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London Bloggers [Comic Blogs][Other Blogs] | 22 November 2010
[comics] Superhero or supervillain: Which lurks inside you? … ‘Plato suggested that no one could escape the corrupting influence of having the power to do anything without being caught – a sort of earlier version of “Lord of the Rings,” Galinsky said. “Power makes people feel psychologically invisible,” Galinsky told LiveScience. “It’s ironic, because in many ways they become more visible to other people.” Galinsky and other researchers have shown how people who feel entitled to their power became moral hypocrites by holding other people to higher moral standards for speeding or breaking tax laws – even as they judged themselves less harshly for the same actions.’
21 November 2010
Who’s going to win X Factor Based On Facebook Likes … ‘Facebook isn’t going to show lost votes (its rare for people to UNLIKE) and its less effort to hit a like button than pay to vote, but should still reflect increasing popularity, so keep an eye on those ‘LIKES’.’
19 November 2010
[health] The Launch Of Bipolar Disorder … fascinating look at the marketing of Bipolar Disorder in the 1990’s … ‘Once the medical elites were bought and sold on the new disease, armies of industry representatives descended on clinicians, to ‘educate’ them and teach them how to recognise the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Bipolar patient advocacy groups sprang up, generously supported by pharmaceutical companies; freelance journalists were hired to write magazine articles on the latest advances in psychiatric science; websites were created…’
18 November 2010
Facebook: Privatising The Internet, One Poke At A Time … Andrew Orlowski on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook … ‘At a typically oversold launch event yesterday, Zuckerberg complained about the “friction” generated by having to compose a simple email. You had to type a subject line in, he said, incorrectly, making people wonder if he’d ever used email himself. It’s too formal, he concluded. The poor love – I’m surprised he hasn’t thought about suing the developers of POP3 for emotional distress, as well as repetitive strain injury.’
16 November 2010
[movies] If We Don’t, Remember Me … brilliantly done animated gifs using the briefest moments from movies. [click for GIF]
15 November 2010
[funny] Forensic Homeopathologist Offers Police ‘Alternative’ Evidence, Suspects … ‘[Yates] will admit, though, that forensic homeopathology has its limits and that some cases are beyond its reach. ‘In those cases, I would recommend aroma-inquiry with perhaps a course of Naturopathy to enhance the crime’s ability to solve itself.”
12 November 2010
[blogs] London Bloggers … a wonderful tube-map based directory of London blogs has just seen it’s first update since 2002. (I’m guessing the developer was busy).
11 November 2010
[movies] Roger Ebert on the 1978 Superman Movie … ‘Donner pulls off a balancing act involving satire, action, romcom clichés and of course a full serving of clichés from hard-boiled newspaper movies. What’s admirable is that Salkind and Donner realized they had to make a comedy. The film came in an era of Disaster Movies that took themselves with dreadful earnestness, and they knew the essential element of Superman was fun. Superheroes who came later to big budget movies, notably Batman and Iron Man, would be burdened with angst. But Superman was above that sort of thing. Above it, or emotionally incapable of it, or whatever.’ [via Daring Fireball]
10 November 2010
Risk Reduction Strategies on Facebook … interesting look at the cautious was some teenagers approach Facebook …‘She’ll leave a Like up for a few days for her friends to see and then delete it. When I asked her why she was deleting this content, she looked at me incredulously and told me “too much drama.” Pushing further, she talked about how people were nosy and it was too easy to get into trouble for the things you wrote a while back that you couldn’t even remember posting let alone remember what it was all about. It was better to keep everything clean and in the moment. If it’s relevant now, it belongs on Facebook, but the old stuff is no longer relevant so it doesn’t belong on Facebook. Her narrative has nothing to do with adults or with Facebook as a data retention agent. She’s concerned about how her postings will get her into unexpected trouble with her peers in an environment where saying the wrong thing always results in a fight.’
9 November 2010
[twitter] Twitter: The great pretenders … some interviews with Twitter’s most successful spoof account creators [@CherylKerl | @chilean_miner | @CatBinLady | @dianainheaven | @DrSamuelJohnson] … ‘I’ve yet to meet a female fake tweeter. I think the whole idea has that mix of Radio 4 panel game and practical joke that appeals to a certain type of nerdy Englishman. At the launch of my Dr Johnson book, it was like a cross between an AGM of trainspotters and the League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.’
5 November 2010
[comics] Modern Men Don’t Know Enough About Comics, Complain Women …‘Hair-stylist Helen Archer said: “My last boyfriend was rich, sensitive and hung like a pack mule, yet completely out of his depth in Forbidden Planet.”‘
[tv] Vatican confirms Simpsons as Catholics … ‘Of course, this is the Vatican we’re talking about, and the devil is of course in the detail. In praising Homer, Rome is effectively dissing other characters in the series – notably the happy-clappy and neighhourly Ned Flanders. Indeed, back in December, the Vatican referred to “the naive radicalism of Flanders and his sons (sic) manic biblical scholars.”‘
4 November 2010
[archive] A Paper InÂterÂnet … how to archive the internet … ‘The makeup of our capsule is simple: cellulose, carbon, polymers, and distributed information. You print a bundle of paper, place it inside a box, stick a label on it, then drown it in translucent epoxy resin.’
3 November 2010
[people] Is Margaret Thatcher Dead Yet? … possibly the only single serving site hated by the Daily Mail so I feel compelled to link to it … ‘She’s out of hospital. Put the kettle on.’
2 November 2010
1 November 2010
[funny] Go Look: A Small Tribute To The Mandlebrot
31 October 2010
[blogs] Luv and Hat … new blog project from Orbyn and Stuart Heritage disagreeing over things they love and hate … Orbyn on Alien 3: ‘What happens in the first few minutes of Alien 3? Ripley’s lovely new family are killed by a rubbish plot device. But don’t worry, Ripley, because then you get to shave your head, do a sex on creepy skeletoid Charles Dance, get menaced by lots of English rapists from the Hovis adverts, find an alien in your skull and then top yourself.’
29 October 2010
[mobiles] The Most Popular Phone In The World … Gizmodo looks at the Nokia 1100 and mobile phones in the third world … ‘This phone was meant to survive and to do; its only jobs are to call and to text and to create convenience for as long as possible, as cheaply as possible.’
28 October 2010
[comics] Garry Trudeau: ‘Doonesbury quickly became a cause of trouble’ … ‘As [Trudeau] wrote on the 25th anniversary of Doonesbury: Satire is unfair. It’s rude and uncivil. It lacks balance and proportion, and it obeys none of the normal rules of engagement. Satire picks a one-sided fight, and the more its intended target reacts, the more its practitioner gains the advantage. And as if that weren’t enough, this savage, unregulated sport is protected by the United States constitution. Cool, huh?’
27 October 2010
[twitter] Inference … interesting look at how to passively geo-stalk your friends … ‘I just wanted to document this for future reference. Certainly not as some impressive moment of Holmesian deduction, or some dire warning about the leaking of personal information. Just as a moment of oddness. That choosing to give away one piece of information publicly, allows accurate inference of other things. Something that has always been true, but for which a new dimension has been introduced.’
26 October 2010
[internet] Always Remember…
 25 October 2010
[space] The Worst Part of Going to Space? Your Fingernails Come Off … ‘Astronaut gloves are designed to simulate the air pressure on Earth, so they’re made of a pressurized rubber layer embedded in a thick, space-proof shell. Spacewalking astronauts must constantly fight against the bulky pressurized glove to do their work – imagine gripping a wrench while wearing skiing mittens, and you get the idea. This constant bending and flexing causes chafing, blisters and, apparently, fingernail loss.’ [via jwz]
22 October 2010
21 October 2010
[comics] Comics Time: Batman and Robin #14 … a review of Grant Morrison’s latest Batman comic. On Frazer Irving’s art: ‘To rely this much on subtle shifts of figurework and coloring to convey both vital plot information and to enhance our understanding and appreciation of the physical combat that is superhero comics’ bread and butter, to have the chops to pull it off and the confidence to even try…well, it’s pretty much unheard of outside of some really titanic stuff, Dave Gibbons on Watchmen/Frank Quitely on All Star Superman-type stuff. And while Irving shares with Quitely a genuine, contemporary sense of style and art that allows for neon-bright colors to really pop, his work (perhaps because he does all the color and texture himself) feels fuller.’
20 October 2010
[funny] First they came for the quangos … Diamond Geezer on the UK Government’s Spending Review … ‘Then they came for something fundamental,
And I did not speak out because “we simply can’t afford it”.’
[life] Grant Morrison Is On Twitter …
3.4 billion years of evolution to create this perfectly self-aware phone/flesh fusion. Are you there, Mother? 19 October 2010
[comics] Super-Hero Hoarders: The 7 Biggest Pack-Rats In Comics … ‘Some hoarders are marked not just by the objects they have stuffed away into their own personal Fortress of Hoarditudes, but also by the extreme lengths they’ll go to to acquire them, and nobody — nobody — goes quite as far as Superman himself. Dumpster diving is one thing, but actual diving to the bottom of the ocean so that you can retrieve the wreckage of the Titanic and rebuild it in your living room? Sure there’s nothing else you could be doing with your time there, Clark?’
11 October 2010
[future] A Radical Pessimist’s Guide To The Next 10 Years … many depressing predictions from Douglas Coupland … ‘You may well burn out on the effort of being an individual — You’ve become a notch in the Internet’s belt. Don’t try to delude yourself that you’re a romantic lone individual. To the new order, you’re just a node. There is no escape.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
10 October 2010
[funny] Go Look: This Painting Is Not Available In Your Country [via Unreliably Witnessed]
9 October 2010
[comics] Were The Wartime Beano And Dandy Editors On A Nazi Death List? … ‘Seventy years ago this year, the Nazi’s were working on the details of Operation Sealion, their planned invasion of mainland Britain. These plans included a list of people who were to be rounded up by, or handed over to, the Nazi security forces once they were in control of the United Kingdom. It has been said that the editors of the Beano and Dandy were included on this list due to the humorous, and therefore disrespectful, attitude that the two comics had towards Adolph Hitler…’
7 October 2010
[life] A single sperm has 37.5MB of DNA information in it…
A single sperm has 37.5MB of DNA information in it. That means a normal ejaculation represents a data transfer of 1,587.5TB. 6 October 2010
[funny] Go Look: Your Life Is A Joke.
[comics] What ‘Batman’ Taught Me About Being a Good Dad … ‘I am trying to build a good human being here, someone who will make the world better for his presence. Because I don’t know any other way to do it, that means I’m building a little geek. So he can’t know, yet, that death doesn’t really mean anything in comics. I want him to think that these stories have weight, that they mean something; they are our myths. I give my son comics and cartoons and episodes of Thunderbirds because I want him to understand right and wrong, and why it’s important to fight the dark side of the Force. The mantras spoken in this corner of pop culture are immature, but they have power: With great power comes great responsibility. Truth, justice, and the American Way. The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. No evil shall escape my sight.’
5 October 2010
[people] Tony Curtis goes to grave with iPhone … ‘The family revealed that Curtis was buried with a range of his favourite possessions, AP reports, including an iPhone, copy of his favourite novel, Anthony Adverse, a Stetson hat, an Armani scarf and a pair of driving gloves.’
4 October 2010
[history] 1915 Anti-Smoking Sign … ‘Cut It Out, You Fool.’ [via jwz]
3 October 2010
[art] The Do It Yourself Doodle Project … ‘A friend of mine gave me this old novelty doodle pad from the sixties. It consisted of 38 sheets that were blank except for some text and the woman with missing parts. I’ve decided to doodle on all of them.’
2 October 2010
[movies] Starring the Computer … a pretty comprehensive looking list of real computers shown in movies and TV … ‘NCIS – Season 6, Episode 13 (2009): McGee receives a parcel containing his old computers including a Mac Classic.’
1 October 2010
[cctv] Go Look: CCTV From A Cruise Liner During A Heavy Storm … ‘On August 1, the Pacific Sun ran into a heavy storm 400 miles north of New Zealand, hitting 25-foot-tall waves and 50-knot winds. Its 1732 passengers weren’t prepared to endure the madness that ensued. Absolutely crazy. The video seems like a slapstick comedy until you see people smacking against columns and walls…’ [click for video]
30 September 2010
29 September 2010
[comics] Go Look: Clark Kent’s honeymoon began on a down note.
[comics] The Wisdom of Tharg The Mighty …
“As an alien superbeing. I have little time for the primitive biological urge you lesser evolved beings call sex.” – Tharg the Mighty 28 September 2010
[politics] Dear Ed Miliband – My Cruel Cartoons Will Hurt Me More Than You … ‘He has huge potential for caricature. Like John Prescott and unlike Tony Blair, his face tends to betray what is on his mind. Most politicians put on a guarded expression, but his face is more open and seems to let his feelings show. He has been caught gurning a couple of times, and looked like a rabbit caught in headlights just before the result was announced.’
[twitter] Sam Leith On 50 Cent’s Twitter feed … ‘If you ever wondered what really went on in the heads of the people you are used to goggling at on telly, you needed wonder no longer: now, thanks to the wonder of Twitter, we would be able to SEE DIRECTLY INTO THEIR BRAINS.’
27 September 2010
[ukblogs] Blogging like it’s 2000 … Katy Lindermann On The Early Days Of UK Blogging … ‘Whilst the world may be a very different place, in some ways, our blogging style of shorter, more frequent & often link-based entries isn’t hugely dissimilar to the way we use Twitter or Tumblr – it’s just that we spread our microcontent over different platforms…’
22 September 2010
[comics] Paying For It — Long-Rumored Chester Brown Graphic Memoir Officially Announced By D+Q For Spring 2011 … ‘Following months of flashes and brief mentions that Chester Brown was working on a comics memoir about his experiences as a customer for prostitution, Drawn & Quarterly announced today that the book in question will come out in Spring 2011 and will be called Paying For It. Its publisher promising a mix of the personal and the polemical combining the issues explored in 1992’s The Playboy with the political awareness suffusing 2003’s Louis Riel…’
15 September 2010
[comics] Go Look: John Romita Jr. does Judge Dredd.
14 September 2010
[comics] Superheroes Are Misunderstood … ‘Yes, Iron Man (in his film version, at least) and Batman articulate a glorious spectacle of dripping wealth and grey-area morality, but the narratives of their respective worlds already include layers of self-deception, personal uncertainty and the difficulty of every quest for higher ideals.’
13 September 2010
[tv] The Origin Of The Captain Pugwash / Seaman Stains / Master Bates Meme … originally published in the Sunday Correspondent in 1990 (scan from Phil Gyford’s Flickr] …
[books] The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women by James Ellroy Reviewed … ‘This is not really a book about women, or any sort of physical or emotional connection at all, whether love or sex. It’s a book about obsession. Between the relentless crowing about how “brilliantly” he performs at this reading and what a “sales smasheroo” that book is, you sense a lonely and baffled man, repeatedly floored by anxiety, hypochondria and a still-raw response to a long-ago violent loss – none of which are likely to be solved simply by demanding that women line up to love him. Does Ellroy himself know this about himself? Can he see what we see?’
12 September 2010
[google] Matt Cutts On Google Instant … ‘If everyone uses Google Instant globally, we estimate this will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day. That’s 11 hours saved every second.” With over a billion searches a day and over a billion users searching each week, that adds up to 350 million hours of user time saved a year. That’s 500+ human lifespans saved a year by this feature if everyone used it.’
11 September 2010
[comics] Tom Spurgeon On Alan Moore’s Interview About Watchmen And DC … ‘If Alan Moore thinks every single writer in comics today sucks balls, if he thinks the worst of the best, if his reputation is slightly diminished today in part because of an unsuccessful movie adaptation with which he wanted nothing to do, and even if he lends himself to wisecracks about his hair and his religious practices and his apparent drug use, none of that changes for one second his lamentable experiences with one of its major publishers. Alan Moore has earned his frustration, his suspicions and his occasional flashes of anger. He should be listened to and learned from, not dismissed and certainly never mocked.’
10 September 2010
[books] Charlie Higson’s Top 10 Horror Books … ‘There has been a lot of fuss recently about the film of this book. But the book – which is every bit as extreme and upsetting as the film – has been around since as long ago as 1952. Amazing how you can get away with so much more in books without people really noticing. “Oh, it’s a book, it must be good for you.” Well, this book is certainly not good for you.’ (Higson on the Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson.)
8 September 2010
[space] Carl Sagan – Pale Blue Dot … ‘Consider again that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.’
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