First nerdy thought I had today was this, "what I wouldn't do for some splash damage right now." The second is like it. "I think my fish have a fungus."

Comic-Con 2008 :: Programming for Thursday, July 24

OMG decisions, decisions. I'm thinking this will be my tentative schedule, if I can make it in the respective halls. I sense some camping in my future. Thankfully I'll have my DS, iPod, and a book or two. Here's my tentative plans (after the jump):

Read more »

New York-Penn League: About

For those of you who don't know, Ming Chen is the webmaster and tech guru for Kevin Smith and a good friend of mine. He is currently in the running for a logo contest for the New York-Penn Class A league. His logo is option one. Please take two seconds to vote. Thanks!

Interview: Guillermo Del Toro

I was just finishing my house and when I mean my house, I mean my house. I'm doing a man cave of epic proportions. My collection of crap was getting so big that my wife said, "Dude, you or us." I said let's move the things out. I bought a house five blocks away from my house, I put a secret book shelf door, I put a haunted mansion room, I am moving all my stuff there and I was planning on having that as my office for the next five years and then I got the call.

Question: Will you move the house?

del Toro: I'm going to lend it to a friend, a like-minded friend to live there for three years while I'm gone. He?s going to have 7,000 DVDs, 15,000 comic books, but the only thing he can't touch is my toys. I have many iterations of Disney's the Nautilus. I collect haunted mansion memorabilia; I collect any iteration of Chernabog the demon from Fantasia. I own two of the original sketches that Kay Nielsen and the other artist pitched to Disney. I am an obsessive collector and I've said in the past, mercifully I do dress like shit and I drive a really old car, so the only vice I have is collecting this stuff.

Ah, another Haunted Mansion nut. I seriously love this man. He has definitely made his way into my top five filmmakers list. I'm super super pumped for The Dark Knight but I'm also really excited for Hellboy 2. My friend Matt attended the premiere and loved it. Can't wait.

NPR: San Quentin's Gym Becomes One Massive Cell

The link above will take you to a story about California's San Quentin prison, which embodies the problem of prison overcrowding in just about every state in America. I highly recommend listening to it.

Prisons in America have reached a point at which they are merely adding to the crime problem. When someone is arrested for minor drug possession or a parole violation, he is placed in the type of place described in the NPR story: a dangerously overcrowded criminal population segregated along racial lines. That man is forced to choose a gang to join, which teaches him a host of new criminal behaviors. With no rehabilitation or career education programs, is it any surprise that he will be arrested again soon after being released?

What is especially frustrating about this problem is that the only reason for it is politics. During the 80s and 90s a sure way for a politician to get elected was to talk about getting Tough On Crime and creating harsher sentences for minor criminals. This approach was very effective at winning elections, but we are now faced with the real-life consequences.

What's even more depressing is that there is no easy solution that policymakers are willing to take. The only way to decrease prison populations is to stop putting people away for minor crimes and parole violations--but suggesting we go easier on criminals is political suicide.

So our politicians continue to play at being Tough On Crime to win some easy votes, and we continue to add to our overcrowded prisons without considering any lasting solutions.