[1984] Caught On Cam: Here Lies Eric Arthur Blair … ‘There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live-did live, from habit that became instinct-in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.’ [via a Smursh of Pete]

[moon] The Moon Landings … The BBC Archive looks back at the Apollo Moon Landings … ‘This BBC Archive collection tells the story of the Apollo moon missions, how they got off the ground and why the missions came to an abrupt end. Through over 40 years of radio and TV broadcasts, we meet some of the men who made that incredible journey and the reporters who brought their stories into our homes.’

[comics] Swamp Thing #21 – The Anatomy Lesson … The classic second issue of Alan Moore’s groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing available as a PDF. (But what a shame about the weak digital recolouring in this reprint) … ‘He should have let me finish. He should have listened. Then I’d have been able to explain the most important thing of all to him. I’d have been able to explain that you can’t kill a vegetable by shooting it through the head.’

[comics] Steve Bissette on the Creation of Swamp Thing #20 … Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 … a long multipart post (including many pages from the script!) on the first issue of Alan Moore’s run Swamp Thing. It’s an interesting issue – it was produced under considerable deadline pressure and has never been reprinted much because it’s a transitional issue as Moore deals with the plot the previous writer had left him with and sets up stage for the next issue – The Anatomy Lesson. [via Metafilter]

Random YouTube Insult Generator … ‘I found the journey of the protagonist both humorous and enlightening. Just kidding. This video is nut sack sweat.’ [via Metafilter]

[curtis] Charlie Brooker on Adam Curtis’ latest projects …

TV industry! Here’s a little bombshell for you. From now on, all of Curtis’s work will be produced first and foremost for the internet. It will be hosted at bbc.co.uk/adamcurtis (coming soon). Go there to find a trailer for It Felt Like A Kiss. An hour-long cut of the whole thing will be placed on the site on the last day of the Manchester International Festival (MIF). It will also host his next two projects: “A long thing about our complicated relationship to the Congo over the last 100 years and how our idea of nature as a sacred yet terrifying realm has risen up during that same time.” That will be followed by a piece about “the political and cultural ideas that underlie the internet – and the idea that we are all linked in an interconnected web – out of which can come a new form of democracy.”

[tv] Adam Curtis’ Blog … the BBC documentary maker behind The Power of Nightmares and The Way of All Flesh starts blogging … ‘This is a website expressing my personal views – through a selection of opinionated observations and arguments. I’ll be including stories I like, ideas I find fascinating, work in progress and a selection of material from the BBC archives.’

Useful Flickr Tip: How to find the original Flickr Photo URL and User from a Static Flickr Image URL/Permalink [via more(ish) : meg’s scrapbook]

[tv] Grace Dent is on Twitter … if you’re into Big Brother you really should be following her … ‘god my heart was a bit broken by that fake hide and seek game. #bb10’ [link]

[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…’

[funny] Dr Manhattan is… Awesome.

[twitter] A reminder: LinkMachineGo is available on Twitter [also: Friendfeed, Livejournal and old-school RSS]

[blogs] Scott Rosenberg asks: Who Was The First Blogger? (and surprisingly comes up with a satisfying answer).

[books] Ask MeFi: What books do people proselytize about? … ‘I think these books are types that suggest a single, clear lens through which the world and all life experience can be viewed. When certain, perhaps impressionable or at least eager people read these books and take the theses as gospel,’getting religion,’ as it were, that this author has hit on the EXACT TRUTH about things, they can’t stop talking about them to others.’

[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…’

[bdj] Belle de Jour is on Twitter … ‘Off to discover whether the local Somerfield is as crap as it looks from the outside. And maybe source a takeaway instead.’ [link]

[computers] The Register makes a good case for the Minuteman 1’s nuclear missile guidance computer being the first truly portable computer … ‘We should celebrate this wonderful nuke. Oh sure, the computer system couldn’t run “Wordstar” or a game of “Colossal Cave,” like the Osborne 1, but how many computers do you know that can destroy the world? That feature offers some serious LAN-party cred right right there. And with a three-stage, solid-propellant rocket build in, travel is a breeze.’

[comics] Chemical Salvation … the history of LSD as a Jack Chick Tract.

[comics] Grant Morrison on Batman and Robin … ‘It’s always important to remember that Gotham isn’t some derelict hellhole, it’s the most larger-than-life, exciting city in the world. It has to be like New York plus or no-one would want to live there, so we’re emphasizing the excitement and color and buzz of the place, as well as its more familiar gloomy and gargoyle-y shadows. Gotham is where Crime becomes Art, after all.’

[tankman] Behind the Scenes: A New Angle on History … a stunning photo of the Tiananmen Square Tank Man shot from a different angle in 1989.

[batman] The Mutation of the Batman Logo – 1941 to 2007 … animation showing how Batman’s logo has changed over time.

[happy] Happiest People Ever! … a blog collecting photos of really shiny happy people (not).

[sex] Lesson’s Learned … Twenty-Five lessons learned by Diamond Geezer about Sex during the last quarter century … ‘You should always know where your towel is.’

[funny] Han Solo, P.I. … Star Wars done in the style of Magnum P.I.’s opening credits. [via Waxy]

[tv] An explanation of the Main Puzzle from the First Episode of the Adventure Game … childhood nostalgia overload :) … ‘Ping-Pong Balls!’ [via more(ish) : meg’s scrapbook]

[retrocomputing] ZX81 Webserver … Amazing – a Sinclair ZX-81 on the internet.

[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.

[radio] Jon Ronson On … complete MP3 collection of Ronson’s BBC Radio 4 series.

[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]