Carol Lay


Lio
First LIO has no dialog. It tells stories only with images—a "pantomine strip" says Mark Tatulli, the creator. Next, LIO's main character is a curious young boy with an imagination that's unleashed by bumps in the night and things hiding under the bed. And LIO offers various shades of dark humor along with straightforward laughs.



James by Mark Tonra. Archives Only.







Pooch Café



Liberty Meadows
Always some nice art by Frank Cho with some inspired Sunday Strips. Only available as archives.



Mutts