December, 2012 - From The Morgue

Mayan Xmapocalypse Linky

End of the Long Count, baby. Waste some time as the world comes crashing down with linky distractions!

It ain’t the Mayan apocalypse that’s destroying the world, anyway. George Monbiot reckons the real culprit is those rubbish Christmas presents you buy when you’ve run out of ideas.

William S. Burroughs reads his short story, The Junky’s Christmas. Plus claymation.

Captain America’s diary comic (by Robyn E. Kennealy)

This Homeland Security video is kind of amazing

A very short interactive text story about a round-headed kid who really wants to kick a football (by Tof Eklund)

These pics of the Syrian civil war are gloomy, as you’d expect, but you have to see the home-made warfare device in pics 14-16… (via Kathleen)

Star Wars sequel debacle simulatron

NASA Gangnam Style riff is great fun

How many people are in space right now?

Check out also this tour of the International Space Station by its departing commander (via Nate)

Also from nate – an elegy for the web we lost. It really is a different online world out there compared to a decade ago.

What to do when the bus refuses to show up

Is evolutionary psychology worthless?

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, NZ’s official national wizard speaks vividly about what he’s been doing these past few decades. I find it weird that Gandalf is now more famous in NZ than our real-life official wizard.

Movie posters recreated at home

And finally, Christopher Lee’s Heavy Metal Christmas Songs

(Merry christmas & happy new year folks. I’m off on holiday for a bit so no bloggery for a little while.)

Vanity Fair has published an extensive feature on Freaks & Geeks, my pick for second-greatest TV show of all time (after The Wire). There’s an oral history, new behind the scenes pics, and an amazing reunion photoshoot that brought back all the main cast, most of the secondary cast, and plenty of bit players. LOVE IT.

A eulogy for Occupy: fantastic first-hand journey through Occupy’s successes and failures. Includes plenty of details I’d never heard before, including a brutal analysis of the failure of the General Assembly process that was at the heart of Occupy, and some great insights into what Occupy created that wasn’t easily visible from the outside.

This one time, Yoko Ono and Jim Henson hung out online with Ayn Rand. No, it really happened [No it didn’t – see below], and the transcript is fascinating. (via Allen Varney) [It is fictional! My factchecking on this was pretty limited. D’oh! Thanks David R esq. for the save.]

An ambitious high concept, this: making an improvised opera out of live stock market data. (Also via Allen)

Rap battle: Santa Claus vs your actual Snoop Lion. Not exactly a fair match.

Lengthy research (with many pics) exploring the story behind that unusual hat worn by Archie’s Pal Jughead.

Gem Wilder’s link collection this week included several gems, but my fave was this clever and funny takedown of the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl phenomenon

Also from Gem this week: the problem with Margaret Mahy

Return of the Jedi had some female space pilots in it, but it cut them out.

The alternate moose has made his documentary on Kiwiburn (the NZ cousin of Burning Man) free to watch online. Check it out!

And while you’re watching things online, David Ritchie esquire has endorsed a browser plugin that lets you watch overseas video content without needing to mess about. I tried it: two clicks later, I was suddenly able to view loads of Hulu content that had been closed to me before. You want this.

David esq., also linked to a helpful Hobbit Dwarf Identification Flowchart. Test your knowledge on this collection of photos of the Hobbit actors meeting their Lego minifigures.

Speaking of Lego: here’s a Lego model of the spaceship from Alien, the Nostromo. (via Malc)

Via Sonal: your new TV is ruining the movies you watch

And finally, via Pearce, a classic animated GIF now with its own homepage: BEES BEES BEES