deerstalker

https://blacknerdproblems.com/america-chavez-made-in-the-usa-1-review-a-poc-gets-their-shine/

Writer: Kalinda Vasquez / Artist(s): Carlos Gomez & Jesus Aburtov / Marvel Comics

Well, it’s nice to see Marvel investing in perfectly entertaining EXISTING characters of color without making them a legacy character or sidekick (though there is validity to those entities too). America Chavez has always struck me as a worthwhile character that should be as popular as Ms. Marvel with what should be the same fast track. However, she’s suffered from the lack of diversity push from the higher ups at Marvel/Disney. While I don’t feel like much has changed, it’s nice to hold onto hope that America: Made In The USA is a step in the right direction.

Issue #1 is basically an ordinary day in the life of America Chavez until trouble on a hero level brings her back home to face a new enemy. While this is going on, America must deal with relationship issues and her mysteriously haywire power set. The action ends up being fun and well-paced without leaning too hard on the cameos. The camaraderie between our hero and Kate Bishop flows naturally. There doesn’t seem to be a pressing need to shove tons of banter in with Spider-Man when he shows up either, a rarity among Spidey appearances. This story plays out while being juxtaposed with moments from her past as a child being raised by civilian people.

There are obvious parallels to be drawn between her upbringing and that of a certain Big Blue Boy Scout but the flashbacks also reflect a vulnerability in America and a cultural nobility in the family that decided to take her in, knowing that her skin color alone made her more susceptible to be lost in the system.

Meanwhile, the visuals are a delight. Carlos Gomez and Jesus Aburtov work together to make every panel as vivid and lively as the script intended. A fist fight with giant mutant moles actually looked like a serious life threatening disaster and not an episode of Ninja Turtles written by Michael Scott.

Bottom Line: This first issue excels at giving previously unaware readers a refresher course in America Chavez 101 while still delivering the kind of fun superhero action Marvel readers sign up for. Definitely worth the coin for anyone curious about a worthwhile character they may not have looked at before.

8.5 Star Spangled Beatdowns out of 10

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The post ‘America Chavez: Made In The USA #1’ Review: A PoC Gets Their Shine appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

https://www.thenerdelement.com/2021/03/05/some-big-disneyland-and-other-park-updates/

Hi everyone! Today I have some really big updates about Disneyland’s reopening date which you do not expect to happen. So, let’s get started, shall we?! So, over at the Disneyland Resort, they have surprisingly announced that Disneyland along with other theme parks can reopen potentially on April 1! Oh, my goodness!!!, I was not expecting them to announce this too early, but wow that is very good news for Disney fans who have been missing Disneyland for a year! They will have masks and safety measures required and they will reopen with a 15% capacity. But only people who live in California can buy tickets.

Ken Potrock, president of the Disneyland Resort, said in a statement that Disneyland can’t wait to welcome its guests back and is looking forward to sharing a reopening date soon.

“We are encouraged that theme parks now have a path toward reopening this spring, getting thousands of people back to work and greatly helping neighboring businesses and our entire community,” Potrock said. Theme parks will only be open for California residents and won’t be allowed to offer indoor dining. Indoor rides will also have limits based on space and ride length, officials said. California theme parks have been closed since March 2020 under COVID-19 health and safety reopening guidelines issued by the state. Starting on April 1, California theme parks can reopen at 15% capacity in the red/substantial tier 2, 25% capacity in the orange/moderate tier 3 and 35% capacity in the least-restrictive yellow/minimal tier 4.

Theme park attendance will be limited to California residents. Updated guidelines will be worked out over the next couple of weeks in partnership with theme parks.

“We appreciate the administration’s willingness to work with the state’s theme parks on the finer details of the plan so parks can responsibly reopen soon, putting people safely back to work and reinvigorating local economies,” California Attractions and Parks Association executive director Erin Guerrero said in a statement.

Most California counties with major theme parks still remain in the most-restrictive purple/widespread tier 1 risk level — including Orange (Disneyland and Knott’s), Los Angeles County (Universal Studios Hollywood and Six Flags Magic Mountain), San Diego (SeaWorld and Legoland) and Solano (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom).

Orange and Los Angeles counties are expected to move into the red/substantial tier 2 next week — meaning Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, Knott’s, Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain could reopen on April 1.

Santa Clara County — home to California’s Great America — is currently in the red/substantial tier 2 risk level. The Santa Clara amusement park has already set a reopening date of May 22.

Under the revised theme park guidelines, indoor rides and attractions must maintain a 15% capacity in the red tier and 25% capacity in the orange and yellow tiers while outdoor rides and attractions can accommodate more riders provided social distancing mandates are followed.

The move is an abrupt about-face from the “slow, stubborn and stringent” approach to reopening California theme parks taken by the Newsom administration last fall.

In October, California officials issued separate reopening guidelines for smaller and larger theme parks in the state — with small parks allowed to reopen in the orange/moderate tier 3 while large parks could return in yellow/minimal tier 4. Attendance capacity was set at 25% in both tiers.

The California Attractions and Parks Association said the initial guidelines issued in October would keep the state’s large theme parks “closed Indefinitely.”

The “Blueprint Refresh” no longer makes a distinction between large and small California theme parks.

The Newsom administration has been under pressure from the theme park industry to revise reopening guidelines for months.

The reversal by the Newsom administration comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus closure of California theme parks in mid-March 2020. It also comes just weeks after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that outdoor amusement parks could reopen on April 9 — making it likely that California theme parks would be the last to return in U.S. A bi-partisan bill proposed in February by California assembly members would speed the reopening of theme parks and override state guidelines.

Disneyland resort president Ken Potrock said the announcement provides a path toward reopening California theme parks.

“We are encouraged that theme parks now have a path toward reopening this spring, getting thousands of people back to work and greatly helping neighboring businesses and our entire community,” Potrock said in a statement. “With responsible Disney safety protocols already implemented around the world, we can’t wait to welcome our guests back and look forward to sharing an opening date soon.”

The extended closure of Disneyland has had a “profound and devastating” impact on Anaheim workers, according to city officials.

“This will mean so much for our working families and small businesses which have suffered so much while our largest businesses have been closed for the past year,” Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu said in a statement. “Disney has gone to great lengths to be ready for a safe and responsible reopening, and everyone should feel comfortable and confident about coming back to Anaheim.”

United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents Disneyland cast members, applauded the move by the Newsom administration.

“Our Disney cast members are heartened by this good news today that the Disney parks will be reopening in a month,” UFCW Local 324 president Andrea Zinder said in a statement. “They have been furloughed or out of a job for a year now and are excited to go back to work to provide Californians with a bit more magic in their lives.”

Universal Studios Hollywood president Karen Irwin said the park is eager to return.

“We are ready to reopen, ready to bring our team members back to work, ready to help stimulate the local economy and ready to welcome guests,” Irwin said in a statement.

Knott’s Berry Farm, whose Taste of Boysenberry Festival kicked off without rides on Friday, March 5 and is scheduled to continue through May 2, also applauded the move.

“We’re looking forward to seeing the specific details and guidelines in the coming weeks that will help inform our plans for reopening,” Knott’s officials said in a statement.

Six Flags Magic Mountain plans to announce an opening date soon.

“We are pleased by the governor’s announcement and eager to welcome our guests back to Six Flags Magic Mountain with a full complement of our world-class coasters in a safe, outdoor environment,” Magic Mountain officials said in a statement. “An official opening date will be posted on our website and social channels in the near future.”

Wow!!! I am so shocked about this news about Disneyland!! There was supposed to be a meeting on March 7 which is Sunday, but all of the sudden, it came out of nowhere! Now it could change, but holy cow! this is really big news!!

This news just came out of the Disney I looked at today!

So, what do you guys think about this big Disneyland updates?!

I would love to hear a lot of comments, thoughts, opinions, concerns, or questions down below!

Stay tuned for more Disney updates!

The post Some Big Disneyland and Other Park Updates! appeared first on The Nerd Element.

https://www.essence.com/articles/octavia-e-butler-mars-landing-perseverance-nasa/

Octavia Butler | Photo credit: Malcolm Ali / WireImage By Kevin L. Clark ·March 6, 2021March 6, 2021

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been traversing Mars for the past few weeks with major astro-nerds raving about the trek. Upon touchdown on the Red Planet, a milestone was made—during Women’s History Month of all times—where the landing site has been renamed after Octavia E. Butler, the iconic science fiction author.

NASA announced they would informally redesignate the spot inside the Jezero Crater on Friday (March 5), during the same press conference where the agency revealed Perseverance made its first drive on Mars. “Butler’s pioneering work explores themes of race, gender equality in humanity, centering on the experience of Black women at a time when such voices were largely absent from science fiction,” Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said during the Friday press conference, which is available on YouTube.

NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this view during its first test drive on Mars, on March 4, 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The landing location is marked (above) with a star in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration, which has emboldened the likes of Elon Musk and Yusaku Maezawa to make commercial space flight a thing sooner rather than later.

The first mission is to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

“Naming Perseverance’s landing site in honor of Octavia E. Butler honors notable science fiction writers, a theme also used by the Mars Science Laboratory team,” Stack Morgan added during the press conference. “We chose on this mission to continue this theme in appreciation of the role that science fiction writers have played in inspiring so many of us to become the engineers, scientists and explorers who turn science fiction into reality for the next generation.”

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. In 2004, the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity had their landing site locations dubbed the “Columbia Memorial Station” and “Challenger Memorial Station,” respectively, after the two fallen space shuttle crews of 2003 and 1986. Previously, the Mars Pathfinder lander was renamed the “Carl Sagan Memorial Station” after touchdown with the Sojourner rover in 1997

Butler, 58, was the first Black American woman to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards that honor great science fiction, and the first science fiction writer overall who received a MacArthur Fellowship. Her notable works such as Parable of the Talents, Dawn, and Wild Seed are currently in development with names like Viola Davis, Ava DuVernay, and Damian Duffy adapting them for television and film. “Butler inspired and influenced the planetary science community and many beyond—including those typically underrepresented in STEM [science, technology, engineering and math fields,” Stack Morgan said. 

The fact that her works are still as motivating and as important today—if not more so than when they were originally written—is a testament to the endearing legacy of one of our greatest literary minds.

Watch the descent and landing of Perseverance to Mars below:

TOPICS:  black in space Black Women In STEM Elon Musk Octavia Butler science women’s history women’s history month

The post Mars’ Perserverance Rover Landing Site Named After Octavia E. Butler appeared first on Essence.

https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2021/03/05/mezcos-one12-collective-superman-is-out-of-this-world/

When it comes to my passion for action figure collecting, you’d think Mezco’s One:12 Collective line would be a no-branier. It takes the intricate detail and soft goods stitching found on 12-inch Hot Toys figures and shrinks them down to my preferred scale, without losing any of the craftsmanship. But by and large, I missed […]