3 July 2010
[funny] Communists Now Least Threatening Group In U.S. … ‘The Red Menace has been surpassed by militia groups, religious extremists, ecoterrorists, cybercriminals, Hollywood producers, and angry drivers.’
2 July 2010
[comics] Go Look: Philip Bond’s Wonder Woman Costume Redesign.
[comics] The Dark Knight Operates … ‘You don’t understand, boy. This isn’t an operating table…’
1 July 2010
[kubrick] Go Look: BeaucoupKevin just very much likes this photo of Stanley Kubrick at work. [Previously: Wonderful Pic Of Stanley Kubrick on set of 2001]
30 June 2010
[moore] The Infinite Monkey Cage Podcast … a BBC science podcast with Alan Moore, Jonathan Ross, Brian Cox, Robin Ince and Brian Greene discussing science fiction (available till next Monday).
29 June 2010
[funny] George Osborne to put coma patients to work as draft excluders … ‘Look at all those coma patients, what sort of middle class family wouldn’t want such an eco-friendly draft excluder? It’s all natural and 100% biodegradable.’ [via Unreliably Witnessed]
[tech] The Enemy Within … Interesting article by Mark Bowden on the history behind The Conficker Worm …
“Take Windows,” he explained. “The understanding of Windows’ operating system, and how it worked in the kernel, needed that kind of a domain expert, and they had that kind of ability there. And we realized as a community that we were not dealing with something normal. We’re dealing with one of two things: either we’re dealing with incredibly sophisticated cyber criminals, or we’re dealing with a group that was funded by a nation-state. Because this wasn’t the kind of team that you could just assemble by getting your five buddies who play Xbox 360 and saying, ‘Let’s all work together and see what we can do.’” 28 June 2010
[comics] Metafilter Discuss The Best Batman Comics … a mixed bag of fun links to various Batman panels and comics … ‘PLEASE! Can anyone find for me the Superfriends clip where Batman is guarding Fort Knox and he gets tricked into drinking drugged chicken soup by a mad scientist posing as a street vendor and Batman actually asks if the soup is fresh before buying it? Please? Anyone? I SWEAR I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!’ [link]
[comics] Dan Clowes new comic Wilson reviewed … ‘Bereaved and bereft, a middle-aged divorcee sits at the edge of a children’s playpark and indulges in regrets over the family he might have had. But within moments he interrupts his reverie to call out: “Hey! Can you get that brat to shut up for two fucking seconds!?” Welcome to the world of Wilson, self-declared “people person”, misanthrope, gasbag, egomaniac and dog lover. Daniel Clowes has created a monster, but a monster who refreshes our empathy for humans in all their unloveliness.’
26 June 2010
[music] Go listen to The Beach Boys: A capella (just the vocals of various tracks) and recordings from a rehersal session in 1967.
25 June 2010
[weird] Building A Homemade Nuclear Reactor In NYC … ‘By day, Mark Suppes is a web developer for fashion giant Gucci. By night, he cycles to a New York warehouse and tinkers with his own nuclear fusion reactor.’
24 June 2010
[tech] A History Of Media Technology Scares, From The Printing Press To Facebook … ‘These concerns stretch back to the birth of literacy itself. In parallel with modern concerns about children’s overuse of technology, Socrates famously warned against writing because it would “create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories.” He also advised that children can’t distinguish fantasy from reality, so parents should only allow them to hear wholesome allegories and not “improper” tales, lest their development go astray.’
[tv] Tommy Westphall’s Mind: A Multiverse Explored … apparently a big chunk of American TV exists entirely in the head of a autistic child who appeared in the last episode of St. Elsewhere (including Law and Order: Special Victims Unit – weird kid!) … ‘Tommy’s mind is a tricky thing to decipher.’ [via Metafilter]
23 June 2010
[moore] Not the World Cup Special 1982 … A rare Alan Moore comic on football from 1982.
22 June 2010
[comics] The 18 Best Batman Panels Ever … a list of some great Batman moments from Chris Sims …‘If there’s one thing I’ve learned from two and a half decades reading Batman comics, it’s that that dude straight up loves to punch people.’
[tech] Go Look: Andrew Orlowski’s Photo Diary of a visit to the Vintage Computing Fair at Bletchley Park.
[twitter] FEMINIST HULK (is on twitter) …
DEEPLY ENTRENCHED PATRIARCHAL IDEOLOGIES HARD TO SMASH. THAT WHY HULK ALWAYS STRETCH FIRST. 21 June 2010
[fonts] In Defence of the Comic Sans Font … ‘You see it in the most inappropriate places. I once read a leaflet about irritable bowel syndrome that had been written in Comic Sans. Now that’s just wrong.’ (Holly Combs)
[kubrick] Scorsese on Kubrick … Martin Scorcese on Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut and the Shining … ‘I also love the visions-the maze, the elevator, Nicholson bouncing a rubber ball across the vast expanses of the hotel lobby to kill time, the enormous golden ballroom, the red Formica bathroom in which Nicholson “meets” the butler. And, perhaps most frightening of all, the vision of an ordinary American family, beautifully acted, who’ve wandered into deep psychic waters.’
20 June 2010
[press] Go Look: Builders Thwarted By Fish Eating Spiders [via twitter]
18 June 2010
[comics] Variations of R. Crumb … a collection of self-portraits from R. Crumb … ‘Nobody understands… and of course… how could they??’
[useful] The British Isles … useful chart explaining what the United Kingdom, Great Britain and the British Isles actually are.
17 June 2010
[blogs] He pioneered upskirt shots. Can we pay a bigger tribute? … Marina Hyde on Perez Hilton … ‘Yet increasingly, that old mainstream media/blogger distinction seems outmoded. It’s surely time to bury the lie that super-bloggers such as Perez are in some way outsiders. He may care to style himself as a renegade – the John Rambo of gossip – but the fact is, Perez is now as insider as they come. All pseudo-dissidents go establishment in the end. Once-idealistic rock stars buy country piles and whinge about paying tax, the likes of Perez start taking the freebies and decline to call Paris Hilton out for homophobic remarks because she buys him off with access.’
[funny] I’m Comic Sans, Asshole … An imagined monologue with the world’s most disliked font … ‘I’m not just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature and I will not rest until every uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable, comic-book inspired, sans-serif badassery.’
15 June 2010
[comics] Evan Dorkin Interview … funny video interview with the creator of Milk and Cheese … ‘It sold like a hot box of cancer…’
[comics] Steve Ditko’s Superman … facinating pin-up of Superman done by Spider-man’s co-creator with hints towards his Objectivist comics.
14 June 2010
[books] Great Literature Retitled To Boost Website Traffic … ‘7 Awesome Ways Barnyard Animals Are Like Communism’
[nyc] Uncovering the Secrets Beneath the Surface of the New York Harbor … great article looking at some of the weird things lurking underwater in New York Harbor …
“In the East River, at about 16th Street, there’s one of those old dining-room tables, the kind with a Formica top and the grooved metal bands around the edge,” says Speregen. “It’s standing upright, totally free and clear. It makes me want to go down there with teacups and set it up.” 12 June 2010
[books] The 10 Most Harmful Novels for Aspiring Writers … ‘When I stopped plagiarizing Hemingway, I plagiarized Tolkien. It wasn’t the old master’s fault, and I got over it. But thousands of others created a literary Mordor: mass-market industrial fantasy, where the orcs, elves and dwarves march past like the North Korean army.’
11 June 2010
[tv] Tasks people continue to do while being questioned by Law and Order detectives … ‘Dust a chandelier’
10 June 2010
[comics] Four Color Process … lovely on-going collection of abstract(ish) images from comics books …
![]() 9 June 2010
[funny] Amy Winehouse vs. Sid James … ‘Underweight, Beehived Hag – Uses Her Nails’
[comics] “Because These Are The Things That Will Save You” – Psychiatric Tales … Richard Bruton reviews Darryl Cunningham’s Psychiatric Tales:
8 June 2010
[tv] Big Brother changed my life, but the time is right for it to bow out … Anna Nolan On The End Of Big Brother … ‘As I was sitting on that couch 10 years ago, all cameras on Craig and me, waiting for the show’s presenter, Davina McCall, to call out the winner’s name, two thoughts went through my head. The first was: “I could kill for a pint of lager”; the second: “How do they choose the winner?” I had not seen how we came across, I didn’t know yet that the production of this massive show brought narratives, drama, love stories and war into what had seemed an uneventful 10 weeks. Big Brother had created personalities out of all of us, and we were the last to know.’
7 June 2010
6 June 2010
[books] What books are in the “MeFi Canon”? … interesting post on what books are mentioned regularly on the Metafilter blogs … ‘Twilight gets mentioned a lot. I’ll see myself out.’
5 June 2010
[comics] The Periodic Table Of Super-Powers … a powerful new way of listing super-hero powers, abilities and origins … ‘With this table, you can easily represent your favorite super-heroes’ power-sets in simple, not-at-all-far-too-complex-to-be-useful formulas! For instance: Superman comes out as: OAFSISpVxVhSn.’
4 June 2010
3 June 2010
[comics] Favourite Tweets #2: TimeLostBatman … I’M VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE FACT THAT YOU PUT PICTURES OF ME ON YOUR CHILDREN’S UNDERWEAR.’ [more…]
[comics] Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Marvel Universe* (*But Were Afraid to Ask Stan Lee) … funny beginners guide to the world of Marvel comics … ‘Facts on Kingpin: Kingpin is a crook.’
1 June 2010
[comics] I have read the worst comic I have ever read … Brian Hibbs On Justice League: The Rise Of Arsenal #3 … ‘Page 9: Since he can’t fuck, he decides to go beat up guys. “I need a release.” and “For me, they serve their purpose” he thinks, as he sticks knives in faceless people’s arms. Page 10: full-page splash of Roy standing over a bunch of unconscious guys. “Much better” says the caption as Roy makes an O-face.
31 May 2010
[movies] Paul Verhoeven: ‘Robocop was a Jesus metaphor’ … ‘The point of Robocop, of course, it is a Christ story. It is about a guy who gets crucified in the first 50 minutes, and then is resurrected in the next 50 minutes, and then is like the supercop of the world, but is also a Jesus figure as he walks over water at the end.’
29 May 2010
[comics] Favourite Tweets #1: Warren Ellis … ‘COME AND SIT IN AVANT-THARG’S SPACE LAP NOW, BOOB EARTHLETS’ [more…]
28 May 2010
[tech] Predicting the Present, First Five Years of Wired … interesting selection of quotes from the first five years of Wired …‘In a world where information plus technology equals power, those who control the editing rooms run the show.’ — Hugh Gallagher
[comics] Chris's Invincible Super-Blog on Batman and Superman: ‘Morrison’s Superman isn’t defined by his powers, he’s defined by his morality; the defining scene of All Star Superman isn’t Superman fighting Solaris or even Lex Luthor, it’s him stopping the girl from committing suicide. It’s that he cares. And in the same way, Morrison’s Batman is defined by one trait: He is, quite simply, the World’s Greatest Detective. No one, not even a god, can out-think him.’
[comics] Cartoonist Daniel Clowes celebrates Oakland with “Wilson” … an interview promoting his latest comic book … ‘Clowes, an illustrator for the “New Yorker,” is traditional in other ways, too. At a time when print is down and young cartoonists are turning to the Web, Clowes still draws everything by hand – “I’ll never type in a url to look at comics,” he says…’
27 May 2010
26 May 2010
[press] News in Briefs … the wit and wisdom of Page 3 girls …
HOLLIE says there is no need to panic over the Chancellor’s spending cuts. She said: “£6.2billion sounds like a colossal figure. But if you imagine public spending as a giant pizza, we’re talking about barely a few anchovies. And I can’t stand the salty little beggars anyway.” 25 May 2010
[funny] What have we today? … great collection of green ink letters written to newspapers in the early nineties … ‘My eight-year-old boy is a strange lad. He’s bothered about the planet and interested in butterflies and insects as well as other animals. He never watches football. Do you think he’s going to be gay? (Daily Star)’
24 May 2010
[people] The Reporter Who Time Forgot … Remembering Cornelius Ryan the author of The Longest Day and A Bridge To Far …
He had sold, he believed, between 25 and 35 million copies of The Longest Day and 400,000 hardcover copies of The Last Battle in the United States alone. Yet each book had cost him some $150,000 to research. “I have no less than 7,000 books on every aspect of World War II. My files contain some 16,000 different interviews with Germans, British, French, etc,” he wrote. “Then there is the chronology of each battle, 5×7 cards, detailing each movement by hour for the particular work I’m engaged in. You may think this is all a kind of madness, an obsession. I suppose it is.” 23 May 2010
[comics] Abstraction … totally not safe for work WTF weird manga – but worth a look.
21 May 2010
[tv] Eye of the storm: Adam Curtis, the BBC’s in-house provocateur … long engrossing profile / interview of Adam Curtis …
‘It can be hard to identify the cinematic progenitors of the Curtis aesthetic because his films sometimes seem like outward manifestations of the world wide web. His projects reorganise and remix previously existing material with new interviews and fieldwork into a new kind of narrative, one that seems analogous to a web browser with 20 tabs open at once. They debunk the utopian ideologies of earlier eras while offering grand, unifying narratives to make sense of our current hyperlinked universe, and succeed to the extent that viewers can keep several complicated arguments in their heads at once. After one emerges from the hypnotic sway of a Curtis film, it can take several days of reflection and research to assess the validity of his arguments.’
[people] What Was Winston Churchill’s Tattoo? … Churchill Had A Tattoo? Who Knew??
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