linkmachinego.com

15 April 2010
[death] The DeathList 2010 … the internet dead pool. Herbert Lom (93) and Ray Bradbury (90) are still with us? Who knew?
21 March 2010
[woz] Steve Wozniak is on Twitter: ‘Rare massage (for me), then dance practice. No pain, no gain. Awkward but fun, this dancing. I still can’t do Macarena.’ [link]
23 February 2010
[politics] Adam Curtis On How All Of Us Have Become Richard Nixon‘Just like him we have all become paranoid weirdos.’ (more…)
9 February 2010
[es] Another Necktie Strangling … from Fuck Yeah Hitchcock! [via Unreliably Witnessed]
29 January 2010
[books] Dave Eggers on J. D. Salinger: ‘I wish I’d met the man. I hope he was happy. I worry sometimes that he wasn’t a happy recluse, but I like to think he was. Wouldn’t it be ­wonderful if he actually felt like he said all he needed to say and then just called it a day (for four or five decades?). The strength of his convictions, in any case, serves as a model for us all.’
28 December 2009
[motivational] Kurt Vonnegut Motivational Posters

Kurt Vonnegut Motivational Poster

15 December 2009
[funny] Go Look: The Morgan Freeman Chain Of Command. [via Robot Wisdom]
20 October 2009
[media] Michael Wolff on Rupert Murdoch‘Murdoch’s abiding love of newspapers has turned into a personal antipathy to the Internet: for him it’s a place for porn, thievery, and hackers. In 2005, not long after News Corp. bought MySpace, when it still seemed like a brilliant purchase—before its fortunes sank under News Corp.’s inability to keep pace with advances in social-network technology—I congratulated him on the acquisition. “Now,” he said, “we’re in the stalking business”.’
31 August 2009
[twitter] Yet another Twitter worth taking a look at: Shit My Dad Says‘You need to flush the toilet more than once…No, YOU, YOU specifically need to. You know what, use a different toilet. This is my toilet.’
18 August 2009
[petition] Alan Turing Downing Street E-Petition: ‘We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to apologize for the prosecution of Alan Turing that led to his untimely death.’ [Click on this Link to sign the petition]
10 August 2009
[macs] Go Watch: Ice-T presents Mac Repair … the rapper and TV star demonstrates an admirable and straightforward approach to personal data security with a claw hammer.
26 July 2009
[funny] Kemp Folds … Go Look — a blog of folded photos of Ross Kemp.
29 June 2009
[pop] Jonathan King remembers the late Michael Jackson … [thanks Phil]

I shall always cherish his first words to me 35 years ago – “Jonathan King – I’ve always wanted to meet you”.

26 June 2009
London Blamed For Jackson Death … #michaeljackson
17 June 2009
[people] Frank Sinatra Has a Cold … a classic 1965 profile of Frank Sinatra by Gay Talese

‘It was obvious from the way Sinatra looked at these people in the poolroom that they were not his style, but he leaned back against a high stool that was against the wall, holding his drink in his right hand, and said nothing, just watched Durocher slam the billiard balls back and forth. The younger men in the room, accustomed to seeing Sinatra at this club, treated him without deference, although they said nothing offensive. They were a cool young group, very California-cool and casual, and one of the coolest seemed to be a little guy, very quick of movement, who had a sharp profile, pale blue eyes, blondish hair, and squared eyeglasses. He wore a pair of brown corduroy slacks, a green shaggy-dog Shetland sweater, a tan suede jacket, and Game Warden boots, for which he had recently paid $60.

Frank Sinatra, leaning against the stool, sniffling a bit from his cold, could not take his eyes off the Game Warden boots. Once, after gazing at them for a few moments, he turned away; but now he was focused on them again. The owner of the boots, who was just standing in them watching the pool game, was named Harlan Ellison, a writer who had just completed work on a screenplay, The Oscar…’

12 June 2009
[people] The Learjet Repo Man … an amazing article about a man who recovers jets and other big ticket items … ‘A good super repo man has a skill set that’s some mad hybrid of cat burglar, F.B.I. agent and con artist. And there’s real danger that comes with the job, not just ticked-off homeowners wielding baseball bats. According to the American Recovery Association, there are, on average, one or two repo-related deaths a year…’
16 April 2009
[books] Unspeakable Horrors – H. P. Lovecraft was a Racist‘Race prejudice is a gift of nature, intended to preserve in purity the various divisions of mankind which the ages have evolved.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
10 April 2009
[press] Richard Littlejohn Audit 2008: Year Of The Nazi‘I have concluded that 2008 for Richard was very much the year of the ‘Nazi’. Littlejohn gave us the: ‘elf ‘n’ safety nazi’, ‘road safety nazi’, ‘anti-smoking nazi’, ‘eco-nazis’, ‘dustbin nazis’, ‘recycling nazis’, ‘diversity nazis’, ‘tinpot nazis’, ‘condiment nazis’, ‘nail-varnish nazis’, ‘noise abatement nazis’ and ‘City of London Corporation safety nazis.’ [via More(ish)]
25 March 2009
[twitter] Salam Pax is on Twitter‘and to add irony while I sit here listening to bombs going off left’n’right.. Iraqi tv is showing a report about how security is better.’ [link]
16 February 2009
[quotes] The words of Mickey Rourke, actor, 56 … On his early days in Hollywood: ‘I was bouncing at a transvestite nightclub… and back then all the transvestites were on this shit called Angel Dust, so you’d hit them over the head with a baseball bat but they’d keep on coming…’
5 February 2009
[tv] Adam West: Behind the mask … 2005 profile of the Batman actor …

“Batman was comedy,” West says, “let’s face it. What I loved about Batman was his total lack of awareness when it came to his interaction with the outside world. He actually believed nobody could recognise him on the phone, when he was being Bruce Wayne, even though he made no attempt to disguise his voice.”

“In the same way that Inspector Clouseau never notices his accent,” I suggest, “when everybody around him is also French.”

“That’s right. In the first episode, Batman goes into a nightclub in the cowl, cape and bat gloves. When the maître d’ says: ‘Ringside table, Batman?’ he replies, ‘No thank you – I’ll stand at the bar. I would not wish to be conspicuous.'”

14 January 2009
[people] Brian Eno on Twitter … and he’s tweeting Oblique Strategies‘Faced with a choice, do both.’
11 January 2009
[books] 15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has Or Will‘Many people need desperately to receive this message: “I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.”‘
18 December 2008
[twitter] Jonathan Ross is on Twitter‘wondering what record I should play on first radio show . am maybe “You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone” by radio Birdman. Any thoughts?’
11 October 2008
[twitter] Stephen Fry’s Twitter‘Golly, crumbs, heckamighty and all the powerful legal swears and cusses Twitter will allow…’
17 September 2008
[comics] How the mighty Maus fuelled my flights of fancy … Ken Russell on Comics … ‘Comics seem to cater to a certain class of berserkers and brainiacs who like to absorb the big issues through gorgeous drawings, seditious characterisation and wild plots.’ [thanks Kabir]
23 July 2008
[comics] Blood, sweat and ink … Phil Jupitus on his love of Comic Strips … ‘I asked Trudeau to sign my dog-eared copy of Doonesbury Dossier: The Reagan Years, and when he did I felt like a kid again. Here was a man who to me was more punk than the Pistols, funnier than Seinfeld and a better artist than Picasso. That’s what I like about being a real fan of something – the irrational love.’ [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]
16 May 2008
[tv] Headmistress to the Nation … Anna Pickard on Margaret Mountford from The Apprentice‘As contestant Michael Sophocles celebrated his team’s Singles’ Day greetings cards having won the task – by dint of being the “least worst” product on offer – with whoops, shouts and air-punching, Mountford could not have looked more disgusted had he marched an army of water buffalo into the boardroom and asked them all to fart on cue.’
10 April 2008
[web] And the Web Moved On … Steve Bowbrick on Ted Nelson and Xanadu‘For Nelson, the whole messy ecosystem of the actual existing net and the web and those thousands of apps and millions of blogs and billions of users is just a big, ignorant snub to the totalising glory of Xanadu (which still isn’t finished). So, really, the whole thing was too sad. Xanadu and Nelson are perfect and unworldly. The web is imperfect and worldly. Xanadu can never ship because that would compromise its perfection…’
11 March 2008
[people] The Obituary of Count Gottfried von Bismarck‘When not clad in the lederhosen of his homeland, he cultivated an air of sophisticated complexity by appearing in women’s clothes, set off by lipstick and fishnet stockings. This aura of dangerous “glamour” charmed a large circle of friends and acquaintances drawn from the jeunesse dorée of the age; many of them knew him at Oxford, where he made friends such as Darius Guppy and Viscount Althorp and became an enthusiastic, rubber-clad member of the Piers Gaveston Society and the drink-fuelled Bullingdon and Loders clubs. Perhaps unsurprisingly he managed only a Third in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.’ [via Metafilter]
18 February 2008
[wwrfd] What would Richard Feynman Do?‘Is there a bongo drum around?’ [via Interconnected]
15 February 2008
[crime] Death of a Supergrass: The Armed Robber who got out of Jail Free — Duncan Campbell sums up after the death of the UK’s first Supergrass‘A short, squat man, described by a former colleague as “like Bob Hoskins but without the charm”, he held extreme rightwing views and at the time of his arrest was knocking back a bottle of vodka a day. He was reviled throughout the criminal fraternity. One of the men he helped to convict spent many hours in jail teaching his pet budgie to say “Bertie Smalls is a fucking grass.” But from the police’s point of view, Smalls was a godsend…’
3 November 2007
[charlatan] Is she for real? … Jon Ronson meets Sylvia Browne America’s most controversial psychic …

“Why did my husband decide to take his own life?” asks the first woman.

“What?” Sylvia says. The woman is crying so hard, Sylvia can’t understand her.

“Why did my husband decide to take his own life?” the woman repeats.

“He was bipolar,” Sylvia says.

The next woman walks to the microphone.

“I have a strained relationship with my daughter,” she begins. “And I want to know …”

“Your daughter is strange,” interrupts Sylvia.

25 October 2007
[games] Update on the Cover of the 1970’s game Mastermind — includes a recent picture of the couple on the packaging of the game 30 years after the original … ‘Clearly, those two are plotting world domination, and are taking a break from their evil schemes to play a little mind game with you. They will win. It is a foregone conclusion. But you’re happy to be their little plaything, because they are so urbane and suave, and maybe if you play along with them they’ll be nice to you after they take over the world, and MY GOD THEIR TABLE IS SO SHINY.’ [via Blackbeltjones]
20 October 2007
[blogs] Stephen Fry has a Blog — this is old news but it passed me by. He doesn’t do brief blog entries: ‘I don’t seem to be able to keep things brief. So my advice is that you read it in bits. Or print it out and save it for a rainy day or a recalcitrant motion.’
3 October 2007
[diana] 30 lawyers, 11 jurors and one angry billionaire – Diana inquest begins — Guardian report from the delayed inquest into the death of Princess Diana and Dodi … ‘As he spoke, the coroner’s words appeared in transcript on a screen above the court, like a teleprinter giving the Saturday football scores. The foreign words appeared mangled phonetically: Bastille became Bas eel, Orly transmogrified into Orally airport, Giovanni Versace appeared as January Verse Chi and, best of all, the paparazzi turned into pap rats.’
1 October 2007
[internet] An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then the Truth Came Out — great Wired article proving once and for all that on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog (and how that can destroy lives) …

He tried to explain what drew him to his computer. “When I’m talking to Cindy or you like this, face-to-face,” he said, “it’s hard for me to say what I feel.” As Tommy, however, the words came easily. And then there was Jessi. He loved her, or at least believed he loved her, though he knew he was “never going to meet her.” His plan was to “kill Tommy off” in Iraq, but Cindy intervened too soon. He nearly committed suicide because of his guilt about having lied to Jessi.

27 September 2007
[food] Fancy pizza twice a day, every day? — the Guardian on Tony Benn and his love of pizza… ‘On Tuesday September 9 2001, his diary records, Tony Benn went shopping. Specifically, he went looking for his “favourite triple-cheese pizzas”, which had inexplicably disappeared from the shelves of his local supermarket. “I have,” he notes, “eaten two of them every day for years.” At first glance, this revelation may appear to raise important questions as to the continued health of our treasured Last Living Socialist, the only triple-cheese pizza commonly available from UK supermarkets being, as far as I can see, the Chicago Town Deep Dish Triple Cheese Pizza, which costs £1.65 for two at Tesco and contains, according to the Food Standards Agency, a healthy 30% of a person’s recommended daily fat intake per portion.’
24 September 2007
[internet] Why is Matt Drudge in hiding? — facinating profile of Matt Drudge‘Drudge’s own influence stems from the fact that he loves news, in a way that great newspeople do, and his news sensibility is extremely sophisticated. When he was a kid, he figured out that though thousands of people get murdered, only a few murders are news. He enjoys the changing fashions in news, the plot shifts that he has a hand in engineering. As he’s entered middle age, something noir and futuristic has entered his sensibility. The site is obsessed with global warming, with the dangers of mobile phones and cloning, with all manner of tabloid horrors. He’s a storyteller, and the stories are dark.’
13 August 2007
[couture] Notice in the men’s toilets in Chanel’s office: ‘Pissing everywhere isn’t very Chanel.’ [via Sore Eyes]
4 July 2007
[films] Hello, come in, do have a nibble — Interesting interview with Dennis Hopper‘He certainly isn’t in the mood to discuss any of the half a dozen films he is due to appear in this year, a roster which is due to include a performance in Speed 3, even though I have plenty of questions about that. Surely his character Howard Payne died in a decapitation incident in the last reel of Speed 1? “It’s a river of shit,” he tells me pleasantly but firmly, “from which I have tried to extract some gold.”‘
28 June 2007
[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.’
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.’
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.’
18 June 2007
[food] What the World Eats … facinating photo essay from Time.
11 June 2007
[interview] More from Stephen Fry on… Web 2.0, Technology, Learning and his Heroes. [thanks linkbunnies.org]
[interview] Stephen Fry on the Internet — great video interview with Stephen Fry – he comes over as really loving the internet.
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.’

7 March 2007
[iraq] Pat Dollard, Hollywood Guy Gone Gonzo‘After his fourth wife left him because she got upset about his hobbies, which included cocaine and hookers, Hollywood agent/producer Pat Dollard decided to get his head together by flying to Iraq to hang out with Marines and fight insurgents and film a pro-war documentary that would make him “the Michael Moore of the right.” A few weeks later, he sent his Hollywood pals a photo of himself with a Mohawk haircut, a machine gun and the word DIE shaved into his chest hair. After that, things started to get weird.’ [thanks Phil]
9 February 2007
[wikipedia] Anna Nicole Smith’s death sends Wikipedia into overdrive‘I get all my news from a large online forum… Whenever they say someone’s dead, I rush to Wikipedia to edit their article… But I’ve always been too late. Why is it that scientific news takes so long to be made public, but when somebody dies everyone flocks to it? We’re all just a bunch of necrophiles, aren’t we?’ [via linkbunnies.org]