Inexplicable dating site profile pics. With a few exceptions, these go beyond “point and laugh at the sad loser” (which is a yuck thing to do) and reach into “marvel at the breadth of humanity” (which is an awesome thing to do) (via Hannah)
Via Dylan: Boggle the Owl loves you. Unassuming webcomic inadvertantly ends up providing therapy service.
There’s this thing called the Book Genome project. I’d never heard of it until I read Robin Laws destroying it.
The AV Club is beginning a rewatch of Dawson’s Creek. Roll your eyes all you like but you know I’m gonna be reading it every week and catching every one of Katie Holmes’s weird half-smiles that she did instead of acting. Yes I know no teenagers ever talked like that, but no dog ever slept on the roof of his doghouse either and y’all love Snoopy. BELIEVE. (PACEY-CON!)
The Gator asked for no more photos of dogs dressed as crustaceans, so here’s a tumblr of sad dogs dressed up as things! Perhaps including crustaceans, sorry Gator.
The latest Humble Indie Bundle, a great way to grab indie computer games at incredibly friendly prices and support charity at the same time, is up now.
Heck of an argument for Scottish independence. One strand says that successive UK Parliaments have broken their contract with their citizens, and it’s time to get out of what has become an abusive relationship.
Courtesy Dave McCormack, an entertaining judgment. (I imagine that in those legal TV shows where the judges are always pithy and sarcastic, all the written judgments are like this one.)
Great idea well-executed: Broadway show of Mary Poppins puts on special autism-friendly performance. It’s clear they really thought about how to do this. Awesome.
The Republia Times: play at being the editor of a newspaper in a country that is not free (browser game).
This week’s Star Wars content: the Stormtrooper Shuffle. Amazing student project.
My parents today arrive in their new home, which is approximately 30 seconds drive from their old home. Touching to farewell the Pohutukawa Palace, where our family moved way back in 1989. Did a lot of growing up there (and the little long-leggedy beastie has been doing the same), had a lot of crazy times with family and friends, and it has continued to be a shared social destination right up until earlier this week. End of an era. Thank you Pohutukawa Palace.
Maire put this in comments last week: dumb things at 2500 frames per second
Via Andrew Salmond – the entirety of legendary visual feast Baraka
Byliner’s 101 best nonfiction journalism of 2011. And I’ve hardly skimmed the surface of the 2010 list (previously linkied). This is the real deal – all sorts of amazing stuff here. (Thanks to the other moose for the headsup that this was out.)
Aliens Epilogue – a half-hour fan film set between Aliens and Alien3. Contains some very ambitious staging and plenty of in-jokes. Probably incomprehensible for non-fans. Everything is very amateur, but with an amateur’s deep love. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
The Atlantic profiles dissident art-focused game designer Jonathan Blow – the chap who made Braid, if you’ve heard of that. Pushing for art, rather than artfulness, in game design is an extremely worthy goal. (Although, I think this article undersells though the interesting stuff going on in the indie and small-scale game design scenes, an ecosystem that has exploded thanks to the App Store and various freemium revenue models.)
Theremina linked to the helpful Calming Manatee service, which will calm you down most pleasantly.
Just watched the NZ Breakers basketball team win a thriller in game one of a 3-game final series. I get so invested in these big games! Sigh. Deep breaths.
Ian McEwan on the time his son had to write a book report on one of his novels (via d3vo)
Also from d3vo, one for film design & sci-fi people: spaceships that became other spaceships. one, two, three
You might have seen that Daily Mail column by Samantha Brick that was about how tough it is being beautiful because all the other women hate you? The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman has a refreshing take on that whole thing. (I really like Hadley Freeman, whose column got me reading the fashion section of the Grauniad first each Saturday. I was completely thrown when they introduced photo bylines, and I discovered she was a she. I had just figured she was a guy who really understood women’s clothing… Sherlock Holmes I ain’t.)
Vulture had a series of face-offs to determine the greatest TV show in the last 25 years. Here’s part one: The Wire vs. My So-Called Life. No prizes for guessing the ultimate winner, but there are some surprises along the way I think.
This fantastic Lego ad has been all over social media, with the attribution stripped off.
