linkmachinego.com
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??
20 May 2010
[comics] The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield … a powerful and concise comic on the MMR Vaccine Controversy from Daryl Cunningham.
18 May 2010
17 May 2010
[politics] The Coalition Government Commemorative Tankard

The Coalition Government Commemorative Tankard

MIDDLE ENGLAND REJOICE!

[history] Scott and Scurvy … a long wonderfully written look at the history behind the treatment of scurvy and how the was cure was misunderstood and forgotten at the start of the 20th Century … ‘They had a theory of the disease that made sense, fit the evidence, but was utterly wrong.’
14 May 2010
[fun] Numbers Station Bingo … Have you been activated? Find out with bingo and Numbers Stations.
13 May 2010
[html] The Origins of the <Blink> Tag … the creation story behind the most annoying HTML tag … ‘I remember thinking that this would be a pretty harmless easter egg, that no one would really use it, but I was very wrong. When we released Netscape Navigator 1.0 we did not document the blink functionality in any way, and for a while all was quiet. Then somewhere, somehow the arcane knowledge of blinking leaked into the real world and suddenly everything was blinking. “Look here”, “buy this”, “check this out”, all blinking. Large advertisements blinking in all their glory. It was a lot like Las Vegas, except it was on my screen, with no way of turning it off.’
[comics] Christ, It Works for Everything‘It was recently theorized that all New Yorker cartoons could be captioned with “Christ, what an asshole” without compromising their comedic value. I discovered this is true of virtually all comics, old and new…’
12 May 2010
11 May 2010
[politics] Have The Tories Formed A Government Yet?‘Just about’
[politics] Adam Boulton loses his rag as Nick Clegg coos at Labour … Marina Hyde’s summary of yesterday events is well worth a read … ‘Loosely speaking, then – in fact, speaking with a looseness likely to be matched only by David Cameron’s bowel movements – that is where we are now. It should go without saying that in the time it takes to press the send key we shall be somewhere else entirely. Indeed, given that the cliche of the hour is that “we are in uncharted territory”, the cartographers should surely name these coordinates the Straits of WTF and be done with it.’
10 May 2010
[funny] Supreme Court Upholds Freedom Of Speech In Obscenity-Filled Ruling‘In short, freedom of speech means the freedom of fucking speech, you ignorant cocksuckers.’
Apparently Facebook Considers Your Current IP Address To Be “Public Information” As Well … more privacy issues with Facebook …

See that header in your Facebook notification email that looks like this?

X-Facebook: from zuckmail ([NzYuMTY5LjIzLjU2])

That’s your friend’s IP address…

8 May 2010
[relax] Rainy Mood … a single-serving website that plays the relaxing ambient(ish) sounds of a rain storm.
7 May 2010
[politics] Steve Bell on the Results of the General Election‘Oh Shit!!!’
[apple] The Mozzarella Cheese Head of Steve Jobs … file this under things John Gruber will probably never blog … ‘Love mozzarella cheese? Love Steve Jobs? Then you’ll love this.’ [thanks Andy]
6 May 2010
[politics] My Moment Is Yours, Ed Balls … Michael Portillo on tonight’s potential “Balls Moment” … ‘My name is now synonymous with eating a bucketload of shit in public.’
5 May 2010
[dailyfail] Labour MP tells constituent: ‘Life can only get better – if you stop reading the Daily Mail’

I remember once I had a woman come in who was really on the edge of a breakdown. She was talking about civil war and chaos, immigrants coming up the lanes of Sunderland with knives between their teeth to murder her. She was really in a terrible state. “I just said to her ‘What paper do you read, love?’ and, of course, it was the Daily Mail. I just said ‘stop reading it and you’ll find life gets better.’ That’s the only advice I could offer.

4 May 2010
[politics] Voter Power‘In the UK, the only voters with any real power to choose the government are those who live in marginal constituencies. Less than 20% of constituencies can be considered marginal.The rest of us have little or no power to influence the outcome of the election. Find out the power of your vote in this election.’
3 May 2010
[tv] Performing Don Draper … On the conundrum that is Don Draper‘He cheats on his wife relentlessly, is a workaholic and an absentee father to his children, lies about who he is, abandons his former family (and, arguably, causes his brother to hang himself), is a borderline alcoholic, and is in general awfully prudish, judgmental, and bigoted for a sexually licentious fraud of a man. If this was your OKCupid profile, you would not be attracting Don’s caliber of women. (Or would you?) But we find ways to forgive or excuse him.’
30 April 2010
[comics] Dick Sprang’s ‘Secrets of the Batcave’ Art Is An Encyclopedia of Bat-History … an analysis of a wonderful Dick Sprang drawing of the Batcave.
29 April 2010
[internet] Getting depressed with this whole Social Media thing‘Where is the social technology, the social news, the social web? Instead we get networks flooded by marketers looking for ways to manipulate us all under the guise of having conversations. Instead we get flooded with follow and friend requests where 4 out of 5 are spammers or marketers. Instead we get a Web that is being treated like a business acquisition where we are nothing more than shares to be bought and sold.’
28 April 2010
[life] On Black Elephants‘A “black elephant” […] is an event which is extremely likely and widely predicted by experts, but people attempt to pass it off as a black swan when it finally happens.’
[tabloids] Page 3 Girls Fears Hung Parliament, Proportional Respresentation‘Becky is concerned by the prospect of electoral reform in a hung parliament.’
27 April 2010
[politics] David Cameron’s Common People … (some NSFW language) …


26 April 2010
[movies] My Lifelong Pursuit of the Perfect Blade Runner Gun … one man’s obessional pursuit of a perfect replica of Rick Deckard’s gun … ‘In 2006, the screen-used original surfaced after 25 some-odd years and sold at auction last year for $256,000.’
[comics] Top Trending Twitter Topics of the Marvel Universe … #itsclobberintime #youwouldntlikemewhenimangry #accursedrichards
25 April 2010
[funny] Gangsters Love Pooh … also Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore – epic background fail.
24 April 2010
[comics] Chris Ware’s Rejected Fortune Cover‘He accepted the job because it would be like doing the 1929 issue of the magazine, and he filled the image with tons of satirical imagery, like the U.S. Treasuring being raided by Wall Street, China dumping money into the ocean, homes being flooded, homes being foreclosed, and CEOs dancing a jig while society devolves into chaos.’
23 April 2010
[politics] Fuck Yeah Nick Clegg‘Haters Gonna Hate.’
22 April 2010
[comics] The Unpublished Moore … a comprehensive list of the the Alan Moore’s whims, unfinished scripts and lost work … ‘Cerebus #301 Status: Unpublished. I believe a full script exists for this one (which involved Cerebus being summoned during a seance in the modern day), but it was intended to be a Moore/Bisette/Veitch project, and is unlikely to appear now due to ill-will among the creators.’
21 April 2010
[comics] Watching the Watchman – St Albans comics legend Dave Gibbons interviewed‘I bumped into a friend of mine called Mick McMahon, who lived in Colney Heath, at the station at St Albans and he had this artwork under his arm. It turned out to be the first Judge Dredd job, and he said it was this new comic being done at IPC called 2000AD…’
[comics] What are you, dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I’M THE GODDAMN CATMAN!

Catman

20 April 2010
[funny] Tucker’s Law … be warned: extreme swearing. NSFW. ‘…I’ve got that embroidered on a tea towel at home.’
19 April 2010
[politics] Guido Fawkes Dreaming – The Change Coalition: ‘In what is the iconic picture of the election, Cameron walks out of his Millbank headquarters along the Thames embankment to 4 Cowley Street where Nick Clegg greets him and together they walk purposefully towards the Mall surrounded by photographers and cameramen as crowds cheer…’
18 April 2010
[comics] How The Flash looks on Android and iPhone … is this why DC Comics doesn’t have an iPhone/iPad app yet? :)
17 April 2010
[politics] Who has David Cameron been talking to?‘Last week, I met a gay burglar, who told me that climate change hysteria killed Diana.’ [via @Royston Robertson]
16 April 2010
[comics] Cartooning Advice: Zippy’s Bill Griffith gives his Top 40 List on Creating Comics‘Sitting at a drawing table for 37 years can be hard on the neck and the upper back. Get up every half hour or so and stretch. Do neck and upper back stretching exercises every day as you get older.’
[iphone] Victor Keegan: My First iPhone App … a retiring Guardian tech writer on the thinking behind his first iPhone app …‘This month I finally left the Guardian after nearly 47 years. At the end of last week I had my 70th birthday and today my first iPhone app came out.’ [via Meg]
15 April 2010
[death] The DeathList 2010 … the internet dead pool. Herbert Lom (93) and Ray Bradbury (90) are still with us? Who knew?
14 April 2010
[blogs] High Court: Moderate User Comments And You’re Liable‘A blog owner can avoid liability for user-generated content that appears on his site without being checked or moderated, the High Court has ruled. But fixing the spelling or grammar in users’ posts could lose him that protection, it said.’
13 April 2010
[comics] Alan Moore – The Spanish Impersonation‘When I was young I travelled to Andorra and bought a radio cassette player. However, I usually travel to fourth dimension.’


12 April 2010
[space] Voyager 1 & 2’s Infinite Playlist‘These songs were etched into a 12-inch, gold plated copper record that was placed aboard the two spaceships in 1977.’ [via Kottke]
11 April 2010
[comics] Comic Book Cartography … a collection of maps and cutaways from comic books.
9 April 2010
[funny] Worth-A-Look: This CatGet ExcitedFatman.
[weird] The Porn Detection Stick … when you absolutely positively gotta find all the porn hidden on a computer – Accept no substitutes.
8 April 2010
[dailyfail] 100 Essential Phrases To Include In A Letter To The Daily Mail‘and immigration that is out of control. – Steve Guff (ex-pat), Alicante, Spain’ [via Bad Journalism]