Category: Friday Linky

Woo-woo Linky

Everyone was either too polite or too stunned to comment on the fact that I went to see Titanic twice on the big screen. Or perhaps you assumed I was coerced or sedated at the time. No. You’re all very kind though. Yes, I did have high levels of post-Aliens residual loyalty to Jim Cameron, but the truth was, I liked it enough to go see it a second time by myself. Because that’s just how I rolled back in ’97-’98.

Business in the age of LOLcats: the New York Times explores the business behind I Can Has Cheezburger. Fascinating.

You’ve already seen Matt Smith joining Orbital to close Glastonbury with their Doctor Who theme mix, right? EDIT: this version is still live

Now, check out Orbital doing the theme at Glasto 2004. And this remix which says its from one of the Orbital DVDs. There are others.

But if you’re talking electronic music and Doctor Who, it’s time to find out about Delia Derbyshire. Start here:

Now this:

That should have you curious enough to seek out more yourself. She’s worth it.

What’s Up Doc – live

Via mundens, a pin-up calendar with a difference

A great Philadelphia article from ’08 about the perfidy of the MBA and how it’s ruining business. MBAs appear to be the world’s only tautological qualification: you qualify for an MBA by qualifying for an MBA, and holding an MBA is a demonstration of the fact that you hold an MBA.

The Sci-Fi air show

Via Pearce: Bruce Campbell’s Soup

Hey, y’all reading Achewood, right? Online comic strip that I’ve called the most important comic strip since Peanuts? The story right now – oh man. It is blowing my mind you guys. If you haven’t read it for a while, the storyline that’s destroying me starts here. (Warning: not for the uninitiated – you’ll probably find it incomprehensible if you don’t know the characters.)

And finally… Country Hip-Hop dancing

All Whites Linky

It’s about an hour until kick-off of the BIGGEST GAME IN NOO ZILLUND FOOTBALL HISTORY

so here are some linky

Two that have been all over the place this week:
2010 technology, as it would be marketed in 1977

and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Daleks

From Simon C, a great graphic showing the relative heights and depths of stuff.

Remember that paintball charity tournament with the cast of The Wire? Here’s how it went. With photos. Sounds… odd.

An impressive piece of journalism via Vivian who Malc and I met in Chicago, a 45-minute investigation into unscrupulous agents working in Africa selling unrealistic dreams of European football stardom:

via Jack, an image of the kind of parenting to which I shall aspire

The AV Club’s 26 Impulse Buy books worth keeping, including Why Cats Paint (et al) by legendary Kiwi cartoonist Burton Silver.

And finally, via Joe Murphy, choose your sperm donor by the celebrity they most resemble um what.

Sing This Song Linky

Comic Sans defends itself.

Ten minutes of Arnie quips:

Smarthistory, a very neat interactive textbook thingamy on the subject of art history. Inspirational.

Via the Grauniad, a handy Kiwi-friendly world cup wallchart, explaining what this game that doesn’t involve an oval ball is all about. Amusingly out of date – the NZ score for each game was pre-filled as 0.

A family photograph themselves over 30 years.

Via Evie, giant packing-tape cobwebs.

The cliffhanger ending of the cancelled Little Orphan Annie newspaper strip. It is waaaay crazier than you will expect.

Former host of From The Morgue, David Ritchie, talks up phones-as-platform and related stuff, in this short presentation from the last Ignite Wellington session. Isn’t he a dapper chap?

Via hottieperm, and somewhere else I can’t remember, Bad Postcards

The worst book covers in Scif-Fi and Fantasy

And finally… a music video that you will never forget: Cathy Don’t Go

(Once again via Dangerous Minds. Sooo much good stuff there.)

It’s An Outrage Linky

I know it’s been a busy week when the most substantial blog post amounts to “I wear pyjamas”.

Play Paintball with the cast of the Wire: a great fundraiser idea, or the greatest ever fundraising idea? It’s on tomorrow in New York, still time to sell all your possessions and go.

Hot nerds reading comics. If I remember right, Warren Ellis dared them to; an hour later this was a real thing.

This American Life’s Ira Glass on the importance of wrongness. And other stuff. It’s a neat interview.

OffBlack showcases an amazing timelapse video of the Space Shuttle being readied for launch (and launching).

Investigative foodery of the weirdest kind: figuring out how to replicate McDonald’s fries at home via reverse engineering. Crazy detailed with lots of photos.

Sometimes you can tell which staff member is the IT guy.

The shortest possible game of Monopoly: 21 seconds

Been lots of sarcastic, cynical chatter lately about how those Glee club kids are copyright infringers. See here and here for the best of it.

Dude makes his own version of Rambo: First Blood in his basement, for $96, starring himself in all the roles.

And finally… an unlikely product idea from Achewood is now available for realsies.

Take Linky With Water

Woke up at 4am with horrible headache and feeling bleah. Nurofen has helped. But perhaps I need stronger medicine – a strong, clean dose of linky?

IRON BABY

Doctor Who section:
Who theme recreated with guitar and effect pedals. And also with giant Tesla coils.

A wonderfully inventive map of the TARDIS. Definitely a different imaginative approach to mine, but I love the creativity on display here.

More map goodness: anagram tube map

Possibly my favourite ever article on the AV Club, which is saying something: Cinematic apocalypses, and how much we should worry about them in the real world

Depressing oil spill section: China linked to this in comments earlier this week – a short video, by someone who knows how harm is prevented during oil spill events, showing clearly and obviously how this is not being done in this case. Contains bad language born of massive frustration. Also, via making light, How you get a BP: Because for decades now, wherever some herkimer-jerkimer objected that our business was coming on a little too strong for their precious “community,” we had the answer that never failed: Step aside, buddy, you’re standing in the way of the Free Market.

Via everyone, a LEGO felt-tip-matrix printer:

And finally, via Jenni, Girls in Cardigans. Photos of girls in cardigans around Wellington. Except… not.

Swingers Linky

Widget that takes any song and makes it Swing, by lengthening the first beat and shortening the second. With examples: Sweet Child of Mine, Cream, Money for Nothing. Ah heck, I’ll embed the last one:
Money for Nothing (swing version) by TeeJay

Via the Alligator, the Bad Translator machine

Another machine to suck your time/amuse your workmates: Six Degrees of Black Sabbath. Jean Grae to Julee Cruise in 7 steps! (via Public Address, who got from Ol’ Dirty B’ard to NZ Christian singer Brooke Fraser in 14 steps)

And you’ll shortly be hearing about how Sex and the City 2 is actually about oppression of women in the Muslim world. Gobsmacking misjudgement of what people want out of SatC2, or gobsmacking misjudgement of what people behind SatC2 can convincingly deliver? You decide! But make sure you don’t miss Seattle’s The Stranger dishing out the scorn. Contains spoilers.

Someone cares about this an awful lot. Traumatic childhood experience? It is easy to imagine such a thing. Tights are not pants.

My buddy Julian is getting married to the lovely Sabine (they’re getting married in Lebanon and I’m gutted I can’t go – how many times in my life will I get invited to a wedding in Lebanon? Not many!) Sabine’s brother Georges is a singer-songwriter in Montreal, and has just released an EP on Canadia’s Ambrosia label: Dark Rooms Have No Corners. It’s pretty cool. Here’s the first track, Feather:

Via Jack, News In Briefs, which collects the best bits of The Sun‘s Page 3 girls – their opinions on current events.

Via Ryan Paddy, the Museum of Bad Art, which is an actual museum. It has its own acronym: MOBA.

And finally, via Dangerous Minds which is where I get most of my linky these days to be honest, the Bay City Rollers and Ann Margaret perform in front of the most amazing audience you could ever want. Warning: includes knitting.

Rumpus Linky

First up, a notice – many local readers will recall the spectacular Rumpus parties of previous years. d3vo is not hosting one in 2010 (and we missed 2009 too) because he’s getting his DJ on at a gig called Speed of Sound. Friday June 4th, free entry, scratch that rumpus itch!

Now, some linky.

Bus driver gets a birthday surprise. (First seen via Hamish R, rapidly propagating across the internets because it’s lovely.)

Real-life Iron Man suit. And real life Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. In my day we just built Airfix models.

How recipes should look

25 photorealistic drawings made with a BIC ballpoint pen (warning: a few drawn boobs, still probably safe for work) (via Adrian Parker)

Furry Like Me: investigative journo takes on furry subculture

I Judged A Book By Its Cover (via Suraya)

Schoolkid-built robots perform to “Robo Boogie” by Flight of the Conchords (via Simon Carryer)

Experience 1970 through a JC Penney catalogue *shudder* (via bartok)

America’s ten most corrupt capitalists

And finally… U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan remake the video to Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’. Joyous. See it to believe it.

Ghost Linky


Modern Vermeer – via Allan Varney

Design for the first world: developing world designers solve first world problems.

The Knifeman has begun a series of reviews/discussions of ghost stories. So far: Ghostwatch, Candyman, Haunting of Hill House, The Fog, Poltergeist.

Dude buys all of 2000AD from issue 1 to issue 1100-ish. Dude blogs each issue as he reads ’em. He’s almost done. Find the ones you read as a kid and relive your yoof.

Classic Star Wars trilogy, in lego, in 2 minutes:

A couple minutes of the massively crowd-sourced Star Wars remake/homage, Star Wars Uncut

Star Wars Uncut “The Escape” from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

The Gator finds some old photos, including a rare shot of me rockin’ the Abe Lincoln beard. ROCKIN’ that beard I say.

The Wire characters on a D&D alignment chart (via the Dim-Post).

And finally… I always wondered.

Linkysweet Symphony


Go hang, United Kingdom! GO HANG!

Top-tier supers comics snarkmeister Chris Sims discusses what happens when you bring back classic heroes from the dead: you end up with a whole lot of white faces on your covers.

Perry White’s dentures vs. the fourth dimension, just one of the delights at Comic Cartography

Infographic: the relative trustworthiness of different beard styles

Diagram to help you choose a typeface (yes, even comic sans has its place)

An essay I was really glad to read. From Worldchanging, Putting the future back in the room

Pure awesome: What the **** should I make for dinner? [warning for workplace readers – contains prominent 4-letter word]

Werner Herzog reads Where’s Waldo:

Middle Earth as tube map: One does not simply catch the 11.15 to Mordor. (The London tube map by Harry Beck is such a masterpiece of design, I love seeing riffs on it. Check out the map corrected for geography, and these neat derivatives.)

And finally… (via Paul Cornell) a fan-site dedicated to this one lady who had a small role in Doctor Who one time. Feel the devotion. Best page: the controversy, where the writer imagines there’s a controversy.

Makeshift Linky

I reinstalled Windows last week (am much gooder now) but boneheadedly lost my bookmarks, including my linky stack. So many dozens of interesting linky, lost into the chaotic maestrom of the interwebs! Oh noes!

Luckily the internets is bountiful, here are some new-gathered linky.


Some great parkour photos.

Foul-mouthed In the Loop character Malcolm Tucker reports on the UK election for the Grauniad.

Debz presents Anna Karenina for Children

Essential skills for the information age: spotting fake online reviews

Mash gives a great overview of critical styles using the examples of three film review podcasts (including Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s show, which is the only podcast I’ve become religious about since starting listening to ’em not so long ago)

A tool to find out whose Twitter followers are stupider


Slavegirl Leia carwash (but no this guy for shame)

Stephen J brings Dr Johnson to bear on the current NZ govt

And finally… the Backtacular Gluteal Cleft Shield