linkmachinego.com

1 June 2007
[crime] Psychopaths Among Us — Disturbing article about dealing with psychopaths…

‘Hare had his subjects watch a countdown timer. When it reached zero, they got a “harmless but painful” electric shock while an electrode taped to their fingers measured perspiration. Normal people would start sweating as the countdown proceeded, nervously anticipating the shock. Psychopaths didn’t sweat. They didn’t fear punishment — which, presumably, also holds true outside the laboratory. In Without Conscience, he quotes a psychopathic rapist explaining why he finds it hard to empathize with his victims: “They are frightened, right? But, you see, I don’t really understand it. I’ve been frightened myself, and it wasn’t unpleasant.”

In another Hare study, groups of letters were flashed to volunteers. Some of them were nonsense, some formed real words. The subject’s job was to press a button whenever he recognized a real word, while Hare recorded response time and brain activity. Non-psychopaths respond faster and display more brain activity when processing emotionally loaded words such as “rape” or “cancer” than when they see neutral words such as “tree.” With psychopaths, Hare found no difference. To them, “rape” and “tree” have the same emotional impact — none.’

4 June 2007
[lolcats] Roll Your Own LOL, Not Just For Cats Anymore — some funny examples of lolcats mutations … ‘no cry, albino’
[books] Sci-fi writers join war on Terror‘”We’re well-qualified nuts,” says Jerry Pournelle, co-author of the best sellers Footfall and Lucifer’s Hammer and dozens of other books. […] During a coffee break at the conference, Walker, Bear and Andrews started talking about the government’s bomb-sniffing dogs. Within minutes, they had conjured up a doggie brain-scanning skullcap that could tell agents what kind of explosive material a dog had picked up.’
5 June 2007
[comics] Ask Cerebra – The Comics Blog Search Engine — useful Customized Search Engine from Beaucoupkevin.‘…it’s even easier to find out exactly what the zeitgeist is when it comes to such important topics as that Heroes for Hire Hentai-A-Go-Go Special cover and whether or not Jimmy Olsen is the devil.’
6 June 2007
[lolcats] Schrödinger’s Lolcat‘in ur quantum box… maybe’ [via Minor 9th]
7 June 2007
[comics] We Must Expand Our Nuclear Power Program If We’re To Realize Our Dream Of Superhero Mutants — from The Onion‘We say we are committed to science, but where are the halls of justice, filled with governing councils of serum-created superpatriots, part-android teenagers, and scantily clad femaliens sworn to protect us?’ [via Neilalien]
8 June 2007
[funny] The Armageddon Flowchart … [via Kottke]

a flowchart about armageddon

9 June 2007
[tv] Diamond Geezer Reviews the BBC’s iPlayer: ‘I have caught up with the Doctor Who Confidential I missed while I was on the train coming back from Dungeness, and a couple of programmes I only realised were worth watching after I’d read the review in the following day’s paper. iPlayer can really change your viewing habits.’
10 June 2007
[comics] Mark Millar on Jonathan Ross’ Documentary on Steve Ditko: ‘…we have a documentary filled with Ditko goodness for one Earth hour ranging from Flo Steinberg and John Romita Senior to Stan Lee, Jerry Robinson and vast chunks of Alan Moore (singing a song about Mister A he wrote some years ago).’ [via Neilalien]
11 June 2007
[interview] Stephen Fry on the Internet — great video interview with Stephen Fry – he comes over as really loving the internet.
[interview] More from Stephen Fry on… Web 2.0, Technology, Learning and his Heroes. [thanks linkbunnies.org]
12 June 2007
[books] TwitterLit — neat idea – twittering the first lines of books … ‘Albert Einstein was born in 1879, in Ulm, Germany, with a head shaped like a lopsided medicine ball.’
13 June 2007
[books] The Digested Read: God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens‘The purpose of this book is not to prove God does not exist; it is to prove I am cleverer than Richard Dawkins.’
14 June 2007
[usa] Judge Who Seeks Millions for Lost Pants Has His (Emotional) Day in Court‘Before trial began yesterday in the case of the D.C. judge who sued his neighborhood dry cleaners after they lost his pants, the most extraordinary fact was Roy Pearson’s demand for $65 million in damages. That was before Pearson, an administrative law judge, broke down while testifying about the emotional pain of having the cleaners give him the wrong pants. It was before an 89-year-old woman in a wheelchair told of being chased out of the cleaners by an angry owner. And it was before she compared the owners of Custom Cleaners in open court to Nazis. “I knew it: It’s all my fault,” said the reporter from German television who was sitting next to me.’ [via kottke]
15 June 2007
[tv] BBC, ITV, Channel 4 Plot Single Broadband TV Player‘The BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 are said to be aiming to create a “one-stop shop”, open to other channels too, which would allow legal broadband viewing from one programme. According to The Guardian, the plan is dubbed “Project Kangaroo” and will “do for broadband what Freeview did for digital television”. It is expected to operate like Joost, perhaps hinting at some P2P element.’
[tv] Always Remember: It’s not Lupus. [via polymath blues]
16 June 2007
[science] Bad Science — a blog from the Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre.
[comics] Go Look: Kirby Saturday: Damn! Damn! Damn!
17 June 2007
[tv] Everything I Know About Design I Learned from The Sopranos … ‘On the unintended consequences of technology: “It sounds to me like Anthony Jr. may have stumbled onto existentialism.” “Fucking internet.”‘
18 June 2007
[tip] Windows Tip: Copy Error Messages Text To The Clipboard — I can’t believe I’ve been using Windows for 17 years and never realised you can do this!
[food] What the World Eats … facinating photo essay from Time.
20 June 2007
[obit] Surplus Manning — Marcus Brigstocke sums up Bernard Manning‘For myself, I am glad Bernard Manning is dead. Good riddance. The world now has one less ignorant, hateful bigot living in it. One less racist oaf poisoning us all with his stupid, crass, playground ideas; may the many others, who shared his view of the world, soon leave us too. If you thought Bernard Manning was a harmless loveable rogue with impeccable timing and a charming yet dangerous disregard for conventions of taste and acceptability, you are wrong. He was a racist, hateful and dull, and we are better off without him.’
21 June 2007
[comics] Scans from Jack Kirby’s Comic Adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey — spotted on scans_daily – it really looks like Kirby was having a blast with this one…

panels from Jack Kirby's comic adaptation of 2001

22 June 2007
[quotes] Grouphug.us: ‘In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max’s toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog…When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I went nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out…But the worst thing I ever done — I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa — and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life.’
[wikipedia] Wikington Crescent … How to Play: ‘To start a game of Wikington Crescent, first click on the Random article link. From the article given, you then click on one of the article links to the next article. The object of the game is to reach the article on Mornington Crescent tube station, whilst clicking on as few articles as possible. The fewer the links used, the better the game. An example is that the article for Matterhorn can lead you to Mornington Crescent tube station within four links.’ [via plep]
23 June 2007
[comics] 2001: An Adapted Odyssey — Metafilter discuss Kirby’s adaptation of 2001‘This is really neat and all, but I misread the original post and was really hoping to see 2001: A Space Odyssey as it was adapted by Jack Chick, because that would have been, you know, really really fucked up.’
25 June 2007
[music] ‘Oh good, it’s raining again’ — Charlie Brooker does Glastonbury … ‘Once you’re in, the sheer scale of it is initially overwhelming. Imagine forcing the cast of Emmerdale to hurriedly construct Las Vegas at gunpoint in the rain. Then do it again. And once more for luck. That’s Glastonbury: a cross between a medieval refugee camp and a recently detonated circus. Roads of sloppy mud and drunken civilians shivering in tents; this is what London would look like if I’d been in charge for 100 years. Not because I’m some kind of laid-back dreamer, but because I couldn’t organise a piss-up in a pissery. It’d take me six decades to assemble the most rudimentary infrastructure. There’d be no museums in my London. Maybe a bin or two, at a push.’
[virtual] YouTube: Second Life for Real(more…)
27 June 2007
[books] Henry Raddick’s Amazon Reviews — spoof book reviews on Amazon. Raddick reviews God, Why Did Dad Lose His Job?: … ‘A truly wonderful guide which has enabled me to explain my recent sacking for vandalising company property to my children in terms of a minor act of redemption. First rate.’
28 June 2007
[politics] Go to Australia or use your own Judgment‘As prime minister, with ultimate responsibility for Britain’s nuclear deterrent, Mr Brown has to write a letter, in his own hand, giving instructions detailing what the UK’s response should be in the event of a pre-emptive nuclear attack. The letter will be opened only by the commander of a British Trident submarine, who would have to assume that the prime minister was no longer in a position to take “live” command of the situation. The options are said to include the orders: “Put yourself under the command of the US, if it is still there”; “go to Australia”; “retaliate”; “or use your own judgment”. Each new prime minister writes the letter as soon as he or she takes office…’
[politics] Ten Years of Waiting come to an End in 57 minutes at the Palace‘Telling staff to call him Gordon, he acknowledged that it had been an emotional day for them saying goodbye to a great leader and a great family. He thanked them for the welcome and said it had been an interesting day for him. “It’s not every day you meet the Queen at 1.30pm, become the prime minister at 2pm, speak to the president at 3pm, and get told by Sarah to put the kids to bed at 7pm,” he told them.’
29 June 2007
[iphone] 29 June 2007: The Day the World Changed — Fake Steve Jobs rallies the troops … ‘To those of you who serve under me at Apple, I say this: Yes, I have berated you, and insulted you, and exasperated you. Yes, I’ve fired your friends for no reason, and made you work harder than you ever thought you could work. Yes, I’ve taken you away from your spouses, your children, your transgendered domestic partners. In some cases your devotion to me has cost you your marriages. You’ve sacrificed a great deal for this. But has it not been worth it? For the rest of your life, you’ll be able to say that you were working at Apple when the iPhone was introduced. You were here on the day when the course of human history was changed forever. Plus, you’ll get a free 4-gigabyte iPhone, at $500 value. Not bad, right?’
30 June 2007
[science] Yes, the universe looks like a fix. But that doesn’t mean that a god fixed it‘The impression of design is illusory: our universe has simply hit the jackpot in a gigantic cosmic lottery. The multiverse theory certainly cuts the ground from beneath intelligent design, but it falls short of a complete explanation of existence. For a start, there has to be a physical mechanism to make all those universes and allocate bylaws to them. This process demands its own laws, or meta-laws. Where do they come from?’