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January 31, 2007
[TV] Grace Dent’s Final Word on Celebrity Big Brother 2007: ‘It’s only a game show: only a few careers and livelihoods ruined. Only a few relationships shattered, a few contestants’ families heartbroken, only a few safehouses booked and kids living without mum while she’s in hiding, and only a few psychologists on standby and contestants said to be near-suicidal. This is totally normal on game shows, isn’t it? You should see the drama on Countdown when they run low on pens. Carnage, emotional fall-out, safehouses being booked everywhere.’ [via Feeling Listless]
[comics] Warren Ellis, Novelist — Ellis on his new book Crooked Little Vein … ‘I sat down and wrote the first ten thousand words of an utterly unsaleable novel. I figured I could recycle the material into comics later. So I handed her this horror of a thing, complete with Godzilla Bukkake scene, and said, take this and leave me alone. Thinking, obviously, that she’d decide I was insane and never bug me again. Two weeks later, she phoned to tell me she’d sold it to Harper Collins in New York…’
January 30, 2007
[comics] Belle de Jour and Judge Dredd: ‘…he only gives her six months imprisonment? You call that sympathy?’
[blogs] Forced Switch to the New Blogger Begins — I think the latest upgrade to Blogger has been a disaster and it’s what drove me to upgrade to Wordpress (along with the realisation that Wordpress was pretty easy to install and manage) … ‘Starting today, a small percentage of users who log in to an old Blogger account will be required to move to the new version. This involves moving your current Blogger account to a new or existing Google Account. After the move, you will need to log in to Blogger with your Google Account username, which is always the email address associated with your account. If you’re one of the lucky folks who is prompted to move your account over to the new version of Blogger, you’ll be able to postpone this process once (and only once) if you *really* need to get a post out of your head or want to say goodbye to the old Blogger. After that, it’s time to befriend the new Blogger!’ [via Google Operating System]
[tv] Weird, or just Wanting? — Louis Theroux on Weirdness. ‘…what I did come to realize was this: that the strangest behaviours are always answering some very normal human need - for love, for religious meaning, for a place in the world. And that the “weird beliefs” themselves never stood in the way of me making a human connection…’ [via As Above]
January 28, 2007
[politics] Downing Street E-Petitions: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to replace the national anthem with ‘Gold’ by Spandau Ballet … ‘What we specifically want to see, is that the National Anthem be changed in favour of “Gold” by Spandau Ballet. Further, we would like our National Olympic Committee to decree that Tony Hadley is the only person permitted to handle medal ceremonies where the National Anthem is played. We don’t mind what he wears when he does this, but preference is given towards a a gold colured suit.’ [thanks Phil]
[blogs] Feeling Listless: ‘I was ten years old and owned a Raleigh Grifter.’
January 24, 2007
[comics] Gerhard and Aardvark-Vanaheim Have Parted Ways — Dave Sim and long-term artistic collaborator Gerhard have gone their separate ways … ‘Effective as of December 31st, 2006 Gerhard has parted ways with Aardvark-Vanaheim and long time partner Dave Sim. Dave is still in the process of gathering the funds necessary to buy out Gerhard’s 40% share of the company, but this will not affect the publication of future Cerebus volumes…’ [via Meowwcat]
January 23, 2007
[comics] Mr. and Mrs. Natural — Update on Robert Crumb and family … ‘Comics have always bound the Crumbs. Aline and Robert met in 1971 after she heard about a large-rumped woman named Honeybunch Kaminski created by Mr. Crumb for his Snatch Comics series. Ms. Crumb, whose surname from her first marriage was Kominsky, bore a physical resemblance to Honeybunch, and she set out to meet the famous R. Crumb. “She was the first woman I met whose emotions didn’t scare me,” Mr. Crumb said.’ [via The Coffee Grounds]
[ireland] A Policeman’s Best Friend — Steve Bell on brilliant form today.
[brain] Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t — The New York Times on Free Will … [via Kottke] ‘In the 1970s, Benjamin Libet, a physiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, wired up the brains of volunteers to an electroencephalogram and told the volunteers to make random motions, like pressing a button or flicking a finger, while he noted the time on a clock. Dr. Libet found that brain signals associated with these actions occurred half a second before the subject was conscious of deciding to make them. The order of brain activities seemed to be perception of motion, and then decision, rather than the other way around. In short, the conscious brain was only playing catch-up to what the unconscious brain was already doing. The decision to act was an illusion, the monkey making up a story about what the tiger had already done.’
January 22, 2007
[future] Must-know terms for the 21st Century intellectual — On Cosmological Eschatology and Galactus: ‘CE is the study of how the Universe develops, ages, and ultimately comes to an end. While hardly a new concept, what is new is the suggestion that advanced intelligence may play a role in the universe’s life cycle. Given the radical potential for postbiological superintelligence, a number of thinkers have suggested that universe engineering is a likely activity for advanced civilizations.’ [via Warren Ellis]
January 21, 2007
[gladwell] Open Secrets — Malcolm Gladwell on Mysteries, Puzzles and Enron … ‘The national-security expert Gregory Treverton has famously made a distinction between puzzles and mysteries. Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts are a puzzle. We can’t find him because we don’t have enough information. The key to the puzzle will probably come from someone close to bin Laden, and until we can find that source bin Laden will remain at large. The problem of what would happen in Iraq after the toppling of Saddam Hussein was, by contrast, a mystery. It wasn’t a question that had a simple, factual answer. Mysteries require judgments and the assessment of uncertainty, and the hard part is not that we have too little information but that we have too much.’ [via Kottke]
[blogs] Smashing Telly — a blog watching for interesting television available on Google Video - for example On the Edge of Blade Runner and Rob Newman’s History of Oil. [via Pete's Linklog]
January 20, 2007
[religion] History of Religion — nicely done map / timeline of 3000 years of Religious Expansion. [via As Above]
January 18, 2007
[mobiles] Man Badly Burned when Cell Phone in Pocket Flares … ‘A cell phone in the front pocket of a Vallejo man’s pants spontaneously combusted, quickly ignited his clothes and left the man with second- and third-degree burns across at least half his body, according to investigators. Luis Picaso, 59, was apparently sleeping on a white, all-plastic lawn chair in his room late Saturday night and was awakened as he was ablaze…’ [via Warren Ellis]
[mobiles] Cell Phones Filthier Than Bottom of Shoe … ‘The phones contained more skin bacteria than the any other object; this could be due to the fact that this type of bacteria increases in high temperatures and our phones are perfect for breeding these germs as they’re kept warm and cozy in our pockets, handbags and brief cases. These bacteria are toxic to humans…’
January 17, 2007
[robots] Jamie Zawinski on fixing his Roomba: ‘…let me rephrase that story: My personal cleaning robot has malfunctioning hardware.’
January 16, 2007
[lifehacks] 5 Ideas for Stressful Living … ‘I’ve compiled a short list of ideas for those who wish to add a dash of stress into their lives — all fairly easy to implement, not to mention widely encouraged by society at large and often easily observed in the behavior of those around you…’ [via Lifehacker]
January 15, 2007
[evolution] External testicles proves ‘unintelligent design’ … ‘”The religious right are always harping on about so-called ‘Intelligent Design’ but both the irrational and rational response has to be ‘bollocks’,” said anti-creationism campaigner Sean Duff. “Why would anyone intelligent put something as sensitive as testicles in a little sack on the outside? Surely this proves the concept of ‘Unintelligent Design’?”
January 14, 2007
[funny] Courage award for man who threw out old computer cables … ‘‘We were stunned’ said Whitesmith. ‘There was a curly off-white cable with like, a round five pronged little plug on one end and a square blue plastic bit on the other. That must have been essential for something. And the redundant phone chargers might have worked as a back-up charger for another mobile phone that he might purchase in the future. It was madness.’’ [via Linkbunnies.org]
January 12, 2007
[religion] Top 100 Funies Say The Darndest Things Quotes! … ‘I appreciate your recommendation, and it is intriguing, but as a pro-lifer, I cannot support an organization that is opposed to the death penalty.’
January 11, 2007
[iphone] 30 Things the iPhone Could Do That You Haven’t Thought of Yet … ‘17. Bring you to tears when it falls and skids face-down across a parking lot.’
January 9, 2007
[comics] Extraordinary Things to Come — Alan Moore discusses The Black Dossier his book about the history of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen … Moore: ‘Who did the music? It was me and Tim Perkins, pretending to be a 50s American rock and roll band. I’ve discovered, at this late stage in my life, that I am, in fact, an Elvis impersonator. But you’ll have to wait and listen for yourself, you know? [His voice assumes an Elvis Presley-like drawl] “Uh huh, thank you very much.” So there’ll be a lot of little goodies, because me and Kevin like that. We like having lots of nice little things in there. It reminds us of British comics of our youth, where there were always these kind of cheap giveaways included. But we’ve got some quite expensive giveaways in this one.’
[awards] 2007 Bloggies — nominations have opened for the long running Blog Award - if any regular readers of LMG want to nominate me for “Best British or Irish Weblog” I’d be eternally grateful. 
January 7, 2007
[tv] Things I have learnt from Celebrity Big Brother, #1 — Troubled Diva on Celebrity Big Brother. ‘…by placing real-life inter-personal relationships under a microscope, and by raising the emotional temperature in order to elicit a series of controlled reactions, Big Brother is - whether by accident or design (and I couldn’t really care less) - usefully illuminating the human condition. This is why, for all its peripheral irritations, I never tire of watching it.’
January 6, 2007
[comics] The Bride of Pressbutton — four pages from an un-reprinted Alan Moore Stars My Degredation strip in Sounds Magazine from 1982 … ‘Holy Shit! Willya lookit the Micro-Tolerances on that!!’ [via Forbidden Planet]
January 5, 2007
[movies] Ask Metafilter: Why is the CGI in Jurassic Park so good? ‘…largely because of Spielberg’s restraint. ILM’s ambitions were commensurate with their abilities: their animators could create convincing scaly creatures, and that’s what they did. They could not create convincing CG cities, battlefields, or human faces, and they didn’t try. Additionally, they did a great job of simulating how large, heavy creatures move.’
[blogs] World Weary Detective — another UK job blog … ‘Metropolitian Police detective london UK. A view of life from the thin layer between you and the underclass.’ [via Guardian News Blog]
[books] The Great Right Place: James Ellroy Comes Home — Ellroy on returning to LA… ‘My mother was murdered. The crime was purely L.A.-adjacent. It was a hot Saturday night. She was out with a man. He strangled her and dumped her on an access road. I was in the real-L.A./safe-L.A./now-non-safe-forever-L.A. that weekend. The central event of my life occurred off-page. The crime remains unsolved.’ [via BeaucoupKevin]
January 3, 2007
[blogs] A Blackmailing Email Sent By Nicholas Hellen of the Sunday Times — Girl With a One Track Mind publishes an email sent by the Acting News Editor at the Sunday Times just before they revealed her identity - essentially a blackmail attempt to get her to acquiesce to a photo shoot … ‘We also have a picture of you, taken outside your flat. Unfortunately, the picture is not particularly flattering and might undermine the image that has been built up around your persona as Abby Lee. I think it would be helpful to both sides if you agreed to a photo shoot today so that we can publish a more attractive image.’
January 2, 2007
[comics] A Tourist Map of Gotham — Who knew there was an Archie Goodwin International Airport in Gotham City? [via Kottke]
[comics] Another Free Comic to Download: Phonogram #1 by Keiron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. [via Warren Ellis]
[unabom] Unabomber’s Secret Code Cracked … ‘Schneier described the code as so complicated that “it would not surprise me if this was the most complex cipher the FBI has seen since World War II.” Schneier said with that code, Kaczynski could certainly be successful in keeping information away from the authorities. But Kaczynski succeeded only up to a point. Agents discovered the first of many clues to solving the puzzle in one of Kaczynski’s notebooks, on a page labeled, “Unscrambling Sequence.”‘ [via Wired's Monkey Bites]
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