Salon.com > superman

X-ray vision, coming soon

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 22:20:00 +0000

Aspiring burglars and perverts, you're in luck. Thanks to MIT professor Dina Katabi and her graduate student Fadel Adlib, X-ray vision may no longer be the exclusive domain of comic books. The pair have devised a new low-cost technology that uses reflections of wireless radio signals to track a person's movements in an adjoining room. An MIT news release explains:

The system, called “Wi-Vi,” is based on a concept similar to radar and sonar imaging. But in contrast to radar and sonar, it transmits a low-power Wi-Fi signal and uses its reflections to track moving humans. It can do so even if the humans are in closed rooms or hiding behind a wall.

As a Wi-Fi signal is transmitted at a wall, a portion of the signal penetrates through it, reflecting off any humans on the other side. However, only a tiny fraction of the signal makes it through to the other room, with the rest being reflected by the wall, or by other objects. “So we had to come up with a technology that could cancel out all these other reflections, and keep only those from the moving human body,” Katabi says.

The X-ray vision device uses the same wireless antenna that helps connect your laptop to the Internet at Starbucks, so it could potentially be built into your mobile phone in the future. This means it probably will, so enjoy your baths in private while you can.

Via Tech News Daily

“Man of Steel”: Truth, justice and the Nietzschean way

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:45:00 +0000

If no movie like “Man of Steel” had ever been made before – an attempt to darken up a superhero legend with a little mythological depth, some cutting-edge cinematic skills and a whole bunch of action – then Zack Snyder’s brooding and seemingly endless 143-minute Superman reboot might feel like a breakthrough. (I guess the "Superman Returns" reboot from 2006 really didn't take.) To be fair, “Man of Steel” has an idea behind it and superior production design, which puts it ahead of a whole bunch of Hollywood movies. Superman aficionados will no doubt find it suitably canonical, with an extended prologue set on the dying planet of Krypton, even if Superman’s classic uniform is now made of that inevitable nylon-mesh athletic fiber that supposed to suggest contemporary coolness (if you’re 12 years old and really into LeBron James).

Pic of the day: George H.W. Bush wearing Superman socks

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:40:00 +0000

To mark his 89th birthday, former President George H.W. Bush donned Superman socks while in Kennebunkport, Maine.

CBS News reports:

The library of Former President George H.W. Bush, who's celebrating his 89th birthday Wednesday, solicited pictures from well-wishers of their colorful socks to celebrate Bush's birthday.

"Join us in wishing President Bush a Happy Birthday by wearing your most colorful or outlandish socks," reads a message on The George Bush Library Foundation's website. "All are invited to submit a photo wearing crazy socks to share in the birthday festivities."

"George has taken to wearing the weirdest socks," said his wife Barbara Bush.

“Orson Scott Card isn’t the guy to tell me a Superman story”

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:54:00 +0000

Real-world politics have entered the Art Deco world of Metropolis.

After the departure of comic artist Chris Sprouse, Orson Scott Card's story of the man from Krypton will not appear in an upcoming DC Comics "Superman" anthology. (Salon called the Card home, where a woman told us the writer had decided not to comment: "He thinks that it always makes these things worse.")

It's been the cause for analysis and some celebration: Card's past advocacy on behalf of anti-sodomy laws and apparent belief that gay marriage could spark an overthrow of the government. Superman expert Glen Weldon, the author of the forthcoming "Superman: The Unauthorized Biography" and an early critic, at NPR, of DC's decision to engage Card's services as a writer, spoke to Salon about why the sci-fi author was never a good fit.

Orson Scott Card controversial “Superman” reboot put on hold

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:23:00 +0000

Media attention surrounding anti-gay activist Orson Scott Card's involvement with a "Superman" digital reboot has sent the project's illustrator packing.

Artist Chris Sprouse has abandoned the digital series, saying the media firestorm over Card had become a distraction, according to a statement released Tuesday.

"It took a lot of thought to come to this conclusion, but I've decided to step back as the artist on this story," Sprouse said. "The media surrounding this story reached the point where it took away from the actual work, and that's something I wasn't comfortable with. My relationship with DC Comics remains as strong as ever and I look forward to my next project with them."

Sprouse's departure has put the project on hold while DC searches for his replacement. As a result, Card's "Superman" will not appear in the first collected issue this May.

DC Comics hires anti-gay author to pen “Superman” digital release

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:44:00 +0000

Fans are boycotting DC Comics' selection of "Ender's Game" author and vocal anti-gay activist Orson Scott Card to pen its "Adventures of Superman" digital-first release.

Last week, DC announced that Card was selected to write the first chapter in the digital "Adventures of Superman" series, and fans quickly responded with a petition calling on the company to renounce Card and "stand for equality":

DC Comics has just hired anti-gay writer Orson Scott Card for their new digital Adventures of Superman. He's written publicly that he believes marriage equality would lead to the end of civilization. He's also on the board of a notorious anti-equality organization. We need to let DC Comics know they can't support Orson Scott Card or his work to keep LGBT people as second-class citizens. They know they're accountable to their fans, so if enough of us speak out now, they'll hear us loud and clear.

Who will be the Maccabees?

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Have you ever read an old comic book?

By old, I mean from the 1940s and 1950s, the genre’s Golden Age, when "Superman," "Batman," and "Wonder Woman" were just being scribbled to life. Since I was weaned on comics from the '80s and '90s — titles like "Sandman," "Swamp Thing," "X-Men," "Hellboy," all of which were captivating, literary, and, to those willing to overlook popular stigmas, sophisticated — it was difficult for me to access early "Superman" archives in any genuine emotional sense. Though I ended up reading them through, I found the content, while left-leaning and vivid, very much a product of its time, sometimes gruff, sometimes macho and, as far as current standards go, predictable. The main interest I took was historical, anyway, a glimpse into wartime and American identity as portrayed by Jewish immigrants, with identities of their own. But being brought up around the onset of the millennium I often felt as though I was being asked to marvel at the genius of a fort composed from twigs and mud, knowing all too well that the museum housing it had walls concealing reinforced titanium.

Superman to quit Daily Planet, maybe start “the next Drudge Report”

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:06:00 +0000

In issue No. 13 of the current Superman comic book series, out tomorrow, Clark Kent will dramatically quit his day job as a reporter at the Daily Planet in front of the entire staff. The change in Kent's character reflects writer Scott Lobdell's goal of making Superman more relevant in the 21st century (part of a grander push from DC's "New 52" relaunch of several comics). A DC representative said, “This is not the first time in DC Comics history that Clark Kent has left the Planet, and this time the resignation reflects present-day issues – the balance of journalism vs. entertainment, the role of new media, the rise of the citizen journalist, etc.”