That Was the Week That Was - May 28th

A fun-filled week with it’s fair share of arguments prompting Monday’s guide to arguing online. As it has also been a week without new 'Doctor Who', I am feeling rather strung out, waiting for my next fix. ‘Battlestar Galactica’ was also missing this week. I may need to resort to ‘Lost’ just to keep the inner-geek in check.

On second thoughts, things can’t be that bad.

Work the System, Don’t Beat the System

After all the brou-ha-ha of the last fortnight over linkbait-gate, it seems the mainstream media is now jumping in to put their view. Media Watch – a long running television show in Australia that exposes media discrepancies and hypocrisy – made the linkbait story their lead story this week.

On a related note, my favourite post of the week came from Seth Godin. Although not commenting on this particular incident, he recently wrote a post entitled 'The Spirit of the Game', dealing with the difference between working the system and attempting to beat the system.

” It's fascinating to watch as some people work hard to work the system, and succeed time and time again, while others waste countless hours with one scheme after another designed to beat the system.”

It is essential reading and says far more eloquently than I ever could what I’ve been trying to say for a fortnight.

The Mars Rover Tweets!

NASA didn’t choke – how cool is that!

After mishaps and failed missions and a seeming inability to convert miles into kilometers, a new probe successfully lands on Mars. Of course, as it landed in the Martian polar region, we should be seeing seven feet tall armoured green lizard-men any day now.

But the best find this week was that the Phoenix lander tweets! That’s right, it has a Twitter account and someone is thoroughly enjoying getting into character as the pile of circuit boards fills in his followers with his daily thoughts and discoveries.

Now that’s cool when deep space probes start getting into social media.

Captain Britain – Say It Ain’t So!

I was so excited about the return of Captain Britain to his own title, especially at the hands of a British writer I admired, Paul Cornell. After years of mistreatment with pretenders to the throne taking up the Captain Britain mantle and continuities shoe-horned into the X-Men, Cap was returning home.

Finally read issue 1.

Bugger.

I’m trying to be spoiler free here as the issue is still on the racks, but it’s probably better if you stop reading now if you plan on picking up this issue anytime soon. But my union jack knickers are in a knot and that’s not a pretty sight. The publicity for upcoming issues confirms this isn’t a cliffhanger trick, but the kick-off for a new direction.

Captain Britain has had nothing but new directions for the last twenty years. He has had no real opportunity to shine as Britain’s hero in a long, long time, instead playing second fiddle to virtually every other Marvel character. I hoped for a return to the glory days.

But then I have to keep reminding myself that this is Paul Cornell. Surely he would have a long game here. Surely this is sleight of hand and a means to reestablishing how important Brian Braddock is to British comics. Surely it can’t end like this.

Brian Braddock is Cap. Long live Brian Braddock.

Please?

Neil Gaiman on Doctor Who?

Fans have been pushing Neil Gaiman to write for Doctor Who ever since he revealed that he was a fan of the series. But with Steven Moffat being announced as the new show-runner starting with series five in 2010, many of us cast our minds back to a particular lunch Neil had with Steven a couple of months ago.

Sure enough, when asked the big question, his answer steered as far from actually addressing the question as possible. But the question won’t go away. Now Rich Johnston believes he has received the closest to an admission that something is in the works.

And Finally…

Am now officially addicted to rhubarb upside-down cake. Blame the missus. She’ll never be allowed out of the kitchen again!

That is all. You may now return to what you were doing.