Who's The Richest Fictional Character This Year?

Forbes Fictional richest 15 people are out.  Well, it was actually out on the 23rd.  I'm a bit slow.  Here they are:

1. Smaug

2. Flintheart Glomgold

3. Carlisle Cullen

4. Jed Clampett

5. Tony Stark

6. Richie Rich

7. Charles Foster Kane

8. Bruce Wayne

9. Forrest Gump

10. Mr. Monopoly

11. Lisbeth Salander

12. Tywin Lannister

13. C. Montgomery Burns

14. Robert Crawley

15. Jo Bennett

I had to look up 12, 14 and 15.  I also posted last year's list.  Scrooge McDuck, last year's number 1 isn't even on the list this year.  Smaug came up from last year's 7th place finish.  Also, how is Lisbeth Salander on this list?  I've only read the first book, maybe I need to read the other two?

From Forbes: "Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character’s source material, and where possible, valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements. In the case of privately held fictional concerns, we seek to identify comparable fictional public companies. All figures are as of market close, April 1, 2012."


Where I saw it first:  Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

In Case You Didn't Know...

The sinking of the Titanic was real.  I can't believe people don't know that.  I know it happened a long time ago, but still.  It was one of the most monumental catastrophes of the modern age.

via Gizmodo

Source:  Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Here's a picture of the Titanic from Wikipedia when it set sail:

Here's what it looked like photographed in 2004 (It's under water):

When is a quote not a quote?

I hate this misuse of quotation marks.  It annoys me every time I see it.  Click the link below for more pictures.

Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Zombies of the World

... according to Google Maps.

(c) the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Dr. Mark Graham etc.

Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

True Blood Covers From Entertainment Weekly

Some more fantastic True Blood pics thanks to Stargazing.

Why Can't Good-Looking Women Be Geeks?

I read this post on Stargazing today and was thoroughly irritated. From Stargazing:

"This is somewhat annoying. Someone at Film Drunk decided that women have to be lying when they describe themselves at science-fiction/comicbook fans and that they only do it to pander to men/boys. Which makes sense, because why else would women do anything? Am I right?"

Film Drunk even put together a reel of clips from talk shows with hot actresses confessing their nerdiness.  Some of them, ya, I think they might be saying they like Star Wars just to help promote whatever movie they're in, but others seem really genuine...  like when Rosario Dawson spoke Klingon or Megan Fox started naming off cartoonists. 

Besides that... I think I do okay in the looks department (when I'm not pregnant or recovering from pregnancy) and I'm a geek.  Just read all the Sci-fi/Fantasy/etc stuff I have all over this blog.  It's not like I "pandered" to my geeky, D&D loving husband with talk of Star Trek and comic books (FYI, he admits that I know more about the Marvel Universe than he does).  It's not like I don't have a hot, tall, blonde friend who loves Dragon Age and the recently released Dragon Age II (they're Xbox games).  Who are these "Film Drunk" people to decide hot chicks can't be geeks?  Can't women have diverse interests?  Why are they trying to place all attractive women in a box?  It just irritated me... a lot.  Click the link below to check out the Stargazing post and watch the video.

Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Disneypocolypse!! (at Stargazing)

I couldn't resist sharing. Click the link below for the original post.  Click the picture to make it BIGGER!  Find the artist here.

Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe | Female Writers In Late Night

It's a sad state of affairs.  I don't have a lot of time this evening, but I had to share this.  Click the link below to find out more.
Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Infographic from Statette.

Do Women Read Fantasy?

I do.  Apparently there is a writer at the New York Times who says women won't watch Game of Thrones.  I think she's wrong.  I haven't read these books, but Malene Arpe (a woman) loves them and has been blogging about the upcoming miniseries for ages.  Click the link below to read more of her post.
Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

So, do women read fantasy?  I definitely do.  I've read, The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings, several Forgotten Realms novels.  They'd all be included in the same genre as Game of Thrones  I love reading.  I love to discover new worlds whether based on the past, present or future, with or without magical elements.  I'm just insulted that this woman doesn't think women read fantasy.

The Forbes Fictional 15 Richest People

I saw this over at Stargazing.  It's really interesting.  The Forbes article is more extensive and there are links to the biographies of each character.

1. Scrooge McDuck Uncle Scrooge comics $44.1 billion
2. Carlisle Cullen Twilight $36.2 billion
3. Artemis Fowl II Artemis Fowl novels $13.5 billion
4. Richie Rich Richie Rich comics $9.7 billion
5. Jed Clampett The Beverly Hillbillies $9.5 billion
6. Tony Stark Iron Man $9.4 billion
7. Smaug The Hobbit $8.6 billion
8. Bruce Wayne Batman $7.0 billion
9. Mr. Monopoly Monopoly games $2.6 billion
10. Arthur Bach Arthur films $1.8 billion
11. Jo Bennett The Office $1.2 billion
12. C. Montgomery Burns The Simpsons $1.1 billion
13. Chuck Bass Gossip Girl $1.1 billion
14. Gordon Gekko Wall Street $1.1 billion
15. Jeffrey Lebowski The Big Lebowski $1.0 billion

I don't know how they figured out that Smaug had $8.6 billion or that Carlisle Cullen has more money than Bruce Wayne, but it's a fun list to explore.  The "explanation" at the end of the article says:

"Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character’s source material, and where possible, valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements. In the case of privately held fictional concerns, we seek to identify comparable fictional public companies. All figures are as of market close, April 1, 2011."

Final valuations are calculated with a grain of salt, and a willingness to break our own rules."

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

George Takei vs. Victoria Jackson

It's this kind of stuff that makes me want to join twitter.

Since I'm not on Twitter, I saw this on the blog, Stargazing. 

Random Fun

Some fun pics I’ve come across the past couple days. Their source posts are below.  Click on pics to enlarge.

History of Science Fiction Chart, by Ward Shelley

Stamps

"The Cuter Side of Indoctrination"

http://thestar.blogs.com/stargazing/2011/03/best-stamps-ever-today.html
http://thestar.blogs.com/stargazing/2011/03/the-cuter-side-of-indoctrination.html

http://thestar.blogs.com/stargazing/2011/03/most-impressive-history-of-science-fiction-chart-ever-today.html

Fantasy Map

For all the fantasy fans!  I think it's a great map.  Though I read Forgotten Realms, so I wondered where Faerun was.

Original Source:  Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Doctor Who!!!

(c) Bob Canada

I love the recent series of Doctor Who.  I think 10 is my favourite (David Tennant).  I found this fun image from Stargazing.  Check it out.

How To Avoid Superbowl Conversations

Image from Here

To see the post I found this on, see below:
Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

From Steoch

Came across this today and I just love it. Click below to find the original post.

Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

An Excellent Venn Diagram

I thought this was hilarious.

Original Image From Here

Here's the post I found it on: Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Dark Tower Films and TV!

Check out the link below for news on the new deal to make Stephen King's The Dark Tower series into three films and a television series.  It's crazy!

Stargazing blog by Malene Arpe

Word of the Week!

This week’s words are varied in their meaning and sources.

From Alice French’s Spring and Summer.

Muskeg: An acidic soil type common in Arctic and boreal areas. It makes sense that this word was used since the short story took place on the Canadian tundra. A better description of muskeg can be found here.

From the blog, Stargazing.

Barnet: British slang for hair. From rhyming slang, Barnet fair hair (whatever that means). Stargazing was quoting the British Sun, who wrote an article on Emma Watson’s new hair, which apparently has to do with her attempt to land the lead role in The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo. [Aside: Am I the only one in the world who hasn’t read this book?]

From the blog, Sleep Talkin’ Man.

Numpty: Also British slang. It’s another word for “moron”. If you haven’t checked out the Sleep Talkin’ Man blog, I suggest you do. It’s hilarious.

I feel like all of the words can be a part of my vocabulary. I think I like “numpty” the best. I feel like I can use it here and no one would know what I was saying.

Word of the Week!

This week, we have an interesting word from what I thought would be an unlikely source. The other words are dual sourced. They’re from a book I read a long time ago and just re-discovered the words as I was reading another’s book blog.

The first is from the blog Stargazing written by Malene Arpe, a columnist at the Toronto star.

Ameliorate: To make a bad or unpleasant situation better. Malene used it in the past tense. She ameliorated a situation. The original post can be found here. The definition is found here.

The next three were re-discovered while reading Teadevotee’s blog at amused, bemused and confused. She was posting after having just read Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre was such a fantastic story, something I could never forget, but apparently these three words have slipped my mind.

Blent: An archaic or literary term. A past tense or past participle for blend. Definition can be found here. [Side note: Google tried to suggest “blunt” as an alternative.]

Cachination: Raucous laughter. Can also be used to describe inappropriate laughter, sometimes found in schizophrenia. Even though I don’t remember it, I’m pretty sure Charlotte Brontë was using that to describe the wife. Definition can be found here.

Moiety: A half. One of two parts of divisions of something. Definition can be found here.

Which word do I like the most? Which will actually make it into my usage? Well, I can see myself accidentally saying “blent” instead of “blend” and no one really noticing anyway. Maybe I’ll do it on purpose, just to test the theory. Maybe that will ameliorate any tense situation I could find myself in.