The Avengers Motion Comics — In 1966

I was invited by college students
to lecture on super heroes and ethics
at a fun evening event.

This cartoon series is often criticized for its limited animation, but I have have always loved it for its use of the original Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck art and Stan Lee's dialogue. You can watch the Hulk here, Thor here, Iron Man here, Captain America here, the Sub-Mariner here and the Avengers together here. Today, these would be called "motion comics." The excellently cast voice of Tony Stark is the movie actor John Vernon. By the way, in the Subby cartoon you will see the first appearance of the X-Men on television. Don't blink.

But They Aren't. Hence the State of the Nation

Something Easy to Forget

Absolutely

The Pundit Who's Always Wrong Explains

Love Tom Tomorrow

The Surreal Gatsby

Nothing natural about "The Great Gatsby." Its surrealistic, diamond-chandeliered opulence makes it clear that this is purely an American fairy tale, a Jazz Age Oz, as drenched in romanticism as it is in champagne. The fact that few now living remember the 1920s makes it easier to romanticize and symbolize this past into another universe.
The tale is too portentous at times, and I didn't believe all the actors in this extremely mannered piece. But DiCaprio's eyes shine with every emotion Gatsby is feeling. He's a wonderful actor, and the Redford version seems pedestrian by comparison. Worth seeing, old sport.
That's my take. Here's another.
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By Matt Mattingly

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Baz Luhrmann's remarkably faithful adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" was a visually opulent (and at times almost overpowering) spectacle and, in my opinion, better than some of the critics thought of it. One reviewer stated that Leonardo DiCaprio's performance as Gatsby was the centerpiece of the film and that's indisputably true. Dan Hagen correctly pointed out that he demonstrates his skill as an actor by being able to convey so many different emotions in his eyes, and at various times you see Gatsby's earnest and childishly idealistic hopefulness to be reunited with the woman he loves, for whom he's constructed a bootlegging empire to provide him the fabulous wealth he feels he needs to give her everything he thinks she wants.
His performance is the only one that really works, although Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan is quite effective in capturing the character's brutish, entitled corruptness.
The sets and costuming were outstanding as well (there's no doubt thatBrando Calrissian will be gasping for air at the sight of the diamond jewelry the men and women are parading about in). For fans of the novel, this rendition certainly captures the spirit of the novel, as well as its message, in a far truer manner than the 1970's Robert Redford attempt and is very much worth seeing. Oh, and Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" is a hauntingly beautiful piece of music. 
Oh...and DiCaprio looks freaking gorgeous.
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And the New Yorker gets it.

Assent to the Evidence

This should go without saying, but, sadly, these days it very much needs to be said:

"Science … means more than a set of conclusions; it means also a set of methods and intellectual habits. The most important of these habits is adherence to a rule that is felt to be at once intellectual and moral, the rule of adjusting one's assent to the evidence.
"

— The Yale philosopher Brand Blanshard

Something to Someone

Adopt a pet. Save the life of a friend.