May 31, 2009
[retrocomputing] ZX81 Webserver … Amazing – a Sinclair ZX-81 on the internet.
May 28, 2009
[comics] All American hero … Howard Chaykin Interview … Chaykin on American Flagg and the 1980′s: ‘The US was in a trough of political conservatism with Reagan, who was a fraud, thief, liar and a cheat. I also wanted to do a fun, violent, sexy, dirty story with a strong political underpinning and a streak of hysterical humour. I was laughing at the edge of the precipice. I was such a nihilist back then.’
[comics] For Sale on eBay: Maxx #1 by Sam Kieth.
May 26, 2009
[space] First TV Image of Mars Ever Was Made With Crayons … ‘The people at the JPL were so excited to receive the images that they couldn’t wait for them to be processed by the lab’s imager. As the first picture was beamed down as a stream of 8-bit numbers—each point indicating a brightness point—they thought of a quick way to get an image straight away: Print the numbers indicating brightness in paper strips, put them together, and color them with pastel crayons.’ [via As Above]
[press] The Daily Mail Dictionary … ‘Cancer: a life-threatening disease caused by everything, and cured by everything else.’ [via Moreish]
[comics] Jess Nevins annotations for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Century 1910 … ‘Panel 6. “Misplaced memorials.” I trust one of my British readers can fill me in on what Moore is referring to. Is there a misplaced memorial at King’s Cross? There are memorials to veterans of World Wars One and Two–anything else? “Forgotten fires.” I’m assuming this is a reference to the King’s Cross fire on 18 November 1987, which killed 31 people in the King’s Cross St. Pancras station. I’m not particularly sure why this counts as “forgotten”–even I, American that I am, knew about it. (Is the King’s Cross fire memorial plaque in the station misplaced somehow?)’
[comics] Doonesbury — I Need Moral Clarity … (more…)
[weird] Have you heard ‘the Hum’? … BBC News on people who’s lives are ruined by hearing a constant strange hum … ‘A low-pitched drone known as the “Largs hum” has troubled the coastal town of Largs in Strathclyde for more than two decades. At least one suicide in the UK has been linked with the hum.’
May 23, 2009
[comics] DC Comics 40 Years Ago … lovely blog looking at DC’s very varied output in the late Sixties.
May 22, 2009
[press] Michael Wolff: ‘Newspapers stopped working a long time ago and a better means of doing their job is readily available. It’s an asinine debate. Who wouldn’t want their news delivered in a form that was searchable, saveable, resendable, which you can talk back to, which is linked to other relevant news, which allows you to read as lightly or as deeply as you wanted to, and which combines text, pictures, and video?’ [via Journalista]
May 21, 2009
[music] Andrew Orlowski on Spotify: ‘The more Spotify grows, increasing its music catalogue as it goes along, the fewer recordings you have to buy. The music you want to hear and the playlists are “in the cloud”, for free. If you could be assured the free lemonade would never stop, you may as well get rid of the CDs you already have now, and will never have to be pay for a sound recording again. The rival lemonade stands don’t have to pay for the music they offer, while Spotify does. So keeping the Spotify tap turned on costs the music business an enormous amount of money. Last week, at the Great Escape music event in Brighton, we learned that Spotify has very little realistic prospect of making any money either.’
[war] MI6 urged Churchill to nuke Berlin … ‘The proposal was discussed in August 1944, when British agents were reporting that Hitler was poised to launch the supersonic V2 rockets, armed with 2,000lb warheads, at London. Britain had no effective counter-measures against the 46ft-long rocket-propelled V2s and because they travelled faster than the speed of sound, they detonated without warning. An alarmed Liddell asked Sir Stewart Menzies, the head of MI6, if a nuclear threat could be used against Hitler…’ [via Warren Ellis]
May 20, 2009
[comics] Review of the Walking Dead Compendium Vol 1 … Tom Spurgeon reviews Robert Kirkman’s Zombie Apocalypse Soap-Opera … ‘Although the jury may still be out on its value as art simply because so much depends on choices to come, Walking Dead is an entertaining comic book that I imagine is a great boon for the Direct Market shops that have invested in its appealing mix of popular genre, serial pleasures and solid craft elements.’
May 19, 2009
[comics] David Mazzucchelli Master Post … great Scans_Daily posting showing the artistic evolution of David Mazzucchelli … ‘It was during his run on Daredevil where Mazzucchelli’s style grew beyond the Marvel House Style, especially during the “Born Again” storyline written by Frank Miller. Any of you guys heard of it? I hear it’s pretty good.’
May 17, 2009
[search] Wolfram Alpha … The Search Engine Of Choice for Supervillains … Who is Clark Kent? … Who is Bruce Wayne? … Who is Peter Parker? …
May 15, 2009
[distractions] MoonLander … perfect flash conversion of the classic arcade game … [via Sore Eyes]
May 14, 2009
[books] Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London ‘…at Blackwell’s Charing Cross Road branch in London, the machine prints and binds books on demand in five minutes, while customers wait. Signalling the end, says Blackwell, to the frustration of being told by a bookseller that a title is out of print, or not in stock, the Espresso offers access to almost half a million books, from a facsimile of Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript for Alice in Wonderland to Mrs Beeton’s Book of Needlework.’
May 13, 2009
[comics] Grant Morrison’s Multiversity … interview with Morrison on his new project for DC … ‘ I’ve been working on this way in advance. I have started a lot of the books and I’ve almost finished a couple of them. I really want to do them ahead of time so every little detail is right. I want this to be big. I kind of thought “Final Crisis” would be the big one and then I realized I had to tell this Multiverse one. So this is the real big epic that comes up next.’
[music] Bb 2.0 – a collaborative music/spoken word project — go look and listen – an amazing musical collaboration using YouTube. [via Metafilter]
May 12, 2009
[press] Diamond Geezer on the New Evening Standard ‘…to underline the paper’s new upbeat stance, a full page feature on inspirational pupils in the “poor borough” of Dagenham. I skimmed over it to be honest, because good news rarely sells, but it was encouraging to observe the paper looking optimistically eastward for once.Not so hot on pages 6 and 7, however. A full page advert for Fendi handbags opposite articles on Mayfair dining, Harvey Nicks and tax-whingeing financiers. Don’t care, not listening.’
[comics] Canada’s Comic-book Hero … interview / profile of Seth …‘Seth characterizes his world as both “grandmotherly, in that it’s like this desire to create this cozy 1930s, 1940s kind of environment” and “kind of adolescent because the place has a lot of toys. There’s something about the teenage boy, trying to create your perfect teenage room. “I can’t live unless I’ve got control of the aesthetics,” he declares. “If I want a couch, it has to be an old couch — unless it’s really successful at pretending to be an old couch.” Luckily, his wife, a 32-year-old men’s hairstylist who met Seth while working as a model in a life-drawing class he was taking, doesn’t have strong views on decor (although they did “feud” briefly earlier this year over her wish to put a Sylvania colour TV set in the living room).’ [via Waxy]
May 11, 2009
[history] Samuel Pepys on Twitter … ‘This day come our new cook maid Mary, commended by Mrs. Batters.’ [link]
[press] The Evening Standard Says Sorry … ‘This poster campaign seeks to signal the changes on the way by apologising for various perceived sins, including complacency, predictability and the afore-mentioned negativity. None of the posters mention the newspaper by name, but simply carry its Eros logo.’
May 8, 2009
[lists] 10 Best Head-Scratching Stories, Explained … ‘Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth: Jimmy relives his granddad’s life. He finally meets his father, who then dies. Superman can’t save him.’
[windows] Windows Tip: Left Click The Device Removal Notification Icon … another simple Windows tip I can’t believe I’ve never realised. Left Click! Left Click!!! 
‘…according to the traditional rules for notification icons (and the device removal icon was written back in Windows 95, when the traditional rules were operative), left clicking gives you the simple menu and right clicking gives you the advanced menu. This customer was so accustomed to right-clicking on notification icons that the idea of left-clicking never even occurred to him.’
‘…according to the traditional rules for notification icons (and the device removal icon was written back in Windows 95, when the traditional rules were operative), left clicking gives you the simple menu and right clicking gives you the advanced menu. This customer was so accustomed to right-clicking on notification icons that the idea of left-clicking never even occurred to him.’ May 6, 2009
[movies] Top 13 Stupidest Decisions In The History Of Horror Films … ‘Building your house on top of that old cemetery.’
May 5, 2009
[funny] Let’s Say You’ve Gone Back In Time … useful document for all time travellers …‘Insulin can be extracted from the pancreas of dogs and pigs by tying a string around the pancreatic duct. Inject this extract and it will act as a miraculous treatment. Forget Banting and Best. Take the credit.’
May 4, 2009
[comics] Brendan McCarthy finds a lost Doom Patrol Script from Grant Morrison [Page 1 | Page 2] … ‘I found this DOOM PATROL script the other day that I had doodled all over, from Grant Morrison… It was an episode that Grant wrote for me to draw back in 1991/92 or thereabouts: I asked for an old style DC ‘imaginary story’ with Danny The Street as the central character. But by the time the script turned up, I had to do a film so I couldn’t draw it’ …
May 3, 2009
[comics] Steve Bell Interviewed … ‘For all that his politics may be congenial to Guardian readers, there’s something about Bell’s style that doesn’t seem to sit too well with the paper’s generally earnest attitude. “I did used to get quite a number of disapproving letters, though these days I don’t – I get emails slagging me off instead” he says. “It has been said that I’m the kind of Id of the Guardian, running around waving my arms in the air while everyone else is having these deliberations. I don’t know, to be honest”.’ [thanks Phil]
May 2, 2009
[books] Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world … more from Nassim Nicholas Taleb … ‘Citizens should not depend on financial assets or fallible “expert” advice for their retirement. Economic life should be definancialised. We should learn not to use markets as storehouses of value: they do not harbour the certainties that normal citizens require. Citizens should experience anxiety about their own businesses (which they control), not their investments (which they do not control).’ [via Metafilter]
May 1, 2009
[comics] Dave Sim and Cerebus at Coventry Cathedral in 1989 … by Sim and Gerhard – the front cover to Fantasy Advertiser #115.