A man named Sue

Watch 10 live video feeds of Hurricane Gustav

2008-09-01T15:22:00.002-04:00

4 Live video feeds of New Orleans TV stations

6 live video feeds of surrounding TV stations covering Hurricane Gustav

Hurricane Gustav live video feed

2008-09-01T14:53:00.000-04:00

Live Videos by Ustream

Hurricane Gustav live feed

2008-09-01T14:41:00.001-04:00

Webcam chat at Ustream

Greener Grass

2008-06-28T14:17:00.001-04:00

God created woman

2008-06-28T14:12:00.000-04:00

The Lord made man in the Garden of Eden.

Then he said to himself, "There's something he's needing."
After casting about for a suitable pearl, He kept messing around and created a girl.

Two beautiful legs, so long and so slender,
Round, slim, and firm, and ever so tender.
Two lovely hips to increase his desire,
And rounded and firm to bring out the fire.
Two lovely breasts, so full and so proud,
Commanding his eyes, as he whispers aloud.
Two lovely arms, just aching to bless you,
And two loving hands, to soothe and caress you.
Soft, cascading hair hung down over her shoulder,
And two dreamy eyes, just to make him grow bolder.
'Twas made for a man, just to make his heart sing.

Then he added a mouth.

Ruined the whole f*cking thing.

Odd things said in court

2008-06-25T21:11:00.000-04:00

These are from a book called Disorder in the American courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
__________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
__________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
_____________________ _____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
__________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: Uh, he's twenty.
__________________________________________________________< /SPAN>
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you kidding me?
__________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Uh.... I was gettin' laid!
____ __ ____________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Have you ?lost it'? Your Honour, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
__________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Now whose death do you suppose terminated it?
__________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Guess.
__________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
__________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. Would you like to rephrase that?
_________________________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_______________________________ __________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him!
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh....are you qualified to ask that question?
_________________________________________________________
And the best for last:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pul s e?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

glowing clouds 30 mins before the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China

2008-05-23T23:47:00.000-04:00

Cool pics: Fun with food

2008-05-19T00:03:00.001-04:00

Fun with food. Amazing food sculptures and cutouts.

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Babe break: ugh Mindy McCready

2008-04-28T22:37:00.002-04:00

It was revealed today that not only does Roger Clemens have a steroid issue he must deal with, but also that he had a secret affair with trailer park trash Mindy McCready.

Enjoy the babe ugh break of Mindy McCready.

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Bell Canada throttling (net neutrality)

2008-04-25T15:02:00.005-04:00

If you are from Canada and trying to watch all the wonderful babes posted here, or watch some of the funny Youtube videos on this site, then maybe you are out of luck.
You see, Bell Canada aka as Sympatico has been throttling their service since November 2007, and in March 2008 started to squeeze independent ISP providers that use their lines as well.. without telling them.
I am not familiar with Rogers cable internet, but i've heard just as many horror stories.

Here is a link from p2pnet news;

p2pnet news | Freedom:- Is all the attention focused on the bandwidth ‘management’ scandal making any kind of impression with Canada’s regulators?

“Canada’s Big 3 service providers are being told by customers from all sides, including client ISPs, which way is up,” p2pnet posted earlier today, going on to quote a Reader’s Write from Invictus (right), in which among other things, he says >>>

I have posted the following comment on the CBC website. As a former communications specialist I am appalled by the nonsensical approach of Bell Canada.

Ultimately, this is not about the internet but the monopoly that both Bell Canada and Rogers Communications want to exercise in distributing contents.

I further urge you to have specialists on your panel that are familiar with the rules and practices in other countries, especially countries in the EU, where traffic shaping of ANY sort is illegal and is being treated as anticompetitive and, in most countries, as an invasion of privacy, and therefore a criminal offense.

Should Bell Canada be successful in maintaining traffic shaping, Canada, as far as I know would be the only country that legally allows this degrading of service. Under the threat of being re-regulated, Comcast in the US has abandoned the practice.

“Canada has the third highest internet rates in the world, and measured by speed, is dead last in Broadcom services of any industrialized country……SHAMEFUL!!!!

Invictus is a former communications specialist —- and an ex-Bell Canada employee.

He’s worked as a consultant in England, Germany, Thailand, Vietnam, as well as for banks, and a major UK tourist company.

So when he says, “abolish the CRTC. Get on the next plane to Berlin, Germany and pick up a copy of the European rules and regulations —- Implement at once,” he knows what he’s talking about.

Meanwhile, what’s happening over at the CRTC?

“Just had a call from the CRTC,” Invictus told p2pnet.

“They’re being inundated with calls and emails.”

If you want to add to the onslaught, Marc Bissonnette of Canadian ISP.com has paved the way.

Here’s what to do >>>

1) click on this link - http://support.crtc.gc.ca/crtcsubmissionmu/forms/Telecom.aspx?lang=e
2) Select “Part VII/PN” from the drop-down list
3) Insert CRTC file number # 8622-C51-200805153 into the “Subject” Line, and then do what Invictus did —
4) Tell the CRTC what you think, and why, by posting your comments text into the “Description / Comments / Questions” box:

Or if you’re at a loss for words, you can use this >>>

I am writing to express my support for the Application that CAIP has filed with the CRTC regarding Bell Canada’s throttling practices.

I believe that these practices contravene Bell Canada’s duties as a common carrier and that the Commission should direct Bell to immediately cease and desist from throttling the traffic of independent ISPs.”

Keep it up, folks, and stay tuned.

Jon Newton - p2pnet

Babe Break: Kristen Bell

2008-04-25T14:36:00.002-04:00

Hottie Kristen Bell is getting some hot looks in her latest movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall".

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Shocker!! Miley Cyrus pics stun fans

2008-04-22T21:36:00.002-04:00

whatever. she's just doing what any other 15 year old should NOT be doing.
Disney must hope they don't land another Lohan-Spears clone. Hanah Montana will grow up, just hopefully on the good side.

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Cool pics: Strange cars

2008-04-15T18:47:00.001-04:00

Funny pics: engrish at it's best

2008-04-15T18:41:00.001-04:00

Riding mower DUI arrest video

2008-04-08T11:35:00.000-04:00

The Wonder of WonderBra

2008-04-08T11:21:00.001-04:00

Eerie first recording ever done in 1860 (Voices of the dead)

2008-04-01T10:26:00.003-04:00

A conference of audio recording experts is unveiling today in California the 1860 audio recording done by French inventor E.L. Scott de Martinville of the song 'Au Claire de la Lune' which predates the Thomas Alva Edison recording of 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' by 17 years.

This video captures that original 1860 recording which became available on the Internet just hours ago. Pictured is the 'phonoautograph' invented by Frenchman Scott de Martinville, with the recording edited in sequence to a 1931 recording of an excerpt of Claire De Lune for comparison. The oldest recording runs some 11 seconds so is presented in this video 3 times for better appreciation. Credit for this historic feat of finding, and sharing the first ever recording with the world properly goes to the audio experts initiative firstsounds.org .

It's quite the weird and strange feeling listening to voices of the dead like this. I mean you can listen to Elvis and enjoy the music and you know he's dead (is he really dead?) but you don't feel that odd sensation. It shouldn't be different than watching an old 1920-30-40's movie, when you figure most of the people in there are dead.
But this recording just gives you the chills.

Top 10 lists

2008-03-31T10:54:00.004-04:00

Top 12 "In-their-40's" hot actresses. Yes, they are very hot.

Top 10 Hottest Psychos.

Top thousands of Chicks and Breasts. I love sites like this.

Top 10 Striptease Scenes.

I've fallen, and i can't get up. Are we out of shape or what?

Woman Stuck In Trench - Watch more free videos

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Star Wars goofs (Trumpet Solo, Saber Kid)

2008-03-31T10:41:00.002-04:00

You know, if we didn't have the internet things like this would be forgotten. But as you have it things done waaaay back in 1993 will still come back to haunt you.
Here we have Stacey Hedger doing a Star Wars trumpet solo, with special effects. Classic.

While we're hot, here's the Star Wars Saber Kid to the tune of Ms. Hedger's trumpet solo.

Then again, the Star Wars kid gets the last laugh, he's featured in Tony Hawk's video game...

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Crazy woman vs lawnmower

2008-03-31T10:37:00.001-04:00

This was a one sided battle.

Crazy Neighbor Girl Vs Lawn Mower - Watch more free videos

David Letterman with clueless Paris Hilton interview

2008-03-31T10:16:00.000-04:00

Unbelievable hot weather babe

2008-03-31T10:14:00.001-04:00

what's today's weather? who cares? and who can remember what she's saying anyway?
i watched the full 2! minutes and am still a little foggy.

Unbelievable Hot Weather Chick - Watch more free videos

Are Americans really this stupid?

2008-03-31T10:12:00.000-04:00

Unusually odd websites

2008-03-20T13:27:00.002-04:00

Another Day, Another Word

Take a trip to The World's Highest Website. great view!!

The Last Page of the Internet.

Where do deleted pictures go? To the Deleted Images Junkyard.

The longest website in numbers. http://141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.com/

25 Ugliest Celebrities

2008-03-20T12:58:00.002-04:00

Here is a list of the 25 Ugliest Celebrities. Below are examples of Goldie Hawn, Jon Heder and Tori Spelling.

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Babe Break: Josie Maran

2008-03-20T12:45:00.001-04:00

Train Runs Through Bangkok Market

2008-03-20T12:42:00.000-04:00

Train Runs Through Bangkok Market - Watch more free videos

Live from Congress: Skull Fucking

2008-03-20T12:40:00.000-04:00

Live From Congress: The Skull Fucking Bill Of 2007

Wow: Diner in The Sky

2008-03-09T23:33:00.001-04:00

Would you eat here? Dinner in the Sky is hosted at a table suspended at a height of 50 metres, by a team of professionals.

Matt Damon-Jimmy Kimmel-Sarah Silverman war,umm, threesome, um Ben Affleck foursome

2008-03-02T23:11:00.002-05:00

The War

The cheat and fight back.

The "Got you back byatch"

U ugly too

2008-03-02T23:08:00.001-05:00

A very loud, very unattractive, mean-acting woman walked into
Wal-Mart with her two kids, bellowing obscenities at them all
the way through the entrance.

The Wal-Mart Greeter said pleasantly 'Good morning, and welcome
to Wal-Mart. Nice children you have there. Are they twins?'

The ugly woman stopped yelling long enough to say, 'Hell no they
ain't. The oldest one's 9 and the other one's 7. Why the hell
would you think they're twins? Are you blind, or just stupid?'

'I'm neither blind nor stupid, Ma'am,' replied the greeter. 'I just
couldn't believe you got laid twice. Have a nice day and thank
you for shopping at Wal-Mart.'

2504 Steps to closing your Facebook account

2008-02-16T13:04:00.001-05:00

Originally posted by Steven Mansour, on his troubles on simply closing his Facebook account.

Yes, it’s true! I finally managed to close my Facebook account. It was a long, arduous road - the hardest part was slaying the Gorgon on level 16 - and I’m glad it’s finally over.

If you, cherished reader, are wondering why I would do such a thing, then wipe those potato skins off the top of your Bananarama tour t-shirt and keep reading:

I already left Flickr, Myspace, Youtube, and most of the other similar web services because they want to eat our babies. The process was fairly straightforward for each of those (Though Flickr ends it with a pretentious fuck-off: “Thanks for using Flickr. See ya!” Whatever. Goddamn wankers).

Facebook, however, was a much more interesting endeavour. You see, you can’t really close your Facebook account once you open it; you can only deactivate it, which I somehow missed when reading their 913 page privacy policy:

Changing or Removing Information

Access and control over most personal information on Facebook is readily available through the profile editing tools. Facebook users may modify or delete any of their profile information at any time by logging into their account [though we don’t provide any means to delete more than one item at a time, which is about as enjoyable as having your nose picked by Andre the Giant]. Information will be updated immediately. Individuals who wish to deactivate their Facebook account may do so on the My Account page. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time [Eternity is reasonable!] but will not be generally available to members of Facebook and by ‘generally’, we mean sometimes, and by ‘members of Facebook’, we don’t mean our corporate and government buddies named Clives or Dustin who come golfing with us on the second tuesday of every month, after the Freemason meeting].

Emphasis mine.

When I first wanted to leave Facebroke ~~after seeing an ex-flame post ridiculous badly photoshopped pics of her in a bikini~~ , I must’ve missed the subtle distinction between ‘DEACTIVATE’ and ‘CLOSE MY FUCKING ACCOUNT YOU GODDAMN CAPUCHINS’.

Maybe it was a gremlin in the system, but I kept receiving emails from Facebook - I couldn’t find out how to leave their subscription list. I kept digging until I tried logging in again with my ‘deactivated’ account. To my surprise, they sent me an email telling me how to ‘reactivate’ my account - meaning that Facebook still kept a copy of all of my personal data, indefinitely. No offense, guys, but what the fuck?

It’s one thing when I choose to leave a web service (Flickr, Youtube) because I don’t want them profiting from my content. It’s another when they prevent me from leaving. Is this really the only choice we have left? Shitty web companies vs. shitty web companies that keep and distribute your personal data ad infinitum even when you request your account to be closed?

As it turns out, I had to ‘contact’ facebook and ask them how to delete my account, only to find out that I have to manually delete every single minifeed item, friend, post, wall writing, etc by hand, one-by-one, or else they will refuse to close your account. When you’re a member of the Internet High Society as I am, you find that you have thousands of these items to delete.

Here’s the complete transcript of the conversation I had with “Lucy From Facebook”. You’ll find me tedious, boring, petty, and acting like the douchebaggiest dick you’ll ever know. In other words, it’s just like meeting me in person.

Hello,

I’ve recently “deactivated” my Facebook account, but cannot find a way
to completely delete my account.

I would like all of my information to be wiped from the facebook
servers.

Please delete my account en related information in its entirety (my
account email address is steven [at] stevenmansour.com), or send me
instructions on how to do so myself.

Thank you for your time,

s.

Hi Steven,If you deactivate, your account is removed from the site.
However, we save all your profile content (friends, photos,
interests, etc.), so if you want to reactivate sometime, your
account will look just the way it did when you deactivated. If you
do want your information completely wiped from our servers, we
can do this for you. However, you need to remove all profile
content before we can do this. Once you have cleared your
account, let us know and we’ll take care of the rest.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Lucy
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

Hi Lucy,

I’ve removed all profile content from my account as per your request.
Now, please go ahead and completely delete my account
(steven [at] stevenmansour.com).

The procedure to close an account on Facebook is needlessly convoluted
and unclear. To bring itself inline with privacy policies dictating good
behaviour on the web (see http://www.privacyinternational.org/ ), it
would be a good idea for Facebook to give users a one-step option to
close / delete their account instead of just ‘deactivating’ it, which is
misleading (if not blatantly dishonest) to users.

Please let me know when my account has been completely destroyed.

Thank you,

Steven Mansour

Hi Steven,I apologize, but you have not completely deleted all of your
information. You still have incoming and outgoing messages,
wall posts, mini-feed stories, friends, and contact information
remaining on your profile. Once you have completely removed
all information from your account, I will permanently delete it for
you.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Lucy
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

I’m sorry, but it is unreasonable to expect users to manually delete,
one-by-one, each and every bit of information / friends / “notes” / wall
writings that they’ve posted or that other users have posted on their
accounts. It would take me hours to delete each wall post and feed
story.

It would be far easier for you to simply delete my account - and asking
me to manually erase each entry is unnecessary.

At this point, you have two choices:

- You can stop giving me the run-around, and just delete my account so
that everyone will be happy, or

- You can refuse to comply with your own privacy policy and user
standards, in which case I will be forced to escalate this situation.

Please advise,

Steven Mansour

Hi Steven,I apologize for any inconvenience, however this is our privacy
policy for permanently deleting accounts. I am unable to delete
your account unless you have personally removed all of your
information. You may either completely clear your account so
that I can finish this process for you, or you can leave your
account deactivated. Let me know if you have further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Lucy
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

Lucy from Facebook,

I’ve removed all my private data.

Close my account.

s.

Hi Steven,We have processed your request. Let me know if you have any
further issues.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Lucy
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

Now, most people won’t get why this is such a big deal. But it is a big deal. Your personal data, especially on the web, is something that will be increasingly valuable to corporate and government interests - and increasingly important (and, perhaps, difficult) to protect.

I’m reminded of being at the SaveTheInternet.Com party in Memphis (Christ, what the fuck is a “YouTuber”?) where everyone was giving each other handjobs over how they spread the message about Net Neutrality and beat the telecoms with the help of Google and Yahoo. They didn’t realize that they helped win the battle, but in doing so, they lost the war. They turned a blind eye to their supposed allies and failed to apply the same yardstick to measure privacy neutrality as they did to network neutrality. Google is ranked as one of the worst privacy firms on the net.

I don’t know about you, but I like the idea of being in charge of my own private data, and controlling access to it accordingly. There will be lots of interesting battles fought over this in the next few years, so whatever you do, make sure you think long and hard about just how open you want to be with you own privacy - and whether others will treat it with the same respect as you do.

This handy chart should help you decide who to trust with you data and how to stay ahead of the curve on the interweb of the future:

Accident caused by rain water blowup

2008-02-12T12:16:00.000-05:00

wow, wrong spot at the wrong time. talk about freak happenings.

Crazy lady

2008-02-12T11:57:00.000-05:00

crazy. crazy. crazy. She sounds like a Dalek.

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College basketball player eats booger

2008-02-12T11:54:00.000-05:00

Midget fight on Jerry Springer

2008-02-12T11:36:00.000-05:00

Our motto... There are strange things out there and we will find it.

I think i can retire now as Jerry can't be beat.

I wanna be a Pop Star (apologies to Nickelback)

2008-02-12T11:35:00.000-05:00

Young DJ's

2008-02-12T11:01:00.000-05:00

DJ Sara and DJ Ryusei, very cool.

Look! The Great whakoff!

2008-02-12T11:00:00.001-05:00

The Top 10 Caught Masterbating videos.
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Never accept candy from strangers

2008-02-12T10:42:00.001-05:00

20 years ago, Clint Malarchuk gets cut by skate

2008-02-11T14:38:00.001-05:00

After last night's accident involving Richard Zednik getting cut by a skate blade in the Buffalo Sabres-Florida Panthers game, 20 years ago the same thing happened in Buffalo as well.
Goaltender Clint Malarchuk was cut by the blade of Steve Tuttle when the players crashed the net.

WARNING: the video is not for faint of heart. If this disturbs you please do not watch.

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Hard internet riddles

2008-02-11T12:06:00.000-05:00

Think like a hacker.

Spoiler alert.....

--> 2

Two --> Three

iii --> iV

ruof --> evif

ffiivvee --> ssiixx

666666 --> 7777777

uranus (7th planet) --> neptune (8th planet)

acht (8 in german) --> neun (9 in german)

sept (9th month) --> oct (10th month)

10 (cards) --> Jack

eLeVeN --> tWeLvE

144 (12 squared) --> 169 (13 squared)

number13 --> number14

catorce (14 in spanish) --> quince (15 in spanish)

buchanan (15th President of the United States) --> lincoln

sédecim ( = XVI, 16) --> septendecim (= 17, XVII)

10001 (17 - binary numbers) = 10010

argon (18 = atomic number) --> potassium (atomic number = 19)

ojofuffo (-1 to each letter [o-1=n and j-1=e etc] --> uxfouz (twenty)

icosagon 920 sided polygon) --> icosihenagon (21 sided polygon)

Fibonacci numbers
10946 (= 2 x 13 x 421 [21]) --> 17711 (=89x199 [22])

Aoozy, Booyy, Cooxy, doowy, eoovy... vooey, woody
To get from Aoozy to Booxy, +1 to the first letter and -1 to the fourth letter.

The Hardest Riddle on the Internet!

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Examples of when NOT to hyphen your name

2008-02-11T12:00:00.001-05:00

World's tallest and heaviest woman.

2008-02-11T11:55:00.000-05:00

The tallest and biggest woman in the world lives in Holland and she is 7' 4'' and weighs 320 pounds.

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Fun and games and oddities

2008-02-11T10:46:00.000-05:00

Try to sneak a peek without getting caught.

When will you die??? Ask the Death Predictor.

Your Birthday Calculator. When exactly were you conceived? Among other answers!

Do you have periods?

Beware the Fart Man!!!!!

How many people have died on YOUR birthday??

ohwoanoaooscwo aooo ra scrawh whrascwowa chuwo rhanoorr, ohacworcwo rooohu ohahanan wwahwhwa oowawa rawhwa caorcrawhrrwo acraakakwowhahwhrrc!

I can read your mind.

How much is your body worth?

What's wrong with this picture?

She has 5 fingers.

Girls moan your IP address.

Long lost twins.

Florida Panthers' Richard Zednik cut with skate

2008-02-11T10:42:00.000-05:00

By JOHN WAWROW, AP Sports Writer
February 11, 2008

AP - Feb 10, 10:03 pm EST
More Photos

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Florida Panthers goalie Thomas Vokoun saw fear in Richard Zednik's ashen face when his teammate reached the bench with blood gushing from his throat.

"He was very scared," Vokoun said, describing the frightening scene after the right side of Zednik's throat was accidentally sliced by teammate Olli Jokinen's skate during a game at Buffalo on Sunday night. "He was conscious, I guess. His eyes were closed, but he was moving and moaning."

As the Panthers traveled home to south Florida following a 5-3 loss, the team announced Zednik was stable and resting comfortably at Buffalo General Hospital after having surgery to close the gash that led the forward to leave a long trail of blood on the ice.

A 12-year NHL veteran, Zednik was hurt with 9:56 left in the third period in the right corner of the Sabres zone.

Zednik was circling the net behind the play and skating into the corner just when Jokinen was upended by Sabres forward Clarke MacArthur. Jokinen fell headfirst to the ice, and his right leg flew up and struck Zednik directly on the side of the neck.

Clutching his neck, Zednik somehow had the capacity to race the three-quarters length of the ice to the Panthers bench, where he nearly fell into the arms of trainer Dave Zenobi, who immediately placed a towel on the player's throat. With the help of defenseman Jassen Cullimore, Zednik was escorted up the tunnel behind the Panthers bench and loaded into an ambulance.

Jokinen was sickened when he watched the replay and learned it was his skate that caused the cut, leaving the Panthers' captain in no mood to continue playing.

"It was terrifying," Jokinen said. "If it was my call, I would have gone to the hospital with him."

Play resumed after a 15-minute delay, during which time crews scraped the blood off the ice and the surface was cleaned by Zambonis. NHL officials briefly considered stopping the game, but determined to continue playing after knowing that Zednik was stable and the two teams were willing to go on.

Panthers spokesman Justin Copertino said the team was making arrangements to have Zednik's wife, Jessica, fly from South Florida to Buffalo by a charter flight Sunday night. Zenobi and assistant general manager Randy Sexton also stayed behind to be with Zednik, Copertino said.

Hospital spokesman Mike Hughes said he expected the Panthers to provide an update on the player's condition on Monday.

A hush fell over the crowd at HSBC Arena after Zednik was hurt. It wasn't until the public address announcer said Zednik was in stable condition that fans gave a lengthy standing ovation.

Players on both benches, though, were still shaken.

"It was pretty solemn," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, said describing the mood on his bench. "There wasn't a lot being said (on the bench). There was just more concern for Richard than anything else.

"I can fully understand if they wanted to cancel the whole game," Ruff added. "When you see something like that, it isn't about playing anymore. But I said, 'We're going to finish the game and it's going to be what it's going to be."'

AP - Feb 10, 9:28 pm EST
More Photos

The NHL released a statement, saying: "The thoughts and prayers of the NHL family are with Richard Zednik, his loved ones, his teammates and the Florida Panthers organization."

Sabres general manager Darcy Regier credited both Zednik for having the awareness to head to the bench and also the NHL for mandating physicians be on hand and near the bench during games. Regier said doctors were already waiting in the tunnel behind the Panthers' bench when Zednik was escorted off.

Zednik's injury was eerily reminiscent of an injury sustained by Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuk about 19 years ago at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium. On March 22, 1989, Malarchuk severed his jugular vein when St. Louis Blues forward Steve Tuttle was upended while skating toward the crease, slicing Malarchuk with a skate.

Malarchuk required over 300 stitches but spent only one night in the hospital, returning to practice after four days. On April 2, he played the final five minutes in the season finale, less than two weeks after his injury.

It was the second serious injury caused by a skate this weekend.

On Saturday, NHL linesman Pat Dapuzzo needed dozens of stitches to close a cut on his face after he was hit by the skate of Philadelphia Flyers forward Steve Downie in a game against the New York Rangers.

Dapuzzo, scheduled to retire at the end of the season, didn't return after the second-period injury.

Zednik has 15 goals and 11 assists this season, and had a four-game point streak (three goals, six assists) end on Sunday.

"I can't imagine what he was going through," Panthers defenseman Bryan Allen said. "What saved the situation was he had the mental ability to get to the bench and get to the dressing room, not stay on the ice. Those few seconds could have been the difference."

Just laugh

2008-02-06T12:51:00.001-05:00

Streetluge Extreme

2008-02-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

Take the Celeb Quiz Game.

Streetluge Xtreme
Play Games
at Shockwave

13.4 gp pic of Harlem

2008-02-06T09:38:00.000-05:00

Video demo of a 13.4 Gigapixel photo of Harlem. Then check out the actual site.

13.4 Gigapicel Camera - Watch more free videos

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Babe Break: Hayden Panettiere

2008-02-06T09:18:00.000-05:00

Sexy Hayden Panettiere of "Heroes".

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More odd pics of the day

2008-02-04T11:32:00.000-05:00

Plane lands in heavy fog in London

2008-02-04T11:08:00.000-05:00

Pilots must still get that odd feeling, and really trust the instruments.

Crazy coffee shop lady "In the name of Geezus"

2008-02-04T11:07:00.000-05:00

weirdo.

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Sexy accident - Belly dancer blooper

2008-02-04T11:00:00.001-05:00

Hot babes: Emma Griffiths

2008-02-04T10:53:00.000-05:00

Pics that make you go ..hmm

2008-02-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

Old lady takes a crap in the store

2008-02-04T10:20:00.000-05:00

Cheerleader bloopers

2008-02-04T10:06:00.000-05:00

Homemade 60 foot water slide

2008-02-04T09:59:00.000-05:00

What do you do when your parents go away on vacation?

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Babe Break: Sienna Miller

2008-02-04T09:43:00.000-05:00

Farts to the tune of 'Sweet Child o'Mine' by Guns n Roses

2008-02-04T09:14:00.000-05:00

Play sexy solitaire

2008-01-31T14:27:00.000-05:00

Bored? Try Sexy Solitaire. NSFW.

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Devil Dog

2008-01-31T14:11:00.001-05:00

Not lika the wata?

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Babe Break: Katherine Heigl

2008-01-31T14:08:00.000-05:00

Tasha and Dishka.. the "Hey" babes

2008-01-29T13:40:00.000-05:00

This vid was posted waaaay back in the beginning of this blog. The girls only had a few thousand hits at that time. They are closing in on 20,000,000, but have slipped down the 'most viewed clip of all time' lately.

The Master, Kevin Smith, even did a funny with the "Hey" clip as well.

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Babe Break: Megan Fox

2008-01-29T13:20:00.000-05:00

Babe break: Kelly Brock

2008-01-29T13:11:00.000-05:00

Body Shots

2008-01-29T12:56:00.000-05:00

Spider-Man: One More Day.. "Don't Worry, it's magic!" Joe Quesada

2008-01-28T15:31:00.001-05:00

Kevin Smith: The man, the Legend

2008-01-28T15:16:00.000-05:00

Now if you're the type of person that visits this blog, you know Kevin Smith.

Watch the master as he puts some loser down after his stupid comments. This was at Comic-con 2007.

PS: get "An Evening with Kevin Smith" and "An Evening with Kevin Smith: Evening Harder".

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Invisible rope trick

2008-01-28T15:08:00.000-05:00

Babe break: Alessandra Ambrosio

2008-01-28T14:57:00.000-05:00

Spider-Man: Peter and MJ Tribute in pictures

2008-01-23T23:54:00.000-05:00

Below are some of the great moments shared by Peter and MJ in the Marvel Comics.

Somebody show this to Joe Quesada. This is what he thinks is wrong with Spider-Man?
It is absolutely the other way around, MJ is what makes Spider-Man great.

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Spider-Man: Remembering Peter and MJ

2008-01-23T11:04:00.000-05:00

Spider-Man: Joe Quesada interview

2008-01-23T10:13:00.001-05:00

Joe Quesada is the moron that made all this happen. He explains his side of things in this interview posted on Comic Book Resources.

I'll insert my personal comments in certain areas, printed in bold yellow.

THE “ONE MORE DAY” INTERVIEWS WITH JOE QUESADA, PT. 2 OF 5
by Jonah Weiland, Executive Producer
Posted: December 31, 2007 — More From This Author

"Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" #24 on sale now

With the "One More Day" storyline now concluded, fan discussion of the massive changes to come for Peter Parker and friends has been very vocal. As such, CBR News spoke exclusively with Marvel Editor-in-Chief and "One More Day" artist Joe Quesada to cover all aspects of "One More Day," including his artwork, the story, and the various controversies that have swirled around the project since it was first announced.

In part one of this five-part interview, Quesada spoke about some of the revelations readers saw at the end of "One More Day" chapter four, as well as his approach to the series' artwork.

Now in part two of our series of interviews, Quesada goes into further detail about his artwork (and those easter eggs he mentioned last time), why the book was plagued with delays, and we delve into Quesada's reaction to writer J. Michael Straczynski's public disagreements with changes made to the original "One More Day" storyline he wrote.

Parts three, four and five of this interview will be published on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, respectively.

SPOILER WARNING -- If you've not read the final chapter of "One More Day" and don't wish it to be spoiled, stop reading right now. The following interview discusses events from the final chapter of "One More Day" in detail.

When last we spoke, you mentioned that you filled "One More Day" with hidden hints and gems; easter eggs.

As I said, I can't discuss all of them because many foretell the future, and also I want to leave some stuff there for the readers to find, but I'll point out a few. Many are subtle and almost symbolic in nature. Take a look at the very last page of chapter 4, for example. This can serve as a road map towards how to find many other things within the series. The toast amongst the friends, new and old, with only their hands and glasses, I think reveals a lot. Peter toasts, but he's the only one with an empty glass, which to me is as it should be. He's lost a lot, while he doesn't know it and remembers nothing, his world right at this point is certainly a lot emptier. The bright side of that is that now his world is just waiting to be filled anew.

In contrast to that, Harry toasts with the whole bottle, which I think speaks for itself and quite telling for a guy who has just comeback from rehab. Flash's glass, while amongst the group, doesn't quite join in. He straddles the line, not quite fitting into the group while not quite being out of it. But Flash has always been a bigger than life character, he's the loudest, perhaps the most outgoing of the group, so his glass of course is filled to the brim. Lilly and Carlie's glasses both point right up at Peter's, almost reaching out to him, and it's Lily's finger that points right at the webshooter, hmmmm, I wonder why?

**Easter eggs?? Who Cares?? Lily's finger is pointed at the webshooter? So?? Who the fuck is Lily?**

One thing I'm surprised at is how no one noticed that from the very first time we see her in "OMD," MJ is wearing the exact same outfit that she wore when she first met Peter back in the day. The black top with the purple Capri pants. If there was any one thing that I put in from the very beginning that was telegraphing that this was going to be it for them, that was it.

Anyway, there's a lot of stuff like this in the four issues, some of it dealing with what was going to happen within the series, much of it telling you what's to come. I'm going to let the readers have fun discovering them.

By the way, if you read the last issue backwards while standing on your head, it reads, "I buried, Bendis."

Why did you feel the need to insert these easter eggs throughout the story? Was this just you getting to have some fun, or is it serving a larger story purpose?

Part of it was fun, but I've done stuff like this in the past. The reason I did so much of it in "OMD," more than I ever have is because I had a clear roadmap of what was coming afterwards. Not only was there a significant amount of "Brand New Day" content already created or being created, had been planned nearly a year and a half before we even began "OMD." This made it much easier for me to drop in hints, messages, clues and such, because the ending and the future was so very clear and in many ways written in stone.

Also, to me, it's another one of the tools that we pencilers have, it's our version of subtext, only on a visual level.

Joe Quesada's digital artwork printed on Marvel boards (left), and Danny Mikki's tight inks over Quesada's blue-line pencils

Another surprise in the final chapter is that you inked yourself for eight pages instead of your regular inker, Danny Miki, doing the work.

Well, the truth of the matter is that I actually inked the entire issue, in a way. This entire issue is all done electronically on a Cintiq tablet, there is no original art whatsoever. But, in order to keep consistency, as Danny and I don't ink similarly, I would draw the pages and then send them to Danny as blue lines. Danny would then ink over my blue lines and away we went. For the last nine pages, I was going to change up my style anyway and we were running short on time, so we just went with the pure digital art.

Let me say this, Danny did an incredible job on this series as he does on every project, he's one of the very best inkers of all time.

It's clear you truly enjoyed bringing this story to life. Where does this work rank in your career in terms of creative enjoyment? "Daredevil: Father" was a very personal story for you and I'm sure was at times heart-rending to draw. That might be closest to your heart in the long run, but where does "OMD" stand?

"OMD" ranks right up there as one of my faves. It just became a very difficult book to do near the end. The last two issues really took a toll. The fourth issue in particular was really tough. However, after all the things that had to get done, all the stars that had to align at the end of that fourth issue to complete our story, it's probably the one issue I am most proud of doing for both myself and what my staff and creative partners did to get us there.

Joe Quesada's digital artwork printed on Marvel boards (left), and Danny Mikki's tight inks over Quesada's blue-line pencils

"Father" was an emotional rollercoaster and at times painfully intense to work on because of that. "OMD" was exhausting and work intensive, and in the end, something that I look at with great pride, more than anything because we were able to accomplish what we set out to do with it.

You said the last issue in particular was really tough -- what do you mean?

It was tough because the ground shifted in many places as we were well underway with the series. So, from a workload standpoint, it was a bit of an unexpected surprise and caused a few hiccups along the way.

I think this is a good point to talk about the delays the book faced. When the various were announced, most fans' fingers were pointed squarely at you. I think that's most likely because "Daredevil: Father" also shipped quite late. So, let's set the record straight, why so many delays on a story that most assumed was set in stone when it was announced?

Well, let me say this first so that no one accuses me of deflecting or ignoring what happened. There are many reasons "OMD" was delayed near the end, we can speak about them, but in the end, the buck stops with me, so look no further than right here. If the Earth's axis shifted and we were all flung into a night filled eternal winter that caused a title or titles to ship late, at the end of the day --ummm, night-- I'm the one sitting in the EIC chair, so it's ultimately my fault and for that I apologize.

But yes, there were a myriad of things that pushed the last two issues back. Mind you, the third issue was pushed back a month, thus pushing issue four back a month, but the honest truth is that the fact the fourth issue actually shipped in December is a Christmas miracle. The reason I say this is because issue #4 went from being a 22-page comic to 31 pages, with a considerable amount of that last issue rewritten and restructured on the fly, adding additional workload, none of which was planned for when we created the original schedule.

Without a doubt, the fourth issue was the toughest thing I ever had to do as a creator and, in the end, one of the most satisfying.

But this book was announced months in advance -- what happened to all the lead time you guys had?

Well, the reason it was announced months in advance is that with my day job, I can't finish a book in four weeks. Knowing that, we had to build-in the time. And also, what fans don't realize sometimes is that if you miss a deadline by a day, it could cause a book to ship late by several weeks or a month depending on where it falls on the calendar, so with the stuff I have to do during the course of my work week, we wanted to buffer the schedule as much as possible. Ultimately, I missed it and failed.

**or, you Joe Quesada were going thru your ego trip and forcing change whenever and wherever you could. the stories were there, but you had to absolutely destroy Marvel's flagship character on your disillusioned belief that people need a single horny Peter Parker**

As the EiC of the largest publishing company in comics, is it realistic to expect that you can produce a monthly comic and have it ship on time?

After this last experience, I don't think so. I'm a pretty positive guy, my wife sometimes looks at me like I'm an idiot because I really do see the glass as half full almost all the time. So, I always go into these things with the best of intentions, but the last two times I've attempted this, the job always catches up with me. With "One More Day," the job was causing me to go slower than I would have liked, but in the end, the unexpected twists and turns we had with the third and fourth issue were the final tipping points. But that's the risks you run when you're cutting it so close to the bone. So, I think looking ahead, the prudent thing for me to do would just to not do any time sensitive projects again, at least while I have the day job.

With that in mind, when do you think we could find you behind the drafting table again working on interiors?

Maybe never, to be honest with you. I'll still do some covers here and there, but I just don't think it's fair to do this again to the fans, our retail partners, my staff and my family. As much as I want to be optimistic and believe that I can keep up the pace of working insane hours, it just takes too much of a toll on everyone around me and ultimately my health and mental state (insert joke here).

Also, to be honest with you, right now I don't think I can be objective about a decision like that because I'm completely burned out on drawing at the moment due to the craziness of the last few months. Maybe with some time and distance I'll be able to look at it more clearly, but speaking from where my head is right now, I honestly can't even imagine it happening.

As much ruckus as the delays caused, fan reaction to the storyline and a letter posted on the Internet from "Amazing Spider-Man" writer J. Michael Straczynski were the greatest controversies that arose during the publication of "One More Day." In a thread posted on Usenet that heavily criticized the storyline, JMS responded to a poster with the following....

Speak of the devil and he shall appear....
For whatever it's worth, the situation is not as clear cut as one might hope. The reality of any writer working for any company, DC or Marvel or Image, is that when you're handed a franchise character, you're basically entrusted with something that the company owns, and the company has final say in what happens to that character, because as a writer, you're only there for a certain amount of time and then the next guy has to come in. Spider-Man belongs to Marvel, not to me, and at the end of the day, however much I may disagree with things, and however much I may make it very CLEAR to all parties that I disagree, I have to honor their position.
In the Gwen storyline, yes, I wanted it to be Peter's kids, Joe over-rode that, which is his right as EIC. I got the flack for that decision, but them's the breaks.
In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance at Marvel, especially Joe. I'll be honest: there was a point where I made the decision, and told Joe, that I was going to take my name off the last two issues of the OMD arc. Eventually Joe talked me out of that decision because at the end of the day, I don't want to sabotage Joe or Marvel, and I have a lot of respect for both of those. As an executive producer as well as a writer, I've sometimes had to insist that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor's chair, or the executive producer's chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as Dave Sim once noted, you can't argue with a pointy hat.
So at the end of the day, all one can do is try to do the best one can with the notes one is given, and try to execute them in a professional way...because who knows, the other guy may be right. The only thing I *can* tell you, with absolute certainty, is that what Joe does with Spidey and all the rest of the Marvel characters, he does out of a genuine love of the character. He's not looking to sabotage anything, he's not looking to piss off the fans, he genuinely believes in the rightness of his views not out of a sense of "I'm the boss" but because he loves these characters and the Marvel universe.
And right or wrong, you have to respect that.

After that was posted, as you might expect, it became fodder for discussion on blogs and forums all over and a lot of questions were raised.

I know. In a way, Joe's post was one of the greatest marketing tools the fourth issue could have had. Someone told me there was some speculation it was all a ruse created by Joe and I to get people talking. That cracked me up beyond belief! I love the fact that we're keeping the fans on their toes and thinking -- it's just fun as hell. But while not beyond the realm of what we're capable of doing, it wasn't an intentional marketing ploy.

You mentioned the final two issues took a number of twists and turns. I'm guessing this is all tied-in together here. To begin with, were you aware JMS would be posting his grievances publicly?

No, I wasn't aware that Joe was going to post that, but Joe doesn't need to give me a heads-up when he's going to post something. Too be honest, I was probably the last person to hear about it. I hadn't been on the net in a couple of months and it was posted when I was working from home for the week, so I didn't hear about it until several days after it was posted. A pal called me to talk to me about it and was floored that he was breaking the news to me.

The funniest thing was when my friend said that based on the reaction of the net, there wasn't anyone who wasn't going to pick up the fourth issue because of the curiosity it ignited.

What's your reaction to what JMS had to say?

Well, there was a lot said, so you'll have to be more specific.

JMS notes there's a lot he disagrees with the storyline. In a way, it sounds like JMS agrees with some fans' negative comments about the storyline and was, in a way, throwing you under the bus. Obviously you knew he was upset about certain items in the story, but taking that public? It's not often you find any writer voicing the fact he vehemently disagreed with a story angle their EiC wanted them to take.

Well, first let me say that I love Joe -- he's one of my favorite people in the biz, both comics and Hollywood. The fact that he disagreed with the story didn't come as a surprise to me; he made that clear to me by the time we were on the third issue and, from his perspective, he had a right to be upset. In the end, we didn't publish the story he wanted to write.

That said, there are two sides to all of these things and as EIC, I'm stuck with the tough task of having to make tough calls, sometimes calls that effect even my dearest friends. In the end, we either accept it professionally, or we don't. Joe was a pro about it -- he wasn't happy about it, but he was a pro and did the best he could.

What had unfortunately happened with Joe's original scripts is that we didn't receive the story and methodology to the resolution that we were all expecting. What made that very problematic is that we had four writers and artists well underway on "Brand New Day" that were expecting and needed "One More Day" to end in the way that we had all agreed it would. Joe's original scripts, especially the fourth, didn't provide that.

I had a Solomon-like decision to make: I could either keep Joe's story as he delivered it, and then tear up tracks on "Brand New Day" and make an entire year's worth of Spider-Man stories worthless and stop shipping the book until we righted the train, or go to very extensive rewrites on Joe's scripts. Unfortunately, we had to go to the rewrites. The fact that we had to ask for the story to move back to its original intent understandably made Joe upset and caused some major delays and page increases in the series.

Also, the science that Joe was going to apply to the retcon of the marriage would have made over 30 years of Spider-Man books worthless, because they never would have had happened. We would have also had a "Crisis" in the Marvel Universe because it would have reset way too many things outside of the Spider-Man titles. We just couldn't go there and in the end we weren't expecting that kind of story.

***geezus. "we couldn't go there.." damn it you did! Harry Osborn is back from the dead. That doesn't reset anything? Nobody knows who Spider-Man is.. not even Daredevil or his closer buddies... So how do you explain Peter actually lived with the Avengers WITH his Aunt May and MJ. So Joe, you're saying they all lived there but don't remember it? It's magic right? What an asshole and idiot. There are literally thousands of things that are 'reset', and each reset creates other possible lines of outcome. JMS wrote it himself thru Mephisto when he said he could change the whole universe with the smallest detail. Mephisto explained that entering 1 sentence in Peter Parker's life would deny having Spider-Man ever be created. Just before he gets bitten by the spider, a classmate yells "hey parker, look at this!". Peter turns around and the spider meant for him descends to the floor, where somebody walks by and unknowingly steps on it.

No Spider-Man, ever. Just that one sentence creates a completely different Marvel Universe.

Now bringing Harry Orborn and the Green Goblin back from the dead does what? Having his marriage erased does what? It's so absurd it's unbelievable.**

I also think fans are misreading what Joe meant by disagreeing with the story. When we came up with the idea and methodology behind "One More Day," Joe was a part of the group that came up with the story. When we were done and felt we had it nailed, Joe told me that he was going to cycle off of "Amazing Spider-Man" and that he wanted to move on to other stuff. I told Joe that it was his call: He could close out his "Amazing Spider-Man" run however he wanted, or he could end it with the story we all created for "One More Day." He said he really wanted to write "One More Day." So Joe never said anything that indicated he disagreed with Peter and MJ's marriage being dissolved. If he had disagreed with the idea, he certainly would have told us and he certainly would not have asked to write the story. So like I said, I think people were reading into his on-line comments as opposed what I believe he was saying.

Just to make sure we're all on the same page, you're saying that it's more that JMS disagreed with how the story ultimately played out, not the basic plot and purpose of "One More Day?"

Right. Joe signed on to do "One More Day" and he was a part of the creative sessions that helped create the idea of it. How it played out in the end -- the science behind it -- was where we disagreed. I mean if Joe had disagreed with the idea of removing the marriage, he would have absolutely refused to write the story, which would have been fine either way. After so many brilliant years on Spider-Man, Joe had earned the right to end his run whichever way he wanted. "One More Day" is a story we could have told once Joe was off the title; the fact that he wanted to tell it was, the way we saw it, just an added bonus.

JMS said he wanted his name taken off the final two issues, but that you convinced him not to. That said, in the fourth chapter, the story is credited to both of you, not just JMS -- as was the case with the rest of "OMD." How much of the story in the final two chapters is you and how much of it is JMS?

Well, to be completely clear, the idea for "OMD" was actually created by a room full of people. From the very first day I was in the EIC chair, I made no secret of the fact that I felt that a married Peter Parker wasn't the best thing for an ongoing Spider-Man universe. The problem was that we never had a decent methodology to get ourselves out of it. I always said that if we ever found a way to do it, I would pursue the avenues to get us there.

Close to two years ago at one of our creative summits, the seeds of that idea began to blossom. Those ideas were then taken and a two week long e-mail chain began where we started to throw around ideas until we got the story kind of where we wanted it to be. The guys involved in all of this from the beginning were Joe, Bendis, Millar, Loeb, Tom Brevoort, Axel Alonso and myself. It then all carried over to the next summit, at which Ed Brubaker and Dan Slott also had some stuff to add. It was at one of these summits that JMS said the methodology we were using was more akin to the movie "Sliding Doors" than "Back to the Future." Rather than a single incident not happening that causes a huge domino effect across the timeline, he explained it was more like one door that wasn't taken or opened that only changed the subtlest of things.

In the end, knowing what that story was going to be is what allowed us to go ahead with the unmasking of Spider-Man in "Civil War" -- we had our "way out" ahead of time, it was a great place to be. The only thing we kept vacillating on was Gwen Stacy; we had a debate as to whether to bring her back. In the end, Joe and I wanted Gwen back. Several months later, several of my editors and some of the creators spoke to me and lobbied to keep her dead and in the end, much to Joe's and my disappointment, we had to leave her be. Ultimately, I felt that the arguments I was hearing for keeping her dead were stronger than my reasoning for bringing her back.

So, in the end, the plot and idea behind the story was really driven by a group of creators and a few editors.

In the fourth issue, the reason the credits read the way they do is because, along with Axel and Tom and using portions of Joe's original fourth issue, we tried to bring the story back to the original concept that we all discussed over a year prior. Let me add that JMS specifically asked for the credits to be amended in this issue because there were others involved with it. The one place that's all me are the last nine pages, the "Brand New Day" sequence. There were specific things that needed to happen in that sequence for "Brand New Day" to make sense.

But like I said, because we had to make all those changes, I can certainly see why Joe would be upset and disagree with what we were doing; it wasn't the same story he handed in. What hurts me to this very moment, is that we had to do this on Joe's final story arc on the character. He's done so many fantastic stories with Spidey, that it really wasn't how we wanted to send him off on the title. I wish in my heart of hearts that it could have been different, but unfortunately, I had to make a very hard and painful call.

**One last thing. The comic world is never set in stone. Things change from issue to issue. Many people on message boards and blogs have suggested that the new world Spider-Man could be a phase. So many big changes in the past last 1 year maybe 2. The Heroes Reborn for example.. while i kind of ignored that, many of the Marvel big hitters where in another timeline or dimension if you will. Their stories continued but were not the characters we knew. Eventually they all came back.

The Spider-Man Clone Saga. I personally loved it. For whatever reason i always knew that the real Peter would come back. (After a convoluted storyline, Peter more or less retired while his clone took over his job. At one point they tried to tell us that Peter was actually the clone, and the newcomer was the real Spider-Man)

Yes it was hard to follow, but that was period in the Spider-Man comics that you just could not wait for the next issue. People got upset but i knew things would right itself, and they did. It was a fascinating storyline.

In this case, i'm almost sure things will be reset as well. For one, Spider-Man is going to be released 3 times a month. (the one good thing i love about this, they dropped all the other titles and continue with the main title more times in a month. Much, much easier to follow.) One More Day Part 4 happens in Amazing Spider-Man #545. At 3 issues per month we're looking at 1 and a half years untill #600. Great point to return to reality.

So instead of having 20-30 years of Spider-Man comics being seen as junk now since it never happened, we'll only have 55 issues or so. Which makes you wonder why anyone should buy the upcoming issues? The past readers have gotten shafted in seeing their comic collection 'never happen', while new readers who jump all over this new Spider-Man will get their reality taken away in 55 issues. So whether this whole "Brand New Day" is already planned ahead or not, Joe Quesada has decided to screw readers over, new, current, or old.**

--Rum

Spider-Man One More Day/Brand New Day controversy

2008-01-23T08:54:00.000-05:00

Original post from MattBrady on Newsarama Jan.3/2008

ONE MORE (MORE) DAY? JMS EXPLAINS HIS ENDING

There’s no doubt whatsoever that “One More Day” has been the most controversial Spider-Man story for fans in decades, dwarfing even the reaction to 2006’s unmasking at the end of Civil War #2.

As readers who’ve followed the story behind the story know, that controversy even extends to the story’s creators. On December 4th, “One More Day” writer J. Michael Straczynski posted a response to questions about his involvement with the story to rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe (which was archived at the JMSNews site).

Responding to questions about the quality of the story, and reconciling the story with JMS’ larger body of work, Straczynski wrote:

Speak of the devil and he shall appear....

For whatever it's worth, the situation is not as clear cut as one might hope. The reality of any writer working for any company, DC or Marvel or Image, is that when you're handed a franchise character, you're basically entrusted with something that the company owns, and the company has final say in what happens to that character, because as a writer, you're only there for a certain amount of time and then the next guy has to come in. Spider-Man belongs to Marvel, not to me, and at the end of the day, however much I may disagree with things, and however much I may make it very CLEAR to all parties that I disagree, I have to honor their position.

In the Gwen storyline, yes, I wanted it to be Peter's kids, Joe over-rode that, which is his right as EIC. I got the flack for that decision, but them's the breaks.

In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance at Marvel, especially Joe. I'll be honest: there was a point where I made the decision, and told Joe, that I was going to take my name off the last two issues of the OMD arc. Eventually Joe talked me out of that decision because at the end of the day, I don't want to sabotage Joe or Marvel, and I have a lot of respect for both of those. As an executive producer as well as a writer, I've sometimes had to insist that my writers make changes that they did not want to make, often loudly so. They were sure I was wrong. Mostly I was right. Sometimes I was wrong. But whoever sits in the editor's chair, or the executive producer's chair, wears the pointy hat of authority, and as Dave Sim once noted, you can't argue with a pointy hat.

So at the end of the day, all one can do is try to do the best one can with the notes one is given, and try to execute them in a professional way...because who knows, the other guy may be right. The only thing I *can* tell you, with absolute certainty, is that what Joe does with Spidey and all the rest of the Marvel characters, he does out of a genuine love of the character. He's not looking to sabotage anything, he's not looking to piss off the fans, he genuinely believes in the rightness of his views not out of a sense of "I'm the boss" but because he loves these characters and the Marvel universe.

And right or wrong, you have to respect that.

Straczynski’s message added gasoline to a smoldering fire of fan expectations and concerns about the ending to and ramifications of the story, and was interpreted in a variety of ways by readers.

In a series of interviews with Quesada about “One More Day,” Comic Book Resource’s Jonah Weiland asked the Marvel Editor-in-Chief about Straczynski’s posted comments, noting that, “In the end, we didn't publish the story he wanted to write.”

Quesada went on to explain that Straczynski’s original conclusion for “One More Day” wasn't what Quesada and Marvel were expecting and would have negatively affected the upcoming “Brand New Day” issues of Amazing Spider-Man, which were already underway.

Quesada also explained that he wasn’t comfortable with Straczynski’s method of retconning the marriage out of existence, saying: “Also, the science that Joe was going to apply to the retcon of the marriage would have made over 30 years of Spider-Man books worthless, because they never would have had happened. We would have also had a "Crisis" in the Marvel Universe because it would have reset way too many things outside of the Spider-Man titles. We just couldn't go there and in the end we weren't expecting that kind of story.

“I also think fans are misreading what Joe meant by disagreeing with the story. When we came up with the idea and methodology behind "One More Day," Joe was a part of the group that came up with the story. When we were done and felt we had it nailed, Joe told me that he was going to cycle off of Amazing Spider-Man and that he wanted to move on to other stuff. I told Joe that it was his call: He could close out his Amazing Spider-Man run however he wanted, or he could end it with the story we all created for "One More Day." He said he really wanted to write "One More Day." So Joe never said anything that indicated he disagreed with Peter and MJ's marriage being dissolved. If he had disagreed with the idea, he certainly would have told us and he certainly would not have asked to write the story. So like I said, I think people were reading into his on-line comments as opposed what I believe he was saying.”

Earlier in the week, Newsarama had contacted Straczynski to see if he would be willing to talk about “One More Day,” now that the storyline had concluded. He declined.

Yesterday, in part three of CBR’s interview with Quesada, the E-i-C further discussed the changes that were made to Straczynski’s original storyline, saying that when he, Axel Alonso and Tom Brevoort received the script for part four: “the script we had just received was not the one we were expecting, and the events that were being set forth in that issue were going to conflict with the work that was already being done on “Brand New Day.” I thought that perhaps Joe had forgotten some of the stuff discussed at the summit meetings and the subsequent e-mails and discussions that followed, but that didn’t seem to be the case; this was the story he wanted to tell. In his story, Mephisto was going to change continuity from as far back as issues #96-98 from 1971. In Joe’s story, Peter drops the dime on Harry, and that helps get him into rehab right away. Consequently, MJ stays with Harry, and Gwen never dies and never has her affair with Norman, etc., etc. And in the end, Peter and MJ are never married.”

To Quesada, that solution discounted every issue of Amazing Spider-Man since that 1971 story arc, and by doing that, would have caused far-reaching and unmanageable changes throughout the larger Marvel Universe. “In other words, there was just no way to tell Joe’s story without blowing up the entire Marvel U and every Spider-Man’s fan’s collection,” Quesada said.

“What we originally discussed with Joe and the group was much simpler and cleaner: The wedding? Something happened on the wedding day that prevented it from happening. The unsmasking? Mephisto makes people forget it; much like the Sentry, it happened -- it’s just no longer remembered. And Harry? Well, there’s always a price to pay when you make a deal with the devil. Is it a perfect solution? Absolutely not. Does it get us to where we want to be? Yes.”

Quesada ended his explanation of the changes made by publicly apologizing to Straczynski for having to change his original story.

Thursday morning, Newsarama received an unsolicited e-mail from Straczynski, in which, he wrote:

Having seen Joe's third interview on OMD, I think he raised a lot of fair issues. I think most of it represents accurately our conversations. It does, however, omit some of the main concerns I had with the resolution...concerns not mentioned therein, most probably as an oversight. As you know from my prior email, I was content not to respond to the prior interviews because I don't need to have the last word. (Newsarama Note: this last was in reference to Straczynski’s earlier e-mail mentioned earlier in which he declined a “One More Day” post mortem conversation.)

But there are some vital omissions in the interview, including the primary reason I finally threw up my hands on the book, which had mainly to do with how the resolution was handled.

To explain, here's the conversation I had with Marvel, in sum:

"So what does Mephisto do?" I ask.

"He makes everybody forget Peter's Spider-Man."

"Uh, huh. So Aunt May's still in the hospital --"

"No, he saves Aunt May."

"But if all he does is save her life and make everybody forget he's Spidey, she still has a scar on her midsection."

"No, he makes that go away too."

"Okay...:

"Then he wakes up in her house."

"The house that was burned down?"

"Right."

"But how --"

"Mephisto undoes that as well."

"Okay. And the guys who shot at Peter and May and were killed, they're alive too? Mephisto can bring guys back from the dead?"

"It's all part of the spell."

"And Doc Strange can't tell?"

"No,"

"And the newspaper articles? News footage?"

"Joe, it's been forgotten."

"I'm just asking is that stuff there or not there?"

"Not there. And Peter's web shooters are back."

"Is this the same spell or a different spell?"

"Same spell."

"How does making people forget he's Spidey bring back his web shooters?"

"It's magic, okay?"

"I see. And Harry's back."

"Right."

"And Mephisto does this too."

"Yep."

"So is Harry back from the dead, or has he been alive? If they ask him, hey Harry, what did you do last summer, will he remember? And the year before? And the year before? If he says they all went on a picnic two years ago, will they remember it?"

"It's --"

"Because if he now has a life he remembers, if he's not back from the dead, then you've changed the continuity you said you didn't want to change. Those are your only options: he was brought back from the dead, and there's a grave, and people remember him dying --"

"Mephisto changes THEIR memories too."

"-- or he's effectively been alive as far as our characters know, so he's been alive all along, so either way as far as our characters are concerned, continuity's been violated going back to 1971.

How do you explain that?"

"It's magic, we don't have to explain it."

And that's the part I had a real problem with, maybe the single biggest problem. There's this notion that magic fixes everything. It doesn't. "It's magic, we don't have to explain it." Well, actually, yes, you do. Magic has to have rules. And this is clearly not just a case of one spell making everybody forget he's Spidey...suddenly you're bringing back the dead, undoing wounds, erasing records, reinstating web shooters, on and on and on.

What I wanted to do was to make one small change to history, a tiny thing, whose ripples we could control to only touch what editorial wanted to touch, making changes we could explain logically. I worked for weeks to come up with a timeline that would leave every other bit of continuity in place. It was rigorous, and as logical as I could make it. In the end of OMD as published, Harry is alive and he's always been alive as far as the characters know...so how is that different than he was alive the whole time?

It made no sense to me.

Still doesn't. It's sloppy. It violates every rule of writing fiction of the fantastic that I and every other SF/Fantasy writer knows you can't violate. It's fantasy 101.

It troubled me that it's MJ and not Peter who is the one to actively make the decision.

I'd originally written the first issue of OMD to take place directly after May gets shot, and in fact turned in the first script directly after she gets nailed. Editorial decided to build in a block of issues for One More Day...meaning May would be in that bed for almost a *year* which I thought was just too long to make work.

And yes, I wanted to retcon the Gwen twins out of continuity, which was something I always assumed I could do at the end of my run. I wasn't allowed to do this, and yes, it pissed me off. I felt I was left holding the bag for something I wanted to get rid of, and taking the rap for a writing lapse that I had never committed. Why this aspect was not brought up in the other interview, you'd have to ask Joe.

Mainly, the book was rewritten in the editorial offices to a degree that the words weren't mine any longer, to a certain degree in three, and massively in four. If the work represents me, I leave the name there and take the rap; if it doesn't, then that's a different situation. There's just not much of my work there, especially once you get to the last dong of midnight...everything after that was written by editorial.

Whether my work is good or it sucks, it's mine. What came out of the end of OMD wasn't, hence my desire to omit the writing credit. Joe graciously offered to share it on the last issue. I think that helped. Credit where credit is due.

What I don't want is for this to turn into a public pissing match. Joe did what he did because he thought it was the right thing to do, and as EIC that's his call, not mine. I respect and admire him. I hope this will be the end of the matter.

I just felt that there were some important bits not addressed, that needed to be.

**some more reactions**

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Booby tribute: Show them to me

2008-01-21T14:16:00.000-05:00

Rodney Carrington sings "Show them to me" a tribute to all wonderful boobies everywhere.

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Babe break: Britney Spears bikini pics

2008-01-21T14:06:00.000-05:00

Babe errr....break: Tara Reid

2008-01-21T13:56:00.000-05:00

Awful plastic surgery.

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Guitar hero: Simpsons style

2008-01-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

Babe break: Michelle Monaghan

2008-01-21T10:01:00.000-05:00

Latest featured babe is hottie Michelle Monaghan, her latest movie credits are Heartbreak Kid, Mission Impossible III and The Bourne Supremacy.

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Retcons: Spider-Man (or, everything you knew is wrong)

2008-01-18T10:33:00.000-05:00

If you are a comic reader, you are probably aware that main characters often go thru different phases. Spider-Man is currently going thru one of these phases or "changes" is maybe a better word.
I will play spoiler here, i have not read the last parts yet but from what i understand Spider-Man makes a deal with the devil (or Mephisto?) in saving his Aunt May from death, but the price being he loses his wife, Mary jane Watson.
No she doesn't die, they do not divorce or split up. They just have their lives together changed in a way that they were never married 20 years ago (real time). All the rest that happened stays the same.

Read on;

Everything You Know Is Wrong
By Dave Sikula
Mon, January 14, 2008, 12:01 am PST

Cover of Amazing Spider-Man
Annual special #21

When Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) married Mary Jane Watson in 1987, comic fans wondered if the marriage would last, since Spidey's luck was notoriously bad. The marriage finally did end a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't through death or divorce; it was via a retcon. "Retcon?" we hear you ask. "What's that?" Retcon is shorthand for retroactive continuity, a device used to make changes to a character's past, whether or not they make any sense in -- or flat-out contradict -- the present.

Comics suffer the most from this syndrome (characters like Captain America are alive, then dead, then alive again, then dead again), but it can happen any time a writer gets stuck. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes back, the detective's death was simply retconned away. The Wicked Witch of the West becoming a heroine? Retcon. Richie Cunningham's older brother who suddenly never existed? Guess.

The most notorious of all retcons came in 1986 when Bobby Ewing stepped out of his shower to reveal that everything that had happened on Dallas that season had been a dream. Many consider that to be the moment the show jumped the shark -- but that's a whole other can of worms

What is a retcon? It's short for 'Retroactive continuity'.

Newsweek article on Peter Parker and Mary Jane's split.

Read about the Chuck Cunningham syndrome. Chuck was Ritchie's older brother on Happy Days, who just vanished into thin air. Another example of writers lacking ideas so just changing what we know.

Is nothing sacred? Fans and bloggers ask readers to boycott the latest Spider-Man issues, One More Day.

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News report: The Internet has crashed

2008-01-16T11:41:00.001-05:00

Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

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Babe Break: Lindsay Lohan bikini pics

2008-01-16T11:19:00.000-05:00

Babe break: Sexy girls kissing

2008-01-15T14:09:00.001-05:00

haven't had one of my babe breaks or girls kissing posts in a while. hope this one makes up for it.

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My Boobs are Ok -- Lene Alexandra

2008-01-15T13:51:00.000-05:00

Similar to the "My Balls are ok" video by 'Boys on Wheels'

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Great Ping Pong exhibition

2008-01-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

Internet sensations: Eh! Marine

2008-01-14T13:01:00.000-05:00

Here's one of the funniest videos going on right now. It's so simple and stupid yet has caught people off guard around the world. People everywhere are now yelling "Eh! Marine" before sucker punching them. Hilarious.

The original moron who started the whole thing...

And the copy cats that follow...

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Sports babe: Allison Stokke

2008-01-14T12:39:00.000-05:00

The power of the internet can be very strong. Another case of internet phenomena is pole vaulting beauty Allison Stokke.
Read the story here from the Washington Post. "Teen Tests Internet's Lewd Track Record"

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Hot celebs: Jessica Simpson deep throats

2008-01-10T14:26:00.000-05:00

"cuz boys like that"

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Miss Poledance Australia 2006

2008-01-10T14:17:00.000-05:00

Winner Of Miss Poledance Australia 2006 - Click here for more free videos

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Ten Things Youve Never Seen in a Webcam Dance Video

2008-01-10T13:58:00.000-05:00

Brooke Marks gives us a hot top 10.

Ten Things Youve Never Seen in a Webcam Dance Video - Watch more free videos

Boys on Wheels - My Balls Are OK

2008-01-10T13:52:00.000-05:00

Hollywood Park - Women's Bikini Race

2008-01-10T13:42:00.000-05:00

Classic commentary. "The girls are doing this to pay for college" lol!!

Hot Babes: Carwash video

2008-01-10T13:36:00.000-05:00

Funny Videos

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Poker player

2008-01-07T10:20:00.000-05:00

Two couples are playing poker one evening.

Jim accidentally dropped some cards on the floor. When he bent down under the table to pick them up, he noticed Bob 's wife, Sue wasn't wearing any

underwear under her dress!

Shocked by this, Jim upon trying to sit back up again, hit his head on the table and emerged red-faced.

Later, Jim went to the kitchen to get some refreshments. Bob 's wife followed and asked, 'Did you see anything that you like under there?'

Surprised by her boldness, Jim admitted that, well indeed he did.

She said, 'Well, you can have it but it will cost you $500.'

After taking a minute or two to assess the financial and moral costs of this offer, Jim confirms that he is interested.

Sue told him that since her husband Bob worked Friday afternoons and Jim didn't, Jim should be at her house around 2 p.m. Friday afternoon.

When Friday rolled around, Jim showed up at Bob 's house at 2 p.m. sharp - and after paying Sue the agreed sum of $500 - they went to the bedroom and

closed their transaction, as agreed.

Jim quickly dressed and left.

As usual, Bob came home from work at 6 p.m. And upon arriving, asked his wife: 'Did Jim come by the house this afternoon?'

With a lump in her throat Sue answered 'Why yes, he did stop by for a few minutes this afternoon.'

Her heart nearly skipped a beat when her husband curtly asked, 'And did he give you $500?'

Sue, using her best poker face, replied, 'Well, yes, in fact he did give me $500.'

Bob, with a satisfied look on his face, surprised his wife by saying, 'He came by the office this morning and borrowed $500 from me. He promised he'd stop by our house this afternoon on his way home and pay me back.'

Now THAT, my friends, is a Poker Player!

Deer Season. How to fit a deer into a BMW

2008-01-07T10:18:00.000-05:00

My Christmas lights this year

2008-01-07T10:14:00.000-05:00

Wife was on my case to put the Christmas lights up. I did so but since then she won't talk to me.

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Understanding the Universe

2008-01-07T10:07:00.000-05:00

The universe is so vast it is not comprehensible by the human mind. It would be like an ant trying to understand the wonder of the internet. It can't be done.

How to get men to wash their hands

2008-01-07T09:57:00.000-05:00

Ole was walking home late at night, through the park, and sees a woman in the shadows. "Twenty dollars" she whispers. He'd
never been with a hooker before, but decides, what the hell, it's only twenty bucks.

So they hide in the bushes. They're going "at it" for a minute when all of a sudden a light flashes on them -- it's a police
officer.

"What's going on here, people?" asks the officer.

"I'm making luff to my vife ," Ole answers indignantly.

"Oh, I'm sorry." says the cop. "I didn't know."

"Vell," says Ole, "I din't neder, 'til you shine that damn light in her face."
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This is a strictly mathematical viewpoint...
it goes like this:

What Makes 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?

We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.

How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.