Sparky: What you should be watching if animation matters to you - The Justice League (animated series) with the appropriate spoiler warnings for “the kids” - now that we've all read the primer ...

While Sparky loves to wax poetically about well written animation not for the kids - The Justice Leaque series simply rocks ... If an animated series have to give us animated “heroes” in spandex — this does it the way the Batman Animated Series did — the correct way not dumbing down to kids (ala “The Pet Goat”). It ranks up there with my favorite American show - The Venture Bros. It certainly is as high quality as the two Geneon shows I'll talk about next week — Samurai Champloo and Paranoia Agent.

The Justice League (animated series)

Justice League is an animated series about a team of superheroes which ran from 2001 to 2004 on Cartoon Network. It is based on the Justice League and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.
Cover art for Justice League Adventures #1, by Bruce Timm and Alex Ross, the
DC comic book series featuring the Justice League, but set in the continuity (and
style) of the Justice League animated series as opposed to the regular DC
Universe. It is a sister title to Batman Adventures (based on Batman: The Animated
Series) and Superman Adventures (based on Superman: The Animated Series).
Justice League Adventures ran for 34 issues from 2002-2004, before being
restarted under the title Justice League Unlimited (to match the recreation
of the television series as Justice League Unlimited). Though there was also
an earlier "universe" called the DCA universe (for Animated series continuity).

History

Animator Bruce Timm, having successfully adapted both Batman and Superman into animated television programs in the 1990s, took on the challenge of faithfully adapting the Justice League comic book. Ignoring the sidekicks, pets and silliness of the earlier Super Friends show, the line-up of this new JLA adaptation was created with two things in mind: To pay tribute to the original line-up of the Justice League of America while also reflecting racial and cultural diversity. Significantly, the well-known (but much-deprecated) superhero Aquaman was left out of the lineup (although he would be used on the show) in favor of a second female on the team - Hawkgirl - and the African-American Green Lantern John Stewart was used rather than either of the better-known modern-era Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner, even though Rayner had appeared as Green Lantern in the Superman animated series. (In the second season, Rayner is described as a Lantern in training under Stewart's old mentor, explaining his absence. Both he and Jordan make appearances in Justice League Unlimited.)

In February 2004 Cartoon Network announced a follow-up series, Justice League Unlimited, which premiered on July 31. Justice League Unlimited features a greatly expanded roster of heroes, usually with only a few appearing in any given episode, although there are a few featuring just about the entire roster fighting against one giant enemy.

Characters

Justice League (2001) screenshot of Hawkgirl, carrying her mace
and wearing her helmet, fair use © Cartoon Network

The seven founding members of the Justice League in the animated series are:

• Superman (Clark Kent, voiced by George Newbern)
• Batman (Bruce Wayne, voiced by Kevin Conroy)
• Wonder Woman (Princess Diana, voiced by Susan Eisenberg)
• The Flash (Wally West, voiced by Michael Rosenbaum)
• Green Lantern (John Stewart, voiced by Phil LaMarr)
• Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz, voiced by Carl Lumbly)
• Hawkgirl (Shayera Hol, voiced by Maria Canals)

Episodes

There were a total of 52 episodes, along with a two-part Static Shock crossover. Each episode fit into a half-hour block including commercials.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

First season

Secret Origins - #1, 2, 3: Astronauts on Mars uncover relics of an alien race. Years later, Batman uncovers a plot to cripple Earth's space monitoring systems. He is joined by Superman who begins to experience strange mental phenomena. This is eventually revealed to be caused by the captive, J'onn J'onzz (also known as Martian Manhunter). Meanwhile, Earth comes under attack from aliens who land and begin converting Earth into a habitat more suitable to their physiology. J'onn explains that these same creatures devastated Mars and that they were defeated at the cost of his species, he being the last of his kind. The human astronauts had been killed and replaced by these aliens. Superman, Batman and The Martian Manhunter, are joined by fellow superheroes Green Lantern (John Stewart), Hawkgirl, The Flash and new-comer Wonder Woman (we have previously seen Wonder Woman defying her mother's wishes and leaving her homeland to join the fight). Eventually, Batman realises that the changes being made to Earth's environment primarily involve blotting out the sun, and uses this to defeat the Aliens. The title of these episodes come from DC Comics's series of comic books that explain the origins of various heroes.

In Blackest Night - #4, 5: Robotic Manhunters arrive on Earth, intent on capturing the Green Lantern. The Justice League try to defend their colleague - none but Superman can match the power of the Manhunters. Then, John shocks the team by stopping the fight and agreeing to be captured by the Manhunters. He is taken to a planet where he is put on trial for the destruction of a neighboring world. John pleads guilty to the charges; the rest of the League are confused as to how he could have done such a thing. It is explained, by an alien witness, that the Green Lantern was pursuing him, to try to bring him to justice. The alien's ship's shields deflected one of Green Lantern's force beams into a faultline on a planet, causing a catastophic reaction that destroyed the entire world - leaving nothing more than an asteroid field. Investigating further, the Justice League uncover a plot by the Manhunters to steal the energy of the Lantern Core, the power source of all Green Lanterns. They also discover that the lead Manhunter had falsified the destruction of the planet in order to implicate John Stewart. The lead Manhunter succeeds in taking the Lantern Core's energy, but John is able to defeat him by channelling the same raw energy through his ring, destroying the Manhunters.

The Enemy Below - #6, 7: A nuclear submarine is attacked in the Atlantic, forcing the League to come face-to-face with Aquaman and his Atlantean army. After agreeing to have the crew rescued, but leaving the sub with all of its weapons on the bottom of the ocean, Aquaman goes to Metropolis to take his problems up with the various governments of the world. Unfortunately the meeting does not go well for the king of the seas, and as he leaves discouraged, he is attacked and must be rushed to the hospital. When the mercenary Deadshot tries to attack Aquaman again, the League steps in, and Aquaman discovers that Lord Orm, his own brother, was behind the attack. He tries to stop Orm from starting an all-out war with the surface world, but he is taken prisoner when his own officers stage a coup. Orm takes Aquaman and his infant son and place them on a cliff over a vein of molten lava and leaves them to die. In order to save his son, Aquaman must make a terrible sacrifice.

Paradise Lost - #8, 9: Sorcerer Felix Faust invades Wonder Woman's homeland of Themiscyra, turning all its inhabitants to stone, in a quest to unleash an ancient evil buried beneath the island.

War World - #10, 11: Superman and the Martian Manhunter are abducted by extraterrestrial slavers and sold to a planet where the population spends its time watching aliens kill each other in an enormous coliseum. Green Lantern and Hawkgirl set out to rescue them.

The Brave and the Bold - #12, 13: Green Lantern and the Flash uncover a plot by Grodd, a hyperintelligent talking gorilla to destroy Gorilla City, a hidden city of hyperintelligent talking gorillas in Africa. Grodd has the power to control the minds of others with his device and the assistance of his lover, Dr. Sarah Corwin. His mind control abilities become evident when The Flash is brainwashed into stealing radioactive isotope, which are needed to power Grodd's machine. While under Grodd's control, Flash imagines himself as very fat, very skinny, with a gigantic head that eventually explodes, then as a puppet whose strings have been cut, and finally transforming into a gorilla, only to wake up remembering nothing that happened. The only protection our heroes have against Grodd's mind control is a special headband, given to Flash and Green Lantern by Solavar, Gorilla City's chief of security.

Fury - #14, 15: A rogue Amazon (born in the mortal world, raised in Themyscera) sets out to kill all men in the world as punishment for the men who killed her family in a war.

Legends - #16, 17: The Justice League are accidentally transported to a parallel world that is the home of the Justice Guild of America, who are comic book characters in the Justice League's world. (This story is an homage to the cross-world team-ups between the Justice League and the Justice Society of America that used to occur regularly in the comics.)

Injustice For All - #18, 19: Lex Luthor assembles a team of supervillains to take on the Justice League.

A Knight of Shadows - #20, 21: The Demon, also known as Etrigan, seeks the assistance of the Justice League in preventing the Philosopher's stone from falling into the hands of his ancient enemy, the sorceress Morgan le Fay.

Metamorphosis - #22, 23: Green Lantern's old friend Rex Mason, now working for a shady industrialist, suffers an "accident" arranged by his jealous employer, and becomes the superhero Metamorpho.

The Savage Time - #24, 25, 26: The Justice League return from a mission in space to find the world altered - a result of supervillain Vandal Savage feeding information to his younger self in the 1940s, allowing him to have taken over the world during World War II. The Justice League travel back in time themselves to stop him, with the assistance of DC Comics' WWII-era heroes (including Easy Company, the Blackhawks, and Steve Trevor).

Second season

Twilight - #27, 28: The League is tricked into defending Apokolips,Darkseid's homeworld against the threat of Brainiac. The league meets the New Gods, who are at war with Darkseid, and learn about the treaty.

Tabula Rasa - #29, 30: Lex Luthor manipulates a powerful android, A.M.A.Z.O., who can copy any superpower, against the Justice League. J'onn questions the nature of humans.

Only a Dream - #31, 32: Small time crook John Dee dreams of becoming a big-time supervillain. He gets his wish when, in prison, he volunteers for a experimental treatment. Overdosing, he becomes the dream-controlling Doctor Destiny. Destiny takes control of the team in their sleep, with the exception of Batman and J'onn. As Batman tries to track down Dee in the waking world J'onn telepathically enters the nightmares of his team-mates to revive them.

Maid of Honor - #33, 34: Wonder Woman befriends the princess of Kasnia, a jet-setting party girl who is reluctant to end her wild ways in order to get married. Unfortunately her fiancé is the immortal Vandal Savage, and he already has plans for both the throne and the Justice League. It is up to Wonder Woman and Batman to stop them.

Hearts and Minds - #35, 36 Green Lantern must rescue his fellow Lanterns from the alien minions of Despero. Kilowog, who has just barely managed to escape to the League's headquarters, tells of the plight facing his fellow Lanterns. Sadly for Green Lantern, his former mentor and lover, Katma Tui, has joined the forces of Despero.

A Better World - #37, 38: In an alternate world, the Justice League go from being heroes to tyrants. After the death of the Flash, the League launch an assault on the White House, where Superman kills President Lex Luthor. Now known as the Justice Lords, they rule over the planet with a firm iron fist. Bored with their position, the Justice Lords discover that there is an alternate dimension where their counterparts are still good, and the Flash is still alive. They cross over, trapping the League in a force field, and then take their places in a quest to make this Earth like theirs. The idea of evil Alternates is loosely based on the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3(Pre-Crisis)/Qward(Post-Crisis)

The Terror Beyond - #39, 40: Dr. Fate and Aquaman release Solomon Grundy, intent on using him to help battle an ancient evil.

Eclipsed - #41, 42: An ancient lunar crystal called The Black Heart is discovered. Little do the members of the Justice League know, it harbors an evil alien spirit with the ability to possess its bearer. When Wonder Woman touches it, the alien takes control of her and she becomes a villainess. The Alien's power contaminates almost all of the League, except for The Flash, who manages to prove his mettle and save his friends from the Solar Eclipse which will destroy both the Sun and the Earth.

Hereafter - #43, 44: A band of supervillains (all previously seen on Superman: The Animated Series) team up to get revenge on Superman. When they attack Metropolis, Toyman succeeds in hitting Superman with an experimental weapon that seemingly vaporises him. The League attempts to cope with Superman's loss by defending Metropolis as best they can. Eventually, Lobo shows up to replace Superman against the wishes of the rest of the League. In their final battle with the "Superman Revenge Squad", Lobo drives home what a loss Superman was. In part 2, Superman wakes up on a strange planet. He spends years traveling across the surface, the red sun having drained him of his powers. He finally encounters the immortal villain Vandal Savage who reveals that this planet is Earth, but in the far future. Savage explains that one of his attempts at world domination accidentally caused Humanity to become extinct. He now lives alone with an immense feeling of guilt. He and Superman plan to repair a time machine Savage had built in an attempt to undo his earlier actions, but first they must steal back a power source (an artificial yellow sun) from a new species of insect that has appeared on Earth. They succeed and the show ends with Superman returning to the League and leading them to thwart Savage's plan that will destroy humanity.

The Secret Society - #45, 46 While the Justice League are quarreling, Grodd organizes a Secret Society comprised of Giganta, Sinestro, and Killer Frost. Green Lantern is the only League member willing to put his differences aside and fight the bad guys. Unfortunately, his friends aren't.

Comfort and Joy - #47: After saving two worlds, the members of the Justice League decide to take a break to celebrate the holidays. Flash spends his Christmas Eve with the children of an orphanage, who ask that he find them a special animated toy duck. Unfortunately, the toy is so popular it cannot be found in any store. He manages to find the last one, only to come face-to-face with the Ultra-Humanite. Green Lantern and Hawkgirl show each other how they spend the holidays. Lantern engages in a snowball fight with Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl reciprocates by showing Lantern how she spends the holidays... in an interplanetary barroom brawl. Meanwhile, Superman invites J'onn over to Smallville for Christmas Eve with his adopted parents, and although he is welcomed by the Kents, J'onn still feels like a stranger.

Wild Card - #48, 49: Taking over a TV station in Las Vegas, the Joker announces that he has placed a series of bombs that will destroy the Vegas Strip in thirty minutes if they are not stopped by the Justice League. But with the whole world watching Joker's version of reality television, the League must first get past the Joker's own super-team, the Royal Flush Gang. However, the threat imposed by the Joker is not as simple as it seems, and Batman must track down his HQ to stop his nemessis.

Starcrossed - #50, 51, 52: After Earth is attacked by a Gordanian battleship, the Justice League are aided by an army of hawkmen from Hawkgirl's home planet of Thanagar. They discover that Hawkgirl has been providing her people with details about Earth... and about the League. Not only that, but Green Lantern discovers that Hawkgirl, whom he has gotten romantically involved with, is engaged to Hro Talak, the leader of the Thanagarian army. The Thanagarians offer to help Earth defend against the Gordanians, but Batman discovers that this is just a ruse. The Thanagarians have a much more sinister plan for Earth. Meanwhile, Shayera Hol finds herself torn between her allegiance to Thanagar and love for Hro Talak and her love for Earth and for John Stewart. Whom will she betray?

Static Shock

A League of Their Own - #34, 36: When the Watchtower has a sudden power drain, the Justice League are forced to recruit Static to "jump start" their station before it reenters the atmostphere. Unbeknownst to either Static or Gear, the power drain also releases Brainiac from his confinement.

Fallen Hero - #44: Static faces off against his idol, Green Lantern, when he causes chaos all over town.

DVD releases

Justice League: Contains all three parts of "Secret Origins". A mini-DVD version of this disc has also been released.

Justice on Trial: Contains "In Blackest Night" and "The Enemy Below".

Paradise Lost: Contains "Paradise Lost" and "War World".

The Brave and the Bold: Contains episodes "The Brave and the Bold" and "Injustice for All".

Starcrossed The Movie: Contains "Starcrossed" in both widescreen and fullscreen. A mini-DVD version of this disc has also been released with only fullscreen.

The Justice League Collection: Contains previous "Secret Origins," "Paradise Lost," and "Justice on Trial" DVDs in a three-pack with a slipcase.

Challenge of the Super Friends to Justice League: Conatins the previously released "Justice League" (Secret Origins) DVD along with two Super Friends discs in a slip-case.

External links

• Official site
• Justice League Resource
• Justice League @ The World's Finest
• Justice League at the Internet Movie Database

Justice League Unlimited

Justice League Unlimited is an animated television series produced by and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, it is a direct sequel to the earlier Justice League series. It debuted on July 31, 2004.

The series is a continuation of its predecessor, taking place soon after the previous series ended. It is sometimes considered to be the same series as the original; season 1 of Justice League Unlimited is referred to as season 3 of Justice League.

It features a greatly-expanded Justice League, in which the characters from the original series are joined by a wide array of superheroes, as well as a number of DC heroes who had made guest appearances in the first two seasons of Justice League.

Also unlike Justice League, the show also has an ongoing story arc involving the building conflict between the Justice League and a secret government agency known as Cadmus. This plot line was heavily built upon events that have occurred during the second season of Justice League and has affected the plotlines for most of its episodes. It was resolved in a four-part episode at the end of the second season of Unlimited.

Format changes

Besides the addition of dozens of new League members, the show has changed format somewhat. Justice League Unlimited stories are mostly half-hour episode in length, unlike stories for Justice League which routinely ran for two half-hour episodes.

Justice League Unlimited, similar to the second season of Justice League, is animated (and broadcast) in widescreen. The show also features a new theme song.

Characters in Justice League Unlimited

The Martian Manhunter is a founding member of the Justice League in
a Screen Capture Still from the Justice League Unlimited Television
series. Cite fair use © Cartoon Network.

The seven founding members were the original regular lineup of the League the previous two seasons. It is evident that most of the founding members have higher rank and more responsibilities than the new members of the Justice League.

• Superman
• Batman
• Wonder Woman
• The Flash
• Green Lantern (John Stewart)
• Martian Manhunter
• Hawkgirl - initially absent because of events in "Starcrossed", the Justice League series finale; she rejoined in the episode "Wake the Dead"

Some of the more prominently featured new Justice League members include:

• Aquaman
• The Atom
• Black Canary
• Booster Gold
• Captain Atom
• Elongated Man
• Green Arrow
• Huntress
• Question
• Supergirl
• Vixen
• Zatanna

See Characters Appearing in Justice League Unlimited for a more complete list.

Same name, future team

The name "Justice League Unlimited" also refers to a team of superheroes roughly 40 years in the future that appeared in the Batman Beyond two-part episode "The Call" (which, incidentally, aired well before work began on the Justice League series). This team consisted of Superman, a new Green Lantern, Big Barda, Warhawk, Aquagirl, and Micron. Like his predecessor, the new Batman becomes a part-time member of the League. A connection with this team and the present-day team featured in Justice League Unlimited was directly evident in the Justice League Unlimited two-part episode "The Once and Future Thing."

Episodes

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

First season

1. Initiation (aired July 31, 2004) - A reluctant Green Arrow joins forces with the new Justice League to stop a rampaging nuclear monster in Asia.

2. Hawk and Dove (aired August 21, 2004) - Wonder Woman teams up with two super powered brothers, one warlike, the other a pacifist, to stop Ares' plans to escalate a European civil war into World War III.

3. Kid Stuff (aired August 14, 2004) - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern are transformed into eight-year-olds in a desperate attempt to save the world from the magic of Mordred. Also features Morgan la Fey.

4. For the Man Who Has Everything (aired August 7, 2004) - Batman and Wonder Woman visit the Fortress of Solitude on Superman's birthday, only to find him trapped by Mongul. Based on the popular story by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons from Superman Annual #11.

5. The Greatest Story Never Told (aired September 11, 2004) - The Justice League is in epic battle with Mordru in downtown Metropolis, but the real story is what happens to Booster Gold while he's supposed to be on "crowd control".

6. The Return (aired September 18, 2004) - Nearly two-dozen heroes join forces to prevent an all-powerful android from reaching his goal: the recently reformed Lex Luthor.

7. This Little Piggy (aired August 28, 2004) - It's musical mayhem when Batman and Zatanna join forces to save a teammate from a fate worse than death. Features Wonder Woman and Circe.

8. Fearful Symmetry (aired September 4, 2004) - Supergirl discovers that a series of nightmares she's been having about being an assassin may be far more than just a bad dream. (This episode is also known as "Galatea".)

9. Ultimatum (aired December 4, 2004) - The Justice League meets the Ultimen, a popular group of young heroes who are about to discover their own horrifying secret origins. (As a nod to fans who grew up watching the Super Friends, the Ultimen are a pastiche of heroes unique to that show.)

10. Dark Heart (aired December 11, 2004) - When the entire League is helpless to stop an alien invasion, the world's only hope is the Atom, a microscopic superhero.

11. Wake the Dead (aired December 18, 2004) - When Solomon Grundy rises from the grave, an old friend must come out of hiding and team up with the League once more.

12. The Once and Future Thing, Part 1: Weird Western Tales (aired January 22, 2005) - Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern chase a time-traveling villain to the past, where they team up with the some of the greatest DC heroes of the Old West.

13. The Once and Future Thing, Part 2: Time Warped (aired January 29, 2005) - The Justice League's adventures in time take them to a futuristic Gotham City, where they join forces with that era's Batman (Batman Beyond's Terry McGinnis) and his super team, The Justice League Unlimited.

Second season

1. The Cat and the Canary (aired February 5, 2005) - Black Canary convinces Green Arrow to help save her mentor, Wildcat, from his involvement in an underground, super-powered fight club.

2. The Ties That Bind (aired February 12, 2005) - The world's greatest escape artist needs help from the Flash in order to break a deadly enemy out of an inescapable prison on an alien planet.

3. Doomsday Sanction (aired February 19, 2005) - While Superman battles Doomsday in the heart of a volcano; Batman discovers an elaborate conspiracy to destroy the Justice League.

4. Task Force X (aired May 21, 2005) - A team of supervillains comprised of Deadshot, Plastique, Captain Boomerang, and the Clock King are recruited by the government in order to steal the Annihilator machine from the Hawk and Dove episode.

5. The Balance (aired June 4, 2005) - Felix Faust escapes from being imprisoned in a mirror, only to cast Hades out of Tartarus. This upset in power causes the magic-using Justice League members to be sent into shock, forcing Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl to face Faust in Hell.

6. Double Date (aired June 4, 2005) - Huntress is kicked out of the Justice League for stalking mob boss Steven Mandragora. She recruits the Question to her side with promises to assist in his conspiracy theories against Cadmus. Green Arrow and Black Canary are sent to protect Mandragora.

7. Clash (aired June 11, 2005) - Lex Luthor's presidency moves forward as Captain Marvel appears to endorse his candidacy. Superman's mistrust towards Luthor causes him to get into an all-out brawl with Marvel.

8. Mystery in Space (also known as Hunter's Moon, aired June 18, 2005) - When the Justice League receives a distress call, Hawkgirl, Vigilante and Vixen investigate only to find that it was a trap set out by the remaining Thanagarian warriors who blame Hawkgirl for their losses in the war mentioned in "Starcrossed".

9. Question Authority (aired June 25, 2005) - Captain Atom's Air Force Reserve commission is reactivated. The Question and Huntress uncover a conspiracy by Lex Luthor to discredit the Justice League and trigger a war that will leave the world in ruins. The Question is captured, and Superman and Huntress attempt to rescue him. Almost successful, they are confronted by Captain Atom, who has orders to stop them.

10. Flashpoint (aired July 2, 2005) - Lex Luthor seizes control of the Watchtower's main gun to fire on Cadmus, causing massive collateral damage on the city and falsely implicating the League as responsible. Convinced it is an act of revenge, Amanda Waller commands Galatea to attack the Watchtower with an army of Ultimen clones.

11. Panic in the Sky (aired July 9, 2005) - The founding members of the Justice League surrender to the government, with the exception of Batman, who tries to convince Amanda Waller that Lex Luthor hacked into the Watchtower with stolen Cadmus technology. Supergirl and Steel go after Galatea, who's leading the storming of the Watchtower.

12. Divided We Fall (aired July 16, 2005) - With most of the League unavailable, the League's inner circle must battle against the fused Luthor and Brainiac.

13. Epilogue (aired July 23, 2005) - Sixty-five years in the future, the history of the Justice League is the key to Batman's darkest secret... and his final destiny.

DVD releases

• Saving the World (released February 15, 2005) - Contains Season One episodes "Initiation", "Hawk and Dove", and "Kid Stuff".

• Joining Forces (to be released September 20, 2005) - Contains Season One episodes "For the Man Who Has Everything", "The Greatest Story Never Told", and "The Return".

• Heroes United (to be released January 3, 2006) - Contains Season One episodes "This Little Piggy", "Fearful Symmetry" and "Ultimatum."

External links

• Official site
• Justice League Resource
• Justice League Unlimited @ The World's Finest
• Justice League Unlimited at the Internet Movie Database
• TV.com: Justice League Unlimited
• The Watchtower

PP GURU: STRANGE BACK TO NORMAL STIRRINGS BELOW THE PP GURU's BELT

Our 365th Post!

It's bleeping about time! If we were to go 365 times straight on this blog on a daily basis we would have a year's worth of material in the time space of....a year.

But instead, it has taken the PP Guru the length of about 2 and a half years to post a full year's worth of material on his blog. the PP Guru is not kidding. Just do the math.

So, on this Friday installment of Strange Stirrings, we won't have any conflicts of interest with Real life Strange Stirrings below the belt. No coverage of Heidi MacDonald, no Tantalizing Tara, or Jennnnnster to ( Boo Hoo Hoo - Jennnnnster is leaving the PP Guru holy land today for Northern California to get married- the PP Guru is certainly going to miss her blazing mesmerizing booty for all eternity- but hey, there's more acolytes in the sea) interfere with the Fantasy babes. Nope, here at PP Guru central HQ, we are free to allow our beedy peeping tom to eyes to wander over our regularly scheduled cheesecake cyberlicious glossies of popular actresses, singers, and models who making the current events these days unwrinkle your tight chaffing Levis around the middle.

So let's get down with Jessica Biel.

Jessica is starring in the new speculative thriller, Stealth which is being released today by Sony Pictures. The film also stars Josh Lucas & Academy Award winning actor, Jamie Foxx. In the near future, the Navy develops a fighter jet piloted by an artificial intelligence computer. The jet is placed on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific to learn combat manuevers from the human pilots aboard. But when the computer starts to take on a HAL like personality - look out, excuse yourself and fear the sky- like Jimi Hendrix would say. Also be on the lookout for a cameo role by Nicholas Hammond - the first actor to ever portray Spider-Man on screen. The PP Guru doesn't know if Sony putting Hammond in one of their movies was a joke on their part- maybe Hammond will put on the Spidey suit and crawl out on the rogue jet and try to easily guide it back to earth like he tried to do way back in Amazing Spider-Man # 1 when Astronaut John Jameson's space capsule went spiraling out of control.

Wait a second — Did the PP Guru just pass nerd gas? Anyway - back to Jessica.



The PP Guru has so become enarmored with Jessica ever since her role as the Nightstalker, Abigail Whistler in the last Blade Trinity role. The PP Guru spent all last week with the DVD commentary with her, writer/director David Goyer, and co-star Ryan Reynolds (slated to be the next Flash whenever that gets around to being made)hooting and a-hollering about how she was made to buff up (check out those arms- holy shit- those muscles could maybe crush the PP Guru's windpipe or at least crush his fucking typing digits)and practice two hours a day on archery to the point where she became so fucking good that she shot a arrow right into the lense of a $ 300,000 dollar camera while shooting a scene (you can see what happens in the booper reel).

So it's been said that Jessica achieved notoriety from starring on a few seasons of the WB's first hit drama, Seventh Heaven (family dramas being not one of the PP Guru's fortes) before she was let go from her contract for posing semi-nude for either Maxim or FHM magazine. The PP Guru is thinking what the big fucking deal, right? Well, it turns out that when she posed by the forementioned magazines, she was under age at the time...and that really irked the frog nads off the WB ex-mascot, Michigan J's peons.

But hey that small act of derision made Jessica into a overnight sensation and the PP Guru would be proud to support Jessica's products and services. The PP Guru had the chance to chat with Jessica late last year at the Los Angeles Comic Book & Science Fiction Convention during a promotional stop for the third Blade Film- but he forgot what they talked about.

No matter. The only important thing is - Jessica strips down to her skivvies in Stealth and that's worth the $10.50 admission price. And how does the PP Guru know this? Why it's in the trailers.

And she's not even a high maintenance blonde. As rolled up and stuffed in a back pocket to:

~ Coat

Sparky adds this Infodump because he loves you all -

Jessica Biel

Jessica Claire Biel (born March 3, 1982 in Ely, Minnesota and raised in Colorado), is an American actress, best known as Mary Camden on the television drama 7th Heaven from 1996 to 2002. In 2000, she posed topless on the cover of Gear magazine. She is of German, Irish, and Choctaw ancestry.

In 2001, she enrolled in undergraduate study at Tufts University. She left before completing a degree program in order to pursue her acting career.

Actress Jessica Biel receives instructions on the ship’s helm from Seaman Redding after the Ms. Biel completed filming of the Hollywood motion picture "Stealth," aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Tyler J. Clements (RELEASED)

Filmography

• 7th Heaven (1996) TV Series as Mary Camden Rivera (1996-2003)
• Ulee's Gold (1997)
• I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)
• Summer Catch (2001)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
• It's a Digital World (2004)
• Cellular (2004)
• Blade: Trinity (2004)
• Stealth (2005)
• Elizabethtown (2005)
• Invisible Monsters (2005)
• The Illusionist (2006)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

Jessica Biel

• Jessica Biel .com.ar
• Jessica Biel at the Internet Movie Database
• The Unofficial Jessica Biel Web Page

(aside - this is the shiny bling bling blog style Sparky is trying to teach to the Guru)

Help celebrate Sparky's and NASA's 47th birthdays!

In 1958 - on this day - The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Maybe we'll have some space elevators by the 50th? As much as I love rockets - there are more elegant ways to get to space for people; Any decent mass driver would work for cargo that can handle higher Gee stress.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. It is also responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research.

Vision and mission

NASA's vision is "to improve life here, extend life to there, and to find life beyond." Its mission is "to understand and protect our home planet; to explore the Universe and search for life; and to inspire the next generation of explorers."

History

Space race

For additional background, please see the Space Race article

May 5, 1961 launch of Redstone rocket and NASA's Mercury 3 capsule
Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard Jr. on the United States' first human
flight into sub-orbital space. (Atlas rockets were used to launch
Mercury's orbital missions.)

Following the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first man-made satellite (Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to American security and technological leadership, urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisers counseled more deliberate measures. Several months of debate produced agreement that a new federal agency was needed to conduct all nonmilitary activity in space.

On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 8,000 employees of the government's 46-year-old research agency for aeronautics, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

NASA's early programs were research into human spaceflight, and were conducted under the pressure of the competition between the USA and the USSR (the Space Race) that existed during the Cold War. The Mercury program, initiated in 1958, started NASA down the path of human space exploration with missions designed to discover simply if man could survive in space. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space when he piloted Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital flight. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962 during the 5-hour flight of Friendship 7.

Once Mercury proved that human spaceflight was possible, project Gemini was launched to conduct experiments and work out issues relating to a moon mission. The first Gemini flight with astronauts on board, Gemini III, was flown by Virgil "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young on March 23, 1965. Nine other missions followed, showing that long-duration human space flight was possible, proving that rendezvous and docking with another vehicle in space was possible, and gathering medical data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.

Apollo program

Following the success of the Mercury and Gemini programs, the Apollo program was launched to try to do interesting work in space and possibly put men around (but not on) the Moon. The direction of the Apollo program was radically altered following President John F. Kennedy's announcement on May 25, 1961 that the United States should commit itself to "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by 1970. Thus Apollo became a program to land men on the Moon. The Gemini program was started shortly thereafter to provide an interim spacecraft to prove techniques needed for the now much more complicated Apollo missions.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the Moon near the leg of the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA). Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the Moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia" in lunar orbit.

After eight years of preliminary missions, including NASA's first loss of astronauts with the Apollo 1 launch pad fire, the Apollo program achieved its goals with Apollo 11 which landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969 and returned them to Earth safely on July 24. Armstrong's first words upon stepping out of the Eagle lander captured the momentousness of the occasion: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Twelve men would set foot on the Moon by the end of the Apollo program in December 1972.

NASA had won the space race, and in some senses this left it without direction, or at the very least without the public attention and interest that was necessary to guarantee large budgets from Congress. After Lyndon Johnson left office, NASA lost its main political supporter, and Wernher von Braun was moved to a position lobbying in Washington. Plans for ambitious follow-on projects to construct a space station, establish a lunar base and launch a human mission to Mars by 1990 were proposed but with the end to procurement of Saturn and Apollo hardware there was no capability to support these. The near-disaster of Apollo 13, where an oxygen explosion nearly doomed all three astronauts, helped to recapture attention and concern, but although missions up to Apollo 20 were planned, Apollo 17 was the last mission to fly under the Apollo banner. The program ended because of budget cuts (in part due to the Vietnam War) and the desire to develop a reusable space vehicle.

Other early missions

Although the vast majority of NASA's budget has been spent on human spaceflight, there have been many robotic missions instigated by the space agency. In 1962 the Mariner 2 mission was launched and became the first spacecraft to make a flyby of another planet – in this case Venus. The Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter missions were essential to assessing lunar conditions before attempting Apollo landings with humans on board. Later, the two Viking probes landed on the surface of Mars and sent color images back to Earth, but perhaps more impressive were the Pioneer and particularly Voyager missions that visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and sent back science and color images from all.

Having lost the space race, the Soviet Union had, along with the USA, changed its approach. On July 17, 1975 an Apollo craft (finding a new use after the cancellation of Apollo 18) was docked to the Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft. Although the Cold War would last many more years, this was a critical point in NASA's history and much of the international co-operation in space exploration that exists today has its genesis here. America's first space station, Skylab, occupied NASA from the end of Apollo until the late 1970s.

Shuttle era

The space shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Planned to be a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttles were built by 1985. The first to launch, Columbia did so on April 12, 1981.

Launching of the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-1 in April 1981. This was the very first launch and notably the external fuel tank is painted white. The fuel tanks are now unpainted to save a considerable amount of weight.

The shuttle was not all good news for NASA – flights were much more expensive than initially projected, and even after the 1986 Challenger disaster highlighted the risks of space flight, the public again lost interest as missions appeared to become mundane.

Nonetheless, the shuttle has been used to launch milestone projects like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The HST was created with a relatively small budget of $2 billion but has continued operation since 1990 and has delighted both scientists and the public. Some of the images it has returned have become near-legendary, such as the groundbreaking Hubble Deep Field images. The HST is a joint project between ESA and NASA, and its success has paved the way for greater collaboration between the agencies.

In 1995 Russian-American interaction would again be achieved as the Shuttle-Mir missions began, and once more a Russian craft (this time a full-fledged space station) docked with an American vehicle. This cooperation continues to the present day, with Russia and America the two biggest partners in the largest space station ever built – the International Space Station (ISS). The strength of their cooperation on this project was even more evident when NASA began relying on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS following the 2003 Columbia disaster, which grounded the shuttle fleet for well over two years.

Costing over one hundred billion dollars, it has been difficult at times for NASA to justify the ISS. The population at large have historically been hard to impress with details of scientific experiments in space, preferring news of grand projects to exotic locations. Even now, the ISS cannot accommodate as many scientists as planned.

During much of the 1990s, NASA was faced with shrinking annual budgets due to Congressional belt-tightening in Washington, DC. In response, NASA's ninth administrator, Daniel S. Goldin, pioneered the "faster, better, cheaper" approach that enabled NASA to cut costs while still delivering a wide variety of aerospace programs (Discovery Program). That method was criticized and re-evaluated following the twin losses of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999.

Mars and beyond

Probably the most publicly-inspiring mission of recent years has been the Mars Pathfinder mission of 1997. Newspapers around the world carried images of the lander dispatching its own rover, Sojourner, to explore the surface of Mars in a way never done before at any extra-terrestrial location. Less publicly acclaimed but performing science from 1997 to date (2004) has been the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Since 2001, the orbiting Mars Odyssey has been searching for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on the red planet.

On January 14, 2004, ten days after the landing of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration. Humankind will return to the moon by 2020, and set up outposts as a testbed and potential resource for future missions. The space shuttle will be retired in 2010 and the Crew Exploration Vehicle will replace it by 2014, capable of both docking with the ISS and leaving the Earth's orbit. The future of the ISS is somewhat uncertain – construction will be completed, but beyond that is less clear. The Centennial Challenges, technology prizes for non-government teams, were established in 2004.

Criticisms

Some commentators such as Mark Wade note that NASA has suffered from a 'stop-start' approach to its human spaceflight programs. The Apollo spacecraft and Saturn family of launch vehicles were abandoned in 1970 after billions of dollars had been spent on their development. In 2004 the U.S. Government proposed eventually replacing the Shuttle with a Crew Exploration Vehicle that would allow the agency to again send astronauts to the Moon. Despite the reduction of its budget following project Apollo, NASA has maintained a top-heavy bureaucracy resulting in inflated costs and compromised hardware.

Florida, USA, taken from Shuttle Mission STS-95 on 31st October 1998. Taken during the STS-95 mission from a point over Cuba, this photo shows an oblique view of the Florida Peninsula, with the light blue, shallow seafloor of both the Florida Keys (curving across the bottom of the view) and the Bahama banks (right). Cumulus cloud covers Miami and the Southern Everglades, although the built-up area from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm BeachLake Okeechobee is the prominent waterbody in Florida. Cape Canaveral is shown well, half way up the peninsula. Orlando appears as the lighter patch west (left) of Cape Canaveral, near the middle of the peninsula. Cape Hatteras appears top right, with the north part of Chesapeake Bay also visible.

NASA spaceflight missions

Human spaceflight

• Mercury program
• Gemini program
• Apollo program
• Skylab
• Space Shuttle
• International Space Station
• Project Constellation

Robotic space missions

• Earth Observing
  • Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
  • TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics)

• Lunar missions
  • Ranger
  • Surveyor
  • Lunar Orbiter
  • Clementine
  • Lunar Prospector

• Mercury missions
  • Mariner 10
  • MESSENGER

• Venus missions
  • Mariner 2, 5 and 10
  • Pioneer Venus
  • Magellan

• Mars missions
  • Mariner 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9
  • Viking 1 and 2
  • Mars Observer
  • Mars Pathfinder
  • Mars Climate Orbiter
  • Mars Polar Lander
  • Mars Global Surveyor
  • 2001 Mars Odyssey
  • Mars Exploration Rovers
  • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (Planned for 2005)
  • Phoenix (Planned for 2007)
  • Mars Science Laboratory (Planned for 2009)

• Jupiter missions
  • Pioneer 10
  • Galileo

• Saturn missions
  • Cassini-Huygens together with ESA

• Multi-planet missions
  • Pioneer 11 – Jupiter and Saturn
  • Mariner 10 – Venus and Mercury
  • Voyager 1 – Jupiter and Saturn
  • Voyager 2 – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
  • New Horizons (Planned for 2006) – Jupiter, Pluto and Kuiper Belt

• Asteroidal/cometary missions
  • NEAR Shoemaker
  • Deep Space 1
  • Stardust
  • Deep Impact
  • Dawn (Planned for 2006)

• Proposed or canceled planetary-asteroid missions
  • JIMO (cancelled)
  • CRAF (cancelled)
  • NetLanders (cancelled)
  • Titan Explorer (proposed)
  • Neptune Orbiter (proposed)

• Sun observing missions
  • SOHO – ESA partnership
  • Ulysses – ESA partnership

• Great Observatories for Space Astrophysics
  • Hubble Space Telescope – ESA partnership
  • Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
  • Chandra X-ray Observatory
  • Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF)

• Other observatories
  • COBE
  • FUSE
  • Infrared Astronomical Satellite
  • James Webb Space Telescope – ESA partnership
  • WMAP



List of NASA administrators

• T. Keith Glennan (1958–1961)
• James E. Webb (1961–1968)
• Thomas O. Paine (1969–1970)
• James C. Fletcher (1971–1977)
• Robert A. Frosch (1977–1981)
• James M. Beggs (1981–1985)
• James C. Fletcher (1986–1989)
• Richard H. Truly (1989–1992)
• Daniel S. Goldin (1992–2001)
• Sean O'Keefe (2001–2005)
• Michael Griffin (2005–)

Field installations

In addition to headquarters in Washington, D.C., NASA has field installations at:

• Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
• Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
• John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Ohio
• Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
  • Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York
  • Independent Verification and Validation Facility, Fairmont, West Virginia
  • Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena, California
  • Deep Space Network stations:
    • Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, Barstow, California
    • Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, Madrid, Spain
    • Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
• Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
  • White Sands Test Facility, Las Cruces, New Mexico
• John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida
• Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
• George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
  • Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana
• John C. Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Awards and decorations

NASA presently bestows a number of medals and decorations to astronauts and other NASA personnel. Some awards are authorized for wear on active duty military uniforms. Current NASA awards are as follows:

• Congressional Space Medal of Honor
• NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
• NASA Distinguished Service Medal
• NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal
• NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
• NASA Exceptional Administrative Achievement Medal
• NASA Exceptional Bravery Medal
• NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal
• NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
• NASA Exceptional Service Medal
• NASA Exceptional Technological Achievement Medal
• NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
• NASA Public Service Medal
• NASA Space Flight Medal

Related legislation

• 1958 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration PL 85-568 (passed on July 29)
• 1961 – Apollo mission funding PL 87-98 A
• 1970 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research and Development Act PL 91-119
• 1984 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 98-361
• 1988 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 100-685
• NASA Budget 1958–2005 in 1996 Constant Year Dollars

Related topics

• Astronaut
• Small Aircraft Transportation System
• Space Shuttle
• Space exploration
• Space race
• Robert Gilruth, Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz (flight directors)
• KC-135 Reduced Gravity Aircraft

Other space agencies

• Canadian Space Agency
• CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales)
• China National Space Administration
• European Space Agency
• Italian Space Agency
• Indian Space Research Organisation
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
• National Space Agency of Ukraine
• Russian Federal Space Agency
• Soviet space program (historical)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

NASA

• NASA Home Page
• NASA History Series Publications
• Cassini Imaging Laboratory – Stunning images of the planets taken by the Cassini exploratory spacecraft.

Further research

• NASA Historical Data Books (SP-4012)
• Research in NASA History: A Guide to the NASA History Program (large PDF – over 1,012 kb)
• NASA History Series Publications
• NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server
• Eventscope

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