Tag: fridaylinky

Extremely freaky perception thing. I couldn’t handle doing this for very long because it so badly unnerved me. (via Ron Fischer)

Lovely 2-minute turn at a poetry jam (via ehjc)

Blogging the entirety of Emily Dickinson’s poetry

Canine brain scans (via d3vo)

Super-technology bottles makes sauce come out really easily (also via d3vo)

The story behind the truly amazing fake Tilda Swinton Twitter account

Scientific American illustrates the anatomy of the Hulk.

Portfolio site for a guy who designs user interfaces for the computer systems in movies. Iron Man’s helmet display, for example.

Lots of people around the net have been linking to these magazine covers, which were reputedly tiny background details in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Mash also found this great investigation of the real story behind these images.

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.

Leeeroy Jenkins! A short heist film.

The BBFC’s reasoning behind the rating they gave Ridley Scott’s Alien (as a PDF)

Scanned entirety of a magisterial classic guide to cartooning.

Examining how income tax laws apply to zombies.

A drinking game for people who overthink everything

B-list Star Wars characters get Seuss-ified (via sophie’s friend mike)

And finally, John Cleese as Satan

Dancey! says the wee beastie, carefully inserting a CD into the stereo. Dancey!

From many people – a fascinating and funny short film of a depressingly plausible high-tech future

Top voice actors do a readthrough of the entirety of Star Wars

The scale of the universe (via lots of people)

The Easter Island statues go deeper than I expected. The photo of an excavation here is amazing.

Photographic essay on the extraction industry around the Canadian oil sands. I found this really fascinating.

If you understand coding even a tiny little bit you will enjoy learning about Objectivist C

Via Ian Hicks: the world’s subways are converging on an ideal track layout

Teachers secretly dance behind students. (The first 30 seconds gives you all you need.) (via MrsMeows)

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.

There is officially a cthulhu wasp (via Theremina)

Vintage children’s books my kid loves (via Kate Beaton)

The Roman Empire: travel times revealed in an incredible interactive tool.

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.)

Unpaired words

How a book is born: interesting infographic

And finally, a genuine treasure: goon show radio

Following on from the loss of MCA, there came the sad death of Maurice Sendak. May the wild rumpus continue on forever. Andrew Leonard at Salon wrote this great piece about reading the Wild Things to his the kids. The Comics Journal had a great piece on the man. (Tequila!) And check out these radio interviews with the man via Fresh Air.

Dot thing. (via FogOnWater)

Wolfenstein 3D, the forerunner for pretty much every big computer game today, turned 20 today. The game is now free to play in your browser (and, if you’re quick, on your iDevice). And there’s a director’s commentary! (via d3vo)

The New Yorker got brilliant film reviewer Film Crit Hulk to review the Hulk’s part in this Avengers film.

Speaking of which. Avengers: the actual origin story. No this is really it.

Via JetSimian, a writer reminisces beautifully about being a 12-year-old LARPer in some caves in Thatcher’s Britain. Vaguely related: how to ask on Craiglist for a D&D group.

Have you seen the oatmeal’s Tesla comic yet? You must. Tesla = amazing.

Context-free patent art

The angry underground world of failed pickup artists. (via MrsMeows)

Flowchart: What kind of female character is she?

The Descriptive Camera. Delightful.

And finally: (via theremina) dogs dressed as crustaceans.

This is an 18 second video of the best home-made costume I’ve ever seen:

Via Dylan, Eric Valli’s amazing photography of people living off the grid

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.

The Weird Al Yankovi of other music genres (yes Weird Al does all genres just roll with it)

Search the deep reaches of the net easily with MillionShort, which strips off the first million (or hundred thou, or ten thou) results.

The entire Slender Man mythos – an immense shared storytelling initiative played out mostly through online video – has been compiled.

The Atlas of True Names

Stuck on an essay? Deadline approaching? Here’s your solution: EssayTyper

Tim Denee linked to wiki’s page on distinguishing green and blue in language. Very interesting.

Map of musical styles

Via loads of people: your logical fallacy is…

And finally, via Dave Cormack, depressing cat video

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

Extended (full) version of China Mieville’s essay on London as postapocalyptic place – the shorter version (previously linkied) was splendid reading, this will probably be more so.

Daily Mail-o-matic

Here’s a short, sharp dismantling of libertarianism that will stick in your memory.

Via Ivan – an outstanding example of someone using game theory to outmaneuver a game show

Huge water resource under Africa? This would change a lot of stuff (via Damon)

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.)

Chomsky on Occupy

Chris M beautifully remembers a game that never actually existed

And finally… spoon-playing grandma rocks out to the Black Keys

(via Dangerous Minds)

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 most badass alphabet ever

Google as an 80s-era Bulletin Board system. It works, too.

Film criticism as spiritual discipline

Message to a daughter

Determine your degree of colour blindness (via edel)

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.

Salon.com published an Imprint article about a classic advertiser whose work was satirised on the cover of a very early issue of Mad. Here is that cover. It’s amazing. Mad was so far ahead of its time!

This week’s Star Wars content courtesy the other Moose: a highschool that looks like a Star Wars spaceship.

Which fictional characters share your birthday? Here’s a helpful calendar (thanks Amanda L!)

Double Oh:

Realistic anatomies of cartoon characters (via Maire)

And finally… the most copied comics panel of all time (includes a naked lady so probably not safe for work)

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

Self-portraits in airplane lavatories, wearing classic Flemish style

Via Naomi, an excellent reaction to a friend coming out: act shocked by his website coding choices

I think I’ve linked this before, but it’s been redesigned. Or this is a different site doing the same thing, better. The Food Timeline

Dangerous Minds has turned up a true Monty Python rarity

Hitchcock’s Rear Window – amazing video assembles all the different elements of the scene to construct the whole view

Viking Movies, evaluated by viking history enthusiasts

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.)

Via Mike Upton: Existential Crisis and Dragons. (I have actually played games not too dissimilar to this.)

The Pentametron constructs verse from tweets that happen to be in iambic pentameter

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi writes an eye-opening, rage-inducing explanation of what Bank of America did and what “too big to fail” actually means.

Top 10 lessons of the Iraq war.

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.

The hallowed DavidR found a detailed read-through and description of the Back to the Future novelization. It is… just click through and see, actually.

And finally, the launch issue of “Conservative Teen” magazine, which shut down its site and disappeared after being mocked a whole lot, can still be found and enjoyed by those who really want to combine their teenage thrills with their conservative political spills.

The Alligator left on a jet plane this morning. He will bring the new sport of gatorball back to its spiritual home, the United States of America. Here, we will have to gatorball on without him.

Here’s a link he sent me a month ago: some crazy ant photos. David Attenborough this ain’t.

He saw Taika Waititi’s film Boy the other night and appreciated the early-80s Kiwi charm: Maori smurf and the use of “egg” as an insult were particular favourites. But it reminded me that in NZ, “bro” appears to mean something very different to what it means in the U.S. Witness these bro subtitles:

(via the AVClub, which notes this is a promotion for a translation of On The Road into Bro-speak.)
See also the stupendous Three Word Phrase, a 4-panel comic by Ryan Pequin, which has been hitting Bro notes lately. Check out this and this and this and this. (Then just subscribe to Three Word Phrase because it’s amazing.)

Stars of frequently-spoiled TV shows school you on spoiler etiquette:

Guy invents covers for recent Doctor Who stories as if they’d been turned into novelisations during the classic era of the show.

Winter is coming! no that isn’t a game of thrones reference, down here winter really is coming. We use upside-down fires in our place – if you have a woodburner and don’t know about this method, you should. Campers should also pay attention.

This has been in the linky file for over a year, time to air it out:

BIG BANG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Likewise this fascinating collection of amateur photos.

And this, Fantasy Travel Posters (but aren’t they all?)

101 micro-stories that make you think, laugh, cry, etc.

Photos of women operating big mainframe computers.

Weird doll photographs

Interesting letterhead designs

The hunt for the worst movie of all time. (Eat Pray Love is a good place to start.)

Read Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman

Inspired by Banksy, a family leaves painted stuff in places.

And finally… self-portraits while levitating

Friday linky! Today, written past midnight on Saturday night. Hurrah!

Stop-motion Lego ninja madness. Verrry nice.

Kate Beaton found this incredible Children’s Object Book from the 1880s

Dylan pointed to this revelation of Facebook’s hidden sweatshop moderators. Interesting in its own right, but also it helps explain what happened to Joe Lipari.

Via Marie – so Dad, how do you like the iPad we bought you?

Everyone has seen Benedict Cumberbatch and Otters, right? Mr D. Ritchie of Hamiltron has drawn my attention to David Mitchell and Koalas.

Stanley Kubrick section:
Dangerous Minds gave more credence than I would have to this take on the hidden messages of Kubrick’s 2001, but I found it an engaging watch over lunchtime anyway.

And (also on Dangerous Minds) the story behind Kubrick’s ban on Clockwork Orange

Kubrick’s photos from 1940s NYC (via Mr H. Ritchie of Australiaton, relation)

And, um, Toy Story meets The Shining

6 ridiculous first drafts of famous movie monsters – some interesting stuff here!

I don’t have it in me to write anything about Trayvon Martin, but I will share this searing bit of writing

Some Star Wars linky, since last week’s offering was a wee bit on the odd side:
The whole internet loved this suggested viewing order for the full Star Wars saga. Worth a read for writer/structure nerds, at least.

Via The Gator – why the lightsaber battles in the Phantom Menace sucked

The Wampa scene from Empire Strikes Back, remade with a pug dog as the monster

How I helped destroy the Star Wars Galaxies MMO

Topher Grace edited all the prequels into one single, better film (my main reservation with this is I really really didn’t like the third prequel, whereas I thought the first two were fascinating, engaging disasters)

And, finally, Jedi A-holes!

Tron dance is fun dance.

[video link changed - found a live version!] In honour of the return of Community to U.S. TV, here’s the recent Paleyfest event. I watched this whole thing and it made me laugh and laugh and laugh. These people love each other and love the work they do.

NOT st PATTY all right? goddammit (via Irish people)

Excellent essay about the 25th anniversary of Evil Dead 2. What a singular movie that is. (via Craig Oxbrow)

the interrobang is 50! (thanks Cat!)

Ivan linked to this deft summary of epic Medievalist mystery document, the Voynich Manuscript

Martin Luther insults everyone

Two pieces on stage magic: the internet hurts the craft of magic, and “how Teller gave me the secret to my career in magic”

Slides! In places! For grown-ups! Includes video of an installation in my favourite gallery space in the world, the Turbine Hall in London’s Tate Modern. Whee!

Lengthy Alan Moore interview, mostly about this sequels-to-Watchmen bizzo.

Rookie Mag has a piece about how Lindsay Weir from Freaks & Geeks is a damn hero.

Mrs Meows writes about The Hunger Games novels, & mostly about how few worthwhile female protagonists there were in the fiction she loved growing up. (Which reminds me – the other day I looked at the newest Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew books. Based on the back cover blurbs and a flick through, Nancy is still a resourceful girl detective, sleuthing her way to the truth, although the book I looked at was set at a beauty and health spa. The Hardy Boys, however, had been transformed into superspy agents of some acronymed secret organisation and were doing extreeeeeeeme action stuff while stopping terrorists from murdering everyone. Man. They used to have a jalopy. They were real proud of their jalopy.)

Excellent essay by China Mieville about London as a post-apocalyptic space. From the New York Times, which is to say, you don’t need to know London to appreciate this.

High school debate as you’ve not heard it before. Turn your sound on – there’s an audio sample embedded in the page. A classic example of what happens when you let the rules of a game become the game itself.

And finally, via Bruce Norris, some Star Wars content, in a manner of speaking