Drugs, hookers, excrement, and fighting evil

With Battlestar Galactica now on hiatus for eleventy billion months, there's even less to watch, but Showtime comes to the rescue this week with a new show and two returning favorites. At 10 on Monday, season three of Weeds kicks off, followed by the premiere of Secret Diary of a Call Girl (pictured above) at 10:30. This is another show I didn't bother to learn much about -- they had me at "call girl." Also on Showtime, Penn & Teller: Bullshit returns for another season on Thursday at 10.

Aside from Showtime, I'll be watching ABC Family for maybe the first time ever. Monday at 8, they'll have The Middleman, an adaptation of former Lost writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach's pretty cool comic book. I'm not sure they'll have the budget for decent talking apes or armies of luchaderos, but it'll probably still be fun.

I'm barely used to the rainbows

Lucky Charms will now feature hourglass marshmallows. This is outrageous! They shouldn't mess with a marshmallow formula that works. Of course, the article says that they've had balloons for 10 years and I had no idea, so I obviously don't care that much.

Oh, to be a whistle

Continuing my recent obsession with sports-related eye candy, here's an entire blog dedicated to lovely soccer fans at the Euro2008 tournament that's going on. Go whatever country she's from!

Ceremonial Opening Hotness

Emmanuelle Chriqui threw out the first pitch at Dodger Stadium this weekend. Whenever I'm at a game, it's an old guy from some company that donated something to someone. Charity's great, but who cares? Think of the fans! So I say more like Ms. Chriqui, MLB. The Japanese already how it should be done:

The title might be a reference to a Catholic church thing

...and a planet or Roman deity.



Red Mass for Mars is a new (limited?) series from Image comics that kicks off today. As it's written by Jonathan Hickman (The Nightly News, Pax Romana, Transhuman), I haven't bothered looking at what it's about, since I love his stuff and hate spoilers. Artist Ryan Bodenheim might also be awesome, but I think this'll be my first time reading anything he's drawn.

(read about the Catholic thing in the title here)

I'd be a wizard!

...until the battery on my keychain LED died.



Kottke has a fun discussion about what to do if you were magically transported back to the middle ages.

Comedians Hope for Another Quayle

Electoral-vote.com discusses the recent history of picking running mates.

The Ladies Love Reducto

Phil Noto used to do sweet covers for Birds of Prey, and I just stumbled onto his website, with some of his covers, some random art, a cool Tyler Durden, and the above Harvey Birdman poster.

"Oops"

Via Bugs and Cranks, a fat guy "accidentally" falls on a hot ball girl.

Damnit

Technically, this is something that doesn't kick ass at all, because I do so love eating cow flesh. But it's interesting. World Changing points to a study that says an environmentally conscious eater should avoid beef above all else.

Guaranteed to be extreme!

Michael Ian Black on the outrageousness of doritos.

Either way, I'm seeing the Hulk

Superheroes are ruining summer movies. Or maybe they're not

Look Out!

In a Georgia high school playoff game, apparently the umpire pissed off the battery. More on the whole thing thing here.

The Issues That Are Important to America

Aside from watching The Daily Show and Colbert Report, I'm not all that political. But Talking Points Memo pointed to this from the front page of McCain's website, and it's pretty darn funny.

There's Nothing on TV

Thanks to the writer's strike, the normally decent summer cable schedule is pretty weak. FX normally has something I watch year-round, but all they've got is 30 Days this summer, and while I'm sure it's an ok show, I prefer scripted stuff. I gave In Plain Sight a shot last week, and it was pretty awful. But as I said, I've heard it gets better, so I'll try a couple more episodes. I'll be checking out Charlie Jade Friday at 8 on SciFi. I basically know nothing about the show, but I'll take what I can get. Law & Order: CI also returns on Sunday on USA, so it's not all bad.

TBS: Very Annoying

Kottke.org points to these irritating mid-program commercials. I'd boycott the Bill Engvall show, but I was already not watching.

Middle Tier

Blog@Newsarama has a great article about how superheroes outside the A-list let creators try new things and make some pretty great comics.

Pressed Ham Gone Awry

Dutch mooning accident results in "deep wounds to his derriere." Ouch.

Professionally Fit

Sports Crunch ranks the 50 hottest female athletes ever Pictured: German swimmer Franziska van Almsick, who did not make their list.

Bike X-ing

This is certainly tragic, and I hope they throw the book and the idiot responsible, but that's an amazing picture.

Nice Stacks

Via the Woot Blog, a gallery of beautiful libraries. Pictured: Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag, in The Hague.

Robo Contest

In further Atomic Robo news (can you tell I like this book?), Weekly Crisis is giving away autographed copies of the aforementioned trade paperback. Please don't enter, as it will diminish my chances of winning.

Knockout

TV Squad clued me in to the existence of hot female mixed martial arts combatants. I didn't even know female MMA existed, but if I had, I think I would have assumed they were big scary women. But now, I think I may have to support this sport. You know, for female empowerment.

There's a whole Maxim magazine thing of Ms. Carano here, and here's a video of her beating someone up.

The Latest from Cyberdine

From Dean Kamen, the guy who invented the Segway, demonstrations of his robot arm. Great news for people who've lost limbs in war, or bad news for those trying to prevent Judgement Day?

Go Team Venture!

Venture Bros. Season 3 kicks off tonight in glorious extra color on the Cartoon Network, if you haven't already broken down and watched it on adultswim.com

USA also has In Plain Sight tonight. The New York Times and LA Times both trashed tonight's pilot, but both say it gets much better in a few episodes. There's not much to watch this summer, so I'll be giving it a shot.

Surprisingly Not Cryptozoology

The world's strangest looking animals. Pictured: Saiga Antelope

The Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne

Atomic Robo trade drops on June 11. Get it, drops?

Edit: Make that June 18

Cobraganda

At the ISB