July 29, 2021
[metafilter] What are some impeccably designed, everyday, simple objects? … I always find something interesting in these lists – and TIL that the British plug is a design classic.
November 26, 2019
[lists] Lists: Best of the 2010s Decade … Rex Sorgatz is aggregating Best-of Lists related to the 2010s.
October 18, 2017
[wikipedia] 19 Wikipedia Pages That’ll Send You Into A Week-Long Wikihole … a great time wasting list … List of common misconceptions: ‘This list is basically what it says on the tin: a bunch of facts that you think you know but aren’t really facts at all. For example, I was upset to learn that Thomas Crapper (the guy in the above photo) didn’t actually invent the flushing toilet. He just made them more popular. Also, less surprisingly, Einstein didn’t really fail maths, and when he heard this claim he said “before I was 15 I had mastered differential and integral calculus.” No need to brag, Albert.’
June 29, 2015
[lego] On Sorting Lego … a look at the various stages of sorting a Lego collector goes through. ’23. You now have what, to a stranger, would be a bizarre sorting system. You have some parts thrown together in bins by type. You have some parts split out with a separate bin for each part. You have some parts split out with a separate bin for each color. You even have some parts split out by how old they are: red 1x2s from the 60s, red 1x2s from the 70s, new red 1x2s that hold really well, and all the other red 1x2s. And you have an alphabetized pile of large buckets for the overflow pieces and another one for the 1st stage of sorting. 23.5. That stranger would also think you were certifiably insane. Or at least retentive. 24. You start looking for a new house. One with a large basement.’
June 16, 2015
[life] Other People’s Shopping Lists. … … ‘Wine. Fags. Beers.’
January 27, 2015
[wikipedia] Wikipedia’s List of lists of lists… includes many useful lists of lists such as Lists of Emmerdale characters and Lists of golfers. ‘This article is a list of articles that are themselves lists of articles that are also lists of articles on Wikipedia; i.e., the articles linked each index numerous lists on a topic.’ [via Kottke]
June 14, 2014
[scifi] Wikipedia’s List Of Fictional Living Planets … ‘This is a list of fictional living planets, planets in fiction which are said to be alive, and in some cases, intelligent. This includes worlds covered by a single immense organism (such as Solaris) or whose biosphere is composed of organisms which are linked into a hive mind.’
September 6, 2013
[comics] The 50 Greatest Graphic Novels Of All Time … according to the Scotish Herald … ‘#3 Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid On Earth, Chris Ware (2000) – Eight years in the making, Ware’s graphic novel may on the page look like the most formally precise title in this list, yet that perfection can be misleading. It moves so easily between the past and the present, reality and imagination that you can get lost in its labyrinth. “Sophisticated like free jazz,” suggests Metraphrog cartoonist John Chalmers. “It changed the way I looked at the world, at comics, the way I drew,” adds Stephen Collins.’
August 14, 2013
[space] 13 Little Things NASA Did to Get Alan Shepard Ready for Space … ‘Even the flight surgeon had a little bit of a man crush on the astronauts: “The physiological bradycardia (pulse rate 60 to 70) and normotensive (blood pressure 110/70) state both give some indication of the calm reserved air of confidence which typifies both of these pilots.” I bet they smelled good, too.’
July 4, 2013
[conspiracy] Top 10 Most Hilariously Bonkers Conspiracy Theories … ‘Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is legendary comic Bill Hicks.’
June 27, 2013
[comics] 60 Comics Everyone Should Read … great list of comics from Buzzfeed highlighting why it’s a great time to be reading comics at the moment … On Jimmy Corrigan – The Smartest Kid on Earth: ‘The story is so densely rich, packed with graphic delights and somber realizations, but mostly it’s heartbreaking — so heartbreaking that you’ll occasionally have to put it down, collect yourself, and start reading again as your heart sinks further and further into your gut. A masterpiece, indeed.’
June 5, 2013
[life] 7 Habits of Highly Successful People … ‘5. Polo’
April 24, 2013
[music] 80′s Sax solos … a lovingly compiled list of sax solo’s from 1980’s music along with sound samples … ‘At some point in the 80s, popular music started incorporating saxophone solos as some kind of fad. Some of them are fine, but most of them are ridiculous to have in the songs…’
January 3, 2013
[lists] The Hundred Best Lists of All Time … the New Yorker provides a list of historic and important lists.
October 10, 2011
[books] Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books … broad list of interesting sci-fi as voted by fans. [via Metafilter]
June 9, 2011
[apocalypse] Bullets That We’ve Dodged As A Species … Philip Greenspun provides a list of predicted catastrophes that didn’t happen … ‘Famine – Environmentalist Lester Brown predicted imminent famine in 1974, 1981, 1984, 1989, 1994, and 2007, in a 1967 book titled Famine, 1975!, and by MacArthur genius Paul Ehrlich in a 1968 book The Population Bomb (repeated, but without a predicted date, in a 2008 book, The Dominant Animal).’ [via Jorn Barger]
March 23, 2011
[books] A Book Everyone Should Read? … another great book list from Ask Metafilter … ‘Another vote for “Catch 22”. It captures the essence of the twentieth century: ideology, war and the folly of bureaucracy.’
July 29, 2010
[magazines] The Best Magazine Articles Ever … great reading list of links from Kevin Kelly.
February 18, 2010
[books] Henry Sutton’s top 10 Unreliable Narrators … On The Killer Inside Me: ‘It was Jim Thompson, not James M Cain, who put the hard into hard-boiled, the noir into roman noir. He was also one of the first crime writers to take us into the heads of seriously twisted killers, if not out-and-out psychopaths. Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford is regarded as a pillar of the small Texan community he serves. Yet he’s in possession of a secret he doesn’t even admit to himself. When the bodies start to appear, the net slowly tightens.’
July 22, 2009
[comics] Reinventing The Pencil: 21 Artists Who Changed Mainstream Comics (For Better Or Worse) … On Chris Ware: ‘Ware marries his fetish for design with a singularly sardonic voice and a God’s-eye perspective on his characters, creating an overall tone that’s like a turn-of-the-century circus poster crossed with the post-war angst of literary lions like John Updike and Richard Yates. Ware’s influence is mostly seen among the younger alternative crowd and contemporary commercial artists, but his use of staccato pacing and visual repetition has popped up in a number of superhero comics over the past decade as well.’
April 28, 2009
[comics] The Ten All-Time Best Long-Running Comics Series … great list from Tom Spurgeon … On Dave Sim: ‘I don’t know yet what I think of it as an artistic achievement, but I greatly enjoyed huge swaths of it. The further away from its published conclusion I get the more I’m convinced that it’s something special in terms of comics history, and the further along I get in my own artistic journey the more I’m certain that even if he doesn’t realize it, Dave won.’
April 7, 2009
[quotes] 10 Best Geeky Last Words … H. G. Wells: ‘Go away. I’m all right.’
April 1, 2009
[lists] The 10 Biggest Intellectual Fights Of All Time … On Galileo vs. The Church: ‘…in 1632 he published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems and quickly found himself summoned to appear before the Inquisition on charges of heresy. Galileo was forced to recant his support for the Copernican model and spent the rest of his life under house arrest, though with rather lenient travel and visitation allowances. His works were finally dropped from the Index of prohibited books in 1835. In 1992 Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the “Galileo Affair” was handled, officially conceding on the part of the church that the earth is not stationary and that the planets orbit the sun.’
March 25, 2009
[comics] The 20 Best Movies Adapted from Comic Books … interesting list to ponder … ‘American Splendor (2003. USA) Welcome to the esoteric life and times of Harvey Pekar, a cranky file clerk from Cleveland whose cult-fave self-published comix used to get pimped back in the day on the David Letterman show. Paul Giamati does a fantastic job of portraying Pekar, and even more eerie is how dead-on some of the supporting cast are at channelling Robert Crumb and Tobey Radloff. Pretty much a perfect movie about one of the most important autobiographical comics to ever come out of the underground.’
February 18, 2009
[comics] British Comic Creators: The Heroes of UK Comics … interesting list from Paul Gravett but missing out John Wagner? FAIL. ‘I don’t intend to get too flag-wavingly patriotic here, but it has to be said that British comics creators stand amongst the greatest in the world…’ [via Metafilter]
February 13, 2009
[movies] A List Of Mindfuck Movies … On 2001: A Space Odyssey: Yes, it’s a meticulously crafted and imminently rational three-course meal of a film. For the first two hours, anyhow. And then, in the final 30 minutes, it serves up a steaming bowl of WTF for dessert.
January 12, 2009
[comics] 25 Great Things About Being A Comics Fan … ’16. At first you’ll like all the comics. Then you’ll get a little bit older and like only a few of them. Then you’ll get a little older than that, and you get to like all the comics again.’
December 19, 2008
[lists] Wikipedia’s List of Common Misconceptions … ‘Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet…’
December 10, 2008
[life] You Choose: Pessimistic (though generally accurate) life advice vs. Optimistic (though generally accurate) life advice … ‘Everybody Shits and Farts’
November 18, 2008
[comics] 75 comics being made into films … they are really digging through the comic archives for film properties. The Hands of Shang-Chi: ‘This kung-fu crazy character emerged from Marvel comics at the height of the early 70s martial-arts boom and the stories incorporated Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith characters. Ang Lee is in the producer’s chair with Forbidden Kingdom stunt arranger Woo-ping Yuen set to direct, but most of the news on the project is pretty old.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
November 6, 2008
[comics] Help me find my next favorite graphic novel. … great list of comics from Ask Metafilter … ‘All-star Superman just wrapped up and it was fantastic. Easily the best “new” comic I’ve read.’
October 19, 2008
[space] Ten Mysteries of the Solar System … ‘Why does Uranus rotate on its side? Strange planet is Uranus. Whilst all the other planets in the Solar System more-or-less have their axis of rotation pointing “up” from the ecliptic plane, Uranus is lying on its side, with an axial tilt of 98 degrees.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
October 13, 2008
[comics] Top 10 graphic novels by Danny Fingeroth … ‘For my top 10, I decided to take the crème de la crème, the graphic novels that I most enjoyed. These are graphic novels, some famous, some less well-known, that do what all great literature does, in that they give you such a pleasurable experience while reading that you’re simultaneously eager to uncover the ending, yet also dreading it, knowing that the experience will then be over.’
September 29, 2008
[comics] The 50 Things That Every Comics Collection Truly Needs … ’22. A Selection of Comics That Interest You That You Can’t Explain To Anyone Else — Every great comics collection needs something inexplicable and odd to it…’
September 2, 2008
[movies] Ten Truly Underrated Sci-Fi Movies … ‘Ten bucks says that Silent Running is Al Gore’s favorite sci-fi film.’
July 1, 2008
[london] Diamond Geezer’s Capital Numbers … ‘Six tube lines interchange at King’s Cross St Pancras – more than at any other station.’
May 7, 2008
[comics] The Top 100 Comic Book Runs … interesting list of the best runs in on-going comics series. [via this discussion on Metafilter]
April 5, 2008
[tv] How to make… Mad Men … amusing list from TV Critic Jim Shelley … ‘2. Light another cigarette and mix yourself a large Manhattan. That’s breakfast done.’
March 24, 2008
[records] The 8 Least Impressive Guinness World Records … a list of some real stinkers … On the largest collection of traffic cones: ‘David has a collection of 137 different, presumably stolen, traffic cones. Based on the picture, this includes “The orange conical one”, the “off-orange conical one” and the rare “yellow pointy one that someone drew a penis on the side of.”David owns approximately two thirds of all the types of traffic cones ever made, which is more impressive when you realize that means someone out there is actually a traffic cone historian and can thus validate the scope of his collection.’
March 15, 2008
[books] The 100 Best Last Lines from Novels … ‘P.S. Sorry I forgot to give you the mayonnaise. –Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America (1967)’ [via Kottke]
March 1, 2008
[books] 50 Crime Writers To Read Before You Die … ‘We wanted to compile a list of writers we had, jointly and severally, loved. We wanted to include writers like Dashiell Hammett, who brought something new and exciting to the genre; like Elmore Leonard, who turns an old trick in it with incomparable style; and like Poe, who invented it. We did not, except incidentally, take into account popularity.’ [via Metafilter]
February 29, 2008
[calendar] Leap day – 29 leap facts for February 29th … ‘You have a 1 in 1461 chance of being born on February 29th. The odds are a lot higher if your parents have sex on May 29th the previous year.’
February 23, 2008
[religion] 20 Tacky Religious Products Guaranteed to Anger God … ‘As you’re no doubt aware, the most common complaint about nativity scenes is they’re too prejudiced against non humans. After all, who are the dogs supposed to pray to? Luckily, some intrepid inventor out there took a stand and made the Dog Nativity Scene featuring Mary, Joseph, some wise men and the Messiah Himself, all as partially clothed canines.’ [via GussetBLOG]
January 27, 2008
[comics] A List Of How David Banner Got Angry …
47. Being stuck in a cab in New York rush hour traffic – “You don’t understand,… I have to be there by 4.00!” – “Hey, mac, it’s rush hour, we ain’t gettin’ there til five, so relax.” – “BUT I HAVE TO BE THERE BY FOUR!!!”
December 22, 2007
[space] Astronomy Pictures of the Year for 2007 — another end of the year list from the always worth visiting APOD.
December 18, 2007
[blogs] Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers From Original Blogger Jorn Barger — Jorn’s the Daddy of link-blogging so very little I can add here but I’ve always felt pull quotes and some nice visuals from what you’re linking to is important as well – it’s the great weakness of delicious and Tumblr’s great strength … ‘If you spend a little time searching before you post, you can probably find your idea well articulated elsewhere already.’
July 11, 2007
[interesting]
33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names … ‘Jarns, Nittles, Grawlix and Quimp – Various squiggles used to denote cussing in comic books.’ [via Torrez]
May 22, 2007
[funny] Funny List of Colemanballs… A Colemanball from Pat Glenn (a Weightlifting Commentator): ‘This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning and it was amazing.’ [via Informationally Overloaded]
April 6, 2007
[comics] Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels — great list including some I’ve blogged before. Includes this classic panel:
March 30, 2007
[apple] Top 10 Apple Products which Flopped … ‘One of the main reasons of Lisa’s failure was its astonishing price of $9,995 dollars ($21,500 in Feb 2007 dollars).’