Altered Geek

Geek News Roundup: Disney, Marvel, DC, and More

March 3, 2017 44:52 EXPLICIT
Altered Geek Geek News Roundup: Disney, Marvel, DC, and More
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About this Episode

Steve Megatron solo dives into a wide range of geek culture news, including Disney's massive cutback of Maker Studios' YouTube roster, Marvel's mysterious Hulk-Wolverine hybrid tease, DC's speedster returns and Batman's role in Rebirth, the CW's planned four-show crossover, Matt Reeves securing creative control on The Batman, and Star Trek: Discovery's delayed May 2017 premiere with continuity concerns. Also covered: 20th Century Fox's mobile movie download experiment, Leonard Nimoy's legacy, Bill Gates' David S. Pumpkins parody, Dragon Ball Super primers, and SpaceX's commercial moon flights. The episode closes with extensive listener feedback on science, religion, space exploration, and a school assignment exploring cyberbullying.

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello, and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host, Steve Megatron Phillips, and I'm not

joined by anybody this week. I kind of wanted

to do an episode solo. I'm going to kind of flip

-flop it back and forth. I'm not really sure

what order I'm going to do it in. But, yeah.

So, as you may know, there... There are many

places you can get this podcast now, one of which

is on AlteredGeek .com, ThisWeekInGeek .net,

and, of course, GeekCastRadio .com, Blog Talk

Radio, the RSS feed, and so on and so forth.

Enhancing the distribution seems to be helping.

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Radio homepage. So there's that too. So yeah,

I've been looking over the last week of not only

the listener comments, but of geeky news. And

there's quite a bit. Not sure how much of it

I'm going to get to, but there's quite a bit.

So, starting off, I'm going to wait for the listener

comments just because, yeah, I'm not really sure

where I'm going to go with that yet. So, since

last episode with the PewDiePie and YouTube controversy,

Disney savagely whittled down Maker Studios business.

What does this mean? Well, Polygon reports that

the studio is set to lay off. It says the studio's

move has been in the works for some time before

PewDiePie and Wildwood's controversial comments

caused him a partnership with Maker Studios.

As a result, Disney will stop promoting various

YouTubers' channels and won't sell any more ads.

Although it hasn't broken down just who this

will affect and when, the company wants to support

around 300 YouTubers in all. Cutting down from

there close to 60 ,000. So yeah, it's going to

be a little bit different. So my take on this

is one, they want to distance themselves and

have a small group that they can manage. Two

is they want some YouTube stars under its Disney

banner because they want to incorporate remaining

YouTube stars for work within other divisions.

My guess is so they can incorporate them in other

programming that they're doing and also to easily

promote projects or products because they're

already a part of the network. It's called Synergy.

So Disney's been struggling for a long time trying

to figure out how to make a much bigger amount

of money from the YouTube talent. This will help

narrow it down. To what they want to do. So.

Yeah that's going to be a little odd duck there.

For a while. But speaking of Disney. And products

that they have synergy with. Marvel Comics editor

in chief. Teases new Hulk Wolverine hybrid. And

when I saw this. It's kind of interesting. Because

it's like a tube. Almost like a. Well it's like

a growing tube. Or like one of the. The tanks

in Star Wars. Or the restoration chambers in

Dragon Ball Z. But this thing says, under construction.

It's got two scientists standing nearby. It says

Batch H. And it's got this big gray Hulk with

adamantium skeleton and Wolverine claws protruding

from it. So I was not aware that Wolverine has

been. a Hulk before. Um, but, uh, yeah, it says,

um, they're, I mean, they're not really divulging

too much information on this, but I'm wondering

if this is either a clone or they merged the

dead bodies of banner and Logan or what? Um,

but I guess time will tell. I'm kind of interested

by this take only because I like Wolverine, so

it's kind of a no -brainer there for me. I do

want to see Logan. I haven't seen it yet, obviously,

because it's not out. But even for the fact that

it's rated R, I still want to see it, because

if it wasn't Wolverine, I probably wouldn't care.

But I want to see how he goes out, and there's

Professor X, and then... or 24 in the movie,

whatever they're calling the characters. So I'll

be interested to see that. And then, of course,

DC is bringing back more of their speedsters

like Jay Garrick and Reverse Flash. So I'm not

quite sure what DC is doing, but they've also

revealed Batman's secret role in DC Rebirth and

how he's setting up basically the bat family

into all their different directions and causing

them to um basically get um his own teams put

together all over the place and so it's and tim

drake figures it out uh which i definitely see

as a batmanism that he's running the machinations

behind the background um And then, of course,

more superhero news. CWDC TV producer talks doing

a proper four -show crossover, not the three

that they did, next season. So, yeah, I'll be

interested to see what they kind of pull with

that one. It'd be nice if they kind of merged

Supergirl over, but it's kind of nice having

it secluded, too, at the same time. Trying to

figure out where else to go. Logan might be getting

a black and white version, which I think could

be really cool with the way it's set up. So that

could be a cool feature if they go that route.

Matt Reeves has final say on DCEU's Dark Knight.

So apparently while he was in negotiations with

Warner Brothers, one of the big stipulations

was he wanted complete... creative control of

the project similar to what James Wan appears

to have with Aquaman and Warner was hesitant

to do so but in final negotiations they gave

him the final say in all things on the Batman

which I think is kind of a smart move because

I mean he's done granted I hated Cloverfield

but he did that he's done Planet of the Apes

franchise movies which I have enjoyed those so

I do have To me, honestly, it breaks down to

story, no matter who's directing. I mean, yeah,

I wasn't a fan of the Snyder version of setting

up the universe, but it's not going to really

change all that much color palette. But I think

that the visuals will be a lot nicer to portray

in the Batman. So I'll give the guy a shot. I

mean, that's no problem there. And then, of course,

there's been boss logic graphics floating around

the internet the last, I don't know, couple days.

One of them is of Emma Stone playing Batgirl

is a kind of joking thing. And then somebody

put like Zac Efron as Nightwing or a couple other

actors as Nightwing, like in different scenarios.

It's interesting. And then they've got various

other things of Boss Logics displayed for people.

And they've got Hal Jordan art. And a lot of

superheroes, anyway. And then speaking of that,

they have Russell Crowe Boss Logic graphic as

cable, which actually looks pretty sweet. So,

the only thing that would be a little confusing

is he was like Jor -El in Man of Steel. So, yeah,

it'll be a little bit different. But, I mean,

it wouldn't be the first time certain people

have crossed over to different, you know, genres.

Daredevil, Batman, you know, so on. So, yeah,

it'd be kind of cool. The Last Jedi had some

reshoots. obviously because of Carrie Fisher

and then Abrams is joking that Mark Hamill should

win an Oscar which I don't I think that it's

going to be I don't know I'm not really sure

what to think about that because like I think

it's just clickbait garbage but at the same time

like I think Hamill deserves a shot at it if

you know the movie needs it But the last time

a Star Wars movie was nominated for an Oscar

was when Alec Guinness in the original Star Wars,

and he was nominated, and he didn't get it. But

if they're going that route, technically, then

that would mean that he's giving a death performance,

possibly, or just a really good performance.

But I don't know. That's what I parallel to.

I hope not, but yeah. So, there's been some recent

interesting news as far as organizations wanting

to cancel currency and go to basically a digital

currency and getting rid of cash, as it were.

Which I can see is a good thing and a bad thing.

A good thing in the sense that banks... if you

carry cash and you go to put it in your account

or like, where'd you get the money? Blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah. You have to play, you know,

play 50 steps with them or like people can seize

your money or steal it. But if it's digital,

then all it takes is like a virus or somebody

to, um, have some kind of a digital, uh, uh,

like hack of some kind and then they can steal

all your money anyway. So like either way, it

kind of, uh, it was kind of a weird situation.

I don't totally trust. cashless though like i

like cashless for convenience but i don't know

if i would want to go that route if you kind

of get get my drift there um so 20th century

fox is uh looking into getting newish movies

trickle downloaded onto your phone so you can

watch them later. And it says the studio has

partnered with Australian mobile network Telstra

and Ericsson to test a mobile app that quietly

pulls down flicks for watching offline later

on, assuming at least that you pay the requisite

fee to unlock the film that's quietly occupying

space on your smartphone. The theoretical system

would work by gently downloading movies onto

devices in the background with users paying a

fee to unlock them. It says that it would be

pushed over the network at no charge to the consumer.

After all, you're going to pay for the movie

packed with very tight DRM wrappers, so it would

seem bad to make you pay for the delivery as

well. It says, according to The Verge, the experiment

won't use the network at all. Instead, testers

are being handed a Galaxy S7 with the films preloaded.

So far, the films that are offered are The Martian,

Deadpool, and The Revenant. But the idea is that

eventually there will be a broad catalog of titles

that will filter onto your device automatically

based on your movie -watching preferences, basically

like TiVo or Buzzwords. I kind of like this idea,

but it would depend on the price cost to unlock

them. I don't like the idea of it auto -downloading

movies onto my phone, unless I specifically,

but I guess that if it's in an app, then, you

know. It would kind of depend. Again, it would

depend on how much they're wanting to charge

to put these on your device. That's kind of my...

Or to unlock them, I should say. So it's been

two years of Leonard Nimoy's passing. He died

in 2015. So I've seen a lot of that floating

around the internet lately. I did watch the documentary

of Spock by Adam Nimoy. Really good documentary.

And they took it from the perspective of Spock

and kind of explaining Star Trek and the evolution

of the character through the years and how crazy

their life was. So, I mean, it's definitely a

must watch. I saw it on Netflix. it's really

interesting to see a lot of the behind the scenes

and a lot of the stuff that went on in their

life and how this character was crafted and how

it evolved over the years. So, yeah. And then,

of course, there was... As people will know that

have listened to the show, I liked the David

S. Pumpkins video that SNL did with Tom Hanks

a while back. Bill Gates made a parody of it,

of David S. Pumpkins, and it has him, it's David

S. Pumpkins, but it's a Christmas version to

promote his Reddit Ask Me Anything on Monday

that he had. It's weird. The person that wrote

this article on Gizmodo hates the David S. Pumpkins

thing. If you go to I'm David S. Pumpkins, or

I'm David Pumpkins, I can't remember which. I

think it's I'm David Pumpkins dot com. Yeah,

I own I'm David Pumpkins dot com, which goes

to Alternkeek. Because I thought it would be

funny. So, Bill Gates does this and they completely

removed the pumpkins with Christmas. And then

they have completely this stuff with Tom Hanks

is gone and replaced with Bill Gates. And then

when he shows up next to... You know, the SNL

characters, they kind of fit them in there really

nicely. It's really funny if you know the original

context. But the funnier parts is, down in the

comments section, people are doing the hand gestures,

and they said Trunks did it better. And then

they show all the various animes doing the hand

gesture stuff, so it's entertaining. So... I'm

going to be getting into Dragon Ball super soon.

I'm wondering if there's a primer that I should

do before I get into that. And I'm not quite

sure where I should go. Because I've been a long

time Dragon Ball Z fan. And I realize GT is utter

garbage in comparison. I'm looking forward to

it, and I've seen the latest Dragon Ball Z films

where they do the Super Saiyan God, Super Saiyan

Resurrection of F with Frieza and everything.

And I know that's kind of the primer, but if

there's anything relevant in the Dragon Ball

Z or Dragon Ball Kai, I should watch before I

get into this to kind of refresh myself. Because

I've not seen a lick of Dragon Ball Super. I

have no idea what's going on or what. what route

they're taking on this so i'm gonna be catching

up with that and then uh hopefully getting with

birdman dodd and doing the cyber dragon ball

podcast on it um in the new future so i think

final like newsy type stuff that i have is like

star trek discover discoveries probable premiere

and casting announcements um they are saying

that it's going to premiere now in may of 2017

So, and that's like far cry from saying January

and then February, and then they're like, oh,

May. I'm still interested in watching it, but

I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to take this

because, again, it's changing the continuity

of how things happened before Kirk, and it doesn't

really fit in the... the prime universe like

yeah anything flies in the kelvin universe but

the prime universe it doesn't um so it and it's

not that i have a problem with like female characters

having power or being a captain or anything because

janeway was freaking awesome um but i have a

problem when they're making because they didn't

have female captains as far as it was explained

uh between like enterprise and like kirk it didn't

really until like post -Enterprise B era. So

I'm kind of curious to see what they do. I'm

not sure if I'm going to stick with it or if

I'm going to enjoy this. Yeah, I don't know that

it's... Again, I don't know how I'm going to

take this series. I'm going to have to wait.

And see how it actually is before I make any

actual judgment of it. Because right now it's

just speculation. I haven't seen a lick of footage.

Yeah, the graphic for the ship kind of sucked

when the first promo was shot of that. And we

really haven't gotten to see anything. Which

I wish we could actually see something for this.

And kind of put me at ease a little bit. But

it's not really looking that way. But yeah, I'll

be back right after this quick break with listener

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Stitcher, and on TuneIn, Blog Talk Radio, as

well as AlteredGeek .com. And now, back to the

show. So before I get into the listener comments,

I just saw this article by... about Elon Musk

that he claims to be starting a commercial moon

flight with SpaceX. I'd be interested in that

just to see how well it goes and honestly just

to see more travel to the moon because if they

could make it to the moon it could make me more

readily able to accept And the other reason I

say this is because we haven't been to the moon

since the 70s. Granted, they've been there, you

know. But the thing that irks me about space

travel is, and I understand that everything is

so far away it's hard to get to in our lifetime,

but why we haven't been back. And it's been like

almost 50 years and we haven't been back to the

moon. Like, that makes no sense. Like, there

should have been a way that they had people ready

to go back to the moon just to kind of explore.

I mean, honestly, that would be the way to go.

And I'd be, I don't know, I think I could accept.

more of the the space travel stuff if i could

see them making a concerted effort to try and

actually um build out our space program to other

methods besides just the space station or um

you know besides just um you know just stuff

like that i i would like to see them do it and

i don't have any doubts that you know, someday

we may make it to, you know, Mars. Maybe even

in my lifetime. I don't know. Would I love to

see that? Yes. I mean, regardless of my religious

beliefs, I still love astronomy. I still love

space. I think it's such an awesome thing in

general. Like, I would love to see them make

it to the moon. to mars to like anywhere in our

solar system to create warp drive i mean to do

any of that i love star trek and so that's that's

always fueled my my love of that particular kind

of science and i guess this kind of goes right

into the the the comment from last week and i'm

not gonna like backpedal or say anything like

that i honestly i looked after we had our little

you know, scuffle on social media or on the website

and could not find a concrete scientist that

has humored the 6 ,000 years. However, I have

seen it where it's fluctuated, where they've

said even the last, you know, 40 ,000 years.

The general consensus is 4 .5 billion years old,

not the 60 billion that they had before. So the

number is coming down. And they're basing the

information off of a rock they found in northern

Canada and comparing it with moon rocks, which,

granted, we haven't been to the moon since the

late 60s, early 70s. I think it bears repeating

the scientific process because science is only

deemed fact if it cannot be proven again. Or

I should rephrase it, when it can be proven again,

not should not be. Because when you get to that

method, it is a hypothesis. It is only fact if

they can, without a shadow of a doubt, prove

that hypothesis thoroughly time and time again.

And yes, I agree. It may have been me. It may

have been Mike. I don't know. It was probably

me because I was on a rant. There were some other

behind -the -scenes circumstances. But yes, it

didn't say anything about water, but it says

potential to have life. and water um which is

fine and dandy would i love to see it happen

yes um but i i'm not trying to sound idiotic

or plainly make myself look ignorant naive because

i understand that yes they they think they found

this but just from looking at it from a telescopic

perspective does not make it fact can they say

with you know for the most part the fact of the

earth with comparing it to the moon rocks possibly

like i could see that if i could see that proved

i would be fine with it like that's not that's

more concrete than looking 40 light years out

Or 400 light years or 4 ,000, whatever it was,

in saying that these planets have the possibility

of life. Just because it's similar to Earth does

not mean that there is not life on other planets

that are not like Earth. But science is not always

true. The scientific process and hypothesis...

is true and i understand that there are people

that have spent decades of study in that that

field and that they know what they're doing yes

but for you or i to say that we know without

a shadow of a doubt that they are 100 factual

is as spock would say illogical and using your

own words is ignorant naive because there will

always be someone who will figure something else

out because as history has shown There have been

multiple people that come along and reinvent

what has been previously proven as fact. And

so therefore it makes the previous hypothesis

and fact null and void. So as far as what they

know now, yes, it may be true to them. But there

may come someone who has better technology and

better thought process behind it and figure out

something completely different and prove... that

it is not fact that was the point i was trying

to make it's not that it's not that they aren't

correct you know 100 wrong just because i i have

a religious belief no that's not what i was saying

at all i i'm the farthest from that i i'm somebody

that likes to see proof put together in my head

and when i said the thing about the science about

written history and religion I was comparing

the notes of, for instance, if you did the flood,

that would be more apt than a meteor hitting

the earth and killing the dinosaurs. I could

see that more so happening than the other. Not

that a meteor couldn't hit the earth, because

it has happened. Do I see the Big Bang Theory

as fact? No, because nobody was alive at that

time. There's no recorded history. That is unprovable

without a shadow of a doubt. Just like nobody

can prove that God exists. Those both are key

elements that I... It's a belief. If you're a

scientist, you believe in the Big Bang Theory.

If you're religious, you believe in God. That's

the two different sides of that coin. So, that

instance, you can't tell me that that happened.

But the things that are in the here and now and,

you know, as far as like the NASA not capable,

I believe that they do have the possibilities

to do it if our governments could all work together

and help them fund something truly spectacular.

But, and then you're kind of. snide remark about

me copying and pasting my response from use this

where people try to disprove religion through

science handbook i was genuinely trying to make

a conversation not sound like a total dick about

it um so that tells me that you're totally against

religion i'm not trying to single and i'm not

going to name you can go watch go check the the

episode post but that and i agree science can

be done poorly and that's why it's studied and

done by a large group of people over and over

again yes i completely agree with you and improving

technology so i i do believe in that i'm not

one of the people that um believes that we're

killing our society or in the sense of um I'm

not one of the people that thinks the earth is

flat. And I realized that I said about the killing

our society. I was referencing in the fact that

people can't work together long enough to make

things actually happen. That should happen. Like

if our governments could stop bellyaching about

politics and actually work together, you know,

much in the vein of Starfleet and the United

Federation of planets and Star Trek, there could

be a lot of great. things done technologically

and in space and in with science so um and then

as far as the you know challenging my beliefs

i have no problem challenging beliefs but it's

when something can't be factually presented to

me and not just from some random article on the

internet like i would actually love To be put

in contact with some kind of a scientist. That

I could have a conversation with. On some of

this stuff. Because I think it would be interesting.

And. The thing about the food. I'm not confusing

diets with science. Because yes. Diets are fads.

That's not something that happens. But. Scientists

help. create part of the food that we do eat

because a lot of it's like remanufactured names

for sugar and and people that that manufacture

this food this processed garbage that we put

into us it is some form of science that they

put this crap together what i'm saying about

the way food and and affects us based on our

environment and exercising and things like that

in biology it's I completely agree with that

too, but my wife, having come from a 300 -pound

perspective and dropping down to the 150, like

cut her size in half, it wasn't because of a

diet. It was because she worked out. It's because

she ate right. She quit eating processed crap.

And the science behind eating correctly shows

that it will help boost your body, not a diet.

Because a diet doesn't do anything. A lifestyle

change does. And again, I'm going to have to

agree to disagree because I don't really want

to argue and turn this into a giant battle. I

completely understand you're on the one side

of the fence and I'm on the other side. It's

probably not going to change. I don't believe

in the Egyptians because, again, if you go according

to biblically... the Israelites were around before

the Egyptians. And so therefore the Egyptians

copied to some degree what comes later. So, because

it's always been talked about. So you can't prove

that either. Like that's what I'm saying is the,

the things that can be proven are like the, the

era of between when we get between the the romans

and the different empires and the different kings

and queens monarchies empires everything all

of that those kind of fit together with the bible

that's what i was getting at when i said historically

because it fills in some of that detail i'm not

saying that it gives all the details on you know

jesus from 12 to 30 because there's no nothing

there And again, a lot of it's faith based, just

like, you know, a lot of science is on beliefs

and hypothesis that they're trying to prove.

And it may not be provable. That's the other

thing. So. And as far as translation is concerned,

yes, there could be things mixed up, but I believe

that the. denomination i follow is probably the

closest to biblically correct as possible especially

when you consider all of the pagan and all of

the the additions made later by other denominations

well there's one specifically that's got their

quote -unquote god on earth um which is not biblically

sound uh in the slightest so I'm going to leave

that whole topic there. Moving on. Talking about

the Arrow having a brief flash forward in Season

4 with the Tombstone. Yes, it did have that.

I would be more accustomed to having more of

that show up in the near future. Wolverine joining

the Avengers. This is Brad Mull telling me this.

With a question mark. I enjoyed the first Avengers

but aren't a fan of Part 2 or Civil War. I have

to agree. Mainly because adding more characters

to the team, it just feels bloated. I wouldn't

want that for Logan, but I know I'm in the minority

there. I agree. I mean, if they would have done

the universe a little bit differently, I think

it could have worked, but yeah. He says, as far

as PewDiePie, I'm a sub of his. I enjoy his playthrough

videos, especially his latest Resident Evil walkthrough.

That's where it stops for me. I don't know him

or what goes on behind the scenes. I don't really

care about YouTube politics. I'm there for content,

not the drama. I agree with you 100 % there.

If I see a lot of the drama or the politics,

I leave. It's kind of like social media right

now. Any chance I get to avoid it because of

political, either idiotic things people say or

things people believe or things I believe or

things I don't believe, I don't even jump into

any of the conversation because I don't want

to have a politics battle with anyone. I have

my beliefs. I'm going to keep them in my head.

That's all there is to it. And that's the same

thing for, like, a lot of stuff. Because, like,

if you're not politically correct in today's

world, you're an outcast. And I don't care for

politically correctness, as been stated previously

in an episode of the show, because I think it's

total garbage. But there's, it's, I feel like

people get butthurt over a lot of stuff and just

can't take it. And yes, like, I mean, technically

I could be considered in that too. I mean, from

my previous comment, but I, I'm trying to defend

it in a way that I can articulate it without

sounding like a complete dick. Cause I don't

want to sound like that. I like the conversation.

I like being challenged, but I don't, it's, yeah,

I'm going to leave that there. So yeah, what

do you guys want to hear for next week's episode?

What kind of content? I'm kind of looking for

different stuff. I'm going to be looking into

some hosts joining me. I'm not quite sure who.

But I kind of want to go in a little bit different

direction with some things. There will be a new

All Things Transformers coming soon. Not sure

when, but I should be recording that in a couple

days. I might talk about something with like...

comics and things that my kids are being raised

with um i might bring up uh some uh some new

things i'm considering uh for the site and so

on uh or or ideas i should say um but yeah just

let me know what you guys want to hear in the

next episode um i'd really be looking forward

to hearing it uh no matter what it is i mean

i'm perfectly fine with it I'm content with dropping

the topic because it's an agree to disagree.

So we'll just see where that goes on its own.

But yeah, I don't think I have anything else.

I am going to play a quick clip at the end of

the episode after the credits of the assignment

I turned in for my class. And it has to do with

the anti -bullying thing that I did for class.

We had to do kind of an NPR type style newscast.

And I recut. a 2012 conversation with Dustin

Vancouver and Mike, the bird man, Don, uh, and

myself and TFG one. I just caught myself and

TFG one out and I redid it, um, and cut down

this 52 minute episode down to three minutes,

um, for this assignment. And it's kind of enlightening

to see how geek cast radio network has been able

to tell the future in the last five years, almost

all of the content from 2012. Not almost all,

but certain episodes of Geekcast Radio. Whether

it be the Marvel and Star Wars, Lucasfilm joining

Disney. There was a couple other things I can't

remember. Somebody called me on a while ago.

And then there was Dodd about, you know, he thinks

that society is going to get worse as far as

bullying and everything else. We can see how

that ended up on social media now in real life.

So I think it's very fitting. So I'm going to

leave that at the end of the episode here. So

until next time, get altered, get geeky with

the Altered Geeks. Over the past decade, the

internet has given rise to the growth of cyberbullying.

In light of the recent presidential elections,

it has become even more of an issue throughout

mainstream and social media. To further spotlight

the issue of bullying, I reached out to someone

from the geek community who dealt with these

issues in the pre -internet era. Dustin VanCore

is currently working on an anti -bullying awareness

video. What caused you to decide on this project?

Well, I think a big part of the nerd and geek

community is people who tend to be, or at least

have grown up being bullied in some type of way.

If you were into something that wasn't the quote

-unquote norm, you may have gotten picked on

for it. Or, you know, your looks, what you like,

what you feel, people poke at you. And so the

general idea was to reach out to as many people

as I possibly could in the internet community.

The overall response has been positive. I just

haven't received too many submissions yet. Dustin

explains to me the many situations where he was

teased and bullied when he was younger, and in

one particular situation, how the problem rectified

itself years later. He explained how when people

are disagreeing with others and their views,

the difference between tolerance and acceptance.

You can accept people for who they are. You may

not necessarily like it, but you can accept it.

Whereas tolerance still sounds like it has a

breaking point somewhere. You can only be tolerant

to a certain point. I proceeded to reach out

on the internet to see if anyone else had similar

experiences with bullying or ideas on how it's

gotten this bad. I received this response from

Canadian Michael Dodd. I can tell you precisely

why this is happening. And you're not going to

like the answer either. I think the big problem

is nobody respects each other. And because there's

no respect and no fear, the only option is either

passive, just let it happen, or aggressive. There

is no repercussions. I blame a lot of the media.

Michael Dodd continues to explain how he's been

around since the beginning of cyberbullying and

how even today he's a victim of cyberbullying

through his job in the media. Do you think we'll

see bullying or cyberbullying improve in the

future? I think it's only going to get worse,

truthfully. I mean, our society is soft. I wish

things were different. I really do. I just, I

don't know what we can do unless we do a complete

180 as a society. Unfortunately, the body count

is going to continue to rise. Do you think there

are any good people out there willing to overcome

bullying or bullying of other people? I believe

in good persons. I do not believe in good people.

The distinction being the individual can be convinced.

The individual can change for the better. The

people are an ignorant mass that follow the path

of least resistance. And that's unfortunately

what we have to look at. So as you can see, we

still have a long way to go in battling bullying

as a society, whether in person or on the internet.

But with people like Dustin attempting to bring

more awareness to the public, he gives a breath

of fresh air in this cause. From MCC News, this

has been Stephen Phillips reporting.

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