Marvel and LucasArts

This week was pretty big with the only kind of nerd news that seems to really exist anymore: Marvel and Star Wars shit. In order to ensure that the moviegoing public of the future will be utterly lost at the absence of a superhero on their cinema screens, Marvel announced their next five years of endless comic-book movies. In addition to sequels to properties like Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, and The Avengers, Marvel's biggest announcements were the arrival of a Black Panther movie, as well as a female Captain Marvel.

Called into play Black Panther will be Chadwick Boseman, whose recent outings as Jackie Robinson and James Brown (in the equally lukewarmly-received 42 and Get On Up, respectively) should have tipped anyone off to his inevitable stasis in the Marvel universe. More surprising is the reveal of a female Captain Marvel, which may be Marvel's way of responding to criticism that there is a serious deficit of strong women in their movies. Anything to avoid having to make a Wonder Woman movie, I guess.

Also, this week, it was revealed that the beloved LucasArts computer games of your childhood will be coming back, giving you absolutely no reason to engage in anything that has no nostalgic value. GOG.com is re-releasing classics like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Secret of Monkey Island and the Star Wars simulators TIE Fighter and X-Wing. All told, 20 games will be rolled out, making sure that you'll stay in your house forever, with the exception of opening weekend excursions to see a Marvel property.

The struggle is real.

The Flaming Lips

Continuing their career trend of slowly giving less of a fuck about anything that is not a wacky experiment, the Flaming Lips recently dropped their latest blasé mind-fuck: With a Little Help From My Fwends. As you might be able to deduce, the album is a re-imagining of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, featuring guest spots from an eclectic group of contributors like Foxygen, Dr. Dog, Miley Cyrus, Tegan and Sara, My Morning Jacket and Maynard James Keenan from Tool.

Also, as you might expect, it's an interesting mess. Still, when the day comes that the Flaming Lips are no more, and we won't be getting any more zip drives encased in gummy skulls, or 24-hour-long songs, or off-the-wall collaborations that are this close to making sense - something tells me we'll miss the days when we would suddenly get confronted with a beautiful follies like With a Little Help From My Fwends.

We're through the looking glass, here, people. Thirty years after Clue became a movie and everyone began simultaneously making snarky comments about what other board games might limp out of uninspired Hollywood producer's closets and out onto the screen, we now have Ouija. Of course, this does come after the brutal disappointment that was Battleship (how they made it through that entire movie without getting Liam Neeson to solemnly utter, "You sunk my battleship," is beyond me), and presumably before the adaptation of Candyland, but this must still be a milestone of some sort.

Yes, the classic sleepover game does have a fair bit more traction as a property that could reasonably be made into a movie - pulling taffy and "light as a feather, stiff as a board" might have a rougher transition - though the trailer seems to reveal a movie that is blissfully unaware of the inherent hokiness of its concept. If I gave you five minutes to come up with what the Ouija movie would be about, something tells me you'd present me with something like this.

Think of it like Jumanji with ghosts, which might be the exact pitch that got this movie made. A girl finds an Ouija board in her house, creepy stuff happens, she dies and then a group her way-too-old-to-believe-in-Ouija-boards friends decide to use the spirit board to reach her on the other side. And then, it's just more of the same haunted house jump scares that have dominated mainstream horror movies since Paranormal Activity came out. Dear god, I hope audiences will grow as tired of surreal mirror gags in these movies as I have. Here's hoping slashers come back in style.

But, if we're adapting board games, might I suggest Sorry? That game's some backstabbing bullshit. I can see it easily becoming a David Mamet war of the sexes and/or world of finance psychodrama.

Taking the red pill, this is Nerd Alert, the Weekly Volcano's recurring events calendar devoted to all things nerdy. I myself am a Star Wars fan, mathlete, and spelling bee champion of long standing, so trust me: I grok whereof I speak.

Last week Oly police arrested a woman for drunk driving, then found she was cruising the streets with a blood-alcohol content of 0.322. In a related story, scientists have discovered a human who cannot be killed by alcohol.

FRIDAY, OCT. 24

I'd like you to step into the WABAC machine with me and return to the spring of 1999. Our average reader was probably in grade school, but if you're closer to my age, you vividly remember the fever-pitch excitement over a certain science-fantasy prequel. The Phantom Menace was due out in less than two months. Already you wondered which would be your favorite new hero. Would it be preteen Anakin Skywalker, or that all-CG character Jar Jar Binks? He seemed charming. Only one thing was sure: with 17 years of build-up, this movie had to be amazing. Then some techy-looking Keanu Reeves actioner came out, and you thought, "Oh, what the hell, I've got a 10-spot burning a hole in my pocket. I'll eat some wait time by checking out The Matrix." Two and a half hours later, you picked your jaw up off the popcorn-strewn carpet and staggered into the world a changed geek. The Matrix not only stole Lucasfilm's thunder, it represented the absolute state of the art in movie technology, told a riveting and thought-producing story, and still marks the pinnacle of cyberpunk cinema to this day-not that its sequels put up much of a fight.

Of course, that was 15 years ago, a more innocent time, when we feared the non-threat of Y2K more than the non-threat of airborne Ebola. A new Star Wars episode is 14 agonizing months away, you carry cyberpunk technology in your pocket, and there's a pre-Hallowe'en weekend to kill. Who should appear on the movie horizon but your old pal, Wyld Stallyns' co-lead guitarist Keanu Reeves. Whoa! His new actioner is called John Wick, and let's be honest, you don't give two hoots in a hurricane about it.

Except its Tomatometer score at time of writing (which, granted, is a week early) is a whopping 100 percent.

How did that happen? Did only one or two fanboys review it? Nope, it's earned upward thumbs from Forbes, IGN, Screen International and Drew McWeeny of HitFix among lesser evaluators. It's said to be dripping with style, a solid example of world-building, and is that most overused of all critical metaphors: a rollercoaster thrill ride. (Save theater hours waiting in line by reserving a FastPass.) Apparently Keanu brings the noise, popping a cap in everyone and everything while rocking the latest in skinny men's fashions. It could be fun; and besides, what else were you gonna do, play with your on-the-card Jar Jar Binks action figure? Mesa no tinken so!

Of course, you could watch TV instead. It's a big night for entertaining nonsense on NBC. At 9, Grimm returns for season four, so fans of ludicrous cop dramas set in worlds of pure fantasy need no longer content themselves with Hawaii Five-O. At 10 comes the debut of Constantine, a series based on the DC Vertigo horror comic Hellblazer. This adaptation, however, has nothing to do with Keanu or his 2005 movie version, and everything to do with Welsh actor Matt Ryan and a crap ton of CGI. Y'know how sometimes you wake up and discover that the terrestrial plane of which we think we're the masters is in fact crawling with invisible demons and ghosts, and now it's your job to send them off to divinely mandated afterlives? No? Well, now you understand why you don't have your own show on NBC, then.

MONDAY, OCT. 27

Out of curiosity, are there any Benedict Cumberbatch fans in the house? Pretty much all of you? Great! Now, how about classic horror icons? Yes? Quite a few of you? OK! Any huge admirers of the National Theatre in London? (Crickets.) Fine, but what if I told you Benedict Cumberbatch got pretty much naked in the National Theatre's 2011 production of Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire fame? Aha, I see some of you sitting up straighter. Happily for you and your shameless depravity, that production was videotaped. Even better, it'll be shown in American cineplexes Monday, as, for example, at the Regal Martin Village in Lacey at 7. Then the event repeats two days later ... with the roles of Dr. Frankenstein and the monster reversed! Cumberbatch switches roles with Jonny Lee Miller of Trainspotting! I know! And I'm not gonna tell you which day Cumberbatch plays which part, either, because that I do not know! Check Fandango.com for further details as the date of each screening approaches. It's alive! Exclamation points! Wizard, Annie!

Until next week, may the Force be with you, may the odds be ever in your favor, and may Episode VII be Gungan-free.

Wow wow wow. The first few seconds of the trailer for The Best of Me actually made me laugh out loud. We open with not one, but two, unattributed quotes about love and stuff (the first one, hilariously, credited to "Anonymous"). If you thought you'd seen Nicholas Sparks get all Nicholas Sparks-y, then you ain't seen nothing yet.

The Stephen King of trashy, condescending romance novels has returned with another sappy story of two lovers in peril. Beginning with two high schoolers in love, we then flash forward 20 years to find them reunited after backwoods thugs kept them apart. Because this is based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, we can expect lots of kissing in the rain and candlelit proclamations of devotion, right before incongruously pulpy violence enters the picture.

It's amazing how much cache Sparks has just because everyone cried at The Notebook. The bizarre war-torn romance of The Lucky One and the absurd last-act twist of Safe Haven (which I would love to spoil for you right now, if that movie weren't so ridiculously enjoyable to watch and gawk at) weren't enough to shake lose the legions of adoring fans of manipulation and pretty people with Southern accents frolicking.

What might remain the most unbelievable aspect of this movie - barring a Safe Haven-esque left turn - is watching the young leads somehow age into James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan. Like the actually pretty good 17 Again, this aging process seems to involve the fundamental reshaping of skull structures. Also, there may have been a time tunnel involved to account for the non-existent 20-year difference in age between these actors.

Still, I'll eagerly await reading spoilers of The Best of Me, in the hopes that it can rival Safe Haven - which, by now, I hope I've teased you into watching. Seriously, that shit's bonkers.

Talking dead, this is Nerd Alert, the Weekly Volcano's recurring events calendar devoted to all things nerdy. I myself am a Star Wars fan, mathlete, and spelling bee champion of long standing, so trust me: I grok whereof I speak.

If you're a true movie lover, or just feel like not hating yourself, leave Dracula Untold this weekend and dive into the Tacoma Film Festival instead. It's running all week, with nerd god Leonard Maltin sitting in Friday and Saturday. Opening night (Friday at 7:30) gets underway with a screening of Laggies, a rom-com starring Keira Knightley and the great Sam "Guy" Rockwell. (Any fellow Galaxy Quest fanboys out there? Right?!) It's directed by Lynn Shelton, who's already given us the charmers Humpday and Your Sister's Sister. Alternately that night at 7, there's a Viggo Mortensen thriller, The Two Faces of January, which finds a con man and his wife chased through present-day, camera-ready Greece. A Maltin Q&A follows the latter film. The festival's chockablock with shorts, too, with everything from animation to documentary to efforts by some of our favorite Northwestern filmmakers. Saturday afternoon at 1:30, Maltin will sign copies of his 2015 Movie Guide and host a screening of Frank Capra's 1948 classic, State of the Union. Hail to the chief!

SATURDAY, OCT. 11

It's Star Wars Reads Day (yay!) at a library near you. The main branch of the Tacoma Public Library celebrates with crafts, a screening of Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles at 2:30, and Mel Brooks' ludicrously-speedy Spaceballs. Why? Because nothing encourages reading like watching a video. Ooh, burn for literacy! Incidentally, the Imperials at Lucasfilm Licensing recently decided that almost every Star Wars novel or comic book published since 1977 is now completely non-canonical. The exceptions began with a "dark times" novel, A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller, which hit shelves Sept. 2. So if you're still lugging around that crate full of Rogue Squadron actioners and hoping to hit payday on eBay, the Force may no longer be with you.

STAR WARS READS DAY, 1:30-6 p.m., Tacoma Public Library, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S., Tacoma, free, 253.292.2001

SUNDAY, OCT. 12

The last time we saw our heroes on AMC's The Walking Dead, a group of them were trapped in a boxcar in a gated community with the deceptive name of Sanctuary. Meanwhile, one claims to know how the plague of undead walkers can be stopped once and for all. As season five begins Sunday at 9, we have reason to believe two things: first, Rick will snap out of his sleepwalk; and second, Michonne will remain a total effing badass. Oh, and Carl will continue to wear that stupid hat.

MONDAY, OCT. 13

The eagerly awaited Star Wars Rebels debuts on Disney XD Monday at 9. In fact, this first 90-minute episode airs on other Disney channels as well, but once the hook has been set, you'll be asked to pony up for the obscurer XD. Well, I will not! I will dig it up on the Internet, unless it is illegal, in which case never mind! I win this round probably, Uncle Walt! Anyhow, the same folks who gave us Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a show I grew to like very much, produce this new animated series. Even better, Star Wars Rebels is set in the far more interesting and Vaderful period between the two movie trilogies. Disney approved this show for season two before its pilot even aired, so apparently show runner Dave Filoni and his Jedi apprentices have delivered again.

TUESDAY, OCT. 14

A lot of you will be running out to buy Gearbox Australia's Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! Tuesday, because violence. Your humble commentator, however, will still be panic-racing through the flickering halls of space station Sevastopol. That's where Amanda Ripley, daughter of the still cryo-frozen Ellen, confronts a xenomorph of her own in The Creative Assembly's terrifying Alien: Isolation (to be unleashed Oct. 7). Use your flares, check your corners, and for the love of sweet Jebus - whatever you do, do not eat that cornbread.

Until next week, may the Force be with you, may the odds be ever in your favor, and may you never need a pit stop on LV-426. Aye-firmative!

GRAB A COFFEE POT AND READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 9.10.14 >>>

Tonight, President Barack Obama will outline his plan for combating the ISIS terror group. A senior administration official says he'll focus on three major themes: the threat posed by ISIS, his strategy to address that threat and proposals on how to fight and destroy the militant group.

Obama is reportedly open to ordering airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria targets in Syria in what would be a significant escalation of the military mission against the terror group.

Obama told leaders of Congress that he did not need for them to authorize his strategy to fight Islamic State, before he addresses Americans on the matter.  

The Long War: No end in sight for America in the Middle East.

ISIS vs. al Qaeda: Terror groups battle for hearts of young jihadists.

House members on Tuesday voted to condemn Obama for failing to notify Congress about plans to exchange five Taliban detainees for prisoner of war Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Russia carried out a successful test of its new Bulava intercontinental nuclear missile today and will perform two more test launches in October and November.

Ukraine's president said today Russia had removed the bulk of its forces from his country, raising hopes for a peace drive now underway after five months of conflict in which more than 3,000 people have been killed.

Russia said emphatically on Tuesday it did not want Ukraine to become a NATO member, describing such a possibility as an "unprecedented challenge to European security."

Ukraine isn't the only place where Russia is stirring up trouble. Since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Moscow has routinely supported secessionists in bordering states, to coerce those states into accepting its dictates. Its latest such effort is unfolding in the South Caucasus.

The first veteran provided an exoskeleton that enables him to walk will be in California as part of a veteran's health summit.

The military wants a vehicle that can dodge rockets by itself.

Future Army grenade could kill enemies hiding behind walls.

The Air Force awaits a legal opinion whether an atheist can opt out of the phrase "so help me God" in his re-enlistment oath.

In one of the most ambitious product launches in its history, Apple unveiled two new iPhones, a smartwatch and a mobile payments platform yesterday.

Apple Inc's embrace of wireless charging for its new Watch may be a defining moment for a technology that's languished for years amid competing standards and consumer confusion.

Watch: Frances McDormand and Bill Murray stare at rural things.

Frozen food critic realizes what he's done, quits show mid-episode.

John Oliver gives Russia's horny space geckos a proper musical sendoff.

Trippy toonrific ...

ROYGBIV: A Pixar Supercut from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo.

LINK: Original photo by Airman 1st Class Christian Clausen

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The U.S. is planning a campaign against ISIS that may take as many as three years of sustained effort to complete, including attacking the self-proclaimed Islamic State's redoubt in Syria.

A suicide bomber struck a meeting of Sunni tribal fighters and Iraqi security troops today, killing 16, just hours ahead of a key parliament meeting that is expected to vote on a new government.

The head of the Arab League on Sunday urged its members to join the battle against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The new U.N. human rights chief urged world powers today to protect women and minorities targeted by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, saying the fighters were trying to create a "house of blood".

The U.S. launched a new round of airstrikes in Iraq late Saturday night in an effort to halt ISIS's advance towards the Haditha Dam.

President Obama stressed that U.S. efforts against ISIS will not escalate to a full-blown war on Meet the Press on Sunday.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has established a stronghold in the border area between northern Syria and Iraq, but officials and experts are watching closely to see if its influence will spread to other regions. 

Just 36 hours after Ukraine reached a ceasefire agreement with pro-Russian rebels on Friday, eastern Ukraine was hit with new shelling.

NATO leaders emerged from a summit in Wales with a plan to protect eastern members from a resurgent Russia, a pledge to reverse the decline in their defense spending, and an embryonic Western coalition to combat Islamic militants in Iraq.

Potential 2016 presidential candidates are using hawkish terms when it comes to Russia and the Islamic State. But while some are banging the drums of war, few are calling for larger annual U.S. defense budgets.

President Obama said Sunday he will send U.S. military assets and personnel to help contain the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

Hamas criticized Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today for attempting "to destroy the reconciliation and play into the hands of the Americans and the Israelis."

Russia's prime minister warned in an interview published today that Moscow would respond "asymmetrically" if the United States and Europe impose new sanctions.

The EU says new sanctions against Russia should be adopted shortly and take effect on Tuesday, despite a Kremlin warning of retaliation.

Russia will hold a nuclear exercise in September that will include over 4,000 Russian troops, according to reports.

A group of the most senior civilian Pentagon officials took to the hustings late last week to outline what it promises will be a sustained, multipronged effort to improve how the Defense Department develops, buys and sustains its equipment.

When it comes to post-service plans, 1st Lt. Heidi Beemer has a clearer picture than most: She's going to win a global contest, get launched into space, become one of the first humans to land on Mars, and stay there.

Four years of fighting in the NFL trenches earned a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate a spot on the Denver Broncos' roster.

The Ohio State University football team lost their game to Virginia Tech 35-21. But the OSU marching band scored big time with this medley of TV theme songs.

This is exactly how amazingly big the supermoon is going to be tomorrow.

Neutron Stars: This video explains all we know-or suppose-about them.

Alarm app lets complete strangers dial you up to help get your butt out of bed.

Wacky golf trick shots in slo-mo.

LINK: Original photo byStaff Sgt. Malcolm McClendon

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A senior White House official today signaled the United States is already gathering support from countries in the Middle East for a united front against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The family of Steven Sotloff, the second American journalist beheaded by Islamic State militants, said he was "a gentle soul", and challenged the group's leader to a debate on the peaceful teachings of the Muslim holy book, the Koran. 

In the cities and towns across the desert plains of northeast Syria, the ultra-hardline al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State has insinuated itself into nearly every aspect of daily life.

ISIS Defector: ISIS plans to take over the Arab world and then "go to other countries."

David Cameron says that in going after ISIS inside Syria, the West does not need an invitation from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, insisting that Assad's government is not legitimate.

A roiling national debate over how to deal with the radical Islamic State and other global hot spots has prompted a sudden shift in Republican politics, putting a halt to the anti-interventionist mood that had been gaining credence in the party.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro accused Sen. John McCain and Israel of conspiring to create the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. 

Even Terrorist Groups Crave Attention: Al Qaeda opens new front in India.

Ukraine's President announced progress on a ceasefire agreement yesterday with Russia, but U.S. President Barack Obama is skeptical and even Moscow downplayed it.

Russia's foreign minister said any future efforts by Ukraine to join NATO would "derail" peace talks to solve the crisis in Ukraine.

In 2013, 57 Army Reserve Soldiers decided the only way out of their particular situation was to take their own life. That year was the most deadly since 2009.

Training for tens of thousands of Army National Guard soldiers will be canceled this month as the reserve component hits a $101 million shortfall in the final weeks of this fiscal year.

The Pentagon is pushing its strategy to develop new technologies and capabilities alongside allies to drive down costs and foster innovation, the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering said on Wednesday.

Budget: The Army is spending far too little to equip its soldiers.

The adversary is looking to exploit vulnerabilities in Army computer systems, said the chief of the Army's Cyberspace and Information Operations Division.

A Pentagon advisory panel on wounded servicemembers is recommending that the Defense Department scrap the disability evaluation system it rolled out across the military just three years ago.

Government Shutdown: The U.S. Senate's embattled top Republican is predicting Congress will pass a funding measure that the president would not veto.

The Pentagon will expand its use of prototyping as the U.S. Defense Department's budget tightens, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.

The Defense Department has agreed to reconsider the bad-paper discharges for thousands of Vietnam-era veterans who may have suffered from combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder but were kicked out of the military in the era before that became a diagnosable condition.

Dangerous Bag: A ball girl at the U.S. Open shows she has the skills to track down whatever crosses her court.

In Overdrive: This is what you get when you put a pug in a ball pit for the first time.

Headbanging: Metal in inappropriate places.

Oh No: Hollywood will make a CHiPs movie.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! hit the streets of Hollywood asking a multiple guys whether they'd looked up the nude photos.

You knew it was coming ... failed ice bucket challenges ...

LINK: Original photo by Sgt. 1st Class John Wollaston

GRAB A COFFEE POT AND READ THE MORNING REPORT FOR 9.2.2014 >>>

An airstrike by U.S. military forces struck an area where leaders of Somalia's al Qaeda-linked militants were meeting.

Six militants killed during U.S. strike in Somalia.

President Obama sent a letter to Congress on Monday notifying them that over the weekend he authorized U.S. military airstrikes and humanitarian assistance to break the month-long siege of the town of Amirli in northern Iraq.

Why a strategy to fight ISIS in Syria will take time.

U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit crashed at sea in the Central Command area of operations.

Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee have been planning for months to release the findings of their investigation on the CIA's Bush-era interrogation program this fall. But with little more than 60 days until the midterm elections, a release of the report could leave Democrats vulnerable to attack from Republicans and other critics who say its details about U.S. intelligence gathering might jeopardize national security.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of "direct and undisguised aggression" as Kiev's forces suffered a further reverse in their war with pro-Moscow separatists. 

With NATO leaders expected to endorse a rapid-reaction force of 4,000 troops for Eastern Europe this week, a senior Russian military official said Moscow would revise its military doctrine to account for "changing military dangers and military threats."

The Real Ukraine Crisis Is Coming: The "day after" dilemma.

NATO will declare "mission accomplished" this week as it winds down more than a decade of operations in Afghanistan but departing combat troops look likely to leave behind political turmoil and an emboldened insurgency.

The Army's Next Mission: Stability is the best offense.

An Air Force strategy stuck in the future.

Q & A with Gen. Paul Selva, head of U.S. Transportation Command, who is responsible for getting military equipment back to the United States from Afghanistan.

NATO leaders heading to Wales this week will discuss how to best enhance the NATO Response Force.

Many of the hospitals run by the armed forces are so small and the trickle of patients so thin that doctors and nurses say their ability to properly treat serious illnesses is compromised.

U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, known as TRADOC, transforms civilians into soldiers and provides them the pathway into the noble profession of soldiers, past and present.

Stonehenge, at one point, had been a full circle.

How decaf coffee is made.

Guardians of the Galaxy has become the biggest box office hit of the year.

How Empire Records became the unlikely film of a generation.

Video: The story behind the classic doc Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

Finally: A very difficult quiz about Saturday Night Live.

This is why everything we call awesome is not really awesome.

LINK: Original photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kap Kim

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President Barack Obama put the Islamic State terrorist group on the "varsity" team of U.S. foes. America's top general, Martin Dempsey, has spoken of the group's "apocalyptic" visions.

Cities in the United States and Western Europe are being eyed as Islamic State militants' future targets, U.S. lawmakers say.

Heavy fighting erupted today between the Syrian army and Islamist rebels on the Golan Heights, where 44 peacekeepers from Fiji are being held by militants and scores of their fellow blue helmets from the Philippines escaped after resisting capture.

Islamist fighters have carried out atrocities on "an unimaginable scale" in months of fighting with Iraqi forces who have also killed detainees and shelled civilian areas.

Like Douglas McAuthur McCain - an American hip-hop fan who was recently killed fighting for the Islamic State - Abdel Bary represents a new and very scary evolution in modern jihadi history.

The Islamist-allied militia group in control of Libya's capital has "secured" a U.S. Embassy residential compound there, more than a month after American personnel evacuated from the country over ongoing fighting.

Talks on a power sharing deal between Afghanistan's rival presidential candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, have collapsed, a top leader said on Monday, rekindling fears of ethnic unrest over the disputed vote.

Some key members of the Senate and House are calling for the United States to send more arms to Ukraine to fight Russian "aggression."

Veteran suicide numbers have gone up in recent years with much of the attention focused on veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan killing themselves. However, almost seven out of 10 veterans who have committed suicide were over the age of 50.

Vulnerable Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.) is hoping that his efforts to keep the Air Force's venerable A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft fleet in the air can lift him to victory in November.

Bionic Sailors: Anyone who saw Ripley defeat the alien queen in the 1986 film "Aliens" knows how badass exoskeleton technology can be.

Retired Capt. Walter Mazzone, a decorated World War II submariner who later became legend as a pioneering medical officer in deep dive experiments that captured the nation's attention, died Aug. 7 in San Diego. He was 96.

DoD Pitch: New Balance has unveiled a sneaker prototype that could become standard-issue in boot camp and spell an end to the cash allowances that let recruits buy foreign-made shoes.

LED Lighting making a mark on U.S. Navy ships.

We Will Live Again: A documentary looks inside the unusual and extraordinary operations of the Cryonics Institute.

10 famous TV locations you can visit in real life.

Essential Japanese new wave films.

Watch a guy try to save his drowning drone.

You can stream a crazy amount of good kung-fu on Netflix right now.

The Google Glass app that measures human emotions is creepy.

Worth watching again …

LINK: Original photo by Lance Cpl. Anne Henry